It’s your lucky day! I’m having a creepy giveaway. I’ve got two books here that will make your hands sweat while you’re reading them. First up is DISPIRITED by Luisa M. Perkins…
Cathy sees things that are invisible to everyone else. Her new stepbrother’s bizarre behavior. A ghostly little boy. An abandoned house in the woods. But she doesn’t see how they’re all connected. And what she doesn’t see might just kill her.
READ AN EXCERPT HERE.
Luisa M. Perkins is the author of Dispirited, published by Zarahemla Books in March 2012, and co-author of the novel The Book of Jer3miah, forthcoming from Shadow Mountain in August 2012.
Past publications include the cookbook Comfortably Yum and the LDS YA novel Shannon’s Mirror. She has had numerous short stories and essays published in print and online. She has been a member of the Whitney Awards Committee for the past two years. She and her husband Patrick live with their six children in New York’s Hudson Highlands.
Kimberly Sabatini’s Review of DISPIRITED…
DISPIRITED is one little creeper of a book and I mean that in the very best of ways. What I loved about it was that Perkins made reality, myth and the paranormal seamlessly blend in a way that captured my attention and made me wonder if there was really a lot more going on under my day to day reality. If you’ve ever had a chill run down your spine for no reason–DISPIRITED will make you wonder if perhaps you weren’t just being perceptive.
Bonus love for this book because Perkins wrote this while living in my area and her writing was peppered with local references making the story even more believable and interesting for me. If you like IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma or a darker story that makes you think AND shiver…DISPIRITED is a perfect choice for you.
The second book you have a chance to win is WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND by Tracy Bilen.
“Don’t even think of leaving…I will find you,” he whispered. “Guaranteed.”
Sara and her mom have a plan to finally escape Sara’s abusive father. But when her mom doesn’t show up as expected, Sara’s terrified. Her father says that she’s on a business trip, but Sara knows he’s lying. Her mom is missing—and her dad had something to do with it. Each day that passes, Sara’s more on edge. Her friends know that something’s wrong, but she won’t endanger anyone else with her secret. And with her dad growing increasingly violent, Sara must figure out what happened to her mom before it’s too late…for them both.
Tracy Bilen is a high school French and Spanish teacher in Michigan where she lives with her husband and two children. Before moving to Michigan, Tracy taught at a ski school for high school students in Vermont (Spanish, not skiing!). In college she spent her junior year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris where she lived in a dorm run by nuns (and where she had to run down four flights of stairs to take a phone call). She enjoys cross-country skiing and walks in the woods. Her debut young adult novel, What She Left Behind, will be released by Simon Pulse on May 1, 2012.Tracy Bilen is a high school French and Spanish teacher in Michigan where she lives with her husband and two children. Before moving to Michigan, Tracy taught at a ski school for high school students in Vermont (Spanish, not skiing!). In college she spent her junior year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris where she lived in a dorm run by nuns (and where she had to run down four flights of stairs to take a phone call). She enjoys cross-country skiing and walks in the woods. Her debut young adult novel, What She Left Behind, will be released by Simon Pulse on May 1, 2012.
Kimberly Sabatini’s Review of WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND
If you like Elizabeth Scott, I think you’ll absolutely adore Tracy Bilen. WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND is one of those stories that is morbidly beautiful. It is the harsh reality of a less than ideal life, threaded with moments of love and hope. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from what was unfolding on the pages. I immediately connected with Sara and I adored the healthy relationships in her life. I read this story with a rapid pulse and sweaty palms–praying that the last page would be just as good as the build-up. I wasn’t disappointed.
Oh, and bonus–both books will be shipped to you directly from the authors so you’ll get to have them signed!! What do you have to do to enter this giveaway? Tell me what piece of reality you find scarier than fiction. Or you can tell me the creepiest thing that’s ever happened to you. Or you can just gush about how much you want both of these books. BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION IN THE COMMENT SO THAT YOU CAN WIN!
Tags: Apocalypsies, Contest, Dispirited, giveaway, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Luisa M. Perkins, Tracy Bilen, What She Left Behind, YA Author, YA Novel, YA Writer
I did an interview yesterday and one of the questions was…what’s your favorite cover?
I was a little stumped. I clearly know how covers effect me. People say we shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I’m aware of the impact the “right” cover can have on me. It plays a huge role in what I gravitate towards. Now, having said that, there isn’t a crappy cover out there that would stop me from reading a highly recommended book. But what if the concept is reversed and we judge a book solely on it’s cover? What happens if we take out the pages–erase the story–and just stare at that cover as if it was a piece of art? Which covers would be your favorites
*cover montage taken from Goodreads
As I pondered the interview question, I really struggled with picking one. I eventually decided on THE GIVER by Lois Lowry–which is also my favorite book. I thought about how I felt about the book when my high school teacher handed out our copies in class. I was intrigued by the uniqueness of it–by the emotion and mystery on the elderly man’s face. It was something I hadn’t seen before and something about it felt important compared to the other types of books I’d been reading. But would I still be saying that now if I hadn’t read the copy flap? If I hadn’t fallen in love with the book? I’m not sure.
What I do know is that I’m still thinking about it–pondering what I find to be visually stunning–apart from the words that are attached to it. My mind is still turning and I have a couple more in mind, but I was wondering what is your favorite cover and why? Can you separate the visual from the words? Or are they in inexplicably linked for you? Have you ever adored a cover and NOT read the book? I’m curious–bring on the cover love.
Tags: Cover Art, Covers, Favorite Covers, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Lois Lowry, The Giver
My recap of BEA 2012 in pictures!!!!
Yeah…off to a pretty good start. *grin*
My awesome roommate, book blogger at THE YA CONNECTION and aspiring author…Lisa Lueddecke. Ummm so we just happened to go right by the Hershey’s store. And they had free samples.
The Class of 2k12 Books at the Bank Street Bookstore where we talked about breaking into the business of children’s and young adult fiction.
We got our swag on!
Bank Street Bookstore provided yummy snacks and beverages.
The whole gang from L-R
Kimberly Sabatini (Touching the Surface available October 30th), Sarvenaz Tash (The Mapmaker and the Ghost), A.C. Gaughen (Scarlet), Sarah Tregay (Love & Leftovers) and Lynda Mullaly Hunt (One for the Murphys)
Someone asked me why I had such a little book…of course my answer was that I write for little people LOL!
We had so much fun with this bunch!!!
Of course a little ice cream from the “Seinfeld Dinner” never is a bad ending to a great day. Lisa and Kim.
Look what was waiting in our room from the W Hotel!!! I felt so special…((((hugs)))) to A.C. Gaughen.
Tuesday morning…the view from our room.
Lisa needs an official Times Square picture!!!!
Meeting Suzanne Lazear (Innocent Darkness) for a quick breakfast.
The registration area of BEA.
The Editors for the YA Editors Buzz Panel. Everything sounded fantastic. You can read all about it at Publisher’s Weekly-BEA 2012: Diversity Rules at YA Editor’s Buzz Panel. But I want to give a special shout out to my fellow Apocalypsies: Gennifer Albin, author of Crewel and Kat Zhang, author of What’s Left of Me!!!!
I got to spend the WHOLE day with one of my favorite people EVAH!!!! My fantabulous agent Michelle Wolfson. *Heart Squish* And a shout out to Jennifer Laughran for taking a kick-ass picture of us. *grin*
Can you spot all the fabulous Sourcebook authors I found? SEND by Patty Blout, My YAOTL buddy Geoff Herback with STUPID FAST and NOTHING SPECIAL, and some of the Apocalypsies like…Miranda Kenneally with CATCHING JORDAN and STEALING PARKER, Zoraida Cordova with THE VICIOUS DEEP and Leanna Renee Hieber with DARKER STILL and THE TWISTED TRAGEDY OF MISS NATALIE STEWART. Plus a ton of other great reads!!!
Time to meet more of the Apocalypsies!!!!! We had an amazing Meet & Greet. Everyone was given a dance card to get signed by all the Apocalypsie authors in attendance. Here’s what they looked like. Each card was numbered and prize packages of books, ARCs and swag were auctioned off through out the afternoon.
So excited–I got to meet Erica Haglund of The Book Cellar and Julie Cross’ Perfect Ten.
I also got a chance to meet Natalia from Dazzling Reads. Love her!
It’s a small world! Barbra Kane (High School Librarian and Media Specialist in Jamestown, NY) and I graduated from the same college. Go Geneseo!!!
And don’t forget my buddy Grace from Words Like Silver. We saw each other everywhere…she may be tired of me LOL!
And here all the Apocalypsies who participated!!!!
After a hanging out with all the wonderful folks at Simon Pulse, I headed over to the NYC Teen Author Carnival.where I found lots of Simon Pulse authors and Apocalypsies and sometimes they were both, like K.M Walton (CRACKED) and Corrine Jackson (IF I LIE.)
Hilary Graham (REUNITED)
Lucas Klauss (EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO SURVIVE THE APOCALYPSE)
Fiona Paul (VENOM) and Lauren Morrill (MEANT TO BE)
Rebecca Serle (WHEN YOU WERE MINE)
Gennifer Albin (REWEL), Tiffany Schmidt (SEND ME A SIGN) and Katie McGarry (PUSHING THE LIMITS) There was a ton of other great authors here but I have yet to learn how to clone myself…the dystopian writers are working on that for me though.
Of course we were REALLY hungry after all that book talk so K.M. Walton, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Me and Corrine Jackson got some yummy stuff.
Are you getting tired yet? You should have seen me by the time I crawled into bed that night, but no rest for the weary because I was off on Wednesday morning to the YA Author’s Breakfast!!!!
Chris Colfer from Glee was the MC for the event. He was wonderfully funny and very touching as he talked about his own goal, from the age of 10 to have his book published.
In my opinion he seemed very genuine.
Chris Colfer, John Green (the Justin Bieber of the YA world *snort*), Lois Lowry and Kadir Nelson–Each one of these three legends was amazing. Lois Lowry received a standing ovation that was well deserved. You can watch the a live stream replay of the breakfast here…Live Stream Book Expo America
Yeah…I got this close. *sigh*
Back on the main floor I got Tom Angleberger’s autograph for my boys…they were thrilled!
Heading over to my favorite place…Simon & Schuster!!!!
And look who I found on the way…Tim Gunn. He is Fabulous!
Simon & Schuster was crazy busy!!!! I think I can see someone grabbing one of my bookmarks LOL!
I am an awesome mom! Was in line for almost 2 hours to get my oldest son a signed copy of INSURGENT by Veronica Roth! (Lisa, Kim and Jennifer)
And when you make friends on line…you might just get dubbed the Fabulous Five by the line monitors LOL! Don’t forget to check out Terri’s blog Read & Riot. And a Happy Birthday to Terri’s mom, Irene–she’ll be celebrating on Saturday with my brand new 7 year old. Cha, Cha, Cha Irene!!!
The front of the line for the DARK DAYS TOUR had been sitting w-a-y u-p t-h-e-r-e since 10 am so I won’t complain LOL!
Apocalypsie Elizabeth Norris signing UNRAVELING, Veronica Roth signing INSURGENT, Bethany Griffin signing MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH and Aprilynne Pike signing DESTINED.
Flew by Rachel Ray
And a very TALL Harlem Globetrotter LOL!
I also wanted to hit some of the Apocalypsies at their author signings. I missed a ton, but was luck to get a book from…
Sorry it’s blurry–Dan Krokos signing Lisa’s copy of FALSE MEMORY.
And TIME BETWEEN US author and sweetheart, Tamara Ireland Stone
My last Class of 2k12 event was Mix, Mingle and Win! So I mixed and mingled with two of my new favorite people Kim an Judy…making me the winner.
The Class of 2k12 Sarah Tregay, A.C. Gaughen, Megan Bostic, Lynda Mullaly Hunt, Sarvenaz Tash and me.
One of my favorite BEA pics! A.C. Gaughen and her new FIGHT LIKE A GIRL T-shirts for a GLOW fundraiser. Great cause–I am so getting one! If you’re interested in buying one and supporting GLOW–leave your contact info in the comments and I’ll make sure that A. C. gets it.
And what you’ve all been waiting for…the books!
Not including all the MG books I got for the boys…here was my amazing YA haul. Keep tabs on my blog because a lot of these will be up for grabs after I read them!!!! Contests galore, but I can assure you that you will not be getting my 11yo’s signed copy of INSURGENT or my signed ARC of Lois Lowry’s book SON. <3 But that means my question must be…which book would you be desperate for me to have as a prize in a contest???? *FYI DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT is only a sample–not the full ARC, but it comes with the full paperback of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE. Also–if you’ve blogged about your BEA experience–add your link so I can check it out. I had a fabulous time and I hope you did too. And if you couldn’t be there, I hope this helped you feel like you were. Thanks for stopping by.
Tags: Apocalypsies, Bank Street Book Store, BEA, Book Expo America, Dazzling Reads, GLOW, Javits Center, John Green, Kim Sabatini, Kimberly Sabatini, Lois Lowry, Michelle Wolfson, NYC, NYC Teen Author Carnival, Publisher's Weekly, Read & Riot, Simon & Schuster, Simon Pulse, The Book Cellar, The Class of 2k12, The W Times Square, Wolfson Literary, Words Like Silver
