Nov 6 2012

Election Day Treat Better Than All The Starbucks and Chocolate in the World Combined!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update: It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! It happens the first Wednesday of each month–a time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. With everything happening right now in my life, I don’t have time for a long post, so please enjoy the interview I did yesterday with my editor and fellow author (below). Rest assured I am feeling quite insecure as I go through massive edits of my debut novel, 18 Things, fixing mistakes I thought I had moved beyond in my writing (passive voice, anyone?). I’m striving towards a release date for the end of January so please keep your fingers crossed for me! If you leave a comment, I promise to return the favor:-)

HaPPy*Election*dAY. Yeah, that is 13 exclamation points in honor of our 13 original colonies because, I dunno, I like the number 13 and that’s the patriotic connection my brain made. Also probably the longest blog title ever. Any who, you’re probably whining about what a total time suck these long lines are in order to cast your vote (unless you’re dorky like me and actually enjoy waiting in loooong lines and shooting the poop with your fellow Americans because let’s face it . . . .where else can I find such a captive audience? They’re not gonna leave and throw away their vote just to get away from little ole me)

But like I was saying, if you’ve followed my blog at all since June, then you’ve probably heard of my editor and author extraordinaire, Krystal Wade. And she’s here ya’ll! On my blog for the first time! *squeeeeeeeeeeeee* It’s so fitting she’s visiting today because

1) her trilogy is all about uniting clashing people and forming an army prepared to fight in order to defeat Darkness (hmm, sounds like Election Day stuff to me!)

2) she also works in Washington DC as a . . . . well, I’m not sure exactly because it’s probably classified, as most things with politics are. The only thing you need to know is she leads a very glamorized life, right Krystal?

KW:

Krystal? Um, she seems to be away from Trellian right now. Don’t ask me what that means though. I just know it pops up a lot when I’m trying to Google ~~Stalk,~~ I mean, Chat. I can’t imagine why because I’m definitely not the demanding writerly type at all. But the point is, even though her life may not be all dinner parties and ball gowns, she is for sure the most busiest gal I know. Oh, you caught that little grammar mistake, did you? Well, I happen to be going through massive edits right now and it’s my way of dealing with them in a passive aggressive manner. Hahaha, look at all that passive language while I am being passive aggressive. *Just joking, Krystal. I shall never take thy name of the BEE in vain~big hugs!*

JA: What draws you to read and write New Adult?

KW: I don’t primarily read NA. I enjoy a wide variety of books–middle grade, young adult, upper young adult, new adult, *but Jamie Ayres debut YA novel, 18 Things, is by far the best thing I’ve ever read* Are you laughing yet? All these distinctions. When I set out to write Wilde’s Fire, I had no idea what category the book would fall into. Frankly, there’s a part of me that still doesn’t know what category my works fall into. Katriona is 20, but a lot of her trials and tribulations are things many people younger than her can relate to; she’s just been a bit more sheltered in life.

Back on track here . . . I’m such a rambler! I love firsts. First loves, first kisses, first awkward moment when you realize you like a boy–or girl, first date, first time driving a car, first time you venture away from home. This is when people truly discover who they are, and this is what sells the “MG-YA-NA” literature for me: there are so many firsts.

Wait, I don’t remember mentioning 18 Things in my . . . .

JA: Oh, moving on! It’s election day and your release day for Wilde’s Meadow was yesterday, you don’t have time to dillydally. So tell us, how did you get to where you are now?

KW: I once told someone that if someone wrote a book about my life, they’d title it: From There to Here: How She Did It. But I can sum my life up in one word (and this applies to everything: my teen years, my early twenties, my writing career): DETERMINATION.

You can overcome many obstacles, achieve amazing goals, and live a wonderful life . . . if you’re determined.

JA: Sooo true! Writing is not a parade of peppermint puppies. It is work. I’d love to claim that quote but it’s Chuck Wendig’s. Can you tell us about your triumphs?

KW: Let’s see . . . triumphs? I’ve been seriously writing for shy of two years, published three books, am a major player inside a growing publishing house, and do not plan on stopping any time soon. 🙂

JA: Okay, seriously, with 3 books published within 6 months you are busier than a president running an election campaign! Any time I go to open my mouth to complain about something, I’m gonna think of you. You ‘re the meaning of my life. You’re my inspiration. You bring feeling to my life . . . . hang on a sec, someone is at the door.

Oh, hey folks. I’m back. Sorry for our interruption. Just a little matter about a restraining order and not being allowed within 3 states of Krystal Wade. I know that’s just Krystal’s way of saying she’s thinking about me. She cracks me up. Krystal, why don’t you tell us about some of your failures while I sign this paperwork for the nice officer?

KW: Sometimes I get so tired, so overwhelmed with all the things I have going on in my life, that I stress and freak out over everything. There are times I want to go into a shell and shut off the world. So my failure is my ability to manage my stress. With a full time job fifty miles from home, three kids, writing, editing, playing my part in the publishing industry, there are so many things to stress over.

JA: I hear ya, sista! You know what I heard helps? Reading books to unwind, books like Wilde’s Fire, Wilde’s Army, and Wilde’s Meadow, and 18 Things. I’m not just saying that to be self-serving. *coughs* How did you ever overcome the odds?

KW: DETERMINATION. 🙂

JA: Oh, yeah, duh! As you know, Krystal, you have to tell me things 50 times before I get it.

Well, that about does it for me. Did we keep you entertained during your long line?

Oh wait, before I forget, beginning the second week of November–that’s the 12-16–Krystal will be hosting the Wildest Moments Blogfest. This is something anyone, anywhere can participate in. She’s asking people to write about their wildest moment, then she’s going to read and choose a winner (Kindle Fire!) on December 5th. I’m participating, so that should be reason enough to join;-) Just visit her website link at the bottom, and you can also grab her badge on my site to the right>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Wilde’s Meadow Blurb:

Happy endings are hard to find, and even though Katriona is in the middle of a war with someone who’s already stolen more than she can replace, she aches for a positive future with her Draíochtans.

Armed with hope, confidence in her abilities, and a strange new gift from her mother, Kate ventures into the Darkness to defeat a fallen god.Losses add up, and new obstacles rise to stand in the way. Is the one determined to bring Encardia light strong enough to keep fighting, or will all the sacrifices to stop those who seek domination be for nothing?

About the Author: Krystal Wade can be found in the sluglines outside Washington D.C. every morning, Monday through Friday. With coffee in hand, iPod plugged in, and strangers–who sometimes snore, smell, or have incredibly bad gas–sitting next to her, she zones out and thinks of fantastical worlds for you and me to read. How else can she cope with a fifty mile commute?

Good thing she has her husband and three kids to go home to. They keep her sane.

http://www.krystal-wade.com/

www.facebook.com/author.krystalwade

Oct 19 2012

What’s Your Kid Reading (Plus cover reveal bonus!)

October 14-20 is Teen Read Week™, a national literacy initiative from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) aimed at inspiring teens to read for fun–on paper, online, on an e-reader–and to use their library to find great reading materials. I thought I’d share some recommendations for your teen (or if you’re a teen stopping by my blog today, even better *waves*). But I’m not gonna stop at teens! I’m gonna give you some suggestions for the younger kids too, b/c encouraging reading in our kids is important at every age (and some people were asking on my FB page so why not kill two birds with one stone, right? And b/c I love all books and since it’s my blog, I can share whatever I want to, muhahaha)!

*Also, in honor of Teen Read Week, I’m giving away a copy of If I Stay. Out of all the ones I listed below, it’s probably the most like my novel, 18 Things, in the respect that it’s about 90% contemporary and 10% paranormal. Just leave a comment if you’re interested in winning a copy and I’ll randomly pick a winner on Wednesday:-)

Classics:

Historical Fiction:

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. Set during the Great Depression, Abilene Tucker is sent to Manifest, Kansas, where she searches to find her father’s footprint in the town.

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm. Turtle is sent to live with her aunt Minnie in Key West, where she and her cousins experience adventures that are both thrilling and terrifying. (set in the year 1935)

The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. A hilarious, touching, and tragic novel about the civil rights movement and its impact on one African American family.

Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff. Lily learns that true friendship is a treasure that crosses cultural boundaries in this novel set during WWII at the home front.

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. Alone in the world, teenaged Hattie is driven to prove up on her uncle’s homesteading claim in 1917 Montana.

Dear America series by various authors. The books are written in diary form, and each chronicles a young woman’s life during an important event or time period in American History.

Biography:

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annex” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death.

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. Set in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, Gantos uses his own childhood experiences and his vivid imagination to create the story of 12-year-old Jack Gantos in the summer of 1962. Gantos combines appealing characters, mysteries, small town adventures, humor, history and life lessons to create a novel that will appeal to kids 10-14.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai. This novel by Thanhha Lai is based on her life, leaving Vietnam in the mid-’70s when she was 10 and the difficult adjustment to life in the United States.

Today’s Buzz-Worthy YA Novels

Divergentby Veronica Roth *voted #1 by teens in a recent online poll* In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 13, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumours in her lungs… for now. Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

ThIRTEEN R3ASONS WHY by Jay Asher. Clay Jensen doesn’t want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead, he reasons. Her secrets should be buried with her. Then Hannah’s voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes–and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a first-hand witness to Hannah’s pain, and learns the truth about himself–a truth he never wanted to face.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. Lia knows she isn’t the prettiest girl in school. She’s not the smartest or the most athletic or the most popular. But there’s one thing she can be–the skinniest. Unless her best friend, Cassie, beats her to it.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; but in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck . . . Through real-time narration and flashbacks, readers will come to know Mia and the people in her life. More than a love story, more than a story about living or dying, it’s a story about how we transform our lives.

Matched by Ally Condie. In the Society, officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die. Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow–between perfection and passion.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin. Lucy Scarborough is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or fall into madness upon their child’s birth. Unless she can complete these tasks, Lucy will go mad, just like her mother and all the Scarborough women before her.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love — the deliria — blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the government demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

*And now here’s a special bonus! My CQ sista, Thea Gregory, writes zombie stories and science fiction, and today I get to debut her new book cover:

Sanity Vacuum Synopsis:

Vivian Skye just finished university, and qualified for her first-choice internship. Not many would consider the distant and isolated Extra-Galactic Observatory cushy, but it’s a dream come true for Vivian. Hailing from the low-tech planet of Aurora, she studied hard for this opportunity—and to leave her old life, and planet behind.

Her assignment is simple: perform a routine upgrade for the station’s supercomputer, quIRK. Her reception isn’t a friendly one, and eccentric quIRK becomes her only friend. However, the station’s administrator, Bryce Zimmer is obsessed with quIRK—he suspects that the station’s computer may have achieved sentience, something explicitly prohibited by the ABACUS Protocol. Compounding their issues, Bryce’s traumatic and privileged past makes him distrust Vivian from the beginning. Desperate to keep control, he sabotages quIRK in order to eliminate Vivian. But, his plan threatens to consume the entire station and send them into the unknown void of intergalactic space.

Vivian must struggle to survive not only Bryce’s megalomania, but also the emerging artificial super intelligence that is quIRK. Can Vivian and quIRK learn to trust each other and work together, before it’s too late?

Author Bio:

Thea Gregory is a farm girl from English Western Quebec, a total nerd, and she loves science fiction, zombies and physics. Between marathon cooking sessions, her clerktastic day job, and part-time studies, she manages to find time to write. Author of the Zombie Bedtime Stories, her debut sci-fi novel, Sanity Vacuum releases December 6. Thea’s blog can be found at http://nerdygnome.wordpress.com

*Hey, Thea, can I bunk with you during the zombie apocalypse? I’ll bring the coffee and cake pops! See ya’ll next week . . . if, God willing, the flesh-hungry undead don’t take over the world by then;-)

Oct 15 2012

Tag Team Cover Reveal

It’s another big cover reveal for one of my buddies! YAY! Don’t beautiful covers make you smile:-) And what’s uber cool is Victoria and I had the same artist designing our covers–double yay (Thanks, Michelle Johnson!)

The Crimson Hunt (Eldaen Light Chronicles, #1) by: Victoria H. Smith

Release Date: November 12, 2012

Genre: New Adult Science Fiction Romance

Book Description:

College junior Ariel Richmond is working on year three of Project Normalcy.Her house reeks of keggers past and her bestie is just a slight bit vulgar. But the thing is—they both aid in making life refreshingly uneventful.

So much for hard-earned mediocrity when Luca Grinaldi appears on the scene.

Luca’s sudden presence on campus is hard to ignore. Those bright eyes act like a beacon to unsuspecting females, and with features like his, he’s got to be moonlighting for GQ. Luca hopelessly captivates Ariel with his confidence and charisma, but the mysteries surrounding him make him nearly untouchable. And just when Ariel grows close enough to unlock his secrets, a tragic event sends her life in a downward spiral.

That steady life is no longer an option and allies quickly become scarce. The mysterious Luca seems to be the only one willing to help her—but with that trust comes the burden of his secrets. He has a dark mission of otherworldly proportions, and is willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes to see it completed.

Gone are the days of simply maintaining normalcy, and if Ariel isn’t cautious with her trust, so soon may be her future.

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15747587-the-crimson-hunt

About the Author:

Victoria H. Smith has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She puts it to good use writing romance all day. She resides in the Midwest with her Macbook on her lap and a cornfield to her right. She often draws inspiration for her stories from her own life experiences, and the twenty-something characters she writes give her an earful about it.In her free time, she enjoys extreme couponing, blogging, reading, and sending off a few tweets on Twitter when she can. She writes new adult fiction romance in the sub-genres of science fiction, urban fantasy, and contemporary, but really, anywhere her pen takes her she goes.

Victoria H. Smith Links: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

*If you stopped by my blog the day of my big cover reveal 2 weeks ago and missed it because of technical difficulties, you can see it here. See ya soon:-)

Oct 10 2012

What Draws You to Read and Write YA/NA?

Today I’m kicking off my sandals (yes, I’m wearing sandals . . . it’s still 85 degrees where I live . . . POLO! Oh sorry, just blogging pool side)–anyway, where were we? Oh yes! Jessa Russo, my CQ sister who like me, reads, writes and breathes paranormal YA, is here to tell us what drew her to read and write in this kick butt genre.

Woot, woot!! Take it away, Jessa.

I started reading at an early age – as I believe we all did – and when I was in middle school I became obsessed with Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine. (Me too! Love R.L. Met him at a reading festival 2 yrs ago and he made up an AWESOME story right there on the spot with the kiddos suggestions!) But I feel like we didn’t have much along the lines of young adult back then, and honestly, I can’t remember anything after my Christopher Pike obsession. I think I just quickly followed in my mom’s footsteps and began devouring Steven King and Dean Koontz (I have gotten weak in my 30s. Used to read these guys, but now they just freak me the eff out!) when I’d been ready to move past Christopher Pike.

As an adult, I continued feeding my love of mystery and paranormal with Sandra Brown, more Dean Koontz, Heather Graham …

And then I had a baby, and decided I didn’t have time to read. So I didn’t read for a lot of years. (Ohmigosh, are we sistas from another mother? Me tooooooo!)

One day, everything changed. My friends were suddenly obsessed with this new teeny-bopper book called Twilight. And I mean REALLY obsessed. Yes, I made fun of them. Yes, I made a LOT of fun of them. They were claiming ‘Team Edward’ and ‘Team Jacob,’ and all I could think was ‘Team Get A Life.’ So then the movie came out, and I had friends going to midnight showings with their teen cousins/sisters/daughters/etc. And they were as excited if not more so than the teens! I was amazed. (Now YOU are freaking me the eff out–I’m putting on my cool foil hat now so you can stop reading my mind and stealing my memories!)

Eventually, one of my uber-obsessed friends brought over a pirated DVD of Twilight (Yes, it was still in theaters/No, I don’t condone pirating/Yes, I watched it. The shame! lol) And I almost enjoyed it, but I felt like something was missing. So, she convinced me to read the book, leaving me with her well-worn, prized copy. (*takes foil hat off* phew! I read the books before the movie, back in the summer of 2009 when my sisters dragged me to Target and told me I had to read it)

{Insert reluctant me: Fine. I’ll read it.}

Fast forward twenty-four hours, and I was like a drug addict searching for a fix. I was calling libraries and friends, posting on MySpace, doing whatever I could to locate the next installment. (Apparently I was too cheap to buy it at the time, though I am now the proud owner of the boxed set.) *grin* (Hey, you have to save money for Starbucks coffee and cake pops, right?!)

I read the entire set in under two weeks – which would have been less time had I not had to locate each one and borrow it from friends. (Which should have driven me to fork up the cash to buy the set, but whatever!)

Well, the point of that story is to tell you that after that, I was hooked. It was like suddenly, someone had opened my eyes and said, “Jessa! Wake up! You DO have time to read, you silly goose!”

{Insert happy me: “OMG I HAVE TIME TO READ! And I am happy! YAY!”}

*Big thanks to Stephenie Meyer.*

Now you know what got me started in YA, but what is it exactly that draws me to read and write YA?

Well, for starters, there’s so much more room for creativity in YA. So much more innocence, growth, and exploration. But aside from that, I already know what it’s like to be a grown up. I have a mortgage. I have bills I worry about paying. I have debt. I have a marriage to nurture. I have a daughter who depends on me to make all the right choices for her life. I have all of the stuff that comes with adulthood. (I hear ya! Being “mature” sure sucks sometimes, which is why I so rarely act my age.)

So yeah, maybe I want to read about that young adult innocence that I left behind a long time ago. Maybe I want to read about that first kiss I will never have again. Or that first love that makes you feel like you’re going to crumble in on yourself and combust into a million pieces all at the same time. Or even that first heartbreak that you swear you will never ever recover from. (Well, I recovered just fine, but the guys didn’t;-) Kidding, kidding–I met my hubby when I was 14 so I’m kinda a spoiled brat)

I will never have those feelings again. And I’m not complaining – I wouldn’t trade my happily ever after for any of that – but I do miss those first feelings, that innocence that comes with adolescence. The mistakes and regrets, the joys and the triumphs … even the pain.

THAT is why I love YA.

THAT is why I write YA.

There’s something so special, and so unique about that time in our lives, and it is over in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon you’re facing down your thirties and wondering what happened to the hot seventeen-year-old you used to see in the mirror. (For me it was 28, IDK why but 28 was my hot year. Maybe there’s something to that “golden birthday” thing b/c I was born Aug. 28th. I’ll spare you the year!)

Well, I can tell you – she has gray hairs, wrinkles, and goes to bed at nine because she’s too tired to stay up late anymore, and when she does, it takes days to recover.

She’s also staring down into gorgeous blue eyes that believe she hung the moon, and loving the husband she always dreamed she’d have. So it’s a good thing. But every so often, she likes to be reminded that youth is an amazing thing too.

Well said, Jessa! I hope you didn’t mind me randomly commenting on your post . . . it’s what I do! If you haven’t read Jessa’s new book, check out the blurb below. It’s next on my TBR list *squee*

Seventeen-year-old Ever’s love life has been on hold for the past two years. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Frankie, and he’s completely oblivious.

Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s dead, and waking up to his ghost every day has made moving on nearly impossible.

Frustrated and desperate for something real, Ever finds herself falling for her hot new neighbor Toby. His relaxed confidence is irresistible, and not just Ever knows it. But falling for Toby comes with a price that throws Ever’s life into a whirlwind of chaos and drama. More than hearts are on the line, and more than Ever will suffer.

Some girls lose their hearts to love.

Some girls lose their minds.

Ever Van Ruysdael could lose her soul.

To learn more about Jessa and Ever, visit her website.

Oct 3 2012

18 Things Cover Reveal and IWSG

The day you’ve all been waiting for is here!!! Merry Christmas . . . I mean . . . Happy Halloween? Hahaha, that was my editor’s joke to me, the awesome Krystal Wade, because it sure feels like a holiday to us. We can finally share my cover for my YA paranormal, 18 Things . . .

And here’s the blurb incase you have no idea what that cover is supposed to represent:

Can eighteen things save a life?

Olga Gay Worontzoff thinks her biggest problems are an awful name (after her grandmothers of course) and not attending prom with Conner, her best friend and secret crush since kindergarten.

Then Conner is killed in a freak boating accident and Olga feels responsible. When she downs an entire bottle of pills to deal with the emotional pain, her parents force her into counseling. There, her therapist writes a prescription in the form of a life list titled 18 Things. Eighteen quests to complete the year of her eighteenth birthday.

Alls she has to do is fire-walk, try out for the cheerleading squad, break a world record, and err . . . go on her first date. Good thing Nate, a new hottie in town, enters her life with perfect timing. He brings the fun factor to her list and helps her discover the beauty and strength inside herself, then complicates things by falling in love with her.

Just as she’s finally embracing the joys of YOLO, her therapist reveals a big secret and Olga’s world is shaken. In the past year it took eighteen remarkable things to change a life, but nothing she believed about her mission is true.

Now she doesn’t just risk losing her true soul-mate forever, she risks losing her very soul.

*Squee* I’m so excited about this I’m about to squeeeee like a little piggy all over this page. Shout out to artist Michelle for doing an A*W*E*S*O*M*E job on my cover!! Of course all of this leads perfectly into the second part of my post for . . .

IWSG

I have a book coming out in roughly two months! TWO months! I should be excited, right? Right. So why do I feel terrified, ya’ll? To be honest, I kinda only dreamed of this dream happening. I never really expected to fulfill this one. I mean, I wasn’t giving up. Giving up writing is akin to giving up breathing. But still, I would’ve been content to just write and query and . . . hide. With publication, I can’t hide from those inevitable bad reviews. And I’m wondering what to do about that, because I seriously don’t have time to waste and worry about bad reviews.

So I’m thinking, should I even read the reviews at all? Do you think head ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh can scare the bad reviews away for me? It is, after all, his support group, and I’m pretty sure his skills are equal to or greater than Chuck Norris.

P.S. Shout out to my whole Curiosity Quills family for their support: Krystal Wade, Sharon Bayliss, Courtney Worth Young, Dawna Raver, Thea Gregory, Jade Hart, Lisa Moran Collicutt; as well as my friends Marisa Cleveland and Tonya Kuper for their help in revealing my cover! I’d link back to all of you, but WordPress isn’t cooperating tonight and making me angrier than a bird right now so I’m going to bed *sighs*

Sep 26 2012

The Next Big Thing

Lindsey R. Loucks tagged me in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop earlier this month and now I’m paying it forward. Thank you, Lindsey! I will answer ten questions about my book, and then tag five other authors for next week.

Here are the ten questions and answers:

1. What is the title of your book?
18 Things

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
Caffeine and chocolate! I mean, it originally came from my cousin being diagnosed with leukemia and writing a bucket list story that happened to involve teenagers. Then I realized that’d already been done with A Walk to Remember, so I took out the cancer and put my own twist on it.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
YA paranormal romance . . . could fall under inspirational too.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Deborah Ann Woll from True Blood would play my main character, Olga, which is funny because Lindsey also picked her for one of her characters. I swear I didn’t copy . . . I had her mind for a few months now.

Oh heck, I’ll go ahead and pick the whole Jedi Order (that’s what my group of friends call themselves in the book . . .yep, Ima Dork).

Nate=Zac Efron (I had a crush on this kid since my daughter got “H.S. Musical” for her 6th birthday. Thank God he’s of legal age for me to lust after now, and 100x hotter!)

Conner=Landon Liboiron from “Degrassi: The Next Generation”

Sean=Corbin Bleu (yessss, I do love me some H.S. Musical!)

Kyle=Logan Lerman from Percy Jackson

Tammy=Jamie Lynn Spears from Zoey 101

Nicole=Miranda Cosgrove from iCarly

5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A teenage girl compiles a list of eighteen things to complete the year of her eighteenth birthday at the suggestion of her therapist as a way to heal from the pain of her best friend’s death and in the process discovers a big secret that will change her life forever. (And breathe . . . I’ve never had to do that before and I hope I never have to again, lol).

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will be published by Curiosity Quills Press.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About two months. Then I rewrote a few parts, polished, and scrubbed for *cough, cough* . . . um, too many months to keep track!

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Stacey Kade’s Ghost and Goth Trilogy.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Lots of people, but mostly Jesus, George Lucas, and my hubby!

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? It’ll challenge your mind, turn your world upside down, make you question why you are here, make you fall in love with larger than life characters, and give you some good LOL moments (well, that’s what my betas told me so I’m hoping they’re not pathological liars) . Those are the makings of a true literary marauder. And I will hire those really scary clowns from Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights to chase you around your house until you buy it. Just kidding . . . maybe.

Tag! The following five people are IT!
1. Allison
2. Kirsten
3. Tamara
4. Pk hrezo
5. Nancy S. Thompson

Speaking of Nancy . . . I’d like to feature her AWESOME trailer for her upcoming book. Enjoy and see you next Wednesday–hopefully I can reveal my own book cover by then *squeeeeeeeee*

Sep 17 2012

What Are Your Genre Favs?

Oh, I love a good blogfest, and today, Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting one! *Squee*

(P.S. I’m sure you guys are tired of me squee-ing all over my blog, but I’m just an excitable person!)

One blogfest, four favorites!

List your favorite genre of:

Movie

Music

Books

And a guilty pleasure genre from any of the three categories!

Movie: Good-hearted Fun

Not sure if that’s an actual genre, if not, then I’m making it up (we’re writers, it’s what we do, hahaha).

Most of my favs probably border on stupid funny. Give me flicks like The Princess Bride, Nacho Libre, Napoleon Dynamite, Baby Mama, Spaceballs, The Jerk, Mystery Men (pretty much anything with Ben Stiler in it), and Elf (totally should’ve won an Oscar IMHO).

Music: Christian Rock

Okay, go ahead and poke fun at me! This one was a bit harder since I really listen to everything, but mainly the local Christian station because as their slogan states, “It’s safe for the little ears in your family,” and well, I like to shelter my children! As a teacher, I can tell you that we don’t have enough innocence and wonder left in kids these days. There are no more mysteries, they know it all. Okay, I’ll stop preaching. Some of my favs I like to rock out to are: Building 429, Barlow Girl, Need to Breathe, Newsboys (seen them so many times in concert I feel like they’re my distant cousins), Third Day, Skillet, and Superchick.

Books: Everything YA

Especially paranormal and fantasy. If you need some good picks, I recommend The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices Series, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter (obviously), The Cambion Chronicles, Soul Screamers books, The Sweet Trilogy, Divergent Trilogy, Halflings Series, and The Kane Chronicles (and yes, all of those have at least a wee-bit of romance in them–every good book does!)

Okay, now for a guilty pleasure from any of these categories.

Johnny Stecchino

Johnny Stecchino is a 1991 Italian comedy film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni (the guy who won an Oscar for Life is Beautiful and stood on the back of the chairs and applauded. He’s one wild & crazy guy!)

Johnny Stecchino is about a kindhearted but bumbling idiot who likes to steal bananas.

I recommend inviting your friends over for banana splits and watching the movie.

Trust me, you’ll be ROTFL:-)

So, dear friends, what are your favorites?

Sep 12 2012

Taking the New Adult Journey

Today I’m super excited to welcome a guest post by my Curiosity Quills sister, Ayden Morgen. Her New Adult novel, Fade, was just released. It’s downloaded onto my Kindle and as soon as I finish my edits I plan on devoting my weekend to reading it! Check out the book description:

What do you do when you realize that nothing in your life is what you’ve always believed it to be?

The death of Arionna Jacobs’ mother has devastated her, and Dace Matthews is torn in two, unable to communicate with the feral animal caged in his mind. When they meet, Dace tumbles into Arionna’s mind as if he belongs there, and everything they thought they knew about themselves and the world around them begins to fall apart. Neither of them understands what is happening to them or why and they’re running out of time to figure it out.

An ancient Norse prophesy of destruction has been set into motion, and what destiny has in store for them is bigger than either could have ever imagined. The end is coming, and unless they learn to trust themselves and one another, they may never unravel the mystery surrounding who they are to one another, and what that means for the world.

Doesn’t that sound A*W*E*S*O*M*E?!?! That’s a rhetorical question folks because yes, yes it most certainly does:-) Now without further delay, here’s Ayden in her own words about taking the journey into the world of New Adult novels:

Like many in my generation, I grew up reading Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High series. I discovered the books in the fourth grade, and quickly fell in love. Our local library had a seemingly endless selection of the books for me to choose from. When I made it through those, I eagerly saved my allowance to grab the newest addition to the series each time one hit the shelves.

My love for reading and writing young adult began there, and so did my adoration of the romantic side of the series as a whole. Elizabeth and Todd’s relationship left me swooning, as did Jessica’s passionate, but often brief love affairs with the boys of SweetValley. By the time I made it to high school, I’d added historical and contemporary romance to my reading list. And as with the SVH books, I fell in love.

Naturally, I soon decided to try my hand at writing historical and contemporary romance too, but discovered I had no clue what I was doing. As a high school student, I had no personal experience to dwell on. I imagined I understood what it must have been like to fall in love in the days of lavish parties for the nobility and abject poverty for the lower classes. I also imagined I had a clue what it was like to juggle a career or children with a budding romance in current times. But the truth was, I didn’t know.

By the time I finished high school, I’d grown frustrated with the poorly written and never completed manuscripts piling up in the corner. I yearned for a return to those early days when I could get inside a characters head and tell their stories well. And so I returned to my first love. Unlike with my attempts at historical and contemporary, I knew these characters. I passed them in the halls every day in high school, hung out with them in my bedroom, and spent countless hours on the phone with them. I was one of these characters, and writing their stories came naturally to me.

In college, my life changed rapidly. I struggled to juggle being a newlywed with being a full-time college student, a full-time volunteer, and a full-time home health aide. Even more challenging was the unexpected, early arrival of my critically ill nephew. He required frequent, long-term hospitalizations and around the clock skilled-care. My entire life turned upside down as we fought for his life, and I realized that I wasn’t the only one dealing with huge, frightening changes, either.

There were, literally, thousands of college kids my age facing the same sorts of challenges, but no one was writing about those kids. New adults like me were overlooked or outright ignored in the publishing industry, leaving us reading novels that no longer fit quite well, or with those still years beyond where we were in their lives. I didn’t have any grand plan to change that, but I did decide I didn’t want to be stuck writing characters that didn’t always reach far enough just because that’s the way it’d always been done.

And so my quest to write those characters I could relate to began in earnest. As with young adult, the new adult genre fit me. I knew those characters, because I was one of those characters. At twenty-eight, in many ways, I’m still one of those characters. I don’t know what it’s like to be thirty-five and at the height of a very successful career, but I do know what it’s like to be a newbie in the career field, or any of a thousand things new adults deal with daily. And I remember what it’s like to be that college student whose life changed overnight, too.

Unlike when I was that kid though, new adult novels have begun to find their place in the publishing industry, and to give an entire generation of twenty-somethings like me a voice we lacked then. We can skim the list of upcoming titles and find characters we can relate to, whether they’re high school seniors, college freshman, or nearing the end of those crazy years when everything changes, and we don’t always deal as gracefully as we might wish.

The journey here hasn’t been easy. There were times while writing Fade when I felt like, literally, the only one in the world starting out with a nineteen year old heroine. I had so many questions, but six years ago, finding someone who knew the answers to those questions was no easy feat. That’s changed drastically since Fade first began taking shape, and so has the willingness of publishers to take a chance on those of us who mix young and new adult characters and situations in our works. Personally, I couldn’t be happier about that!

xoxo,

A.K.M.

A.K. Morgen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas with her husband, and three crazy pets. Her debut young adult novel, Fade (The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book One) is available now from Curiosity Quills Press. You can learn more about Ayden and her writing at: http://akmorgen.com. You can also find Ayden on Twitter (http://twitter.com/akmorgen), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/AKMorgen1), and on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/AKMorgen).

Aug 22 2012

LOOK!!!

Two weeks ago I was tagged by Marisa Cleveland, Krystal Wade, and Jessa Russo to participate in the LOOK Challenge.

According to the rules of the game, I’m supposed to search my work in progress for the first usage of the word “look,” paste the surrounding paragraph into my blog, and tag as many people as possible. Here’s a paragraph from my YA novel, 18 Things, released later this year by Curiosity Quills Press.

I notice then it looks like Conner’s not breathing. At all. I drop the phone, call still connected, inside the backpack and risk flipping the boat by pulling him up. The fourteen footer tilts and sways, almost dumping me. Breath floats around me as I pant from exertion. My mind flashes to when Conner and I were kids, obsessed with seeing our own air in winter. We’d down hot chocolate and run outside, blowing ‘smoke’ out of our mouths. Now, I can’t believe I have any warmth left in me to cause this phenomenon. One arm clings to the boat, the other to Conner as I haul him up, falling backwards. His body collapses on top of me. His face is chalk colored, like he’s dead.

What do ya think? Hope you enjoyed it:-) Now for the fun part of tagging others . . .

On a sidenote, sorry for not visiting many blogs these past two weeks. I’ve been busy editing & writing, & drowning in teacher stuff now that school’s back in session . . . which is why I haven’t posted the past 2 weeks (don’t think it’s fair to post if I can’t comment/visit others in return). But I promise to be back next Wednesday with lots of pics from the Star Wars Celebration VI. Okay, I shouldn’t “promise” since there’s a hurricane headed straight for us!

~May the force be with you:-)

Aug 8 2012

Winners, Blogiversary, & Anniversary!!!

H*A*P*P*Y 14th Anniversary to my husband, the wonderful Mr. Ayres. We have two daughters, a basset hound, and two hermit crabs together and somehow, he still makes me laugh on this crazy journey called life. Coincidentally, I also met him when I was 14 years old, on the first day of high school. Some of you have heard this, but I KNEW the moment I saw him that I’d marry him. And although I tease him on bad days that it was the devil’s voice I heard, I know it was really God’s. I’m so thankful to have married my best friend and that he still loves me unconditionally:-)

It’s also my two-year blogiversary (really August 1st but I forgot last week during my Buccaneer blogfest wrapup). Soooo what better way to celebrate than by having a few frozen cocktails and . . .

Cheers–Butterbeers For Everyone!

by giving away some books! If you commented last week, then you remember (maybe? if you’re like me, you can’t remember yesterday. I’ve tried taking pills for this problem but I can’t remember to take them;-) I’m giving away 5 YA books. According to my random student selector (yes, school did start today *sigh* but my students are pretty awesome), the winners are–

Congrats!!! *throws confetti* Please email me at info@jamieayres.com by next Wednesday to claim your prize. Don’t forget to tell me which book you want: Candor, Subject Seven, Switched, Wake, or XVI.

Be sure to check back next Wednesday. I’ve been tagged by several for the “look” challenge so I’ll be giving you a sneak peek at my novel, 18 Things, which will be released soon by Curiosity Quills Press. Please be sure to like my publisher on Facebook–we’re going for 50,000 or bust!

Jamie Ayres

Novelist of YA Coming of Age Love Stories with a Paranormal Twist

Category Agents, Authors, Books, Oh My!!!