Claire Merle's Blog

I’VE MOVED!

I’ve moved to www.clairemerlebooks.com! For all information about my books, new releases and book news, please join me there! 

THE FALL BLOG TOUR IS HERE!

Today is the start of THE FALL blog tour! Which means you can read the first chapter of THE FALL on the lovely Kate Ormand’s blog HERE. There’ll also be a fun interview with Sister Spooky and a blog post on writing three dimensional villains for all of you who love reading about great villains or enjoy writing them!
You can also order THE FALL, the second book in THE GLIMPSE DUET here!  
And don’t forget, there’s still time to enter the YA Edinburgh book hunt and win signed copies of THE FALL, THE GLIMPSE and 8 other hot YA recent releases!
Have a great summer,
Claire xx

YA Edinburgh Festival Book Hunt!

Welcome to the YA Edinburgh Book Hunt!

This year, I’m very excited to be appearing at the Edinburgh festival for the first time with fellow YA authors Teri Terry and Julie Bertagna. To celebrate, Teri has put together a fantastic YA Edinburgh book hunt!
There will be a grand prize pack of at least 8 signed books – all recent releases !

 


To win the grand prize, all you have to do is read this blog, find the RED number, and do the task given, below. Then follow the link to the next blog. Once you’ve visited ALL 5 BLOGS participating – add the numbers together, and email the result to ya.edinburgh.book.hunt@gmail.com. A winner will be chosen at random from correct entries. Open internationally. Closes midnight UK time, 26 August 2013.
As part of the hunt, I’m giving away signed copies of both books in THE GLIMPSE DUOLOGY!

The Task:
Follow my facebook page www.facebook.com/clairemerlebooks or come and follow me on Twitter @ClaireMerle (please send me a tweet with @ClaireMerle or leave a message on fb to let me know which one you’re doing.)
If you’re not on Twitter or facebook please let me know and you can leave a comment below, instead.

The next blog to visit is….
Sharon Jones:
http://deadjealous.blogspot.co.uk
Good luck!

Edinburgh Book Festival

Exciting news! For those of you who didn’t see my announcement on my facebook page, I’m going to be at EDINBURGH BOOK FESTIVAL doing a public panel event with Teri Terry and Julie Bertagna on Dystopian Young Adult fiction. Come! Bring your friends! It’s the biggest book festival in the world and it’s going to be AWESOME!

One event is in the school’s programme and a second event can be found in the public programme, at 6:00 p.m. on 21st August – tickets can be booked here.

Here’s the event blurb:

Dangerous, dark, dystopian… Are stories about the future a thrilling escape from reality or can they inspire change? How far dare writers go as they embrace rebellion and independent thinking? Should there be limits? Should ideas be challenged? Join Demention blog authors, Julie Bertagna (Exodus), Claire Merle (The Fall) and Teri Terry (the Slated triology), for a big dystopian debate.

Hope to see you there!

Fanfares, Book Birthdays and Giveaways!

Today I woke to the sound of fanfares bursting below my bedroom window, opened my door to a spontaneous eruption of cheering all up and down my street, and took the kids to school amid the colourful paraphernalia of people waving flags, throwing streamers and blowing whistles at me. That’s right today is one special day! The Fall releases in bookshops all over the UK, which will soon be followed by sightings in Australia, Canada, South Africa and Russia! Hooray! People have been camping outside branches of Waterstones and WH Smith just hoping to get their hands on a copy and now YOU can have a signed set copy of the Glimpse Duology, just by bowing at my feet and giving me your soul.
OK, I won’t make it that hard. And I might possibly be exaggerating about the camping and fanfares. Maybe that all happened before I woke up…
Actually, the truth about book birthday’s, is no one really notices anything unusual about the day, except perhaps that the author sparkles ever-so-slightly and might be heard uttering little incredulous ‘squeaks’ from time to time. But if you would like to help me celebrate, that would be awesome! I’m giving away three signed sets of The Glimpse Duology – The Glimpse (2012) and The Fall (2013). Please come and leave a comment HERE to let me know you’d like to win them! Every time you leave a comment a little ‘hooray!’ will sound in the ether of wonder, coming from across the waters in a little, red-roofed house near Paris. Thank you for celebrating with me!
GO HERE TO WIN!

THE FALL COVER REVEAL

by Claire Merle


THE FALL has a cover!



Finally, I can show you the cover for THE FALL - the second and final part in my Dystopian thriller, The Glimpse Duet.




To celebrate, my publishers have organised a special offer for The Glimpse on Amazon Kindle! 



For a limited time only (2 weeks I think, but it may be shorter) you can purchase The Glimpse for only 99 pence, HERE.


As an added celebration, I'm giving away the FIRST advanced copy of The Fall! Actually, this hasn't even come off the print yet so you will be the first to read it. As soon as I receive advanced copies, I'll be sending it to the winner!

The giveaway is international. To enter to win the signed copy of The Fall all you have to do is tweet:



THE GLIMPSE is on special offer on Amazon Kindle! @ClaireMerle http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Glimpse-e...



The giveaway will run until Thursday 4th APRIL 2013. So feel free to tweet any time between now and then! On the 4th April, I'll pick a winner at random from all the tweets that have @ClaireMerle in them, so please don't leave that out. (If you are the winner and you would prefer a signed copy of The Glimpse, that can be arranged!)

THE FALL Cover Reveal and Giveaway!

THE FALL has a cover!

I’m really excited to reveal the cover for The Fall. I think it’s a great match for The Glimpse and I hope you guys like it!

To celebrate the soon-to-be released final part of The Glimpse Duet, (June) my publishers have organised a special offer for The Glimpse on Amazon Kindle! For a limited time only (2 weeks I think, but it may be shorter) you can purchase The Glimpse for only 99 pence, HERE.

As an added celebration, I’ve decided to give away a signed advanced copy of The Fall. Actually, this hasn’t even come of the print yet so you will be one of the very FIRST to read it. As soon as I receive advanced copies, I’ll be sending it to the winner!

To enter to win the signed copy all you have to do is tweet:

The Glimpse is on special offer on Amazon Kindle! @ClaireMerle http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Glimpse-e...

The giveaway is international and I’ll pick a winner at random from all the tweets that have @ClaireMerle in them, (so please don’t leave that out!) by April 4th. If you’d prefer to win a signed copy of THE GLIMPSE, that can also be arranged for the winner! (Up to 5 tweets per person to win 5 entry points.)

Hope you love the cover as much as I do!

End of Year Round Up!

 

2012 has been an exciting year for me! My first book, The Glimpse, was released in June and I have now completed and handed in the final proofs for the second and final part in The Glimpse Duet, The Fall, (June 2013).

Recently, I wrote a post for The Girl in a Café’s Debutante’s December on the whether the well established trend of Dystopian fiction has a role in helping us predict and preempt our future. You can read that and enter to win a signed copy of The Glimpse plus some Glimpse swag here.

In December, I was also interviewed  by Michelle Shouts Random for her  Celebrating Debutantes of 2012. To find out how I felt when The Glimpse was published, what’s the last thing that made me cry and other random stuff go to the interview here! (You can also enter to win a signed copy of The Glimpse – ends 2nd Jan.)

Several months ago I was invited to join the awesome Demention Blogging Team, alongside Teri Terry (Slated 2012), Julie Bertagna (Exodus trilogy) and Julienne Durber. We’ve been having a great time on Demention – and my  recent posts include, ‘Dystopian fiction, an Oracle for Modern Times,’ ‘Real life isn’t always pretty, so why should Fairy Tales be?‘, ‘Interview with A.G. Howard, author of ‘Splintered‘, among others.

For any of you aspiring writers out there, do check out my post, ‘Writing and the Lost Art of Patience,’ and there’s also still time to win a five page critique by author Emma Pass, (ACID 2013). Enter for that here.

Wishing you all a bright and adventurous 2013. See you next year!
C xx

YA Scavenger Hunt Winners

The YA Scavenger Hunt is over! Wow, thanks to so many of you for taking part! The main prize for the RED TEAM will be announced tomorrow, but I can now announce the winner of the extra book giveaway…

THE WINNER of an extra SIGNED copy of THE GLIMPSE is:

reading mind 

AUGUST 3, 2012 @ 4:54 PM [EDIT]

Already liked it!!! Lucia pannacc

CONGRATULATIONS! Please get in touch and let me know where I can send the book!

And thank you all for entering and leaving such lovely comments. Hope to see you on the next hunt!

The YA Scavenger Hunt begins!

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This event was first organized by author Colleen Houck and it’s a great to chance to win some awesome prizes!

During the 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 the big prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! (Don’t forget, you’ve only got until August 5th to enter.)

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. 

There are TWO contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or both! I am a part of the RED TEAM–there is also a blue team. Each team gives you the chance to win a whole different set of twenty-five 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, plus rules go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.

Today, as part of the Scavenger Hunt, I am hosting Janet Gurtler 





RITA ® Finalist Janet Gurtler lives in Calgary Alberta, near the Canadian Rockies, with her husband and son and a chubby Chihuahua named Bruce. She does not live in an Igloo or play hockey, but she does love maple syrup and says “”eh”" a lot.“

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



 

Janet’s book:

WHO I KISSED

She never thought a kiss could kill…

Samantha didn’t mean to hurt anyone. She was just trying to fit in…and she wanted to make Zee a little jealous after he completely ditched her for a prettier girl. So she kissed Alex. And then he died—right in her arms.

Was she really the only person in the entire school who didn’t know about his peanut allergy? Or that eating a peanut better sandwich and then kissing him would be deadly? Overnight Sam turns into the school pariah and a media sensation explodes. Consumed with guilt, abandoned by her friends, and in jeopardy of losing her swimming scholarship, she’ll have to find a way to forgive herself before anyone else will.

Janet’s Exclusive Content:

Sorry! This material has now been taken down as the Scavenger Hunt is no longer running.

And don’t forget, to enter the contest you need to know that my chosen number is 37. 

Want another opportunity to win a signed copy of THE GLIMPSE?

As well as the Scavenger Hunt prize, I’m giving away an additional signed copy. All you have to do to be entered for a SECOND CHANCE to win The Glimpse is  ‘like’ my facebook page, and/or tweet about the giveaway:  (Tweets should be roughly along these lines: It’s the YA Scavenger Hunt and I want to win a copy of THE GLIMPSE! @clairemerle #YASH http://www.clairemerlebooks.wordpress.com) Then leave a comment on my fb page or here to let me know what you did. (2 points for following the FB page and an extra point for tweeting about the giveaway with a link to my blog). The comp. is open internationally.  The winner will be randomly chosen and announced at the end of the Hunt. (If you already follow the fb page your entry will still be counted. Just let me know!)

And while you’re going through the hunt, don’t forget to keep a look out for my bonus material – a sneak peek at the blurb for the second and final book in THE GLIMPSE DUET! (Not available anywhere else!)

Continue the Hunt!
 
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out TRACY DEEBS!