Thankfulness: Let's get real.

It's that time of year again. You're spending money you don't have. Eating calories you'll never burn off. And giving thanks for your, insert one of the following: family, health, job, financial stability. Not that I'm not thankful for those things, I am. But let's get real for a second, Fan Club. Let's talk about the things you're really thankful for. The things that make your day just a teensy bit sweeter.

Things like: 

-DVRs with a ton of available recording space
-Katy Perry's, ROAR. (You will want to kick someone's ass after hearing that song)
-chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream
-apple pie
-Dylan O'Brien (*fans self* My most recent cougar-bait discovery)
-laughing so hard you cry
-freshly painted toenails (black preferred)
-apple pie a la mode 
-books you can't put down
-planning a summer trip with your closest friends
-discovering a new TV Show you love (Hart of Dixie!)
-a really well thought out blog post (unlike this one)
-Sixteen Candles (and all the feels that come when you watch it)
-your car after it's been washed
-warm apple pie a la mode

These are things I'm thankful for this November. 
How about you?

Do your part to encourage a FREAK!

I need your help guys. A friend of mine is in trouble. Let me set the scene:

It's approximately 4pm Pacific time. The sun is dropping  into the hills, though still hangs high enough to warrant wearing sunglasses. Outside the temperature is a comfy 76 degrees, and there's just a trace of that warm Santa Ana system that blew into town last week. As always, traffic speeds vary anywhere between 9 and 75 mph, depending on the freeway, whether or not there are any accidents, or if some jack weed is too busy chatting on his phone to realize he's going twenty below the speed limit.

The black minivan is rolling along at an easy clip; back windows down as far as the childproof restrictions allow, sunroof open, driver's hair whipping around her like snakes in a blender.


It looks a lot like this:

(Yes, that's road kill in the bottom right corner. Skunks shouldn't play in traffic.)

And you see how her mouth is open? No, she's not auditioning for an adult movie or hoping to catch a bug mid-flight, she's singing, really loud & really off-key, just like she does all the time. And believe it or not, the singing isn't the worst of her driving habits. It's her incessant need to change stations on the radio while doing so that wins her the award for ultimate road hazard. Despite the glares from her husband and whinings of her children, she swaps out radio stations as easily as Charlie Sheen does his hookers.

It looks a lot like this:

*pushes button* INDIGO GIRLS *gags*
*pushes button* PHILIP PHILLIPS *Sings along for a second until she realizes she just heard this song*
*pushes button* IMAGINE DRAGONS *sings until she remembers she's 38 and this song is for 20 year-olds*
*pushes button* ERASURE *squeals* *sings along to the end of the song* *waits as new song comes on* LIONEL RICHIE *scowls*
*pushes button* DR. DRE & SNOOP DOG. *nods slowly, like a G* *raps along with her homies until the song ends* *waits for new song* *DIVINYLS* *throws up in her mouth*
*pushes button* TESLA *freaks out* *sings at the top of her lungs until the song ends*
*pushes button* TAYLOR SWIFT *giggles. pretends her kids are in the car so it's not weird she's enjoying it* ...

and so on...for the entire 40+ minute commute home.

Why does she do this you ask?
Good question.

The only answer I can come up with is that she's a total freak. Obviously she's got some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder that won't allow her to enjoy one thing because she's constantly worried she'll miss something else, something better, if she does. The grass is greener, perhaps??

I'd really like to ease this girl's burden a bit by reassuring her she's not the only one with whacked-out habits. So, do me a favor and tell me what kind of dumb ass behaviors you have, and then I'll pass them on to her. My friend. :)

Gratuitous Cuteness in Lieu of Legitimate Creativity. Part Deux.

Here's the sad truth guys, I couldn't come up with a creative blog post because my brain is a bit oatmealy these days.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVES me some oats (longtime Fan Clubbers know this to be true) but between edits for SUMMER ON THE SHORT BUS (and THE HEIST, the book I hope to offer my pub next), and failing miserably at adding wordage to my current WiP (that may very well get me sued. I'm not lying), there's just no brain power left under all this freaking hair to come up with something catchy. Which is what leads me to this second installment of Gratuitous Cuteness in Lieu of Legitimate Creativity. (a.k.a. Bethany's got brain rot)

Hopefully these cute faces will keep you entertained until my brain returns to the blog building.

 Silly Efron.

How does he always manage to creep in there??

COVER REVEAL AND GIVEAWAY for REBEKAH CRANE'S, ASPEN!

We are so excited to release the cover of Rebekah Crane’s next YA contemporary novel, ASPEN, today! Dance break!

                                                             

Now that that’s out of the way. We present… ASPEN!

(Blog host side note: This cover tickles my frilly-tailed fancy. I am so in love!)

About the book:
One quiet night in Boulder, Colorado, Aspen Yellow-Sunrise Taylor made a mistake.

 In the next instant, her life changed forever.

Aspen doesn't want to remember when Katelyn Ryan, a sleek-haired popular soccer player, crossed the yellow line in her car and smashed into Aspen's. But forgetting is pretty hard - because Katelyn may have died - but she didn't leave. Her ghost is following Aspen around, and heading into senior year, it's kind of a problem. Especially when Katelyn's gorgeous former boyfriend Ben appears to be the only person at school with a clue as to how Aspen feels.

Popularity, college, Homecoming Court, hot guys - none of these things ever mattered to Aspen. She's been busy trying to rein in her giant mass of blonde curls, keep her stoner mother Ninny away from Toaster, her mom's awful bongo drumming boyfriend, and prevent her best friends Kim and Cass from killing - or kissing - one another. But with Ben sitting next to her in Physics looking all too gorgeous, Katelyn's spirit dogging her steps, and her obsessive snow-globe collecting therapist begging her to remember all the things she wants to forget, Aspen is thrust into a vivid, challenging world she can't control … and doesn't want to.

A darkly funny, emotionally gripping story of opening up, letting go, and moving on, ASPEN is about the best-worst accident of your life ... and what comes next.

Release Date: January 2014
Category: YA contemporary
Publisher: In This Together Media


And an awesome cover reveal isn’t complete without an equally AWESOME giveaway, so let’s tell them what they can win... *dramatic pause*

10 eARCs of ASPEN!
1 tie-dye shirt from Moe’s Broadway Bagels in Boulder, CO (an actual restaurant in the story!)
2 Grateful Dead bumper stickers! Groovy! 
5 Friendship bracelets because WHY NOT?!
1 hacky sack! Rad! 
3 flower stickers you can stick to your laptop or desk or wherever! Peace, man!

Just enter the Rafflecopter below and you’re on your way to getting some awesome swag!




The giveaway closes a week from today. a Rafflecopter giveaway

About Rebekah Crane: 

Rebekah Crane fell in love with YA literature while studying Secondary English Education at Ohio University, but it wasn't until ten years and two daughters later that she started to write it. Inspired by her past students, growing up in Cleveland with its fabulous musical theater community, and music of all kinds (particularly the Avett Brothers), she created PLAYING NICE. It is her first published novel, but having an unbridled imagination, it's not the only fantasy world she's lived in (just ask her husband). ASPEN, her second YA creation, is set to release in January 2014. She now lives in Colorado, where the altitude only enhances the experience. 

Twitter: @RebekahCrane
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playingnicebook 
Tumblr: http://rebekahcrane.tumblr.com

Summertime Binge Reader!

Despite my love of reading now, I wasn't a big reader as a kid. There were always too many trees to climb, too many games of football to play, and too many neighbors to doorbell ditch. (Yes, it's true. I took great pleasure in tormenting my neighbors by ringing their bells and running. Judge away.) But for some reason, my dislike for the written page seemed to go on hiatus during the summer months. Possibly because there was a whole lot of time to fill when school wasn't in session (and your parents won't pony-up for cable TV), or, more likely, because the local library always offered summer reading programs (read: PRIZES!!) if you read a certain number of books. Who wants an eraser shaped like an ice cream cone?? THIS GIRL, that's who!

Was it bribery? Totally.

But it worked. The books I read during those summer months fed my brain just enough, so that when I was finally old enough to realize how awesome reading is, my brain wasn't completely malnourished. And some of those books have stuck with me my entire  life--I still read them whenever given the chance and brag about them as often as I can. Titles like this one: 

(If you've never read FIFTEEN, do it. DO IT NOW!!)

So I'm curious, Fan Club, what summertime reads 

do you hold dear to your heart?

(Ice cream cone erasers for anyone who says, SUMMER ON THE SHORT BUS)

MOST INTENSE BOOK TRAILER EVER!!

It would probably be professional of me to tell you that my friend Eric Devine is not only one of the most genuine people I've had the pleasure of meeting, but that he's super talented and is one of a handful of authors I've read who can actually make you stop and feel something. But you guys know darn well that I'm not professional, AND, quite frankly, this amazing book trailer speaks for itself and the kind of author Eric is.

DARE ME is Eric's new novel. It will be available on October 8 from Running Press Teens, and unless you take pride in steering clear of all things awesome, you will buy this book.

And now, a peek at DARE ME...

'Dare Me' by Eric Devine - trailer from Patrick Willems on Vimeo.

Find out more about DARE ME on Goodreads or over at Eric's place.

BORLICKADOW: Don't scrimp on your characters' quirky traits!

My husband and I have been together since...well, forever. (I was 17 when we started dating and I just turned 38--you do the math). In that time, we've gotten to know each other pretty well. For example, I know that he'd rather saw off his own leg than walk barefoot across smooth concrete, that he pronounces the word "wash" with an "r" in it (WARSH) and that he adds pepper to foods that really don't need it. (French fries...really?!) On the flip side, he knows that the odds of me ordering anything off a menu containing cream sauce are slim to none (sensitive tummy, anyone?!), that I MUST take a bath before bed every night, and that I will sing, very loudly, to songs whether or not I know the correct lyrics. Case in point, BOUND FOR THE FLOOR, by Local H.

Here are the opening lines in case you're unfamiliar:

"Born to be down
I've learned all my lessons before now
Born to be down
I think you'll get used to it..."

See that first line there ^^ and that third line^^?
Yeah, it's BORN TO BE DOWN, and if you listen to it, it's as clear as a bell. The singer is singing, BORN TO BE DOWN. However, in my teenaged brain, all I heard was, BORLICKADOW. (No, this isn't a word, but in my defense, are half the words used in angst-ridden music?!)  At the time, it sounded legit to me, so I sang it loudly, and fearlessly, using that word, BORLICKADOW!!

Needless to say, the first time hubs (boyfriend then) heard me singing this song my way, he nearly wet himself he was laughing so hard. Eighteen years ago, that really pissed me off. Now, I recognize it for what it is: Awesome character development. (For the record, every time we hear this song he laughs. And sometimes it still does annoy me)

As I see it, my propensity toward singing inaccurate lyrics (this happens quite frequently and I'd list them here but that would just be embarrassing. Taylor Swift *coughs*) just makes me that much more an engaging character to know, and, obviously, as a writer I think this will have the same effect on the characters I write.

Knowing that your m/c only reads e-books horizontally because doing so vertically makes her feel uncomfortably tall, or that she eats all the chocolate off of a Klondike bar before she eats the ice cream itself, is a lot more interesting to your reader than saying she read a book or got an ice cream sandwich--likeability is in the details, yo! Never underestimate the power of a quirky trait when it comes to penning a character! After all, we want our characters to be believable, so don't short-change them by not telling their whole story.