Category Archives: Uncategorized

Braggin’

September 30th 2015

I have excellent news! Grunge Gods and Graveyards is a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best YA! Yeehaw! The award is given out at the Killer Nashville mystery conference on Halloween (such a fitting time of year for GG&G).

Dude, no one is more shocked than I am. There were 35 YA books for consideration and my little ol’ novel is one of 5 finalists. I am crazy stoked and flabbergasted. Also, I made a large, braggy graphic for the occasion.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend Killer Nashville because I’m leaving for my first vacay — in 4 years — only days later. One day, though, I plan on going to all the conferences. Be prepared, writers.

Looky here!

The World According to Marty — A Father’s Day Post

June 19th 2015

I wanted to write this post last Father’s Day, but I never got around to it. Busy with a newborn or some such. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to celebrate my dad on Father’s Day by writing a blog post about my father’s, ummm, Marty-isms — my dad’s own unique brand of ideals that he’s instilled in me over the past 36 years. (My father, Marty Garnick, is a native New Yorker who loves to cycle. Check out his blog, Marty – The Jersey Pedaler, here.) He won’t be with us on Father’s Day because he’s going to Ohio to bike ride.

A lot of these bits of wisdom seem negative, but they’ve all taught me something over the years. Also, most of these have to do with money. Anyway, these are in no special order.

1. “Never buy a used car. Never lease a car.” I never asked for the reasoning of this, but I’m going to assume it has to do with wasting money or getting snowed by dealers on extra mileage charges.

2. “Don’t f#%k with my family. Don’t f#%k with my money. Don’t f#%k with me when I’m on my bike.”

3. “Don’t ever pay for the extended warranty on anything.”

4. “Don’t buy a snowcone from the Good Humor man. Buy real ice cream.” This killed me as kid. Snowcones were contraband and I wanted one. When I was finally old enough to purchase the flavored ice, I realized they were crap and a waste of money. Dad was right.

5. “Don’t take Route 9.” There’s always traffic.

6. At a restaurant: “Double check the bill.”

7. “Research everything before you buy.”

8. “Skip the Amazon reviews and check it out on YouTube.” Learned this lesson after I bought a lousy vacuum cleaner with decent Amazon reviews.

9. “If asked to pay a deposit, only pay the deposit. Don’t pay in full. You never know if a place is going to go out of business and lose all your money.”

10. When driving, “Never trust someone’s blinker.”

Thanks, Marty.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!

#BEA15 — It’s been fun

May 30th 2015

Yesterday, I went to BEA (Book Expo America) in NYC for probably, the last time. (Next year, it’s in Chicago and I don’t see myself flying there to attend.) I picked up a friend at 6:30am and after hitting some of the worst traffic of my life (thank you very much, East Rutherford), we got to BEA at 11:30. We met up with my friend, Jill, and had lunch with our BookPage editor, Cat, who is as charming in real life as she is via email.

Finally getting on the ferry after hours of traffic.

After lunch, my friends and I stopped at all the vendors and scrounged for ARCs. I’m always looking for new YA and this year there didn’t seem to be much. I got a ton of middle grade titles including Lauren DeStefano’s A Curious Tale of the In-Between which is off the hook. I found a few picture books for my boys and some new adult mysteries to check out. All in all, it was a very subdued BEA. Smaller crowds and fewer books. I wasn’t disappointed as BEA is my most favorite day of the year. But I wasn’t wowed like in years past where I scored Catching Fire, Ally Condie’s Matched, or a signed book by Holly Black.

I’ve been going to BEA for the past — I don’t know — seven years, maybe eight. The first year I went I was a library science student at Rutgers and I got free tickets. I came home with a few books, one on houseplants a vendor was nice enough to give me. As a student, I didn’t warrant too many freebies. After all, I wasn’t a librarian yet doing large book orders.

My paper badge

One of my favorite BEA memories was stumbling upon a book signing by the producer of Days of Our Lives a.k.a my mother’s most favorite soap opera in the world. And you know who else was there? Kristian Alfonso – the beautiful Hope Brady! I hopped in a relatively short line and got my mom a signed book about the soap. I was so excited I called my parent’s house right away and spoke to my very uninterested father because my mom was working at the time.

BEA has always made me feel like I was part of a special, albeit large, book club. I’d chat up other librarians on line and we’d talk about YA books we were excited about and we’d sound giddy talking about authors we wanted to meet. I had no qualms about marching up to publishers and telling them I loved their newest releases or that I wanted to see more YA mysteries. Just yesterday, I told Publishers Weekly that I loved that they’re reviewing indie books now, but that they need to email the authors to tell them the review it up. (I found mine by Googling.) Anyway, the point is, at BEA, librarians, authors, bloggers, reviewers can connect with publishers and book industry insiders.

Author signings!

Sadly, yesterday was probably my last BEA hurrah. I’m not gonna lie — I’m bummed.

I’m gonna miss all those free books.

YA Scavenger Hunt!

April 2nd 2015

Welcome to YA Scavenger Spring 2015 Hunt!

I’m Kimberly. Some of my friends like to call me KGG. I’m the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a YA paranormal mystery set in 1996.

I’m on Team Purple and somewhere in this hunt, I’ve hidden the opening scene to my new novella, The Lady in Blue, a spin-off story to GG&G. Also hidden is the beautiful cover — which has not been revealed yet!

Also, I’m doing an extra giveaway via Rafflecopter. The prize is a character named after you in my next novel, Dead and Breakfast, which will be published this fall! The Rafflecopter is at the end of the post.

Make sure you head to Lisa T. Cresswell’s blog for the next stop.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

This bi-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! Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are 8 contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online April 2nd through April 5th, beginning and ending at noon Pacific time on those days.

Directions: In the post, you’ll notice that I’ve hidden my favorite number (hint: it’s bolded and in purple). Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the purple team, and then add them up.

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 DATE, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

LET THE HUNT BEGIN

Today, I’m super excited to be hosting CAREY CORP & LORIE LANGDON!

They are the authors of the Doon series, a YA retelling of Brigadoon. This must be serendipitous because I’m a huge fan of Scottish culture. Less than —-> 14 years ago, I went to Edinburgh and Loch Lomond. I highly suggest you put Scotland on your bucket list of beautiful places to visit. The Scots are lovely people and treated this American with warmth and kindness.

CAREY CORP and LORIE LANGDON came up with the idea for DOON, their debut novel, one fateful winter morning while discussing their love of musicals. Lorie had known since seeing Brigadoon, at age sixteen, that she wanted more of the sleepy kingdom than the original story revealed, while Carey adored the idea of reinventing a mythical world through the eyes of two, vastly different, but inseparable friends—much like themselves. As ideas flew back and forth, suddenly the village that slept for 100 years at a stretch awoke to epic life; and the DOON series was born. Book one, DOON, is now an Amazon YA bestseller. Book two, DESTINED FOR DOON, available now. Book three, SHADES OF DOON, coming 9/01/15 from BLINK (a YA division of Zondervan/HarperCollins).

Connect with Carey and Lorie at the Dooniverse: www.DoonSeries.com

Instagram: @lorielangdon_doonseries @careycorp Twitter: @careycorp @LorieLangdon

Check out that gorgeous cover and the blurb for the Doon sequel:

In this sequel to Doon, Mackenna Reid realizes she made a horrible mistake—choosing to follow her dreams of Broadway instead of staying in the enchanted land of Doon. To make everything worse, she’s received her Calling—proof she and Duncan are each other’s one true love—and it’s pure torment, especially when visions of the very alluring Scottish prince appear right before she goes on stage. So when Duncan tells her an ancient curse threatens to overtake Doon and the new queen needs her to return, Kenna doesn’t have to think twice. With darkness closing in on all sides, Kenna and Vee must battle a world of nightmares in order to protect the kingdom. But it will take the ultimate test of courage for Kenna to salvage her happily ever after.

And now for your bonus content! These lovely ladies have graciously shared bonus material! Always fun!

DEEPER INTO DOON

The Rosettis

Since we are very visual writers, it is essential that have a shared understanding of what our characters look like. Often we send pictures back and forth until we find the right character inspiration. He’s a peek behind the curtain of Doon to the inspiration for the Rosetti family.

Our visual inspiration behind Mario and Sharron Rosetti.

Mario Rosetti was called from Naples, Italy to Doon in 1915, where he met and married the love of his life Sharron. The Rosettis have seven children, Sofia, Gabriella, Giancarlo, Matteo, Fabrizio & Luciano (twins), and Charlie (named after Sharron’s father Charles). All the Rosetti children help run their parent’s pizzeria, Rosetti’s Tavern.

Our visual inspiration behind the Rosetti children.

Sofia (Sofie) 18; Soft spoken, introverted. Has received a calling but the boy has yet to cross the bridge. Sofia loves Doon and has no desire to leave. Cook at Rosetti’s Tavern.

Gabriella (Gabby) 16; Extroverted and outgoing. Enamored with Vee and Kenna. Would love to cross the bridge and experience the modern world. She’s a server at Rosetti’s Tavern.

Giancarlo (Giani) 17; Alpha male, very protective of sisters – even more so than his father, Mario. He’s expected to take over the restaurant when his parents retire, but doesn’t want to continue in the family business. He wants to be part of the palace royal guard. Assistant manager at Rosetti’s Tavern.

Matteo (Matti) 16; calm, peacemaker, likes running things, Giani’s sidekick and voice of reason. He can cook better than his father. When Sofie and Matti are together in the kitchen, they speak their own language.

Fabrizio & Luciano (Fabi & Luci) 14; adventurous; pranksters. These inseparable twins work in the kitchen but they are more like a comic duo/assembly line always covered in flour with pizza dough in their hair. Their hobbies include amateur sheep shearing.

Charles (Charlie) 13; studious; book-lover; dreamer; busboy.

Note from Carey: The Rosetti family was inspired by my Italian surrogate family, la famiglia Fortuna. The Fortuna family had five boys and one daughter. They lived in a three-bedroom apartment in Torino (Turin), Italy but immediately made room in their hearts and home for me.

http://youtu.be/jSf9PkFuVko (Check out this video from Carey)

Get to know the Rosetti’s better in the third book of the Doon series, SHADES OF DOON, coming September, 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YA Spring Fling Blog Hop w/ Cheyanne Young

March 28th 2015

As part of the YA Spring Fling, I’m featuring fellow YA author Cheyanne Young. She has a ton of books under belt including Somewhere Only We Know, which is part of the YA Spring Fling giveaway. Check out her website here.

And now on to the hop! Here’s the Q&A with Cheyanne.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Working in my pajamas and reading emails from fans are about the two greatest things in the world.

What’s the worst thing about being a writer?

The worst thing about being a writer is the sheer terror of knowing that no matter how long I live, I’ll never live long enough to write every story that is in my head.

Tell us more about your books.

I write YA contemporary mostly, with a little YA Superhero fiction thrown in. My stories have strong female characters and always always have kissing.

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee is my life. My family and friends know this and understand that they all come second to my first love, which is coffee.

Plotter or Pantser?

A little from column A and a little from column B. I can never plot or pants an entire story. They’re both plot-ants-ed.

Are there any books involved in the YA Spring Fling that you’re secretly lusting after?

I’d love to get my hands on every book in the Science Fiction category. Luckily, I just picked up The Body Electric by Beth Revis, so I’ll be diving into it soon.

What was the last YA book you read?

I just finished The Art of Pretending by Rachel Harris and it was adorable!

What are your top tips for surviving a zombie apocalypse?

Listen. Zombies make loud, gurgly breathing sounds and creepy moans everywhere they go. How could you possibly let one sneak up on you? Also, cardio. Lots of cardio.

Where can readers find your books?

You can find them on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, Kobo and iBooks!

Kimberly G. Giarratano

Young Adult Author