COVER REVEAL - ELEVATED by Elana Johnson!!!

***COVER REVEAL, COVER REVEAL, COVER REVEAL***

Brand New Young Adult Novel 

by Elana Johnson! 

Coming February 18, 2014!!!

Isn't this cover absolutely adorable? I love it! The premise is very fun, too. (I've read it already, too, and love it!)

About ELEVATED: The last person seventeen-year-old Eleanor Livingston wants to see on the elevator—let alone get stuck with—is her ex-boyfriend Travis, the guy she's been avoiding for five months. Plagued with the belief that when she speaks the truth, bad things happen, Elly hasn’t told Trav anything. Not why she broke up with him and cut off all contact. Not what happened the day her father returned from his deployment to Afghanistan. And certainly not that she misses him and still thinks about him everyday. But with nowhere to hide and Travis so close it hurts, Elly’s worried she won’t be able to contain her secrets for long. She’s terrified of finally revealing the truth, because she can’t bear to watch a tragedy befall the boy she still loves.


Buy Links:
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/elevated
iTunes: Coming soon!
On Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18947183-elevated
Amazon: Coming Soon!

Praise for ELEVATED:

"ELEVATED will take you on an emotionally gripping journey through the highs and lows of first love." 
~Carolee Dean, author of Take Me There and Forget Me Not

"Poignant, raw, and intense, ELEVATED is a novel that will grip your heart and linger in your mind long after you turn the last page."

~Stasia Ward Kehoe, author of Audition and The Sound of Letting Go

Here is Adorable Elana! 

Elana Johnson’s work, including Possession, Surrender, Abandon, and Regret, published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster), is available now everywhere books are sold. Her popular ebook, From the Query to the Call, is also available for download, as well as a Possession short story, Resist.

School teacher by day, Query Ninja by night, you can find her online at her personal blog or Twitter. She also co-founded the Query Tracker blog, and contributes to the League of Extraordinary Writers.

Social Media Links: Website/blog: http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElanaJ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/possessionthebook 
Tumblr: http://elanajohnson.tumblr.com/ 
Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/elanajohnson
League of Extraordinary Writers: http://leaguewriters.blogspot.com/ WriteOnCon: http://writeoncon.com/ 
Elana on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4044383.Elana_Johnson

People can enter to win $15 Paypal cash by helping to spread the word about ELEVATED! Enter Here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have Fun Reading!
Kimberley

2014 News and Giveaways - My YA Debut Year has begun!!!

It's a New Year! I love the sound of 2014 - even if it freaks me out to think it's already 2014! I remember the big anticipation to be alive for the Big Millenium 2000! And here we are, already 14 years beyond that. Weird! (Plus my birthday this year will be February 14, 2014 and I just like the sound of it - despite my age.)

I also can't believe that 2014 is my Young Adult Debut year! After writing for, um, 2-3 decades, and writing the first draft of FORBIDDEN in 2003 - after years of research, it's finally happening.

FORBIDDEN was originally called "Secret Rites of the Goddess" and has been through many configurations, drafts, and rewrites - what else is new? But the heart of the story remains the same: The ancient art of belly dance, goddess temples, tribal warfare, betrothals, murder, blackmail, family, faith, survival, and true love.

Isn't she stunning!

I'm not going to make this a long post this week since I'll be talking about the story of FORBIDDEN, my research, including a research trip a year ago in February to Jordan and Israel, over this coming year. And I'll post PICTURES!!!

Suffice it to say for now that FORBIDDEN is a story very dear to my heart, a story I continued to believe in despite all the rewriting and more rewriting, and rejections and selling two different times to two different publishers to finally land at Harpercollins in a superb deal with a marvelous editor. The second time it sold was for 10 times the original deal! Mind-boggling.

Here is the official announcement from more than two years ago! Whew, I've had to wait a long time for this book. (It was delayed from publishing in 2013 to 2014 due to personal and publisher circumstances.)

Children's: Young Adult
Kimberley Griffiths Little's GODDESS, pitched as "the YA Red Tent", to Harper Children's, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, in a three-book deal, for publication in beginning in 2013, by Adams Literary (US).

Don't be fooled by the mention of Harper Children's, this is an upper Young Adult epic historical novel with some difficult, heart-wrenching scenes and will be published under Harpercollins, not HarperTeen, to capture the adult cross-over market as well. *big smile*

Here's the unofficial synopsis:

"FORBIDDEN is a sweepingly epic and sensuous novel, a story of peer pressure and cults set against the ancient art of belly dance, in which 16-year-old Jayden’s faith and character is tested to their limits, even death, as she watches her family and the world around her fall apart.

Betrothed to the tribal leader's son, Jayden is blackmailed over the murder of their beloved leader when he is found poisoned, all while hiding her forbidden love of Kadesh, a stranger from the secret frankincense lands.

The Goddess temples of Ashtoreth may be Jayden’s only escape, even though the allure of the sexual rites tempt the women of the desert to turn their back on everything they hold sacred.

Jayden must undertake a deadly journey to save the ones she loves—and find a true love for herself."

To celebrate this momentous year every single month of 2014 I'll be giving away Middle Eastern earrings, luscious belly dance scarves, and a YA novel of *your* choice!  Like the items in this picture! 

Yes, every single month during 2014 I'll give away a pair of gorgeous earrings, a beautiful scarf to make you feel like the luscious woman/girl you are, and a hardcover YA novel of your choice. Awesome, huh? I'm excited!

And if you don't want to miss any news as it happens for any of my books with Scholastic, Spellbound Books, or Harpercollins, please go here to sign up for my brand new newsletter launching in February! Sign-Up for Kimberley's Newsletter

Click here to *Add* FORBIDDEN to your Want-To-Read List on GOODREADS!

I promised this would be short . . . eek! Just leave a comment to enter the Giveaway! Easy-peasy. Extra entries for Newsletter Sign-ups and Goodreads Adds. Of course. Deadline to enter two weeks from today: February 3rd. Winner announced February 4th.

Warmly,
Kimberley

P.S. Coming in the next post: News on my next Middle-Grade novel this summer and other publishing Very Cool Things.

Books Read in 2013

Books Read in 2013

Grand Total: 67

Not as good as 2012 with my 101 titles, but not *too* shabby considering the crazy year.

Some of these titles I read as a judge for the Whitney Award to decide finalists so I read them super fast!

So is your list similar to mine or completely different? And which books were some of your favorites this past year of 2013?? Please comment! 

Children's and Young Adult: 

1. Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

2. Evertaster by Adam Sidwell

3. Rock of Ivanore by Laurisa White Reyes

4. The Kindling by Braden Bell

5. Rifts of Rime by Steven L. Peck

6. One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

7. Guardians of Elijah’s Fire by Frank L. Cole

8. Epic Tale of a Misfit Hero by Matt Peterson

9. 13th Reality by James Dashner

10. Janitors by Tyler Whitesides

11. Prince Tennyson by Jenni James

12. Hazzardous Universe by Julie Wright

13. Beyonders by Brandon Mull

14. Infinity Ring by James Dashner

15. Freakling by Lana Krumwiede

16. Protector of Central Park by JT Brewer

17. Case Files 13: Zombie Kid by J. Scott Savage

18. Farewell to Charms by Lindsey Levitt

19. The Secret Sister's Club by Monique Bucheger 

20. Navigating Early, Clare Vanderpool

21. Clockwork Prince, Cassandra Claire

22. Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roarke Dwell

23. The Diviners by Libba Bray

24. Running out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix

25. Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Claire

26. A Tangle of Knots by Lisa Graff

27. Unremembered by Jessica Brody

28. The Center of Everything by Linda Urban

29. Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

30, The Runaway King by Jennifer Nielsen

31. Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

32. Parched by Melanie Crowder

33. A Girl Called Problem by Katie Quirk

34. Doll Bones by Holly Black

35. Ten by Gretchen McNeil

36. Defy by Sara. B Larson

37. Cryer’s Cross by Lisa McMann

38. The Fifth Wave, Rick Yancy

39. Below by Meg McKinley

40. Fated by Alyson Noel

41. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
42. The Clockwork Scarab: A Stoker & Holmes Novel by Colleen Gleason 

43. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
44. The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy by Nikki Loftin
45. Nightingale's Nest by Nikki Loftin 

ADULT FICTION AND NON-FICTION:

Jordan: Past and Present: Petra, Jerash, Amman by E. Borgia
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeons Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander

Lady Almina and the Real Downtown Abbey by the Countess of Carnarvon

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

7. The Husband’s Secret by Laini Moriarity

KINDLE - A *New* Category for me! 

1. The Arrangement by H.M. Ward

The Arrangement #2 by H.M. Ward

Escaping Reality by Lisa Renee Jones

Infinite Possibilities by Lisa Renee Jones

5. 2,000 to 10,000 words a day, How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of what you want 
by Rachel Aaron

Indie Author Survival Guide by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Haunting Season by Michelle Muto

Six Month Later by Natalie D. Richards

The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Miller

10. The Naked Truth about Self-Publishing

4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie

One Tiny Secret by Adam Kunz

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Make a Killing on Kindle by Michael Alvear

15. Amazon Kindle Secrets Exposed by Michael Thomas

And I've probably started another 5-8 novels on my Kindle that are partly read.