Sign up for the Top 10 of 2015 plus AWESOME Giveaway!

WOW! Has the year flown by or what? I’m really looking forward to another fun filled week where we look back at some of the best of all things books of 2015 and what books we’re looking forward to in 2016. My totally awesome co-hosts from last year will be hosting again with me this year Jaime from Two Chicks on Books, Rachel from Fiktshun, and Nancy from Tales of a Ravenous Reader! We want to always include a special thanks to our original co-hosts Lisa from A Life Bound By Books and Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic who will not be hosting the event with us due to their busy lives. Hopefully they’ll be able to join us in 2016!

This year we've added a giveaway for some highly anticipated 2016 ARC's for everyone who signs up to participate!

The Top 10 2015 event will run for five consecutive days on the last week of the year. We want to invite ALL of YOU to join in on the fun and share your lists with everyone too!

Each day of the event we hope you’ll visit one of the hosting blogs and share your list with the Linky that will be provided. Just be sure you follow which lists goes on which day. Speaking of... here’s what we’re doing for this year’s event!

Monday, December 21st – Best Books I’ve Read in 2015 (Doesn’t have to be released in 2015, just a book you’ve read in 2015)

Tuesday, December 22nd – Best Book Covers of 2015 (MUST be a book released in 2015. Would be best if it’s a book you’ve READ in 2015, but it’s not required)

Wednesday, December 23rd – Best ________ Of 2015 (Readers/Bloggers choice. Please fill in the blank and choose only ONE topic. Some examples include – Villains, Contemporaries, Dual POV’s, Novellas, Adult titles, New Adult titles, Love Triangles, Couples, Bad Boys or Debuts etc.

Thursday, December 24th – Best Book Boyfriends of 2015 (MUST be from a book released in 2015 and from a book you’ve READ in 2015)

Friday, December 25th – Top 10 Books I’m looking forward to in 2016. (This list should be comprised of books released ONLY in 2016)

How you do these posts/lists is totally up to you. What books, covers and characters you pick are all your own.

The only rules you need to follow are:
1) Your post must be “on topic”
2) Your post must be limited to 10 items; and
3) Your post must be posted on the dates we've provided.

Now, I know what you’re all thinking. That this will be hard to keep to 10. Some of you might like to break the lists up a bit. Working with a Top 10 for YA books and then a Top 10 for New Adult or Adult titles. Feel free to add honorable mentions if you’re also having a hard time sticking to 10. However, with the honorable mentions, please try to keep it to a minimum or it kind of defeats the whole purpose of things.

Our main focus of this event is for YOU to join in and share your lists with us all and for everyone to visit each other’s blogs’ and see what books have made it on THEIR lists.

The event is simple. Follow the dates and list topics as provided and fill out the linky below. This gives us an idea who will be joining us for the Top 10 week. THEN, be sure to come back to one of our blogs on each of the five days and link up your post for that specific day! Just remember, each day will have a linky for THAT Top 10 topic.

Also, you don’t want to miss a day during the event. We just might have some giveaways up our sleeves and joining in the event, keeping up with our and everyone lists just might help you enter to win! Additional giveaway details to follow, so keep checking back to find out what we’re giving away and when!


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Don’t forget to snag our button and to help spread the word for the event. We’d love to have anyone and everyone join us this year. The more the merrier!



Giveaway Details:
NO PURCHASE NECISSARY
Giveaway is ONLY open to those who've signed up to participate.
Must be 13 or older to enter
Giveaway is US ONLY
Giveaway is open until December 20th at 11:59 p.m. Pacific
Prizes will be sent separately from each of the four hosts to the winner via Media Mail.

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Sign-Up Linky Here:
NOTE: this is the SAME Linky on each of the Co-Hosts Blogs. Please only enter your Name, Blog Name, and URL on one blog. Thanks!

Ten Thousand Skies Above You Blog Tour + Giveaway!

About the Author

Claudia Gray is a pseudonym. I would like to say that I chose another name so that no one would ever learn the links between my shadowy, dramatic past and the explosive secrets revealed through my characters. This would be a lie. In truth, I took a pseudonym simply because I thought it would be fun to choose my own name. (And it is.)

I write novels full-time, absolutely love it, and hope to be able to do this forever. My home is in New Orleans, is more than 100 years old, and is painted purple. In my free time I read, travel, hike, cook and listen to music. You can keep up with my latest releases, thoughts on writing and various pop-culture musings via Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Goodreads or (of course) my own home page.

If you want to contact me, you can email me, but your best bet is probably to Tweet me. I don’t do follows on Twitter, but I follow everyone back on Tumblr, Pinterest and Goodreads.

☆ How to find Claudia ☆
Website ☆ Twitter ☆ Tumblr ☆ Pinterest ☆ Goodreads ☆ Wattpad

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About The Book

Ever since she used the Firebird, her parents' invention, to cross into alternate dimensions, Marguerite has caught the attention of enemies who will do anything to force her into helping them dominate the multiverse—even hurting the people she loves. She resists until her boyfriend, Paul, is attacked and his consciousness scattered across multiple dimensions.

Marguerite has no choice but to search for each splinter of Paul’s soul. The hunt sends her racing through a war-torn San Francisco, the criminal underworld of New York City, and a glittering Paris where another Marguerite hides a shocking secret. Each world brings Marguerite one step closer to rescuing Paul. But with each trial she faces, she begins to question the destiny she thought they shared.

The second book in the Firebird trilogy, Ten Thousand Skies Above You features Claudia Gray’s lush, romantic language and smart, exciting action, and will have readers clamoring for the next book.

☆ Where to find TTSAY ☆
Goodreads ☆ Amazon ☆ Barnes & Noble ☆ iBooks

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What is the process you use to create the parallel worlds and their elements?

Well, I always begin with one fundamental question: What kind of dimension would be really cool? I don't think readers particularly want to hear about the parallel worlds too much like her own, or our own. Besides, I don't really want to write them! When I first thought of the Firebird concept, it thrilled me in large part because the possibilities were infinite, and I wanted to explore them as much as I could.

However, the dimensions then have to pass a second test: What situations in these universes will bring out interesting aspects of the characters' personalities and relationships? The worlds we spend the most time in have to be more than settings; they have to illuminate or challenge the characters in some unique way. More than a few potentially awesome dimensions were lost this way, I'm afraid.

Once I know which worlds are both interesting and meaningful enough for the story, then I get to dig in. Usually the core idea for a universe has been sparked by something else I've encountered or maybe even loved. Just looking at the cover for TEN THOUSAND SKIES ABOVE YOU might be a hint that I am a huge "Moulin Rouge" fangirl. The Russiaverse came from my having read NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA shortly before I had the idea for the Firebird trilogy. The Oceanverse had its origins in a book I read about rogue waves. (This is part of why I always tell aspiring writers to read widely and to try some books they might never have considered before; you never know what's going to give you the next big idea.)

Those initial inspirations often serve as my first point of information and research—although some sources (NICHOLAS & ALEXANDRA) are more factually reliable than others ("Moulin Rouge"). But they're just the jumping off point. In the beginning, I only develop the world as far as I need to in order to know exactly how it will serve the plot, and then I delve into other details as the story requires. This has been everything from looking up Faberge eggs, to asking my patient Russian oceanographer friend a whole lot about both Russia and oceanography, all the way to participating in a house swap that took me to the Bay Area for a month, so I could see the kind of neighborhood Marguerite's family might live in, and some of the local sights she'd enjoy.

When the setting in the parallel world is real in our world, too—the Winter Palace, for example—I try very hard to get the facts straight. (I even found a picture of the staircase Marguerite tumbled down. It was a pretty long one!) But I've made mistakes, too, like finding out only after A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU was published that the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas in early January, not on December 25th. I didn't even think to check the date for Christmas, because I had no idea it might be different. This is often true in research: The stuff that trips you up the worst isn't what you don't know, but what you think you do know.

But even though the errors kill me a little inside, I always remind myself…hey, it's a parallel dimension. Maybe things are different there.






This is a publisher hosted giveaway!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY


a Rafflecopter giveaway
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☆ The Tour ☆

Week One:
10/26/2015- Seeing Double In Neverland- Review
10/27/2015- BookHounds YA- Interview
10/28/2015- Fangirlish- Review
10/29/2015- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
10/30/2015- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Interview


Week Two:
11/2/2015- Fiktshun- Review
11/3/2015- Dark Faerie Tales- Interview
11/4/2015- Novel Novice- Review
11/5/2015- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads- Guest Post
11/6/2015- Page Turners Blog- Review