Banish Blog Tour: Guest Post & Giveaway (AU/NZ + INTL)

I'm incredibly excited to be participating in the Australian Blog Tour for Banish by Nicola Marsh, hosted by the fantastic people at Harlequin Teen Australia! Banish is Nicola Marsh's debut YA supernatural thriller and so far, I'm really enjoying it! My review will hopefully be up soon :) As for today, I have an awesome guest post "A Day in the Life of a Wiccan Teen" as well as a giveaway at the end of the post<3

Banish

by Nicola Marsh

Published by Harlequin Teen Australia

in August 2013

Alyssa has one week to destroy her enemy, save her spirit... and save her soul. 

After her ex-boyfriend commits suicide and her mum’s alcoholism sparks yet another psychotic episode, seventeen-year-old Alyssa Wood flees her small hometown of Broadwater and heads to New York City to stay with her bohemian aunt — a Wicca High Priestess.

Alyssa revels in the anonymity of a big city and her new life. Her grades climb, she has a new best friend, and a new guy: the sexy geek Ronan — a saxophone player who prefers jazz to pop.

But her newfound peace is soon shattered when she sees a dead body in one of Ronan’s music clips — and she’s the only one who can see it. Worse still, Alyssa recognises the body that has been murdered a week forward!

Alyssa doesn’t believe in the supernatural...despite her family’s Wicca background. So how will she overcome evil when it’s closer than she thinks?

Goodreads | Harlequin Teen

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WICCAN TEEN

Hey, I’m Alyssa, and while my mom is Wiccan, and Aunt Angie (who I’m staying with while I’m in NYC) is a Wiccan High Priestess, I don’t believe.

Here’s how my day goes:

7am-drag self out of bed, quick shower, grab strawberry milk on way out the door.

9am-school, with the usual crappy subjects. My faves are English and Chem.

4pm-home. Surf YouTube. Do homework. Read. Eat TV dinner.

9pm-chat with Aunt Angie when she gets home.

10pm-head out to a jazz club with Ronan, hottest boyfriend on the planet, to watch him play sax in his jazz band, The Dizzy’s.

12pm-curfew. Ronan is the coolest! And hottest…

But if I did believe, Aunt Angie said there’s this really cool witch school in NYC and these are the subjects I could do (along with the usual English, algebra, blah, blah, blah):

·         Divinatory Arts (including dreams, tarot and runes)

·         Wicca (book of shadows, holidays, tools)

·         Gods & Goddesses

·         Magick (crystals, grimoires, rituals)

·         Paganism (law, New Age)

·         Psychic Development (meditations)

·         Alternative Therapies (herbalism, aromatherapy)

·         Spell Casting (basics, specific spells for Ostara, Lammas, Mabon, Samhain, Beltane.)

I admit, I’m fascinated by the symbolism of Wicca and really like some beliefs:

·         Do no harm to others

·         That our thoughts and words and actions have the power to change stuff around us.

·         What you do to others can come back on you times three.

·         That everything moves in cycles, like the seasons.

·         Do your best to be a positive.

Pretty cool stuff.

Okayyy so liking English and Chem is a strange combination...I can understand if someone likes Eng and History or Chem and Maths, but ENGLISH AND CHEM? O____O 

OMGGGGG A boyfriend who's in a band? *faints* Where's my Ronan?!?

I think I'd like to attend this witch school in NYC! So much better than all this accounting crap I have to do in Uni! hahhahaha

Andddd it's GIVEAWAY time!<3

Harlequin Teen Australia has kindly offered ONE print copy of Banish for AUS/NZ residents only and ONE e-copy of Banish for my International readers!

• Leave a comment with a way to contact you :)
• Indicate whether you're AUS/NZ resident or INTL.
• Ends August 2nd 2013
• Tweet/FB/Share this for bonus entries. Leave links in the comments. (Make sure to include @shiirleyyyxxx)
• Winners will have 48 hours to reply. 

You can view the Tour Schedule HERE

Level 2 Blog Tour: "Is It a Love Triangle" Guestpost by Lenore Appelhans

It's my pleasure to invite author and blogger Lenore Appelhans to stop by the blog today as part of the international blog tour for her debut novel, Level 2. 

 Lenore has kindly written a post on the 'love triangle' in her book. Many of you will probably immediately think there's a love triangle based on the words "Two Loves. One Choice" from the blurb. However, fear not! Lenore will be clearing up this matter in her guestpost below about how there can be two guys but no love triangle! Interested? Then read on!

Level 2

by Lenore Appelhans

Published by Simon & Schuster (US)/ Usborne (UK)/ Allen & Unwin (AUS)

on January 15th, 2013

 Three levels. Two loves. One choice. Debut novelist, Lenore Appelhans has written a thrilling otherworldly young adult novel about a place that exists between our world (Level 1) and what comes after life (Level 2). 

 'I pause to look around the hive - all the podlike chambers are lit up as the drones shoot up on memories ... I've wanted to get out of here before, but now the tight quarters start to choke me. There has to be more to death than this.' 

 Felicia Ward is dead. Trapped in a stark white afterlife limbo, she spends endless days replaying memories, of her family, friends, boyfriend ... and of the guy who broke her heart. The guy who has just broken into Level 2 to find her. 

 Felicia learns that a rebellion is brewing, and it seems she is the key. Suspended between heaven and earth, she must make a choice. Between two worlds, two lives and two loves. 

Is it a love triangle?

You might have read the following in the description of LEVEL 2: “Three Levels. Two Loves. One Choice.” And if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see there are two romantic interests in Felicia’s life, Julian and Neil.  You might have even heard about people picking teams.  All of this would seem to point straight to a love triangle right?  Well, that all depends on your definition of a love triangle.

I’m going to argue that there is no love triangle in LEVEL 2, mainly based on the fact that Felicia had relationships with Julian and Neil at different times in her life.  You see Felicia’s toxic relationship with Julian in her Germany memories. You experience Felicia’s sweet/awkward relationship with Neil in her Ohio memories (which take place long after Julian is out of the picture). In the current action in Level 2, Julian is there and Neil is not, but Felicia is clearly not interested in Julian – she accepts his “help” only because he promises to lead her to Neil.

I suppose if you subscribe to a very broad view of a love triangle – that if there’s even a slight possibility of romance between characters then it’s a love triangle - you might see a love triangle here (but then, you probably see love triangles everywhere). After all, Julian is still interested in Felicia romantically, so all Felicia needs to do is change her mind, right?

I like Malinda Lo’s distinction between a “love V” and a “love triangle”.  She argues that for there to be a real triangle, there needs to be some sort of a relationship between all angles of the triangle. She gives The Vampire Diaries as an example. Elena is connected to both Damon and Stefan, but Damon and Stefan are also brothers who share a brotherly love.  Note that in LEVEL 2,  Julian and Neil are not connected at all.

It’s also interesting to read Carrie Ryan’s perspective on love triangles in YA – that it is not so much about the choice between two different boys but more about the choice of who those two different boys allow the heroine to be.  In Felicia’s case, she is the “bad girl” looking for redemption from “good boy” Neil.  In that sense, if Felicia would choose to renew a romance with Julian, what would that mean for her character?

OK, I’ll admit it … there is a love triangle in LEVEL 2. But it’s not Felicia/Julian/Neil. It’s actually Felicia and her best friend Autumn competing for the affections of Julian.  And even though it’s a relatively minor part of the story, this one might even be considered a true “Malinda Lo-style” love triangle.  Not to mention it is also rarer to see a 2 female/1 male triangle than a 1 female/2 male in YA.  Diana Peterfreund has a great post explaining just why that is.

What’s your definition of a love triangle?

I find some of the points raised really interesting! I haven't read Level 2 yet, but after this post, I personally cannot wait to see how this not-love-triangle plays out :)

Find LEVEL 2:
Goodreads | Simon & Schuster

Find Lenore Appelhans at:
Website | Blog | Goodreads | Twitter

Guest Post: Sarah Alderson on YA boys

Today, I have the pleasure of inviting Sarah Alderson, author of two of my favourite series ever - Hunting Lila and Losing Lila; and Fated and Severed! Severed was recently released and heck, it was SO amazing<3 But make sure you read Fated first before starting Severed :)

After meeting yet another sexy badass male character in Severed, I asked Sarah to write a post on YA men. How on earth does she write such swoon-worthy male characters? (Alex, Lucas, Cyrus and Jack are 4 of the HOTTEST YA men! No kidding. If you don't believe me, then GO READ THE BOOKS!!)
So, without futher ado, here is the secret behind writing these ridiculously hot guys...

***
YA Boys

A lot of my characters are inspired by people I know or by actors. When I start a book I have a vague outline of them and this then fleshes out as I type.

Alex from Hunting Lila was based on the actor Alex Skarsgard after I saw him in Generation Kill. I just loved the coolness of his character Ice Man, but then I added a few of my husband’s qualities, namely his eyes (with the amber flecks) and inscrutability, to make a character that had edges and quirks. Alex ended up being very much my dream man.

Jack was based in part on my own brother, especially the banter between him and Lila. All my other boy characters sprung from my imagination, but I have fed my imagination well over the years!  

In the book I just finished – Control – which is set in New York - I got the idea for the main character after watching Ryan Gosling in Drive. I just thought, Wow, how hot! A boy who can drive like that and who’s got a bad boy streak.  I then created this character Jaime (Jay) who is 19 and half-cuban and just the sexiest, sweetest guy ever (who can also drive a car like Ryan Gosling in Drive).

My favourite character after Alex is probably Cyrus, who appears in Severed. I never meant for him to become so key but he came to life on paper and was just so funny and so goddamn infuriating, but chivalrous too when it came to it, that I fell in love with him as I was writing. In my head I always had the guy who plays Silas in Weeds. Hunter Parrish.

In The Sound (out August 2013), the main character Ren is an English girl who goes to Nantucket, an island off the coast near Boston, to nanny for the summer, which is something I did when I was 17. I did have a very sweet summer romance when I was there, which inspired the romance between Ren and Jesse.

For me a hot boy isn’t one that’s controlling or obsessive, too over-protective or violent. They do what they have to do to protect the people they love but they also are in control of their actions and emotions.

I’m horrified by a lot of ‘heroes’ in stories today who are violent and abusive and display stalker like tendencies. For me a hot YA boy (actually any man) has to have these things:

•          An awesome sense of humour
•          Integrity
•          Willingness to act and stand up for what they believe in (and that doesn’t mean punching the crap out a guy who looks sideways at the girl they like).
•          Tenderness / kindness
•          Intelligence
•          Decisiveness
•          A talent for kissing
•          Did I mention the six pack?

My top 10 favourite fictional boyfriends (not including my own ;) )

1.       Augustus Waters  -The Fault in our Stars. (funny, sweet, tragic, beautiful. My heart still aches for Augustus).

2.       Alex Fuentes – Perfect Chemistry. (I don’t need to explain this one surely?)

3.       Jack – Blood Red Road. (He’s just got so many winning qualities (see my list above)

4.       George Emmerson – A Room with a View. (Be still my beating heart…that kiss in the sunflower field…)

5.       Rhett Butler – Gone with the Wind. (Rhett’s the definition of a full-blooded male who knows exactly what he wants)

6.       Rupert Campbell Black – Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles. (I whiled away many an hour in Italy reading those books).

7.       Noah Calhoun – The Notebook. (OK, I’ve only seen the film but Ryan Gosling is just so pretty…see above).

8.       Richard Sharpe – The Sharpe Books. (I grew up on those and was completely obsessed by him.)

9.       Han Solo (OK, he’s not in a book but I have to include him because he was the first person I fell in love with when I was 5).

10.    James Bond (but only as Daniel Craig).

***

I had this MASSIVE grin on  my face when I read the post!! A talent for kissing? And a six pack? HELL YEAH! To be honest, I've never watched a Ryan Gosling movie (shameful, I know) but I promise I'll watch a few of his movies soon :) I seriously cannot wait to meet Jay in Control!

Oh, and have you guys realised most, if not all, characters named Noah are so freaking hot? Noah Hutchins, Noah Shaw, and Noah Calhoun...(and like I said above, I NEED to watch one of Ryan Gosling's movies!)

Having spent most of her life in London, Sarah quit her job in the non profit sector in 2009 and took off on a round the world trip with her husband and princess-obsessed daughter on a mission to find a new place to call home. After several months in India, Singapore, Australia and the US, they settled in Bali where Sarah now spends her days writing by the pool and trying to machete open coconuts without severing a limb.

She finished her first novel Hunting Lila just before they left the UK, wrote the sequel – Losing Lila – on the beach in India, and had signed a two book deal with Simon & Schuster by the time they reached Bali.

A third book, Fated, about a teenage demon slayer, which was written during their stay in California, was published in January 2012 by Simon Pulse (an imprint of Simon & Schuster).

The sequels to Fated are slated for release in November 2012 and March 2013, while two standalone YA thrillers will be out in summer 2013 & summer 2014.

She is currently co-writing the Hunting Lila screenplay and working on several other books and screenplays.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Blog Tour: Touch of Death - Guestpost

Touch of Death

by Kelly Hashway

Published by Spencer Hill Press

on January 15th 2013

Book Depository

Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know. After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins. Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

*Mythology behind Touch of Death*

It’s no secret Touch of Death is based on mythology. I’ve been a mythology fan all my life. It was always my favorite unit to study in school, and growing up I was obsessed with finding all the constellations in the sky that represented figures in mythology. And actually, that’s how Touch of Death began, too.

       I was researching for another manuscript at the time and it had to do with constellations, one of which was Ophiuchus, the 13th sign of the zodiac. He was a healer that Zeus placed in the heavens after Hades complained that Ophiuchus was bringing too many people back to life and stealing his souls from the underworld. I loved this myth, so I dug deeper.

       I’m partial to lesser-known myths and I found one about Ophiuchus, Medusa, and Athena. According to this myth, Athena gave Ophiuchus two vials of the Gorgon Medusa’s blood: one from the right side of her body with the power to heal the dead and one from the poisonous left side of her body with the power to kill. Ophiuchus only ever used the vial from the right side of her body, but I wondered what would happen if there was a group of people with both abilities. Touch of Death was born. My necromancers are descendents of Medusa and born under the sign of Ophiuchus, which is why they call themselves Ophi.

       Naturally Hades had to be part of the story because if he disapproved of Ophiuchus bringing the dead back to life, he’d have a real problem with an entire group of necromancers doing the same thing. I won’t give any spoilers for the rest of the series, but more mythology is on the way for Jodi and her Ophi friends.

Shirley: I love mythology as well!! Now I REALLY can't wait to read Touch of Death!

Blog Tour: Whisper of Memory - Guest Post + Giveaway

Hellooo everyone :) Welcome to my stop on the Whisper of Memory blog tour, hosted by the lovely Misa @ The Magic Attic. Today, Brinda will sharing a guest post on family relationships in YA! I really hope you enjoy it!<3 There will also be a giveaway at the end of the post, so make sure you stick around :)

Weapons training and winter formals...a deadly combination.

All Mia ever wanted was to fit in at Whispering Woods High. But being a portal-finder who dates a guy from another dimension sort of makes it hard. Mia's brother disappeared over a year ago, and agents from the IIA began policing people's movements through dimensions. She'd trusted Dr. Bleeker from the local university when he'd told her the IIA were the bad guys. But even a girl with an extraordinary ability to sense things can make mistakes.

Now two people are dead, and as a portal gatekeeper for the IIA, Mia needs to find Dr. Bleeker before he hurts anyone else. And her boyfriend Regulus, an Agent for the IIA, carries secrets of his own. Between learning about weaponry, finding the perfect dress for the winter formal, and catching bad guys, who has time to fit in?

Family Relationships in YA

One of the most interesting things about YA today  is the variety of family relationships that you will see. I think that today's popular young adult (YA) fiction is very reflective of real, honest family dynamics.  One very popular topic among writers and readers is the portrayal of parents in YA.

There are many single parent homes in the US today. I see this in YA. The 2010 Census tells us that 23% of children live with only their mothers. If real life says this is the case for one child in three, it should follow suit that a portion of fiction represents this family dynamic.

In my Whispering Woods series, Mia lives with her father.  This is not the traditional single-parent home in the US as only 3% of children live with only their fathers.  In the first book, The Waiting Booth, you see Mia at home alone quite often due to her father's work travel.  This situation gives Mia a lot of independence and responsibility. In real life, I know lots of teens who spend their time unsupervised.

The number of parents a character has (or doesn't have) isn't the only noticeable factor lending conflict to YA novels.  I've read  lots of discussion about a prevalence of bad parents in YA. I actually don't see this. I've read several YA novels this year with parents who exhibit love and affection for their child. There are also book parents who are shallow, unaware, unloving, addicted, manipulative, etc.  I do think authors need to give parents some character depth when they write them.  Although the story is ultimately about the teen main character, readers want more than stereotyped cardboard cutouts of bad or good parents.

YA family relationships have changed to reflect what goes on in our society today.  My novels show a young woman who has a strong relationship with a busy working father and no relationship with her mother. Other YA novels may show teens with guardians instead of parents. I think there's a variety out there, and it's reflective of real world families. What do you think?

You can find the rest of the tour HERE         

Anddd now...for the giveaway! The giveaway is for a Kindle Touch and 20 Romance Trading Cards. Just enter using the rafflecopter below! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post with Meredith Zeitlin!

So, I recently read this absolutely AMAZING book called Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters written by the sweetest and funniest person ever - Meredith Zietlin! If you haven't heard of the book yet, GO AND SEARCH IT NOW! (Links will be provided below!) It's the cutest book ever <3 You can probably guess from the title that the book is about a certain freshman girl and the disasters she has to go through in high school.You can read my review of it HERE & check out the synopsis below!

Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great - her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshman year will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that you’re not in her shoes, of course…

Meredith has kindly agreed to write a guest post on HER Freshman Year! To all the people who've read this book, I'm sure you've been wondering what inspired her to write such a hilariously entertaining book; perhaps her Freshman Year as disastrous as Kelsey's? Did the events that happened in the book actually happen to her as well? Well...you're about to find out!
So, KEEP READING <3

ON FRESHMAN YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL

Oh, freshman year. It's such a singular experience, isn't it? It's not at all the same as freshman year of college, for instance, because that's got the anxiety of being at a new school coupled with the excitement of being on one's own as an adult for the first time. And no one knows anyone, for the most part – so there's this team spirit about the whole thing. And it's not like the first year of middle school, either, because then you're still just into the double digits, age-wise. There's pressure to be cool, of course, but it's not quite as intense as it will be in later years. You can slide into middle school pretty seamlessly, as things go.

But being a freshman in high school? The main thing about it is that no matter who you are – what clique you're part of, what clubs you're in, what team you're on, what guy you date – you're going from being a LORD OF THE MIDDLE SCHOOL to being a lame little baby hanging onto the lowest rung of the totem pole for dear life. And that is no fun. And it makes you feel like you have to scramble and prove to everyone around you how cool you are.

And that stinks.

I couldn't think of a better situation to throw poor, beleaguered Kelsey Finkelstein into. I mean, can you? After all, she's a girl with so many ideas, who so badly wants to be liked and to impress, to take part and really do things in a big way. Why not give her a situation where she's practically bound to fail?!

I'm a mean author, huh? But the thing is... Kelsey is me. Was me. (Is me.) So I knew she was going to be okay in the end, and that all those disasters would help her be a stronger person with an even better sense of humor about herself. (Which is something she's going to need to keep on hand for the rest of her life, lemme tell ya.) Does that make me any less horrible?

See, my freshman year was no exception to the rule of terrifying freshmanhood. I started at a new school that year – an all girls' school, mind you – and had to deal with all the usual stuff plus not knowing anyone. I was a mess, naturally, and had all my I HAVE A GREAT PERSONALITY, CAN'T YOU TELL?! defense shields up from the moment I walked through the door. Of course, I say that now, looking back from a distance of many years. At the time, I thought I was fooling everyone into seeing a totally confident and awesome gal who hardly minded her horrible bangs, braces, and the nose she hadn't grown into yet. Oh, the magic of hindsight.

And yes, I made friends and did interesting school things and had lots of fun. I also pissed off a scary junior who tortured me for the next two years (not to mention a REALLY mean teacher who held a grudge against me for four). I was in plays where insane things happened, and thought playing a sport I'd never heard of called lacrosse was a good idea, and went to a prom with a guy I barely knew who got kicked out for smoking pot and left me totally stranded. There were misunderstandings with friends and boys I agonized over and all the wrong ones who liked me and one mess after another. And that was just freshman year - the next three had plenty of their own disasters. So did the ones after that. In fact, just yesterday I realized I had invited over a hundred people to the party to celebrate the release of this book... and I gave them all the wrong address.

Is there a moral to the story? Yes. Freshman year is a good litmus test for the kind of person you can be, in a way. Pretty much everyone survives, but the strongest come out with a few battle scars and some great stories. And who doesn't like a good story, am I right? 

*giggles* I swear I'm laughing my head off right now! You gotta LOVE Freshman year, eh? Meredith's 9th year was certainly a million times more exciting than mine- but I guess going to an all-girl's school has contributed to my lack of high school drama? Soo...after reading this, are you all desperately excited to get your own copy of Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters? Because I guarantee that every page will have you literally rolling on the ground laughing!

Meredith Zeitlin is a writer and voiceover artist who lives in Brooklyn with two adorable feline roommates. She also writes a column for Ladygunn Magazine, changes her hair color every few months, and has many fancy pairs of spectacles.
In case you're wondering whether any of Kelsey's experiences are based on Meredith's own, the answer is NO WAY. When she was fourteen, Meredith looked and behaved perfectly at all times, was never in a single embarrassing situation, and always rode to school on her very own unicorn.

Find Meredith:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

Find Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters:

Goodreads | Book Depository | Amazon  

hehee..check out Meredith's hilarious video!