Me on Giving Away a Signed Book

yay! :D

last night, Sunday, i drove almost 3 hours (including a 20 to 30 minute wait at the border) down to Lake Forest Park, WA (which looked very pretty from what i saw when i was busy focusing on driving the right speed limit) to go to Mindi Scott's book launch event party thing for her debut YA novel, Freefall.

and because i'm a dork and didn't remember until i was on the highway leaving Blaine, i didn't take a camera and so i don't have pictures. *head-desk*

so, i drove down. first time ever driving in the US. i was more worried about crossing the border than anything else, like the difference in speed limits. but i had our GPS and a little thing would pop up telling me what the speed limit would be in KPH, so all was good.

the event was fun. Mindi was adorable. i don't think she expected so many people to be there. :) i don't think the book store expected so many people, cause they soon ran out of books. i was lucky enough to grab my 2 copies before the people around me took 4 or 5 or 6.

why 2 copies, you ask?? well, while talking with Laina the other day on Twitter, she asked about getting some signed bookmarks, and i said i could get a signed copy of Freefall to give away on Twitter.

so i got 2 copies and they got signed. :D


this one's mine, though. ;) the other copy just has Mindi's blue pen signature in it. probably should've asked her to doodle in it, but i was a total goober and forgot after already forgetting to bring a camera.

after i post this, i'm going to Tweet something about win a signed copy of Freefall. RT it to enter. you'll have until next Sunday night at 11:59pm Pacific or Monday morning at 2:59am Eastern. i'm giving it so long cause it's my 1st giveaway and no one really follows my blog or RT's what i say.

this is open to Canadian addresses (cause i have 1). i've been wary of saying people with US addresses can enter because of how much shipping might cost me, but because it's 1 book and a paperback, i'll say yes to US addresses.

now i'm off to read my copy of Freefall after reading Mandy Hubbard's You Wish earlier this morning. very funny. :)

Me on ARCs

i know i blogged yesterday, but something came in the mail today which reminded me about a semi-rant i've had building since i returned to Twitter earlier this year.

i'm talking about ARCs, or advance reader copies.

if you follow me on Twitter, you noticed me gushing last week about winning an ARC of Becca Fitzpatrick's Crescendo from the nice people at Simon & Schuster Canada, or at least, the people who run their @SimonPulseCA Twitter account.

isn't this proof that Canada cares about YA and wants more authors to visit on book tours?? ;) that's another semi-rant for another time.

now, i know about ARCs because i read agent blogs and writer blogs and i know mostly how the publishing process works. i am not against ARCs, i think they're a great idea.

i'm just getting tired of people gushing over and over on Twitter and their blogs about all the cool ARCs they get sent straight from the publisher sometimes 6 months before the book is published.

i'm not published, i'm not a reviewer or book blogger, and i don't work in publishing, which means i never get to read an advance copy. this is a special circumstance (did i mention how much i love you for it, S&S Canada?? :)) that i never thought would happen. i've RT'd bunches of stuff on Twitter and got nothing.

i'm not against book bloggers and reviewers. actually, Madeleine Rex's review of Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement pushed me even more towards buying and reading (and loving) the book. i like Madeleine. she's funny. her reviews are really good. her book in progress is called The Lemonites. such a cool title. :D

i guess it's just a pet peeve of mine. there are books i want to read, like Andrea Cremer's Nightshade, or Ally Condie's Matched, or Stephanie Perkins' Anna and the French Kiss, or Mandy Hubbard's Ripple, or Lauren Oliver's Delerium, or Bree Despain's The Lost Saint, and because i want to read them so much because they sound so cool and interesting, i don't plan to read any early reviews by bloggers about them. i don't want anything ruined for me.

maybe this is just me whining about having to wait until the release date to buy a book i want to read, or to borrow from the library 3 months after it comes out, but i don't care. i'm (at the moment) unemployed and close to broke; if i got boxes of ARCs free from publishers that i got to review, i'd be all gushy, too.

i want to read the book, not have someone else read it and gush and talk about it while i have to wait.

reviewers and bloggers i follow on Twitter have Delerium. it comes out in February, 4 months from now. right now, that feels like forever.

it feels like i've wanted to read Anna and the French Kiss for years. it's going to be really really really good, but i have to wait like all the regular people to buy it in December. and i don't usually read contemporary YA, Stephanie Perkins. romance, yes. contemporary, no. somehow you've lured me in with promises of kissing and a cute boy with an irresistible accent and how romantic Paris can be. you are a genius. i bow to your genius. (ok, maybe i'm sucking up a bit, but can you blame me??)

maybe i'm just bitter. i still like you, book bloggers and reviewers. maybe you could gush a little less, or maybe let me read one once in a while?? i get it, shipping to Canada can get expensive, but me shipping it back to you is also expensive, so we're even. ;)

and even though i have the ARC, i'm still buying a finished copy of Crescendo. it looks so good. :D

oh, and i'm very anti-selling and buying ARCs on eBay. i may be grouchy and upset, but that is not cool. and not fair. i hope you get papercuts that get infected and all puss-filled and gross, ARC sellers.

keep an eye out for other semi-rants in the future, including one on how rare it is for YA authors to visit Canada on book tour and why i don't want to have to drive 3 to 6 hours south to Seattle or Portland to go to a signing.

(i saw Sherrilyn Kenyon once. it was in Vancouver (thank God i could stay in my province) at a Chapters. maybe 30 people were there. this was either March or April or May or June of 2006. not YA, but i like her books.)

Me on Writing Groups

after finishing the first draft of what is the Werewolf Idea at the end of July, then waffling for a month, then starting the first draft of Ghost Idea in September and noticing that it's mid-October and i'm only at 6500 words, i've come to realize that i think i need a critique partner or group.

i loved the writing class i took in the spring because everyone shared and we fiddled and worked out kinks and rough spots, and i liked getting feedback from people on how to fine-tune the story.

grammar crap aside (boo on grammar, what teen in YA uses proper grammar when they talk??), i think i need someone, or some someones, to point out weak spots and strong spots in terms of plot ideas, and where i need to cut back on background and info dumps.

of course, i'm wary of searching for crit partners because the Ghost Idea is small right now and the Werewolf Idea first draft has holes i haven't fixed yet that i plan to fix in the second draft.

*head-desk* maybe i'm just lonely. writing a book is solitary, especially when you don't have anyone to talk about it with.

so, i'm putting this out there for anyone who's writing and looking for a crit partner or group. i'm not sure about a limit, right now it would be about 10 people, but i'm thinking that's a bit much. maybe 5 or 6.

you know what i write: YA urban fantasy/romance that includes the hell that high school can be. you don't have to, but i guess you have to like it, or at least be interested in reading it. i'm open to lots of genres (i'm not big on westerns, though ;)), i read a bunch of romance, contemporary & paranormal, plus lots of YA. :)

this would be an online thing, not a bi-weekly face to face meeting in a cafe kind of deal. i live in Canada. odds are, you don't (no offence :)). since NaNoWriMo is on its way (where you can find me, check the link on the right), i'm not looking to start this seriously until December. right now, i'm just putting the word out, looking for people who might be interested and are looking for crit partners.

you can comment here if you're interested, or find me on Twitter. if you've got a group but you know someone who doesn't, then feel free to spread the word. :)