A TEMPTATION OF ANGELS winners!

Congratulations to Jessica who won the A Temptation of Angels prize pack and Hannah who won a copy of A Temptation of Angels! You both should have an email from me waiting in your inbox. Thank you to all who entered, and if you didn't win, make sure you pick up your copy this week! It's a fantastic book, you'll thank me. ;)

Also be sure to join Michelle and her son Kenneth on Twitter tonight from 9-11PM EST for the official Twitter release party. Hope to see you there!

A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink

It's no secret that I greatly look up to and admire the lovely Michelle Zink. Not only is she an amazingly talented writer, she's also a pretty amazingly talented friend. Her new book, A Temptation of Angels, comes out on March 20th. That's right, in FIVE days. Exciting, no?

When her parents are murdered before her eyes, sixteen-year-old Helen Cartwright finds herself launched into an underground London where a mysterious organization called the Dictata controls the balance of good and evil. Helen learns that she is one of three remaining angelic descendants charged with protecting the world's past, present, and future. Unbeknownst to her, she has been trained her whole life to accept this responsibility. Now, as she finds herself torn between the angelic brothers protecting her and the devastatingly handsome childhood friend who wants to destroy her, she must prepare to be brave, to be hunted, and above all to be strong, because temptation will be hard to resist, even for an angel.

 

Seriously, guys. I can't wait for you to read this book. It's hauntingly and beautifully written, a rich romance that will leave you wanting more. 


But don't take my word for it! Why don't you read it for yourself? And how does a free copy sound to you? Hmm? How about a free signed copy, plus Temptation swag? I have two prize packs to give away! Prize Pack A is a signed copy of A Temptation of Angels, a mini angel frame, an Are You Tempted? candy tin, bookmark, and body spray. Prize Pack B is a copy of A Temptation of Angels.   To enter, simply fill out the form below. But first, some housekeeping:

Rules:
*You do NOT have to be a follower (though following makes me happy)
*Sorry, no extra points for tweeting, etc (though tweeting makes me happy too)
*One entry per person
*Winner will be picked using random.org 

*You must be 13 years old or older to enter
*Contest will run from now until March 19th at midnight CST
*Winner will be announced on March 20th and contacted via email
*You have 48 hours to respond to the email, otherwise a new winner will be drawn
* Contest IS international :)





(Michelle is also having quite a few giveaways on her blog including a giveaway for an iPad! You can also preorder the book from Amazon, B&N, or Indiebound.)

Dear Teen Me

I got the news a few months back but am just now officially able to share with everyone. I am lucky enough to say that I will be in the upcoming Dear Teen Me anthology! This may not be big news to anyone else, but I'm tickled pink. It's my first published piece! Ever! I'm in a book! Something I wrote is actually in a book.

The official title is Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves and is slated for publication on October 31st, 2012 from Zest Books. The book is edited by Miranda Kenneally and E. Kristin Anderson.

Miranda Kenneally is the author of Catching Jordan, a contemporary YA novel about football and femininity (December 2011). Other books include Playing Parker (Fall 2012) and Bad, Bad Thing (Spring 2013). Miranda is also the co-creator, with E. Kristin Anderson, of the Dear Teen Me  blog and book (Zest Books, November 2012). @MirandaKennealy 

E. Kristin Anderson is the co-editor of the upcoming Dear Teen Me anthology (Zest Books, November 2012), based on the website of the same name. As a poet she has been published worldwide in around two dozen literary journals, from the indie-queen Fuselit, to the prestigious Cimarron Review. She is also an assistant editor at Hunger Mountain for their YA and Children's section. @ek_anderson

Below is the cover, as well as the list of contributing authors and the titles of our letters:

1. E. Kristin Anderson—Want. Take. Have

2. Jessica LeeAnderson—Contents Under Pressure

3. Tom Angleberger—Shhhhhh!

4. Sean Beaudoin—Frame Me and Nail Me to the Wall

5. CharlesBenoit—Reinventing Me

6. Robin Benway—9 Things You Need to Know

7. Ilsa J. Bick—The Knife

8. Marke Bieschke—Dance Dance Revolution

9. Joseph Bruchac—First Kiss . . .ish

10. Jessica Burkhart—Trust Is as Important as Love

11. Josh A. Cagan—Thank You, Oily Pizza

12. Riley Carney—Nothing’s Impossible

13. Tera Lynn Childs—The Future Isn’t Everything

14. Jessica Corra—The Principal’s Office

15. Heather Davis—Raising Me

16. Daniel Ehrenhaft—Getting Stood Up

17. Laura Ellen—Losing Your Sight Shouldn’t Mean Losing Your Rights

18. Beth Fantaskey—I Hope You Dance—to the Theme from Bonanza

19. Caridad Ferrer—Jekyll & Hyde

20. Michael Griffo—Be Honest with Yourself

21. Janet Gurtler—The Skinny Girl

22. Kersten Hamilton—It’s About to Get Worse

23. Bethany Hegedus—Going All the Way

24. Geoff Herbach—You Are the Electric Boogaloo

25. Faith Erin Hicks—No Calls from Spielberg Yet

26. Nancy Holder—When Dance Was Your World

27. K. A. Holt—Lois Lowry and the Space-Time Continuum vs. Boys

28. P. J. Hoover—Seeping Through the Cracks

29. Ellen Hopkins—Finding Your Voice

30. Stacey Jay—Who Needs Luck?

31. Carrie Jones—Seizures

32. Mike Jung—Regarding Your Commendable Decision to Live

33. Stasia WardKehoe—Getting Past the Fear

34. Tara Kelly—Bad Girl

35. Miranda Kenneally—Pick Up the Phone and Call Him Back. Right. Now.

36. Stephanie Kuehnert—He Broke More Than Your Heart

37. Mary Lindsey—Hope Until the Last Second

38. Nikki Loftin—The Ramifications of Mouthing Off to Cute Boys

39. Katherine Longshore—The Best Days of Our Lives? Really?

40. Ken Lowery—Winging It

41. Kekla Magoon—The Balancing Act

42. Mari Mancusi—What the Bully Stole

43. Gretchen McNeil—All the World’s a Stage

44. Jodi Meadows—The Pursuit of (Moments of) Happiness

45. Saundra Mitchell—This Is Not Your Story

46. Hannah Moskowitz—Get Better

47. Jenny Moss—What I Really Want

48. Sarah Ockler—Dancing with the Dead

49. Lauren Oliver & Elizabeth Miles—Best Friends Forever (for Real)

50. Stephanie Pellegrin—Just Be Yourself

51. Mitali Perkins—First Kiss

52. Cheryl Rainfield—Keep Hold of Your Strength

53. Dave Roman—Special Delivery from Your Excellent Future

54. Jess Rothenberg—Stop Obsessing, Kiss That Guy, and Party Like It’s 1999

55. Jennifer Rush—All Roads Lead Somewhere

56. Amy Kathleen Ryan—Smile!

57. Tom Ryan—Sing It Out

58. Leila Sales—I’m Not Going to Give You Any Good Advice

59. Cynthia Leitich Smith— Friends in Dark Places

60. JessicaSpotswood—Finding Him

61. Erika Stalder—Boys, Boys, Boys…

62. Rhonda Stapleton—Chunky

63. Mariko Tamaki—Keeping Quiet

64. Don Tate—Stolen Jeans, Smoke Rings, and Self-Esteem

65. Melissa Walker—You’re So Right But So Wrong

66. Tracy White—100% True, Guaranteed

67. Jo Whittemore—All Kinds of Sexy

68. Sara Zarr—What Is a Friend?

69. Jennifer Ziegler—Facing Facts: Makeovers Don’t Change a Thing

You can currently preorder the book from Amazon or Books A Million and you can follow Zest Books on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Goodreads.

It seems a little weird to see my name listed up there. (I mean, I'm next to Lauren Oliver!) I've looked up to some of my fellow authors for years, so to be included in a project like this is truly an amazing experience.

 

World Book Night, April 23, 2012

World Book Night is exactly what it sounds like: a night to give out free books to the world. One million books, in fact. Last year WBN was England only, and they had a great success. Due to their success, we here in the US (along with Germany) will be participating with them this year in their goal to give out one million books to needy readers.

What does this have to do with you? Well, Jen and I, along with all Literary Lonestars, were asked to be a part of the Central Texas WBN chapter via BookPeople. Us, along with some other literary organizations around Austin, will be banning together on the night of April 23rd to give out books to the needy. And we could use your help! Jen and I will organize volunteers to hand out books, and by volunteers we mean you! We already have a few ideas where the books will go (some organizations we've worked with in the past), but if you have any recommendations, let us know! We're concentrating strictly on the MG/YA titles so we're looking for places like shelters, children's hospitals, underprivileged schools, etc. If you chose to volunteer, you receive one box of books, then meet up with us at our predetermined destinations to hand out the books, this is something Jen and I would really love for all of us to do together as a group.

If either you aren't in the Austin area or simply would like to participate on your own, you have until February 6th to sign up. You must be at least 16 years of age and a legal US resident to participate. Again, this is a country wide project! You don't have to be in Austin or Texas to participate. (If you're participating with our group, there is no need for you to sign up online, only if you're doing it individually.)

If you'd like to help our Literary Lonestar group out, please email me (StephanieNPellegrin@gmail.com) or Jen (JenBigheart@gmail.com) or both of us. We need to know ASAP so we can get the ball rolling, so please get back to us as quickly as you can. Fill out the following form in your email with the subject World Book Nigh Volunteer:

Name:
Availability on 4/23:
Are you bringing a helper? (if so, include name and age):
Will you need transportation:
Suggest a donation site:

(Jen is currently out of town on vacation and I'm in the process of moving, so it may be a day or two before we can return your email.)

We'll have more information soon, as things start to roll in, and we'll share it with you. If you're able to help us spread the word, we'd appreciate it.

Happy New Year! (a few days late)

Hello all! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to 2012. Mine has gotten off to a bit of a slow start. My husband has been off work for about two weeks, and while I enjoy having him home with me, it's thrown me off my routine a bit. He went back to work today, and I'm going back to work today as well. ;)

I wrote last year about new year's resolutions and how I don't like them. I feel exactly the same now as I did then. I'm just not a big fan of resolutions, and I doubt I ever will be. Answer me honestly, how many new year's resolutions have you made that you actually kept? I've only made a few in my life, and never kept a one. I'm a firm believer that if you want to make a change in your life, you'll make a change in your life. Period. Not tomorrow, not January 1st, not at some point this year. But literally right now. Want to write a book? Start on it. Want to run a marathon? Stop wasting time reading my blog and get to training! I could go on all day, but y'all are smart people. You get the idea.

2011 was a pretty good year. Not the best, no, but definitely not the worst. I think more than anything it was a year of learning for me. I quit my job to write full time in November of 2010, but because of the holidays I wasn't able to take advantage of my stay-at-home time until January. People think that working from home is amazing, and it is! And it's also not. To be honest it can be pretty stressful. It's funny because growing up I wasn't the neatest of persons. My room was rarely clean (meaning you often couldn't even see the floor), but now that I have my own house -er- apartment, I find myself being a cleaning fanatic. For me it's hard to work when I can see all the clutter sitting around. I take a break and walk by the overflowing laundry hamper. I walk in the kitchen for a snack and see the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, the clean ones in the dishwasher. I work in my office and all I can see are piles of unorganized books on the floor. One of my goals for 2011 was to clean less, and it did last for a while. Well, like a month, maybe. Ha! I think one of my goals for when I'm Rich and Famous is to have an office space that's not in my house. Or maybe I could just rent a table at a coffee shop or something. People think that being a full time stay at home writer is so romantic, but I promise it's not all it's cracked up to be.

I also had to tell a lot of people "no" in 2011, and I don't like doing that. I'm a big doer, a helper. If you need something I'm your girl. I quickly realized that I was doing so much for other people that I wasn't able to do things for myself. For the most part it wasn't anything big that people wanted me to do: meet for coffee, go to a movie, etc. But I'm a creature of habit, I need routine, and while I love meeting friends for a quick cup of coffee, that means leaving the house and leaving my work (also putting pants on). About halfway through the year I realized this and started saying no. I even lost one friend over it, but in my opinion if you can't respect that I still work an 8-5 job, just at a different pace and place than you, then you aren't my friend in the first place. I hope I continue to say "no" in 2012.

I pushed myself harder than ever in 2011. Now that I look back on it, I pushed myself too hard. I took a lot of risks with my writing, most of which scared me. I wrote my first contemporary YA, did my first NaNoWriMo, wrote my first middle grade, wrote my first third person POV. It's good to be scared, and it's good to push yourself, but I think it's important to not lose sight of who you really are and in the process. In 2011 I wrote three books, read over 100, won NaNoWriMo, went to two lovely library conferences, organized and donated over 700 books to various charities in the Austin area, and barely had time for anything else. This year I'm taking it down a notch, I don't plan on writing any books (famous last words, right?), instead I'm going to pick one of the manuscripts I wrote last year, edit the snot out of it, and start querying agents. It's time, it's well past time for me. I don't think I was doing it purposefully, but looking back I can see how I've been putting it off.  Writing a book is hard, but not nearly as hard as editing it and sending it to people to ACTUALLY READ. It's funny, I write because I want to get published, yet I'm scared to death for people to read what I wrote. I don't have a very thick skin (hopefully that will change), so the thought of putting my work out there terrifies me, but it's what I want, right? To be published? I hope in the end all this is worth it.

2012 will be a stressful year for me. We're moving (no worries, just three miles up the road) in February, then I have to have reconstructive jaw surgery during the summer and will be MIA for about two months in order to recover. As I type this I can feel the stress starting in the pit of my stomach and roaring upwards, making my head fuzzy. I don't deal well with stress. I'm going to try to take a step back from everything when I'm feeling stressed. Take a deep breath, take a break. I'm relying on you all to keep me accountable for this.

So long story short, my only goal for this year is to EDIT EDIT EDIT then QUERY QUERY QUERY.  No, I'm not making goals like "I'm going to get an agent/get published this year!" I don't like to make goals about something I, literally, have no control over. I can't make an agent sign me, I can't make a publisher buy my book. I can, however, do all that I can to get my book out there. And I plan on doing just that.

I knew going into this journey that it wouldn't be an easy one, I just didn't expect it to be one of the hardest things I've ever done. I hope I never lose sight of how much work goes into a novel. I hope I never lose sight of how much I love doing it, no matter how hard.

ALA Midwinter 2012

We're so fortunate to have ALA Midwinter in Dallas this year! Of course me and my Literary Lonestar pals will be there, and we cannot wait! We're planning a little blogger get together on Friday night January 20th. If you want to come, please go to Jen's blog and RSVP so we can have a head count. And for more information about ALA itself, visit their website! Will I see you there? :)

So Much to be Thankful For

That Wednesday started out as many normal days do. My husband got up and was getting ready for work, and I was lounging in the bed (it takes me a long time to get awake, I'm a big lounger :p). He came to tell me goodbye and I thought he had left. He came back in the room and as calmly as he could said, "You might want to call your mom... when you get up and get the chance." What? Why? "Their house got hit by a tornado early this morning." You know those moments where your heart plummets so deep down into your stomach, you feel like you'll never be able to breathe properly again? This is one of those moments. I called her and we talked for a while. Well, she talked, I squalled the entire phone conversation. I have never felt so heartbroken, so conflicted. I cannot tell you how painful it is to have your heart reside in two different places, both far away from the other.

Thankfully everyone is fine and escaped the storm unharmed. My mom's truck has to have some repairs, my dad's truck was totaled, and the house had some heavy damage, but nothing that isn't repairable. I can't tell you how many prayers of thankfulness I've uttered since then. Things could have been so much worse than they are. My parents have a long road ahead of them as the repairs are starting on their house, but we're all thankful and grateful.

I have blogged a few pictures about my childhood home previously (click here and here if you're interested), so I'd like to share some of the aftermath pictures with y'all today. Hug your loved ones extra tight this holiday season. Things can (and do) happen in the blink of an eye.

 The front yard before

The front yard after (the house is there, through the debris)

The back yard before

The back yard/back of the house after

                                   

Part of our old swing set. It's about 20 years old and made it through Katrina.

There was a covered carport here where my dad's truck was. They have no idea where most of the carport ended up.

 None of the pine trees my dad planted when they built the house survived. :(

One of the few trees that survived. (Along with my nephew's sandbox that wasn't moved an inch.)

Their storage shed. Or what was a storage shed.

Side of the house where a big piece of a tree came down. 

 Damage to the front of the house.

My mom, like me, is obsessed with books. Particularly cookbooks. All of her books are hanging about three inches out, from where the wind sucked them. Crazy.

The insurance company towing my dad's totaled truck away. So sad.