Welcome to the YA Scavenger Hunt! There are TWO contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter them both! I am a part of the RED TEAM–but there is also a blue team, which give you a chance to win a completely different set of twenty-five signed books!
All you have to do is add up the clues and enter the winning code for your chance to win the grand prize contest–one lucky winner will receive a signed book from each author on The Hunt from The Red Team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) starts on April 4th at noon (PST), and ends on Sunday, April 7th at noon!
This tri-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to find exciting new authors, gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and get a chance to win some awesome prizes!
Visit the official YA Scavenger Hunt page to learn more about The Hunt, view links to the participating authors, and the list of prizes!
Solve the Puzzle
Directions: I’ve listed my favorite number below. Collect the favorite numbers from all of the authors on the red team, add them up, and discover the winning number (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!). Go to the go to the entry form and enter the winning number to submit your official entry. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Contest Rules: Open internationally. Anyone under 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, April 7th at noon Pacific Time. Entries submitted without the correct number, without contact information, or after the deadline will not be considered. The winner will be chosen at random from the qualified entries for each team.
Meet the Author: Lea Nolan
Today, I am hosting Lea Nolan on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
Lea Nolan writes the kinds of stories she sought as a teen—smart paranormals with bright heroines, crazy-hot heroes, diabolical plot twists, plus a dose of magic, a draft of romance, and a sprinkle of history. She’s holds degrees in history and women’s studies concentrating in public policy and has worked in health care policy for nearly twenty years. She lives in Maryland with her heroically supportive husband and three clever children. Her debut YA novel, CONJURE, is the first book one in The Hoodoo Apprentice Series.
Find out more information by checking out Lea’s website or find more about CONJURE here!
Get Exclusive Content
CONJURE by Lea Nolan
Be careful what you search for…Emma Guthrie expects this summer to be like any other in the South Carolina Lowcountry–hot and steamy with plenty of beach time alongside her best friend and secret crush, Cooper Beaumont, and Emma’s ever-present twin brother, Jack. But then a mysterious eighteenth-century message in a bottle surfaces, revealing a hidden pirate bounty. Lured by the adventure, the trio discovers the treasure and unwittingly unleashes an ancient Gullah curse that attacks Jack with the wicked flesh-eating Creep and promises to steal Cooper’s soul on his approaching sixteenth birthday. But when a strange girl appears bent on revenge, demon dogs become a threat, and Jack turns into a walking skeleton, Emma has no choice but to learn hoodoo magic to undo the hex, all before summer—and her friends—are lost forever.
Check out Lea’s special content for The YA Scavenger Hunt and read this short excerpt from CONJURE’s deleted chapter.
I sprinkle the powder over the glowing chips. The herb mixture ignites as it hits the hot charcoal, spitting and crackling like tiny beads of gunpowder. A cloud of gray-green smoke billows up from the center of the pan.
The sky darkens as the clouds shift and converge, blocking out the sun.
Miss Delia thrusts Jack’s baseball cap at me. “Quick, fish out your brother’s hair and add it to the pan.”
I tug the jet-black strand from the inside of the brim. It’s straight and coarse, almost like a strand of wire, and way thicker than mine. Definitely Jack’s. As I toss it onto the coals, Miss Delia grasps my hand and chants, “As dawn breaks night, and heat melts ice, turn back this curse and restore Jack’s life.”
A blast of wind barrels across the backyard, whipping the rear of the house and rattling the windows. A ghostly moan surrounds the bottle tree.
A flash bursts in the pan, and a fireball leaps into the air, blowing the powdered mixture all over the kitchen and us. A split second later, the flames collapse on themselves, retracting back into the pan with a loud sucking sound that smothers all the heat. Even the charcoal has stopped glowing.
Miss Delia starts, then leans toward the quiet pan, holding her hand above the coals that blazed just a second ago. Her eyes are fixed in stunned confusion. I lift my hand and hold it next to hers. There’s no residual heat. It’s completely cool. Miss Delia pokes a tentative finger at a charcoal chip. It disintegrates into a heap of ash.
Suddenly a loud and ferocious bark booms from outside Miss Delia’s kitchen window. Deep and gravelly, it’s almost more of a roar than a bark. The yowl repeats, brutal in its persistence, filling my stomach with dread. I spring off my stool and race to the window to see what’s outside.
A giant black dog with long, glossy fur and electric yellow eyes stands in the middle of Miss Delia’s herb garden, howling its enormous head off. It’s at least as big as a pony, but I’m sure it’s a dog.
Some kind of crazy-eyed, half-Newfoundland, half-Doberman beast.
CONTINUE THE HUNT
Remember to enter the Red Team’s contest for your chance to win a bunch of signed books–including books by me, Lea Nolan, Suzanne Lazear and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 31. Once you’ve collected all of the Red Team’s favorite numbers, add them together and you’ll have the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
Continue your quest to complete the hunt and visit Suzanne Lazear! But before you go, here’s…
~Your Extra Chance to Win~
a Copy of Futuredaze
In addition to the YA Scavenger Hunt contest, I’m also running my own contest. Enter here to win a signed copy of FUTUREDAZE. The entry with the most points wins! If there is a tie, those contestants will be entered into a random drawing to determine the winner. This contest is open internationally. If you are under 18 years old, please be sure to get your parent’s permission to enter.
How to get your points (one point per item, 4 total):
NOTE: If you already follow or like any of these pages on Twitter or Facebook, give yourself a point since you can’t “like” me twice…even though I wish you could. 
Thanks for participating. The Scavenger Hunt and my extra contest are both closed now.
For those of you who don’t know, I live in Boston’s North Shore and I work in Cambridge. On Monday, April 15th, two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, sending nails and ball bearings through the crowded area–killing 3 people and wounding 176 people. Lives have been lost and even more lives will be forever changed as people and families try to figure out how to move forward emotionally and financially after this horrific crisis.
Special Event featuring Science Fiction for Young Adults
107 Pleasant Street, Marblehead, MA 01945
Join us on 3/12 with editor Erin Underwood and more for a Release Party, chat and contest. This event post goes up at 12:00pm Central and runs into the evening. For those visiting from outside of the US, here is the time conversion link. We are in the Chicago time zone: 
