Completely unedited. Beware of flying commas!
Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts
Sep 6, 2014
Apr 27, 2012
Interview with Elizabeth Norris, author of UNRAVELING!
It’s been a crazy spring break
herding mini-mes and stink-eyeing bathing suits, so I thought I‘d head back to
the writing cave for another edition of WRITING CAVE CAMP OUT!!!!
I want to welcome to the “cave” (aka my writing room and only clean space in the house) former So Cal, San Diego girl now a NYC pro, Elizabeth Norris!!!!!!
I just finished reading her debut YA novel, UNRAVELING! And if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, well, the only thing that should have stopped you from snatching up this awesomeness were a pack of mini-mes that got crazy with the duct tape and strapped you to the dining room chair… not that I know that from personal experience …
Here’s the low down on UNRAVELING:
This is a shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.
So without further adieu, please welcome to the campfire ELIZABETH NORRIS!!!!!
I’m gonna just get the East Coast vs. West Coast thing out of the way and ask: where is your most favorite place on earth? *wink-nod* *c’mon So Cal!*
Speaking of Mr. King, Stephen, —because once you've scared someone to the point of being afraid of the dark, you’re on a first name basis— he once said, “Fiction is a lie. The good fiction is the truth inside the lie.” In UNRAVELING, is there a character, a scene, a look that came from a real life moment?
Yes. The emotion in certain scenes comes straight from a few real life moments. Janelle’s feelings for Ben are almost exactly how I had been feeling about my relationship at the time, and there are a few conversations between Ben and Janelle that are strikingly similar to conversations I remember having.
I like to call it deja vu in print or closure, depending on which ex-boyfriend you’re vilifying.
I teared up, nay, sobbed with snot bubbles at the end of UNRAVELING. I’m absolutely NOT going to spoil the ending, but girlfriend, holy blankets! Please, tell me there’s a book two and, if you don’t want bodily harm by way of gummy bears, I’ll need a hint about the storyline!
The sequel is called Unbreakable and it will be out in 2013. It starts four months after the end of Unraveling and Janelle gets swept up in a new case. We get to see more of Ben, Barclay, Cecily, and Janelle.
Ben *sigh-swoon*! It’s gotta be the beach sunsets that get me every time. Being from the land of amazing sunsets and beach blanket bingo, what is the best girly hopeless romantic scene in a movie that makes you audibly sigh and simultaneously envy tilt your head?
Yes, that sappy.
For me, of course it's a John Hughes movie. The scene in SIXTEEN CANDLES when Jake shows up at church and points to Samantha and says, “Yeah, you!” … I just sighed, again.
The scene in THE NOTEBOOK where Allie goes to visit Noah, and she’s wearing that blue dress. They talk and catch up and take a boat out on the lake, and it starts to rain, and they argue and then have that wonderful kiss everyone has been waiting for.
Those wonderful kiss moments always get me too. When I was a kid, my mom told me to stop kissing the T.V. every time Danny Zuko from GREASE came on. Please don’t let me be the only one to share an embarrassing childhood/teen celebrity crush.
Leonardo DiCaprio, first from ROMEO AND JULIET and then from TITANIC. I was all about him.
Thank you, Leo!!! Always dying for his woman! Before we embarrass ourselves anyfurther let’s play the speed round.
Ready. Set. Go!
black or white?
Black
dog or cat?
Dog
cake or cookies?
Cookies
coffee or soda?
Coffee
naughty or nice?
Empty
summer or winter?
Summer
favorite g-rated swear word?
I hardly ever swore until I became a teacher, and then being around high school students who swore all the time, I picked up on a lot of it. Now I’m not sure any of my swear words are g rated.
Okay, I’ll give you the last one as a bye and loan you my HOLY BLANKETS curse word.
I’m not sure if you could tell, but it’s Friday night camp out downstairs for the husband and the mini-mes, this means I can totally sneak ANYONE in for the Writing Cave Part-ay!
Who would come?
The cast of Game of Thrones
Which is just perfect. What would they bring?
Stuff to make s’mores
Hold on! They’d have to bring the dragons to roast the s’mores, because that would be Aaaaaa-WESOME!!!! Sorry, what junk food must we have?
Game of Thrones cast, with their dragons roasting s’mores
and gorging ourselves on tortilla chips and guacamole?! That’s my kind of camp out!!!!
And finally, once we’ve devoured UNRAVELING, What two books would you recommend to your readers?
I recently read and loved BORN WICKED by Jessica Spotswood and SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo.
Elizabeth, thank you soo much for stopping by the Writing Cave.
Be sure to follow Elizabeth on Twitter, and Facebook
I'm also going to be giving away two, -- YES, TWO!!!!!-- copies of UNRAVELING!
Fill out the rafflecopter questions and away you go. Contest ends May 1, 2012 and US lovelies only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway I'm going to walk Elizabeth out, but in the mean time, I'll leave you with the UNRAVELING trailer. Also, be sure to click the UNRAVELING banner to your right for tomorrow's stop on the tour, Literary Explorations!
I want to welcome to the “cave” (aka my writing room and only clean space in the house) former So Cal, San Diego girl now a NYC pro, Elizabeth Norris!!!!!!
I just finished reading her debut YA novel, UNRAVELING! And if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, well, the only thing that should have stopped you from snatching up this awesomeness were a pack of mini-mes that got crazy with the duct tape and strapped you to the dining room chair… not that I know that from personal experience …
Here’s the low down on UNRAVELING:
Two days before the start of her junior year, seventeen-year-old
Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, scenes
of her life flashing before her, and then nothing. Except the next thing she
knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high
school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And even though it
isn't possible, she knows—with every fiber of her being—that Ben has somehow
brought her back to life.
But her revival, and Ben's possible role in it, is only the first of
the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI agent father's
files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be
counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is
killed, she can no longer deny what's right in front of her: Everything that's
happened—the accident, the murder, the countdown clock, Ben's sudden appearance
in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. And as the clock ticks
down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world,
she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets—and keep from falling in love with
him in the process. This is a shattering novel of one girl's fight to save herself, her world, and the boy she never saw coming.
So without further adieu, please welcome to the campfire ELIZABETH NORRIS!!!!!
I’m gonna just get the East Coast vs. West Coast thing out of the way and ask: where is your most favorite place on earth? *wink-nod* *c’mon So Cal!*
That’s tough. There
are so many places that I’ve been and really loved. I would say right now that out of anywhere
I’ve ever been, I love Manhattan most. I love that I can walk anywhere I need
to, and that there are so many wonderful people and so many interesting things
to see. It’s hard to imagine living
anywhere else.
Given the $4.00 a gallon price tag on gas in Mission Beach,
I’ve gotta admit, walking options ... they're a plus. And, you do have Max’s amazing *cash
only* Italian restaurant, Rock ‘n New Year’s Eve and Broadway … okay, Manhattan
is a solid place to live. Manhattan
is also a lot closer to Bangor, Maine --where one of my all-time favorite author’s,
Stephen King.Speaking of Mr. King, Stephen, —because once you've scared someone to the point of being afraid of the dark, you’re on a first name basis— he once said, “Fiction is a lie. The good fiction is the truth inside the lie.” In UNRAVELING, is there a character, a scene, a look that came from a real life moment?
Yes. The emotion in certain scenes comes straight from a few real life moments. Janelle’s feelings for Ben are almost exactly how I had been feeling about my relationship at the time, and there are a few conversations between Ben and Janelle that are strikingly similar to conversations I remember having.
I like to call it deja vu in print or closure, depending on which ex-boyfriend you’re vilifying.
Was there a scene in UNRAVELING that was the hardest to
write?
Someone close to
Janelle dies in the middle of the book. The scenes after that were incredibly
hard for me to right. She was devastated, and I really wanted to make sure that
showed, but at the same time, I didn’t want it to be too excessive. And the
plot had to keep moving forward. It was also really emotional for me to write.
I teared up a number of times while I was writing it.I teared up, nay, sobbed with snot bubbles at the end of UNRAVELING. I’m absolutely NOT going to spoil the ending, but girlfriend, holy blankets! Please, tell me there’s a book two and, if you don’t want bodily harm by way of gummy bears, I’ll need a hint about the storyline!
The sequel is called Unbreakable and it will be out in 2013. It starts four months after the end of Unraveling and Janelle gets swept up in a new case. We get to see more of Ben, Barclay, Cecily, and Janelle.
Ben *sigh-swoon*! It’s gotta be the beach sunsets that get me every time. Being from the land of amazing sunsets and beach blanket bingo, what is the best girly hopeless romantic scene in a movie that makes you audibly sigh and simultaneously envy tilt your head?
Yes, that sappy.
For me, of course it's a John Hughes movie. The scene in SIXTEEN CANDLES when Jake shows up at church and points to Samantha and says, “Yeah, you!” … I just sighed, again.
The scene in THE NOTEBOOK where Allie goes to visit Noah, and she’s wearing that blue dress. They talk and catch up and take a boat out on the lake, and it starts to rain, and they argue and then have that wonderful kiss everyone has been waiting for.
Those wonderful kiss moments always get me too. When I was a kid, my mom told me to stop kissing the T.V. every time Danny Zuko from GREASE came on. Please don’t let me be the only one to share an embarrassing childhood/teen celebrity crush.
Leonardo DiCaprio, first from ROMEO AND JULIET and then from TITANIC. I was all about him.
Thank you, Leo!!! Always dying for his woman! Before we embarrass ourselves anyfurther let’s play the speed round.
Ready. Set. Go!
black or white?
Black
dog or cat?
Dog
cake or cookies?
Cookies
coffee or soda?
Coffee
naughty or nice?
Nice
cup ½
full or ½ empty?Empty
summer or winter?
Summer
favorite g-rated swear word?
I hardly ever swore until I became a teacher, and then being around high school students who swore all the time, I picked up on a lot of it. Now I’m not sure any of my swear words are g rated.
Okay, I’ll give you the last one as a bye and loan you my HOLY BLANKETS curse word.
I’m not sure if you could tell, but it’s Friday night camp out downstairs for the husband and the mini-mes, this means I can totally sneak ANYONE in for the Writing Cave Part-ay!
Who would come?
The cast of Game of Thrones
Which is just perfect. What would they bring?
Stuff to make s’mores
Hold on! They’d have to bring the dragons to roast the s’mores, because that would be Aaaaaa-WESOME!!!! Sorry, what junk food must we have?
Tortilla chips and guacamole
Game of Thrones cast, with their dragons roasting s’mores
and gorging ourselves on tortilla chips and guacamole?! That’s my kind of camp out!!!!
We’re about out of time, I hear tiny footsteps climbing the
stairs. Let me ask you two last
questions. What is the best advice you
would pass along to up and coming writers?
Write because you
love it and don’t ever stop. There are a lot of highs and lows when you write a
book and a lot more on the road to publication. I had to learn to savor the
highs and let the lows roll off my back. And finally, once we’ve devoured UNRAVELING, What two books would you recommend to your readers?
I recently read and loved BORN WICKED by Jessica Spotswood and SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo.
Elizabeth, thank you soo much for stopping by the Writing Cave.
Be sure to follow Elizabeth on Twitter, and Facebook
I'm also going to be giving away two, -- YES, TWO!!!!!-- copies of UNRAVELING!
Fill out the rafflecopter questions and away you go. Contest ends May 1, 2012 and US lovelies only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway I'm going to walk Elizabeth out, but in the mean time, I'll leave you with the UNRAVELING trailer. Also, be sure to click the UNRAVELING banner to your right for tomorrow's stop on the tour, Literary Explorations!
Feb 23, 2012
BEA-U-TIFUL Cover Reveal of DEFIANCE!!!
Prepare the edible confetti and champagne!
The cover reveal of DEFIANCE by C.J. Redwine is ....
wait for it ...
HERE!!!!!!
and the AMAZING C.J. is hosting a fantastic giveaway ....
HERE!!!!!
This woman is quite amazing...
Amazing...
and I really can't wait to read her debut novel!
I don't want to steal any thunder from C.J or YABC
so be sure to click the links and check out the loveliness!!!
Feb 6, 2012
My Favorite Things = Queries ... yep, it's a Monday! Query???
Like most writers, I hate querying!
HATE. Querying.
Querying is like a giant word problem with variables like: X is to Y like cat is to?
And the cursor on the screen blinks at you like some psychotic math teacher who KNOWS you have no idea that the answer is Mount Everest.
I hated querying.
Yep, used the past tense on that sucker.
Why?
What?
Who?
Come closer and I’ll introduce you to the ninja master of Query letters.
First, do you solemnly swear to scream all of the awesomeness about the author from who you are about to learn?
~nod your head and eat this piece of lemon bar~
Second, do you promise to never glare at your screen when asked to write a one-page query?
~nod and put on these stilettos~
TR-uuuu-St me!
Finally, Do you *insert pen name* pinky promise that you will tweet, +, Facebook and all other forms of crazy social media this author’s name and book to all of those floundering, query zombified writers who aimlessly bang there head on their desk when attempting to write a query?
~nod and spin three times~
Alright. *glances suspiciously over shoulder while reaching into my Johnny Depp fan club tote bag*
Here it is:
The woman takes the word problem of queries and gives you what X is, tells you why you need to have Y and –here’s the best part, after reading QUERY— you will always see why cats are equal to Mount Everest and dogs are likened to underwater basket weaving.
C.J. takes the quandary out of the Query and makes you feel confident when hitting that send button. At the end of her weeklong class, I had a shiny query letter that I couldn't WAIT to share.
C.J.’s YA debut, DEFIANCE, comes out 8/28/12 from Balzer & Bray, so the girl has some serious success when it comes to the query question.
Still not sold?
You can follow C.J. on Twitter
And I HIGHLY recommend you follow her blog.
HATE. Querying.
Querying is like a giant word problem with variables like: X is to Y like cat is to?
And the cursor on the screen blinks at you like some psychotic math teacher who KNOWS you have no idea that the answer is Mount Everest.
I hated querying.
Yep, used the past tense on that sucker.
Why?
What?
Who?
Come closer and I’ll introduce you to the ninja master of Query letters.
First, do you solemnly swear to scream all of the awesomeness about the author from who you are about to learn?
~nod your head and eat this piece of lemon bar~
Second, do you promise to never glare at your screen when asked to write a one-page query?
~nod and put on these stilettos~
TR-uuuu-St me!
Finally, Do you *insert pen name* pinky promise that you will tweet, +, Facebook and all other forms of crazy social media this author’s name and book to all of those floundering, query zombified writers who aimlessly bang there head on their desk when attempting to write a query?
~nod and spin three times~
Alright. *glances suspiciously over shoulder while reaching into my Johnny Depp fan club tote bag*
Here it is:
C.J. Redwine’s, QUERY: Everything You Need to Get Started, Get Noticed, and Get Signed.
I was privileged enough to take C.J.’s weeklong query course of awesomeness. The woman takes the word problem of queries and gives you what X is, tells you why you need to have Y and –here’s the best part, after reading QUERY— you will always see why cats are equal to Mount Everest and dogs are likened to underwater basket weaving.
C.J. takes the quandary out of the Query and makes you feel confident when hitting that send button. At the end of her weeklong class, I had a shiny query letter that I couldn't WAIT to share.
C.J.’s YA debut, DEFIANCE, comes out 8/28/12 from Balzer & Bray, so the girl has some serious success when it comes to the query question.
Still not sold?
You can follow C.J. on Twitter
And I HIGHLY recommend you follow her blog.
I’m so thrilled that C.J. put her Query class into e-book format I’ve already bought one AND I’m going to be giving away a copy of QUERY: Everything You Need to Get Started, Get Noticed, and Get Signed.
To enter, fill out the form below and if it isn't working, this is my first time using Rafflecopter, shoot me a comment and I'll be sure tobeat fix the problem. Sign in with your name and email so I can notify you if you're the WINNER!
To enter, fill out the form below and if it isn't working, this is my first time using Rafflecopter, shoot me a comment and I'll be sure to
And the winner is......
Stephanie!!!!!!
Stephanie!!!!!!
Stephanie, email me mindyruiz1(at)yahoo(dot)com for your Query book by C.J. Redwine!!!!
Nov 22, 2011
And the Winner Is...
The winner of the Kindle Keepers Giveaway is....
Diana at The Lovely Getaways!!!
I want to thank everyone who visited my blog and participated in my very first giveaway!
Diana, email me with your address (mindy (at) MindyRuiz (dot) com) and I'll get your fabulous Kindle and it's Snuggie loving books to you ASAP!
Be sure to check back for more Writing Cave Camp out reviews, interviews and giveaways!!!!
And
Diana at The Lovely Getaways!!!
I want to thank everyone who visited my blog and participated in my very first giveaway!
Diana, email me with your address (mindy (at) MindyRuiz (dot) com) and I'll get your fabulous Kindle and it's Snuggie loving books to you ASAP!
Be sure to check back for more Writing Cave Camp out reviews, interviews and giveaways!!!!
And
Nov 17, 2011
CRaaaaaaZiNessss and a Kindle Giveaway!
The insanity of the past week has left me looking like this:
I'm back...
Now, go enter my contest to win a Kindle. Contest closes 11-21-11 at 11:59pst. Trust me, I'm up!
MWAH!
Mickey Mouse hands, wet-n-wild poncho doing a Kung Fu Panda pose in the middle of a street that's wet probably because of the fanatical weeping this weeks chaos has brought.
Most of my insanity is GREAT!
1. I did my first ever author interview AND I'm giving away a Kindle filled with three-- yes, three!-- awesome books.
2. I entered the RWA Golden Heart contest and, unlike other years when I chickened out and DIDN'T send in my ms, I'm t-minus fifteen days to sending in my submission.
3. I'm NaNo'ing like cahrazy on a brand new shiny project that is not the sequel to the RWA contest MS.
4.I'm blogging
and
accounting
and
mommying
and
turkeying
and
Christmasing
and
birthday shopping (because everyone should have all of their children around the holidays).
and...
you should just watch this trailer because I need a moment to weep in a cold cup of coffee. I'm back...
Now, go enter my contest to win a Kindle. Contest closes 11-21-11 at 11:59pst. Trust me, I'm up!
MWAH!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
