Welcome to my stop on the 2017 Debut Authors Bash hosted by YA Reads! Today on the blog, Candace Ganger gives us a list of some lesser known facts about herself. Before we read the dirt on Candace, let’s take a look at her debut YA novel, The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway at the end of the post to win your own copy of the book.

Title: The Inevitable Collision of Birdie and Bash
Author: Candace Ganger
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication Date: July 25, 2017

Summary (from Goodreads): Birdie never meant to be at the party. Bash should have been long gone. But when they meet, a collision course is set off they may never recover from.

Sebastian Alvaréz is just trying to hold the pieces together: to not flunk out, to keep his sort-of-best friend Wild Kyle from doing something really bad, and to see his beloved Ma through chemo. But when he meets Birdie Paxton, a near-Valedictorian who doesn’t realize she’s smoking hot in her science pun T-shirt, at a party, an undeniable attraction sparks. And suddenly he’s not worried about anything. But before they are able to exchange numbers, they are pulled apart. A horrifying tragedy soon links Birdie and Bash together—but neither knows it. When they finally reconnect, and are starting to fall—hard—the events of the tragedy unfold, changing both their lives in ways they can never undo. Told in alternating perspectives, The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash by Candace Ganger is a beautiful, complex, and ultimately hopeful teen novel that will move you to the very last page.

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Top 10 Lesser Known Facts About Candace Ganger, Author of The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash

I have a long list of phobias, including, but not limited to, plastic cups, farm machinery, and bare mattresses. Every day, it seems there’s a new thing I’m terrified of.

I’ve never had an invisible friend, but talk out loud, to myself, 99% of every day.

1. As an avid mental health advocate and someone who lives with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Post-Traumatic Distress Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder (yeah, it’s a lot), I’ve been pinching my toes together between passing objects since five years old.
2. I’ve had a lot of jobs but my least favorites include door-to-door vacuum sales, an annoying telemarketer (sorry), and mortgage company receptionist where I was belittled every day until fired.
3. In high school, I was in M-Club — a Marion (IN) Giants basketball cheering section where I regularly held signs asking old Coach Moe to marry me (and I see how incredibly inappropriate that is now…yikes).
4. I performed at a Boys & Girls Club talent show in middle school and walked away with a second place trophy (I think they felt sorry for me).
5. I eat a mandatory yogurt mixed-with peanut butter and chocolate chips every night before bed.
6. My first real kiss wasn’t until my sophomore year.
7. My husband and I met performing at the same open mic.
8. I didn’t begin running until I turned 31 — a year after my son and I nearly died from his traumatic birth. In the time since, I’ve run 1 ultramarathon, 7 marathons — including Boston — 9 half marathons, and dozens of 5 & 10ks.

Candace Ganger is a mother, blogger, contributing writer for sites like Teen Vogue, TWLOHA, Bustle, Romper, XO Jane & Hello Giggles. She’s also an obsessive marathoner and continual worrier (yay!). Her debut YA novel, THE INEVITABLE COLLISION OF BIRDIE & BASH, is out now via St. Martin’s Griffin, and she’s part of a YA mental health anthology, LIFE INSIDE MY MIND, out April 10th, 2018 via S&S. Her forthcoming YA novel from St. Martin’s Wednesday Books, FALLEN LOVED ONES AWAITING TRANSFER (#float) doesn’t have a pub date yet, but will soon!

When she’s not writing for other people’s fame or stress baking, you can find her training for marathons in cemeteries or taming her two weird kids (not to be confused with her two weird cats) while consuming way too many Milky Way lattes. You can follow her obsessive cat picture posting shenanigans via @candylandgang on Twitter!

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Giveaway:

Enter to win a copy of The Inevitable Collision of Birdie and Bash by Candace Ganger! Rules.

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Make sure to check out all of the other stops along the Bash!

Welcome to my stop on the SEIZE TODAY by Pintip Dunn blog tour, hosted by Chapter by Chapter! I am so excited for you to read Pintip’s guest post on the blog because it is so fantastic.

The third book in the New York Times bestselling and RITA award winning Forget Tomorrow series is a thrilling conclusion to an epic trilogy.

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Dresden is a precognitive. Since different versions of people’s futures flicker before her eyes, she doesn’t have to believe in human decency. She can see the way for everyone to be their best self-if only they would make the right decisions. No one is more conflicted than her mother, and Olivia can only watch as Chairwoman Dresden chooses the dark, destructive course every time. Yet Olivia remains fiercely loyal to the woman her mother could be.

But when the chairwoman captures Ryder Russell, the striking and strong-willed boy from the rebel Underground, Olivia sees a vision of her own imminent death…at Ryder’s hand. Despite her bleak fate, she rescues Ryder and flees with him, drawing her mother’s fury and sparking a romance as doomed as Olivia herself. As the full extent of Chairwoman Dresden’s gruesome plan is revealed, Olivia must find the courage to live in the present-and stop her mother before she destroys the world.

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Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL. Pintip’s debut novel, FORGET TOMORROW, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. In addition, it is a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Sakura Medal, and the MASL Truman Award. THE DARKEST LIE was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her other books include REMEMBER YESTERDAY, the novella BEFORE TOMORROW, and GIRL ON THE VERGE. She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at http://www.pintipdunn.com

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Guest Post

What super power would you most like to have and why?

The characters in my FORGET TOMORROW series have a whole range of super powers — or rather, psychic abilities. In this world, memories from the future can be sent back in time to your younger self, and the government is locking up psychics in order to study them, in the hopes of understanding the mechanics of future memory.

Jessa is a “baby” precognitive, which means that she can see a couple minutes into the future, when the event is more or less certain. In contrast, Olivia is the only true precognitive of their time. She sees not only one future for people, but all of them — all the different pathways their futures might take, flickering before her eyes. Logan has the power of telekinesis, which means he can move objects through the air, and Preston has the power of physical displacement, which means he can pop himself across the room. Finally, Callie has the ability to create illusions: she can make others see something other than what is actually there.

I had so much fun writing these characters, and I think it’s because I’ve always been fascinated by super powers. When I was younger, I used to have these recurring nightmares about being chased by bad guys, and during the dream, I would give myself special powers to get away from them. The two most recurring abilities I donned on myself were: a) invisibility, so the bad guys wouldn’t be able to find me; and b) the power to shrink, so that I could hide underneath a cabinet.

Much later, a friend of mine pointed out that my powers were so passive, which I thought was really interesting. Meaning, I could’ve given myself the ability to grow, so that I could stomp out the bad guys like ants, or I could’ve turned my hands into weapons, so that I could fight them. Instead, I chose to hide. What does this say about me? Hmmm…

The super power that I would like to have today is the ability to stop time (or not sleep, which amounts to the same thing!) The reason is because time is the scarcest and most valued resource in my life at the moment. I have three kids — and a lot of deadlines — and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish what needs to get done! Also, I love to devote time to exercise and other self-care routines — and unfortunately, those are the first things that go when life gets busy.

It may not be the most “aggressive” power in the world, but neither am I! I guess I’ll just have to leave the ass-kicking to my characters!

Make sure to follow the tour and check out some of the other amazing posts!