Are you going?
I am! I hope I see you there!
Here is my schedule:




COMIC CON SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, 10 am
Love in the Time of YA PANEL
Room: 32AB
With: Kami Garcia, Andrea Cremer, Brenna Yovanoff, Amy Tintera, Kate Elliott, and Alexandra Bracken
Autographing to follow at 12pm, Area #AA 09
 
FRIDAY, 2 pm
It’s the End of the … Series (as we know it) PANEL
Room: 29AB
With: Alexandra Bracken, Marissa Meyer, Kami Garcia
 
SATURDAY, 10:30 am                           
Facebook LIVE Interview from the Comic Con Exhibit Hall. Watch at Fierce Reads Facebook Page
 
SATURDAY, 11 am
Signing at Macmillan Booth # 1117

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 signed book from each author on the hunt in my 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 SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GREEN TEAM--but there is also a red team, a gold team, an orange team, a red team, and an indie team for a chance to win a whole different set of 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 tothe YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the green 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 OCTOBER 5, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Today as part of the YA Scavenger Hunt, I am hosting
an amazingly talented author!  

Welcome to Kay Honeyman . . .

Author of THE FIRE HORSE GIRL!

"Breathtaking danger at every turn."
--Booklist *starred review*

Here's the delicious scoop on this beauty of a book.

Jade Moon is a Fire Horse — the worst sign in the Chinese zodiac for girls, said to make them stubborn, reckless, and far too headstrong. While her family despairs of marrying her off, she dreams of traveling far beyond her tiny village, living out a story as big as her imagination.

Then a young man named Sterling Promise offers Jade Moon and her father an incredible opportunity: the chance to go to America. As they travel, Sterling Promise’s smooth manners and Jade Moon’s impulsive nature strike sparks again and again. But America in 1923 doesn’t welcome Chinese immigrants, and when they are detained at Angel Island — the so-called “Ellis Island of the West” — Jade Moon uncovers a betrayal that destroys all her dreams. To get into America, much less survive there, she will have to use every bit of her stubbornness and strength to break a new path . . . one so brave and dangerous that only a Fire Horse girl could imagine it.

And now, here's an EXCLUSIVE  fun look at the evolution of Kay's first page
of The Fire Horse Girl. Writers take note!

     

     Kay Honeyman writes, teaches, and eats entirely too much
guacamole in Dallas, TX. Her first novel, THE FIRE HORSE GIRL (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic) came out in 2013. FIRE HORSE GIRL was chosen for the 2014 TAYSHA list and a Parents' Choice Gold Award.
    Her next book INTERFERENCE is scheduled to be released in Fall 2016.  You can connect with Kay on Twitter (@kayhoneyman) or on Facebook. For more information visit her website!

Kay's book sounds completely awesome.  I hope you win it! 
But you can also Buy The Fire Horse Girl  HERE

And now, just 2 make your hunt more fun--and maybe fruitful--I am adding an extra giveaway right here! 

Yes, a prize package that includes a signed copy of The Kiss of Deception, a signed bookmark, and the beautiful map poster. This is open to international entries too!

So enter here . . .

All right, now it's time for your next
Green Team stop on the scavenger hunt!
Go to:  Lawrence Tabak

Good luck!!

And just in case you missed it above, by secret code number is 2!

 To enter the contest for a chance to win the prize of signed books, you need to know that my favorite number is 2. Add up all the favorite clue numbers of the authors on the Green Team and you’ll have the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

The Decatur Book Festival is coming this weekend!

I'll be there speaking on a panel along with the very awesome Leigh Bardugo, Jessica Brody, and Emmy Laybourne! Woo-ha! I'm excited!  And so many other teen authors will be there too! It's going to be a blast!

And of course I will see YOU there too!  Right?!  I hope so!

Our panel is on Sunday on the Teen Stage at 3:00.  Lots of fun, books, swag, (and maybe, ahem, we'll spill a secret or two)  See you then!

Getting ready to shove off for ALA, but before I do . . .

I've been tagged by Alyson Noel!
Alyson is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of not one, but three amazing series—The Immortals, Soul Seekers, and Riley Bloom-- plus several standalones, plus a spanking new series she's working on, Unrivaled, (yes, I am in awe of her talents) and she's tagged me in a Blog Roll where writers share a little about their work and writing process. I always love to hear how other writers approach writing. Here are my responses:

  1.      WHAT AM I WORKING ON –

I’m currently being torn in fifty different directions, which is the usual state when you have one book coming out, and another you’re trying to put to bed.  I’ve been doing quite a bit of blog writing and interviews for the imminent pub day of The Kiss of Deception.  At the same time, my revisions for the second book, The Heart of Betrayal are almost due. Throw in a little travel and I am working on juggling! It's a tricky part of the process. I haven’t dropped a ball—yet.
Oh wait, what's that rolling away . . .

2.      HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?

Well to say too much would be spoilerish, but I had one reviewer call The Kiss of Deception, genre-bending, which I think is an accurate way of saying, my work doesn’t necessarily fit into one category of fiction. I write the story I want to write, without regard to genre.  Really though, I think every writer’s work stands out in one way or another, because they tell the story the way only they can.  Every voice and perspective is different even within a genre.

3.      WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?

A character, an idea, a voice, a premise—something grabs hold of me and doesn’t let go. I have to write about it. Writing is a journey for me, as much as it is for the reader. It makes me think, wonder, ponder, and explore all kinds of things. I answer questions for myself, and I discover new ones I  didn't even know existed. While I stick to a teen perspective, the books I write have been all over the map--from contemporary realism, magical realism, romance, and science fiction, to fantasy. It's the character and premise that decides the genre, not me.

4. HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?

 My process is always evolving. I’m a writing craft junky and I can never resist hearing how another writer does it.  I usually have at least half a dozen “scenes” in my head when I begin, but I’m not always sure how they will fit together or if they will even all make it into the story. I will kind of sketch out a beginning, middlish, and an end, and other scenes fall into place as I write, but sometimes a character or idea throws me a curve and scenes get thrown out and new ones develop.  Post it notes for scenes on a big board are very helpful for me. No matter what my process though, the time-honored BIC, butt-in-chair, is what saves the day. I live and die by daily word counts. To the left you can see a chart I keep. It is like clocking in for me.  If I didn’t have goals, I would set aside my writing every time I hit the Writing Valley of Doubt. Worth saying again: Butt-in-chair. Keep going. For me, that’s the most important thing to remember.

5.     HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS NOT WORK?

One thing I’ve learned is that writing begets writing.  Sometimes I am forced to step away, or I play hooky for a few days.  It is like pulling teeth for me to get back into my writing brain. Hence, a daily word count chart helps to keep me going and avoid that pitfall--even if I only write a few words.

Now it’s my turn to tag!

Lynne Matson – Lynne is a debut author and her first book NIL, came out in March. I loved it. Besides the characters being trapped on a mysterious island, the romance was so—.  I don’t want to spoil it, but trust me, you need to read this one! Let's hear what Lynne has to say . . .

I don’t usually participate in memes but I couldn’t resist this one.  Opening lines! 

There are so many reasons opening lines grab, haunt, shake me, or send a little shiver up my spine so that I’m compelled to keep reading. 

It might be an intriguing premise, or a character I have to know more about,  an incredible voice, or language that is simply irresistible.  Here are some opening lines from both recent and older books that I have loved and made me keep turning the pages.

What are some of your favorites?


I didn’t know how long I had been in the king’s prison.  The days were all the same,
except that as each one passed, I was dirtier than before.  
--The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Now come the mousies nosing out their hole, thinks Kuhru as he wipes fresh bone marrow from his snout. Three pretty little mousies.  Humans.  Females.  Ripe and soft and full of warm blood.
–Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill.

The circus arrives without warning.  No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. 
It is simply there when yesterday it was not.
–The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave.  You could walk across a high school campus and point them out: not her, not her, her.
–Goblin Fruit by Laini Taylor

I am dying: it’s a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying.
–Surrender by Sonya Hartnett

The sirens are louder than I anticipated.  Not that I ever in a million years anticipated sirens at the beginning of all this.  Otherwise, obviously, I never would have agreed to it. 
Hindsight.  It’s a bitch.
–My Life Undecided by Jessica Brody

Being dead became fashionable approximately forty-five seconds
after Samantha “the Divine” Devereaux came back from summer break.
–Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

The screw through Cinder’s ankle had rusted.
–Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Here’s the thing: I was probably gonna write a book when I got older anyways.  About what it’s like growing up on a levee in Stockton, where every other person you meet has missing teeth or is leaning against a liquor store wall begging for change to buy a beer.
–We Were Here by Matt De La Pena

There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife.
–The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now—which is ridiculous since he’s been dead for ninety years.  But look at it this way. In ninety years I’ll be dead, too,
and then the age difference won’t matter. 
–The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean