Amy Plum's Blog, page 4

DREAMFALL Dreamfest: Countdown Day 9

In today’s countdown post, USA Today asks me and other YA authors for our favorite superhero. Can you guess mine?

Find all of our answers here !

Not Really A Spoiler: A year ago, WW would have been my fav. But this has changed…

DREAMFALL Dreamfest: Countdown Day 10

Today I’m so pleased to bring you this awesome interview with one of my favorite YA book blogs:

When you read it, you will see why DREAMFALL is close to my heart. Because there is (figuratively) a big chunk of said heart invested in one of the characters.

Here it is:

Amy Plum Interview With YA Books Central

And they’re doing their own giveaway of a hardback copy of DREAMFALL signed and dedicated by moi. I hope you enjoy the interview, and definitely…sign up for that contest!

 

 

DREAMFALL Dreamfest: Countdown Day 11

DREAMFALL is all about nightmares. Here’s the review from VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates):

“Sixteen-year-old Catalina-called Cata- cannot sleep, not since the horrible event that left her orphaned at age nine. Cata’s PTSD-induced insomnia is severe enough to qualify for an experimental new treatment for young insomniacs; she and six other teens are treated by Doctors Zhu and Vesper in a trial meant to last about six hours. Cata, Fergus, George, Remi, Sinclair, Ant, and BethAnn are hopeful but leery as they prepare to be treated by electroshock therapy to induce normal sleep patterns. The test subjects respond well at first, but an earthquake disturbs the electrical flow, causing the patients to stall in sleep-like trances and be declared comatose, possibly forever. Unbeknownst to the doctors, the teens have converged in shared nightmares where the gore is tangible and death is real, and they must find a way back to consciousness or die.

               Told in alternating chapters among defensive Cata, brooding Fergus, and optimistic medical intern Jaime, Dreamfall leaps ahead at a breakneck pace and holds the reader’s attention to the gripping, cliffhanger end, when it is revealed that one of the seven stuck in the dream state is a psychopath and possible murderer. Characters include teens of myriad social and ethnic backgrounds who suffer forms of narcolepsy, anxiety, and other mental health disorders.  Deftly and concisely blending hard-edged action, suspense, and a well- crafted cast of characters, Plum delivers a compelling must-have science fiction/action/horror mash-up that will leave readers anticipating the next installment of this planned duology.”

So for today’s contest I thought it was appropriate to give away a leopard-patterned sleep mask!

All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter below. A benefit of this is that in a few days, I’ll be giving away a really nice prize INSIDE the newsletter! Also, I’m so lazy that I only send a newsletter out when I have a new book being released, so you’ll only get around one per year.

IF you are already a member of my newsletter, just put your name in a comment below and I’ll double-check that you’re on the list.

This contest is international and lasts 24 hours! Good luck!

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DREAMFALL Dreamfest: Countdown Day 12

There are 12 days until the release of DREAMFALL, and I will be doing something special each and every day until May 2!

For those of you who missed it in the YA Scavenger Hunt, I made a video of myself reading an excerpt from DREAMFALL while hiding in the basement of a 200-year-old convent in the French countryside. I will be giving you a written excerpt of DREAMFALL in the coming days, but for now…here is a taste!

And to celebrate the 12 days of DREAMFEST, here is today’s prize. Sing along (to the tune of 12 days of Christmas)…

“On the 12th day of Dreamfest, Amy Plum gave to me… A SIGNED ARC of DREAMFALL.”

Photo stolen from Kaymaldoreads since I liked her fingernail polish.

All you have to do to win it is Tweet or FB in Instagram this message:

“Amy Plum’s DREAMFALL will scare the bojangles out of you. Releases May 2. Pre-order now! http://amzn.to/2pliIay @harperteen @epicreads”

EXCEPT you can’t use bojangles. You have to use your own word. Let me know what it was in the comments below or copy me on your tweet, and I’ll count your name in the contest. 24 hours. International. And GO!!!

Why DIE FOR ME readers will enjoy DREAMFALL

I have had a few diehard DIE FOR ME fans write me lately to say that they weren’t big readers of horror, therefore they weren’t sure they would like DREAMFALL. I actually wondered myself if my readers wouldn’t mind genre-hopping, but sincerely hoped they would give it a try. Well, here’s a letter that cleared up that quandary for me!

This is from a teenager in Norway who has been an avid reader since the very beginning of the DIE FOR ME series. She won an advance reader copy of DREAMFALL in one of my contests, and was thoughtful enough to send me this letter afterward. I have cut out parts and blurred others that might be spoilers, so it’s 100% safe to read!

And there is Amanda’s verdict! I hope all of you DIE FOR ME readers will give DREAMFALL a try, and I hope even more that you will love it as much as she did!

(More on the mysterious Jaime to come in a blog post soon!)

(And OMG, Amanda’s handwriting !!!!! )

Only a few weeks until it releases (May 2), but you can pre-order it here:

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival

Can’t wait to take part in the Intellectual Programmes’ Panel discussion on 28th April 2017 – Book Forum, 18.00-19.00 on the topic ’How the tale is narrated’. And even more…to take part in the School Outreach Programme! See you all in Sharjah!

YA Scavenger Hunt: Spring 2017 edition

Welcome to the Spring 2017 YA Scavenger Hunt
April 4 – April 9 (noon pacific time)

 

For you first timers, the YA Scavenger Hunt is an online blog hop created by the lovely and talented Colleen Houck. It’s a chance for you to see bonus material from your favorite YA authors as well as winning amazing prizes.

If you came here looking for my bonus material, a video presenting my upcoming YA novel DREAMFALL, you’ll have to keep hunting!

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 our prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! And another will win a $50 Amazon gift certificate! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online until April 9!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are FIVE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the BLUE TEAM–but there is also a RED, GOLD, PINK, and PURPLE-each with 20 authors for several chances 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.

(If you get stuck as you are moving through the hunt, click through to this page.)

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the blue 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 9, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.




ARE YOU READY??? Here we go…

 

BONJOUR!

I’m Amy Plum, and I live in Paris. The one in France. Not Texas.

Here I am on a French reality show with 2 famous French chefs (Norbert Tarayre and Jean Imbert) holding my French books. Is that French enough for you?

As my favorite French chefs are so kindly demonstrating, I’m the author of the DIE FOR ME series, a paranormal romance series set in Paris featuring supernatural beings of my very own making called “revenants.” My second series, AFTER THE END, is set all over America (road trip involved) and is action, romance, adventure, with a little bit of magic and a lot of kick-assness. My third series, DREAMFALL, is YA horror, and will be released on May 4 by HarperTeen.

Now that I’ve introduced myself, I’m excited to tell you about the author I’m hosting today:

the oh so awesome…

 

Amelie HOWARD

 

Isn’t she gorgeous?
This is Amelie’s official bio:

AMALIE HOWARD is the award-winning author of several young adult novels critically acclaimed by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, VOYA, School Library Journal, and Booklist, including Waterfell, The Almost Girl, and Alpha Goddess, a Spring 2014 Kid’s INDIE NEXT title. Her debut novel, Bloodspell, was a #1 Amazon bestseller, and the sequel, Bloodcraft, was a national IPPY silver medalist and Children’s Moonbeam Award winner. She is also the co-author of My Rogue, My Ruin in the historical romance series, the Lords of Essex. She currently resides in Colorado with her husband and three children. Visit her at www.amaliehoward.com.

 This is Amelie’s unofficial bio:

I met her in










 





To enable screen reader support, press shortcut ⌘+Option+Z. To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press shortcut ⌘slash.

 

This is what I know about Amelie’s book:

DARK GODDESS was reviewed .”



DARK GODDESS has an amazing, intriguing, and totally read-worthy premise:

After an epic struggle that unseated the Asura Lord of Death and placed Serjana Caelum’s best friend, Kyle, on his throne, the Mortal Realm is peaceful and the balance between good and evil—which Sera is sworn to protect—has been restored.

But signs of a new threat to the world of men quickly begin to appear: A scourge of demons descends on the Mortal Realm, and Sera is beside herself trying to locate their source. She sends word to the gods for help, and their answer comes in the form of Kira, the living incarnation of Kali, goddess of destruction.

Stunning and dangerous, Kira plans to protect the heavens at all cost, even if it means destroying the entire Mortal Realm. Soon Sera and Kyle find themselves fighting not just the demon plague, but Kira and her twin. But when an even more sinister threat arises—putting not just the human world but all planes of existence in jeopardy—they must all learn to work together or lose everything they sacrificed so much to save.

  















DARK GODDESS has a stunningly gorgeous cover.

 

A.G.’S EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Fan Casting Post

:

Can you even imagine the awesomeness?

To find out more about Amelie and DARK GODDESS, check out her website or follow her on Twitter or Facebook!

To pre-order the book yourself, here is the Amazon link and the Barnes & Noble link!

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Amelie Howard, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 50. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the purple team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

My very own giveaway
You have a chance to win a fabulous prize pack including a signed hardbacks of DREAMFALL, 1 fine art postcard of Miles by the artist Len-Yan, and 6 signed and dedicated Amy Plum bookplates (to stick in all of your Amy Plum books!) Just rack up points by following the instructions below, and I will put your name in the hat once per point. I will draw randomly at the end of the hunt and announce the winner here on this page.

How to get your points:

follow me on Twitter at @AmyPlumOhLaLa (1 point)
for each friend you get to follow me on Twitter you get 1 point (unlimited points)
follow Amelie Howard on Twitter at @BradleyWallaceM (1 point)
like me on Facebook (1 point)
get friends to follow me on Facebook (1 point per friend)
subscribe to me on YouTube (1 point)
get friends to subscribe to me on YouTube (1 point per friend)
sign up for my newsletter (1 point)
get friends to sign up for my newsletter (1 point per friend)
Leave me a comment here under this blog post telling me how many points to give you. Just leaving a comment counts 1 point. (And if you have done 1-8, give me your user names and your friends’ user names so I can credit your points.) Please leave all of the information inside one comment, instead of a comment per person. The drawing will be random, but the number of points you get determines how many times your name will be put into the hat.

Note: to be eligible to win you also need to submit a valid entry for the YA Scavenger Hunt grand prize.

Don’t stop here. CONTINUE THE HUNT!

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author!
Tweet #YASH

DREAMFALL hardback cover reveal

Feast your eyes on the hardback cover of DREAMFALL, complete with special effects the designer calls “trippy spot gloss”. It’s perfect for the nightmare content of the book. Can’t wait to see one in real life!

Fabulous Endorsement for DREAMFALL by School Library Journal

I’m so excited to have such an enthusiastic endorsement of DREAMFALL by the highly influential School Library Journal!!

“VERDICT: A definite purchase for libraries serving younger sci-fi and horror fans, who will be eagerly waiting for the sequel.”

Here it is in its entirety. Quick…give me someone to hug!

“Cata, Fergus, and five other teens are test subjects in a sleep disorder treatment study. Fears or traumas have resulted in various sleep disorders, such as nightmares, night terrors, sleepwalking, and insomnia. This treatment promises the teens a cure and finally a good night’s sleep. But after the test begins, a small earthquake causes equipment to malfunction, and the test goes horribly wrong. Instead of peacefully waking from the treatment, the test subjects are comatose, but in their heads, they are trapped in a communal nightmare, much more terrifying than anything each has experienced individually. The teens must navigate their way through the dream world without being killed by the monsters they face—among them zombie monks, soldiers, and sinister clowns—while Jaime, a medical student observer, tries to tell the disbelieving doctors what’s really happening.

Reminiscent of Neal Shusterman’s Full Tilt, this novel is a fast-paced nightmare come to life, told in alternating points of view. It seems everyone, from the test subject teens to the doctors, has something to hide. Plum develops the characters just enough to keep readers guessing about their motivations.

VERDICT A definite purchase for libraries serving younger sci-fi and horror fans, who will be eagerly waiting for the sequel.”

Visiting Paris’s off-limits catacombs: Part 6 Nazis

This is Part 6 of my adventures exploring the off-limit catacombs under Paris. Here are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

When I first moved to France, in 1991, I read the book “Is Paris Burning?” and ever since have been obsessed with the idea of Occupied Paris. It’s hard to imagine that such atrocities happened in this beautiful, seemingly peaceful city. I can’t walk down the cobblestoned street of rue des Rosiers without thinking of the Nazi torture chambers that were located beneath. And I don’t even like to go near rue Nélaton, where the Velodrome d’Hiver once stood.

I sometimes look at my neighbors, wondering which one would have betrayed the people they shared a courtyard with…took the trash out with…traded pleasantries with while checking the communal mailboxes. Maybe my faith in the general goodness of humanity is misdirected and naive. But, to me, that kind of evil…here, right here!…just doesn’t seem possible.

Reinforced metal door

 

Evidence of the occupation is also visible beneath the streets of Paris. Gilles told me that soon after WWI, the French realized Germany wanted vengeance. Only a few years after the armistice was signed—as early as 1923—thousands of shelters began to be prepared throughout Paris to protect the population against bomb and gas attacks.

Graffiti letters spelling “BUNKER” were my only clue that we were entering the Luftwaffe headquarters.

Three of those shelters still exist in the catacombs, one of which is the bomb-proof bunker beneath the Montaigne high school, requisitioned in WWII by the German Luftwaffe as their command post. The Nazis marked the whole area of the catacombs near their bunker with three colors of arrows painted atop white backgrounds, the key being…

Directions next to the Nazi bunker. “Hinterhof” means “back yard”, in this case the back yard of the Montaigne high school directly above-ground, Blvd St. Michel, and Notre Dame-Bonaparte.

The arrows have been meticulously placed, and traces of gates or doors can be found blocking alternate corridors so that no one could go wandering off—either purposefully or by accident. (Like the two Nazis who wandered off, clearly out of the bunker area, in Part 2.)

The electrical and communication boxes of the underground Luftwaffe bunker.

 

Amid the floor-to-ceiling graffiti that dates from the last few decades, a few clues remain as to what this part of the catacombs was like during the German occupation.

 

Signs saying “Smoking Forbidden” and “Quiet” are stenciled in German on all of the walls.

 

The chemical toilet still stands in the bunker area, a reminder that the catacombs lie several levels beneath Paris’s sewer system.

 

Reinforced metal doors with locking wheels (I’m sure there’s a term for this) are propped around the area.

 

 

This door, which has been dumped unceremoniously upside down, still has the German word for “Emergency Exit” painted on one side.

Although I expected to see some original graffiti from the time of the Nazi occupation, Gilles told me that very few German inscriptions remain. Apparently the Nazi commanders ordered their underlings not to write on the walls. And, as history tells us, the Nazi soldiers were known to obey orders.

*

Although I’ve given you the highlights, I haven’t come near to showing you everything I experienced in the catacombs.

From the wells that are found throughout—some dried up, and others full of crystalline  water…

 

to the wax-looking deposits on a few of the walls, producing cave-like stalactites…

 

to the absolute silence while you sit, waiting beneath a manhole cover…until someone steps on it 70 feet above and the sound reverberates through the tunnel…

Looking up at the speck of light from the hole in the center of a manhole cover.

 

to the fossils and even a few extant shells made visible when the limestone blocks in the ceiling crumble away, there is so much more to tell. So much more to show.

 

After fulfilling my longstanding wish to visit the off-limit catacombs of Paris, I finally understand some of the mystery and even fear that surrounds them. The miasma of discomfort that their image brings to most people. While there was no talk of ghosts or spirits while we roamed the subterranean tunnels, something definitely exists down there in the darkness.

Because when you leave, you do not leave whole. For three hundred years, the catacombs have claimed something from each and every visitor. Like they did with those before you, they take a piece of your mind. Of your heart. Of your spirit, if you believe in such things. And that piece will never be yours again.

It is waiting for you—with all of the others—calling you back to return deep below the streets of Paris.