I'm so in love with this...
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
PLAYING HURT COVER ART
I've been so anxious to post this one! Here she is, the cover art for PLAYING HURT (due out March 1, 2011):
I'm so in love with this...
I'm so in love with this...
Sunday, July 18, 2010
NEW AUTHOR ALERT: STEPHANIE BLAKE
I'm ecstatic to help spread the news: Stephanie Blake recently sold her debut middle grade novel, THE MARBLE QUEEN, to Marshall Cavendish (the novel is set for a 2012 release)! Stephanie was kind enough to give us the scoop on how she broke into the market...
Congrats on the sale of your first novel—what an incredible accomplishment! Give us a synopsis, whet our appetites.
THE MARBLE QUEEN is a historical middle grade novel about a 9-year old girl named Freedom Jane McKenzie who longs to enter and win a local marble-shooting competition, even though she is told by everyone around her, including her difficult mama, that marbles are for boys.
What's your background? (Did you study lit in college? Were you a journalist, etc.? What brought you to the writing profession and to fiction specifically?)
I wrote sappy love poetry as a teenager, and my favorite classes were English and creative writing. I had a great English teacher in high school who really encouraged me. As a senior, I worked for the local newspaper as a cub reporter. I thought I wanted to be a journalist. I have a B.A. in English, but my minor is in technical writing. I had a couple of poems published. I worked for several years in telecom, writing employee handbooks and policies & procedures, but I’ve always written creatively on the side.
Why middle grade?
Middle grade is such an amazing time for kids. Most kids are dorks. They love their parents. They still sleep with stuffed animals. They get scared of the dark and of lightening. They worry about getting boobs and armpit hair. For some reason, I am really in touch with that. I was always the new kid because we moved around a lot. I didn’t make friends very easily, so I got lost in books. I loved to read about regular kids doing regular things. I think most kids are curious about other kid’s lives. It’s those years from about age nine to twelve that really define how a person will turn out. High school is all about fitting in, but in middle grade one can really explore things without worrying too much about what other kids think.
Growing up, my favorite authors were Beverly Cleary, Lois Lenski, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Judy Blume. I just loved Ramona and her way of thinking. In some ways, my character, Freedom, is a lot like Ramona.
Did you ever feel your background helped / hurt as you sought publication? In what way?
My college classes definitely helped. Also, I am a researcher by nature. When you go for publication without an agent, you have to figure things out on your own. Also, I am kind of stubborn. I don’t like to hear the word no. That college grammar class I had to take twice is coming in handy, too.
How long did it take to get to the first acceptance?
It took almost exactly four years, three novels, working with three agents, and over 200 rejections on various things before I sold THE MARBLE QUEEN, which got thirteen passes.
How many manuscripts did you write before drafting THE MARBLE QUEEN?
I wrote several short stories in the years after college. I wrote a couple of plays. I started a bad romance novel, but lost interest. I wrote articles for YourHub.com. And about four years ago, I wrote this horribly clichéd women’s fiction (think Nicholas Sparks) and sent it around to a couple of editors. It had some lovely moments, but was really not ready.
THE MARBLE QUEEN is the 3rd middle grade manuscript I’ve written. It is also my favorite thing I’ve ever done.
How many times did you rewrite THE MARBLE QUEEN before selling it?
THE MARBLE QUEEN has been through about five revisions. I did two revisions for an editor at FSG. They passed, but those revisions definitely made the book stronger. I did another revision for Robin before she offered to buy it.
How'd you do it—agent or editor (slush pile)?
THE MARBLE QUEEN is a slush baby. It actually languished in the slush for over 10 months before my editor, Robin Benjamin, emailed to ask if it was still available. She said it needed some revisions before she could take it to acquisitions and asked if I was interested. She sent me some notes, I worked on it and sent it back. It took 13 months all together from submission to offer.
Why do you think your submission stood out in the mountains of slush?
Marshall Cavendish accepts full manuscripts, so I printed it out, put a nice cover letter on top, addressed it to Robin Benjamn, and sent it out in a plain old brown envelope. One of my kids kissed it before I dropped it in the mailbox. I don’t think I included an SASE. Then, I waited. About 6 months later, I put it on the “no response means no” list. Was it luck? Yes.
What was the best part of the acquisitions process? Scariest?
The day of THE CALL was the best day ever. I cried, I hollered, and we celebrated with champagne. Telling my father I was being published was wonderful. Signing the contract was pretty cool, too. The scariest was waiting for Robin to get back to me after I had sent revisions to her. I waited about six weeks, and I doubted myself the whole time.
Why Marshall Cavendish?
Marshall Cavendish puts out some beautiful, meaningful books. I had studied their lists, read some of their books, and I knew from research that Robin likes historical fiction. Actually, she rejected my first novel in 2006, but wrote a very nice personal comment about my writing on the bottom of the form, so she went on my “to query again” list. Also, they take unagented material—bonus!
What was the one thing that helped you snare that first deal more than anything else? (This could be anything—attending a conference, or maybe establishing an online presence or joining a writer's group...it might even be a personality trait.)
Persistence. I am really involved on the blue boards, I have a blog and a website. I am a member of Publisher Marketplace, and I have gone to three big SCBWI conferences. I had an agent for my 2nd manuscript. I have met tons of great people, other authors and editors and agents, but none of that matters. It is about the work. You have to be willing to revise. You have to get your butt in the chair and write. And rewrite. And after all that you have to target your submissions, which means finding out everything you can about the editor or agent your are submitting to.
If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing as you began your journey toward publication, what would that be?
I would tell myself two things. First, slow down and second, spell check is not the same as revision.
...When I'm not in front of the computer, which is nearly always, I can be found in my backyard with my dog, my husband and my three boys in Parker, Colorado. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d be a country singer. you can find out more about me on my blog. stephaniejblake.blogspot.com.
Hear that, guys? Three agents later, Stephanie sold her manuscript on her own. (As a slush pile success story, I love to hear about authors forging their own way!)
I, for one, have THE MARBLE QUEEN on my 2012 TBR list...Thanks for stopping by, Stephanie!
Congrats on the sale of your first novel—what an incredible accomplishment! Give us a synopsis, whet our appetites.
THE MARBLE QUEEN is a historical middle grade novel about a 9-year old girl named Freedom Jane McKenzie who longs to enter and win a local marble-shooting competition, even though she is told by everyone around her, including her difficult mama, that marbles are for boys.
What's your background? (Did you study lit in college? Were you a journalist, etc.? What brought you to the writing profession and to fiction specifically?)
I wrote sappy love poetry as a teenager, and my favorite classes were English and creative writing. I had a great English teacher in high school who really encouraged me. As a senior, I worked for the local newspaper as a cub reporter. I thought I wanted to be a journalist. I have a B.A. in English, but my minor is in technical writing. I had a couple of poems published. I worked for several years in telecom, writing employee handbooks and policies & procedures, but I’ve always written creatively on the side.
Why middle grade?
Middle grade is such an amazing time for kids. Most kids are dorks. They love their parents. They still sleep with stuffed animals. They get scared of the dark and of lightening. They worry about getting boobs and armpit hair. For some reason, I am really in touch with that. I was always the new kid because we moved around a lot. I didn’t make friends very easily, so I got lost in books. I loved to read about regular kids doing regular things. I think most kids are curious about other kid’s lives. It’s those years from about age nine to twelve that really define how a person will turn out. High school is all about fitting in, but in middle grade one can really explore things without worrying too much about what other kids think.
Growing up, my favorite authors were Beverly Cleary, Lois Lenski, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Judy Blume. I just loved Ramona and her way of thinking. In some ways, my character, Freedom, is a lot like Ramona.
Did you ever feel your background helped / hurt as you sought publication? In what way?
My college classes definitely helped. Also, I am a researcher by nature. When you go for publication without an agent, you have to figure things out on your own. Also, I am kind of stubborn. I don’t like to hear the word no. That college grammar class I had to take twice is coming in handy, too.
How long did it take to get to the first acceptance?
It took almost exactly four years, three novels, working with three agents, and over 200 rejections on various things before I sold THE MARBLE QUEEN, which got thirteen passes.
How many manuscripts did you write before drafting THE MARBLE QUEEN?
I wrote several short stories in the years after college. I wrote a couple of plays. I started a bad romance novel, but lost interest. I wrote articles for YourHub.com. And about four years ago, I wrote this horribly clichéd women’s fiction (think Nicholas Sparks) and sent it around to a couple of editors. It had some lovely moments, but was really not ready.
THE MARBLE QUEEN is the 3rd middle grade manuscript I’ve written. It is also my favorite thing I’ve ever done.
How many times did you rewrite THE MARBLE QUEEN before selling it?
THE MARBLE QUEEN has been through about five revisions. I did two revisions for an editor at FSG. They passed, but those revisions definitely made the book stronger. I did another revision for Robin before she offered to buy it.
How'd you do it—agent or editor (slush pile)?
THE MARBLE QUEEN is a slush baby. It actually languished in the slush for over 10 months before my editor, Robin Benjamin, emailed to ask if it was still available. She said it needed some revisions before she could take it to acquisitions and asked if I was interested. She sent me some notes, I worked on it and sent it back. It took 13 months all together from submission to offer.
Why do you think your submission stood out in the mountains of slush?
Marshall Cavendish accepts full manuscripts, so I printed it out, put a nice cover letter on top, addressed it to Robin Benjamn, and sent it out in a plain old brown envelope. One of my kids kissed it before I dropped it in the mailbox. I don’t think I included an SASE. Then, I waited. About 6 months later, I put it on the “no response means no” list. Was it luck? Yes.
What was the best part of the acquisitions process? Scariest?
The day of THE CALL was the best day ever. I cried, I hollered, and we celebrated with champagne. Telling my father I was being published was wonderful. Signing the contract was pretty cool, too. The scariest was waiting for Robin to get back to me after I had sent revisions to her. I waited about six weeks, and I doubted myself the whole time.
Why Marshall Cavendish?
Marshall Cavendish puts out some beautiful, meaningful books. I had studied their lists, read some of their books, and I knew from research that Robin likes historical fiction. Actually, she rejected my first novel in 2006, but wrote a very nice personal comment about my writing on the bottom of the form, so she went on my “to query again” list. Also, they take unagented material—bonus!
What was the one thing that helped you snare that first deal more than anything else? (This could be anything—attending a conference, or maybe establishing an online presence or joining a writer's group...it might even be a personality trait.)
Persistence. I am really involved on the blue boards, I have a blog and a website. I am a member of Publisher Marketplace, and I have gone to three big SCBWI conferences. I had an agent for my 2nd manuscript. I have met tons of great people, other authors and editors and agents, but none of that matters. It is about the work. You have to be willing to revise. You have to get your butt in the chair and write. And rewrite. And after all that you have to target your submissions, which means finding out everything you can about the editor or agent your are submitting to.
If you could go back in time and tell yourself one thing as you began your journey toward publication, what would that be?
I would tell myself two things. First, slow down and second, spell check is not the same as revision.
...When I'm not in front of the computer, which is nearly always, I can be found in my backyard with my dog, my husband and my three boys in Parker, Colorado. If I wasn’t a writer, I’d be a country singer. you can find out more about me on my blog. stephaniejblake.blogspot.com.
Hear that, guys? Three agents later, Stephanie sold her manuscript on her own. (As a slush pile success story, I love to hear about authors forging their own way!)
I, for one, have THE MARBLE QUEEN on my 2012 TBR list...Thanks for stopping by, Stephanie!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
A BLUE SO DARK GIVEAWAY + MOVIE CAST
Okay, I've finally got it figured out: the cast of the movie version of A BLUE SO DARK. (This question keeps poppin' up, so I finally sat down and really thought about it...) For Aura? I'm thinkin' Selena Gomez:
For Grace? Marisa Tomei:
Head on over to Vision Quest Fail to read the latest interview (and to find out how I decided on Gomez for Aura...) And don't forget to enter Caitlin's giveaway of a signed copy...contest ends July 20!
For Grace? Marisa Tomei:
Head on over to Vision Quest Fail to read the latest interview (and to find out how I decided on Gomez for Aura...) And don't forget to enter Caitlin's giveaway of a signed copy...contest ends July 20!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
HOLLY CUPALA’S VIRTUAL TOUR!
I’m thrilled to be a part of fellow ’10 debut-er Holly Cupala’s whirlwind, world-wide virtual book tour! I recently had a chance to dig into her novel, TELL ME A SECRET…and I have to say that I’m completely impressed with Holly’s talent for building a story, amping up tension, propelling you to read on to the end. TELL ME A SECRET is a literary, emotional novel…but the last half of her book reads so quickly, you’d swear you had your hands on an adventure. Really.
...As part of her tour, Holly was kind enough to share some secrets of her own—about the process of finding her voice, about the development of her first novel, and even a little about her sophomore novel, due out in ’11!
1) Tell us about TELL ME A SECRET:
Miranda Mathison is seventeen and on the edge of everything she wants—art school, a dreamy boyfriend, and a new friend to unlock the secrets left behind by her bad-girl sister, who died mysteriously five years before. Miranda has been the good daughter, holding everything together until she can escape, but now she a secret of her own—one that will jeopardize everything. She takes a pregnancy test, and that’s when things get interesting…
2) I love the title…I know of at least two working titles you had before the final. Can you tell us how you arrived at TELL ME A SECRET?
Ha! Yes, the saga of the titles! Though I think we finally—at the eleventh hour—landed on the best. When the story first came to me, Miranda said, “I don’t have chicken soup in my soul…I have brimstone.” (Yes, I’m one of those people, whose characters talk to them.) Anyway, that was her voice. So the initial draft was called Brimstone Soup. When my publisher called about the pre-empt, they loved everything but the title—and I had to agree. So I sold it as A Light That Never Goes Out (a reference to a Smiths song).
But that title, besides being long, just didn’t lend itself to cover imagery. So I pestered all of my writing friends, kidlit friends, people off the street, to think of titles—we came up with over 200, but none were quite right. Then, the weekend before we HAD to have a final title for the catalog, it finally came to me—it was 2 a.m., I was almost asleep, when I remembered a conversation between Miranda and her sister from the very first chapter: “Tell me a secret, and I’ll tell you one.” That was it! I sat up in bed. I shook my husband! “Honey! Tell Me a Secret! TELL ME A SECRET!” He said, “Mnnnnh.” I took that as a good sign. So I told my editor, and she liked it, too!
3) Describe your voice…Fans of what YA authors will adore TELL ME A SECRET?
Oh, wow. That’s the American Idol question, isn’t it! Do I sing like Pink or Rihanna or the girl in the shower? (For the record: the girl in the shower, definitely!)
Well, I could tell you the authors that I really admire, and I hope my writing would resonate with their readers: Sara Zarr, Laurie Halse Anderson, Rachel Cohn, Sarah Dessen. Ellen Hopkins and Deb Caletti both gave me amazing advance praise, which was such an honor, as I love their books!
4) What was the ah-ha! moment? The I’m-going-to-write-for-teens epiphany?
For a long time, I thought I wanted to write the Great American Novel—until I read The Stinky Cheese Man! That was the aha from adult writing to children’s writing. So I wrote a bunch of completely unpublishable stories for smaller people and had begun a middle grade novel when we hit perhaps our hardest year—in the space of a few months, one of my closest friends’ sister died suddenly, and then my husband and I lost our first daughter at birth. Everything I’d been working on suddenly seemed very empty. I almost gave up writing.
A few months later, I went to a writing conference, and my friend Justina Chen (author of NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL) invited me out to lunch and very kindly asked if I was thinking of writing about the loss. Then we went to hear Libba Bray at the conference (she’d just come out with A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY), and all of a sudden the idea for TELL ME A SECRET landed in my lap. I started writing as fast as I could. Eventually I received a Work-In-Progress grant and kept going, signed with my amazing agent, and he sold it to our first choice!
There wasn’t an “I’m going to write for teens” moment as much as that’s just where my true voice is. It took a lot to finally find it.
5) What do you admire most in other writers? What writing styles or techniques make you cringe?
I love writing with depth, with poetry of expression, with frank truthfulness. A certain amount of suspense is nice, to keep the story moving. If I care about the characters, I will want to know what happens to them.
Cringe…hmm. I always have a hard time reading 3rd person present tense—for some reason my brain isn’t wired to assimilate information that way. If I’ve heard good things about the book, I’ll find it on audio. I love listening to a good YA!
6) Tell us a little something about your main character, Miranda: What’s her greatest strength? Weakness? Why should we admire her? What’s going to make readers want to accompany her on her journey?
I never really thought of her in those terms. First, she was a voice—It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl. Then, as I wrote, I discovered she had this well of fire inside her, though it’s been trapped by grief and mystery and the duty of holding her family together. She has a fascination with freedom, and escape, and it’s what drives her to chip away, a little at a time, at these layers, and to expose the truth—of her sister’s death, of her own secrets, of the family secrets she knows nothing about…all in the midst of her relationship with her boyfriend, and friends who aren’t what she thinks they are, and the big question: what is she going to do about the pregnancy? What is she going to do with the rest of her life? I hope readers will want to find out!
7) Would you have been friends with Miranda when you were in high school?
I think I probably would have—maybe because we have some key similarities? ;)
I tend to be incredibly loyal and give people the benefit of the doubt, which are qualities of Miranda’s childhood friend, Essence. She is the kind of friend that will stick by someone, even through the roughest times. I think I would have recognized that hunger in Miranda for digging deeper, finding the truth of things—and the allure of the forbidden.
8) What’s your favorite YA character? The one you wished you’d dreamed up and written about?
Oh, there are a few! I just adored Sym from Geraldine McCaughrean’s The White Darkness—brilliant and hilarious and odd. Curt from K.L. Going’s Fat Kid Rules the World. Dashti from Shannon Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days. They’re all funny messengers of truth in very different ways.
9) What role, if any, do you think blogging played in getting you published? Would you encourage unpublished authors to get up and running online BEFORE that first sale?
Definitely—more because of connecting with others in the blogging community than getting published. Your novel must stand on its own to find a publisher, but it’s the bloggers who will run the race with you at any stage and help spread the word when it’s time to celebrate!
10) What was the single most important thing you did pre-publication?
When readergirlz (http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/) asked me to join them, I said yes! If you’re not familiar with readergirlz, it’s an online teen lit community connecting readers with authors and community service begun by Justina Chen, Lorie Ann Grover, Dia Calhoun, and Janet Lee Carey. They invited me to come on board about six months later, and since then we’ve added Melissa Walker, Liz Gallagher, and Elizabeth Scott! It’s been a very cool opportunity to work with amazing authors and teens—and talk about excellent YA books. TELL ME A SECRET will be the featured book in August 2010—I hope you’ll stop by!
11) I know you’ve been working on a second YA, tentatively titled STREET CREED. Can you tell us a little secret about the sophomore novel?
The best secret is that my editor loved it! So now we are working on the edits to get it ready for a Fall 2011 launch date. Hmmm, more secrets…I’ve rewritten this six times now…there’s this one scene…amazing boy...sigh…best friend said, “Hubba hubba,” and I was sort of embarrassed that the guys in my life (husband, agent, brother, dad) would eventually read it…ok, I think that’s all I can say for now! *blush*
Miranda Mathison is seventeen and on the edge of everything she wants—art school, a dreamy boyfriend, and a new friend to unlock the secrets left behind by her bad-girl sister, who died mysteriously five years before. Miranda has been the good daughter, holding everything together until she can escape, but now she a secret of her own—one that will jeopardize everything. She takes a pregnancy test, and that’s when things get interesting…
2) I love the title…I know of at least two working titles you had before the final. Can you tell us how you arrived at TELL ME A SECRET?
Ha! Yes, the saga of the titles! Though I think we finally—at the eleventh hour—landed on the best. When the story first came to me, Miranda said, “I don’t have chicken soup in my soul…I have brimstone.” (Yes, I’m one of those people, whose characters talk to them.) Anyway, that was her voice. So the initial draft was called Brimstone Soup. When my publisher called about the pre-empt, they loved everything but the title—and I had to agree. So I sold it as A Light That Never Goes Out (a reference to a Smiths song).
But that title, besides being long, just didn’t lend itself to cover imagery. So I pestered all of my writing friends, kidlit friends, people off the street, to think of titles—we came up with over 200, but none were quite right. Then, the weekend before we HAD to have a final title for the catalog, it finally came to me—it was 2 a.m., I was almost asleep, when I remembered a conversation between Miranda and her sister from the very first chapter: “Tell me a secret, and I’ll tell you one.” That was it! I sat up in bed. I shook my husband! “Honey! Tell Me a Secret! TELL ME A SECRET!” He said, “Mnnnnh.” I took that as a good sign. So I told my editor, and she liked it, too!
3) Describe your voice…Fans of what YA authors will adore TELL ME A SECRET?
Oh, wow. That’s the American Idol question, isn’t it! Do I sing like Pink or Rihanna or the girl in the shower? (For the record: the girl in the shower, definitely!)
Well, I could tell you the authors that I really admire, and I hope my writing would resonate with their readers: Sara Zarr, Laurie Halse Anderson, Rachel Cohn, Sarah Dessen. Ellen Hopkins and Deb Caletti both gave me amazing advance praise, which was such an honor, as I love their books!
4) What was the ah-ha! moment? The I’m-going-to-write-for-teens epiphany?
For a long time, I thought I wanted to write the Great American Novel—until I read The Stinky Cheese Man! That was the aha from adult writing to children’s writing. So I wrote a bunch of completely unpublishable stories for smaller people and had begun a middle grade novel when we hit perhaps our hardest year—in the space of a few months, one of my closest friends’ sister died suddenly, and then my husband and I lost our first daughter at birth. Everything I’d been working on suddenly seemed very empty. I almost gave up writing.
A few months later, I went to a writing conference, and my friend Justina Chen (author of NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL) invited me out to lunch and very kindly asked if I was thinking of writing about the loss. Then we went to hear Libba Bray at the conference (she’d just come out with A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY), and all of a sudden the idea for TELL ME A SECRET landed in my lap. I started writing as fast as I could. Eventually I received a Work-In-Progress grant and kept going, signed with my amazing agent, and he sold it to our first choice!
There wasn’t an “I’m going to write for teens” moment as much as that’s just where my true voice is. It took a lot to finally find it.
5) What do you admire most in other writers? What writing styles or techniques make you cringe?
I love writing with depth, with poetry of expression, with frank truthfulness. A certain amount of suspense is nice, to keep the story moving. If I care about the characters, I will want to know what happens to them.
Cringe…hmm. I always have a hard time reading 3rd person present tense—for some reason my brain isn’t wired to assimilate information that way. If I’ve heard good things about the book, I’ll find it on audio. I love listening to a good YA!
6) Tell us a little something about your main character, Miranda: What’s her greatest strength? Weakness? Why should we admire her? What’s going to make readers want to accompany her on her journey?
I never really thought of her in those terms. First, she was a voice—It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl. Then, as I wrote, I discovered she had this well of fire inside her, though it’s been trapped by grief and mystery and the duty of holding her family together. She has a fascination with freedom, and escape, and it’s what drives her to chip away, a little at a time, at these layers, and to expose the truth—of her sister’s death, of her own secrets, of the family secrets she knows nothing about…all in the midst of her relationship with her boyfriend, and friends who aren’t what she thinks they are, and the big question: what is she going to do about the pregnancy? What is she going to do with the rest of her life? I hope readers will want to find out!
7) Would you have been friends with Miranda when you were in high school?
I think I probably would have—maybe because we have some key similarities? ;)
I tend to be incredibly loyal and give people the benefit of the doubt, which are qualities of Miranda’s childhood friend, Essence. She is the kind of friend that will stick by someone, even through the roughest times. I think I would have recognized that hunger in Miranda for digging deeper, finding the truth of things—and the allure of the forbidden.
8) What’s your favorite YA character? The one you wished you’d dreamed up and written about?
Oh, there are a few! I just adored Sym from Geraldine McCaughrean’s The White Darkness—brilliant and hilarious and odd. Curt from K.L. Going’s Fat Kid Rules the World. Dashti from Shannon Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days. They’re all funny messengers of truth in very different ways.
9) What role, if any, do you think blogging played in getting you published? Would you encourage unpublished authors to get up and running online BEFORE that first sale?
Definitely—more because of connecting with others in the blogging community than getting published. Your novel must stand on its own to find a publisher, but it’s the bloggers who will run the race with you at any stage and help spread the word when it’s time to celebrate!
10) What was the single most important thing you did pre-publication?
When readergirlz (http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/) asked me to join them, I said yes! If you’re not familiar with readergirlz, it’s an online teen lit community connecting readers with authors and community service begun by Justina Chen, Lorie Ann Grover, Dia Calhoun, and Janet Lee Carey. They invited me to come on board about six months later, and since then we’ve added Melissa Walker, Liz Gallagher, and Elizabeth Scott! It’s been a very cool opportunity to work with amazing authors and teens—and talk about excellent YA books. TELL ME A SECRET will be the featured book in August 2010—I hope you’ll stop by!
11) I know you’ve been working on a second YA, tentatively titled STREET CREED. Can you tell us a little secret about the sophomore novel?
The best secret is that my editor loved it! So now we are working on the edits to get it ready for a Fall 2011 launch date. Hmmm, more secrets…I’ve rewritten this six times now…there’s this one scene…amazing boy...sigh…best friend said, “Hubba hubba,” and I was sort of embarrassed that the guys in my life (husband, agent, brother, dad) would eventually read it…ok, I think that’s all I can say for now! *blush*
…Now that we’ve whet your appetites:
Check out an excerpt of TELL ME A SECRET.
Leave blog comments at Holly's website for a chance to win signed books, t-shirts, journals, gift cards, and more!
And follow Holly to her next tour stop, at Princess Bookie, Monday, July 12!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
ME AT ALA...
In spirit, anyway! I personally didn't get to go this year, but my incredible local teen librarian, Sarah (GreenBeenTeenQueen) just sent me these pics of A BLUE SO DARK in the Flux booth...
Now, that's what a gal likes to hear...
...She said the stack was bigger, but copies were goin' fast...
Now, that's what a gal likes to hear...
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
DARK ALLEYS, A FRIDAY’S FINEST, AND REVIEW
I’ll fess up: reading reviews of your own book online can be a little like walking down a dark alley at midnight…only to bump into a shadow-cloaked figure who wants nothing more than to tear you to bloody shreds. Seriously. It can be.
Other times, though, it can be absolutely rewarding. Like when I bumped into a mention of A BLUE SO DARK at Michelle’s Bookshelf, in her Friday’s Finest…I really love this new meme…bloggers pull a quote (no spoilers) that haunts them long after they finish a book. (Really allows an author’s work to speak for itself.)
Michelle also had this to say about BLUE:
“This book is so powerful and beautiful. The writing is so stunning. Just in the opening chapter alone I made note of a bunch of quotes that I loved.”
…This morning, when I read the intro to the review recently posted at mydrook reads (“Quick disclaimer: this isn’t really my type of book”), I definitely got that dark alley feeling…until I read on, finding that this reviewer enjoyed BLUE, despite it being outside of her genre of preference, stating, “It well written, carefully thought out, and vividly, at times painfully, realistic.”
…Love her open-mindedness, and the fact that the identified growth in Janny as well as Aura, claiming:
“Both Aura and her friend are dealing with ridiculously difficult things and have practically no one to help them through it. But both of them show believable growth through the course of the novel. Aura starts off as scared, stubborn, and selfish, but by the end she exhibits impressive strength, flexibility, and bravery. The ending, while satisfying, does not set the scene for a squeaky clean, happy ever after for any of the characters, and I liked that. The romance in the story was cute, but definitely not the focus. I thought that might disappoint me, but actually I found it refreshing to read a YA book where the sole concern of the protagonist was something other than finding her soul mate.”
High praise indeed…
…Ooooh, and stay tuned for Friday’s posting, in which we’re visited by Holly Cupala, author of the newly-released TELL ME A SECRET!
Other times, though, it can be absolutely rewarding. Like when I bumped into a mention of A BLUE SO DARK at Michelle’s Bookshelf, in her Friday’s Finest…I really love this new meme…bloggers pull a quote (no spoilers) that haunts them long after they finish a book. (Really allows an author’s work to speak for itself.)
Michelle also had this to say about BLUE:
“This book is so powerful and beautiful. The writing is so stunning. Just in the opening chapter alone I made note of a bunch of quotes that I loved.”
…This morning, when I read the intro to the review recently posted at mydrook reads (“Quick disclaimer: this isn’t really my type of book”), I definitely got that dark alley feeling…until I read on, finding that this reviewer enjoyed BLUE, despite it being outside of her genre of preference, stating, “It well written, carefully thought out, and vividly, at times painfully, realistic.”
…Love her open-mindedness, and the fact that the identified growth in Janny as well as Aura, claiming:
“Both Aura and her friend are dealing with ridiculously difficult things and have practically no one to help them through it. But both of them show believable growth through the course of the novel. Aura starts off as scared, stubborn, and selfish, but by the end she exhibits impressive strength, flexibility, and bravery. The ending, while satisfying, does not set the scene for a squeaky clean, happy ever after for any of the characters, and I liked that. The romance in the story was cute, but definitely not the focus. I thought that might disappoint me, but actually I found it refreshing to read a YA book where the sole concern of the protagonist was something other than finding her soul mate.”
High praise indeed…
…Ooooh, and stay tuned for Friday’s posting, in which we’re visited by Holly Cupala, author of the newly-released TELL ME A SECRET!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
FIRST NOVELS CLUB REVIEW + GIVEAWAY
It's soooo hard to choose a quote to pull from the stunning review of A BLUE SO DARK that was posted yesterday at First Novels Club!
...I do really like the fact that First Novels highlighted the subplots: Aura's relationships with her best friend, her father, her grandmother..."and the possibility of romance in the midst of all the chaos."
First Novels Club is also hosting a giveaway (running through July 9), so head on over to read the review and enter!
...I do really like the fact that First Novels highlighted the subplots: Aura's relationships with her best friend, her father, her grandmother..."and the possibility of romance in the midst of all the chaos."
First Novels Club is also hosting a giveaway (running through July 9), so head on over to read the review and enter!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
PUZZLER INTERVIEW + SECRET
Jill at Reading Is Bliss just posted a fun interview...I really had to think about this one. It was almost like working a crossword puzzle about yourself! Check it out below to see what I mean:
Personal:
5 things readers would be surprised to know about you:
1) I will never, never, never pierce my ears.
2) I’m completely blind—my vision’s 20/700!—and while I really do love my glasses these days (I chucked my contacts a few years ago), I’m rarely photographed wearing them.
3) My favorite non-writing gig was working as a model for a floral show—I wore a hideous blue bridesmaid’s dress, but I got to be with some super-cool florists whose bouquets were WAY artistic.
4) I far prefer vintage to new—costume jewelry, instruments, hats—anything that’s already lived a life or two before I acquired it.
5) I really, honestly think dandelions are beautiful.
4 things you wish you knew in high school:
1) Parallel parking never gets any easier. NEVER.
2) Anything in life is bearable if you just keep your sense of humor.
3) Latin will come in handy. Seriously.
4) Those notebooks I doodled poetry and character sketches in throughout high school would turn out to be INVALUABLE as I wrote that first YA novel. (If I could, I’d go back to high school and kiss me for keeping all those notebooks—really helped me reconnect with my teen voice. Might’ve written even MORE back then, if I’d had a way to see into the future…)
3 things you are embarrassed to own / love / have done:
1) Spiral perm, circa ’88.
2) When I was younger, I HATED wearing my glasses. Mom wanted me to be in high school before I started wearing contacts, so I used to pick out the most HIDEOUS frames on the planet, in order to try to guilt my mom into buying me contacts a few years early. Yeah. That didn’t work so well.
3) My brother and I used to make up stories and act them out on cassette tapes when we were kids…My mom has them all in a drawer. It was great fun, but think I might be kind of embarrassed to listen to myself play-act when I was so young…
2 careers you might have chosen if you weren’t an author:
1) Literature professor
2) Lawyer
1 thing you can’t live without:
Coffee, coffee, coffee…
Bookish:
5 words to describe your book:
Does art free or cripple? Okay—that’s vague. I’ll explain:
In A BLUE SO DARK, Aura Ambrose is terrified that her mother, a schizophrenic and an artist, is a mirror that reflects her own future. As the novel progresses, we find Aura struggling with her overwhelming desires to both chase artistic pursuits and keep madness at bay.
As her mother sinks deeper in the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet keeps drawing Aura toward the depths of her imagination—the shadows of make-believe that she finds frighteningly similar to her mother’s hallucinations.
Convinced that creative equals crazy, Aura shuns her art, and her life unravels in the process….
Essentially, for Aura, art and madness are inextricably linked. And there’s no denying that many of our great artists have been both creative AND mad…so, for her, the central question is, DOES ART FREE OR CRIPPLE?
4 reasons you love writing YA:
1) YA literature still respects plot, in a way a lot of literary adult fiction doesn’t.
2) I still feel seventeen—so close to my own teenage experiences.
3) YA encompasses SO many genres—it can be almost anything.
4) YA has the best fans going!
3 reasons everyone should read your book:
1) It’s lyrically written.
2) It’s brimming with realistic characters you will fall in love with and root for.
3) It’ll make you feel…well, everything. You’ll laugh and you’ll think and you’ll cry. I guarantee.
2 YA books you adore:
1 (contemporary) ELSEWHERE, Gabrielle Zevin
2 (classic) CATCHER IN THE RYE , JD Salinger
1 tip for aspiring YA writers:
Don’t take criticism personally, but don’t ignore it, either. Think of it the same way you would if you were, say, trying to fix your lawnmower. I mean, if you spent all afternoon working on it, and it STILL refused to start after you got it put back together, you wouldn’t think the lawnmower was attacking you personally, or telling you that you were stupid or completely inept, right? You’d just think you’d screwed up somewhere. Time to take it apart and start again—no biggie.
Same with a manuscript. Nobody gets it right the first time. And nobody’s born knowing how to write a novel. You learn by doing…and by listening. If an editor (or agent) has taken time out of his / her day to give you advice, that’s a real compliment. Listen. Internalize it. Revise accordingly. And be grateful that someone sees potential in your work!
Every writer gets there eventually…the only way you DON’T is by giving up.
5 things readers would be surprised to know about you:
1) I will never, never, never pierce my ears.
2) I’m completely blind—my vision’s 20/700!—and while I really do love my glasses these days (I chucked my contacts a few years ago), I’m rarely photographed wearing them.
3) My favorite non-writing gig was working as a model for a floral show—I wore a hideous blue bridesmaid’s dress, but I got to be with some super-cool florists whose bouquets were WAY artistic.
4) I far prefer vintage to new—costume jewelry, instruments, hats—anything that’s already lived a life or two before I acquired it.
5) I really, honestly think dandelions are beautiful.
4 things you wish you knew in high school:
1) Parallel parking never gets any easier. NEVER.
2) Anything in life is bearable if you just keep your sense of humor.
3) Latin will come in handy. Seriously.
4) Those notebooks I doodled poetry and character sketches in throughout high school would turn out to be INVALUABLE as I wrote that first YA novel. (If I could, I’d go back to high school and kiss me for keeping all those notebooks—really helped me reconnect with my teen voice. Might’ve written even MORE back then, if I’d had a way to see into the future…)
3 things you are embarrassed to own / love / have done:
1) Spiral perm, circa ’88.
2) When I was younger, I HATED wearing my glasses. Mom wanted me to be in high school before I started wearing contacts, so I used to pick out the most HIDEOUS frames on the planet, in order to try to guilt my mom into buying me contacts a few years early. Yeah. That didn’t work so well.
3) My brother and I used to make up stories and act them out on cassette tapes when we were kids…My mom has them all in a drawer. It was great fun, but think I might be kind of embarrassed to listen to myself play-act when I was so young…
2 careers you might have chosen if you weren’t an author:
1) Literature professor
2) Lawyer
1 thing you can’t live without:
Coffee, coffee, coffee…
Bookish:
5 words to describe your book:
Does art free or cripple? Okay—that’s vague. I’ll explain:
In A BLUE SO DARK, Aura Ambrose is terrified that her mother, a schizophrenic and an artist, is a mirror that reflects her own future. As the novel progresses, we find Aura struggling with her overwhelming desires to both chase artistic pursuits and keep madness at bay.
As her mother sinks deeper in the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet keeps drawing Aura toward the depths of her imagination—the shadows of make-believe that she finds frighteningly similar to her mother’s hallucinations.
Convinced that creative equals crazy, Aura shuns her art, and her life unravels in the process….
Essentially, for Aura, art and madness are inextricably linked. And there’s no denying that many of our great artists have been both creative AND mad…so, for her, the central question is, DOES ART FREE OR CRIPPLE?
4 reasons you love writing YA:
1) YA literature still respects plot, in a way a lot of literary adult fiction doesn’t.
2) I still feel seventeen—so close to my own teenage experiences.
3) YA encompasses SO many genres—it can be almost anything.
4) YA has the best fans going!
3 reasons everyone should read your book:
1) It’s lyrically written.
2) It’s brimming with realistic characters you will fall in love with and root for.
3) It’ll make you feel…well, everything. You’ll laugh and you’ll think and you’ll cry. I guarantee.
2 YA books you adore:
1 (contemporary) ELSEWHERE, Gabrielle Zevin
2 (classic) CATCHER IN THE RYE , JD Salinger
1 tip for aspiring YA writers:
Don’t take criticism personally, but don’t ignore it, either. Think of it the same way you would if you were, say, trying to fix your lawnmower. I mean, if you spent all afternoon working on it, and it STILL refused to start after you got it put back together, you wouldn’t think the lawnmower was attacking you personally, or telling you that you were stupid or completely inept, right? You’d just think you’d screwed up somewhere. Time to take it apart and start again—no biggie.
Same with a manuscript. Nobody gets it right the first time. And nobody’s born knowing how to write a novel. You learn by doing…and by listening. If an editor (or agent) has taken time out of his / her day to give you advice, that’s a real compliment. Listen. Internalize it. Revise accordingly. And be grateful that someone sees potential in your work!
Every writer gets there eventually…the only way you DON’T is by giving up.
...Little Willow has been running a "secrets" blog series, in which YA authors "spill their guts"...Want to know what I've never admitted out loud before, but am now proclaiming to the entire world? Find out at Bildungsroman...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
BOOK SIGNING
...A fun assortment...
...of pics...
...from my signing at Borders! (I was joined by Jean Stringam, author of THE HOARDERS...)
...And thanks to Sam and Maggie, who have been to all my author events in Springfield!
...of pics...
...from my signing at Borders! (I was joined by Jean Stringam, author of THE HOARDERS...)
...And thanks to Sam and Maggie, who have been to all my author events in Springfield!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
REVIEW, INTERVIEW, AND A FOLLOW-UP
...This kind of thing just makes a gal’s day: Brent at The Naughty Book Kitties recently reviewed BLUE, saying, "A lot of times when I read such lyrical, inspiring novels, I feel like quoting from them all the time. Just because… because the lines are so beautiful and such. Well, I’m like, trying to memorize the whole book, so that one day I can quote it all. I know, crazy."I also really love how he summed up the review: “If you want to read a book so poetic and artistic it makes you feel like finger painting, you should buy A Blue So Dark. And the cover is pretty hot, too.”
…Natalie at Mindful Musings also just posted a fantastic interview, in which she poses such incredible questions as, “Who would be Aura’s favorite artist and why?”
…Patty at Yay! Reads (you can find her review of A BLUE SO DARK here) also posted a really cool interview today…This is my very first follow-up interview, in which I get to talk to a blogger who’s read A BLUE SO DARK. I loved getting a chance to talk to a reader so much, I decided to cross-post the whole shebang:
Patty: After you finished writing A BLUE SO DARK, did Aura’s story end for you or do you know what happens to her after A BLUE SO DARK?
As a reader, when I come to the end of a novel—even a novel that wraps up all the loose ends, nice and neat, big red bow and all…a novel in which the main characters ride off into the sunset, happily ever after—I tend to find myself thinking, AND THEN THEY WOKE UP THE NEXT DAY…
What I mean is, I always think of a novel’s ending as just a pause—a moment to take a deep breath—before the next conflict begins…but that’s just the way LIFE is! We get over one mountain, and barely even get a chance to celebrate before we find ourselves staring straight into the next obstacle we’re going to have to overcome.
I can’t say I have it all mapped out, exactly what would happen to Aura and her mother after the book closes. But they’re obviously not going to have smooth sailing from the novel’s ending on. There will definitely be another mountain for those two, which doesn’t exist on the page…while the book was in development, I found myself constantly imagining new possibilities…
Patty: Do you believe that creativity can lead you to mental illness? Do you think creativity is a way to get OUT of mental illness?
The brain’s a fascinating thing, isn’t it? Even in our modern age, we know so little—and new mysteries crop up all the time: The recent explosion of autism and Alzheimer’s, for example.
Patty: Do you believe that creativity can lead you to mental illness? Do you think creativity is a way to get OUT of mental illness?
The brain’s a fascinating thing, isn’t it? Even in our modern age, we know so little—and new mysteries crop up all the time: The recent explosion of autism and Alzheimer’s, for example.
Creativity, I think, is every bit as mysterious as mental illness. And I do think the two probably are linked—that’s not to say that I think one leads to another, or one can CURE the other. But I think that spark of inspiration—that end product that an artist can envision? That’s a little like a hallucination, isn’t it? Neither one really exists, except in one person’s mind! Both are figments that only one person can “see.”
I don’t think it’s absurd to think that what the brain does—what neurons fire, etc.—as a creative idea is born is unlike what happens in the brain when a “vision” or hallucination comes to life. I think when we understand creativity completely, we’ll understand mental illness. And vice versa.
Patty: Out of many artists who have suffered mental illness, who are your favorites?
I tend to really be fascinated by the artists who remain mysteries: those we really don’t seem to understand, and maybe never will…van Gogh (who was talked about often in the book), for instance: I don’t even think I can count the articles I’ve read, “definitively” explaining the reason he cut off his ear. I’ve read everything from that he did it for a woman, that he did it over a fight with Gauguin, even that he did it because he suffered from chronic debilitating inner ear infections.
I’m not sure we really understand van Gogh—even though we do have a lot of his writing (in the form of letters to his brother). I think so much of a person is lost the moment they pass away, and once the people who personally KNEW them are gone? The jigsaw just doesn’t ever get put back together…especially for a complicated person like van Gogh.
I think the same of Emily Dickinson—not that she’s an example of a mentally ill artist, but I’ve always been intrigued…because she’s someone we will never understand. We’ll speculate. We’ll all have our own theories of who she was. But there will never be a definitive answer, because so little remains of her life (other than her poetry). There’s something about that—about the never-knowing-for-sure—that just keeps sending me back to her work.
But that might be why I tackled a subject like the possible connection between creativity and mental illness. There is no real answer right now, just speculation…In the case of mental illness, though, there’s every chance that we WILL know, that we WILL unlock the mystery—maybe even in our lifetimes! The idea of that is utterly thrilling…
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
REMINDER AND READER RESPONSE
…I recently received a fantastic question from a super-sharp Springfield reader: “Is Crestview a combination of all five Springfield high schools?”
A BLUE SO DARK is, in fact, set in my hometown of Springfield, MO…and while a handful of Springfield landmarks do show up in the novel, Crestview High is not the name of any of Springfield’s high schools…
Crestview is a fictional school.
While a novel is, by definition, a work of fiction, I think readers have a tendency to try to dig out the “truths” of a novel…For example, one question I was constantly asked while my book was in development was whether I grew up with a mentally ill mother! (Nope—I didn’t.)
I simply chose to give Aura’s high school a fictional name to drive home the point that I wasn’t depicting any specific Springfield high school, or, for that matter, any individual who ever attended or worked for the Springfield Public Schools. The characters in my books are 100% dreamed-up.
(I'm answering specifically here regarding "Crestview," because that was how the question reached me...but really, this goes for the entire book. The locations, buildings, names, etc. in BLUE are ALL used fictitiously.)
...One thing that isn’t dreamed-up is my author signing, scheduled for this Saturday (June 26) at the Borders on Glenstone, right here in Springfield, MO. I’ll be signing copies of A BLUE SO DARK from 1-3 p.m.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
A BLUE SO DARK is, in fact, set in my hometown of Springfield, MO…and while a handful of Springfield landmarks do show up in the novel, Crestview High is not the name of any of Springfield’s high schools…
Crestview is a fictional school.
While a novel is, by definition, a work of fiction, I think readers have a tendency to try to dig out the “truths” of a novel…For example, one question I was constantly asked while my book was in development was whether I grew up with a mentally ill mother! (Nope—I didn’t.)
I simply chose to give Aura’s high school a fictional name to drive home the point that I wasn’t depicting any specific Springfield high school, or, for that matter, any individual who ever attended or worked for the Springfield Public Schools. The characters in my books are 100% dreamed-up.
(I'm answering specifically here regarding "Crestview," because that was how the question reached me...but really, this goes for the entire book. The locations, buildings, names, etc. in BLUE are ALL used fictitiously.)
...One thing that isn’t dreamed-up is my author signing, scheduled for this Saturday (June 26) at the Borders on Glenstone, right here in Springfield, MO. I’ll be signing copies of A BLUE SO DARK from 1-3 p.m.Looking forward to seeing you there!
Friday, June 18, 2010
TWO FANTASTIC REVIEWS OF A BLUE SO DARK
I wanted to share a couple of incredible reviews for A BLUE SO DARK that went live this week:
Angela at Reading Angel gave the book five butterflies, explaining:
“However it is more that just a story of a family struggling with sickness, the story goes deeper that that. A Blue So Dark is a journey in relationships with others and ones self, it is a story of love and loss, and of self discovery. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages. It is a profound story that will leave you thinking.”
Angela at Reading Angel gave the book five butterflies, explaining:
“Such a lyrically beautiful book. You know how sometimes you’ll find a sentence that just speaks to you, and you want to write it down somewhere so you don't forget? Well, almost the entire book was that sentence for me. Holly Schindler just has a way with words, that draws you right into the story and won’t let you go until you’ve devoured every last word…I really felt like I was living Aura’s life with her. I wanted to scream and cry and rant as each event would come to pass.”
And Elie at Ellz Reads summed up the book with these powerful words:
“However it is more that just a story of a family struggling with sickness, the story goes deeper that that. A Blue So Dark is a journey in relationships with others and ones self, it is a story of love and loss, and of self discovery. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages. It is a profound story that will leave you thinking.”
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
SECOND PRINTING!
Guys! This just in from my editor at Flux: A BLUE SO DARK has gone for a second printing!
The noise that exploded from my mouth at the news went a little something like this:
WAHTUBALOOOOOSI!
The noise that exploded from my mouth at the news went a little something like this:
WAHTUBALOOOOOSI!
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