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 SIX 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 team, a blue team, an orange team, a red team, and an indie team 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.

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the blue 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 DATE, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Today, I am hosting Bethany Crandell on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! 

Bethany lives in San Diego with her husband, two kiddos, and a chocolate lab who has no regard for personal space. She’s slightly obsessed with John Hughes and the wonderful collection of films he left behind, and is confident that Jake Ryan will be showing up on her doorstep any day now

Find out more information by checking out the author website or find more about the author’s book here! 

Website
Buy the Book

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

I wish I could say that my editor was a blade-wielding tyrant who forced me to delete my favorite scene from SUMMER ON THE SHORT BUS, but that’s not the case…and this isn’t Game of Thrones. *whimpers for Jaime Lannister* What is true is that my editor felt this scene didn’t add any value to the story–and she was right. Once I put my objectivity hat on, I realized that my attachment to this particular scene was strictly emotional. After you read it, I’ll tell you why…

I call this the wild rumpus scene:

I giggle and feel my stupid cheeks getting warm again. Oh yeah…you’re a lot more than just a pretty face. Quinn leans forward and my heart starts doing that thumpity-thump thing, while my eyes instinctively begin to drift shut. I can just feel his breath grazing my lips when we hear, 

“Ooh, cock’n balls–Ahhhh! Kiss her, Quinn–Piss! Pisser!” 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mumbles, just centimeters from my mouth. 

Poor Chase is standing in the corner of the room next to the Eiffel Tower backdrop he’s been working on, with a paintbrush in one hand and a horrified look on his face. 

“Piss! I’m so sorry!” He wails. “Cock! Balls! Agh–Piss! I can’t stop myself.”

“Dude, don’t worry about it,” Quinn says, laughing. He leaves me with a wink then jogs to Chase’s side. “Nobody’s mad. It’s actually pretty funny.”

Gasps are spreading through the room now, and I’m well on my way to another full-blown laughing fit. Tourette’s and cerebral palsy…this kid can’t catch a break.

 “I’m so–cockin’ balls! Damn it! I’m so sorry, Cricket!” Chase is trying really hard to be serious, but it seems he can’t help himself today. He begins to laugh, too. “You know I think you guys are cool. It looked like something out of a movie–Cock! Cock! It just slips out…”

“It’s okay!” I manage to say as I walk toward him. “If you’re going to sabotage a kiss, that is definitely the way to do it.”

The entire room has stopped what they’re doing and is staring at the three of us. Even Taylor’s wonky eye has managed to point itself in the right direction. We’re all fighting back our laughter like a levee that’s about to burst.

“Cockin’ baaaaaaalls!” Meredith suddenly screams.

There’s a second of absolute silence—no one’s even moving—and then all hell breaks loose!

“Cockin’ balls!” Jamal joins Meredith, screaming at the top of his lungs. 

The pair circles through the room, popping wheelies and treating their expensive wheelchairs like bumper cars at the carnival, while my crutched friends use their steel supports as drumsticks against the buckling linoleum floor. From the stage area, the rest of our battered crew is laughing and yelping so wildly I’m beginning to feel like Max in the middle of the handicapped, wild rumpus. Hello, wild things!

I throw my arms around Chase, noting how quickly his chest rises and falls as he laughs. It’s a beautiful sensation against my cheek. On instinct I try to suck back the emotional knot that’s building in my throat, but as his jerky, fisted hands pull me closer to him, I realize there’s no use. This is the best hug ever.  
       

I still remember with great clarity, the afternoon I spent discussing this scene with my mom and oldest sister. We probably should have been quiet and introspective as we dined on the patio that overlooked the Pacific, but we were too busy cry-laughing, speculating how I ended up so demented when they were so sane, and repeating, cock and balls over and over again, to pay any attention to the view. This scene brought about one of the best memories I have of two of my favorite women–cutting it felt like I was dishonoring that memory somehow. I know better now. 

Cricket Montgomery has been thrown under the short bus. Shipped off to a summer camp by her father, Cricket is forced to play babysitter to a bunch of whiny kids—or so she thinks. When she realizes this camp is actually for teens with special needs, Cricket doubts she has what it takes to endure twenty-four hours, let alone two weeks.

Thanks to her dangerously cute co-counselor, Quinn, there may be a slim chance for survival. However, between the campers’ unpredictability and disregard for personal space, Cricket’s limits get pushed. She will have to decide if suffering through her own handicapped hell is worth a summer romance—and losing her sanity.

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Bethany Crandell, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 13. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the gold 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 – Kate Karyus Quinn
http://www.katekaryusquinn.blogspot.com