This week's writerly news (including blog tour info and current giveaways)

Happy Friday, guys! :) It's been a busy week, and with it being the last few days before Christmas break and two of my girls having finals starting Tuesday, I'm sure next week will be even busier. Even so, this is definitely the most wonderful time of the year! :D I don't have a whole lot to share, as I haven't even been able to read much (plan to this weekend) and formatting has taken up all of my writerly time (hoping to get a little in before Christmas), but I did want to update everyone on what's going on around here, share a couple of giveaways going on (in case you'd missed them) and explain the plan for the next two months.

First, in case you somehow missed my crazy excited-ness earlier this week, the paperback proof of If I Speak True came in the mail, and I cannot tell you how insanely gorgeous the cover is. (The photos *so* didn't do it justice.) Hafsah is so stinking talented, and I am not kidding, I actually wanted to HUG the book all day, it's SO pretty! YAY!

Next, Kate is officially getting the blog tour for If I Speak True together (yay--love her), and we've decided to *start* the tour on its release date. Which means that starting January 27th (and for approximately 2 weeks), there will be lots of different posts and some cool ways to enter to win not only If I Speak True, but also some pretty cool swag, too. 

Now, before everyone gets too excited, I want to make sure I point out that some of this swag will only be available for the US giveaway. :( I hate to say it, but international shipping costs A LOT. So while I am doing two separate giveaways, the part I'm about to explain will only be available to enter to win if you're living in the US.

With that said, Katie is working her creative genius toward making something pretty neat. I have no idea what the finished product will be, other than it'll be a tote that has something to do with If I Speak True, but I have seen what she's been doing to get those creative juices flowing, and I know it's going to be awesome. :D

Also, come January, I'm going to go pretty silent on the If I Speak True front. I don't want you guys so sick of seeing it that come its release you want to stab it with a fork. (Why a fork? Uh... I have no idea.)  There will be ONE thing I do from January 1st to January 26th, and that is a feature I've been planning to showcase on my Tumblr. (I haven't decided if I should carry it on over here or not. What say you?) I'm pretty excited about it, and that'll also take up a bit of my time once Christmas break starts. So, if you don't follow me on Tumblr yet, you might want to! (Go HERE.) I don't want to spoil anything, but it's going to kind of be a visual of the book. That's all I can say. *locks lips* *throws key away*

As for writing and the #ReadingCram, I did want four books read by the end of the year, and I can easily reach that. (What were they though again? Okay, I went and checked.) I did read one on my list (I Capture the Castle--by far one of my new favorites), and have three to go, but I started reading Falling Kingdoms, so hopefully I can still read the other three, which brings me up to five total to finish by the end of 2013, but I like the number five, so that works for me! ;)

Well I think I've yapped enough for one Friday! Regarding the current giveaways, you can check them out, here:

Celebrating Debutantes at Michelle's blog: click HERE 

#ReadingCram #booklove giveaway (in which I share my top ten books for this year--or well, my first list of top ten books... I'll be doing this post again soon and will be slightly changing it up because I loved more than ten!): click HERE

(both end in 11 days... weird!)

Have a blessed weekend! :D