At long last, I have sent off the pass pages for The Cinderella Society as it gets ready to go to press. Woohoo!!!
To celebrate, I am FINALLY going to update the blog with all of this month’s winners!
Thank you so much to everyone who posted the Cinderella Society countdown widget on their blogs. It was so fun going out and seeing my cover on all of your sites! Very much a “OMG, this is real” experience for me, so thank you for that extra moment of fun.
The Cinderella Society 100-Day Countdown Widget Contest
The winner of a signed ARC of The Cinderella Society for the 100-day countdown widget contest is…
Emma! (aka Booking Through 365)
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.
And also… ack! Somehow I managed to forget to post the monthly blog winners this month!! And since we’re now in 2010, these are the final monthly winners for the 2009 Monthly Blog Contest. (New contests coming soon in 2010!)
So without further ado, here are the final monthly blog contest winners. Drum roll, please…
Teen Author Challenge Giveaway
The winner of the FINAL Teen Author Challenge monthly giveaway (who will get to select one of the “craft of writing” books from my own personal writing bookshelf) is…
And the winner of asigned ARC of The Cinderella Society(coming April 13, 2010 from Egmont USA!) for the FINAL 2009 monthly blog contest is…
Dani! (aka YA All the Way)
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: I received lots of new bookmarks over the holidays, so a new Bundle o’ Bookmarks is coming soon!)
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:
It’s hard to believe that when I first put The Cinderella Society’s countdown widget on the blog, the release date was almost 300 days away. As of today, we are officially 100 days out from release!
To celebrate this fun milestone, I’m giving away a signed ARC of The Cinderella Society to one lucky person who is displaying the TCS countdown widget on their blog!
To participate, simply grab the widget above (click the Share button to copy the code), paste the code into your blog sidebar, and comment below with a link to your blog. The contest is open until this Friday, January 8th, 2010. Good luck!!
I absolutely LOVE teen chick lit, so I’ll be adding tons of additional books to my list. But here’s my starting line-up for the challenge to give me my first ten. Some of these are books on my TBR shelves and some are books I have on pre-order.
The Cupcake Queenby Heather Hepler
The Espressologistby Kristina Springer
Forgive My Finsby Tera Lynn Childs
Heist Societyby Ally Carter
The Naughty Listby Suzanne Young
Only the Good Spy Youngby Ally Carter
Princess for Hireby Lindsey Leavitt
Secrets of My Hollywood Life:Broadway Lightsby Jen Calonita
She’s So Dead to Usby Kieran Scott
Sleepaway Girlsby Jen Calonita
But again, that’s just for starters. Some of the teen chick lit books I was really looking forward to in 2010 (Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins and A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis) I’ve already read, so they won’t count. But I’ll include them in spirit.
Be sure to add your blog post to Mr. Linky and grab the logo above to show you’re playing!
Share your 10 in ‘10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge post here:
Do you love chick lit? That fun, snappy voice that begs to be read and enjoyed? Then join us for:
The 10 in ‘10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge!
Co-hosted by YA author Kay Cassidy (that’s me!) and teen book blogger Jessica (www.chicklitteens.com), the 10 in ‘10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge is your chance to read some fabulous teen chick lit books with other chick lit fans. The challenge runs from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. Here’s how to play:
1) Grab the official 10 in ‘10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge logo above and put it on your site with a link back to this page to let people know you’re playing.
2) Choose 10 teen chick lit books to read in 2010. Or select the ones you know you want to read and leave the rest of your list open to see what comes your way in 2010. (We’ll be talking about the great teen chick lit books we’ve read each month, so you may find some new ones that catch your eye!)
3) Click on the Mr. Linky button below to share your list if you’ve posted it on your blog. If you don’t have a blog, simply comment below with your choice of books and let us know you’re in like Flynn.
4) Each month, Jessica and Kay will alternate hosting the official check-in post where you can share the books you’ve read for the challenge. And be sure to let us know what you thought of them!
Oh, and did we mention PRIZES???
We know you’ve got a ton of books in your TBR pile. To make it even more fun to read the teen chick lit ones, we’ll be doing fun, impromptu giveaways throughout the year for participating challengers who check in with their progress!
And, of course, we need to have an awesome grand prize you can drool over, right? For challengers who read 10+ teen chick lit books during 2010 and let us know on our monthly check-in posts, we’ll be putting them in a drawing for a fabulous prize basket filled with great chick lit books, cool swag, and even some DVDs! Watch the monthly check-in posts for super secret peeks at the grand prize package.
And even more cool chick lit stuff…
We love all things chick lit, so we want this to be more than just a reading challenge. We want it to be a challenge where readers can come to talk about the chick lit books they’re reading and loving and get to know some terrific chick lit authors too. So…
In addition to the monthly check-ins, we’ll also be featuring exclusive chats throughout the year with some of your favorite chick lit authors! Stay tuned to the monthly check-ins for more details about how to get involved in the chats and to see who’s coming on board.
And now it’s your turn!
Are you ready to join the fun? Excellent! Then grab the logo, share your 10 in ‘10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge reading list via Mr. Linky below and gear up for a fabulous 2010!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I know if a book is “chick lit”?
A: If you think it is, it is! There’s no standard definition for chick lit, and we definitely don’t want to be the chick lit police. So we’re leaving it up to each challenger to decide if a book qualifies for the challenge. If you’re looking for examples to guide you (there are oh so many!), books like Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries series, Jen Calonita’s Secrets of My Hollywood Life series, Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls spy series, Kate Brian’s Private series, and Tera Lynn Childs’ Oh. My. Gods. series are all great examples of teen chick lit. Even slightly darker books like Alyson Noel’s Immortals series still have a brilliant teen chick lit voice. And these are only a few of the many great teen chick lit books out there!
Q: What if I don’t have a book blog?
A: No worries at all. Simply share your progress in the comments on the monthly check-in posts on Jessica and Kay’s blogs. Better yet, share your thoughts in places like Goodreads, Shelfari, Amazon, and BarnesandNoble.com too. Let your voice be heard!
Q: What’s the deal with the chats? Are these real-time chats or interviews on the blog?
A: Real-time chats. Our guest authors will be joining us on Chatzy at a scheduled time to chat about all things chick lit (including their books). It’s a fun, informal chat that will be open to all. We’ll be sharing the schedules in the monthly check-in posts, so keep your eye on them for more details coming soon.
Q: I LOVE teen chick lit. Can I read more than 10?
A: Absolutely! 10 is the minimum number of books needed to be eligible for the grand prize drawing, but you can read as many teen chick lit books as your heart desires and check in with them all. The more, the merrier!
Happy reading!
Kay and Jessica
Share your 10 in ‘10 Teen Chick Lit Challenge post here:
“There are two pieces of advice that I’ve gotten about writing that I’ve taken to heart. They are:
1. Write what you believe in. If you don’t, guess what? Your audience won’t believe it either. Write from the heart and tell the stories that sing to you.
2. Your writing can always — ALWAYS — be better. Take the time to reflect, to revise, and remember that when it comes to writing, there is always be something new to learn.”
As so often happens at the holidays, I’ve been reevaluating my work life and considering what changes to make in the new year. One of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about… a LOT about… is the Teen Author Challenge. I know many of you read the challenge each week (thank you for letting me know how much you enjoy it!) and it’s been neat putting together posts over the last six months.
In looking at the actual comments over the last few months, however, I’ve realized that the challenge has become a fairly solitary endeavor for most people. When I began the challenge, I had hoped that it would become a support group of sorts, with all of the participants sharing their progress and cheering each other on to success. And although I know most of us would love to be part of something like that, I also know that life can interfere with even the best laid plans. Goodness knows it did with me when I was on deadline this fall!
I want this feature to be fun for you and fun for me too. I love sharing quotes and tips from other authors and will definitely continue to do that. But I also want to keep the blog lively and fun for everyone, writers and non.
So… after being on deadline for the fall and finally getting the wheels back on the blog for the new year, I’ve decided that this will be the last official post of the year-long Teen Author Challenge. Instead of the year-long TAC (which I know can be tiring!), I’m going to change things up and do some shorter mini-challenges throughout the year on a particular topic. Look for the first one (on editing, with tons of cool strategies from your favorite authors) coming in Spring 2010!
Also, in early 2010, I’ll be doing a post asking you, fabulous blog readers, what you would like to see on the blog. We’ll be chatting about things like the Booklover of the Week series, the Author Cave series, You 2.0 interviews with authors and librarians, and some fun new ideas I have for the blog. And tomorrow, I’ll be announcing an awesome new reading challenge for 2010 that I’m co-hosting with teen book blogger Jessica from Chick Lit Teens. (I can’t wait!!!)
Thanks again for reading the Teen Author Challenge, stay tuned for all the great reading challenge news tomorrow, and happy (almost) 2010!
I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve already. Weren’t we just celebrating Valentine’s Day??? I swear this year has flown by!
I have a confession. As many of you know, I am not exactly adept in the kitchen arena. However, it is truly sad even for me that I have not really thought through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meal planning until… um… about four hours ago.
Oh, I had some ideas. But since we’re just having a quiet Christmas at home this year (a good thing since I’m now on my FOURTH round of antibiotics since the beginning of November), it’s hard to drum up excitement to make a small family meal that’s still festive.
However, I decided to include some of my favorite holiday yummies.
Tonight we’re having chicken, prosciutto and cheese stuffed tortellini with alfredo sauce. Tomorrow morning, I’m baking cinnamon rolls for our morning gift exchange followed by brunch (which is one of the few meals I do well). I LOVE brunch. I could eat brunch three meals a day and be a happy little camper. Eggs, sausage links, pancakes, hash browns, smoothies… it is heaven on a plate, I tell you.
Christmas dinner is a little unusual, but will include chicken cordon bleu, scalloped potatoes and glazed apples and cranberries. And yes, there will be vegetables with both of those dinners, but I haven’t figured out what yet.
In addition, I finally managed to find eggnog today! Our grocery store has been out all week, hence the reason for me braving the Walmart crowds on Christmas Eve to find some.
I love this week’s exclusive TAC quote because it’s so true in my experience. I had started and abandoned half a dozen manuscripts before I finally finished my first one. And I learned more from finishing that one manuscript than I did from the other six combined.
This week, I wanted to talk about another common thing that writers hear all the time. Write what you know.
There are pros and cons to this, and it’s good to know what they are if you’re a beginning writer.
On the pro side, writing what you know gives you an easier connection to the subject matter. That can make the character’s voice truer, the emotional grip of the story more authentic, and the details more realistic. And when you consider yourself a “subject matter expert”, whether it’s on being a teen or on dealing with a particular issue, you may write with more confidence knowing that you have something real and valuable to say on this subject because you’ve lived it. You know what it’s like to be in that situation or be the friend of someone going through a particular ordeal.
But writing what you know isn’t always the best approach. It can be. But not always.
“Don’t simply write what you know. Write what you love! Write the story only you can write, the one that is so unique, so much you that you’ve never told it to anyone. When that story reaches the page, it will be universal.”
“Write the book that only you can write, something no one else has ever read before. It’s tempting to write a “better” version of something that already exists, but the reason that book was a success was because it was something no one else had ever read before.”
(Do you recognize that last quote as one of the exclusive TAC quotes from earlier this year? Yep, it’s one of my favorites.)
The authors’ points are well taken. What if J.K. Rowling had only written what she knew? What if Stephenie Meyer or Scott Westerfeld or Neil Gaiman had only written what they knew?
As with all writing advice, write what you know is best taken with a grain of salt. Only you know the story that needs to be told from your fingertips. Don’t ever doubt that you can write the story in your heart because you are the only one who can. It wouldn’t be in there if you weren’t. For reals.
Buzz Tip of the Week
Have you ever heard the term literary scout and wondered what it meant? Literary scouts can be an author’s best friend, especially when it comes to selling foreign rights. Here’s a great post that gives you a sneak peek into the harried world of the hard-working literary scout.
Only four weeks left in our productivity challenge! The productivity challenge part of the year-long TAC ends on January 19, 2010, so be sure to keep that date in your sights. After that, we’ll be shifting our TAC focus to editing… with tons of great tips from authors on making your first draft shine.
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 happy holidays to you and yours!
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.
I love reading about all the things you’re grateful for! Family, friends, hubbies with positive attitudes, new jobs, new degrees, a warm day… it’s just plain awesome, I tell you.
(By the way, I so remember the days of being in school… first regular school, then undergrad, then grad school… and literally counting the hours until my last final was over. I hear ya on that one!)
As promised, there will be TWO winners of the fun Bundle o’ Bookmarks coming your way today to celebrate the 2-book deals that TWO of my fabulous writing buddies netted last week. (Congrats, Kris Kennedy and Myra McEntire!)
Congratulations go out to:
Holly (aka Writer’s Block Reviews)
~ and ~
Laura Robinson (aka Tattooed Books)
Enjoy! Please contact me here with your mailing address to receive your prize.
And everyone, keep commenting on the blog for your chance to win in the next Bundle o’ Bookmarks giveaway. I’ll be doing lots of impromptu giveaways for recent commenters and you never know when it’ll be! (Plus, new bookmarks coming soon in the bundle!)
I’m the author of YA fiction that I wish was based on my real life. My upcoming THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY is about a secret society of good populars dedicated to defeating the mean girls of the world. Do you have what it takes to be a Cindy?
