Shattered Dreams GIVEAWAY

The Lovely people at Quercus books have offered TWO copies of Shattered Dreams By Ellie James to you lucky lot!!

All you have to do is enter the form below......

Dead Rules GIVEAWAY

The WONDERFUL people at Quercus Books have Offered TWO Copies of Dead Rules to YOU lucky readers!!

All you have to do is fill out the form below - SIMPLES!!

The Other Life By Susanne Winnacker Signed ARC Giveaway

I reported on the book launch of The Other Life last week (which you can read HERE) and promised I would be giving away a signed ARC copy.  Well I do keep my word and here is how you could win.

All you have to do is fill out the form below, YEP that easy!!!  GOOD LUCK!!!!

Dinner With Amanda Hocking AND Signed SWITCHED Giveaway

In January pretty much wherever you looked you saw posts, articles, talk of Amanda Hocking.  Unbelievably I hadn't heard of her until all this news erupted, which is seriously lame as Amanda has done something truly amazing in the literary world.
She wrote an incredible story that was proving hard to get published.  She took the amazing initiative and decided to publish her work herself.  The book world fell in love with her work and very soon after the publishers realised maybe they had been hasty in declining her writing.

Fast forward to January 2012 and Macmillan (Amanda's publishers) decided to bring her over to do lots of promo for the release of Switched and the rest of this series that will be out over the next few months.

Very unexpectedly I got a wonderful email asking if I would be interested in going along to the Macmillan offices, for a spot of dinner and the chance to meet Amanda.  I didn't have to even think about it, I was ALL IN!!!

I arrived at the offices with my good friends and fellow bloggers Laura & Casey from SisterSpooky: Bookfangirl & Dark Readers.
We of course were some what early so had to sit in the foyer for a while.  This just gave us time to get even more excited and geek out over Macmillan's books.

Amanda & Me

It didn't take long and we were whisked off to the offices.  Now these offices are pretty darn cool, the walls are literally lined with all their awesome books.  Its like being a kid in a sweet shop HEAVEN!!!

All of us bloggers got acquainted or had catch ups as lots of us have met before.  We were served yummy refreshments too - the environment just got better and better.  Soon we were introduced to the lovely Amanda and her partner Eric.  Now started the chatting time.  We all sat round a huge table with our poison of choice (diet coke for me) and fancy pizza.
We all just fired questions and had general discussions about all things bookish.  I did take some notes, so here are a few points Amanda told us.

• Amanda had been writing for years, but couldn't secure an agent and so decided to go the self publishing route
• She was greatly helped by bloggers who read her work, reviewed and spread the word of the books awesomeness
• It was a very slow process, but then just all went crazy really quickly
• The books in their self published form got optioned for a movie, which is all looking very promising.  Through the movie excitement, the publishers then became involved.  Amanda loved their involvement as it meant her work got to be tidied up and errors were corrected - her work was polished up basically
• Amanda writes fast and constantly takes notes
• She did feel some pressure from the fans that were eager to read more of her work.  She felt she needed to write more, but with having the publishers there now its made things a bit slower and so is somewhat easier.
• She knew where all her stories were going so the writing process was just filling in the points in between, but occasionally a character would change or something unexpected would develop.
• Prior to writing this series, Amanda had never really had a big idea for a paranormal story and so never really expected to write something in that genre.  She then read some things about Swedish folklore and so the Switched story stemmed from there.
• Amanda love watching The Tudors and incorporated some of the more realistic parts of that into her work
• Amanda does read YA fiction too, but not when she is in the process of writing.  Then she reads biographies.
• She particularly enjoyed the editing process, when the books were signed to publishers.  It meant she got to play around with the work
• Prior to writing the Switched series she had be concentrating on writing older set darker books.  Her family and friends told her this didn't really suit her and she should try out YA.  This is much more her!!!

After our random chats and gossip we all got to get our books signed and had photos with Amanda.

Group Photo

I managed to get a gorgeous Orange copy of the book signed ready to give away to one of you lucky lot!!!  All you need to do is fill out the form at the bottom of the page EASY!!!!

Lastly I'd like to say a HUGE Thank you to Amanda for taking the time to meet us and to Chloe at Tor Macmillan for inviting me along to a wonderful event.

Valentines GIVEAWAY!! Delirium UK HB And SWAG!!

Sadly I am lacking a valentine this year, so decided that I'd make my valentine one of you lovely guys!!!

 

  Up for Grabs I Have:

Delirium By Lauren Oliver - UK HB 1st Edition

Simon Pulse Tote Bag

Signed Becca Fitzpatrick Crescendo Poster

Signed Kirsten Hubbard Bookmark

Assorted Postcards, Bookmarks & Book Samplers

To Win All You Have To Do Is Fill Out The Form Below!!

 

India Dark Giveaway - WINNER

The Very lucky winner of the India Dark Giveaway I held last week is.......

Laura from

Sisterspooky: Book Fangirl

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Thanks to everyone that entered!!!!

L.A Weatherly Angel Swag Giveaway

I was very forutunate to meet the lovely L.A.Weatherly for a second time recently at a Twilight convention.  I was given some swag - some of which is signed that I thought would make a fabulous giveaway.

You could win -

Signed Bookmark

Signed Poster

Angel And Angel Fire Samplers

All you have to do is complete the form below

Jack The Ripper walk with Maureen Johnson and the name of the star Giveaway

One of London's Old Streets

A few weeks ago I saw an amazing competition to get to go on a Jack The Ripper walk with the fantastic Maureen Johnson, who just happens to have written a book with a Ripper'ish twist.  I never imagined I could be one of the winners, so kind of put it out of my mind.  Then last week I got the email - OMG I did the biggest geekgirl dance you have ever seen!!  I think you could say I was excited!!!

I was told I could bring a guest, so brought my Mum along again.  She was just as excited and also did a bit of a geeky dance!!

St Butolphs Church

Thursday arrived and we made our way to Tower Hill station.  Directly outside the station we were greeted by Sarah from Harper Collins.  She immediately gave us our copies of the book & a beautiful postcard.  We were early again, so waited for the other winners, the guide & of course Maureen to arrive.  It took no time at all and was a great opportunity to get to chat with some of the other winners.

The cobbles of Mitre Square

We were led to a slightly quieter area and got introduced to our guide.  He gave us a bit of a run down on the route we'd be taking and told us some of the history of "Jack"  I'm not going to really attempt to retell the story as I am sure to get my facts wrong and that would be no good at all.

Me next to the scary bench

We were led all round London, making stops in various locations either where or very close to where the murders occurred.  At each stop the guide told us the next part of the rather gruesome story, not sparing at all on the details.  We walked past a stunning church "St Butolphs" where the prostitutes of the time frequented.  Very close by we arrived at Mitre Square where one of the murders occurred.  I sat next to the bench there, not realising this was the approximate location of the murder eeeeek!!

We were led on to more locations, walking through very quaint London streets, where there is no traffic and even still have gas style street lamps.  It made it very easy to get into the feel of what things may have been like.  Eerie would be a correct sum up.  We arrived at another quite location, next to a huge building which were told is the actual location of the School in the book.  As soon as I saw the building I thought of the story - shows Maureen's great story telling.  It was here we were told about the last and most horrific murder.

Inspiration for the school in the book

The Ten Bells Pub

Next we were taken along to 'The Ten Bells' Pub.  This was famously the last known place that one of the victims visited.  It is such a gorgeous & kind of scary looking building.  This still has all the features that would have been there back in the 1800's.  Next time I really must go in there for a drink!!

Maureen & Me

We were led round to Hanbury Street, where there isn't a great deal to be seen but it is where the second murder victim was found.  We had a group debate as to which side of the road was the right one, I still left uncertain, but we believe it to be the now site of a large building.

To finish off the tour we were taken back to a small alley near The Ten Bells pub.  Here we parted ways with our fantastic guide and got to get our books signed by Maureen.  She even posed for a picture with me - so cool!!!

The lovely people at Harper Collins, gave me another copy of the book to give away!!  I even got it signed for one of you lucky lot, all you have to do is fill out the form below!!