"WORDS ARE, IN MY NOT-SO-HUMBLE OPINION, OUR MOST INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCE OF MAGIC. CAPABLE OF BOTH INFLICTING INJURY, AND REMEDYING IT." ~ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

Friday, November 26, 2010

Friday Funny: Forward Edition


(Don't forget: today's the last day to enter my Writer's Giveaway.)


You've had a long week. You deserve to laugh.

 It's time for the Babbling Flow's Friday Funny!!

My sister sent this forward a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share it with you guys :) I've highlighted my favorites...

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die. 
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.  
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.  
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? 
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?  
7. MapQuest really needs to start their directions with #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.  
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. 
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.  
10. Bad decisions make good stories.  
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.  
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.  
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report 200 page WIP that I swear I did not make any changes to.  <---omg YES YES YES, lol
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.  
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.  
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.  
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.  
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger. 
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?  
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!  
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.  
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch cell phone 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is. <---BINGO
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.  
24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!
  Sara

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sexy Ryan Reynolds... and a Writer Giveaway!

A few things.

1) My fantasy boyfriend, Ryan Reynolds was voted sexiest man alive.

2) Um, DUH.

Let's all just pause for a moment of DROOL.


3) He had me at Van Wilder, and has never let me down since.

4) Seriously. I used to watch that move EVERY DAY. There was a time when I could quote the entire thing verbatim.
 I'd like you to meet Sherri and Terri. Two girls utterly infatuated with men who have larger than normal... medulla oblongatas. 
5) I loved love him so much, I was thisclose to writing him a letter and inviting him to my sorority formal my senior year of college.

6) What? He wasn't as famous then, and it would have been a cool publicity story. I stand by my theory that he COULD have said yes.

7) Except my ex decided he wanted to give it another shot right around then, and what can I say? I'm a sucker for people who I've dated for years. So I never wrote the letter. Sigh.

8) I do still wonder though... What might have been.

9) Ryan's been the only man who could ever tear me away from my first love: Jared Leto.
10) Although, yeah, Jared still makes my heart melt into a warm, buttery consistency.
Oh
...
My
...
God
11) But I digress. (Ryan... You're still my number one.)

12) Having absolutely nothing to do with In celebration of Ryan finally receiving the title he deserves, I'm having a giveaway for writers!

13) Also, even after three new bookshelves, I don't have enough space for all my books, and I'm downsizing the ones I have on the field and craft of writing. (I actually have two copies of some of these!)  So, I'm passing the following ones on.
2010 Writer's Market Deluxe Edition
2010 Guide to Literary Agents
2010 Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishes, Editors, & Literary Agents
The Everything Get Published Book
Write on Target
Guide to Fiction Writing
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
14) To enter, all you have to do is be a follower and leave a comment on this post with your email address!

15) Winner takes all! Yep, one commenter will win every one of these books :)

16) Contest ends at midnight on Friday, November 26th.

17) US only this time. Sorry to all my international friends! I promise, next one will be open to you too!

18) Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by! Sara

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Fun with Tamara Heiner

In case you missed it, yesterday I blogged about Tamara Heiner's book, Perilous. Today, Tamara's stopped by to play "getting to know you," one of my favorite things to do with authors!

Desert Island Food: What’s the one thing you couldn’t ever give up? 
Oh, this is a hard one. I love food. LOVE IT. I’m gonna go with strawberries.
Ooooh, love strawberries! Though, I'd have to go with... sushi :)

Guilty Pleasure: What’s one movie/TV show you love, but are embarrassed to admit it? (Come on. You tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine!) 
Well, I’m kind of proud of this, though some people look at my funny. Battlestar Galactica. THE ORIGINAL SERIES.
Okay, honestly, I kinda think that's a cool answer. I've never seen it, myself, but most of my writerly friends love it! So I wish I had watched it... (Mine's Gossip Girl.)

What were the first words out of your mouth when you found out your book was going to be published? 
Trying to remember. I’m sure I called my mom, but I would’ve played it real cool and said something like, “Well, I got a contract.”
Haha! Dude, I have no idea how you played it cool. I probably would have been jumping around and, you know, dancing something like:


Where’s your dream vacation spot?
Somewhere in Italy.
Nice pick! That's up there for me too. The Amalfi Coast. Yes, please.

Who’s your male celebrity crush?
(Um, for the record, I so call dibs on Ryan Reynolds and Jared Leto, but the rest are up for grabs!)
I’m lame, I don’t have one! If I were 16, I’d have a total crush on Zac Efron…but I’m not 16!
Well, for the record, I'm *pretty* sure Zac's legal. I mean, I wouldn't know for sure. (Yes I would. He was born October 18, 1987)

And, who’s your fantasy celebrity best friend?
(Mine’s Jennifer Aniston—but, in this case, I’m willing to share ;) 
Taylor Swift. LOVE her.
Nice! Yes! She's amazing :)

Favorite book(s)? 
A Rustle in the Grass by Robin Hawdon.
I'll definitely have to check this one out!

And finally, what do you see in this inkblot??? 
A woman with a pineapple on her head doing a dance. She’s also wearing a hula skirt and hoop earrings.
Much more creative answer than mine: A crab wearing a crown, lol.





Thanks for stopping by Tamara! It's been a blast to be a part of your tour :) Good luck!

And for the rest of you: Check out the trailer for Perilous!!


Sara

Friday, November 19, 2010

Perilous

Yay! So you may or may not know this, but Tamara Heiner's book, Perilous, came out this week!!  In celebration, Tamara's hosting two giveaways, one for an autographed copy of her book and the other for a KINDLE!! For chances to win, keep reading :)

About Tamara: 
Perilous is my first published novel, and I wrote it many years ago when I was bored in study hall. We’ve both come a long ways since then. I now spend my time running around my house chasing three kids and trying to sneak to the computer when they’re not looking. I have a wonderful, supportive husband who appreciates the fact that I enjoy cooking as much as I enjoy writing. Not that I have time for that, either.
About Perilous:
Jaci Rivera has plans for her sophomore year: go to regionals with the track team, make the honor roll, and eat too much pizza with her best friends, Callie and Sara. Her biggest concern is Amanda, the pushy girl who moved in a few months ago.

What she doesn't plan for is catching a robber red-handed, or being kidnapped. The desperate thief drags her and her friends 2,000 miles across the Canadian border. They escape from his lair, only to find that he has spies and agents watching their path home, waiting to intercept them and take them back.

Then Jaci finds something out about her family. Something which irrevocably connects her to their kidnapper, and makes her question their chances of escape.


Five things I loved about Perilous!
1. The prologue. I really like the prologue in Perilous! It pulled me in and was full of mystery and made me want to dive right into the pages.
2. Jaci. The MC. She's a sweet girl and I loved when she'd use her head in... certain situations which I'm not going to give examples of because I don't want to give any spoilers :P (don't you just love when people do that?)
3. Claber. An antagonist. I loved to HATE him. I mean, hate. From the first words out of his mouth, I despised him. And there was nothing he could ever do to make me like him. Trust me, you'll see what I mean when you read Perilous.
4. The mystery. The plot is thrilling, but there's more going on than meets the eye, which is evident pretty early on, but just drove me to want to keep reading--to figure it the heck out!
5. Pickles! Okay, you're thinking uh, wtf? but just read it. Pickles connect to Detective Carl, another character I enjoyed :)

Bravo, Tamara! Can't wait to read the sequel!

Buy Perilous:




But wait! You can win 
a copy of Perilous 
AND a KINDLE!!!  

Tamara's running two contests during the tour: one book giveaway and one Kindle giveaway.


According to Tamara:
Book giveaway: The winner of this contest will be randomly chosen. Every person who comments on any post during the blog tour will be entered into a random drawing for a book. Which Tamara will autograph, if you'd like. The contest begins on Nov. 16 and ends on Dec. 15.

Kindle giveaway: This contest is point-based and begins Oct. 15 and ends Dec. 15. Whoever has the most points wins the Kindle.


Here are the points:
1 point: blog comment (can comment on all the blogs, multiple times, on the tour)
1 point: follow my blog (http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com)
1 point: retweet
2 points: blog about the blog tour
5 points: purchase the book (ebook or paperback, must email me the confirmation email) if they actually buy the book in the store they can mail me a copy of the receipt.
Have them add up all their points as well as their proof (links, etc) and email it to me at the end of the blog tour (tamara at tamarahartheiner dot com)

People can earn an infinite number of points! I'm excited for this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


So there ya have it! Go, read Perilous! And have a fabulous weekend!!


Oh! And stop by tomorrow to find out who Tamara's fantasy celebrity best friend is! (Her pick is *almost* as cool as mine...)


Thanks for stopping by!
Sara

Monday, November 15, 2010

WFC in Pictures

This is so long overdue.

I have no excuse.

And the worst part is, I'm so deep into my WIP that I don't have time for a proper summation. So I'll just say this:

World Fantasy Con 2010 was freaking awesome. I hung with writer friends, new and old. And I met so many amazing people.

Here are some of their pictures. Click on their names to check out their blogs.

My roommates!
Carolina Valdez Miller
Karen Hooper
Other fabulous people:
Roommies + Livia Blackburne and Simon Larter!
Ricki Schultz
Rae Carson
Alistair Kimble & Griffin Barber
And, yeah, these expressions sum them up quite well :)
Tim Akers

And then there were these other amazing people that I'm hitting myself for not getting (appropriate) pictures of/with! (Next year, for sure!)

Brad Beaulieu (dude, two cons and zero pictures. how is this possible?)
Peter V Brett
Blake Charlton
Myke Cole
CC Finlay
Jay Franco
Nancy Lambert (my most favorite stalker ever)
Gina Penney
Kelly Swails

There's no way I haven't left someone out. If it's you, I'm SO sorry--tell me and I'll add you. My brain's just so in WIP lala land that, well, I leave links out sometimes.

Just for fun:
Love me some Karen!
Love me some Carol!
Love me some SUSHI :)
I definitely signed up for WFC 2011 (in San Diego) before I even got home!

Also, find me on facebook if you want to see more of the pics.

Thanks for stopping by!
  Sara

Monday, November 8, 2010

Pop the champagne!!

Why?

Because my CP Cristin Terrill signed with literary agent Diana Fox of Fox Literary, LLC!


As soon as I began reading for Cristin, I knew she would get snatched up by someone amazing. And I can't wait until the rest of you have a chance to read the awesome that is her book!

For now though, head over to Cristin's post about it (<---click there) and join me in congratulating her!!
Congratulations Cristin!!

Sara

Friday, November 5, 2010

ARC winners!!

I know. I'm late with this post. And I'm really sorry!

But see here's the thing: I was super busy in Ohio at WFC last week/weekend--and then this week I've been feeling like:

but looking like:
except way less attractive. I'm not even joking.

All excuses aside, I wanted to give a huge hug thank you to everyone who entered my Blogiversary ARC giveaway. You're all wonderful, seriously, and I wish I had ARCs for every single one of you. There's another giveaway or two in the works, I promise :)

And the winners are...

Briana McNair
wins the Signed ARC of The Marbury Lens!
Kailia Sage
wins the ARC of The Mockingbirds!
Tessa Quin
wins the Signed ARC of Matched!
Nicole Zoltack 
wins the ARC of A Tale Dark & Grimm!
Kathy Habel
wins the ARC of Dust City!
Beth Melito 
wins the ARC of Witch & Wizard: The Gift!
LOra1967
wins the ARC of The Wolves of Andover!










Congratulations to all the winners! Please email me with your mailing addresses asap so I can get these babies in the mail to ya!

Next week I've got a few cool things to talk about... like a huge awesome announcement for one of my favorite people and, of course, a recap of World Fantasy Con...

Have a great weekend,
Sara