This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes in a scavenger hunt!
You not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from every author on my team!But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online till Sunday!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are SEVEN contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all!
I’m on theBLUE TEAMbut there are also teams of six other colors. Enter them all to win different sets of books!
If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
HOW TO PLAY
Directions: Somewhere below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my secret number. Collect the secret numbers of all the authors on theBLUE TEAM, and then add them up.
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday, October 8th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
HOSTED AUTHOR!
Today, I am hosting Gina Ciocca for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Gina graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English, but in her mind, she never left high school. She relocated from Connecticut to Georgia in 2013, where she lives with her husband and son. When she’s not reading, you can find her taking long walks around the lake in her neighborhood.
For the YA Scavenger Hunt, Gina is showcasing her novel, BUSTED.
Marisa never planned to be a snoop for hire. It wasn’t like she wanted to catch her best friend’s boyfriend making out with another girl. But as her reputation for sniffing out cheaters spreads all over school, Marisa finds herself the reluctant queen of busting two-timing boys.
Welcome to the Fall 2017 YA Scavenger Hunt, and to BUSTED: Behind the Scenes!
BUSTED (1-2-18, Sourcebooks Fire) is my second novel, the middle sibling to LAST YEAR’S MISTAKE (Simon Pulse, 2015) and A KISS IN THE DARK (Simon Pulse, March 2018). It’s a super-fun, Veronica-Mars-meets-Ten-Things-I-Hate-About-You story of Marisa, a girl who unwittingly becomes the go-to spy for catching cheating boyfriends at her high school. But things take an unexpected twist when Marisa finds herself falling for TJ, one of the boys she’s supposed to be busting.
Setting was a very important part of this story, since Marisa spends a lot of time spying on TJ at his family’s Christmas tree farm. Marisa refers to the farm, called Maple Acres, as Narnia – which is what I used to call Maple Row, the tree farm in Connecticut that inspired Maple Acres. It’s also the place where my husband and I used to cut down our Christmas tree every year before we moved to Georgia.
Marisa and TJ have a shared interest: making jewelry. Marisa creates beaded necklaces and earrings, while TJ tans his own leather and makes custom belts and bracelets in the white barn on Maple Acres’ property.
>Fun fact: TJ’s character was inspired by a real person who started out making jewelry in his parents’ barn. He’s now a master craftsman, and you can see photos of his work, the inspiration for TJ’s work, here: http://www.mangoldleather.com/cuffs-and-bracelets.html
Of course, TJ is his own person in in my head. If I had to fan cast him, I would swoon—uh, choose – Dylan O’Brien:
As for Marisa, I’ve never really had a clear picture of her in my head. So it was kind of fitting that her face is hidden by her camera on the book’s cover. But if I had to pick, I could easily see Sofia Carson making the perfect Marisa Palmera, Private Eye:
And then we have Kendall, the ex-frenemy who commissioned Marisa’s help scoping out TJ’s extracurricular activities. The first time I saw Dove Cameron, I thought I’d dreamed her into existence. That’s how closely she resembled the Kendall in my head:
From the beginning, I’ve pictured Marisa’s best friend Charlie as a younger Hannah Simone:
And Mindy, another member of Marisa and Charlie’s circle, is a love note to Mindy Kaling:
To enter the contest for a chance to win books by Gina Ciocca, me, and lots more, you need to know that my secret number is 17! Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on theblue teamand you’ll have the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Stacie Ramey, HERE.
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