If you were around this spring and followed the first ever YA Scavenger Hunt, you know it involved hopping all over the Internet, reading never-released scenes, extras, and deleted bits from a huge group of fabulous YA authors. Well my friends, tomorrow begings the WINTER YA scavenger hunt, and this time it’s even bigger, with more authors, more exclusive content, a new puzzle, and a HUGE giveaway basket!

Last time, I released a scene from Jack’s POV that gave you a hint of what would be coming in The Marked. THIS time, I’m taking you back to the beginning. You’ll get an exclusive peek into Cam’s brain and a look at Dancia through his eyes. I know many of you don’t trust poor, sweet Cam, and I’m DEFINITELY not telling you if you’re right to be wary. But this scene may give you a clue…

You’ll have to traipse around the Scavenger hunt to find my scene, but never fear, you will! And let me know what you think, okay?

OH, and don’t forget to comment on my blog for a chance to win a Delcroix prize pack, too!

The fun starts at noon pacific, tomorrow, December 1. See you there!

My favorite holiday has always been Thanksgiving. First, I love to eat, so an entire day dedicated to food has to be wonderful. Second, my birthday usually falls on or near Thanksgiving, as does my sister’s, so my family always made a big deal of Thanksgiving. We’d drive to my aunt and uncle’s house (who I adore), eat a ton, and then have presents. It was bliss.

I loved all the usual Thankgiving foods — the turkey (dark meat), gravy, stuffing, crescent rolls, and OMGTHEGREENBEANCASSEROLE!! Yes, I was absolutely entranced by creamy, gooey green beans topped with crunchy bits of fried yum.

Fast-forward to my early twenties. I had moved to Portland, Oregon and was attending law school. I’d gotten the occasional migraine throughout my life, but for some reason they started getting more frequent. Once a week, a couple a week…pretty soon I was getting so many it was hard to tell where one ended and the next began.

Being a “find it and fix it” kind of person, I spent the next several years trying to figure out how to beat my dreaded headaches.** I did acupuncture, got massages, tried voice dictation software for my computer, ergonomics, yoga…you name it, I did it (and probably still do). I read about food triggers, and eliminated just about everything from my diet that has ever caused a headache for anyone anywhere in the world.

And guess what causes a whole lot of migraines?

MSG.

Guess what they load cream of mushroom soup with?

MSG.

Yes, my pretties, I had to eliminate green bean casserole from my diet. I tried the “no MSG” canned cream of mushroom soup, and I’m sorry, but it sucks. Instead of MSG, they just dump in a whole lot of garlic. Ew.

So I did without.

Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m not very good at doing without. Overdoing? Yes. Doing without? Not so much.

So I hunted, poked, and pawed around the recipe books, tweaked and fussed with a few recipes, and finally came up with a green bean casserole with NO CANNED CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP.

Which means no MSG.

Which means happy Inara!

I know many many other folks who struggle with migraines, and it occurred to me that you might enjoy a little green bean casserole for Thanksgiving. So here’s my recipe. I’m not the most exact cook in the world, so feel free to alter the ingredients. I probably do.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs butter
1/2 small yellow onion diced
8 oz chopped white mushrooms
salt + pepper (to taste–I don’t like pepper but you might!)
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/3 c. flour
1 c. milk (I use whole)
1 lb. French-cut frozen green beans
1/3 c. sour cream
3 Tbs buttermilk powder
Trader Joe’s fried onions (I like these b/c they’ve got no MSG!)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a small casserole dish.

Melt butter, saute onions until translucent. Add mushrooms and spices and cook until their water is mostly gone. Sprinkle flour over veggies, stir. Add milk, bring to simmer. Add green beans. Keep simmering and stirring. Add sour cream and buttermilk powder. Mix half of your fried onions in with the green beans. Transfer into the casserole dish and top with remaining onions.

Bake until bubbly.

Enjoy!!

**I am happy to report I no longer have chronic headache pain, BTW.

I’m heading to Seattle next weekend for the Emerald City Writer’s Conference, and I’m going to be helping some authors prepare their pitches for agent/editor meetings. Because I’ve pitched more time than I care to remember, and managed to screw up many of those pitches, I thought I’d give some suggestions. Of course, nothing qualifies you to give advice like screwing things up!

Suggestion 1: Be prepared in case you have to cut it short. I remember one of my first pitches and it was a complete disaster — I had a beautifully scripted pitch that went through the hero and heroine’s goal, motivation, and conflict, and then proceeded to give the plot, major turning points, and of course the resolution. It was a gorgeous pitch, but about two sentences in, the editor stopped me, and said, “Just tell me what your book is about.” Glances at watch. “The short version.”

GAH! I panicked. I had no idea how to summarize my prose. Now, I come prepared with a short version. My short pitch is the 6-8 sentence version of the pitch. Must include h/h (who they are, what they want, what stops them from getting it), romantic conflict, and resolution, all tied up with a neat little bow. Here’s my latest book, in pitch form:

“Kaia is an astonishingly beautiful faerie [WHO SHE IS], who must get suspicious, jaded Garrett Jameson to fall in love with her or she will lose her soul to a vengeful faerie queen, [WHAT SHE WANTS] but she’s been transformed into a penniless, average-looking human with no idea how to live in the human world. [WHAT'S STOPPING HER FROM GETTING IT]”

“Garrett is a real estate tycoon who hasn’t trusted women since his drug-addicted teen mother left him on the doorstep of his harsh, unloving grandmother. [WHO HE IS.] He wants to protect his friends and himself from the pain of loving and trusting — [WHAT HE WANTS] but he can’t seems to keep himself away from the mysterious, secretive Kaia. [WHY HE CAN'T HAVE IT.]”

Then, romantic conflict: “When Kaia charms her way into a job at his best friend’s flower shop, Garrett resolves to keep a close eye on her. He knows she’s hiding something about her past, and he’s determined to discover what it is. But in close quarters, the attraction between them cannot be denied.” [WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES THROW THEM TOGETHER, AND WHAT KEEPS THEM APART.]

“Through her journey to becoming a human, Kaia learns how to love and forgive. Ultimately, Kaia helps Garrett regain his own humanity, and their love heals both of their hearts.” [RESOLUTION]

So, very light on the plot, big on concept and happily ever after.

Suggestion 2: Have a comparable. I learned this one the hard way as well. Imagine this: you finish pitching your book and the editor says, “So, is this like Susan Wiggs?” You panic, because you’ve NEVER READ Wiggs. What to do? Obviously, you can’t read everything. But you should be prepared to say, “Actually, it’s more like Victoria Dahl. With faeries.”

Or whatever.

Find a comparable in the market. You can distinguish your book from the comparable, but you should be able to point to one or two. Editors and agents have to use comparables all the time, especially when pitching YOUR book to their bosses. (Isn’t it nice to know you aren’t the only one suffering through this?) They need to know how they would position your book in the market, who they have on their list that might be similar, what kind of sales those books have had, etc.

Here is NOT the time for “Oh, my book is like Twilight.” Or Harry Potter. And please don’t say Nora Roberts. Y

So, you may have heard that yesterday was the official release day for my adult romance, Radiant Desire. So far, everyone seems to be loving it, which makes my own little faerie heart sing! Thank you for all your comments, reviews, and emails. I appreciate it more than I can say.

Now, onto the contest. You, my friends, are a talented bunch of people. You make websites, widgets, and fan art. You draw. You take photographs. And, I think, you make book trailers.

As I thought about this, it occurred to me that you MAKE book trailers, and I WANT a book trailer. I had one made for my first Delcroix Academy book, and I want one for Radiant Desire. It also occurred to me that you, my bookish friends, would like a Kindle Fire.

Am I right?

Thought so.

This has all the makings of a win-win situation.

Here’s the scoop. You make a trailer for Radiant Desire. You can find some ideas for making trailers and legal tips here and here. You do this all legal-like: make sure the photos, music, etc., are in the public domain or you secure rights to them. Make sure that actors are appropriately compensated, parental permission is given if you’re under 18, and you don’t break any other laws I don’t even know exist. Send me a link to your video by Oct 31: Halloween! Please make sure you comply with all rules for posting on various websites (i.e., YouTube). I will post links to all the videos that meet my criteria (see below) by November 4, and will also share links via Twitter, Facebook, etc. Finally, I will put up a poll, so the whole world can vote on their favorite trailer.

Voting will close on November 13. I will post the winner on November 14. The Kindle Fire I have ALREADY PRE-ORDERED is shipped to me on November 15. I send it to you as soon as I get it.

Trailer criteria: please keep it clean (PG), no more than 2 minutes (personally, I like them even shorter, but I’ll let the voting decide the best length). I reserve the right not to include any video that I doesn’t meet my criteria, isn’t appropriate, or doesn’t showcase the book.

In case of unforeseen events, I retain the right to cancel the contest at any time. Depending on the number of entries, I may have to adjust the voting procedure (for example, I may have several rounds of voting). Each person can submit up to three entries. Unfortunately, I will not be able to ship the Kindle Fire internationally.

Your prize: Besides sending you the amazing Kindle Fire, I will also post links to your trailer on my web site, and include attribution to you!

Questions? There’s probably something I haven’t thought of. Please let me know what I’ve missed.

READY? Go!

And what is this? This, my friends, is Inara accepting her VERY FIRST AWARD. The Candidates was named a 2010 Oregon Spirit Book Award Honor Book (say that 10 times fast!) and the tall gal in the picture is a giddily happy me accepting the award this weekend.

I know, I’ve tweeted, Facebooked, and talked about this before — but this is different. This time I have PICTURES!

I wanted to blog about this because this award is incredibly meaningful, for a couple of reasons. First, it’s from the Oregon Council of Teachers of English. As I said when I accepted the award, for writers, English teachers are rock stars. Seriously, they are amazing glamorous folks who actually KNOW how one is supposed to write. I am pretty sure I do it all wrong, so they are also a little intimidating. So to get an award from them?

Wow.

What a rush.

The award is also meaningful because publishing can be a very icky business. There’s contracts and pressure and “the market” (which is never a good topic of discussion) and reviews and people who like you and people who hate you. (It’s much easier, by the way, to discount the people who like you than the people who hate you. I don’t know why this is, but the 10 good reviews are NOTHING compared to the one person who randomly gave you a 1-star rating because she didn’t like your cover.) An award is something that you can’t discount. You can’t say it’s random. You have to believe in the fact that a whole bunch of people got together and decided your book was worthy of praise.

And finally, it’s an amazing event because now I get to carry around little gold stickers! And put them on my book!

(That’s actually the Spirit Book Award sticker, but the Spirit Book Award Honor Book sticker looks really similar. And I didn’t have a picture of it. LOL.)

So thanks OCTE! It means more than I could ever say.

So I’ve been sending out little swag packs (bookmarks, stickers, ADORABLE temporary tattoos) to folks who request them. They look like this:

YOU can receive this little package of happiness. It’s easy. Just email me with your address (inara.scott at gmail.com). See? No sweat. And I’m so disorganized, I’d never sell your address to anyone for anything. I can barely find my socks in the morning, let alone maintain a list of addresses.

Now, I sent one of these little packs to my friend Petra (aka Safari Poet, aka http://safaripoet.blogspot.com) and she made me a present in return. This super cool countdown clock for Radiant Desire!

Okay, but there’s one small problem — now that I have this countdown clock, I have become painfully aware that there are only 11 days till Radiant Desire makes it into the world! I shall now commence running around with my hair on fire.

Thanks Petra!

Selling a book to a publisher is a rather extraordinary thing. You have the opportunity to work with an editor, refine your story to its highest potential, see a cover, and then share your baby with readers. In the process of birthing your book-baby you work, bleed onto the page, and subject yourself to the extremes of utter self-doubt and overwhelming joy.

At the end of it you have a book. And occasionally, a little bit of money. This, my friend, is also satisfying.

The avaricious intent, I must confess, lies somewhere inside the writer’s soul, snuggled alongside the desire to share with readers the gift of a great story, beautiful words, and an emotional journey. We writers love our craft, our art, and our stories. We also wouldn’t mind being able to feed our families and send our children to college.

A well-written, well-crafted book that you can be proud of is, of course, the ice cream in the sundae of a writer’s life. The money? Well, let’s just call that a little hot fudge. But this week, I got something even sweeter — a little cherry on top.

The cherry is a foreign rights deal. In these little fruity bits of joy, someone from another country — let’s say Turkey — decides they would like to translate your ice cream into another language. They want to share your mocha fudge chip with people who prefer to read in a language other than English. As shocking as it is to imagine that there are people IN FOREIGN LANDS who want to read your books, it does, upon occasion, happen.

But here’s the best part (close your ears if all this talk of money makes you uncomfortable): they pay you money for the right to do this. They really do. And you don’t have to do a blessed thing! You just sit back, nod with delight, and LET THEM translate your book into a foreign tongue. And they give you money.

Ah. Sometimes, my friends, life is sweet.

So today I am celebrating the cherry on top of the sundae that is Radiant Desire. Today, Entangled Publishing announced a deal with a publisher who is going to bring naughty faeries to the good people of Turkey.

And tonight, I am eating that little cherry with a big ol’ grin on my face. Thank you, Turkey! And thank you Entangled Publishing, for making this particular dream come true.

I’m a goal-setter. I set them annually, monthly, and whenever I need a kick in the pants. I set daily word count goals and deadlines for finishing drafts of novels. I love a good physical goal (one year the goal was to run a triathlon — check that one off the list!). My husband and I even set couple’s goals for each New Year. These goals look like, “go out to dinner once a month,” or “go camping as a family four times.” Luckily, I ended up with a partner as obsessive and goal-oriented as I am.

I don’t always reach my goals. Sometimes I stop and reassess, and decide the goal wasn’t right for me. The book I was working on gets finished earlier than I had planned, or I decide I no longer want to try to write three books a year. I don’t think my husband and I ever came close to that monthly “go out to dinner” goal. What can I say? We have two kids. And despite repeated goals to meditate daily, I’ve never done more than a few days at a time before I fall off the wagon…er…pillow.

I’m okay with my less than perfect success rate, but I don’t disregard my goals thoughtlessly. If they change, there had better be a good reason.

So at the beginning of this summer, I set a goal of kicking up into a handstand. I practice yoga at home, and occasionally, in a studio, and I get green with envy when I watch the more advanced students effortlessly glide gracefully upside down. I can do a headstand, but it hurts my neck, so I don’t do it often, and I can do a pose where you rest on your forearms and kick up onto the wall, so I figured I should be able to do the handstand. But whenever I’d tried at home, I wasn’t even coming close.

Thus the goal. My time had come. I knew there was something mental about the handstand, and I needed to break through the barrier. I figured setting the goal would help.

I started with a little direct instruction. I met with a yoga instructor who I’d taken classes with in the past. He put me through a workout and tried to get me up onto my hands. Didn’t work. He scratched his head, said I had the strength, so there must have been a mental barrier.

Well, yeah! I was terrified to kick up. Not sure exactly why — was I scared of falling? Of collapsing onto my head? I don’t know. It wasn’t that conscious. Still, the fear had me trapped and firmly on the ground.

All summer long, I practiced. I practiced on the wall at home. I practiced out in our backyard with my daughter the gymnast. I got close, but wasn’t there.

I was still scared.

Then, Saturday night, it occurred to me that the summer was almost over, and I hadn’t busted through my mental barrier. I was letting the fear win. Now, I’ll be honest, it’s been a bit of a rough summer. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say I’m not feeling uber-confident in my ability to conquer the world.

But I’m not a quitter. And I needed this one. I really did.

So I got up to the wall. I told my son to get the camera. If I do this, I told him, you’ve got to get a picture.

I flailed around. Fell down. Fell sideways. Gave up. Almost quit. But I kept that mantra in my head: YOU CAN DO THIS.

And then, you know what? I did. I tightened everything I had. Threw every bit of strength I had at it. Used my breath. Risked. Told myself I wanted it bad enough, and I was going to do it.

And I did.

Thanks for being patient with me, folks! I spent the week pouring over copyedits to Radiant Desire, and it’s even MORE perfect now than it was before.

(HA!!!!)

But now that I’m recovered and breathing, it’s time to announce the winner of a copy of Radiant Desire! Remember, I don’t have copies yet, but as soon as I do I will send the winner one. Electronic or hard copy, your choice.

Ready?

No, I mean, seriously — ARE YOU READY?

Here it is….

JESSIE HARRELL!!!

Please contact me with your address and let me know if you want a print or e-copy.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered — I will have another giveaway closer to the release date!

Welcome to the YA Scavenger Hunt!

On this hunt you will be able to gain access to exclusive bonus material, sign up for giveaways, and get an all access pass to top secret insider information. This fabulous sneak peek into what’s coming up in YA literature is for one day only!

As an extra bonus we’ve put together a puzzle with one keyword found on each website. Complete it and you will be eligible for a fantastic GRAND PRIZE which will include signed editions of books, signed bookmarks, jewelry, and many more exclusive gifts with at least one from EVERY AUTHOR!

Scavenger Hunt Puzzle

Directions: Copy and paste the puzzle below onto a document or blank email page and fill it out as you proceed through the Scavenger Hunt. Search for keywords, one on each website that will be highlighted in RED, and insert them into the puzzle, then fill out the Google form here.

Rules: To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit this filled in puzzle before midnight on August 1st Pacific Time. All the keywords must be in the correct place, and you must include your full name and address. Entries sent in without name and address will not be considered!

Welcome fans of young adult literature! Don’t forget to _______ up in time to join our special event! In ____________ you roll the dice and, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Our scavenger hunt is very similar. Surprises wait around every corner. Turn one page and you’re chasing a _________ through a _________ _____________. Turn another and you are being ________ by a _______ which leaves your heart ________. YA ________s are full of ___________ heroes who must ___________ themselves for the greater good. Some of the characters travel through ______ or have a _________ __________. If there is one thing YA books have taught us, it’s that if you leave your ___________ keep an eye out for a patrolling ________. They’re very dangerous. Maybe not so frightening as a ____________, but still you should be careful. Also beware lest you become __________ by vampires. ______________ one is a different story. Just remember that bite has ___________ ramifications and that afterwards the sun can ______ you unless you get bitten by a glittering type. Whether you like dark, paranormal, romance, fantasy, ___________, Sci-Fi, or a combination of those, we’ve got something for you.

We think that each fan is a __________ and we love you all!

Submitted by

Name ________________________________
Address_______________________________
City_________________________________
State________________________________
Zip__________________________________
Email________________________________

Now….I am very pleased to welcome the incredible, amazing, and okay, awe-inspiring Jeri Smith-Ready! I first met Jeri in 2010 at BEA and was blown away by her kindness to an unknown debut author (that would be me!). Then I had the pleasure of reading her YA novel SHADE, and I was instantly enthralled. I fell in love with her lush, emotional writing and sensual storytelling. When I am looking for inspiration and examples of beautiful characters that draw you into a story and hold you there, captive to the strength of their voice, Jeri is the one I read (and re-read).
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