Splash into Summer!

Welcome to Summer, bookworms! (Or welcome to Winter if you’re a friend across the world!)

Today marks the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year.

It also marks the season for PLAYING. For water babies like myself, an ocean or pool is never close enough. I seriously think I must have been a mermaid in a previous life.

Speaking of mermaids…

I have a special surprise for you!





Splash into Summer? What’s this? I’ll tell you! It should come as no surprise to longtime friends that I love mermaids. LOVE. As in, I have mermaids all over my writing room (which has an ocean theme) and a bajillion Ariel knickknacks to boot. As in, I collect every mermaid book I can get my hands on, even picture books. As in, I’m writing my own mermaid novel (well, it’s on hiatus atm, but it still counts) to one day share with all of you. As in, mermaids RULE!

What better time to celebrate mermaids than summer? I recently received my promotional kit as an official FINS ARE FOREVER Splash Team member and was thinking of how best to spread the word.

FINS ARE FOREVER comes out next week, June 28th. I thought it would be fun to have a week celebrating the release of both this and LOST VOICES by Sarah Porter, which comes out July 4th (but may be available at your local bookstore NOW, since it released early). Then, I decided that I had way too much mermaid material for just one week and expanded it to two, taking a tip from Fairy Tale Fortnight.

For two weeks, come celebrate mermaids, whether it’s winter or summer where you live. Splash into Summer runs from June 28th to July 12th. There will be author interviews, guest posts, giveaways, reviews, and more! Now is the time to celebrate mermaids, especially with so many new novels about them coming out.


What’s more fun than an ocean of mermaids? YOU! Shoot abackwardsstory (at) gmail (dot) com an email if you’d like to participate. Guest posts, reviews, you name it. If you’d like to take part, just let me know within the next week or so!
Even if you can’t participate, I’d love to have you help spread the word. I’ve created fun little buttons to share on your own blogs and/or websites. (And let me tell you, after spending HOURS on the design, I have a newfound respect for font designers. It’s hard work...and I wasn’t even designing a full alphabet! RESPECT to everyone who is a font designer!!)

If you leave me the links to where you’ve placed the buttons, tweet about Splash into Summer, link on Facebook, blog, etc. now (and/or throughout the event), you’ll get extra entries in any giveaway you enter during the event! How’s that for incentive?




Please help me make this event the best it can be. The mermaids deserve their day, too. Sorry vampires and werewolves and fairies. It’s time for some beings who really know how to make a SPLASH!

(I don't know WHAT Blogger's problem is today. It blew up the previews for both widgets, even though they're set at 200p and 400p. Using the exact same html on my mirror site, the images look perfect. I don't understand? Are you seeing this on your computer? Is it just me? Snag the images from the mirror site if this continues to be an issue, or just right-click and save the medium or small image (also click for direct links to image), then manually upload them (though I hate to make you do an extra step). Those blurry blow-ups are just YUCK. *kicks Blogger*





If anyone knows what went wrong, please send me an email or comment. Because I don't know! It's seriously working just fine on LiveJournal...)




Small Widget:





Splash into Summer!
<div align="center"><a href="http://abackwardsstory.blogspot.com/2011/06/splash-into-summer_21.html" title="Splash into Summer!"><img src="http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/abackwardsstory/splashintosummer200shiny.png" alt="Splash into Summer!" style="border:none;" /></a></div>




Medium Widget:





Splash into Summer with A Backwards Story

<div align="center"><a href="http://abackwardsstory.blogspot.com/2011/06/splash-into-summer_21.html" title="Splash into Summer with A Backwards Story" target="_blank"><img src="http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/abackwardsstory/splashintosummer400shiny.png" alt="Splash into Summer with A Backwards Story" style="border:none;" /></a></div>


All you have to do is copy the above HTML from either button and paste it into your blog. When you post, it SHOULD look like this:









Thanks for helping me spread the word!















Comments

  1. Well, I have a couple of mermaid books from Netgalley I'm supposed to reading and reviewing soon: Lost Voices and Hereafter. I'm sure I won't get to them in two weeks time, but I will look forward to following your blog to see if others have something to say about either of these books.

    I haven't read Fins are Forever, either. Geez, I'm not much help, am I? lol.

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  2. oh! this sounds really cute!
    i don't think i've ever read a single mermaid book... i like that eighties film with the mermaid... maybe splash or something like that???... and of course the little mermaid! but i really liked how rowling handled mermaids in the potter series. i liked how they were darker, had more of a bite. it'll be interesting to hear all about this mermaid stuff. i believe that hannah moskowitz is going to be having a mermaid(man) book coming out some time... she refers to the project as her magic gay fish story... i don't know a whole lot about it, but that might be of an interest to you! sounds like a cool series! :)

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  3. I still have yet to read a mermaid book, I have got to accomplish that this year. I love the widget, you did a great job designing it. I'm sure it was alot of hard work.
    But you did it! Yay!

    I decided to take some graphic classes this year so I can start to learn to do some of this stuff myself.

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  4. Yay! Can't wait to see what you have planned. I listed to it so much that I wore out my cassette tape of The Little Mermaid soundtrack. :)

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  5. Did I read that correctly? TWO people that haven't read a single mermaid book? OMG... that's not possible! =) We are kindred mermaid spirits in former lives. LOL I swear it was the only way I would take a bath as a child-- to pretend I had a tail. I made everyone play along. It was a little unstable really.

    SOOOO excited about this one! I'm thinking a post about MerCon (the ANNUAL mermaid convention in Los Vegas) OR Sirens of the Deep camp at Weeki Wachee Springs OR Disney's new Little Mermaid ride (finally!) Or... my list goes on and on.

    BTW, thanks for the heads up about Lost VOices releasing early. Going to order that now. The button looks great too. Putting that up on my blog as well.

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  6. @Gina: I don't believe HEREAFTER is a mermaid story, but will have to check. LOST VOICES is, though. And it's WONDERFUL!!!! I'm in love!!

    @Aspiring_X: 2011 is the time to read a mermaid book. So you totally should. Yes, I used to watch SPLASH! And THE LITTLE MERMAID :) I like darker mermaids, too. They're not always rainbows and sunshine. In fact, the original TLM by HCA is much darker than the Disney version! I didn't know that Hannah Moskowitz was writing a mermaid book! I thought that's just what she called her fans, haha.

    @Lena: I hope I can convince you to read a mermaid book this year! Oh, and thank you! I'm really happy with how my widget came out. It took up all my writing time yesterday, but it was totally worth it! Good luck with the design courses! Which programs will you study? If it's just for fun, Photoshop is the best, but if you want it to carry over elsewhere, other Adobe programs worth studying are Illustrator, InDesign, and DreamWeaver :)

    @Small: I still go around singing TLM sometimes! From the TV show, too. And the musical. *LOVE!*

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  7. @Flashlight: I know, right? We must introduce everyone to the mermaids! I think I was a mermaid in a former life. I used to live in my pool and when we went to the Jersey Shore, you couldn't get me out of the water. I miss the water so much!!!

    Those all sound like great ideas. Hey, if you can't choose, write a couple... *wink*

    I'm annoyed that I pre-ordered LV and it won't ship out until July 4th, even though the site no longer lists it as a pre-order and says available now. *grumps* I want to hold that pretty cover!

    Yay, I'm glad you liked the button! I hope the size is right on your blog!

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