Readergirlz in February

It's a new month over at Readergirlz, where you can always find scads of authors hanging about showing off cool authorial factoids. February's theme is Loyalty, and they will be featuring:

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
The True Meaning of Cleavage by Mariah Fredericks
Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine
Independent Dames by Laurie Halse Anderson

But that's never all they talk about. Check it out!

Chat with Scott Westerfeld

Based on how many of you ask me for The Uglies Trilogy, I suspect there's a healthy cadre of Westerfans out there. Therefore, I figure you should know that Scott Westerfeld is the featured author at readergirlz this month. They are talking Leviathan.

If you are still waiting for your copy of Leviathan to come in, the postergirlz have some recommended reads to go along with Leviathan:

• The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkowski


• Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel


• The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson


• Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey


• Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

And, because this is the month of BOOK TRAILERS, here's Leviathan's awesome one:



"Do you oil your war machines, or do you FEED them?" muhahahahaha!

Westerfeld will be chatting at the rgz blog all month long, including a LIVE chat on March 17th at 6pm.

As an added bonus, here's a video Westerfeld made:

Chat with Author Mary Pearson about The Adoration of Jenna Fox!

Tonight, via the readergirlz blog, there will be a live chat with the author of The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Which, if you've at all talked to me about books in the last 9 months, you know I <3.Why do I heart it? Because:

"Jenna was in a coma for 18 months. When she wakes up she doesn't remember anything - or anyone. Not what happened to her. Not her parents. Not her grandmother. Soon little pieces of her memory start coming back, slowly, and with their return she begins to realize that the isolated world of Jenna Fox is not what it seems. As she slowly unravels what happened to her - and the implications of what was done to her - she finds that maybe it would have been better if she had never woken up from that coma at all."

(that's me, quoting from myself. It's lame, but why write it twice, right?)

There's lots of tension and it really made me think. I'd say more, but I don't want to give anything away. Anyway, I encourage you to attend the rgz chat! If you can't make tonight's chat, never fear, rgz features a different author every month! April will be ELLEN HOPKINS, author of CRANK, IDENTICAL, GLASS, GLASS and BURNED. (!!!)

5 weeks of contests!

To celebrate the second annual readergirlz Teen Bookdrop, rgz is having a contest a week leading up to the event!

From the rgz blog:

"Here's the deal: each week from now until Support Teen Literature Day on April 16th, we'll be awarding a package of books to one winner. To enter, you just comment on our blog posts (comments on older posts count - a point for each comment!) and get an extra ten points for taking up the week's challenge. Get ten more any time by becoming one of our blog followers!"

For more ways to win go here!

RGZ Teen Book Drop!

Learn how they made this movie!

Find out more.

Don't forget to enter Sno-Isle's Teen Tech Month events AND Book Trailer Contest! (win a video camera! or t-shirt!)

Find Beauty Challenge

Justina Chen Headley, local author of three excellent works of YA Fiction (Nothing But the Truth [and a few white lies]; Girl, Overboard; North of Beautiful) has announced a contest in honor of her newest title, North of Beautiful!



From Justina's blog:

Tell the world what you find to be Truly Beautiful! Just upload a 90-second video describing what real beauty means to you...and you could win yourself an iTouch! PLUS, for every uploaded video, I'll donate $10 (up to $1,000) to Global Surgical Outreach, an amazing group that helps kids with cleft lips and palates in the third world.

Here's what to do:

1. Record a 90-second video essay about what's truly beautiful to you!
   
2. Upload the video onto YouTube.
   
3. Then...send a link to north@marthabee.com. (Martha Brockenbrough--tech guru and my friend of much wonderosity--will link your video to the North of Beautiful YouTube channel.)
   
4. Tell all your friends to RATE your video.

The Official Rules for the NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL: FIND BEAUTY CHALLENGE:

1. The Top 5 videos will be chosen by YOU based on the most views and highest ratings. So be sure to tell all your friends to vote for you! Any ties will be broken by the North of Beautiful team.
   
2. The North of Beautiful team will score the five finalists on A) 40 percent emotional appeal (humor, pull-on-the-heartstrings, incites activism, etc.); B) 40 percent content (clean, widespread appeal across audiences, plot – if applicable, scriptwriting – if applicable); and C) 20 percent professionalism (smooth transitions, stable video, non-jarring editing cuts, constant audio levels).
   
3. All videos must contain original content. Your entry indicates you understand this and have the legal rights to distribute your video.
   
4. Any videos deemed inappropriate by the North of Beautiful team will be removed. Please don't upload anything that wouldn't, say, be shown on television during prime-time hours, or anything you wouldn't want to watch with your first-grade teacher. So no nudity, profanity, or racial slurs.
   
5. The contest will run from 12:01 a.m. Feb. 1, 2009 until 11:59 p.m. Mar. 30, 200. Anything submitted before or after the deadline can't be considered.
   
6. Justina will donate $10 for every uploaded video (for a maximum of $1,000) to Global Surgical Outreach to help fund facial surgeries for kids in the third world.
   
7. The Find Beauty Challenge is open to people over 14.
   
8. The Grand Prize winner will receive one iPod Touch. 3 runners up will receive fabulous gifts, such as an autographed collection of Justina's novels, other free books, etc."

The Girl Effect

via RGZ blog:



Learn more about The Girl Effect here.

Live Chat with Meg Cabot!

Since you're probably stuck inside with all this snow, why not chat with an immensely popular author?

From the readergirlz blog:

"Join the readergirlz forum tonight at 9pm EST/6pm PST as we chat LIVE with Meg Cabot! Tiaras optional.

And during the day, to psych up, visit Girl Week at Reviewer X's blog."

Have fun!