The Shark Bait Back to School Blog Hop FINALE

WHEW! We made it!!

Welcome to the final stop and finale of my first-ever blog hop and online book tour!

I can't tell you all how much I've appreciated you joining me on this crazy journey of mine and to all the bloggers who've been on the tour, seriously you guys, I don't have the words. This experience has been like none other and not only have I conquered some personal fears (Video interviewing? Like you really have no idea how bat-shit crazy scared I was to do that...), but I've also met some of the most KICKASS people along the way! In addition to that, some of the feedback I've directly heard and *ahem* indirectly heard (yeah, I'll admit I occasionally eavesdrop on Twitter and Goodreads if time permits) has absolutely FLOORED me. For instance, one reader actually put Shark Bait in the same company as Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games. And to prove I'm not making this shit up, here's a screenshot:

Seriously, OMG. I'm freaking FLOORED. I'm incredibly humbled as well...I mean I honestly don't know that I deserve such high praise, but just to even be mentioned in the same breath—er...sentence—as those stellar works is nothing short of jaw dropping and of course induces my eyes to leak. 

In short, all of you...family, friends, bloggers, readers...simply ALL of you have rocked my face off these past few weeks with your interest, kind words, support, invaluable help, and belief in my work and I cannot thank you enough for participating, spreading the word, and making the Shark Bait Back to School Blog Hop the success that it's been!!

As the theme of this blog hop is "Back to School" and since I include the actual high school I went to in Shark Bait, I thought it would be fun for you guys to get a little insight on why Grossmont is flippin' awesome as well as giving you all more of a mental image of the school and where some of the scenes in the GYP series actually take place.

So come on, come back to school with me...

Yeah, that's me; front and center amongst some friends senior year.

So every time I'm sitting in a school booster meeting, I find myself reminiscing and lamenting the fact that we no longer live in San Diego and thus my girls don't go to Grossmont. 

Why? Because Grossmont has unparalled school spirit and not only do the students know the meaning of fun, but the staff and administration does as well. I mean how many high schools have YOU ever heard of that hold an annual Donkey Basketball game?! Yeah. Donkey-freaking-Basketball. And it's not like it was played outside or anything either. Oh no...GHS doesn't screw around when it comes to sports, no matter how inane the event might be. They brought the damned donkeys into the flippin' Old Gym (where assemblies have been held ever since the "New Gym" was built)!  

Speaking of sports, Grossmont's sports program has 27 athletic teams that participate in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) every single year. TWENTY-SEVEN, folks! And that doesn't even encapsulate all the other sporting teams, clubs, or the myriad extracurricular opportunities that Grossmont offers to its students. 

And not only do the students of GHS play hard for their school, they shred off campus as well... Granted, this picture is actually of a classmate of mine from 1989, but it's not like Grossmont's students stopped surfing just because I left the state and I'm not around to take a current picture, you know what I mean?

And now after seeing an albeit aged picture of the kind of guys I went to school with, can you understand why I chose to write about surfers/swimmers/water polo players? No? Well here's another example... Now he wasn't my favorite person in the world; in fact he and I had an understanding. 

I thought he was an arrogant son of a bitch and he agreed with that character evaluation. So, we just stayed clear of each other, which made the

Team Sports class we had together tricky, but whatever, the guy was a freaking All American athlete in water sports which sort of gives him the right to be arrogant and if not that, it certainly demands due respect. Not to mention LOOK at his arms!! *SWOON*

Okay, so now that you've heard a little bit about the fantabulous school most of the main characters in the GYP series go to, how about a little tour of the campus? If you're the kind of reader who prefers to let your imagination take over, feel free to skip this video, but if you'd like to actually see Grossmont and some of the real places on campus where some of the events in Shark Bait took place, join me on a virtual tour and read some excerpts from the book!

Mmhmm... You'll have to forgive all the ruffles. I mean it was the '80s. 

So, as much as I love my high school, I really wasn't the best student and wasn't all that fond of going to school... I mean I had great friends, I was somewhat involved, I went to all the formal dances (I even had a date to each one!) and my senior prom (I had um...more than 1 date for that, but that's a long story...), and I did manage to graduate, but honestly, matriculation wasn't always at the top of my priority list, if you know what I mean. In fact, I received an award in chemistry my junior year... "Most Likely to Know LESS About Chemistry at the End of the Year than at the Beginning" Yeah, my mom was so proud...

I know it's a lousy picture, but my yearbook is too big to actually scan for a decent shot.
Anyhow, this was my senior class... I'm right in front in the 2nd row on the right hand side,
right behind the sign that says "Have A Day" and I'm wearing a green and black shirt.

                                                                              But, I did eventually graduate and this is what I looked like when I did. You know how people sometimes look like animals? Well I think I look like a lop-eared bunny in my senior picture... I guess it kind of fits, though, seeing as how I drove a convertible VW Rabbit that had a personalized plate that read: IMABUNY. Don't ask...I don't know what I was thinking either...  *sigh*

As I said, I wasn't the best student and I even won some awards for my tremendous lack of scholastic achievement, but I was damned proud to have been nominated by my classmates at the end of our senior year for something called a Senior Standout—it's a prestigious award and mighty high honor as the recipients are voted for by their peers. Senior Standouts included things like Best Dressed, Most Talented, Prettiest Eyes, Class Clown and so on...

In case you can't read the caption on the yearbook, it says: Senior Senate Presents Senior Standouts

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! It's GIVEAWAY time!! For the past two weeks, you all have been hopping from blog to AMAZING blog collecting letters on a scavenger hunt in order to enter for a shot at winning "The Ultimate Shark Bait Swag Bag," and now, the time has come for you to put them all together to answer this question: 

What Senior Standout was I awarded?

You should have a total of 26 letters, which will make 7 words and the title of my Senior Standout, which you will input into the Rafflecopter widget below. DO NOT put your answer in the comments section as they will be deleted posthaste and you will not be properly entered in the giveaway!! If you're a latecomer or missed a stop or two, you'll find the complete, linked schedule of the hop right under the Rafflecopter widget. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me, but please, for the love of dear Jesus up in heaven, DON'T spoil the fun and put the scavenger hunt answer in a comment!!

Grand prize includes an autographed copy of Shark Bait, a Shark Bait acrylic tumbler, a refrigerator whiteboard, a bookmark, a bookish rubber ducky, a shark paddleball game, and it all comes to you in a Shark Bait drawstring backpack!
*Backpack may vary by color and rubber ducky may vary by "genre"*

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Hop Schedule

The Bookish Brunette — Stop #1 — 2 Letters

I Love YA Fiction — Stop #2 — 2 Letters

Little Read Ridinghood  — Stop #3 — 1 Letter

Literary Exploration — Stop #4 — 1 Letter

Sliced Open Reviews — Stop #5 — 2 Letters

Forget the Housework, I'm Reading — Stop #6 — 1 Letter

Insightful Minds Reviews — Stop #7 — 2 Letters

Just a Girl Geek — Stop #8 — 1 Letter

For Love & Books — Stop #9 — 2 Letters

The Autumn Review  — Stop #10 — 2 Letters

Hackaroo's Reviews — Stop #11 — 2 Letters

The Indie Bookshelf — Stop #12 — 2 Letters

TotallyBooked — Stop #13 — 2 Letters

I'm a Book Shark — Stop #14 — 2 Letters

Right Here! — 15th & Final Stop — 1 Letter

——Note about the highlighted letters for the scavenger hunt——

Depending how the blogger does it, you'll be looking for something like this: z or z, not to mention that I think TotallyBooked might've highlighted two entire words, so if you're stumped on that, use the first letter of each highlighted word. Also, the highlighting color may vary from blog to blog so just a heads up. ;-)