Anyway, today I have two radical things for Two For Tuesday.

1. Writers’ Blok by Ja¢kson Pearce

2. Abby is holding a contest!

To celebrate 50 followers, Abby Stevens is holding a fabulous contest. Prizes include signed books by Lauren Willeg and Carrie Ryan (if you didn’t win my contest, be sure to check Abby’s out for another chance at a signed Forest of Hands and Teeth) and query critiques. Pretty radical, if I do say so myself. Be sure to visit Abby’s blog and enter!

Drawn from the comments:

RANI!!! (yes, she is my sister. no, that didn’t affect the drawing–I used Random.org.)

Drawn from the sign-up form:

KATE!!! and ELIZABETH!!!

Congrats, winners. I have emailed all three of you–remember, books are on a first-come, first-served basis, so be quick! If I don’t hear back this week, I will draw a new winner next Monday.

Thanks to everyone for entering and making my first contest a success.

One of MY favorite summer-time activities

That’s right! My birthday is right around the corner (thanks so much for all the early birthday wishes, guys), so it is time to get this contest underway!

Once upon a time, I said I would be giving away one signed book for every 50 followers the blah-g has. But you know what? That means I would only be able to give one book away. I love all three books, and I want to give them all a new home! So, because all 55 of you are so great, I am going to go ahead and give all three books away!

Wait! I am new here. What three books are we talking about?

Thanks for asking, Mr. Anonymous-Made-Up-Follower-Man. I am so excited to be giving away signed copies of:

So, here’s how this thing is going to work:

Just fill out the form below. Every follower has one entry, but there are options for more entries! Who doesn’t like to increase their odds? Post a blog entry, tweet a Tweet, and link in the sidebar and get extra chances to win!

And, like I promised so long ago, those few people who were following along with me before I announced this contest will get extra entries as well (I know who you are ).

Also (and I promise I am almost done rambling): I know there are some of you who are regular visitors or who subscribe via email. While you have to be a Google Friend Connect follower to get all the shiny extra entries, I don’t want to leave you completely out. So this is what we’ll do:

One book will be given away to someone who leaves a comment on this post telling me what their favorite summer-time activity is or what they are most looking forward to about summer. That’s it! Give me some summer love in the comments for your chance to win.

The other two winners will be drawn from those people who fill out the form. Yes, you can both comment and use the form–you will be in the running for all three titles!

Alright. I think that is all. The contest will close April 30th at 11:59 PM. Winners will be picked at random and emailed. Book choice is first-come first-served.

Entries closed!!

A little about Carrie:

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Carrie Ryan is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time. She lives with her writer/lawyer fiancé husband, two fat cats and one large puppy in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are not at all prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

Also, she got married last week! Yay Carrie. Join me in congratulating her and JP  on her blog or her Twitter.

And now…on to the good stuff!

You didn’t always write YA. What made you decide to try your hand at the genre?

Honestly, I think I hadn’t considered writing YA earlier because it hadn’t occurred to me that I could.  I’d decided to write romance novels when I was in high school and I guess I was fairly narrow-minded with my goal.  I never thought twice about writing romance novels until I saw so many amazing YA books hitting the market and I remembered how much I loved reading them when I was a teen and the idea I could be a part of that thrilled me.

What is your favorite thing about writing for young adults?

There are so many things I love about writing for young adults.  First, I love that all our books are shelved together so you don’t have to worry about being put on the romance or horror or thriller or fantasy shelf — you don’t have to follow any traditional rules of those genres but instead can meld them all together.  Second, sometimes teens aren’t as jaded to tropes — your book might be the first time they encounter something that an adult might think was overdone or common.  It’s pretty cool to think that your book might be the first time a teen realizes that not all stories have happy endings or that a narrator can be unreliable.  Finally I feel like there’s not a ton of difference between the way a teen experiences the world and the way an adult does — we all have fears and have to deal with things like rejection, first kisses, uncertainty, etc.  The only difference is that for a teen this might be the first time they experience such things and so it takes on a bigger role in their lives — they might not have figured out how to deal with it from experience the same way an adult might have.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth opens with the narrator talking about the ocean, and the ocean is a glimmer of hope for Mary throughout the book. So, which do you prefer: the forest or the ocean?

Haha, good question!  I think it all depends on my mood.  I love the tranquility of the forest — how you can just be enveloped by nature.  The ocean feels more expansive to me.  Both make me dream.

Quick! You have four words to describe The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Go:

Post apocalypse zombie romance.

Your next book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, is more of a companion novel than a direct sequel. Why did you decide to go this route instead of following The Forest of Hands and Teeth more closely?

I’d never really planned on writing a sequel but when my editor started mentioning it I was thrilled because I loved the world and the narrator.  However, when I sat down to write it I realized that Mary’s story was pretty much done.  I spent a long time trying to decide whether to re-open her story and start something new for her or to leave her as she was and move on.  In the end I chose to move on because I wanted to experience the world from someone else’s point of view — show how different people can approach the same world in different ways.

HELP! The unconsecrated are coming! What is your best advice to help me survive the zombie apocalypse?

You’re toast  I actually think survival ultimately is based on a lot of luck.  I’d get out of a city as fast as possible and try to find a place with enough room to farm and build a new world but also has natural barriers to keep the zombies at bay.  Then, of course, you have to start worrying about people trying to take your safe haven from you.

(Yes! I am safe. Bubba’s parents live on a farm in a very small community in the mountains. I just have to make sure I always have enough fuel in the car to get there in the event of zombies. And, um, hope Star Valley hasn’t been hit yet.)

You have a short story coming out in the new anthology Zombies Vs. Unicorns.  Obviously, you are team zombie. What makes zombies so much better than unicorns?

Zombies don’t poop rainbows.  Nuff said.

We all know how important it is to have others read our work and give us honest feedback. Who are your first readers and how did you find them?

My ultimate first reader is my fiance, JP (husband now…yay!).  He’s a fantastic editor and I always trust everything he says implicitly.  I’m really amazingly lucky to have him.  Other readers include a group of friends I met through the 2009 Debutantes (a group of authors with middle grade and YA books debuting in 2009).

When you are struggling with your writing, how to you motivate yourself to keep going?

For me it’s just not an option to not keep going.  For some reason I’ve just been able to convince myself that there’s no other choice but to struggle through.  Often it can be really tough, especially since I don’t write with an outline and can feel really lost.  Now when I’m going through that I just remind myself that I’ve made it through all of this before so I need to have confidence in myself that I can do it again.

When you know you should be writing, but just aren’t, what is your favorite procrastinatory outlet?

I have way too many!  Twitter, Skype, iChat, email.  I think of those things as my water cooler — my way of hanging with other authors during the day.

What is the best bit of advice you have for aspiring authors?

To write.  I know that seems pretty basic but there are so many distractions out there that it’s easy to forget about the basics — writing.  I’ve also benefited tremendously from meeting other authors online — I’ve found the community to be so supportive which is really wonderful.

Aside from your own, what are a couple books you love and would recommend we all read?

I love so many books and being away from home and my bookshelves it’s hard to pick out only a few!  Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell, Dull Boy by Sarah Cross, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, anything by Sarah MacLean, Liar by Justine Larbalestier, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.  Seriously I could go on and on and on.

It is no secret that I ADORE the South. In fact, I might be making a list of reasons why the husband and I need to move to warmer climates. What is your favorite thing about living in the South?

Spring!  Short winters!  I love a good winter — but I like it to be a short winter.  I find that when March/April comes around I’m itching to spend as much time outside as I can.

Finally, it’s time for the Fast Five! What are five random things we might not know about Carrie Ryan?

• I worked in the coroner’s office one summer in college.
• I also worked on a Mayan archeological dig in Guatemala.
• I once busted my knee open to the bone hiking in the Wind River Wilderness mountains in Wyoming and had to hike out five miles on snowshoes with a hip to ankle splint made out of sticks and a 50lb pack on.
• I’m an optimist.
• I can make my tongue into the shape of a clover.

———

Thanks so much for stopping by, Carrie! I feel better knowing a safe plan for the Zombie Apocalypse.

———

Be sure to follow the blog for your chance to win a signed copy of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (or The Dead-Tossed Waves if you already have the first). April 27th is fast approaching!

Okay. I started writing a different post, but I just can’t get Carrie Ryan’s world and words out of my head, so I scrapped that post in favor of this recommendation.

It is no secret that I loved The Forest of Hands and Teeth, so I was eagerly anticipating its companion novel, The Dead-Tossed Waves.

This book blew me away. I could not put it down. Could. Not. I was reading every spare second of the day. And even when that meant I was neglecting my own writing, I did not care. I just wanted to read more and more and more of Gabry’s story. I finished it two days ago, but I still think about it regularly. Even one of my lessons in church yesterday made me think of Carrie’s zombies (really–it was connected, I promise!).

Now, since The Dead-Tossed Waves is a companion and not a direct sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, it is not necessary that you read Forest first. However, I think Waves is a much richer book for having read Forest first and I definitely suggest reading them in order.

So, as long as you are at that bookstore picking up one, why not grab the other as well?

I have lived in Montana long enough to know this isn’t the end of Winter. We will have more snow, and more blustery wind, and more really-freaking-cold days, but 50º is 50º and I am excited. Hey, if we can’t get excited about the little things in life, then what are we living for?

In celebration* of Montana’s pseudo-spring, I am launching a fun, fabulous giveaway! I have one two three signed books to giveaway. And since we are celebrating the wonderful 50º weather, I am going to base my giveaway on fifties.

So, see that fun little Google Friend Connect widget over in the sidebar? (————>) Once I have 50 smiling faces over there, I will put one book in the giveaway pool. If I get 50 more, a second book will be added. And, if I get 50 more than that, the third book will be added to the pool. What are the fabulous books I speak of? I thought you would never ask. They are:

I loved all three of these books! They are completely different from each other, but each is wonderful in its own way. I can’t wait to share them with you, so make sure you are following for a chance to win!

Oh, what’s that you say? You need a deadline for the contest? Okay, I suppose I can do that. Since the best part of spring is my birthday** (obviously), I will end the contest then (or thereabouts). So, assuming we have at least 50 followers by April 27th, there will be much book-giveaway-ery to celebrate the 26th anniversary of my birth.

Now I am going to stare out the window for a while and wish I could be enjoying this beautiful weather. Good day to you all!

*Okay, so I had planned the giveaway before the great weather. Whatever. I am still using it as a fair-weather celebration.

**I know, I know. We aren’t supposed to get so giddy about our birthdays after we are about 13 or 14, but I refuse to give in to such boring traditions. I want to find joy in the simple things, so I will be ridiculously excited about my birthday!