NaNoWriMo 2014: Actual Writing Advice from Actual Authors!

November 8, 2014November 8, 2014Leave a comment

Hello everyone!

I am so so so so SO excited to be sharing in this post today.

I talk about writing and writing advice a lot when it comes to the blog and my aspiring career as a writer. I am lucky enough that I get to interact with authors on a daily basis, side effects whether over the internet or in person, buy more about and I’ve met SO many inspiring ones that have given me such amazing advice. The advice and guidance that I’ve received over the past two years as whatanerdgirlsays has been so helpful in my journey to becoming a better writer.

Now, I have a goal of 45K words for NaNoWriMo but my biggest goal is to really nail down my character and her development over the course of the story. Evie is my main character and Untitled (it will have a title one day, I promise…) is her story. Its her story in the past, when she’s 15 years old, and its her story in the present, at 19 years old. Both important, and it takes a lot of development. She’s going to develop in both stories and its a little overwhelming but I believe in her and my story.

So when I started planning my NaNoWriMo schedule on the blog, I knew that I wanted a post about writing and writing advice and I wanted to reach out to the authors that I’ve met over the past two years and ask for their assistance in creating and developing characters.

I hope you enjoy. Every single piece of advice of below is unique to this post. Each author was contacted individually and responded individually. There’s seriously awesome, quality advice down there, and I am so grateful for each and every single one of these authors for participating and helping out!

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Jessica Brody, author of The Unremembered Trilogy

When first fleshing out a new main character, I like to start by asking myself one question: What motivates this person. Is it power? Ambition? Love? Idealism? Reason? This helps me begin to narrow down who this person is and how they think/respond to situations. Someone who is motivated by power is going to react very differently in a crisis than someone who is motivated by feeling loved. The second question I ask myself is “What does this character want?” And I don’t mean after the book has started. What do they want BEFORE the first page even begins. It always needs to be something tangible and concrete. Like to win a sports championship. To make it onto a team. To graduate valedictorian. This immediately focuses the story around a central goal. It gives the story direction and purpose before the plot has even begun. When your character’s goals are clear, the reader is more likely to come along for the ride.

Elana K. Arnold, author of the Sacred duology and Burning

When I was a younger writer, I used to disbelieve it when I’d hear people talk about their characters surprising them, their characters heading off in directions they hadn’t planned. Impossible, I’d think. Your characters ARE YOU. They can’t disobey you… they aren’t REAL. For me, characters were like dolls that I bounced around from situation to situation.

I think that’s why I had a hard time completing a project, or even falling deeply in love with one. There was no RISK if I walked away from a story, no real LOSS. Honestly, I don’t know what changed. I think I got older. (Actually, I know I got older.) But over time, I started to become surprised when a plotted-out scene or chapter took a turn away from my outline. Pleasantly surprised.

With INFANDOUS, which will be published in March 2015, plot took a backseat to following around Sephora Golding, my main character, and seeing what she would do. Try this–give your character a secret, and then see where it takes you.

Livia Blackburne, author of Midnight Thief

I’ve found it useful to have all my characters tell their life story and narrate the events of the novel itself in their own voice, with their own commentary.

Katherine Ewell, author of Dear Killer

My main tip in character development is this: make your main character at least a little bit unlikeable. However, no matter how unlikeable said main character is, your reader has to root for them anyway. The easiest way to make a reader like an unlikeable character is to show said character’s weakness and humanity right off the bat: their fears, their likes, their dislikes, what makes them cry, what comforts them, etc. And you can go pretty far with how unlikeable they are at the surface level, take it from someone who knows! Some of the most vivid, fun characters out there are severely messed up. (Take a look at Game of Thrones for tons of great examples.) I feel as if the worst thing you could do in character creation is make a character that has no flaws, or has too few flaws: it is in their flaws that characters and their stories come alive.

Cora Carmack, author of the Losing It series and Rusk University series

When it comes to characterization, I rely pretty heavily on the idea that my main character’s desire should shape the plot, instead of the plot shaping my main character. I don’t want my MC to be just a cog in the bigger mechanism of the story. I want them being the one *making* the machine move, rather than just being a component of it. When I was studying theatre in college, we took a lot of time talking about our character’s objectives and motivations – asking “What does this character want? How will they get it?” and things like that – and that has continued to inform the way I shape my characters.

Tonya Kuper, author of Anomaly

Every character, especially the main character, has to have a GMC – Goal, Motivation, & Conflict – in relation to the plot. I usually have a pretty good picture of my characters before I start plotting, but after the GMC is decided, I know what matters to them, which, in my mind, is the most important thing to know about her main character.

Victoria Scott, author of Fire and Flood and The Collector

I often use friends and family members when creating characters. I note people’s real life quirks and incorporate them into my fictional world. For example, my husband points to what he wants on a menu when ordering. It doesn’t matter if it’s a difficult-to-pronounce dish, or french fires…that man is holding up the menu for the waitress to see, and pointing to his selection. As if she needs to see the item to understand. No matter how many times I call this to his attention, he still does it. That quirk will probably show up in one of my characters to make them more memorable. My advice is to watch the people around you, and keep notes on your phone.

Sara Benincasa, author of Great

You have to love your main character. Even if you hate your main character sometimes, you have to love her. Because if you don’t love her, you won’t want to spend the time it takes to churn out 50,000 or more words centered around her. You don’t need to love her choices. You don’t need to love her attitude. But you do need to love her, somehow, in some corner of your soul

Catherine Linka, author of A Girl Called Fearless

Getting a handle on a character can be pretty haphazard, because we might start out not really knowing them at all. One thing that helps me is finding an object that captures my character. I knew Yates wore tee shirts with quotes, but when I found Thoreau’s quote– “Let your life be the counter friction to stop the machine”–it hit me that was exactly what Yates believed and who he was at heart. In the sequel to A Girl Called Fearless, it was a scary religious tattoo that nailed the character of a new antagonist and suggested his unbalanced righteousness.

CJ Redwine, author of the Defiance trilogy

If YOU aren’t connected to your characters, no one else will be connected either. Characters aren’t scenery to populate your world. This includes secondary characters. Characters aren’t pawns to use in playing out your conflict. Characters CREATE conflict. Connection takes time and effort, just like it does in real life. Take the time to get to know your characters on an intimate level. Find out what their deepest fear is, what they most regret, what they truly want more than anything, and the secret they hope no one discovers.

Lauren Oliver, author of the Delirium Trilogy, Before I Fall and Panic

Do some work to understand what your character wants, and what your character needs, and how these might be different. Think about your character’s formative memories. How does he/she react under pressure? When frightened? What does she like to do for fun? What are her nervous habits? Where does she go to recharge? You have to know your character the way you know your best friend.

Gretchen McNeil, author of Ten, Possess, 3:59 and Get Even

I start with the plot, actually, and the role of my main character in the story. What part does she need to play? What type of person does she need to be so that all of her choices are realistically motivated? Her personality is shaped by the plot, and once I know the core of that, I can begin to layer in the idiosyncracies of character: how she dresses, what she likes to eat, what songs on Pandora make her want to sing along or change the channel, and how she feels about everyone around her. Voila! Character!

Lindsay Cummings, author of The Murder Complex

Characters are my favorite part of a book. Everyone is different…but I always start with a character, and build my world around him/her. For me, the best way to develop my characters and get to know them is to interview them–as if they were real people. I find that, even the silliest questions will give you a glimpse into who each character is, and what motivates them.

Bethany Hagen, author of Landry Park

One of my favorite tricks for developing a character is to make a character sheet before I get started. I use these sheets to help me keep track of a character’s physical attributes (and I might even attach a picture of an actor or model to help me visualize the character.) And I also use these sheets to develop a character’s personality traits: their likes and dislikes, their hopes and dreams, their past mistakes. Not only is it a useful tool for conceiving of a character, but it makes a handy reference to come back to during the drafting process.

Beth Revis, author of the Across the Universe trilogy and The Body Electric

When coming up with your main character, don’t be afraid to go into your own personality to find traits. He or she doesn’t need to be an exact replica of you, but if you have a strong emotion—a fear, a desire, a love or hate—build off that emotion to influence your characters. I was never stuck on a space ship alone, but I made Amy of Across the Universe feel alone the same way I felt alone when I had to go to college, 200 miles from home, with no one I knew near me. I never had my memories messed with like Ella in The Body Electric, but I have had relatives who were affected by Alzheimer’s Disease. Build on these real feelings you have to create realistic characters.

Mindy McGinnis, author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust

I just let my characters go, be real people within the world that I built and let them react naturally, however they want. To me, this is the most organic way of building a “real” fake person.

Marissa Meyer, author of The Lunar Chronicles

After I’ve determined the basics of who my protagonist is (name, age, gender, job, etc.), I like to ask myself two important questions. 1: What does this character want? Giving them a goal from page one will immediately give your story somewhere to go. (Although it’s normal for that goal or desire to change over the course of the story.) And 2: What is this character afraid of? Whatever they’re most afraid of is something that they should have to face (possibly multiple times), and will therefore give them somewhere to grow.

Tamora Pierce, author of The Song of Lioness, The Immortals, and the Protector of the Small quartets and more

The way I write a character is–usually–to start with a person I know or admire (actor, musician, professional wrestler, the character played by an actor). The look has to grab me for the vague outline of the character I need–teacher/mentor, law enforcement in a very loose era, street kid, Then I go through my baby name books till I find the right name. Once I have the right name and the right look, I generally know the character: intellectual, absent-minded, can be very sexy when he wants to be, but easily distractible, and very dangerous when crossed–that was one. Then I needed the slacker daughter of two famous over-achievers who ended up as a spy in a foreign country. I looked through my files of pictures of girls until I had three or four I thought interesting, then I waited for one to grow on me–the one with her head tipped to the side and the knowing smile. I knew she was a smart-alec, really good at flirting and dancing and being silly while taking in everything around her, a daddy’s girl who lived to make mom nuts, but underneath she needs something to fight for.

Sarah Skilton, author of High and Dry and Bruised

In my latest book High & Dry, a Young Adult novel written in the style of a hardboiled detective mystery, Palm Valley high school students “traffic in labels.” As a result, it’s very difficult for my main character, Charlie, to break free from his perceived identity, that of a varsity soccer star with a reputation for playing rough. The problem is, Charlie’s identity is a front he projects to the world in order to survive. I needed to show both sides of his personality: that of a tough guy jock accepted by his peers, and that of a heart-broken sci-fi nerd–a trait he keeps hidden. For example, Charlie tries to win back his ex-girlfriend, Ellie, by suggesting they both take Ellie’s little brother to a sci-fi movie. In this way, he gets to show Ellie he’s a “nice guy” while also indulging his own secret hope of seeing the movie. When constructing a main character, ask yourself, “Who is this person really, and who does he/she pretend to be?” The answers may surprise you!

Cinda Williams Chima, author of The Heir Chronicles and the Seven Realms series

After publishing nine books and writing several more, I still haven’t settled on the best way to develop character. Everything goes much more smoothly if I know the character very well from the beginning. And yet, that process of filling out a character questionnaire or deciding what he has in his pockets or dresser drawer doesn’t really work for me.

With the Seven Realms series, I knew the main characters, Han Alister, Raisa ana’Marrianna, and Micah sul’Bayar very well, because I had already written extensively about them as adults. So all I had to do was think about what they would have been like at sixteen and seventeen. Because I had their characters well in hand, story flowed more or less effortlessly.

But writing three hundred thousand words about a character before you get started on a novel isn’t really efficient, is it? So mostly, I get to know characters in the same way as we get to know people in real life–by spending time with them. In other words, I get to know them while writing my first draft. And once I decide who they are, in revision, I go back and strengthen those elements of character and make them more consistent all the way along.

That’s my process—but it may not be yours. There is more than one way to craft characters and craft story. One of the first jobs a writer must do is find out what works for them.

Crystal Perkins, author of The Griffin Brothers series

I try to have a cover idea when I start writing. When I look at the girl and guy-I write in dual POV-I think of how they’ll speak and act. It’s nice to have something, even just a picture to look at. Then when I think of them in my head, they already have a distinct personality.

Ann Stampler, author of Where It Began and Afterparty

You know all those cheesy drama-class moments in B movies where the teacher starts panting that the kids need to beeeeee the wind in the trees (or whatever)? That actually has a lot in common with the way I develop main characters : method writing. I try to see the story through the eyes of the character in a very literal way. While I’m writing, I don’t observe the character from the outside, but I try to see what she sees. I think this helps me to stay with the character’s feelings and emotional reactions, and to remain in her point of view.

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NaNoWriMo 2014: Let’s Talk About…Setting

November 7, 20143 Comments

Hello everyone!

NaNoWriMo is in its first full week! And I think I’m doing quite good. My goal for NaNo this year is 40K but I’m starting to think maybe I’ll reach 50, medical or even beyond, salve if I stay at the rate that I’ve been keeping up. In my first week, price I’ve reached just under 20K and I’m really excited to continue this novel.

And yes, it does still need a title. It has a really crappy edited cover that says “Evie and Austin Story” on the official NaNo website haha but it needs a legit title. If you guys come up with a title, please make sure to share them with me, because you get a prize if you pick THE title.

Let me know how your progress is doing in the comments!

Today we’re talking about setting.

In all of the novels that I’ve written, I’ve based it on real world places, and done lots of research on those places. Or I’ve straight up used real places like New York City and Mesa Verde in Colorado and Brea, California.

But for this newest novel, I’m writing an entirely new setting: Macon, California. Its a coastal town in Central California that has some real world bases in Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz (especially Santa Cruz) and a little bit of Santa Barbara, but for the most part, its all from my imagination.

Do you know how hard it is to create a new setting! Its crazy. So while I’ve been trying to get my word count up, I’ve also been working hard at making sure that Macon seems like a genuine town. Because if there’s one thing that I’ve learned: setting is a character all in its own. Think of Middle Earth, Hogwarts, Tortall, Idris, Panem, Camp Half Blood. They all have their own personalities. They react to the story, they are effected by the story, they’re just so massively important.

So I scoured the internet to look for tips on creating setting and I gathered a few of them here for you!

1. Base Your Setting on Real World Places

It goes back to what I said about Macon. Macon is a completely fictional town. It’s small town, coastal, with a beach boardwalk, a small town downtown main street with family owned businesses. But I throw things off when I insert a baseball obsessed population. And that population is obsessed with the university that exists in this town. Sounds complicated right? There isn’t an actual place that exists like this. So I’ve used real life references in Santa Barbara, Monterey Bay and mostly, Santa Cruz. These three are all real coastal cities in California. Having these real life bases helps to create a town because you have examples. You know how things can be arranged because you have a real life basis for it. I have no idea how to arrange a fictional city because I’ve never been a city planner. I don’t know how that works. So I kind of mesh these cities together and voila, Macon, California!

2. Base Your Setting on Real Time Periods

Now, this doesn’t totally apply to me and this particular novel. My novel is based in real world time, right now, in the present. So that’s easy enough. I can have iphones and smart cars and macbooks and Netflix and it alllllll makes sense. This could also work for historical novels as well. You have a real world time period to base off of. There’s information out there (yay research!) that will help you to make sure your setting is historically accurate.

But this also works quite well for a fantasy novel, or science fiction, that sort of thing. You can base your fantasy society based on the medieval settings of old Europe. You can base your futuristic society on the Victorian age of the Industrial Revolution. Creating a brand new setting in a brand new world is HARD because you have no real world basis for this society. BUT you can use time periods to help you out. Feudal societies, capitalism, communism, empires, Chinese dynasties, the Crusades, etc. There is SO much history out there that you can rework to base your own setting on.

3. Create Rules

When I say create rules, this could go either way. In a completely fictional world, you need to make sure you create its government, its politics, its social strata, its laws, weather, climate, all that sort of thing. This is incredibly important because this is going to have an effect on the characters and the plot and all of that. Setting places an enormous part on our lives. Where we live, the rules we live under, play a HUGE part in our lives: getting our licenses at a certain age, drinking at a certain age, getting a job, paying bills, all those sorts of things come from the setting: where we live. So this is important when creating an entirely new place. Set the rules because you’ll need to follow those. They have a profound effect on your characters.

Now when you’re creating a fictional place in a real world, like me, a new town in California, the rules are already there, for the most part. California has laws and weather and all of those things already. What’s important is that you remember them. California is a little easier. If I make it a really super hot day in the middle of December…it might be a little confusing to others but to those of us who live in California, we would laugh because this really happens. (Its November, and we’re expecting 80 degree weather all week). But making sure you don’t make it a super hot day when writing your fictional town on the eastern seaboard? That’s important. Making sure your 14 year old character isn’t driving a car when logically that doesn’t make sense, things like that. Follow the rules.

4. React!

Treat your setting like a character. If something is happening in the story, how is your setting reacting to this. For instance, in my novel, my town is baseball obsessed. Say the the team wins a particularly difficult game. The town is going to react to this, obviously. It may not be something obvious that I distinctly point out but my main characters may go to lunch the next day, and the patrons could be wearing more orange and white (the team colors) than usual. There may be more banners in the window, the weather might look that much better, people will be happier. The setting reacts to the story. If the characters get in a fight, or have a bad day, the weather might be crappier or the sunny weather might bother them. React and interact with the characters and the setting. They have an effect on each other.

5. Its All in the Details!

Of course, details are always important. But for setting, I feel like its important because it makes your setting authentic and real. The hardest part of this for me is making them subtle and genuine. I want Macon to seem as real as possible and the details will make it so because it’ll seem like a real place. But every time I try and write a detail, I feel like its obvious that I’m trying to point out things about Macon and its hard. But the details are important. Where things are located, what the weather is like, the plant life, all that sort of subtle detail just makes it more genuine. Is it nearly an ocean? A mountain? This effects the weather, etc. There are stores on the main street but what kind of stores? That sort of thing. This is probably the one I struggle with the most and I’m working on it!

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What are some of YOUR tips on setting? Share the in the comments!

Blog Tour: “100 Sideways Miles” by Andrew Smith + Review + Giveaway!

November 6, 2014November 6, 20144 Comments

I am SO very excited to be a part of this blog tour! Andrew Smith is a favorite author of mine and if you haven’t gotten your hands on this book yet, this web you’ll be convinced by the end of this post to get your hands on it!

Blog Tour Schedule

November 3^rd ~ The Pirate Tree – Review

November 3^rd ~ Roof Beam Reader – Review

November 3^rd ~ Cabin Goddess – Mom & Son Review with a Recipe

November 3^rd ~ Bookish – Review

November 3^rd ~ Lookandseebeanazed – Review

November 4^th ~ The Reader and the Chef – Review

November 4^th~The Bookish Confections – Review

November 4^th ~ Fangirlish – Review

November 4^th ~ Reads All The Books – Review

November 5^th ~ Word Spelunking – Review

November 5^th ~ Debbie Bookish – Review

November 5^th ~ Books and Bling – Review

November 5^th ~ Falling For YA – Review

November 5^th ~ I Read Banned Books – Review

November 5^th ~ Ringo The Cat – Review

November 5^th ~ A Leisure Moment – Review

November 6^th ~ Reading on the Farm – Review

November 6^th ~ Blogging Between the Lines – Review

November 6^th ~ Bookhounds YA – Review

November 6^th ~ What A Nerd Girl Says – Review

November 6^th ~ Movies, Shows & Books – Review

November 6^th ~ Deal Sharing Aunt – Review

November 7^th ~ Pixie Vixen Book Reviews – Review

November 7^th ~ roro is Reading – Review

November 7^th ~ The Reader and the Chef – Review

November 7^th ~ Cabin Goddess – Review

November 7^th ~ Reads All The Books – Review

November 7^th ~ Laura Kreitzer, Bestselling Author – Review

November 7^th ~ LRB – Karin Baker – Review

November 7^th ~ Read Now Sleep Later – Review

About Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith is the award-winning author of several Young Adult novels, including the critically acclaimed WINGER (Starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness—an Amazon “Best of the Year”) and THE MARBURY LENS (A YALSA BFYA, and Starred reviews and Best of the Year in both Publishers Weekly and Booklist).

He is a native-born Californian who spent most of his formative years traveling the world. His university studies focused on Political Science, Journalism, and Literature. He has published numerous short stories and articles. STAND OFF, the sequel to WINGER, coming in January 2015, is his ninth novel. He lives in Southern California.

You Can Find Him At:

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

About 100 Sideways Miles

Finn Easton sees the world through miles instead of minutes. It’s how he makes sense of the world, and how he tries to convince himself that he’s a real boy and not just a character in his father’s bestselling cult-classic book. Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved.

Then Julia moves away, and Finn is heartbroken. Feeling restless and trapped in the book, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.’

Purchase the book at your local bookstore or the following links:

Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Review!

What has always struck me as the most wonderful thing about Andrew Smith’s books is that they can be weird, wacky, straight up confusing and out of this world. There’s always a little something about his book or his story that is just a little weird. But it never feels that way. You never really think about it while you’re reading. Actually, I usually only ever think about it when I’m trying to convince other people to read his books. “I know, it sounds so weird, but trust me, this book will change your life!”

But that’s the beauty of it. He writes such incredible, realistic, relatable characters that the story is always believable from beginning to end. His characters are some of the richest characters I’ve read in a book before. They have all stayed with me as some of the most memorable characters. They’re so incredibly real, and I need that a lot for teen characters. They have their faults, and they make mistakes and they think some of the most incredibly stupid things but they’re also clever, and emotional and full of so much potential. This is true of Finn Easton.

Finn is basically on a journey to figure himself out. He’s the boy out of his father’s novel. He’s the boy plagued with seizures. He’s the boy who is best friends with Cade Hernandez. There are so many labels but none of them really tell us who he is. Its the journey he takes in this book, both with his relationship with Julia and his actual venture to go see her, that we really see him come into his own. A coming of age story is not a new thing and yet Andrew Smith manages to make each and every one he writes seem unique and entertaining. I was rooting for Finn the entire way, hoping that he figured out what he wanted, and that he would make his way back to Julia.

And there’s just always that little fact that Andrew Smith’s books can make me laugh like no one else. Its just the smallest little things, little quips that just make me crack up. Sometimes I don’t even know if its intentionally funny but its just great. He writes as if you’re really and truly in the head of the character and its brilliant, because you get all of those side thoughts that you normally don’t get in books, and it just makes me laugh and it makes his story and his characters better, more genuine and more authentic. I absolutely love it.

Bottom line is this, if you haven’t read an Andrew Smith book, what are you waiting for? You definitely should! In the past year-ish, he’s released Winger, Grasshopper Jungle and now 100 Sideways Miles and they’ve all been so fantastic. If there’s a book that you’re going to pick first, do this one! Its funny and real and beautiful and you’re going to laugh and you’re going to get emotional and you’re going to love every minute! And its not too long and its a standalone and there’s just about a bajillion (that’s a real number, I swear) more reasons to read it so just do it already!

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Thank you Lady Reader for hosting this blog tour and for letting me be a part of it!

Cover Reveal: “Salt and Stone” by Victoria Scott + Giveaway!

November 5, 2014November 4, 2014Leave a comment

Hello! It is time for a cover reveal for an awesome author, viagra Victoria Scott. She is the author of Fire and Flood, check which now has a new cover (which I absolutely love). Fire and Flood blew my mind when I read it back in February and I can’t wait for Salt and Stone. I’m happy to be part of her team, discount the V Mafia, and being able to share all this info with you today!

Now, let’s jump in!

First, About Victoria Scott

Victoria Scott is a teen fiction writer represented by Sara Crowe of the Harvey-Klinger Literary Agency. She’s the author of the FIRE & FLOOD series published by Scholastic, and the DANTE WALKER trilogy published by Entangled Teen. Her first stand-alone young adult title, TITANS, will be published by Scholastic in spring 2016.

Victoria’s books have been bought and translated in eleven foreign markets including the UK, Turkey, China, Poland, Israel, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Taiwan, New Zealand, and the Netherlands. She currently lives in Dallas, and hearts cotton candy something fierce.

You Can Find Her At:

Website / Twitter / Facebook / GoodReads / Instagram / YouTube

About Fire and Flood

Look at the brand new paperback cover!

Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can’t determine what’s wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She’s lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she’s helpless to change anything.

Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It’s an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother’s illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there’s no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.

The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can’t trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?

Purchase Fire and Flood at your local bookstore or through:

Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository

NOW!

The Cover Reveal for Salt and Stone….

About Salt and Stone

In Fire & Flood, Tella Holloway faced a dangerous trek through the jungle and across the desert, all to remain a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed for a chance at obtaining the Cure for her brother. She can’t quit–she has to win the race, save Cody, and then fight to make sure the race stops before it can claim any more lives. In the next legs of the race, across the ocean and over mountains, Tella will face frostbite, sharks, avalanche, and twisted new rules in the race.

But what if the danger is deeper than that? How do you know who to trust when everyone’s keeping secrets? What do you do when the person you’d relied on most suddenly isn’t there for support? How do you weigh one life against another?

The race is coming to an end, and Tella is running out of time, resources, and strength. At the start of the race there were one hundred twenty-two Contenders. As Tella and her remaining friends start the final part of the race, just forty-one are left–and only one can win.

Preorder Salt and Stone at your local bookstore or through:

Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository

The Giveaway!

There is a signed galley of Salt and Stone up for grabs and a few other prizes as well so definitely enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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NaNoWriMo 2014: Meet My Main Characters!

November 4, 2014Leave a comment

Hello everyone! How are you doing on this fine Tuesday? I’m hoping you are all doing well and if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo, viagra sale that it is going fabulously for you. I’m doing quite well, link actually. I’m writing this at the end of day 3 and I’m 10K words up, view which is NOT bad at all, considering my goal for the month is 40K! I’m proud of myself.

For those of you who have missed the two previous posts about my journey for NaNoWriMo, check out my NaNo page on the blog by clicking this link! Today we’ll be learning about my main characters, which I’m excited for. I’m 10K in so my characters are getting more developed and I LOVE it.

Don’t forget, I’m also having a contest for those who can come up with a title for my novel. The prize has not been announced because its a secret but I need your help! I will share more and more about my novel throughout the month, so please join me in my journey and help me choose a title!

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Meeting My Main Characters

Evangeline “Evie” Cordova

Evie is the main character of my novel. We get to see her in two different forms: her fifteen year old self and her nineteen year old self. She’s about five four, with long dark blonde hair that is nearly brown, and deep dark brown eyes. Her skin is light brown. She’s half Spanish and half Mexican, which explains her unique coloring. Evie has spent most of her life living in the town of Macon, California (which we will learn about more tomorrow). Macon is obsessed with their college baseball team, the Rebels, and she spends most of her life obsessed with them as well. She loves baseball and knows the game better than most of the people she knows. She is smart and has a sarcastic streak a mile wide. Evie deals with some serious stuff in the novel. In the beginning of the novel, we know that Evie is set on making Jesse her boyfriend when she was is 15 but in the present, Jesse is engaged to her sister. She struggles with this, and also an eating disorder as well. This is all going to be a part of her struggle to let Austin get close to her because there is a huge part of her that still has feelings for Jesse.

Lucinda “Lucy” Cordova

Lucy is Evie’s identical twin so they have pretty much the same physical features. Her hair is cut shorter, in a bob, and she’s a little heavier than Evie, both due to Evie’s eating disorder and she had a child. She is the mother of Ava, who is nearly 3 years old, and engaged to Jesse Valdez. We find out more about her story and her connection with Jesse as the story goes along. I can’t reveal much about her relationship with Jesse because it is revealed more through out the story. The important things to know about Lucy are this: she’s the more outgoing of the pair, the most daring. She goes after the things she wants and charges forward. She’s fiercely loyal to her sister though, and is a great mom to Ava.

Jesse Valdez

Jesse Valdez is also a character that we get to see at two different ages. In the past, he is nineteen years old and in the present, he is twenty three years. He’s hispanic, with black hair and dark brown eyes, and dark brown skin. He comes to Macon as freshman at CSUM for the year 2010-2011 and brings the Rebels their first win at the College World Series. He’s an incredible baseball player, a pitcher, that immediately catches Evie’s eye. He’s charming and outgoing. There’s more about him that will be revealed as the story goes on. We do learn that he is drafted to the San Francisco Giants after his sophomore year and becomes the Rookie of the Year during his first season with the Giants. He keeps an apartment in Macon with Lucy and Ava.

Austin Young

Austin Young is a new character in this story. We will NOT be seeing him in the past. He is a junior transfer to CSUM. He’s originally from Texas, where he went to Texas University for two years before deciding to transfer to CSUM because of their great baseball program. He’s a second baseman that is great in the field but lacks on offense, and has a weak bat. Austin has blonde hair, green eyes, and tanned skin. He immediately has an attraction to Evie and is determined to break down her walls, though he shows his frustration at times, especially since he sees the way she is around Jesse. He is incredibly determined and ambitious and wants nothing more than to make a career out of baseball. He works out a lot, and does everything he can to be better, because he feels like if he fails at baseball, he fails at everything.

Connor Humphrey

Connor is Evie’s best friend. They’ve been best friend since her seventh birthday party when everyone was paying attention to Lucy. He’s tall, lanky, with messy brown hair, freckles and brown eyes. He has a goofy sense of humor, but is an incredibly good friend to Evie and is very protective of her. People are constantly trying to get the two of them together, but they legitimately do not have that kind of relationship. They had some hot and heavy months in their freshman year of high school but that was about it. He is as obsessed with everyone else in the town about baseball. In the past, he plays baseball for Macon High and does not approve of her secret relationship with Jesse and in the present, he’s playing for CSUM and trying to help Evie heal from what happened three years ago.

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Those are the basic main players of the novel. There are also Evie and Lucy’s parents, Diego and Sophia, and other players on the baseball team but these are the most important people.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo 2014? Share some info about YOUR main characters in the comments below!

Book Trailer Reveal: “Anomaly” by Tonya Kuper + Giveaway!

November 4, 20141 Comment

I’m very excited to share today’s book trailer reveal! I met Tonya very very briefly at ALA back in June. She was at the Entangled booth and I had completely missed getting her signature and my hands on her book, approved but she handed me a bunch of bookmarks and pens and encouraged me to keep an eye out on it. She was incredibly genuine and excited about her book so I decided, sickness why yes, click I will keep an eye out.

We are not friends on IG and FB and all that and she is just plain awesome :) Her book is FANTASTIC and she’s been very encouraging on my own journey to become a published author. I’m very excited to share the trailer today. A review will be coming in December, when it is my turn on the blog tour but for now, let’s learn more about Tonya and her debut novel, Anomaly!

About Tonya Kuper

Tonya Kuper is the author of ANOMALY, the first in the Schrodinger’s Consortium Series, a young adult science fiction trilogy, releasing November 4, 2014 by Entangled Teen. She fell for Young Adult lit while earning her Master’s degree in Reading Education. She’s a mom to two awesome boys, an alt music junkie, a Star Wars nerd, and in love with Sherlock.

You Can Find Her At:

Website / Twitter / Instagram / GoodReads / Facebook

About Anomaly

Reality is only an illusion. Except for those who can control it… Worst. Birthday. Ever. My first boyfriend dumped me—happy birthday, Josie!—my dad is who knows where, I have some weird virus that makes me want to hurl, and now my ex is licking another girl’s tonsils. Oh, and I’m officially the same age as my brother was when he died. Yeah, today is about as fun-filled as the swamps of Dagobah. But then weird things start happening… Like I make something materialize just by thinking about it. When hottily-hot badass Reid Wentworth shows up on a motorcycle, everything changes. Like, everything. Who I am. My family. What really happened to my brother. Existence. I am Oculi, and I have the ability to change reality with my thoughts. Now Reid, in all his hotness, is charged with guiding and protecting me as I begin learning how to bend reality. And he’s the only thing standing between me and the secret organization that wants me dead…

PreOrder Anomaly At Your Local Bookstore Or:

Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository

The Giveaway

GoodReads is giving away three copies of Anomaly until November 15th!

Follow this link to enter!

The Book Trailer!

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What do you guys think? I hope you guys liked the trailer and I hope to see copies of Anomaly in your hands in just THREE weeks! SO exciting. And look out for my review of Anomaly, coming December 2nd!

Photo Credit to Tonya Kuper. I just couldn’t resist sharing it…