Congratulations to our newest Great Scavenger Hunt Contest winners!

Huge congrats go to our newest monthly winners of the national Great Scavenger Hunt Contest reading program for kids and teens! Please join me in cheering on the winning hunter:

** Hannah S. **

And the winning librarian:

** Kim Murdock **
      from Lapel, IN

Enjoy your prizes!!

Add comment

New Trivia Challenges Available – Dec 09

Check out the December 2009 additions to the national Great Scavenger Hunt Contest reading program for kids and teens!

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. by Kate Messner  (MG/Tween)
The Dark Divine by Bree Despain  (YA)
Dial M for Mongoose by Bruce Hale  (MG/Tween)
Gentlemen by Michael Northrop   (YA)
Jungle Crossing by Sydney Salter  (MG/Tween)
Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore  (YA)
Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland  (MG/Tween)
Wings by Aprilynne Pike  (YA)

Add comment

Random musing #37

If, when you receive your senior pictures, your mother’s response is, “Are you sure you don’t want to have them retaken, honey?” . . . whatever you do, do not blow off her question just because it was a pain to get them taken the first time.

I promise you, there is a REASON she is asking this.

Your decision to skip a retake may not come back to haunt you until years later. But when the reality of this mistake hits you, she is not pretty.

And also, if they say that when they take your picture for your corporate ID badge, the same rule applies. Trust me on this.

Add comment

Happy Honorary Fiver Day!

Happy Friday!

Today is a very special day… it’s Honorary Fiver Day over on Living Your Five! Come join Alyson Noel, Becca Fitzpatrick, Tera Lynn Childs and I as we share the little things we do to make the world a better place.

(You’ll even get a cool Honorary Fiver logo to put on your blog or web site!)

www.livingyourfive.com

We hope you’ll come by and join us. We can’t wait for you to be an official member of Team Fiver!

Add comment

Monthly winners + special ARC giveaway!

At the beginning of each month, I get to do one of the things I love: announce the latest batch of You 2.0 blog winners! I have three separate giveaways just for commenters on the blog… except for this month when I have FOUR!

Teen Author Challenge Giveaway

The winner of the Teen Author Challenge monthly giveaway (who will get to select one of the “craft of writing” books from my own personal writing bookshelf) is…

Taylor Noelle!

Way to go! Please contact me here with your mailing address and let me know which writing book you would like to choose for your prize. View the list here.


You 2.0 Prize Dive

The winner of the You 2.0 blog prize dive (who will get to select an item from the official You 2.0 prize basket) is…

Mrs. V!
(aka Mrs. V’s Reviews)

Cheers! Please contact me here with your mailing address and let me know which item you would like from the You 2.0 prize basket.


TWO Cinderella Society ARCs!!!

And this month, I get to announce not one but TWO winners of a signed ARC of The Cinderella Society! One winner is from the normal monthly drawing, and one winner is from the special blog post I did last weekend about why you want to read the book.

So without further ado… the winners of a signed ARC of The Cinderella Society (coming April 13, 2010 from Egmont USA!) are…

Claire!
(aka Bookworm Readers)

~ and ~

Andrea!
(aka Hers for the Reading)

I hope you enjoy the book! Please contact me here with your mailing address and let me know whether you would like the ARC personally signed to keep or generically signed to give away.


Congratulations to all the winners! And thanks to everyone for all your fun comments throughout the month. They seriously make my day.

Keep commenting all month long for your chance to win in the monthly contests and the impromptu Bundle o’ Bookmarks giveaways. (Note: The Bundles change periodically, but you can see an example of one here.)

Happy reading!

6 comments

Teen Author Challenge, Week 20 – Celebrate!

Can you believe it’s December already? And if it’s December, you know what that means.

NaNoWriMo is over! Congratulations!

Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week

“Reading counts as writing time. Read outside of your comfort zone. Craft—first, last, and always. Compete only with yourself, but do so vigorously. Do what you can as an ambassador of youth literature and literacy. Be your own best cheerleader. Craft, community, and career are all necessary to success.”

~ Cynthia Leitich Smith
Eternal
(Candlewick, 2/09)

Teen Author Challenge

As all of you NaNoWriMo-ers take your first deep breath since the challenge began back on November 1st, I want to talk about something I’m a big, big believer in.

Celebrating!

Writing a book is a process. A long, sometimes frustrating, sometimes gratifying, always worthwhile process.   It doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re in this for the long haul–taking the germ of an idea and seeing it through to final polished manuscript–you need to learn to reward yourself along the way.

NaNoWriMo is a great example of that because it’s a short-term intense burst of writing. 50,000 words in 30 days. And I’ve been delighted to see so many people celebrating their success (and each other’s success!) on Twitter, blogs and elsewhere. Awesome!

The thing is, I think we should be celebrating more often. Celebrating things that may not seem as huge and momentous but are every bit as important on the road to seeing your manuscript finished.

Sure, it’s easy to remember to celebrate typing The End. But what about writing the largest number of words in a single day in the history of your writing career? What about writing through an illness, yours or someone you care for? What about sending your work out to critique partners for the first time, daring to share your project with someone else who may or may not agree with your choices?

All of those things… and so many more… are worthy of being celebrated.

Now, that doesn’t mean champagne brunch at every turn. (Especially if you’re underage.)   But there are lots of different ways to celebrate. Some things cost money, other things are free. It’s all about finding ways to celebrate that make you feel good!

I like to celebrate by taking an entire day off just to spend with my family and read. I literally have stacks of books in my serenity room (aka library) just waiting for me to read, but I have a terrible time reading them because, if I’m on deadline, I feel like I should be writing. If I have time to read, I have time to write, no? But reading is part and parcel of our job as writers. Not just to refill the well and be inspired, but to explore the finer points of storytelling in the work of our favorite authors.

The nice thing is, it doesn’t cost me anything. The books are already there waiting for me. (And if I couldn’t afford books of my own, I’d simply check them out of the library.) It’s an easy, affordable reward that I absolutely adore.

So this week, as you’re writing, take the time to think about the milestones you’ve passed so far in your writing journey and find a way to reward yourself. You deserve to recognize your own achievements!

Buzz Tip of the Week

Today, I’m offering up the first of two great posts from agent Rachelle Gardner that shed a little light on some basic financial aspects of being a professional writer. If you’ve ever wanted to know how the royalties thing works, here’s your chance.

cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-book-royalties-work.html

Your Weekly Challenge

How did you do on your writing last week? Comment below with your weekly results from last Tuesday through today so we can cheer your progress!

And if you participated in NaNoWriMo, tell us how you did! Even if you didn’t meet the entire goal, I’ll bet you got far more writing done than you would have otherwise. And that’s always a win.

The Teen Author Challenge Contest

Throughout the year-long Teen Author Challenge (TAC ends June 2010!), I’ll be giving away a book of the winner’s choice from my personal writing shelf. Why am I doing this? Because becoming a skilled writer has two important parts: learning about your craft and practicing your craft. That’s why active participation in each weekly challenge is so important!

So what can you win? Books to choose from include:

1. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
2. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
3. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
4. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
5. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon

Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.

Go forth and be creative!

4 comments

The Cinderella Society ARC giveaway!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend! And for those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope it was wonderful and your leftovers are still scrumptious.

If you’ve been reading the blog or chatting with me on Twitter (@KayCassidy), you know that the second book in the Cinderella Society series is due to my editor next week. As I’m nearing the home stretch on book 2, I’ve been pausing to wonder what makes someone pick up a book in the first place. Is it the cover, the title, the genre, the blurb, the topics or issues it covers, the recommendations of others, a book trailer or ad, what you know of the author… or other things entirely?

For me, it’s a combination of those things. And it differs from book to book. I thought it would be interesting to do a giveaway for The Cinderella Society related to the mystery of what makes us want to read the books we’re eyeing.

So for all you out there who want to read The Cinderella Society:

What is it about The Cinderella Society that makes you want to read it… and, most importantly, why? What is it about that element (or elements) of TCS that gets you excited?

Every comment gets you an entry into the contest. The winner of the ARC will be announced next week. (Be sure to check out the blurb on the TCS page for full details about the book!)

24 comments

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of you in the U.S. have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving today. And for those of you abroad, have a delightful Thursday/Friday!

Oh, and if you followed my Living Your Five check-in on Monday, we decided to do the Gratitude Tree as our new Thanksgiving tradition. I can’t wait!

1 comment

Teen Author Challenge, Week 19 – What to do when you’re stuck…

Happy Thanksgiving week to those of you in the U.S. and good luck in your last full week of NaNoWriMo for everyone who’s participating! This week, I’m thankful for three great authors who are full of terrific advice. Thank you Tina, Janet and Kimberly (and Saundra and Ellen too)!

Exclusive TAC Quote of the Week

“The best advice I can pass along to aspiring writers is that which I still fall back on myself: don’t be afraid to be bad. Sometimes, my best stuff has come from my worst drafts or my absolutely terrible attempts at humor. No one has to see what you’ve written until you’re ready, so relax and let yourself go… you’ll be surprised at what you find.”

~ Tina Ferraro
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys
(Delacorte, 1/09)

Teen Author Challenge

This week’s challenge advice comes from fabulous author Janet Lee Carey! What should you do when you’re stuck in the story? Here’s what Janet has to say:

Don’t Talk Out Your Tale – Write Your Way Out

Think about the times you’ve shared a dream with a friend. If you’re anything like me, you left out certain parts of the dream because they seemed too strange or because they didn’t fit into any kind of logical story frame. Or maybe, like me, you were embarrassed about just how weird your dream images can be. But what if the very part you left untold, the strange, exotic vision, is the key to the dream? What if somewhere under the crossed out image, lies buried treasure?

So too, when a young and developing story is spoken aloud, ideas that come to us in the dark, that are harder to understand or explain in the daylight hours, will be left out of the conversation. Instead, certain more logical images take shape and become set in our minds. Plot ideas that seem very good and fitting to the storyline will win out over more mysterious ideas that are harder to explain.

Over time, as we discuss the tale, everything becomes quite reasonable. Our friends have a positive reaction to the story. They add some of their ideas and questions. We convince ourselves that we really understand what the story is about. We can even condense the idea into a few neat sentences! And this will surely come in handy later on when we try to sell the story to editors and agents. So what’s wrong?

In talking out the tale, all the story fire begins to slowly sputter out. Instead of courting a mysterious lover, we are now married to an idea. Suddenly the plot and characters have become quite sensible, and all the writing ahead seems less like an act of love, and more like plain hard work. Because let’s face it, sensible stories are crashingly, boringly, dull, dull, dull. So what’s the remedy?

Go inside the story, listen, and write.

~ Janet Lee Carey
Stealing Death
(Egmont, 9/09)

Buzz Tip of the Week

Three cheers to YA author (and YABC founder) Kimberly Pauley for her illuminating post about children’s book author royalty statements. And more cheers to Saundra Mitchell and Ellen Hopkins for accepting the challenge and sharing theirs too! If you’ve ever wondered how much a debut author makes, this is a great example of the phrase “Your mileage may vary.”

kimberlypauley.com/2009/11/21/a-challenge-for-my-fellow-authors/

Your Weekly Challenge

How did you do on your writing last week? Comment below with your weekly results from last Tuesday through today so we can cheer your progress!

The Teen Author Challenge Contest

Throughout the year-long Teen Author Challenge (TAC ends June 2010!), I’ll be giving away a book of the winner’s choice from my personal writing shelf. Why am I doing this? Because becoming a skilled writer has two important parts: learning about your craft and practicing your craft. That’s why active participation in each weekly challenge is so important!

So what can you win? Books to choose from include:

1. The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
2. The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall
3. The Career Novelist by Donald Maass
4. Writing Dialogue by Tom Chiarella
5. Creating Characters Kids Will Love by Elaine Marie Alphin
6. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon

Everyone who participates via the comments on the Teen Author Challenge posts will be entered into this monthly contest.

Go forth and be creative!

Add comment

My Five, winning a TCS ARC and more!

Happy Tuesday!

I’m over at Living Your Five talking about gratitude and Thanksgiving traditions. Come help me decide which new Thanksgiving tradition I should choose for my family!

Also, be sure to check out the new THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY giveaway over on Goodreads! You can register to win an ARC of the book – it’s super simple! (And please friend me while you’re there so I know you’re a Goodreader too!)

And finally, as some of you know from my tweets over the last few weeks, I am STILL sick. So if you’re waiting for a package from me, I apologize! I’m waiting until I’m all better so I don’t send my germs along with your prize.  

And if you’re on Twitter, be sure to wave hello! It’s my favorite way to procrastinate.   Connect with me on Twitter here!

1 comment