COVER LOVE!!!

Alright, I am so, so excited about this post. My writer pal Corrine Jackson is letting me help spread the word about her debut novel, IF I LIE, which comes out on August 28, 2012. And not just "the word"...but the cover too! Squee!!

I met Corrine last February when I was in San Francisco for a writer's conference. We'd "met" online and had bonded over our mutual love for Christian Slater and cheesy 90s movies, so we decided to meet for real. And proceeded to have one of the best conversations about writing and publishing and life that I've ever had. It was fantastic. Corrine is the real deal...super smart, talented, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. She even invited me to lunch with her Bookanista gals, who were fabulous themselves!

Since then, Corrine and I have kept in touch, and she's been a wonderful writing/pub resource, cheerleader, and provider of awesome videos (check out her YA Rebels gig!)

Wait...were you waiting to see her cover? You mean you didn't want to read about how we know each other and how cool she is? You want to hear about her BOOK?

Oh, alright. ;-)

I GUESS

I could shut up

And get to the good stuff...

Corrine Jackson's debut, IF I LIE, comes out on AUGUST 28, 2012 from Simon Pulse.

And THIS is what it's about:

A powerful debut novel about the gray space between truth and perception.

Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.

Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise.

Sounds AMAZING, right? When Corrine first told me about this book, MAJOR HOTSAUCE was deployed in Iraq, so I was particularly interested to hear how she was approaching a situation I had so much personal experience with...and listening to her talk about it, I couldn't WAIT to read it. Still can't!! (Hurry up August!)

And now that I've seen the cover, I'm even MORE excited!

What's that? YOU want to see the cover too? You don't want ME to have all the fun? 

Oh, all right....

Wait for it....

Is this getting annoying yet? ;-)

TA-DA!!!

Isn't it GORGEOUS?? I love the physical tension between the girl and the boy, and the blurred edges, with that one bright splash of color in the title. LOVE IT! Plus, I don't know if this is intentional or not, but I find the fact that the guy pictured on the cover does NOT have a military haircut VERY intriguing..... 

To read more about this awesome book, and the awesome Corrine Jackson, click here to visit her website. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook!

Never Been...

Last week I rewatched the 90's Drew Barrymore film NEVER BEEN KISSED. This is one of my college favorites, but oddly, I've never gotten around to adding it to my DVD collection. So it's been a while since I've seen it.

And maybe it was because I was watching it at 2am while fighting insomnia or because I've been thinking a lot lately about young adult fiction/characters/scenarios...or perhaps because the publishing industry sometimes makes me feel like an awkward, delusional child whose dreams are there to be crushed...

But this movie GOT to me, in a way it hasn't in the past. During the flashbacks of "Josie Geller" in high school, with her frizzy bangs and unfashionable clothes...a little chunky and a lot awkward...I ACHED for her. I was fortunate not to have to deal with too much bullying in high school, but I was absolutely, certifiably NOT. COOL. I WAS, in many ways, Josie Geller. I was a dork, not quite smart enough to be a "brain", socially awkward, glasses-wearing...I suffered the embarrassing, irrational crush on the unattainable guy(s) (in my case, there were many), the excruciatingly cheesy poetry writing...the deep and fearful suspicion that the things I wanted in life - my dreams - were nothing but that...dreams, destined never to become reality.

The funny thing is...my dreams in high school stayed pretty consistent as I grew up. I wanted a handsome, funny guy to adore me. To accept all of my quirks and think I was the most beautiful girl in the world. I still can't believe that dream came true.

And of course, the other one....I wanted to be a writer. A real, honest to goodness, published author. 

The scene where Josie finds out she's being asked to prom by the coolest guy in school, the one she's had a crush on for years....yeah, that's how I felt when my agent offered representation. OMFG IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?!? I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!! And....WHY is this happening? Did she really mean ME?! It's really not a mistake?

And when Josie discovers it was all a cruel joke...when her "prom date" appears with a more beautiful, sophisticated date, and eggs her on the porch on what was supposed to be the happiest night of her life? When she's all dressed up in the prettiest dress she's ever owned and feels like a princess...only to find out she's not a princess at all, but a cinderella whose fairy godmother never bothered to show?

I cried. Never done that before while watching this movie but boy did I cry. I could feel her agony, the buildup of happiness and excitement only to have her dreams splashed into the mud of disappointed hopes. That feeling that her dreams are within her grasp...only to have it all torn away. God, even thinking about it now makes me ache. (And I know it's only a silly movie!)

Rejection in the publishing world - hell, in any world - can feel like that. It can take you from feeling like a princess to a loser in seconds. It can destroy you.

But Josie Geller survived that moment. She survived high school. She survived and flourished, even, with a great job at a newspaper and...by the end of the movie, a hot boyfriend. :-) And she did that by not giving up. She didn't let her dreams die. Sure, going back to high school as an undercover reporter made her relive those awful moments, but she did it anyway. She turned a horrible experience into a defining moment. A triumph. She overcame the badness, got the guy, AND the dream job.

Rejection sucks. On some level it really does feel like someone egging you for even supposing you could live your dream. You feel stupid, like you should have known better. Bitter, sometimes. Cynical. 

BUT.

It makes you stronger too. If you can get back up, clean off your pretty pink princess dress, and try again...if you can win against the bitterness and disappointment and insecurity...if you can get knocked on your ass and STILL try again...

Well, then. You're someone who will succeed. You're someone who will learn from the experience, try harder next time...someone who will turn that awful moment into a building block on the way to achieving your dreams.

Bad Blogger

It's been a busy month, and unfortunately the blog has suffered. My apologies! But I am happy to say I've had the opportunity to read some fantastic books recently...here are a few of my favorites!

ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD by KENDARE BLAKE

Cas Lowood inherited an unusual vocation. He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

Anna Dressed in Blood is a 2011 Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year title.
 

This is the first book I've read in a WHILE with a male protagonist. Partly that's personal preference...partly it's just what's on offer in YA, but I have to say I LOVED Cas's voice. In fact, I loved just about everything about this book. It was super creepy, descriptive, intriguing...the characters were well-developed, and each plot twist was unexpected and yet felt consistent with the world Blake created. Cas was both strong and vulnerable...and gave us a compelling window into his life that made me root for him from the very beginning. As a writer who sometimes struggles to get my main characters to come alive on the page, I have so much respect for Kendare Blake's ability to do this! Cas felt like a living and breathing person, and his responses to events and other characters felt 100% authentic. I'm so happy that there's a sequel coming, so I can live for a little longer in Cas's world.

ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD is a fantastic story wrapped in a gorgeous package. The cover is lovely and I was particularly tickled by the publisher's choice to use blood-red ink instead of black. Awesome touch!

If you haven't read this book and you like spooky, tense thrillers with compelling characters, go pick up a copy!

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by LAINI TAYLOR

From Laini's website:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. 

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Before I ever picked up this book, I'd heard from several friends and all over Twitter how awesome it was. And boy, those folks weren't joking. The world building is absolutely incredible and the writing lyrical and beautiful and totally engaging. It's true that this is not a good book to read, as a writer, if you're in an "I'm a crappy writer" mood, because it is SO good, it'll just reinforce that impression! ;-) But I found it inspiring too. It's such a treat to experience the power and beauty of words, especially as someone who so often reads with a critical eye. With DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, I could just relax and let myself be swept away in Karou's world.

That said, towards the end there's a fairly hefty flashback sequence that dragged a bit for me, though I understood its necessity, and was fully engaged again by the end of the book. This is another where I'm already waiting impatiently for Book 2!

THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by MICHELLE HODKIN

From Michelle's website:

Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

This book is spooky, intense, and wonderfully written. The sense of urgency - along with the fear Mara is going insane - builds so spectacularly that I had to read faster and faster just to keep MYSELF from going crazy! :-) Some scenes in particular were so vivid and compelling I had to reread them - for example, the scene fairly early on with the dog. Won't say more than that, but WOW. 

I admit, I wasn't Team Noah at first...I'm a little tired of the jerky "bad boy" who sleeps around and is mean to the main character, by which behavior we're meant to infer he's sexy and desirable. BUT, Noah DID grow on me throughout the book. Michelle did a great job with character development, actually giving him compelling reasons for his attitude, which as a reader I appreciated. 

And Mara...wow. The question of whether she was suffering PTSD or insanity...we were so squarely in her head that what she experienced felt visceral, intense, real...and satisfyingly creepy. Though, for me, the reveal of what was really going on took just a few too many scenes to get to. Having said that, though, I found the ending both satisfying and maddening...I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel!

Well, that's it for now! Diving back into my own writing...and holidays preparations with MAJOR HOTSAUCE. :-)

Happy Veterans Day

I am very happy that I live in a time when designating one specific day to honor our military doesn't feel SO necessary... On any random day, MAJOR HOTSAUCE can go out to lunch during work and find that someone has paid for his meal, often anonymously. He's frequently thanked for his service by strangers who see him in uniform or folks he strikes up conversations with in stores or when out with friends. Many businesses have military discounts, and on all three of his deployments his units were sent packages from students and various other organizations across the country. It gives me the warm fuzzies to know that strangers treat soldiers with so much consideration and support.

But Veterans Day is still important, because it definitely wasn't always this way. There are the stories about Vietnam vets being jeered at (or worse) when they arrived home from war. Soldiers in WWI and WWII who, because of their color or religious beliefs, were not recognized properly for their accomplishments on the battlefield. 

Every military service member, both active and former, deserves to be honored and appreciated. And those who lost their lives in defense of our country deserve to be remembered. Today and every day.

Being an Army wife is tough sometimes, but I have so much respect for MAJOR HOTSAUCE and his compatriots. Theirs is not an easy lifestyle, and too often it requires terrible sacrifice. But this country wouldn't be the same - or as safe - without our brave men and women in uniform.

Thank you to all active and former servicemen and women for everything you do and the sacrifices you've made to support and defend this country.

And to my sister in law, whose husband is currently deployed, lots of love and hugs to you. He'll be home soon!

Okay, and just for fun...there's nothing like a man(??) in uniform. ;-)

Scrabble is a really good sport. ;-)

(Koko is meant to be a "wounded" veteran - she wouldn't wear the uniform)

Okay, so yeah. Now you all know MAJOR HOTSAUCE and I have, on several occasions, dressed up our dogs in his old uniforms. So. There's that.

And now a picture of MAJOR HOTSAUCE in uniform. Cuz, you know, HE'S the actual veteran. ;-)

Photo: David Trozzo

Happy Veterans Day, y'all.

:-)

Halloween Reading

I've been wanting to write a post about Victoria Schwab's amazing debut, THE NEAR WITCH...and then I found out she's hosting an AWESOME giveaway on her blog, and the stars aligned! Click HERE to go to her site and enter for a variety of amazing prizes! (It's only open til Halloween!)

A few weeks ago, I read The Near Witch and was totally blown away by the beautiful, atmospheric language. This is the kind of book I wish I could write...haunting and lovely and full of fully realized characters and romance. Oh, and danger too. There's definitely danger. It's a perfect book to read this fall, as it gracefully evokes the blustery, crisp days and chill, spooky nights of this time of year. I LOVED LOVED LOVED it.

Isn't the cover gorgeous??

Here's a little more info from the jacket flap:

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. 

 If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. 

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab’s debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won’t soon forget.

And my very favorite passage:

Her eyes widen, blue circles like pieces of sky. "Is it a secret?" she whispers back. In my sister's world, secrets are almost as much fun as games.

"Very much so," I say, my fingers dancing down her arms to her hands, cupping them in mine. I bring our cradled hands up to my lips, whispering into the small place between her palms. "Can you keep it for me?"

Wren smiles and pulls her hands back to her, still cupping the secret as she might a butterfly. 

Pick up a copy of The Near Witch and head over to Victoria's fantastic blog to enter the contest. You won't be sorry!