Showing posts with label Mary Elizabeth Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mary Elizabeth Summer. Show all posts

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Day 15 of 31 books in 31 days- Mary Elizabeth Summer book giveaway, Qualify to win a kindle & 25$ giftcard!

Welcome to the 15th day of 31 books in 31 days, where you win prizes for reading.

Recap of Rules

Everyday that you participate in the giveaway of the day, you are eligible to win a brand new kindle.

How to participate
  a) Subscribe via email, so you can get the author & prize of the day sent directly to your email.
  b) Like the author of the day on facebook
  c) Follow the author on Twitter
  d) Read any of the author's books
  e) Answer the occasional quiz on author's interview
  f) Scroll to the bottom of each interview and enter the raffle (you'll have to unlock the raffle with your email first)

That's it- then enter the kindle giveaway!

All giveaways will be sent out by the 7th day in April. Good Luck.


                                           
Julep Dupree tells lies. A lot of them. She’s a con artist, a master of disguise, and a sophomore at Chicago’s swanky St. Agatha High, where her father, an old-school grifter with a weakness for the ponies, sends her to so she can learn to mingle with the upper crust. For extra spending money Julep doesn’t rely on her dad—she runs petty scams for her classmates while dodging the dean of students and maintaining an A+ (okay, A-) average. But when she comes home one day to a ransacked apartment and her father gone, Julep’s carefully laid plans for an expenses-paid golden ticket to Yale start to unravel. Even with help from St. Agatha’s resident Prince Charming, Tyler Richland, and her loyal hacker sidekick, Sam, Julep struggles to trace her dad’s trail of clues through a maze of creepy stalkers, hit attempts, family secrets, and worse, the threat of foster care. With everything she has at stake, Julep’s in way over her head . . . but that’s not going to stop her from using every trick in the book to find her dad before his mark finds her. Because that would be criminal.



                                        Interview- Mary Elizabeth Summer


Hello Mary,

Thanks for volunteering your time to answer some questions. 

1) What do you love about reading? What is the last book you read?


I love how it transports me to another world and someone else’s set of problems. It makes me forget 

my own struggle for a while, and I can focus on reading another person to their happily ever after (or 

at least satisfying resolution ;-)). Fiction just makes so much sense when real life often does not. I 

love connecting with characters on such a deep, personal level by sharing their headspace. If the 

book is particularly good, I’ll actually miss them afterward, as if they really existed and we were 

actually friends.The last book I read was THE CONSPIRACY OF US by Maggie E. Hall.



2) Is there a Young adult book that you wish you had written? If so, what was it and why does it speak to you?

This is a tough one. There are so many amazing books out there that stole my heart and breath away. 

If I have to pick one, I’ll go with RUN TO YOU by Clara Kensie. The emotions that book evoked 

from me were incredible. I haven’t felt that much for a character in a loooong time. 


3) Why do you choose to write young adult books?

I write books for teens, because I was a teen when books were the most magical to me. I still don’t 

find nearly as much magic in adult literature as I do YA. When I open a YA novel, I know I will be 

utterly and completely transported. I’ll face impossible challenges and heroic characters who aren’t 

afraid to leave it all out on the table. Adult books, to me, are too guarded, too self-conscious, and far 

more likely to either bore me or tick me off. YA is where story comes alive. And frankly, I don’t 

have time for books that don’t.


4) Did any one book inspire you to be an author? If so what was it and why?

Every book I’ve ever read has inspired me in one way or another, even the ones I didn’t like (which 

just inspired me to write better). Inspiration is a constant need for me, so I get it from everywhere I 

can. 


5)  Why did you choose to write about the bad girls and boys of fiction? What drew you to the 


theme?

Honestly, I can’t figure out why anyone would not write about them. It’s the perfect character 

mashup of strength and inner conflict PLUS exciting car chases and guns going off. The bad kids are 

always going to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s easy to put them there, because 

they’d already be there—no awkward plot devices necessary. Also, the bad kids are going to be 

strong and flawed right out of the gate. They have to be strong to be a villain, and clearly they have 

interesting flaws, because they’re a villain. Then you pit them against an even nastier villain, and 

watch the sparks fly—not just in the plot, but in their own hearts and minds as they try to reconcile 

their bad-kid identity with their atypical heroic actions. LOVE. Also, it may have something to do 

with the fact that my favorite He-Man episodes when I was kid were the episodes where He-Man 

and Skeletor had to team up against a common enemy. Those were the BEST. 


6) What can people expect from your debut novel? Romance, humor, action?

I like to say it’s 90% criminal shenanigans, 5% romance, and 5% ouch. There’s definitely a lot of 

snark, because Julep is just that way. But mostly it’s her trying to figure out what happened to her 

dad and avoiding deadly encounters with her nemesis—the horrible dean of students. Well, and the 

Ukrainian mob. ;-) 


Thank you so much for participating

Thank you so much for inviting me.



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Monday, March 9, 2015

Day 9 of 31 books in 31 day- Jadie Jones book giveaway & Kindle

Welcome to the 9th day of 31 books in 31 days, where you win prizes for reading.

Recap of Rules

Everyday that you participate in the giveaway of the day, you are eligible to win a brand new kindle.

How to participate
  a) Subscribe via email, so you can get the author & prize of the day sent directly to your email.
  b) Like the author of the day on facebook
  c) Follow the author on Twitter
  d) Read any of the author's books
  e) Answer the occasional quiz on author's interview
  f) Scroll to the bottom of each interview and enter the raffle (you'll have to unlock the raffle with your email first)

That's it- then enter the kindle giveaway!

All giveaways will be sent out by the 7th day in April. Good Luck.



Today's author of the day is Jadie Jones, author of the moonlit series and our featured book of the day, Moonlit (Moonlit Trilogy Book 1). Moonlit is a fast paced story that will keep you wanting more.


Eighteen-year-old Tanzy Hightower knows horses, has grown up with

them  on Wildwood Farm. She also knows not to venture beyond the trees that line the pasture.

Things happen out there that can’t be explained. Or undone. Worse, no one but she and

the horses can see what lurks in the shadows of the woods.

When a moonlit ride turns into a terrifying chase, Tanzy is left to question everything,

from the freak accident that killed her father to the very blood in her veins. Broken and

confused, she turns to Lucas, a scarred, beautiful stranger, and to Vanessa, a charming

new friend who has everything Tanzy doesn’t.

But why do they seem to know more about her than she knows herself?


                                                  Interview with Jadie Jones
                                       

1)       I read in an interview that reading has always been a means of escape for you.  As a 

child, what book was your favorite? Why was that your favorite book adventure?

The Black Stallion by Walter Farley was my first book obsession. Main character Alec Ramsay’s

world changes twice: once when he and a wild horse survive a shipwreck, and then again when

he brings the horse home. Even though it was fiction, his story was proof to me that any second

of my life can take me somewhere completely unexpected.

 2)       Why do you write children’s books? What interests you about the genre?

The Moonlit trilogy is considered upper-end YA because of the darker aspects of some of the

things the characters experience, but I have found that younger people understand and process

darker topics with more empathy and objectivity than adults. This observation is something that

draws me to the genre, because we can challenge young minds to look at the world in a bigger

way, and often they exceed our expectations for what they’re capable of comprehending.



3)       How has reading touched and affected different aspects of your life? How has it 

affected your writing?

Books have always been company for me when I feel alone or like I don’t fit in my environment.

Writing has given me a similar place to go when I need to find a place where I am comfortable

being myself. I have strange taste in books, and I have found I’m not always a fan of the best-

selling, mainstream work because it doesn’t captivate me the way that a more off-beat, craft-

driven voice will. This makes my writing different because I have to hook myself before I can

hook a reader. Acknowledging this has been so liberating. I write what I write, how I write, and

that’s okay with me.



4)       If you could be one character from a Young adult Series who would you be? Why?

Ready for a throwback? I would be Trixie Beldon from the Trixie Beldon mystery series. She’s

brave, independent, impulsive, and strong. She confronts what she thinks isn’t right, she takes

care of those she cares about, and she lives next door to a horse farm. Sounds pretty perfect.



5)       What was the last book you read that really made you think or made an impact on 

your life? How did it affect you and why?

I recently read “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher. His exploration of the impact seemingly

small moments can have on a person’s psyche floored me. As each reason is revealed, I sank into

the main character’s emotional state and fell head first into her despair. We can affect someone’s

sense of self-worth with just a few vicious words or a disrespectful touch. It is easy to tell a

teenager to ignore bullying or to tell an authority figure, but the wounds inside are hard to define,

harder to reach, and harder still to heal. “Thirteen Reasons Why” gave me permission to take my

gloves off when it comes to writing books about teen characters, and was a great example of how

to do it with integrity and authenticity.





6)       Tell us a little about your series. What makes Moonlit different from other YA 

books? 

About the series: Tanzy Hightower was the sole witness to her father’s accidental death three

years prior, the cause of which she still can’t explain. Through blood magic and a water witch,

she travels back in time to witness her first life in order to understand why her father’s death was

a thousand years in the making. As the series progresses, she realizes there are many other girls

just like her, and discovers their larger purpose.

I enjoy exploring the flaws and dark places in “good” characters, and the tender places in my

villains. In this series, no character is wholly good or wholly bad, and the deeper the journey

goes, the grayer the boundary becomes.



7)       If Moonlit was made into a movie, who would you want to play Tanzy? Why?

First, if Moonlit was ever made into a movie – even if a low budget indie flick – I would

completely freak out. There are so many visual elements I would love to see come to life through

film. I remember when I saw the Lord of the Rings and thought: it’s like they pulled pictures

directly out of my brain… how did they do that? I would love to see how someone else processes

my story. As far as casting, I have strong ideas for other cast members, but I haven’t seen Tanzy

yet, which I think is fitting. I think it would be awesome for the actress playing Tanzy to be a

relative unknown. As far as looks go, a young Mila Kunis is what I have in mind. Taylor Swift

would be a spot-on Vanessa, who is Tanzy’s wealthy, more-than-a-little-shady new friend.

Other Books by Jadie Jones






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Monday, February 16, 2015

Day 1 part 1 of meet your next favorite YA book-Trust Me, I'm Lying

Hello!

Welcome to the pre-kickoff of 31 books in 31 days.

Over the next few days I'm going to introduce you to some YA books. These books will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you want more.

The first book of the pre-kick off is Trust me I'm Lying.

Tell me what you think.

And tune back in daily to hear about the other books that will be featured in our March giveaway to get students reading.