Lucky Seven!

Hello my preciousi!
Preciouses? Preciousi? What exactly is the plural of precious? 


Moving on.


The tour has started, and I am so pleased that The Kiss Off is getting some super-fab reviews.
I'm def. looking forward to release day on May 15!
But I'm not talking about all that today.


I was tagged in a Lucky Seven post by lovely YA Taste Test author (the sampler with awesome books by awesome authors I'm part of), Melissa Pearl! This is a fun meme where you must post an excerpt from one of your books and this excerpt has to be seven sentences, lines or paragraphs from page 77, seven lines down.


So! Page 77, 7 lines from the top of The Kiss Off in which you find Poppy double-booking herself.


“Bring them to the club! I mean, if you want to.”
“I want to!”
“Really?” he said. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll talk to them, it’ll be fine. I’m looking forward to it.”
When I called Vanya, there was a different opinion. “What happened to girls night?” she asked. “‘Just us three hanging out, no boys allowed’?”
“I know, but-”
“You’re going specifically to see Ty, Poppy. Ty is a boy.”

TAGGING TIME!

I tag:


1. Shirley Marr!
2. Amie Kaufman!
3. Meg Spooner!
4. Edith Cohn!
5. Erin Fry!
6. Angela Townsend!
7. Veronica Blade!


Why do I tag these perfect people? For selfish reasons, really. I want to read their extracts!


What's your weekend looking like? I'm going to the ice hockey! And celebrating the ability to breathe through my nose, a skill which one entirely overlooks until you have a cold and simply can't do it anymore.

The Kiss Off - touring the blogosphere!

It's that time!

Release day is imminent (May 15) so I, and The Kiss Off are going on a working holiday!
We'll be joining lots of fabulous bloggers, so be sure to check out the blogs below on their tour dates to find out what they think of the book, find interviews with yours truly and guest posts on a range of topics including a book review (how much did I love The Statistical Probability of Love at First sight, you ask? Visit I Love YA Fiction to find out!), some top 10 lists, me with my business hat on, talking editing over at the Bookshelf Muse, and more!

BUT WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

By visiting the tour stops below and leaving a comment (or however else that blogger determines prize drawings), you go into the draw to win the complete Sarah Billington ebook pack!


That's this:

Check out my website for book descriptions

TOUR STOPS

Monday, April 23 - ChickLitGirl

Tuesday, April 24 - Readinista

Wednesday, April 25 - The Writer's Republic

Thursday, April 26 - Simplistik

Friday, April 27 - A Word's Worth

Saturday, April 28 - Shweta's Book Journal

Sunday, April 29 - Chocolate Coffee Books

Monday, April 30 - The Secret Life of An Avid Reader

Tuesday, May 1 - Dead Trees and Silver Screens

Wednesday, May 2 - I Love YA Fiction

Thursday, May 3 - The Reader's Antidote

Friday, May 4 - The Life of Fiction

Saturday, May 5 - Crazed Bookie

Sunday, May 6 - Maji Bookshelf

Monday, May 7 - The Magic Attic

Tuesday, May 8 - The Australian Bookshelf

Wednesday, May 9 - Book Briefs & Candice W. Coghill's Blog

Thursday, May 10 - 1001 First Lines

Saturday, May 12 - The Bookshelf Muse

Monday, May 14 - Pages of Forbidden Love

Tuesday, May 15 - The (EPIC) Rat & The Magic Attic

See you there!

FREE DOWNLOAD: Discover Upcoming Young Adult Books!

FREE DOWNLOAD: Discover your new
favourite Young Adult authors!

YA Paranormal and Contemporary Romance Sampler 2012 by Sarah Billington (that's me!), Veronica Blade, CJ Duggan, Laura Eno, Michelle A. Hansen, Nolia McCarty, Melissa Pearl & Brenda Howson, and LM Preston  

This book is a taste test of all things YA Romance. Within these pages you'll find excerpts from a range of contemporary, paranormal and Sci Fi YA stories that have either just been released or are coming out later this year. There is also a brand new full short story from Veronica Blade for you to enjoy. Nine fantastic authors are featured and we are all very excited about sharing our work with you.  

Download from Smashwords  

Available in web-reading, Kindle, ePub, PDF, RTF, LRF and Palm Doc formats 

Don't have a Smashwords account? Download Kindle direct from Sarah Billington.com (and ePub and PDF sometime later today. For some reason they're freezing when I try to add them. Le frustrated sigh).

Lots of variety here, I bet you'll find someone you love!

Blog Tour Announcement

The release of my next book, The Kiss Off is just over a month away and very very soon the blog tour, hosted by the lovely Missy of Missy's Reads & Reviews starts in just 12 days!

I'm so stoked; already bloggers and early reviewers are rating the book on Goodreads (reviews to come during the tour) and it's all 4 or 5 out of 5 stars! I'm so thrilled because I'm REALLY proud of this book.

WIN STUFF!

During the tour, visit as many stops as you like and make sure to leave a comment (or enter via that particular blog's system) and go in the draw to win EVERY SARAH BILLINGTON BOOK TO DATE.

I'll let you know where to visit and when as soon as I have the details!

Check out the first chapter of The Kiss Off for FREE right here!

Adios amigas and amigos!

H is for Having Star Power

One of my favourite movie for kids is Zathura.

It has the awesome of Jumanji but IN SPACE. Yes? Yes.

It is not possible for you to tell me that is in fact NOT awesome,
and for me to believe you.

I already knew this was an awesome flick, but I did NOT realise that it had some serious star power going on.

It's Bella and itty-bitty Peeta! (Okay, not completely itty-bitty, but itty-bitty enough!)

Two of the hottest commodities in YA books-turned-movie franchises on the planet right now.
(You know I'm talking Twilight and The Hunger Games, right?)

Hard to believe through this photo that nowadays they're playing characters that are the same age, right? Ah, movie magic.
Later gators,

G is for Ghosts

I believe in ghosts. Do you?

Actually, let me rephrase that. I WANT to believe in ghosts and I sort of do but I still have that niggling doubt that lingers when it comes to things like this. I don't have 100% faith that ghosts exist.

Nowadays, you can't prove it if you've seen a ghost. Even if you snap a photo of them, or catch them on camera, the technology is so advanced that it's SO EASY to fake your footage.

I'm not saying this is definitely fake, but it could be. Found it here.

1. Paste an image of a person into a photo.
2. Lower the opacity on the image of the person so that they are transparent and voila. You have yourself a genuine ghost.

A (long since passed) aunt of mine could see spirits. And according to my mother, my grandmother (aunt's sister) who very much had her head firmly on her shoulders and didn't believe in this stuff...she saw a ghost too. That followed them when they moved house.

And then at least a decade after he saw them, my uncle (my mum's brother) who didn't believe in ghosts admitted that he saw that same ghost as my grandmother, a little girl in my grandmother's bedroom.

It seems to run in our family. When I was younger, in primary school, I saw things too. I can't call them ghosts, because they were out of the corner of my eye and when I looked properly, they were gone.

But at my primary school, I saw a little girl in an old-fashioned dress, with  ribbons in her hair. But she was gone when I looked properly.

And in class, there was a lady with her hair in a loose bun at the back of her head, walking behind the students, checking our progress. But she was gone when I looked at her properly as she reached me. And she was NOT my teacher.

On a tour of a haunted house in York, England two years ago, we were encouraged to take lots of photos, so my friend and I did.
My friend had the misfortune of somehow deleting ALL the photos of her trip after she got back, but before that happened she showed her sister the photos from that day. Of me, in the house. And her sister spotted, in several photos, a translucent young girl in old-fashioned clothing. I never saw the pictures so I don't know.

But there have been too many stories over the centuries for ghosts NOT to exist, right?

I haven't seen anything like all this in a long time. Maybe I'm not receptive to them anymore.

This all probably explains why I love the show Ghost Hunters so much.

Look what I'm a part of: YA Teaser!

Coming very very soon. FREE eBOOK with sample chapters from new and upcoming titles from some excellent authors...including me!