Our 'emotionally repressed narrator who sweeps you off your feet'

Saba's made it to the headlines! Well, to the Telegraph's online culture forum! 

See article: 

At last, girls are at the centre of the action in books and films

This article tackles the issue of gender representation as the heroic character in popular culture, through various types of media. For me, Saba is a near perfect representative of what should be the norm in literature and film: strong, independent women. Why has it taken the world so long to realise?

I recently stumbled across a video of similar subject that I just have to share in relation to this issue:

So let's hope that 2014 brings a better deal for girls. Especially our Saba as we near the release of Raging Star in May! Moira has page proofs starting on Friday, and the excitement is growing!

Look out for the Rebel Heart read-alongs which will be starting up again soon! 

~Ella

3 DAYS LEFT! Submit Your Short Story Now!

Hey Free Hawks! You only have 3 days left to submit a short story taking place in the Dustlands for our 1st Annual Dustlands.net Fan Fiction contest! Click the link below to submit a short story!

~Jake

The 1st Annual Dustlands.net Fan Fiction Contest!

Welcome Free Hawks!

Today I bring you a new contest from Dustlands.net, this time a proposed annual one. We'll see where this one goes.

Fan fiction. It's one my favorite things invented. Fans of stories, writing their own versions of their beloved books, movies, television shows, etc...

If you haven't ever read any fan fiction, head over to Fanfiction.net right now! That's your homework! Look up your favorite book/movie/TV show and see if there are any stories within that category. Click right here to head to a section of Fanfiction.net with stories dedicated completely to Blood Red Road! 

For this contest, we want you to submit your own Dustlands themed short story! Here are the rules: 

• Each story must be at least 500 words
• Each story must be related to the characters in the Dustlands series. (Blood Red Road and Rebel Heart)
• Each story doesn't have to necessarily take place IN the Dustlands. (Perhaps a story could feature Saba in a jungle? The possibilities are endless)
• Each story must be submitted by July 31st, 2013. 

Get planning and write your story soon so you don't forget! And make sure to make it the best it possibly can, you have the whole month of July!  Submit using the form below and spread the word! It's greatly appreciated.

Cheers, from the Dustlands.net family.

~Jake

Raging Star

The name of the highly anticipated Book #3 of the 'Dustlands' trilogy has been revealed by author, Moira Young!

RAGING STAR!

We've compiled a list of reactions below as well as the opinions of our admins! If you'd like to tell us what you think, leave a comment or tweet us at @DustlandsFans!

Book #3's Official Title!

Free Hawks, we no longer have to refer to Book #3 as...Book #3! Because as Moira Young has revealed today: it has a title!

RAGING STAR

Check back later on for thoughts from our admins on the title reveal, and share your own below, or tweet us your opinions @dustlandsfans !

Exciting news!

~Ella

Not-So-Weekly Poll: Would you listen to a Dustlands.net podcast?

Hey Free Hawks! As per usual Ella has our Weekly Poll running, but I have another question for all of our readers. So my question to you is; would you tune in to a LIVE, fun(hopefully), radio-style podcast dedicated to the Dustlands trilogy? With the release of details about the third and final book in the future, I couldn't help but think how fun and easy this would be to discuss this series and share with our readers.
So imagine. You tune into a URL we give here, and listen as I, fellow admin Ella, our other bloggers Bushra and Jon, and even Moira Young herself discuss Blood Red Road. Would you be interested?  Click the link below to answer, leave a comment, and tweet us your enthusiasm at @DustlandsFans

~Jake

Our First Giveaway Has A Winner!

It's been two weeks exactly since we announced our Dustlands Mystery: a giveaway of a signed copy of Blood Red Road and Rebel Heart, straight from the author herself! 

And so it's time for the winner to be announced!

Congratulations to Matt Imrie  who has won the giveaway!

Make sure to send us an email or a tweet so we can get in contact with you and arrange for your prizes to be sent ASAP!

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you who entered - just the once or every single day! You've all made this very special for Dustlands.net and Moira! We can only hope to host many, many more giveaways and competitions in the future! 

Keep tuned to the site and our Twitter account to stay up to date on all BRR news and information! And keep the Dust Lands fandom growing, Free Hawks! 

~Ella

Open Ended Question: What should the Blood Red Road fans be called?

So Harry Potter fans are known as 'Muggles', Hunger Games fans 'Tributes', so on and so forth. But what about Blood Red Road fans? We've been calling our lovely group the 'Free Hawks' as it seems fit to me. But what do you think members of this fandom should be called? 'Dustlandians'? Or maybe 'Crows'? Leave your comments to this post and let me know what YOU think we should call you.

~Jake

Also! Our very first giveaway where we're sending out signed copies of BOTH Blood Red Road AND Rebel Heart, has gotten over 1,000 entries! We'd be thrilled if you entered the contest, here. You only have 3 days left to enter! You can enter up to  15 times and then earn 3 extra every day! So get entering if you haven't already! 

We've Reached 50 Facebook Likes!

We've reached 50 likes on our Facebook page! We're still stunned on how fast our community has grown and we're forever grateful that we have readers like yourself who visit our site. If you have a Facebook page, (don't try to tell us that you don't ;) ) feel free to give our official page a 'Like'! Liking our page will only get information about the Dustlands series to you faster. Click 'like' in the widget on our sidebar or with the link below.

Like!
https://www.facebook.com/dustlands

Cheers Free Hawks!

~Jake

The Dustlands Mystery

Hey Free Hawks! We have a crazy awesome announcement to make when we reach 150 followers on Twitter! Twitter has been such a great way to get in touch with fans like you and we'd like to continue to do so. So if you tell your friends, to tell their friends, to tell their friends, to follow us on Twitter, we'll be closer and closer to posting our really exciting announcement that you won't want to miss! Trust us. Xx

[caption id="attachment_133" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Amazing Fan art made by schnatz.deviantart.com / @storytimeblog on Twitter. Follow them![/caption]

So it would mean the world, if you followed us at

@DustlandsFans on Twitter. And remember to follow the one and only Moira Young, creator of the whole reason we're here! The author of Blood Red Road! @moira_young

:)

~Jake