Win-It Wednesday: As I Wake

You guys, when you have a new baby, Thursday looks a lot like Wednesday, so go with me here. The winner of last week's giveaway of Gabrielle Zevin's All These Things I've Done (which I'm reading and totally into because it feels really original and fluid) is... LiLi! Send me your address, L. This week, I have a copy of Elizabeth Scott's As I Wake. This new book, which I'm cracking open next, is about 17-year-old Ava, who wakes up with no memory of who she is or the world she's living in. Instead, she remembers another life. On her site, Elizabeth talks about how the inspiration for the story (which she wrote most of in 2007) is that there isn't just one world/reality, but many (modal realism). Scroll down to Extras (past the great reviews of this book) to hear more.

Exciting! Explosive cover! Plus, who doesn't love an Elizabeth Scott book? She's awesome, am I right?

To enter to win the hardcover, just comment below and tell me about the best movie you've seen in the theater lately. I haven't been to a movie in weeks, so I'm dying for some cinematic tales.

Happy Wednes--uh, Thursday.

Photo Friday: Girls in Grass

I've been thinking a lot about my cover (mainly because I'm loving this apple-bite challenge--keep the entries coming!) and then I started to muse about girls-lying-in-grass and all the pretty covers I've seen with this theme. Here are four:

So that's my own Small Town Sinners, Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (Cover Story), Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott (Cover Story) and The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder (this one's brand new! I hope to do a Cover Story soon!). Despite the similarities, I think they all have really different tones. Do you guys know of any more?

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Cover Stories: Between Here and Forever

Elizabeth Scott has been here before to share Cover Stories (which I'll link to when my blog is fully functional again--soon, soon!). Now, she's on a Girlfriend Cyber Circuit tour, and she's back with a beautiful tale of Between Here and Forever: "I had no idea about the cover at all--when I'm writing, I never think what I'm writing will be published, so I don't think about it. I wasn't asked for input on the cover, but let me tell you, this cover was everything I had no idea I wanted--and MORE!

"When I first saw my cover, my exact thought, as written to my editor, was, 'OMG I LOVE it! It's so perfect and holy crap, the way it ties into Bloom [below left] is BRILLIANT!!!' (I tend to be very caps happy when I'm happy :-)

"Everyone at Simon Pulse is amazing about taking feedback--at some houses, you just get your cover and that's that, but Pulse really listens to its authors.

"The cover on the book is the exact image I first saw, which is rare, as usually there's at least some tweaking. It's a stock photo, and I adore it. I love how perfectly it fits the book, and I love that it's a nice shout-out to  Bloom as well."

Thanks, Elizabeth! I love soft greens and girls with flowers. It just gets me every time. What do you guys think?

PS-I should also note that Elizabeth's 2010 novel, The Unwritten Rule, is out in paperback with a new cover. Compare the hardcover and pb below. I like both, but I have to say, that orange-red dress on the gray background (and that fanning, glossy hair)? Divine.

If You Like Sarah Dessen...

How cool is it that the lovely and amazing Ms. Dessen recommended Violet on the Runway, officially, to readers? I feel like I just won a major award. Check out all these fantastic books by Gayle Forman, Elizabeth Scott, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson and Susane Colasanti -- I've actually read all of these titles, and I can assure you that Sarah D. has good taste! (In books and TV and hometowns, naturally.) Happy Thursday!

Bonus Cover Stories: The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott

I read Elizabeth Scott's latest novel in one day last week while I ate gingerbread cookies and drank coffee and tried to avoid my revisions. Total treat! (You can win a copy of it, along with four other great titles, on I Heart Daily--and enter the contest to win Living Dead Girl right here on this blog!) Oh, and check out Adele's review of the book to learn more about the inside.Here's Elizabeth herself to chat about the gorgeous purple cover! "I didn't really have an idea for the cover. I just knew I wanted it be as pretty as my other Simon Pulse covers are! [See two cover tries for The Unwritten Rule in this lineup of Elizabeth's other books (the bottom one is the final, just in different colors):] "My editor and I talked about what would look good, and we both thought hands touching or passing a note might be cute. But it turned out that there was a much better picture out there! "We looked at a lot (A LOT) of images before *the one* was found and we talked about all of them. [See three below!] "When I first saw my cover, I thought, 'PERFECT!' And it is. I think it is the cutest cover! "Simon Pulse has amazing designers, and when I saw the original image that ended up being my cover, I asked about making the background purple because a previous picture I'd seen had a purple background I liked. And they did that, and then we decided the carpet needed to be purple too, just to pull it all together. And the designer did all of that, plus more, and it looks amazing! "It was a stock photo that the designer tweaked quite a bit--in addition to the color changes, she also did some work with the model's feet and even their jeans! "I still think it's perfect--I smile every time I see it." Me too! I do like it the best of all the choices--though the note-passing one is my #2 (maybe with a shorter manicure--those long nails are freaky). What do you guys think? PS-Don't you love how Elizabeth and Simon Pulse let us share all these test covers?! They did it with Something, Maybe too. FUN.

Win-It Wednesday: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Last week's contest over at Teen Fiction Cafe ended with tons of winners and lots of peeks into writers' working lives and insecurities.This week, to help celebrate the release of her latest novel The Unwritten Rule, I'm giving away a copy of Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. It's the paperback version (read that Cover Story here), and it's a haunting book, in case you haven't heard. To enter to win a copy, just comment below and tell me about the creepiest/scariest book you've read lately. I'm sort of having a scary-book renaissance. I'll choose a winner at random next week! PS-Elizabeth herself is having a huge release party for her new book, and she's giving away a gazillion prizes, give or take. Check it out. (Oh, and there's a live chat with her tonight at 6pm EST too!) PPS-Elizabeth is also the Author in Residence at Readergirlz, and she's making awesome vlogs about writing and giving away 5 copies of The Unwritten Rule. Go here to get in on that! PPPS-Speaking of Live Chats and readergirlz, there's one with a certain Scott Westerfeld tonight at Readergirlz. 9pm EST. I'll be there!