I chose six mermaid-related books for giveaway. I asked six questions, one question about each book/author.

In case you’re interested, below are the questions I asked and their answers:

Who is Galen?

Galen is the prince of the Syrena.

Who sings “Feel It Turn” (from the author’s playlist)?

Great Big Sea.

Where does Hester’s investigation lead her?

The graveyard, the crypt, and the bottom of the ocean.

How long was Tristan Hart lost at sea?

Three days.

What are three specific things Vanessa Sands is afraid of?

The dark, heights, and the ocean.

What is Lily Sanderson’s official title?

Princess Waterlily of Thalassinia.

There you have it! Most of you answered correctly, causing our poor Dunk Tank guy to sink like a brick in an oversized fish tank over and over. Others missed, by either omitting answers or answering incorrectly. Only those with the strongest arms move on to the next round. Now it is all up to fortune!

Let’s recap. What are the prizes up for grabs?

There are six underwater mermaid/siren books here. There will be two winners (international as long as The Book Depository ships to you). The first winner chosen by the random number generator will pick three books and the second winner will receive the remaining three. Three of these books are pre-orders!

Who are the ultimate champions of the Dunking Booth?! They are:

ADDIE R.

and

GORELENORE!

Congratulations, winners! I will email Addie directly so that she can reply to me with her mailing information and three book choices. Then I will email Gorelenore, who will have won the remaining three choices, for mailing information.

Didn’t win? You can buy or pre-order the books from this giveaway by clicking on the covers above! There was another book I had considered including in the giveaway, but the paperback was kind of an unreasonable price over at TBD, but I have good news! Karen Amanda Hooper’s fantasy novel, Tangled Tides is full of mermaids, sirens, selkies, and other creatures and it is so good that you won’t want to miss it - and now you don’t have to! It’s available for FREE over at Amazon! Also, there are always giveaways, so stay tuned and thank you for trying your arm at the Dunking Booth!

Also, a special thanks to all of you who answered the optional question about your favorite mermaid books. I enjoyed the responses!

Welcome to the Spring Blog Carnival’s Dunking Booth! Arguably one of the funnest and funniest booths at the carnival, the Dunking Booth is a popular way to test out your throwing arm and sink some people. But is your arm strong enough?

Your answers to a few questions will determine that! Many of you might have seen the recent YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes giveaways? There were six legs to the race and after each leg there was a quiz. Well, I by no means will give you six quizzes. Just one quiz where you can search the authors’ websites for the answers. The questions are on this FORM with hints to where you can find the answers. Everyone who gets all of the questions right will have one entry into the giveaway.

There are many other booths in this carnival (see the Linky below), so your entry is completing the challenge to dunk the man sitting in that booth up there. Although there are no extra entries, I appreciate any new follows…there are many ways and they’re all on the sidebar.

So once you answer all of the questions correctly and Random.org picks you as a winner, what will you get?

The dunk tank is full of water and so these books will be as well! 

There are six underwater mermaid/siren books here. There will be two winners (international as long as The Book Depository ships to you). The first winner chosen by the random number generator will pick three books and the second winner will receive the remaining three. Three of these books are pre-orders!

Are you all excited? I am! I love mermaid books and the Dunking Booth is a perfect way to showcase them.

Totally optional (answer this question in the comments):

Thanks for participating in the Spring Blog Carnival and good luck!

First, an apology to the winners. I had a bad night last night and basically threw myself in bed early and stayed there until a few minutes ago, so I didn’t give you the time you needed to respond to me. I hope you both are out there and able to respond soon. I can also check my email from the signing. So respond soon! I know who you are, but I’m just not sure the exact names you want the books signed to.

The winners are: Cody and Elisquared!

I have emailed and tweeted to you both.

Thank you all for entering!

You guys, I loved Storm sooooo much (read my review here). And not only did KTeen (Kensington Books) send me an extra copy for a giveaway, but I am also attending Brigid Kemmerer’s launch party at my local Barnes & Noble this Saturday and in order to support the store and the event, I plan on buying a copy for giveaway. I also plan to get them both signed. While I’m planning ahead, this will be a short giveaway, ending Friday, 27 April 2012 at 10 PM EST, so that random.org can choose two winners and once confirmed, I can happily attend the launch party at B&N and get your books personalized for you before mailing them. Sound good? Fill out the form below (Rafflecopter was a b*tch with the last giveaway…the widget is all over the place, covering my content and running off the post space and it happened to all of my previous giveaways and they still haven’t been bothered to fix it) and read through the details. Following this blog in any way is not required, but I would appreciate if you did, and you will have the option of gaining extra entries.

The No Strings Attached Giveaway Hop was hosted by Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. The hop ran from 17 April 2012 to 22 April 2012.

What did you all think of the No Strings element? I thought it worked rather well and I know Kathy plans to do more of those, so I will probably participate. It makes things easy on you guys, but it also makes it easy on me because I don’t have to check entries!

The winner of this giveaway will receive:

That’s a signed copy of A Breath of Eyre, an A Breath of Eyre bookmark and magnet, and The Class of 2K12 Apocalypsies bookmark!

Are you ready for the winner? Of course you are!

Congratulations to Sarah K.! I will be emailing you in the next few minutes. If I do not hear from within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

Didn’t win this time? There will always be more giveaways and if you want to support this blog and shipping costs for those giveaways and really want A Breath of Eyre, click the button below to buy it now (on top of already low prices, TBD is giving you an extra 10% off of every purchase right now with the code APMA12)!

The No Strings Attached Giveaway Hop is hosted by Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer. The hop runs from 17 April 2012 to 22 April 2012.

That’s right! No strings, no hoops, easy hopping!

So at the end of March I went to Doylestown, PA to Eve Marie Mont’s launch party for A Breath of Eyre, but I never got around to writing about it or giving away the extra book I picked up. Now is the time! Actually, it’s the time to share pictures with you!

Aren’t these great? Lots of purple! Eve was so nice and humble on her big day and lots of her family, friends, and students came out to support her. She left this lovely message in my copy of the book:

Now, what can you win from this no strings giveaway? Your very own signed copy of A Breath of Eyre + swag, pictured here:

That’s a signed copy of A Breath of Eyre, an A Breath of Eyre bookmark and magnet, and The Class of 2K12 Apocalypsies bookmark!

All you have to do is sign into the Rafflecopter below so that I have your contact information and click the absolutely free entry. Since I’m shipping these items myself, U.S. only please.

As always, please adhere to the giveaway policy.

Can’t wait for the giveaway to end? Buy A Breath of Eyre now!

I have another giveaway that ended last night! Lots of winners this week. The winner of the signed paperback copies of Hex Hall and Demonglass is Krista R.!

Congratulations, Krista! I have emailed you and you have 48 hours to respond with your mailing information.

Thank you all for entering. Stay tuned for more reviews and giveaways!

The hop ran from 20 March 2012 to 25 March 2012. 

I offered up five books from my shelf and asked that everyone choose which books they would like to win (all, or anywhere from one to four of the books). That way when Rafflecopter chose a winner we would know if one person won all of the books or if the first winner was interested in a few of the books, thereby giving us more winners.

Well, the moment is here!

• Used but in good condition paperback copy of Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.
• Used but in good condition paperback copy of The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson.
• Never read ARC of Switched by Amanda Hocking.
• Read ARC of Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz.
• Like new signed paperback copy of Betrayal by Mayandree Michel.

The first winner picked by Rafflecopter was Cass M.! She wanted to win only three of the books: The Healer’s Apprentice, The Witches of East End, and Betrayal. Congratulations, Cass, they’re yours!

Since there are still two books left, we have a second winner, Jennelle! Jennelle wanted Switched and The Healer’s Apprentice. Cass won The Healer’s Apprentice, but congratulations, Jennelle, Switched is yours!

And now we have just one book left. Let’s see who wins Paranormalcy. The third winner is Katie P! And wow, how divinely did this work out? The only book she asked for was Paranormalcy and it’s yours!

Congratulations to all of the winners! I have emailed all of the winners and they have 48 hours to respond with their mailing information.

Thank you all for participating!

The hop runs from 20 March 2012 to 25 March 2012. 

I was pretty excited about this hop when I first learned of it because I know I definitely had some books I could pass along. Unfortunately, there are still a lot I haven’t read but I’m not willing to part with them yet. Maybe during a future hop like this. I want to read those books first!

Because of the nature of this hop (choosing books from our shelves), this will be open to U.S. entrants only.

What can you win here?

• Used but in good condition paperback copy of Paranormalcy by Kiersten White.
• Used but in good condition paperback copy of The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson.
• Never read ARC of Switched by Amanda Hocking.
• Read ARC of Witches of East End by Melissa de la Cruz.
• Like new signed paperback copy of Betrayal by Mayandree Michel.

I have read all of these books except for Switched. I either have hardcover, paperback, or Kindle copies of all of these books, so I want to give the extras a good home.

How many winners will there be? Well, that depends on Rafflecopter and YOU! There could be one winner or five winners. On the Rafflecopter, I ask that you will list the books you would like to win. If it’s anywhere between one and four books, list the title. If you want all of the books, just say “all”. If the first winner picked chose “all”, then s/he will receive all five books. If the first winner picked between one and four books, there will be a second winner. Make sense? Any questions, just ask me in the comments. And good luck!

As always, please adhere to the giveaway policy.

Last Tuesday, I went to the Bethesda Library for the third time, this time to see Rachel Hawkins. Yes, Ally Carter was there, but she had never been on my radar. Her books do not seem like my type of book, but maybe I’ll read them in the future. I can’t promise anything. But she definitely has a lot of books out and with everything on my reading pile, there was no way I could make that happen. But I love Rachel’s books and I was super excited I’d be able to see her in person. I have Hex Hall and Demonglass on my Kindle, but prior to the signing I ordered the hardcovers of those books to get them signed and let’s face it, they’re worth having in multiple formats.

The other exciting thing about this signing was that it was release day for both of these lovely authors. I really enjoyed listening to them both speak (I love their southern accents and they are both hilarious). This signing really had a good turnout. The room was packed and I was glad to see a lot of teens at this signing (I know sometimes a lot of us adult fans outnumber the teens at signings, at least the ones I’ve been to) as well as younger kids who were fans of both series. Actually, this being my third time at the Bethesda Library, I have noticed they usually get a lot of teens to come out and they seem to really have a good relationship with their teen readers.

I’m sure you’re curious as to what Ally and Rachel had to say? Let’s check it out!

• Readers will get to know more about Cami’s dad in the new book and the book is actually dedicated to her father.
• She would kill Josh if she could go back - not sure if Josh will show up again in future books.
• She writes sloppy first drafts.
• She storyboards with a white dry erase board that she places post-its on for plot points.
• Her inspiration came when watching Alias. She was confused by the premise and thought it was about spy girls in a boarding school. She was disappointed to learn the show wasn’t about that, so she decided to write that kind of story.
• Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy was the most difficult of her books to write. She had the premise but not a plot. Also, at the time she still had her day job and would work until 6pm before spending the rest of the night until about 2am or 4am in the morning writing.
• Her big go-to resource for her books was the International Spy Museum’s website and the museum itself.
• She thinks there will be just six Gallagher Girls books.
• She gravitates toward unrealistic realistic fiction, so she is not sure if she would ever write something magical.
• She actually has already written two adult novels in the past, but she prefers YA.
• Each of her books has a different cover model even though the designers would have preferred to keep the first model (the later models were all photoshopped to look like the original model); however, the first model’s parents wouldn’t let her do anymore modeling until she improved her grades.

• She lives in a perpetual state of the next book, always thinking about the next idea. The problem is getting it on paper.
• She used to be a high school teacher and feels a bit guilty about this but she hates outlines. Even in school she would write the paper and if she had to turn in an outline, she would write that after, defeating the purpose.
• There will be a Hex Hall spin-off focused on a new character who appears in Spell Bound.
• She also has a new series in the works, the first Rebel Belle, based on a southern debutante type who gets powers.
• She wanted to write a boarding school story and liked the southern Gothic stuff and had just read Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour and knew she wanted magic in her own book. She also wanted her boarding school to be a reform school because the whole witchy boarding school had been done before and the Harry Potter books exist for her own characters (and are referenced).
• She likes when the bad guys have reasons for what they do. The bad guys never think of themselves as bad. The Council believes they are doing the right thing.
• She struggled with Demonglass and her husband said there was not enough horrible stuff happening and this one time, she decided he was right. Then when she sat down to write Spell Bound, she did not know where to start because she had destroyed so much in Demonglass.
• The mean gym teacher, the Vandy, is really close to a person she used to work with at high school. She needed that ugly type of character (not physically ugly, but ugly in the soul area).
• As for her social life, unless the book is due the next day, she will go meet her friends for lunch or whatever. She will go because ultimately her personal relationships are more important than anything she will ever put on paper. Plus she has a family to take care of. Also, she said if you tell your friends, “I’m working on my novel - you’re friends will think you’re a jerk.”
• She loves epic fantasy novels. The books she likes to read are ones that she would not feel comfortable writing, at least at this point in her life. She also loves historical fiction but hates research.
• Maybe she will branch out to an adult novel one day, but she highly prefers YA.

Lots of interesting information!

Want to know something really cool that made me feel giddy? When I got up to the table to meet Rachel, she “recognized” me from Twitter! How cool is that?

Here is my new loot…well, loot that is newly signed!