Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Young Adult Novel Discovery Contest!!!

This is for all you YA aspiring writers!

Writing Great YA Fiction
No query? No pitch? No problem!

Serendipity Literary Agency, in collaboration with Sourcebooks and Gotham Writers' Workshop, is hosting its first Young Adult Novel Discovery Competition for a chance to win a one-on-one consultation with one of New York's leading YA literary agents!

If you've written a novel for young adults—or have an idea for one that you would like to write—we invite you to enter our contest. Simply submit only an enticing title along with the first 250 words from the opening of your original YA novel using the form below. There's no entry fee or purchase requirement.

GREAT PRIZES
The Grand Prize Winner will have the opportunity to submit an entire manuscript to YA literary agent Regina Brooks and receive a free, 10-week writing course, courtesy of Gotham Writers' Workshop.

The Top Five Entrants (including the Grand Prize winner) will receive a 15-minute, one-on-one pitch session with Regina Brooks, one of New York’s premier literary agents for young adult books. They will also receive commentary on their submissions by editors at HarperCollins, Penguin, Harlequin, Random House, and Sourcebooks and receive a one-year subscription to The Writer magazine.

The Top 20 Entrants will receive autographed copies of Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks.

JUDGING
YA literary agent Regina Brooks, along with editors at Sourcebooks, will read all of the entries and determine the top 20 submissions. These submissions will then be read by Dan Ehrenhaft, head Acquisitions Editor at Soucebooks Fire; Alisha Niehaus, Editor at Dial Books for Young Readers (Penguin); David Linker, Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books; Michele Burke, Editor at Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House); and Evette Porter, Editor at Harlequin. These judges will whittle the top 20 down to five, and each of the five winners will be provided commentary on their submissions.

NOVEMBER IS NaNoWriMo
In honor of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org)—an international event where aspiring novelists are encouraged to write an entire novel in 30 days—entries for the YA Novel Discovery Contest will be accepted from 12:01am (ET) November 1 until 11:59pm (ET), November 30, 2009.

IT IS EASY TO ENTER!
The contest is open to writers 13 years of age or older. Entrants will be judged solely on the title and the first 250 words of their YA novel—no additional material will be accepted. For an inside look at what the judges will be looking for, participants can refer to Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks. There is no minimum word count for the submission. Only online entries will be accepted. And only one submission per person.

CLICK THIS LINK TO ENTER THIS AWESOME CONTEST!!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

A Quick Bite, by Lynsay Sands

Ok, so this is an adult book, but older young adults are sure to enjoy this book as well. I thought this book was so funny. I mean laugh out loud funny. I just love Lynsey Sands ironic sense of humor.

The book opens up with Psychologist Dr. Greg Hewitt, he's closing his office to go on a much needed and long awaited vacation in Mexico. he boards the elevator to go to the parking garage and encounters a beautiful woman who happens to be a vampire that's out to kidnap him for her daughters 200+ birthday present. She uses her powerful mind control to get him to her car and suggest he get in her trunk. He has no idea he is being controlled and thinks he got in her trunk of his own volition. He is pretty hard on himself for doing something so idiotic. His internal dialogue is hysterical.

He wakes up tied to a bed in Lissianna Argeneau's bedroom. You know the birthday girl. Well she is a vampire with a very crippling phobia. She faints at the sight of blood! In this version of vampire tale, vampires have become sophisticated in that they do not drink blood directly from humans anymore, also known as feeding off the hoof. They are civilized and drink only donated blood out of bags. Because of Lissianna's problem she has been feeding off of humans that she can find usually at work where they turn out to be drunks and druggies.

Absolutely starving from lack of a good meal, Lissianna arrives at her birthday party and has a run in her pantyhose. She runs up to her room to change and finds a surprise. A gorgeous hunk of man with a red bow around his neck. Well she decides on a little snack before the festivities. Only her snack was not supposed to be feasted on. He was to be her therapist, to cure her phobia. Anyway she gets way more than she bargained for when she bites Greg. Their minds meld and they experience a euphoria of pleasure they almost get it on right then and there with him all tied up. That is until her mother walks in!

This book was so good you just have to read it for yourself. I'm actually really looking forward to reading this whole series. I really enjoyed it so much. I hope you do too.

The Argenaeu Vampire Series

The Argenaeu Family Tree

Book 2 Love Bites
Book 3 Single White Vampire
Book 4 Tall, Dark & Hungry
Book 5 A Bite to Remember
Book 6 Bite Me if you Can
Book 7 The Accidental Vampire
Book 8 Vampires are Forever
Book 9 Vampire, Interrupted
Book 10 The Rogue Hunter
Book 11 The Immortal Hunter: A Rogue Hunter Novel
Book 12 The Renegade Hunter: A Rogue Hunter Novel (releases October 1st 2009)




Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins
by Ellen Schreiber

Sequel to Vampire Kisses

Our story continues with goth girl Raven Madison, a 16 year old wannabe vampire. In the last book we ended with Raven finally hooking up with the mysterious Alexander Sterling, who was rumored to be a vampire. The rumors dissipated but Raven found out that her true love really is a vampire. Alexander moves overnight without a word to anyone. Now Raven is alone and lost without him.

Her BFF Becky and her new man, Matt, are tied together at the hip leaving Raven to figure out what to do about Alexander all by herself. She decides the best place to start would be her friend at the travel agency where she used to work. She was supposed to have a date with Jameson, Alexander's Butler. She finds out Jameson sent flowers to her friend from a nearby town Raven calls "Hipsterville." Her Aunt lives in Hipsterville giving Raven the perfect cover for a visit to continue her investigation.

There she discovers a guy named Jagger who knows Alexander. He offers to help Raven find him, but Raven thinks he might be a vampire too and is kind of scared of him. He starts stalking her and she gets spooked and goes back home only to have Jagger follow her. Will her true love save her from Jagger or will he arrive too late?

This sequel was alright but the first book was slightly better. I wished the book was longer, but it sets the tone for the third book which looks promising.

Book 1 Vampire Kisses
Book 3 Vampire Kisses 3: Vampireville
Book 4 Vampire Kisses 4: Dance with a Vampire
Book 5 Vampire Kisses 5: The Coffin Club
Book 6 Vampire Kisses 6: Royal Blood



Monday, April 6, 2009

Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, by Holly Black

Great story but needed a little tweaking here and there. Starts off slow but picks up speed almost going too fast and ends with a bang. Some of the conversation is hard to follow and seemed incomplete at times. There's a lot of bad messages in here that some young adults probably shouldn't be reading even though it's written for the YA audience. Including drinking, smoking, cutting school, having boys sleep in your room, staying out at night to all hours, cursing, etc. You get the idea.

Our main character is Kaye Fierch, a 16 yr old High School drop out. She's Asian but manages to be blessed a natural blond. Kaye's mom is a wannabe rock star playing in bars and getting so wasted that Kaye has to take care of her most of the time. They start out the story in Philly where her mothers boyfriend becomes possessed or something and tries to knife her. With no place to go the two wind up going back to New Jersey to live with Kaye's Grandmother.

Kaye remembers growing up there as a small child and thinks fondly of her old faerie friends. She's come to think of them as imaginary but soon discovers how real they were and are. Her Faerie friends contact her and Kaye discovers she is not the person she always thought she was.

Kaye happens upon a Faerie Knight that's gorgeous and badly wounded in the woods. He has shining silver-white hair that is very long and pointed ears. He needs her help. In exchange he says he will answer her 3 questions of her choosing. This strange encounter draws the unwanted attentions of the unseelie queen. The queen decides that Kaye will be their next human sacrifice called a "tithe"!

Very interesting reading. Like I mentioned earlier some of the dialogue is hard to follow but it's not very often so it's easy to overlook. The story is good so I didn't mind too much. I figure it's gotta be OK if there are 2 more books in this series. The next one is probably better written. Enjoy.

READ Chapter 1 and 2 of TITHE CLICK HERE

Book 2 Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Book 3 Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause

I absolutely love the main character, Vivian. Shes a 16 year old werewolf. Vivian and her kind (loup-garoux) live in a modern city were humans are the majority of the population forcing them to blend in as best they can. Her father was leader of their pack when they lived in West Virgina. About a year ago he tragically died in a fire trying to rescue other members of the pack. Angry townsfolk who found them out set fire to the Inn where the werewolves were living and working. The roof collapsed in on him when he went back into the blazing building to save some others. That's why they must hide their true nature from humans who would destroy them.

Vivian currently a loner. She is the only female werewolf her age. There are 5 guys her age that she used to hang around with that are werewolves too. She refers to them as "the five". They have become too rowdy for her lately and besides that she's the only available mate their age. She's not interested in them romantically, so she distances herself from them. Viv loves being a wolf and running through the Forrest and worshiping the moon. She paints about it and recently got one of her works published. While admiring her work in the magazine she notices a poem about a werewolf next to her painting. This intrigues her because a human boy wrote it and it sounds so close to the real thing. She seeks him out and falls in love with him. Aiden falls for her as well.

None of the pack like Vivian having a relationship with a human. Especially her mother, Esme, who thinks Vivian should only date within the pack. The pack has no leader since her fathers passing and the pack has issues quarreling and keeping it's members safe. Humans start turning up dead and it's obviously a werewolf. No one in the pack can figure out who and they are all afraid of being found by humans. Vivian is having blackouts and believes she might be the killer. The pack is being torn apart and it's time for a new leader to be chosen. They decide the old way is the only way. Fight to the death and the strongest male wins. Then the females fight to be the new leaders mate.

This book was so good. I loved the plot the most. Vivian is such a deep character. Great story and a great ending. I loved it! I hope you do too. They made a movie out of this one. I hadn't heard of it till I read this book. It came out in 2007. I included an old movie trailer so you could check it out! I think I'll rent it myself. Cool!

READ CHAPTER 1 of BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE CLICK HERE!