Oh, Yeah, I Do Have Some News...

The ever-lovely Stephanie Hale “outed” me on Friday as having good news to share today. I teased her a little in her comments about not knowing what she was talking about...but the truth is, yeah, I do have some news.

Last Thursday, the Romance Writers of America Rita® award finalists were announced, and I was lucky enough to get a call.

Here’s the list of 2010 Finalists for Best Young Adult Romance:

Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog
Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter
Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro
Nothing Like You by Lauren Strasnick

I am thrilled to be included with such talented authors! And must of course give a special shout-out to Simone Elkeles who was one of the first Buzz Girls, and will always remain one at heart!

The ceremony is being held at the national conference on July 31 in Nashville, TN...and I do believe all Buzz Girls will be in attendance. So I’m thinking pictures, pictures and more pictures. And lots of fun!

I hope we see some our readers there, too!

Tina

Tina Ferraro
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, 2010 Rita® Finalist
How to Hook a Hottie, 2009 Rita® Finalist
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
www.tinaferraro.com

Lotza Winners (okay, three)!

I hereby announce winner of last week’s contest, a copy of Austenland, goes to:

Paddy!

And since I have not heard from the previous winner of the Steam Kiss contest (a signed copy of The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, I thought I would mention again that the winner is:

Gaby!

So Paddy and Gaby, please e-mail me at admin@tinaferraro.com so I can get the books to you!

And finally, a winner weigh-in! I happened upon the following photo of Orlando Bloom on a celebrity hairstyle website called Hair Resources, calling it the 2009 winner for Best Men’s Hairstyle.


Agree? Disagree? (Help me to understand?)

Wishing everyone a win-derful week!

Tina

Tina Ferraro
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys
www.tinaferraro.com

The Steam Kiss!

We are celebrating Valentine’s Day all week here at the Buzz Girls Blog, talking about romance-y things and doing daily giveaways! So be sure to check in all week and enter to win the cool things.

Today, I am going to be talking about something from my 2009 release, The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, and giving away a signed copy to one commenter.


The premise of the book is that 16 year-old Parker is taking “kissing lessons” from 15 year-old Tristan so that she will be prepared to do her best at the sports fair kissing booth later that month. Among the kisses that he is teaching her is one called The Steam Kiss, which I read about on-line and thought sounded like a lot of fun.

One partner sips some piping hot water while the other drinks some icy cold.
They quickly kiss, then pull back and check the air between them for steam.

Now, I had every intention of trying it out with my husband to see exactly how it worked, but time got away from me. Suddenly, I was writing that scene, he was at work...I was stuck. Then I realized the thing to do was to have the kissing experiment rushed and therefore inconclusively fail. So it wasn’t a true answer, just something they swear they’re going to “get back to.”

To this day, I haven’t tried it and don’t know if it works or not.

So here’s the “rules” for entering my contest. Either try The Steam Kiss and give us your report in our comments--or simply write down your best guess of whether or not it will work. It's that easy.

Good luck, and check Wendy Toliver’s blog on Sunday for the name of the randomly chosen winner!

Best First Kiss...Evah!

In celebration of Tina's awesome new release, THE ABC'S OF KISSING BOYS, we're talking first kisses. Nothing like them. Nothing like that roller coaster feeling in your stomach with the up and down of anticipation and excitement. And what better way to get that across than on the big screen. I have to say...without a doubt, the best evah on-screen kiss is as follows...



MOULIN ROUGE...wow...what a movie...and what a first kiss! Christian and Satine figuring out they're meant to be and sharing an exploding (literally) kiss underneath the loving watch of the songful moon. And of course, it's Ewan McGregor...so that's a bonus! = )

Isn't that what a first kiss feels like? That you're the only two people in the world and the sky explodes in rapture while the moon bursts into song and serenades you?



What was your first kiss like? Were there fireworks and singing? Tell us in the comment section to be entered to win a copy of Tina's awesome book, THE ABC'S OF KISSING BOYS. Winner will be announced next Wednesday!

Hugs,
Marley = )

GHOST HUNTRESS: THE AWAKENING (Coming May 2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE (Coming October 2009, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
GHOST HUNTRESS: The REASON (Coming May 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
CHRISTMAS MIRACLES (Coming October 2009, St. Martin's Press)
SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega? (Available from Puffin Books)
SORORITY 101: The New Sisters (Available from Puffin Books)

Kissing Frogs

While staring at a blank blog page--feeling thoroughly uninspired to write anything about kissing--I started thinking about non-traditional kisses. Like air kisses and Hershey's Kisses and S.W.A.K. (Sealed With A Kiss, for the uninitiated.) Nope, none of those sounded blog-worthy today.

Tina already stole "Best On-Screen Kiss" (but, then again, it's her book release week, so I guess that's her right). What about favorite "On-the-Page Kiss"? No, I decided, that was too subjective. I mean, an in-book kiss is all in the reader's imagination, so we could be picturing two totally different types of kisses. (To find out about all the different types of kisses check out Tina's new book, The ABC's of Kissing Boys.)

Then my thinking shifted to Fairy Tale kisses. Like Sleeping Beauty and her Prince. Or Snow White and her Prince. Or Cinderella and Prince Charming. (Didn't any of these princes have names?) Or ... the Frog Prince.


Whoa, I thought. The Frog Prince? Now that's a weird one. Kissing frogs. Um, I hope that's not in Tina's book. If you're not familiar with--or have forgotten--the story of the Frog Prince, here's the Wikipedia nutshell:

In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog (possibly meeting him after dropping a gold ball into his pond), who magically transforms into a handsome prince. Although in modern versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the princess kissing the frog, in the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw it against a wall in disgust. In other early versions it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess's pillow.

I'm not sure which version I prefer. How about you? If you were the spoiled princess in this fairy tale, which version would you rather find yourself in?

Option A--You befriend a frog, wind up kissing him (reminder: frogs are green, slimy creatures who live in green, slimy swamps), and thereby turn him into a prince.

Option B--You befriend a frog, wind up flinging him against a wall (and getting sued by PETA and ASPCA), and thereby turn him into a prince.

Option C--You befriend a frog, wind up letting him sleep on your pillow (see reminder in Option A), and thereby turn him into a prince.

Is it just me, or do these all sound like episodes of a reality dating show? Okay, okay. If I have to choose one, I guess ... kissing him. Option A. Because I'm not fond of the animal cruelty in Option B and I'd be afraid I'd roll over in the night and squish him in Option C. Also, it would be over very quickly.

Now it's your turn to weigh in. Which fairy tale would you rather live?

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (available now!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming June 2009)
teralynnchilds.com

Revisions!

We’re having a “free week” here at The Buzz Girls Blog, which means we’re each gonna talk about whatever’s on our mind.

And on my mind is the editor revision letter that arrived on Saturday for my latest book, The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, and how short and complimentary it was!


Those around me--including the Buzz Girls--know I struggled with writing this book. Finding writing time was a factor, but the biggest problem was dealing with “the editor who lives on my shoulder,” that internal voice who knows when things are going astray, but not necessarily how to fix it. Who criticizes and makes me go back and do things over and over...until I am crazy with insecurity.

It’s funny because this was my third contracted book (and tenth book overall), yet I often felt like knowledge and experience were a hindrence. Like the more I know, the more I stop to obsess...

But hey, my critique partners--and my now editor--really liked it, so perhaps I just need to throw up my hands and admit (like Sue Grafton did in Romantic Times this month) that there’s no magic number of pages or books to when the writing comes easy. It’s probably always going to be hard. And that it’s okay--just part of the process.

And when the going gets rough, let us not forget the support of our wonderful critique partners and writer-friends!

Anyone else working on books or reports or papers who has had similar experiences?

Tina

Tina Ferraro
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
How to Hook a Hottie, January, 2008
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys, Spring, 2009
www.tinaferraro.com