Hello, C.J. here! Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, but you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours - Oct. 2-8th!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are eight contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the PURPLE TEAM--but there is also a red team, a blue team, a gold team, a green team, a teal team, a blue team, an orange team, and a pink team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.  
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE
Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've hidden my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the Purple team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 
Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by October 8, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
                                                              SCAVENGER HUNT POST

I'm delighted to be hosting Melinda R. Cordell for this portion of the YA Scavenger Hunt. Here's a little bit about Melinda: 


I earned my Master's in Writing for Children from Hamline University in 2012, and three weeks later I gave birth to my son. It was quite a time.

I write gardening books (I used to be a horticulturist) and a bunch of YA and MG fantasy. After 20 years of trying to be traditionally published, and after many times when I got so close, I went over to self-publishing in September 2016 and before I knew it, I had 22 books out in the world, and I am having the best time ever.

Find out more information by checking out her author website or find more about Melinda's book here!


EXCLUSIVE CONTENT!
Here's a sneak peek of book 3, A CROWN OF FIRE, which goes live on October 15. 

Here's the link to the three-book series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FYVMZMD

Rjupa looked over the stones of the walls, down at the ground where the undead moaned. Grey, broken arms reached up at her. Ruined faces gaped at her, mouths chewing on air as their empty eyes stared at her and Skeggi. Their hunger was endless. And many of them were faces that she’d known since she lived in Skala. They’d been killed by shamblers on the battlefield – and they now shared their fate.Next to her, a group of kids were picking up bits of rock from the city wall and pitching them down at the undead, who didn’t even seem to notice, even when rocks struck them between the eyes."Leave them be," she said sternly. "None of them deserved this fate. Not one." The kids, seeing the burned dragonrider lecturing them, dropped their rocks and ran away.“They’re kids,” said Skeggi, laying a gentle arm around her shoulder.Rjupa leaned against him, staring down at the sad sight. “Kids or not, they need to learn respect.”Standing further down the wall from them, a young wife was weeping. Rjupa knew her. She’d just been married last fall, and had a baby on the way. But her husband was among the mass of undead below the walls. Rjupa could see him, groaning up at her. To her undead husband, she was no longer his love, his wife, his all. She was only something to blindly devour. The young wife's friends were around her. Her mother stood at her side, hands on her shoulders, speaking softly to her, trying to coax her away from the wall. But the young woman didn’t want to go. She stood at the edge of the wall, her head drooped over the side, her tears falling on the surging undead, onto what remained of her husband’s face. “Long ago,” Rjupa told Skeggi, “My mama would tell me stories about how a maiden’s tears would transform a beast or a possessed man back into her husband, who’d been changed by an evil witch.”The young woman’s tears fell but the dead remained implacable.“I wish that worked in real life,” she said sadly.She watched the undead surge against the dark stones below, when she noticed Skeggi suddenly shiver and raise his eyes to the mountains, looking troubled.Curious, Rjupa asked, “Are you okay? Did you see somebody else you know down there?”Skeggi, puzzled, mulled it over for a moment, then shook his head, looking back at the great sea of undead at the city walls. “No. I just … I don’t even know what that was. It was weird.”“You went white all over. Don’t tell me that’s just weird,” Rjupa commented, but when Skeggi merely shrugged, she let it go. They’d been together so many years, and she knew not to push him when moments like this occurred. I’m ready to go again, said her dragon, looking up from the fountain where she’d been taking a long drink. Are you?“Yes,” Rjupa said, casting a glance back at Skeggi, who nodded. In a twinkling they were back in the air, flying out of the city to where refugees running from the undead needed help.Rjupa and Skeggi had been bringing people in all day via dragon, walking in people who were trying to get to Skala, working with the other dragons to carry out rescue operations. The undead were everywhere now – as were the people who were desperately trying to make it to the city with their families and loved ones before they were captured and devoured.“Here’s another one,” said Skeggi. A family of four people, complete with a small cart, were walking toward the city but stopped when they saw the waves of the undead thrashing around the walls of the city.“Go in closer,” Rjupa told her dragon.“Hello!” shouted Skeggi to the people. “We’re coming to help you.”The people waved desperately. Rjupa instantly saw why. "Oh no. The undead have spotted them."The dragon flew faster. Rjupa gripped the forward strap tightly while Skeggi's arms tightened around her waist.Screams arose from the small family as a group of the undead detached themselves from the city walls and began lumbering toward them. More and more undead began to follow.The dragon backwinged, swiftly landing in front of the small family.“Get on!” shouted Skeggi. “The little child can ride in front of Rjupa.” Rjupa reached her arms out to the little girl, who went shy and scared behind her daddy’s leg.The papa picked up his daughter, tossed her gently in his arms, kissed her, and handed her up to Rjupa. “It’s okay, little bird. She’s a dragon rider.”As soon as Rjupa sat the little girl down on the dragon’s back, she began to cry, drumming her bare heels on the dragon. She’s scared of me, said the dragon, looking over her shoulder.The sight of the dragon’s great horned head made the little girl scream, then sob harder. Fluffy quickly looked front again.Rjupa tried to shush the girl, wrapping her hands around her little shoulders, saying, “It’s all right. You’re safe. We’re going to get you and Mommy and Daddy and your brother all out of here.” But the child wouldn’t stop howling.The undead turned their heads toward the crying, their empty eye hollows looking straight at Rjupa and the girl. Their shuffling feet moved faster as they dragged their rotten limbs toward them.As the rest of the family climbed onto the dragon, Rjupa sang a little song to the girl. Skeggi sang along. The dragon spit fire at the incoming undead to keep them back. The girl still cried, but not as loudly, and she stopped kicking, which gave her parents and brother time to climb aboard.“Stay balanced on the dragon’s back,” Skeggi told the family. “Dragon, fly gently.”The undead were getting close. “Up!” called Rjupa.The dragon sprang into the air, her great wings beating, the wind of her launch knocking the undead down and sending them sprawling helplessly on the ground. The little girl stopped crying and watched them in wide-eyed amazement. From behind Rjupa, the boy yelled, “Yeah! Yeah! Whoo!!”“Are you going to be a dragonrider?” Skeggi asked.“Yeah!” the boy shouted.“Me first!” the girl replied, and Rjupa squished her in a hug.




CONTINUE THE HUNT
Take five and then continue on your quest by checking out the next author!

SHANNON THOMPSON