The YAmazing Race + Bonus contest!

Welcome to my blog and the next stop on the third YAmazing Race! I hope you are excited about the MGnificent prizes, the crazy whirlwind blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs featuring ARCs, swag, and more! This is my third round and I hope it'll be as successful as the last. The YAmazing Race officially starts at noon (EST) on October 22nd, 2012.

If you want to know more, then head on over to the Apocalypsies website to read the complete rules. Now on to the race!

THE WEEPERS: The Other Life

US cover (look to the right for the German and the UK cover)

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world

Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all.

THE OTHER LIFE is out now! 

And its sequel THE LIFE BEYOND will follow in 2013!

UK cover

And here's the UK trailer for my book:

In addition to the YAmazing Race, I'm having a bonus contest for you! I'm giving away two signed hardcover copies of The Weepers: The Other Life and awesome bleeding butterfly stickers to two lucky winners!

All you have to do to win is leave a comment. My contest is international and open until Monday, October 29 at noon EST.

But you can earn extra entries if you like:

Follow me on twitter + 1 entry

Follow my blog + 1 entry

Follow me on pinterest + 1 entry

Add The Other Life, and/or The Life Beyond, and/or my new YA thriller Impostor (X-men meets The Silence of the Lambs!) on goodreads! + 1 entry each

Let me know in your comments if you have any extra entries.

When you're ready to continue with the race, click here.

Cover Reveal: The Life Beyond!!

Today I'm finally allowed to share the cover for THE LIFE BEYOND, the sequel to The Other Life with you!

I love that it's similar to the cover of The Other Life. Black and white. I'm sure the two books will look fabulous together!
And do you see the bleeding butterfly? It changed, didn't it? It looks more like a hornet. And more dangerous, because that's what this book is. More dangerous for Sherry and Joshua and the other survivors!

And here's the back and the front together: (Don't read the text if you haven't read The Other Life. Spoilers ahead!)

It hits shelves March 1st, 2013 in the UK! Less than five months to go!
I can't tell you how much I love the cover! My UK pub Usborne has done such a fabulous job!
What do you think?

Winners!

Sorry for the late post! Sometimes life just gets in the way of things...(as you all probably know!)

Winner of ORIGIN is:
Anstice Potts

Winner of THE INNOCENTS is:
Tamara

I'll contact you soon.
Tomorrow I'll post pics from my trip to Edinburgh and my adventures at Edinburgh book festival!

ARC giveaway!

I've been at Edinburgh Book Festival for the last week, talking about THE OTHER LIFE, and I'm now trying to catch up on emails, laundry and a lot of other things. Once that's done you'll get a post with lots of photos from Edinburgh! For now I have a giveaway for you!
Before I flew to Edinburgh, I sent line edits for my new YA thriller IMPOSTOR off to my lovely editor, Caroline. And she was so generous to send me a few ARCs from fellow Razorbill authors! Of course I won't keep them all to myself!
Here are the ARCs I have for you:

ORIGIN (pub date: September 4th, 2012)

Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home—and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia’s origin—a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost. This is a supremely compelling debut novel that blends the awakening romance of Matched with the mystery and jungle conspiracy of Lost.


THE INNOCENTS (pub date: October 16th, 2012)

Nothing ever came between sisters Alice and Charlie.
Friends didn't.
Boys couldn't.
Their family falling apart never would.
Until they got to Serenity Point.
"The Innocents" is the first in a new series of young adult novels that weave a saga of nail-biting drama, breathless romance, and gothic mystery.










There'll be two winners. All you have to do to win is leave a comment with your email address. If you want to gain extra entries, you can:
Follow me on Twitter + 1 entry
Follow this blog + 1 entry
Tweet or blog about the giveaway + 2 entries
The giveaway is international and ends this Friday, the 31st, at 3 EST. I'll announce the winners shortly after.

Summer Update!

It finally stopped raining in Germany!

Before I'll tell you what I've been up to in the last few weeks, I'll have to tell you about the Amazon Kindle 100 promotion. The Other Life is part of it. That means you can buy the ebook for only $1.99!
So if you've been thinking about buying the book, now is probably a good time! :D

And today's a special day: The Other Life is six months old in the UK! Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my book hit shelves in the UK!

A few days ago, I got to see the almost final UK cover of The Life Beyond (sequel to The Other Life)! It's deliciously creepy just like the first!

I've been editing The Life Beyond and Impostor in the last few months, but now that both manuscripts are with my editors, I have a few days to catch up on other stuff...like emails and spending time in the garden.

I started growing my own herbs and vegetables.

Here you can see our dog with the tomato plant. It was super tiny when we bought it two months ago but has been growing steadily despite the lack of sunshine.

This is the first tomato. I wish the sun kept shining, then maybe I could harvest my own tomatos in a few weeks!

Here's the lamb's lettuce and the arugula.

Cilantro and Parsley.

Oregano and more parsley!

And here's the doggie enjoying the sunshine with his new short hair! It took my husband and me hours over the weekend to get rid of his fur.

I'm still doing my vegetarian diet. It's been two months!
Now I'll go sit in the garden with a homemade Green Iced Tea with lime wedges. Yum!
I hope you're enjoying your summer!

Updates + reviews!

A few days ago, School Library Journal reviewed The Other Life.
Here's what they had to say:

WINNACKER, Susanne. The Other Life. Bk. 1. 254p. (The Weepers Series). CIP. Marshall Cavendish. 2012. Tr $17.99. ISBN 978-0-7614-6275-0; ebook $7.99. ISBN 978-0-7614-6276-7. LC 2011025228.

Gr 8-10–It’s been 1141 days since Sherry has seen daylight in a postapocalyptic Los Angeles. She and her family are bunkered by the military after a rabies outbreak and have been receiving sporadic radio warnings to stay put. Armed and at their breaking point (no rations and a deceased grandfather in the freezer), the 15-year-old and her father venture out to find food and help. In the light of day, they see the skyline of a bombed city and bodies strewn near deserted neighborhood bunkers. The gloomy setting launches a fast-moving tale of survival as Sherry’s father is snatched out of a deserted Walmart by grotesque-looking and terrifying creatures. Saved from the same fate by a teen vigilante named Joshua, Sherry learns about the Weepers, who evolved into human predators after the mysterious rabies outbreak three years earlier. Joshua drives Sherry to Safe-haven, an abandoned winery outside the city, where other survivors have gathered. Her quest to have Joshua help find her father and rescue her family from the bunker is fraught with violent and bloody clashes with Weepers and raises more questions than are answered about their humanness and the government’s role in their development. Flashbacks from Sherry’s former everyday life as a teen, in italics, contrast with her new stark reality, and her fascination with numbers adds layers to a character who is likely to become tougher and more heroic in future episodes. This title is sure to please reluctant readers craving action-driven dystopian adventures.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY

So yay!

And as for the update, it's not really book related. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I started a vegetarian diet and I'm happy to say that I'm still on track. I haven't eaten meat or eggs in the last four weeks (except for a few bites of fish and shrimps at a wedding a few days ago...couldn't resist. *sigh*) and I'm feeling great and not yet missing anything. I've even lost 11 pounds so far, despite my falafel addiction! Maybe I'll have a longer post up in the next few days in which I'll write a bit about my experiences.

I hope my US followers have a great 4th of July tomorrow!

Giveaway Winners + Edinburgh Book Festival

Yesterday the Edinburgh International Book Festival finally made this year's program public. And I'm excited to say that I'll be on a panel with Anne Cassidy and Teri Terry on Wednesday, August 22nd at 5pm. We'll discuss crime fiction, dystopians and zombies!
And I'm one of the nominees for this year's Anobii First Book Award! Votes determine the winner, so if you liked The Other Life, you can leave your vote. :)

Last but not least: the winners of my book deal celebration contest.

Winner of a Razorbill book of your choice: Stephanie27
Winner of a signed copy of The Other Life: Tiffany
I'll email you soon!

Let me know if you'll be at the Edinburgh Book Festival!