From Where I'm Standing [11] - Bringing YA 2 You

I am so bad at remembering to do these! Anyway, I recently had the immense pleasure of having five awesome YA authors visit my hometown on April 9th, as we were the grand prize winners of the Bringing YA 2 You contest!

Not only was it great to get to drive a measly five minutes instead of two hours, but I was also ecstatic that every author was one I wanted to see and meet. I'd met a couple already, but that never dampens my excitement.

When I arrived (a bit late, but hey, better late than never) I grabbed a seat by my bestie Caitlyn and listened as the authors answered questions from the audience. Despite having already done an event at the school earlier that day, the place was packed with students, parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, and those YA enthusiasts who are none of the above (yep, me).

The authors present were Victoria (V.E.) Schwab, Marissa Meyer, Beth Revis, Marie Lu, and Megan Shepherd. All of them were hilarious and answered all questions as honestly and gracefully as possible. There was talk of beheading Barbie dolls from Marie, growing up in a bookstore from Megan, writing fan fiction from Marissa, drinking lots of "coffee" to get through rejections from Beth, and stuff about how Neil Gaiman is amazing from Victoria. The authors shared about the books and people that inspired them as well as some about their writing and publishing processes.

Megan Shepherd ~~~ The Madman's Daughter

I loved everything the authors had to say and though the bleachers were uncomfortable and the air was hot and humid, I had a wonderful time. After the hour long Q and A, everyone moved to the library to buy books and have them signed. I got to talk to a lot of people, some of them were teachers from my past (hi Mrs. Flatt!) and others were YA readers from Columbia (hey Elizabeth and Debbie!), and the crowd was excited and it was so much fun getting my books signed. It was almost as much fun as watching some of the students talk to the authors and take pictures. I love seeing the books and authors I enjoy reaching a new readership!

Beth Revis ~~~ Across the Universe / A Million Suns / Shades of Earth

Marissa Meyer ~~~ Cinder / Scarlet

I was also able to get a sneak peek at Victoria Schwab's next book, Vicious. It was sitting on her table and Caitlyn and I were fawning over it and Victoria let us pick it up and look through it (she's lucky we didn't try to run off with it!). Guys, it is SO AMAZING. I cannot wait to get my own copy when it comes out. I don't typically read many books geared toward adults, but just the tiny bit I got to read reminded me why Victoria Schwab is one of my favorite writers. If she wrote her own version of the phone book, I'd read it.

Victoria (V.E.) Schwab ~~~ The Near Witch / The Archived / Vicious

Caitlyn and I hung around talking with Victoria and Courtney C. Stevens, who's book will be out in ARC form in a few months, and then after we left we stood around talking in the parking lot for a while longer, mostly about Adventure Time. Such is the life of nerds.

Marie Lu ~~~ Legend / Prodigy

I hope you quirks enjoyed my event recap! Right now I'm on my way to SOKY in Bowling Green, Kentucky, so look for another FWIS (hopefully) soon! ^_^

Have you read any of the books by these authors?

What did you think?

Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

T10T [3] - My Fictional Crushes

Space Takers [1] - Underhyped Books (vlog)

Hello! I've been messing around with making videos and vlogs for a while and I finally did! Here is the first video in my vlog series Space Takers, which is all about books that take up space on my shelves. Enjoy! ^_^

The Archived Book Birthday Giveaway Winner!

Hey quirks! As you might remember, I celebrated the release of THE ARCHIVED by Victoria Schwab by giving away a copy from The Book Depository.

Yesterday I had the chance to go to the launch party for The Archived and Victoria herself was kind enough to take a photo for me announcing the winner, and the winner is:

Congrats Daniela! Be on the look out for The Archived arriving in your mailbox in the next couple of weeks.

A big thank you to all who participated, and even if you didn't win, you can still get your own (Beautiful! Amazing! Spectacular!) copy of The Archived at the following online sites (or your own local book seller, of course):

Amazon / Indie Bound / The Book Depository

Happy Book Birthday to THE ARCHIVED + Giveaway!

Quirks! THE ARCHIVED, an amazing novel by Victoria Schwab (one of my favority-fave authors everrrrr) is out TODAY! Keys, secrets, Guyliner, murder, death, muffins, histories, and so much more is waiting for you in this book!

My gushtastic review is HERE.

Where you can buy THE ARCHIVED:

Amazon / Indie Bound / The Book Depository

AND, because I love my quirks and I love this book, I'm giving away a copy!

Unlike my previous giveaways, this one is INTERNATIONAL (so long as The Book Depository ships to your country), so just use the Rafflecopter to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway Highlight - Victoria Schwab

If you haven't heard already, Victoria Schwab, author of The Near Witch and The Archived, is having a ridiculously awesome giveaway! And I'm not talking just some normal, run of the mill giveaway, but a giveaway that gets you lots of goodies and gives back. That's why it is called the 
 Give Thanks. Give Back. Give Away!

Intrigued? You should be. Not only can you win a signed copy of each of Victoria Schwab's books for the next three years, but you can also help raise money for charity because with each contest entry (up to 500) a dollar will go to one of three deserving organizations.

Find out all the yummy details and enter by clicking the photo below!

Authors from A to Z: S

Authors from A to Z is a posting challenge hosted by

Heather at Proud Book Nerd. The challenge is simple: each day for the month of June (except Sundays) share your favorite authors whose last name corresponds to the letter for that day.  
For more info, click the photo.

How I'm participating in the challenge:

This year I am going to try to highlight just one author each day that I am really taken with. If I can't come up with one, it may be a book, a song, or a surprise!

S = Victoria Schwab

In trying to write this post, I am literally having to keep myself from bouncing like a kid about to open Christmas presents. Why? Because Victoria Schwab is that awesome. There are so many things to love about her. She was one of the organizers of Do the Write Thing for Nashville. She has a magical personality, lots of humor, and is just fun to be around. She also dressed up like cupcake to answer interview questions.

I gave her a sparkly pony once. Ponies are my favorite. That's how much I fangirl over Victoria.

And her books? Get outta here. AMAZING. I've only read one in completion, The Near Witch (my review here), but Victoria Schwab does not half-do things, y'all. The writing, the characters, just WOW. Her next couple of novels, the YA The Archived, and the non-YA Vicious, sound spectacular and unique. Alas, neither comes out until next year. If you haven't read The Near Witch (or it's companion story The Ash-Born Boy) you are so not with the program! Get with the program!
The sparkly ponies command it!

Ink Anticipation [6]

Hey quirksters! I haven't done an Ink Anticipation post in a while but I'm planning on doing one sporadically from here on out.
And what better way to re-introduce the posts than to talk about the latest book from one of my favorite authors?

Title: The Archived (The Archived #1)

Author: Victoria Schwab

Release Date: January 2013

Publisher: Hyperion

From Goodreads:

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous-it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

I am so beyond ready to read this book! If you're excited too, you can catch the first chapter of The Archived in the paperback edition of The Near Witch (which you can find here or here or here or here).

You can also head over to Victoria's blog (here) and enter in an A-MAZE-ING giveaway that is just the beginning of all the awesome to come from Victoria and The Archived.