Ava Gray's Blog, page 7

Winner

The signed copy of OUTPOST goes to:

Madiha Assegaf

 

You have one week to email me. If you haven't contacted me in that time, I will draw a new name. Congratulations! My email is ann.aguirre at gmail dot com.

YA Scavenger Hunt: Red Team Go!

Today kicks off a spring YA Scavenger Hunt, and there are tons of great prizes to be won. You decide how much effort to put into it, but the rewards will definitely be commensurate with the time you spend visiting various sites and gathering clues.

There are three teams: RED, YELLOW, and BLUE.

I'm on the RED team, myself. If at any point, you get stuck, there's help here.

Between all of us, there are a total of 60 books being given away. You can enter all three loops so you have a chance at all of them, or you can just do one team giveaway for a total of 20 books. Either way, it's up to you. Pretty exciting stuff, right? You'll also receive sneak peeks of bonus content along the way! This includes new scenes, deleted scenes, and cover reveals! You don't want to miss any of it.

I have the pleasure of hosting the talented S.L. Naeole, author of the Belonging Trilogy: DARK VEIL. She's also written about angels (the Grace series) and the Sidhe (the Faeble series). Let's get to know her better before I show you the good stuff, okay?

About Ms. Naeole, in her own words: "I write a lot, I dream a lot, and sometimes I write about what I dream. I've got a serious addiction to snark, and I'm not afraid to use my weapon of choice: sarcasm. With four children, a husband, a cat, and a few invisible friends, it's never quiet in my home but, I suppose, that's what makes escaping to my work that much more worthwhile. "

About DARK VEIL: Fallon Timmons didn't know what to expect from the small island her adopted parents grew up on, but whatever it was, she thought she was prepared for it. Then Liam appeared, all teeth and venom, with a warning to stay away from his sister Audrey and from him. It was a warning that she was not going to heed, no matter what the strangely attractive boy said.

Liam Mace was used to seeing the tourists on the Rock, and looked especially forward to them leaving. But Fallon wasn't leaving. In fact, she was staying. Worse, his sister was growing attached to her, and that was never a good thing…

You never become attached to your food.

Black Cat Rock, or the Rock as it is called, is the home of the Panthus, shape-shifting cats of magnificent size and strength who live in their human skins only to protect their secret. During the day they catch fish to sell, or wait on and serve the tourists who come to visit their island, but at night, the fangs come out and the hunt begins as tourist becomes prey.

Does that whet your appetite? You should also check out the first book in her Faeble series, GOSSAMER. Which brings us to Ms. Naeole's bonus content! You lucky readers get to check out the first four chapters of DAMSELFLY, which is the second book in the Faeble series. (I've read GOSSAMER and it's really good.)

First four chapters of DAMSELFLY here. To obtain access, enter the username YASH and the password YASH_2012 into the login section on the right.

If that wasn't enough cool bonus content, you also get a second helping of awesome! Here's the cover debut of SWEET SILENCE, the next book in her Belonging series.

And that's not all! You can enter to win a copy of Ms. Naeole's book by clicking here. Click and tweet; simple, right?

Don't stop playing! To continue hunting for clues and reading more exciting, exclusive content, click on to JERI SMITH-READY's blog. I know she has some delicious goodies waiting.

Finally, this post has been sponsored by the letter R. (Psst. This is an important clue. Remember it!)

PS – Go look for my exclusive content, too! At reader request, I rewrote a scene from Fade's POV, so you get the first ever glimpse inside his head–and how he feels about Deuce. Oh, and you can also win a signed copy of ENCLAVE. So there's that, too. *g* Happy hunting!

YA Scavenger Hunt

 Hello Everybody,

It's time to announce the final lineup of the Spring Scavenger Hunt!  This year it will be bigger and badder than ever before with 60 count 'em 60 YA authors! With fabulous prizes around every corner you DO NOT want to miss this!

Below is your sneak preview of the authors and the books they will be featuring on the hunt.

 

JUS ACCARDO

 

AMBER ARGYLE

 

LISA T. BERGREN

 

LISA BURSTEIN

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SOFIE COUCH 

 

KIMBERLY DERTING

 

LAURA A.H. ELLIOTT

 

CHRISTINE FONSECA

 

ABBI GLINES

 

CYNTHIA HAND

 

KAREN AMANDA HOOPER

 

S.R. JOHANNES

 

GINA LINKO

 

GRETCHEN MCNEIL

 

MIKE MULLIN

   

ERICA O'ROURKE

 

JOY PREBLE

 

JESSICA SHIRVINGTON

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TIFFANY TRUITT

 

DEBBIE VIGUIE

 

ANN AGUIRRE

 

JENNIFER L. ARMENTROUT

 

LEAH BOBET

 

TERA LYNN CHILDS

 

WILLOW CROSS

 

DJ DESMYTER

 

LEIGH FALLON

 

TARA FULLER

 

JANET GURTLER

 

CINDY HOGAN

 

COLLEEN HOUCK

 

ELANA JOHNSON

 

JAMIE MANNING

 

CLAIRE MERLE

 

S.L. NAEOLE

 

GREGG OLSEN

[image error] 

LISA & LAURA ROECKER

 

JERI SMITH-READY

 

CAT KALEN

 

LANI WOODLAND

 

JOSEPHINE ANGELINI

 

BRODI ASHTON

 

CK BRYANT

 

ANGELA CORBETT

 

GINA DAMICO

 

BREE DESPAIN

 

BETH FANTASKEY

 

MARLEY GIBSON

 

RAE HACHTON

 

NANCY HOLDER

 

TARA HUDSON

 

SUZANNE LAZEAR

 

MYRA MCENTIRE

 

ALEXANDRA MONIR

 

LISA NOWAK

 

AMY PLUM

 

INARA SCOTT

 

TISH THAWER

 

MAGAN VERNON

 

RASHELLE WORKMAN

Whew that was a long scroll! Totally worth the carpal tunnel though.  If I was to get all the books I wanted from that list my bookshelf would topple over.  Leave a comment on this blog telling me which book or books you are the most excited about other than my own of course. =)

 

My amazingly gifted friend and author Beth Revis has created a website just for our Scavenger Hunts! Click on the YA Scavenger Hunt image below to be redirected there. Because we have so many authors this time we are breaking into three groups. We have BLUE TEAM, RED TEAM, and YELLOW TEAM!

Each group is made up of 20 authors and I am on  TEAM RED!

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This means that my bonus material will be found on the red team. If you get lost on the hunt simply return to the hunt website and pick up where you left off. While you check out the website, don't forget to vote on the polls, follow the site, and check out all the prizes. You can even tweet from there too!

 

 

 

THE YA SCAVENGER HUNT BEGINS THURSDAY MARCH 29TH AT NOON PACIFIC TIME AND ENDS SUNDAY APRIL 1ST AT NOON PACIFIC TIME! THAT GIVES YOU ONLY 72 HOURS

TO COMPLETE THE HUNT!

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

Endings Matter.

Dear Bioware,

I have been a loyal fan of your work since the first Baldur's Gate came out. I bought all the expansions. I bought Baldur's Gate 2, plus expansions. I've pretty much bought every game you ever put out, and I've enjoyed most of them. There were a few missteps along the way, but my love was rekindled with Mass Effect. Dragon Age won my heart completely, and I entered rabid fangirl territory. See, I don't play many video games. As a writer, I'm in it for the story and the characters, not the combat, not the loot, not the shiny graphics. And few game companies write a game in a way that's compelling to me. I don't care to be forced to play a male toon. I don't even want someone else picking my name for me. So your games had been a rare treat. You had all my love, support, and money.

Then you came out with Mass Effect 2. Which, frankly, was a janky piece of shit. You tailored the game as a weaksauce shooter, selling out your loyal RPG fans. There was, essentially, no story. Build your team, then go fight Megatron. The end. The only reason I didn't utterly loathe that game was the fact that you offered fan service in the form of an awkward romance with Garrus Vakarian. This shook my faith in you.

But I had loved Dragon Age SO MUCH. I ran out and got Dragon Age 2 as soon as I could. And that game was a kick in the face. You took away all choice, all agency, from your players. You railroaded us. You gave us mental patients and zealots for our love interests. And you made it so none of our choices mattered. I was livid over that. My Bioware love took a huge hit.

At this point, I was ready to wash my hands of you. I intended to walk away from the Mass Effect franchise. I'd rather finish my damned fan-fic project and end Shepard's saga my way than let you butcher it even more. But then I started hearing that you were throwing a bone to your RPG fans via narrative mode. That if we were in it for the story, we could play our way. I heard a few more exciting promises. I believed them.

So once again, on release day, I bought your game. I bought multiple copies, as ours is a gaming household. I carved out room in a schedule, which I really shouldn't have done, but this is how much I love these characters, this saga. I'll get my work done; I always do. But I had to play this game. I had to know how it ended.

And now I do. I feel… as if a beloved character from one of my favorite books has just been carelessly offed by the author. It's egregious. The endings you offered are worse than KOTOR2. They're ALL horrendous. What you've done with this lovely trilogy is quite unspeakable. Furthermore, the introduction of a certain character at the end was completely deus ex machina. It was lazy. It was clumsy. I am utterly disappointed.

I've been seeing whispers of a "secret" ending. You have to play through again to unlock this. But without knowing more, I am too disheartened to invest anymore time into this mess. You let your fans down, Bioware. We shouldn't have to work that hard for the chance to see the characters with whom we've spent so much time off to a worthy finale. Enough is enough.

And I, for one, am out.

Former fangirl, signing off.

(Hey, Bethesda, how you doing? Yeah, I've got some money to spend.)

The Stages of Drafting a Book

1) Asthmatic terror, as expressed through procrastination

So the time has come for you to start the next book. You can't write it yet! Your house is dirty. You haven't finished the Sudoku book you started. There are homeless ferrets somewhere in North America! (Why do you put it off when you love writing? Well, personally speaking, it's due to fear of failure. How can this book ever measure up to the last one? What if it doesn't? What if the first [insert number] books were a fluke and you've lost your mojo?) Eventually, you fight through this morass of abject stage fright and boldly create a new file for your imminent work of breathtaking genius. Then, if you're like me, you freeze at the sight of all that white space. Your brain seizes. Eventually, you struggle through this as well, and you begin to write, which brings you to stage two…

2) The Honeymoon Period

Once you've gotten past the rough patch, the old magic kicks in. Why were you so worried? This is awesome. This is natural. This is the BEST BOOK EVER. You type frantically, hour after hour. Your word count piles up. You walk around so gleefully lost in your own world that your spouse secretly wonders if you're cheating. Once you clear up that misunderstanding, you write some more. Your characters are brilliant; your plot is air-tight. Every little word you write is magic; even the commas are little curls of love. This lasts until 30K or so. (Place in manuscript may vary according to length of finished project). Which sadly culminates in…

3) The Swampy Middle of Doom

Shortly after 30K, your momentum peters out. You start thinking this book is kind of boring. And what the hell are you supposed to do with these annoying people for 30K more words, before you can begin the downward arc to wrap things up? They just talk all the time, and the action scenes are wooden. Your plot has begun to bog down, and you can't remember what the point of that thing on page 87 was anyway. Why didn't you take better notes?! Jotting down a plot solution on a stained Starbucks napkin really was not your best move. You despair of ever finishing this steaming pile of rubbish yet you press on, mostly because you have a deadline. (Maybe you can plead terminal illness? Except they always figure out that was bullshit when you don't die. Damn.) Your hatred for this project now burns hotter than the fire of a thousand white hot suns. You limp along, positive nothing has been so wretched since Gollum trailed that darn hobbit while moaning piteously, "My precioussss." Somehow you proceed into…

4) End, glorious end

Around 60K or so, you have become inured to your own crapulence. You are a dogged marvel of persistence in the face of mediocrity. You write on, day after day. The magic is gone, but you will do your duty, dammit! But somehow, around 70K, things start not to seem so bad. This line… it's rather witty. And the hero isn't a total waste of oxygen. He has a few compelling moments here and there. You smile for the first time in ten days as you write a scene. Why? Well, it's not bad. And you're almost to the end. You start gaining momentum again, start that race to the finish line, because you do love these characters, after all. You want to finish telling their story. You do, you do! And when you type the magical words that conclude their saga, few things have ever been so satisfying.

Congratulations, you're a writer! Sadly, there's no cure.

Dance monkey does the YA sashay

It has been really hard to keep quiet for the last two weeks. Major excitement has been percolating behind the scenes, but now, at last, I have clearance to announce the uber-exciting news.

NEW DEALS

HORDE, the final book in the dystopian Razorland trilogy, again to Liz Szabla of Feiwel & Friends, in a nice deal. By Laura Bradford, World English

MORTAL BEAUTY, Doctor Faustus meets Mean Girls in this edgy paranormal revenge trilogy set in a dark world of secret societies, twisted bargains, and forbidden love. Three books, in a good deal, to Liz Szabla of Feiwel & Friends. By Laura Bradford, North American.

Those are my guesstimates of what the PM announcements will say. How close I am, who knows? But the important bits are, I have sold FOUR more YA titles to Feiwel & Friends. Squee! Uber squee!

The schedule will tentatively look like this:

Fall 2013 Horde

2014 Mortal Beauty

2015 Dire Charm

2016 Dead Lovely

Title and projected dates may change. (Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.)

It's so awesome to be able the share the news at last. Feel free to post comments, questions, and squees.

St. Patrick’s Day Reader Party

As many of you know, I will be signing in Las Vegas on March 17th, along with my awesome cohorts:

Zoe Archer

Vivian Arend

Lauren Dane

Tessa Dare

Megan Hart

Courtney Milan

Until now, we didn’t have the particulars. But now we do! First, the when & where:

Chapel of the Flowers

1717 Las Vegas Blvd. So.

Las Vegas, NV 89104 USA

Party starts at 9 pm.

From the awesome, amazing manager from BN, who is responsible for all of this brilliance:

“We will start in the La Capella Chapel. It is the largest and is very Tuscan in feeling. Someone from the festival will introduce the event and then we thought that we could have each of you read a little from one of your books. After the readings, the winning couple will have their vow renewal. Then, everyone will head outside to the Glass Garden for book signings and a reception.”

There will be cake and sparkling cider and treats from the Las Vegas book clubs. Along with us, the authors, and our books, of course. There will be brides and newlyweds and wedding parties all over the place!

The city of Las Vegas is sponsoring a contest, where you submit an entry about the most romantic thing you’ve done while married, and you could win a vow renewal at our event!

So… seven awesome authors. Books. Romance. Cake. Readings. Free vow renewal. Has any event ever been so epic? Thank you, Crystal, BN, City of Las Vegas, Chapel of the Flowers, and all the book lovers who made this possible! I am so excited I want to scream!!

St. Patrick's Day Reader Party

As many of you know, I will be signing in Las Vegas on March 17th, along with my awesome cohorts:

Zoe Archer

Vivian Arend

Lauren Dane

Tessa Dare

Megan Hart

Courtney Milan

Until now, we didn't have the particulars. But now we do! First, the when & where:

Chapel of the Flowers

1717 Las Vegas Blvd. So.

Las Vegas, NV 89104 USA

Party starts at 9 pm.

From the awesome, amazing manager from BN, who is responsible for all of this brilliance:

"We will start in the La Capella Chapel. It is the largest and is very Tuscan in feeling. Someone from the festival will introduce the event and then we thought that we could have each of you read a little from one of your books. After the readings, the winning couple will have their vow renewal. Then, everyone will head outside to the Glass Garden for book signings and a reception."

There will be cake and sparkling cider and treats from the Las Vegas book clubs. Along with us, the authors, and our books, of course. There will be brides and newlyweds and wedding parties all over the place!

The city of Las Vegas is sponsoring a contest, where you submit an entry about the most romantic thing you've done while married, and you could win a vow renewal at our event!

So… seven awesome authors. Books. Romance. Cake. Readings. Free vow renewal. Has any event ever been so epic? Thank you, Crystal, BN, City of Las Vegas, Chapel of the Flowers, and all the book lovers who made this possible! I am so excited I want to scream!!

Winner, winner

Chicken dinner! Actually, it's e-readers & books.

Rules: You must contact me within one week of this announcement with your full name & shipping address, or I will redraw on your prize. E-reader winners, tell me what brand you want: Sony, Kindle, Nook, etc, and I will buy it and ship it to you.

And away we go. Here's the list of winners!

Jamie (username Jamie on Amazon, #51 in numbered comment) won the Enclave faction e-reader, plus a $25 Amazon gift certificate from Alison Kent.

Lisa O. (username O. Lisa /Nightreader on Amazon, #104 in numbered comment) won the Grimspace faction e-reader, plus a $25 Amazon gift certificate from HelenKay Dimon and a copy of of the Carina holiday antho, Holiday Kisses, in choice of e-format

The Deuce Rocks T-Shirt: WickedLilPixie (pls include size in email)

The Jax Rules T-shirt: Kimberly Bea (pls include size in email)

Books!

Signed copy of Too Hot to Touch by Louisa Edwards

jaymzangel

Signed copy of Truth and Dare by Candace Havens

rissatoo

Signed copy of Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe

Jackie U

Signed copy of Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Aurora m

Signed copy of Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Bethany C

Signed copy of Face of Danger by Roxanne St. Clair

erinf1

Signed copy of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

Deborah Previte

ARC of Control Point, signed bookplate, and a challenge coin, courtesy of Myke Cole

Charles Le Blanc

A copy of Kindling the Moon (anywhere Book Depository ships, some countries may not be served), courtesy of Jenn Bennett

Adrianne

Copies of God's War & Infidel, courtesy of Kameron Hurley

Sullivan McPig

Signed book of winner's choice from available backlist, a gift certificate, and a charitable donation in winner's name, courtesy of Shiloh Walker

Lisa Stafko

Five ebooks in reader's format of choice (any of author's backlist), courtesy of Moira Rogers

E.L.F.

A copy of Season for Temptation, courtesy of Theresa Romain

Kenneth Simon

Two e-books of reader's choice in any format from author's backlist, courtesy of Sierra Dean

Kara

Signed copy of FLESH AND FIRE and HARD MAGIC (1st book of each series), paperback, courtesy of Laura Anne Gilman

Qwill

Signed copy of Cargon: Honour & Privilege, courtesy of Kimberly Gould

Eva P.

One ebook from author's backlist, reader's choice of title (formats include mobi, epub or pdf), courtesy of Nadia Lee

Michelle Lovejoy

Signed copy of The Cloud Roads, courtesy of Martha Wells

Erica

US / Canada only

A copy of Devil's Kiss, courtesy of Zoe Archer

rissatoo

The Crystal Locket series, courtesy of Julia Nielsen (US only)

Anne R

And that's all. Winners, you have seven days to email me or the loot goes to a new winner. If you don't like your luck, blame random.org. Maybe next time! And happy holidays to all.

Big Honking Holiday Contest

This is a two-parter.

I know you love the title of this contest. Who doesn't? So here's the scoop. The holidays are awesome and what-not. It's been a long time since I did one of these mega-giveaways, and this is the right time of year for it. This will run from now until Dec 15. Why? Because it's a random date in the holiday season, kinda smack in the middle of everything, regardless of how you celebrate your happy days or what you call them.

Let's get down to the the nitty gritty.

Part One: Thunderdome

First, I'm offering a chance for Jax fans to go head to head with Deuce fans. That's right; I went there. Who do you love? It's time for some girl on girl action, a regular cat fight! Right now, Grimspace has 88 reviews on Amazon. Enclave has 182. If you can get Team Jax to 100 or Team Deuce to 200 before December 15, a random commenter from the winning faction will receive … the ebook reader of his/her choice. For real.

Kindle

Nook

Sony

I'll also have a custom T-shirt printed up that reads DEUCE ROCKS or JAX RULES, depending on which faction wins. If BOTH factions reach goal by Dec 15? Then I guess I have no choice but to give out two e-readers, one to each faction, and two winning T-shirts. Feel free to trash-talk each other in the comments. Yeah, girl fight is gonna get ugly. There's gonna be hand-slapping and hair pulling… ehm. Anyhow.

The rules are simple. If you already posted a review for one of these books, that's one entry. If you posted for both, well, you're a bi-factional reader (and I adore you and think you're cute), plus you get TWO entries. Obviously I don't mind if you're bi-factional, and it increases your chances to win. Likewise, reviewing one or both books nets you one or two entries after the contest starts, for a total of two. DO NOT create dummy accounts to post fake reviews. If you rally people in support of your faction, that's fine, but don't spam people's Facebook walls or inboxes, please. Reviews should be honest. Post a comment telling me which book you reviewed (or both) and what your username is on Amazon. That's all to enter! Oh, and mark your total entries for me.

+1 if you tweet about the Big Honking Holiday Contest

+1 if you put it on your Facebook wall (but don't put it on other people's, please!) So final tally could be, like so:

Reviewed Enclave & Grimspace. Username: Imtoosexyformypants. 2 entries. Tweeted for +1, Facebook for +1. Total of 4 entries.

And that's it for part one. Which brings us to…

Part Two: Electric Boogaloo

Prizes:

(International shipping)

Signed copy of Too Hot to Touch by Louisa Edwards

Signed copy of Truth and Dare by Candace Havens

Signed copy of Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe

Signed copy of Blood Rights by Kristen Painter

Signed copy of Intertwined by Gena Showalter

Signed copy of Face of Danger by Roxanne St. Clair

Signed copy of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

$25 Amazon gift certificate, courtesy of Alison Kent

ARC of Control Point, signed bookplate, and a challenge coin, courtesy of Myke Cole

A copy of Kindling the Moon (anywhere Book Depository ships, some countries may not be served), courtesy of Jenn Bennett

Copies of God's War & Infidel, courtesy of Kameron Hurley

Signed book of winner's choice from available backlist, a gift certificate, and a charitable donation in winner's name, courtesy of Shiloh Walker

Five ebooks in reader's format of choice (any of author's backlist), courtesy of Moira Rogers

A $25 Amazon gift certificate & a copy of of the Carina holiday antho, Holiday Kisses, in reader's format of choice, courtesy of HelenKay Dimon

US / Canada only

A copy of Devil's Kiss, courtesy of Zoe Archer

The Crystal Locket series, courtesy of Julia Nielsen (US only)

Damn, that's a lot of loot.

Here's what you need to do for part two. Answer the following question in comments: What's your favorite holiday memory? (Yes, it can be any holiday. Feel free to wow us with Arbor Day awesomeness.)

Yes, you can enter both contests, but the part one entries should be posted in a separate comment from the part two. Part two will have multiple winners, obviously. Part one, a single winner gets the e-reader. Unless both make goal. In which case, TWO big winners. ZOMG, it's too much excitement.

Yes, you can use the +1 for contests tweets and +1 Facebook wall posts. The same NO SPAMMING rule applies. Tell people about the Big Honking Holiday Contest but don't annoy them.

Sample entry for part two:

My favorite holiday memory is when Uncle Albert drank all my mom's cooking sherry and set his toupee on fire. I tweeted & facebooked the contest. Total of 3 entries.

Got it? Now get ready to win some swag!