No Ordinary Book

Spirited has been selected for the Children's Book Council Winter Seasonal Showcase, No Ordinary Book. The title is also featured on the CBC homepage.

What makes Spirited so special?

First of all, it's filled with stories by talented authors. Contributing authors include Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill William-son, Linda Joy Singleton, Heather Kenealy, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Carmen Tudor, John W. Otte, Halli Dee Lilburn, and Mark Finnemore.

Second, the anthology benefits charity. All proceeds from the sale of SPIRITED will be donated to 826 National, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting students, ages 6-18, to improve their writing skills.

Third, it contains AR. If you prefer your apparitions 3-D rather than 2-D, slide the AR icons under your webcam to see the augmented reality leap off the page. (Thanks to Karl Gee for the AR.)

Spirited Release

An anthology of ghostly tales by Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill Williamson, Linda Joy Singleton, Heather Kenealy, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Carmen Tudor, John W. Otte, Halli Dee Lilburn, and Mark Finnemore

ISBN-13--978-1-61603-020-9

Edited by Kat O'Shea

Haunted houses. Haunted hearts. And a past that refuses to die. . .

Leap Books summoned best-selling paranormal and dreadfully talented debut authors to conjure up Spirited, a haunting collection of 13 tales guaranteed to keep you up all night.

Get entombed in stories of Egyptian treasures, shudder at tales of malevolent spirits, and become enthralled with the adventures of witch-hunters, ghost seekers, and lost souls. From steampunk to cyberpunk, our collection spans past, present, and future hauntings. One story actually leaps off the page with 3D augmented reality.

Go ahead. Turn the page if you dare. We won't tell if you sleep with the light on. Because after all, there's no rest for the wicked.

All proceeds from the sale of SPIRITED will be donated to 826 National.

Print book available exclusively from the Leap Books store.

Leap Books Launches

Leap Books is thrilled to announce three new titles:

FEBRUARY 12
 The second book in Judith Graves' Skinned series:

 

ISBN-13 978-1-61603-006-3
ISBN-10 1-61603-006-2

With Fiends Like Eryn…

Monsters. Bloodsuckers. The evil. The damned. Eryn McCain knows they exist—she's been hunting them since she was a child. At sixteen, she's ready to take on all comers. Being a shapeshifter gives her an advantage when it comes to her unusual part-time job. The hours suck and the pay is, well, non-existent, but bonuses like inhuman strength and night vision make tracking scary beasties a dream come true. Especially in a town like Redgrave.

When an ancient demon targets Redgrave High, Eryn and her crew of hunters must face their innermost fears to prevent the Harvest Moon Dance from becoming one serious Monster Mash. Loyalties are tested and temptations abound. With questions ever brewing, can Eryn share a future with the brooding, noble, human Alec—the hunter after her heart? Or will she succumb to her enemy's son, Wade, a seductive predator as bloodthirsty as she is?

What happens when you’re both the beauty and the beast?


FEBRUARY 14

Patrice Lyle's humorous paranormal...

ISBN 13 978-1-61603-013-1
ISBN 10 1-61603-013-5

Morgan Skully is the world's only blonde demon girl, and she's got a brand new, very unusual afterschool job. Spying for the Devil. She'd much rather use her cloak-and-dagger skills to spy on hottie-licious Derek with her friends, but the Devil won't take no for an answer. Luckily for Morgan, her new boss is kinda hot. Her assignment is simple: find out who at Pitchfork Prep is funneling secrets to the Siberian Werewolf Council. If she succeeds, pedicures and platinum highlights are just the beginning.

But if she fails…there's more on the line than killer shoes.

MARCH 28

An anthology of ghostly tales by Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill Williamson, Linda Joy Singleton, Heather Kenealy, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Carmen Tudor, John W. Otte, Halli Dee Lilburn, and Mark Finnemore 

ISBN-13--978-1-61603-020-9

Edited by Kat O'Shea

Haunted houses. Haunted hearts. And a past that refuses to die. . .

Leap Books summoned best-selling paranormal and dreadfully talented debut authors to conjure up Spirited, a haunting collection of 13 tales guaranteed to keep you up all night.

Get entombed in stories of Egyptian treasures, shudder at tales of malevolent spirits, and become enthralled with the adventures of witch-hunters, ghost seekers, and lost souls. From steampunk to cyberpunk, our collection spans past, present, and future hauntings. One story actually leaps off the page with 3D augmented reality.

Go ahead. Turn the page if you dare. We won't tell if you sleep with the light on. Because after all, there's no rest for the wicked.

All proceeds from the sale of SPIRITED will be donated to 826 National.

Print book available exclusively from the Leap Books store.

One More Finnish Treat

For lovers of all things Finnish and paranormal, here's a sneak peek at an excerpt from the anthology Spirited. This story, "The Cold One," is by bestselling, award-winning author Candace Havens.

"Bone-chilling cold and secrets.

Those are the two things I'll take with me when I leave Finland.

If I leave..."

"Havahduttaa jalkeilla apulainen." The words are so loud I jump out of bed and hit my head on the slanted roof. Groaning, I rub the top of my head.

Grandmother stands at the end of the bed pointing at me. "Havahduttaa jalkeilla apulainen." She says it again.

"I am up," I grumble. I can see my breath the room is so cold.

"Wait." I sit back on the bed. "I understood you. You said, 'Wake up, girl.'"

"He's coming. Save me." Poof. She's gone. I mean, like I blink, and she's no longer there.

"Who's coming?" I whisper. I glance at the clock on the wall. Two in the morning. But I'm wired. No way I'll be able to go back to bed any time soon.

I pull on one of the big sweaters mom bought me for the trip and go downstairs. It's even chillier in the living room without the fire. The crazy thing about houses in Finland is that everything is white—the walls, the counters, the floors, and even the cabinets. The house reminds me of a hospital. In the kitchen I fill a glass of water from the tap and chug it down.

Thump. The sound against the basement door sends my glass clattering into the sink.

My breath catches as the door opens. Screaming and moving seem like great options, but my body freezes. My reflexes take a hike.

Maybe this is one of my crazy dreams. And…

"Good, you're awake." A guy's blond head pops out of the darkness. He steps into the kitchen, and I can see he's probably only a year or two older than me. "I can use your help. We're almost out of time."

"Who-uh-who are you?" My voice sounds strangled. He's more solid than the ghosts, so I assume he is real. Though, around here anything can happen. But how did he get in?

"Riku. I'm helping your grandmother. She won't leave me alone. Come on." He waves me toward the basement stairs and then disappears.

Bad things happen in basements. In every horror movie I've ever seen, people die when they go to the basement. Sometimes it's the devil. Other times it's zombies or evil spiders. But they always die. There's a strange guy I don't know in grandma's house, and the smartest thing I can do is tell my mother. Or call the police.

Do they have 911 in Finland?

Then something he says clicks in my brain.

Before I realize it, I'm halfway down the stairs. 

"My grandmother is dead," I say...

 

To read more of this story or others by authors such as Maria V. Snyder, Shannon Delany, Linda Joy Singleton, Jill Williamson, and other exciting YA authors, click here for the ebook or preorder your print copy from the Leap Books store.

And watch for other exciting news to celebrate Leap Books 3rd anniversary on January 1. Throughout the month we'll have books on sale for $.99. One pre-celebration treat is Judith Graves Under My Skin, available now for only $.99.

Spooky Tour Countdown...

This is the second week for Judith Graves' Halloween blog tour: Meet Us at the Crossroads. So what fabulous YA paranormal authors will you meet at the crossroads?


October 31st
8 pm central time

Jordan Deen - The Crescent

Judith Graves – Under My Skin

Linda Joy Singleton - Magician’s Muse 

Karen Kincy – Other

Stacey Kade - The Ghost and the Goth

Amy Brecount White – Forget-Her-Nots

Joy Preble – Haunted

November 1st
8 pm central time

Angie Fraizer - Everlasting

Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl: Lovesick 

Lucienne Diver - Revamped

Jackie Kessler - Hunger

Jeri Smith-Ready – Shade

Kitty Keswick – Freaksville 

Shannon Delany – 13 to Life

They've arrived...

Authors Judith Graves and Kitty Keswick are now in the Big Apple. Bonnie J. Doerr will be arriving on Monday. You can catch up with them at the following places. For additional details check out the posts below.

More information will posted each day, so you can be sure to see them if you live in NY or are there for BEA.

Here's one more event where you can find them:

 And if you'd like to meet some of the other authors in the Class of 2k10, here's another opportunity to see them at the Mulberry Street Branch:

Nab an Autographed Leap Book at Books of Wonder

Books of Wonder, "New York City's oldest and largest independent children's bookstore, as well as the city's leading specialist in children's literature both new and old," is hosting 15 authors from the Class of 2K10:

Books of Wonder located at
18 West 18th Street New York, NY

Here's their press release:

Books of Wonder is thrilled to welcome 2010’s class of debut authors in a HUGE event featuring 15 talents on Tuesday, May 25^th, from 6-8pm! SWATI AVASHTI will shock us with Split about a troubled 16-year-old with a disturbing past; LEAH CYPRESS will fixate our attention on an immortal creature bound by an ancient spell in the ever-spooky Mistwood; SHANNON DELANY will freak us out with a monstrous adventure in 13 to Life: A Warewolf’s Tale; ALEXANDRA DIAZ will excite us with Of All the Stupid Things, a tale that follows a high school drama involving promiscuity, gossip, and abandonment; BONNIE J. DOERR will sail us off to the Florida Keys for a love story wrapped up in a mystery in Island Sting; JANET FOX will enchant us with Faithful, a tale of star-crossed lovers with Yellowstone National Park as their romantic backdrop; JUDITH GRAVES will take us for a roller-coaster ride complete with magic, beasts, and all sorts of paranormal activity in Under My Skin; RHONDA HAYTER will regale us with The Witchie Worries of Abbie Adams about a young witch trying to keep her unusual abilities a secret; JENNIFER R. HUBBARD will alarm us with The Secret Year about a puzzling relationship that leads to an unexplained death; KITTY KESWICK will bring in Freaksville, a high school mystery involving two lovers with freakish talents; IRENE LATHAM will inspire us with Leaving Gee’s Bend about 10-year-old Ludelphia, a visually impaired sharecropper trying desperately to help her sick mother before it’s too late; SHARI MAURER will show us that lost love can in fact be rekindled in Change of Heart; ERICA PERL will introduce us to a fashion-minded but friendless 15-year-old who works in a vintage boutique in Vintage Veronica; JAME RICHARDS will regale us with Three Rivers Rising, a tale about sixteen-year-old Celstia trying to find the right guy in the screwy world of society; and JERI SMITH-READY will spook us with Aura, a girl who can speak to ghosts, not excluding her dead boyfriend in Shade. Beginning at 6pm, these 15 talents will introduce their titles, take questions from the audience and then sign copies of their exciting new titles. Ages 10 and up. 6-8pm.

Please click on the book images below to pre-order signed copies*