Winners Announced in The Virtual Feast Dessert-To-Die-For Contest

Awhile back I hosted a contest in celebration of my second novel, FEAST, and its official Coming Out Party (June 28, 2011 to be exact—Notice the way cool countdown widget to the right).

Today I'm announcing the 5 winners in The Virtual Feast Dessert-To-Die-For Contest.

Let's take a look at those fab prizes again...

FIRST:
One Grand Prize Winner will receive the following: A FEAST tote bag, a signed copy of FEAST and a signed copy of AFTERLIFE, plus a one-pound box of yummy See’s candy.




Four Runner Up Winners will each receive the following: A signed copy of FEAST, plus 5 FEAST/AFTERLIFE bookmarks.

Here are the winners.

Grand Prize Winner (who will receive a tote bag, signed copy of FEAST, and a one-pound box of See's candy):

Renee (SteelerGirl83)

And the four Runner Up Winners are:

Cath

Van Pham

Sharon

Thepix

Congrats to all of you and I will be contacting you shortly for your mailing addresses. Please note that none of the prizes will be mailed until I get my author copies of Feast. So the prizes may not get in the mail until the end of June. Thank you to everyone who participated!!

The Greatest Marriage Proposal Ever--prepare to cry!

Why you should procrastinate just long enough to watch this video on .... wait for it ... procrastination

Why should you watch this video?

1. It's funny.

2. It's cute.

3. He mentions chocolate chip cookies and we all know I love cookies.

4. He has a great accent.

5. You might actually be able to stop procrastinating. Maybe.

Evidence that the Avon Dusk Til Dark Party rocked!

Here you can see snippets and interviews from the lavish and wonderful Dusk Til Dark party hosted by Avon at the recent Romantic Times Convention in L.A. Interviewed authors included Sophie Jordan, Pamela Palmer, Kimberly Derting, Tera Lynn Childs, Joss Ware, Kelly Armstrong, Jamie Rush and Syrie James.

And, believe it or not, I'm in the video too. There's a short clip at the beginning (don't blink!) where all the attending authors are standing in front of a backdrop. I'm the shortest person (as always!) and I'm right in the middle.

One of the coolest things about the video is that you get hear from the readers who were attending the 2011 Romantic Times Convention too. It's awesome to hear how much they were enjoying the convention and this event.

Upcoming books I'm excited about

There are a slew of really cool YA books on the horizon and I can't wait to read them all. Some I haven't even seen covers for yet, but that doesn't stop me from drooling.

Here are my picks of New Things To Come:

1. A new series by debut author, Heather Burch, published by Zondervan. The first in the series is scheduled for release in Feb., 2012 (ouch, that's a long wait for me) and the main characters are half-human, half-angel teenagers. First in the series is titled, PURE, followed by DARK and RISEN.


2. Starcrossed, debut novel by Josephine Angelina, published by Harper Teen. The first in a series of three novels releases on May 31 and here's a blurb from the Dark Faerie Tales blog:

"In Starcrossed, which brings Greek tragedy to high school, a shy Nantucket teenager named Helen Hamilton attempts to kill the most attractive boy on the island, Lucas Delos, in front of her entire class. The incident proves more than a bit inconvenient for Helen, who’s already concerned that she’s going insane–whenever she’s sees Lucas (or any of his family members) the image of three crying women appear to her."


3. Last, but certainly not least, is The Pledge by Kimberly Derting (already one of my fave authors). Published by Margaret K. McElderry (an imprint of Simon & Schuster), this book is scheduled for release on November 15, 2011 (ouch, another long wait for me). Here's a blurb from the author's website about this book:

"In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret."

Meanwhile, I'm trying to distract myself by reading some other fantastic books on my TBR pile:

1. The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett
2. Graveminder by Melissa Marr
3. Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
4. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
5. Light Boxes by Shane Jones

Two very nice reviews of AFTERLIFE, both posted this week

I am continually amazed and blessed by how wonderful the blogging community has treated me and my debut novel, AFTERLIFE. I mean, if you think about, they don’t have to post reviews. They could just read books and that would actually be very cool all by itself. But this group of awesome people reads books and then they post their reviews online. They go out of their way to let other people know when they come across a book they love.


I really like that. A lot.

So, I wanted to share two incredible reviews that AFTERLIFE received online this week.

The first was posted on May 4, on the Literary Escapism blog and was written by Casey. You can read the review HERE. And here’s a snippet of what Casey said about the book:

“No matter what you believe in, Afterlife will make you think about what is going to happen to you after you die. It will make you think about what immortality would be like. It will make you think. Period. (It probably will make you want to hug everyone in your family, or maybe that’s just me.)”

The second review was posted on May 5, on Sapphyria’s Book Blog by Sapphyria. She gave AFTERLIFE 5 out of 5 stars (Yay!) and you can read the entire review HERE. A snippet of her review is below:

“There are so many twists, turns, and happenings that you don’t expect but make total sense. When it was all said and done, I found this book to be a great read…I give this book a 5/5. I can’t wait to get her next novel FEAST.”

Thanks again to the folks over at Literary Escapism and Sapphyria’s Book Blog for posting their reviews and for loving books! You all get five out of five stars in my book.

RT Tote Bag Winner

Hi, everyone! Thanks for your patience. I got slightly distracted by the conference I went to this past weekend. And forgot that I had a CONTEST GOING ON.

Argh.



So, in case anyone besides me forgot, the giveaway is this lovely totebag from the recent Romantic Times convention, signed by 12 amazing authors. And the WINNER is.....

[drum roll, please]

JESSICA!!! Yay, congrats, Jessica!!

I already have your e-mail address and I will contact you shortly to get your shipping information. Thank you to everyone who participated in this contest!!

Because sometimes you just have to laugh

Cute--no, this is beyond cute--adorable video of a "talking" dog. But all dogs talk, right? Well, this talking dog is the best one ever. And besides that, sometimes you just need to smile.