My Three Favorite Sentences from the #3ARCs contest! And my scenario for one of them...

I had my nieces choose the winners of the #3arcs contest. Since I knew some of the contestants (either personally or through the interwebz), I didn't want my biases to influence any decisions. 

Here are their favorite tweets using the words SLIDE, GLIMMER and EVER. 

1. from @ashliepants

SLIDE secrets to ears that can't EVER tell, just because the moon GLIMMERS doesn't mean all is well...

2. from @LisaAldin

As I SLIDE my blood-crusted hands from the cuffs, a GLIMMER of light appears under the door, and I wonder if this game will EVER end. 

3. from @woven_

As she let the coin SLIDE from her palm into the GLIMMERing fountain, she knew she wanted this with to come true more than EVER.

I think my nieces did a fantastic job picking the winners. You should've seen them last night poring over the entries. They took their task very seriously.

WINNERS: Please email me your mailing addresses! brodiashton at gmail dot com 

You will receive a 3-ARC prize pack of SLIDE, GLIMMER and EVERNEATH! 

It's hard to imagine a time when anyone would utter those sentences, so I came up with my own scenarios.

For #1:

A man stands by a pond that reflects the moonlight, thinking the toil of his life. Two years ago, a witch cast a spell upon the man, cursing him to speak only in cryptic rhymes. 

A beautiful woman approaches. She has been searching for the man her entire life. "Please, tell me what I need to do to break the curse. Please!"

The man replies, "SLIDE secrets to ears that can't EVER tell, just because the moon GLIMMERS doesn't mean all is well..."

The woman grunts in frustration. 

I'll let you come up with scenarios for the other two. Please feel free to share! 

So... how's everyone doing? I'm armpit deep in revisions, with only my blog readers to tell me whether it's sunny or snowy outside. So tell me.

Highlights of the Paranormal Ball, and your chance to win an autographed book

If you haven't yet entered to win 3ARCs, check it out here

On to the post:

You know how you go to host a paranormal ball, and you think you look like this:

But really you look like this?

That happened a lot. 

I thought I looked like this all night:

But after seeing so many pictures tagged on Facebook, I realize I looked like this all night:

Despite the fact that I looked like a drunken, rotund angel whose wings couldn't have lifted her an inch off the ground, we had a great time. 

It was the first year they had Young Adult authors at the Vegas Valley Book Festival, and the fabulous Crystal Perkins was able to get an excellent roster of authors!

Who wants to take a crack at naming them all? I'll name a few: Daisy Whitney, Lisa Schroeder, Becca Fitzpatrick, Lindsey Leavitt, Heather Davis, Rachel Hawkins, Suzanne Young, James Dashner, Jay Asher, Bree Despain, Emily Wing Smith... and many many more. 

I would name them all, or at least provide links to their websites, but I'm under deadline and that would require a lot of extra typing. 

The day started with a paranormal panel of authors, moderated by about the funniest person I've ever met, Rachel Hawkins (Hex Hall, Demon Glass)

l-r: Rachel Hawkins, Veronica Wolff, Becca Fitzpatrick, Rachel Caine, Bree Despain, James Dashner, Sophie Jordan, Tera Lynn Childs

One interesting tidbit that came out of the panel was that at least two of the participants had applied to the CIA. Can you guess which ones? There's a signed book in it for you... More about that at the end of the post.

The Festival ended with the Paranormal Ball, where I was happy to report that nearly everyone (except James Dashner) dressed up. 

See if you can recognize your favorite authors:

Suzanne Young, Rachel Hawkins and Lisa Schroeder

Lindsey Leavitt, getting into the whole Zombie Princess facial expression

Bree Despain, Becca Fitzpatrick, Lindsey Leavitt, Emily Wing Smith

And here's the whole group:

Bunch-O-Authors

I had a fabulous time, and I hope it becomes a yearly tradition. Who's with me? For a yearly pilgrimage to Vegas forthwith?

And can anyone guess which two authors applied to the CIA? I'll take guesses in the comments until 5 this afternoon (MST), when I'll reveal the answer. Whoever had the correct answer first will win an autographed copy of Rachel Hawkins' DEMON GLASS, the sequel to Hex Hall. 

I won't give anything away about the book except to say... the cat did it. 

Good luck!

Win a Package of Three ARCs: SLIDE, GLIMMER AND EVERNEATH

Hey y'all! Vegas was so fun, but it's very good to be back home. 

Here's a pic of me, Bree Despain and Emily Wing Smith in our costumes at the Paranormal Ball:

The wings are on our shoulders. So really, if we were to fly, it would resemble a tree falling. And if no one was there to see it, would it make a sound?

I'll blog more about Vegas on Wednesday, because today I have an exciting (EXCITING!) thingee!!! HarperCollins is giving away packages of three ARCs, including SLIDE by Jill Hathaway, GLIMMER by Phoebe Kitanidis, and EVERNEATH by... this girl. 

Here's what you do. 

1. Go on over to the Twitter, and create a sentence that creatively uses the words SLIDE, GLIMMER AND EVER. 

2. Include the hashtag #3ARCS. (This is very important)

3. Tweet away! 

Each author will pick our three favorites, according to my very strict criteria (which is: how much I like it) and each favorite will win all 3 ARCs!!! If you do the math:

=9 Packages of ARCs!

And if you do some more math, you'll find that the total equals 27 ARCs!

The contest will run for a week, and will end on November 13th at Midnight. 

So, go forth and create! Sentences, that is...

p.s. Just because you're going over to twitter doesn't mean you shouldn't comment on my blog.

 

Learn some EVERNEATH trivia, and win some EVERNEATH swag

So, awesome blogger Windy set up a local ARC tour for EVERNEATH where reviewers could get a chance to read it and post their reviews.

Today, the first review is up over at Sara B. Larson's blog. You can check it out here.  Sara is also a writer, and her blog is definitely one you should check out. (That previous sentence was so awkward, what with the preposition at the end and all...)

I'm feeling pensive today. Exactly one year ago yesterday, my awesome agent Michael submitted EVERNEATH to several publishing houses. And exactly one year ago tomorrow, my editor Kristin Daly Rens (KDR) from Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins bought it.  

So I've been reflecting on the journey. Here it is by the numbers:

11 months to write the book

4 Major Revisions with my editor. 2 with my agent.

20,000 words added after KDR bought it.

1 apostrophe removed (the original title was EVER'NEATH. The title before that was The Underneath. The title before that was Broken.) Added trivia: Bree Despain came up with the title EVER'NEATH.

5 foreign rights sold (U.K., Australia, Brazil, France, Germany)

1 sequel written

1 main character name change (Nikki's name was originally Nicole. It took me several months before I realized the two MC's were "Cole" and "Nicole". Seriously, Brodi?)

1 EVERNEATH quiz written. Do you go for the "Bad Boy" or the "Good Guy"? Soon you'll be able to take a quiz and find out. 

3,320 people who have signed up on Goodreads to read EVERNEATH. So Far. (Okay, that number is just crazy)

1 side character name change. Nikki works at the soup kitchen with a guy who was originally named Joel. There wasn't a problem until Nikki introduced Joel to her bffs Jack and Jules. "Jack, Jules, this is Joel. Joel, this is Jack and Jules." Can you spot the problem? So Joel became Christopher.  

I knew I had something with this book because Emily Wing Smith read the entire thing, and she normally doesn't like to read Paranormal.

After I got my agent Michael, we decided to change the ending of the book dramatically and turn it into a series.

Now for the fun part. Would you like a chance to win an EVERNEATH guitar pick necklace?

Here's what you do. Make sure you are a fan of the EVERNEATH Facebook Page. 

Next, study this blog post. Over the next few days, I'm going to be asking questions based on this EVERNEATH trivia. I'll post the question on the Everneath Facebook Page. The first three people to answer the question correctly in the comments under the question will get a necklace! It's easy!

Want another entry to win two necklaces plus a signed copy of Emily Wing Smith's BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE? 

Tweet about the contest!

Something like:

Wanna win some EVERNEATH swag? Check out @brodiashton 's blog post on EVERNEATH trivia. http://tinyurl.com/3ura7cz

Then let me know you tweeted about it in the comments of this post. You'll get an entry to win two necklaces (there are two types: one with the band and one with the cover) and the signed book.

What do you think? Fun? Boring? Totally awesome?

*I think I might have to limit it to the U.S.