THE DEEPEST BLUE Giveaway

So many sea monsters!!! Harper Voyager is giving away 50 advance copies of my forthcoming epic fantasy, THE DEEPEST BLUE! Enter by 1/18 for your chance to win: https://a.pgtb.me/6VMgFh

 

THE RELUCTANT QUEEN Giveaway

One week 'til pub day!!! To celebrate, I'm giving away a signed hardcover copy of THE RELUCTANT QUEEN over on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/sarahbethdurst/status/879719598236585984

Retweet on Twitter by 6/28 for a chance to win!

Congratulations to Chasing Power Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered the CHASING POWER giveaway!

The winner is: Erin P.  Congratulations!

For those of you who didn't win and are now bereft, here is a song about pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows to cheer you up:

Also to cheer you up... CHASING POWER comes out on Tuesday!!!!!!!

Giveaway of CHASING POWER

My new YA novel CHASING POWER comes out from Bloomsbury in exactly one week!!!!!!!!!!

In honor of this, I'm doing a giveaway of a signed copy of CHASING POWER:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
CHASING POWER is the story of Kayla, a sixteen-year-old girl who can move things with her mind, and Daniel, a boy who can teleport across continents and who lies as easily as he travels. Together, they embark on an Indiana-Jones-style adventure to find and steal an ancient incantation, written on three indestructible stones and hidden millennia ago, all to rescue Daniel's kidnapped mother. But Kayla has no idea that this rescue mission will lead back to her own family, and to betrayals that she may not be able to forgive... or survive.  Click here to read the first two chapters.

One week until pub day!!!  *runs in circles, flails arms like Muppet*

Thanks for participating in YASH!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the YA Scavenger Hunt!  I hope you had fun!  A special thank you to everyone who entered my CHASING POWER giveaway!  I loved reading all the comments.

The winner of a signed copy of CHASING POWER is: Katrina T.  Congratulations!

For those of you who didn't win... I will be hosting another giveaway here tomorrow!  And then CHASING POWER comes out a week from tomorrow (Tuesday 10/14/14).

Other YA Scavenger Hunt winners, including the grand prize winners, will be posted by 5pm today (Monday 10/6/14) on the YASH blog.

Fall 2014 YA Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to the fall 2014 YA Scavenger Hunt!

I'm Sarah Beth Durst, your host for this leg of the hunt.  I'm the author of nine fantasy novels for children, teens, and adults, including CONJURED, VESSEL, and ICE.  My next YA novel, CHASING POWER, is coming out in a week and a half (!!!) from Bloomsbury, and my next middle-grade novel, THE GIRL WHO COULD NOT DREAM, is coming out in fall 2015 from HMH/Clarion Books.

Other facts about me:

- I have ridiculously curly hair that once trapped a yellow-jacket and has been known to swallow bobby pins whole.

- I don't have a pet dragon but wish I did.  Ditto magic wand, unicorn, or any superpower (other than hair that won't straighten even when completely soaked).

- If I could have any power (and assuming that I couldn't choose to cure diseases or feed everyone in the world), I'd want telekinesis.

- I'm afraid of skunks and Frisbees.

- My favorite number (which you need to know to win this scavenger hunt!) is the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

I'm thrilled to be participating in the hunt this year!

The YA Scavenger Hunt is a biannual event started by author Colleen Houck.  This fall, 125 YA authors are participating (including yours truly).  On this hunt, you will have access to exclusive bonus material from each of the participating authors, plus every author will also include their favorite number.  (If you missed the hint above, mine is 42 and has been every since I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at a highly impressionable age.)  Add up all the secret numbers, and you can enter for the grand prize: one signed book from each author in a team.  But play fast: this contest will only be online for 72 hours!

You can start right here on this blog post, or you can go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt, including links to all the authors participating.  (There's also a handy "How to Hunt" page.) This year, there are six contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all.  I am a part of the Gold Team.

You can also win individual giveaways on some legs of the hunt, including this one!  Scroll down to enter to win a signed copy of CHASING POWER.

SCAVENGER HUNT RULES

Directions: Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the gold team, and then add them up.

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday, Oct 5th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered. 

SCAVENGER HUNT AUTHOR

Today I am hosting Susanne Winnacker for the YA Scavenger Hunt!  Welcome, Susanne!  Happy to have you here!  *shares chocolate-covered raisins*

Susanne Winnacker studied law before she became a full-time writer. She lives with her husband, two dogs and two bunnies in Germany. She loves coffee (in every shape and form), traveling and animals. When she isn't writing, you can usually find her in the kitchen, experimenting with new vegan dishes.

ABOUT DEFECTOR (VARIANT SERIES)  BY SUSANNE WINNACKER

Tessa has finally made peace with her life as a Variant. She and long-time love Alec are officially a couple, and for the first time, she has everything she wants.

But the air is tense at FEA headquarters. An agent has disappeared, and rogue variant organization Abel’s Army is likely the culprit.

When Tessa is summoned for her second mission, she is unexpectedly launched into a massive conspiracy. Her best friend Holly is kidnapped and Tessa knows it was meant to be her. But who is after her? And more importantly, why?

When the FEA's efforts to rescue Holly don’t yield any results, Tessa takes matters into her own hands. Desperate to save her friend and uncover the mystery behind Abel’s Army, Tessa launches her own investigation—but nothing could prepare her for what she finds. Everyone in her life is harboring secrets: Alec, her estranged mother, even the father she never knew.

The truth will take her out on the road and out of her comfort zone, with danger lurking everywhere. Summoning all of her courage and strength, Tessa must decide who can be trusted and what is worth fighting for -- even if it means going against the life she thought she wanted. Her final decision will leave readers breathless.

For more information, visit Susanne's website or blog.  And you can learn more about DEFECTOR here.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT FROM SUSANNE WINNACKER

Susanne's bonus material is a deleted scene from DEFECTOR.  Click here to read!  (Spoiler alert: This scene gives away major plot points from IMPOSTER.)

EXTRA GIVEAWAY

In addition to participating in the Scavenger Hunt, I am also offering an extra giveaway.  (Note that you do not need to participate in the hunt to enter this giveaway.  It's open to both hunters and non-hunters.)  If you'd like to win a signed hardcover copy of CHASING POWER, please enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CONTINUE THE HUNT

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Rebekah L. Purdy. 

And when you've finished visiting all the Gold Team authors, add up all our favorite numbers (again, mine is 42) to find the secret code to enter for the grand prize.

Happy hunting!

Thanks for participating in the YASH!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the YA Scavenger Hunt!

(Every time I think "scavenger hunt," I expect to see a slew of people trying to find pine cones.  I don't know why I associate scavenger hunts with pine cones.  Somehow, I just do.....)

Anyhoo, pine cones or not, the YA Scavenger Hunt is now over, and I hope you had fun!  A special thank you to everyone you entered my CONJURED giveaway!

The winner of a signed copy of CONJURED is: Tiffany W.

Congratulations!  (I'll be contacting you directly soon.)

Other YA Scavenger Hunt winners, including the grand prize winners, will be posted by 5pm on Monday on the YASH blog.

Upcoming Fun plus a Giveaway

One month until ICE!!!

Okay, a little less than a month for the US edition (Oct 6) and a little more than a month for the UK edition (Oct 29). And the UK version now has a cover! The following appeared on Amazon.co.uk just last week:


Different tagline. Same gorgeous art. Same happy Sarah. :)

Did I mention how ridiculously excited I am? Ridiculously excited.

I have a bunch of stuff planned for the release, including participating in the Simon & Schuster Blogfest with 39 other fantastic S&S authors. The Blogfest kicks off on 9/21. Look! A snazzy countdown thingie:



And also a snazzy banner:


In October, I'll be doing a blog tour, yammering about all sorts of things on all sorts of (dare I say "snazzy" again? no? how about "fabulous"?) fabulous blogs. More info coming soon. Stay tuned!

Also stay tuned for giveaways!

There is a giveaway going on right now for a prize pack that includes an ARC of ICE on Katie's Bookshelf. Click here to enter. Contest ends 9/12.

The prize pack on Katie's Bookshelf was donated by the super-nice and super-fabulous Becca Fitzpatrick. So I thought I'd do a giveaway here for an ARC of Becca's fantastic book HUSH, HUSH.


HUSH, HUSH is a thrilling and romantic tale about fallen angels and falling in love. I devoured it in a single sitting (without even pausing to fetch a snack, which is highly unusual for me!) and can't wait for the next one.

If you'd like to be entered to win an ARC of HUSH, HUSH, please leave a comment to this post. Ooh, and I should mention that the ARC I'm giving away is no ordinary ARC. It's one of the rather rare pre-ARCs that were printed up for BEA this year, before there was even cover art. More like a bound manuscript. And it's signed by Becca! A winner will be selected at random (or by my cat). Contest ends 9/16.

Obscure Fairy Tale: The Three Princesses of Whiteland

You guys ROCK.

Seriously, I love all the comments on my last post. Keep 'em coming! It's so much fun chatting with you all. Thanks for entering the giveaway contest, and thanks for all the reading suggestions! My TBR pile has grown by leaps and bounds.

The winner of the ARC of ICE is... *drum roll*... Kristen!!! (Please email me your mailing address, and I'll trot off to the post office with your book.)

As a thank you to everyone for entering, I thought I'd tell you about one of my favorite obscure fairy tales, The Three Princesses of Whiteland. It's from the same collection of folktales as East of the Sun, West of the Moon (the tale that inspired ICE). My thoughts on the story are in italics...

The Three Princesses of Whiteland (from Asbjornsen and Moe)

Once upon a time... A fisherman fails to catch any fish. A head pops up between the waves and says, "You'll catch lots of fish if you give me what your wife carries under her girdle." And he says...

"Ahhh! A head! Holy crap, it's a disembodied head in the middle of the ocean and it's talking to me! This is NOT GOOD! Call the police! Call a psychiatrist! Call the tabloids!" No, that's not what he says because he knows this is a fairy tale and one of the rules of the Fairy Tale is that you must accept every freaky talking thing with more grace and aplomb than Julie Andrews at a tea party. So what he actually says is...

"Sure." He doesn't know that his wife is carrying a baby under her girdle.

Out of curiosity, what did he actually think he was bargaining away? Her belly button? Her pancreas?

His wife is upset. When the child is born, the king offers to protect him. So the king raises the boy.

And the parents join the support group started by Rapunzel's parents, PARFTB (Parents Against Ridiculous Fairy Tale Bargains).

One day, the king and the boy go out fishing...

Really? Because that seems a little reckless, given the whole freaky head thing. Can't he take up a safer hobby? Like juggling knives?

After their day at sea, the boy forgets his handkerchief on the boat and returns to fetch it. The boat, moving on its own, carries him across the sea to a beach.

Told you it was reckless. But where's the head?

He meets an old man who says, "Welcome to Whiteland. If you walk down the beach, you'll find three princesses buried up to their necks in sand. Ignore the first two and follow the orders of the third."

Heroes should ask more questions. Such as, are you (A) a wise Gandolf-figure here to point me to my glorious destiny, (B) the evil mastermind who kidnapped me and buried three girls in some weird homage to a teen angst beach movie, or (C) just a random crazy guy?

The first two princesses cry for help, but he ignores them. The third princess tells him that he must enter the nearby castle without greeting the lions that stand guard.

Why is the ability-to-ignore-minor-characters a virtue? Incidentally, the lions don't do anything in this tale. And not to give away spoilers, but you know that disembodied head? Never appears again.

He must allow a troll to beat him with whips, use a special salve to heal himself, and then slay the troll with a sword. If he does this three times with three trolls, the princesses will be freed.

Or he could just fetch a shovel and dig them out right now.

The boy agrees. Inside the castle, a three-headed troll whips him. The boy heals himself and kills the troll. When he returns to the princesses, they are now only buried to their waists in sand.

Dude, seriously, sand isn't that hard to dig. Get a shovel.

The boy returns to the castle a second time, and a six-headed trolls whips him. The boy heals himself again and kills the second troll. Now the princesses are buried only to their knees.

Oooh, scary, knee-deep sand. Can't they just, you know, step out of the sand and walk away?

Lastly, a nine-headed troll whips him until he faints. When he regains consciousness, the boy kills the troll. The princesses are free. He marries the third princess and lives happily for a while.

Because getting beat up by a monster makes for such a good first date.

After a while, the boy misses his parents. His wife warns him to listen to his father, not his mother, and she gives him a ring that grants two wishes. He uses one to return home.

Why not use a boat? It's a magic ring. Go for something cool. If you need transportation, then how about wish for the means of transport? Like a magic carpet or a pegasus or a VW bug with a cute fake daisy on the dash...?

At home, his mother tells him to visit the king to show him what a fine young man he's become, and his father tells him to stay home. The boy visits the king.

The king raised him. He should visit. Perhaps a better warning would have been the standard "Don't be an idiot."

The king is jealous of him and says, "I bet your wife isn't as pretty as mine." And the boy says, "I wish she were here right now so I could show you." Instantly, his wife appears. She tells him he's had his two wishes now, gives him a ring made of her hair, and leaves him.

Chief lessons I've learned from fairy tales: be careful of the word "wish," don't eat unwashed fruit, and if your daughter is cursed to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die, then show her what a spinning wheel looks like.

He begins to search for Whiteland. He meets the lord of the beasts, the lord of the birds, and the lord of the fish. No one knows where Whiteland is until they ask an old pike who says he's been a cook there for ten years.

I love that the fish is a chef. How awesomely random.

The pike says that the queen (who was the third princess) is going to marry a new man since her king is missing.

Can he really be missing if she knows exactly where he is?

The lord of the fish tells the boy that on the moor, he'll find three men who have been arguing for one hundred years about who should possess a hat, cloak, and boots. If anyone has all three, he can turn invisible and wish himself anywhere.

Well, that's convenient.

The boy tells the three men that he'll choose who should possess the items if he can borrow them. They agree, and he whisks himself to Whiteland.

What do you want to bet that he doesn't return the items?

The North Wind offers to blow the new fiance away if the boy can get the man outside. So the boy tosses the man outside, and the wind blows him away.

When did a talking weather system join the story?

The boy shows the queen her hair ring. She welcomes him home happily, and the rightful wedding is held.

Um, weren't they married before? And hey look, he didn't return the magic items. There's a shocker. It's not like this story has any other unresolved plot points... I'm sure he'll use that invisibility power any second now...

And they all lived happily ever after.

Including the disembodied head, silent lions, extraneous princesses, random ancient men, and the cooking (not cooked) fish...

For more obscure fairy tales (with commentary), check out the Obscure Fairy Tales page of my website, where I've gathered links to all my prior fairy tale posts.

Another ICE ARC Giveaway!

The response to Sarah Rees Brennan's giveaway of Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of ICE and Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER last week really blew my mind. I read through all the wonderful comments to her blog post and was nearly brought to tears by all the people who were looking forward to reading about Cassie's adventure. Thank you all so much. The only downside was that I felt kinda bad that only one person would end up winning Sarah's ICE ARC.

And then... FATE INTERVENED!

Last Wednesday was a rather big day for me. I got to go into NYC to visit my editor and the publicity/marketing team at Simon & Schuster, which was eleven kinds of awesome! After listening to them describe all their fabulous ideas about the upcoming release of ICE, my publicist gave me a present, another ICE ARC! He probably read my last post and gave me the ARC out of pity... But I choose to interpret this as a good omen, a sign that I should -- dare I say MUST -- give this ARC away!

Now, of course, I could give it to my mother, who has been asking for one for some time... And that is certainly what a good daughter would do... But where's the fun in that?! Much more fun to give it to ONE OF YOU!

Just leave me a comment and raise your hand if you want to be entered in the giveaway. I'll pick a winner at random next week.

Sorry, Mom...

Also, you may have noticed that I FINALLY figured out how to put a Blogger Followers Widget in the sidebar. Not that this is a particularly difficult thing to do... But hey, I'm still proud of myself for figuring it out. Anyway, for those of you who like to read this blog, this should make it easier for you to do so. Just click the follow button and my blog posts will automatically pop up in your Blogger reading list. So easy. So fun! And since I'd love to get new followers, now that the lovely widget is up and all, I'm prepared to sweeten the deal. Anyone who raises their hand in the comments to enter the ICE ARC giveaway AND also becomes a new follower of this blog (or is one already) will be entered TWICE in the giveaway. TWICE! That's, like, a whole extra time!

Finally, I had so much fun reading about everyone's favorite minor characters and character hobbies in the comments to Sarah Rees Brennan's post that I want to do something similar here. Cassie, the heroine of ICE, is by far the most kickass character I've every written. She's way braver and stronger than me. She tracks polar bears across the Arctic sea ice. She scales a mountain, hikes through a blizzard, dives into the freezing ocean, flies through the air on the back of the North Wind... I, on the other hand, am afraid of frisbees. And pretty much any other sport that involves objects flying toward me at high speed. I could never be like Cassie. So I live vicariously through books, through Cassie and all the other kickass heroines I love to read about.

Which brings me to my question for you: Who are your favorite kickass heroines? You don't have to answer to be entered in the contest, but I'd love to chat about your favorites in the comments.

To sum up: Comment. Follow. Chat about kickass heroines. Win free ICE ARC!

ICE Giveaway on Sarah Rees Brennan's Blog!!

Wanna free copy of ICE, my new, not-available-anywhere-until-October book? Well, I don't have any to give you! My stash of Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) has dwindled. I don't even have one to give to my own mother. Seriously. She's visiting this week and asked for a copy and I had to make her wait until October when the finished book comes out! Sorry, Mom...

But Sarah Rees Brennan has one!! How, you ask? Who knows? She is certainly quite sneaky. And has been known to dabble in the dark magicks... But now that she's finished reading her ARC of ICE, she's kindly offered to give it away, along with an ARC of SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater. Just click over to her blog and leave her a comment to be entered in the giveaway! Go. Click. Now! That includes you, Mom!!

For anyone who hasn't heard of Sarah Rees Brennan yet -- and I can't imagine there are many of you -- you soon will! She's been writing a hilarious blog for years and her debut novel, THE DEMON'S LEXICON, hit the YA shelves a few weeks ago. I recently read THE DEMON'S LEXICON, and I loved it. The words "brilliant" and "awesome" spring to mind. Plus "wow." It's one of those novels that you stay up ridiculously late to finish and then flip back to the first page to read again, prompting your husband to say, "Did you just start reading that again? Don't you know how ridiculously late it is?" I loved the relationship between the brothers. It's rich, complex, and delicately drawn. I love the dialogue. Everything the characters say is sharp and hilarious. And I love the end, which I'm not going to spoil for you, but is AWESOME. If you liked Buffy's Angel, then you're going to love this book.