Greetings, everyone!

The Young Adult Scavenger Hunt spring of 2016 is over!  Congratulations to a certain Anthony who won all the goodies the Teal Team had to offer!

In other news, Once Upon a Dream came out yesterday.  As I may have instatweeted, parents do NOT have favorites.  But I really like this book...

 

Welcome to the YA Scavenger Hunt! Look for clues, add them up, and you can enter for our 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 SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the TEAL TEAM--but there is also a gold team, a green team, an orange team, a red team, a pink team, a purple team and a silver team for a chance to win a whole different set 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 page.

BASICALLY...

Somewhere below I've hidden a (prime) number. Collect the unique number of each of the authors on the teal team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!).

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: 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 April 3rd at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

And now...to the authors!

Today I am hosting Tera Lynn Childs on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!

Tera Lynn Childs is the RITA-award-winning young adult author of the mythology-based Oh. My. Gods. series, the Forgive My Fins mermaid romance series, the kick-butt monster-hunting Sweet Venom trilogy, and the Darkly Fae series. She also writes the City Chicks sweet chick lit romance series and is co-writing the Hero Agenda series with Tracy Deebs. Tera lives nowhere in particular and spends her time writing wherever she can find a comfy chair and a steady stream of caffeinated beverages. Unlike Sloane, TLC has lived like 37 different places (including one foreign country) and is always on the lookout for her next move.

And her YA Scavenger Hunt book is...

When life gives you a blank canvas, make art.

Sloane Whitaker hates everything about moving to Texas. She hates leaving behind her friends and half her family in New York, starting over senior year at Austin’s NextGen Academy, and having to say she lives in Texas. Most of all, she hates that it’s all her fault. If she wants to earn her way back to the Big Apple, she has to prove she can still be the perfect daughter.

Which means no vandalism art, no trouble at school, and absolutely no Tru Dorsey, her serial screw-up neighbor, who loves nothing more than pushing her buttons.

But from the moment he vaults onto the roof outside her bedroom, there is something about him that makes her want to break every rule. Suddenly it’s not the ten things she hates about Tru that are at the top of her list. It’s the ten reasons she doesn’t want to be without him.

Find out more information by checking out the author website or find more about the her book here!  

http://teralynnchilds.com 

And now, bonusy bonus bonus book materials time!

 In Ten Things Sloane Hates About Tru, Sloane Whitaker has been forced from her native New York City, doomed to spend at least part of her senior year (as little as possible) in Austin, Texas. To keep herself sane for the duration of her exile, she spends a lot of time listening to music that makes her think of her favorite city. Here are her top twelve songs about New York.

(If you need a little extra NYC in your life, you can snag the playlist at bit.ly/tlcplaylistSloane!)

 

And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Tera, and more! Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the teal team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

CONTINUE THE HUNT

To keep going on your quest, you need to check out the next author! Hop on over to Sharon Biggs Waller here!

Tweet #YASH

YA Scavenger Hunt!

It's almost time! Tomorrow begins an Easter-Egg like hunt for hidden numbers...and the prize is FREE BOOKS. Go here to sign up. I'm on TEAM TEAL!  Go team!

Long Time No Speak

Hey y'all!

I have to get this site redesigned as I shift my social media more onto tumblr (http://lizbraswell.tumblr.com/), instagram and twitter (@lizbraswell), and facebook (lizbraswell). So please go to there for more up to date info and clever quips and semi-useless chautauquas.

I have a new book out, A Whole New World, a retelling of the classic Disney movie with a haunting twist.  Go to wherever you buy books and buy it.





Follow @lizbraswell

Contest!

Ok guys, I know it's been quiet.  I been writing.

Want a peek at what I've been working on?

Starting tomorrow, retweet my contest tweet and follow me @lizbraswell. Next Thursday May 14th I will choose one person at random and send the lucky cad a signed copy of my galley A Whole New World!  Woohoo!

wtf, Seasonal Edition

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Late November in New England is a really good time to contemplate your own mortality and the futility of ego.  I carried a good heap of this back over the border of New York yesterday and was continuing to have a stream of dark, repetitive, brooding and highly unromantic thoughts when they were rudely interrupted by the following scene:

An absolutely beautiful little girl who couldn’t have been more than six or seven, with long, shiny brown hair held back by a single braid and a silk flower, sitting oh so carefully in her Christmas dress, little black boots, and adorable faux fur coat, next to her equally dressed-up mother, WAITING TO HAVE HER SEVEN-YEAR-OLD BROWS DONE AT MY BROW PLACE.*

Wtf doesn’t quite cover it.

So my Ibsenian, seasonal funk has to get in line behind my normal outrage at the state of mankind.  It’s a Christmas miracle.

Hey people, do you think this season maybe can we stop killing each other at shopping malls, waiting in line two hours for pastries when people are starving elsewhere, and forcing painful and subjective ideals of beauty on little kids?

kthanxbai

*yes, I do go get my brows done even when I am filled with the fear of death and aging.  It’s not going to do itself, is it?

The Real Reason Why Vampires Don’t Show Up in  Pictures

It’s not what you think.

It’s not because they sparkle too much in the flash, or because they don’t have souls.

It’s just that vampires are really, really unphotogenic.

Seriously.

In every shot there’s the red eye problem, or someone’s flaring his aristocratic nose way too much, or there’s a little rotting blood crusting someone’s chin.  It’s always a bad idea.  So they just tend to avoid cameras.  Especially at holidays.

Several different sources (including one of my publishers) insist that authors connect with their fans through every social medium possible, including Instagram.  A picture every day! they say brightly.  Let readers into your every day life!

I could conceivably stretch my initial metaphor by explaining the Roumanian in my background, the Transylvanian vineyard my family supposedly owned pre-Communist/Nazi/Usual Villager Douchebaggery, but let’s face it, I’m just not a vampire.  Anyone who has seen me recently after ten PM (half asleep already) knows the unlikelihood of that.

I am, however, extremely unphotogenic, like my brethren of the night.  No, like really, really unphotogenic.  Even my kindest friends and relatives do not disagree, pitying looks on their faces.  Or as my friend Greg puts it, “Geeze, Liz—your breasts ruin every shot!”

It’s not just the breasts (which really do seem to hog the lens in every photo).  Somehow my chin disappears into nether regions obscured by my general pallor.  Especially if I close my lips to hide my big buck teeth.  I am much, much huger in pictures than I am in person.  In weird inhuman lumps.  My eyes do the red thing and are often crossed.  Mom says that in all my baby photo sessions my tongue would loll out and eyes cross just as the picture snapped.

What I’m trying to say is that there will be Instagrams, as promised to the Great Gods of Publicity.  There will just not be many of me.  Which is ok.  You don’t really want to know what I look like, do you?  If you want anything, it’s to see more of the stuff that comes out of my head.  From the real insides, I mean.  Not what comes out of the tear ducts and noseholes. 

So enjoy the photos if you can, and the sneaky peeks into my inner workings by means of the images that my (red)eyes find interesting.  Or necessary.

There will be many pictures of coffee.