Where is Cat?

Hello, lovely readers. I just wanted to let you know that I may not be around for a while. My mother passed away on holiday this week. Totally unexpected and a huge shock to us all.

I was supposed to announce the winner of the trailer contest today, but I hope you'll understand if I postpone that for a few weeks. Please bear with me, I will be back.

x

Five reasons to read SOME GIRLS ARE, by Courtney Summers

1. The writing is perfect. Lines like this make me very happy:
 'It's the kind of look that makes me feel every inch of my skin in a way that makes me want to claw it all off.'

2. It has an 'Unstable Emo Writer Boy' in it. And we all know they're the very best type of boy. He writes in a Moleskine too. Don't you just love him already? You should.

3. SGA is about the meanest of mean girls. They're PROPERLY mean. Anyone who's ever been to school will be able to relate to this in one way or another. It makes you think about the way you acted in school, and how your actions might have affected other people in ways you never dreamed of.

4. You never know what's going to happen next. You THINK you know. But you are WRONG.

5. There's a page with only a single word on it that is so ridiculously right that I wanted to kiss it. (But I didn't. That would have been weird, right?)

Whaaaat?! I've reached my five-reason limit ALREADY? No fair. I could go on and on. But rules is rules. Just read it, 'kay?

Contest contest contest!

Morning! Today is Contest Day here on This Counts as Writing, Right?

First, the prize...

The winner will receive TWO books (count them: one, TWO!):

Rich and Mad, by William Nicholson
Numbers, by Rachel Ward (US hardback with mega-creepy cover)

This contest is open to anyone who a) is a follower of this blog and b) lives in the UK. Apologies to non-UKers... I promise to hold an international contest sooooooon.

All you have to do to win is:

Recommend a YA book trailer in the comments section below. Tell us why you like it so much. It has to be THE coolest trailer you've ever seen. If someone else has already chosen the trailer you wanted to go for, please choose another! The winner will be chosen by me in a purely subjective, non-scientific manner. And I'll post the trailer on here.

I'll announce the winner on Sunday 20th June, so you have plenty of time to track down trailers of awesomeness.

So, good luck, and happy trailer-hunting!

YA me up!

OK folks, I need your help. After making a rather bold statement about Patrick Ness on here the other day (about how he makes me feel things other writers don't), I felt sure there must be other writers out there who can make me FEEL as deeply as he does.

So please help me out. Have you read any YA recently that made you feel... joyful/shocked/disgusted/sad to the very core of you/so sympathetic to a character that you can hardly bear to keep reading lest anything even worse befall them?

Your YA recommendations were so good last time, I know you won't let me down. Thank you kindly!