A Really Great Contest - Hurry It's Almost Over

My sister is running a fabulous contest over at her blog. The winner gets a book for themselves and one for their local library! The book choices are super.

1. pre-order of Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick 2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (not new but you MUST read it plus #3 wouldn't make much sense without it) 3. pre-order of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 4. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater 5. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan 6. Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev 7. Wings by Aprilynne Pike 8. pre-order of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld 9. Rampant by Diana Peterfreund (sort of a pre-order since it comes out next week) 10. pre-order of Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (oh wait, did I say that twice. totally unintentional, honestly)

Check it out here.

But hurry she is picking a winner tomorrow!!

Hush, Hush Book Trailer

I can't tell you how excited I am for the October release of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. For a little something to hold you over until the book comes out click here.

I Can Make a Difference and So Can YOU!

Check out this blog/project called Living Your Five. It's an amazing idea that empowers each and every one of us make a difference a little at a time!

Living Your Five is all about knowing what matters most to you and making a difference in your world in ways large and small.

Living Your Five is founded author by Kay Cassidy, and features authors Tera Lynn Childs, Becca Fitzpatrick and Alyson Noel.

Check out their site here and spread the word. Together we really can make a difference.

Check This Out

Check out this video for Maggie Stiefvater's new book Ballad which will hit stores on October 1st. Maggie made this animated storyboard and recorded the music. She is pretty amazing.

I'm So Blue...

It has taken me a few days to process this. The Blue October / Crazy Making Tour will NOT be making the scheduled stop in Montclair, NJ. I cannot be mad, I'm sure they had a legitimate reason, but I am sad and disappointed.

My sister and I had pre-sale tickets to this concert and I was literally counting down the days. I bought the old songs I wasn't as familiar with from itunes and have been listening to them as often as I can (most are not rated PG for my kiddos' ears) so that I would be ready for whatever crazy-making stuff they'd throw my way.

They will honor tickets for the NJ show at the stop in NYC two days later, but it just isn't going to work out for me. ((sniff, sniff))

It probably sounds stupid for a 30+ Mom to be so sad over something like this, but I can't help it. I had really liked Blue October for a few years, but since seeing them in concert on the Approaching Normal Tour, I have fallen in LOVE with them. Everybody needs a little something special now and then, to keep them going, especially Moms who tend to do a lot for everyone else and not quite as much for themselves. I am going to do my best to see them another time, but for now I have my new tunes to listen to and some great pictures and reviews from others who were able to catch them this time around.

A Pretty Good Book to Movie Translation

I saw The Time Traveler's Wife yesterday, with a great group of ladies (shout out to the TwilightMoms). I was very skeptical going into it. Recently my sister and I read My Sister's Keeper and then were completely floored (not in a good way) by the movie. I was feeling a little gun shy about this one.

When I first began reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger I had a little trouble getting into it, found it a bit hard to follow. But then all of a sudden I was three quarters of the way through the book and didn't want to put it down. It was one of those books that sucked me in and I had a hard time pulling myself back to reality. (love that kind of book!)

The movie surprised me, although there were a lot of things from the book missing, overall they did a really good job of taking it to the big screen. Rachel McAdams did a beautiful job of portraying Claire, through the good and the bad, and Eric Bana was a very believable Henry (although his time traveling hair should have been left in the past).

I would suggest you read the book before seeing this movie, but then.... I suggest you see this movie. I'd give it a B+.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I read this book by Audrey Niffenegger several months ago. Overall I really liked it, although I sometimes had a difficult time keeping up with the timeline. There's a lot of jumping around between the present, past and future.

Tomorrow a group of about 11 of us will be getting together for a book discussion (with dinner & drinks of course) and then to see the movie.

I am hoping that the movie will be able to live up to the book, they so rarely do....

How Old Is Too Old For Young Adult?

Well I don't think you're ever too old for it. I have recently been turned onto the world of Young Adult Fiction and don't ever want to be turned off. No matter how old I am (cough...36...cough).

Just today, my sister was telling me about a blogger getting some harsh comments, claiming she was too old for YA! Yikes. On the same subject I want to share some thoughts from Maggie Stiefvater, the author of a fabulous new YA book, Shiver.

The real thing that grated my cheese was this idea that a blogger ought to step down from YA lit because she's no longer a teen. Um, no.

Actually, allow me to clarify: HELL NO.

The average YA author is older than I am and all of us are older than our intended teen readership. Does that mean we ought to be writing adult fiction instead? That would be a lot of unhappy Twihards if Stephanie Meyer decided to write Twilight as an adult series. The thing about YA is that the kernel of it, the point of it, the entire theme of the genre is coming of age. Coming of age is something that we can understand at any age. It's being on the cusp of something new. It's making that leap, deciding what to do with yourself. It's doing anything for the first time. That's the point of YA fiction, and it's something that anybody can enjoy. Look at the success of TWILIGHT. Harry Potter. (and yikes, SHIVER).

To say that adults can't read YA because they aren't the same age as the protagonists is as ludicrous as saying that teens can't read adult books because they aren't yet adults. It's ultimately condescending, either way. Adult saying to teen: "you won't enjoy this movie/ book because as a teen, you haven't experienced loss/ cheating/ tax evasion/ other adult theme." Teen saying to adult: "you won't enjoy this teen movie/ book because it's been too long since you were cool." No. You cannot say that.

.....I identify more with the character issues in a lot of YA -- the growing up, the jumping off cliffs, the newness -- than I do a lot of adult fiction, which deals with fatigue, mid-life crisis, marriage issues. Am I the only twenty something who feels this way? Nope. There's also thirty somethings, forty something, fifty somethings who prefer the genre . . . age is irrelevant when coming to reading. There's no "this is right for this age." "this is wrong for this age."

There's this: "This book is right for me." "This book isn't my thing."

That's the only truth there is in reading. As a reader and as a writer, never forget that YA is a marketing distinction. It's books placed in a certain section of the bookstore because they will probably appeal to teens. It doesn't mean they won't appeal to anybody else. And it doesn't mean that that's the only place in the store they could go. We write the best books we can about the characters we care about, no matter how old they happen to be. And I don't care who's reading my books. I don't care if it's grandmas with fake teeth or teens with ipods or toddlers drooling sippy cups on the pretty blue ink. I just care that they're being read.

Well said Maggie.

Two Weeks and A Crush

My sister and I are going to see Blue October in 2 weeks. That's right, two weeks from now we will be basking in the afterglow of the amazingness that is Blue October...and hopefully waiting by the stage door for a few pics and autographs :-)

In the meantime I found some amazing pictures of Justin (Furstenfeld) and Matt (Noveskey) performing recently to hold me over. Of course I love Justin and his pics were amazing BUT I have to share this one of Matt (I totally have a crush on him ever since we saw them in concert last time). The picture was taken by JBrockey.

Hush, Hush & 500 Days of Summer

I have decided to hold off on posting a review of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, until we get closer to the release date, probably sometime next month. I will tell you that I LOVE this book, absolutely love it :-)

I was really excited to see (500) Days of Summer over the weekend. It was only in for 3 days - I was supposed to see it Friday, had a little snag in the plans; was busy with the family all day Saturday; but finally made it on Sunday afternoon. I was not disappointed. The movie was really great and the actors were fabulous. My heart opened up to Gordon Joseph-Levitt as Tom Hansen, he did such a great job with this character, and then broke for him as well. And Zooey Deschenel as Summer Finn was absolutely beautiful.

Love the tagline.... "This is not a love story. This is a story about love." It hits the nail on the head.

I had a few 'issues' with things near the end, but would totally recommend it. If you have the chance to see this movie, by all means..do!

(500) Days of Summer

Going to see this movie with my Mom and Sisters tomorrow night, have heard great things.

E! News Report of the Breaking Dawn Concert With justin Furstenfeld

Two of my favorite things combined....sigh

I bought the Breaking Dawn Special Edition today, mostly because I wanted to watch the DVD that was included. To my surprise at the back of the book I found the lyrics to all the songs that Justin performed. I think I already knew them by heart, but love reading them. Happy Day!

Now that I have this edition I am thinking of donating my other copy of Breaking Dawn to the local library. I have heard that the waiting list for the Twilight Series is very long. I just don't know if they will take used books (it looks almost brand new). Hate to think that there are people, especially teens, who don't get to read some books because they can't afford them and their library doesn't have them. Our local library doesn't have a very good Young Adult section, but that's a conversation for another day.

Justin is Everywhere!!!

Love that Justin Furstenfeld is everywhere today!! A special edition of Breaking Dawn with footage from the Breaking Dawn Concert Tour that Justin did with Stephenie last year, hit stores today.

I just turned on E!News and there was Justin serenading me. Love it!!!

Hush, Hush

Well thanks to my fabulous sister Becky, I spend my night last night reading an ARC (advance reader copy) of Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I will be writing about this later, so stay tuned!

Find out more about Hush, Hush!

Shiver

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I am loving this book and now I stumbled upon some great on-line stuff. Definitely going to post a review soon!

Check it out!

My sister is out of town for the weekend and I filled in as Guest Blogger. Check it out here.. Me, Guest Blogger? Really?