Welcome to the Fall 2013 YA Scavenger Hunt!

Update! The hunt is over. Thanks everyone for participating. Hope to see you next year!
 

Hello! Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

I'm Liz Norris and I'm your host for this leg of the hunt. I love all things romance, food,  television, and of course books!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are TWO contests BLUE TEAM--but there is also a red team for a chance to win a whole different set of twenty-five signed books!
going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt homepage.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the blue team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you 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 10/6, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today I'm hosting the fabulously talented Teri Harman on my blog for the YA Scavenger Hunt!

Currently, Teri Harman's book shelf is over flowing, her laundry unfolded and her three small children running mad while she writes bewitching novels. Teri also writes a bi-weekly book column for ksl.com and contributes book segments to KSL's Studio 5 lifestyle show.

Find out more about Teri and her debut novel Blood Moon here. 

Check out the awesome cover:

 

Isn't it gorgeous? I love the classic feel that it has to it. 

Even more than that, I love the book!

Here's what Teri has to say about it:

Blood Moon started as research for an epic Halloween party at a 100 year old school house. Then it became an enchanting, mysterious tale of witchcraft, twisted bad guys and the endurance of young love. It is the first book in the Moonlight Trilogy, for older teens and adults.

It's got witches and magic and I adore Willa and Simon. 

I can't wait for Black Moon. I've already added it to goodreads--you should too.

And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Teri Harman, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 13. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the blue team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

CONTINUE THE HUNT

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author! 

And...

BONUS CONTEST

Because I read Blood Moon before the hunt and thoroughly enjoyed it, I'm going to offer you an extra chance to win a copy of Blood Moon, a signed copy of Unraveling, and some swag. Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt from UNDONE

Undone is available tomorrow! So here's a short preview, the opening page:

Certain moments in my life are imprinted in my memory.

They’re easy to recall with perfect clarify whether I want to remember them or not. Any small thing can trigger them: a phrase, a smell, a thought. It brings everything back like I’m reliving that moment, a brief scene in the movie of my life, complete with how horrible I felt at the time. And I usually felt horrible in those moments, because for some reason it’s the moments that I want to forget that stick around.

Like in eighth grade when I had my first kiss with Jane Sheriden and my arm got stuck awkwardly between her head and couch: just thinking about it still makes me cringe. Or when Ms. Wittak caught me cheating in Algebra freshman year because I’d saved the formulas I needed to remember in a fake game on my graphing calculator, and she tore up my test in front of the whole class.

Then there were memories that were more significant.

The pivotal moments that changed everything.

Those I don’t want to forget. Now that I’ve had too much time to think about them, to replay them over and over again in my mind, they’re the things I wouldn’t take back, that I wouldn’t do over.

Because of Janelle.

She saved my life when we were ten. She anchored me by being who she was, and somewhere along the line, I fell in love with her.

In just about every significant moment in my life, she’s there. Whether she knew it or not. 

(A Little More) On Undone

UNDONE, my novella set in the world of Unraveling, will be out 3/5! That’s only 3 days away.

This was a really fun project for me, but it actually wasn't even my idea. 

My editor suggested it. She asked me if I’d be interested in writing a novella from Ben’s POV and if I had any stories that I wanted to tell from his perspective. As soon as she mentioned it, I knew exactly what I wanted to write.

Only instead of just one story I wanted to write three. 

In my mind, there are three major moments that impact the series that readers could never get from Janelle's point of view because she just couldn't ever be there. Those were the stories I wanted to tell.

The first story, "Before She Knew Me" is a prequel that takes place during Janelle and Ben’s sophomore year of high school and readers will be able to get to know more about what Ben was like before the events of Unraveling.

The second story, "When I Saved Her" takes place during the events of Unraveling and is the moment, Ben realized he loved Janelle.

The third story (and my favorite!), "After I Left Her" begins after the events of Unraveling and carries into the events of Unbreakable so there’s a little overlap between the two books. 

When I sat down to write each story, I already had an outline. Because I wrote these after writing both Unraveling and Unbreakable, it was very clear what needed to happen in the stories, plot-wise. 

But my favorite thing about novellas or stories written from a different perspective is the the fact that you discover something new and maybe unexpected about the characters and the world. (For instance one of my favorites was when I read Ender's Shadow and discovered the role Bean played in Ender's Game.) 

So my goal for writing the stories of Undone was to write them in a way that would allow readers to learn something new, not just about Ben, but also about Janelle and the world of Unraveling, and of course at the same time, that meant I just had to make sure that Ben's version of events and Janelle's version of events didn't create any inconsistencies. (Thank goodness for copyeditors!)

Now that it's about to come out, I can say that I'm really excited for Ben's voice to be out there in the world, and for readers to know him a little bit better.

Add it to your Goodreads!