Hi, I’m Deborah Lytton. Welcome to the hunt! You are currently hunting on
About Me
I love books, chocolate, Downton Abbey and the California sunshine. My new YA SILENCE was just released a few weeks ago, and I have some secret information about the book hidden on the hunt. If you find it, you will also find a clue for entering my giveaway for a signed copy of SILENCE!
About the Hunt
The YA Scavenger Hunt was created by author Colleen Houck for readers who love YA to have the chance to win all kinds of prizes and find exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors. During each stop on the hunt, look for a clue. We all have a number somewhere in our posts. 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 for 72 hours! We have 8 teams RED, BLUE, GOLD, GREEN,ORANGE, TEAL, PURPLE, & PINK. You can enter one contest or all of them!
For more information about the hunt, a list of all the authors participating and prizes you can win, visit the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
Directions: Somewhere on this page, you can find my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the ORANGE team and add them up.
Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, fill out the entry form here to qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
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 Sunday, April 5 at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
Today, I am excited to be hosting–
LYNNE MATSON!
Here’s Lynne’s bio:
Lynne Matson grew up in Georgia in a house full of books and a backyard full of gnarly pines. Back then, she’d stay up late reading Nancy Drew books under the covers with a flashlight, a weak attempt at ninja stealth. Now she still stays up late reading books and writing them. When she doesn’t have a book in her hand, you’ll find her listening to music, messing around with paint, or hanging out with her husband and their four boys, probably on the beach. Cookies are her kryptonite, especially thin mints.
(Lynne and I have 3 things in common: a love for Nancy Drew books, listening to music and spending time at the beach).
Here is Lynne’s book, NIL UNLOCKED (Macmillan/Henry Holt)
“On the island of Nil, the rules are set. You have exactly 365 days to escape—or you die. Rives is now the undisputed Leader of Nil City, but keeping the City united is tougher than ever.
Raiders have grown bolder, supplies are dwindling, and non-human inhabitants have taken a turn toward the deadly. New arrivals cause rifts within the City, putting the Search system at risk, and calling everything Rives knows into question. Desperate for answers, he teams up with the only other person searching for them: Skye, a new arrival with a mysterious past of her own. Soon the duo find themselves locked in a desperate race to save all the residents of Nil—and possibly destroy the island forever. But at what cost? And who will pay the price?”
Exclusive NIL UNLOCKED Bonus Material from Lynne Matson
FOR #YASH EYES ONLY! 🙂
As y’all may know, NIL UNLOCKED is both a sequel and a companion novel to NIL. NIL UNLOCKED picks up on the island of Nil where NIL leaves off, but NIL UNLOCKED is told from a new character’s point of view: Rives, who was Thad’s Second in Command on the island. (NIL UNLOCKED is actually a dual POV like NIL—the other POV in NIL UNLOCKED is Skye, another new character you’ll meet soon. :D) Below is a bonus scene I wrote just for the #YASH—it’s Thad’s last moments on Nil, as seen through Rives’s eyes. **Spoiler Alert** The following scene contains spoilers about the ending of NIL…so if you haven’t read NIL yet, be warned!:)
Bonus Scene
Rives
Day 241, Nearly Noon
I was the definition of a third wheel.
Not that we had a Dictionary here on Nil. Hell, we were lucky to have food. Grammer paled in light of survival. But, if things worked out, I’d be catching back up on my English lessons sometime in the next 124 days.
That was a big if.
If I caught a gate, if I didn’t die first. If I got seriously lucky.
Right now, I just hoped Thad got lucky, but the odds weren’t good. He had exactly one noon left.
Based on the sun’s position, he actually had less than an hour.
I’d spent the last few hours hanging back, alternating between watching Thad’s back and trying not to watch at all. Watching Thad and Charley this morning ranked up there with getting my finger stitched without anesthesia as a good time. Thad’s expression was a potent mix of hurt and anger and raw desperation that I couldn’t fix, no matter how badly I wanted to. Charley wasn’t much better, but to give the girl credit, she had the tough act down. She didn’t show her desperation like Thad; instead Charley strode forward with fierce hope, chin set, shoulders back, every step showing off the Nil badass that she was. Then again, she still had time.
It’s easy to be tough when time is still on your side.
Time is never on our side, I thought. Not here.
Pay attention, I told myself.
It was Nil rule number one.
I glanced back at Thad. He’d stopped, and the pain scarring his face broke something inside me. I’d almost been there, once. Not again. Never again, definitely not here.
Charley stopped beside him and taking his hand, she smiled.
Like their shadow, I braked too. Keeping my distance, I looked away. Looked around.
No gate, yet.
Wrapped in themselves, the pair barely acknowledged me, which brought strange relief. Thad and I were cool; so were Charley and I. I’d said my goodbyes last night. At this point, I had no interest in being drawn into a conversation where I had nothing to say—as if I’d be able to talk with the weight of Nil on my chest. In minutes I’d lose the best friend I had here, one way or another, and I’d had enough Nil funerals to last a lifetime.
Dammit, Nil. I looked around, again. Please send a gate. Please give Thad a ticket home.
Beneath my feet, the ground shifted, then stilled. A small jerk, more like a wake-up call. Around me, the air went slack.
A gate.
Exhaling the breath I’d been holding all day, I looked back at Thad. Charley was shaking him like a rag doll and pointing over his shoulder. Sure enough, a gate shimmered a few meters out from the two, but Thad didn’t see it; he stood frozen, staring at Charley like a man about to jump off a sinking ship. Then the gate winked out.
Time rushed back in, filling the vacuum the gate left behind.
The three of us stared at the spot where the gate vanished, like if we all stared hard enough, it would come back, like a bad April Fool’s joke.
To my complete shock, it actually worked. Either that, or Nil was having too much fun to quit now. A second gate flashed a few meters past the first. Charley spotted the second gate at the same time I did. Her face lit up like a holiday tree.
Charley shook Thad again, and then he woke up. Or gave up. Given the next few ridiculous minutes, it was a toss-up.
“NO!” Charley’s agonized scream hung in the still air.
Rives.
I froze, shocked by the whisper in my head. I knew that voice; I’d ached for that voice. I’d let that voice go—or at least tried to.
Out on the rocks, Thad laughed. He threw his fist in the air like he’d won. His laughter echoed across the open black rock, like Nil thought is was a joke too.
The scene slowed, a weird warp of Nil ghosts, past and future.
Charley was gone.
Thad’s time was up.
Rives! Talla whispered again. On your left.
Stunned, I whipped around, half-expecting to see her, knowing I wouldn’t because I buried her. Six feet under in Nil dirt.
No Talla, but I couldn’t miss the massive grizzly barreling our way—or the gate rising from the ground.
Thad wasn’t looking. He was shouting now, screaming at the Nil sky, faced raised to the heavens even as he chewed out Nil. Nil answered, shaking the ground with a vengeance.
“Thad!” I shouted. “On your left!”
He spun, saw the gate, and took off, sprinting all out.
That day was the first time I heard Talla’s voice, but not the last.
How had I let Nil get in my head?
If you’re like me and need to know more, even if you have to stay up all night reading to find out what happens, you can buy NIL UNLOCKED here.
For more information about Lynne Matson, visit her at http://lynnematson.blogspot.com
For the next stop on the hunt, find Team Orange member, Marissa Kennerson, at http://marissakennerson.com/.
And don’t forget to keep adding up our favorite numbers!
Good luck:)
