Rin Chupeco's Blog, page 4
September 30, 2015
YASH Fall 2015 Contest!
Yes – we’re doing it again!
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! 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! 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 RED TEAM–but there is also a blue team, a gold team, an orange team, a red team, and much more, 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.
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 red 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 Sunday, April 5th at noon Pacific time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
Scavenger Hunt Post
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Today, I am hosting author extrordinaire LORI GOLDSTEIN, on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
As a young girl, Lori would make a tent with her bed sheet and clasp a flashlight in one hand and a book in the other. She’d read into the wee hours, way past her bedtime. She never imagined that one day she’d write a book that someone else might hold under their own covers. But her fourth-grade teacher did. She foretold the future by writing on Lori’s report card “Lori will be an author.” (Nice. But would it have killed her to add a winning Powerball number or two?)
Lori lives outside of Boston, in a place close enough to the ocean that on the right day, she can smell the sea from her back deck, and yet it still takes an hour to get to the beach. When not writing or reading (preferably from a sandy locale), she’s obsessing
over The Vampire Diaries. If you know who Damon and Klaus are, you are her people.
You can find her at: Twitter | Web site | Tumblr | Instagram | Facebook
Find out more information by checking out her book on Amazon!
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
VOYA Magazine gave BECOMING JINN a starred review, calling it a “well-written tale” that is “original and appealing” and “will not stay on the shelf.”
August 6, 2015
One Month Countdown to THE SUFFERING (GR giveaway, and other books)
One month before the sequel to THE GIRL FROM THE WELL hits bookstores, which is exciting news for me! Here’s a bunch of social media badges to celebrate!
That said, there’s also a pretty fantastic GoodReads giveaway happening right now, should you like a chance to win a copy of THE SUFFERING!
Also, another milestone; expect some upcoming news about my latest series (and more about the first book in said series) which, due to some behind-the-scenes negotiating, I am still unable to say much about. But stay tuned!
June 18, 2015
That Post Where I List Down my Current Novels in Progress
When I first started this blog, I thought that I ought to write entries at every opportunity. As time went on, I scaled back that wishful thinking, and proposed to blog whenever I could. Now, with more things to juggle both online and off, I’ve been wiser and have decided to blog only when I ought to, when I have something pertinent to say.
I think this is one of those days.
THE SUFFERING, the sequel to THE GIRL FROM THE WELL, is moving according to schedule. Once the final copy has been sent on its way to the editors-that-be, I find that I have very little to do with the things that come after, excepting the occasional promotions and interviews. Instead, I’ve spent most of that time running after Ezio, who’s just celebrated his first birthday and has now discovered what legs are for. That doesn’t sound very promising, writing-wise, given the number of works in progress and half-drafts I’ve talked about to date. So I figured some updates are in order.
As all my manuscripts have only working titles (I am horrible at naming them), I’ll be referring to each according to their protagonist’s names.
The Ryker. I’ve been editing this one for years – over two, to be exact. This is because I’ve been working on its potential as a series more than I’ve been working on it as a novel, and that means putting certain plots down in place that would only bear fruit a couple more books down the line – and keeping track of them all on a mental mindmap. It’s a juggling act that helps me understand just what sort of genius George R. R. Martin is to keep so many balls going in the air all at once (or knowing when to cut them down, as was the case with Theon. Ha, ha, ha).
The fact that the manuscript already has a Goodreads page is alarming, as no one else but a cousin (whose favorite characters are the pigeons, to give you a hint of what sort of fantasy this is) has seen its most recent draft. It’s a lot different than what most people will expect of me, but I think it’s written in a tone familiar to the people who know me best. Ensemble casts are hard to get right, and I wanted to brush the characters with personality, using as little strokes as possible. But now that my latest manuscript has been completed (see the Tea), I am planning on returning to work, and can hopefully put things into motion by the end of the year.
The Rory. The manuscript I talked about the most post-THE GIRL FROM THE WELL series. My gritty urban Princess Mononoke mythology. As of this writing it’s currently on hold – not because I have been stuck in a rut, but because I realized that the story is heavily anchored on its setting – Manila, Philippines – and interpreting said setting for an international audience will take some time to do right. Corruption – literal, metaphorical, spiritual – is an important part of the plot, and it’s difficult to write about something I so blatant see everyday, and not turn it into a parody. And as someone who gets frustrated by the local politics on a frequent basis, I need constant distancing from this novel, to return to when I’m in a better, more forgiving state of mind. (There is also that niggling local law around these places that states you can be jailed for ‘hurting someone’s feelings’, especially if that someone is a government official. This novel will definitely hurt a lot of local feelings. This alone might give you an idea of the kind of frustration I’m struggling with.)
The Tea. This one came out of nowhere, the one I abandoned Rory to write. It’s Memoirs of a Geisha, but with runes and corpses. People wear hearts like jewelry. Clothes can be magical. It’s fantasy with Zoroastrianism influences. It’s a planned trilogy. My agent loves it so far, so this is what we’re working to submit. And it took me only three months to write, in between baby naps and feedings and four hours of sleep a day. Tea is also the WIP I’d been tweeting about these last few weeks:
The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite, but the girl was fiercer. #amwriting #wip #firstline #probably
— Rin Chupeco (@RinChupeco) April 20, 2015
"She was young, in the way a woman of sixty might carefully tuck away the years around her to appear twenty." #novellines #amwriting
— Rin Chupeco (@RinChupeco) May 20, 2015
“What's it like to be dead? Colder, without feeling; grayer, without seeing. Alive, without aim. Hunger, without flavor.” #amwriting #wip
— Rin Chupeco (@RinChupeco) April 9, 2015
“You think in the same way men drink,” my father once said, “far too much, under the delusion it is too little.” #amwriting #WIP
— Rin Chupeco (@RinChupeco) March 20, 2015
The Sandy. The baby of the bunch. Nothing more than a couple of paragraphs to date but, unlike THE GIRL FROM THE WELL and THE SUFFERING, I already know how it’s going to end. It’s another YA horror. It’s an extremely YA horror creepypasta in novel form. At least, that’s what I hope to achieve once I am done.
April 1, 2015
YA Scavenger Hunt Spring 2015 – Contests and Giveaways!
Yes people, it’s that time of the year again, and we’ve got even more authors participating than last year!
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! 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! 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 RED TEAM–but there is also a blue team, a gold team, an orange team, a red team, and much more, 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.
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 red 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 Sunday, April 5th at noon Pacific time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST
Today, I am hosting fellow Sourcebooks Fire author, the amazingness that is ZORAIDA CORDOVA, on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
Zoraida Córdova was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She studied English Lit at Hunter College, and The University of Montana before finding a home for herself in the (kinda) glittering world of New York City’s nightlife. She is the author of The Vicious Deep Trilogy (YA) and the On the Verge Series (NA).
Find out more information by checking out her website and her book on Barnes and Noble! Look at how awesome her book cover is!
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Blood is in the Water…
Two days. That’s all the time Tristan Hart has to prevent all-out war. Since discovering he was part merman and heir to the Sea Throne, Tristan has been fighting for his future, his friends—his life.
Now, to win the crown and save the girl he loves, Tristan will have to take the ultimate risk: unleash the ancient magic of Poseidon and release the kraken. Seriously. It’s the only way to unite the three scattered pieces of the king’s trident and stop the sea witch Nieve from taking the throne for herself.
Tristan’s going to need all the help he can get. But the one person he could always depend on him has betrayed him—Kurt now wants the throne for himself. Brother against brother, it’s a brutal race to the finish, and there can only be one winner.
Exclusive Excerpt/Scene Reveal from THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA by Zoraida Cordova, Releasing October 7, 2015 (Sourcebooks)
The Vicious Deep trilogy follows the adventures of Tristan Hart. But what about the other sea champions? Here is a little snippet of Dylan of the Western Seas!
***
Before he was a champion for the crown, Dylan, son of Ammon, merman of the Western Seas, was in love. His name was Evan.
Evan, a merman of the southern coast had dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes. He was the opposite of every thing Dylan was. Brave, eager to fight for his king, and a ready friend to all.
Before the court of the Western Sea set off for Toliss, where their king announced he had a newly discovered grandson, a human grandson at that, Dylan was hopeful he could lead a very happy life. Let the human boy have the crown. This Tristan Hart didn’t look like much from faraway, but he’d learn the way Dylan had learned to pick up a sword and say the right things to keep his corner of the seas at peace. But the other champions wouldn’t stand back, and Dylan’s father wouldn’t have their family bow down to a halfbreed human boy.
So they set sail after the presentation of the champions when King Karanos broke his trident into three pieces and set them loose in the oceans. Lord Ammon’s ship had their best men, a court of chattering princesses, and two ancient augurers. While the augurers dug their scaley fingers into the bellies of spotted sharks, Dylan leaned against the side of the ship and watched the waves toss around them. His legs itched where skin replaced the light blue of his scales. He wiggled his toes, just like they all did when they were in this form. For a people who hated humans, they didn’t mind the magic in their veins allowing them to use the convenience of legs. Dylan sighed at the open sea, and thought it was curious how dark the sky was already in this part of the world.
“Nasty surface weather,” Evan said, coming up beside him.
Dylan felt his body do many things at once. His stomach fluttered, his heart expanded, and his tongue went dry. It was always this way when Evan was around. Evan with his lovely dark eyes. His armor gleamed in the soft light of the moon. His hand reached out for Dylan’s, and rested there for a good long while.
“I don’t like this,” Dylan told him.
“Sorry, my Prince.” Evan withdrew his hand instantly.
Dylan felt his face burn. “That’s not what I meant.” He loved when Evan touched him. He loved when Evan looked at him. He couldn’t get enough of it, really.
“Never that,” Dylan said, threading their fingers together. “I mean the championship. How are we supposed to get answers from the tribe? And even if I do find a piece of the trident, am I really supposed to…kill the others?”
Evan smiles at him. He loved it when Evan smiled, but there were few things about Evan that Dylan did not love. The only thing he could think of was Evan’s duty to the guard, and worrying on whether or not he’d return to him or get cut into surf at the bottom of the ocean.
“You’d make a fine king,” Evan said. “I know it in my bones. You’re just. You’re fiercely loyal. And you’re brave.”
“Brave?” Dylan shook his head. “You flatter me. Do you know the only thing stopping me from jumping into the sea and swimming far far away is you?”
“I’d follow you,” Evan said.
“And bring me back?”
“No.” Evan grabbed onto the leather sheath on Dylan’s chest and pulls him close. He presses his lips to his and they kiss softly, but quickly. “And do that.”
Somewhere on the ship an augurer shouted, “we’re approaching the mist, my Lord Ammon!”
And a princess wanting to become Dylan’s queen stormed away and landed into the arms of a member of the guard.
And a decrepit creature clawed its way up the side of the ship and on board. It’s teeth ripped into the shoulder of the first guard it found. It’s jagged claws ripped through the neck that followed.
It was not alone.
They moved too fast to draw screams, the shouts still lodged in the throat of their victims.
“We’re under attack!” yelled Lord Ammon, trying to draw his long sword. But the ship heaved and he lost his footing, damn his legs. He shifted into his tail and slapped the vicious merrow that attacked him. If he were to die, it would be as his true self. He would die fighting. He could see Dylan running to his aid, but the creatures kept coming. Ammon grabbed one of the infernal merrows by the ankle and pulled him to the ground. He stared into its shark-like face, breathed the rot in its mouth, and twisted the creature’s neck. It’s decomposed in seconds, oozing black blood.
“Father!” Dylan shouted. He was covered in blood, black and red, and an angry gash cut his chest. “Evan!”
Dylan swung his sword left and right, and tried to reach for his father, who lay beaten and disarmed. He couldn’t find Evan. When the shouting started Evan kissed him, fast and hard as a goodbye, and ran into the fray.
“The mist,” Lord Ammon yelled. “Go, my son.”
Dylan shook his head, surrounded by bodies torn in half and the deformed creatures he’d only heard about in stories of old. He couldn’t get his feet, his stupid human feet, to move.
The merrow pushed Dylan to the ground. It’s fists were ready to rip into him, but Ammon blocked the blow with his whole body. The spear-like nails dug into Ammon’s chest. Even as Dylan screamed, his father, one of the ancients of the seas, petrified into coral, then crumbled into pieces.
Dylan didn’t have time to scream. The merrows overran the ship. He took his father’s sword a sliced through one, two, three wretched bodies at once. He broke the skin of his fists on the merrow’s coarse hides. He screamed Evan’s name and was answered by growling and the cry of the dying.
Then he felt the mist.
He grabbed a flaming torch and threw it on the ground. He knew he had to go now, go far, while he had the chance.
“Evan!” He screamed again. But no one answered. As the ship went up in flames and the merrows feasted on the bodies, Dylan jumped into the mist.
He never saw Evan again.
How many merrows did it take to overwhelm Lord Ammon’s forces? 99 ? A thousand? Three hundred quintillion? Pick up THE VAST AND BRUTAL SEA to find out more about Dylan and these legendary creatures!
And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Zoraida, and more! Remember my favorite number – add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the red team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author!
And just like all previous YASH I’ve hosted, there’s more prizes to be won!
A GIVEAWAY!
People who successfully complete the hunt already gets the chance to win a signed hardback copy of THE GIRL FROM THE WELL. But I’m also hosting my own personal giveaway below where you get to win more swag! Two winners will get the chance to win the following:
Signed bookmarks!
Signed bookplates!
A handmade ghost keychain with signed tags!
Sign up using the Rafflecopter below!
If I get a lot of entries, I might even add more winners!February 26, 2015
Quick Updates!
I haven’t been posting here as much as I’d like to, and that is sad. A quick summary of reasons:
Baby Ezio is thriving, and we are awesome. I haven’t had sleep longer than three hours since May 2014, and there are checkups and shots and baby food and baths and nap times that mostly consist of getting stepped on, for some reason, that have been getting in the way of writing. Like his namesake, he’s been learning to climb – mostly up bed headboards and over playpen gates and other things he’s not supposed to. He insisted on walking at eight months, though not always succeeding, and he has the most penetrating voice of any baby I’ve ever heard. I am enjoying myself tremendously.
The “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, you can’t prove anything” look he inherited from his father.
BUT! I’ve still been writing. The two manuscripts I’ve been shuttling back and forth between have now ballooned to three, with Manuscript #1 (aka The Firebird) STILL being revised, Manuscript #2 (aka the Summoner) at 50k words, and new Manuscript #3 (aka the Witch) at 40k. Juggling three stories at once seems like a mindboggling feat, but it helps; when I’m drawing a blank at one, I switch to one of the other two. The Summoner needs research on local modern history and customs to get things accurate, and The Firebird, while more or less completed, needs more fleshed out layers – less Édouard Manet light paints, and more Vincent van Gogh Impressionist splattering. (Look at me, using great painters as an analogy to what is essentially a book equivalent of a kid’s drawing!) The Witch is my life’s despair at the moment, but I think it’s going to pay off in the one more month or so I would need to finish.
Let’s not forget that the Suffering is due to arrive later this year. There’ll be more news for this coming soon!
October 26, 2014
YA Halloween Book Trail Giveaway!
Welcome to the Halloween Book Trail blog hop! You’re here possibly because you’re following the Cemetery Trail edition of this game (or because you’re one of the maybe two people who always visits this blog.) which means you get to read me rambling on about Halloween and things but then you get to win prizes afterward!
This is the first ever Halloween Book Trail, featuring your favorite YA & MG authors! This trail is based on the YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes presented by the Apocalypsies. In THIS trail, you’ll find all kinds of posts, and discover new authors and their word.
How do you play? Every post contains information that will lead to killer prizes! Books, swag, skype sessions, locks of hair (jk jk)! At the end of each blog you’ll find a link that will take you to the next stop in the trail. By the end, you’ll find a quiz. Now you’ll be happy you read all the posts! Submit your entry to the quiz for a change to win a grand prize! Accuracy matters here, so take your time, or go back and refresh your memory! One quiz entry per trail.
Here’s my Q&A!
If your MC went trick or treating, what would they dress up as and why?
The bad news is that my MC, Okiku, isn’t into dressing up for holidays that she knows nothing about, so she’d refuse to dress up. The good news is, she’s already the poster child for undead ghouls with her black stringy hair, rotting grey skin, and unblinking stare, so coming in costume is pointless when creepy undead girl costumes are already based off of you to begin with. In Okiku’s life, everyday is a lot like Halloween, except with less candy and more corpses.
What scares the pants out of you?
I. Hate. Roaches. I was accidentally trapped in a storeroom full of them as a kid once, and it’s given me trauma for life. Spiders are fine. Grasshoppers, beetles, centipedes – all good. I’ve spent nights in old buildings, allegedly haunted schools, and mirrored rooms, and I can cope with all that. Scare me with a roach though, and I assure you I will use anything and anyone I can get my hands on as a baseball bat to beat it the hell away. I would probably prefer to face ghosts than a flying roach, that’s how bad it’s gotten.
Do you legit believe in ghosts and things that bump in the night? (We won’t think you’re cray)
It’s odd, because I’ve loved ghost stories ever since I was a kid, and I enjoy writing ghost stories – but I don’t believe in ghosts. I think I’m a little too practical to think that every unexplained happening can be alluded to ghosts or the paranormal. That’s not to say I’m not going to be convinced if someone can produce irrefutable evidence in support of the supernatural. I love poking through ghost photos and watching ghost hunting shows in the hopes of seeing proof. (I’ve gone on a couple of ghost hunts myself.) So far though, nothing’s convinced me otherwise, and so I remain a curious skeptic.
If the zombie apocalypse happened (and it will), what would be your weapon of choice?
I am very partial to large tanks. I am very good at bumper cars, so I feel this would give me a good advantage. For melee combat though, don’t ever underestimate a really long shovel!
What is your most embarrassing Halloween costume malfunction?
This actually isn’t a costume malfunction, because it was technically a part of the costume. But I am a former cosplayer (for the curious, this is a person who goes to conventions dressed up as fandom characters) and have been doing it way before Comic Con made it look nerdycool. I was part of a Super Robot Wars group cosplay – which means a lot of Voltron, Daimos, Getta Robot, Mazinger Z mecha robot costumes. (think of it as what a Transformer bot might look like if they were Japanese, except more awesome.) I cosplayed the only female robot in the group, called Aphrodite Ace. Sounds all cool and women’s lib, right?
Wrong. Remember that Aphrodite Ace was created by Japanese dudes who played with toy robots for a living, and so her main weapons included boob missiles.
Let me repeat. Boob missiles.
And because we’re the kind of cosplayers who want to follow the original robot armor as accurately as possible, I wound up wearing a costume that had detachable boob missiles.
We had a stage show and everything where all the other robots fell to the evil kaiju monster and it was Aphrodite Ace’s boob missiles that wound up saving the world. There’s even a Youtube of it here.
It was embarrassing, but I loved it because I was doing something I enjoyed with crazy, weird friends who loved the same weird things I did. Plus, we bagged second place in the group cosplay category.
Please share a photo of your favorite Halloween costume you’ve worn.
Also see the most embarassing Halloween costume malfunction question for the context of the photo.
That’s me in pink (and also in the lower left corner with missiles in fact) not regretting any of this at all.
Go to the next author, E.C. Meyers, to continue on the next path!
Plus, it’s Rafflecopter time!
Because everyone enjoyed my previous Rafflecopter, I’m giving away the same prizes again this time around for those of you who didn’t win, for another shot! Here are the prizes again:
Signed bookmarks!
Signed bookplates!
And a handmade ghost keychain with signed tags!
Please note: if you’ve already joined my previous Rafflecopter giveaway and had already followed me on my social networks, you can still join! All you need to do is add in your respective Twitter / Pinterest / etc. usernames again when prompted for it by the Rafflecopter app!
October 18, 2014
Who Killed the YA Scream Queens?
I feel like this post is necessary, mostly because I am being maligned by certain people who’ve been going about claiming that I am a murderer of at lest one of the YA Scream Queens. I take much offense at this remark and would like to stress most strenuously that I am innocent of these accusations.
I mean, I post kitten gifs on my blog! Would a murderer do that?
(You must admit that this is a very good point.)
I’m innocent!
Really.
(To make sense of this post, head on to the YA Scream Queens for the contest details!)
October 2, 2014
YA Scavenger Hunt 2014 (and a Rafflecopter giveaway!)
It’s that time of the year again where the Young Adult part of the internet explodes with all sorts of books and giveaways and things. Welcome to the Autumn YA Scavenger Hunt of 2014. We’ve got a lot of fellow authors participating this time around with SIX teams to choose from, but I’ll be your hostess for this part of the journey!
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! 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! 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 RED TEAM–but there is also a blue team, a gold team, an orange team, a red team, and an indie 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.
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 red 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 OCTOBER 5, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST
Today, I am hosting the wonderful JULIE CROSS on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
Julie Cross is the International Bestselling author of the Tempest series, a young adult science fiction trilogy. Julie lives in Central Illinois with her husband and three children. She’s never been a major league baseball player, but she adores watching baseball movies again and again.
Find out more information by checking out her website and her book on Amazon!
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Life loves a good curveball…
Seventeen-year-old Annie Lucas’s life is completely upended the moment her dad returns to the major leagues as the new pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals. Now she’s living in Missouri (too cold), attending an all-girls school (no boys), and navigating the strange world of professional sports. But Annie has dreams of her own—most of which involve placing first at every track meet…and one starring the Royals’ super-hot rookie pitcher.
But nineteen-year-old Jason Brody is completely, utterly, and totally off-limits. Besides, her dad would kill them both several times over. Not to mention Brody has something of a past, and his fan club is filled with C-cupped models, not smart-mouthed high school “brats” who can run the pants off every player on the team. Annie has enough on her plate without taking their friendship to the next level. The last thing she should be doing is falling in love.
But baseball isn’t just a game. It’s life. And sometimes, it can break your heart…
Exclusive Excerpt/Scene Reveal from Whatever Life Throws At You by Julie Cross, Releasing October 7, 2014 (Entangled Teen)
There’s a stack of spiral notebooks on the desk, and all of them have the blue and white Kansas City logo in the center. I pick one up, grab a pen, and start doodling until fifteen minutes pass on the clock behind Dad’s desk. My stomach growls loudly.
Grams is snoring now, so I decide to go in search of food—there must be a vending machine around here somewhere. I reach the doorway of Dad’s office and stop.
Jason Brody and all his dark hair and dark eyes and muscles is standing in front of a locker whistling to himself.
Wearing only a towel.
I can’t decide if I should dive back into the office or make him aware of my presence. I doubt Dad would have left me in this office if he’d anticipated naked baseball players roaming around.
A blaring rock song from his phone sends my heart all the way up to my throat. I’m still frozen in the doorway when Jason Brody answers his cell.
“Hey, how’s it going?” he says, then pauses to listen to the person on the other end. “Yeah, you’re assuming I actually know where anything is in this town.” Another pause. “Live music, beer, and easy women? I think I can handle that.”
I roll my eyes in disgust. What a pig.
“Um, yeah, I’ve got the ID thing covered. No worries.”
Now I really don’t want to be caught like a deer in headlights when he drops that towel and puts on his clothes. And if Jason Brody finds out I was lurking in the doorway like a high school girl trying to get a glimpse of a naked major league baseball player, I will literally die of humiliation.
He’d probably get off on that, too, and I’d rather not give him that option. Which leaves me only one choice—dive back into the office and hide out until he’s gone. I turn partway around and the notebook slips from my hand, the metal rings on the side clanking against the floor. My arm crosses the doorway barrier when I reach down to snatch up the notebook.
He jumps a mile when he spots me. “Jesus!”
Okay, now I’ve really only got one choice. I stride out into the open, preparing to introduce myself. My gaze drifts down to the towel dangerously close to slipping off his waist.
He grabs the ends, holding it together with one hand. “Sorry, I thought I was alone.”
My heart takes off in a sprint. I can’t do it. I can’t just say I’m Annie, a seventeen-year-old high school girl. “Um yeah…I’m…” He stares at me waiting for my big reveal. The notebook and pen in my hand catch my attention, giving me an idea. I swallow back the fear and lie. “I’m interviewing players for an article. You’re Jason Brody, right?”
He eyes me skeptically. “What kind of article?”
“It’s for Sports Illustrated,” I say without hesitation and then quickly realize that I don’t look nearly old enough to be a real reporter for a huge publication. “I’m an intern,” I add.
The skepticism falls from his face and he looks nervous, which gives me a boost of confidence. I walk closer and pull out the chair in front of the locker beside his, propping my feet up on the bench across from me. “Frank Steadman said you’d be willing to answer a few questions.”
His mouth falls open, and he looks down at his towel and then back at me. Water drips from his hair and off his dark shoulders. “Um…okay,” he says. “Mind if I get dressed first?”
I wave off his concerns, my face heating up, blowing my confident cover. But him getting dressed might allow enough time for Dad to return, and I’d rather not have to deal with that. I duck my head down, letting my hair hide my cheeks and flip open the first page of the notebook. “This will just take a minute… So, you’re nineteen? And you’re from Texas?”
“Chicago,” he corrects.
I had no idea where he was from but figured it sounded better if I pretended to know. I write down this information and then search my brain for some more questions. “Does the wind in Chicago affect your curveball? Do you throw into it or against it?”
He gives me a funny look. “I…well…I just throw toward home plate.”
My face gets even hotter. “Right, kidding. What’s your favorite color?”
“Orange.”
I take my time writing orange in really big loopy cursive while I think of my next question. “What are your opinions on sushi?”
His forehead wrinkles like I’ve just asked him to publicly declare a political party. “Raw fish and seaweed? I think it’s best eaten while stranded on a desert island with no other options.”
“Very diplomatic.” I scribble down his answer. “How many strikes have you thrown in your career?”
“Don’t know,” he says. “Do people actually count that stuff? Before the majors?”
“Some of them do,” I say, though I have no idea. “If you could be any magical creature in the Harry Potter series, which would you choose?”
“You said this is for Sports Illustrated, right?”
“Yeees, But it’s the…kids’ edition.”
“Oh, right.” He scratches the back of his head. “I guess maybe one of those elves.”
“A house elf? Seriously? They’re slaves.” I shake my head. “Why would you want to be an enslaved elf? They can’t even wear clothes.”
He grips his towel tighter and releases a frustrated breath. “Fine, I’ll choose an owl. That’s what I’d want to be.”
I snort back a laugh and drop my eyes to the page again.
“What? What the hell’s wrong with being an owl? They’re smart, they know geography and shit like that.”
“Owls in real life are actually pretty stupid. But no big deal, I’ll just relay that message on to the children of America. Jason Brody, temporary Royals pitcher, wants to be an owl when he grows up because they know geography and shit like that.”
Okay, I’m getting way too into this fake reporter role.
“Who says this is temporary?” he snaps.
“Your two-way contract.” Isn’t that how Dad explained it? He plays a few games then goes back to Triple-A, all without signing a real major league contract.
He yanks a pair of jeans from his locker and then grabs a bundled up orange T-shirt. “Well, I plan on kicking some ass on Opening Day and making this a permanent gig.”
“I think you need a reality check,” I say. “One game isn’t going to be enough–”
“Annie, what the hell are you doing?”
I leap off the bench and turn around to face Dad and Frank standing about five feet from me. “Introducing myself to your new pitcher.”
There are 999 reasons to love Julie Cross, and this is one of them!
And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Julie, and more! Remember my favorite number – add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the blue team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author!
But wait, there’s more!
A GIVEAWAY!
People who successfully complete the hunt already gets the chance to win a signed hardback copy of THE GIRL FROM THE WELL. But I’m also hosting my own personal giveaway below where you get to win more swag! Two winners will get the chance to win the following:
Signed bookmarks!
Signed bookplates!
And a handmade ghost keychain with signed tags!
Sign up using the Rafflecopter below!
If I get a lot of entries, I might even add more winners!September 19, 2014
I Hate Rain: the Typhoon Mario edition
I am exhausted.
I know I should probably be running in circles more and dancing to the idea that I HAVE A BOOK PUBLISHED NAO, but it is hard to do that when your book was published at the onset of the typhoon season here in the Philippines, where you can literally drown walking along your own street because the sewage system is crap and government officials don’t care. Add in the fact that there are intermittent power outages happening all over, that we are getting hit by a new typhoon every week or so, and that I now have a little baby to look after, and the only drainage going on is to my strength.
(A note why I sound angry: flood control projects were supposed to begin as early as 2010 for the metro, but was cancelled by President Noynoy Aquino and Department of Public Works and Highways head Rogelio Singson likely only because the projects were created by the previous president Gloria Arroyo, whom the former hated and blamed for everything.)
To quote a friend: “I rode the bus home until it got to Bacoor [city], and then it became a ferry.”
It is ironic, because I am currently working on the first book of a new series set in Manila where things like stormy weather will play important parts in the story. Hopefully it will sound plausible and reasonable because I am, after all, writing all this from experience.
So, to wit re: updates on my end –
Will THE GIRL FROM THE WELL have a sequel?
Yes, it will, but from a completely different perspective and with a completely different tone of voice, because I am not one to write the same book twice, no matter how experimental TGFTW’s style was.
What’s your new series about?
At this point, all I can describe it as is a darker Hayao Miyazaki (more Princess Mononoke than My Neighbor Totoro) with a slight, neo-noir theme. If you think that sounds weird, then you obviously don’t know me yet. I expect to have the first book done within the year!
And since I’m still somewhat exhausted, especially after the killer typhoon last night, here are a few pictures instead of the past couple of days that, I think, speak a better thousand words each than I can right at the moment.
[GMA]
Stay safe, all!
August 5, 2014
The Girl from the Well Debuts + Giveaways! (also: Book Trailers are Awesome Things)
It’s August 5, which means it’s officially The Girl from the Well’s release day! Lots of stuff happening!
For instance, check out this awesome post The BookYArd has come up with in celebration.
I’ve got a Dear Teen Me post up.
And then there’s the book trailer. A BOOK TRAILER, GUYS.
Here’s a semi-official site that includes everything you might want to know about the book.
And here’s a list of lovely blogs who so happen to be hosting giveaways for The Girl from the Well. Have a look-see!
Giveaways for a Copy of The Girl from the Well:
Giveaways for (Signed!) Crocheted Ghost Keychains and Bookmarks:
Special Interviews:
Note: I’ll be updating with even more links as they come.
Note #2: Here’s a little peek at the crocheted ghost in question:
A view of the books via agent extraordinaire, Rebecca Podos: 
It has been a long time coming – especially because today has been my goal since starting out in 2012 with nothing more than a finished manuscript and a dream. From my awesome agent to my equally awesome editors, to everyone who took the time to read this novel – thanks for making this an amazing experience, guys!
And now, on to the next book.
Remember – if you’re so inclined, click here because The Girl from the Well is now available on Amazon!
