Celebrating A Need so Beautiful with Random Acts of Kindness

I'm very excited to join a whole bunch of bloggers and friends to celebrate Suzanne Young's A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL release today!

Speaking of beautiful, I can't think of anyone who embodies that more than Suzanne, who is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. My job today is to tell you about a random act of kindness that was very meaningful to me, so of course I will tell you a story about Suzanne herself.

I met Suzanne at a kidlit blogger conference a few years ago in Portland, OR, where she lives (in fact that's where we took the above pic. She came up to Seattle for an SCBWI writing/illustrating conference a couple of years later and we got to hang out again! And here's where her act of kindness came in:

I have a secret enemy...basically, an immune illness that knocks me out when I try to do too much (ugh). I love to go to conferences, but I tend to be running on empty by the second day.
Sweet Suzanne, who had a room in the conference hotel, sent me up to her room to take a nap. It seems like a simple thing, but believe me, it made a huge difference. Not only that, but Suzanne made sure it was dark, I had nice pillows, and nobody disturbed me. She basically saved me, and we had a fantastic time.

Because that's what kind of person Suzanne is - not to mention an amazing writer. So check out A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL, and stop by Suzanne's blog to congratulate her!

Oh, and there are PRIZES, of course. Here's how to enter:

Earn one extra entry for each of the following:
Take a picture of an author's book in the wild and tweet it to us and the author
Post a positive Amazon review for a book you loved
Donate a book to a library or classroom
Tweet a good deed you plan to do this week, using the #ANeedSoBeautiful hashtag

Earn 10 extra entries for each of the following:
Take a picture of A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL in the wild and tweet it to us and Suzanne Young
Post an Amazon review for A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL
Donate a copy of A NEED SO BEAUTIFUL to a library or classroom

You can go here to fill out the prize form with your total entries, and check out the full list of prizes at Suzanne's blog, including a signed copy of TELL ME A SECRET along with a signed art print from yours truly! Here are other stops, along with prizes featured:


First 3 chapter critique (Jessica at Confessions of a Bookaholic: http://www.totalbookaholic.com/)
YA Lit Swag Bag (Sara at Novel Novice: www.novelnovice.com)
Hourglass Order from TBD – Int (Corrine at Lost for Words: http://lostforwords-corrine.blogspot.com)
Random Books (Jessi at The Elliott Review: http://elliottreview.blogspot.com)
2 Header/Button Packs (Jessica at Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile: http://www.hopelessbibliophile.com/)
First 3 chapters Critique (Cindy at Books Complete Me: http://www.bookscompleteme.com/)
First 15 pages Critique (Kari at A Good Addiction: http://agoodaddiction.blogspot.com/)
Signed ARC of Hereafter (Kari at A Good Addiction: http://agoodaddiction.blogspot.com/)
Query Letter Critique (Shannon Messenger: http://ramblingsofawannabescribe.blogspot.com/)
Signed copy of Invincible Summer – US/Can (Hannah Moskowitz: hannahmosk.blogspot.com)
First Chapter Critique and a Skype Chat (Keri Mikulski: http://kerimikulski.com/books/pay-it-forward-the-author-edition/)
Signed copy of Tell Me a Secret with signed TMAS art print - US (Holly Cupala: http://www.hollycupala.com/search/label/blog)
Signed copy of Chasing Brooklyn – US (Lisa Schroeder: www.lisaschroederbooks.com)
The Pledge Swag Pack including ARC (Kimberly Derting: http://kimberlyderting.blogspot.com/)
Daisy Whitney's Blog: http://daisywhitney.com/blog/

Congratulations, Suzanne!