A Ton Of Awesomesauceness

Hey Blogger Buds,
Four things on the agenda today. Well, five. Let's start with number five:
School is killing me slowly.
Aaaaaaaaand back to the beginning. I've got some squeeing, some Paying It Forward, and some Early Thanksgiving.

1) This is me gloating. I got some awesome books in the mail in the past week:

• The Dragon's Tooth (Ashtown Burials #1) by N. D. Wilson (thanks to the editor for the gift!)
• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (won from Read It, See It. Thanks, Megan!)

And, just today, two of my Top Books of 2011. (These babies were up there with The Iron Queen, Angelfire, and Forever.)

• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (won from Big Honcho Media, through Books Over Boys. Thanks Momo!)(Yay!!)
• The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa (bought from B&N. Ecstatic.) (Does anyone know why the book has deckled edges? Is that on purpose?)(Deckled edge is when the sides of the pages aren't even, and look like they were torn out or something.)(Google told me that.)

Okay. I got some awesome books this week. First though, I'm in middle of Hourglass. And then my copy of Inheritance should be coming, and I want to return Hourglass the same day I take out Paolini's. (It's a long story.) I'm really surprised about the lack of buzz there is for this book. A whole 20 hours after the book was released, there were still no reviews on Goodreads. (How long is this book, anyway?)

2) Anyway, that was supposed to be the quickest point. BUT, if you've been TL;DR-ing, pay attention here. This is the important part. You guys know about The Dark Divine, right? Of course you do. It's about werewolves. It's awesome. So Bree Despain has a short eBook story, THE LOST LETTERS OF BROTHER GABRIEL, which is $1.99!!! And that's not even the best part.

If you order The Lost Letter (under 2 bucks!) before June 2012, all proceeds will be donated to "Kids Need To Read." More info on Ms. Despain's blog.

3) You know Beth Revis? Of course you know Beth Revis. And I bet you also know the latest awesomeness of Beth Revis.

AND, I'm here to tell you of one book that I'm thankful for. This book inspired me to start writing. Of course, I could get more specific and credit (read: blame) my fifth grade English teacher for my love of writing. FC, you rock.

BUT, I'm not here to tell you about my teacher. I'm here to tell you about the book that made me write a short story, and then a "novel" about cats. (I quit when I got writer's block, and moved on to "adult" book ideas, like teenage girls running around trying to kill bad guys with old daggers.) I was a little girl who liked animals, and "kitties!!" so I picked up this book (well, I actually picked up the third book. I read out of order. 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6). And I followed the series obsessively for several years. I still read the series, but not as much. I've kind of grown out of MG.

Do I recommend this book for the majority of my blog readers? No. Do I recommend it for the younger kids in my Blogger Buds life that love animals? Oh yes.

So. What book is this that I'm talking about?

Warriors by Erin Hunter

Rusty starts out as an ordinary house kitten, but his travels deep into the forest involve him in the epic battles of the cat warrior clans who roam (and rule) the wild.
With a new name -- Firepaw -- and a position as a Thunderclan apprentice, our feline hero faces his destiny, struggles with issues of friendship, honor, courage, and betrayal, and learns what it truly means to be a warrior. (Goodreads)

These books are absolutely brilliant. I think meeting one of the authors (the series is a collab, but you can't tell. One person plots, the other two take turns putting pen to paper.

The saga is made up of sets of 6 books. Each book has it's own plot, of course, with a big plot solved at the end of book 6. (But, except for the first series, a new plot is opened up in the end of the last book.)

There are 22 books out, another out in a few weeks, and the final book in the current set (Ome of the Stars) out in 2012 (according to Goodreads.)

There are also companion novels to the series. :)

These books used to be my absolute favorite series. And I blame them for making me write.

So. Now you're wondering why I just raved about this series. I blame (read: credit) Beth Revis. This is why:

4) It's no secret that I love the Iron Fey (see #1). One of my favorite sites to kill time when I should be writing is eLouai.com, specifically their main game. I'm a girl, I admit I like dress-up games. Instead of writing, I spend hours designing my characters. Maybe I'll show you some day.
Anyways. I love the Iron Fey. I was bored.
The product of these two can't be a good thing.
But I love Puck. And...

Two things to note:

~I couldn't find a black bird.

~The wings are there to be ironic.

Okay, that post was way too long. And school will now proceed to kill me even slower. Soooo.......

Peace, Fey, Werewolves, and Cats,

Riv