In My Mailbox (60) and Exciting Info from the Breathless Reads Event!

**Thanks to The Story Siren for hosting IMM

'In My Mailbox' is a weekly post that spotlights the new books that were received during the week.  I got some good reads this week.  Take a look at what I got:

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (signed @ The Breathless Reads event ~ info below)
Secrets and Shadows by Shannon Delany
Trickster's Girl by Hilari Bell (Thanks Ari!)
Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison
Shadow Fall by Erin Kellison
My Zombie Valentine featuring Marianne Mancusi, Lisa Cach, Katie MacAlister, and Angie Fox

Breathless Reads Tour Stop ~ Raleigh NC 2/25/11

Friday night I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Breathless Reads Tour event in Raleigh, NC.  I cannot express how incredible it was!  Five amazing young adult authors in one place ~ Ally Condie (author of Matched), Andrea Cremer (author of Nightshade), Kirsten Miller (author of The Eternal Ones), Beth Revis (author of Across the Universe), and Brenna Yovanoff (author of The Replacement) were all in attendance.  The event began with a Q&A session.  Here are a few interesting tidbits:

Beth Revis, My niece Maddie, Me, and Brenna Yovanoff

• Each author gave a little known fact about their main characters.  Here is what they said:

*Ally Condie - "Cassia is stronger than she knows."
*Andrea Cremer - "Calla's favorite book is Watership Down."
*Kirsten Miller - "Haven is from a small town in Eastern Tennessee."
*Beth Revis - "The main character has the BIGGEST secret!"
*Brenna Yovanoff - "Mackie is an excellent bass player."

Ally Condie, Me, and Andrea Cremer

• Each author gave some Dos and Don'ts for aspiring authors.  Here is what each of them said (some paraphrasing):

*Beth Revis - "Do - go out and have new experiences.  Don't - take too much advice!"
*Brenna Yovanoff - "Do- finish  projects.  Don't - be too much of a perfectionist the first time through."
*Kirsten Miller - "Do - exercise 'butt-power' (the power to sit for hours on end until you write something that you like!).  Don't - let anyone tell you that you can't!  All authors have people that love their books and people that hate their books."
*Andrea Cremer - "Do - write what you love.  Write the story you want to tell.  Don't write about what you know~write the story you want to know because you will learn as you write. Don't try to follow someone else's writing process.  Try lots of processes and find what works best for you because there isn't one correct way!"
*Ally Condie - "Do - cut yourself some slack." I missed her 'Don't'... sorry!

Me and Kirsten Miller

• What genre would you like to write?

*Beth Revis - Fantasy
*Brenna Yovanoff - Edgy Contemporary
*Andrea Cremer - Detective Novel
*Kirsten Miller - Horror
*Ally Condie - A happy book for boys ages 7 to 9 (she is working on a book for her son).

• What advice would you give to your main character?

*Ally Condie - Trust yourself.
*Beth Revis - Don't trust anyone!
*Brenna Yovanoff - Don't be so self conscious!
*Andrea Cremer - Me more careful! Watch out!
*Kirsten Miller - Things are rarely what they seem!

Bookmarks!!!

Signed goodies and discussion questions for the books!

• What current project are you working on?

*Ally Condie - sequel to Matched.
*Beth Revis - sequel to Across The Universe titled A Million Suns.
*Kirsten Miller - just finished sequel to The Eternal Ones titled All You Desire and finishing the third Kiki Strike book.
*Brenna Yovanoff - stand alone novel titled The Space Between (a demon love story!)
*Andrea Cremer - the 3rd Nightshade book titled Blood Rose and the 4th Nightshade book which is a prequel/companion novel that revolves around the witch's war and is set in Scotland during the 1400's!  She also said that she is writing a 'secret book' (how mysterious!) and a new steampunk series that she hopes will be her next series after Nightshade.

There was so much more advice, info, and funny stories shared by the authors, but I am not great at note-taking!  If you haven't read these five books then you MUST!  I loved all of them and I love them even more now that I know how incredible the authors are!  I will be hosting a contest soon with some of my signed books and swag goodness- so check back soon for that!

I also wanted to remind everyone to check out my BIG BOOK Giveaway.  It is filled with good books and good swag!  These are just a few of the titles up for grabs (check out the post to see the rest!): Matched (now it's a signed copy!) by Ally Condie, Extraordinary (arc) by Nancy Werlin, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Intrinsical by Lani Woodland, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Going Bovine by Libby Bray and more!!!  It is open internationally and will close February 28th.  Hurry... you only have a few days letft to enter.  I will be adding some of the bookmarks that I picked up at the event to the prize packs too!  You can check it out HERE.