it’s been a while since i’ve done a tgifbm! give
away, so let’s start the year off right! these are all
YA novels that i enjoyed reading recently and pubbed
in 2011 or, in the case of Cinder, just released this year!
they are all hardcovers and I Will Save You is a signed
copy by matt.

WINNER TAKES ALL!

Debut novelist Kiki Hamilton takes readers from the gritty slums and glittering ballrooms of Victorian London to the beguiling but menacing Otherworld of the Fey in this spellbinding tale of romance, suspense, and danger.

The year is 1871, and Tiki has been making a home for herself and her family of orphans in a deserted hideaway adjoining Charing Cross Station in central London. Their only means of survival is by picking pockets. One December night, Tiki steals a ring, and sets off a chain of events that could lead to all-out war with the Fey. For the ring belongs to Queen Victoria, and it binds the rulers of England and the realm of Faerie to peace. With the ring missing, a rebel group of faeries hopes to break the treaty with dark magic and blood—Tiki’s blood.

Unbeknownst to Tiki, she is being watched—and protected—by Rieker, a fellow thief who suspects she is involved in the disappearance of the ring. Rieker has secrets of his own, and Tiki is not all that she appears to be. Her very existence haunts Prince Leopold, the Queen’s son, who is driven to know more about the mysterious mark that encircles her wrist.

Prince, pauper, and thief—all must work together to secure the treaty…

Kidd is running from his past and his future. No mom, no dad, and there’s nothing for him at the group home but therapy. He doesn’t belong at the beach where he works either, unless he finds a reason to stay.

Olivia is blond hair, blue eyes, rich dad. The prettiest girl in Cardiff. She’s hiding something from Kidd—but could they ever be together anyway?

Devon is mean, mysterious, and driven by a death wish. A best friend and worst enemy. He followed Kidd all the way to the beach and he’s not leaving until he teaches him a few lessons about life. And Olivia.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

rad reads, right?
you know the rules: tweet, fb status,
live journal or blog, etc, with a link back
to this post. make sure you leave your link in
the comments section of this post to enter.
i will be sending books to a US mailing address
only, alas, as it’s a heavy stash.

contest closes next friday, 1/27, when i’ll
draw a random winner. good luck!!

i don’t know which date or day it is at
any given time. november is gone and december
seems to be passing me by leaps and bounds.
and the only thing i’m certain of,
if you were to ask me, is where i am exactly in my
rough drafting of novel 3: issues i need to address,
inconsistencies that i’m concerned about, word choice
and dialogue. those, i can tell you in a snap.

but i’m afraid between holiday parties, kiddies holiday
performances, the special clothes they need to wear,
the secret santa exchanges, gifts for the teachers, donations
to adopted families, so on and so forth, i’m at a complete
jumbled loss.

what day is it again? =)

brush painting, as always, is my meditative sanctuary.
but while my teacher has been encouraging winter subjects
such as pine dusted in snow and plum blossoms, i’ve been
inevitably reaching for spring, as i tend to do.

thus, i present you with funny birds perching amongst
a burst of fragrant blooms.

and without further ado, i’d like to announce the
winner and honorable mentions for my nameless cat
contest. thank you so much for everyone who made
suggestions, so many of which made me smile!

the grand prize winner, with the actual name printed
on the back of my new cat cards is deborah with
“Inscrutable Cat”. congrats, deborah, who will be
receiving two of the cards as a prize! (i’d give deborah
a copy of Silver Phoenix, but she has already bought
and read it, ha!)

honorable mentions go to:

zombie joe with “Mr. Grumpy Puff”.

joan stradling with “Shady Cat” and the
hilarious caption: “If this tree touches me
I’ll turn it into a scratching post.”

and megan’s “SoPo Under the Bough” which
sounds all hip and sassy. =D

honorable mentions will each be receiving
one card in the post! thanks to all for playing!! xo

currently reading:

Brideshead Revisited by evelyn waugh

i was so pleased by my riot of blossoms with my
funny birds painting recently that i had to repeat it!
but this time, it is a funny cat sitting beneath the
blooms. this is my third cat painting! as i’ve said on
twitter, i consider myself more a dog than cat person,
tho i like both animals–but cats have a way of sneaking
into my novels–as cats will do. and apparently, into my
art too! my first cat was named Blobby Cat, my second
Surly Cat. i have no idea what this cat should be named.

want to help?

help come up with a name or title for this painting and
WIN A PRIZE! what will i win, cindy, what what?

eh. this is a haphazard half-arsed giveaway open
to all. let me surprise you. tho i’m sure it’ll be something
bookish or brush arty. =)

contest ends when i feel like it.
contest has closed!

GO!

and this one is gonna rock socks. remember a month
back i had a fantastically fun signing at Once Upon A Time
in montrose with suz young, nova ren suma and holly
goldberg sloan?

*me, holly with delicious cake pops, suz and nova.

well, get ready young adult novel fans! i’m giving away
signed copies of A Need So Beautiful, Imaginary Girls,
I’ll Be There and (i literally decided while posting this)
Silver Phoenix OR Fury of the Phoenix to ONE lucky winner!

goodreads link

goodreads link

goodreads link

goodreads link

it’s been too long since i’ve had a tgifbm! giveaway
and i thought i’d come back with a bang! do you
remember the drill? tweet, facebook status, blog, LJ
or whatever with a blurb and link back to this post, then
comment with that link here. giveaway open to US mailing
addresses only. i’ll select a random winner on friday, 9/30.
good luck!

it’s been a hectic few weeks. we survived our uk
trip! we had a lot of fun but i’m thinking the days of
all four of us trapped in a tiny motel/hotel room for
11 days may be in the past. the bubs are only getting
bigger and more rambunctious! i hid out in the lounge
most of the night in my pajamas with a book. haha!

i was able to spend my 38th birthday in london with
my bff eating and shopping! best birthday ever! it’s been
so long since i’ve spent my birthday with friends, much
less my actual birthday with my bff. it was a real treat. 8)

i’m afraid i don’t take many fotos during my london jaunts
anymore. i’ve taken so many fotos these last 15 years i’ve
been visiting. so here’s just a few to share with you.

*we spent most of the time in the countryside
near the sea. the tide was out most mornings, and the
locals would come out with galoshes on and a bucket digging
sea snails (?) from the ground to eat!

*one of many english breakfasts i had while there.
i’m afraid to step on the scale since my return. i had lots
of pastries too! love the english bakeries. (at least i hate bacon,
so i didn’t eat any of those. =) i tried black (blood) pudding for
the first time and really liked it. i think it’s pig’s blood? (it’s the
black round patty on the plate.)

*i admired the beautiful stained glass windows at
london’s natural history museum.

*munchkin especially enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits. here
he meets a real live moving t-rex.

*we also took the bubs to the Tower of London. there was a
period re-enactment outside the walls which was very entertaining.

finally, congratulations to bonnie for winning my original
bird with plum blossoms painting for the great movie poster she
made for the Fury Meets Mad Men contest! she describes the movie
poster in her own words:

I’m sure you can guess who everyone is, but at the forefront, we have Silver Phoenix and Zhong Ye; in the background, we have an image of Ai Ling (okay, I know her necklace isn’t magical anymore, but…!) and Chen Yong on the ship. I wanted to feature both couples because unlike SP, Fury is very much about both couples. SP & ZY have a more tragic, immediate, grabbing story that looks best at the forefront.

i love it, bonnie! thank you so much!
i hope you enjoy the brush painting too. =D

and the runner up is eve with this “pitch”:

Fury of the Phoenix: A Love Across Centuries and Worlds

eve’s prize is two brush art cards of her choice!

thank you so much for those of you who entered this contest!

also, our reading challenge has been extended to 10/1!
LIBRARIANS and BLOGGERS! it’s not too late to join and win
over 50 rad diverse middle grade and young adult novels!
check out the details here.

until next time!

i apologize for dropping off these last few weeks.
it took me over two weeks to get over my gross
summer cold and in the mean time, i leapt right into
rough drafting my third novel.

so i’m officially in Troll Mode.
while rough drafting, i don’t often feel very chatty,
tho you can always catch me (usually late at night)
on twitter. =)

it’s very strange to be writing completely new characters
and stories. i know some writers (like dia reeves) who
doesn’t enjoy writing the same characters because she
finds it too constricting. i, in turn, very much like writing
the same characters because there is a familiarity to them–
like an old friend.

but ai ling’s story ended with Fury of the Phoenix so
i move on–to characters i don’t know at all. to a story
i don’t know enough of. the whole thing is rather maddening
and scary and hard. i’m trying to write at least 1k words
a day, so i plod faithfully on this summer. wish me luck!

in the meantime, i went to the first YA in Bloom event
run by Bridge to Books, a few saturdays back. and had
a blast! i sounded a little like a man due to the tail end
of my cold–but that didn’t stop me from having fun! =)

*teen readers chloe and khy, the Original Teen Fan! =D

*i had the pleasure of meeting ashyln, teen reader and blogger!

*was able to hang out with marie lu which was
so much fun. her debut LEGEND is a rad read!

*authors and organizers of the event! (alethea, me, jessica brody,
andrew smith, lisa yee, nancy holder, katie alender, and aly beecher.)

lisa yee does a wonderful write up of the event here.
i always love hanging out with her and le peep!

diana, who was super fun to meet, recaps here.

and ashlyn also shares her thoughts!

finally, malinda and i are very excited to launch
our next big DiYA endeavor–a summer reading challenge.
librarians are welcome to create summer reading programs
focused and inspired by diverse middle grade and YA novels
for a chance to win over 50 books for her/his library.

and book bloggers are encouraged to read diverse novels
throughout the summer and write an (at least 500 word)
essay on her/his experience. the winning blogger with the
best essay will win over 50 books all for him/herself!

it’s an amazing list of books to be won–check it out here.
and all the details here!

challenge closes on september 1, y’all! so get on it!

until next time…

hello lovely readers! just a poke in to say that
i’ve extended the Fury meets Mad Men contest because:

1. i didn’t get enough entries. wah!
2. i also didn’t publicize it as well as i should have, having
been on tour for most of may.
3. i’d like to have the contest coincide with a summer reading
challenge malinda and i are organizing through the DiYA site!

the new deadline is now September 1!
check the original entry for details and comment there
or email me your entry directly. the grand prize is an
original chinese brush painting by me and signed copies
of Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix. (this has been
added. =) the contest is open internationally.

links of interest:

so i actually do have some DiYA news! the cambridge
panel got a fantastic write up in The Atlantic today. check it
out, with quotes from sarah rees brennan, malinda, holly black,
francisco stork and me!

and liz burns over at School Library Journal online
writes a very thoughtful review of Silver Phoenix at
her blog, A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy.

have a wonderful weekend, everyone! i’ll be at the Spanish
Village in Balboa Park, Gallery 21 this saturday if you’re inclined
to stop by and admire some fantastic Chinese brush paintings by
me and my fellow artist friends. cheers!

nova’s Imaginary Girls is gorgeously written, haunting,
and a true original. laini’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone includes
fascinating mythos as well as star crossed lovers who not
only have an intense passionate chemistry but a history as well.

sounds radical, right? right!

Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

…

you know the drill!

tweet, fb status, lj, blog, etc and mention this
contest and link to this post. then comment with
that link in this post!

contest closes some time on friday, 6/10, when
i’ll select a random winner. open to US addresses only.
good luck!!

also, they both have awesome covers. win win!

Jael Thompson has never really fit in. She’s changed schools too many times to count. The only family she’s ever known is her father, a bitter ex-priest who never lets her date and insists she attend the strictest Catholic school in Seattle. And her mother—well, she was a five thousand year old demon. That doesn’t exactly help.

But on her sixteenth birthday, her father gives her a present that brings about some unexpected changes. Some of the changes, like strange and wonderful powers and the cute skater boy with a knack for science, are awesome. But others, like the homicidal demon seeking revenge on her family? Not so much.

Steeped in mythology, this is an epic tale of a heroine who balances old world with new, science with magic, and the terrifying depths of the underworld with the ordinary halls of high school.

A lot has changed in the six months since Evie escaped from the International Paranormal Containment Agency with her shape-shifter boyfriend, Lend. She finally has the blissfully normal life she’s always dreamed of, including:
1) A real live high school
2) A perfectly ordinary after-school job
3) Her very own locker (and by the way, rusted metal is every bit as awesome as she imagined)

But Evie’s not-so-normal past keeps creeping up on her…and things get pretty complicated when you factor in:
1) A centuries-old, seriously decaying vampire stalker
2) A crazy faerie ex-boyfriend who is the perpetual bearer of really bad news
3) A major battle brewing between the faerie courts where the prize in question happens to be…Evie herself.

So much for normal.

…

*awesome* right?

you know the drill! tweet, fb status, blog or
LJ and link to this giveaway post. then comment
with that link! i’ll choose a winner randomly on
friday, 4/22. this giveaway is open internationally!
good luck!!

hip hip hooray! the day is finally finally here!
my sequel to Silver Phoenix, Fury of the Phoenix
officially releases! and to celebrate, i’m holding a
Fury release contest, Mad Men style. 8)

The Contest

you may or may not already know, but i’m a huge
Mad Men fan. it’s right there as a top favorite along
with Fringe. the show is about advertising agencies
on madison avenue back in the 1960s. so what do you
need to do to win? you need to help advertise Fury of
the Phoenix in some way, whether by writing a great
pitch, putting together a story board for a commercial,
shooting a vlog or whatever to win.

you will have had to READ Fury of the Phoenix before
entering. i guess you could cheat, but i really want this
contest to be open to Fury fans! (and know i may call your arse
out if i suspect you’re cheating and haven’t read Fury yet! =)

examples of pitches

Fury of the Phoenix: Eunuchs Need Love Too.
(i personally find this one very amusing. haha!)

or

Fury of the Phoenix: A Love Triangle Like You’ve Never Seen
(it’s true. intriguing, yes?)

it can be as simple as that or more involved.
you know that i do love creativity!!

The Prizes

one of my original paintings! it could be…

Surly Cat!

Oriole Among Blossoms

Baby Panda! 8)

i don’t know which painting exactly as i’ve
a show coming up in june and one or all of these
may sell. BUT you will receive an original painting
beautifully matted in a chinese border, possibly framed.

i may give away more than one painting, depending
on number and quality of entries received!

The Swag

*every* participant who enters will receive Fury Swag!

gorgeous postcards featuring ai ling and chen yong,
zhong ye and silver phoenix. also a bookmark featuring
my bamboo painting.

you can also receive swag by tweeting, blogging
or fb status to this contest post and helping me
spread the word! just email me the link and your
mailing address for goodies.

How to Enter

you can leave any entries (if just a simple text post)
here in comments or you can email them to me.
ALL ENTRIES subject to being shared here on my blog!
be sure to include a mailing address so i can send you
swag if you want it!

this contest is open internationally (i love my international
readers!) through thursday, september 1. good luck!!!