Blog Tour: Amity by Micol Ostow - Guest Post and Giveaway

I've had my eye on Micol Ostow's YA horror novel, Amity, for quite a while. Publication day is almost here! I want a book that scares me beyond words and I think Amity just might be the book to do it. I'm pleased to be a part of this tour, hosting Micol and offering a copy of Amity to one lucky reader.

AMITY

by Micol Ostow

Published by EgmontUSA

Publication Date: August 26, 2014

368 Pages

About Amity

For fans of Stephen King and American Horror Story, a gruesome thriller suggested by the events of the Amityville Horror.

Connor's family moves to Amity to escape shady business deals. Ten years later, Gwen's family moves to Amity for a fresh start after she's recovered from a psychotic break.

But something is not right about this secluded house. Connor's nights are plagued with gore-filled dreams of demons and destruction. Dreams he kind of likes. Gwen has lurid visions of corpses that aren't there and bleeding blisters that disappear in the blink of an eye. She knows Amity is evil and she must get her family out, but who would ever believe her?

Amity isn't just a house. She is a living force, bent on manipulating her inhabitants to her twisted will. She will use Connor and Gwen to bring about a bloody end as she's done before. As she'll do again.

Alternating between parallel narratives, Amity is a tense and terrifying tale suggested by true-crime events that will satisfy even the most demanding horror fan.

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For my stop on the blog tour, I've asked Micol to share some books that made her fall in love with reading and writing.

Welcome Micol!!

Good question! Happy to share a few of my favorites.

Eloise, Kay Thompson (illustrated by Hilary Knight)

Eloise lives at the Plaza hotel, and she is interested in people when they are not boring. I think we all can relate! Eloise is one of my favorite read-alouds. It taught me all about voice, character, language, and the interplay between words and text. There’s a reason she’s a classic.

A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett

When it comes to Hodgson Burnett, I find people to be pretty divided between Princess and The Secret Garden when it comes to choosing favorites. I always came down on the side of Little Princess because, as we see from Eloise, I have a soft spot for charming young girls with absentee parents and lots to share with the right reader. My mother read this one aloud to me long after I was old enough to be reading it myself.

Tiger Eyes, Judy Blume

Judy Blume was the first author I encountered who didn’t talk down to teens and wrote about issues we were actually concerned with, in a non-moralistic way (death! sex! adolescent friendships!). She felt very fresh and modern to my pre-teen eyes. From there I moved on to others in the same vein, like Paul Zindel and Paula Danziger, but Tiger Eyes was the beginning of it all for me.

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Everything Atwood writes is whip-smart, incisive, and even humorous in its darkest moments, but Handmaid’s Tale was the first of her novels that I encountered. It was as subversive as Catch-22 or Lord of the Flies but unique to me in that it dealt with gender issues and feminism, which, as a high school student I was just beginning to be interested in. It’s more accessible than some of her later work, but it’s indelible, and it packs a punch. Atwood 101. 

Giveaway Details

Prize: One copy of Amity by Micol Ostow

(provided by EgmontUSA)

Must be 13 years or Older to enter

U.S./Canada addresses only

To enter, fill out Rafflecopter below

Giveaway ends August 28, 2014

If I cannot verify your entries, those entries will  not count.

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Tomorrow's Tour Stop

 August 19, 2014

A Dream within a Dream

Check THIS LIST for all tour stops 

 Micol Ostow is half Puerto Rican, half Jewish, half editor, half writer, half chocolate, half peanut butter. When she is under deadline, she is often half asleep. She believes that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts except in the case of Chubby Hubby ice cream. Micol is the author (or ghostwriter) of over 40 books for teens, including Egmont USA’s family and So Punk Rock (and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother). Amity is her first horror novel. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in New York City, where she practices liberal consumption of coffee, cheese, and chocolate.

Author Interview and Giveaway: Oblivion by Sasha Dawn

Today kicks off the Oblivion Blog Tour. Oblivion by Sasha Dawn is described as "Lisa McMann's Dead to You meets Kate Ellison's The Butterfly Clues" This description immediately hooked me and I knew I had to read it. Both of these books messed with my head and had me on edge. I can't wait to discover what a mind scramble Oblivion will be. 

 For my tour stop, Sasha Dawn shares her thoughts on writing and tells us a few random things about herself. Find out some of her likes and dislikes and then enter for a chance to win a copy of Oblivion.

  Oblivion
by Sasha Dawn
Published by EgmontUSA
Paperback Publication Date: May 27, 2014
  400 Pages

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About Oblivion

Lisa McMann's Dead to You meets Kate Ellison's The Butterfly Clues in a psychological thriller full of romance, intrigue, and mystery.

One year ago, Callie was found in an abandoned apartment, scrawling words on the wall: "I KILLED HIM. His blood is on my hands. His heart is in my soul. I KILLED HIM." But she remembers nothing of that night or of the previous thirty-six hours. All she knows is that her father, the reverend at the Church of the Holy Promise, is missing, as is Hannah, a young girl from the parish. Their disappearances have to be connected and Callie knows that her father was not a righteous man.

Since that fateful night, she's been plagued by graphomania -- an unending and debilitating compulsion to write. The words that flow from Callie's mind and through her pen don't seem to make sense -- until now.

As the anniversary of Hannah's vanishing approaches, more words and memories bubble to the surface and a new guy in school might be the key to Callie putting together the puzzle. But digging up the secrets she's buried for so long might be her biggest mistake.

Welcome Sasha Dawn!!

Have you always been a writer? Did you keep a journal or write stories when you were younger? I have been writing since I could hold a pencil. Words have always made sense to me, despite the fact that I didn’t start speaking as early as my parents thought I should’ve. But by the time I was seven, I was combing through dictionaries to broaden my vocabulary when the rest of my classmates—except Alan N**n, who was working alongside me—were putting lists in alphabetical order. I am an advocate for journaling, and I don’t remember a time I wasn’t writing a story…or eleven or twelve.

How long do you think about a story or characters until you finally decide what you want to write about it/them? Usually, characters and their plights haunt me for a week or two before I start mapping out a canvas on which to tell their tales. In the case of Calliope Knowles and Oblivion, however, I thought about her for decades before I found the appropriate milieu for her story. Sometimes, paths are clearer than others, but I always want to write the stories. It’s trial and error for me. Some characters take hold; others don’t.

What is your favorite writing environment? Is it also your most productive?

I’m a busy girl. I teach, I volunteer, I take tap and ballet. I have a family, extended family, pets, and neighbors and friends. My favorite writing environment is a quiet one, but that rarely happens. Often, I’m jotting a few sentences here, a few phrases there, throughout the course of the day, amongst the general hullabaloo of motherhood: while waiting for one of my girls to exit the dance studio, when the water is just about to boil, but I can’t yet put the linguini in the pot, when I’m on hold with the insurance company.  The White Sox are probably on the television, Joshua’s on a conference call in the next room, I’m late to pick up my dad for his doctor’s appointment, and someone can’t find the right hair tie or leotard. But I manage to write productively, regardless.

That said, I’m an insomniac. I often write between 2 and 5 a.m. And it’s heaven.

What is the best piece of writing advice you've received? 
People may love your work. People may hate it, misunderstand it, or shred it. It doesn’t matter. Write from the heart.

What one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?

Write. It’s that simple. You won’t improve without constant effort, and I don’t know of anyone’s who has finished a novel while avoiding the act of writing.

Tell me five random things about yourself.

· I’m afraid of frogs. Don’t judge me. They’re creepy.

· When I was a little girl, I dreamed of dancing on television. If I’m ever famous, I’ll try out for Dancing with the Stars. Or maybe I’ll just continue dancing at the grocery store.

· I could really use a chocolate shake right about now. I’d love a cherry on top, too. Nice of you to offer to deliver one to my door, as I don’t feel like going out.

· The television show Friends never bores me. I own all ten seasons and I watch them over and over again. Joey Tribiani has to be one of the most entertaining characters ever! “How you doin’?”

· My favorite color is pink. Our master bathroom is a lovely shade (Tara) of Pepto Bismal.

 About Sasha Dawn

Sasha Dawn teaches college composition to America’s youth at McHenry County College and the College of Lake County. She’s drawn to suspense, the survival instinct in people, and has a crush on Thomas Jefferson. She lives in a suburb of Chicago.

Giveaway Details

Must be 13 years or Older to enter

U.S./Canada addresses only

To enter, fill out Rafflecopter below

Giveaway ends May 31, 2014

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Tomorrow's Tour Stop
Live to Read
review and giveaway

Don't miss it!

Waiting on Wednesday: Amity by Micol Ostow

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
 
This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Amity
by Micol Ostow
Published by EgmontUSA
Publication Date: August 26, 2014
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(from Goodreads)

For fans of Stephen King and American Horror Story, a gruesome thriller suggested by the events of the Amityville Horror.

Inspired by a true-crime story of supernatural happenings and gory murders, Amity spans two generations and beyond to weave an overlapping, interconnected tale of terror, insanity, danger, and death.

Why I'm Waiting 

• "For fans of . .. and American Horror Story" - I am a fan! I love that show.
• Another telling of the Amity true-crime story - I liked the original movie and want to read this interpretation. 
• Sometimes you need to read something creepy and that scares the crap out of you.  

Infinityglass by Myra McEntire - Giveaway

  Infinityglass by Myra McEntire
Series: Hourglass, #3
Publication date:  August 6, 2013

Published by Egmont USA
Genre: Young Adult 

 Infinityglass on Goodreads

The stakes have risen even higher in this third book in the Hourglass series.

The Hourglass is a secret organization focused on the study of manipulating time, and its members — many of them teenagers -­have uncanny abilities to make time work for them in mysterious ways. Inherent in these powers is a responsibility to take great care, because altering one small moment can have devastating consequences for the past, present, and future. But some time trav­elers are not exactly honorable, and sometimes unsavory deals must be struck to maintain order.

With the Infinityglass (central to understanding and harnessing the time gene) at large, the hunt is on to find it before someone else does.

But the Hourglass has an advantage. Lily, who has the ability to locate anything lost, has determined that the Infinityglass isn't an object. It's a person. And the Hourglass must find him or her first. But where do you start searching for the very key to time when every second could be the last?

 
 About Myra McEntire:

Myra McEntire has had her nose in a book since she could hold one.  She was once caught reading in the shower (true story) and only stopped when her father disconnected the hot water heater.  She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and two boys.  You can visit her online at www.myramcentire.com or follow her on twitter at @MyraMcEntire

 Thanks to the wonderful people at EgmontUSA, I can give away One Copy of Infinityglass and an Infinityglass poster to one of my blog readers. Fans of Myra's Hourglass series do not want to miss this final installment. I am currently reading Infinityglass and I can't get through the story fast enough - I have to find out how the story all plays out.

Giveaway Details

Enter by Rafflecopter below
U.S. addresses only
must be 16 or older to enter 

prize provided by publisher
one winner will be selected and announced via Rafflecopter

 

Good Luck!!!

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