YAY for BOOKS!!! I'm really excited... beside myself actually that I'm getting a chance to attend this years ALA conference. I was able to attend two years ago when it was in Anaheim California and it was one of the best things I've ever experienced! I had so much fun with friends, fellow bloggers and Librarians that I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again!

So, yesterday morning I headed off to Vegas for a few days. Leaving the hubby at home and loosing myself in a world of friends, books, bookish friends and I'm sure a bit of trouble being that it's in Sin City!

Lots of pictures and stories when I return!

If you have any questions while I'm away I'll have limited access to email and internet. I'm going to try to unplug a bit while I'm away so it might take me a bit longer to respond. Thanks in advance for understanding.

See everyone next week!

Join The Dauntless Authors for a giveaway for 2 $25 Amazon Giftcards during the week of January 13. Throughout the week they'll also be giving away TONS of ebooks at their Facebook Party!

Team Dauntless:

Kate Avery Ellison 
Nancy S Thompson

Wendy Knight

Amber Argyle
RaShelle Workman
Elle Strauss

Megg Jensen

Angela Corbett

Cindy Hogan

Christy Dorrity

Rachel Morgan

Shantal Hiatt

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For the 3rd year in a row we're doing a Cover Contest! But this year we're doing things a little bit differently. This year we're looking for participants to take a cover of any book that they like and re-create it into something spooky! Something fitting for Halloween. Change up the title to something scary, let your imagination take over jumping in feet first to the darker side of things.

So, let us see what lurks in your creative... dark side and what book you think might just have an evil twin.

Everything you need to know & how to enter -

Entries for this RE-CREATE A COVER CONTEST MUST be in no later then October 26th, 2012. Be sure to EMAIL your entry in before the deadline!

On October 28th we'll post all the covers and let the readers vote on who wins! Then on October 31st we will announce the winner that YOU guys have picked.

There will be FOUR winners and here's what everyone has a chance to win:

FIRST PLACE - 9 Books + Swag:
PICTURES COMING SOON!

Alice in Zombieland By: Gena Showalter
Covet By: Melissa Darnell
Dark Kiss By: Michelle Rowen
Beyond the Grave By: Mara Purnhgen
Violins of Autumn By: Amy McAuley
Fury By: Elizabeth Miles
A Whole Lot of Lucky By: Danette Haworth
The Sweetest Spell By: Suzanne Selfors
The Horse Road By: Troon Harrison

SECOND PLACE 7 Books + Swag:
PICTURES COMING SOON!

Blink Once By: Cylin Busby
The Unquiet By: Jeannine Garsee
Witch World By: Christopher Pike
A Whole Lot of Lucky By: Danette Haworth
The Sweetest Spell By: Suzanne Selfors
The Horse Road By:  Troon Harrison
Violins of Autumn By: Amy McAuley

THIRD PLACE 5 Books + Swag:
PICTURES COMING SOON!
 
Purity By: Jackson Pearce
Blink Once By: Cylin Busby
Violins of Autumn By: Amy McAuley
A Whole Lot of Lucky By: Danette Haworth
The Sweetest Spell By: Suzanne Selfors

FORTH PLACE: 3 Books + Swag:
PICTURES COMING SOON!

Dangerous Angels By: Francesca Lia Block
Ghost Hunt 2: MORE Chilling Tales of the Unknown By: Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson & Carmeron Dokey
Raised By Wolves By: Jennifer Lynn Barnes


Rules and how to enter:

IMPORTANT: YOU MUST CREATE A BRAND NEW PIECE OF ART! Using the actual cover image of the book you are RE-CREATING IS NOT ALLOWED & WILL NOT BE PERMITTED! Due to copy right laws we must insist that all art be YOUR OWN and that you not use the actual cover art in any way. If you have any questions about this, please email and we'll be happy to respond.

You must be at least 13 to enter.
One cover entry per person.
Entries must be emailed to one of us by Friday, October 26th, 2011 (Email addresses listed below).
Contest is open to US MAILING ADDRESSES ONLY and ends October 31th, 2011 when the readers pick their winners!
Once contacted the winners will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address.
Email: alifeboundbybooks [at] hotmail [dot] com or totalbookaholic [at] hotmail [dot] com

Any questions, just let us know. The more people who enter, the better so get those creative juices flowing and give us all something scary! 

Good luck to everyone and I know I for one can't wait to see some beautiful covers turned EVIL.

Hello again!

With 2011 quickly coming to a close, we only have a few weeks left to figure out what books to include in this years Top 10 week. I've already started on my lists for the five days and have to say that they are coming along pretty well. How is everyone's list's coming along? Is anyone having trouble keeping your lists to 10? We'd love to hear how you're doing and if anyone's struggling with their choices or if your lists are already done? Leave a comment and let us know!

We thought it was time for a check in and to send out some additional information about our week long event. First off, we're really excited to see how many of you will be joining in with posts for the last week of the year. And if you haven't signed up, not to worry.... there's still plenty of time! The more the Merrier! I know we're just as excited to check out everyone's lists as we are to posting each of ours.

In the first post about the event we mentioned a giveaway. Each person to signs up AND participates will be entered into a giveaway for.......

A $50.00 Amazon Gift Card!

ONE lucky participant will be eligible to win!! Entering is easy. Get your first entry by signing up for the event with the Linky at this post by >>>CLICKING HERE<<< Check out this post for all the details about the event!

To receive additional entries, be sure that you visit one of the 4 co-hosts blogs December 26th through the 30th. Each of these days will have a Linky for that days Top 10 List. All you have to do to get that extra entry is to link YOUR list with the correct topic for the day and your set! Just remember, EACH of the five days will have a NEW Linky for that days Top 10 Topic. We will be checking the winners link to make sure that they have participated.

Here's a quick recap of the dates and topics -


Monday 12/26 – Top 10 Books I’ve read in 2011

Tuesday 12/27 – Top 10 Book Covers of 2011 (can be ANY books released in 2011, doesn't have to be JUST book read in 2011)

Wednesday 12/28 – Top 10 Book Boyfriends in 2011 (based on books read in 2011)

Thursday 12/29 – Top 10 Characters in 2011 (This can be anything you'd like to make it for characters. You can post your favorite Villains, etc. Just be sure that this post is character based.)

Friday 12/30 – Top 10 Books I’m looking forward to in 2012 (also on this day, we'll each be adding something of a recap of the total number of books read, pages read, etc. This part of the post is optional. Feel free to add any stats you'd like to share with everyone. So, if you'd like to also include some end of year stats, feel free to join us!)

How you do these posts/lists is totally up to you. What books, covers and characters you pick are all your own.

The only rules to follow are posting the topics on the dates we've provided.

If you've already signed up, great and if you're just signing up now, were excited to have you! 

Don't forget to >>>CLICK HERE<<< and sign up using the Linky! 

Hello and welcome to........

Top 10: A Week of Looking Back....

                                .........and Looking Forward.

Last year Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic and I posted some Top 10 lists the last week of 2010. For five days we recapped some of our favorite books, covers and characters. We also listed some books we were looking forward to in 2011. This year we thought we'd do it again... just with a twist. We have invited some friends to help us co-host things and make an event out of it! Rachel from Fiktshun & Jaime & Patricia from Two Chicks on Books and Jessica and I have all come together to work on making this into something we hope more people will want to join in on and contribute. You're probably wondering what the topics of this years Top 10 lists will be and the dates, right? Well I have all that info for you here....

Monday 12/26 – Top 10 Books I’ve read in 2011

Tuesday 12/27 – Top 10 Book Covers of 2011

Wednesday 12/28 – Top 10 Book Boyfriends in 2011

Thursday 12/29 – Top 10 Characters in 2011 (This can be anything you'd like to make it for characters. You can post your favorite Villains, etc. Just be sure that this post is character based.)

Friday 12/30 – Top 10 Books I’m looking forward to in 2012 (also on this day, we'll each be adding something of a recap of the total number of books read, pages read, etc. This part of the post is optional. Feel free to add any stats you'd like to share with everyone. So, if you'd like to also include some end of year stats, feel free to join us!)

How you do these posts/lists is totally up to you. What books, covers and characters you pick are all your own.

The only rules to follow are posting the topics on the dates we've provided.

Now, I know what you're all thinking. That this will be hard to keep to 10. Some of you might like to break the lists up a bit. Working with a Top 10 for YA books and then a Top 10 for Adult titles. Feel free to add honorable mentions if you're also having a hard time sticking to 10. However, with the honorable mentions, please try to keep it to a minimum or it kind of defeats the whole purpose of things.

Our main focus of this event is for YOU to join in and share your lists with us all and for everyone to visit each others blogs' and see what books have made it on THEIR lists.

The event is simple. Follow the dates and list topics as provided and fill out the linky below. This gives us an idea who will be joining us for the Top 10 week. THEN, be sure to come back to one of our blogs on each of the days and link up your post for that specific day! Just remember, each day will have a linky for THAT Top 10 topic.

At the end of the event we will be picking a winner using Random.org from the people who have posted their lists and added their info to the linky for each day. Total number of maximum entries is 6. Telling us you are joining in on the event in today's linky is your first entry. Posting your top 10 each day with the correct topic on the correct day, THEN coming back to add your link to the linky for that day gives you another entry. Additional Giveaway details will be provided soon, so keep checking back to find out what we'll be giving away!

NOTE: this is the SAME Linky on each of the Co-Hosts Blogs, so please only enter your Name, Blog Name and URL on one blog. Thanks!

Be sure to take the button provided for the event and display it on your blog and link it back to this post so anyone who wants to find out more info about the event easily knows how to find us.

We hope everyone who reads this will be as excited for this event as we are and we can't wait to check out all of your lists!

Guess what ladies and gentlemen? It's that time of the year again. For those of you who are already well-aware of Haunted Halloween, you know what crazy things are about to happen. If you are new to the event just >>>CLICK HERE<<< to see what we did last year.

This is the 2nd year of Haunted Halloween: True Tales of the Paranormal and Jessica (from Confessions of a Bookaholic) and I have been working tirelessly to try to make this year's event even better!

What Can You Expect?

Last year we gave away around 150 books and featured over 65 authors. This year we are expecting it to exceed that amount by quite a few! And, that's not all. We have added other giveaways to the mix. We have some incredible donations from a few etsy stores and other "bookish" places.

But it gets better! You know how we all love authors, right? They are pretty much our celebrities? Well what if you had something unique and custom made from one of your favorite authors? Not just signed...but actually designed by them and completely one-of-a-kind. Stay tuned for more information on that! We gotta keep a few things secret :)

Contests

We will be having some large giveaways and those include the Cover and Story contests. We will also be running the Comment Contest throughout the month of October. Information on all of this will be posted tomorrow and Saturday.

Pretty much each day we will be posting an "extra" giveaway during the evening. Those are special items that have been donated.

Each day both blogs will have an author guest post. Most of those posts will have a giveaway attached. Those items were donated by the author or from the publicist.

Twitter Party

Last year we had a twitter party and it was insane! It absolutely exceeded my expectations and we had a blast. We plan to do that again this year but we will have even more giveaways going on. People will have the chance to answer trivia questions (related to the author posts) and win books or swag. We will post more details on that next week.

Thanks to Tawni from Forever Design Studio for making this year's graphics!