Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! On this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online until Sunday at noon Pacific!Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are NINE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the RED TEAM–but there are eight other teams with a chance to win a whole different set of signed books!
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below 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 APRIL 3, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
Today, I am hosting Beth Revis on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt!
Beth Revis is a NY Times bestselling author with books available in more than 20 languages. Her latest title, A World Without You, is a semi-autobiographical story blending the supernatural with mental illness. Beth is also the author of the Across the Universe series, The Body Electric, numerous short stories, and the nonfiction Paper Hearts series, which aids aspiring writers. A native of North Carolina, Beth is currently working on a new novel for teens. She lives in rural NC with her boys: one husband, one son, and two massive dogs.
Find out more information by checking out the author website or find more about the author’s book here!
Thanks so much for hosting me, Lisa!
My latest book is called A World Without You, and it’s a book that’s truly special to me. It’s about a boy named Bo who is attending a school for kids with super powers. He can control time–but he’s accidentally lost his girlfriend in the past. As he frantically tries to find a way to save her, his reality starts to break down. He’s not at a school for kids with powers…he’s at a school for mentally disturbed students, and it’s not his girlfriend who needs to be saved–it’s him.
One of the things I love about writing is hiding little Easter eggs and clues in my books. I’m not going to give them all away, but my top five Easter eggs in A World Without You are:
1. The Doctor. At Bo’s school, his supervisor is named Dr. Franklin, but all the kids call him the Doctor–a reference to the greatest time traveller ever, Doctor Who! If you’re a Whovian you’ll definitely notice one other character who’s name for someone on the show.
2. The Red String. You may notice that the book cover has strings all over it. There’s a reason for that! To Bo, time looks like strings, and when he wants to go somewhere in the past, he tugs on a specific string. The string that connects him to his lost girlfriend is red, a reference to the Chinese legend that a red string of fate connects us to the people we truly love.
3. Superheroes. Bo believes that he has super powers, and so does every other kid at the school, Berkshire Academy. If you look closely, you’ll see a lot of references to some of my favorite superheroes, including Batman and the X-Men, but also some heroes that aren’t exactly super, such as Harry Potter and Katniss Everdeen. You’ll have to read closely to catch them, but they’re there!
4. Classics. I love more than just pop culture and superheroes! As the story progresses, Bo gets increasingly paranoid, and at one point creeps around his room, thinking that people are watching him. This is, of course, a reference to the brilliant short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. And fans of Bach will notice a famous fugue woven into the story.
5. “And now for something completely different.” This is an actual line of text in the story, and if you know what it’s referencing, we should totally be besties.
