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!
Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one 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 120 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 GREEN TEAM--but there is also a red team, a gold team, a blue team, a purple team, and a pink team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!
To see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
ALSO, I'm offering an additional giveaway at the bottom of this post--enter to win a hardcover copy of my YA novel SOULSTRUCK!
Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one 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 120 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 GREEN TEAM--but there is also a red team, a gold team, a blue team, a purple team, and a pink team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!
To see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
ALSO, I'm offering an additional giveaway at the bottom of this post--enter to win a hardcover copy of my YA novel SOULSTRUCK!
HOW TO PLAY THE SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number (HINT: It's big and green). Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the green 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.
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.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST
Meg Kassel, Author of KEEPER OF THE BEES
Today, I am so excited to be hosting Meg Kassel on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
Meg Kassel is an author of fantasy and speculative books for young adults. She has always been fascinated and inspired by the fantastic, the creepy, and the futuristic. When she’s not writing, Meg is reading, hanging out with her family, hoarding peanut butter cups, or playing video games. She is the 2016 winner of the RWA Golden Heart® contest in YA and a 2018 RITA® Award finalist.
Get more information about Meg here!
Buy KEEPER OF THE BEES here!
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KEEPER OF THE BEES is a dark beauty and the beast retelling of two teens who are both beautiful and beastly, and whose pasts are entangled in surprising and heartbreaking ways.
Being a bully isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sixteen-year old Brianna had everything she wanted: money to ski all over the world, underlings to do her bidding, and parents who gave her every freedom—as long as she played by their rules. But when she’s busted shoplifting and assigned to the Chain Gang, she ditches her shallow ways and realizes being herself is easier than manipulating people. Forced to partner with kids she’d never dream of befriending, including Xavier, a boy who makes her pulse go into hyperdrive, Brianna vows to be a better person. Breaking Old Brianna’s habits isn’t easy, but her infatuation with Xavier—someone her parents would never approve of—motivates her to keep trying. Even when he convinces her to trade her swanky skis for a beat-up snowboard. Brianna lets go of her need to control everything and finally starts to feel free—until her past threatens to jeopardize her first real chance at love. She discovers balancing on the edge is as challenging in life as it is in snowboarding, and when a new friend is in trouble, Brianna must decide between the superficial things that used to be her world and putting her friend’s safety before herself. |
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EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
Okay, Scavenger Hunters, we are so lucky because Meg Kassel has decided to share a deleted scene from KEEPER OF THE BEES with us! I hope you love it as much as I do!
Note from Meg: In this scene, Dresden begins to recollect how he became cursed, and even shares his full name. It takes place many hundreds of years ago in a kingdom on the Mediterranean that doesn’t exist any longer (I was thinking an Atlantis-type of place). I cut it because the Dresden of my story (who lives in present day) doesn’t clearly remember these details—not even his full name. I loved talking about what he was like pre-curse, but sadly this scene didn’t move the story forward and was terribly self indulgent. Still fun, though! I hope you enjoy this teeny prequel to KEEPER OF THE BEES:
Queen Casya ruled a small, walled island in the Middle sea. She had power, though, through the sorcerers loyal to her. And when she took us, one by one, the true queens and kings of the other lands turned their noble heads and let her. My name was Dresdonemous Aroum Archemadae. I was one of those she took. This is what happened to me.
There were three rules for us, the inhabitants of Casya’s walled compound. The first was obvious: the queen’s word is irrefutable law. The second wasn’t a surprise, either: never try to escape. The third was by far the hardest to follow: enjoy and be grateful for the life of luxury the queen has generously given you. With a few exceptions, none of us wanted to be here. No amount of exotic foods and fruited wines and scented oil baths could make up for our forced captivity.
After my initial horrible few months, where I had to be locked in a cell for disobeying every rule, I calmed down enough to be released into the palace salon with the others. Had I been a guest, rather than a prisoner, I would have gaped in awe at the splendor. Everywhere was marble, so pristine and white it hurt the eyes. Intricate carvings of Casya’s greatness adorned the wall in relief. Gilt statues of her in all her unnatural glory gazed at us from every corner. Silk chaises sat next to a warm, bubbling spring that trickled from one end of the salon to the other, with two bathing pools. The weather was always perfect, thanks to the sorcerers’ magic. There were tables laden with food, day and night. There were musicians, friendly animals to pet, and masseuses. And of course, guards. There were as many guards as there were boys.
I took to spending my days walking the perimeter of our confines with a few other young men who struggled to accept their captivity. The guards called us cat-men, as we prowled along the walls in the same way as the queen’s jaguars in her expansive menagerie. Those big cats must have been as miserable as we were.
In those first six months, I believed I would get out of there. None of the captives in the salon were over the age of thirty, yet this compound had been operating for many decades. What happened to those who aged out? Foolishly, I thought they were released. I shouldn’t say that—I did get out. But when I did, I wasn’t me any longer. I lost everything I had been. Eventually, I even lost my full name. By the time I met Essie, I had only one small bit of it left to offer her: Dresden.
Note from Meg: In this scene, Dresden begins to recollect how he became cursed, and even shares his full name. It takes place many hundreds of years ago in a kingdom on the Mediterranean that doesn’t exist any longer (I was thinking an Atlantis-type of place). I cut it because the Dresden of my story (who lives in present day) doesn’t clearly remember these details—not even his full name. I loved talking about what he was like pre-curse, but sadly this scene didn’t move the story forward and was terribly self indulgent. Still fun, though! I hope you enjoy this teeny prequel to KEEPER OF THE BEES:
Queen Casya ruled a small, walled island in the Middle sea. She had power, though, through the sorcerers loyal to her. And when she took us, one by one, the true queens and kings of the other lands turned their noble heads and let her. My name was Dresdonemous Aroum Archemadae. I was one of those she took. This is what happened to me.
There were three rules for us, the inhabitants of Casya’s walled compound. The first was obvious: the queen’s word is irrefutable law. The second wasn’t a surprise, either: never try to escape. The third was by far the hardest to follow: enjoy and be grateful for the life of luxury the queen has generously given you. With a few exceptions, none of us wanted to be here. No amount of exotic foods and fruited wines and scented oil baths could make up for our forced captivity.
After my initial horrible few months, where I had to be locked in a cell for disobeying every rule, I calmed down enough to be released into the palace salon with the others. Had I been a guest, rather than a prisoner, I would have gaped in awe at the splendor. Everywhere was marble, so pristine and white it hurt the eyes. Intricate carvings of Casya’s greatness adorned the wall in relief. Gilt statues of her in all her unnatural glory gazed at us from every corner. Silk chaises sat next to a warm, bubbling spring that trickled from one end of the salon to the other, with two bathing pools. The weather was always perfect, thanks to the sorcerers’ magic. There were tables laden with food, day and night. There were musicians, friendly animals to pet, and masseuses. And of course, guards. There were as many guards as there were boys.
I took to spending my days walking the perimeter of our confines with a few other young men who struggled to accept their captivity. The guards called us cat-men, as we prowled along the walls in the same way as the queen’s jaguars in her expansive menagerie. Those big cats must have been as miserable as we were.
In those first six months, I believed I would get out of there. None of the captives in the salon were over the age of thirty, yet this compound had been operating for many decades. What happened to those who aged out? Foolishly, I thought they were released. I shouldn’t say that—I did get out. But when I did, I wasn’t me any longer. I lost everything I had been. Eventually, I even lost my full name. By the time I met Essie, I had only one small bit of it left to offer her: Dresden.
THE PUZZLE CLUE IS HERE:
Don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Meg Kassel, and more!
I don't know about you, but I read that deleted scene 7 times! Now add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the GREEN TEAM and you'll have the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
I don't know about you, but I read that deleted scene 7 times! Now add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the GREEN TEAM and you'll have 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!
Go to MICHELE BARROW-BELISLE'S WEBSITE (http://michelebelisle.blogspot.com) for more exclusive content and your next GREEN TEAM code!
Go to MICHELE BARROW-BELISLE'S WEBSITE (http://michelebelisle.blogspot.com) for more exclusive content and your next GREEN TEAM code!
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