Author: Katy Upperman

Bookanista Links…

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I’ll be back next week with a recommendation for a so-called “gap book” (one everyone’s read but YOU). It  was aMaZiNg, just to pique your curiosity. 🙂

For now, please do check out all of the Bookanista goodness  going on this week:

Stasia Ward Kehoe is blown away by DINOSOARING

Jessica Love celebrates SECOND CHANCE SUMMER

Nikki Katz is crazy about Holly Black’s Curse Workers series

Shelli Johannes-Wells shares a guest post by SURRENDER author Elana Johnson

Shannon Messenger champions ALL THESE LIVES–with a GIVEAWAY!

Gennifer Albin swoons for A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE.

BE HERE NOW ~ An Auction

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YA writer and lovely blogging friend, Kathy Bradey, is heading up an auction starting this coming Wednesday where you can win query and manuscript critiques. More details will be on her blog, so be sure to visit (and follow!) her for up-to-date info. Here’s a rundown of what the auction is all about:

What is “BE HERE NOW”?

“Be Here Now” is an inspiring documentary about the actor Andy Whitfield, who put the same determination and dedication that he brought to his lead role in the hit television show, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand,” into fighting life-threatening cancer.

It was Andy’s hope that by opening his story up to a documentary, he might help or inspire others facing similar challenges, while pushing to accelerate the pace of cancer research around the world.

“When Andy was told his lymphoma had returned and that without treatment he had 3 – 6 months to live, he was compelled to share his exploration into the unknown. He selflessly invited a film crew into our lives, who followed us through out the last year of Andy’s magnificent and courageous journey. We now need your support to finish the documentary and fulfill Andy’s legacy.”
~ Vashti Whitfield (http://www.maybemcqueen.com/)

What are “BE HERE NOW” Critiques?

“Be Here Now” needs funding for additional filming and editing, or else the documentary will not be completed. The following writers have come together to offer various manuscript, chapter and query critiques in exchange for your pledge/donation to the “Be Here Now” Kickstarter campaign. Writers participating so far:

E.K. Henry
Debra Driza
Michelle Painchaud
Laura Tims
Kathy Bradey
Mindee Arnett
Melanie Santiago
Angie Spartz
Rachael Allen
Beth Light
Susanne Winnacker
Kaitlin Ward
Jenn Walkup
Kara Taylor
Dawn Rae Miller
Stephanie Kuehn
Rebecca Rogers

How does it work?

• Each critique item is an auction and will have its own post.

• You bid on the critiques by posting in the comment section on Kathy’s blog. (Don’t forget to include your email address in your comment!)

• You may bid as many times as you like.

• The length of the auction will be included in the auction post.

• When the auction is over, the highest bidder is the winner and will be notified by email.

Additional Details

• The minimum bid is $1.00.

• Winners must pledge their winning amount to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/426354716/be-here-now-the-andy-whitfield-story within one week of winning their auction item. Please note: A pledge is not a payment. It is a promise of payment.

• THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
As per the rules of Kickstarter, you will NOT have to pay any money (even after you have pledged) unless the “Be Here Now” funding goal is met within the specified timeframe. Let me say that again. IF THE FUNDING GOAL IS NOT MET WITHIN THE TIMEFRAME, YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED YOUR PLEDGED AMOUNT. Unfortunately this also means that you will only receive your auction item if the funding goal is met. However, with a funding goal of $200,000 and $37,000 already pledged in 2 days (with 43 days to go), you can make up your own mind whether or not to participate.

• If the funding goal is met, your credit card will be charged on Monday Jul 23, 4:04pm EDT. You must send me the confirmation e-mail sent by Amazon Payments as a record of donation to receive your critique.

• If you would like to pledge without partaking in the auction, do so here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/426354716/be-here-now-the-andy-whitfield-story

The first auction items will be posted on Kathy’s blog on Wednesday, June 13th, 2012. (Sydney, Australia time). You can post any further questions you may have in the comments of Kathy’s blog as well.
Any help in spreading the word (Twitter/Facebook/blogging) about this awesome cause would be greatly appreciated!
🙂

Bookanista Rec: AMELIA ANNE IS DEAD AND GONE

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Today’s Bookanista recommendation: Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (Available July 5, 2012)

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone

How gorgeous is this cover?

From Goodreads: An arresting un-coming-of-age story, from a breathtaking talent… Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town–and Becca–into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life. Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne Richardson’s life are intercut with Becca’s own summer as the parallel stories of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia’s death.

Amelia Anne had me at hello. The beautiful cover, mesmerizing synopsis, and steady stream of rave reviews were initially intriguing. But then there was the first line:

The night before Amelia Anne Richardson bled her life away on a parched dirt road outside of town, I bled out my dignity in the back of a pickup truck under a star-pricked sky.

Amazing, right? I’m happy to report that each line that follows the first is equally stunning. So are the characters, the setting, and the desperate, raw tone of this novel.

Kat Rosenfield holds nothing back in the weaving of Rebecca and Amelia’s parallel stories. Her prose is enchantingly gritty, and the relationships she fosters between her characters feel real and flawed and dangerously precarious. Amelia Anne is a fast read, one part literary fiction, one part murder mystery, with a twist that packs one heck of a punch. It’s also one of those books that is simultaneously inspiring (I want to write a book like this!) and discouraging (I’ll never be able to write a book like this…). Writers: Read it, perhaps, when you’re not drafting or in the middle of heavy revisions. But DEFINITELY read it.

Rebecca Behrens was kind of enough to pass an ARC of Amelia Anne to me through a giveaway (read her thoughts on the novel HERE), and I’d love to do the same…

Leave a comment below promising to share what you like (or love!) about Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone through the social media outlet of your choice (your blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and tomorrow (Friday) at noon, I’ll randomly choose one commenter to receive the ARC.

{This giveaway is open internationally, and I’d be grateful if you’d take a moment to help spread the word through Twitter/Facebook/your blog.}

♥ Thank you, lovelies! ♥

And a few more Bookanista recommendations for you to check out…

Nikki Katz has been hit by STRUCK

Jessica Love is thrilled by TRANSCENDENCE

MAY I ask something about you?

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First, an important bit of business: The announcement of the FIVE winners from my Reading is Sexy giveaway, chosen randomly. Congratulations to…

Charissa, Jaye, Jillian, Yahong, and Doreen!

The first winner to email me at katy(dot)upperman@live(dot)com will have her choice of ONE of the following: A signed copy of The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour, a copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, or a Reading is Sexy bumper sticker. The second winner to email will have second choice of the remaining prizes, the third to email will have third choice, and so on. (Also, please don’t forget to include your mailing address in your email so I can get your book or sticker to you!)

Congrats again, Charissa, Jaye, Jillian, Yahong, and Doreen, and thanks so much to everyone who entered and helped spread the word about this giveaway!

:)

Second, my first post over at YA Confidential is up today, a review of the fabulous This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers (out next month!). I’d love it if you’d drop by to check out all the reasons I LOVED this book!

This Is Not a Test

Third, I’ll be taking a bit of a blog-cation over the next couple of months. Yep… April and May were chock full of blog posts around here, and I had a blast writing them, reading all of your thoughtful comments, and visiting your blog in return. But, I’ve decided to dedicate my free time this summer to my family and the rewrite I’ve been working on. Blogging is a blast, but it’s also quite time-consuming, and if I don’t take this break, I won’t be able to prioritize my time in a way that will best allow me to complete my rewrite. That said, I’ll still be reading your blog, and I’ll still do an occasional Bookanista review. I’ll also still be posting over at YA Confidential. But all in all, things around here will be pretty quiet. Never fear, though… I’ll be back early August when school starts and my girlie begins spending her days at –*gasp*– Kindergarten!

Relaxing Summer

I leave you with this question: What are YOUR summer plans?

MAY I tell you something about writing?

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Because it’s Memorial Day and my parents are visiting and my creative energy is pretty consumed with a rewrite, I’d love to share a previous post (originally HERE), an oldie but a goodie, about how I overcome the dreaded writer’s block.

Writers Block

My Miracle Cures…

1. I eat. Sometimes healthfully. Sometimes not. Often Bottle Caps, my drug candy of choice. 

2. I read. Books on craft. Young adult fiction. Entertainment Weekly. Whatever.

3. I exercise. Run, walk, bike, yoga–anything weather appropriate.

4. I hang with my daughter. We color. We play Princesses. We make beaded necklaces. Anything creative and fun.

5. I brainstorm with my husband. His ideas are sometimes random and unusable, but he thinks outside the box and he’s an amazing sounding board. Also very supportive.

6. I write drivel. I type out sweeping descriptions of the setting. I fill in backstory. I let my characters have meaningless conversations. Sometimes they just make-out. This stuff almost always gets the cut, but it often helps to get good words flowing.

7. And, perhaps most helpfully, I plot. Or replot. Because when I’m blocked, it’s usually because I’ve taken a wrong turn. I’ve written something wrong earlier on, and that something needs to be identified and corrected.

Tell me: What are your cures for writer’s block?

{Oh! Don’t forget to enter my Reading is Sexy Giveaway if you haven’t already! It ends tomorrow at midnight!}

MAY I tell you something about my husband?

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♥ He’s amazing. ♥

Smart and supportive and sweet. Endlessly funny. He balances my obsessive anxiety with his carefree, cheerful way. He makes me smile even when there’s not a lot to smile about. He believes in me and my dream of selling a book. He believes in our daughter and encourages her, whatever her aspiration of the day may be. He’s not above playing Barbies on the floor or pretending to be a gorilla just to earn a belly laugh. He’s the world’s most loving daddy.

♥ He’s the world’s best husband. ♥

Today is our ninth wedding anniversary. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have snagged this guy.

What do you think? Have we aged well?

♥

{Oh! Don’t forget to enter my Reading is Sexy Giveaway if you haven’t already!}

MAY I ask something about you?

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During our recent road trip to California, we spent a few nights in Cannon Beach, Oregon, which is pretty much my favorite town ever.

While in Cannon Beach, my husband, daughter, and I experienced what turned out to be an entirely perfect day. It was one full of kite flying, sandcastle building, picnicking, hiking, biking, and shopping. We capped our perfect day with the perfect meal, a four course evening of deliciousness at The Irish Table. Dinner began with cider beer (a Shirley Temple for my girlie) and authentic Irish soda bread, followed by roasted beet salad, then fresh grilled halibut with fingerling potatoes and zucchini. After watching the sunset, we walked to a local grocery store and picked up a ridiculously expensive dark chocolate candy bar that was packed with almonds and cherry bits. All in all, the meal was freaking amazing. Frankly, I wish I could relive every delectable bite right this very second.

National Eat What You Want Day? Don't mind if I do! {Tonight's dinner at The Irish Table in #CannonBeach was aMaZiNg!} #CAHereWeCome #RoadTrip #Yum

So, my question for you: What is your idea of the perfect meal (location, company, food, drink, etc…)?

{Oh! Don’t forget to enter my Reading is Sexy Giveaway if you haven’t already!}

MAY I tell you about… A Giveaway?!

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Okay, technically I’m supposed to be telling you something about myself today, so… I’m all moved in to my new house in California, and what a relief it is to have my life back! I’m so over living out of a suitcase and constantly eating at restaurants and sifting through boxes to find random things like coffee mugs. I don’t want to think about moving ever again. Well, at least not until eighteen months from now when the Army ships us somewhere new all over again…

Anyway.

To celebrate my return to normalcy, I think a giveaway is in order.

May I present the… Reading is Sexy Giveaway!

FIVE winners will be chosen randomly to receive ONE of the following:

A SIGNED copy of The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour…


A copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins…

Picked these gems up for a future giveaway. :) #books #yalit #reading #sexy
Or, a totally awesome Reading is Sexy bumper sticker!

Wondering about the rules of  the Reading is Sexy Giveaway? 

1. To enter, simply leave a comment completing this sentence: “Reading is ______.”

2. Want to earn additional entries?*

+1 for subscribing to this blog today (right column, top —->) or click HERE to easily subscribe via Google Friend Connect
+2 if you are already a subscriber
+1 for following me on Twitter (new or current)
+2 for tweeting about this contest (@katyupperman, please!)

3. The giveaway will close one week from today, Tuesday, May 29th, at midnight, PST. (I will post the winners’ names Wednesday, May 30th).

4. Once the five winners’ names have been posted, the first to email me will have first choice of the prize he or she prefers (the signed copy of The Disenchantments, OR the copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door, OR a bumper sticker). The second winner to email will have second choice, and so on.

*Please tally up your entries and include the total in your original comment!

Good luck!