Don’t get nervous…get NERVE!

And it’s time for another one of our authors to make her debut. Welcome to launch week for Jeanne Ryan’s YA thriller, NERVE! Hurrah!

NERVE, which is published by Dial/Penguin, officially hits the shelves this Thursday. Here’s a taste of what happens in the book:

When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it’s exhilarating–Vee and Ian’s fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn. Suddenly they’re playing all or nothing, and the prize may be their lives.

NERVE is an absolute page-turner, and the critics agree!

“[R]eaders will find themselves flipping madly to the very last page.” Kirkus Reviews

 “Ryan’s story is thought-provoking and unsettling…the ending goes off with a bang and a twist.” Publishers Weekly

To celebrate the launch, we here at EMU’s Debuts decided to take a page right out of the NERVE playbook and film some of our own kidlit-themed video dares…and since they’re the experts at it, we roped in the ladies of the Friday the Thirteeners blog as well! Friday the Thirteeners is a small group of YA authors whose debut books all come out in 2013, and every week they take on “Truth or Dare” challenges on their blog, posting videos of the results.

So we sent the Thirteeners a list of dares, and they sent us a list of dares, and both blogs are going to post their videos this Friday! Here’s a taste of some of the dares we EMUs will be taking on:

-Read a scene from your novel in pig latin

-Perform an interpretive dance while someone reads a scene from your novel

-Read your favorite scene from a book using a special prop from that scene

-Reenact your worst writers’ conference experience

-Sing your favorite TV theme song

And more!

Yes, we will definitely be embarrassing ourselves—but it’s all in the spirit of NERVE. 🙂 And the best part is that the fun won’t be limited to the dare-ees; just like the “Watchers” in the book, our blog readers will also get a chance to win prizes! All you’ll have to do is leave a comment on Friday’s post saying which video dare was your favorite (or, if you just can’t pick a favorite, which one you thought was the most daring) and you’ll be entered to win a signed copy of NERVE. And then you can hop over to the Friday the Thirteeners blog and pick your favorite of their dares, and be entered to win a second time!

We have other goodies coming this week as well, including interviews with NERVE’s editor and cover designer, so make sure to check back each day.

Hooray for Jeanne and NERVE!

9/14/12: Updated to add that the videos are now up! Check them out HERE and HERE!!