I Can't Stop Giving Books Away!

Things are BUSY. And yay for that!

On top of rewriting the first PAGAN JONES book while outlining the second, on top of my day job and getting feral kittens neutered, on top of my current blog tour, I'm giving away five signed copies of OTHERSPHERE on Goodreads. It starts today and goes for two weeks.

If you're on Goodreads, get thee hence!

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          Othersphere
     

     

          by Nina Berry
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends January 28, 2014.
         

         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         

     

   

   

      Enter to win

Meanwhile, you can read Cici Theories flattering review of the entire OTHERKIN series here.

And you can read my Top Ten Places in the World on The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club here.

Both have links to my big, fat, fabulous giveaway, in which you can win books and this pretty, fierce tiger necklace:

And earrings and bookmarks.

Tiger books and jewelry for all! I wish.

Oh, and this Sunday I'm doing the first Movie Tweet-Along for YA Series Insiders. We'll be watching The Mortal Instruments! I haven't seen it yet, love the books, and can't wait to watch.

Join me for appreciation and snark!

Until then, I'll be over here...

This Week on "Nina Does a Blog Tour"

My first blog tour started last Monday, and it goes till next Wednesday, and so far so pretty darn good!

Our adventure so far starts New Years Eve, when Othersphere was born. (Even though more than one person told me they got it early! I've learned that happens often with books. No biggie.) Since I finished Othersphere, I've written the first book in a whole new series, and I was feeling a bit distant from the Otherkin trilogy. My head had gone to completely different places since Dez and her friends set foot in another world, where the moon has a heartbeat all its own...

But my emotional distance was also partially due to the fact that it was the last in my trilogy and that thought made me sad, so I chose to concentrate on other things.

The journey back to Othersphere started with me writing this post for Read It In Houston, about why I wrote the series in the first place. I started to get back in touch with my inner tiger.

I highly recommend it.

Then the holidays hit, and I kept writing blog posts for my upcoming blog tour while celebrating with family and friends, eating home-made tamales and seeing movies.

The actual day the book came out was a busy one - I had to take my cat Lucy to the vet (She's doing fine. Here she is enjoying the Los Angeles sunshine and keeping her highlights brown):

I also talked to my lovely editor on the phone, and (poor me) hung with fabulous friends for New Year's Eve.  I did a bit of book birthday social media blah blah blah, but book birthday's are weird things. People get the book on their e-readers (a couple of people were sweet enough to let me know they got theirs! I have such great friends) and it's now officially available in hard copies as well.

But it's not like the book leaps out of a cake and does a striptease. (Wish I could find a .gif of that!) Oh well.

It's magical and weird and awesome, but it's not as if your book parachutes down amidst fireworks or emerges from the primordial ooze to crawl at last upon the land. It's all oddly abstract for the author. For me the book was done six months ago. But that's how it has to work in publishing.

I was back at work on Jan 2, a bit shellshocked to return to the real world. I mailed off a bunch of books and swag to the winners of the YA Series Insiders launch giveaways (the main winner got over $1,000 worth of goodies from 11 different authors - crazy! Be sure to check out the YASI blog and keep checking for more giveaways. We've currently got one for the hot January releases going.)

Then - dun dun DUUUN! My first blog tour commenced. I'm giving away signed copies of all three Otherkin books, a gorgeous tiger necklace, fearless earrings to evoke that inner tiger, and more! Go here to see the whole deal, or read on.

First, a nice review at Ren's Rambles.

Second, an interview at Para Your Normal.

Third, a not as thrilled review (I'm being honest here, but don't get used to it!) at Hope, Love and Happy Endings.

Fourth, a super fun Dream Cast post at Taking it One Book at a Time.

Fifth, a review of the first book, OTHERKIN, at Bibliophilia, Please. (Because OTHERSPHERE is the last in the series, I thought it would be best to give the bloggers a choice as to which book to review.)

And tomorrow, a review of OTHERSPHERE by the lovely Jenna Does Books. No link to that actual review yet because it hasn't been posted, but here's a hint - she gave it five stars on Goodreads!

After that:

January 12th: CiCi Theories REVIEW ALL 3 BOOKS
January 13th: Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club TENS LIST
January 14th: Dream With In A Dream REVIEW ALL 3 BOOKS
January 15th: TTC Books And More SPOTLIGHT & EXCERPT

Phew!

In the meantime, I got a nice mention in USA Today, I Smell Sheep reviewed OTHERSPHERE, as did Book Hoarder Mom, and Maci and Zoe Read Books published a very fun interview I did with them.


My best friend sent me flowers to commemorate the book coming out.

And so many nice messages on FB and twitter! My head is still spinning!

It was a relief to go to Lissa Price's launch for ENDERS and think about someone else's books for a little while. And of course I snagged copies of STARTERS and ENDERS signed by Lissa.

Hmm. Could be the makings of another giveaway...

Thanks for tolerating all my yim-yamming about this past week. Figured I should do my due diligence by listing it all, and thanking all the bloggers and Book Nerd Blog Tours for reading the books and taking the time to post things.

All the attention is amazing, don't get me wrong. I engineered a fair amount of it, after all, by setting up the blog tour. But I'm an introvert at heart, so I'm kind of excited to be working on the outline for my next book this weekend. I'd rather tell stories than blabber on about ME.

ME is boring.

ME and YOU on an adventure, in a story? That's more like it.

In Which School Library Journal Reviews Othermoon

...and likes it! It's delicious; it's refreshing; it's thirst quenching!

                                (Photo by Syahrul Ramadan)

Oh wait, that's what this tiger is thinking.

Here's some of what the School Library Journal actually thought:

“Fans of the first book will be clamoring for this title and will be eager to get their paws on the final book in the trilogy. Plus, tiger fans will enjoy going ‘beyond the story’ at the end of the novel and learning some facts and proverbs about the great cat.”

There's no link online to it, since it's published in their magazine, but you get the idea.

I'm especially glad that they're pointing out the tiger facts/quotes/info I included at the end, because I'm pretty zealous about preserving the tigers and other big cats in the wild. Any and all education that gets out about that makes me very happy.

Speaking of which, if you sign up at TigerTime here, you'll get info on how you can help save tigers, without weird spam emails or any of that nonsense.

OTHERMOON is Out Tomorrow!

Warning:

Because my second book, OTHERMOON will be out tomorrow.  I think my head's going to explode - and emit a shower of champagne. Or gumballs. Or, ya know, brains and blood. Depending.

To celebrate, tomorrow I will be posting a giveaway of the book. Multiple copies will be launched into the readersphere to beguile or bewilder you.

Meanwhile, here's a very nice review of the first book, OTHERKIN, from City of Books. Huzzah!

And here's a poster for the Authors After Dark YA Day, which I'll be attending in Savannah, Georgia in August. Should be a blast!  Fellow author and my critique partner Elisa Nader (her book will be out this summer and you must read it!) had kindly volunteered to be my date at this event.  More huzzahs!

Okay, back to work. Currently researching tabloids for super secret project and found this juicy front page - most apropos. And I don't mean the fascinating sounding article about Howard Stern's face appearing with Satan in volcano smoke...

Kirkus Review of Othermoon is In!

...and it's awesome.

I can't reprint the whole thing for you (legal reasons), but I can give you the "pull quote" here. If you're a member of the Kirkus site, you can read the full review here.

“Plenty to enjoy in the action-packed sequel… Fans of the series and new readers alike will find themselves anxiously turning pages… On the surface, this appears to be a novel meant to satisfy ravenous paranormal-fantasy fans looking for an exciting read with a hearty order of romance on the side. While it certainly fills the bill, there’s depth here that shouldn’t be overlooked. Dez wrestles with real-life issues about identity and belonging, about trust and loyalty, and about friendship and love that will resonate with teen readers across genres.” – Kirkus Reviews

 Woo hoo!

Interviews, Reviews, and More!

Yesterday was amazing. Because of my book launch, I got so much love on Twitter and Facebook I almost felt beat up by it. But in a good way. (Does that make any sense? Do feelings have to make any sense?). A few dear friends took me out for flaming margaritas at El Compadre to celebrate.

I'm so lucky!

When I checked Amazon a little while ago, Otherkin was #73 in Love and Romance! Woo hoo! Thank you all!

In case you're not sick of me yet, below are some links to interviews, reviews, and an article I wrote, all sent to me by the kind folks who put them on their sites.

RT Book Reviews has a review, an excerpt from Otherkin, and a short piece I wrote about otherkin in the "real" world.

I did an interview with La'Tia at The BoOki3 blog. She asked a lot of great questions!

Over in Australia, Ellen at Reading is My Drug also did a terrific interview with me, then wrote a review.

Sana at Arty Musings gave me a very nice review.

Kala at Toonari Post gave me delusions of grandeur with her review.

August is going to be full of more posts by me for some very cool blogs. August 9, I'll be featured in All Things UF's Deadly Destinations event. Be sure to check out the other authors' contributions, a new one each day, to learn more about the worlds they created.

Kirkus Review of Otherkin!

Kirkus Reviews is a notoriously tough reviewer, and I just got their full review of Otherkin and...

It's awesome!

I can't post the full review yet. Kirkus does that first, later in the month, then I can link to it.  But I can post the "pull quote," which shows you that not only did they like the book, they really "got" it.

“Berry’s debut offers just the right combination of  high-stakes exploits and steamy love scenes to keep readers up until the wee hours…ripe with issues that will resonate with readers. From body image to friendship, first love and betrayal, the novel explores the truth that no matter who or what you are, there’s no escaping the politics of high school.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS

 Woo hoo!!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! I'm celebrating independence and a great review!

Otherkin - A Great Review!

I promise not to post here every time my book gets a good review. That would get tiresome fast. But this is my first novel, and this is the first "official" review I've seen of it.

It's at a blog called Paranormal Reads. Check it out here.

My head is spinning. Logically I know it's just one review on one blog. I know that there will be people who don't like the book for one reason or another. I'm braced for hate mail, honestly, even though my book isn't the controversial type that usually draws anger. But you never know. The world is big and wide and holds all kinds of opinions, and if you put your work out there, you have to be prepared for the consequences.

But a person I don't know read has my novel - and they liked it. And they wrote down in an official blog about books that they liked it. A lot. And they're looking forward to the next one.

That's just... freaky.

And fantastic.

Getting your first book published is this weird, slow entry into a whole new world. Or maybe it's the world that's entering you. And everything else.

As a writer, you spend so much time alone in front of your computer, living in the world you made, that it starts to seem real. Then you go to brunch with friends or talk to your Mom and you realize, duh,  nobody else is living in that world. It's not real, you silly writer, you!

Then, after a long long LONG time, if you're lucky and you work hard and persist, the book gets bought and you move toward it being published. Someone gives you money for your writing, and they give you notes to make it better, and you realize the world you thought was yours alone now belongs to a few other people besides.

Your private world, which was once just a thought in your head, has become a shared dream.

Then it gets listed on Amazon as copy writers step in and polish it up, and cover artists give you a gorgeous visual glimpse, and the advance copies go out to reviewers.  Dozens of people have knowledge of the world you made.

The shared dream has become instead a hologram, popping into our world like Princess Leigh emanating from R2-D2's projector. It's isolated, far from life-sized, and you can put your hand through it, but it resembles the real thing if you squint.

Then a reviewer comments, and people post about it on Goodreads, and the world you created isn't just an isolated Princess Leia-like hologram. It's as if the book world has begun infiltrating the fabric of the real world, warping things till they resembles the made-up world just a little.

See? I told you. It's freaky.

I can't wait to see what happens when the book is actually released!