On the fourth day of the holiday giveaway my blogger gave to me...

Tip of the Day: The winner of Deena's giveaway, KENDRA, is Khyrinthia. E-mail us at author2author DOT blog AT gmail DOT com with your mailing address to receive your prize.

Love, love, love giving away books! Especially to our wonderful readers because I know you guys totally love YA books just as much as we do. So today I'm giving away Lauren Barnholdt's FOUR TRUTHS AND A LIE.

I'm a total Lauren Barnholdt fan-- and not just because her books are always fun and clever and told in a great voice. Lauren is also a super cool person and taught me a lot in this whole YA writing world. Before I took her YA chick lit class online the summer of 2006 I'd never had another person read one of my books. Not even a family member or close friend. And I ended up with several great critique partners from her class. I also had never blogged or even heard of live journal or blogspot back then (yeah, I was living under a big rock). And I didn't know any other YA writers. And now from blogging around (I just love that phrase) I know tons. So, I'm thankful Lauren popped up in my google search that day back in 2006 and that I signed up for her class.

I asked Lauren what she was thankful for in her writing life this past year and here's what she said:

"There are so many writing-related things I'm grateful for this year. I have an amazing agent, a new chapter book series that will be out in the fall, and new deals for both my tween and YA books. And while all this stuff is exciting and wonderful, the thing I'm most thankful for is that over the past year, I've rediscovered my love for writing. I am so, so lucky to have found what I'm passionate about, what I love, and what I want to spend my time doing. So many people go their whole lives without finding that thing, that goal they can work toward and get better at. This year, I am most thankful just for writing. The pure joy of knowing that I've found it."

I totally agree! It is so awesome to get to do the thing you love. And one of you lucky readers will get to read one of Lauren's fab books by commenting here by midnight EST tonight (two entries if you post on your own blog and let me know). Lisa will post the winner tomorrow!

Kristina, Miss Soon-to-Pub