Hunger Games MANIA. I'm sooooo into it.

I've been tweeting so much about Hunger Games recently, I figured I should make a blog post out of it.

FIRST:

Dude. You guys know how I am about nail polish. (And just in case you're new here, Sara = total NP junkie.) There was some controversy over whether or not there actually would be a polish collection tied to the movie, and for a while it looked like a no-go. BUT:

The controversy is over. After weeks of back and forth about whether the collection would ever see the light of day, fans of The Hunger Games can rest assured that they will be able to cover their digits in the gold of Cinna's eyeliner. The nail polish collection is, once and for all, confirmed.  

source: bellasugar.com.au

And last week China Glaze released a swatch of planned colors from their upcoming "Colours from the Capitol" collection! *happy dances*

SOURCE

Which ones are your faves? (Mine are are listed in my tweet.)

SECOND:

Eleven different designers played around and created Katniss's fire dress. 

Awesome.Sauce. 

Awesome-dot-sauce. 

I mean, is there really any other way to say it? How much FUN are these designs??? 

Tadashi Shoji's is my fave: 

SOURCE: stylecaster.com

But I LOVE the cape in Christian Siriano's: 

SOURCE: stylecaster.com 

Which ones are YOUR faves?

THIRD:

Okay, this one is allllll thanks to Cristin Terrill. She discovered this spoof of the trailer, and tweeted about it. But I couldn't NOT include it in my post :) But still, all the credit goes to her. (Well, and the peeps who made the trailer . . . )

Hilarious.

FOURTH:

AND of course you've already seen this (unless you're living in a box buried under sand under the deepest depths of the ocean) but who DOESN'T want to watch it at least once a day? Or, okay, confession? MORE THAN ONCE.

The official Hunger Games trailer.

Yep. I got chills for the millionth time watching the trailer again before embedding it in this post. I am SO CISED for this movie. 

I will be at the midnight showing. 

Who's with me?

Well hello, stranger. (With pictures!) (And winners!)

Holy guacamole, you guys. I feel like it's still early November. HOW is it that Christmas is basically knocking at the door? Jeez. Seriously.

Wait.

I mean...

YAY!

Because I love Christmas. I love this entire season. It's just . . . it's flown by! I haven't updated here in forever. (Which, okay, is really only twenty days. But STILL. I've missed you.) The past few months have been jam-packed. Don't get me wrong, I've been having fun. BUT I'm still sitting here scratching my head, wondering where all the time went.

So. Here are the things I've been up to:

1. WRITING. This WIP. Ohmygoshiloveitsomuch. But it. is. killing. me. My characters are a little out of control, and they keep forcing me in directions I didn't want to go in. But, you know, I follow them just to see what they think will make this story good. And usually they're right. Except I keep having to make changes and cut away HUGE chunks and rewrite. And I'm only drafting at this stage. But seriously? I'm LOVING EVERY SECOND. Because these characters are just. so. special to me.

2. I went to Jamaica for Thanksgiving!! I got bronchitis while there (ugh it lasted FIVE days), but it was still the best vacay I've ever been on. (Plus, the bronchitis helped me to quit smoking. Three weeks down and going strong, baby!)

Swimming with dolphins? Freaking awesome experience.

We saw this nurse shark while snorkeling. Honestly. Scared the &%^$ out of me.

The sunsets? Yeah, pretty much out of this world. 

This is just for the few of you who don't believe I have naturally curly hair :)

3. I had my 3 year wedding anniversary! And with my vast three years of marriage knowledge, I can say this: Marriage is amazing and difficult and complete happiness and always evolving with high highs and low lows and takes a ridiculous amount of work. And it is the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. Especially these days.

The past three years have been a crazy, stomach-dropping, exhilarating ride.
I can't catch my breath, and I love it.

4. WORK. I've been working a lot at my (usually part-time) day job. It's an awesome place to work, everyone there is for serious awesomesauce. But dang does a full day's work take toll on my creativity. Mad props (oh yeah, I totally did just use that expression) to everyone who writes and works full-time. Respect.

ALSO. I need to pick winners for my Tangled Tides giveaway! I'm so sorry I dropped the ball on this. In fact, to make it up to you guys, I'm going to give away three copies instead of two.

Aaaaaand the winners are:

Katie

Krispy

Linda G

Congratulations! You should have an email from me asking for your mailing address, so send it to me, and I'll get the FABULOUS books out to you ASAP!

I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying the holiday season! Or the winter season. Or whatever! I'll be back soon(ish). 

xo

BOOK BIRTHDAY: TANGLED TIDES!!

You guys, you guys, you guys! GUESS WHAT TODAY IS!!

Here's a hint:

Yara Jones doesn’t believe in sea monsters—until she becomes one.

When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people—until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process—or she might open the gateway to a love that’s deeper than the oceans.


*HAPPY DANCE*

Today is Karen Hooper's BOOK BIRTHDAY!!

There's a whole release day theme--but first? I just have to say . . .

I've been a fan of this book for a long time. Yep. My love affair first began on July 11th, 2010. The first time Karen let me read this novel. I was at the beach (how appropriate!) and I missed almost an entire day of sun because I couldn't drag myself away from her story. I've had the opportunity--the pleasure--to watch it grow from that stream of something fabulous into what it is now: an entire ocean of awesome.

And finally you guys get to go swimming in it, too!!

Tangled Tides is dark and romantic . . . The cast is full of merfolk and selkies and sirens and gorgons, each with hidden pasts and secrets that run as deep as the sea.  It's not your standard Disney-style mermaid tale, trust me. In case you haven't already (and if so, omg why not???), add this book to your list of must reads. You won't regret it.

Be warned, however, that a there's an underwater web war raging between the creatures in Karen's story. And while Karen says she loves them all, she wants us each to choose a side.

So . . .

I CHOOSE . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

. . . wait for it . . .

MERFOLK!

DUH.

As if there was ever any question.

I mean, who didn't dream of being Ariel while growing up? And like I said before--Karen's story is a far cry from a Disney mermaid story, but still. Sometimes I butterfly kick at the pool or in the ocean and pretend I'm secretly a mermaid. To. this. day.

How could I choose anything else?

And in honor of my love for all things merfolk--I'm giving away TWO copies of Tangled Tides! OPEN INTERNATIONALLY! (Ends December 1st.)

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your email address. AND your answer to the question of the day.

Want another chance to win? Karen's giving away a SIGNED copy of her book (and some other sea creature-themed prizes!) on twitter! To enter? Just join the underwater web war by tweeting which sea creatures you're rooting for and why. Use the hasthag #TangledTides and you'll be entered to win :)

Karen will be on Twitter all day celebrating and answering questions--make sure to stop by and say hello. @Karen_Hooper

So tell me--are you Team Merfolk, Selkies, Sirens, or Gorgons?

Links for Tangled Tides:

Amazon

Rhemalda Bookstore

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads

PS. I apologize for any formatting issues or spelling errors! I'm currently in Jamaica (ya mon! <--- Sara's Jamaican accent . . . ) without Internet access to make edits. Thanks in advance for your comments and support for Karen's BIG DAY!

PPS. If you're a robber, you should know we have friends house sitting for us. With really big muscles. Don't even think about it.

Sara's Required Reading 101

Hey--really quick, before I start my post--please take a moment to read this post by Carolina Valdez Miller. She's going on a medical mission to Haiti, and she could really use our help. I hope you'll donate if you're able! And even if you aren't, you could always show your support in the form of a kind comment . . .

* * * * * 

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

Today's topic: In high school, teens are made to read the classics - Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens - but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curriculums, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?

My answer: Oh mans. There are too. many. books. that come to mind. I'm going to narrow my list down to three, so you're not stuck reading the never-ending post of all posts. And, for the same reason, I'll (try my hardest to) keep my explanations down to one sentence.

Wish me luck.

(Seriously . . . )

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Beautifully written and engaging story--as a reader, I came away from it with new level of consciousness about the little things in how I live my life that can make a huge difference in other people's.

2. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. Gritty dystopian with a realistic premise--it's another one that will push teens into thinking twice about the world we currently live in.

3. The entire Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. Because every teen (every person, really) deserves the chance to believe in magic, even if just between the pages of those books.

Hey--look at that--I kept my number down to three!

Though, honestly, I'd make my list required reading for all people, not just teens. Why should adults miss out on these fabulous books just because they're not in high school anymore? And just because the protagonists are teenagers, it doesn't mean people of all ages won't come away a slightly changed person for having read them.

For the record, a few of the other books I'm dying to mention include:

*takes a deep breath*

*spits out book titles with rapid-fire quickness*

The Book Thief-Jellicoe Road-The Sky is Everywhere-Before I Fall-The Chronicles of Narnia-When You Reach Me-The Hunger Games-Ender's Game--

*runs out of air*  

Hm. Guess I wasn't able to keep it at three after all . . .

 *shrugs*

Click here to see what other Road Trippers had to say about their own required reading suggestions!

Swimming Against the Current

The ocean. The sand. The sun. I Love the beach. Yep, Love with a capital L . And capital O, V, and Es, while we're at it.

You know those days, though? Where you're splashing in the water and look up ten minutes later to realize the current has dragged you a quarter mile from where you thought you were? And all your stuff is way down the beach? And you have to swim so hard to get back? You paddle and paddle and paddle, but when you look up you're still so. far. away. And you're out of breath and getting irritated and your muscles are so tired and you know you're being melodramatic, but you feel like you're never gonna get there?

I've had a lot of conversations recently with writers who are having days like those. I have them sometimes, too. With writing. With life. I mean, who doesn't hit that drag-you-down riptide every once in a while? When--in that moment--it feels like it's always going to be against-the-current battle? And we get exhausted. Because, seriously, when are we going to get there?

But then . . . Look around.

Dude, we're in the ocean. We get to play in the water. Yes, sometimes people ride a wave in and walk back along the sand. It's faster. It's easier. But I don't want to do that. Because, dang, look at my swimming muscles. Those things are getting JACKED. I'm getting stronger, my endurance is building. And next time it will be a little less of a challenge. And? Splashing and twisting and flipping in the ocean is fun. As long as you don't swallow too much and choke on the saltwater, yanno? So enjoy the waves and breathe out through your nose.

Because you wouldn't be in the ocean if you didn't love it.

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