VICIOUS GALLEY WINNERS.

Sorry for the short post, lovelies. Life’s been rocky (after an already downhill week, I lost my beloved dog on Friday) and I haven’t been feeling chatty or post-y.

Let’s get straight to the good stuff.

The winner of the VICIOUS galley is…

Bethany Farwell

The winners of the VICIOUS trading cards are…

The Cover Contessa
Ava at YAvaReads
Caroline Waddell

I also decided to pick two more winners of trading cards, and those are…

Emily Schlinker
Andrew Muir

Lovelies, please email your mailing info to vschwab at comcast dot net to claim your prizes.

If you didn’t get an ARC of VICIOUS at BEA, here’s your chance (GIVEAWAY).

Hey lovelies!

I thought I’d do something for all those who couldn’t make it to BEA, and those who could but couldn’t snag an ARC.

I’ve decided to give you one of mine.

ONE winner will get one of my personal ARCs and a set of trading cards.

THREE runner-ups will get sets of trading cards.

You can enter EVERY DAY.

You get an entry for commenting and then an extra entry for tweeting/FBing/blogging/etc.

Giveaway runs until Sunday 9PM EST.

Sorry lovelies, but this one is US only.

Ready, set, go.

A VICIOUS winner, BEA, and a secret about The Archived and The Princess Bride.

Hey lovelies!!

I JUST got back to a very dreary Nashville from the YA2U tour! I had SO much fun with Marissa, Marie, Beth and Megan, as well as everyone who came out to see us!! I return home with tired bones but a happy heart.

And the first thing I knew I had to do when I walked in was announce the winner of the ARC of VICIOUS!!

So, without further ado, that strange little book goes toooo………..

*drumroll*

CHRISTA SEELEY!

Congrats, Christa!

And while we’re on the topic of VICIOUS, a very exciting announcement!!!

You might have already heard the news, but in case you haven’t…

I WILL BE AT BEA!

SIGNING VICIOUS ARCS!

The details:
MAY 31ST!
2-3PM!
TABLE #17!

I am BEYOND excited about this!!! I hope I get to see some of you there!

And now, the last little bit of business this rainy Wednesday Thursday (I TOTALLY know what day it is) is actually a strange little ARCHIVED snackbite.

It has to do with Wesley.

During one of our many drives to and from events, my travel-mates got to talking about movies, and when we ended up on The Princess Bride, I mentioned a strange little fact about The Archived, and the whole car erupted with WHY HAVEN’T YOU EVER SHARED THAT?!

So I thought I’d share.

The male lead in The Princess Bride is named Westley.

You might have also noticed that the boy in The Archived is named Wesley.

This is not a coincidence.

Wesley Ayers in The Archived is actually a nod to one of my favorite male leads of all time. And it’s not just the name. The fact that Wesley Ayers wears black eyeliner is actually a nod to Wesley’s black mask/Dread Pirate Roberts disguise in the movie!!

Just a little info bit for your Wednesday Thursday afternoon

Want to get your hands on the very first ARC of VICIOUS?

So last week, this happened…

And several someones on Twitter immediately said YOU NEED TO GIVE AWAY AN ARC!!!

To which I ALMOST replied I DON’T DO GIVEAWAYS UNTIL THE 6-MONTH MARK.

And then I realized that the 6-month mark just happened, like, a week ago, and we are now officially within that window.

Which was itself a little scary.

BUT.

IT MEANS I CAN GIVE AWAY AN ARC.

The first ARC!

Like, EVER.

I’m back on multiple deadlines, so let’s keep this simple. The giveaway will be open to US/Canada, and run from now until Friday April 5th at 9pm EST.

To enter, you simply need to tweet, blog, or tumbl about the book (please use the hashtag #VICIOUSbook). Then post a comment here with a link. You can enter (you need to comment each time) ONCE per day. That’s a potential of five entries per person.

See? Easy peasy.

Ready?

Set?

GO.

Happy Book Birthday, Beth Revis!!!!!!!

You guys! Today is a very special day!

Today, the final book in Beth Revis’s amazing ACROSS THE UNIVERSE series, SHADES OF EARTH, is finally on shelves!!!

This book. This series. My feelings. Beth’s epicness.

It’s a widely known fact that I love Beth, and I love these books, and I’m so thrilled for her, and so honored that I get to spend release day celebrating with her IN PERSON!

That’s right, we’ll be in Morganton, NC this afternoon (4-7pm) to help launch the final installment in the series*, along with epic authors Megan Miranda, Jessica Khoury, and Alexandra Duncan (and there will be copies of THE ARCHIVED there! My first event for it!)

You should all come, but if you can’t, be sure to wish Beth a very happy book birthday on Twitter (@bethrevis).

AND to celebrate SHADES OF EARTH’s release, I’m going to give away a signed copy from today’s event!!! Pretty cool, right?

Want to win, right?

To enter, simply leave a comment below, and make sure I have some way of contacting you! The contest will run till 9PM EST on Friday!

Lastly, if spending release day with Beth and giving away a signed book wasn’t cool enough, Beth was awesome enough to make a MAKING HISTORY video for you all!

Watch, enter to win, and don’t forget to shower Beth in release day sparkles!

Announcing the first Keepers of the Archive.

There were more than 90 applications for 10 spots.

You guys, I spent HOURS trying to whittle down the list. I enlisted help. I angsted. I cut names. I added them back. The fact is, all 90 would have made WONDERFUL Keepers. In the end, I had to consider several factors, from experience to the answers given to geographic location. I needed a spectrum of Keepers with a variety of strengths.

In the end, I narrowed the list to 16. That’s as close to 10 as I could get it.

Without further delay, here are the first Keepers of the Archive:

Megan – Charlotte, NC
Kate – Buford, GA
Kenzie – Albany, NY
Rachel – Lake Tapps, WA
Cade – West Covina, CA
Rachel – Athens, OH
Nicole – NYC, NY
Becky – Omaha, NE
Lane – Portland/Tucson
Jill – Reading, MA
Crystal – Denton, TX
Dulcy – Lake Mary, FL
Bethany – West Warwick, RI
MaryAnn/Gabby – Winnipeg
Michelle – Toronto
Jessica R. – Ottawa

To the 16 chosen, you will be receiving an email from me with further instructions. You’ve been given the chance to be Keepers, but now you’ll have to earn your book and your key.

To the 74 who weren’t chosen, you’ll also be receiving an email from me. I’ll be asking for your mailing addresses, so I can send you a set of 10 signed bookmarks. You all had so many great ideas for spreading the word, and I hope you’ll still support the book, even though I wasn’t able to add you to the street team *right now*.

The reason I keep emphasizing the *right now* is because I am really hoping the Keepers will grow as the series goes on! While I’ll only be starting with these 16, you’ll have another chance to join the Archive before the sequel is released *and* if one of these 16 is unable to perform their duties, I’ll enlist new Keepers from those who didn’t make the list, but stuck by me.

Until the emails go out to both sets, I just want to say thank you. You are ALL wonderful, and I feel totally honored and humbled that so many people wanted to support the book, and me.

Onward, lovelies.

/

It’s time to BRING YA TO YOU!!!

Happy New Year, lovelies!!! I can’t believe it’s 2013 (at last, at last). I can’t believe it’s January! I can’t believe THE ARCHIVED comes out in three! weeks!

*breathes*

I have to save some exclamation points, though, because today, I have something else to share with you. A secret! But secrets secrets are no fun, so here’s one to share with everyone!!!

You guys, I’ve been dying to talk about this for months. Months, I say! And it’s finally time to share!!

What am I talking about???

Well, this spring, five authors (myself included) are…

Bringing YA to You (or YA2U for short) was a project that came from YOU–all of you who have ever said, “Why won’t a book tour make a stop in my hometown?”

Well, that’s what we want to do! We’re hosting a contest–everyone gets to put in whatever city they most want us to go to, and whatever town has the most votes, will get an exclusive tour stop from all five of us!

And that’s not all–we’re also hosting another contest where, if you help us spread the word, we’ll give you ten signed books, all the books we five have published so far!

In short, you could win a tour stop in your hometown from five award-winning and best-selling YA authors or ten signed books direct from the authors!

Sounds fun, yes?

You can find the full details of the YA2U project here: http://ya2u.blogspot.com and you can also go ahead and enter your hometown for the win and help spread the word. There’s also lots of cool features on the site, including downloadable posters (consider putting them up in your school or library!) and other tips on how to win.

Remember, the more votes you can drum up in your city, the better chance we’ll be coming to YOU.

But that’s not all. I said that there were five of us, and I bet you’re wondering who the other four authors are!!

If you CLICK RIGHT HERE you’ll discover the identity of another one of the authors! On their blog, you’ll find the link to another, and so on!!

Well, are you excited????

Then go enter! And spread the word!

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One month till THE ARCHIVED and…no giveaway???

Hey lovelies!

It’s the 22nd of December, and that means there’s only one month till THE ARCHIVED.

If you’ve been following this blog for more than a month, you know that I’ve been doing a series of countdown giveaways (starting at the 6-month mark!) and today should be the last giveaway!

But here’s the thing.

A couple days ago, THIS HAPPENED:

And between my SQUEEEEEEING over finished copies, and the ongoing Making History series, I feel like I’ve been really…loud. I try to maintain a balance online between promotion and everything that’s not promotion, and I’ve felt myself leaning too hard toward the former. And because things are going to necessarily get loud and necessarily swing more toward promo shortly, I want to catch my breath while I still can.

So.

It’s the holidays, and I want to take some time to be quiet, and reflect, be with family, prepare for the new year, and focus on deadlines (oh, you ever-present evil things).

Because of that, and because my last giveaway is arguably my biggest, I’m going to hold it for a couple weeks. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll run it at the three week mark, or the two week mark, but I promise that I WILL HAVE ONE.

Just not this week.

And if for some reason I’m not back on here before year’s end, I just want to wish you all the HAPPIEST of holidays. You’re all wonderful, and you brighten my year, and I hope the rest of yours is filled with joy and warmth and cheer.

[That rhymed, and I'm not even going to fix it.]

All my love, lovelies.

~V

PS. A reminder! If seeing the finished copy of THE ARCHIVED has you wanting to preorder your copy, remember that if you do preorder (through ANY outlet), and email me proof (vschwab at comcast dot net) I will send you signed goodies!

The Winter YA Scavenger Hunt!!

EDITED TO ADD: THE YA SCAVENGER HUNT IS OFFICIALLY OVER. Check back in the next few days to see who won my extra swag giveaway! And thank you for playing!!!

Hello, lovelies, and welcome to the Winter YA Scavenger Hunt!

My name is Victoria Schwab. This is me (clinging to a gate really high off the ground at some ruins)…

…and I’m the author of THE NEAR WITCH (on shelves now) and THE ARCHIVED (coming in January), and your host for this leg of the scavenger hunt!

If this is your first stop, don’t worry! You can start the hunt on any one of the participating blogs, so sit tight, read through, collect your clues, and then head off to find the next post!

WHAT IS THE YA SCAVENGER HUNT?

This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes!

At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt.

Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team (that’s 25 books)! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

This year there are two team, the RED and the BLUE!

I’m on the RED team!

If you click HERE you can see all the participating authors and the books they’ll be giving away as prizes! You’re on the RED hunt right now, but when you’re done, you can also play the BLUE one! Just make sure to keep the numbers straight.

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number (or at least, I’ve told you how to find it). Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the RED team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).

Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2ND AT NOON PST. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Now that we’re all on the same page, here we go!

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today I am hosting the delightful Jessica Khoury, author of ORIGIN!

She is only 22 (daaaaang, make the 25-year-old feel old) and when she’s not writing awesome books about rainforest laboratory experiments gone wrong (or very right), she lives in Toccoa, Georgia with her husband Benjamin, two terrible dogs and three contrary birds, and an abundance of books, shoes, and sweet tea.

Jessica’s book, ORIGIN:

Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home–and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia’s origin–a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

SO SHINY, RIGHT?

To learn more about Jessica and her book, watch the trailer, and click on lots of fun tabs (if you’re a tab-clicker, like me) check out her website HERE.
And to pick up her epic debut, CLICK HERE.

Now it’s time for some *dun dun dun* EXCLUSIVE CONTENT!!

Jessica has a very special treat for you today! She’s written you an exclusive scene!! It’s brand new, not found in ORIGIN, and it’s told from Eio’s point of view the night he and Pia meet for the first time.

Ooooooooh.

To read it, CLICK HERE!

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Are you back? Wasn’t that delicious?

I suppose you’re wondering what my favorite number is now so you can add it to the other favorite numbers on the RED team and win a truck load of awesome books, including Jessica’s.

Well…my favorite number is the sum of the two numbers in my current age. HINT: I mention my age in this post! Look up a little ways, and you’ll find it Add up the two numbers, and you’ve got my favorite one!

Almost time to move on, but first, an EXTRA TREAT!

As a thank-you for stopping by, I’m giving away an ARCHIVED swag pack, complete with signed tote bag, stickers, bookmarks, AND a signed paperback of my first book, THE NEAR WITCH!

(THE NEAR WITCH is obviously already INSIDE the bag)

All you have to do to enter is fill out the form!

And now it’s time to CONTINUE THE HUNT.

To keep going on your quest for the magic numbers, you need to check out the next author!

Who will it be? Why, it’s none other than the amazing Colleen Houck!CLICK HERE to go on!

Happy hunting!

Orders of business: giveaway winners, charity money, YA for NJ, and my first ever YA scavenger hunt!

Several quick orders of business!

1. THE GIVE THANKS GIVE BACK GIVE AWAY.

Results are in. Math is done. Here we go.

368 people entered!

The charity breakdown :
The Red Cross : $153
Nashville Humane Society : $111
Books of Wonder : $104

Because I allotted $500 for the giveaway, I will break the remaining $132 down evenly. That means each charity will get an extra $44!

So the totals become:

The Red Cross : $197
Nashville Humane Society : $155
Books of Wonder : $148

(Also, if you haven’t donated yet to Books of Wonder’s campaign, please know that a generous donor will be MATCHING all donations between now and the end of the day, if they can get a total of $20k new donations in that time! So our $148 will become $296!)

Now, the winner of the key worth signed books for the next three years is…

CHRISTINE AT CHASING FAERY TALES!!!

Thank you all so, so much for making the two month giveaway so wonderful!

2. YA FOR NJ.

I’ll be participating in the YA FOR NJ fundraiser, which starts November 30th. I’ve donated a 50-page manuscript critique, a signed paperback of THE NEAR WITCH, and a signed hardcover of THE ARCHIVED as soon as my author allotment comes in.

I’ll make sure to post links to my auction when it’s up!

3. YA SCAVENGER HUNT.

Tomorrow kicks off the winter edition of the YA SCAVENGER HUNT, which is a huge, 50-author game with TONS of free books, and it will be my first time playing! In addition to donating a signed hardcover of THE ARCHIVED (also from author stash), I’ll have a very special little snippet up on my host’s blog.

All I will say is that the snippet is from the unpublished sequel to THE NEAR WITCH (I get asked a lot about a sequel, so yes there is one written and no I don’t know if it will ever be on shelves).

4. MAKING HISTORY #11.

This week on MAKING HISTORY, I talk about a car accident on graduation night that could have changed everything. Click HERE.

5. ALSO.

–I put up the first little chunk of appearances for THE ARCHIVED, and immediately got asked about a bunch of other cities. I promise, the first little chunk is just that, a geographically specific little set. My publicist and I are hard at work putting together other groups of signings in different parts of the country, and I’ll post those as we get closer to release! But if you’re in the northeast, and northwest, I’m working on it!

–I just wanted to say thank you for the incredibly supportive response to the last blog post. For all my stress and fear and frustration, I’ve never felt alone, and that’s because of you. <3