Valentine's Day Love My Followers Giveaway!

So I'm taking part in the Follower Love Giveaway Hop (Feb 8-13), which will be fun...watch out for that...

BUT!!!

I'm hosting another Love My Followers giveaway!
Yes, I really want to show my appreciation to all my followers, so I made you guys (well, one of you) a fleece-lap-blanket.
:)
I absolutely LOVE these - pretty much because there's not a lot that can make me feel crafty - and they're so soft and warm, but not hot or anything.
Here's what you can win:It's a yard-long, with red & white hearts on a pink fleece background on one side, and a solid soft white on the other side.

Sound fun?
The contest will end FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4th - so that I can mail out the blanket in time for Valentine's Day :)

Entries -
- This contest is to show appreciation to all my followers, so it is a followers-contest
- To enter, just leave a comment with your email address

Extra entry - not required, but avaiable
+1 for "liking" my Imagination in Focus facebook page (link on the right-hand sidebar)

Again, thank you all so much for a fabulous year! I love each and every one of you :)

HAVEN Cover Contest UPDATE!

**If you have entered or are planning to enter the Haven Cover Contest, this is for you!**

In just a week, we've already had several great entries, both on the Linky and from email submissions. There's still plenty of time to get your entry in!

PRIZES Update:
1st Place winner will receive a preordered copy of Haven and also an Aidan Effect T-shirt designed by Kristi herself! See the design HERE.

2nd Place winner will receive an Aidan Effect T-shirt

Guys, you have seriously got to check out those shirts. They are absolutely incredible!

ENTRIES
- You are welcome to design as many entries as you'd like, but please submit ONLY ONE entry for judging. If you've already made your submissions, let me know which one you'd like entered.

Thanks, and we're looking forward to seeing some more great designs!

ENTER HERE.

Any writers in the house?

Before this year, I hadn't considered using writing books. I was pretty much under the impression, If you're a natural writer, everything should fall into place on its own, right?
But I'm starting to reevaluate that mindset. I think college has made me a wee bit rusty around the edges, so I'd like to know, from the prospective authors out there -

Do you use writers' manuals or writing guide books? Have you found them particularly helpful?
And are there any that you might recommend?

The Future of YA...

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
- Niels Bohr

My friend Jordyn @ Ten Cent Notes did a post on hopeful future trends. Check out what she said here...

Vampires are fun, faeries are trendy, werewolves are cool, and dystopians are cute! And as far as authors go, we've got experienced favorites, and incredibly talented newbies on the block. They're all doing a fabulous job keeping the YA shelves at bookstores stacked full with entertaining but quality literature.

HOWEVER (there's always a 'however,' isn't there?)...

Where is the future going to take us?

Here are some of my wishes for YA in the years to come -

1. More standalone non-contemporary books
Trilogies and series are great for fantasy/paranormal fiction, but sometimes it's nice for a story to wrap up and be done after one book. Kudos to The Replacement for doing this!

2. Return to HIGH FANTASY.
We've got paranormal books out the wazoo. But really, nothing says EPIC like a totally 100% off-the-map imaginary setting. Let's have more Middle Earth-inspired places in YA, please!
More faraway worlds, more quests, more swords, more heroes. More epic, please!

3. More wizards.
This is probably still a taboo type of character since Harry Potter, but I don't think the literary world would kill new authors with magically capable boy MCs. I'm seeing lots of witches, which is cool, but let's have some more wizards. Call 'em warlocks or sorcerers if it makes ya feel better

4. More aliens
IAM#4 started a great trend this year - bringing back the alien love. I gotta admit, when I think of 'aliens,' I either think of E.T. or that ultra-gross/creepy thing from the movie Alien. Either way, not a pretty picture. I bet we'll see more aliens, more traversing the galaxies, and more inter-galactic battles in the future. Bring it on!

5. More non-traditional historical fiction
I mean periods of history that are often forgotten or overlooked. We have plenty of great fiction for Victorian London (not just limited to steampunk), the Jazz Age, and even Civil War America.
But what about the early 19th century - what about pioneers? What about Great Depression fiction, or WWII homefront fiction? What about the Happy Day '50s?
And do you ever notice that it seems like historical fiction is limited to either American or British settings? So many other fascinating places and periods in history - let's see some Latin American history, some Eastern European history (hello, what was it like growing up in the Cold War?) or some...Australian history?! Yes, tales from the Outback!
Lots of great historical settings that could be tapped into. Bring it on.

6. More MG/YA Crossovers
What is the Harry Potter series? Is it Middle Grade or Young Adult? It's BOTH, because the characters go from kids to almost-adults over the course of the series. Ditto with Percy Jackson. Series books are cool, but it seems like so many of the characters start out as teens and stay that age. Let's have some real coming-of-age series, please - ones where we can kind of 'grow up' with the characters (in a manner of speaking).

7. Less angels/fallen angels
Personal preference entirely. I really don't like angel fiction and would love for it to go away.
:DNo Mo' Ango.

8. For Contemporary - "Salute to the Forgotten Teen"
You know how there's the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior? Well, this is Salute to the Forgotten Teen. You know, teens that don't take part in excessive, dangerous, irresponsible and edgy behavior. Kids who actually have real problems (self-esteem issues, body image issues, anxiety about the future...turning 16 and wondering when that car is going to magically appear) but who aren't over-the-top dramatic. Kids who spend time in class, actually care about their grades, girls who aren't boy-crazy, kids who aren't defined by their extracurricular activities (or lack thereof) and kids who freaking get along with their parents! Maybe those manuscripts are out there, but pubs shake their heads and go, "Nope, not interesting enough." Who knows? But there's a whole group of teens out there that I think are heavily underrepresented in fiction, and I certainly don't want them to get the message that they're somehow inadequate or unworthy or representation. Teen characters can't always be Bovine Camerons or Charlie-the-Wallflowers. Just an idea...

9. ELVESOkay, so elves are like the kissing cousins of fairies (actually, they're folklorically the same thing) but as a righteous Tolkienhead, I love elves. I'd like to see elves pop up in fantasy

10. "Realistic" Dystopian
As cool/crazy as these (current trend of YA dystopians) futuristic societies are, only one book so far has seemed "believable," as in, Yep, I can totally see this happening in the not-too-distant future, and that's Uglies. I guess I'd like more consideration and more scare-tactics put into YA dystopians. Create a world that could actually happen. Take stuff from our culture, manipulate it/enhance it, whatever, but make tie-ins with our current world. 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World and The Giver all had messages, all had things to say about our current societies.
Whether or not the reader agrees is secondary; what's important is to actually get them thinking.
Cool premises are fun, but let's have dystopians that hearken back to their successful predecessors, please. Come on, authors, freak me out! I dare ya! :D

--And bonus number--
(just because I'm slightly eccentric, but only slightly!)

...



11. YA Westerns.Yep, ya heard me. YA Westerns. Westerns for Young Adults. Cowboys! Outlaws! Gunslingers! Immigrants and established citizens alike seeking land, freedom, and a new start in the great Wild West! Striking out and creating new societies - bringing civilization to an primitive land.
(Lol, can you tell I just had 'American West' last semester?)
I'd write one myself (planning on it, actually) but it might take me a couple years.
Okay, so it might be just me - but have any of you guys thought of what it would be like to revive the Western genre and bring it to YA?
Take this genre and blend it with fantasy if you want, but I'd love for the Western genre to see some representation in the Young Adult market.
YEEHAW!

Review - SCRAMBLED EGGS @ MIDNIGHT

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight - Brad Barkley & Heather Hepler
Genre: YA Contemporary Fiction
# of pages: 272 (pb)
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, Penguin
Scrambled Eggs at Midnight @ Parental Book Reviews

Calliope (or Cal as she calls herself) wants nothing more than to stay put; to stop traveling cross-country with her mother, sleeping in a tent, and abandoning all belongings whenever they pull up stakes. Meanwhile, Eliot misses the happy times he left behind when his father decided to open a camp for kids looking to lose weight and find Jesus. when Cal and Eliot meet by chance, they feel an immediate connection. together they must face their isolation, the threat of yet another move, and the deepening of eliot's father's obsession. in their case, love just might be everything it's cracked up to be.

This is what happens when I review a book over a week after I've read it - I start to get a wee bit fuzzy on the details, and I forget certain details.
For somebody who doesn't read a lot of contemporary books (I can seriously count on my fingers the number of contemp books I've read between now and last October), I really enjoyed Scrambled Eggs. Here's the thing: I'm a total escapist reader - I like to read substantial books that impact me but also distract me. Similarities are good, and being able to relate to a character is always nice (if not necessary), but I also like books that "take me away."
Scrambled Eggs was funny and quirky enough to do just that. Sure, some parts read slower than others, but the overall story was definitely a memorable one, and it's one that I would definitely recommend to all of you.
The story is told using dual first person narratives, and since two authors collaborated on the book, I definitely think they were able to pull off the unique-but-in-sync voices. There's a girl and a boy (usually), and in both their cases, "quirky" is an adequate word to describe their lives. The girl is constantly uprooted by her whimsical mother, who works - get this - as a "wench" in Renaissance Fairs across the county. Talk about an "out-of-the-ordinary" existence.
Then you've got a boy whose formerly ordinary dad has become one of those annoying TV "Jesus Screamers" (term that I, as a religious person, think is pretty clever - used to describe certain evangelists who always seem to "scream" at their audiences) and who's gotten rich off combining weight loss with religious gusto. And get this - he lives at the fat camp his family runs. Now I have to admit, the idea of living in a camping facility in North Carolina (why hello beautiful scenery!) was at first really cool, but as Eliot's story progressed, I realized: not so cool after all.
The best part of Scrambled, for me, was the beginning. 'Zany' is the word I'd use to describe it. We're first being introduced to the two leads, Calliope and Eliot, and learning about their backgrounds...as the story progressed, it got a little heavier, but it always retained the "cute" card.
Two things I noticed though...
The relationship between Cal and Eliot is definitely sweet, and on the one hand I definitely appreciated it's portrayal as substantial and genuine. I don't mind telling y'all that I don't care for "flingy" romances - give me some substance! And 'substance' is indeed what I was given in this story. I liked that. I really liked that. However... there was just a little something about the romance angle that seemed 'off.' I made a note in my bookmark that said "It's not 'love at first sight,' it's more like 'I've figured out everything about you at first sight.'" Being able to "read" somebody that accurately and figure out all this bare-your-soul stuff about them is a tad unlikely. I loved that they used words like "real deal" to describe their relationship, but...their conversations went from cute and flirty to bare-your-soul like *that*. A little more development would have been nice. And FYI - if you didn't like Ethan Wate (or if you thought he didn't sound like a boy), you may feel the same way about Eliot. I thought he was a good character, but sometimes the things he said were a little too insightful, you know? Like the kinds of things a middle-aged writer would say...
And to the subject matter. Religion is a notable factor in this book (which surprised me, since this isn't a Leafwood or Tyndale product), and it kind of rotated between being used as a source of inspiration and as a punching bag. To be honest, there were times when I wasn't sure if the authors were jabbing money-chasing "evangelists" or just religious people in general, but I still liked the book overall.
The last thing that kind of stood out: every single adult in this story was so complacent. Nobody got mad or had a temper. Everybody was so understanding...BS! Parents, authority figures - they totally revolved around the teen characters in this story. All the time. That was a wee bit strange.
But I love characters who get a reaction out of me; I love characters who make me care. And I definitely cared about the two MCs - they were great kids in pretty weird circumstances, trying to make the best of their lives. And now, seven days after finishing Scrambled Eggs at Midnight, that's what I remember most. If this is a title you've never heard about before, please go check it out on Goodreads. My recommendation is to give it a try. You just might love it.

Final Grade: A-
(4/5)

Notable Quotes

I fall asleep to the sound of our tent rustling in time with the trees, and with a longing so strong that I can't even say for sure what it is that I'm missing. I can't even say for sure if what I need is something I've had before and lost, or something that I'm still waiting to find. But it's there. An ache deep inside me. A slowly twisting pain that I try to ignore, because it threatens to pull me under if I let it.
- pg. 17

The first book The Dad published was called Eye of the Needle: Why God Wants You Thin!
You might have noticed, there are lots of exclamation points in the God business. I think that's what Mom is tired of, all the exclamation. Maybe she just wants her life to have a few periods, a few quiet little commas.
- pg 22

I know what most people would think - crazy boy in the basement making pipe bombs, stirring up poison, adding to his list of enemies every day, one of those pale wussies who are a little too into their video games. Well, that is so wrong, because none of the cabins even have a basement.
That was funny.
- pg 26

Delores says that money doesn't matter and in a way she's right, but sometimes it might be nice to not have to worry all the time about everything.
- pg 42

Instead of the feeling that I usually have, as if at any moment I might just drift away from the ground and float right up into the sky, I feel heavy, like my feet are firmly touching the ground. And the weight feels like it's in the center of my chest, like my heart suddenly is full and overfull. And all of the sudden I feel like crying, but in a good way. In a very good way.
- pg 94

"I want you to know, Eliot...I believe in God just as much as he does. I mean, not that it's a contest, but we have very different ideas. I don't think you seek out God directly, or else He would just come down and visit us once in awhile. I think He wants us to seek him out through other people, through being in love with the world. He's in the ocean, He's in a bagful of snacks and the way you end up laughing about them. He's in the laughing. Does that make sense?"
- pg 176

She tells me she has a good heart, tells me that it's what's inside that matters, but I don't think that's right. No one can read the contents of your heart. It's what you say, how you act that matters.
- pg 191

Book Blogger Hop & Follow Friday

Question from Parajunkee's Follow Friday:
Who do you cheer for?
Answer: quite a few teams!
Football: Texas A&M, Dallas Cowboys
Baseball: ANAHEIM Angels & Chicago Cubs
Basketball: whatever team Shaq is on...
Premiere League: Liverpool FC & West Ham United

*Link @ Crazy-for-Books not yet up by post-time*

Lol, the other day I designated this a no-meme zone, but a blog hop isn't a meme, I don't think...
Anyhoo! Welcome to Imagination in Focus! Glad to have you here, and I hope you'll stop by for reviews, discussions, and more! I've got two cool upcoming giveaways in the next week or so.

Please leave your link and I'll return the favor! I'm always looking for cool new blogs to follow :)

Oh! And take a look at my current contest going on now - re-create a cover of the upcoming YA debut Haven by Kristi Cook for your chance to win a preordered copy! Go on, check it out. You know you want to! :D

Guest Post!

Hey guys! For those of you who are currently college kids or HS kids - hope you're getting back into the swing of things, and hope you have a great semester!
For those of you not in HS or college - lucky, lucky! :)

I've got some really fun stuff planned for February, and I'm trying to plan March!
If you would be interested in guest posting here in (late) February or March, please feel free to leave your email in the comment section and I'll get in touch with you
What's the topic?
YOU DECIDE! Yeah, guest post over @ Imagination in Focus and discuss whatever you'd like - trends in YA, other book topics, stories or new plots you'd like to see, best/worst book you've read in awhile, authors...you name it!
Interested?
Just leave me a comment below!
:D