EUROVISION PARTY IN MY JIM JAMS!

Shockingly, I knew when Eurovision started BEFORE it started, this year, and STILL I was not organised enough to hold a Eurovision party. So I'm partying in my jim jams!

Drink every time someone says love!

Drink when there's a mid-song costume change!

Drink when there are pyrotechnics!

Not to mention Jedwards Aquatechnics (is that a word? I'm going with it) and red cordial inspired dance moves...why are they space men here exactly? Anyhoo.

Everyone playing at home are getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaaasted.

So Round 1 is over, 3 out of 4 of my favourites went through to the finals! Who did you love? Who did you hate?

I was pretty bummed Austria didn't make it through, to be honest. Though I wasn't a huge fan of the hoochie pole dancers, I thought the song was catchy and you could sing along to the chorus even though it was in Austrian. And it feels naughty cos it sounds like they're saying a rude English word in the chorus, so I'm sure the kids will be singing that around the house all weekend.

Though the second round is still 10 hours away, I know my pick for the Eurovision 2012 winners:

RUSSIA!

Buranovskiye Babushki and their hit Party For Everybody.

Six grannies singing a party song with a spinning oven in the background. How can it go wrong?

If you wanna play at home, SBS have some fun Eurovision party ideas including costumes, conversation starters and games to get you started!

I'll be live tweeting tonight with the hashtag #SBSEurovision. See you on da flip side!

YOUNG ADULT TASTE TEST TOUR + GIVEAWAYS!

You wouldn't believe the trouble I've been having getting into this blog to...you know...do ANYTHING with it. But I'm back!


Hope you've had a good week and are enjoying the weekend.


I have BIG THINGS I want to talk to you about.


The first is this: THE YA TASTE TEST AUTHORS ARE ON TOUR!

Alas, I'm not on tour with them as I'm snowed under with work at the moment, but it doesn't mean you need to miss out on the fun!


Snag a copy of the Taste Test ebook (FREE!) in which you can sample the opening 1-4 chapters of a bunch of YA books from different genres (all with a little luuuurve in them) and hop around their blogs to get to know the authors behind the awesome stories, and most importantly ENTER THE GIVEAWAY TO WIN STUFF.

Here is the schedule and giveaway information for the Taste Test Blog Tour. Don't miss your chance to get to know some fantastic new authors and win some very cool stuff.

PARTICIPATING BLOGS:

http://can-duu.blogspot.com - CJ Duggan's Blog

http://www.michelleahansen.com - Michelle A. Hansen's Blog

http://heather.bishoffs.com - Nolia McCarty's Blog

http://yalicious.blogspot.com - Brenda Howson's Blog

http://lmpreston.blogspot.com - LM Preston's Blog

http://melissapearl.blogspot.com - Melissa Pearl's Blog

Each author will be featured on all six blogs on a particular day with different guest posts and interviews - all of them are short, sweet and a ton of fun to read.

TOUR SCHEDULE:

MAY
Monday 21st - CJ Duggan
Tuesday 22nd - Michelle A. Hansen
Wednesday 23rd - Nolia McCarty (aka Heather Marie Adkins)
Thursday 24th - Brenda Howson
Monday 28th - LM Preston
Tuesday 29th - Melissa Pearl

PRIZE PACKS:

CJ Duggan
Summer Pack - Beach bag, lip balm, bookmark, autographed The Boys of Summer print

Michelle A. Hansen
A printed copy of Painted Blind, a signed Painted Blind 8x12 cover enlargement, a Painted Blind promo pack containing bookmark, postcard, hand made soap and lip balm

Nolia McCarty
Digital copies of Heaven Below and Eternal Youth

Brenda Howson
The same type of necklace worn by Mica and Lexy in Forbidden Territory, a bookmark and a digital ARC of Forbidden Territory

LM Preston
A keychain, a magnet and an ARC paperback copy of The Pack - Retribution

Melissa Pearl
The same type of necklace worn by Mica and Lexy in Forbidden Territory, a bookmark and a digital ARC of Forbidden Territory


A Taste Test Prize Pack
Digital copies of:
The Kiss Off by Sarah Billington
My Enchanted Life by Laura Eno
Painted Blind by Michelle A. Hansen
Eternal Youth by Julia Crane and Nolia McCarty
ARC of Forbidden Territory
ARC of The Pack: Retribution
Golden Blood by Melissa Pearl
Paperback copy of:
From Fame to Shame by Veronica Blade
Bookmark and lip balm from CJ Duggan


So um...why are you still here? :)

RELEASE DAY!

Well Release Day kind of came and went without much fan fair, didn't it? That's okay, as I figure there was plenty of fan fair the couple of months leading up to release day.

So without further ado, The Kiss Off is out in the wilds of the interwebs!

Meet Poppy and her besties and a pretty hot rock band, Academy of Lies over at Amazon!

Or perhaps Amazon's not your scene, it's pretty crowded over there so maybe you think it'd be better to chill together at say, Smashwords.


You DO need a membership to enter both of those venues. But come over to my place, (my website) and you and Poppy and the gang can chill, membership free!

That's a roundabout way of saying you can buy the ebook from my website. I really appreciate when readers make a purchase from my website, as I get a much higher cut of the profits than anywhere else. But by all means, shop where you like to shop!


It will be available at Barnes & Noble, Itunes, Sony, Kobo and Diesel as soon as it filters through the pipes there, and the paperback is coming to Amazon, Book Depository and goodness, I don't know where else, soon!

Soon I will tell you all about three...wait...four. FOUR new stories that are coming soon!

You can be kept in the loop about new releases before anyone else by signing up for the Sarah Billington New Releases Mailing List. I should probably work on that title, huh.

Subscribe to my new release alert mailing list!

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That's it for now, cheerio, mi amigos!

The Kiss Off Paperback GIVEAWAY

Are you on Goodreads? If you're a book lover, it's a great place to talk books with other people who GET you. I love Goodreads. So I am hosting a PAPERBACK giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Kiss Off

by Sarah Billington

Giveaway ends July 31, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Tres excitement!

It's open to anyone in the world, so I may be a little scared of what the postage is going to cost, but I DON'T CARE. There is no reason anyone should be excluded just because of geography.

So, enter away! 

The blog tour has been super-fun and if you've been following it at all I imagine you've learned some things about me and the book and seen some reviews that made me dance like this.

I'm so grateful to all the bloggers and reviewers who have been a part of the tour. It means the world to me that you took time out of your busy schedules to fit me in. Alas, the tour is drawing to a close. Why, you ask? BECAUSE RELEASE DAY (FOR THE EBOOK) IS UPON US, PEOPLE. May 15 is so close I could touch it if it were an object and not...you know...a day. And perhaps-kinda-sorta if you don't want to wait to win the paperback, the ebook is available on Amazon and Smashwords RIGHT NOW. Coming to B&N, Kobo, Sony, ITunes and more soon.


That's all for now, my lovelies!

Events! Events! Melbourne Young Adult Author Events!

My diary is getting chock-full of events this month and the following ones and I gotta share with you: There are some super-fab sounding author events coming up in Melbourne that you might be interested in:

May 17 4pm: Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame will be at Ward Sager Pty Ltd
Shop 21, 10 Arthur Street, Eltham VIC

Free Event. Email: books@wardsagar.com.au 

May 19 2pm: Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid graphic novels will be at Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne ($20 full/ $12 concession, book through the Wheeler Centre)









May 23 5pm: Isobelle Carmody, author of Obernewtyn, book launch for Metro Winds at Readings, 701 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn
Free Event. Phone: 9819 1917









May 26 3:30pm Karen Tayleur, author of Six, book launch for Love Notes From Vinegar House at The Little Book Room, Carlton









June 21 6pm: Christopher Paolini, author of Eragon at the Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne ($20 full/ $12 concession, book through the Wheeler Centre)








July 27 6pm: Jodi Picoult, author of My Sister's Keeper at Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne ($20 full/$12 concession, book through the Wheeler Centre)
and

July 31 12:30pm Sarah Billington (ME!) author of The Kiss Off, The Chapel, NMIT Fairfield, Yarra Bend Rd, Fairfield.










I haven't read all of these authors but I know I'm going to learn something from each of them.

I'm excited. How lucky are we, Melbournites? See you there!

Fears and Free Stuff

One of my short stories, The Death and Life of Rocky the Crab is FREE on Amazon TODAY. AND TOMORROW. AND THE DAY AFTER.


It's free until the end of May 3rd.

(It currently has a different cover, but will swap over to this one any time from now)

I really like this story, especially since it's based on a true story.
Though the fictional account is a comedy, if this were to happen to me, I would be screaming my guts up and possibly crying and huddled in the furthest corner.











I have a fear of crabs.
And crustaceans. And spiders and all creepy crawly kind of things with lots of scuttling legs.


AND CHECK OUT THOSE PINCERS. I have a fear of those, you betcha. I would NOT successfully sword fight a crab under a bed (read the short story).

So, as much as I like my story, it also makes me uncomfortable because it makes me think of things I'm scared of.

What are YOU scared of?

Another free thing that I'm totally not scared of is the YA Taste Test ebook sampler!


Go forth and grab your free copy in kindle, epub, pdf and more from Smashwords RIGHT NOW. It's  chock-full of excellence, I swear.

That's it from me, today. The Kiss Off Tour is going splendidly - go comment on the blogs and WIN THINGS.

KISS OFF Tour Schedule
Monday, April 23 - Review @ ChickLitGirl
Tuesday, April 24 - Interview & Review @ Readinista
Wednesday, April 25 - Review @ The Writer's Republic
Thursday, April 26 - Review @ Simplistik
Friday, April 27 - Guest Post & Review @ A Word's Worth
Sunday, April 29 - Guest Post @ Chocolate Coffee Books
Monday, April 30 - Review @ The Secret Life of An Avid Reader
Tuesday, May 1 - Interview & Review @ Dead Trees and Silver Screens
Wednesday, May 2 - Guest Post & Review @ I Love YA Fiction
Thursday, May 3 - Guest Post & Review @ The Reader's Antidote
Friday, May 4 - Review @ The Life of Fiction
Saturday, May 5 - Guest Post & Review @ Crazed Bookie
Sunday, May 6 - Interview @ Review @ Maji Bookshelf
Monday, May 7 - Guest Post @ The Magic Attic
Tuesday, May 8 - Feature @ The Australian Bookshelf
Wednesday, May 9 - Review @ Book Briefs
& Feature @ Candice W. Coghill's Blog
Thursday, May 10 - Interview @ 1001 First Lines
Saturday, May 12 - Guest Post @ The Bookshelf Muse
Monday, May 14 - Interview & Review @ Pages of Forbidden Love
Tuesday, May 15 - Guest Post & Review @ The (EPIC) Rat
& Review @ The Magic Attic
& Official Release of THE KISS OFF


Adios!