Blog Tour + Giveaway: Sylo by D.J. MacHale

19 July, 2013 Steph Sinclair Blog Tours, Giveaways, Guest Spotlight 15 comments

I’m so excited to today to be a host on the Sylo blog tour! D.J. MacHale is an author I have admired from his Pendragon series to the spooky Are You Afriad of the Dark TV show (thanks for the nightmares!). Check out the guest post below and enter to win a Sylo prize pack!

Welcome to the SYLO blog tour! There’s no better person to explain some of the crazy, creepy things happening on Pemberwick Island than D.J. MacHale, so we asked him to spill all his secrets to all of you!* Follow along on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to enter to win a SYLO prize pack at every tour stop and get the inside scoop on SYLO!

*Disclaimer: D.J. didn’t tell us all his secrets (though we tried!), but he did give us some pretty cool insight into his books.

D.J.’s Guest Post:

Creating an island like Pemberwick was crucial to the story. I needed a place that, at least conceivably, could be quarantined the way I described. The concept of cutting off a community from the rest of the world not only plays into the conflict of SYLO, but also the overall mystery and themes of the entire trilogy. I also wanted to create this wonderful place…that becomes much less wonderful. That too plays in to the emotion and the themes of the trilogy.

Pemberwick Island only exists in my imagination, but I used the island of Martha’s Vineyard for inspiration. The Vineyard sits off the coast of Cape Cod. It’s an idyllic, old-world spot that is stuck in time. I went back there to do research for SYLO and found that it hadn’t changed much in the thirty years since I had been there last. I hope that people will love Pemberwick and want to visit…and therefore experience the same roller coaster of emotions that the characters go through as things start to hit the fan.

Find out more from D.J. about SYLO by watching his author video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bClZy54zxUY

Sylo is out now!

Goodreads | Indiebound | Good Books | Amazon

The ultimate action-fueled end-of-the-world conspiracy trilogy from #1 New York Times bestselling author D.J. MacHale

THEY CAME FROM THE SKY
parachuting out of military helicopters to invade Tucker Pierce’s idyllic hometown on Pemberwick Island, Maine.

They call themselves SYLO and they are a secret branch of the U.S. Navy. SYLO’s commander, Captain Granger, informs Pemberwick residents that the island has been hit by a lethal virus and must be quarantined. Now Pemberwick is cut off from the outside world.

Tucker believes there’s more to SYLO’s story. He was on the sidelines when the high school running back dropped dead with no warning. He saw the bizarre midnight explosion over the ocean, and the mysterious singing aircraft that travel like shadows through the night sky. He tasted the Ruby—and experienced the powers it gave him—for himself.

What all this means, SYLO isn’t saying. Only Tucker holds the clues that can solve this deadly mystery.

LOOK TO THE SKY
because Pemberwick is only the first stop.

[about-author]

To find out what D.J. thinks about writing big-stakes stories and small-stakes stories, and which category SYLO falls into, head to Charlotte’s Library on Monday, 7/22!

Giveaway

Penguin Teen a prize pack for one lucky winner. It includes a finished copy of Sylo, Sylo t-shirt and Sylo baseball cap. This giveaway is US only.

Contest Rules:

To enter, please fill out the Raffelcopter form below.
We ask that all entrants be at least 13 years or older to enter.
The giveaway is open for US only.
When the winners are chosen, it will be announced here and the winners will be emailed. Please check your email because we are only giving the winner 48 hours to respond! Otherwise another winner will have to be selected.
Please enter your email address in the Rafflecopter form and not the comments!
Also, please understand that we reserve the right to disqualify any entries we find gaming the system. Cheaters never prosper!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RealityIsNovel

July 19th, 2013

This sounds fantastic! I loved the Pendragon books (though I kind of stalled when I caught up with how many were written at about the same time I went to college). I should really go finish them, now that I think of it… But yeah, this sounds even better than the Pendragon books to me! I could go for a little mystery and mayhem.

Brynna

danasquare

This book looks so cool! It is definitely up there on my need to read pile!!!!

Neyra

This sounds great. I have to admit I’ve never read a D.J. McHale book, but I did watch Are you afraid of the Dark? From time to time.

Tammy

Why is it always creepy on islands? Can’t I just have an island to crash on for a month to catch up on all my reading? With electricity of course 😉

Riley

I loved the Pendragon series a lot as a kid (still need to finish that! I only own up to book six and am missing the first one) and this sounds really cool. Especially the setting being inspired by Martha’s Vineyard, which I have a lot of fond memories of visiting. Island books are cool in general because the isolation just adds to the urgency of a story, imo.