Colleen Houck

“I took hold of that scourge -filled ship and crushed it between my limbs, hurtling it into the second sun, the red one that gave me strength. But I was too late." Terraformer

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  • Temporary Host Site for Alexandra Monir- YA Scavenger Hunt

    October 2, 2014

    WELCOME TO THE 9TH YA SCAVENGER HUNT!

    Hello! I am Alexandra Monir,

    your hostess for this leg of the hunt.

     

    alexandra monirAbout Me

    I am an author and recording artist in my twenties. SUSPICION is my third novel published by Random House. My debut was the popular time-travel romance, TIMELESS, followed by the 2013 sequel, TIMEKEEPER. I currently reside in Los Angeles, where I am working on my 4th Random House novel, while also composing and recording original music. My music can be found on iTunes, and you can visit my website at www.alexandramonir.com. Follow Alexandra @TimelessAlex.

    You are currently hunting on

    TEAM ORANGE!

    orange team

    Looking for my exclusive bonus content? You’ll have to keep searching as it is hidden somewhere on this blog hop! Before you do, check out the author I’m excited to be hosting!

    But, first, a few rules.

    SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE RULES

     
    Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on TEAM ORANGE, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!)
    HINT: MY SECRET NUMBER IS HIGHLIGHTED IN ORANGE!
     

    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 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5TH, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

    On this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each participating YA author, you also get a secret number. Add up the numbers, and enter it for a chance to win a major prize–one lucky winner will receive at least one signed book from each author on my team in the hunt! But play fast. This contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online until noon PST on Sunday, October 5th!

    There are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of  ORANGE TEAM, but there is also a RED TEAM, TEAM INDIE,  BLUE TEAM, GOLD TEAM& GREEN TEAM! Check out each team for a chance to win six different sets of signed books!

    If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

    Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, I’ll introduce the author I am hosting on this hunt.

    I am super excited to be hosting…
    SKYLAR DORSET!

    skylar dorset

    SKYLAR’S BIO: Skylar was born and raised in Rhode Island, meaning that she hates to drive more than 20 minutes to get anywhere. After getting a law degree from Harvard, Skylar practiced in Boston for several years and wrote much of THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS while stuck on the subway (it breaks down a lot). Skylar shares her home with lots of Mardi Gras beads, a harp she’s supposed to be teaching herself to play, and old books about New England. She’d like to get a dog.

    A few years ago, Skylar’s place of employment was supposed to host a non-virtual scavenger hunt, and it was canceled due to thunderstorms, and she has never gotten over this. This is why virtual scavenger hunts are clearly superior.

     

      The book Skylar is showcasing in the YA Scavenger Hunt this season is
     
    The Otherworld Series Books: THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS
     
    the girl who never was book cover 
     
     
    Here’s a little book teaser,

    In Selkie’s family, you don’t celebrate birthdays. You don’t talk about birthdays. And you never, ever reveal your birth date.

    Until now.

    The instant Selkie blurts out the truth to Ben in the middle of Boston Common, her whole world shatters. Because her life has been nothing but a lie—an elaborate enchantment meant to conceal the truth: Selkie is a half-faerie princess. And her mother wants her dead.

    To learn more about Skylar Dorset and her books, check out her website at skylardorset.com.

    Oh, and did I mention  my favorite number is 2???

    TOP SECRET BONUS MATERIAL STRAIGHT AHEAD!

    Hello All! Here’s a missing scene from a different POV from my novel, THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS, set right after the narrator Selkie’s quasi-boyfriend sends her away for her own good. You know how that goes. 😉

    Spinning an enchantment takes no effort and no time, if you are Benedict le Fay. Hiding Selkie Stewart is something Ben does without thinking. Sometimes Ben thinks he does little else. He hides her from herself, and that is, he is realizing, terribly unfair to her, if you are a faerie who still worries about fairness, which Ben is thinking he might be. Because hiding Selkie, losing who she is, is a terrible tragedy.

     

    But with bells chiming menacingly all around him, Ben thinks it his only option. It is his first instinct, with Seelies closing in and suns being torn out of skies. If you are Benedict Le Fay, you do it because you think of nothing else you can do, and so you hide Selkie Stewart.

     

    And that means Ben has to erase himself from her memory, but it’s a worthy sacrifice. What is more important than keeping Selkie Stewart safe? Knowing that she’s alive, somewhere, being Selkie, even if she isn’t yet sure who that really is?  

     

    There is nothing more important than Selkie being alive and safe. Including being safe himself.

     

    With Selkie safe, Ben stops running. He waits. Ben sits in the middle of the wildflowers all around him and enjoys the sunshine with his last few minutes of freedom. To the extent he has a choice in this, he wants to exercise it, and he’s doing it now: He wants to be captured here, in the middle of this cheerful, pretty world where he last saw Selkie. So he sits and listens to the chiming bells approaching.

     

    The Seelies appear in the span of an eye-blink. They are very fast, if you are keeping that sort of time. If you are keeping another sort of time then they never move at all.

     

    Ben looks at them, at the amassed crowd of them, tall and slender and cool, pressing in all around him. He is surrounded, and he could jump to another world if he wanted to, but they would follow, and there’s no point. So he lifts himself lightly to his feet and bows a little bit in greeting.

     

    The Seelies don’t seem to find him charming.

     

    “She was just here,” says one of them, stepping forward, toe-to-toe with him.

     

    “Who?” asks Ben innocently.

     

    The Seelie smiles at him then, the most chilling and terrifying smile. Ben doesn’t shudder, but it’s a close thing. “You know exactly who.”

     

    Ben collects himself and considers his answer. “I think you’ll find my knowing her never happened,” he decides finally. And then he smiles back.  

     

    The Seelie’s smile stays in place, cold and very unamused. “You think you’re clever, don’t you? You think you’ll withstand anything to keep her safe. You think you’ll be able to counter anything we might try to do. Because you are Benedict Le Fay.”

    She says his name with intent, and it feels like it slices Ben cleanly down the middle, but he refuses to let himself wince. He stands there and looks at the Seelie, and he doesn’t say anything. But he keeps smiling.

     

    “Yes,” the Seelie hisses at him, coming even closer, peering into his face.

     

    Ben struggles to stay impassive, not to react.

     

    “Arrogant,” says the Seelie. “Just like your mother. She thought the same thing, that she could fight us on her own terms, that she could win. You see how that turned out. Oh, wait. That’s right. You didn’t see how that turned out, did you, Benedict Le Fay? You never knew your mother, did you?”

     

    Ben doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t let himself say anything. He doesn’t want this Seelie to think she’s getting the better of him.

     

    “You’re very quiet,” says the Seelie. “Your mother never stopped talking. Your mother was full of words. Powerful things, words. Bad things to throw around unthinkingly. She was a reckless faerie, your mother. You are quieter but you are no better. And, like her, you will be your own downfall.”

     

    Ben takes a deep breath and reminds himself: Selkie is safe. What did the rest of it matter?

     

    Then the Seelie leans forward and whispers directly in his ear. “You think she won’t come after you? Is that really what you think? Foolish faerie. We know your weaknesses better than you can imagine. Yours. And hers. She will come. All you have done is delivered her directly to us. For that, we will make you a most honored guest at Tir na nOg, Benedict le Fay.”

     

    Ben barely feels the naming. Because he is busy thinking of the enchanted sweatshirt he’d left with Selkie, which he’d intended to keep her safe but which would, eventually, trigger her memory of him. It had been his way of protecting the prophecy, and of making sure that Selkie eventually remembered exactly who she was.

     

    But maybe it had been an enormous mistake…

     

     

    Ready to move on to the next link in the hunt? Then head on over to visit author Vanessa Barneveld’s page.

    LINK TO NEXT BLOG

    This entry was posted in YA Scavenger Hunt.

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    I’m Linda Louise, one of the bloggers on this website and Colleen’s little sister. I’m just a girl in her mid-thirties who feels thirteen when I play outside with my boys, fifteen when I sing my heart out listening to tunes while driving by myself, and sixty five when I go out past ten at night. I have a thing for junior mints, Mt. Dew, shrimp and kale (though not all at once) and I have a crush on Superman. I still get girlish butterflies when I read Twilight, cry when I read These is My Words, and smile from ear to ear when I read Anne of Green Gables. I have nightmares about aliens on a regular basis and I have a bad habit of midnight snacking. I love everything sports, except golf (although can that honestly be considered a sport??), and I hate anything that slithers, hisses, or stings. I have a problem with giggling at inappropriate moments and I sometimes wish life was a musical. I love science, hate math, love Dr. Seuss, and hate olives. My family is my world and my joys come from their happiness. I’ve learned I don’t know much about anything and I live for a good adventure, naps, cuddles, stories, exceptional food and The Shire.