Smart Chicks Kick It Tour and *Giveaway*

Unprecedented in terms of size, scope and its organization, the highly anticipated Smart Chicks Kick It Tour www.smartchickskickit.com launches an extensive North American tour on September 13^th, 2010.  The ambitious twelve-city, two week tour features eighteen of today’s most buzzed writers of paranormal romance – from international bestsellers and award winners to the genre’s hottest newcomers. 
The Smart Chicks Kick It Tour is author-organized AND author-funded, with the 18 participating authors -- or “Chicks” -- coming from a wide variety of different publishers.  This ground-breaking approach will, for the first time ever, provide fans of the incredibly popular romance, fantasy and science fiction genres the opportunity to meet and talk to some of their favorite authors at one time, even though the authors publish with different houses.  Featuring six to nine Chicks at every venue, the author line up in every city will be different so no two events will be exactly the same.
In 2009 Melissa Marr, creator of The New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series, came up with the idea for the tour and, along with fellow NYT bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, got to work pulling together a line-up of authors who wrote books with “strong heroines, smart heroines, capable heroines...real girls with real strengths, not necessarily out there kicking butt, but able to handle themselves in tough situations. It’s a message that [we] care deeply about and that we thought would really resonate with our fans,” remarks Ms. Armstrong, creator of the Women of the Otherworld urban fantasy series and Darkest Powers trilogy.   
Kelley and Melissa then contacted  #1 NYT bestselling author of The Immortals series, Alyson Noël, to headline the event along with them. “When Melissa and Kelley first approached me to take part in the tour, I jumped at the chance. I thought it was a really great opportunity to reach out to our fans in a unique, author driven format.” The final line-up features an impressive array of both established and debut authors, including fan favorites Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Rachel Caine, and Melissa de la Cruz. 

Melissa goes on to say, “We’re doing something really, truly unique and it feels great.  The support we have received from our fans, the booksellers and our publishers has been overwhelming.  We haven’t even hit the road yet for the 2010 tour and plans are already underway for Smart Chicks 2.0.”  As headliners of the tour Melissa, Kelley, and Alyson will be appearing at all twelve events. 

    The authors and a little about them:

Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong is the New York Times bestselling author of the Otherworld series and Darkest Powers trilogy (The Summoning, The Awakening and The Reckoning).  The first book in her new Darkness Rising Series, entitled The Gathering, is due out in April 2011.  You can visit her online at www.kelleyarmstrong.com.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Jennifer Lynn Barnes began writing professionally when she was still a teenager and has to date published seven novels for young adults, including Tattoo, Fate, the Squad series, and Raised By Wolves.   At various points in her life, she has been a competitive cheerleader, a volleyball player, a dancer, a debutante, a primate-cognition researcher, a teen model, a comic-book geek, and a cognitive scientist. Jen is a graduate of both Yale and Cambridge and is currently hard at work on a Ph.D.
Holly Black
Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary dark fantasy books for kids and teens, including The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), Tithe, Valiant, Ironside, The Good Neighbors graphic novel series (with Ted Naifeh), and her new mobster caper fantasy, White Cat.  She lives in New England with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret door.

Sarah Rees Brennan
Sarah Rees Brennan was raised in Ireland by the sea, and after a brief time riding in fire engines around New York City and scandalizing librarians in London, she returned to Ireland to write and use as a base for future adventures. The first book of her trilogy about attractive but troubled brothers hunted through England by magicians, The Demon's Lexicon, received three starred reviews, was a Top Ten ALA Pick for 2009, an IndieNext Summer Read, long-listed for the Carnegie Medal and a Best British YA novel. The second novel of the series, The Demon's Covenant, is out now.

Rachel Caine
Rachel Caine is the internationally bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series. Book 9, GHOST TOWN, premieres in the U.S. on October 26, 2010. She also writes the popular Weather Warden and Outcast Season series for the adult urban fantasy market. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Cassandra Clare
Cassandra Clare is the New York Times bestselling author of City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. as well as the author of the upcoming YA fantasy trilogy The Infernal Devices. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her boyfriend and two cats.
Kimberly Derting
Kimberly Derting lives in the Pacific Northwest where the gloomy weather is ideal for writing anything dark and creepy. She lives with her husband and their three beautiful (and often mouthy) children, who serve as an endless source of inspiration. THE BODY FINDER is her debut novel; its follow-up DESIRES OF THE DEAD will be released in March 2011.  To find out more about Kimberly, visit her website at www.kimberlyderting.com.

Melissa de la Cruz
Melissa de la Cruz is the author of many books for teens and adults, she is most well-known for the Blue Bloods series, which has sold over two million copies and is a New York Times, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Wall Street Journal and Bookscan bestseller. The series is published in twenty countries and has hit the bestseller lists 
worldwide. Melissa's series The Au Pairs is currently in development as a major motion picture from Warner Brothers with Drew Barrymore's Flower Films producing, RJ Cutler ("The September Issue") will be directing the film. Her anthology Girls who like boys who like Boys, edited with Tom Dolby, will be a reality show from the Sundance 
channel this fall. She lives in Los Angeles and Palm Springs with her husband and daughter.
Kami Garcia                                                                                                                    Kami Garcia is very superstitious, and like any self-respecting girl with Southern roots, she makes her biscuits by hand and her pies from scratch. Kami started writing poetry when she was twelve, and has filled more than fifty notebooks since. She attended George Washington University and has an MA in education. She was a teacher, reading specialist, and led book groups for teens for fifteen years. Kami lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Melissa Marr
Melissa Marr grew up believing in faeries, ghosts, and various other creatures. After teaching college literature for a decade, she applied her fascination with folklore to writing. Wicked Lovely was her first novel. Currently, Marr lives in the Washington, D.C., area, writes full-time, and still believes in faeries and ghosts.
Alyson Noël 
Alyson Noël is the #1 New York Times best selling, award winning author of 12 novels, including The Immortals series and its new spin-off series beginning with RADIANCE. With over 3 million copies in print, her books have been published in 35 countries and have made the USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, Wall Street Journal, NCIBA, and Walmart bestsellers lists. She lives in Orange County, CA where she is working on her next book.

Jackson Pearce 
Jackson Pearce is twenty-six years old and the author of SISTERS RED and AS YOU WISH. Jackson currently lives in Atlanta with a slightly cross-eyed cat and a lot of secondhand furniture. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and a minor in Philosophy. Jackson auditioned for the circus once, but didn't make it; other jobs she’s had include obituaries writer, biker bar waitress, and receptionist. In addition, she coaches both color guard and winter guard at a local high school.

Mary E. Pearson
Mary E. Pearson is the author of several award winning books for teens, including The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which has been optioned by 20th Century Fox for a major motion picture.  She writes from her home in Carlsbad, California where she lives with her family.  Her forthcoming book, The Fox Inheritance will be released in Fall 2011. You can learn more about Mary and her books at www.marypearson.com.
Carrie Ryan
Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of several critically acclaimed novels set decades after the zombie apocalypse: The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte Press, 2009), The Dead-Tossed Waves (Delacorte Press, 2010) and the forthcoming The Dark and Hollow Places, (Delacorte Press, 2011). Her first novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, was #4 on the IndieBound Kids' Indie Next List and was chosen as a Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association, a Best of the Best Books by the Chicago Public Library and named to the 2010 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age List.  Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages and her first book has been optioned for a movie.  Carrie is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law.  A former litigator, she now writes full time and lives with her husband in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Jeri Smith-Ready                                                                                                       Award-winning author Jeri Smith-Ready lives in Maryland with her husband, two cats, and the world’s goofiest greyhound. Her novels include the SHADE ghost series for teens and the WVMP RADIO adult vampire series. When not writing, Jeri can usually be found—well, thinking about writing, or on Twitter. Like her characters, she loves
music, movies, and staying up very, very late. Visit her at
www.jerismithready.com.
Margaret Stohl                                               Writing has gotten Margaret Stohl in and out of trouble since she was fifteen. She has written and designed video games, which is why who two bad beagles are named Zelda and Kirby. Margaret fell in love with literature at Amherst and Yale, earned an MA in English from Stanford, and studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three daughters.
Jessica Verday
Jessica Verday wrote the first draft of THE HOLLOW by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. The first draft of THE HAUNTED took fifteen spiral-bound notebooks and twenty black pens. She spends her days and nights buying stock in pens and paper. She lives in Goodlettsville, Tennessee with her husband. Find out more at jessicaverday.com.
Rachel Vincent                                                                            Rachel Vincent is the author of the NYT bestselling Shifters series and the Soul Screamers novels. A resident of San Antonio, Rachel has a BA in English and an overactive imagination, and she consistently finds the latter to be more useful. She is currently hard at work on the next Soul Screamers novel and hoping to see daylight again sometime before the end of the year.  And now for the fun part, the giveaway details are below.  Good luck and have fun! :)


Giveaway Details:
*This giveaway ends on September 21st
*One winner will receive a Smart Chicks Surprise Pack (three books from authors appearing on the tour)
*Please include your email in your comments
*The winner will have three days to contact me, and then another winner will be chosen
*This giveaway is open to both US and Canada 


Mandatory Entry:  Do you have a tour near you, and if so when is it?


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I didn't receive any product or compensation for this giveaway.  Non of the thoughts and opinions above are mine, they are a press release for the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour!