Archive for August, 2009

August 29, 2009 • 3 Comments

Finally, I’ve managed to download my conference photos, which btw was a totally fabulous experience and one I wish I could repeat more often!! Not only were the speakers excellent….. Mary Jo Putney on Brainstorming was a total revelation….. the networking was awesome and we had such a laugh. And as is so often the case, the best of social times was the little pre-awards dinner drinks party we had in our room. Omg I haven’t laughed so much in ages (actually, yes, Maree Anderson had us in fits at the dinner, but I can’t go into detail!!)

Anyway, here are the photos:

1. Andrew (my brother, who ever year we go out to dinner with on the Thursday night), Christina Phillips.

2. Barbara Clendon in her totally awesome dress for the awards dinner (theme fantasy) – she did, as usual, steal the show!!!!!!

3. Christina Phillips and Amanda Ashby (my fabulous CPs)

4. Me, Nalini Singh (NYT besting selling author), Sandra Hyatt (Desire author)

5.Christina Phillips, Shelley Munro (Author)

6. Sue Knight (publicity officer), Kris Pearson (membership officer)

7.Abby Gaines (Superromance/Nascar author), Sandra Hyatt

8.Me, Giovanna (fabulous friend)

9. Nalini, Christina, Amanda and Me.

10. Nalini (who does seem to be in a lot of my photos!), Natalie Anderson (Presents author)

11. President Pat, dressed as a witch for the awards dinner

August 19, 2009 • 9 Comments

Okay, so that’s a lie….. but my suitcase is on the floor of my bedroom and I’ve dropped a few things in it, around it, on top of it, in close proximity to it… you get the picture. Tomorrow I leave for the annual RWNZ conference.

I’m really excited because Christina is coming over from Australia to be with Amanda and I, and we always have such fun. I’m the MC for the conference this year, as well as running a workshop with Amanda, and acting Secretary for the AGM…. so it’s gonna be a busy few days. It’ll be so cool to meet up with people we only ever see once a year, and catch up on all the goss…. did I mention how much I love knowing everything?

And when we come back it’s all hands to the latest ms, to get it into shape…. conferences always motivate me.

So, I’ll report back with photos… on my new ‘works underwater’ camera I got for my birthday…. a real must have because I take so many photos underwater (doesn’t everyone?).

Actually talking of birthdays (did you like the seamless link?) – how weird is it that the three of us: me, Amanda and Christina were all born on the 18th? Amanda 18th April, me 18th July and Christina 18th August….. it’s gotta be a sign (don’t ask of what).

August 15, 2009 • 7 Comments

MySpace Glitters

Fabulous friend, critique partner, co-workshop presenter, and incredible writer……………….. Amanda has just signed a three book deal for her series about a girl who turns into a Djinn (that’s genie, if like me you didn’t know what a Djinn was initially…. am I showing my ignorance???). Anyway less about me…. here’s the Publishers Marketplace announcement:

Amanda Ashby’s untitled middle-grade series about a girl who accidentally gets turned into a djinn (genie) the day before starting sixth grade and has to learn to deal with her new powers without her mom finding out, to Karen Chaplin at Puffin, in a three-book deal, by Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency (world English).

The three books are coming out in 2011 and 2012 and I can’t wait. Of course, being in the privileged position I’m in I’ll be reading them long before that…. over and over and over and over…. have I ever mentioned that Amanda is the Queen of Rewriting…… seriously, though, these books are SOOOO funny, I know they’re going to be a huge success.

So, here’s to Amanda and you can bet we’ll be celebrating big time when we get together with one of our other crit partners, Christina Phillips, at the RWNZ conference on Thursday!

August 11, 2009 • Comments

I’m thrilled to be touring Megan Kelley Hall’s latest book THE LOST SISTER, which takes a chilling look at what happens when hazing pushes someone too far.,,

Sisters are born, not chosen…
Maddie Crane is grappling with the disappearance of Cordelia LeClaire, and trying to escape the grasp of The Sisters of Misery—an insidious clique of the school’s most powerful girls, whose pranks have set off a chain of horrific events, and who have Maddie in their sights…

Beware the sister betrayed…
Now in a prestigious boarding school far away from her mysterious hometown of Hawthorne, Massachusetts , Maddie feels free from danger. But when an unmarked envelope arrives at her dorm containing a single ominous tarot card, Maddie realizes with terror that some secrets won’t stay buried. Knowing she must return to Hawthorne—a town still scarred by the evil of the Salem witch trials—Maddie prepares to face the fears of her past…and the wrath of the sister she wronged.

And now for my usual questions:

What inspired the plot for your book?
The Lost Sister picks up where Sisters of Misery left off. It shows what happens when someone is pushed too far and when hazing pranks go wrong. It’s a continuation of Sisters of Misery, in that it’s a modern-day retelling of the Salem Witch hunts. It has a sort of fairytale-esque Gothic appeal and it will keep you up at night due the spooky, supernatural events that take place.

Why did you decide to write in this genre?
YA suspense shaped my love of books and writing. And I’ve always had an off-beat take on writing. While other kids were writing about dating and boys and crushes and fairy tales, I was writing about murders, hauntings, anything that scared me.

What is your writing process like?
I can’t write in a linear fashion. I get bored easily and need to jump around. I typically write various scenes and then try to link them all together like a puzzle. I also never like to know how the book is going to end. I figure if I can surprise myself, than the reader will be surprised as well.

What are you working on now?
I just finished my third YA suspense thriller and my agent is shopping it around right now. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

What do you do when you’re not writing?
Hang out with my daughter and husband. Talking to my mom and sister. Reading. Relaxing. Watching good movies and TV shows. Doing puzzles. Looking for sea glass on the beach at the bottom of my hill. Laughing with friends.

Who do you like to read?
Obviously, all the authors in the GCC! But I also love adult thrillers (especially psychological thrillers). Some of my favorite authors include Tana French, Thomas H. Cook, Laura Lippman, Alice Hoffman and Jodi Picoult.

Early praise for THE LOST SISTER
Compelling with its dark gothic twists and frightening intrigue, Megan Kelley Hall’s THE LOST SISTER, combines romance, terror and family with the graceful pen of a master.
–Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author of NEED, GOLDEN and TATTOO

A character driven tale containing a deep Gothic feel and haunting foreboding atmosphere that hooks fans of all ages….With strong ties to the late seventeenth century Salem Witch Trials, THE LOST SISTER is a super thriller. — Harriet Klausner

Hall will have your heart racing and you will not be able to put this book down. With historical allusions to the New England witch trials and a touch of the paranormal, THE LOST SISTER is a thriller in a league of its own.
– TeensReadtoo / Awarded THE LOST SISTER the Hall of Fame Gold Star Award for Excellence

Blown away… The suspense, mystery, intrigue, and drama steadily build up throughout the novel, making it impossible to put the book down. I would recommend it to almost all book lovers. It has made me hungry for more of Ms. Hall’s work! – Mrs. Magoo Reads

AUTHOR BIO:
Megan Kelley Hall, 35, freelance writer and literary publicist living North of Boston, is the author of the SISTERS OF MISERY series. Her first novel, SISTERS OF MISERY, published by Kensington in August 2008 has received rave reviews by reviewers and readers alike. Hall also has an essay about her recent open heart surgery in former CNN anchor Daryn Kagan’s anthology, What’s Possible! (Meredith Books, 2008). She is also a contributor to New York Times bestselling novelist Ellen Hopkins’ anthology, Flirtin’ with the Monster.
Hall has written articles for a variety of local and national magazines, including Elle, Glamour, Boston Magazine, Parenting, American Baby, Working Mother, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and several other publications.

She studied creative writing at Skidmore College under the Pulitzer-Prize winning author Steven Millhauser. Megan spends most of her time promoting her clients as a partner and founder of Kelley & Hall Book Publicity and Promotion, which she opened with her mother, Gloria Kelley, and sister, Jocelyn Maeve Kelley, over a few years ago. The company has run successful campaigns for authors, including New York Time’s best-selling authors Jacquelyn Mitchard (Deep End of the Ocean), Michael Palmer (The First Patient and Extreme Measures), Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) and Lisa Genova (Still Alice).

You can find Megan online here:
http://www.megankelleyhall.com
http://megankelleyhall.blogspot.com
http://www.sistersofmisery.com
http://twitter.com/megankelleyhall

August 6, 2009 • 3 Comments

I’m very excited to be touring the awesome Stephanie Kuehnert (one of my fellow TFCers) and her latest book Ballads of Suburbia which I can’t wait to read.

In high school, Kara McNaughton helped maintain the “Stories of Suburbia” notebook, which contained newspaper articles about bizarre and often tragic events from suburbs all over, as well as personal vignettes written by her friends,which Kara dubbed “ballads”. Ballads are the kind of songs that Kara likes best.

-more-

Not the clichéd ones but the truly genuine, gut-wrenching songs that convey love, loss and an individual’s story. Those “stories of Suburbia” were heartbreakingly honest tales of the moments when life changes and a kid is forced to grow up too soon. But Kara never wrote her own ballad. Before she could figure out what her song was about, she was leaving town after a series of disastrous events at the end of her junior year of high school.

Four years later, Kara returns to face the music, and tells the tale of her first three years of high school with her friends’ “ballads” interspersed throughout. Among them are her best friend Stacey, who dates guy after guy trying to find the one who will take care of her the way her parents never did; Cass, who copes with her mother’s mental illness and her older brother’s abandonment by doing copious amounts of acid; Adrian the creator of the “Stories of Suburbia”, who has “Thrown Away” tattooed on his forearms to express how he feels about his
adoptive parents and his birth parents; Christian, who seems like the nice guy type that Kara belongs with, but has a violent streak; Kara’s little brother Liam, who idolized Johnny Cash as a preschooler and has idolized Kara all his life though she lets him down again and again; and Maya, an eccentric but beautiful redhead who refuses to talk about her mother’s suicide.

Then of course, there’s Kara. She begins high school as a loner, who copes with her lack of friends and her rapidly unraveling home life by going to concerts with Liam, smoking the occasional joint, and cutting herself when things get really bad. She’s reluctant at first when she tags along with Maya to Scoville Park, where the “misfit” kids hang out, but she really wants “a life.” The summer after junior year that life nearly ends with a heroin overdose, the event that triggers Kara’s exit from Oak Park.

All the things that happen in between make up the ballads of suburbia.

And now for my usual set of questions:

What inspired the plot for your book?
I have a list of early inspirations of the book and its characters that I will share:
-Chicagoland, particularly the little corner of it I am so familiar with being the near western suburbs
-The epic fall and rise out of the ashes that makes you a person (Mythology)
-Suburbia (the place and the 80s movie)
-Punk Rock
-Family (the one you are born into and the one you chose, which often mirrors the problems of the original family but also fills the void)
-”Fitting in”/Jenga/house of cards

The main characters and the influences for them are:
Adrian is imagery of the worn cuff of your jeans slowly being worn away as you walk without you even knowing it.
Maya is scarlet lipstick stains on a cigarette butt.
Liam sang Johnny Cash as a little kid not the Beatles like everyone else.
Kara is the bastard child of a PJ Harvey song and a Mark Lanegan song.

Some of that may seem rather vague and I came up with that list when I was in first draft phase which is why I thought it would be particularly fun to share. But ultimately, the plot was inspired by my own experience in suburbia. It’s not autobiographical by any means, but I saw that a lot of things were not as happy and safe as they seemed and wanted to bring that out into the light.

Why did you decide to write in this genre?
I write the kinds of books I wanted to read as a teenager. As a teen, I read adult books, so I didn’t necessarily set out to write YA. I wanted to write books that both teens and adults would love and honestly as an adult, the genre I love most right now is YA! It’s the most honest and real and interesting. I’m glad to be a part of it!

What is your writing process like?
Well, it really depends on the book. Each times I start a new project I learn to write over again. For the most part though, I start with an idea and I toy with it forever. Then I finally start to write in fits and spurts. Then I binge. I go away for a week and just write like 10, 12 hour days. Then the first draft is finished and that is the part I hate most, the first draft. Revising is the fun part. Perfecting, shaping.

What are you working on now?
I’m in the fits and spurts phase. I have a few different ideas I’m toying with, but right this very second I’m toying with a book about a girl who has been moved around by her mother her whole life, so she goes on this road trip to find her “real home”. She’s on the road with a boy who is like a brother to her who is dealing with bipolar disorder and off his meds. But um, I could end up putting out a very different book next. Who knows really!

What do you do when you’re not writing?
I love to listen to music and go to concerts. I also love to read and just veg out in front of the TV with my fiancé.

Who do you like to read?
A wide variety of authors from the classics like John Steinbeck to gritty
contemporary adult like Irvine Welsh, to Urban Fantasy like Jeri Smith-Ready and
then mostly YA, in which my favorites are Melissa Marr, Francesca Lia Block, Cecil Castellucci, Laura Wiess…. Oh I could go on…

Here’s what people are saying about BALLADS OF SUBURBIA:

“….an intensely real and painfully honest novel of high-school anxiety.” and “….Kuehnert nails the raw vulnerability of teendom and delivers a hard-hitting and mesmerizing read.” – Booklist

“Like an American Beauty for the teen set.” – NewCity

“With her first two novels, Kuehnert has created vivid pictures of teenage lives that lie in that borderland that abuts adulthood. It is a fertile, confusing and intense place, and Kuehnert never holds back. But like a good ballad, she keeps the stories taut and precise, with a touch of heart thrown in for good measure.” – Chicago Sun-Times

“This book is powerful. It’s been haunting me for days. Yes, haunting me.” – The Story Siren, 5 star review, Recipient of the Luminous Pearl Award

“BALLADS OF SUBURBIA is a remarkable achievement that hits you right where it counts (your heart) and lingers where it matters (the brain). I’m truly looking forward to seeing what Stephanie Kuehnert will do next.” – Steph Su Reads, 5 out of 5 rating

“This novel was addicting. It was harsh, raw, cruel, sad, and painful, but the scariest of all is that this is real. In one powerful novel, whole worlds are exposed. I recommend this novel to anyone ready to see the truth.” – Reading Is Bliss

“All that really needs to be said about Ballads of Suburbia is that it’s spectacular, and that I can’t recommend it enough.” – Frenetic Reader

Bio:
Stephanie Kuehnert got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist ‘zines. She received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and lives in Forest Park, Illinois. Her first novel, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE, was released by MTV Books in July of 2008. BALLADS OF SUBURBIA, also published by MTV Books, is her latest release.

Website: www.stephaniekuehnert.com
Blog: stephaniekuehnert.blogspot.com A cyber launch party for Ballads of Suburbia is running there through August 14 with lots of guest bloggers and daily prizes!

Link to Epilogue (ie the very first chapter of the book) on Stephanie’s site: http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/ballads/index.html#chap1

August 2, 2009 • Comments

I’m spending today sorting everything out, so I can start the 10k a week writing challenge, set for me by my wonderful critique partners….. I say ‘wonderful’ loosely because not only do they set the challenge, they monitor my progress and get on to me if I’m not meeting it. Seriously, what sort of friends do that to you?

Anyway, I’ve got my own back because I’m insisting that they join me mwhahahahahaha. And I can be just as hard as they can!!!!!

In preparation, so far today I’ve done the staff wages for the motel (well, I’d have done them anyway), I’ve updated all the online websites the motel is on (and believe me that’s a killer), I’ve been round to see Amanda (one of the aforementioned CPs), I went to the wholesale place for some chips for the motel (but forgot the cheque book, so that was a wasted journey), eaten a packet of chewy mints (actually I’ll refrain from listing everything I’ve eaten so far seeing as it’s not even lunch time), I’ve done the washing, made another list because of all the things I’ll be crossing off this one. And this afternoon, I intend to watch Gossip Girl, 11th hour (which I recorded) and Ugly Betty. Then later it’s NCIS.

So, will I be ready for tomorrow…. you bet I will. I’ll aim for 2k words a day with 2 days off for emergencies (like when Amanda comes round for us to prepare the workshop we’re doing at conference).

Enjoy your weekend!