Welcome to our 3rd Annual Diversity Month event! @dos_twinjas

We are so happy to announce this is our third year at this!

We have such small voices, but we try to amplify what small voices we have to add with other small voices, to make BIG voices when it comes to inclusion in books.

This month we try to highlight folks who work non-stop to bring inclusion to readers, whether it be by their blogs, the work they look for to edit and represent, books they write, or works they promote on a daily basis.

We talk about diversity all the time, so every month is kind of diversity month for us. But for those who have a harder time incorporating ways to include inclusion in their writing, or reading, this is just the month to get things started.

This month is about being introduced to new faces, names and works!

We're working on the giveaway as of yet, but there'll be an awesome giveaway to compliment it as well!

Our first guest is coming soon, so stay tuned!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 21:Author Interview w/ Mike Jung +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

So we've managed to meet this author not just once BUT TWICE and we finally convinced him(after pleading and begging and finally offering him Starbucks coffees for life) to sit down and have a chat with us about his MG Superheroes flavored Sci-Fi novel, Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities. 

Give it up for, Mike Jung everyone!

*Libertad w/ Mike Jung*

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 18: Blogger Interview w/ Librarian Faythe +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

Today we have another lovely guest post from a librarian from California named Faythe we had the honor of meeting at kidlitcon(we had so much fun there, met so many people!)

There are some topics we readers just blatantly ignore and rather, don't think about. Size diversity is one of them but one thing that rarely gets discussed is the lack of socio-economic diversity. When Faythe spoke about this our ears were open! 

My sister and I came from very meager beginnings, so nearly ever word she spoke about being a poor kid living what we'd refer to as normal lives(many think that being poor some how victimizes you or worse that you come a broken home, which is certainly NOT the case!)rang true.

You might ask yourself why the lack of social status in YA is or should be an issue, but we think it's important to also represent characters who live below poverty levels because lots of people have this idea that everyone poor is "suffering". We need more representation in all fields, and socio-ecomonic diversity is definitely a place to start!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 15:Author Interview w/ Zetta Elliot +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

We've been so honored to meet a truckload of authors in our beginning stages of being bloggers. Not every author exceeds your expectations and lots of times when you do meet one, they continue to be those untouchable entities that you connect with on paper but in real life...not so much. 

Luckily, the next author in our series, Zetta Elliot is amazing both on and off the pages and we're so happy to have finally caught with her(she's so super busy)to better introduce her formally on our blog!

*That time we met Zetta Elliot @Kidlitcon! When you meet one of your fave authors, you will look as stupid as Libertad has in this photo =)*

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 14: Blogger Interview w/ Deva @UPBookBlog +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

We first discovered this blogger well before we started blogging ourselves and were happy to see that other people were really interested in diverse characters enough to dedicate a blog to it. There were a bunch of us already talking about the diversity in books movement well before it became this gigantic hashtag and this opinionated blogger was one who kept the conversation going. Let's hear a round of applause for Deva @ Urban Paranormal...

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 13: Guest Post w/ Librarian Kelly Jensen+Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway! @catagator

OMG this next post comes from the amazing Librarian/Blogger Kelly Jensen, who we didn't get the chance to talk to at kidlitcon but during her panel her words just really stuck out to us. 

She was the only one to talk about a topic that many rarely include in the diversity conversation:

*Plus Sized Protagonists*

We're so pleased to have her express her feelings in a post and we totally promise you, it's so worth the read! So without further delay...

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 12:Book Tour-Author Interview w/ Madhuri Blaylock +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

Are we on Day 12 already? Seems like it. Today's guest is totally bad-ass and absolutely amazing and the best part? She's amazingly Indie. Say what you want about Indie authors, but they'll always have a space on Twinja Book Reviews for their inclusion, something sometimes we don't feel like the traditional world isn't doing enough of. If you don't know Madhuri Blaylock, we hope with this next interview, you'll look her up and look into her work because we promise, she's got some awesome books in the works!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 11: Author Interview w/ Steven Dos Santos +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway! @stevendossantos

We're so honored to have this next author as our guest today because if you aren't familiar with him, you really should be! Steven Dos Santos is a superhero in his field and If every superhero has a catch phrase his would be:

Embrace the D.A.R.K( Diversity. Action. Romance, KickAss)

Don't you already want to get to know him?

He's got Adventure, He's got diversity, He's got Sci-Fi, so all you have to do is ask yourself this: Why aren't I a fan yet?

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 10 : Blogger Interview w/ Librarian Edith @CrazyQuilts +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

So today our guest is a Librarian who we've been a fan of since we really started blogging. Waaaaaay before the #weneeddiversebooks campaign she was one of the bloggers who were already discussing the lack of diversity in books and dedicated her blog to highlighting books that did. We actually had the opportunity to meet her this past October and she was just as amazing in person as she is on her blog. Definitely a Librarian we'd want in our community!

#weneeddiverseLibrarians

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 9: Author Interview w/ Maurene Goo +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

This next lovely was introduced to us by the powerhouse Ellen Oh. Anyone who knows us knows we don't take any suggestions from Ellen Oh lightly, so when she recommended we read this book, we went out and got it as quick as you can say "Light Speed" a million time fast. So check out her words and hopefully by the end of the interview we've made you a fan!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 8- Author Interview with Sarwat Chadda +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

So there are just books that resonate with you all year right? My sister and I are always looking for that one book(or two, or 3)we just want to spend the whole year bragging about and for Guinevere, The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda was it. We pretty much spent the entire year telling everyone how amazing this book was and how you pretty much need it in your life, so we were happy when we were able to secure a spot for Sarwat on our Diversity Month to finally and formally introduce him on our oh so humble Book Blog.

This bloke is pretty much knee deep in diversity!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 7-Author Q&A with Brit Brinson! +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

So Im especially delighted to introduce our next guest. Twinja Book Reviews is the last stop on her tour, brought to you by Diverse Book Tours. Brit Brinson is a young author, who also has her very own press @ Big Moon Press! I recently read her book and loved it! So I had to have her on for our Diversity Month event.

I especially love to support my indies, especially when they edit their work so well, you can't tell it from a "Big Six" book. I honestly think, if the lack of diversity is what keeps you from reading zombie books, Brit Brinson has solved that problem for you!

Without further adieu....

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 6-Blogger Interview with Charlotte @ Charlotte's Library +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

We met this lovely blogger at Kidlitcon earlier this year and just had to have her on to talk about her blog, Charlotte's Library. She's just one of those bloggers that constantly updates her content(which takes a lot of work as y'all know) and does an amazing job at highlighting diverse titles. If there is ever a blog we look to for recommendations, her blog is definitely that one.

 So everyone do yourself a favor and check her blog out! In the meantime, check out her sit down with the Twinjas!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 5- Author/Publicist Interview with Jessica Powers +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

 

 So today's guest is pretty rad because we actually got a chance to meet her this year at Kidlitcon. Her name is Jessica Powers and she works as a publicist for the ever famous Cinco Punto Press who has been publishing diverse lit far before any diversity movements. She also writes under the name J.L. Powers, so talk about multi-tasking!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 4-Author Interview with Neesha Meminger +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

 This next guest is an author that has been on our radar for literally like a year and a half and we finally just got the courage to ask her to join us for a chat. The awesome things about this author is that she so beautifully blends South Asian characters in these non-stereotypical settings that neither one of us has really seen before. To find out more, we highly suggest reading one or two(or more...) of her books. 

Her name? Neesha Meminger. Her goal? Writing awesome books with South Asian protagonists!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 3-How my Books feature Diversity, Guest Post by Author Medeia Sharif +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

I'm so pleased that the ladies of Twinja Book Reviews asked me to do a guest post on their wonderful blog. I'm Medeia Sharif, YA and MG author of books that feature diversity. I'm a big believer in writing, purchasing, and reviewing books with diverse characters--that's the way to go to give exposure to authors, characters, and readers from all walks in life.

Now about my books and how they feature diversity...

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 1-Broken by Teresa Santos +Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway! @tessalsantos

Welcome to our first day of 2nd Annual Diversity Month.  Today starts out strong from an amazing blogger we met on twitter.  Her topic is a a topic many don't touch in the subject of Queer YA fiction: Asexuality.

Asexuality is an identity my sister and I had very little knowledge of before this year and we're so ever grateful for the internet, otherwise we'd never get a chance to converse about this subject as openly as Teresa has, our guest for today. Let's open up our minds and open the floor for this first post. It's amazing, informative and just damn good! So without wasting anymore time....

Broken by Teresa Santos

Join us in our 2nd Annual Diversity Month, psst...We're giving away a bunch of great prizes!

Things around here have been busy-busy! We've gotten ourselves super wrapped up in our side project, Diverse Book Tours and have some exciting tours we'll be presenting, so check it out!

We have the first week wrapped and wanted to give you a glimpse of our schedule, in case you want to get an idea of who's stopping by. We're still waiting on some confirmed guests but we promise, It's way worth it!

Day 1/December 1st- Broken by Teresa Santos- A topic on Asexuality- Guest Post
Day 2/December 2nd- DBT Presents Niko by Kayti Nika Raet- Author Interview

Day 3/December 3rd-How my books feature Diversity by Medeia Sharif-Guest Post

Day 4/December 4th- Author Interview with Neesha Meminger

Day 5/December 5th-DBT Presents Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Christina Jones-Author Interview

Day 6/December 6th- Blogger Interview with Charlotte of Charlotte's Library

Day 7/December 7th-DBT Presents Dia of the Dead by Brit Brinson- Author Interview

And now with the prizes.

A Kindle Fire 6"

Ship of Souls & The Deep by Zetta Elliot 

A signed copy of The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda(Look at him, he's so eager for you to have it!)

Promise of Shadows and Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland

Please be sure to check it out as well as our month full of stellar guests. And remember, tell all of your friends about it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next month is our 2nd Annual Diversity Month! Cutest interracial tag team alert =)

So many of our friends and fellow bloggers are joining in on NaNoWriMo.

We so wish we could, but we're so busy preparing tours for Diverse Book Tours, our 2nd annual Diversity Month event in December, and the editing of our first novel =)

We wonder how you guys are all preparing for the new year in a few months. Any cool plans? Want any new book recommendations?

Sign up to be a Tour Host for Diverse Book Tours, a virtual book tour company that specializes in diverse titles.

Sign up to be a Tour Host today!
We've got awesome tours in the future coming from authors:

Kayti Nika Raet

Claudia Guadalupe-Martinez

Jean Ramsden

Christina Jones

But in the meantime, don't our main characters Sterling and Tetra just make the cutest tag team?

We recently had Tetra redone to match her look in the first book with what the cover looks like. She looks awesome XD 

For those hearing about our book for the first time, "The Mark Of Noba" is a YA urban fantasy story featuring characters who are spiritually linked through a bond that enables them to share souls. It's a work in progress what will finally get to be a reality for us, so we're really excited, especially because nearly every main character outside of Sterling is a person of color =)

Anywho, off to a day of typing!

First Post of the New Year!

Hey everybody! =D

The  beginning of the year is always somewhat hectic! After fishing through many entries for our December Diversity month giveaway, we've discovered the two bundles  didn't confirm! We may have to pick a new winner!

But December was very hectic, but we don't want to slow down tooooo much. We have some goals for 2014 that we hope we can accomplish. Making note of them here will definitely make sure we don't forget them! We wouldn't say they're resolutions, as they're not make or break opportunities we hope to get rich off of. Just goals we wanted to accomplish just to do them =) 

Twinja 2014 Goals: