Goals, Music, Books & More Updates

It's officially February. Where did January go? Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not at all. February brings all kinds of excitement for me, so I'm happy it's here, but it does seem like 2013 is already flying by.

It's been a while since I've given you any real updates, so I thought it would be best to start of the month with just that. It's Update Time!

Update #1: Books Complete Me Unlimited (BCMU) has officially launched. What is Books Complete Me Unlimited, you ask? Simply put, BCMU is the brand new sister site of Books Complete Me (BCM) and will feature reviews and all things book related for books that are not YA.You should check it out because it's going to be AWESOME. Find it HERE.

Update #2: All The Write Notes (ATWN) has officially launched. What is All The Write Notes, you ask? You can read THIS to get all the details, but essentially ATWN is a blog of writers who love music. We talk music. We talk writing. We talk about the two of them together. Oh, and there will be giveaways, too. You should definitely check it out, because it's going to be AWESOME (trust me, just go with it).

Update #3: I'm writing again. After I won NaNoWriMo, a few things happened personally (all good things, don't worry) and I fell behind in my writing schedule. I only had a few chapters remaining in my current WIP to finish the first draft, but the manuscript pretty much sat all lonely in my computer for over a month. I missed it, and now, finally, I'm back to giving it the attention it deserves. This is in no small part due to one of my incredible critique partners. Amalie Howard, here's looking at you!

Update #4: Speaking of Amalie Howard, have you heard all of her good news?? She's been super busy selling books, including WATERFELL to Harlequin Teen. Here's the Publisher's Marketplace announcement:

“Amalie Howard’s WATERFELL, in which an alien shape-shifting princess hides in plain sight among humans and trains to save her species, living in the depths of the Earth’s oceans for millennia, from the enemy who murdered her family and wants to rule in her place, to Natashya Wilson at Harlequin Teen, in a two-book deal, for publication in Winter 2014, by Liza Fleissig at Liza Royce Agency (World).”

As someone who has read WATERFELL, I cannot tell you enough how proud I am of Amalie. This book is amazing and so is she. *throws virtual confetti* Congrats Amalie!!

You can find out more about Amalie and her recent sales on her website HERE.

Update #5: The Tangled Up In Words blog is going to be super busy and FUN this month. Check out our month of #SmallPress411 to learn all about working for and with small presses. It's going to be a blast!

Update #6: I love my job! I just recently started a position as publicist for Spencer Hill Press's new imprint, Spencer Hill Contemporary and I'm enjoying every minute of it. I am loving getting to know my authors and understanding their visions for their books. I'm honored to work with them and am so happy to be in such a position. Things have been going really well, and I've been promoted to "Senior Publicist." Kind of cool, right?

Goals for February: I have two goals for this month. The first is the finish the first draft of this manuscript by February 15th. The second is to finish revisions for this same manuscript by the end of the month. I'm rolling my sleeves up, digging in and not coming back up for air until it's complete.

Exciting Things Happening In February: 2nd annual WRITING RETREAT! In 17 days I will be leaving for the writing retreat of awesome. I am so so so so so so excited I can hardly stand it. This year's retreat has grown by two. so it's sure to be even more fun. Stay tuned for updates from the group: Danielle Ellison, Amalie Howard, Kristi Cook, Kate Kaynak,  Page Morgan, Ariane Mandell, and myself!

Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop Sign-Ups!

Happy Monday everyone!

It's that time of year again where I'll be participating in the Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop. If you'd like to participate as well, you can sign up below. Just add your blog name to the linky list and you should be good to go. 

 Hop Rules:
1. You must giveaway a book or something that a reader, author or blogger would enjoy.
2. The Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop Image needs to be part of your post.
3. Include the linky list with all the participating blogs at the end of your post OR link to the hop post on my site or on the co-host's site.
4. Keep It Simple!! There are only 6 entries allowed per person. 1 Mandatory entry and up to 5 optional extra entry. All entries must be able to be done on one visit to your blog - Entries such as tweet once a day are NOT allowed (tweeting once is fine).
5. If you are using rafflecopter the top right corner of the rafflecopter form can only say +6. Set the giveaway to start on March 14th and to end on March 23rd at 12:01 AM.
6. This must be a giveaway specifically for this hop and must run only the 8 days this hop is scheduled. Although it's fine to start your giveaway anytime after noon on Friday.
7. Both your site and your giveaway must be family friendly.

Blogs may choose to run their giveaway via comments, a google form or rafflecopter.
To sign up to host a giveaway add your blog to the linky below with your shipping info in parenthesis following your blog name.  If you forget I will assume you are shipping to US only and add (US) after your blog name.

DO NOT SIGN UP UNLESS YOU ARE COMMITTED TO POST AND HAVE WRITTEN IT ON YOUR CALENDAR!  1 in 5 bloggers who sign up never post.  Please do not be one of them. Thanks! 
If you have any questions email Kathy at toobusyreading-at-gmaildotcom 

Best I've Read 2012 - YAY! It's HERE!

It's that time of year again. That wonderful time in December where bloggers from all across the blogosphere are selecting their favorite books of the past year.

Welcome to Best I've Read 2012! 

For those of you who may be new to the BIR, here a few fun facts:

Best I've Read began in 2010 when I (as one of the founders of Books Complete Me) was looking for a way to bring together all of my blogger friends and wanted to celebrate all the amazing books we had read that year. Together, the blogs came up with the idea of Best I've Read. Our first year proved to be immensely successful and have decided to make it an annual event. The idea is to highlight and basically praise all those books from the year that we just can't stop thinking about. Across all eleven blogs you will find books published from pretty much every major publisher, plus those from smaller houses, and even some self-published books. I hope you enjoy this year's event and even more, I hope that you find some amazing books to read and add to your ever growing lists. 

Here is the full list of blogs participating:

Best I've Read (official blog of Best I've Read)
Page Turners Blog
Books Complete Me
Portrait of a Book
Once Upon a Twilight
Mundie Moms
Reading Lark
Amethyst Daydreams
A Reader's Ramblings
I am a Reader, Not a Writer
Cindy Thomas, YA Writer (That's me!)

BIR2012 runs officially from Monday, December 10th through Friday, December 14th, but be sure to check each individual blog for their own schedules.

I cannot WAIT to share my picks of 2012 with you! Stay tuned for interviews, exclusive excerpts, guest posts and giveaways. You won't want to miss it!

Lucky Lephrechaun Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the
2nd Annual Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop

March 17th to 22nd

Co-Hosted By Books Complete Me & I am a Reader, Not a Writer

I'm giving away 3 awesome prizes! To celebrate two of my amazing critique partners, I am giving away one of each of their books & also one additional YA book of your choice. All prizes are open internationally. 

The prizes are:

• 1 book by Kristi Cook - HAVEN or a pre-order of MIRAGE (book two in the series)
• 1 book by Jennifer L. Armentrout - HALF-BLOOD, a pre-order of PURE (book two in the Covenant series), OBSIDIAN, SHADOWS (a Lux novella) or a pre-order of ONYX (book two in the Lux series)
• 1 YA book of your choice.

Read below to find out more about the first books in their series and be sure to tell me which books you're entering for on the Rafflecopter form. 

Also, check below for the full list of blogs participating. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

HAVEN by Kristi Cook

About: Violet McKenna isn’t a normal girl with normal teenage issues; she has more to contend with than most people could handle. Violet thought she was just crazy when she had a vivid vision of her dad’s murder. Her life started falling apart when her premonition came true. She’s had flashes of other events too. The problem was nobody believed her until she found a new school: Winterhaven.

At Winterhaven, Violet finally feels like she belongs. She quickly finds a close group friends and discovers that they too have psychic ‘gifts’—as do all the students at Winterhaven. But as soon as she feels settled she discovers the most intriguing and alluring boy she has ever met, and things quickly go awry. As the attraction between them grows, intense visions of the boy’s death start to haunt her. In her premonitions the secret he is unwilling to share begins to reveal itself. And to Violet's horror, she learns that their destinies are intertwined in a critical--and deadly--way.

HALF-BLOOD by Jennifer L. Armentrout  

                                         

About: The Hematoi descend from the unions of gods and mortals, and the children of two Hematoi-pure-bloods-have godlike powers. Children of Hematoi and mortals-well, not so much. Half-bloods only have two options: become trained Sentinels who hunt and kill daimons or become servants in the homes of the pures. Seventeen-year-old Alexandria would rather risk her life fighting than waste it scrubbing toilets, but she may end up slumming it anyway. There are several rules that students at the Covenant must follow. Alex has problems with them all, but especially rule #1:Relationships between pures and halfs are forbidden. Unfortunately, she's crushing hard on the totally hot pure-blood Aiden. But falling for Aiden isn't her biggest problem--staying alive long enough to graduate the Covenant and become a Sentinel is. If she fails in her duty, she faces a future worse than death or slavery: being turned into a daimon, and being hunted by Aiden. And that would kind of suck.

OBSIDIAN by Jennifer L.  Armentrout                                                                            About: Starting over sucks.When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. Things were looking up.And then he opened his mouth.Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all. But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens. The hot alien living next door marks me.You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades. If I don't kill him first, that is.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on each blog to hop to their giveaway!