Sarah Rees Brennan

New York Times Bestselling Author of the Demon's Lexicon Trilogy

May Day: The May Snippet, & The Untold Contest!

by 82 Comments

The time has come, my friends, to talk of many things: snippets of suffering, and the giveaway of four advance copies of Untold!

Every generation suffers in Untold, I like to think…


Kami heard the creak of the front door opening, and instantly afterward the loud sound of her father’s voice.

He sounded furious in the same frightening way he had before.

“You just wanted to protect me, and protect our children, and protect the town.”

“Yes,” said Mum.

“So you told lie after lie, all for the best, until you had told so many lies you didn’t know how to begin telling the truth.”

“Yes,” Mum said again, desperately.

“I could have forgiven you for any of those lies,” Dad said, though he didn’t sound forgiving. “But there were so many of them. You didn’t know how to begin telling the truth? I don’t know how to begin trusting you again. There was no time in our lives when you weren’t lying to me. There’s nothing to go back to.”

Kami could see their shadows, black against the yellow wall, and how far apart they stood.

“There was nothing you could have done,” Mum said, low. “I did wrong, but I did it because I love you and I love the kids.”

“It wasn’t your choice to make!” Dad said. “They’re not just your kids. They’re our kids. That’s what it meant when we got married, that we promised to make those choices together, and I always have.”

“I know you gave up a lot to come back to Sorry-in-the- Vale when I told you I was going to have Kami,” Mum told him unsteadily. “And you never threw it in my face, until now.”

“That’s not fair.”

“I wanted to make it up to you, I wanted to make things right for you,” said Mum, her voice changing, becoming more like her usual voice, trying to be calm, trying to explain matters. “So I did a spell, and it hurt Kami. After that I was sure I could never tell you any of it. I was sure you would never forgive me.”

“Well then,” Dad told her. His voice had changed too: it was very soft. “At last we find something we can agree on.”

They went into the kitchen. Kami heard the clatter of their movement, the absence of noise that was their furious silence. Her hand was still locked around the banister, gripping the wood as if there might be some comfort there. As if wood and stone were what her home was made of. She thought of Aurimere House, where Angela had said people were going to Lillian, where there might be answers.

Angela had said Jared was there too.

No. She wasn’t going to do it. She was going to go back to bed and sleep, and in the morning she would be in control of herself. In the morning she would fix this.

So what must one do to win all this suffering?

null

(Also, the font of the cover was based on the polkadots on my dress in this picture. Check skirt and font. True story!)

So. Four books. Four challenges. No waiting.

1. Art Challenge. Drawing, manipped photo, tumblr gif with hilarious words on, anything Unspoken-related visual and artistic, and I shall give the most artistic artiste a prize!

2. Words Challenge. Song, poem, story: anything Unspoken-related under a thousand words. We wordsmiths must stick together.

3. Picture Challenge. Take a picture of yourself reading Unspoken somewhere–the weirder somewhere it is, the better. 😉

4. Surprise Me. Everyone tends to be better at this than me, so if you think up something that doesn’t fit in the three categories, by all means–hit me! (Street/library posters. Pictures of people mildly concussed by Unspoken. Cosplay as the unicorn princess. Anything. Hit me! (DO NOT LITERALLY HIT ME.))

I will post the books to anywhere in the world. The contest will end at the end of this beauteous month of May. Just put links to your entries in the comments to this blog post, or its mirror on livejournal. I am looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. J Riddell says

    Quick question are Words Challenge! Regarding stories, is that…fanfiction? Should I write some kind of quick release (“this stories author disavows any inspiration for….blah blah”) to prevent legal shenanigans?

    (Sorry, I work with copyright law, so these things make me nervous!)

    Reply

  6. Megan P. says

    Our first entry! (This is more than one pic so I hope that’s okay… if not they were really fun to take 🙂 )

    Reply

  7. Lillyan J. says

    My first entry to anything like this..ever. Yikes. Anyways, I WAS going to do full faces, but then I came to the conclusion that I am terrible at drawing anything below the eyes- so I skipped that part all together! 🙂 Anyways, in order it is: Kami, Jared, & Ash.

    (I also want to apologize for the somewhat terrible quality. *cries*)

    http://dreaminginallcolors.tumblr.com/post/50053317063

    Reply

  8. Martha Fast says

    My (first?) entry is in category 1 and is a Princess Zelda t-shirt. I designed it and mocked up a presentation submission like you would see on threadless (It was done rather hastily in an hour though, so I might submit something else or a revised version later :P) I hope it’s okay…

    Reply

  13. Adriana (YABookNook) says

    So I’m working on new stuff, but these are things I posted before and I hope they count? 🙂

    For the Art Challenge:
    http://writealldreams.tumblr.com/post/43455790694/nobodys-ever-been-happy-i-was-there-before
    http://writealldreams.tumblr.com/post/38639883735/kami-kitten-please-jared-kitten-i-have-mysteries

    For the Words/Surprise Me Challenge? (I’m not sure where this goes, or if it counts at all…):
    http://writealldreams.tumblr.com/post/37456831278/so-i-was-supposed-to-be-studying-today-but-i-made

    I have more but I seem to have misplaced the links. SOON.

    Reply

  26. Gita Par says

    to be able to win a book, are we supposed participate in every challenge (art, words, picture, surprise) or is it up to us (well, it does increases the chancesm i hope) to decide how many challenges we want to tackle (including the number of times we participate in one such challenge)?

    second question, are there any criteria we have to meet (other than it being unspoken-related in some way, that is) so as not to get disqualified?

    sorry, for this long comment, but it would really set my mind on ease to know these things.

    please let me/us know!
    cheers,
    x gita

    Reply

  33. Heronstairs ϟ says

    I’m sure I won’t win, ‘cause, you know, I’m not that good at drawing, but still, let’s try! 🙂
    This is just a quick sketch of Kami and Jared (I wanted to do something looking unfinished, ‘cause their story isn’t over yet, but I’m afraid the picture just look awful. LOL): http://rorochan92.tumblr.com/post/51293259304/hq-http-roro92-deviantart-com-art-jared-and-kami

    Hopefully I’ll enter for the “Surprise Me” Challenge too. XD I wanted to try even with a fanfiction, but I’m Italian and I’m not that good writing in English. .w.” *Sad*

    Thanks for the opportunity, I can’t wait to read Untold! <3

    Reply

    • Gita Par says

      this one wasn’t supposed to be posted twice. sorry ’bout that … please feel free to delete it!

      Reply

  41. shenyi0702 says

    Unspoken-
    Kami and Jared

    Hot. It’s Hot. Kami didn’t know what was going on, everyone was
    looking at her so strangely, and her pink sweater is itchy, and hot.

    Cold.
    It’s so Cold.

    What was that? Kami didn’t know where that
    came from, or whether or not it was real.

    Hello? Kami asked. Who’s
    there?

    It’s
    s-s-so c-cold.

    What that was, Kami didn’t know, and
    she didn’t care either. All she cared about was that whoever made that sound is
    freezing, she could feel it in her heart.

    If you’re cold, began Kami. We
    can share my sweater. It’s a little ichy, and it’s pink, but it’s warm. Do you
    want to?

    Yes-s-s,
    ple-eas-s-s. Came the voice.

    Kami didn’t know where
    the voice came from, so she didn’t know how to share her sweater.

    Where are you? I need to know where you are.

    I
    d-don’t know, replied
    the voice. It’s dark here, and wet, and
    cold. And the floor is hard. Oh, it’s s-so cold.

    Kami felt sad for the voice. She didn’t
    know what to do. She never knew what cold felt like. She only knew what warm
    and hot felt like. The soft cushions of the big couch, the warm, but itchy feel
    of her sweater, and the tasty smell of cookies and cake these kind ladies keep
    bringing over. They were delicious. Kami could almost taste the sweet syrupy
    goodness of the yellow cakes they seem to call, pancakes.

    Tasty, and warm. Came the
    voice again, and Kami suddenly knew how to share her sweater. She thought up
    warm thoughts, and more warm thoughts, and even more. She continued, even when
    the coldness has gone away, because she knew that if she stopped, the voice
    would be cold again.

    What’s your name? Asked Kami.

    Name?

    Yeah,
    a name. What everyone calls you. My name is Kami, at least that’s what the big
    people call me, and they say it kind of funny too.

    There was a long pause, and finally
    an answer came. Jared, my name is Jared.

    Nice
    to meet you Jared.

    Kami. Was what she heard before someone
    started shaking her, and breaking her connection with Jared. The big people
    were looking down at her with funny looks on their faces. Normally, this would
    have made Kami laugh, but not this time. How could she laugh when Jared is
    somewhere, alone, hungry, and cold?

    This is a little something I just came up with. It is Kami and Jared’s very first conversation. I would have drawn some photos, but it’s been a long time since I’ve read this book, and I just found out aout this contest today. And most of my books come from the library, and since I live out of town, I can only visit the library on Saturdays-next Saturday is June 1st.
    Anyway, I hope you like it, and have a nice day.

    Reply

  44. Lucía Otto says

    I’m working on my entry, I hope I finish it on time! I wanted to know until when can I send it, and what time zone you’re using. Thanks!!

    Reply

  45. Guest says

    my 6th entry depicts kami glass as the seductive mata hari version trying to extract information with her wiles. as kami likes clothes with fruit elements i added that too on her dress .. enjoy 🙂

    Reply

  46. Gita Par says

    my 6th entry depicts kami glass as a seductive mata hari trying to extract information with her wiles. as kami likes fruit elements on her clothes, i added that as well… enjoy 🙂

    Reply

  58. Arahan says

    2nd (and last) Entry for Words Challenge.

    I’m an Italian mothertongue so there will surely be plenty of mistakes, and I’m sorry for that…

    I wrote this 497 words flash-fic on the train going to work. I’m really impatient to know what happened next, and I’m really impatient to know what Jared was thinking while saying “you’re nothing special” to Kami.
    I know you said you’re going to write your canon of that scene, but, for the moment, that’s my version.

    Thanks again for the chance to win the Untold ARC copy.

    http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n536/Arahan86/MIO/silence-001-001_zps9e796209.jpg

    Reply

  64. Suz Dritschilo says

    Thanks for a great contest! Sorry the only way I could get a pic was to post it to twitter and then copy the link. Shockingly this geek is internetly challenged at times. Smiles! Suz
    https://twitter.com/SuzDC/status/340647220162486274/photo/1

    Article copy:
    YA AUTHOR BRENNAN GOES BATTY AT PUB WITH A BREW!
    By Kami Glass
    Well faithful readers, this dauntless reporter was lucky enough to attend the Sarah Rees Brennan book signing at The Surer Guest last night. The evening started off well enough when Ms. Brennan arrived in her late model, 2 door Emerald Green Delorean. She glided to the podium at the back of the
    pub looking like a vision of springtime in her floofy turquoise polka dot
    skirt. The ‘podium’ was actually one of the bar stools turned around backwards because this skilled interviewer discovered the real podium mysteriously went missing after Seamus Brynmor’s bachelor
    party last Saturday night. Ms. Brennan, ever the poised author, took it all in stride delicately placing her speech notes on the worn padded seat of the stool without even spilling a drop of the Pale Ale pint Mr. Randolph shoved into her hand telling her, “thanks for showing up.”

    Apparently at some point midway through her author talk, and without any warning, Ms. Brennan snapped and tried to choke an audience member in the front row with the very penny necklace the member was wearing after she offered Ms. Brennan leftover airplane food from her purse when she heard Ms. Brennan was feeling “puckish”. Ms. Brennan was quickly escorted from the Pub while the remaining guests all ran screaming into the night. Sorry-In-The-Vale regulars who stayed behind and returned to their pints swore Ms. Brennan was still screaming “PEANUTS! YOU GAVE ME PEANUTS? WHERE ARE MY BISCUITS?” as she was quickly hustled into the Delorean by her entourage.

    SACRILEGIOUS SUSPECT SOUGHT
    By Holly Prescott
    In a related story, The Vale police are still looking for a woman suspected of hacking the local Sorry-In-The-Vale tourism office website and posting
    a picture last Tuesday of her desecrating the graveyard by, lounging against Lynburn tombstones while reading a copy of Ms. Brennan’s UNSPOKEN in a blatant attempt at fandom. The Vale’s Sergeant Kenn announced he will plan, “unannounced patrols of the graveyard until this suspected graveyard-desecrating suspect tourist is found and questioned right proper”.

    Reply

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