James Lipton I am not….

But I’ve been known to ask a question or two, or four, or ten, or twenty.

What does that have to do with Galleysmith you ask?

(see questions….I’m filled with them)

Well starting in August I’ll be running a new feature where I’ll be interviewing our fellow bookish peeps.  Building on and strengthening an already tight knit community I hope to showcase a wide spectrum – veterans, newbies, genre specific or generalist.  I want readers to get to know us all.

Sounds fun right?  Yea I thought so too!

Beginning this week I’ll be posting a bi-weekly interviews each month starting with yours truly as the subject!  So get your favorite curse word ready cause I’m gonna shine the spotlight in your direction!

Have you heard?  Sourcebooks has a fabulous Bran Hambric giveaway going in anticipation of the book’s release.  Here’s how you can play:

Pre-Order Campaign (US Only)

Pre-orders Bran Hambric: The Fairfield Curse then send an electronic version of your  receipt to sbpublicity@sourcebooks.com with the subject line “Bran Hambric Pre-Order Contest” once you do so you will be entered into a drawing to win a special prize package that may include:

• Personalized copy of The Fairfield Curse (give your copy to a friend!)
• Personalized early reader copy of Book 2
• Personalized Bran Hambric poster
• Half Moon Necklace
• Signed CD of soundtrack
• $25 gift certificate to local bookstore
• Kaleb Nation event a local bookstore (fall 2010)

Please note:  there is only one entry per book ordered.  Should you purchase multiple copies you will be entered as many times as you’ve purchased the book.  Receipts must be dated prior to the publishing date of September 9, 2009.

Winners will be announced September 30, 2009

Win a Bran Hambric Halfmoon Necklace & exclusive Kaleb Nation event invite!

Anyone who posts links ia their social networking accounts (ex: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, websites etc.) to a review they’ve created on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders order pages will receive a Bran Hambric Half Moon Necklace and an exclusive invitation to a Blog TV event with Kaleb, where he will reveal secrets from the next book in the series! Links and reviews must be posted and e-mailed to branhambric@sourcebooks.com from September 9th through September 30th. Include full name & mailing address in e-mail. Please use the subject line “Bran Hambric Sneak Peak.”

Hurry up and join, these are great giveaways!

For more information on Kaleb, check these links out:

• KalebNation.com
• TwilightGuy.com
• Twitter @kalebnation
• Sourcebook Publishing
• Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse at Amazon
• Bran Hambric: The Fairfield Curse at Barnes & Noble
• Bran Hambric: The Fairfield Curse at Borders

“Teaser Tuesdays” is a weekly meme run by MizB over at Should Be Reading have fun with us and play along.

Here’s how it works:

1. Get the book you’re currently reading
2. Open it to any random page
3. Share 2 “teaser” sentences from anywhere on that page (Be courteous of your readers — DO NOT INCLUDE SPOILERS!)
4. List the title & author of the book so people can add it to any future reading lists

This week I’m pulling teasers from The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie.

“Chloe shrugs and lowers her eyes.  From the look n her face I can tell she doesn’t want to talk about this anymore. “

Do you want to tease? If so post one of your own.

Happy Monday!

I’m actually not so perky about the start of the work week but I’ve got loads to share with you in the book world.

I’ve decided to keep everything in one post instead of spamming you with separates listing what I’ve purchased, what I’ve received from publishers and authors, what I’ve read and what I need to review.  This will be my weekly catch all post.

Books Bought

Cindy over at Cindy’s Love of Book has started a weekly meme called “Books Bought” where participants list out the books they purchased over the course of the week. This week I purchased:

• After – Prose
• The Screwed Up Life of Charlie the Second – Ferguson
• The Knife of Never Letting Go – Ness
• Prophesy of the Sisters – Zink
• Shiver – Stiefvater
• The Embers -Bass
• Twenties Girl – Kinsella (I actually got two copies — one as a gift for a friend)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone – Rowling
• Prism – Kellerman/Kellerman
• The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine – Lurie
• Shelter Me – McAuley
• Feathered – Kasischke
• A Bad Boy Cam be Good for a Girl – Stone
• The Boyfriend List – Lockhart
• Sloppy Firsts – McCafferty

Many of these books are for challenges or features that I’m participating in and putting together.  I’m not a dawdler I go full out and get the books so I know I’m not going to procrastinate them. lol

Books Provided To Me

• The Lost Sister – Megan Kelley Hall
• Short Girls – Nguyen
• Food, Girls and Other Things I Can’t Have – Zadoff
• Baby Doll – Roy
• The Promised World – Tucker
• The Other Queen – Gregory
• Mercury in Retrograde – Froelich
• Best Friends Forever – Weiner
• Beachcombing – Dana
• Ash – Lo
• Geektastic – Balck

See I was pretty good this week right?  Well relatively good….alright I was bad.  I’m a bad bad book hoarder.  I just can’t help it!  I have been reading though, really.  I just need to get better about writing up the reviews for them.  My current pile isn’t too too big but just big enough to require a day just for writing them.

Books I’ve Read & need Reviewing

• The Lost Sister – Kelley Hall
• How I Live Now – Rosoff
• Dead Until Dark – Harris
• Cracked Up To Be – Summers
• The Truth About Forever – Dessen
• An Offer You Can’t Refuse – Mansell
• Life As We Knew It – Pfeffer
• Genesis – Beckett

I also have books that I previously read before starting this blog that I want to write reviews for.  Most notably three books by Kristin Harmel.  I will be writing those reviews as part of an author showcase I’ll be doing for her book release the second week of August.

Anyway, this is me and my books in a nutshell!  Have a fabulous day

Welcome to the inaugural Literary Road Trip Road Map posting.  Each week I’ll create a new post to providing readers with a list of the posts road trippers submitted for the week.

If you are a participant who is showcasing authors from a particular location please remember to submit a link to your posts via the Mr. Linky provided on the Literary Road Trip page on Galleysmith.com.

New South Wales Australia
Reading Upside Down reviewed Loathing Lola [William Kostakis]

Reading Upside Down reviewed A Room at the Top [Heath Ducker]

Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
Kids Book Review interviews author Jackie French

Kids Book Review interviews author Ingrid Jonach

North Carolina
BookNAround reviewed Blackman’s Coffin [Mark DeCastrique]

Until next week road trippers….safe travels!