Fins Are Forever Gift Giveaway!

As most of you know, I am a member of the Splash Team. It’s my job to spread the word about Fins Are Forever, the sequel to Tera Lynn Child’s novel Forgive My Fins.

On Lily Sanderson’s eighteenth birthday she’ll become just a girl—still a mergirl, true, but signing the renunciation will ink Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia out of existence. That leaves plain old Lily living on land, dating the boy she loves, and trying to master this being-human deal once and for all.


Now that Lily and Quince are together, mer bond or not, she’s almost content to give up her place in the royal succession of Thalassinia. But just when she thinks she has everything figured out, the waves start to get rough. Lily’s father sends a certain whirlpool-stirring cousin to stay with her on land. What did Doe do to get herself exiled from Thalassinia and stuck in terraped form, when everyone knows how much she hates humans? And why why why is she batting her eyelashes at Lily’s former crush, Brody?
The seafoam on the raging surf comes when a merboy from Lily’s past shows up—Tellin asks Lily for something that clouds her view of the horizon. There’s a future with Quince on land, her loyalty to the kingdom in the sea, and Lily tossing on the waves in the middle. Will she find a way to reconcile her love, her duty, and her own dreams?

To celebrate the release of Fins Are Forever on Tuesday I’m going to have a small giveaway. Last year I gave away a copy of the bookbecause I just happened to have two. This year I don’t and I plan not to have that happen again, but I do have goodies for you. This year I have cool treats. I tried to keep them as mermaid themed as possible.

Lip gloss, blue and green nail polish, blue earrings, a book mark and some mermaid tattoos.

I know it’s small, but I give what I can. This contest is for US only. Sorry International friends, not this year. Here are the guidelines

Comment on this post +1
Follow this blog +1 (old followers +2)
Follow me on twitter +1 (old followers +2)
Follow Tera Lynn Childs on Twitter +1
“Like” Tera Lynn Childs on Facebook +1
The Contest closes Next Friday July 1, 2011 at noon. Winners will be picked the following day.

Happy Reading!

Edit: I forgot to add links to the pages.
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/laboyden
Tera's Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/teralynnchilds
Tera's Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/authortlc

Summer Lovin'

GAH!!! How is everything going? I've missed you. So my copy of The Hunger Games has migrated to my bookshelf this past week, and it remains untouched!!! I'm so bad at this.
As you knowI’ve stated may times on my blog/twitter about how hesitant I am to read the Hunger Games trilogy. So far I heard nothing but good things about them. I want to read them. I’m going to read them. I just haven’t yet. Right now I’m under a lot of pressure because of the movie coming out next year. Spoilers suck. So I have to read fast.
When it first came out the Hunger Games didn’t really appeal to me. Violence and bloodshed is not really my thing. Ever since the movie was announced it’s been all I hear about on twitter and Yahoo news. I feel kind of out of the loop. Plus, Josh Hutcherson is in it. He's one of my many celebrity crushes. He's not as well known as he should be, but once that movie comes out all the fan girls are going to be all like "OMG I love Josh Hutcherson. Go Team Peeta." I haven't started the books, but I'm pretty sure he's a big deal. So I just want everyone to know that I liked him before he go big.
It's summer time. It's hot. Since this is a blog about chocolate I should inform you that milkshakes are an awesome summer treat that will cool you off on a hot summer day. It's like summer's answer to hot chocolate.I have a question. What is cold hot chocolate? Is it just chocolate milk? I saw a commercial advertising iced hot chocolate. That's weird right?
Happy Reading!
PS Fins Are Forever gift giveaway is coming soon. Be sure to follow the blog or me on twitter.

Coming Soon

So to celebrate the release of Tera Lynn Childs Fins Are Forever I will be giving away some small treats to one lucky follower. There will be more details later. Hopefully I'll reach 100 followers in the next week or two prior to the book's release. If not then I'll still have the giveawayt, but US only please. This is just a heads up. I'll set up the contest soon.
Happy Reading!

Subtle Changes

I made some subtle changes to the page. I added two tabs. About Me and What I’m Working On. Check them out. I also added some widgets and gadgets to the sidebar. Take the poll. It only takes two seconds. Thank you very much.


Happy Reading!!

Summertime

It’s summertime and you know that that means. School’s out!!! I’ve actually been out of school for a while, but for all you high school students yay for summer!!! Congratulation class of 2011, you made it!!!


I’m going to try to perfect my blogging skills too. I feel as if my lack of blogging might have to do with my lack of followers page views. So this summer I’m going to try to blog once or twice a week. Whether it’s about reading, writing, chocolate or whatever I feel like writing about. Once I get into a grove maybe things will pick up.

What’s new for me? Well I’m working on some new projects. Hopefully I’ll be done with one of them this summer. Right now I’m debating if I should continue the revisions on my current manuscript. I’ve been working on it for years, but I feel like it’s not going anywhere. To be honest I wrote it when I was fifteen. I’m nineteen and much smarter now and a better writer. We’ll see. Nothing’s set in stone. I might come back to it some other time. I just don’t know.

I will also be trying to get through The Hunger Games this summer. I started the first one last August, but stopped at page forty. I’ll restart it, but I just never had the time to just sit down and read it. I have avoided all spoilers for years and right now I’m afraid that since the movie is coming out I might stumble upon some spoilers. So my summer goal is to finish all three books. I’m pretty sure I’ll like them, it’s not hard to make me not like a book. And this one had so many good reviews. So we’ll see.

Okay so there are also a lot of summer 2011 releases I would like to obtain this summer. I noticed that most of them a sequels. Anyway here’s my list of books I’m looking forward too.

Fins Are Forever by Tera Lynn Childs

Trial By Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barns

Wolfsbane by Andrea Cremer

Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Passion by Lauren Kate (a third book)

Supernaturally By Kiersten White

Twisted by Gena Showalter (another third book)

Ripple by Mandy Hubbard (not a sequel)

I’m super excited for these books. There are also a few that just came out that I’m excited for. This summer’s going to be awesome!!! If there are any more summer 2011 releases that I didn’t mention post a comment and I’ll check it out.

And in chocolate news I’m looking for a recipe for brownies for my little brother. He’s allergic to eggs and nuts. If anybody can post a link to a website with the best eggless brownies I will shower you with emoticon kisses :* :* okay those need a little work. Please and thank you.

Happy Reading!

Procrastination vs. Writer’s Block

I am procrastinating. Right now I should be doing something, but I’m choosing to write this post instead. Honestly I started this post two weeks ago. I just never got around to finishing it. Procrastinators UNITE…tomorrow.


A lot of people confuse procrastination with writer’s block. Procrastination is just pure laziness. You know you are procrastinating when you say to yourself multiple “I have time.” Reality is you don’t. The more you say it the less time you have. Aspiring writers, like me, don’t have the pressure of a deadline. Without the pressure the saying “I have more time” is more frequent. All you need is that big push to finish that manuscript or those tedious revisions. Sometimes we blame writer’s block, when it’s really just procrastination. Writer’s block is when you are stuck and have no idea what to write or what comes next in your story. That’s it.
Here are some tips to help with writer’s block

1. Go outside. You’ve been inside at the computer all day, get some air. Go for a walk or drive. Get some ice cream, chocolate ice cream. While you’re out clear your head. You never know where inspiration will hit. Taking a small break will take away some of the stress.

2. If it’s late, turn off the computer and go to sleep.

3. Start writing a completely different scene. After you are done with that think about how you want to get there from where you left off.

4. Try a change of scenery. Take your notebook and write freehand someplace different. Like I said earlier getting writers need some air. If it’s nice outside write at the park or in your backyard. If it’s cold try going a nice quite spot away from your house. (I personally think it’s funny whenever I see writers with their laptops at Starbucks)

5. Beware of social media sites. Yeah it’s okay to check your Facebook and tweet once and a while writing. But if you spend more than ten minutes on the internet then your writer’s block might turn into procrastination.

Sometimes when I have writer’s block I tend to go back and read what I have written in the previous scene. Try not to read the whole thing over again or else your inner editor might take over and you’ll end up procrastinating. I don’t believe in outlines but I do believe in knowing how you want your story to end. I like write the ending or scenes out of order and then piece them together. When you write scenes out of order you can piece it together later where you want those scenes to go. Then just fill in the holes. Who knows, you might get a few ideas for the scene you were working on.

When it comes to writer’s block sometimes you just have to suck it up and get to work. It’s very easy to turn writer’s block into procrastination.

On a fun note I don’t know why, but I just discovered this video via Facebook and thought it was hilarious

Me=the Worst Blogger in the World

I am the worst blogger in the world. Ugh. It's college. I haven't had time to read or write. I have eaten chocolate though, lots of chocolate. The challenge thing didn't really work. I'm just going to try to blog about whatever whenever I can. Sorry for being a bad blogger.

Happy Reading!