Happy Birthday Evernight Teen!

It's Evernight Teen's first birthday and we're having a blog hop to celebrate!

One year ago, ET launched with the publication of Phoenix: The Rising by Bette Maybee. Since then, they've acquired a couple dozen titles, including my book, X5. Many of my fellow authors are participating in this hop, as well as other book bloggers and reviewers, and there are prizes to be had at every turn!

The grand prize being offered by ET is a $100 iTunes gift card. Did you know you can purchase ET's books on iTunes?

In addition, ET is offering 25% off all their books at their website. And there are some amazing books to be had.

For my part, I'm offering a $10 Amazon gift card. Wanna win? Read on!

ET has a Pinterest account and boards for all their books, including mine.  Check it out here. I've selected some pictures and snippets from the book to go with them. For your chance to win, let me know which pic you liked best and why. Don't forget to leave a valid email address otherwise I can't contact you if you win. There are lots of prizes at the other stops and don't forget to use the Rafflecopter to enter for the Grand Prize.

And as a special treat, I've posted the first chapter of X5 under the Free Reads tab above (or just click here).

Happy Hopping!

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Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Teen Reading Week!

Today is Thanksgiving here in Canada, and I'm thankful for so many things!

• a wonderful family
• shelter, food, and a good job
• good friends
• people who bought my book (LOL!)

That's not the entire list of course, but I think I got the most important things. So for my Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving! And for all you Americans, I hope you had a great Columbus Day! 

In other news, it's Teen Read Week!

Teen Read Week™ is a national adolescent literacy initiative created by the Young Adult Library ServicesAssociation (YALSA). It began in 1998 and is held annually during the third week of October. Its purpose is to encourage teens to be regular readers and library users.

Seek the Unknown @ Your Library is Teen Read Week’s theme this year. Explore and learn about the unknown through mystery, adventure, sci-fi, and fantasy books!

Evernight Teen authors are playing a game of hide and seek this week with a fun Scavenger Hunt you can even play in your pajamas!

What’s up for grabs? Evernight is giving away an All-New Kindle Paperwhite eReader randomly chosen from all correct entries!

Plus, three lucky commenters will be randomly chosen to receive $10 Evernight gift certificates!

Ready to play? Click here!
Visit participating authors:

Sasha Hibbs

Bette Maybee

S.X. Bradley

Stephanie Lawton

Trakena Prevost

Diana Stager

Christine Klocek-Lim

Amaris Chapman

Melissa Frost

Going on a Blog Tour!

The lovely folks at Sizzling PR have coordinated a blog tour for me from September 23 - September 30. At each stop you'll find information about my book, plus interviews, guest posts, reviews and more!

And to bribe you to check it out, I'm offering a prize! One lucky winner will receive a signed paperback copy of X5, AND $25 to spend at Amazon, where you could pick up some of the other great offerings from Evernight Teen. They've got a slew of new titles just released or coming soon. 

Below is the schedule. I hope you can stop by! Each of these bloggers has a host of other treats on their blogs that you won't want to miss. Plus, I've got the Rafflecopter below for my awesome giveaway!

23 – Guest Post @ Laura Diamond

23 – Guest Post @ Jessica Tornese

24 – Spotlight @ Indie Author Books and More

24 — Interview @ Self Publish or Die

25 – Spotlight @ The Seraphine Muse

25 — Interview @ Laurie’s Thoughts and Reviews

26 – Spotlight @ New Age Mama

27 – Interview and Review @ Sizzling Hot YA Books

28 — Top ten list @ Kayla’s Place

30 — Spotlight @ Le’ Book Squirrel

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Release Day! Giveaway!

Image from www.freedigitalphotos.net

Well ladies and gentleman, it's finally here!

RELEASE DAY!

I am officially a published author. Hard to believe! And I'm so happy to be able to share this exciting day with you! Well, truthfully, I'm celebrating at a staff meeting and finishing up my classroom for the first day on Tuesday. But I may crack open a bottle of wine tonight! And I'm definitely not cooking!

I wanted to share the celebration, so I'm having a giveaway! A signed print copy of the book is the prize! If you want to enter, all you have to do is answer this simple question by doing a little searching on my blog.

What is the NUMBER (hint, hint) of words from the original manuscript that ended up in this final version? Check out the blog archives on the sidebar to find the entry and then use the Rafflecopter below to submit your answer. Once you've done that, you'll unlock the bonus entries which you can earn by following me and Evernight Teen on Twitter and Facebook.

Oh, and in case you'd like to buy my book, it's available on the Evernight Teen site and Amazon so far. More links to come!

Thanks once again!

Evernight Teen Summer Kick Off Blog Hop

I don't know about you, but I am totally stoked for summer! The last month of school is absolutely crazy, and with my change of school coming up, I have to pack everything I own at school and bring it home. Plus I have to mark a gazillion assignments, write an insane number of report cards, and try not to wander the halls muttering to myself and pulling out my hair. Next Friday cannot come soon enough!

But what to do with this lovely vacation coming up? Well, my first priority is to finish re-writing my book. It's damn hard to be a writer when you've already got a full-time job and a family, so the revision just isn't happening as fast as I'd like it to. I plan to give it my full attention beginning next Saturday, and hopefully it'll be in to the publisher around the middle of the month.

Then what? My To-Be-Read pile has become a teetering pile which is bound to fall on the cat the next time he rubs his face against it. Okay, not really because these days I buy mostly e-books and read them on my phone. They're just so much more portable, and I don't have to throw my back out lugging around a hundred books or more.

Image from www.freedigitalphotos.net

So what's at the top of my list? Kelley Armstrong. The final book in her Darkness Rising trilogy was released in April and I haven't read it yet. *hangs head in shame* I'm a bad fan. But I wanted to reread the first two books, and I couldn't find my copy of the first one, so I tried to borrow it from the school library, but someone already had it so I had to wait... Well, you get the picture.

Also taking up space in the TBR pile are the books by my fellow Evernight Teen authors. I've already read Elysium by Sylah Sloan, and Phoenix: The Rising by Bette Maybee, both of which I strongly recommend. I've begun Shrapnel by Stephanie Lawton but haven't had time to finish it yet. I own all the other books currently in the ET line-up and I'm getting anxious to finally have time to read them!

What's in your summer reading pile? I'd love to hear some recommendations, and as a reward, I will give one lucky commenter a $10 gift card to Evernight Teen! If you want, you can hang onto it until my book comes out, but if you're anything like me and desperate to spend anything you get, you can use it to pick up one or two of the fabulous books written by my colleagues.

But wait! There's more!

• One lucky hopper will win a KINDLE PAPERWHITE eREADER sponsored by Evernight Teen!
• Every book blogger/reviewer site is giving away one free eBook from Evernight Teen (winner's choice of any eBook from Evernight Teen's website).
• Each author offers their own unique prize! So visit each blog hop stop for a host of fabulous prizes to win. You may even find some exciting excerpts from my book at a few of them!

Be sure to leave your answer and your email address in the comments below to be eligible to win a prize, then continue hopping to the next stop!

Happy Reading!

The Fallen Stars Book Tour

Today I'm featuring The Fallen Stars by Stephanie Keyes. Check it out! There's even a giveaway you can enter for some cool swag!

The Fallen Stars (The Star Child #2)

by Stephanie Keyes

Paperback, 530 pages| Expected publication: April 12th 2013 by Inkspell Publishing

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository | Trailer | Add to Goodreads

When all is lost, he will have to make the ultimate decision.

Kellen St. James was just your average seventeen-year-old prodigy, until he eighty-sixed the Lord of Faerie and proposed to the Celtic Goddess, Calienta. But then everything in Kellen’s life gets turned upside-down when he and Cali end up on the run from a seriously irritated group of faeries. The worst part? They have zero idea why they’re being hunted.

Suddenly, Kellen is stuck in the middle of another prophecy that foresees him turning away from Calienta and embracing the dark. He’ll be forced to take sides in a struggle to claim his birthright, while discovering secrets about his father’s past. Meanwhile, his passion for Cali grows stronger, even as the prophecy threatens to tear them apart.

In the end, will Kellen and Cali survive the fates? When the ultimate power is within reach, which side will he choose?

Also available: The Star Child (The Star Child, Book #1)

Playlist

Song: Into the Fire (Acoustic)
Artist: Thirteen Senses
Inspired: Kellen learns that Calienta has been keeping secrets from him - one big secret that could put him in danger. Calienta searches the Stewart home to find Kellen and apologize. This new version of their original theme song seems to suit the moment well. The video is a fan-made one, but the audio quality is great and so are some of the band pics.

Giveaway

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Follow the Tour

Want to know where the tour is heading next? Check out the entire schedule here! Click to view the schedule.

About the Author

Stephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. When she's not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she's best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years.
Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child (September 2012) and The Fallen Stars (April 2013), both released by Inkspell Publishing. She is currently hard at work on the third book in the trilogy, The Star Catcher. (Author photo courtesy of Kristina Serafini Photography)
Follow @StephanieKeyes

Evernight Teen Valentine's Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome to my first ever Blog Hop!

I have to confess, I have no idea what I'm doing, but here goes:

Romance. Sigh....

It's great when you have it, and not so much when you don't. But I think the enormous popularity of romance novels speaks to our desire for it. Everyone wants to feel needed, like they belong to a part of something more than themselves. In my book, X5 (the main character) has grown up in a Bunker. He was raised with other children, but not as part of a family unit. Imagine growing up in a hospital, with no parents or anyone to show you affection. Not fun. He wants more, and really, who wouldn't?

In the Bunker, relationships are arranged, and purely for the purpose of breeding. X5 is supposed to be mated to A7, but he wonders what it would be like to actually choose the person he's going to be with. He's heard about love, but having never experienced it, wonders what it might feel like.

My book isn't primarily a romance. But it does have romantic elements. And I'm not going to say any more because I can't give it all away! I'm posting the blurb for my upcoming book, X5: Genesis below.

And I've got a PRIZE! A $5 giftcard to Amazon.com! And Evernight Teen is offering a fantastic prize - $$ to use on their website for books from my fellow authors. For my contest, please use the Rafflecopter entry. To enter the Evernight giveaway, post a comment below and answer this question: Who is the hero of the book? I look forward to hearing from you!

Don't forget to check out the other authors from Evernight Teen (links are under the Rafflecopter) who are participating in this Blog Hop. Every comment on their blogs also earns you an entry to the main giveaway, plus they are offering prizes as well! Happy hopping!


X5: Genesis

More than 130 years after a meteor devastated the planet, twenty-five percent of the population is left to rebuild. Among the survivors is a group known as The Consortium. To further their own agenda, they’ve built a top secret Bunker deep within the Colorado Rockies to breed and raise children with psychic gifts, and use those powers for their own gain.

X5, a seventeen year old boy who lives in The Bunker, has a vision of himself covered in blood and running through a forest with A7, the girl who is supposed to be his mate. And when A7 tells him she had a vision of him being killed, he knows they’re in trouble. Their only choice is to run. X5 and A7 have lived their whole lives in The Bunker and know nothing of the outside world. With the Consortium out to get them back, they have to learn quick or their visions will become reality. 

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