Blog Tour Giveaway Winners

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my blog tour contest! I enjoyed all of your e-mails, and it was so nice to hear that so many people are looking forward to reading the book!!

I used random.org to help me select the winners, and if you are one of the winners you should have received an e-mail from me. Please respond so I can get you your prizes.

The Grand Prize Winner of signed copies of THE LIFE OF GLASS & THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS & Two Glass Spirit Stones is: Kate of The Neverending Shelf

The two runners up, both winners of a signed copy of THE LIFE OF GLASS are: Carol M. and Leann

Congrats to all the winners!!

Twitter Contest

I'm having a Twitter contest to give away two ARCS of THE LIFE OF GLASS!! It's super-easy to enter. All you have to do is retweet my contest tweet by Friday 12/18 to enter, which you can find here. I'll pick two winners at random on Friday. Each retweet gets you one contest entry, and you can enter as often as you'd like!

Contest Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered and shared your beautiful moments with me. I loved reading all of them! I used random.org to pick the winner of the $25 Sephora giftcard and the signed ARC of THE LIFE OF GLASS. And the winner is: Jessica Kennedy! Jessica, I've sent you an e-mail so write back with your address, and I'll get the prize out to you.

Three-Months-and-Counting Contest

THE LIFE OF GLASS will be out on February 9, 2010, exactly three months from tomorrow, so to celebrate I'm having a contest!!!

THE LIFE OF GLASS is a book about sisters, high school, loss, and first love. (You can read the jacket description if you click here.) But, above all, I think it's really a book about beauty, about what it means to feel and be beautiful both inside and out.

In the book, the main character Melissa never saw herself as a beautiful person. She was always the smart one, the funny one, the tomboy. And yet, it seems like everyone around her is beautiful: her mother was once a beauty queen, her older sister is obsessed with competing in beauty pageants, and as she starts high school, her best friend Ryan starts ignoring her after he begins dating the beautiful new girl at school.

Melissa is someone I can relate to a lot, because back in high school, I felt the same way. It seemed like so many girls around me were beautiful and perfect: beautiful straight shiny hair, gorgeous tall figures, perfect clothes. And I was always the short girl with the frizzy hair, who felt the most comfortable in jeans and sweatshirts. (Lucky me, though, I didn't have a mom and a sister who competed in beauty pageants.)

And this is why I love fiction: in the book Melissa eventually does get her moment to shine, to feel beautiful. (And her older sister, Ashley, the beauty queen, gets her moment to finally feel what it's like not to be beautiful.)

So now for the contest: I'll be giving away a signed ARC plus a $25 giftcard to Sephora!

Here's what you can do to enter:

+1 Leave a comment sharing a moment when you felt beautiful

+2 Link to this contest on your blog
+2 add my countdown widget (on the left sidebar) to your blog
+2 add The Life of Glass to your Goodreads list

+5 Tweet about this contest
+ 5 become a new follower of this blog
+5 become a new follower on Twitter (click here)

+10 blog about The Life of Glass and why you want to read it!

Please leave your entries and points in a comment on this post.

Contest Ends November 18th at Midnight. Good luck!

THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS Giveaway

The lovely Book Butterfly is hosting a THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS giveaway at her blog. Check out the interview she has with me, and comment for a chance to win one of two copies of THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS. Also, check out the pictures she put up with the interview -- pictures of me and my sister from from when we were in elementary school!!

Contest Winner and THE LIFE OF GLASS news!

First, thank you so much to everyone who entered my The Life of Glass ARC giveaway! It's so great to see so many people excited about the book, and I wish I had an ARC to send to each and every one of you. . . but I had to pick a winner, so I used random.org and it picked. . . Kristen. Kristen, I'm sending you an e-mail -- but please send me your address to jill(at)jilliancantor.com and I'll get the ARC out to you!

If you didn't win, I'll be having more giveaways this fall. Check back here in October for another ARC giveaway. And this month, over at my group blog, The Novel Girls, we're celebrating our one year blogoversary with a giveaway extravaganza. Each week one of us will give away a prize (five total) for the whole month of September -- and then everyone who enters for the entire month will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 giftcard to Amazon!! I'll be up the week of September 14th, and I'll be giving away an ARC of The Life of Glass & a copy of The September Sisters to the winner!

I'm also really excited to share a blurb for The Life of Glass from the fabulous Cecilia Galante. Her book, The Patron Saint of Butterflies, is one of my all-time favorites! Here's what she had to say about The Life of Glass: "The Life of Glass is a beautifully rendered novel. Cantor is pitch-perfect, capturing the thoughts and mind-set of her characters with a precise familiarity that will have teenagers nodding their head in recognition and adults wistfully looking back. A must read."

THE LIFE OF GLASS ARC giveaway!!!

I know I've been terrible about posting here lately, and my excuse is that I've been writing. I finished a draft of what will (hopefully) be my third YA book, and then I finished some edits for my adult book, THE TRANSFORMATION OF THINGS. Then I took a little bit of a break, and for the last three weeks, I've spent hardly any time at the computer. I read a few books, watched a lot of movies, and oh, actually cleaned my house. Yes, that was the last straw, and now I'm back -- to the blogging world and getting ready to start on a new book for adults. Right now I'm in the process of researching names -- which I love!

And today I really wanted to blog because when I woke up this morning, I realized that it was the 9th -- which means exactly six months from today my second YA book, THE LIFE OF GLASS will be out and in the world on February 9th, 2010 (If you want to read the jacket description and see the cover, click here). I finished writing this book nearly a year ago, and at the time, winter 2010 felt so very far away. But now, it's just around the corner.

So. . . I decided I'm going to have the first official THE LIFE OF GLASS contest, where I'll be giving away one ARC of THE LIFE OF GLASS. To enter you can do any or all of the following (You get one entry for each):

1.) Add THE LIFE OF GLASS to your list on Goodreads
2.) Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/jilliancantor
3) Become a follower of this blog.

For extra entries you can:
1.) Tweet about the contest and link to this post
2:) Mention the contest on your blog

Leave a comment on this post letting me know your e-mail and how you entered. (If you already do any or all of the above, leave a comment to let me know, and you can enter that way, too!) I'll leave the contest open until September 1st. Good luck!!

It's Here! It's Here!

The September Sisters release day, that is! I'm so excited that the book is finally out!!

So far to celebrate, I took the kids to the bakery to get cookies, and then we sat outside (it's 80 degrees here today) and ate them, having what my son dubbed "a cookie book party!"

On the web, I'm blogging over at the Harperteen MySpace page today about how the book was "born." Click here to check it out! And it's Maureen Lipinski's turn to interview me and Tracy Madison over at The Novel Girls! Remember, if you leave a comment on any post all week, you're entered to win a signed copy of The September Sisters or A Taste of Magic.

Hope of Hope's Bookshelf put up a great review of The September Sisters yesterday, and Kelsey over at Reading Keeps You Sane put up another great review today! Hope posted an interview and contest today as well!

And don't forget my contest, which I've linked on the sidebar! I'm eager to hear where you see the book, especially because I have yet to see it in a bookstore myself!

Win a Signed Copy of The September Sisters!

Here's my official contest to celebrate my release day, which is now less than three hours away!! The contest begins now and ends March 15th.

To enter, e-mail me at jill@jilliancantor.com if you see The September Sisters in a bookstore. Let me know which bookstore and in what city you saw it.

If you want two entries into the contest, e-mail me with the above info. plus an actual picture of the book in the store!

I'll pick one winner at random from all the entries to win a signed copy of The September Sisters and some awesome matching bookmarks for you and your friends.

More Ways to Win!

All week The Novel Girls are celebrating both my release of The September Sisters and the release of Tracy Madison's A Taste of Magic. We're also giving away signed copies of both books. All you need to do to enter is comment on a post this week, so stop on over and visit us. The Novel Girls are interviewing both me and Tracy all week, and they've come up with some pretty interesting questions so I think it's going to be a great release week over there!

I've also posted some new contest links on my sidebar - Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf and Book Chic are both giving away signed copies of The September Sisters! I'll have more info. about more contests at more blogs, later in the week, including my very own contest that I'll be hosting right here.

First Contest

The awesome YA Book Realm put up the first official contest to win a hardcover copy of The September Sisters!! Visit her blog http://www.yabookrealm.blogspot.com/ to find out how to enter or click here for the post about the contest.

More contests coming later in the week and next week!

And check out the awesome "Browse Inside" widget I took from the HarperCollins site -- it's over on the left sidebar!!

Contest Winners!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the contest! I wish I had ARCs to send to all of you, but unfortunately I don't, so I had to use www.random.org to pick only two of you.

The winners are. . .Kelsey (from Reading Keeps You Sane) and Shalonda.

E-mail me with your addresses and how you'd like the book signed.

The good news is The September Sisters will be out in bookstores in 32 days! One month!! And I'm planning on a contest to give away a signed hardcover copy of the book around that time. So if you didn't win this time, you'll have more chances to win!

Blogging elsewhere. . .

Today I'm blogging over at the Harperteen MySpace page about when I first knew I wanted to be a writer. You can click here to read it -- and if you haven't already, friend me on MySpace while you're there!

Yesterday, I blogged about my grandfather over at The Novel Girls. He was involved in many of my fondest and most embarassing memories, as you can see from the post if you click here.

Only a few days left in my contest. You have until Tuesday to enter, and Wednesday I'll announce the winner!!

Happy Weekend!
Jillian

Guest post at The Novel Girls

Over at The Novel Girls today, Maureen Lipinski posted her interview with literary agent, Holly Root. It's a great interview -- especially if you're looking for an agent of your own, or even if you want an insider's take on what's selling right now.

The rest of us are blogging about our embarassing moments this week, so tune in on Thursday for mine. I'm still contemplating what I'm going to write about -- there are so many to choose from, but most I don't think I'm willing to share with the blogosphere!

And don't forget, you have until Jan. 20th to enter my contest.

New Contest

I'm having another contest, and I'll be giving away another signed Advanced Review Copy of The September Sisters. There are a few ways to enter, and the more ways you enter, the more chances you get to win.

1.) Post The September Sisters countdown widget on your blog, site, or myspace page. (To get the widget, scroll down the left hand sidebar, and click on "share.") E-mail me at jill@jilliancantor.com to let me know where you've put the widget. Each place gets you one entry into the contest.

2.) Add The September Sisters to your wishlist or to-read list on Goodreads, Shelfari, Librarything, Visual Bookshelf (or any similiar site that I don't even know about. I'm sorta new to all the reading/networking sites!). E-mail me at jill@jilliancantor.com to let me know about any or all the sites where you've added the book. Each one gets you an entry (If you've already added it and you're interested in entering, e-mail me to let me know and I'll enter you in the contest).

3.) Post a link to this contest post on your site or blog, e-mail me to let me know, and you'll get another entry into the contest.

This contest deadline is January 20th, so you've got two weeks! Good luck!!
Jillian

Contest Winner!

I used random.org to randomly select one follower to win a signed ARC of The September Sisters. And the winner is. . .Carol(ina). E-mail me your address and how you'd like the book signed to jill@jilliancantor.com so I can send your copy.

I'm going to have another contest starting next week, so stay tuned for details!

Review!

I came across an awesome review of THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS over at YA Book Realm, and I was so excited and awed to read it!!

Among other lovely things, YA BR says, "Jillian Cantor’s debut novel, was unforgettable with the perfect mixture of realism, great character development, and plot. . .The moment I started reading it, I seriously could not put it down until I learned more about the disappearance of Becky."

You can click here to read the whole review.

And don't forget, a little over a week left to enter my contest for the chance to win an ARC of THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS.

Happy Holidays!
Jillian

Contests!!

If you'll notice from the title of this post, I said "contests" plural. That's because I have two great contests to tell you about!!

First, as promised, I'm having a contest to give away a signed Advanced Review Copy of THE SEPTEMBER SISTERS. All you have to do is become a follower of my blog by January 1, 2009. (Click on "follow this blog" on the left hand side -- you might have to scroll down a little bit to see it.) If you're already a follower, then you're already entered to win! I will pick one winner, at random, after Jan. 1st.

Contest number 2 is going on over at my group blog, The Novel Girls. We're giving away a signed, hardcover copy of Lesley Livingston's WONDROUS STRANGE, in celebration of her December 23rd release. (If you click over, you can find the details, but really all you need to do is become a follower of The Novel Girls.)

It's simple, so enter them both! And good luck!!