Catching Up, Sleepily

So... I turned my fourth (!) book into my editor last night. It's the first in my new series with Harlequin Teen, titled THE NOTORIOUS PAGAN JONES. And I love it  and it's going to be awesome. But as is the way after you've been feverishly been working on something for months on end - I'm happy to say goodbye to it for a little while. As I tweeted, I should be partying, but really, I just want to sleep. By the time my editor sends me her notes, I'll be rested and refreshed and ready to tackle the rewrite.

Enough "r" words in that last sentence for ya?

Meanwhile, it's October! The month of scary things like monsters, or what we think of as monsters.

Maybe they're just misunderstood, right?

Or maybe they're truly evil...

No no, I love Lady Gaga. TRULY EVIL, I said.

Another Giveaway - Books + Galley Pages!

Happy September one and all!

I've been super busy writing the first book in my new PAGAN JONES series for Harlequin Teen (my deadline is LOOMING), so I apologize for the lack of blog posts. I've also been proofing the galleys of OTHERSPHERE! Voila:

It's really a book! The fabulous feeling when you see your name printed under a book title never gets old.

So once I'm done proofreading the galleys, I thought I'd send off a few tantalizing pages to two lucky winners of my next giveaway. So two winners will get 5 annotated pages from the OTHERSPHERE galleys. I'll try not to send you anything too spoilery, but you'll be getting a glimpse at what's to come!

Oh, and you'll get books too - 2 people will also get a signed copy of OTHERKIN & OTHERMOON. I've weighted the contest so that you get more points if you post on my blog, and fewer points if you tweet, but the more you do either one of those, the better your chance at winning.

Starts at midnight tonight! Ends midnight, September 24! Enter using the Rafflecopter thingy below. I'll email the winners after they are randomly selected and mail out signed books and galley pages


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sorry, but this contest has to be US/Canada only. The prices to mail anything other than a letter internationally are killer. Once they make an OTHERKIN or PAGAN JONES movie (cough cough) I'll merrily mail things out anywhere in the world. Or have one of my four assistants (heavy duty cough) handle it.

Again, this doesn't start until midnight tonight, Pacific time. I'll tweet and facebook tomorrow to remind you too.

Good luck and happy reading!

Congratulations to the Giveaway Winners!

And thanks to all of you for entering my launch giveaway. Wish I could send books to all of you!

(Wish my handwriting was actually this legible! :)

OTHERMOON Launch Giveaway!

It's OTHERMOON's Birthday!

Welcome to the world, little book!

To celebrate, I'm giving away three personally signed copies. This is an international giveaway, so if you live somewhere in the world that I can reach you via mail, you may enter!

Check out the nifty Rafflecopter widget below for the two ways you can enter - either by commenting on this post on my blog, and/or by tweeting.

You've got a week - from January 29 to February 5, to enter. Winners will be selected randomly, and all that kind of jazz.

Let the fanfare be played!



And let the giveaway begin...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Which I Have a Lot of Fun Doing an Interview

I got a request to do an interview from a site with the most interesting name I've seen so far - I Smell Sheep.

These readers rock!  I had such a good time answering their questions. I just know they'd be a blast to hang out with, and I'll be checking out their interviews with other authors.

You can read the interview here, and enter the giveaway for a copy of my book by entering a comment. Instructions at the bottom of the post.

Sheepish thanks, Katie Dalton and Sharon S!

Do Shape-Shifters Trick or Treat?

Yes they do. And you can read all about it in my story on Good Choice Reading today.

If you've read Otherkin, you'll recognize the characters. In my own little timeline of events, this story takes place just before Dez arrives at Morfael's school.

There's also a giveaway you can enter to win my book! And a bigger contest to win a free Kindle and $25 gift card. Go here to see all the fabulous authors posting for Halloween and to enter the big contest.

Now that's a treat!

School's In with the Otherkin!

Dear Readers of Otherkin,

Want to know what November's first day at Morfael's school was like? Well, I wrote about it for Literary Escapism's School's In feature, and the post is up today.

And when I say "I" wrote it, it's actually a letter from November (the school's resident, smart ass rat-shifter) which Morfael forced her to write as a homework assignment. She wasn't thrilled about it, but by now I think she's glad she wrote it.

You can also enter a giveaway to get a free copy of the book!

Be sure to check out Literary Escapism's many wonderful School's In posts throughout the schooly month of September. Which is the name of November's ninth's brother, by the way. No, her sixth brother isn't named June. Her mother's not THAT crazy.

Love,
Nina

Book Signing Next Saturday!

The cupcakes have been ordered! Sparkling wine and sparkling cider has been purchased!

Cool giveaways of - Books! Gift Cards! A Nikon Coolpix S6100 Digital Camera!

Why wouldn't you come to my book launch/signing with Brigid Kemmerer and Marni Bates next Saturday at 3pm at Vroman's in Pasadena?

Visit the World of Otherkin!

I'm one of the lucky authors who'll be participating in Deadly Destinations 2012 on the All Things Urban Fantasy blog in August. Guides to fantasy worlds and giveaways galore!

I've got something very cool planned to share with you - you'll be able to enter the world of my book and learn all kinds of secrets about it. But that's not till August 9.

And every day in August, All Things Urban Fantasy will bring you a new fantasy location. Can't make it to Paris or Costa Rica this summer? No worries - you can visit other worlds instead!

More details as we get closer to the date.

Another Giveaway - from YA Reads!

Here's another chance for you to win a copy of Otherkin from a great website called YA Reads.

Go ye, and enter!

Winners of the ARC Giveaway!

*Drum Roll*

To hell with waiting any longer! Without further ado, the winners of the two advance reader copies of Otherkin are:

Leo Bullock

Karen (Commenter #15, your favorite animal was a turtle. I love turtles too!)

Congratulations to Leo and Karen!



Both of you, please send me your mailing addresses at ninaberrybooks [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll send them to you right away. (My email addresses is printed that way to avoid spam. It works!)

So sorry to all those who didn't get a copy. It was hard for me to type the names of the winners because I knew that meant excluding most of you! The winners were chosen by a random number generator using the order in which you commented to establish your number. If a person left more than one comment, I used only their first comment as their number.

I will be doing another giveaway in about a week. If you want to enter again, follow me on Twitter, "like" me on Facebook (see the right hand side of my blog to do that), or check back here in a week or so to enter.

That giveaway will feature another question in the party game, but first l have to tell you that the words you used to describe your favorite animal actually describe...

...your ideal life partner.

No really! Well, okay. It's just a party game, but still!



I love the variety of the words chosen. I totally get how those words could apply to a very cool life partner.

My own three words were: cuddly, playful, and sleek. Used to describe a cat. I can still remember how I felt when someone at the party revealed what those words indicated. It took me aback, but when I thought about it - yeah. A partner with those qualities would be pretty great! I can think of a couple of guys I dated who qualified. Ahem!

And I'm not the only one who chose the word "sleek!" We should start a "Sleek Appreciation Club."



It's amazing what a variety of animals this small sample of people chose: unicorns, dragons, ducks, cats, dogs, pandas, crows, lions, tigers (yay!), ravens, elephants, panthers. I'm a huge lover of all animals (well, except maybe ticks and fleas) so it was a ton of fun to see how YOU saw these animals.



If you've already found your significant other for life, I can't help wondering if the words you chose seem like an accurate description of that person to you. If you feel like letting me know, please do in the comments! And of course, it's just a party game, so you should take it with a wee grain of salt.



Thanks for coming by and taking the time to enter this contest. You guys rock!

Giveaway: An ARC of Otherkin

UPDATE: June 19, 2012, 9:37pm PST.

And now, because you're all so awesome, double your chance to win!

I've so been enjoying all your animal choices and descriptive words! Can't wait to tell you what they mean, according to this party game.  I'll post that information along with the names of the winners  the morning of June 21. Morning my time, here in Hollywood, Califonia, that is.

But I've also decided to give away not one but TWO ARCs of Otherkin!

Yes that's 2, deux, due, dos, iki (that's Turkish. I can count to 29 in Turkish. Long story.) つ (that's Japanese, according to Google translator) copies of the book will be mailed off to two of you lovely folks, selected at random.

If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for? Read the original post, below, to see what you need to do.

The deadline to enter is Midnight (Hollywood, California time), June 20, 2012. Winner announced the next morning. This is open to everyone in all countries anywhere mail can be delivered. I love to travel. If I'm lucky maybe some day I'll come visit you and the ARC and we can chat. Maybe have a nice cup of tea, or whatever they like to drink in your country.

And if you don't win, don't worry. I'll be doing another giveaway at the end of June, with another party game question to celebrate my and my Dad's birthdays.

Thanks, everyone!

ORIGINAL POST
In celebration of my Mom coming to visit this weekend, and to thank you, the readers of this blog, I'm giving away a personally autographed advanced reader copy (ARC) of my book! Woo hoo!

Unlike the giveaway on Goodreads, this is open to international folks. The winner will be chosen randomly.

All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me:

1. Your favorite animal;
2. Three adjectives describing that animal.

Why? Because it's fun, and because Otherkin is about people who shapeshift into animals. I'll choose the winner from among the commenters using this random number generator.

This is actually part of a party game, and it supposedly says something interesting about you. Hee hee. I'll reveal what that is (and if you know, don't tell!) when I announce the winner, next Thursday, June 21.

For the record, when I was asked this question at a party (before I knew what it supposedly meant about me) I said that my favorite animal is a cat. (It's actually a tiger, but I went more general rather than specific for some reason. You should feel free to be as general or specific as you like.)

And the three adjectives I chose were: cuddly, playful, and sleek.

There is no right or wrong answer! If you don't really have a favorite animal, just try to think what cool animal skill (flying, stalking, camouflage) you'd like to have and brainstorm from there.

The contest is officially open now and will close at 12am Pacific Time on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. I'll announce the winner the next day, get your info, sign a book, throw in a cool bookmark, and mail it off to wherever you are.

Can't wait to see what you guys post!