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 signed 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 EIGHT contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GOLD TEAM–but there is also a RED, BLUE, GREEN, ORANGE, TEAL, PURPLE, & PINK for a chance to win a whole different set of signed 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 a number. Collect the numbers of all the authors on the GOLD 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 Oct 4, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST
Today, I am hosting Kate Ormand on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
Kate Ormand is the author of DARK DAYS and shape-shifter circus book, THE WANDERERS. She writes children’s picture books as Kate Louise and is represented by Isabel Atherton at Creative Authors Ltd. You can see more about Kate and her writing by visiting her website or on Twitter (@kateormand).
Find out more information by checking out the books here!
A Unique Twist on Shape-Shifters with Fast-Paced Action, Thrilling Adventure, Mystery, and a Bit of Romance
Flo lives an eccentric life—she travels with a popular circus in which the main acts star orphaned children with secret shape-shifting abilities. Once Flo turns sixteen, she must perform, but she’s not ready. While practicing jumping a flaming hurdle in a clearing beside the circus, she spots a dark figure in the trees and fears he saw her shift. The news sends the circus into a panic.In Flo’s world, shifters are unknown to humans with the exception of a secret organization—the EOS, referred to as “hunters.” Hunters capture and kill. They send some shifters to labs for observation and testing—testing they don’t often survive—and deem others useless, a danger to society, and eliminate them. To avoid discovery, shifters travel in packs, constantly moving and keeping themselves hidden. Up until now, the circus was the perfect disguise.
Believing she has brought attention to the group, Flo feels dread and anxiety, causing her to make a mistake during her performance in front of the audience—a mistake that triggers a violent attack from the hunters.
Flo manages to flee the torched circus grounds with Jett, the bear shifter who loves her; the annoying elephant triplets; and a bratty tiger named Pru. Together they begin a new journey, alone in a world they don’t understand and don’t know how to navigate. On the run, they unravel secrets and lies that surround the circus and their lives—secrets and lies that all point to the unthinkable: Have they been betrayed by the people they trusted most?
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT – Excerpt from THE WANDERERS
I close my eyes and will my shape to come.
The world blurs around me, eventually surrounding me in darkness, nothingness, which is why I close my eyes. When I was younger, and just beginning to learn how to take my shape, I’d fall over all the time from the dizzying sensation that comes with what we call the Blackout. It’s as if the shape takes you, picks you off the planet, and sends you somewhere else. I’ve seen others shift, their bodies blurring out of focus so they’re nothing more than lines and smudges of color.
Wherever we’re taken during the transformation is cold. Goosebumps flare up on my bare flesh, pins and needles prickle beneath my skin, and I feel like I’ve been dropped into a dimension of black ice.
Then I start to take shape, to leave my human skin behind, and I’m on fire. My insides are electric, sparking and sizzling. My long chestnut-brown hair grows and travels along my body, coating every part of my skin, wrapping me in its warmth. My heart feels like it’s expanding in reaction to the change. It beats differently, at a quicker rate, pumping more forcefully.
When I open my eyes, the world looks different. I can see and hear so clearly; everything is suddenly sharp and intensified. My senses are overloaded. Sound crashes into my ears, making them twitch. Jett’s foot against the hard mud, the rustle of his jacket as his arm moves, the noise of him breathing through his nose, the sound of his heart beating—I can hear it all, and all too well.
I can see for hundreds of yards to each side, but Jett’s standing right in front of me and almost completely out of sight. I turn my head so I can see him properly. Having eyes on the side of my head is usually the most difficult thing to get used to when I shift—the way the world looks so different when I open them again, throwing me off balance. Walking on four legs takes some getting used to as well.
Sunbeams break through the clouds like spotlights. I know my coat will be shimmering and glossy in this early morning light. I shake my head, fanning out my dark- brown mane, and swish my tail.
“Are you ready?” Jett turns around slowly. He looks at me and smiles. I smile back, I think, by curling back my upper lip. Warm breath surrounds my face in a thin cloud, visible in the crisp air for a second before disappearing altogether.
Jett takes a step toward me and carefully reaches out to me. He runs his hand down my long nose and I tilt my head to let him, nuzzling his side. He laughs. “You’re so beautiful,” he says. The girl in me loves to hear him say that.
I stamp my hind leg and move away from him, trotting off into the opening to warm up and get used to my form. Tonight, this is the skin I will wear.
And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, hosted author’s name, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 12. 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!
CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author!
