Pimping Friday

Welcome to pimping Friday ... See those cool covers? Those are two books I think everybody should buy, or at least help pimp. It's OK if you don't. But I will send my guys around to your house later tonight with a lead pipe. Just lock the doors and windows. You'll be fine. Not really.

But there are lots of good reasons you should. You might win a 5-page critique from a great author, you'd get some great reading material, and you'd have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped another writer. Which is always a good thing.

The first book, Magickeepers, is from my friend Erica Kirov (Orloff). I've been waiting to post this until I had a chance to get my hands on the book itself, which I did yesterday. First off, it's just a beautiful book. And it's very good. Of course, Erica is my critique partner so I'm wildly biased, but I've never read this book all the way through in our group, and even after years and years of critiquing each other, she still impresses me. I won't give anything away, but there was a moment near the middle when I stopped reading and thought, "Now, THAT'S how to do theme ..."

The second book is by Maggie Stiefvater, a YA author who's in the middle of a series with Flux and has an upcoming release with Scholastic called Shiver. Shiver isn't due to be released until August, so she's working now to build buzz for it. And my gut tells me it's worth it. The book created an early splash when she sold it at auction way back when, it's Scholastic's lead title this fall, and she's a fantastic writer. Her first book was extremely well reviewed, with starred reviews all over the place and nominations for this, that and the other.

Now, in anticipation of Shiver's release, she's sponsoring a viral blog contest. Here's the rules:

Whoever gets the most people to post about her book on their blogs, and those people hop over to her blog and leave a comment saying where they heard about the contest (here), wins. Each of the posters gets a 5-page critique from Maggie. And I win a new car. Just kidding. I get a signed ARC. So here's the Shiver cover blurb (cool concept, eh?), and here's the Amazon link to Shiver's page. Just in case you wanted to post ...

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.