The ever-lovely Stephanie Hale “outed” me on Friday as having good news to share today. I teased her a little in her comments about not knowing what she was talking about...but the truth is, yeah, I do have some news.
Last Thursday, the Romance Writers of America Rita® award finalists were announced, and I was lucky enough to get a call.
Here’s the list of 2010 Finalists for Best Young Adult Romance:
Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog
Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter
Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro
Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick
I am thrilled to be included with such talented authors! And must of course give a special shout-out to Simone Elkeles who was one of the first Buzz Girls, and will always remain one at heart!
The ceremony is being held at the national conference on July 31 in Nashville, TN...and I do believe all Buzz Girls will be in attendance. So I’m thinking pictures, pictures and more pictures. And lots of fun!
I hope we see some our readers there, too!
Tina
Tina Ferraro
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, 2010 Rita® Finalist
How to Hook a Hottie, 2009 Rita® Finalist
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
www.tinaferraro.com
I hereby announce winner of last week’s contest, a copy of Austenland, goes to:
Paddy!
And since I have not heard from the previous winner of the Steam Kiss contest (a signed copy of The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, I thought I would mention again that the winner is:
Gaby!
So Paddy and Gaby, please e-mail me at [email protected] so I can get the books to you!
And finally, a winner weigh-in! I happened upon the following photo of Orlando Bloom on a celebrity hairstyle website called Hair Resources, calling it the 2009 winner for Best Men’s Hairstyle.
Agree? Disagree? (Help me to understand?)
Wishing everyone a win-derful week!
Tina
Tina Ferraro
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys
www.tinaferraro.com
So Tina's book got me thinking about lips. The cover of her new book is beautiful, and shows these awesome lips. Which got me wondering what makes the lips beautiful.
Some women have big lips, on the top and bottom:
Like Angelina Jolie...
And Kim Kardashian...
Those two women are absolutely gorgeous, in my opinion. But I have a lip that pretty much disappears when I smile. Do I have to have big lips in order to be pretty? Here are some actresses with less than big lips:
Hayden Panettiere...(who I could totally see playing Brittany in the movie version of my book Perfect Chemistry)
Or Kristin Stewart (who played Bella in Twilight)...
These girls don't have huge big lips and they're still beautiful. So I guess it's the total package that makes "beauty" (and I'm really only talking outside beauty here for this post).
I have no problem with plastic surgery for people who want it. But I don't think I'd get my lips "plumped" because I don't want people speculating if I'd had them "done" and God forbid something should go wrong and I look like a monster! Facial plastic surgery is kind of scary to me.
I saw this pic and thought, "hmm...did she have some top-lip plumping done???"
Do you like your lips? Would you change them to be "plumper" if you could? Any suggestions for over the counter plumping products that you've used?
Congrats again to Tina for her release of The ABC's of Kissing Boys!
Simone Elkelesauthor of:
How to Ruin a Summer Vacation #3 on Top Ten Teen Books
Perfect Chemistry in bookstores now!
2008 Author of the Year by the IL Assoc. of Teachers of English
www.simoneelkeles.com
While staring at a blank blog page--feeling thoroughly uninspired to write anything about kissing--I started thinking about non-traditional kisses. Like air kisses and Hershey's Kisses and S.W.A.K. (Sealed With A Kiss, for the uninitiated.) Nope, none of those sounded blog-worthy today.
Tina already stole "Best On-Screen Kiss" (but, then again, it's her book release week, so I guess that's her right). What about favorite "On-the-Page Kiss"? No, I decided, that was too subjective. I mean, an in-book kiss is all in the reader's imagination, so we could be picturing two totally different types of kisses. (To find out about all the different types of kisses check out Tina's new book, The ABC's of Kissing Boys.)
Then my thinking shifted to Fairy Tale kisses. Like Sleeping Beauty and her Prince. Or Snow White and her Prince. Or Cinderella and Prince Charming. (Didn't any of these princes have names?) Or ... the Frog Prince.
Whoa, I thought. The Frog Prince? Now that's a weird one. Kissing frogs. Um, I hope that's not in Tina's book. If you're not familiar with--or have forgotten--the story of the Frog Prince, here's the Wikipedia nutshell:
In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog (possibly meeting him after dropping a gold ball into his pond), who magically transforms into a handsome prince. Although in modern versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the princess kissing the frog, in the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw it against a wall in disgust. In other early versions it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess's pillow.
I'm not sure which version I prefer. How about you? If you were the spoiled princess in this fairy tale, which version would you rather find yourself in?
Option A--You befriend a frog, wind up kissing him (reminder: frogs are green, slimy creatures who live in green, slimy swamps), and thereby turn him into a prince.
Option B--You befriend a frog, wind up flinging him against a wall (and getting sued by PETA and ASPCA), and thereby turn him into a prince.
Option C--You befriend a frog, wind up letting him sleep on your pillow (see reminder in Option A), and thereby turn him into a prince.
Is it just me, or do these all sound like episodes of a reality dating show? Okay, okay. If I have to choose one, I guess ... kissing him. Option A. Because I'm not fond of the animal cruelty in Option B and I'd be afraid I'd roll over in the night and squish him in Option C. Also, it would be over very quickly.
Now it's your turn to weigh in. Which fairy tale would you rather live?
Hugs,
TLC
OH. MY. GODS. (available now!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming June 2009)
teralynnchilds.com
Congrats, Tina! I am so excited for you!!
Such fantastic news Tina...we are *SO* proud of you and your fab book! Can't wait for Nashville...just 4 more months!
Congrats! I'm going to do my best to come this year too for the free author signing, lol. Hope to see you again!!
YaY, Tina! You deserve this! A great big Congrats! :0)
So so so exciting! I can't wait to cheer you on, Tina darling.
Yay, Tina!!!
I wish I were going to be there at National to cheer you (and everybody else) on! Truly a lot of great talent nominated this year!
Cara
Aw, thanks, everyone! And it's so fun to share this with all of you!
Woo hoo, Tina! I'm so happy you made the list. Can't wait to cheer you on.
Heather
Huge CONGRATS sweetie!!!!!
I'm so excited for you, tina!!!! Can't wait to see you.
Congrats, Tina. I'll there in spirit.
I'm chiming in here to say congrats to Tina! It's so cool to be nominated with you, and I still have my Buzz keychain I use every day and will always be a Buzz girl at heart! Can I be in some of the pictures, too?
~Simone (I haven't used blogger in so long i forgot my login name!)
Thanks so much, Heather, Marley, Steph and Janie!
And Simone, YOU KNOW you're going to be in those National pics! And I'm so glad you stopped by!