Hey everyone!

I recently had a case of love at first sight. It was a magical moment. His eyes met mine and I just knew it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

To tell the truth: I fell head over hedgehog.

Everyone, meet Oswald! Isn’t he the cutest thing ever!?

There was just one thing preventing our happily ever after–the fact that we both knew he was destined for someone else. Oswald’s heart will always belong to his incredibly talented artist/my best friend, which is why after we spent a blissful month together, Oswald traded in my bedroom for hers. And because she is completely amazing . . . I now fall asleep every night looking at these three handsome fellows!

Gregory MacGuffin the Third!

Poquito Incognito!

And last, but certainly not least:

Umberto!

I can’t even tell you how much I love these hedgehogs. I like to think that they are diligently guarding my books from bad reviews.

And these aren’t the only cool photos I have to show you!

I know it might sound silly, but I absolutely love seeing photos of people enjoying my books. It makes my day. So obviously I was delighted when I caught a glimpse of these:

The seriously skilled Melina Souza took this photo and wrote a great review of Awkward that you can read here!

Just a quick heads up . . . she wrote it in Portuguese. Because that’s her first language.

You know what book I’m able to pick up and start reading in an entirely different language?

Me neither.

Probably because it doesn’t exist.

I’ve taken five years of French classes and I still relied heavily on the subtitles for this hilarious/adorable cat video!

I hope your reaction looks like this:

I’m not going to repost all of Mel’s awesome photos here but . . . this one is my new desktop image.

Overwhelmed with the awesome!

These pictures inspired me to try creating a game (I really hope you’ll all play it with me! Pretty please?) that goes something like this:

Step One: You stick a copy of Awkward (or Decked with Holly) in your purse/backpack/car and take it with you everywhere.

Step Two: Every time you think to yourself, Now that would be a funny place to see Awkward, you pull out the book.

Step Three: You take a picture.

Step Four: You send the photo to me (either here or on my Facebook author page would be great!)

Step Five: I completely geek out!!!

Fun, right?! I also think it has some pretty great ice-breaker potential. I mean, let’s say that someone you happen to be crushing on is around and you have nothing to say to them.

*Cough* Marni’s daily experience in high school.

So instead of letting the opportunity to talk slide away like this . . .

You can be all, “Okay, so I know this is a little awkward, but um…would you mind holding up a copy of this book right by the sign for the boys’ restroom? HAHA! I know. It’s weird. But the author said that the person who posts the best photo gets an advanced reader’s copy of her next book so…”

Oh, did I forget to mention that?

Because I will totally do it. I don’t usually send stuff to people who live outside the US, because shipping can get expensive, but for this contest . . . game on!

That way we will have something fun to do while we wait for the Invisible ARCs to be ready!

*Happy dances*

I would love to hear what you think of the game, so feel free to leave me a comment! *Super subtle hint*

Good luck!

~Marni