9 Things Liz & Lisa Didn't Know About...Allison Winn Scotch

She's not just a majorly talented, New York Times bestselling author with three fabulous books under her belt. Allison Winn Scotch also has serious celebrity radar (case in point: she saw Tina Fey, Ben Stiller AND Cynthia Nixon in the same week!).  She picked her husband up! (Wait till you find out where...) And she has quite a thing for cereal... We're SUPER excited about Allison's latest novel, The One That I Want available everywhere TODAY! We both loved the wonderful story about Tilly Farmer, a girl who's seemingly perfect life begins to fall apart after an old childhood friend gives her the gift to see into the future. Liz was unable to put it down-she finished it in one day flat! (A new all-time record, btw...) And Lisa has already read it twice! Redbook Magazine loved it too, choosing it as a June Book Pick and we agree- it's a must-have for your beach bag this summer!

And to launch The One That I Want, Allison is giving away some FABULOUS PRIZES if you order it between now and June 4th.  Send her the receipt and you'll be entered to win cool stuff like a Blackberry, a Flip camera, a bag of great summer reads and more! Head on over to her website or Facebook page for all the deets!

And that's not all!  We have FIVE copies of The One That I Want to give away!  Just leave a comment on this post to be entered!

Allison took time out of her uber-busy schedule not just to share 9 things about herself that we didn't know, but to make a video to reveal these things to us! (Thanks, Allison!)

And that's not as easy as it may seem. Think lighting, wardrobe and, of course, content. Well, we think she nailed it from start to finish. (But of course she did! We're beginning to think she's good at everything she does-she even has awesome tweets!) And we have no doubt you'll love this video as much as we do.

So, pull up a chair and watch and be prepared to learn some pretty interesting things about Allison. And don't forget to leave a comment here for a chance to win a copy of The One That I Want!

xoxo

5 Things Liz & Lisa didn't know about... Meg Cabot

Have we ever mentioned the majuh love we have for NYT bestselling author Meg Cabot? Between Liz's slight obsession with her YA novels (Um, does Princess Diaries ring a bell for anyone?) and Lisa's love for her Chick Lit Queen of Babble series , we consider ourselves huge fans.  Not to mention how we crush on her witty tweets and Facebook updates.  And once you see the, um, creative way she approached her five things, we think that you'll be girl crushin' on her too. And we also have an AWESOME giveaway to share with y'all! Just keep reading to find out what it is...

But first, we have to tell you about Cabots's latest YA release. It's high fashion with a touch of sci-fi. In Runaway, the dramatic conclusion to the bestselling and acclaimed Airhead novels, Emerson Watts is on the run: from school, from work, from her family, from her friends, from herself. And we all know that no one does YA better than Meg Cabot! Click here to read more about the Airhead series.

And the fabulous giveaway we mentioned?  A Bare Minerals Extreme Glimmers eyecolor set and Airhead Prize pack that includes Airhead, Being Nikki and Runaway. Just leave a comment to be entered.  This contest will run for two weeks so be sure to tell all your friends to head over for their chance to win!

*Cue Drum roll*

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS: 5 THINGS LIZ & LISA DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT MEG CABOT!

Since I’ve been blogging circa 2003 (and everything that’s not on my blog is either in my books or on my Twitter), it’s hard to think of five things everybody doesn’t already know about me!

But as a thank you to Chick Lit Is Not Dead for having me here today, I’ll give it a try: The 5 photos no one has ever seen of me (for good reason)!

I’ll admit I came up with the concept for Runaway (which has a modeling/murder theme) because I hate getting my photo taken.  In fact, it was during a book tour that I came up with the idea for the Airhead series... a brain transplant.  Because I would rather have one of those (into Heidi Klum’s body, of course) than deal with getting my picture taken.

That’s because for every good photo of me, there are at least five terrible photos of me.

I call into evidence the following:

1. I have a lazy eye. Not a charming Paris Hilton, if-I-tilt-my-head-the-other- way-it-will-be-all-right lazy eye.  An I-look-like-I-just-had-ten-beers Lazy Eye.

This was taken at the vet’s office.  I wasn’t drunk.  But I look like I am.

2. I also have what my mom calls the Mounsey Squint (her maiden name is Mounsey).  Here’s a good example.  It’s how I look in most photos that readers have taken with me at book signings.  It’s why they always go, “Oh, your eyes were closed.  Can we take that again?”

Don’t bother.  My eyes are actually open.  It’s the Mounsey Squint:

3. Because of this, I have grown pathologically afraid of having photos taken of me at any time. This is how I now react whenever anyone comes close with a camera, and I’m not on tour and REQUIRED to smile:

4.  If there is nothing handy to cram over my face, I am apparently not above resorting to charming expressions like this one in the hope that the photographer will just go away (all of our vacation albums are filled of photos of me looking like this):

5.  In a sly effort to combat all of the above, the last time I had my author photo done, my publisher sent over professional fashion photographer Ali Smith, her assistant, this makeup artist, and her ten-ton arsenal of equipment.

Don't worry Meg, we aren't very photogenic either! To read more about the hilarious Meg Cabot, click here!

And check out what Lisa wrote about Meg over at Barnes and Noble!

xo, Liz & Lisa

BITTER WITH TWITTER By Liz

So I've got a confession.  I'm bitter with Twitter.  It's like Facebook on Acid.

I signed up a month ago and have yet to figure it out. Isn't it just a bunch of never-ending status updates?  And yes, I know that status updates are best part of Facebook.  But I feel like Twitter is cheating-like they've eaten all the yummy white stuff out of my Oreos.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, it works something like this:  I follow people and they follow me.  Get it?  And by follow I mean you are able to read my wannabe Facebook status updates.

So I signed up and found a few people to follow through the email finder. I was on my way!  Wait, why aren't they following me?  Of course!  There has to be some form of social rejection or Twitter wouldn't be fun!   Why don't you want to follow me?  Did I do something wrong?  Aren't you dying to read my once-a-week tweet? Oh, you want them multiple times per day? Sorry! I spend all my energy coming up with witty Facebook status updates!  Isn't that enough?

And forget about finding someone unless you know their Twitter nickname. Seriously, it's virtually impossible. Twitter, if I knew their damn nickname, I wouldn't need to search for them!

And I should have known Twitter would be trouble when I logged in for the first time and saw that most of the tweets were about how people didn't get Twitter. Then, I made a rookie Twitter mistake when I decided to follow Jimmy Fallon.  Why follow Jimmy, you ask?  Well, I've been crushing on him since his SNL days and was too scared to friend him on Facebook.  Twitter felt less committal, less stalker-ish.  Except for that whole following thing. Hmmm, I guess I didn't think that one through.

Anyway, I was saddened to discover that my celeb-crush tweets too much.  Jimmy tweets about everything and everyone.  Really Jimmy? Do we really need to know every detail about your day?  About the berber carpet in your studio? It's a bit much, even for your biggest fan.  I know you're excited about Tweeting via Tweetie, but we need some boundaries.

Lisa kind of almost likes Twitter.  She even went so far as to install Twitter Tools on our blog so we could Tweet. Funny thing is, we can't figure out how to tweet to the blog!  So sorry if you are anxiously waiting to hear Liz and Lisa's sweet tweets each day.  Not going to happen until hear back from our web designer.  He's a big tweeter.  Tweets all the time!

But Lisa would not be stopped on her quest to have a productive relationship with Twitter.  That led her to install a Tweet Roll on our site that shows you all of our followers.  You know, those 12 people that are waiting to hear our daily wisdom via Tweets.  Oh, and she wants me to tell you to click on the Tweetroll link to follow us. Please.

Maybe part of the problem is that Twitter makes me feel old. And irrelevent. It makes me want to say things like, "Those young whippersnappers are all on Twitter!" and "Those Twitter young'uns don't know what's it's like to walk a mile to school in the snow!"  I want to say these things even though I've never walked a mile to school or lived anywhere where it actually snows.

Am I becoming  like my dear mother, who can't figure out how to turn on her DVD player when the kids want to watch Kung Fu Panda?  Is this the first step?  I have a blog, for Christs sake!  Doesn't that make me tech-savvy?

So screw you Twitter because I am relevant!  And soon I will be tweeting like nobody's business!  And then I will dominate you Twitter!  My Tweets will be heard around the world!

Um, just as soon as someone shows me how to do it.