Saturday, May 11, 2013

Things of Awesome: May Edition

Okay. I think I just need to admit defeat with this feature and demote it to a every-once-in-a-while-when-I'm-not-too-lazy-on-the-weekends-to-do-it post, because the sporadic nature of it really prevents it from deserving the title of "feature". There are handful of fun things I want to share with you this month though, complete with a new conversational snippet between me and Kevin. I hope it makes you guys smile, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

1. LOSING IT EXTRA SCENES


I read Losing It by Cora Carmack a little while back and loved it to pieces, so I'm thrilled to share the news that Cora is going to be releasing several scenes from Garrick's point of view! *flails* Please excuse me while I die of excitement. She's planning on releasing the below four scenes periodically as pre-orders for her new release Faking It (which is also completely amazing, I highly recommend - comes out June 4th) reach certain numbers.

Scenes:
       The One Where They Meet
       The One Where They Meet…Again
       The One Where He Changes His Mind
       The One Where Bliss Gets Her Way

Um. Yes please! I need inside Garrick's head as soon as possible. The below widget will keep you all updated as to where the pre-orders stand and which of the above scenes will be released next. I hope you guys add Faking It to your lists!



2. HARPER IMPULSE

HarperTeen's new Impulse imprint might be one of my favorite things ever. Novellas don't always interest me, but I love that Harper and their various authors are releasing these little shorts that give us a look at a familiar world through a different character's eyes. Some of the novellas and short stories, of course, are new and completely unrelated to any full-length series, but I've found I've even enjoyed those as well. Below are the newest Impulse titles for May!

Allies: An Insignia Novella


In S. J. Kincaid’s fast-paced and humorous sci-fi Insignia trilogy, the earth is in the middle of World War III when teen gamer Tom Raines is recruited to train with other young cadets as a pivotal member of the elite combat corps, the Intrasolar Forces. At the Pentagonal Spire’s training academy, he makes the best friends of his life—fellow government weapons-in-training Wyatt Enslow, Vik Ashwan, and Yuri Sysevich.

In this 47-page prequel novella to the series, budding genius Wyatt Enslow—intensely loyal and hyperintelligent if occasionally, hilariously, socially awkward—takes center stage as S. J. Kincaid reveals Wyatt’s life before she found her place, and her own inner strength, among her devoted band of friends at the Spire.


Playing Keira


From a breakthrough voice in YA fiction comes a captivating digital-original 50-page short story starring a supporting character from the novel You Look Different in Real Life.

The premise was simple: Five kids living their real lives, with a new movie about them every five years. But that was before Keira's mother walked out and the cameras captured every heartbreaking detail for the world to see. Now Keira doesn't even know what "real life" means—she only knows how to pretend to be herself.

Then she meets Garrett on a bus to New York City. At first, Keira creates a fictional identity and enjoys the freedom of being someone totally different. But as their brief connection turns into something more, Keira starts to see what life could be like if she just stopped pretending and accepted the person she really is.

Jennifer Castle's pitch-perfect teen voices and sharp insights—together with a teaser to You Look Different in Real Life—make this story a must-read, especially for fans of Sarah Dessen.


You fan find the full list of available Impulse titles HERE.

3. THE QUILL AWARDS

Fashioned after The Oscars, The Quill Awards is an awards show for young adult books put together by a couple bloggers, with various categories and nominees as well as a coterie of twenty-one bloggers acting as The Academy and voting for the winners.

From the website:

A new type of award show exclusively to celebrate the last year in Young Adult fiction. It will boast all aspects of a traditional award show: awkward banter, fancy clothes, signature statuettes, and all other attributes we both love and mock. What makes this "new" is that this award show will not take place at some fancy venue, but rather it will be filmed at multiple dates in multiple locations, and then edited to form one cohesive show.

You can expect appearances from many of your favorite bloggers and authors, as well as industry professionals and maybe even some special guest entertainers. It will truly be a time to honor all aspects of the YA community. It will be quirky and homey, but hopefully also interesting and well done. The show will air late June/ early July at a date to be determined. The final list of nominees will be posted on April 26th. 

 
You fan find the full list of nominees and place your vote for the Countdown Award here.


4. BEA


In a couple weeks I will be in NYC attending BookExpo America for the third time. I will be there with a ridiculous smile plastered on my face and my mom and mother-in-law in tow to help me master the BEA monster with our now finely-tuned divide and conquer technique. I cannot wait.

Danny and Pushy of Bewitched Bookworms and Hannah of The Irish Banana have put together some fantastic posts about what to expect if you're attending for the first time, so instead of a long rambling post of my own, I'm just going to link to their sites because they've got everything covered.

I hope to see many of you there!

5. LIFE WITH KEVIN

For the full story behind these little conversational snippets go HERE.

Kevin: I know what's going on.

Me: What, now?

Kevin: I know what's going on with the movies.

Me: I haven't the slightest inkling what you could be referring to.

Kevin: You think I haven't figured out that all three of the movies we've watched in the past couple days have had Jeremy Renner in them?

Me: Coincidence.

Kevin: Really. That's what you're going with?

Me: Yes. Maybe I just had an intense desire to watch movies about a SWAT team, a genetically enhanced badass specializing in badassery, and a sexy, leather-clad superhero who rocks a bow and arrow. You ever think of that?

Kevin: No. Want to know what I think?

Me: I'm not sure I do. I don't think I like where this is headed.

Kevin: What I think is that you've chosen Jeremy Renner as a real life version of one of your fictional men and now you're obsessing.

Me: LIES!

Kevin: We both know I'm right.

Me: Huh. I'm not sure if I love that you know me so well or if I find it irritating that there's absolutely no mystery left in our relationship.

Kevin: It wasn't exactly difficult to figure out. Nearly ninety percent of the time you don't have a clue what we're watching because you're reading, and then all of a sudden you want to watch three very specific movies all in one weekend. Kind of a tip-off.

Me: I think you're mistaken. Subtlety is one of my strong suits. I excel at it. EXCEL.

Kevin: Clearly. You've probably already gone to IMDB to cyber-stalk him and are currently considering going and buying any of his movies we don't already own.

Me: Dammit Kevin! That's it. I want a divorce. I need to be with someone less observant who doesn't call me out on my romantic fixations. I'm going to go and make a profile on Match.com immediately.

Kevin: Sounds good. Let me know what kind of interest you get.

Me: I suffer you to live.

39 comments:

  1. Bahahahahahahahaha Jenny, your dynamic with Kevin never ceases to amaze me, and I SO wish I could see you at BEA this year. Alas, I'll be moving my whiz...yet again...that very weekend, and I've been a shittay blogger for the past 8 months soooooooo. Yeah. The point is that I adore you.

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    1. I wish I could see you at BEA as well! This will be my first BEA without you:( Next year for sure! <3

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  2. Also, for the record, that comment was me...on my other email. Fail.

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  3. HAHAHA that was hilarious.. Kevin really does know you.. also you are right, I also love Jeremy Renner, ever since I watched him in The Bourne Legacy *swoon*. and omg! I LOVED Losing IT so I am EXCITED about those scenes!! thanks for putting them on my radar!

    - Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

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    1. He does. It's kind of annoyingly endearing:) And how can you not love Jeremy Renner! *runs to watch The Avengers again*

      I can't wait for these extra scenes either. GARRICK! *swoon*

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  4. How can I get relatives to go to BEA with me specifically to get books for me? Hmmm. I'd have to get them to take off work and then convince them they want to stand in line for hours all day.

    LOVE your convo with Kevin. When my husband and I watched The Avengers, after the movie he was like, "That Archer guy is exactly your type." LOL.

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    1. I'm pretty lucky the two of them are willing to come with me:) They have their own lists of things they want as well, but mostly they're really good sports about running around helping me out.

      And high five for Hawkeye being our type ;-)

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  5. ROLF! Your husband is amazing! I can't stop laughing. He is good I mean he reads you like a book. I can only imagine how funny these conversations are. Great post Jenny! I can't wait to see more.

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    1. He certainly does. I think he finds me amusing:)

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  6. I love this once in a while feature! Yay! for more Losing It and Yay! for Life With Kevin. So fun! :)

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    1. Thanks so much Leanna! I'm so bad about doing it every month, I tell myself to write the post on a Saturday, and then I decide to read instead and don't do a post. I fail.

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  7. LOL--so funny! You and Kevin ROCK! And I can't wait to see you and the Moms at BEA. Maybe next time, I can convince my mom to go! Divide & conquer is The Way to go.

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    1. *HAPPY DANCE MARY* So excited you're coming now:)

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  8. I've missed the life with Kevin posts, this one definitely had me laughing endlessly. I love how Kevin is so zoned in about your fictional fixations, I think we'll have to come up with some more techniques to be more subtle about our crushes! Also yay I'm so excited that you're going BEA. I'm going to miss your lovely posts, but know you will have a fab time!!! :)

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    1. Yeah. I need to work on my subtlety apparently. It could use a little work ;-)

      I hope maybe one year you can come to BEA Jasprit, I would love to meet you!

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  9. Paha, love the convo with Kevin! xD

    Can you beleive I have yet to read Insignia?! I don't why it's taken my so long to get to it tbh, because it sounds right up my alley! Hope you have fun at BEA! <3

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    1. I haven't read it either Renu, but I really want to! I feel like I say that all the time, I'm behind on so many series:)

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  10. LOL...Love those Conv with Kevin :) And I'm hoping to at least show on June 1st at BEA with Hubby in tow...I couldn't manage to get off work for the week days...:(

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  11. Oh I need to check out these novellas! I actually love novellas so I definitely need to get them!

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  12. Ahahahahahahaha Jenny your snippets are the greatest!! I know I've said this before but they ALWAYS make me laugh. And man, now I'm drooling. JEREMY RENNER. Basically I did the same thing. Bourne. Mission Impossible 4 (I'd never seen or been interested in the others), The Hurt Locker...etc. Avengers started it, I swear. It's their fault.

    Basically, ever since then I've had a fixation, and it never really goes away. :)

    Great post, dear! Thanks for a good laugh!
    Sierra @ Yearning to Read

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  13. TOTAL COINCIDENCE. lol.

    So glad to see another one of your things of awesome posts. :)

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  14. LOL your conversations with your husband are HILARIOUS! :D

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  15. I requested You Look Different in Real Life for review just the other day, so I'll definitely be reading the sequel. I love the Harper Impulse imprint too! Just think, we got Ben's story, and Jules' story, and there'll be more where those came from.
    And you guys are hilarious. :)

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  16. Love the snippet..and yes I need to know more about Garrett!!!

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  17. Hahah! You guys are funny! :) and thanks for the updates on...well, everything!

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  18. Thanks for telling us about Faking It!

    Kevin so has your number, heh heh.

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  19. Okay, I don't know what the excitement is about Faking It and Garrick, that might be out of my comfort zone. But happy for everyone excited about it!!!

    BTW I think you're allowed to call it a Feature or whatever you want-it's your blog.

    And I know about Harper! Free books?? How great is that?

    You and Kevin. I just laugh. What would he do without your antics to keep his brain active???

    Heather

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  20. *giggles* .... as usual I love your conversation with Kevin and ... so, I see you are also reading while watching TV? (Unless, there is a Hot man in the leading role of course...)

    Btw, I have the BEST excuse for this. Normally, I tempt to fall asleep when watching TV. However I told hubs that I can stay longer awake when reading and since I'm multitask I can do both, watch TV with him and read...


    Oh and thanks for the BEA shout out... BEA!! Wooot!

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  21. FAKING IT!!!! yay! :-)

    OMG you and Kevin absolutely crack me up! I'm impressed that he sniffed out your true motives. I have done this with my BF many times, and as long as the movies are action-packed & something he would have chosen to watch anyway, he has no idea my purpose is solely to ogle a guy that bears a striking resemblance to one of my book boyfriends. *cackles*

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  22. ROFL! He better watch it. Now that Martha is on Match.com Jeremy Renner might just pop up on the site! :D Then what would he say? LOL

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  23. I guess I haven't really been into real life men (well, actors) cause I haven't had that sort of experience in awhile. But now I'm gonna look this guy up cause I have no clue who he is. Of course your conversations are once again hilarious! That's great he knows you so well. At least great some of the time, right?

    Once again you have managed to pass along news I did not know about. You also reminded me that I borrowed Insignia a year ago and still haven't read it and returned it. Guess I better get on that! (The novella reminded me, thanks.)

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  24. You can't get anything past Kevin can you?!! Darn it all, Jenny. I feel your pain. The important question is, who were you casting Jeremy Renner for? (He is scrumptious, btw!)

    I loved Losing It as well. The last scene just stole my heart! Plus, hello, you had me at English accent! :)

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  25. TACKLE. HUG. The biggest of tackle hugs on the planet will be coming your way, my friend.

    Kevin sounds awesome. You clearly must bring him along to BEA or something one year so I can meet him. But now I'm curious: What guy did you cast Jeremy Renner as?

    BTW? I totally do this, too. My current obsession is Matt Lanter and Colton Haynes. YEAH. YUM.

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  26. LOL! Jenny! OMG! I love the conversations with your hubby. And so jealous your going to BEA. Have fun :)

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  27. I can't believe I missed this, well I can I had company for nine days and it was crazy. I love these Kevin posts. You really better not be making up that Match.com profile because it would be very boring to not have the Kevin posts! Thanks for the laugh. So jealous you are going to BEA :)

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