Speechless Giveaway WInners

Last week I posted a competition to win 5 copies of Hannah Harrington's Speechless by telling me what books left you speechless. Thank you so much for everyone who entered, I loved finding out about all your books!


And now to the winners....(chosen at random)

*Drumroll*


The winners are:

1. Dea S.
2. Franchie15
3. Tami Peterson
4. Lynn K.
5. Barmybex

(sorry for blog names rather than actual names in some places).

Congratulations!!!

Please can all 5 of you email elise.windmill@hqnuk.co.uk with your names and addresses to receive your books!

Thankyou to everyone for entering! Watch this space for a new post this week and more giveaways soon!


Emily x

*COVER REVEAL* Dare You To - Katie McGarry

Now I am both very excited and honoured to be able to be posting the blog's first Mira Ink cover reveal! Not only that, but it is none other than the new Katie McGarry cover reveal!! *ooo's and aaah's*

At the beginning of January I wrote a post about Katie McGarry's debut novel 'Pushing the Limits' and what a fantastic read it was and now she has a new book coming out in June called 'Dare You To'!

'Dare You To' brings to focus the life of Beth who played a sideline role in 'Pushing the Limits', and follows the life and troubles she faces and how her life changes completely when she meets the gorgeous Ryan!

And now for the drumroll.....

How fantastic is that? It has the right mix of steamy and sexy and it's definitely going to be a romance with an edge! What do you think about it? Are you excited to read it? I can't wait!!

Leave me a comment with what you think of it - what do you like about it? What are you looking forward to most about reading it?

Stay tuned for more exciting posts, teasers and everything else this week! 

Have a great week,

Emily x

Day of Silence Guest Blog #2

Can you imagine a day without any kind of social interaction? Without Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or even a cell phone. And what if you’d add to this fairly unique equation the natural and instinctive act of speaking? Can you picture what would be like if you’d take a vow of silence? I can’t. Couldn’t, actually. Until I decided to take one myself.

I honestly believed I could do it, that it would be a rather easy thing to accomplish, but the truth is that I couldn’t be more wrong! And thinking about it, if it was such a straightforward, effortless task, probably Chelsea wouldn’t have done it to redeem herself, right?

Escaping conversations wasn’t hard. So many times I simply used a smile or a nod as an answer. The complicated consequence of not replying with spoken words was thinking about what I wanted to say or would’ve said, and then understanding that maybe that wasn’t quite what I hoped to respond. Therefore, I ended up over-thinking everything, and analysing every single reaction of mine. At times it wasn’t demanding, it would feel right, but so many others it was just plain hurtful. And that made me realise that I might have misunderstood and offended people before without being my intention. It is not an excuse, it never is, but wasn’t that a bit of what happened to Chelsea? She couldn’t keep her mouth shut, everybody knew that, so she revealed a secret, but was really her purpose to almost kill someone? Wasn’t she misinterpreted? Maybe even a victim herself, of her own insecurities and fears?

 
I was able to go speechless for the entire experience, however, I did use a small notebook for emergencies, only because I picked the toughest day possible to endure such a silent mission. Believe it or not, I had to plan an entire holiday using basic and small sentences. Couldn’t it have waited until the next day? Unfortunately no. The trip took place three days later.

This was also a very useful method to pick up a ticket reservation and to order dinner. The funniest—and incredible—thing about it was that I was the one being astonished at the face of results. From the bare start, I knew I wanted this to be a challenge, I needed to feel like I was capable of anything in any given situation, so like Chelsea I went out and tried to have a normal day. I just never expected people to react the way they did. Seeing I merely had a couple of words written on a paper sheet, both men thought that I also couldn’t hear, thus they communicated with me using their hands. I found this to be extremely interesting because neither of them even thought about the possibility of me being unable to speak due to having the flu or something like that. They just automatically assumed I could only talk using ink or sign language.

I also got looked at—a lot. I think people were curious, wanting to know why I was having a conversation with someone who was answering me through speech—and the other way around too. Some of them had no problems about leaving me uncomfortable by simply staring, but others tried to hide it every time I looked at them. The only moment I felt scared and nervous was when an old couple that truly communicated using sign language passed nearby my table. What would have I said if they had noticed and stopped? Would I have broken my vow? Would I experience muteness for real? Frankly, I have no idea what my reaction would be. 

 

 

At the end of the day, it takes a lot of courage to do something like this. And, to me, Chelsea simply showed the true strong person that was laying beneath all that shallowness. ‘Cause it is much easier to just speak about it, think about it, wonder about it than it is to actually do something about it. And she did something. She changed herself. She erased all the bad things and learned how to reach deep down for the good ones. She became the person she was meant to be all along. And as for me, I did discover some things about myself that were still unknown to me. This was an incredible experience that I surely won’t forget anytime soon. But would I ever do it again? Yes, sure. Just not for now.

Thanks to Patricia for writing this fantastic guest blog for us. You can follow her blog here.

 

Speechless Blog Tour

Hi!

It's my stop on the blog tour for the wonderful Speechless by Hannah Harrington, which is very exciting!

Speechless is Hannah's second novel and is a fantastic read exploring the issues surrounding the consequences of gossiping and bullying and how damaging it can really be...

"Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed.

Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse.

But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself"

Here's the trailer for the book as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etOsHnEq4s4

As part of the tour I've managed to grab some Q&As from Hannah about Speechless, giving a real insight into writing about the issues in the novel.

1. Are you a gossiper?
I admit I really love celebrity gossip. I keep up with a lot of those blogs. I find it entertaining, and at least there’s a distance there compared to gossiping about people in my real life.


2. The book deals with very emotional subjects- was it an emotionally tough novel to write?
The most emotional aspect for me was the incorporation of Noah and Andy’s story. It was important to me to hit the right notes and do justice to, since that is a subject close to me. But honestly, even though a lot of people have discussed Speechless as dealing with heavy issues—and it does—it felt like a nice break after writing Saving June, which was much heavier and more personal for me. I wrote about some serious topics in Speechless, but I felt like there was also a lot of lightness to it that helped keep readers—and me!—from being too bogged down by it all.

3. There are many instances of bullying in Speechless. Have you witnessed or experienced bullying?
I think anyone who has experienced middle school has witnessed or experienced some form of bullying. Those were hard years for me. I moved to a new town for high school, but before then I’d grown up in a very small town, and I never really fit in. Most kids had money, and I was poor, and just sort of awkward. I’d sit alone at lunch just writing in a notebook and have people come up to me to mock me about it, or be forced to do partner projects alone because I didn’t have friends. I’d be harassed, teased, excluded. There was a point where a certain group of kids targeted me so badly that the administration had to intervene. It was very painful at the time.

4. Do you ever speak before you’ve thought about what you’re going to say?
I’m pretty sure that happens to the best of us sometimes! I know sometimes I’ve gotten in arguments with people, things get heated, and I’ve said something I knew I’d regret. I try to be mindful of that behavior and not act so thoughtlessly. It can cause a lot of hurt.

5. Who is your favourite character in Speechless?
This may come as a surprise to people, but my favorite character is Andy. I felt like he was one of the most vital characters, even if his role isn’t the biggest. He really gives Chelsea a needed dose of reality, and he doesn’t sanitize her actions. I always find it fun to write the character who doesn’t parse words and is more blunt about things. Not only is it entertaining, but I think it’s a voice that the reader needs to and wants to hear.

And lastly (for a bit of fun).
6. If you were stranded on a desert island for a year and could only take three books, what would you take?
Oh man, this is a tough one! Okay. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, for the laughs; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood since I’ve read it at least five times and love it more every time; War and Peace, which I have not read, but it’s really long and that’d keep me occupied for a while, right?


Another exciting thing that is surrounding Speechless at the moment is that Mira Ink have teamed up with Movellas for a writing competition!

All you have to do is take something from Speechless, be it the themes, characters or plot and 'make something wonderful' and you could win signed copies Saving June and Speechless as well as 5 other books from Mira Ink. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity, not only to take a really great read, but to adapt it into your own story/poem/epic, however you want it to be. The stage is yours!

You can check out the full competition page here:
http://www.movellas.com/competition/show/201301231634108128/silence-secrets-a-speechless-contest

Has anyone entered, or going to? How did you find it, was it easy to come up with something - did the ideas flow when you were reading the book?

Last but no means least... I thought I would get into the swing of things properly, not only with the blog tour but with the competition theme and host my very own, very first Mira Ink giveaway!!
I mean, what blog is truly complete without a first giveaway?

I have 5 wonderful, shiny new copies of Speechless to giveaway this week courtesy of Mira Ink and all I want you to do is leave me a comment answering this:

Which books have left you speechless?

The giveaway will close midnight Sunday 24th February and 5 winners will be picked from the comments. It can only count as one entry per person but feel free to tell all your friends/fellow bloggers and stay tuned until next week when I will announce the winners.
Follow Mira Ink on Twitter and Facebook for some drumrolls (and other things) leading up to the announcements!

Have a great week and I hope you've liked this (slightly mammoth) post!

Emily x

Day of Silence Guest Blog

Blogger Aly has attempted a day of silence, inspired by Chelsea Knot in Hannah Harrington's new novel Speechless. Read on to see how she got on...

One day of silence. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. I thought a day of silence would be a very cool, maybe enlightening, social experiment. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I wanted to talk. Maybe it was one of those things where you want something more when you can’t have it. I don’t know, whatever the case, I immediately wanted to back out.

One of the first things I did when I woke up was to make some rules. It’s not like Chelsea decided to take a vow of silence without thinking. She set up some parameters.
 

The Rules:

1. Can’t talk aloud (not even to myself).
2. I can write down responses to direct questions asked of me (including text, but in the texting only allowed in cases of emergency, not for socialization purposes).
3. Defining the day from when I woke up (10:00 am) to midnight.
4. No Social media.
5. Have to go out into the world.

I made up those specific rules because I wanted to put myself in as close to a situation that Chelsea would’ve had to endure. She couldn’t lock herself in her room all day, she had to go to school and be an active part of her community…just a silent member.
 
Overall, I think I achieved my goal. I think I learned a lot from this situation. It was such an experience. For most of the day I feared and hoped that people would notice my silence. I was terribly frightened that someone would come up and try to talk to me. I dreaded it. What would I say? How would I react? Would I accidentally forget my vow of silence, and answer a question? Would they think me rude, or a mute, or a foreigner because I couldn’t answer?

For the most part though, that wasn’t the case. I put myself in situations that would require human interactions. For the most part, strangers didn’t realize I wasn’t talking. But when I tried to explain to my roommate, what I was doing, hilarity ensued. At first it was like a game of charades, but then I remember I could write down answers to her questions.

 

 

 

That day was such a lonely day. I took to it harder than I expected. I found myself wanting to be a part of conversations. There was one point when I was studying in a library, I saw an old couple whispering to each other and I became so envious. I wanted that. I wanted to share such an intimate and innocent gesture with somebody, and at the point of the day, I would’ve settled for anybody.

That moment made me realize how much harder Chelsea had it.  She wasn’t just taking a stand. She wasn’t just punishing herself. She was denying herself one of the most important basic human needs – human interaction. For a large part of the novel, she had no one to unload or share this heavy burden.  I can only imagine what she was feeling, because at the end of the end (literally) I knew my situation was only temporary. For Chelsea, if or when she talks, is an uncertainty. I had the option of quitting. It wasn’t the same for Chelsea. Her silence was to make amends for the damage that her words cause.

At the same time, this day of silence wasn’t completely horrible. My silence allowed me to take myself out of any given situation and observe. I had a chance to notice things and be more aware. I noticed how a mother would talk to her child, in a soft but instructing voice. I noticed a couple arguing, the girlfriend clearly frustrated and the boyfriend seemingly indifferent. My silence allowed me to stop looking only at the broader picture, and focus on the small details too.

 

That being said, it’s not something that I would try again soon, but it’s an experience that I’m glad that I’ve had.

XOXO
Aly from My Heart Hearts Books

Speechless by Hannah Harrington is out now from Mira Ink. Get your copy here.

Have you, or would you ever attempt a day of silence? Tell us in the comments.

My Favourite Mistake - Chelsea Cameron

Now I couldn't let this week pass without talking about the brand new ebook I've just finished reading: My Favourite Mistake by Chelsea Cameron. It is a 'new adult' contemporary romance story that Mira Ink has just acquired and has been released this month with a really lovely ebook cover. Here's the synopsis if you haven't read it yet:

Taylor Caldwell can't decide if she wants to kiss her new college roommate or punch him.

On the one hand, Hunter Zaccadelli is a handsome, blue-eyed bundle of charm. On the other, he's a tattooed, guitar-playing bundle of bad boy. Maybe that's why Taylor's afraid of falling in love with him, or anyone else. She doesn't want to get burned, and even though her other roommates adore him, she wants him gone before it's too late.

Hunter himself has been burned before, but the fact that Taylor calls him out on his crap and has the sexiest laugh ever make him decide maybe love isn't a lost cause. They make a bet: if she can convince him she truly loves or hates him, he'll leave the apartment--and leave her alone. The problem is, the more time they spend together, the less she hates him, and the more she moves toward love.

But when the man who holds the key to Taylor's fear of giving up her heart resurfaces and threatens to wreck everything, she has to decide: trust Hunter with her greatest secret, or do everything in her power to win that bet and drive him away forever

 

I found that I could really relate to this book - having just finished university I could easily put myself into the picture completely. I found myself imagining it as my uni and asking myself 'what would I do if a guy came to live in my house with 3 girls?' or 'what would I do if this guy seemed like a total asshole but is still pretty wonderful?' or even 'what would I do if I had a deep, dark secret that pushed away even the nicest of guys?' I think these thoughts circled in my head throughout the book, but actually I think after finishing it, I wouldn't have done anything differently to Taylor, in that scenario.

It was powerful, it was moving and a really good read. The power of the relationships and love are so great that they get thrown towards you so that you can't help but fall in love with them and wish it was your life. I thought the connection between Taylor and Hunter was fantastic. Quite often I find that with two main characters, one always comes across as stronger or more favourable, but here I can't seem to pick between the two. They work so well together, that you almost can't imagine how they were ever apart before. The wit and playfulness of the characters and their relationship really stood out and worked well. They play off eachother and it just highlights how relationships and friendships don't have to be so serious, it's all about the laughs and jokes and the sarcastic comebacks, even at the expense of eachother - on more than one occasion I found myself laughing out loud (on a very quiet tube train packed full of people). Although humour is not the main aspect of this story, it still added to the read and made me enjoy it even more.

I think what's even more phenomenal about this book is that it was a self-published piece. I'm all for self publishing, I think it is a fantastic way of getting writing published, especially as there is so many other authors out there competing for publishers attention and great reads can get overlooked in the slush pile. Nevertheless, self published titles can quite often be a bit hit and miss (maybe I shouldn't say that), sometimes there are books that, without the eye of an editor/publisher/agent, are not ready for publication and it is hard to pick through which are worth reading or not. BUT *tries to recover quickly*, Chelsea Cameron is part of the former group (fantastic writing, great reads...) and it is an amazing thing that she is getting the publishing recognition she deserves.

You can read more about her and her venture with 'My Favourite Mistake' on her website here:

http://www.chelseamcameron.com/p/about-me.html

and you can buy her shiny new ebook here too: (comes highly recommended):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Favourite-Mistake-ebook/dp/B00B9FZ4N8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1360763863&sr=1-1

Has anyone read it yet? If so please tell me what you think... It would be fantastic to compare how we found it!

Also, what are your thoughts on self-publishing? Have you read much self-pub books? Or even thought about (or done) it yourselves? It is certainly a new adventure in publishing and could this be a new face to the publishing world?

On a last note:

Next Tuesday 19th February the Speechless blog tour is coming to the Mira Ink blog!! I will have Q&As from Hannah Harrington herself as well a feature on Speechless. I will also throw in the words 'book' and 'giveaway' as well as a teaser so stay tuned and don't forget to come back next week!

Emily x

Something for Sunday

On wet and miserable Sundays like today, I sometimes find myself at a bit of a loose end looking for things to do and read, so I thought I'd post up this video that I have seen posted around the internet for a while.

You may have already seen it, but it is Disney's new short animation that has been nominated for an Oscar, and it is so sweet.

What do you think of it? Do you think it will win the Oscar? If not here is another nominee from the National Film & Television School which is quite sweet:

They seem quite fitting for a February theme of love, which I am fully (and unintentionally) fulfilling with my book choices as well, first with a new Mira book out in the summer called 'Love is a Thief' (more on that in a few weeks) and also Picador's new debut 'Ten Things I've Learnt About Love' by Sarah Butler.

What are you reading at the moment? Anything valentines themed? Or even the complete opposite?

Hope you enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Emily x