Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Day Eleven - All About Ditched: A Love Story + Giveaway



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Book Profile

Name - Ditched: A Love Story ( Goodreads )
Author - Robin Mellom
Genre - Contemporary
Release Date - January 10th 2012
Available - The Book Depository

High school senior Justina Griffith was never the girl who dreamed of going to prom. Designer dresses and strappy heels? Not her thing. So she never expected her best friend, Ian Clark, to ask her.
Ian, who always passed her the baseball bat handle first.
Ian, who knew exactly when she needed red licorice.
Ian, who promised her the most amazing night at prom.
And then ditched her.
Now, as the sun rises over her small town, and with only the help of some opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven, Justina must piece together — stain by stain on her thrift-store dress — exactly how she ended up dateless. A three-legged Chihuahua was involved. Along with a demolition derby-ready Cadillac. And there was that incident at the tattoo parlor. Plus the flying leap from Brian Sontag's moving car...
But to get the whole story, Justina will have to face the boy who ditched her. And discover if losing out at prom can ultimately lead to true love.


The Insider's Scoop

I’m going to pull back the curtain and tell you a little bit about how the events in DITCHED came to mind. (Hint: strangely)

The story involves a girl, Justina, re-telling the events of the night to a couple of opinionated ladies at the 7-Eleven. Justina breaks the story down by going through each stain or mark or rip or tattoo to get to the final part of her story: how and why she ended up in that ditch.

For this book, I didn’t outline or map out the events or even put much thought into how it was all going to unfold. I only knew the ending. But honestly, I would have outlined if, you know…a plot had come to mind! But the details weren’t coming—I had no idea how I was going to get to this ending that was so crystal clear. (The only thing that was clear!)  So here’s what I did: I gave myself a challenge…think of five totally random things and try to build a story around them.

I am not a model writer.

But writing is better than not writing so that’s what I did.  And on one particular afternoon, here were the five most random items I could come up with:

A broken safety pin
In-n-Out Burger
A Tinker Bell tattoo
The Hampton Inn
A three-legged Chihuahua

Aaaaaand, go! Seriously, that’s how this book came to be. Not the best way to write a book, but the challenge of trying to make these things fit somewhere in the story made the writing of this an absolute BLAST. And the items ended up giving me a framework and became huge plot points. (Whew.)
Even though I outline the snot out my novels now, I still make sure I have a list of random things—stuff that makes me laugh or feel good—and I include them somewhere in the story, just to amuse myself.
So, in my next book, just know you will find a family of dolphins, a Bettie Boop t-shirt and Robert Downey, Jr. somewhere in the story.



~Giveaway~

To end Robin's feature with a bang, she has kindly offered you lucky viewers an ARC of Ditched + some super duper awesome ( and really CUTE) Ditched swag! Unfortunately this giveaway is only open to readers is US/CAN! Please support the event and Robin by leaving a comment and spreading the word! Please fill out the form below : 



Rule of Entry -

- US/CAN
- Ends 11th of February
- Must be 13 or older
- Optional Entries :
   * Leaving comment on either of Robin's posts +1 each
   * Tweeting Giveaway +1
   * Putting Giveaway on Sidebar +2
   * Follow Badass Bookie +2
   * Placing 2012 Debutante Event Button on blog +3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Badass Bookie xx

32 comments:

  1. This book sounds AWESOME! Cannot wait to read it. Shame about the US/Can only part!

    I love how Robin's just chosen items and they've featured in the story. I know it's random, but that's good. Random is GOOD!

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  2. This book looks great! I can't wait to read it. Love that you included Canada. :)

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  3. The more I hear about this book, the more I want to read it!

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  4. I definitely need the insider's scoop on this one. Sounds like a great read! Really intrigued.

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  5. I've been hearing about this book everywhere, it sounds really interesting, can't wait to read it:)

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  6. It would be lovely to win a copy of this book. It's just sad that it's not for international. Goodluck for the US/Can participants!

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  7. Thank you so much for the giveaway! GFC Name: May Abraham

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  8. Sounds great! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  9. This book sounds absolutely fun to read! Thank you for the chance to win it. I normally don't go for these types of books but I might just have to read this one :)

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  10. Wow! what a nice giveaway! thank you Badass :3

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  11. THanks!

    GFC Christina Kit.

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  12. Oh, Ditched was amazing! Must own!!!! I love the bit with the tattoo! Especially since this book was so funny, a lot of back and forth and frustration! Loved it! So yeah for the giveaway!!! :)

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  13. can't wait for this book. I was ditched too at my prom, and I can't wait to read how she dealt with it in a funny way. :)
    Thanks for the giveaway!

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  14. Thanks so much for the giveaway, it looks like its going to be SUCH a cute read!!

    - juhina

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  15. I can't wait to read this book. It sounds like a fun book to read.

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  16. That is exactly how I planned to write books when I was about 12, it sounds so fun! Thanks for the giveaway! My GFC name is pepsivanilla14

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  17. Sounds like a cute story. Thanks for the chance to win! And oooh SWAG *.*

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  18. Posted debutante button http://bookloverandprocrastinator.blogspot.com/

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  19. Thanks for the great giveaway!!!
    GFC: red_tigergirl2

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  20. This looks like a cute and fun read. I love books about prom! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  21. This sounds like a fun contemp. read. What girl doesn't want to read about a prom night from hell? Thanks for the giveaway:)

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  22. Thanks for the amazing giveaway! That's what I kinda do to make up my stories :P just use random items and then make a crazy story trying to fit them all in!

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  23. Ah prom....hope hers was still better than mine. :)

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  24. Three legged chihuahua.... sounds like this could get interesting..

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  25. This book sounds hilarious!!! This is an awesome giveaway, thank you!!

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  26. Thanks for the giveaway! I want to read Ditched for my 2012 Contemp. YA challenge.

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  27. Oh that sounds like an AWESOME way to write a book! :) Anything that makes the experience more fun, right? Besides, it obviously worked. I can't wait to read this one!

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  28. So while trying to fill out the form, I noticed that the extra box wasn't appearing for me in most of the options. It was in the first comment one but I think that was it. Maybe it's a problem with my computer? Sorry about that :/

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  29. Ditched looks pretty good, though I wouldn't want to wear that dress :P Thanks for the giveaway!!

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