Margo Kelly's Blog, page 21

4 Happy, Thoughtful Things

Since it's the morning after the Presidential Debate and all over social media people are pointing fingers and saying mean things, I've decided to post four happy inspirational quotes ... because instead of me telling you how to vote (which I would VERY much like to do), I want you to research the facts and know for yourself the truth behind the candidate you want to vote for this year. It matters. SO MUCH. Don't sit back and say you're not going to vote because you don't like the options. Research it and make a decision.

Fall 2016 YA Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! 


I'm Margo Kelly, and I'll be your hostess for this leg of the hunt. I write thrillers, and I'm excited that my second novel, UNLOCKED, has been born into the world! Somewhere along this scavenger hunt, I've shared exclusive content related to UNLOCKED, and clear down at the bottom of this post, I'm giving away a signed hardback copy of it (exclusive to readers of this post) along with a super cool flashlight key chain! Yup. That's right. 



(So be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom of this post before you hop off to the next site in the scavenger hunt!)


By the way, you are currently hunting on TEAM GOLD.






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 the prize -- one lucky winner will receive:
one book from each author on the gold team! 
But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online until noon on Sunday, October 9, 2016!

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 GOLD TEAM -- but there are five other teams, each with a different set of 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 RULES
Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the gold 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 9, 2016, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

I am happy to introduce you to the author I'm hosting for the hunt:
Erica Cameron

Erica is many things but most notably the following: writer, reader, editor, asexual, dance fan, choreographer, singer, lover of musical theater, movie obsessed, sucker for romance, Florida resident, and quasi-recluse. She is also the author of The Dream War Saga, the Assassins series, and the upcoming Ryogan Chronicles, plus co-author of the Laguna Tides novels.

Find out more information by checking out Erica's website or find more about her book here! 


Kindra’s moral compass has never pointed north, but that’s what happens when you’re raised as an assassin and a thief. At sixteen, she’s fantastic with a blade, an expert at slipping through the world unnoticed, and trapped in a life she didn’t chose. But nothing in her training prepares her for what happens when her father misses a target.

In the week-long aftermath, Kindra breaks rank for the first time in her life. She steals documents, starts questioning who their client is and why the target needs to die, botches a second hit on her father’s target, and is nearly killed. And that’s before she’s kidnapped by a green-eyed stranger connected to a part of her childhood she’d almost forgotten.

Kindra has to decide who to trust and which side of the battle to fight for. She has to do it fast and she has to be right, because the wrong choice will kill her just when she’s finally found something worth living for.


EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
 from Erica Cameron

-- Inspiration boards and quote art for DISCORD --






* * * * *

Now don't forget to enter the YASH contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me and 19 other authors on TEAM GOLD. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on team gold, and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

But before you go, you'll need to know that my favorite number is 11, and there are 11 chances in this exclusive Rafflecopter giveaway for you to win a signed hardback copy of UNLOCKED and a super cool flashlight key chain! (This contest is separate from the YASH contest. Only visitors here are eligible.)


a Rafflecopter giveaway






CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author: KATHLEEN BALDWIN
Tweet #YASH

Happy Book Birthday to Me --- UNLOCKED is Available Now!

I'm thrilled to say that you can now find my second novel, UNLOCKED, at your favorite retailer. Here are some quick links:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Target




And below are a gazillion pictures from the book launch party we had for UNLOCKED at the Barnes & Noble in Boise, Idaho.

Happy Book Birthday to BLACK FLOWERS, WHITE LIES by Yvonne Ventresca

We're excited to be celebrating the release of BLACK FLOWERS, WHITE LIES by Yvonne Ventresca this week! Check out the book's details and teaser, and be sure to enter the giveaway below.


BLACK FLOWERS, WHITE LIES
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Publication: October 4, 2016

Her father died before she was born, but Ella Benton knows they have a supernatural connection. Since her mother discourages these beliefs, Ella keeps her cemetery visits secret. But she may not be the only one with secrets. Ella’s mother might be lying about how Dad died sixteen years ago. Newfound evidence points to his death in a psychiatric hospital, not as a result of a tragic car accident as her mother always claimed. After a lifetime of just the two of them, Mom suddenly feels like a stranger.

When a handprint much like the one Ella left on her father’s tombstone mysteriously appears on the bathroom mirror, at first she wonders if Dad is warning her of danger as he did once before. If it’s not a warning, could her new too-good-to-be-true boyfriend be responsible for the strange occurrences? Or maybe it’s the grieving building superintendent whose dead daughter strongly resembles Ella? As the unexplained events become more frequent and more sinister, Ella becomes terrified about who—or what—might harm her.

Soon the evidence points to someone else entirely: Ella herself. What if, like her father, she’s suffering from a breakdown? In this second novel from award-winning author Yvonne Ventresca, Ella desperately needs to find answers, no matter how disturbing the truth might be.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

Excerpt from Black Flowers, White Lies

I take the stairs down. Once the stairwell door closes behind me, the basement seems darker than ever, as if the electricity is off. The light on my phone helps guide me to the laundry room. I flick the switch. Nothing happens. Not even the one good light turns on.

Maybe Norma’s in the middle of fixing the lightbulbs. She could have turned off the circuit breaker or something. But when I open the dryer, the drum light turns on as I dump the clothes into the basket. The electricity is working after all.

The light from the dryer illuminates the space and some­thing catches my eye. I focus my phone on the wall to my left.

“No.” I back up, banging into the open dryer door.

One word is scrawled in red capital letters across the wall: DAUGHTER. A bloody handprint drips in the space underneath.

I grab the basket. A cat T-shirt falls, but I don’t stop. I need to escape, fast. The elevator takes forever. The doors slide open. I expect demons, monsters, ghouls. It’s empty.

On our floor, I race to our apartment, fumble with my keys. My hands tremble too much to open the lock. “Blake!”

When he opens the door, I drop the basket to grab his arm. “Come with me.”

“El, what’s going on?”

I can’t speak on the elevator ride to the basement.

“Seriously, are you okay? You’re scaring me.”

“I’ll show you.”

I turn my phone light on when we leave the elevator and pull him into the dark laundry room. I illuminate the wall but can’t bear to look. “See?”

He’s quiet. I figure he’s as frightened as I am.

“See what?”

I turn my head and shine the light where the red scrawl was minutes before.

There’s nothing.

“Why are we in the dark?” Blake asks, flipping the laun­dry room switch.

The lights come on. The sudden brightness makes me blink as I stare at the blank wall.

About the AuthorWebsite | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Pinterest

Yvonne Ventresca’s latest young adult novel, BLACK FLOWERS, WHITE LIES will be published by Sky Pony Press in October 2016.

Her debut YA novel, PANDEMIC, won a 2015 Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. In PANDEMIC, a teen struggles to survive not only a deadly outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons. Ventresca's other works include the short story “Escape to Orange Blossom,” which was selected for the dystopian anthology PREP FOR DOOM, along with two nonfiction books, PUBLISHING (Careers for the 21st Century) and AVRIL LAVIGNE (People in the News).



GiveawayPrize pack includes a three panel rustic chalkboard with a $25 Amex gift card, a $25 Sephora gift card, and a signed copy of Black Flowers, White Lies.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review: HALF IN LOVE WITH DEATH by Emily Ross

Half in Love with Death by Emily Ross

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A well-written mystery! Emily Ross did a terrific job of building the plot and developing the characters in this story set in the 1960s. Life was so different without the Internet and cell phone technology (but that was not the point of this story).

One thing that struck me throughout this story was that oftentimes teenagers don't trust adults enough to confide in them. Why is that? What are adults doing wrong in that realm? If you're an adult, it's something to ponder and ask yourself if the teenagers around you would WANT to talk to you. And if you're a teenager - ask yourself if there are any adults in your life that you thoroughly trust. Why or why not?

Emily Ross is a talented wordsmith. Some of my favorite lines from the book include:

"Darkness was erasing the green from the grass, the blue from the sky." (page 7)

"I knew about the Hi-Ho Club where Tony took Jess sometimes. I'd never been in it but I'd imagined myself there, imagined the colored lights, the sparkling dresses, the love swirling all around." (page 31)

"I missed winter so much. Here, the closest thing to snow was the cold stars that sprinkled the sky." (page 62)

"When I returned with her, things would be different. Maybe she would even be different. Maybe she'd be a person you could talk about without saying 'if only.'" (page 143)

HALF IN LOVE WITH DEATH was a finalist in the International Thriller Awards, and I believe it earned that honor for its expertly layered suspense. I needed to keep turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next and how the story would be resolved.

I look forward to the next book by Ross.



View all my reviews

October = National Cyber Security Awareness Month

What are you doing to be more #CyberAware and to help promote online safety? You could start by reading Who R U Really? , a novel about a teenager who falls for a guy online. "Based on actual events, the story should be required reading for all teens." --VOYA Magazine 

Here are more tips for being more aware online:

8 Happy Pictures & Quotes for #UNLOCKED

As we near the official release date for UNLOCKED, I thought I'd share some fun pictures, quotes, and stories from readers and retailers. YAY for books! And please, as you receive, read, and review your copy of UNLOCKED, share updates on social media and tag me. It thrills me to no end to see the book out in the world!

Happy Book Birthday to LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG by Vanessa Barneveld

Release day for Vanessa Barneveld's YA novella, LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG, is here! This quick read is full of heartbreak and hope. Vanessa will donate half of the profits from the sale of her novella to a charity that supports young people dealing with cancer. So make sure you pick up LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG. It's only 99 cents at these e-tailers:
Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo Add LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG to your Goodreads shelf Read on for the summary and excerpt...


SummaryHe has six months to live. She has six months to save him...

Molly Corbett can’t stand seeing her childhood pal Alex Gibson destroy himself. He’s gone from straight-A student to rebel without a cause. With so much at stake, some serious interference is called for—or at least Micromanaging Molly thinks so. Alex needs to get back on the path to the Ivy League. But the harder Molly pushes Alex, the harder he pushes back.

Alex has a secret.

Well, two secrets. Number one: He has terminal melanoma. With six months to live, Alex hasn’t got a second to waste. And hanging around hospitals when his friends think he’s cutting school definitely counts as wasted time. Instead, he’s going to drop out, surf, drive fast cars…and finally put secret number two out there. He’s in love with Molly and he’s going to tell her before it’s too late.
Edgy, and yet wonderfully tender, LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG sent me to reader heaven!~ Tina Ferraro, author of THE ABCs OF KISSING BOYS



LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG ExcerptAround six the next morning, I find Mom sitting at the island bench in the kitchen. She looks pretty chill for someone who just laid on a breakfast of fruit salad, yogurt, sautèed mushrooms and kale, unbuttered whole-wheat sourdough and two eggs, sunny-side up. A thick, football-field-green smoothie sits in a tall glass by the blender. Great. More kale.

“Hey, Alex!” She smiles over her coffee mug and pats the stool next to her. “Sleep well?”

I shuffle onto the seat and stare at the food. “Have I died and gone to buffet heaven?”

My mother winces at my choice of words, then makes a big effort to put on a happy face like she always does. “I want you to keep your strength up. You don’t have to eat all of it. Just most of it.”

“And you don’t have to go out of your way to make this for me. I mean, thanks. A lot. But I don’t have much of an appetite.”

“Oh, I’m having some, too,” she says in an overly bright voice. With her fork, she scoops up a tiny portion of kale, hardly enough to fill a mouse’s belly.

Since my diagnosis a few months ago, Mom hasn’t been eating much either. This doesn’t stop her from testing all the “cancer-fighting” recipes she finds on Pinterest. Baking is therapy, she says. I call it a waste of food. Fortunately, the family next door is more than happy to take excess lentil loaf off our hands.

Every hour of every day, I wonder what will happen to Mom after I go. She’ll be all alone. Dad moved back to Australia after the divorce. He’s making custom surfboards, connecting with old friends, so I know he’ll be okay. Mom’s literally got no one. Except the perpetually hungry neighbors and her five employees. Yet another reason why I shouldn’t die so young.

It’s crazy. Why does it have to be like this? Maybe the doctors got it wrong. They’re not infallible. They’re not gods. They can’t predict the exact number of months, days, hours, and seconds a person has left on Earth.

Then again, I’ve peeked at my medical records. I know it doesn’t look good for me. With the help of a counselor I’ve gotten to the stage of mostly accepting that I’m headed for a dead end. I’ve even started giving some of my stuff away. The iPad Dad gave me is now Molly’s. Mom won’t have to go through boxes of my middle-school clothes after I’m gone because I’ve already dropped them off at Goodwill. The cobalt-blue board I learned to surf on? I’m giving that to a kid down the street whether he likes it or not.

Noticing I haven’t touched a single morsel, Mom says, “Will you at least have the kale, broccoli and goji berry smoothie? You don’t even have to chew. Close your eyes and drink it.”

Speaking of acceptance... Yeah, Mom’s adamant that five doctors on two continents are wrong and that I’ll make a miraculous recovery. All we need is faith and love and kale.

I would rather eat broken glass mixed with cyanide, but for Mom, I guess I can manage this. Forcing a smile, I sip chunks of raw broccoli that slipped by the blender’s blades. I’ll check over the blender later, make sure it’s working okay.

“After breakfast, I’m taking you to that appointment you missed yesterday,” she says quickly.

Feeling guilty, I look away. She didn’t hammer me for skipping out on seeing this “amazing herbalist-slash-psychic-healer.” Still, I know she was disappointed in me. “What about work? You’ve missed a lot of days because of me.”

“It’s fine. Things are slow anyway.” Her voice is two octaves higher than usual.

She’s lying. The real estate biz in this corner of SoCal is booming. Foreclosures have brought in the flippers—the people who swoop in on bank-owned properties and fix them up for a profit.

“But you need those commissions.” Silently I add, To pay my medical bills.

Another reason to feel guilty. I’m aware of how much my cancer is costing my parents. Flights to a melanoma specialist in Sydney and more hospital follow-ups here don’t come cheap. My folks tell me not to worry about that, but ironically I’m old enough to figure out that dying young is expensive.

And now Molly’s pushing me to apply to Yale.

I can’t blame her. She knows it’s been my dream since forever to go to Yale, get a medical degree, become a pediatrician. But it’d be a waste of time and money for me to even try to follow that dream.

I grimace at the olive oil oozing from the barely touched kale and mushroom thing.

Waste. Sure is the theme of the day. Of my life, even.


About Vanessa

Vanessa lives in Australia with her musician husband, a photogenic cat, and a ghost. In addition to writing, she works as a TV closed captioner for the deaf and audio describer for the blind. Her pastimes include baking, iPhonography, and traveling the world on a quest to find the world’s greatest fries.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | GoodReads

For giveaway and book release news, sign up to Vanessa's mailing list .

Announcing the Fall 2016 #YASH Teams

It's been a long hot summer, but guess what's just around the corner? 

YES!

The YA Scavenger Hunt starts on October 4, 2016. It's your chance to win TONS of fabulous books from some of your favorite authors! Yup. That's right.

All of the details will be posted here on October 4th at Noon (Pacific Time). Until then ... here are pictures of the Fall 2016 teams:

More Inspirational Writing Quotes

Looking for a boost or a kick in the right direction? Here are three tips from the writing experts:







Now get off the Internet and get back to your writing project!