Winner!!

My mom asked me how my day was going. I told her it was exploding--thus, this post will only have the Spells ARC winner. But more soon! Including my tour schedule!! Yay!!!

The Spells ARC winner is Amber Lynae at http://seriouslyamberlynae.blogspot.com/ Amber, email me at aprilynne pike at g mail dot com with your name and address and I will get that into the mail for you right away!!

Thank you EVERYONE for participating and posting the widgets. It is so fun to see them start to pop up everywhere!!!

Ciao!

Winners and Widgets!

Okay, I'm a little late . . . . but I'm getting SO much good work done on Wings III! Trust me, the two-day delay will be worth it.:D

Okay, our winner for Struts and Frets is:

Maybe Genius who loves "I Love The Rain The Most" by Joe Purdy!

And our winner for Mistwood is:

Erica, who would shift into a hypogriff or a leopard!!

Both of you please email me your names, and addresses to aprilynne pike at g mail dot com and I will get those in the mail just as soon as possible!

Thank you everyone for entering, this ended up being a fun and really big contest! Yay!!!

So.

Have you noticed the little addition in my sidebar?

I HAVE A WIDGET!!!!! Whoo-hoo!!!!!! (I'm really excited.) My husband made it, including coding the whole thing from scratch because he's just super-awesome like that. *smooches hubby*

And in celebration of my new widget, I'm going to cough up one more ARC of Spells!!!!

Long-time readers will know I don't like to make contests work, so you just answer a question in the comments. But my little widget is spurring me into a bit more action. So this is a widget contest!

One ARC of Spells up for grabs and you can enter by posting the widget on your blog, and commenting with the web address where I can find it.

This contest also ends Monday morning, but unlike this Monday, I will also announce it on Monday. *shifty eyes* Ahem.

You can get the code for the widget by clicking the "Share This" button in the upper right hand corner, or you can go here and copy/paste it right from my website.

Also . . . . SPELLS COMES OUT IN FORTY DAYS!!!!! EEEEEEEEEE!!!! *runs around in circles and falls down*

Have fun!

Ciao!

Rules, Books, and ARCs

Hey all! Poking my head out for a minute to let you know about some giveaways. (Because, yanno, if I can't give you good content at least I can give you free books.;))

Sarah MacLean, the author of the awesome The Season (YA) and upcoming Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Adult) is doing a fun series on her blog where other authors come and offer Nine Rules for their books' worlds. Today is me! However, the other guest posts are all fun, so you may want to look for some of your favorite authors, like Tera Lynn Childs, Toni Blake, and Kerrelyn Sparks! (And there are more to come!) She has oh so kindly put all of the "Nine Rules" posts here! Additionally, on my entry (hereherehere!!) Sarah is giving away a copy of Wings! All you have to do is go tell her your favorite flower!

My lovely ladies at L8BloomerOnline have been running a contest for a SPELLS ARC for the last couple of days, but this morning they announced that they are giving away TWO ARCs! Double the chances to win one! And all of the details are HERE!

And since I can't just send you to other people's blogs for giveaways, I'm doing two here as well!


For all you contemporary realism fans out there, I have one signed copy of Struts and Frets by Jon Skovron up for grabs! This is a fabulous book for guys or girls, with lots of heart and Indie rock music!! And on top of that, it's written by a guy of incredible awesomeness who is one of the best Dads I know. Jon is the man! If you want to enter for this one, leave a comment with your favorite song!

And next, unsigned, but also unreleased, I am giving up my ARC of Mistwood, by Leah Cypess. I don't give away a lot of ARCs because I have this thing for them. I LOVE ARCs! And even though I also generally buy the book after it comes out, I still keep the ARC. (I have a special shelf.:)) But you guys, I have to give this one away because it is so good! It comes out April 27th, so it's only a little bit early, but, seriously, people, you want to read this book!



Here's the description from Amazon:

The Shifter is an immortal creature bound by an ancient spell to protect the kings of Samorna. When the realm is peaceful, she retreats to the Mistwood. But when she is needed she always comes.

Isabel remembers nothing. Nothing before the prince rode into her forest to take her back to the castle. Nothing about who she is supposed to be, or the powers she is supposed to have.

Prince Rokan needs Isabel to be his Shifter. He needs her ability to shift to animal form, to wind, to mist. He needs her lethal speed and superhuman strength. And he needs her loyalty—because without it, she may be his greatest threat.

Isabel knows that her prince is lying to her, but she can't help wanting to protect him from the dangers and intrigues of the court . . . until a deadly truth shatters the bond between them.

Now Isabel faces a choice that threatens her loyalty, her heart . . . and everything she thought she knew.

To enter for this one, comment and tell me which animal you would most like to be able to turn into.

You are welcome to enter one contest or the other, or both. No hold barred.:D Contest ends Monday morning . . . . GO!:D

Ciao!

The Cave

*poking my head out*

Hi guys! It's me! Your long-lost blogger! Sorry for the radio silence; I have descended into "the cave," as the lovely Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl dubbed it last year. Complete with this very appropriate picture that I have shamelessly yoinked.:))



That's right, it's revision time!

I'm really excited at the improvements that my editor of awesomeness has suggested, but there is a lot of tweaking and streamlining to do and I've got a six week deadline. So you may not hear a ton from me on the blog, but I tend to over-Tweet as a break when my head starts to esplode, so if you are not following me on Twitter, you might want to! (Author neurosis in action, oh yeah!)

I admit, I'm looking forward to it. I love seeing my novels improve with the expertise of my editor's red pencil. (Actually, it's almost always a purple pencil *lesigh* editor luv!) And really, it's a great way to spend 6 of the final eight weeks NOT stressing about the upcoming release :D

I will, however, be changing out of my pajamas and brushing my hair long enough to attend a fun event this Saturday, March 13. A website called Story Casters is co-hosting an event with Changing Hands Bookstore that is going to be as much party as anything else. Here's the announcement!

• STORYCASTING MEETUP: THE MOVIE IN YOUR MIND 6-8pm
  As part of a series of regional conventions, Storycasting, the premier “fantasy casting” website, sponsors a free Storycasting meetup and signing. Six Arizona authors and a crowd of storycasters will meet, discuss fantasy casting, sign books, and talk about related topics. Authors in attendance will be Aprilynne Pike, Marsha Ward, Frank Fiore, Dan Shaurette, Marcia Fine and Shonnovan Mitchell. Snacks provided. The first 25 attendees will receive a free Storycasting T-shirt. FREE. RVSP: meetup.com/Storycasting- RegionalConventions.

This will be the last public event I am doing before Spells comes out. (I will be doing one writer's conference at the end of April, but it's only open to attendees . . .) So please come on out and see me!! (Laura, I have something for you--I expect to see you there.;))

In fun news, my fabulous Late Bloomer gals have started a new feature called "Sneak Peek Saturday" on their awesome blog, where they will be posting short cookies from Spells each week until release! Check them out.:)

I also found out a few days ago that after the super amazing promotion that my Italian publisher, Sperling and Kupfer, did for Wings, it hit number three on their children's bestsellers list! It's amazing to start to see other countries roll out their versions of my book, and even more amazing to see tons of readers enjoy it!! Grazie, Italy!!!

Thanks for sticking around and reading--I promise the content will get better soon.:D

Ciao!

That Was MY Idea!!

Oh man! I have to start off this post with some fan-art of awesomeness!!!

The first one is from Laurelle_DaVinchi on the Wingsfansite forums who put together all of my covers including an old fan cover that the lovely Saundra Mitchell made for me. Check this out!!



Thank you, Laurelle!! I love it!!!

The next one is one from a few weeks back that I have been trying to remember to post, but the link is on my phone and I blog on my computer so . . . . anyway, here, you go, from Katie at SophistiKatied!



Isn't that so made of awesome! Please for visit Katie at her blog, she does Fan Art Fridays and really good reviews of lots of YA books. It's a new favorite of mine! Thank you, Katie!!

Okay, so something I often hear from other authors, established or aspiring, is being concerned when they hear about someone else writing the same basic storyline as their WIP. Everyone worries about it--especially if you have a particularly brilliant idea.

But you know what? You may be worrying too much. Editors often say it's all about the execution, and in the area of storylines, that hold true. A couple of examples (please excuse the weird, trying-not-to-be-gender-specific syntax):

"Protagonist A and Protagonist B meet and experience a sudden and deep connection. But can their love survive when Protagonist A wars between loving Protag B and the desire to kill them?"

Think you know what book I'm talking about?

Suuuuure you do.

I'm talking about Evernight, by Claudia Gray, Lament by Maggie Stiefvater, The Dark Divine, by Bree Despain, and the absolutely incredible upcoming Mistwood by Leah Cypess.

Vampires, faeries, werewolves, shifters, they all fit that storyline.

But let's get more specific:

A small town is surrounded by an invisible, impenetrable sphere. The residents must find a way to survive not only their new isolation, but the terrors that they themselves are becoming.

Now do you think you know which book I'm talking about? Because that storyline is pretty dang specific. Do you?

Because it could be Under The Dome, by Stephen King, or it could be Gone, by Michael Grant. Both very good and successful books by NYT Bestselling authors. Totally different books.

I've actually received email from people who are aspiring faerie authors who were like, "I was so worried! I thought your book was just like my book!!" One went so far as to worry if she could be sued for copyright infringement! (No, btw.) But without fail, these authors all commented that within fifty pages it became clear that I was telling a different story than them.

A lot of people say ideas are a dime a dozen. I don't quite agree with that. Some ideas are just freakin' brilliant and are totally worth their proverbial weight in gold. But most? It's about the execution.

To kind of illustrate what I mean, I have this video of total win by a group called the Axis of Awesome. This video is a bunch (I believe thirty-six?? Read that somewhere) of songs that can all be sung to the same four chord set. It is fascinating. He just plays the same four chords on the keyboard and keeps singing all these songs! Totally different songs. As different as the examples I've sited above (moreso in a lot of cases!!) but they all can be sung to the same accompaniment. (Language warning: there is some language in the middle of this number--you've been warned.:D)



This really can be applied to idea. They say there is nothing new under the sun. Chances are you fall under one of those "nothing new" categories.

And that's okay! That doesn't mean you can't make it your own! That you can't add remarkable characters and surprising twists and inimatable plot elements! Every idea can be done a different way. A better way, even.

This isn't to say that you can write your novel about Larry Blotter who goes to a sorcery school and makes friends with Hepsabah and Raul. That's not going to fly.

I'm not saying copy. Please, please, please, don't copy!! But of you are in the process of writing the story you love and you discover that some big-wig author wrote a story with a similar plot? It's probably very different from yours. Don't stop working on your story just because of that. There are too many books coming out every year for yours to truly be the only book like it. If you start trying to do that, you are never going to reach more than the halfway point on your WIP. (I know I wouldn't.)

Now, do pay attention. For example, I had Laurel and David meet in Biology class because they were sophomores, and I love Biology! But if I had thought about that famous scene in Twilight, I probably would have changed that particular class to something else. in fact, I have sometimes wondered how cool it would have been if they had met in music class. Wouldn't have changed the story a lot, and I would have avoided a lot of Twi-comparisons.

Did I copy her? Contrary to what some people think, no.:D Should I have thought about that and changed it for the sake of the market? Yeah, probably. But regardless, it's okay.

Do your thing. Do it your way. And I think you'll find that you really do have something unique and original.

As long as you're not writing about Belinda and Edwin who are fighting for their doomed love. Stay away from that one.:D

Ciao!