The First Official Classy Author Giveaway

Happy Monday morning, everyone! (did you see how I tried to get myself psyched for the week by being all chipper right there? I'll let you know how it worked.)

It's time to finally announce the winner of my giveaway of Lauren Myracle's SHINE. If you didn't hear the story behind this giveaway, please take a moment to hop over to the post and check it out.

There were twelve entries, so your chances were awesome. Here's the number I drew:



And here's the comment that went with it:


Congrats, Heidi! I'm so excited for you to read SHINE. Email me your address to I can get a copy to your Kindle or your doorstep, whichever you'd like.

Now, for a REAL post.

I got into an email discussion with some of my critique partners last week about some authors we "know" via their blogs and Twitter presence. Some authors act like normal people and sometimes normal celebrities (I'm allowed to use oxymorons at 5:30 AM!), and then some authors?

 Class. It. Up.

I mean, seriously. Can't you think of at least one or two authors that you admire not only for their mad writing skills, but also because of how utterly and completely CLASSY they are?

Well, I can. And I'm going to practice my one most important author skill right now and kick off a giveaway series that celebrates classy authors.

First up: Beth Revis!

Here's Ms. Revis. She looks up to you. Seriously. She says it on her blog.
(And I got this picture over there, so it's totally not creepy.)

Beth Revis is the New York Times Bestselling author of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and its sequel A MILLION SUNS, out January.

*Gasp* That cover gets me every time.

Ms. Revis gets Classy Author status in my book for a couple of huge reasons. First, because of her responsiveness to her fans - both via Twitter and Blog comments. If I tag her in a tweet, she always, always, ALWAYS responds.  She's stopped by this little old blog to comment when I've mentioned her or a topic she's passionate about ("Delighted to Be Devastated," go check out her comment!) She answers questions from regular fans on her Tumblr all the time.

And this brings me to mention her crazy-inspirational support of the writing community. 

On a personal note, when I started querying, I dropped her a line on Tumblr to ask for a one-line pep talk. She wrote me a SPEECH. And this was before I had a Tumblr account, so I was basically just some anonymous freak writing a Book Full of Crazy for all she knew, and she spent fifteen minutes of her busy famous life replying to me.

Classy. Class-y.

As if stuff like that isn't awesome enough, she also provides inspiration for the writing masses. (And we are. Masses.) This summer's WriteOnCon featured Ms. Revis giving the most inspirational writing speech I've ever heard, in which she showed off all NINE of her "drawer novels" and told us to never, ever give up.

See, even though Ms. Revis is a New York Times Bestselling Author, and she doesn't really need to interact with the handful of random twitter or blog fans, and most certainly has already paid her dues to the writing community...she keeps going anyway. Keeps going with the "thank you"s and support.

 And if that doesn't make her a Classy Author? I don't know what does.

So! To celebrate Ms. Revis and the sheer awesomeness of her books (I devoured both ATU and the ARC of A MILLION SUNS Penguin so kindly sent me - they are beautifully written and completely emotionally captivating - )

 I am giving away a copy of either ACROSS THE UNIVERSE or a pre-order of A MILLION SUNS!!! 


To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below. You get an extra entry for following the blog and for tweeting about it - if you tweet, please include this text:

I entered to win a book by @bethrevis in @LeighAnnKopans' Classy Author giveaway! http://tinyurl.com/8xgtjxo

And let me know if you are a new follower and/or tweeted. Duh.

Even if you don't feel like entering, go tweet at @bethrevis and let her know how classy she is. Obviously, she deserves it.

Good luck everyone! And, as always, THANK YOU for reading!

Friday Obsessions and Guest Vlogging at Gina's!

A couple of housekeeping notes AWESOME ANNOUNCEMENTS before we start with the obsessing:

1. I'm doing my first guest vlog ever about my history of literary crushes over at Gina's blog this morning! Please come visit and assure me that I don't sound like a man. Or a complete tool.

2. I'll be announcing the winner of the Lauren Myracle's SHINE giveaway on Monday (which means there's still time for you to enter!!!) and simultaneously kicking off my Classy Author Giveaway series. Get excited for this one, guys...

Okay. And now...


Everything I was obsessed with this week.
 Because I know you want to know.

1. Once Upon A Time.  I blogged about the preview to this months back, and this show does not disappoint. It's beautiful. And incredible. But if I'm being honest, my real obsession is with Prince Charming:

If you watched the first episode, you know he's not only devastatingly handsome, but also totally kickass. He took down, like, five guys with a sword. With one hand. WHILE HOLDING A BABY IN THE OTHER HAND. 

Yes, it's true. I can't find the video clip because I think ABC is, like, patrolling YouTube for it or something, but if any of you has it, please please post the link so that everyone can enjoy. *grin*

2. Sweaters. And tea. And heavy blankets. It's that time of year and there's nothing more I want to do than hibernate and not come out till spring snuggle on the couch with the fam and a book.

3. Sushi. Maybe it's Halloween and all the candy that's been around, or maybe it's that I've been obsessed with tater tots and other fried, quasi-fried, and high-fat foods over the past few months. But suddenly all I want is sushi, in all its cold, whole-food, fresh gloriousness. (Yes, I got some on Wednesday. Yes, it was delicious.)

Your turn! What were your obsessions this week?

Giveaway: Lauren Myracle's SHINE

Long story short: A fabulous author, Lauren Myracle, who wrote a great book, SHINE, with an amazing message totally got humiliated this week. (Not to mention got the shaft.)

 After being shortlisted for the National Book Award, she was told that SHINE wasn't really supposed to be on the shortlist after all - it had been mixed up with the book at was actually supposed to be there -  then asked to withdraw her book altogether.

Yeah. Not cool.
(If you want to read all the sordid details, click here, here, or here. The first link is my favorite.)

So, here's where the knife really digs in on this situation for me. Have you heard what SHINE is about?  I hadn't either, until yesterday. Here's an excerpt from the LA Times Review of the book:

SHINE follow[s] a 16-year-old girl as she attempts to solve an antigay hate crime in a small North Carolina town where methamphetamine use is rampant and illiteracy and unemployment rates run even higher.

Before Chapter 1 has even begun, that subject is revealed with a newspaper clipping. Seventeen-year-old Patrick Truman has been beaten and bound to a guardrail outside a convenience store with an antigay slur written in blood across his chest. Patrick was well known in his hometown of 743 residents for being "light in his loafers" or "swishy," as some of the townspeople called him. The question at the center of "Shine" is, who would beat him bloody with a baseball bat and leave him for dead?

This book NEEDS to be recognized. It NEEDS to be bought, and promoted, and lauded, and shouted from the rooftops about. As a member of the human race, as a clergyperson, as a mother, and as a young adult writer, I believe that from the bottom of my heart.

Want to know something that makes Lauren Myracle even more awesome? I mean, moreso than just authoring the darn book makes her?

Instead of throwing a fit when she was asked to withdraw her book from the shortlist, she suggested that, to make up for their mistake, the NBA make a $5000 donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, a charity focused on respecting human dignity among young people. And they agreed.

So, even though Ms. Myracle already classed up this whole disaster a lot more than anyone would have expected her to, I'd like to do my part to class it up just a little bit more.

I'm giving away a copy of SHINE to one commenter on this post. Extra entry for tweeting about it with the hashtag #isupportshine. (Just leave a separate comment with the link to your tweet.)

You don't have to follow this blog, because that's not what this is about. It's about getting at least one more copy of this book out into the hands of readers, and passing the word on about what an incredible example Lauren Myracle, her classiness, her talent, and her bravery is to all of us.

(I'll also make a donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation proportional to the number of commenters on this post. I was going to say $1/person, but if I freakishly got like 1000 commenters that's really not in the budget. You get it.)