YA Scavenger Hunt, October 1 - 4 2015

Welcome to the 11th YA Scavenger Hunt! 
About meI use different handwriting styles depending on my mood.I come from a line of highwaymen (and one philandering earl).My animal totem is the wolf.

now...
YOU ARE CURRENTLY HUNTING ON TEAM ORANGE!
First, a few rules.
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE RULESDirections:  Below you'll notice that I've secretly hidden my favorite number.  Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on TEAM ORANGE, and them add them up (you may use a calculator!)

(HINT: THE SECRET NUMBER IS HIGHLIGHTED IN ORANGE!)
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.

The hunt is 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 Sunday, October 4th at noon Pacific Time.  Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

There are EIGHT contest going on simultaneously and you can enter one or all!  Along with the ORANGE TEAM, there are also BLUE, GOLD, GREEN, PINK, PURPLE, RED and TEAL teams! Check out each for a chance to win eight different sets of signed books!

For more information about the hunt, see links to the participating authors, and the full list of prizes, visit the YA Scavenger Hunt page.


Now that all the technical info is out of the way, let me introduce you to the author I am hosting on this hunt:

meetKELLY HASHWAY!

Kelly full admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but that didn't stop her from jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet one Halloween.  Maybe it was growing up reading RL Stine's FEAR STREET books that instilled a love of all things scary and a desire to live in a world filled with supernatural creatures, but she spends her days writing speculative fiction for young adults, middle graders, and young children.  Kelly's also a sucker for first love, which is why she writes YA and NA romance under the pen name Ashelyn Drake.  When she's not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.  She is represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary Agency
Sandra here: She jumped out of a plane at 10,000 feet?EEK. The most I could bear is 7--yes--seven feet.


The book Kelly is showcasing in the YA Scavenger Hunt is

THE DARKNESS WITHIN
Sandra here--is this not a gorgeous cover? I want this mask!

After dying of cancer at seventeen and being brought back to life by an evil witch who turned her into a monster, Samantha Thompson thinks she's finally gotten past all the tragedy in her life.  Now she's part of a coven of good witches who are helping her and her boyfriend, Ethan Anderson, learning to use the powers they received from other witches.  Aside from the fact that Sam and Ethan are still in hiding from their old lives--the ones they had before Sam was brought back to life--things couldn't be better.  Sam and Ethan are inseparable.  What could go wrong?Magic.Ethan's magic comes from a witch who'd turned as evil as possible, and though his coven thought he'd be fine, the more he uses his magic, the stranger he starts acting.  The magic inside him is changing who he is.  One minute he's Sam's sweet, perfect Ethan, and the next, he's a complete stranger  Even with all her witchy power, Sam is helpless against the magic corrupting Ethan.  Can Sam find out what's wrong with him before she loses him to dark magic forever?

**********
EXCLUSIVE CONTENT!an alternate scene from THE DARKNESS WITHIN told from Ethan’s POV:
“Whoa.” Shannon gripped the steering wheel, obviously trying to fight the spell she’d put on the car. “I know this place.” She couldn’t sound more freaked out if she tried.
“What’s wrong? Where are we?” Sam asked beside me. She craned her neck to see through the windows, but it was too dark to make out much of anything.
“I’ve been here, or I’ve at least seen it.” Shannon shook her head. “I’m not sure which, but I have a really bad feeling.”
Considering how we were all almost killed by that green snakelike thing back at the park, she was probably right.
“We’ve all seen this,” Dylan said, pressing his nose against his window. “Part of it, at least. These are the woods we saw in the image at the merry-go-round.”
I sighed. We were almost there. Almost to the one witch who could take this dark magic out of my body. The feeling of my skin crawling would finally go away, and I could be around Sam again without having to worry that I’d hurt her. I squeezed her hand. “Hopefully, this will all be over soon.”
She smiled and nodded, but it looked forced. She was still worried, and Shannon freaking out in the front seat wasn’t helping.
“Knock it off!” Dylan grabbed Shannon’s wrists and yanked her hands from the steering wheel. The car veered off the road and onto the grass. Everyone screamed, but all I could think was that I was going to kill Dylan and Shannon if this spell wrecked my Mazda.
“Undo the spell! Undo the spell!” I yelled, gripping the seat as I pictured what the tree up ahead of us would do to my car.
“Shannon!” Sam yelled.
Dylan started mumbling a spell as the car hit something and became airborne. Damn it! Dylan’s head slammed into the passenger door, and he slumped in his seat.
“Dylan!” Sam reached for him, but stopped and grabbed my hand. “Follow my lead.” Doing magic was the last thing I wanted with how out of control I’ve been, and Sam must have been worried about it too, because she just froze.
“Say what you want the car to do,” I told her. “The spell doesn’t have to be pretty to be effective.”
A few seconds passed before Sam said, “Stop the car. Go no far.”
The spell was awful, but I started chanting it right along with her. The magic started to swirl inside me, rising and filling me with that sense of dread I got every time—right before it consumed me. It was happening again, and I couldn’t control it.
The green energy continued to spread up through my chest and into my head, finally resting behind my eyes. Everything I saw was through a green haze. Itwas in control again, seeing what I saw. And right then, that was a tree directly in front of my car. Luckily, Sam was strong enough to finish the spell and the car swerved slightly, coming to rest only inches from the tree.
While the others breathed for the first time in several minutes, I sat frozen, unable to control my own body. I was powerless against the dark magic inside me.
“Ethan?” Sam said, but her voice was like a whisper. I was cut off from what was happening, forced to watch it. I knew what the dark magic was doing. I could feel it pulling toward the tree.
Someone yelled to get out of the car, but the voices all ran together. Sam stared at me. “Ethan, look at me. Please. Focus. Fight this.” She touched my cheek, but I couldn’t actually feel anything. Nothing but the green magic, which was wrapping itself around Sam’s hand in mine, keeping her at my side. This thing wanted blood. Sam’s blood.
I struggled to fight it, no longer able to focus on the voices around me, but my magic wasn’t mine anymore. Then I felt another magic try to creep over me. It had to be Shannon casting a spell on me. It had no effect, though. I was vaguely aware of the others leaving the car. Sam grabbed my arm and tugged me toward the door, but I barely moved. My focus was still locked on the tree as the darkness inside me tried to pull it down on us.
“This isn’t happening!” Finally, Sam’s voice broke through as she pulled herself onto my lap and blocked my view of the tree. “Ethan! Look at me! Look at me!”
“Sam, get out! The tree is coming down!” Shannon screamed, but Sam wouldn’t move. It was like she was as trapped as I was.

I screamed inside my head as the tree fell and the sound of crunching metal filled my ears.

**********

Yum! Here's how you can get more:
Add THE DARKNESS WITHIN to your reading list on Goodreads

Get your hands on the awesome THE DARKNESS WITHIN HERE!

Visit Kelly and see all of her terrific works at her website  

Before you head on to the next YASH author remember to write down my favorite number!  And, one more thing: below you can enter an extra giveaway! Three winners will receive a signed paperback of the Guardians of Tarnec series Book 1, LARK RISING along with a bookmark and lark tattoo.



a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you so much for visiting my website and participating in the YA Scavenger Hunt!  Are you ready to move on to the next author on ORANGE TEAM?  Excellent! It's the lovely MARTINA BOONE! Just click below:
LINK TO NEXT SITE
Bye everyone!  Good luck!
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Published on October 01, 2015 10:00
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