As much as I look forward to vacations, I always look forward to coming home and the familiar routine when I return. Last week I was away in St. Louis visiting family. It was a fabulous trip–the perfect mix of laid back relaxing with family and a super fun time seeing the local sights and eating ALL the food. Here are some highlights…
And the nice part about this trip was we were able to build in enough days at the end of vacation to come home and straighten life out, before heading back to school and work. Of course, things are about to get hectic with spring sports and activities. My command central boy calendar is already starting to look intimidating. 
But no matter how fun vacation was or how hairy the future schedule. Writing is back at the top of my list of priorities. *does a happy dance*
My question for you…is it harder or easier to write in the spring when the weather starts getting nice? It depends on the day for me.
Tags: Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, spring, Spring Break, St. Louis, vacation, writing
Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for a prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are EIGHT (yes, you heard me correctly!) contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GOLD TEAM!

But there is also RED, BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, TEAL, PURPLE, & PINK teams. You can participate in all the hunts for a chance to win different sets of signed books!
If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Hidden somewhere below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number in GOLD. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the GOLD team, and then add them up. And don’t worry if you have to take off your socks and use your toes to keep track. A calculator works too.
Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Rules: This contest is open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by 04/5/15, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Alexandria Monir
Alexandra Monir is an author and recording artist in her twenties. SUSPICION is her third novel published by Random House. Her debut was the popular time-travel romance, TIMELESS, followed by the 2013 sequel, TIMEKEEPER. Alexandra currently resides in Los Angeles, where she is at work on her next novel, while also composing and recording original songs. Her music can be found on iTunes, and you can visit her website at www.alexandramonir.com. Follow Alexandra @TimelessAlex.

About SUSPICION
“If Alfred Hitchcock had directed Downton Abbey, the result would have been this book. Alexandra Monir takes us on a gripping, nonstop thrill ride with just the right amount of supernatural and an ending that you definitely won’t suspect. I devoured it in one sitting.”–Jessica Brody, bestselling author of the UNREMEMBERED trilogy
“There’s something hidden in the maze.”
Seventeen-year-old Imogen Rockford has never forgotten the last words her father said to her, before the blazing fire that consumed him, her mother, and the gardens of her family’s English country manor.
For seven years, images of her parents’ death have haunted Imogen’s dreams. In an effort to escape the past, she leaves Rockford Manor and moves to New York City with her new guardians. But some attachments prove impossible to shake—including her love for her handsome neighbor Sebastian Stanhope.
Then a life-altering letter arrives that forces Imogen to return to the manor in England, where she quickly learns that dark secrets lurk behind Rockford’s aristocratic exterior. At their center is Imogen herself—and Sebastian, the boy she never stopped loving.
Combining spine-tingling mystery, romance, and unforgettable characters, SUSPICION is an action-packed thrill ride.
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Hi Readers! Thank you for joining us on the YA Scavenger Hunt! For my bonus content, I’m excited to share the opening scene from my upcoming fourth novel for Delacorte Press, THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE!
I hope you enjoy this opening scene! While you’re waiting for GIRL IN THE PICTURE to come out next year, check out my current release, SUSPICION. I’ll be giving away 2 signed copies for the scavenger hunt- to enter, please follow me on Twitter @TimelessAlex and mention SUSPICION and YASH!
Love and Happy Reading!
Alexandra Monir
THE GIRL IN THE PICTURE by Alexandra Monir
Chance
At first it’s no more than a blurry shape on the ground, large enough to beat me up, slow enough for me to get away. Then my focus clears, and I see why the body won’t move. Its limbs are tangled and twisted amongst the fallen leaves. Mud cakes the sleeves of a well-worn varsity jacket. A once-familiar face has turned an ashy gray, its mouth frozen on the last word spoken, a word now echoing in my ears. “You.”
I take a step closer, bracing for the gut-wrenching pain of recognition. But as I stare at my maimed self lying in the woods behind the soccer field—my soccer field—there is no pain. No emotion at all, really. I guess I shouldn’t expect to feel anything. I’m dead.
Still, there is a flicker of something, an image—no, images. They push to the forefront of my mind, growing stronger the more I stare at my rigid body. Lips on lips, the sound of her voice calling after me, a jagged rock hovering above my skull, the last face before it all went black.
Footsteps. They’re coming, mere seconds away from finding my body. Soon this section of the woods will be roped off with yellow tape, newscasters and Oyster Bay students clamoring for a view of where I died, of what happened. Then the detectives will swarm, full of theories and names.
I think I know who the first two names will be.
I have somewhere to go, don’t I? Some afterlife waiting to check me in?
But I can’t go just yet.
I need a little longer.
One more glimpse of her.
I need the truth.
Thanks, Alexandra!!!!! And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Alexandra Monir, and at least 7 or maybe more than SEVEN fabulous authors! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is. Have you figured it out yet? Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the GOLD team and you’ll have the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
CONTINUE THE HUNT

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next GOLD Team author, Katherine Longshore!!!
Spread the word by Tweeting #YASH
And before you go…BONUS CONTEST!!!!!!
Here’s a chance to win TWO signed copies of TOUCHING THE SURFACE–one copy for you and one copy for your favorite school or local library. Check out my Rafflecopter for the details on how to win.
Tags: Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Touching the Surface, YA Authors, YA Books, YA Scavenger Hunt
It’s almost time for the YA Scavenger Hunt!!!

What is the YA Scavenger Hunt? Let me fill you in…
The YA Scavenger Hunt is a biannual online event that promotes collaboration between YA authors from different publishing houses, offering fans an opportunity to see the latest and greatest in young adult literature. During the hunt, we showcase exclusive bonus material, give readers access to top secret insider information, and offer fabulous prizes and giveaways for zealous YA fans.
Yup–totally awesome. And because I want you to be ready to play on April2-5th. I’m giving you a sneak peek of the participating authors and their books. I’ll start you off with my group–TEAM GOLD!

A fabulous group! And here are all the rest of the teams…







You can find out more about the YA Scavenger Hunt #YASH here.
What books and authors are you hunting for?
Tags: #yash, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Touching the Surface, YA Author, YA Books, YA Scavenger Hunt
My blogging has been sporadic at best.
I’m trying to get my act together. But the truth is I’m dropping balls left and right LOL! Somedays I drop the laundry ball…one of my favorites to “drop.”
Other days I drop the eat breakfast ball. Crap! Did I really manage to leave the house without eating? Cause I won’t be back for 4 hours. *checks to rearview mirror to be sure all three boys and dog made it into the car*
I also tend to drop the “getting the dishes done ball” until they start climbing out of the sink. Or something starts to smell.
Additionally, the kids were moaning yesterday, because I dropped the “get the groceries they wanted ball.” (PLEASE get the GOOD bread for sandwiches, school snacks, cranberry juice and dessert for God’s sake!)
And now *insert giggle* (I have to giggle because it keeps me out of full on panic mode.) I’ve got a spring break trip coming up in the future and my “pets, boys and personal preparations balls” looks something like this…

Need I say more? You get the picture. But there is some really good news. I haven’t dropped the “writing ball.” I’m never as fast as I want to be, but I’m happy with my progress, so the high from that, makes it easier to maneuver around all the other balls scattered all over the floor LOL!
I’ve also been reading a ton, thanks to audiobooks. It’s my bonus when I’m walking the pup and throwing an actual ball. And this is not just entertaining multitasking. Every book I read is a master class in how to be a better writer–and often a better person. And just to prove how awesome it is to drop the “household chores balls” instead of the “reading balls.” Here’s a quote from one of the best books I’ve read in awhile…
“That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain
I don’t know about you, but despite all the balls all over the floor, it feels like I’m manifesting something great.
What are you manifesting at the moment? What’s the “best” ball you’ve dropped recently?
Tags: dropping balls, Garth Stein, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, laundry, reading, The Art of Racing in the Rain, writing
Last week has left me needing guidance and inspiration from those who are wiser and more eloquent than I…

“To be Jedi is to face the truth, and choose. Give off light, or darkness, Padawan. Be a candle, or the night.”–YODA, Dark Rendezvous
“It is not nearly so important how well a message is received as how well it is sent. You cannot take responsibility for how well another accepts your truth; you can only ensure how well it is communicated. And by how well, I don’t mean merely how clearly; I mean how lovingly, how compassionately, how sensitively, how courageously, and how completely.” Neale Donald Walsh
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
Helen Keller
“The most important thing is to not stop questioning.”
Albert Einstein
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt, This is My Story
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
― Thomas A. Edison
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”
― Elie Wiesel
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”
― John Lennon
“Well-behaved women seldom make history.”
― Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Peace begins with a smile..”
― Mother Teresa
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but they make a good excuse.”
― Thomas Stephen Szasz
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Please feel free to add to my list. <3
Tags: guidance, inspiration, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, quotes