Melissa Marr GIVEAWAY!!! And OS teaser # 49!

No, I'm not giving away Melissa Marr. If she was up for grabs, I'd be keeping her myself and tapping into that amazing creative well she seems to have. But I am giving away a signed copy of her newest release, Graveminder, plus signed Graveminder swag, and also a signed galley of Original Sin.

I'm totally buried in a new project, so I'm going to keep this short. All you have to do to enter is comment below by noon PST on Friday, June 17^th. In addition to commenting, for which you earn one entry, you can accumulate additional entries as follows:

Old blog follower: +3 points
New blog follower: +2 points
"Like" the Personal Demons Books Facebook page +2
Follow me on Twitter (@LisaDez) +2 points
Link to my contest post on your blog, Twitter or FB: +1 point
Add me to your blogroll: +2 points
Original Sin widget in your blog sidebar +2

Also on your entry, please remember to tell me how to find you (email address). And ADD UP YOUR POINTS because I can’t be trusted with math…just sayin’.

As always, the contest is open internationally. You must be at least 13 years old to enter. The contest will close at noon on Friday, June 17th. One winner will be chosen by the randomizer and posted here after noon on Friday. Good luck!

 

And, now for today's teaser. Friday, we saw Matt start to lose his focus. This continues on from there. There are some new angels in Original Sin...but there are also some new demons...

 

#OriginalSin p150 Matt: Someone bumps me from behind, sending the beer in my hand sloshing over the rim. I turn slowly and a tall, skinny guy, maybe twentyish, stares me down, his solid black eyes telling me without a word that he knows exactly what I am.

And I know what he is too.

“Who invited you?”

Before I can answer, his eyes slide past me to Lili, who steps up next to me. “Was it you, my lady?” He holds his hand out to her. She takes his hand and he brings it to his mouth, kissing the back of her fingers. A lopsided smile blooms on his dark face “Because, if that’s true, I’ll forgive the indiscretion.”

And we have a winner!!

Wow! A lot of you wanted this signed copy of Melissa Marr's Radiant Shadows! There were some passionate comments =)

Before I click the randomizer for the winner, I have a little bit of news. I've seen two covers in this last week. One is for Original Sin. It's being tweaked and I hopefully will be able to show you something soon. The other is for the German Personal Demons. They've retitled it Angel Eyes. As soon as I get the okay, I'll post that here too. Yay for covers! :p

So, now for the winner. The winner of the signed Radiant Shadows, as chosen by the randomizer is:

*drumroll*

Erin!!!

Congrats, Erin! *blows virtual noisemaker*

And, because Erin has been such an awesome follower, entering every Debut Contest for months, and hanging out here just for the heck of it, I've decided to throw in a signed copy of Personal Demons too.

Extra YAY!!

Happy reading Erin!!! :p

Who wants a signed Melissa Marr book?

I promised you a Smart Chicks contest, and here it finally is!

I had a blast at Smart Chicks when they visited Keplers Books in Menlo Park. (Where, incidentally, I will be signing with Sophie Jordan and Kiersten White this coming Monday.) There were shenanigans, and prizes, and books! What else could anyone ever want? Melissa Marr has been wonderful about promoting Personal Demons. She recommended it on her blog back in March and she's currently giving away six signed ARCs.

You've already heard me swoon all over her and tell you she's my biggest writing influence. So, I, of course, went all fangirl when I met her and had her sign all my books!

And guess what? I had her sign one for you too!!! Here's your chance to win a signed hardcover of Radiant Shadows, the fourth book in the Wicked Lovely series.

If you haven't read this series, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? I love all the books, but am partial to Ink Exchange (#2).

In her contest post, Melissa says Luc reminds her of Irial, her favorite of her Dark characters. I take that as a huge complement, because her Dark boys (Irial and Niall) from Ink Exchange are my all time favorite bad boys. The second book in my Personal Demons series, Original Sin, just went to production yesterday. It's very dark, and I worried it might be too dark. But every time I felt myself wavering, I thought to myself, what would Melissa Marr do? She made me fearless and let me tell the story that Luc and Frannie needed to tell.

So, I'm very excited that I can offer up a signed copy of Radiant Shadows for one lucky winner. To enter, you must be a follower and leave a comment below by Wednesday, October 6th (midnight PST). You get one extra entry if you follow me on Twitter (@LisaDez). Only one entry per person, please.

Good luck and happy reading! =)

Smart Chicks Tour!

I was lucky enough to be able to go to see the Smart Chicks the other night at the Kepler's event in Menlo Park. The event did not disappoint. All the authors were fabulous. I'd met Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl before and found them hilarious. The others were all very funny and very nice!

If you've followed my blog, you've heard me swoon all over Melissa Marr. I’m a total fangirl. She’s been the single biggest influence on my writing, so one of the most exciting moments of my entire publishing experience to date was finding out that she'd read Personal Demons--and liked it! I almost fell out of my chair when she recommended Personal Demons to her readers and I was beyond thrilled to finally have a chance to meet her. She's currently giving away 6 signed ARCs of Personal Demons on her fan site, Rath and Ruins.

Pictures and a Melissa Marr contest are forthcoming, so watch the blog for details in the next few days. In the meantime, here are some highlights from the event courtesy of the Smart Chicks blog!

Sweating It Out

I have to say, publishing is turning out to be the most severe roller coaster ride I’ve ever been on, with many more ups and downs then I ever could have imagined. Things that never would have even occurred to me end up turning me inside out. Like the thought of my very favorite author reading my book. There’s something a little nerve-wracking about that. And, honestly, it just never occurred to me that might happen.

But…my editor sent copies of Personal Demons off to some fabulous authors, one of which was my all time favorite author, Melissa Marr. Because all of these authors are so…well…fabulous, I’d convinced myself that they’d all hate my book. So when Melissa Marr, who is a major influence on my writing, recommended Personal Demons on her blog, I almost fell out of my chair.

Since then, we’ve gotten quotes from other fabulous authors, including this:

“Personal Demons is as scary—and sexy—a book as I’ve read in a long time.”—Claudia Gray, New York Times bestselling author of Hourglass



And this:

"Fun and entertaining...the fight for Frannie's soul isn't going to be easy, and the excitement doesn't stop. Good versus evil shouldn't be this much fun, but it is! A hot YA debut novel."—Maria V. Snyder, New York Times bestselling author of Fire Study

But my first blurb came from the amazing Andrea Cremer, whose Nightshade is destined for the NYT bestseller list. Most of you don't know her writing yet, but you will. Here's what she said:

"Lisa Desrochers' debut is fantastic, full of shivers, surprises, and sultry romance. You'll be laughing one moment and shrieking the next - such a great read!"--Andrea Cremer, Future New York Times bestselling author of Nightshade

(I added that last part :p)

So, I’m starting to breathe a little easer. Maybe my book doesn’t suck after all. Maybe it’s sort of okay. Or maybe even good. =)

Hope you all think so when you get to read it. :p

Pinch Me

Some things are too good to be true. For example: when one of your all time favorite authors reads your book and likes it, and then recommends it to others! *keels over*

It’s moments like this that make me think maybe my book doesn’t totally suck. Maybe it’s even pretty good. So, in this Author Appreciation Week post, I want to express my gratitude to Melissa Marr, not only for recommending my book, but for teaching me to be “fearless”. (That was the word my truly fabulous agent used to describe Original Sin.) If I truly am “fearless,” it’s because Melissa Marr was fearless first. There were several times that I looked back at what I’d written and thought that maybe it was too dark. But then I thought about the themes in Ink Exchange, and “fearless” really is the only word to describe them. So, because of Melissa, I had the courage to write the story that Frannie and Luc gave me—the story that was authentically theirs.

And, since she plugged my book, I’ll plug hers. (like she really needs my help O_o) I love her Wicked Lovely series. She has a new FREE ebook called Stopping Time up on all major booksellers. It’s a short story sequel to Ink Exchange and it’s being posted in two parts. Here's the link to download the first half. And here's the link to pre-order the second half, which will post on March 23rd.