Five on Friday - Princess Bookie Edition

We have blogging royalty today for our Five on Friday feature. It's Cindy of the fabulous Princess Bookie blog. Not only does Cindy's blog provide great book reviews and author interviews, but she also uses a cupcake-rating system. I am in favor of anything that combines reading with cake and icing (the only thing that could make a good book even better!)

So here are our five random questions--and thanks for being such a good sport, Cindy!




1. Tell us something about yourself?

Hi, I'm Cindy from Princess Bookie! I'm a college student who enjoys reading! I started Princess Bookie a while ago to just meet other people who enjoyed to read as much as I do. I mostly read Young Adult books but you may also see me with a paranormal or romance book in my hand!

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2. Have you ever met a celebrity? Who and where?

Well, I did meet Tyler Hilton! He's a singer and was on the TV show One Tree Hill a while! I felt like I was going to faint! He even put his arm around me! Squeee! I'm a total fan girl right now!

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3. What’s your favorite movie of all time? Why?

I would have to go with The Wedding Planner. I could re-watch this a hundred times. We got a romance movie and on top of that, Matthew McConaughey. Have you ever noticed that if you replace the "e" with a "t" and take off "Mcc," you get naughty.. hmmm. Consequence? I think not!!!

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4. What food can you absolutely not stand to eat?

I will not eat fish. No matter what! Under no circumstances! If you paid me 1000000 dollars, I still would not eat it. It takes me back on a sea monkey story. You will never see me eating fish. If you do, the end of the world is here!

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5. What TV show are you following this season?

Oh tivo, I heart you! I watch so many its hard to pick a favorite. If I have to pick, I think I'll go with One Tree Hill! But I really miss Chad Michael Murray. I miss him soooo much!

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Thanks so much for playing along, Cindy! And I love your creative spelling skills :) Have a good weekend, everybody!

Thursday Link-Up

What's going on in the wide world of the YA blogosphere this week?
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Linda Kage, author of the upcoming Climbing Rose release The Stillburrow Crush (coming Feb 26, 2010 and totally fabulous--read the blurb and watch the book trailer here) has posted the final chapter of her FREE read Bad Boys Don't Play Hero:

Chapter Four for my young adult free read story, Bad Boys Don't Play Hero, is uploaded and ready to read on my website . We've left the hero's head and are now going to see everything from the heroine's point of view. I hope you enjoy!

It's a fun story, so click on over and check it out.
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Christine Marciniak, author of the Climbing Rose release When Mike Kissed Emma (pick up your copy in the Climbing Rose store) is saying no mas to NaNoWriMo:

I've been managing to more or less keep up with the pace of NaNoWriMo, but today I'm giving myself permission to stop. The story I'm working on isn't grabbing me and I feel like I'm forcing myself to continue instead of enjoying the process.

I completely understand, Christine. If you're not enjoying it, what's the point?
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Natalie over at Mindful Musings is asking you to vote on your favorite book of 2009:

I'm planning on having a "Top 10 Week" at the end of the year, listing off my top 10s of pretty much everything book-related. But I want YOUR opinions as well, so I can feature them in my readers' top 10 posts that I intend to do. In order to do that, I need your votes!

Click on over and tell Natalie about your favorite books for 2009--voting closes December 10.
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And finally, feeling fairy tale-ish today? Check out this quiz at BrainFall.com What Fairy Tale Character Are You? I took it and it said I'm the Evil Stepmother--how cool is that?

You have a softer side that you never let anyone see, and, okay, it's true--sometimes you do have a few evil plots in development; but not TOO many!

So if I ever offer you an apple--don't eat it! :)

(H/T Amy at Addicted to Books)

eBook Wednesday - A Girl, A Guy, and A Ghost

We love eBooks and eBook readers here at Climbing Rose and every Wednesday we highlight one of the fabulous eBooks in our catalog. Today, it's A Girl, A Guy, And a Ghost by Sherrie Kelley. Here's the blurb

A GIRL: Traci Nettleton is in seventh heaven when Brad Davidson, the gorgeous quarterback on the football team asks her out. Then she gets a mysterious e-mail that threatens to ruin everything.

A GUY: Brad loves hanging out with Traci. She’s cute, smart, and funny. But she seems a little jumpy around him lately. Is she hiding something?

A GHOST: How can Traci be getting e-mails from her best friend who died two years ago? Is someone playing a cruel joke, or does Corky really need her help? Traci plans to find out – her new romance with Brad depends on it.

And here's an excerpt:

“So, are you going to invite Brad to your mom’s annual Halloween party?”

Cradling the Cricket phone against her ear, Traci Nettleton considered her best friend’s question as she flopped onto her back on the bed and stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars pasted to her ceiling. They were pretty sweet when the lights were out.

Almost as ‘sweet’ as Brad Davidson.

“Trace?” Christine Abernathy prompted when she didn’t answer. “Are you? Don’t tell me you’re going to chicken out!”

“It’s not that. It’s Mom. You know how weird she can get, especially on Halloween. I don’t want her to embarrass me in front of Brad.” She loved her mom. She really did, but she couldn’t help wishing her mom would act more like other moms instead of one of her teenage friends. Most of her friends, including Christine, envied Traci for having a ‘cool’ mom. Traci didn’t think they’d feel that way if her mom was actually their mom.

Sounds pretty cool, right? Download your copy from The Climbing Rose e-store today.

And if you like electronic publishing as much as we do (and who doesn't?) check out the e-Fiction Book Club, an awesome blog that reviews fiction published exclusively on the Internet.

Tweeting on Tuesday

Did you know that Twitter now allows you to put users in groups? It's a great way to organize the people you follow (and even ones you don't) into lists that help you keep track of people in the noisy universe that is a Twitter stream!

Just click "new list" in your Twitter sidebar, give the list a name, decide if the list will be public or private, and create your list. To add contacts to your list, simply go to their Twitter page and click "list" (on the "following" bar).

You can also check out other people's lists--assuming they've shared them (lists can be public or private)--and even subscribe to their lists. For instance, deb (book magic) (@debbook) has put together a fab list of bookbloggers on Twitter.

Or, if you find a Twitter feed you like and want to find other people in the same category, check out the "listed" link next to the "followers" and "following" links to see what lists are following that particular feed. For instance, eBook Reader News (@AnEbookReader--an awesome place to find out about the lastest news in all things digital) is listed on 14 lists. Just click the "listed" link to find more eBook followers.

Got a list we should be following? Let us know!

Cool Stuff for Monday

This doesn't really qualify as cool stuff but I came across this article in the blogosphere and cracked up because it's so true! A Plea to Teen Boys:

I'm going to say this as nicely as possible—you look UGLY in skinny jeans. No, really, that's as politely as I can say it. Someone had to be honest with you, because it's just gotten out of hand lately. I love you too much to let you do this to yourself. It's so bad I almost miss the super baggy jeans of the 90s, but two dresses on your legs was just not cool either.

I couldn't agree more! Happy Monday, everybody!

Five on Friday - Linda Kage Edition

It's Friday! That means it's time for Five on Friday--(no matter that it's Friday the thirteenth--we scoff at triskaidekaphobia!). Today, we're posing our five random questions to Linda Kage, author of the upcoming Climbing Rose release The Stillburrow Crush.

Blurb: Sixteen year old, Carrie Paxton, isn't the most popular girl in her small town of Stillburrow. But that's never concerned her before. Her life revolves around her writing, and she loves her job as the student editor of the school paper. But when she gets assigned to interview the football team's beloved quarterback, she takes one look into Luke Carter's blue eyes and is a goner. Suddenly, she doesn't like her lowly rank so much. Then her dreamy, popular crush surprises her when he starts to act as if he likes her in return. But there's no way Luke Carter could possibly ever like a nobody like Carrie Paxton. Is there?

Sounds wonderful, right? And now our five questions for Linda:

1. Have you ever met a celebrity? Who and where?

The most famous person I ever met was Julie Garwood. She's in my writing group, actually. How awesome is that?

2. Do you have any collections? What?

Ever read Hansel and Gretel? Well, I collect little children and keep them in my basement... I'm kidding. I don't have a basement (or a children collection either!!). But I do honestly collect Cuckoo Clocks.

3. Name four things you always have with you.

Let's see, I always have my purse, cell phone, underwear (cause, you know... I'm wearing them), and my baby. But that last is only till February. It's going to suck after she's born and has to go to a babysitter. I'll miss her, PLUS people will think I'm talking to myself, which I probably will be, but I won't be able to say I'm talking to my baby anymore. Sigh.

4. What country do you most want to visit? Why?

Germany. That's where most of my ancestors are from, plus that's where Cuckoo Clocks are made.

5. Have you ever crawled through a window?

I had to crawl through my car window because it was raining so much this one time, water was over the road. I drove through it and got swept off into this really swift current. Before I knew it, water started to fill the interior and reached my chin... Okay, all right, confession time. I've never crawled through any kind of window that I remember. But that would've been a cool story, huh?

LOL, Linda, maybe you should be glad that flooding story isn't real! Thanks so much for answering our questions! The Stillburrow Crush comes out next February and I can't wait for everyone to read it.

Thursday Link-Up

What are people talking about this week in the YA Book Blogosphere?

Well, The Story Siren has a very interesting (and comprehensive) post about ARCs:

A hot topic around the YA book blogosphere... or really any book blogosphere is Advance Readers Copies. Or as you may know them: ARC. ARCs are bound uncorrected proofs of a book, that usually circulate before a books release, early buzz if you will.

Good info there for anyone who's a book blogger (or thinking about becoming one).

Kate at The Neverending Shelf is blogging about starting a YA forum.

Lately, I have found myself wanting to talk to other book lovers about the books I have been reading. Sadly, I have found no where to do this. Yes, I have had a numerous conversations with others via Twitter and emails, but that just is not enough for me. I really wanted a place that I am comfortable, so I decided to create the Neverending YA Talk forum.

Want to talk YA? Log on to the forum and join the discussion!

And finally, after blogging about publishing your literary tweets, I had to link to this article about a fifteen-year-old girl who wrote and published her own eBook through Amazon. Publishing in the digital age is open to anyone--so what are you waiting for? :)