Signed Breathless Reads Poster Winner

Congratulations, Vivien! And thanks to all who entered.

The winner has been notified via email and we will send her prize ASAP.

Friday Five

Ack! It's Friday again!
Okay, here we go.

1. I finally got a You Tube account1, so now I can vlog. Hurray. I don't know why I'm so excited to do this, seeing as how I'm not a particularly big fan of vlogs, it's probably because it's easier to tell you some things than it is to write them and I'm lazy like that. The fact that they're fun to make might have something to do with it as well.
2. Lent starts this up coming week with Ash Wednesday, and I have a bit of a reading challenge in store. It's more of a personal thing, but I'm going to be posting about it anyway because I thought it would be cool if someone would like to join me. More details to come, probably later today or tomorrow.
3. Contest announcements: Today is the LAST DAY TO ENTER for a signed poster and bookmarks from the Breathless Reads Tour. It's a pretty cool poster featuring the covers for The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller, Matched by Ally Condie, The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, and Nightshade by Andrea Cremer, and, of course, it's signed by all five authors. Also, my CSN Stores Giveaway has about a week left until it closes, so if you haven't entered yet, be sure to.
4. Speaking of the Breathless Reads Tour, now seems as good a time as any to relate the story. I had a really good time, which is good because it makes the reeeaaallly long drive worth it. I met some bloggers, well, more like one blogger, namely Laura from Tattoed Books. There were others there, I just didn't have the gaul to walk up to perfect strangers and say HI more than once. Such is life. Anywhoodle. It was a lot of fun listening to the authors questions during the Q&A portion, mainly because the all had such different writing styles. My question was: Who would you cast as your main character. I can't remember all the answers, but Kirsten Miller said she wanted the girl from Easy A and that she always pictures, get this, Paul Newman as her leading guy. Hilarious story behind that, BTW2. Beth Revis said she'd want a new-comer as Elder. Brenna Yovanoff said she'd have a hard time picking because there was always one little thing wrong with her favorites, i.e. they're too old or something, and that she wasn't up on the whole Hollywood scene. Niether am I. We got a group picture; from left to right: Kirsten Miller (a very witty lady with much in common with 12YO's), Laura (she's super nice), Ally Condie (who writes because she hates sorting socks), Brenna Yovanoff  (who was homeschooled and wrote many, many, many stories before The Replacement, which I am currently reading), Me (who stands awkwardly in group photos), Andrea Cremer (she enjoys writing kissing scenes), Ren (darn birds!), and Beth Revis (a professed fangirl who likes to blow things up. In her stories! Yeesh).
So anyway, I went to the signing with Ren. We'd been planning on going with Orchid as well, but she got sick, literally, at the last second, so she had to stay home. It was such a bummer, but Ren, who is full of great ideas, decided that we'd just get her a card and ask all the authors to sign it. And, guess what. They did! She was so excited when we gave it to her. So, I'll wrap this segment up by saying thanks to everyone who signed the card! Orchid loved it.
5. And lastly, I leave you with a bit of a geek-out in the from of a (very) short story about my favorite fantasy realm, Tortall: The first time Gem had strung a bow she had been so nervous that her sweat-slick fingers failed to secure the string which then slid off the bow causing it to spring back and snap her her sqaure in the forehead. She remembered well the pain, but more sharp in her mind was the humiliation of hearing her brothers laughter and taunts. Her father, ever patient, had consoled her and, more importantly, humbled her brothers for being so cold. He had knelt down at her level and told her that they, too, had once been new to the art of archery and had not always been so poised and deadly.
   "Garret," he had said in his gruff yet gentle voice, with more than a twinkle in his eye, "shot himself in the foot the first time he ever drew a bow."
   It had been just the elixir for her smarting pride to know that her oldest and most talented brother had once been as unskilled as she, and it gave her heart to try again.
   
   Now, years later, the warning-song of her horn dying in her ears, Gem smoothly drew the bow taught, feeling the power it held in the muscles of her back, and she felt no fear. No fear that her brothers would ever discount her for being the only girl on the hunt. No fear that she would miss her target. No fear that the hissing spidren her bow was trained on would come any closer to her village.
   Breath smooth, hands steady, she released the arrow, watched as it planted itself in the grim eye of the beast, and calmly fit another to the string as she trained her bow with deadly accuracy on another of the nest of spidrens she had stumbled upon so near her village.

I race the second-hand of time. Sometimes it nearly catches me.
I am

Zombie GiRRRl

footnotes_____________________________________
1  A lot easier than I thought it would be since it's tied into my pre-existing Google account. Handy-dandy.
2  And now for the funny story which is not mine: Not long after Kirsten Miller first arrived in NYC, she went to visit a friend at her apartment. When the elevator opened, out stepped none othet than Paul Newman. He said, and I quote, "Hiya!" Kirsten was stunned. She excitedly related the story to her friend who looked at her and, after a dramgtic pause said, "Kirsten, you're in NY now, stop being so dazzled."

Breathless Reads Tour: Signed Swag Giveaway

Hey, y'all! I had a blast at the Breathless Reads Tour where I met Kirsten Miller, Ally Condie, Beth Revis, Brenna Yovanoff, and Andrea Cremer. I'll post more details about it later, for now I just wanted to let y'all know that Ren and I are giving away some swag to one lucky reader! Ren contributed some signed book marks and I'm giving one of you my signed BRT poster (pictured left) which features some of the prettiest cover art of the year! Just fill out the form below and we'll draw a winner on Saturday. Good luck!

Breathless Reads Tour: Raleigh, NC

Short Version:

Starting February 9, Beth Revis, Brenna Yovanoff, Kirsten Miller, Ally Conde, and Andrea Cremer will be touring together for the Breathless Reads Tour.
On February 25, they will be in Raleigh, NC.
I'll be there.
Will you?

Long Version:
Ren, Orchid, and I are all going to be attending the February 25 Breathless Reads event at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, and we thought it would be fun to organize some kind of Book Blogger Identification Thing (BBIT) so that other bloggers could easily identify each other and we could say, "Hey! I blog too! Nice to meet you." But before we decide anything (or show up at the signing with Heidi braids (my idea) or all wearing the same color shirt), we wanted to see if any other bloggers would be there and if they were interested in participating in the BBIT. These authors are only going to make five appearance nation wide, so I'm sure you'll be there if you can, the question remains: are you in or out?

So, will you be there, and are you interested in meeting other bloggers in person? And do you like the idea/have any suggestions for the Book Blogger Identification Thing? You can reply in the comments or (preferably) fill out THIS FORM. If enough people RSVP, we'll post a poll to decide on the BBIT, probably in about a week. Spread the word!