17 LIFE BY COMMITTEE and More Giveaways Plus YA Pick & Mix 5/13 Edition

First, I'm beyond thrilled to announce that Wendy Higgin's amazing Sweet Evil Trilogy made the USA Today and NYT's coveted Bestselling Series lists. How fabulous is that?

For those of you who don't know the story behind this series, it's truly the little series that could. Wendy put the first book up on Inkpop, which was then owned by HarperCollins. Readers voted it into the top five favorites, so a HarperCollins editor read it and offered her a contract. It received television interest, and HarperCollins came back to ask for two more books, and it has grown by sheer fanpower ever since. Wendy and the series are both fabulous, so if you haven't read it yet, go check it out. (I'm also giving away the full trilogy as one of the prize packs in my #PayItForward celebration giveaway, which ends in two days!)

BEA

If any of you are going to be at Book Expo America, I'd love to see you! I'm doing an autograph session on Friday from 2:00 to 2:30 at Table 17. Holly Black will be signing at the table after me, and there may be a slight delay for her fans while I drool on her and her books. I apologize in advance.

FOUR PICK ANY YA NOVEL GIVEAWAYS 

Don't forget my four Pick Any YA Novel giveaways this month! You can find a list of them right here.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

YA GIVEAWAY OF THE WEEK

Life by Committee
by Corey Ann Haydu
Hardcover
Katherine Tegen Books
Released 5/13/2014


Some secrets are too good to keep.

Tabitha might be the only girl in the history of the world who actually gets less popular when she gets hot. But her so-called friends say she’s changed, and they’ve dropped her flat.

Now Tab has no one to tell about the best and worst thing that has ever happened to her: Joe, who spills his most intimate secrets to her in their nightly online chats. Joe, whose touch is so electric, it makes Tab wonder if she could survive an actual kiss. Joe, who has Tabitha brimming with the restless energy of falling in love. Joe, who is someone else’s boyfriend.

Just when Tab is afraid she’ll burst from keeping the secret of Joe inside, she finds Life by Committee. The rules of LBC are simple: tell a secret, receive an assignment. Complete the assignment to keep your secret safe.

Tab likes it that the assignments push her to her limits, empowering her to live boldly and go further than she’d ever go on her own.

But in the name of truth and bravery, how far is too far to go?

What is your favourite thing about LIFE BY COMMITTEE?

My favorite part of my second novel is the character Sasha Cotton. I wanted to capture a very specific type of girl to be my main character, Tabitha's foil. I didn't want your average enemy-- the kind that has hurt you and is mean to you and that you hate for those reasons. I wanted a character for Tabitha to be jealous of and pained by even though Sasha never actually does anything to her. I wanted to capture something more complicated and, in my experience at least, common. Obsessing about someone and hating someone who you desperately wish you could be more like. Mistaking truly deep envy for distaste or anger.

Sasha Cotton feels full and real to me, and I don't feel that I've seen many characters like her in YA fiction. She's spacey and sexy and unusual and sad and needy and dreamy. She's everything Tabitha could never be. And she exposes something ugly in Tabitha, which makes her even more exciting to me. Some people are catalysts-- not necessarily of actions, but of feelings. Some of them bring out the very best of us and some bring out our very worst. I wanted to write a character who would stir of the very worst in Tabitha. And I wanted her to be somewhat unassuming. Not cruel. Not flashy. Just quirky enough to drive someone crazy.

Purchase Life by Committee at Amazon
Purchase Life by Committee at IndieBound
View Life by Committee on Goodreads

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

Did you see the post at Cuddlebuggery that posted the tweets of the convo between JK Rowling and George R. R. Martin on the 16th Anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts? No? Go now.

The Indie's Choice winners were announced a while ago, and I missed posting the news and congratulations. Congrats to:

• Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell (WINNER)
• Dark Triumph, by Robin LaFevers (HONOR)
• The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater (HONOR)
• More Than This, by Patrick Ness (HONOR)
• Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Win (HONOR)
• The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson (HONOR)

The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign was so successful that ReedPop is adding a panel to BEA's BookCon. Congrats, all! That's a win.

Kiera Cass talked about ending the Selection series. 

YA Highway is celebrating their Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers win by holding some YA Web Awards. Please go nominate your favorite sites!

John Green talked about why we're never too old for YA to Cosmopolitan.

A first edition set of the Harry Potter Books sold at auction for $19,000. Yes, you read that right. And no, they weren't signed, but there was one card included with her signature.

Lionsgate talked about why the Allegiant book is going to be split into two films.

Oh, and by the way, Divergent sold eight million copies the first quarter of 2014. Eight. Million.

I loved this letter from a young Eudora Welty to the New Yorker pitching herself for a job.

And this graphic on how to tell if you're reading a Gothic novel? Awesome.

WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK

Insecurity is just an ordinary hound tricked out with phosphorous to make him look scary.  ~ Margo Berendsen

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