I have TWO author-type events on this coming Tuesday. My FIRST two author-type events.
I’m not nervous (she says with a laugh that fools no one). I’m wicked excited (this is actually true).
I give good hugs (feel free to request/demand/prepare yourself to receive one).
If you’re going to be at BEA, I hope the Apocalypsie Mix & Mingle has made your schedule! Do you see all the amazing covers below? The amazing authors whose stories live behind them will ALL be there for your mix & mingling pleasure.
And then, after you’ve mixed & mingled (and grabbed something to eat) I hope you plan to zip over to the Jefferson Market Library for the Teen Author Carnival. Check out these panels.
Let’s all take a moment to pretend I won’t be too busy grinning like a fool to contribute to the conversation… actually, that’s not true. I’m too chatterboxy to stay quiet.
At both locations I’ll have plenty of Send Me A Sign swag and hugs to go around.
If the contest had been a spelling list, I’d now be required to use all your words in sentences or a story. That would be a horrendous homework assignment and a VERY LONG spelling list. And, there is less than zero percent chance that I would have gotten the spelling of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobiaor pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis or floccinaucinihilipilification correct. But I guess when there’s 100+ words on the list (and awesomesauce is on there three times), it wouldn’t have hurt my score too badly to skip some of your zanier choices š
Thank you all for stopping by, entering the race, and sharing your favorite words with me. You are ALL YAmazing.
But there can only be one winner of the YAmazing Race SEND ME A SIGN bonus contest and that person is…
*mentally insert drumroll here*
— I guess “rediculous” is not only adorably adorable, it’s also lucky! Congrats, Desiree! Ā Also!!! Did you see my BIG NEWS from last week? Did you know BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE is already up on GoodReads? It think it would very much like to visit your To-Read shelf…
Hello! Thanks for making it to the Send Me a Sign pit-stop on the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes! Since I’m not the first stop on the Exploding Flamingos, you probably know the drill by now — This is a blog hop featuring a zillionty debut authors. We’re giving away prize packs stuffed with ARCs, gift certificates, and all sorts of swag.
If you’ve stumbled on this post and are feeling a little lost — skedaddle over to the Apocalypsie websitewhere you’ll find some helpful directions and links to the beginning.
Send Me a Sign by Tiffany SchmidtĀ
Mia Moore has spent her entire life looking for signs. A sign that she should get serious with her soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that sheāll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. A sign that the summer before senior year will be the best one ever.
But when Mia is diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, the only sign she wants to see is that she will survive cancer. That she will get through a summer of intensive chemo and be able to go back to being the girl sheās always beenātop student, part of the A-list crowd, and dating Ryan, the hottest guy at school.
And until sheās betterāmeaning no throwing up, no hospital stays, and definitely no wigāMia doesnāt want anyone to know she has cancer. She doesnāt want her friendsā pity. And she certainly doesnāt want to start feeling something more than friendship for the one person who does know what sheās going through, her best friend Gyver. But the sicker Mia gets, the more she realizes that not even the clearest signs offer perfect answers, and in order to find out what happens in her life, she will have to find the courage to live it.
Done? I know your brain is packed full from all the YAmazing/MGnificent Exploding Flamingo bookstops you visited before mine — but I hope you paid attention, because you’ll need to know a factoid from the synopsis above to answer the quiz and enter to win the prize packs.
Wait! Want more chances to win stuff? Since you’re here and everything, I might as well offer you an incentive to stay… or at least come back and visit.
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to enter to win a pre-order of Send Me a Sign.
Sayonara Ā As much as I hate for you to leave *sniffle* there’s more YAmazingness in store for you. Click HEREto go visit Ellie Rollins on the next stop on the Exploding Flamingo tour.
You may have noticed that I didnāt give my Best Book Ever on the contest page, but since I made you share yours, it would only be fair if I agonized over my own.
Since this is my blog, Iām not limiting myself to one. (I notice many of you didnāt limit yourselves to one eitherāI approve of this mini-rebellion!)
You may also notice that almost every single book that appears on my list was mentioned in the comments. Thatās because my blog readers have excellent taste.
This isnāt a rankingānarrowing it down to ten was hard enough without ranking them. And if you asked me the same question tomorrow, Iād probably come up with a different list, but AS OF THIS VERY MINUTE, my Best Books Ever are:
1) All of Austen. (My favorite changes daily. Usually itās Emma. Or Pride & Prejudice) 2) The Truth About Forever ā Sarah Dessen 3) Hunger Games āSuzanne Collins 4) Little Women ā Louisa May Alcott 5) Anna & The French Kiss ā Stephanie Perkins 6) The Archived ā Victoria Schwab * 7) Drums, Girls, Dangerous Pie āJordan Sonnenblick 8) Matilda ā Roald Dahl 9) Anne of Green Gables ā Lucy Maud Montgomery 10) Dairy Queen ā Catherine Gilbert Murdock
*Yes, Iām a big, teasing, meanie. You all canāt read this until 1/13. But it is FABULOUS.
But you didnāt come here for reading recommendations (though, itās not a bad consolation prize if you didnāt win) ā without further delay, the winner of the SEND ME A SIGN pre-order and bracelet is:
How many times have I described a book as The Best Book Ever?**
A lot.
Even more frequently since I’ve joined Short & Sweet Reviews‘ weekly blog feature of the same name.
I’ve loved participating in this every Thursday. And I’ve loved getting to know the wonderful bloggers at Short &Sweet Reviews as well as the others who share their book picks.
A related benefit is getting fabulous book recommendations every week.
Anyway — this is a long winded way to say: Their blog is turning ONE this week and I’m helping them celebrate.
For MORE sweet giveaways, head over to Short &Sweet reviews — and don’t forget to write down my codeword: LUCKY.***
* I’ll totally admit that I’ve been dying to order a copy and this is a great excuse **Ā Maybe someday if I’m really lucky, someone will say these words about Send Me A Sign (Yes, I am this sappy, deal with it!) *** This contest is U.S. only. Sorry! **** GOOD LUCK
Thank you to everyone who made revealing SEND ME A SIGNās cover so much funāhaving a book cover is something Iāve dreamed about for forever, and this is finally starting to feel pinch-me real. Iāve spent the past week dancing around singing versions of they like it, they like it, they really, really like it.
*blows kisses & dandelion seeds*
Iām still waiting on some of my swag to arriveā itāll be worth the wait, but it means I wonāt be mailing out the swag packs for a couple of weeks. Iāll be emailing later today to request mailing addresses, so make sure to check your inboxes.
Sidenote: Iāve decided EVERYONE who enters gets a swag pack, because you are ALL simply amazing.
I wish I could send everyone else a bracelet too ā and I will be doing some more giveaways ā but if you love them and need one now (and I hear book-cover-bracelets are poised to be the Next Big Trend), you can order one from the artist by clicking here.
And JUST IN CASE you havenāt had enough time staring at my cover-prettiness, here it is again!
When I was a wee little implette, I was the child who made you stop and admire her shoes, or cluck over her band-aid, or examine the worm crawling across the driveway.
Look! was one of my first words, and I used it frequently.
Iāve been using it a lot today too ā becauseā¦
Do you love it? I do! It captures the wistful whimsy so well. And with all of Miaās superstitions, I can make lists and lists of the wishes sheād make if that dandelion were in her hands.
Today my only wish is that you like the cover as much as I do! And that you enter my contest, of course.
Iām giving away
200 signed Send Me A Sign Bookmarks 50 *surprise* āluckyā swag packs 3 ā Send Me A Sign bracelets.
To enter, please fill out the form below. You can earn extra entries by tweeting about the cover, liking my Facebook page, or adding the book to your GoodReads account.
This contest is open to North America only (sorry!) but feel free to cover-gush no matter where you live.
No, not with St.Matt ā though we’ll be going out tonight to celebrate.
This is a date YEARS in the making. Years and so many pages and hours and words.
It’s my RELEASE DATE.
READY? (and, by ready, I mean: do you have your calendar out and pen uncapped? Or, more likely, do you have your calendar app open and your thumbs poised to type?).
Sounds like a pretty good date, doesn’t it?
*Things that make it even better? I get to share a release date with one of best friends in the world ā Emily Hainsworth.
** Info on release parties and such will be forthcoming, but, seriously we’ve got some time. Even uber-planners like me don’t have all the details hammered out 37 weeks early. ***If you don’t want to miss any updates, make sure you *Like* my Facebook pageĀ ****Shamrock border from: http://imagesbyheatherm.wordpress.com/tag/shamrock/
I was lucky enough to spend the moment 2011 gave way to 2012 at a wedding surrounded by friends and in formal wear. I’d almost, almost made it to 12 o’clock in my heels.
But when the countdown hit one and people cheered and toasted and kissed, the moment felt extra, extra exciting. And not just because of St.Matt’s midnight kiss.
It’s 2012.
Twenty-twelve!*
SEND ME A SIGN comes out in October 2012. So, this means it’s FINALLY my publication year.Ā How could that not add an extra sizzle to the ball-drop countdown?
Yesterday, when The Schmidtlets woke us up after not nearly enough sleepā5 a.m., really? Couldn’t they tell we only got to bed at 2?āI had anotherĀ moment of IT’S MY YEAR.
In which The Wild Imp says: Who needs sleep? And check out my cute Apocalypsie shirt? Auntie Em gave it to me.
I know that realistically, 1/1/2012 is only ONE day nearer to October than 12/31/2011, but it feels so much closer. And I’ve always valued feelings more than facts.**
So, Happy Twenty-Twelve!
And while you’re waiting for October, do what I plan to do ā keep yourself distracted by reading fabulous books by all the other Apocalypsies.
In which The Pip Squeak says: Go read Apocalypsie books RIGHT NOW!
What a fabulous year it’s going to be!
In which The Schmidtlets demonstrate how 2012 has shoved 2011 out of the way and The Wild Imp goes splat.
*This is what we’ve agreed to call it, right? Not Two Thousand and Twelve? **Much to the dismay of my sainted engineer.
For someone who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid, and can’t clap to a beat for more than two consecutive claps, I’ve spent a lot of my life focusing on music lately.
First, the Schmidtlets and I joined a baby music class. They love it. The Wild Imp crawls all over the place, singing each new song with aĀ new mom. (Thank you, other moms, for allowing him in your laps and hearts).Ā The Pip Squeak, on the other hand, starts every class by clutching my shirt in both his chubby little fits.Ā A few songs in, he’ll pat my arm or leg along with the beat. A few more songs and he’s clapping.Ā By the end of last class he even crawled half the distance between me and our lovely teacherā¦ but then he looked over his shoulder, panicked, and scrambled back into my lap.
Second, my lyric permissions for SEND ME A SIGN seem to be (finally) falling into place. I sent my signed contract for one song back this morning and am just waiting on the final copyright wording for the other. What songs are they? I’m not telling yet. Maybe soon, but not yet ā I don’t want to jinx anything!
Third, SEND ME A SIGN copyedits are coming any day now. And I know of no better way to get back into Mia’s head than to listen to the SEND ME A SIGN playlists.
Here’s a playlist peek for YOU:
Ā
ā it’s from wayyy back in my college years, anyone recognize it? I love the lyrics. Be VERY glad you’re not here with me right now, because then you’d have to hear me sing along. (Sorry, Schmidtlets!)
Here, you can be anything. And I think that scares you…
