I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to have the opportunity to give away five copies of If You Find Me by my long time writer friend, Emily Murdoch. This is an amazing book – beautifully written and full of hope. But I’m not reviewing it today, and I’m going to let it speak for itself.

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.

 

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Yesterday, somebody handed me a copy of Between. A real copy, I mean, delivered from Amazon and everything. And today the lovely and generous Jennifer Morris sent me a picture of the book in its natural habitat on the shelves of Books-A-Million. So I figure we’re not really counting down anymore – my book baby is officially out in the big wide world.

This is exciting and strange, and a little bit fearsome. But mostly just exciting.

In celebration of this event, I want to take a minute to celebrate a couple of books and authors.

First, in case you haven’t already heard of it and rushed out to buy it, let me present  The Archived,  by Victoria Schwab.

I read Victoria’s first book, The Near Witch, with great wonder and delight, and it has a permanent place on my shelf. She is not only a brilliant writer, but a lovely person. In fact, shortly after I joined Twitter, Victoria sent me cookies. This was for no particular reason, other than that she wanted to give cookies away to somebody and I got lucky. They were absolutely delicious, by the way, and I refused to share with the family. Anyway – The Archived looks fabulous and I can’t wait to read it. It is just out, and my copy is ordered and on its way.

The second book I want to talk about today is If You Find Me, by my friend Emily Murdoch.

Emily is another truly wonderful human being. Aso – I have read an advanced copy of this book, and it is excellent. If you doubt my opinion, let me tell you that it has been winning starred reviews, the last one from Kirkus. I advise pre-ordering to make sure you get your hands on a copy early.

As for me and Between, all kinds of good things continue to happen. Today’s Blog Tour stop was at Goldilox and the Three Weres, for an interview, a giveaway, and a review. Tomorrow I’ll be at Book Monster Reviews for the Blog Tour stop. And in the afternoon, I’m joining my agency sisters Leigh Evans and Erin Knightley for a Knight Agency Twitter Q&A at 4 pm ET. (These ladies are smart and talented and a little bit irreverent – I expect this will be a TON of fun).

Update: I’m extending the giveaway until midnight on July 4th. So if you haven’t tweeted and commented yet, you’ve still got time!

YA author Emily Murdoch and I have been on what she calls “query road” together for years, sharing our writing dreams, hopes, and disappointments. She was one of the very first writers I met when I first ventured online. And, as serendipity would have it, we got our first book deals within about a week of each other.

So it is an extra special pleasure for me to be a part of her cover reveal. I am thrilled to introduce to you the cover of the contemporary young adult novel If You Find Me.

Isn’t it gorgeous? Don’t you want to read it already, just from the cover? Here’s more:

 

A broken-down camper at the Obed Scenic and Wild River National Park – dubbed the Hundred Acre Wood – is the only home fifteen-year-old Carey has ever known.

Sure, coping with a bipolar mother on meth is no picnic, but beneath the sun-dazzled canopies of Hickory and Walnut, Carey’s violin transports her from their bare-bones existence in the same way her little sister, Jenessa, finds comfort in her stash of second-hand Pooh books.

Life is dependable that way, until Mama goes into town for supplies and vanishes off the face of Tennessee, sending social services in her wake with a one-way ticket back to their father – a stranger in an even stranger world.

If You Find Me (formerly The Patron Saint of Beans) will be released on April 2nd, 2013, by St. Martin’s Griffin.

And, because Emily is who she is, a portion of all proceeds will be donated to benefit Taylor Hendrix’s Christmas Project. Seventeen-year-old Taylor, battling osteosarcoma, gathers gifts in backpacks to brighten the spirits of cancer teens in hospital during the Christmas holidays.

So – who wants a free, signed arc of this fabulous book?Entering is really simple. All you need to do to be entered in a drawing is the following:

1) Tweet a link back to this post

2) Tell me in the comments that you have done so.

3) If you’re not on Twitter, just drop on over to Emily’s blog and leave her a comment, and then leave a comment here to let me know you’ve done that.

That’s it! It can’t get any easier, right? The contest closes at midnight on July 4th. All names will go in a hat and my Viking will randomly choose one.

Emily tells me that if you drop over to her blog, Lefty in my Write Mind, there will be a little something extra, so zip on over and have a look. You can also follow her on Twitter.