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Thursday, January 14, 2016

BLOG TOUR: Hot Ticket by Tracy Marchini - EXCERPT!

Hi guys and gals!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're playing host to a stop along the BLOG TOUR for a new Middle Grade Mystery that you'll want to pick up PRONTO.  Why?  Well, first of all, it sounds pretty darn good.  Secondly, it's
available as a FREE DOWNLOAD right now!  So, if you'd be so kind to join me as we shine the spotlight on...



by
Tracy Marchini


About the book...
Juliet Robinson is the only sixth grader in John Jay Jr. High who hasn't received a "hot ticket" from the mysterious ticket dispenser. When one of the dorkiest kids in school - Crammit Gibson - receives a ticket before she does, Juliet decides that the ticketing system has to stop. With the help of her best friend Lucy, a Daria-esque Madeline and her almost-crush Crammit, Juliet is determined to climb a few rungs on the middle school social ladder and catch the ticket dispenser once and for all.





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Here's what some are saying about this curious new release...

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“The best thing about Hot Ticket, however, is the plot. It’s a mystery concerned with exactly the kinds of things that its audience cares about. It explores ideas of popularity and exclusion, of peer influence and self-esteem, and does it in a way that can’t help but hold the reader’s attention.” – Agrippina Legit

“I felt like I could relate to the middle school need in this book to fit in and to have your successes highlighted. I can also relate to how uncomfortable and sad it can be when you feel like you aren’t fitting in.” – Figuring Out the Small Stuff

“I also think the concept of the tickets is a stroke of genius. There have been a lot of stories about popularity written for this age group, but the idea of an actual ticketing system is a clever – and cruel – way to highlight who is hot and who is not. The ticketing system gave the author a lot of interesting scenarios to play with, and brought new life to an often overused topic.” – Secrets and Sharing Soda



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Still need a bit more convincing?
No problem.  We got this.
BRING ON THE EXCERPT!




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~~~ EXCERPT ~~~
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(Backstory: Juliet has just come from the principal’s office after accidentally hitting the most popular girl in school in the face during a hallway collision.)

At lunch detention, all I could think about was how I better get a shame ticket for accidentally punching Cindy.


There's just no way the ticket dispenser could ignore the fact that I just punched the most popular girl in school in the face, right?

But still, I worried that the dispenser was going to ignore me again. I'm basically the only sixth grader without a hot ticket. This wouldn’t be a big deal if I didn’t go to John Jay Jr. High. (Triple J, for short.) Everything is hard enough as a 6th grader. We’re the lowest on the totem pole. The tadpoles of the pond. But it’s even worse to be a tadpole without a hot ticket.



Hot tickets could be awarded for doing something cool, saying something funny, or sometimes even just wearing something the ticket dispenser liked. All authentic hot tickets were two inch by six inch rectangles made from this orange cardboard material, with “HOT TICKET” written in big bold letters at the top. Hot tickets first started becoming popular about a month after school started. Then there was this rash of copycat tickets on regular paper, but people just tossed those in the trash. Everybody could figure out it was one of their friends that made it anyway. But an authentic ticket – that was something you kept.

Some people had their lockers decorated in hot and shame tickets. Some people kept their hot tickets at home to prevent theft.

If I got a hot ticket, I would definitely keep it taped on the inside door of my locker. Right now my locker only had a locker mirror, a picture of Lucy and I from my birthday party at Six Flags and these annoying cat stickers from the person who had my locker before me.

Fifth grade did not prepare me for this at all.



Lucy, my next door neighbor and best friend, came up to my locker between periods. Her smile was so big I could see the bread from her lunch stuck all the way back between her molars.

Why weren't you at lunch?” she asked.

Detention, again. I sorta punched Cindy in the face,” I said.

Lucy's jaw dropped. “Holy crow! You punched Cindy Newsome in the face, and you're still alive?! She already hates you because --”

I know, I know,” I said. “What's up? You're like, super smiley.”

Oh yeah!”

Lucy pulled a piece of orange cardboard out of her back pocket.

You didn’t!” I shouted, prompting stares from the girls next to us.

I did,” she said, turning the cardboard over to reveal the words ‘Hot Ticket’ in big, bold print. “I found it in my locker after sixth period – another hot ticket!”

Lucy passed it over and I read the smaller print beneath.


For the joke, 'Even Einstein would have trouble in Carmoody’s class.'”

I looked up as a couple of sixth graders pointed to Lucy’s hot ticket as they walked by. They smiled at Lucy, but she was still looking at her ticket.

Totally ridic, right? Who could have heard me say that?” she asked.

It must have been someone standing next to us in the hallway yesterday.”

That could be anybody,” Lucy said as she flipped her hot ticket over in her hand.

The bell rang and Lucy and I trudged to our last period, the only class we had together.

So who do you think it is?” asked Lucy.

I shrugged as another group of sixth graders pointed to the hot ticket in Lucy's hand. They started guessing what cool thing she could have done, commenting on her new shoes, and how awesome she did in gym class today. Suddenly it felt like everybody in the hallway was saying Lucy's name.

Who cares?” I said.

But I did care. And if I didn't have at least a shame ticket tomorrow for punching Cindy, then it was time to find out.




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About the author...


Tracy went to parochial school and was picked last in kickball for all eight years. Before she graduated with her B.A. in English, she got into a prank war over Jane Austen quotes and was out-pranked by the third or fourth day. She ran the NYC marathon to make up for her years of terrible kickball playing, but has yet to redeem her sub-par pranking abilities.

She is now a freelance editor who specializes in children’s and young adult literature, and holds an M.F.A. in Writing for Children. Her next book, Rock, is a YA anthology of stories inspired by her favorite songs, and will be published on September 6, 2016.




Twitter   |   Facebook   |  Instagram  |  Goodreads



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HOT TICKET is available as a free ebook on Amazon from January 10 – January 14, 2016...and for my fellow "tree book" enthusiasts, it is also available in print at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.



Special thanks to author Tracy Marchini for the chance to feature her work here today.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title or the author, feel free to click through the links provided above. 

Until next time...happy reading!




1 comment:

Felicity Grace Terry said...

Proof I should never judge a book by its cover. Despite what I thought was a plain, unassuming cover the story sounds anything but.

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