#LoveInBooks: 7 YA Authors Sending Love

Hello, lovely reader!

Today is the first day of a multi-author Valentine's Day special: #LoveInBooks.

Seven of us have teamed up to share quotes from our books containing the word "love" from now through Valentine's Day.

Here's the first quote for ASSASSIN'S HEART:

Grand Prize Giveaway

To spread even more love, each of us is giving away a finished copy of our books and swag. You can enter the giveaway below. Entries are accepted daily through Feb. 12th. The winner will be announced on Monday, Feb. 15. USA only.

Participating books and authors (alphabetically, by book):

1. ARROWS by Melissa Gorzelanczyk / Follow Melissa on Twitter
2. ASSASSIN'S HEART by Sarah Ahiers / Follow Sarah on Twitter
3. BOOKISHLY EVER AFTER by ISABEL BANDEIRA / Follow Isabel on Twitter
4. CURIO by Evangeline Denmark / Follow Evangeline on Twitter
5. THE MYSTERY OF HOLLOW PLACES by Rebecca Podos / Follow Rebecca on Twitter
6. SWORD AND VERSE by Kathy MacMillan / Follow Kathy on Twitter
7. THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp / Follow Marieke on Twitter

a Rafflecopter giveaway


And today there's an interview with main character Lea on Storybook Slayers!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

May 2016 be awesome and amazing!

It'll be great as long as you spend it with someone you love

In Which Gifts Are Given

Well, Christmas (for those who celebrate it) is over. Which is sad and also a bit of a relief. It's a lot of work, and my family goes crazy with presents which is a lot of fun but also a lot of work so once it's over, it's nice to get back to normal.

I got books of course. As well as a buckwheat pillow and a butter crock, and some great earrings from Twin.

Of course New Years is this week, so normal is still a ways off.

But we finally have some snow here. I mean, we've had snow a few times this year, but so far it hasn't stayed. And we're supposed to get more snow tonight, which is great. If the temperature holds or gets colder, it should actually stick around for more than a day or two.

So yay! It's not really winter, in my book, unless there's snow.

And it's my birthday in a few weeks, too, which means  . . . you guessed it, maor books! But that's great. I've been reading a ton of 2016 arcs and I'm excited to be able to buy them now that they'll be out.

And once we're into 2016 it will be end of year and beginning of year blog posts, which are always fun to write.

Anyway, how was your holiday? Did you get any fun or neat or needed gifts?

In Which It's Christmas

Happy Holidays, all!

See you next week!

I hope you all remembered to deck your halls!

In Which I Talk ASSASSIN'S HEART Holidays

'Tis the season and all that Jazz!

This time of year blogs are full of Christmas and other holiday posts. And I've certainly done so in the past.

But, since ASSASSIN'S HEART will be out in the world in less than 2 months (eeeee!!!) I think I'll do something a bit fun and talk about a holiday in the world of ASSASSIN'S HEART.

Of course, there are many different countries and kingdoms in ASSASSIN'S HEART but today I'm going to focus on the kingdom of Lovero and their main holiday Susten Day.

Lovero has a patron goddess names Safraella who is the god of death, murder and resurrection. She's a real happy and lighthearted god, if you can't tell (kidding! One day, one day we will have a sarcasm font and everyone will rejoice)

In Lovero, disciples of Safraella are clippers (assassins) and they murder people in Her name. And the clippers wear bone masks when they work.

Susten Day takes place the ninth night after the midsummer new moon and the festival lasts for three days.

People wear Susten Day masks, masks made of feathers and gems.

And there's pretty much a constant party, with street vendors serving food, fire breathers, stilt walkers, puppet shows, pretty much anything and everything.

Because Lovero is on the sea, much of the food is fish or sea related. Want some deep fried fish served on a skewer? Sure thing! Honey and seed stuffed dough balls? Why not! (I love to write about food (probably because I love to eat food) and so I try to make sure I go into detail about foodstuffs)

Yay for Susten Day!

What's your favorite fictional holiday? Or is there a holiday in one of your books you've written? Share in the comments!

In Which It's Thanksgiving

I hope everyone's having a great holiday weekend!

 

In Which ASSASSIN'S HEART Got A Starred Review!

So while I was away from the blog, trade reviews started to roll in for ASSASSIN'S HEART, which is both exciting and terrifying.

Mostly, I was hoping that I would sneak through with some nice things said. I didn't need anything fancy. I just mostly didn't want to be, you know, destroyed.

But then an amazing thing happened. ALA Booklist gave ASSASSIN'S HEART a star!
A whole frickin star!

It's like, I'm just going about my day, working hard, and suddenly, something shocking, but also kind of nice happens.

This is, like, one of my writer dreams. The idea that maybe, someday, one of my books could get starred by a trade review. And to have it happen kind of blew my mind.

You can find the full review here (just released today!)

Also School Library Journal said some wonderful things, too! But that review won't be available until December 1st and I'll post it then.

And! And! Publisher's Weekly was all like "Here's some awesome things to say about ASSASSIN'S HEART, too!"

So, really, it's been kind of a mind blowing experience and mostly I spend a lot of time swooning.

I need, like, a fainting couch or something.

How about you? What are your thoughts on reviews?

And also, for those of you in the US, have a great thanksgiving tomorrow!

Happy Labor Day

No post today. I hope you enjoy your Labor Day.

 

In Which I Got Presents

We go all out crazy with presents in my family. So crazy, guys. Everyone is allowed to spend whatever they want on everyone else. Usually we tend to try to spend the same between people (if I spend $50 on Twin, then I'll try to match that between Brother, Sister and my parents) so sometimes you end up with multiple gifts for one person. And that is A-Okay.

I got a lot of great gifts this year (and Twin, Brother and I got a new Ninja blender for the house which we've already used 3 times and it is AWESOME).

But, because I like books and ask for books, I typically get a lot of books. And then I'm all "uuuugh! Which one will I read first??" (though this year I know which one I'm gonna read first. I just got to finish the book I'm reading right now)

BEHOLD! My stack of books!

Soooo pretty. I WANT TO READ THEM ALL RIGHT NOW!

And this doesn't even count the 5 books Twin got (most of which are nonfiction and I'm excited to read when she's done with them)

Twin also got me this awesome bracelet, for which I'm excited.

 

 

I have a few bracelets, but I have tiny, tiny (so tiny) wrists that most of them don't fit well. This one fits great. Also, books!

Yay for great presents! Did you guys get anything awesome for the holidays?

My Holiday Table Blog Hop

Today is the Holiday Table blog hop, where we see what everyone eats for the holidays. And I like food so I signed up.

I'm showing our Christmas Eve meal, since it's the best one of the year, I think.

We start off with clam chowder around noon (stoopid me forgot to take a picture of this because I was just sooooo hungry. But believe me when I tell you it's good)

A few hours later the poté needs to be made.

Poté is a family dish we make. It's French in origin and you fill a pot with bread dough and then stuff that bread dough with browned meat (traditionally rabbit, but we use pork and chicken). Some of the meat ends up all embedded in the gooey bread when it's done cooking. (those are the best pieces).

Besides poté for dinner we also have snow crab legs. YUM. Then we'll have sides that vary each year, depending on our mood (except for olives. We always have olives. Pitted if we can find them). This year it was corn.

Then, after dinner we'll take a break (usually in the hot tub) and dessert this year was my dad's crème brulee.

And that's my holiday spread!
 

In Which It's The Holidays

I'll be taking the rest of the week off from blogging because of the holidays.

Have a great week, friends!

 

In Which It's Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the US. I hope you had a great day!

 

Halloween

No post today, Ape-friends.

Just have a fun Halloween!

 

In Which I'm At The Minnesota State Fair

No real post today, pals. It's Labor Day which means it's my last day to hit up the MN State Fair.

It is a delicious time of year.

deep fried cheese curds

 



Bingo!

 

 

ham and cheese savory scone

 



This happened

Chicken fried bacon

 

 

Brother, Twin, Me

Corn Dog!!!

 

In Which I'm Away

It's the 4th of July today, which means no real blog post today or Monday because I am at the cabin, swimming and grilling and playing games.

I hope you have a great weekend!

 

In Which It Keeps Raining

How was everyone's weekend? Did you do anything fun for Mother's Day? Or fun just because?

We celebrated Mother's Day a day early since Twin works on Sundays.

Twin, our Mom and I hit up an annual plant sale. It's massive and hosted at our State Fair grounds. We bought an apple tree and a hazelnut shrub. As well as veggies and herbs. Our mom also bought some shady plants for our cabin.

Then we went home, planned a baby shower for our cousin, played some dominoes, ate take out, cooked some smores and sat in the hot-tub. All in all, it was a pretty fun day.

It's been raining on and off here for pretty much a week. And we have another week of rain coming up, too. Which, I mean, I know it's good. The lakes can use the water. But also, our lawn is really long and could use a mowing but we just haven't been able to find a dry spell to do so.

Also, I'd really love it to be warmer, high sixties or low seventies, instead of wet and cold. It's May and I feel like it should be nicer. And, you know, whine whine whine.

 

In Which It's 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

 

 

Let's PWN 2014!

In Which I Received Books!

Well Christmas has come and gone for another year, as expected. I hope everyone had a good time with their friends and family.

As usual, my fam goes a little cray cray with the gift giving, so I ended up with a lot of books I'm excited to read. Of course, first I have to finish the library books I have checked out. Until then, my new shiny books will have to sit prettily on  my end table.

I mean, look at them!

Awesome, right? I don't know how I'll pick which one to read first.

How about you, did you get any books or awesome gifts for Christmas? (Twin, Brother and I also got a sausage maker attachment for Twin's mixer, so we spent Saturday playing board games and making up some bratwursts. It was awesome)

In Which It's Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

In Which I Am So Busy

I am ridiculously busy and probably will remain so for the next month or more. Outside of the holidays, which is, of course, taxing my time some, I have workshop pieces to critique for the MFA residency before the 9th (10, 15 page critiques to dole out) a manuscript I have to read for a friend (paying what I owe and all that), writing group critiques and revisions on All That Remains.

...and as I wrote that last bit, I totally just realized I forgot to print off my own 15 pages for my critique at the MFA. Nice move, Sarah. DERP.

I plan to keep up blogging here and there, but don't expect posts from me on the actual holidays and also I'll take a short hiatus while I'm at the MFA residency, just because it's ten full days of stuff and I won't have much time to check emails, let alone respond to comments etc (and I hate writing posts when I can't respond).

I wish I had more time. There are some great movies out right now that I'm worried I won't get a chance to see (Though I did get to see Desolation of Smaug this last weekend. Holy frickin crap how great was it? (spoiler: so great))

But Christmas Eve is tomorrow, which is awesome. I actually prefer it over Christmas day because my family has a delicious meal of crab legs and poté , and clam chowder throughout the day and we'll open one present each and play games and sit in the hot tub and be fat and merry.

yum...Poté

Christmas day, while full of awesome presents and stuff, is a bit too much of "we're required to go see other family" and while I enjoy seeing family, sometimes I wish I could just spend the day relaxing.

Anyway, this was a really roundabout way to say my posts will be sporadic for a bit.

What about you? Have you seen Desolation of Smaug? Do you have any Christmas traditions?