UtopYA Con: Where all the cool kids go to meet their favorite female authors.

It’s time to get excited and to get to Nashville for the first ever UtopYA Con, which is the convention for female, paranormal/fantasy young adult authors and readers who love them.  It will be held at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville, TN on July 6-8, 2012. Would you like to come? You’re already excited I know, but wait until I tell you who’s coming (and this is just a few)… Myra McEntire (Hourglass and Timepiece), Angeline Kace (Descended by Blood), Amy Bartol (The Premonition Series), Tammy Blackwell (Timber Wolves), Tiffany King (Saving Angels), Abbi Glines (The Vincent Boys), Ella James (Stained), Jessica Sorenson (Fallen Star), and so many more! You can find the full list at the UtopYA Con website.

Here’s what a few of them are saying about going to UtopYA Con:

Raine Thomas (Daughters of Saraquel)-  “"The world's been waiting for a conference like UtopYA. It's unique and in a class of its own. If you enjoy YA fantasy and paranormal stories, you can't miss this event!”

Chelsea Fine (Sophie and Carter)- “"Don't miss out on UtopYa Con 2012: Bringing your YA books to life!"

Brina Courtney (Cryptid Tales)- “If you’re a true YA fan, you’ll be there,  mixing it up with all of us.”

But it’s not just for fans, it’s for authors too. Learn the tricks of the trade from people who are there, doing it successfully already. There are sessions and panels for both readers and writers alike.

So how about it? You wanna go? Well obviously you do, but here’s the question… ARE YOU GOING?

Here’s where you can find out more about tickets.

Now, so maybe you’re awesome, but you can’t go, and you’re bummed obviously. Well you still want to participate right? Here’s your chance, from now until June 29^th, 2012 you can vote for your favorite books to win UtopYA Con awards, hosted by CMT’s Katie Cook. Pretty sweet right? I know, I think so too.

Anyway because we had so many blogs help us to promote this unique event we decided to do some fun giveaways provided by some of our authors at UtopYA Con and some other authors.

Good luck and we’ll see you at UtopYA Con!

Capture Blog Hop: Brina Courtney Guest Post + Giveaway!

I'm happy to be participating in author Brina Courtney's blog hop to promote the release of her latest YA sci-fi novel Capture which is book #2 in the Cryptid Tales series. So please welcome Brina Courtney to Novelly Nice!

YA SciFi is hot, or is it cool? A guest post by Brina Courtney

YA SciFi is an often overlooked genre, especially by teen girls. But let me tell you, there is some hotness going on up in hurrr. Most SciFi has some epic hero, who if we’re lucky takes his shirt off at some point. He’s also usually a bit geeky and super smart, which means his humor is probably decent. In my YA SciFi novel I decided to make a female heroine. I like a kick butt kind of super smart girl. And although Shay needs some time to absorb everything she is and has to offer, she takes it all as a teen would. It doesn’t matter what race (alien, parahuman, cyborg) the character is, we, as authors, give them all very humanized problems and feelings. So go ahead, take a chance on SciFi, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, I mean you read the part about cyborgs and kept reading didn’t you? :D

Thank you Brina! I look forward to reading the Cryptid Tales series!

Feel free to leave a comment or perhaps a question for Brina, and then be sure to have a look at all the sites participating in the Capture Blog Hop. There are prizes to be had!

Prizes include:

Ebook package for each site of Reveal and Capture

$15 Amazon Gift Card

2 Signed Paperbacks of Reveal (not international)

 Enter Giveaway
In order to enter to win the ebooks of Reveal and Capture, use the Rafflecopter form below. In order to enter to win either the Amazon Gift Card or one of the signed paperbacks, you must leave a comment on this blog post. The more blogs that are participating in this hop that you comment on, the better your chances of winning. One entry per person. Must be at least 13 to enter. Good luck!

Authors On Reviews - A Book Blogger Hop

Should Authors Comment On Reviews? Why?

When I was invited to participate in this, I actually really liked the idea of giving my opinion mainly because I'm a relatively new book reviewer/blogger. Besides that, I imagine that my opinion may differ greatly from others.

From my personal experience, I'd never received a comment on a review from an author until I joined an ARC list and began requesting the available books for review. I thought that it was really nice to receive a comment, but I certainly wasn't expecting it. Since then I have received comments from other authors who's books I've reviewed. The comments are usually just to say thank you for the reviews and/or to say that they are glad that I enjoyed their books. Although a short reply, I didn't mind. I'm grateful for any acknowledgement for the time I took to post the review.

Now, would I like it if more authors commented on my reviews? Yes, I think I would. Reviews help to influence buyers and that can be quite a big help in an authors sales, so even if it is a simple thank you that's better than nothing. However, the real question here is... should authors comment on reviews? Honestly, I feel it would be really nice of them to do so, but I don't know that I believe they should have to. Maybe they don't have the time to comment on reviews. Maybe they don't read reviews. There could be any number of reasons why an author doesn't comment. About the only time that I think an author should definitely comment on a review is when they specifically ask you to review their book. Maybe over time my opinion will change. I guess we'll see.

I'm very curious to read what the other bloggers in this hop think because I'd like to know what they expect from authors. I'm sure they all have been at this much longer than I have, so their expectations are likely to be higher than mine. And if you are an author, I'd most definitely like to know what you think.

This event is hosted by Reading Romances. Please have a look through the other participating blogs listed below.