Short, Sassy & Scary! Available Now!

Hello most excellent ones!

I have NEWS. Firstly I got out of suburbia this weekend and headed to the country to visit one of my bestest friends in Yarrawonga, Victoria, Australia.

On the way there, I had to pull over and take a photo of the sunset because it was absolutely beautiful.

But then I looked at the photo, and it makes me think I seem to have survived the apocalypse. Don't you think? Yowza.

I seem to have gotten into the WORST ROUTINE EVER and am wide awake and working at 6am these days, so while my friend was sleeping off the end of the school term (she's an English teacher, who, I discovered today, yells homework assignments at her students as they walk past her down the street. I think all three of us - the student, the teacher and I - were horrified at this development), for a couple of hours before she got up I was hard at work on what I have to say is my favourite scene so far of the The Kiss Off book two. 

And. AND. New books alert!

Well. Sort of new. I have bundled three of my short contemporary young adult titles into the Sarah Billington Short & Sassy Collection: Volume One, and a mixed bag of four of my scary stories into the Sarah Billington Short & Scary Collection: Volume One.

Observe:

Pretty, yes? And by buying in bulk, it's cheaper for YOU, and I make more money. Win-win, right? 

AND though I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the cover for my middle grade novel Life Was Cool Until You Got Popular, I can't use it for the print edition which IS BEING MADE AND WILL HOPEFULLY BE AVAILABLE WITHIN 6-8 WEEKS.

And though I LOVE LOVE LOVE the cover up there, I SUPER LOVE the new cover. For realz. And you'll see it soon, I promise.

That's it from me for now. How about you?

FREE BOOKS: Edwina Ray and Sarah Billington - When 2 Become 1

Some of you may know that I sort of have two personalities. There is Sarah Billington who is kind of upbeat and happy and tortures her characters with humiliation, and then there is Edwina Ray who is a bit darker, a bit scarier and tortures her characters with actual torture.

I kept the two types of genres I write fairly separate through the two names, but by no means did I make it a secret that Edwina was Sarah but with more eye liner.

Let's face it, I can't tell lies, I get all weird and obvious, so if anyone was to ACTUALLY call me Edwina (even though it IS my middle name) I would go all red and weird and stupid.

I don't think any of us deserve to go through the awkwardness of that.

SO. Edwina Ray's stories are getting rolled into Sarah Billington! This means that soon, Sarah Billington, the author is going to have a dark side some readers might be a bit surprised about.

I was a little worried, as the author of a middle grade novel for girls (Life Was Cool Until You Got Popular) that those readers might inadvertently pick up another Sarah Billington story and end up scarred by the inner-workings of a zombie's food-related fantasies (I, Zombie) because they didn't realise there would be a big, big difference between the two types of stories I write.

But my readers are smart people. And the covers of the scarier stories sure give off a different feel to the covers of the humour titles. I think we're good.

To celebrate the merging of Edwina Ray and Sarah Billington, I have two short stories going COMPLETELY FREE on Amazon.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

FREE Aug 31 - Sept 3, 2012

In the small town of Carringwood, Doug and every other resident turn out to watch the drama as the Gabarski home burns down. Luckily Shana and the kids got out. And her husband Peter is mysteriously absent. Speculation runs rife through the town, why are arson investigators here? Did Peter do it? Why did he do it? But Doug wonders something else. If it wasn't Peter, who was it?

Life Was Easier When Boys 

Were Stupid

                                         FREE Aug 31 - Sept 4, 2012

Jess is at a party and girls and boys around her are locked together at the lips and hips. When did everyone grow up so fast? She's not sure she wants to, but her girl friend Carla points out a boy across the room with eyes only for Jess. 

Life Was Easier When Boys Were Stupid won the Gippsland Award in the Fellowship of Australian Writers Awards.

LIFE WAS EASIER INCLUDES A SNEAK PEEK AT CHAPTER ONE OF THE HIT NEW NOVEL: THE KISS OFF!

Get a taste of both sides of Sarah Billington FOR FREE. If you feel so inclined (and I really hope you do), leave a short review, as reviews are integral to any author's success.

BUT THERE'S MORE!

The Kiss Off

99c FOR ONE WEEK ONLY

WARNING: Sexual references, occassional course language.

When sixteen year old Poppy Douglas writes a song about her ex-boyfriend Cam and ex-friend Nikki, she has no idea that her heartbreak is about to go global. 

A local band picks up her song from Youtube and soon she's along for the ride with her own fanbase as they blow up on the local club scene and hit the international charts. Though it turns out leaving Cam behind isn't as easy as she had hoped. 

Tangled in a web of unfinished homework, ill-considered sexting and a new lead-singer boyfriend, Poppy has a choice to make between the ex that inspired it all and the rock God whose poster lines the inside of half the lockers at school. But as she struggles to keep her emotional dirty laundry private, she learns that the truth can be hard to find when your life is in the headlines.

Just as an added extra. :)

Happy reading, lovelies!

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!

I finished writing my book today!

Okay, not 10 minutes ago, I wrote The End below 3,772 lines of text, or over 43,000 words.

It's not a long novel, but it's a complete long work which is actually a bit longer than the series of books I wrote it for are supposed to be but that's okay because soon comes editing!
Today comes celebration and relaxation and 'Oh my God I did it'-ation.
And a bit of mourning. I'm gonna miss those characters and thinking about what they're doing and thinking every day.

But NOW I'm thinking about my next lot of characters, and what THEY will be getting up to. Their personalities are coming through, and some stuff that has happened to them, but I don't have names yet. But that's what my baby name books are for. Writers get more use out of them than pregnant ladies. We need hundreds of names. New parents only need a couple and it gets dusty on the shelf.

Anyhoo, that's all I'm about today. Finished my book! With 3 days to spare! Ya-hay!

And I got my results for first semester this morning, and got 2 credits, a distinction and a high distinction which I'm completely stoked about. I didn't even think I was going to PASS Sociology, but I got 66% for the subject! Woo frickin hoooooo!

Oh and I went to the movies last night and saw Mamma Mia and it is awesome. Very funny and just plain fun! Enjoy.

Looking forward to Hancock which I'll see soon.

Ta ta! Gone to smile a lot and wonder what the hell to do now.

Sairz

Ugly Betty & those Mother Fu**ing Snakes on a Plane

I started watching Ugly Betty when it first started on TV, and was really hooked, loved the show.

But then when you get really busy and forget to tape an episode to watch, and then forget the next week and you're a couple of weeks behind...or you DID tape it but never watched it and it's been a month and you've sorta lost the passion for the show...well that happened to me with Ugly Betty, way back when.

However, I have just had an Ugly Betty marathon, I'm all caught up, and can I just say - how much do I love Henry, the Accountant. He's adorable and goofy and just the kinda guy I want one day. Though I could do without all of the embarrassing conversations, and oh my God, Henry and Betty - King and Queen of cuteness and bad timing, don't you reckon? But yeah. Screw the hot guys, like Daniel etc.

Henry's my man. Phwoar.

You know how people say to be confident, that's what others look for? Well I sure as hell don't! Confidence can be intimidating. Especially if you reckon they're good looking.

I say be a wall flower, look a little uncomfortable and voila, that'll make ME more confident! :)

And I love how passionate he is about maths. Passion about something is so awesome, I reckon. People just light up when they talk about it!

Be passionate about something, people.

Anyhoo, I was also gonna blog about Snakes on a Plane, which I just finished watching half an hour ago (My sister visited me today on her way through to our parents place for a couple of days and I decided to tag along, so there's a whole lot of lying in bed, cuddling my doggies, watching movies going on. And napping. There's lots and lots of napping. But yeah - movies.

I had heard Snakes on a Plane was quite comical etc. There was so much hype about it when it came out in 2006. Well. Can I just say, if you're already just a bit afraid of snakes (as in the idea of them is scary, but you haven't come into contact with one that wants to kill you, so you have no real reason to be scared. Like spiders, those teeny tiny little insects like a billion times smaller than you that make some of us run screaming from the room. Or call a man - any man - in to get rid of it cos you don't want to get too close. But I mean, it's not like that's ME I'm talking about...I'm just saying.) So yeah, if you're a bit scared of snakes to start with, then perhaps Snakes on a Plane is not for you. There was just a bit too much death and carnage for my liking. Well - no, I can handle my horror movies. But I guess I wasn't expecting it so much from this one. Like when I watch Rescue Dawn sure. I'll be prepared then.

I'm not gonna go into how it was a bit formulaic - as in 'Yes! We're safe! The snakes are trapped downstairs (with all the dead people and the dude being swallowed by an anaconda) we just have to wait it out until we land!' and moments later: ' Oh. Okay, so the pilots are both dead and we're kind of crashing.' You know what I mean? Erm. Sorry. Spoiler...back there.

Alright well that's it from me.

Enjoy your weekend!

Sairz

Losing my phone. Again.

I hadn't even gotten out of bed this morning and realised my phone was not beside me. I use it as a clock and since it wasn't there, I remembered I hadn't actually seen it since I got home yesterday. Or heard it.

So I scrounged around in my bag. No. Braved the wind and trekked to my car and had a good ol' looksy in there. Nope. I did however find some longlasting Gobstoppers (which SO don't last long) under the car seat, as well as a teeny little roll on perfume I bought - a fake of Cool Water which smells really nice when you put it on but the smell's gone by the time it dries and...ee gads. My EFT card!

It was under the car seat. How it fell out of my bag AND wallet and slid back there I'll have no idea. But I found it before I knew it was missing, which deducts a bit of anxiety and heart ache so I reckon I came out on top, right?

But there was no phone.

So back inside, I found one of my house mates up and she rang my phone whilst I dug around in the ever growing pile of clothes by my bed. There was no noise coming from my room - but apparently it was ringing.

So I took her phone out to the car, just to double check and voila! My phone was ringing and vibrating and flashing indignantly at me from the rubbish bag. Thank cripes there wasn't anything really icky in there, and I hadn't decided to piff it out between yesterday and now.

So my phone is home and happily charging away, and my EFT card is sitting beside me, about to be taken home to to my wallet, and I'm smelling all Cool Water fresh!...for now.

Ta ta!


Sairz

I am a Tool

Okay, so yeah - I had 2 things to do today, right? And one of them involved leaving the house. GET HANGERS.

Well I was woken up at 10:47am this morning - the indignity of such an early call, don't you think? I've learnt to do a lot of throat clearing before answering when I've been a lazy bum and slept in - otherwise you get caught out, and it's embarassing.

Anyhoo, woopee! The DVD I ordered came in so I decided I'd head to Traralgon, might as well drop in those job applications I'd been meaning to do on the way.

So since my printer has the paper jam from hell, I called my friend Dave and asked if I could pop around and print them off, it was on the way.

So off I went and he, his mate Ross and I had a good laugh - he too, is obsessed with icanhascheezburger.com, and I sat there in awe as Ross played some songs on his guitar, and Dave sang along. Ross taught himself in under a year. And he's good and everything. Bastard.
I was learning the drums a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed it, but I didn't practice enough. And I'm a bit unko. And I'm stupidly conscientious of other people - there's only one volume setting on drum kits. And that's Really F-ing Loud!

Anyway, so that done I toddled off to Trags, bought my DVD, handed over my CV with a smile and decided to fin'd the library while I was there. I'd been meaning to do it and I never go to Traralgon. And that whole buying books to read the popular authors and see how they do it can get really expensive...

So I found the library, joined it, headed back through Morwell - dropped off another CV (in a shopping centre, the significance of which was totally missed on me while I was there), headed back toward home, singing along to the RENT! soundtrack, dropped off one more CV and got back home, feeling proud of myself for getting so much done when really I only had one thing I was planning to do out of the house today.

When I opened my bedroom door and saw the huge pile of clothes lying on the floor beside my bed (they were on the bed yesterday ready for putting away, but erm...I had nothing to hang them with)...This is when I remembered: "Oh yeah, the thing I was leaving the house for WASN'T picking up my DVD...it was coat hangers."

Refer to the title of this blog.

I don't wanna go out again. Yes, the sun may be out but Winter has created a force field around us that is repelling all warmth it might be trying to lay down.

I hate Winter.

Think I'm gonna go read one of my library books. Then I'll get back to writing MY book. When do you work best? I'm better at night, but not like night that is actually early early morning night. You know what I mean?

Since I'm in a bit of a downer, here's something to perk me back up!

Like I needed a reason...

Laterz!


Sairz