Celebrating 1 Month of Blogging Giveaway

Celebrating my first month of blogging with an author interview + GIVEAWAY (OPEN INTERNATIONALLY)

I can't believe it's already been one month since I officially made this a book blog and gained my first follower!

A Little History
You'll notice that my archive actually begins in 2008 - until the end of 2012, all the posts are actually from my personal blog which I've exported and imported around. I've changed blog providers a bunch of times. Since those blog posts hold a lot of memories and personal growth for me I didn't want to delete them. Posting reviews to my blog started end of 2012 but actual "official" book blogging was January 12th :D

A special thanks goes out to Saz @ Saz101 for promoting my blog and Shirley @ Shiirleyy's Bookshelf  for being my first follower <3 without your help, encouragement and support I would have never had the confidence and energy to kick this blog off! SO THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH <3 Seriously I feel so blessed to have been welcomes like that into the book blogging community.

In just a few short weeks I've participated in quite a few memes (Stacking the Shelves @ Tynga's Reviews, Waiting on Wednesday @ Breaking the Spine and Feature & Follow Hop @ Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) which have also really helped me gain followers and introduced me to many awesome blogs!

So as a huge thank you to all my followers and readers I'm hosting my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY *throws confetti*

One of my favourite authors and the first author to follow me on Twitter, Rachel Harris, 2012 debut author of My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century, has so kindly agreed to help me with my giveaway!

About Rachel Harris
"As a teen, Rachel Harris threw raging parties that shook her parents’ walls and created embarrassing fodder for future YA novels.

As an adult, she reads and writes obsessively, rehashes said embarrassing fodder, and dreams up characters who become her own grown up version of imaginary friends.

When she's not typing furiously or flipping pages in an enthralling romance, you can find her homeschooling her two beautiful princesses, hanging out with her amazing husband, or taking a hot bubble bath…next to a pile of chocolate.

MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY is her debut novel. She didhave her own fantabulous Sweet Sixteen in high school. Sadly, it wasn't televised."

Goodreads synopsis of MSSSC: "On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother-to-be and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze.
Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore.

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?"

I was also able to get Rachel to do my first ever author interview!

Author Interview

Art plays a big part in MSSSC, do you have a favourite artist or artistic movement?

I’m a big appreciator of art. Personally, I can’t draw a straight line to save my life, much less anything more artistic than that, but I appreciate and love people who can!

Art appreciation is actually one of my favorite subjects to teach my girls in our homeshool because we just get out huge books filled with the artwork of the masters and simply talk about it. How it makes us feel, why we think they focused on that particular aspect or used those colors. I love the art of the Renaissance—it’s one of my favorite things about that time, and it’s why I featured it so much in the book—but I also love Mary Cassatt and Claude Monet.

I see that Cat is quite into fashion and even in Renaissance Italy she got a wide variety of pretty dresses; what other time periods had clothing that appeals to you?

In reading, I love losing myself in the clothing descriptions in a good Regency novel. But I also love looking over how fashion changed just in the twentieth century. Each decade had its own unique vision and style. I’ve drawn to fashion imagery of the 1920’s and 1950s in particular. And, come on, the 1980s and early 90s? It may not go down as style that should ever be repeated—my personal pictures from that time are downright scary—but it was certainly fun ;)

Do we hear word of Lorenzo in A Tale of Two Centuries? And if not, can you tell us if he lived a long and happy life?

Hmm, what can I say that won’t be spoilerific? You do see Lorenzo on the page, and you do learn a little more about him and his life, yes. (He he)

Cat takes a photo with Alessandra back in Renaissance Italy. Does it exist in the present?

Yes it does. This actually comes up in book two, but I wrote that into My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century because I wanted readers to know Cat was able to take some of her experience back home with her. Since she loves photography, it would be important for her.

Even though Niccolo is an "unwanted suitor" and he's creepy, does he have genuine feelings for Cat?

Here’s an insider secret: In the first draft of the book, he wasn’t creepy.

~shocker~

I thought it would be interesting just to have him be older, but to have the tension be from how much things have changed since then, and for Cat to be forced into a situation with a much older but pretty decent guy in the midst of relationship expectations that are so different from her own time.

But when I went back through during editing, I decided to have more fun with it. So, to answer your question, original Niccolo, yes. The new version, I’m still deciding (snickers). Actually, my daughter wants me to write another book from Niccolo’s perspective!

---

Thank you Rachel for your awesome answers and time <3

You can read my (gushing) review of My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century here.

Now onto the giveaway!

I will gift the winner:

• A copy of Rachel's My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century - as long as the Book Depository ships to your country (check here) 

but that's not all... Rachel will also be sending the winner

• Signed bookplate for My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century
• Signed bookmarks AND
• My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century trading cards

Eeeep thanks to Rachel for all this swag, you're so awesome!

a Rafflecopter giveaway