Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Young Adult Scavenger Hunt



Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in our team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are THREE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! We are part of the TEAL TEAM--



but there are also teams of many different colors for chances to win whole different sets of twenty signed books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage. 

Scavenger Hunt Puzzle

Directions: Below, you'll notice that we've listed our favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the teal team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!).

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 3, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.


Scavenger Hunt Post

Today, we are hosting Wendy Higgins for the YA Scavenger Hunt! We are super thrilled about this because we are HUGE fans of Wendy's work! (Cynthia's personal favorite is her book about--wait for it--hot leprechauns, SEE ME. But seriously, that book is AH-MAZING! We can't wait to read her newest, THE GREAT HUNT!)

Here's some information about Wendy:


Wendy Higgins is the USA Today and NY Times bestselling author of the SWEET EVIL series from HarperTeen, the high fantasy duology THE GREAT HUNT, and her independently published Irish Fantasy SEE ME.

After earning a Creative Writing degree from George Mason University and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford, Wendy taught high school English until achieving her dream job as a full-time writer. She now lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with her family.

Find out more information by checking out Wendy's website!

Check out Wendy's books here!

And here's a peek at the gorgeous cover of her new book: *drools*




Wendy Higgins reimagines a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale with The Great Hunt, a dramatic, romance-filled fantasy with rugged hunters, romantic tension, and a princess willing to risk all to save her kingdom.

When a monstrous beast attacks in Eurona, desperate measures must be taken. The king sends a proclamation to the best and bravest hunters: whoever kills the creature will win the hand of his daughter Princess Aerity as a reward. The princess recognizes her duty but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger—she was meant to marry for love—until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. And while there’s no denying the fiery chemistry between them, Princess Aerity feels that Paxton’s mysteriousness is foreboding, maybe even dangerous.



Exclusive Content -



Here's the exclusive content that Wendy sent over just for you:


An Abridged Version of Chapter One with Pictures from the Vantage Point of the Great Beast

Wendy Higgins lives on the eastern shore of Virginia, on a peninsula nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The forests and waterways of the eastern shore provided much inspiration for her newest book, The Great Hunt. Wendy has pieced together bits from the first chapter and combined them with pictures she took herself. This is how she imagined the beast’s slow approach of Wyneth and Breckon as they shared a seemingly private intimate moment on the royal docks.


A late summer breeze blew warm over the deep and wide Lanach Creek.

Moonlight caught the shock of Wyneth’s red-orange curls as she let her fiancĂ©, Breckon, lay her back on the end of the dock.
Another breeze crested down the creek from the nearby sea, but the couple’s combined heat warded them against it.

She pulled his face to hers again, feeling brazen and greedy for his soft lips. She hated when he left for the sea; it always filled her with a pang of worry and longing. Wyneth urged Breckon closer.
A rustle sounded from the nearby dark woods. The couple stilled, listening.
The noise came again like a crackle of dead leaves and brush. Definite movement. In a rush, they sat up.
“Do you think someone’s spying?” Wyneth whispered.
“No.” Breckon shook his head, a lock of hair falling across his worried brow. “It’s most likely a deer.” But to Wyneth’s ear, he didn’t sound so sure.

Another abrasive rustle rom the trees caused them to break away again. They both stood.
In the darkness, a large shadow moved within the mossy trees as they swayed. Wyneth grabbed Breckon’s arm, and he stared intently into the trees. His dagger, which she hadn’t seen him unsheathe, glinted in the moonlight.
“Who’s there?” Breckon called. “Show yourself!”
The trees stilled. Even the bugs and frogs stopped their chatter. It was too quiet. Wyneth’s heartbeat quickened.
Just as Breckon was about to sheathe his dagger, a deep snort sounded from the trees.
“Stay here,” Breckon ordered. “I’m going to scare it off.”
“No!” She grabbed for his hand and he kissed her forehead, gently prying himself away.
Before he could take two steps from her, the dark shadow in the trees resolved itself into a gigantic creature on the sandy walkway.

It was taller than any man, standing on its hind legs. Wyneth questioned her own sanity as she stared in disbelief. Its body was massive, the size of a bear, with wiry hair like nothing she’d ever seen. Its face was as ugly as a boar’s. Tusks curled up around a dripping snout, sharp teeth shining.
The long length of the dock separated them from the thing, but it was not far enough for her. Not nearly far enough.

The great beast let out a roar, forcing a startled scream from Wyneth. Breckon bit out a curse. The thing charged down the dock; she felt the heaviness shake the wood beneath her feet with each landing.
Breckon had no plans to run from the beast. He grasped Wyneth’s waist and push her backward with all his might. She felt herself flying through the air off the dock, all breath leaving her lungs as her body submerged with a crash into the cold water.
When her wet face hit the air and she gasped for breath, it only took a moment for her to turn toward the growling sounds and see the monster reach for Breckon, towering over him.
Skies above! “Breck!”
“Swim!” He angled himself to avoid the beast’s mouth. “Get help!”
Wyneth snapped from her fear-induced stupor and the instinct of flight kicked in. She couldn’t fight this thing with Breckon, but she could do what he’d commanded: get help. She turned and swam with all her might.

After swimming nearly a hundred yards, her body was numb when she reached the dock on the other side of the creek. She pulled herself up, panting for air and cursing her wet, heavy garments. Her eyes scanned the water, but it moved at the same calm, slow speed as always. Then she allowed her eyes to seek out the dock beyond…

To find out what happens, please check out The Great Hunt!


Enter the Contest

And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books and more! To enter, you need to know that our favorite number is 3. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the teal team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

Continue the Hunt

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author! Click here!


Enter The Extra ARC Giveaway

In honor of this special event, we're going to give away 1 extra ARC of MY LADY JANE. Just follow the directions in the rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Giveaway winner and MY LADY JANE blog tour sign-up!

Greetings!

We have two things for you today: the winner of our giveaway, and a sign-up form for the blog tour.

So, first thing:

We really (really really really) enjoyed reading about whose history you'd rewrite. There were so many thoughtful, clever ideas! So we sat down and wrote books about all the historical figures you named.

Kidding. We only had time for half.

Kidding kidding. We promised you a giveaway, and a giveaway you shall have.

We picked a winner through a highly sophisticated process of random selection. First, we hired a random expert. Then, we endured an hour-long lecture on the life-cycle of ants. At that point, we realized the ad we'd placed looking for a "random expert" had not given us an expert in randomness, but an actual random expert. So we made the random expert choose a winner.

And the winner is . . .

. . . drumroll . . .

AILA! From One Way or an Author.

Aila, send us an email at ladyjanies@gmail.com with your address and we'll make sure a book reaches you!



And now for our next order of business -- the blog tour sign-up form!

The incredible Alexa from Alexa Loves Books is running this thing, so you have to do whatever she says.

Here's the form!

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Wanna Change History and Maybe Win a MY LADY JANE arc?

Do you ever wish you could go back in time and change something? Make a different decision? Choose a different door? Take the blue pill?

Well, that's the beauty of being authors. We CAN go back in time and fix stuff! (No, we can't). Because we have the power to alter reality! (No, we don't).  And the space time continuum means nothing to us! (Actually, it means everything).

So, armed with this magical power (a placebo) we decided to give one of our favorite heroines a second chance. Lady Jane Grey was smart and studious and a humanist and she definitely didn't deserve to be queen-for-nine-days-and-then-imprisoned-and-later-beheaded.

In March of 2015, we enabled our tesseract and created a wrinkle in time so we could travel back centuries to the mid 1500's. (We really just turned on our computers and started typing). And before you could say, "I'm Henry the 8th I am, Henry the 8th I am I am," we resurrected Lady Jane Grey. (No we didn't. We aren't gods). Pretty soon, she had the happy ending she truly deserved in our book MY LADY JANE.

So, dear readers, we would like to turn the tables and ask you: who in history do you think deserves a revised story? (We reserve the right to use your ideas to write our next book.) (Kidding. We would never.) (But maybe we will.)

Leave a comment with your idea and you will be entered to win a MY LADY JANE arc!

(Open to U.S. addresses only. Cuz our publisher can only ship to the U.S.)