Book Blitzes/Promo Posts

Teenage Garage Sale with Amber Kizer and giveaway!

Amber Kizer, author of Meridian and Wildcat Fireflies, is here today to share a bit about her past in TEENAGE GARAGE SALE! This is my favorite post. We get to see what Amber would put in a garage sale now, if she found things from her teenage years. Ready to take a look back? Let’s go!

Hello! Welcome to my Teen Garage Sale! I’ll make all these “or best offer”

1) Earrings
The bigger, the bolder, the more dangly, the better. I preferred earrings that were representative of actual things like fish, asparagus (yes, really), birds, frogs, cats, rainbows, stars…you get the idea. And yes, I liked to be matchy-matchy even though I know that’s a cardinal fashion sin, I still kinda have a hard time mixing prints and not matching my bag and shoes.
2) Romances
I started reading Zebra romances in 7th grade. From there I read anything in the romance category and fell in love with Jude Deveraux and Nora Roberts. They are both amazing story tellers who focus first on the emotion. I still have lots of my favorites!
3) Cassette Tapes—mixed
Again, life would have been much simpler with digital, but we didn’t have it so cassette tapes were awesome awesome and better still if they were mixed with lots of favorites! I would listen to Karate Kid (the original soundtrack), Dirty Dancing, Top Gun, Pretty Woman over and over again. I love movie soundtracks (still do) because they’re usually a mix of genres. I think it’s probably why I pay so close attention to the soundtracks I create while I’m working on a book!
4) Rocks
So maybe it’s my name, or maybe it’s because I think uncovering fossils could possibly be the coolest job in the uncool job category ever, but for lots of years I collected rocks and fossils. I love sparkle and I love color and I loved my rock collection. I still collect Amber from all over the world—I try to find a piece when I’m in a new place—usually in jewelry that relates back to #1.
5) Photographs
I come from a long line of Kodak moment capturers—no, it’s not in the same category as vampire slayers, but it’s definitely in our blood to take many and more photographs than anyone ever needs. So even in the days of film where you had no idea if you got a good shot until they came back from the developers—I took as many as I could afford to ‘cuz film wasn’t cheap on my minor allowance!
6) Cookbooks
Always have loved to cook since my mother put me on a chair by her to make cookies when I was two-ish. That’s also how I was allergic to chocolate for many years which is tragic and let me just tell you carob chip cookies taste nothing, and I do mean nothing, like chocolate chip cookies. So I have a collection of cookbooks and magazines that I’ve annotated over the years.
7) Notes from boys and best friends
Most of my best friends were boys until high school when boys took on other dimensions for me. I kept notes that we wrote during classes or for holidays etc. Part of me will always miss those friendships—shout out to Jesse, Kevin, Damon, Trevor. I kept a couple of letters from boyfriends mainly I have to say for the humor quotient—especially a break-up note I received in HS that was and is fodder for all time laughable moments.
8) Mail from my grandparents
Because we didn’t live near each other and because we are also a family that loves snail mail, I received mail a couple times a week from my Indiana family/grandparents. They were extremely good about sending me little thoughts and notes just so I felt loved all the time. I don’t think people understand the power of the actual piece of mail anymore—there’s just nothing like it.
9) Make up
So house rules wouldn’t let me wear color outside of the house until I was 13 but I have always loved make up and frankly should buy stock in Sephora! So I’d get sets for birthdays or Christmas and play with all the colors. I’m very careful about making sure I don’t use a product too long or risk infections so you’re not going to actually find any dating from there!
10) Fabric Scraps
This is from my late teens years—I made my first quilt to take to college with me. It was/is a watercolor garden with tiny squares of fabric that light to dark make up the piece. Lots of little tiny squares of fabric!!!
11) Souvenirs from trips like a vase from Greece, a cross stitch from Mt. Vernon (George Washington’s home), seeds from Conner Prairie, postcards and stationary from anywhere.
12) Trophies and certificates—I was a very driven overachiever and kept all of those from school and sports for many years! 

********************
Amazing Amber! Thanks for sharing!
Oh how I miss the days of note passing. I love the Internet, but give me a good old fashioned note any day and I’m a happy girl.
To reward you for your awesomeness, Amber Kizer has also brought along a few giveaways!
Up for grabs is one copy of Wildcat Fireflies and one copy of 7 Kinds of Ordinary Catastrophes

A winner will be chosen for each one.
Giveaway is open to U.S. entries only.
Ends July 21, 2011.


Don’t forget to leave a comment for Amber thanking her for this awesome giveaway as well!