March Madness Schedule of Awesome

MARCH 5TH-9TH:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
*Optional Gallagher Girl Challenge: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
Mayhem Challenge: Gift or lend TFiOS to a member of your family. Video tape yourself spreading TFiOS love and submit it as a video response to the March 5th Mayhem YouTube video (lots of 'videos' in that sentence -.-).
Tweet! Tweet! Show the author, @realjohngreen, your love! Use the hashtag #teamelsewhere and spread the word about TFiOS.
Wednesday Writes Challenge: TFiOS prompts are-
Prompt 1A: What's your opinion of Hazel's monologue on pages 12-13? Do you agree? Disagree and why?
Prompt 1B: Write a scene from An Imperial Affliction or its "sequel." As the book does not exist, you get to be as creative as you want.
If you want to learn more about what Wednesday Writes is, visit this page. Original works ONLY.
Share your Thoughts! If you read TFiOS you should write a review of your own! Comment on my Sunday review with your thoughts or with the link to a blog post you did responding to the book and it could be featured in the Thursday Thoughts post.
Finale... Finally! Mayhem winner will be announced. A recap of the week's events will be given. And you can join me here from 5-6 P.M. PST to talk about TFiOS and/or LOVE YOU, KILL YOU.


MARCH 12TH-16TH:
Ditched by Robin Mellom
*Optional GGC: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
Mayhem Challenge: Submit a video response (to the March 12th Mayhem video) of you recommending DITCHED to someone in a convenience or grocery store.
Tweet! Tweet! Show the author, @robinmellom, and her agent, @jillcorcoran that you care! Use the hashtag #teamelsewhere and spread the word about DITCHED.
Wednesday Writes Challenge: DITCHED prompts-
Prompt 2A- Did you go on a date that went horribly wrong? What was that experience like and how did it measure up to Justina's?
Prompt 2B- Write a creative piece about a girl who wanders into liquor store with no recollection of the events leading up to her getting there.

Share your Thoughts! If you read DITCHED you should write a review of your own! Comment on my Sunday review with your thoughts or with the link to a blog post you did responding to the book and it could be featured in the Thursday Thoughts post.
Finale... Finally! Mayhem winner will be announced. A recap of the week's events will be given. And you can join me here from 5-6 P.M. PST to talk about DITCHED and/or CROSS MY HEART.



MARCH 19TH-23RD:
One Day by David Nicholls
*Optional GGC: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter
Mayhem Challenge: For one day, walk around with a sign around your neck promoting the book ONE DAY. Submit a video response to the March 19th Monday Mayhem post of your attempt to spread the awesome.
Tweet! Tweet! Share what you loved about @CBGbooks' release, ONE DAY with us by using the #teamelsewhere hashtag on Twitter.
Wednesday Writes: ONE DAY Writing Prompts-
3A- What did you think of the telling of this book? Did it work? Did it not work? Was it practical? Would you have done it differently?
3B- Write a creative story about a particular day, revealing the significance of this day to us gradually through action and dialogue only.

Share your Thoughts! Comment on my Sunday review with your thoughts or with the link to a blog post you did responding to the book and it could be featured in the Thursday Thoughts post.
Finale... Finally! Mayhem winner will be announced. A recap of the week's events will be given. And you can join me here from 5-6 P.M. PST to talk about ONE DAY and/or DON'T JUDGE A GIRL.


MARCH 26TH-30TH:
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
*Optional GGC: Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter
Mayhem Challenge: Leave index card with quotes from THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX around your school, neighborhood, and workplace and on the back, be sure to write "From Kate DiCamillo's THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX" so that whoever finds it might be curious enough to pick up the book, themselves. Submit a video response of you dropping off index cards of awesome in reply to the March 26th Mayhem Video.
Tweet! Tweet! Share what you loved about @candlewickpress' release, THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX with us and with your followers. Use the hashtag #teamelsewhere so we can find your tweets!
Wednesday Writes: DESPEREAUX Writing prompts-
Prompt 4A- The story deals with darkness and light both literally and figuratively within the characters. What did you think of this? Could you relate? What about this spoke to you or what did you learn (or disagree with) from these monologues?
Prompt 4B- Write a short story that takes two seemingly unrelated plots and makes them meet up somehow (can be up to 1,000 words).

Share your Thoughts! Comment on my Sunday review with your thoughts or with the link to a blog post you did responding to the book and it could be featured in the Thursday Thoughts post.
Finale... Finally! Mayhem winner will be announced. A recap of the week's events will be given. And you can join me here from 5-6 P.M. PST to talk about DESPEREAUX and/or GOOD SPY YOUNG.

*So this month, we're featuring one book a week according to the schedule, above, BUT, in honor of Ally Carter's fifth Gallagher book, OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF TIME coming out in March, I wanted to give everyone a chance to "catch up" before we read that together in April. That's why, if you want to take up what I'm calling the Gallagher Girl Challenge, you can tack on an extra book a week for the entire month of March so that you'll be ready to talk OSOT with us the second week of April (spoiler for the April calendar. Sorry!). So here it is! The March Calendar. Happy reading, everyone! See you again on the first!

The Memes of Elsewhere

Every day of the week, Elsewhere plays host to a specific meme, and each week, the topic matter of that meme will vary depending on the book we're talking about at the moment. But, in case you weren't sure what "Monday Mayhem" or "Wednesday Writes" entailed, here's what you need to know to help you find your way around the site.

THE WEEKENDS

The weekends aren't particular here around Elsewhere, but instead have informational posts about things going on... elsewhere!

Saturday Sights

Will be irregularly patterned posts. Sometimes I'll see a movie and post a review about it, and other times I'll recommend a blog or a website that I think is super cool. Or sometimes it'll be book related jargon, or perhaps book-to-film related jar-gy-on. Other times, there won't be a Saturday post and you'll have to forgive me for that. But most times I'll find something delightful to tell you all about.

The Sunday Post

Will be a regularly patterned dose of loveliness. Because we won't be reading new releases often in order to give people time to devour the text, The Sunday Post will inform you of *all the books that will be hitting bookshelves that week; it'll give you a list of movies hitting the box-office the coming Friday and a few that are already out*; it'll remind you of the book we're going to be talking about that week and the week after; and a link to my review will be present, there, as well. 

*If any of the new releases are ones that I'm planning to read for My Ticket Elsewhere, there will be an asterisk by it. If I saw a movie featured, I'll tell you my rating of it, and if I'm planning to see it, I'll put an asterisk by it.* 

***ALSO NOTE that Sundays are the last day to submit Wednesday Writes submissions for the upcoming week.

THE WEEKDAYS

Every week we are going to focus on ONE book in particular as a group, and we're going to help get other people reading that book according to these memes:

Monday Mayhem

On my YouTube channel, I'll be posting a video of me talking about the book of the week, dispersing all of the knowledge I have of said book, updating you on all things My Ticket Elsewhere, AND dispersing a challenge that I hope you'll take up. If you follow this blog, you have a bit of an advantage--- the challenges for every book are posted with the monthly calendar. And every participator in the Mayhem Challenges is entered into a random drawing for The Book of the Week Prize Pack. 

So what do you have to do to win?

After the Mayhem video goes up, post a video response of you taking up the challenge. Usually, in the video, I take up the challenge, too, to give you an idea of what your video could look like. 

BUT WHAT IF MY PARENTS DON'T LET ME MAKE VIDEOS, you ask. You can comment on the Mayhem Video of the week to be included in the back-up drawing, which will happen only if there are no video responses. BUT, if there's even ONE video response, the Mayhemer of the Week will be chosen from the video responses. So if you want to win, make a video (and if you want to be awesome, comment, anyway!).

***Winner will be announced on the blog during that week's Friday Finale.

Tuesday Tweets

Every Tuesday, join #teamelsewhere as we spread the word about the book of the week. You can tweet about the Monday Mayhem video, you can tweet about the book's general awesomeness, you can tweet about YOUR general awesomeness (in relation to the book, you know)--- anything at all that might get YOUR followers to read the book, too. If you include the hashtag #teamelsewhere, we'll be able to track and retweet your tweets. And the funniest, cutest, and most interesting tweets will appear here at the day's end in a re-cap blog post for those of us who aren't on Twitter. 

***You can also use Facebook, but there's no way for us to track that! So take a pic of your screen and send it to myticketsomewhere@gmail.com so we can include your awesome posts, too. 

Wednesday Writes

If you want another chance to win The Book of the Week Prize Pack, you can write a short story, essay, response, poem, WHATEVER that answers the prompt of the week (which you can find in the monthly calendar--- link in the sidebar). Your stories must not exceed 700 words or we may cut if off, and if you have to submit your stories the weekend before the book is featured here on the site. Winners and runner-ups will be announced every Wednesday, and the winning story will be featured in a post of its own.

***PLEASE NOTE that even though you can write all of the stories at any time you want, you should only submit the story you wrote for the upcoming week. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.

Thursday Thoughts

If you write a review of your own about The Book of the Week, you post the link to it in the comments of my Sunday Review, and on Thursday, I'll link to it so that others can check out what you had to say. And even if you don't write a review, but you respond to mine in the comments or in a blog post of your own, your thoughts could be featured in the Thursday Thoughts post because we like to hear what you guys have to say and want to encourage you to talk to us about what you liked, what you didn't like--- to talk to us about anything because talking about books is really what keeps them alive. 

Friday Finales

At the end of the week, we do a blog post that recaps all of the awesome, links to some other cool stuff regarding that book, give you a list of "further reading" (which will include other books by that author and similar titles), and THEN we post a list of questions for discussion. You can chat about them in the comments, you can talk to us about it on Twitter... OR you can join me between 5-6 PM PST on Livestream and chat with me real time about the book. Invite a friend, ask me things, tell me what you thought, and most importantly, let's try to have fun with this.

THE FIRST OF THE MONTH

On the first day of every month, a video that officially announces the books of the month will go up on my YouTube channel. If you already follow this blog, you'll already know what those books are and watching the video might just pain you because of my extreme awkwardness, but you can watch it anyways! I mean... it is there after all. 

Here's Your Ticket!

For a while, now, I've been pondering what to do with Elsewhere. Should I discontinue it? Change it up? Try something different? Bring back all things old?

Well, I've decided, now. I've decided that Elsewhere is going to be a book blog... kind of.

You see, I'm not the kind of person who likes being observed like an exhibit on display. Rather, I'd want to be the tour guide, leading people toward interesting things and being the bridge between something foreign and something in the now. Elsewhere is going to be an interactive blog, then. A blog where I talk, and you talk, and then I talk back, and then (if you're up to it), you talk again.

How is that going to work, you ask? Well, I'll tell you--- I'll tell you right now.

I'm inviting you to read with me. One book. Every week. From now until the end of the year.

Well, I lie. Not NOW, now, until the end of the year, but SOON, now, until the end of the year.

How soon?

March, soon.

Because starting March 5th, My Ticket Elsewhere is dedicating itself to one book a week, and I'd love to have you participate in that and help me spread the awesome that is the written word.

This Monday (February 19th, you plonkers), I'm going to announce the books I'll be reading (or re-reading) in March, and you are more than welcome to start early and/or join me! You should note that although I will be reading a book a week, the book that will be focused on is going to be the book I read from the PREVIOUS week, so by Monday, March 5th, the "first book" should already be on your "WOOT! I read this and it was awesome!" shelf.

Keep checking in and exploring the blog the next couple of weeks until then to learn more about the new features of My Ticket Elsewhere. And be sure to let me know how excited you are about this. Because I'm excited! Aren't you?

Viva los libros,
Deserae

P.S. EDITED TO SAY: The 19th was a Sunday, not a Monday. My apologies! See, I knew this, subconsciously (posted the calendar yesterday, see?!), but it didn't translate literally. My bad, party people. Thank you, Brittney, for noting the error!