SeeSaraWrite: July 2012

We are officially on the down slope to Christmas, folks, which means there are less than FIVE MONTHS LEFT to do all those crazy Christmas things like shopping, baking cookies, and getting in enough acts of kindness to make sure you're on The Nice List.

What's that, you say? You aren't sure if you have enough acts of kindness to make it on the Nice List this year? Well, even though I'm sure that's PREPOSTEROUS (*bats eyelashes* *clucks chin*), I happen to know of one really big, really amazing, really incredible act of kindness that could land you at the tippy top of the Nice List.

Some of you may remember me mentioning my cousin, Nikki. Once upon a time, she wrote a YA book and I went all "Um, I write YA books too!" and so we started dreaming about how we would be bestsellers together and buy matching castles in New Zealand, as bestselling authors do. But then she went and did something that puts her on the Brave List for Life -- she moved to South Korea to teach kindergarten. Fast forward a few years to now, when she is back in the states but still doing Crazy Brave Things.

Nikki is, as of this August, beginning a teaching job at a middle school in San Francisco. This school is excellent for a number of reasons, but one area that is not so fantastic is Nikki must furnish her classroom's library on her own. When she told me this and expressed concern on how she would make sure her kids had access to enough amazing books to quench their reading needs, I went all "Um, but I have friends who have fantastic books!"

Hence the Really Big Really Amazing Really Incredible Act of Kindness: filling Nikki's classroom with books. As part of such a ridiculously supportive and all-around breathtaking community of writing professionals, I know we won't stand for Nikki's classroom being empty of books come time for school to start. So this is what I am asking:

Steps for The Nice List Book Donation:

1) Go through all your old books and select a few that you think a classroom of 8th graders would enjoy and/or benefit from (sorry, but all your copies of 50 Shades of Grey will have to remain yours). Or even new books, if you are feeling particularly generous.
2) Email me at seesarawrite@gmail.com and I will send you the address to which you can send your books.
3) Send said books to said address before school starts, ie by August 31.

Three simple steps separate you from a 100% guaranteed spot on the Nice List before Christmas. If it seems too good to be true -- well, it's about to get better.

Because everyone who donates books to sad, empty classrooms is deserving of fantastic things themselves, there are, of course, more tangible rewards for participating in The Nice List Book Donation (though I'm sure I won most of you over with my 100% guaranteed spot on the Nice List before Christmas).

If you donate one book to Nikki's classroom, you get your choice of a query critique from Yours Truly OR a special amazing early Christmas present.
If you donate two books to Nikki's classroom, you get your choice of a query critique and a synopsis critique from Yours Truly OR a special amazing early Christmas present.
If you donate three+ books to Nikki's classroom, you get your choice of a query critique, a synopsis critique, and a first-fifty-pages-of-your-manuscript critique from Yours Truly OR a special amazing early Christmas present.

EVERYONE WHO DONATES WINS. No drawings or selections. Instant WIN. Yes, that just happened.

The donation starts -- NOW! *fires race gun*

A few months ago Jill Hathaway's SLIDE came out. And the peasants rejoiced.

Now the peasants can rejoice still further because as of next year, the sequel to SLIDE will be sliding into shelves (see what I did there? SLIDE. Sliding. You get me). IMPOSTOR is due to release March 26, 2013, and because she knows what we want, Jill is holding a massive giveaway for ARCs on her blog!

There's a crazy amount of different ways to win that don't involve anything quite as terrifying as having a killer take over your body. So slide (see? I did it again!) on over there for a chance to be among the first readers of IMPOSTOR. You know you want to.

IMPOSTOR:

What if a killer took control of you?

Vee Bell’s gift (or curse) of “sliding”—slipping into the mind of another person and experiencing life, briefly, through his or her eyes—has been somewhat under control since she unwillingly witnessed the horrific deaths of her classmates six months ago.

But just as things are getting back to normal, Vee has a very bizarre experience: she loses consciousness and finds herself in a deserted area, at the edge of a cliff, with the broken body of the boy who took advantage of her on the rocks below.

As Vee finds herself in stranger and stranger situations with no memory of getting there, she begins to suspect that someone she knows has the ability to slide—and that this “slider” is using Vee to exact revenge on his or her enemies.