WINNER NUMBER ONE!!!

And the winner for June is...Jennifer M. from Viola, WI! Whoo-hoo! Here's what Jennifer has won:

JUNE: A copy of "Crowned" by Julie Linker and the T-shirt below, as well as an Arkansas Author goodie bag with bookmarks, tattoos, and more.



For all of you who entered (we ended up with about 30 entries all told, which isn't bad), thank you so much! And stay tuned to the blog for more Super Entry days. There are still two more months of winning ahead. Next month it will be my book, "You are So Undead to Me", or...if you've already read that...I might be persuaded to part with one of my last three ARCs of "Undead Much?" ;)



Have a great Tuesday,

Stacey Jay

"Undead Much?" 1st Review

"The story this time around was well thought out and kept me guessing till the end and kept to the fresh and unique taste it had last time. This series really is a great edition to the Young Adult Paranormal genre..."Undead Much?" isn't due out till January 2010 but until then make sure you catch up with and get to know Megan in You Are So Undead To Me. Also get to know the author and series by reading the Amberkatze's Book Blog interview with Stacey Jay. A huge thanks to Razorbill for letting me read this! I can't wait for book #3!"

-Amber on Amberkatze's Book Blog

Yeay! I'm so so glad she liked it. First reviews are always a little terrifying. (Okay, all reviews are a little terrifying, lol.) You can read everything Amber had to say over on her blog (warning, contains spoilers for Book 1, "You are So Undead to Me", so if you haven't read that yet, beware):

http://amberkatze.blogspot.com/2009/06/130-undead-much-by-stacey-jay.html

You can pre-order "Undead Much?" here, if you feel so inclined:

http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Much-Stacey-Jay/dp/1595142738/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246276228&sr=1-1

And you can find out who one month one of the Summer Reads and Tees contest tomorrow morning, right here on this blog! Leave a comment here today, it's the last day to get your name in the pot for June!

Happy Day all,

Stacey Jay

Some Odds and Ends

Oooo...pretty display for Darken Your Summer Days Promo!! Have you spotted this in the wild? If so I'd love to hear about it because...um yeah, it would just be cool.

Also, the website has been revamped, or re-zombified or what have you. I think I forgot to send ya'll over there to check it out:

http://staceyjay.com

There's a new shopping section where you can buy your own YASUTM gear, t-shirts, etc and other goodies. I'll be adding to the shop soon so keep checking back if like...you want to.

Haven't had time to fix up the Voice Over book trailer just yet. Hopefully I'll have that ready to share with ya'll come Monday.

Busy weekend around here, hope yours is fun!

Stacey Jay

"Undead Much" Trailer Number 1

Okay, ya'll, I need feedback. Does this trailer do it for you? Or do you think you'd prefer one with a voice over near the beginning instead? I've got another version I'm working on, but I want to be sure I've got the best one before I post it to You Tube.

So give me an opinion if you've got one! I'd appreciate it.

(Super Entry...last chance for a Super Entry before the first Summer Reads and Tees give-away! Learn more about the Summer Reads and Tess contest here:
http://staceyjay.com/news.php )

Happy Tuesday!

Stacey Jay

Debutante Blog Tour: Cynthea Liu

About Paris Pan Takes the Dare

Twelve-year-old Paris Pan's life is a mess. She's just moved to a tiny town in Nowheresville, Oklahoma; her family life is a comical disaster; her new friends are more like frenemies; and the boy she has a crush on is a dork. Things couldn't possibly get worse, until she discovers that a girl mysteriously died years ago while taking a seventh-grade rite of passage–the Dare– right near Paris's new house. So when Paris starts hearing strange noises coming from the creepy run-down shed in her backyard, she thinks they could be a message from the ghost of a girl. But while she has no plans to make contact with the great beyond, her two new friends have other thoughts. Everyone who's anyone takes the Dare, and now it's Paris's turn.

About Cynthea Liu

Cynthea spent her formative years in Oklahoma and Texas where she was
a Whiz Quiz member, an Academic Decathloner, and a spelling bee
champion. (Yes, she was very popular.) After attending college on the
East coast, she worked at a corporate job where she mastered
PowerPoint and racked up thousands of frequent flyer miles.
Eventually, she traded in her suit for sweats to do the fun
stuff–writing for children.

Thanks so much Cynthea!! Ya'll check out the following Liu links:

Author Web site: http://cynthealiu.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0399250433/?tag=cynthealiu-20

And check out the "Take the Dare, Show U Care" contest. It's a great cause--buying books and supplies for kids in need--and I'm auctioning off a 5 page critique:

http://www.cynthealiu.com/win-critique-from-author-stacey-jay/

Happy Sunday!

Stacey Jay

My So Called Death-Cover and More

All in all it was a good day to die. If there really is such a thing.

You hear characters in movies say that all the time, but does anyone really believe the words “good” and “die” belong in the same sentence?

Still, it could have been worse. It could have been dark and spooky night instead of a beautiful Georgia morning in late October, with a light wind whipping across the Peachtree High School football field, making zombies seem like the last thing anyone needed to worry about…

Fifteen-year-old freshman, Karen Vera, is well on her way to ruling her school when a freak cheer leading accident turns her into, well, a freak. Much to her Horror and Dismay, Karen learns she is a genetic mutation, one of the Death Challenged--a politically correct term for a zombie!

Now she has to go to a top secret zombie school, eat brains for lunch, and take courses with names like "Secrets of Successful Morticians and their Uses for the Undead: Foundation and Beyond". And to make matters worse, her roommate is the most reviled girl at DEAD High, a complete head case, and maybe...a murderer.

Can Karen find out who's offing the nearly un-off-able Undead before she becomes the next victim? Can she convince the super-cute captain of the swim team that a girl can have a pathological love for pink and still carry on an intelligent conversation? Will she ever pass remedial Algebra for the Death Challenged?

Find out in "My So Called Death". March, 2010, from Flux Books.

Have a great weekend!

Stacey Jay

Darken Your Summer Days Trailer

I just saw this yesterday thanks to a heads up from Reader Sami (thanks Sami!). I was so pysched to be a part of the Darken Your Summer Days promotion and in the company of such amazing writers as Lili St. Crow and Richelle Mead (whose books I have read and loved) and Heather Brewer (whose book I will be reading asap).

Have a great Thursday everyone, check back tomorrow for BIG news. (I've got my cover for "My So Called Death"--my book from Flux--and a release date!)

Stacey Jay

Debutante Blog Tour: Mandy Hubbard

About Prada and Prejudice

Fifteen year old Callie just wants to impress the popular girls when she buys a pair of Prada heels on her class trip to London. She didn’t plan on tripping, conking her head, and waking up in 1815! Now she’s wearing corsets with her designer pumps, eating bizarre soups, and breaking up engagements. If only the nineteen year old Duke of Harksbury wasn’t so bloody annoying, she might have a little fun in Austen-Era England…

About Mandy Hubbard

Mandy Hubbard grew up on a dairy farm outside Seattle, where she refused to wear high heels until homecoming—and hated them so much she didn’t wear another pair for five years. A cowgirl at heart, she enjoys riding horses and quads and singing horribly to the latest country tune. She’s currently living happily ever after with her husband (who, sadly, is not a Duke) and her daughter (who is most definitely a princess). Prada and Prejudice is her first novel.

The Three Questions

1. If you had to kill off one of your characters which one would it be? Why him/her?

Probably Angela, one of the twenty-first century characters in the very first chapter of PRADA & PREJUDICE. She's your typical mean girl, yet Callie wants her stamp of approval.

2. Would you consider having this character come back from the dead? Why or why not?

No way. She's nasty enough alive--forget as one of the undead! She'd probably still look flawless too. Sigh.

3. What's the strangest thing eaten in the course of your book? (If it's brains you get ten bonus points!)

The bummer for Callie is that she has NO IDEA what she's eating half the time she's in 1815. I looked up actual recipes during research, and they ate A LOT of gross stuff-- they actually ate Calf's heads, and would stuff all the cooked ingredients back into the skull. UGH.

Stacey: Ewww! I think that's worth 20 bonus points. Rock on with the historically correct grossness, Mandy!

Ya'll go check out my imprint sister's site and add this one to your summer reading list!

Additional Details

Author Web site: http://mandyhubbard.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Prada-Prejudice-Mandy-Hubbard/dp/1595142606/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228166029&sr=8-1

And on a personal note: THIS is so cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d61n1Zmvs1o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fprofile.php%3Fid%3D1268161811%26v%3Dfeed&feature=player_embedded

Cut and past the link if you can, if not, I'll have the video on the blog tomorrow. Squee! I love it. Darken up your Summer indeed :)

Stacey Jay

The New Orleans Voodoo Museum

It was a hot and sweltering Friday. The streets of New Orleans baked in the unrelenting sun and bugs circled listlessly in the few patches of shade, their cranky buzzing reminding pedestrians that this is a place where cholera and yellow fever ran rampant, where people risked their very lives by daring to live so close to mosquito-infested bayous...

But they thought it was totally worth it.

New Orleans is an amazing city. I was so happy to be there, sweating my make-up off, spending a few bucks to research my next Megan Berry book at the New Orleans Voodoo Museum (and eat crawdaddies and shrimp etoufee and jambalaya, of course...and buy a few really cute voodoo dolls...and some other stuff... Yeah, I went over budget, but the city is in need of tourist dollars so the empty wallet stung less. Not that wallets really sting, but...yeah.)

And now, some pics!

Me, taken by the hubs. I had to have a picture for this newspaper interview so I posed in front of the voodoo dolls. Ugh. Hate having my picture taken! Maybe people will be distracted by the spooky dude on my left...or the clock...or something...



Some voodoo dolls. (Not the cute ones I bought, more authentic ones.)



A zombie whip!! A real zombie whip! For...whipping zombies!! (You know that's going in the next book.)



Some skeleton parts. (Don't mess with the skeleton parts and they won't mess with you. Usually.)



To learn more about these artifacts and the history of voodoo, visit the museum's website:

http://voodoomuseum.com/

Happy Tuesday!

Stacey Jay

Rainy Day, a good day for contesting...

I'm back, I'm exhausted, but I've got some AWESOME blog fodder for the upcoming week. Voodoo museum visits, the best creepy doll store, and the ARCs are coming...yes, "Undead Much?" ARCs are on their way to my house as I type! (Or maybe not today since today is Sunday, but you know what I mean. They're in the mail, according to editor Lexa.)

But in the meantime. I think a Super Entry is in order. If you don't know what that means, check this blog post.

http://staceyjayya.blogspot.com/2009/05/reads-and-tees-summer-contest-how-to.html

Happy Contesting! We're halfway through June. It's almost time for the first giveaway, but you've still got time to enter.

Stacey Jay

Debutante Blog Tour: Sarah Ockler

Today, the Awesome that is Sarah Ockler!



About Twenty Boy Summer

While on vacation in California, sixteen-year-old best girlfriends Anna and Frankie conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first summer romance, but Anna harbors a painful secret that threatens their lighthearted plan and their friendship.

TWENTY BOY SUMMER is a debut YA novel that explores what it truly means to love someone, what it means to grieve, and ultimately, how to make the most of every single moment this world has to offer.

About Sarah Ockler

Sarah Ockler wrote and illustrated her first book at age six—an adaptation of Steven Spielberg's E.T. Still recovering from her own adolescence, Sarah now writes for young adults. After several years of wandering between New York City and Denver, she and her husband Alex now live in Upstate New York with lots of books and an ever-expanding collection of sea glass. Twenty Boy Summer is Sarah's first novel. Visit her online at www.sarahockler.com.

And now the four questions!

1. If you had to kill off one of your characters which one would it be? Why him/her?

One of the characters dies in chapter 2 already, so I really don't think the other characters could handle any more death!

2. Would you consider having this character come back from the dead? Why or why not?

No, I don't think he'll come back from the dead unless I decide to write Twenty Zombie Summer. Which at least 3 people have asked me to do. Not that I'm doing it, just saying there's quite a demand from the zombie-lovers out there. :-)

3. What's the strangest thing eaten in the course of your book? (If it's brains you get ten bonus points!)

I don't think they invented the Brain Brew at the Smoothie Shack during the course of Twenty Boy Summer. I guess the girls don't know what they're missing! There is some lobster going on though, and that's pretty strange in my opinion!

4. Random sharing time, what do you want my zombie-blog-author readers to know about your book?

Well, there aren't any zombies in Twenty Boy Summer, but there is a tragic death, some cute boys, an over-sunned creepster oldie, and a mermaid who lives under the sea crying out pieces of sea glass... :-)

Thanks for hosting me, Stacey! :-)

You're so welcome Sarah! Ya'll check out Sarah's links.

o Author Web site: http://www.sarahockler.com

o Bookstore links:
Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316051590
BN: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Twenty-Boy-Summer/Sarah-Ockler/e/9780316051590/?itm=1

See you all soon,

Stacey Jay

Reporting in from the Road

Just a quick one because I am super duper busy doing mostly nothing except entertaining a 7 month old in a tiny hotel-esque room on the National Guard Training Center, but I just had to share a few images from the road.

There's been a lot of this...



(So flat. So hot. So...treeless and...hot...and flat.)

And this...



Ooo! Ooo!! More hot and flat!!! And...hot....and flat...

And this...



Look at the people trying to hide from the hot and flat! Foolish people!! (It is in vain. There is no escape from the Hot and Flat.)

But there has been lot's of quality time with this one:



(Aw pirate hat is the bestest hat ever! And it's reversible!)

And a little bit of this...



And this...



(We photograph hubs and baby from behind for cuteness and me from behind because bikini seven months after birth is Skeery from the front. But the belleh needed some sun in a major way.)

And this...



So it hasn't been all bad. We had to drive two hours there and back to a good beach and only did sand and surf for about an hour because BLo and I are Tragically White and prone to burning, but it was nice. (Though still hot and flat.)

Gotta run! There are bottles to wash in the sink and sand to fish out of baby butt cheeks.

Later ya'll!

Stacey Jay

Russellville Rocks

Just a super quick entry today because I am BUSY getting ready to head out for the hub's annual Air Force training tonight. But I wanted to give you the highlights of yesterday's visit. (Or really, just show you the pictures I remembered to take. There aren't many, but um...yeah. I forget to take pictures. It's a problem. I'm seeking help.)


Oooo!! Cute little restored building where meetings are held. (Next to Pope County's main library.)


Super cute inside of super cute little restored building! (Only complaint was that the bathroom was attached to the room and had a very thin door so I'm sure the first few people there heard me pee. Sorry if anyone was offended by author pee. Sorry if anyone here is offended by my over sharing about pee. But pee happens. So...there.)



And me in my zombie shirt and Lauren!! The Librarian who rocks. (She really, really does. She went above and beyond. There were bookmarks that she made and special white pens for signing the dark background! How organized and awesome is that? Very organized. Very awesome.)

A big thanks to Lauren and to all the lovely ladies (and one gent) who came out to visit with me yesterday. It was wonderful to meet you and I hope you enjoy "You are So Undead to Me"!

See you all soon! I'm hoping to have internet on the air base and I will be blogging about the week's adventures.

And remember. Keep entering the contest! Learn more about it here:

http://staceyjay.com/news.php

Have a great weekend,

Stacey Jay

Library Talk tomorrow in Russellville, Arkansas!

Where?

Pope County Library System

116 East 3rd Street

Russellville, AR 72801

479-968-4368

When?

3-4 pm

What?

Me, talking about "You are So Undead to Me", the road to publish-ment, life, love, zombies, etc. (And maybe standing on my head. No one's called my bluff on this one yet. Would love a mid-talk head-stand-off with someone so if you've got head-standing game bring it to the Russellville library tomorrow.)

And what else?

Um...nothing I can share just yet. But soon I will have two pretty pieces of Shiny Newness to post here on the blog. Stay tuned for more details and remember

KEEP ENTERING THE CONTEST!!! HERE:

http://staceyjayya.blogspot.com/2009/05/reads-and-tees-summer-contest-how-to.html

Hope to see some of you tomorrow! (No, I don't know why this entire entry is in bold. The bold button was broken and basically sucks. A lot.)

Stacey Jay

Debutante Blog Tour: Sarah Cross

About the book:

Superpowers are awesome -- unless you actually have them, like Avery does. There's only so much he can pass off as "adrenaline" before people start to get suspicious. Probably it's best to lie low, so guys in white lab coats don't come to carry him away, to find out what makes his freakish body tick. Who wants to be vivisected? But flying under the radar becomes a whole lot harder when you can actually fly. It's dangerous to be different, so for now he'll pretend to be normal, unremarkable Avery -- a dull boy -- anything to keep his secret safe.

What he doesn't expect is the horrifying truth about where his powers came from, who else might have them, and the madness of one villain's plan to turn this superpowered dull boy into something even more powerful and amazing.

About the author:

Sarah Cross has saved the world, like, five times since fifth grade — and you didn’t even notice. Learn her secrets at www.sarahcross.com.
The four questions:


1. If you had to kill off one of your characters which one would it be? Why him/her?
In DULL BOY: THE HAMLET REMIX, everyone dies.

2. Would you consider having this character come back from the dead? Why or why not?

Everyone would come back from the dead for the sequel: DULL BOY: IT'S HARD OUT THERE FOR A SUPERZOMBIE.

3. What's the strangest thing eaten in the course of your book? (If it's brains you get ten bonus points!)
Cookie Crisp? That is insufficiently strange, I know ...

4. Random sharing time, what do you want my zombie-blog-author readers to know about your book?

No zombies were harmed in the making of DULL BOY. So if you're undead, you can read it & enjoy it with a clear conscience.

Lol! Thanks Sarah. I can't wait to read "Dull Boy", you're a hoot. (Old fashioned Southern way of saying you're Teh Funneh.)

Ya'll can find Dull Boy wherever find books are sold or check this link:

http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780525421337

See you tomorrow!

Stacey Jay