Shannon's Sweet Valley High Blog

Because I have the best group of readers in the history of blogdom (and because I want you all to know I haven’t disappeared), I’m giving away more stuff.

I created a couple designs for t-shirts and stuff, and I’m giving away the first batch – a t-shirt, coffee mug and magnet – along with Lila’s Story and Bruce’s Story. Because who couldn’t use a little more Lila and Bruce in their lives?

This is going to work just like the last giveaway. There will be four ways to enter:

• 1. “Like” my Facebook page and share the news about this giveaway with your Facebook friends.
• 2. Follow me on Twitter and retweet my announcement about this giveaway.
• 3. Follow me on Tumblr and reblog my post about this giveaway.
• 4. Leave a comment below telling me if you Facebooked, Tweeted or Tumbled. The comment counts as another entry, so you could get four entries altogether.

No matter what, make sure you leave a comment here so I know how many entries to give you!

Every entry will be assigned a number, and a random number generator will decide on the winner. This contest is open to everyone, no matter where in the world you live.

The giveaway will end Monday, July 12. Good luck!

Patty, you have won a $40 gift card for CSN Stores! I’ve sent an email to the address you used to comment on the blog, so be on the lookout for it!

Thank you to everyone who entered, and thank you so much, all of you, for just being such an awesome bunch of readers.

This is absolutely NOT the last giveaway I’m going to do. I have a few more in mind, and they may or may not involve books and/or t-shirts. Who doesn’t love free t-shirts? I will also do a few more TV show posts, so be on the lookout for more updates!

Thanks again to everyone, and a big congratulations to Patty!

I was approached last week by CSN Stores about doing a giveaway, and I thought that would be a really good way to reward my fabulous readers for sticking with me during the recent dark times (I am referring, of course, to the horror of SVH Senior Year).

CSN Stores is offering a $40 gift card, good at any one of their many websites. They’ve got everything you can think of: platform beds, clocks, cookware, shoes, even dog beds for crying out loud. You name it, they sell it. But what I’m really excited about is the board games. Oh, so many board games! From Scrabble to Would You Rather to fifty different kinds of Monopoly.

Nintendo Monopoly, anyone?

Here’s how it works. You have four ways to enter.

• 1. Follow me on Twitter and retweet my announcement about this giveaway.
• 2. Follow me on Tumblr and reblog my announcement about this giveaway.
• 3. Become a fan of my newly created Facebook page and tell your Facebook friends about it via a status update. (I just created this page, so forgive me if it looks a little, well, sparse.)
• 4. Leave a comment on this post letting me know if you tweeted, tumbled or ‘booked, and it will count as an additional entry. If you don’t do any of those things, just say hello in the comments and that will count as one entry.

Your name will go on the list once for every entry. So if you do both 1 and 2 and then leave a comment telling me you did 1 and 2, your name goes on the list three times. When it’s all over, I’ll assign every name a random number, and a number generator will choose the winner.

The winner will be chosen this Friday, June 11, around noonish. Or whenever I wake up that day.

Good luck!

This horrible series has finally come to an end!

Thank you so much to everyone who stuck around. Your encouraging comments kept me going! (And I’m looking forward to that daiquiri, rachierach!)

According to the poll in the sidebar, 189 of you would like me to recap Sweet Valley University next. Before I do that, I’ll be taking a long break while I regroup and read some grownup books. I’ll also be using that time to obtain the SVU books, since I don’t have very many of them. (I will gladly take donations if anyone can bear to part with their copies!)

But don’t go away just yet! I think I have a pretty cool giveaway coming up early next week, and I plan on recapping a couple more episodes of the TV series during my sabbatical. If you want me to notify you when I’m ready to start SVU, drop me an email with “mailing list” in the subject line.

Thanks again to all my readers. Whether you participate in the comments or just read the posts, I appreciate you coming by and I hope you’ll come back for the twins’ college years!

I got an email a few days ago from a new reader named Jason. He’s looking to read a few Sweet Valley High books for nostalgia’s sake, but he’s not sure which ones to read.

I was wondering if you could do a quick post (or you could just respond to this email) of your top 10 SVH books.  I don’t have the money or the willpower to tackle the whole series again (but those girls definitely rate as my first official fag hags – how in the world I made it through elementary/middle school without getting beat up carrying around these pastel tomes I will never understand) but would love your advice on the best books to look for to satiate my need for a quick SVH fix.

Here you go, Jason.

• 10. “R” for Revenge – Because it proves once and for all that grownups in Sweet Valley are just for show. They aren’t actually good for anything except being murderers.

• 9. Out of Reach – The over-the-topness of Jade’s rebellion is what seals the deal for me on this one. And Ned Wakefield acts like a moron, so that’s a bonus.

• 8. Lila’s Story – For some reason I can’t really explain, I read this one over and over when I was a kid. I think I kind of liked seeing Lila being brought down, but then I really liked seeing her save the day in the end.

• 7. In Love With the Enemy – I’m not even sure what I like about this book. I think maybe it’s the jean jackets.

• 6. Slam Book Fever – I like this one because it’s kind of nice to see Jessica get all tongue-tied around a boy. It’s also nice to see Liz make an ass of herself.

• 5. Winter Carnival – Jessica dies! Granted, it was only a dream. But still.

• 4. Family Secrets – The best part of this book is the ghostwriter’s feeble attempts at psychology.

• 3. Two-Boy Weekend – Jessica’s flirting gets her stalked by a psycho and Liz gets shoved into the trunk of a car. How can you lose?

• 2. Kidnapped by the Cult – The title says it all. It’s a cult!

• 1. Playing With Fire – I cannot even express in words the effect this book had on my preteen brain. Bruce taking off Jessica’s bikini top…might as well have been porn to twelve-year-old Shannon.

So those are my favorites. Jason, I hope that gives you a starting point!

What are everyone else’s favorite SVH books?

LeVar Burton accidentally posted his cell phone number on Twitter yesterday. Twice. His fellow former Star Trekkers, Wil Wheaton (Wesley) and Brent Spiner (Data), are giving him trouble and I cannot stop giggling about it.

It was one year ago today that I started this blog. I can’t believe it’s been that long!

When I first started recapping Sweet Valley High, I really didn’t expect anyone to read it besides a few friends. I remember one day being super psyched because I got a whole fifteen hits. Fifteen people read my blog!

Eventually, word got around and by the time I finished the series, I was getting 500-1000 hits a day.

Then on Tuesday, Entertainment Weekly included a link to my blog in their article about Sweet Valley Confidential. Since then, my numbers have gone through the roof. So thank you, Entertainment Weekly! Then yesterday, I was quoted and linked to on The Guardian’s website, which is also a pretty big deal for me. For those of you visiting via the EW and Guardian articles, welcome! I hope you’ll stick around!

For my regular readers, thank you so much for spending the past year with me. I have had so much fun writing this blog. In fact, it’s been so much fun that I’ve decided it’s time to resume regular posting. Get started on your back-to-school shopping because Senior Year starts Monday!

By the way, I just want to mention that if I had known this blog was going to end up being so popular, I would have come up with a much more creative name than Shannon’s Sweet Valley High Blog.

That’s it, the end of the series! I can’t believe I made it. It was a long road, but I think I’m a stronger person for my struggles. Quite possibly a dumber person, but definitely stronger.

This will not be the end of Shannon’s Sweet Valley High Blog, I promise, so please don’t unsubscribe or take me off your bookmarks just yet. Unless, you know, you’re sick of me. Right now, however, I am taking a much deserved break. I will be back with recaps of SVH Senior Year at some point. If you’d like to email me (the address is over there in the sidebar under Principal’s Office) I will gladly send you a message when I’m ready to start posting again. Just put “SVH Blog” in the subject line.

Thank you all so much for reading and sticking it out with me until the end. I’ve had so much fun writing this blog, and reading everyone’s comments always makes my day.

I’ll be back! Meanwhile, feel free to start from the beginning.

As some of you may know, I have actually finished reading the Sweet Valley High series. (A round of applause, please.) The recaps will be forthcoming. I’m still trying to keep to one mini-series a week though, so there will be a few more three-update weeks. After a little break, I plan to move on to Senior Year, but I probably won’t post any recaps until the whole series is finished. (Don’t worry, there are way less Senior Year books than SVH books.)

In the meantime, I’ve started a Gilmore Girls blog. I love that show and started watching my DVDs the other day because I needed something to fill the void Sweet Valley left in my life. I decided I would really like to do something bloggy but not SVH related, so I present to you Luke’s Diner, where I will be recapping Gilmore Girls episodes for the next little while. I hope you enjoy it!

Glamour - I has it.

Children of the Nineties did a great post today about Glamour Shots, and she is encouraging readers to submit their own awesome pics.

In return, she will mock us and let readers vote for their favorites.

So if you were unlucky enough to have had your very own Glamour Shots done, send them to childrenofthe90s@gmail.com.

I have already submitted the awesomeness you see to the right. Yes, that is a glamorous fourteen-year-old Shannon, all dolled up for no good reason, wearing a fringed jacket and earrings so big they just shouldn’t be allowed.

The worst part is that out of a whole set of different poses and outfits, this one was my favorite.

I feel sure I’ve got the contest in the bag, but I still encourage everyone to send their own in.

Edit: You can now see all four poses on Children of the Nineties.