The time it was nine ladies dancing

Ladies dancing could be interesting, but who wants that as a Christmas present?  It's so odd.  Anyhoo, here we are for day nine of the 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.

Today we have the ever so charming Kasie West on the blog, sharing an embarrassing Christmas story.  Let's welcome her, yes?

Ah, Christmas, the time of giving and family and laughter and food and Stacee asking me to share embarrassing stories. Okay, in her defense, she game me options, but of course I chose the "embarrassing story" option.

So back when I was 19 years old, I was madly in love with a boy. (This is how many of my personal stories start, by the way, from about the time I was 12 on) I had been dating him for a few months and like many 19 year old boys in my church, he decided to serve a mission. This meant for 2 years he'd be gone in South America. My poor little 19 year old heart was aching, but I was determined to wait for him. Yes, I was going to wait 2 years for a boy I hadn't even been dating for 5 months. I may have been a bit delusional, but I was in love!

He left in November, meaning his first Christmas away, I was going to be the best girlfriend ever. I would send him a present every day for 12 days. I was going to give him his own personal 12 days of Christmas. And don't get me wrong, this would've made me the best girlfriend ever. It was the execution that made me...well...fall short.

I gathered my gifts and packaged them. But! I thought. Wait. They each needed to have a little story with them. (This should've been when I discovered that I wanted to be a writer but it would take me ten more years to discover that.) So I began. Each package had a story with it that went something like this. (I don't remember exactly what each of them said and I'm sure they were actually even sillier than what I'm about to write. I wish I had copies of them now...no actually, it's probably better that I don't.)

          On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a tie.
          "A tie? That doesn't fit very well into the song, why would we give him a tie?"
          "Just be quiet, it's what he needs, we're giving him a tie and we're singing about it. Just go with it."
          "Fine, but if he asks me, I'll tell him that a tie wasn't my idea."

And on...and on...for each day of Christmas.  I don't know what I was trying to do with these stories. Show him I had multiple personalities? That I talked to myself?  That little elves were hidden in my room? I'm not sure but at the time I thought they were a good idea. The best most creative idea. I can't even think about it now without laughing and most of the time blushing at how ridiculous I was. But love makes you do weird/crazy/manic things. To give him credit, he was very sweet about the whole thing and said thank you and that he loved it. Ha. I can't imagine how his roommates must've teased him. Poor guy. Anyway, it's a good thing we didn't end up together. I mean, can you imagine how that story would've been told year after year. Plus he'd actually have the real stories to read aloud to my humiliation.

Ah, Christmas. Happy times. I love this time of year. I hope you all are enjoying the holidays and have many stories of Christmases past with which to mock people. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

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Huge thanks to Kasie for taking the time!! Make sure you're following her on Twitter, liking her Facebook page, subscribing to her blog and adding all of her books on your GoodReads shelves.

And now for the giveaway!!

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

That's right.  Up for grabs is a paperback copy of The Distance Between Us. Rules for the giveaway are under "terms and conditions" on the Rafflecopter widget and this contest is international!

**Good Luck!!** 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The time it was a weekend in Vegas

Going to Vegas Valley Book Festival was pretty much a given. I heard about it from Crystal when we went to her B&N for the Fierce Reads tour in June. She had said something about it in passing and when I looked it up and saw the glorious list of authors, my head almost exploded.

I slowly accumulated my books and made stacks around my office. The stacks fluctuated as authors were added and canceled....eventually, my total number of books was 47. 

We had plans to get to Vegas on Friday, the 1st, which was also Hubs's birthday. When I heard that AG Howard was doing an offsite signing at Crystal's B&N, I forced persuaded Hubs to go there first. 

We got there around 3:30 and sat in the cafe until Anita got there. And just after 4pm, I went over to the table armed with Godiva truffles, a couple of bottles of wine and some other prizes. Anita jumped up and we hugged and gushed and hugged some more. 

I ended up sitting at the signing table with her and in between her talking with other readers, we chatted about all sorts of things. 

She signed all eleventy billion copies I had for her and gave me some super cool Unhinged swag. Once the signing time was over, I fed Anita the books for her to sign and I may or may not have put some on the "YA Bestsellers shelf". 

 

We hugged and took photos with a promise to see each other tomorrow....and then started talking on twitter. From there, Hubs and I checked into our hotel and then headed to Gordon Ramsay's BurGR. 

The maître d' offered us a seat at the bar that faced the kitchens and by accepting it, we got to skip the 45 minute wait in line. While he was talking to us, he learned it was Hubs's birthday and gave him a free shot of Jameson. 

And the food? Gah. It was beyond amazing. 

After stuffing ourselves, we wandered the strip for a while before heading back to our hotel for some much needed sleep. 

Saturday morning found us heading down to the event area early. We found excellent parking and headed in around 10am. Mostly so I could make sure to get a finished copy of Crash into You. We grabbed some food and wandered back to the tents to see some panels.

 

We caught the last ten minutes of the Serial Killers and Surprise Endings panel. At the end of the panel, Kasie West turned around and saw me and shouted "STACEEEEEE". I went into the tent and hugged her and said hello. Natalie Whipple came over and said hi and then Michelle Gagnon came over and we chatted a bit.

We got to the Classical Remix panel just in time for it to start. It had AG Howard, Vivi Barnes, Gena Showalter, Mary Lindsey, Claire LaZebnik, Eileen Cook and Stacey Jay. [I wanted to take notes, but my phone just wouldn't let me.  I did do some live tweeting, so check out #vvbf for tweets during the event]

When Anita introduced herself, she saw me and said hi. [This woman is so damn adorable. Are you reading her books yet?] After watching most of this panel, we snuck over to the other tent. We ended up watching the last 15 minutes of the Then and Back Again panel with Tamara Ireland Stone, Rachel Harris, Alexandra Monir and others.

After that panel, I went over to say hi to Tamara [who waved while up on the panel]. We chatted for a minute and then went back over to find Anita and say hello again.

While we were standing there, Gena Showalter was signing books and taking photos with a small group of people who were waiting for her. I briefly thought about doing that, but I have so many books, it would be near impossible. I got a picture with Gena and told her I had eleventy billion books for her. She said that's what she liked to hear. :D

I then went to Anita to say hi and tell her how amazing her panel went. We chatted for a bit and then we had to go check on our parking situation. We stayed in the car until around 3:30. Hubs was sleeping and I was charging my phone.

We went straight to the Resurrecting the Future panel with Alexandra Bracken, Kimberly Derting, Anna Carey, Chris Howard, and Lydia Kang.

They started setting up the panel signing area around 4 and Hubs and I went over to set up a HQ of sorts.

I went to Stacey Kade first. We talked about The Rules and how she had arc requests of the second one up already. I told her that I had just gotten an e-arc of The Bitter Pill and we chatted about that. And of course, our conversations on Twitter.

 

From Stacey, I went to Mary Lindsey. She was surprised to see my arcs of Fragile Spirits and said they were the first she had signed. We talked about a possible third and when I told her that she sent me one of them for review, Mary asked my twitter handle. And with my telling, she jumped up and we hugged. We ended up chatting about what the tag line was going to be. And when it was all over, we took some pictures.

  

Gena Showalter was next. There were a couple of people in line for her, but it went quickly. She laughed when she saw my stack and said she remembered that I said I had a lot of books. She's a quick signer and had the stack done in no time. 

  

Josie Angelini was the last person I had for the tent one authors. We talked about the ending of the series, if I had liked it [I did], and the ending of Allegiant. Before we were able to really get into conversation about it, a line started forming.

 

While we waited for the switch over to the tent two authors, we chatted with Gretchen McNeil, Chris Howard and Tamara Ireland Stone. Then we took over the same table and Hubs watched my stuff while I ran around, getting stuff signed.

First up was Kasie West. We were chatting it up, talking about Tee Fury shirts and how many copies of The Distance Between Us I had while she signed. I got her to sign Xander over in one of Jaime's books. Annnnnnnd then we noticed that there was a huge line waiting for her.

  

Rachel Harris was the next author who was available. She asked who I was on twitter and I admitted that I was horrible at self promotion. She stocked me up with all sorts of swag after she signed.

  

I started to get in line for Amy Plum, but saw that the line for Katie McGarry was pretty short, so I went to her first. She told me that it was her first time being in Vegas, that she didn't travel a lot when she was young and in the past year, she's been all over the place. We talked about the awesomeness that is Crash into You and Isaiah and Rachel. I gushed over the book and the ending and really, just all of it.

I really wanted a photo, but Hubs was still standing guard. Thankfully, Crystal got in line behind me and was willing to take one for me.

  

Since her line had gone down a bit, Amy Plum was next. She was excited to see a big stack of books to sign. I told her that I was stocking up for giveaways since it's rare that she signs in the US. When she got to my arc of Die for Me, she said that the cover of Kate in the boat was super rare now. Amy offered bookmarks while signing.  I was able to get the woman standing behind me [not Crystal] to take a picture of us before I ran back to my table.

  

Seeing Jennifer E. Smith was a quick thing.  She signed my books, saying that she hadn't seen an arc of This is What Happy Looks Like in a while.  As she was signing, she started laughing, saying that her handwriting is already bad and it was only getting worse. 

  

While I was walking up to Lydia Kang, she immediately noticed that I had an arc of Control. She said that she only had one and people kept asking her if they could have it and she wanted to know where I got my copy.  I said that I thought I got it from ALA [now that I've been thinking of it, I think I actually got it from the super secret back room].

After she signed the book, she started pitching Chris Howard's book.  I told her that I already had it and Chris said, "Yeah, we went to Disneyland together." That made me start to laugh because it made it sound like we were BFFs who went to Disneyland together all the time.  Lydia admitted that she had never been to Disneyland and somehow that led to Chris telling Lydia that I needed to be her tour guide.

 

Alexandra Bracken was a quick stop. We said hi and she said it was so nice to meet me and then got to signing.  It was nearing the end of the time for the signing, so people were running around.  After she was done, I thanked her and ran back to the table.

  

Jennifer Lynn Barnes was also a quick stop.  I had her sign my arc of The Naturals and when she commented on it, I told her that I won it from Hyperion and showed her the post-it that they wrote me.  After thanking her, I ran off to see the last person I had books for.

 

Tamara Ireland Stone was my last authors for the entire event.  We chatted while she signed, she asked if she should sign my UK copy of Time After Time "To Kevin" since I'm her Kevin Bacon.  She said that it was a lot harder to sign to people that she knew, so I started laughing and saying, "You can have Bennett forever, I will never, ever give him to anyone else."

Did you see? Yep, Bennett is STILL mine.

After she signed my things, she stood up and we got some photos.  Tamara mentioned how we didn't get any photos of us during her launch party [I'm still bummed that I didn't remember to take photos when I was in Berkeley] and wanted to make sure that we took some. We hugged a few times and then I went back to the table/HQ to pack up the books and head back to the hotel.

As we were walking out, we saw Gretchen one last time.  I congratulated her [again] on the wedding and told her that I expected to see the dress...

Vegas Valley Book Festival was amazing.  The line up of authors was unlike anything I've seen before and I'm sure it'll be an annual trip for us...whether Hubs likes it or not.

The time there were sips

So. If you follow me on Twitter, then you know how much I wanted a copy of The Distance Between Us. The ever so awesome Jaime let me borrow her arc and I instantly fell in love. I went around and entered all of the contests [it was really just the one on Kasie's website] trying to get my hands on a copy of my very own. Amazingly, I found it at a local library's on site book store [for a dollar] where I immediately snatched it up and hugged it. There may or may not have been some loud squealing and dancing. I cannot confirm or deny that.

Anyhoo.

After I read it, I flailed all over Kasie about it and begged asked for an interview. Since she's so amazing [and perhaps immune to my fangirling, I mean, we did hang out at Disneyland], she agreed! Before we get to Kasie, let's check out Distance Between Us.

Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop.

So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she's beginning to enjoy his company.

She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

Sounds good, yes? [It totally is. And that cover is gorgeous!]

 

 

1. Where did the idea for Distance Between Us come from?

Oh my gosh, I just had a surreal moment with this question because I realized you are my first interview ever for The Distance Between Us. I'm so used to answering this question for Pivot Point that I almost immediately typed in that answer. Okay, so you don't want to hear Sliding Doors. Ha. Annnnnyway, I got the idea for The Distance Between Us on a Tuesday. I know this, because it's the day I used to take my daughter to guitar lessons. Her lessons are only a half an hour so I never really had time to do anything while she was there. So I usually would just sit in my car and read or get on twitter. Well, next door to the music store where she takes her lessons is a dollstore called 'Dolls, Bears, and More.' The main thing they sell there are porcelain dolls and as I sat there one day staring at the window display of these creepy dolls, I thought to myself, that would make a fun book--a girl who works in a porcelain doll shop. And thus, this book was born (well, the idea was born). :)

2. I love all of the sarcasm. Caymen's sense of humor is a lot like mine. How did she develop as a character?

My husband will die if I say this but I have to. Caymen is basically the girl version of my husband. I mean, of course she's different, but her humor was very heavily influenced by his humor. He has this dry humor that has always made me laugh. So whenever I thought about what Caymen might say in a situation, I pictured him. Which sounds really bad and please don't picture my husband as Caymen as you're reading because that would completely take all the romance out of this book. :)

3. Xander. I don't even have words for this boy. I cant tell you how much I flailed over the sips of Caymen's drinks. Where did he come from and would you ever consider doing something from his POV?

I love Xander. He was one of those rare characters that came to me fully formed. He was so easy to write. He just was. If that makes sense. Maybe that's why I like him so much. Because he was easy. In more ways than one. Ha. No, just kidding. He was only easy in one way. :)

And a book from his POV?? Hmmm. I have a confession (I know, another one) I'm terrified to write from a male POV. I don't know that I could do it. So my knee jerk, scaredy pants reaction to that question is no, I probably never would. BUT, I've learned to never say never. So....maybe. :)

4. The dolls are creepy. Why a doll store as the family business?

Well, as I stated above, the store that I sat in front of weekly was the main reason. But I also had a very unpleasant history with porcelain dolls dating back to my childhood and my grandmother who made us sleep in a guest room full of them. It was not fun. They really are creepy. And they used to stare at me. And my older sister thought it would be funny to tell awful stories about them and then proceed to fall asleep. So yeah, I thought there needed to be a book in a porcelain doll store.
 

5. Distance Between Us is a lot different from Pivot Point. Was it easier to write?

Yes and no. It was easier in that I didn't have to worry about alternate realities and keeping track of what she knew in one life versus what she knew in another and if it is this time in one life, I have to make sure it's this time in the other. All of those detail type stuff that made my head want to explode were not in DBU. But when you take out all that stuff, you realize how much contemporary depends on emotions and relationships and characters. And that's hard.

Speed [ish] round:

1. What's your go to guilty pleasure thing to eat?

Cookies (I also eat a lot of Jr. Mints but for some reason don't feel guilty about that)

2. What are you reading right now?

Going Vintage by Lindsey Leavitt

3. Who are your favorite swoony boys?

Jace (Mortal Instruments), Perry (Under the Never Sky), Wes (The Truth About Forever)

4. Are there any authors that you fangirl over?

Absolutely. A lot of them. :) I would love love love to meet Sarah Dessen though.

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Huge thanks to Kasie for taking the time to deal with my fangirling answer my questions.

Go find Kasie on her website or on Twitter. And go add all of her books on GoodReads.  

Now. The Distance Between Us has quickly become by go-to-when-in-a-slump book and I want everyone to read it and flail right along with me.... Soooooo.

Haven't read The Distance Between Us yet? Well, you're in luck. I'm giving away three [YES, THREE] copies. This is an international giveaway [as long as TBD ships for free to your country, so check first!]

Rules for the giveaway are listed under the "terms and conditions" on the Rafflecopter widget.

**Good Luck!!**

a Rafflecopter giveaway