YASH Fall 2015 *Young Adult Scavenger Hunt*

It's the most wonderful time of the fall~~! 

YASH is back! 

Yes, I am that excited...and if you love YA books, you will be too (if you aren't already)! 

The main questions: What is this epic Hunt all about? How can I jump into the fray?

Well, dear reader, the Hunt is all about books, books, sweet giveaways, books, juicy never-before-seen exclusive content, books, more books, and fantastic authors. (And MOAR books :D!) There are 8 stellar teams participating this fall: blue, gold, green, orange, pink, purple, red, and teal. I've included the graphics below from the official scavenger blog so you can check out which authors are on each team and what books are up for grabs.

And how is easy: just hop through the author blogs! 

All the authors on a team share their favorite number on their posts; you simply add all those numbers together and enter it into that team's rafflecopter. If the number is correct, you'll be entered for a chance to win every, yes, EVERY, book pictured for that team. You can enter for as many or as few teams as your book-loving heart desires (:

Of course you can also hunt down specific authors and enter various giveaways (some authors will feature their own), check out the exclusive content, and express your gratitude by commenting on their blogs. This is one of my favorite parts of the Hunt.

**Please let them know how much you love them and how much you love YASH!** 

To get started--and for more information--visit the official YA Scavenger Hunt page.  You can allow follow the Hunt on Twitter (#YASH) @YAScavengerHunt. Spread the word!!

The Teams:

Massive fangirling happening now. I'm stoked that two of my absolute favorite authors, Jessica Khoury and A.G. Howard, are participating this fall!! *squeals*

It's a tough choice, but if I had to pick just one team to enter, I think I'd enter Green. And if I had to choose one book, I'd pick The Forbidden Wish. 

What about you? What Team(s) will you enter? And if you had to choose just one book from this delicious collection, what would it be??

YASH Spring 2015 *Young Adult Scavenger Hunt*

GUYS! 

The Young Adult Scavenger Hunt is here again!

As I tweeted earlier, when YASH shows up, this is me:

*coughs*

Ok, so deets. You need details to participate...

First off, if you don't know what (the) YASH is, I'll sum it up for you: It's a book lover's dream. Authors post exclusive content like excerpts and deleted scenes in addition to offering one of their books to the hunt winner (one per team, so 8 people are going to win big). Some authors post additional giveaways--swag, books, etc. 

This year's hunt begins at 12 noon PST, which is 3pm EST and 2pm CST...and ends April 5th at the same time(s).   

The winners will be announced April 10th. 

JOIN THE HUNT! Catch all the books...! (Yes, I did just make that Pokemon reference.)

Also, spread the word! Love on these authors! Have FUN!

You can find out more about the Hunt on the official YASH blog.

Learning Japanese *Rinen's Corner #.5*

My Totoro pouch :3.  I'm working on editing...and I'm not good at it lol
My Neighbor Totoro (c) Studio Ghibli

It's finally here...! My (arguably) beautiful post on learning Japanese *^_^*

You're probably wondering why I called it 'Rinen's Corner'. Wonder no more :)! Here's why: When I moved back to Vermont as a Junior, I took Japanese at Essex High School under the bestest language teacher anyone could ever hope to have, Yukari Muramoto-sensei. 

Normally, I would call her Muramoto-sensei...but she put an American twist on her name by allowing her students to call her Yukari-sensei. Anyway, everyone who studied under her was given a Japanese-style name, so my name, Lynanne, became the closest-sounding equivalent that matched into the kana system: Rinen （リネン）. 

Yukari-sensei would periodically instruct us regarding Japanese culture and linguistic peculiarities (aka important stuff we needed to know), and when she did, she'd make a worksheet and label it 'Yukari's Corner'.... 

And although I'm not even remotely as familiar with Japanese as Yukari-sensei :D, I wanted to honor her teaching and tradition. Hence, Rinen's Corner! Woot!

So...what am I going to be sharing in this corner?

Seriously, though--I had a LOT of ideas about where I wanted to start. I finally settled on the obvious: getting started. (Good call, right? My brilliance is blinding sometimes, so uh, you might need to get out your sunglasses...) 

But how do you just 'start learning' Japanese? The first thing that pops into my mind as I consider the 'learning environment' is resources.

So for this post, I'm going to be sharing *resources*, along with a tutorial on how to introduce yourself/discover your 'Japanese' name, and a proverb. 

In my next corner--coming September--I'll attempt to give a mini-lesson that targets reading, listening, writing, and speaking. I'd also like to have a proverb/poem (I'd love to feature some of the Hyaku-nin isshu...!) and a bit of culture :), as well as some prayer requests. 

Just keep in mind: I'm a writer, and keeping up with The Blog is challenging! These posts may not be 'the best ever+infinity+1', you know?

Anyway, I really wanted to highlight some places to get out there and start learning Japanese without breaking the bank--apps, websites, books--to start off because that's going to make your learning experience about 150% easier and more fruitful. (My l33t math skills are also blinding.) 

Ok, let's get acquainted with the alphabet(s) first.

There's kana, which encompasses 1) ひらがな hiragana (used for native words that aren't affiliated with kanji, like ありがとう　arigatou, thank you) and 2) カタカナ katakana (used for foreign words like コラ cola, coke; or to draw attention for say a business sign). *Tae Kim is fantastic!

Hiragana tends to be more delicate and 'curvaceous' than katakana, which is largely linear. 

Then there's the one Japanese language students dread: 3) 漢字 kanji. Kanji are Chinese characters that have been integrated into Japanese...and man, are there a lot of them. At least 1,600 of them fall into the category of 'daily use' O_O! Kanji looks different than kana, but still uses same sounds. 

Operation Vitro

A new year has come (Happy New Year!!)...and in 2014, there are loads of delicious YA books being released! Huzzah. 

As you may already know, Jessica Khoury’s VITRO is coming out January 14th.

I, for one, am mega excited to read this gem of a novel! Origin was fantastic (5 stars). The first 3 chapters I’ve read of Vitro were fantastic. You can see where this is going :D.

BUT. Before the release, going on RIGHT NOW, you can enter to win some uber cool prizes by playing a *game*. I mean, it doesn’t get any better than this!

Join in on the fun and win some swag—every player is GUARANTEED TO WIN—at Corpus Network!