Friday, August 31, 2012

Feature Friday: Ruth Frances Long

A lifelong fan of fantasy, and romance, Ruth Frances Long studied English Literature, History of Religions, and Celtic Civilization in college and now works in a specialized library of rare and unusual books.

Her fantasy novels and novellas, including The Scroll Thief and Soul Fire, have been published by Samhain Publishing in the United States. Her forthcoming book The Treachery of Beautiful Things, published by Dial Books (a Penguin (USA) imprint) on 16th August 2012, is her first novel for teens.


Interview:
A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Ruth:
Keep going. Don't stop. Get the end of your manuscript. Then you can go back and fix it. A first draft is never perfect (I'd be highly suspicious if it was). The process is like a sculpture - you start off by carving a basic shape and then refine it and refine it witheach edit.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Ruth:
Tough to choose just one but I'll go for The Grey King by Susan Cooper - magic & Arthurian legends in modern Wales.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for The Treachery of Beautiful Things?

Ruth:
Really the idea came from Jenny herself. I had the idea of a girl approaching a small copse of woods, but being too scared to go in. She was so sad and I wanted to know why. I also love English folklore and wanted to explore it myself.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing The Treachery of Beautiful Things? What were they and how did you fix them?

Ruth:
The scene at Wayland's Smithy was probably the most tricky. I had been there and to The White Horse of Uffington as a child and was basing my writing on those memories (the place really made an impact). But the technical parts of it - how to get form one to the other, which way the chalk horse faced, what the place smelled like... they weren't clear. I used Google maps, queried friends on twitter and by email, and contacted The Friends of the Ridgeway, a society dedicated to preserving the heritage of the area. And in the end we had a family weekend away and visited it. It was truly magical. It's such a beautiful place, and if old gods linger anywhere, it's there.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in The Treachery of Beautiful Things is your favorite and why?

Ruth:
Jack. How could I not love Jack?

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Ruth:
I've always wanted to write, or at least to tell stories. I almost gave up but persevered. And at my lowest point I sold my first short story to Hadley Rille Books for the Ruins Metropolis Anthology. So I am the prime example of never giving up.

A.L.:
What are you working on now? Sequel? Something new?

Ruth:
I'm looking into the possibility of a sequel, but nothing has been decided as yet. While The Treachery of Beautiful Things is a stand alone story, I feel there is a lot that Jenny, and particularly Jack, have yet to say.

A.L.:
I LOVE faeries! Tell me, did you fashion your faeries from existing faeries or did you make up your very own?

Ruth:
Mostly they are existing fairies, sometimes with a different twist. I wanted The Realm to be the place where our fairy tales and legends come from, so there had to be a mix of fairies from everywhere. It was a challenge to combine them all, but I love the effect. I also needed to make new twists on the older stories. And as I wrote about fairies, it seems fitting that more traditional fairytales, like Snow White and Cinderella started to creep in between the words, while I wrote.

A.L.:
You live in Ireland! First I'd like to say, I'm totally jealous. I've been there and they had to peel my fingers out of the sod to get me to leave... Anyway. Second, I have to ask: Living in what many consider the "heart" of the faerie realm, have you had any experiences with the fae? Would you ever want to? Or are they just things that get put in stories?

Ruth:
The belief in fairies is still pretty strong here. Even though people will tell you its just stories, just made up, I doubt you'd find many people willing to walking into a fairy ring at night, or move a fairy stone, not when it actualy came down to it. Though people might publicly profess not to believe, old habits die hard. We still have stories. I can't say I've had definite experiences, but there are places--mountains, forests, hidden valleys-- where you can certainly get the feeling that they're near.

A.L.:
Will you be doing an American tour for your book? If so, where would you like to visit if you have some free time?

Ruth:
There's no tour planned at the moment unfortunately, but I would love to one day. I would anywhere and everywhere and have a list as long as my arm of places I'd like to go. I've only been to New York and Washington D.C. once. I adored the Air and Space Museum. I'd love to see San Francisco, Seattle, Death Valley, the Kennedy Space Centre in Orlando (and Harry Potter World of course), Hawaii... just everywhere. It would be so exciting. One day, probably with my family in tow as usual. :D

The Giveaway:
The Treachery of Beautiful Things: A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.

Read Goodreads Reviews.
Get it on Barnes and Noble.
Get it on Amazon.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to international entrants.

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Monday, August 27, 2012

Monday Muse: We Are The Fallen -- SLEEP WELL, MY ANGEL unofficial video



Something nice and calm before the crazy, tense week ahead. I've got DragonCon this week, so I'll be all over the place! Enjoy!

Friday, August 24, 2012

Feature Friday: Suzanne Lazear

Suzanne Lazear’s young adult steampunk dark fairytale, INNOCENT DARKNESS, book 1 of The Aether Chronicles, will be released from Flux in August of 2012. Suzanne lives in Southern California with her daughter, the hubby, and a hermit crab, where she’s currently attempting to make a raygun to match her ballgown. Visit her blog at www.suzannewrites.blogspot.com She’s also part of the Steampunk group blog Steamed http://www.ageofsteam.wordpress.com Learn more about The Aether Chronicles at www.aetherchronicles.com or www.facebook.com/theaethercrhonicles

Interview:
A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Suzanne:
Write every day – even if it’s for five minutes. It’s important to make it a habit.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book?

Suzanne:
Little Men by Louis May Alcott.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Innocent Darkness?

Suzanne:
I’d wanted to write a story about a girl who gets sucked into Faerie from her backyard. That idea turned into INNOCENT DARKNESS.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing Innocent Darkness? What were they and how did you fix them?

Suzanne:
Yes, I hit a huge roadblock about 30k in – where Noli falls into the Otherworld. I was really convinced I couldn’t write this book the way it deserved to be written. It took me three months to get back on track.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in Innocent Darkness is your favorite and why?

Suzanne:
Oh, that’s a tough one. James is one of my favorites. There’s not as much of him in book 1 as I wanted. Originally, there was going to be 5 POVs, not 3, then I realized how long that book would be. But one day I’ll write James and Charlotte’s story. But there’s quite a bit of him in book 2. He’s just so different from both V and Kevighn.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Suzanne:
INNOCENT DARKNESS was completed manuscript #10. It was the fourth I queried and only my second YA book. I sold in April of 2012, so it was 27 months between selling and it actually landing on the shelves. I really didn’t realize before I sold that selling is really just the beginning.

A.L.:
What are you working on now? Sequel? Something new?

Suzanne:
Yes, I’m finishing up book 2, I’m also exploring Elfpunk and Cyberpunk – two other very fun genres.

A.L.:
You're a YA steampunk author! Yay! So, for the readers who may not be familiar with steampunk, can you give us a quick in-you-own-writerly-words definition? Then, can you highlight what the steampunkiest bits of your novel are?

Suzanne:
Steampunk is the intersection of Victorian romanticism and modern technology. It’s the future as imagined by the past. My favorite steampunky element is Noli’s flying car, the Big Bad Pixymobile, which is a Hestin-Dervish Pixy.

A.L.:
Steampunk meets faeries. How'd you manage to balance that one out? Is there still steampunk technology in Otherwold or just in Noli's world?

Suzanne:
Noli’s world, the mortal realm, is very steampunk, filled with airships and flying cars and hovercops. On the other hand, the Otherworld isn’t really steampunk, after all, it Faerie, it runs on magic. However, the high queen and her court are a bit clockpunk. She’s obsessed with toys and amusements, especially mechanical animals. She’s far more interested in amusements than her kingdom. Since so much of book 1 takes place in the Otherworld it was difficult to keep the steampunk vibe flowing through the entire book. Book 2 takes place mostly in the mortal realm, on an airship, so it was much easier to highlight the steampunk elements.

A.L.:
Do you walk around LA in a corset?

Suzanne:
Only if I’m on a panel or giving a talk about my book.

A.L.:
If you could live in a steampunk world would it be alternate history or alternate world?

Suzanne:
I think I’d like an alternate world all together.

The Giveaway:
Suzanne is going to send an autographed copy of INNOCENT DARKNESS to one lucky winner!

Innocent Darkness:Sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her and brings her to the Otherworld, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.
Read Goodreads Reviews.
Get it on Barnes and Noble.
Get it on Amazon.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to international entrants.


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Friday, August 17, 2012

Feature Friday: Dan Krokos

Today we've got Dan Krokos visiting us! After pumping gas for nine years to put himself through college, Dan Krokos, now twenty-six, dropped out to write full-time. He enjoys watching TV, playing MMORPGs, and drinking coffee. Currently, he’s hard at work on the next book in Miranda’s journey. Follow his antics on twitter (@DanKrokos)

Interview:
A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Dan:
Everyone says write and read as much as you can, which is probably the best advice. But I’ll say this, because it was crucial to me:

Learn to let go. I let go early on, and it made all the difference. That means when you finish a manuscript and you know your skill level isn’t quite there, just move on. I wrote three manuscripts before I started editing myself. They kept getting better, but I knew I wasn’t there, and I just wanted to keep trying new stuff. You have to make it fun in the beginning.

And keep this in mind: if you keep getting better with each book, you have to succeed eventually. It’s just a matter of time.

A.L.
What's your favorite book and why?

Dan:
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell. It’s an adult crime literary thing. It’s a masterpiece. The writing is flawless. Very rarely do I read a book that has a line that just punches me right in the intestines. The voice is incredible, and it’s highly visual, and extremely funny. In short, it’s everything I love about stories in one book.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for False Memory?

Dan:
I’d written an urban fantasy about a new type of magic. The magic gave people the ability to control fear in others. It intrigued me, and stuck with me even though I wrote several books after it. Growing up, I was a very fearful person. I was afraid of bees and girls and speaking in public and meeting new people, and driving with friends, and my future. I let it control me.

I knew I wanted to revisit this idea. I first used Miranda North in a YA paranormal thriller, but decided to try a pure thriller. No one else was doing that on the YA side. I had to read adult books to get that fix—namely the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. I brought the fear idea along, and slowly Miranda and her past began to take shape.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing False Memory? What were they and how did you fix them?

Dan:
I had trouble writing from the point of view of a teen girl. Thankfully for book 2 I already knew Miranda well. I’m actually looking forward to book 3, since I’ve spent so much time in her head now.

Along the way, several women in publishing (around 6) read False Memory and were able to give me feedback. I learned a lot about girls. Their help was invaluable. Without them, I think Miranda would’ve been inauthentic.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in False Memory is your favorite and why?

Dan:
Peter. He’s the guy I wish I could be. All the qualities I strive for. He’s not as funny as Noah, but his goodness makes up for that.

A.L.:
You're pretty young for an author (whose actually getting published). Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author? How long have you been writing? Did you always want to be a writer?

Dan:
I did not always want to be a writer. When I was a kid, I wanted to act. I wanted to work in movies. Then I wanted to be a police officer. I went to college for law enforcement. I took the tests and scored high. But then I rediscovered my love of reading, which lead to a love of writing.

Once I finished that first novel, I knew there was nothing else for me to do. I started writing the summer of 2007. I finished my first book in March 2008. I got an agent in August 2009. And sold my first book in October 2010.

I will say part of my journey involved three books a year and no social life. I put every ounce of energy into making my dream a reality.

A.L.:
What are you working on now? We see you're writing the sequel and a MG novel with aliens! Will you continue on the SF track?

Dan:
I just finished False Memory 2, which was an epic 20 month (on and off) ride that I’m really proud of. Right now I’m working on edits for THE PLANET THIEVES, which is my MG debut coming in May 2013. This is a better summary than I could write: “When the crew of the SS Egypt gets massacred by an alien race, Mason Stark, a thirteen-year-old cadet in the Earth Space Command, must lead his fellow cadets in a daring surprise attack to retake the ship, and recover a stolen technology that could spell the end of planet Earth.” It is a pure adventure story, and the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book. I’m also working on False Memory 3.

Once I’ve finished all the books on my plate, we’ll see what direction I want to go. I like trying new things. I doubt my next YA series will be sci fi, but for MG, I hope I get the opportunity to write many, many books in the Planet Thieves universe.

A.L.:
Now that you're not pumping gas, we assume that you spend copious amounts of time writing and drinking coffee. But when you're not doing that, we assume you play MMORPGs (perhaps also while drinking coffee and writing). What's your favorite game and why? Also, just for SAGs, what's the awesomest (yes, that's not a word, I know) character that you've ever played and why?

Dan:
My favorite game of all time is actually a series of games called Mass Effect. It’s the perfect blend of storytelling and gameplay. There are three games in the trilogy.

The awesomest character I’ve ever played has to be Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. He’s got a great story and feels like a real hero. But I have not played the Arkham Asylum series yet, so I’m guessing Batman will oust him whenever I do.

Granted, I haven’t played many other RPGs. I played WoW for years (like 6), and City of Heroes before that, but you aren’t really playing a character. I’m also a huge Halo fan.

A.L.:
Since you're sort of sparse on personal details in your bio...What's the coolest trip you've ever been on? What happened (leave out the illegal stuff, you're a YA author now), where'd you go?

Dan:
The coolest trip was actually one I took just this June. I went to LA for over two weeks. I just hung out with my buddy who moved there. We ate at IHOP 8 times. I got to visit all of the different movie lots, which was a childhood dream come true.

A.L.:
What's it like writing a superhuman?

Dan:
Incredibly fun, because there is almost no limit to what you can come up with. Miranda and her friends are highly trained, but they don’t have any special powers outside of their ability to control fear. I really wanted to ground them. If you run them over with a car, they will die.

I’ve written several superhero novels, though, and those are pure fun. I think after three False Memory books, I will try to focus on a main character who can’t necessarily sword fight and shoot guns while riding on motorcycles.

The Giveaway:
Dan is going to send FALSE MEMORY to one lucky winner!

False Memory: Miranda wakes up alone on a park bench with no memory. In her panic, she releases a mysterious energy that incites pure terror in everyone around her. Except Peter, a boy who isn't at all surprised by Miranda's shocking ability.

Left with no choice but to trust this stranger, Miranda discovers she was trained to be a weapon and is part of an elite force of genetically-altered teens who possess flawless combat skills and powers strong enough to destroy a city. But adjusting to her old life isn't easy--especially with Noah, the boyfriend she can't remember loving. Then Miranda uncovers a dark truth that sets her team on the run. Suddenly her past doesn't seem to matter...when there may not be a future.

Dan Krokos' debut is a tour-de-force of non-stop action that will leave readers begging for the next book in this bold and powerful new series.

Read Goodreads Reviews.
Get it on Barnes and Noble.
Get it on Amazon.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to US entrants only.

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Feature Friday: Gina Rosati

Today we have the adventurous and awesome Ms. Gina Rosati!

Gina lives in southern New Hampshire with her husband, two teenagers and two chubby guinea pigs. Auracle is her debut novel.

 Interview:
A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Gina:
Besides read (everything!) and write (as often as possible) I highly recommend you buy, read and highlight the heck out of Story Engineering by Larry Brooks http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987 You might not be an outline kind of writer, but there's a lot of great info in there you need to know.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Gina:
I love The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery so much, I referred to it in Auracle. I love it because of the fennec fox and his secret ... so very true!

This is what our little guy looks like right now :)


A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Auracle?

Gina:
For about ten years, off and on, I'd get really scary bouts of sleep paralysis, which included lucid nightmares. I've read a lot of conflicting information about them, including that they are caused by stress (highly likely in my case) or they are caused by waking up during an out-of-body experience while you are still half out of your body (which is less likely in my case, but infinitely more fascinating and I thought it would make a good book). Although I still think my dreams were stress induced.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing Auracle? What were they and how did you fix them?

Gina:
When I started writing Auracle, I didn't understand the importance of story structure. I had the basic "what if a girl could astrally project and witnessed a death, and the dead person took over her body," and that was about it. I sat down at the computer based on that idea and started typing and when I got stuck, I added a kissing scene.Sooo many kissing scenes! I managed to bang out a 300+ page manuscript, and I sent it out to friends who love me and told me it was good stuff, so I queried agents with the first chapter. I guess my early writing voice was decent because I had a few requests to see more of the manuscript. Andrea Somberg from Harvey Klinger, Inc. made some excellent suggestions about plot, character, theme, story structure, etc., and invited me to resubmit it once I rewrote the last 2/3 of the book. Andrea signed me about four months later.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in Auracle is your favorite and why?

Gina:
Rei. A few people have commented that they think he's too perfect because he's good looking, smart and a nice guy, but if you look closer, you'll see the people pleasing, obsessive/compulsive personality at work. He's actually a complicated guy who was a lot of fun to write.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Gina:
I didn't want to be an author when I was a kid - I wanted to be an elementary school teacher. It wasn't until I was in my mid-late 20's that I thought it would be fun to write a book. The entire writing/publishing process seemed very daunting to me, but one day, I walked into a library and figured if all those people could write a book and get it published, why couldn't I? I took a creative writing course at Northeastern University, and the teacher was really encouraging. She asked if she could enter a short story I wrote in the university writing contest, and it was chosen as a finalist. Writing a novel is very different than writing a short story, and even though I had an idea for a novel, and I had a 60 page outline, I suffered from what I call "Perfect Page 1 Syndrome" - I thought I had to get that first page just right before I could move on to the next page. I spent six months trying to perfect the beginning of that book, and when I had my son, it was just easier to pack my writing away and concentrate on being a mother. It wasn't until my own mother was in last stage Alzheimer's that I decided life was short and if I truly wanted to write a book, now was the time.

A.L.:
What are you working on now? Sequel? Something new?

Gina:
Auracle is a stand-alone novel. I may consider a companion novel at some point told from Callie's POV (with Seth, Anna and Rei all featuring into the story) but right now, I'm working on a historical/fantasy/speculative fiction.

A.L.:
What's it like trying to write about someone who astrally projects? Did you do research for that or just sort of make things up as you went?

Gina:
Writing about someone who can astrally project is really fun - the question became "where would I go if I could go anywhere in the universe?" My biggest problem was not giving Anna a broader area to explore, but the plot centered around the situation in Burlington, so that limited Anna. I did a tremendous amount of research, I spoke to people who told me they have traveled astrally before, I read a lot of books about the subject, but at the end of the day, I did make up a great deal, too.

A.L.:
So, you got a tattoo as research for this book. Can we ask what it and the others are, or are those personal?

Gina:
Sure - the first tattoo I had done is three shooting stars, all in black/outline. I was really hesitant to have anything that would show, so these are between my shoulder blades. Then I grew a little braver and had really colorful shooting stars done on my right calf, just above my ankle. Then I grew braver still, and had a bright green celtic tree done on the inside of my right wrist.


A.L.:
If all the cuddly animals that you love so much were to get together in one room, which would you pet first?

Gina:
Oh!! The fennec baby, for sure! And the puppies! And then the kitties! And the bunnies! And the guinea pigs! Wait ... are there raccoon babies? Those too! I'd even pat the tarantula ... they're fuzzy.

A.L.:
We know you ditched the sugary soda and now you're all about diet soda. What's your flavor of choice? Coke vs. Pepsi? Or something more exotic?

Gina:
I have to give up the diet soda, too - it's really unhealthy! I bounce around. I used to drink 32 oz. of full sugar Coke in the red can a day, but when I gave that up, I lost 20 pounds in a year and kept it off (it's been 3 years now). Right now, I drink Dr. Pepper Ten (which has ten calories and a small amount of HF corn syrup) during the day and Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi at night. I try to balance it out with plenty of water in between.

The Giveaway:
Gina is giving away one signed edition of Auracle and two swag bags!
Auracle16 year old Anna Rogan has a secret she's only shared with her best friend, Rei; she can astrally project out of her body, allowing her spirit to explore the world and the far reaches of the universe.

When there's a fatal accident and her classmate Taylor takes over Anna's body, what was an exhilarating distraction from her repressive home life threatens to become a permanent state. Faced with a future trapped in another dimension, Anna turns to Rei for help. Now the two of them must find a way to get Anna back into her body and stop Taylor from accusing an innocent friend of murder. Together Anna and Rei form a plan but it doesn't take into account the deeper feelings that are beginning to grow between them.






Read Goodreads Reviews.
Get it on Barnes and Noble.
Get it on Amazon.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to international entrants.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Young Adult Giveaway/Hop

I'm also giving away AURACLE by Gina Rosati (here),



The Giveaway:
One lucky winner gets to chose a book from the listing below:
Girl of Nightmares: It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.

Wake: Fall under the spell of Wake—the first book in an achingly beautiful new series by celebrated author Amanda Hocking—and lose yourself to the Watersong.

Gorgeous. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Lexi and Thea have caught everyone's attention—but it’s Gemma who’s attracted theirs. She’s the one they’ve chosen to be part of their group.

Gemma seems to have it all—she’s carefree, pretty, and falling in love with Alex, the boy next door. He’s always been just a friend, but this summer they’ve taken their relationship to the next level, and now there’s no going back. Then one night, Gemma’s ordinary life changes forever. She’s taking a late night swim under the stars when she finds Penn, Lexi and Thea partying on the cove. They invite her to join them, and the next morning she wakes up on the beach feeling groggy and sick, knowing something is different.

Suddenly Gemma is stronger, faster, and more beautiful than ever. But her new powers come with a terrifying price. And as she uncovers the truth, she’s is forced to choose between staying with those she loves—or entering a new world brimming with dark hungers and unimaginable secrets.

Rift: Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer's internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!

Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother's life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.

With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.

Darkness Before Dawn: Only sunlight can save us.

We built the wall to keep them out, to keep us safe. But it also makes us prisoners, trapped in what's left of our ravaged city, fearing nightfall.

After the death of my parents, it's up to me—as the newest delegate for humanity—to bargain with our vampire overlord. I thought I was ready. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the monsters. Then again, nothing could have prepared me for Lord Valentine . . . or his son. Maybe not all vampires are killers. Maybe it's safe to let one in.

Only one thing is certain: Even the wall is not enough. A war is coming and we cannot hide forever.

The Goddess Legacy: For millennia we've caught only glimpses of the lives and loves of the gods and goddesses on Olympus. Now Aimée Carter pulls back the curtain on how they became the powerful, petty, loving and dangerous immortals that Kate Winters knows.

Calliope/Hera represented constancy and yet had a husband who never matched her faithfulness….

Ava/Aphrodite was the goddess of love and yet commitment was a totally different deal….

Persephone was urged to marry one man, yet longed for another….

James/Hermes loved to make trouble for others#151;but never knew true loss before….

Henry/Hades's solitary existence had grown too wearisome to continue. But meeting Kate Winters gave him a new hope….

The Awakening of Ren Crown: Determination...Friendship...Magic...

Devastated by the loss of her twin--and consumed by the realization that magic actually exists--gifted art student Ren Crown embarks on a dangerous course and illegally enrolls in a fantastical university determined to bring her brother back to life. She enters a world of magic beyond imagination and finds herself an unwitting pawn in a treacherous political game.

Trusting the wrong person will cost Ren her freedom, magic, and life. But surrounded by compelling people--including a cold, talented roommate, a genius magical engineer, and the most powerful combat mage of their age--her hardest choice may be trusting her own heart.

The Awakening of Ren Crown is a 100,000+ word young adult/crossover fantasy that may appeal to fans of JK Rowling, Cassandra Clare, and Sarah Rees Brennan.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to international entrants.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, August 3, 2012

Feature Friday: Kristen-Paige Madonia

Kristen-Paige Madonia’s debut, Fingerprints of You, is a young adult novel published by Simon & Schuster, and her recent short fiction can be found in Upstreet, New Orleans Review, American Fiction: Best Previously Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers, Sycamore Review, Inkwell, and South Dakota Review. She is the 2012 D.H. Lawrence Fellow and a Sewanee Writers’ Conference Tennessee Williams Scholar. She has also received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Hedgebrook, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Studios of Key West and was the 2010 recipient of the New Orleans Literary Festival/Tennessee Williams award. In addition, she was the 2008 Marianne Russo Scholarship recipient as awarded by the Key West Literary Seminar. She holds an MFA from California State University, Long Beach and teaches creative writing at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA where she is at work on her second novel.

Interview:
A.L.:
What advice would you give to a budding author?

Kristen-Paige:
My first rule for new writers is that there are no rules - there is no one way to go about it. Writing is a leap of faith, which is exactly why I do it. It's a strange and messy process - it's all about the art of discovery and you should never feel pressure to follow the trends or genre-specific guidelines.

I also like to recommend that if you can afford the time and money to take classes and attend conferences, do so. There's an element of isolation that can creep into the writing life, and engaging in a writing community can alleviate that. The Tennessee Williams Festival, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Juniper Summer Writing Institute, Key West Literary Seminar... there is so much to be gained from the workshops and readings you'll find at these places. There are some amazing organizations out there, and most of them offer scholarships and awards. It's important to take your time with your work and not feel rushed to send it out, and attending workshops will help you stay focused on the craft, on the art of creating fiction, versus the industry side of things. I think it's such a common mistake, I still do it myself, but it's best not to send your work out until it's as strong as you can possibly make it, and sharing drafts with other writers is a great place to start in terms of revising and polishing.

But mainly I suggest you don't bother doing it at all unless your heart is one-hundred percent in it, unless nothing makes you happier than finding that perfect sentence or creating that wonderful character you want to spend hundreds of pages with. A lot of people will tell you "no" - rejection is inevitably a large part of the process, so you have to be doing it for you, not for them. If you're writing because you're happiest when writing, then you're in good shape.

A.L.:
Fingerprints of You is a very heartfelt coming of age story, where did you get the inspiration for it?

Kristen-Paige:
I began writing the book when I was living in San Francisco, and I knew that I wanted to write a novel set in the city. In that way the book is a kind of thank you note to SF and the way it shaped, inspired, and changed my perspective when I lived there. But the real seeds for Fingerprints of You came from Lemon and Stella, as most of my work begins with the characters. I was teaching in an elementary school and spent all of my free time camped out in coffee shops working on the final draft of another book, a novel I started in graduate school. It was during one of those afternoons that I noticed a woman and a teenager crossing Fillmore Street, and just like that, Lemon & Stella arrived in my imagination and wouldn't let go. The woman seemed feisty but fragile somehow, and young to be a mother, and the girl was confident in the way teenagers can be but still so very vulnerable. It was only a few moments that I saw them, but I couldn't get them out of my head and became fascinated by the idea of exploring a mother-daughter relationship set in a single-parent household where the mother, Stella, was still trying to find her own way in the world while simultaneously raising a teenager. The book always belonged the them and to that strange time period when a parent realizes their child is becoming an adult, and the child realizes the world is much larger and more complicated than they had known.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing the book?

Kristen-Paige:
Absolutely, that's just part of the process. I struggled with the ending during my first round of rewrites and again after we sold the book to Simon & Schuster while I was working on the final draft. I always knew something was off but never could quite get it right in terms of the sequence of events that followed the climactic scenes. I'm fortunate because I have the most amazing agent a writer could ever hope for, one of the few that still makes time to work with her authors editorially. So we talked a lot about those final chapters, and I spent a good amount of time revising them before we began submitting the manuscript. And then I went through the same process all over again once I started working with my brilliant editor at Simon & Schuster

A.L.:
Who is your favorite character in Fingerprints of You and why?

Kristen-Paige:
What an impossible question! Of course my heart belongs to Lemon, to her perseverance, to her sassiness, her brave and relentless nature, her struggles and triumphs. But I'm also so fond of Stella, too. The more time I spent with her and the more I was able to unpack her past and understand how complex she was and why she made the decisions that she made for her and Lemon, well she certainly became a favorite as well. I always enjoyed writing Cassie's scenes too, she's just so hip, so lovely and smart and kind. And like Lemon, I became enamored with Aiden once the book set up camp in San Francisco. I've got a thing for Vespas, so he won me over that first night he met Lemon and Emmy. And Emmy! Who wouldn't want to jump on a Greyhound bus and head cross-county with a fearless friend like Emmy? And by the end, I absolutely fell in love with Ryan, too, with his quiet nature and his love of music. Like I said, that's just an impossible question to answer.

A.L.:
You teach Creative Writing, I assume that means you also like to read? What’s your favorite book and why?

Kristen-Paige:
I read everything and anything I can get my hands on, so inevitably my "favorite" changes all the time. In terms of the classics, Great Expectations is always at the top of the list because I love the storyline and setting but also because of the brave and vulnerable voice we find in Pip. And Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote - I absolutely love that cast of characters. I also read a lot of newly published contemporary fiction. I'm a big fan of T.C. Boyle and Raymond Carver, A. M. Holmes and Zadie Smith. I've been reading a lot of YA lately and always love John Green and Jay Asher's books... Laurie Halse Anderson and Gayle Forman both write amazing novels, too. A new favorite is John Corey Whaley's Where Things Come Back and of course, always, the original YA genius: Judy Blume.

A.L.:
Was it hard writing from the perspective of a young girl who you may, or may not, have common experiences with?

Kristen-Paige:
There are so many things Lemon experiences that have absolutely nothing to do with my own life, and while that can be challenging at times, it's also one of the reasons I write in general: to create a world unlike my own. When I teach, I always recommend that my students give their central characters one attribute that is similar to themselves and one attribute that is extremely different because it steers them away from writing about their lives and frees them from the confines of truth, but it also keeps them connected to their characters. I try to do the same thing in my work. So yes, it's hard to write a first person narrative about a girl that has gone through a lot of things I have not, but that's why I write fiction, so that I can imagine being in someone else's shoes, so that I can explore someone else's world. And we do share some characteristics... like Lemon, I have a strong wanderlust and love to explore new places and environments outside of my comfort zone. I also read constantly, enjoy seeing live music, and rely heavily on my friends for support and comfort.

A.L.:
On Goodreads it says there is an illustrator for your book. Is the book illustrated? If so, what was it like working with an illustrator?

Kristen-Paige:
I love this question because it gives me a chance to talk about my amazing cover art! S&S assigned an art designer for the book, a brilliant woman who was committed to creating some outside of the norm for Fingerprints of You. So she met with a number of tattoo artists and ended up bringing in Terry Ribera, the person listed as the "illustrator," to create a customized font and design for my book. I was floored - I had never seen a book cover quite like it, which is exactly what they were hoping for. And it's so beautiful! Though I've never met Terry (I believe he moved from NY to CA shortly after we worked with him), he seems to be fairly well known in the world of tattoo artists, and he did an incredible job. I've spent hours on his website looking at his images! The book begins in a tattoo parlor and repeatedly returns to the idea of inking, so it made perfect sense. So no, there aren't actually illustrations, though each chapter heading has a design pulled from the cover, but every aspect of the cover art was customized for the book by Terry Ribera.

A.L.:
You’ve had a number of smaller pieces published before this debut novel, can you tell us a little bit about your journey to publication and how good it felt to have a novel published?

Kristen-Paige:
There really is nothing like it - when my agent called to tell me we got an offer from S&S BFYR... well there just aren't any words to explain what that's like. I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I have my MFA and have been studying the craft for years, but I began Fingerprints of You in 2008, sold the book in 2010, and then worked on it for two years leading up the publication date, so it's a long process, but worth every single moment. Like many writers, I have a book in the drawer; the novel I started in grad school was the project that led me to my agent, but ultimately it was never published. That was disheartening, of course, but during that time period I had a mentor remind me, simply, that my job wasn't to sell the book; my job was to write another one. So I did - I threw everything I had into writing Fingerprints of You as a distraction from the fact that I was collecting rejections for that first novel. Looking back, part of my heart will always belong to that first manuscript. There's a rawness there that I love, but it wasn't meant to be my debut. It just wasn't, and I firmly believe I'm a stronger writer for having written that book. Fingerprints of You wouldn't be the novel that it is if I hadn't created the book in the drawer first.

A.L.:
On your website there’s a “Lemon’s Lists” section where you’re going to post Lemon’s famous recipes. I’m curious to know, are these recipes going to reflect your own preferences for that-which-is-sweet?

Kristen-Paige:
Yes! Oh, I have the worse sweet-tooth ever, it's terrible, so I'll certainly post lots of delicious recipes! Lemon's Lists is going to be a blast... each month for the first 6 months after publication, she's going to release a list of all kinds of different things, some related to the book, and some not. Readers will have access to the PlayList she made for her road trip, to the list of places she recommends for anyone visiting San Francisco, to her Favorite-Books List, her Favorite-Recipes List... is should be a lot fun!

A.L.:
What are you working on now?

Kristen-Paige:
So many things! I just completed the first draft of a new novel, a book extremely different than Fingerprints of You and one written for the adult literary market. I still have a lot of work to do on that novel, but my next project after that will be another YA book, one based on an idea that I'm nervous about and intimated by, which I think is a good sign. So those are my two current writing projects. But for now I'm mostly trying to enjoy the process of sending Fingerprints of You out into the world. It's a terrifying and amazing thing to do. You work so hard for so long at this private and intimate endeavor, and then you send it off into the hands of strangers to read and take what they will from it. I think that's going to be a pretty wonderful experience to be a part of, and I want to make time to enjoy every moment of it.

The Giveaway:
Kristen-Paige is going to ship FINGERPRINTS OF YOU to one lucky winner!
Fingerprints of You: Lemon grew up with Stella, a single mom who wasn’t exactly maternal. Stella always had a drink in her hand and a new boyfriend every few months, and when things got out of hand, she would whisk Lemon off to a new town for a fresh beginning. Now, just as they are moving yet again, Lemon discovers that she is pregnant from a reckless encounter—with a guy Stella had been flirting with.

On the verge of revisiting her mother’s mistakes, Lemon struggles to cope with the idea of herself as a young unmarried mother, as well as the fact that she’s never met her own father. Determined to have at least one big adventure before she has the baby, Lemon sets off on a cross-country road trip, intending not only to meet her father, but to figure out who she wants to be.

Read Goodreads Reviews.
Get it on Barnes and Noble.
Get it on Amazon.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the green "Do It" buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the green enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to US entrants only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway