YA Scavenger Hunt

Post Title:  YA Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are FOUR contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! We are a part of the BLUE TEAM–but there is also a red team, a purple team, and a gold team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the blue team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).
 
Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by October 6th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST
Today, we are hosting Breeana Shields on our website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Breeana Shields is an author of fantasy novels for teens including The Bone CharmerPoison’s Kiss, and Poison’s Cage. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a BA in English.

When she’s not writing, Breeana loves reading, traveling, and playing board games with her extremely competitive family. She lives near Washington D.C. with her husband, her three children, and two adorable, but spoiled dogs.

Find out more information by checking out the author website or find more about the author’s book here! https://breeanashields.com/.
You can also find her at Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads.

 

 

 

 

The Bone Charmer

On the day of Saskia’s kenning―a special bone reading that determines the apprenticeships of all seventeen-year-olds―her worst fear comes true. She receives an assignment to train as a Bone Charmer, a seer, like her mother. Saskia knows her mother saw multiple paths for her, yet chose the one she knew Saskia wouldn’t want. Their argument leads to a fracture in one of the bones, with the devastating result of splitting Saskia’s future. Now she will live her two potential paths simultaneously: one where she’s forced to confront her magic, and one where she tries to run from it. But when both paths become entangled in the plot of a rogue Charmer, Saskia learns that no future is safe, and some choices have unimaginable consequences. Only one future can survive. And Saskia’s life is in danger in both.

You can buy The Bone Charmer here.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

Here is my bonus material.

“I’ve always wanted to write a book with a beautiful map in the front. Setting is so important—especially in a fantasy—and as I was writing THE BONE CHARMER, I put a lot of thought into creating the world. I really wanted the environment to mirror the novel in symbolic ways. Because THE BONE CHARMER is all about fate vs. free will and reflections on paths not taken, I built Kastelia—the fictional country where the duology takes place—on a delta. Kastelia is situated along a river called the Shard, which branches off into many tributaries that lead to the various towns and villages. Ariel photos of delta river systems are beautiful—they look like giant trees with thick trunks and slender branches. THE BONE CHARMER doesn’t have a map in front, but I did create one of my own—a crude version just for my reference. (Sadly, I have no artistic ability.). But today I’m sharing it for the first time so you can get a sneak peek of how I imagine Kastelia. And maybe someday I’ll hire someone to do the map justice, so I can have a beautiful illustration to hang on my wall.”

Enjoy this never-before-seen map of Kastelia, the setting for both THE BONE CHARMER (out now) and THE BONE THIEF (coming in May).

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by us, Breeana Shields, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 100. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the blue team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize. Just check out all these great books on Team Blue!

 

Thank you so much for visiting our website! While you’re here don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter bonus contest we are running exclusively during the YA Scavenger Hunt. One lucky winner will receive a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble!  Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author! Danielle Stinson

Please, Get My Name Right By Stephanie Kroepfl

Pronghorn
Photo Credit: Encyclopedia Britannica

I had an idea for an article, but truthfully, I half-assumed there wouldn’t be enough interesting things to write about. I mean, it’s a little deer. Big deal. I may never have been so wrong. These creatures showed up in my consciousness when we were passing the biggest hill of the unfinished golf course, just beyond the I-40 and I-34 intersection toward Grand Lake. There had to be fifty antelope catching some rays. Did you catch my error? I’ve been calling these animals antelope since I moved to Colorado. But antelope live in Africa; pronghorns live in North America. If you’ve made the same mistake, you’re not alone. Even the RMNP calls them “pronghorn antelope,” but since there’s only been one confirmed sighting in the Park—ever—we can give them a break.

African antelope resemble deer, although they’re in the bovine family, whereas pronghorns are seriously unique. To start, their DNA more closely matches a giraffe than any other animal, even though they didn’t migrate from Africa eons ago. Experts believe pronghorns are the only large mammal alive today that originated in North America, and then these homebodies stayed here for another nineteen million years. They’re also the sole living species of Antilocapridae. Today, they live mainly in the U.S.’s Great Plains, with the largest number in Wyoming.

Depending on whether you more value sprinters or long-distance runners, they are debatably the fastest land animal on earth, clocking in at sixty mph. A cheetah is as fast, but they can only maintain that speed for short bursts, whereas a pronghorn can Forest Gump it for miles. “Wild Earth” contributor Tom Butler calls them a true ecological anachronism because they have no predator alive today that can match their speed (except for good ol’ boys in a pickup truck).

Even the growth on their noggin is a head-scratcher. It’s officially classified as a horn, although it’s forked, but the outer sheath is shed each year, which is more like an antler. The tips of their horn/antler curl backwards and its surface’s texture resembles glued-down, thick, black hair. Unlike most animals, the females also have little horns. At the front of their headgear is a small notch, or prong, that points forward. Hence their name.

Their communication style is also different. If they sense danger, they release a musky scent and raise the white hair on their rump, like my dog when she senses a fox. Pronghorns have exceptional eyesight and can notice movement from three miles away. But when that amazing trait is coupled with their extreme curiosity, it can get them in trouble big time. A sure way to bait them, for either photography or hunting, is to tie a brightly colored scarf to something above the grasses. They will compliantly come over to check out what it is.

Final cool pronghorn fact: they don’t need to drink! If water is unavailable, they are able to extract enough from the plants they consume. I now lower my head in shame for ever thinking these literally one-of-a-kind creatures are merely ordinary.

This article orginally appeared in The Boardwalk newspaper, Grand Lake, Colorado.