ONE MORE DAY – WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

What if today never ends?

What if everything about life—everything anyone hoped to be, to do, to experience—never happens?

That’s the prompt J. Taylor Publishing threw out there a few months ago when they opened up their site to submissions for their December 2013 Young Adult anthology, ONE MORE DAY. Six short stories were chosen from six different authors, and glory be, mine was one of them! 🙂

In celebration, I’m giving away 5 signed bookmarks to five people who do the following:

Add ONE MORE DAY to your Goodreads “To Read” list? (leave your Goodreads name for verification)

Here’s what you’ll get if you add the book:

Isn’t it pretty? Don’t you want one?

Leave your Goodreads info in the comment sections below. Also be sure to check out the other author websites and blog for more good giveaways and shout-outs!

Dear Teen Me: What six words would you tell your teen self?

I stopped by Katy Upperman’s blog this morning and read a great post about what we would all like to tell our teen selves if we could turn back time. It seems a group of YA authors got together and did just that…they compiled letters to their teen selves and those letters are now published in a book titled, DEAR TEEN ME.

Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves From Goodreads: DEAR TEEN ME includes advice from over 70 YA authors (Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss? Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he’d had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you’ll find friends—and a lot of familiar faces—in the course of Dear Teen Me.

Y.A. Author E. L. Schneider put together a video staring a few people who contributed letters to their teen selves. She also shared a wonderful “Dear Teen Me” letter that had me smiling, remembering and relating. You should check it out here.

What six words would I tell my teen self?

“Don’t believe them. Believe in you.”

What six words would you tell your teen self?

“Dear Teen Me” Letter (allisonsbookbag.wordpress.com)
Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Teen Selves in New Book (connectwithyourteens.net)
Things that inspire me to write #74: Dear Teen Me (likestrawberrytea.com)
Dear Teen Me Book Trailer! (deliriumfandom.net)
Dear Teen Me – Interview & Giveaway (iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com)

Goodreads – A must-have site for readers and authors

Goodreads is an amazing site for readers and authors. It’s a great way to share your love for books and find groups that share you fondness for particular genres. I have joined several groups centered around Fantasy and Young Adult books because that is what I primarily read and write. It was while wandering around inside of the group, “Shut Up and Read” that I stumbled upon an excellent blog site catering to YA novels and authors:

I spent a long time weaving my way around this site and I fell in love with it immediately. Jennifer has a fantastic way of handling her reviews and they are brutal, but honest. She’s not rude or nasty to the authors, but she does give her sincere opinion, in a gentle way, about what works and doesn’t work. I like that in a reviewer. I like to know what I’m getting into before I dive in. I don’t, however, decide whether to read a book strictly based on a review, but it does give me a starting point, especially if I don’t know anything about the book.

Jennifer also promotes authors by conducting interviews and providing opportunities for blog hops, guest posts and massive giveaways.

In addition to the reviews and author help, she also provides writing tips and all the latest book news as it pertains to YA.

Needless to say, I’ve found a great blog friend in Jennifer L. Bielman, and I hope you all jump over to her siteand check it out. While you’re at it, don’t forget to follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBielman and Facebook.