HAUNTED arc giveaway contest

Yes, it's time! A beautiful advanced reading copy of HAUNTED, the sequel to Dreaming Anastasia, waiting for someone to win!!

First, the backstory:

Getting to write HAUNTED is something for which I'm profoundly grateful. Getting to finish HAUNTED and see it turned into a book inspires even more gratitude on my part. Cause as many of you know - in between the publication of DA and now, I got bitten in the ass by Mr. Thyroid Cancer and the fact that I am sitting here typing this and currently cancer free is its own little miracle. Not to go all Oprah on you guys or anything, but if you find yourself as I have, in a two year period in which you go through three different editors, two agents, your son gets engaged, you find out you have cancer, have a huge surgery and come out able to heal and then find out that you get to finish your second book with the most loveable editoral team on the planet (including Kelly Barrales-Saylor who, Lord love her, actually answered my hysterical text one nite at 11 PM when we discovered that 13 pages of text had gone awol during copy edits) and still find yourself able to write some more, plus everything else that goes on in a person's life, you come out on the other end very very grateful.

And yes, I know that things can go the other way in a blink of an eye. Thus the gratitude. You get what you get and you better be sharp eyed or you'll miss the good stuff.

Thus this contest:

Here's the 411 on what to do:

1. Post a comment and tell the world something for which you are fabulously grateful/thankful.

2. If you are not already, become a follower of this blog.

3. Extra bonus points for becoming a Twitter follower of @joypreble

Contest closes this coming Thursday 11/18 at midnight CST. On Friday I will pull an entry out of the contest hat and announce the winner!

(yes, contest is international this time!)

HAUNTED: More Anne and Ethan. More Baba Yaga. Secrets unleashed. Lots of peril. A love triangle! A new boyfriend named Ben Logan. More Viktor. And a bunch of creepy, malevolent Russian mermaids called rusalkas. You. are. going. to. love. it!!

Yes, this is the ultimate Thanksgiving giveaway. What better time for it?

Six for Saturday. Possibly Seven. Let's See

Yes, I am getting just that uncreative with the titles. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The WIP is getting revised yet again. I've dug into another super secret project as well. Stuff to grade. Belated outing for husband's b day tonight. Mental packing for NCTE. And a bunch of other really cool stuff I can't tell you about. Plus that upcoming HAUNTED arc giveaway, coming soon too. And the day job. Let's not forget that. Just started Macbeth. "Out out damn spot."

And so...

1. My new editor Leah Hultenschmidt is one cool chick. And she is coming here to Houston SCBWI on April 9th to speak!! Somehow Leah is balancing being senior acquisitions editor for not only the Sourcebooks Fire YA imprint but also the Casablance romance line. I need to ask her if she sleeps. I'm sensing the answer is no.
2. The new back cover copy for HAUNTED looks so spiffy I about peed my pants.
3. The great thing about going to NCTE this year is that a. it's in Disney World and b. I get to be there with all my fellow unrepentent geeks and so when I say things like "Who wants to go to Animal Kingdom" or "Who wants to go to the movies one night and see the new HP?" I get lots of takers. Yay! I am just bummed that I won't have time to get to Universal for HP experience. Another time.
4. Am totally and completely miffed at ABC Family for removing Friday Night Lights reruns from its late afternoon line up. Seriously? You guys showed one season and then poof it's gone? Whywhywhy? This was my 5 PM treat while I was tearing around the house trying to create some semblance of order, dinner, life. Sigh...
5. I love agent Jen this week. I was having one of those mental apocalypses. You know the kind - where you decide that you are just too stupid to do what you have to do and you also had to sit in workshops on Moodles and Prezzis and the new planning software called Forethought (for which you have another not so school appropriate name) and a committee that you weren't on created a late work policy that is so complicated that you wonder what the hell they were thinking - and you imagine yourself running away to a desert island only you can't afford to... And eventually you solve your problem yourself and email her and she emails back and tells you, "I wasn't ignoring you. I just have learned to leave you alone and let you figure it out on your own when you get like this." And then I think - yes! That's exactly what I needed.
6. Ran through HEB just now for a few groceries and it was Thanksgiving on a mini plate giveaway day! Some lovely lady handed me a tiny platter of turkey, brisket, cranberries, pumpkin pie, stuffing, green beans and a mushroom crepe. I could have had cheese too, but I thought that was overkill since I'd sampled the sushi and some guac in earlier aisles. Okay, some of it was rather salty. But wow!
7. Renewing one's passport through the mail is an easy task. Unless one sends a check with the wrong amount.

Til next time...