Happy Book Birthday to UNDER THE LIGHTS by Dahlia Adler!

Good Morning!

It's a glorious Tuesday! Know why? Because today is the official release day for my CP Dahlia Adler's newest book, UNDER THE LIGHTS!

Photo Credit: threehundredlittleducklings

You might remember last June, when I spewed gifs all over the internet in celebration of Dahlia's first book, BEHIND THE SCENES.

Well, Dahlia has done it again. And this time, as that awesome cover leaves no room for doubt, she's done it with really cute lesbians. (Yep, totally aware of how that sentence sounds, and pretty sure Dahl would want it no other way, and so I'm leaving it.)

Photo credit: justanotherbadfish

Photo credit: lezgirlblog

So, done what again, you ask? (*snaps fingers* HEY! Ogle the girl-on-girl gif later, I'm still talking!)

I've found that I have three main reactions to Dahlia's novels. First, there's this:

Hysterical, face-contorting laughter, in case I have to spell it out
Photo credit: isabelleadjanis

Then she has to go and throw in a few of these moments:

Because it's totally normal to sob over people you don't
know and won't ever meet. And also don't exist.
Photo credit: powerofdean

Mixed in with a good amount of these:

Self explanatory
Photo credit: mariahpapaya2

If this isn't you during the sex scene, I fear your pulse is nonexistent
Photo credit: tenpointstogifindor

And this book absolutely does not disappoint in any department. If you like funny, honest, heartfelt stories with diverse, realistic characters, then go pick this one up right now. I promise, you will be happy you did.

Happy Release Day, Dahlia!!!!

Photo Credit: bornthisday1995

Happy Book Birthday to THE CONSPIRACY OF US by Maggie Hall!!!!

You guys! It is officially the long-awaited book birthday of THE CONSPIRACY OF US by my gorgeous, fabulous CP, Maggie Hall!

Who can blame Zach for fainting?! Just look at that cover!

To fight her destiny as the missing heir to a powerful and dangerous secret society, sixteen-year-old Avery West must solve an ancient puzzle in a deadly race across Europe. Forbidden love and code-breaking, masked balls and explosions, destiny and dark secrets collide in this romantic thriller, in the vein of a YA DaVinci Code.

Avery West's newfound family can shut down Prada at the Champs-Elysees when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war.

They are part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle of Twelve, and Avery is their missing heir. If they discover who she is, some of them will want to use her as a pawn. Some will want her dead.

To thwart their plans, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the landmarks of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul and through a web of ancient legends and lies. And unless she can stay one step ahead of beautiful, volatile Stellan, who knows she’s more than she seems, and can decide whether to trust mysterious, magnetic Jack, she may be doomed after all. 

So, why is this so exciting? Well, aside from the obvious awesome you'll find inside that gorgeous cover, I "met" Maggie when TCoU was in its infancy - and called something entirely different. We were both in the query trenches together, and saw each other through a bunch of rejection, and every time Maggie told me about a new one, I was all:

I mean, the book had SO MUCH TO OFFER. Mystery, suspense, action. Hot guys with hot bods. (Hiiii, Jack)

You and me both, buddy.

And oh heyyyy, Stellan, you're not so bad yourself.

There's even a scene that goes kind of like this:

I See Your Schwartz Is as Big as Mine
Spaceballs — MOVIECLIPS.com

Okay, so not really, but it's still one of my absolute favorite lines in the book. And it's all set against exotic backdrops like Istanbul and Paris.

So now that Maggie's book is a real, honest-to-God book, one that you can GO OUT AND PURCHASE IMMEDIATELY, you can imagine how thrilled I am.

So, after you've bought your copy of CONSPIRACY (I've handily provided the link above), go find Maggie on Twitter (@MaggieEHall), hand her a big glass of champagne, and give her a giant hug in celebration of her book birthday.

CONGRATULATIONS, MAGGIE!!!!

Interview With Agent And Author John M. Cusick

Hey all!

Just a heads up that I'm interviewing my agent over at the YA Misfits blog today - AND we're giving away a signed ARC of his new book, CHERRY MONEY BABY! Click here to check it out!

http://www.yamisfits.com/2013/06/casual-friday-interview-and-arc.html

Amazing Book News!!

You guys! Fantastic news! One of the best unpublished things I've ever read is going to be one of the best PUBLISHED things YOU'VE ever read!

That's right! My amazing friend and CP, Dahlia Adler, just sold her book BEHIND THE SCENES to Spencer Hill Contemporary!

HAPPY DANCE!!



To give you an idea of how excited you should be, and how you'll feel after you read this book, let me (and some kickass gifs) tell you the story of how I came to love it so much:

Once upon a time in the year 2012, I went to Mexico. I wasn't online much while I was there, because duh, it looked like this:

But when I was, I noticed of few of my friends and CP's chatting on Twitter with someone called @missdahlelama. She seemed like a cool chick, so I followed her. And she followed me back.

Eventually, we started emailing, and I realized I'd had no idea that she wrote Contemporary YA. I hadn't even read anything she'd written, and vice versa. So one of us, and I'm not sure which one, suggested trading ms's even though we were both already on sub. And even though I had some other things on my plate, I was all:

So then I started to read. And you guys. It gave me SO MANY FEELS.

At any given moment I was doing this

Or this



Or this

Or a combination of both

I went through so many emotions, I told Dahl I felt like a mental patient...

....But in a GOOD way. If that's possible. Because when I was done reading, I was like

And why, you ask? Because it was just that good. The characters were witty and real, the plot was both heartfelt and fun. And speaking of characters?

LIAM.

He's the male mc, he is SO HOT, and he is also my boyfriend. (Dahl admits he's  madly in love with me right here, so don't even bother hoping.) Oh, and he's an actor, so you know what that means? He has abs, guys. ABS.

The romance that developed between Liam and me - er, Ally, was sweet and sexy, and there were some freaking awesome kissing scenes

Yeah. Kinda like that.

 

You might find yourself saying

 

So then I basically told Dahl I wanted to read everything she ever writes, and even though we'd just "met," this was how I felt about her:

And then we lived happily ever after in our CP-ship...

.... and met for real :)

So the moral of the story is, I am SO EXCITED for Dahlia, and for this story to be published. I hope you're all adding it to your TBR piles, or your Goodreads shelves, because you will be SO happy you did. And I happen to know that Dahl has lots of great stories in the works, so be sure to head over to her blog and congratulate her, and follow along so you don't miss any of the awesome.

CONGRATS DAHLIA!!!!!



Come and Chat Contemporary YA...

.... over at the YA Misfits blog!

Today I posted some tips on keeping your contemporary novel relevant longer. Click here to check it out!

Chatting Up The YA Misfits: An Interview With Jenny Kaczorowski!

So I had so much fun interviewing Dahlia Adler a few weeks ago that I've decided to make interviews a semi-regular feature here at Writer's Blog.

Today we're chatting with YA author and fellow YA Misfit, Jenny Kaczorowski!

Jenny paints some seriously beautiful (and sometimes truly creepy) pictures with her words (you can read more about them by clicking her name up above), is a mom to two of the most adorable mini-Misfits on the planet, and is currently seeking her dream agent. You can follow her on Twitter at @JennyKacz. She's also a fantastic cheerleader and a super sweet person, and I'm very glad she agreed to chat with us about her brand spankin' new draft, THE EXTRAORDINARY ART OF FALLING!

G: You just finished your newest ms, THE EXTRAORDINARY ART OF FALLING. Congrats! *Applause Applause* Tell us a little bit about it and what inspired you to write it.

J: Thank you! I’m so excited about this story! It taught me a lot about myself and how I write. Definitely a project that made me grow. THE ART OF FALLING is my first attempt at a straight YA contemporary romance. It grew out of a fantasy MS I’m working on (SIGNAL HILL). I wrote several scenes for a secondary plot, but the relationship between the two characters quickly overshadowed the main story arc and I knew I needed to cut it. I had about 10k that I knew wouldn’t work for SIGNAL HILL, but I didn’t know what to do with those scenes. I don’t write contemp, so I set them aside. Then in December, I had a late night Twitter chat with two of my fellow YA Misfits that led to me sending two of the cut (kissing) scenes. I hadn’t thought about those characters in months, but I couldn’t get them out of my head. I left my laptop at home while we visited family over the holidays and of course that’s when the muse struck!

THE ART OF FALLING is the story of Bria, a high school senior who wears combat boots, dyes her hair purple and is getting ready for art school. But when she falls for her best friend’s brother, Ben, she starts questioning the path everyone assumes she’ll take. Ben is the high school quarterback, Mr. Popularity, the crush of every girl in the school. The kind of boy girls like Bria are too cool to like. With application deadlines looming, she has to decide if she’s brave enough to defy everyone’s expectations to blaze her own trail in life and in love.

G: Okay then. I'm sold.  You normally write dark (and gorgeous) YA. Was it difficult to step outside your comfort zone for this story?

J: I was SO intimidated by the idea of writing contemp romance. I was scared I couldn’t make a story exciting without some kind of otherworldly element. It’s easy to create drama when you can just toss in another supernatural baddie. But once I started writing, this was the easiest story I’ve ever written. I KNOW these characters. I wrote the whole thing in a month. It took me 9 months to get a (ROUGH) rough draft of SIGNAL HILL finished!

Two things changed for me while writing FALLING. First, I realized that all fiction is fantasy. The idea that all contemp is sad or bland or ordinary is wrong. I’ve loved a lot of contemp stories so I don’t know why I had this hang up about writing it. This is story is just as much a fantasy as any other story I’ve written, just a different flavor. It’s an opportunity to step into another pair of shoes and lived in a world different from my own. Even if it looks like my world and behaves like my world, it’s still an escape from reality.

The second thing that changed is that I found this story. I don’t know if I have another contemp in me. My heart still belongs to fantasy. But this story needed to be told this way. It couldn’t be just a secondary storyline in something else. Writing was effortless because I love this story and these characters so much. It might happen again. It might not. But I can’t let genre dictate the stories I want to tell.

G: You also mentioned this was your first attempt at a “fast draft.” What was your timing/word count goal and did you meet it? (And more important, how did you pull it off being a working mom of a toddler and a newborn?!)

J: It was a crazy month! My son is 2 ½ (turning 3 in May) and my daughter was born in October. I basically wrote nothing while pregnant with her. It was a rough pregnancy and I slept as much as humanly possible with a toddler. After she was born, I felt so much better and couldn’t wait to get back to writing with a functional brain! I finished SIGNAL HILL in December and set it off to my CPs. I thought I’d take a break after that, but when I started jotting down ideas for FALLING, I knew I wanted to write it fast.

I started writing on January 2, the day after we flew back after the holidays. By the next day, I had over 5k written. I decided to attempt to write a 50k draft by February 1. I’m a slow writer. I research and edit as I go. I really only write when my kids are napping. On my best days I get 3 hours to write, but usually it’s more like 1-2. Plus, I started back at my day job in January (I work from home as a non-profit grant writer).

But I know I can write 1k in an hour IF I focus. I set of goal of 1,600 words a day. There were days I wrote more, days I wrote less, but I actually managed to get a decent rough draft finished by my deadline! It was completely exhausting. I typed at least 1/3 with my thumbs on my phone using Evernote (it syncs to my laptop). But I finished! And I don’t think it sucks. I’m still waiting to hear from my first CP ;)

I’ve talked a bit more about my process on my blog (http://jennykaczorowski.blogspot.com/2013/02/done.html and http://jennykaczorowski.blogspot.com/2013/01/time.html), so I won’t get into too much detail, but basically, if I can do it, anyone can! Not that you have to or should feel guilty if you don’t – remember I’d barely written in a year – but it is possible if you want it bad enough.

G: You seriously impress me, lady. How long have you been writing and what made you decide to pursue publication?

J: I’m one of those obnoxious “I’ve written since I could hold a pencil” people. I remember making up stories for my sister when we were young enough that our mom still washed our hair. But I’ve been attempting to write novels since I was about 16. My first two YA MSs (a high fantasy and a gritty contemp about homeless teens) were bad enough I knew not to query them. But then in the post-Twilight world, I shared my urban fantasy (originally titles GUARDIAN) with a friend. She loved it. I entered the pitch in a contest and got a full request. I edited, queried and contested it until finally shelving it last fall. I’ve always dreamed of being a writer, of seeing my name on the spines at bookstores, and I’d hoped that MS would be the one. It isn’t and that was hard, but I’ve kept writing. I got so much great feedback on my UF – it’s just a tough genre to sell right now. My hope is to sell something else and eventually be able to get that book out once the trends die down and publishers are willing to look at it again.

G: What do you think is the most important advice for fellow writers in the querying stage?

J: Keep writing. I wish I’d taken this to heart sooner. I spent a lot of time try to remake my UF despite several agents telling me they loved my writing, but couldn’t sell UF. It’s vey hard to see new books popping up on shelves while agents are telling you it’s a dead genre. But publishing is a very, very slow moving machine. There’s a huge lag between when an agent signs a writer and when that book, IF it sells, is released.

Someone once told me the best thing to do when you send your first query is to start your next book. There’s so much wisdom in that. It’ll keep your writing skills sharp. It’ll give you more to offer an agent should he or she ask for more. It’ll keep you from obsessing over your inbox.

KEEP WRITING. No matter how hard it is. No matter how much you believe in your MS. Keep writing, keep reading, keep growing.

G: What do you strive for when you write? In other words, what are the things you hope to hear from your readers?

J: Memorable characters. The kind that invade your mind and you can’t stop thinking about, even after you reach the end. Once I caught my baby sister sketching characters from my UF and that’s the most successful I’ve ever felt as a writer. I want to write things you don’t want to put down. The kind of books that keep you up past your bedtime.

G: Because I'm food-obsessed, I have to ask: Favorite flavor of ice cream? Favorite kind of cookie? Any food you absolutely positively can't live without?

J: I can only pick one? You’re killing me. Ice cream is one of my favorite things ever. I worked in a gourmet ice cream shop in college. It was awesome. If I HAD to pick, a really high quality French vanilla. You can tell a lot about a brand of ice cream by their vanilla.

Cookies... I make white chocolate chip cookies that are killer. But normally I go for brownies over cookies.

Food I can’t live without would be cheese. I love cheese in just about any form. I was a vegan for a while in high school and I have NO idea how I lived without it.

G: And, last question. How would you fill in this blank? If I see _____ in one more YA novel, I will scream.

J: A girl who insists she never wants to fall in love or get married or have kids, then falls in love, gets married and has kids at the end of the series.

I’m happily married and I love my kids and while that wasn’t really on my radar in high school, I wasn’t vehemently opposed to the idea. Now it seems that’s the new way to make your character strong and independent. If that’s how she feels, fine. I’m good with that. But if you’re just going to have her change her mind at the end, just don’t. 

Thanks Jenny! Best of luck with your new projects and we hope you'll come back and share your success story when you bowl over your Dream Agent!

Shooting the Breeze With My CP's: An Interview With Dahlia Adler!

Hi Everyone!

So tomorrow just HAPPENS to be the birthday of one of my very favorite people and critique partners: fellow lover of YA contemporary and YA Misfit, Dahlia Adler! To celebrate, we're doing an interview!

You might know Dahl from the Twitterverse (and if you don't, go follow her right now: @MissDahlELama), or from her own blog, The Daily Dahlia, where she dispenses invaluable advice on writing and seeking publication, does fabulous interviews, and is generally a brilliant human being. She is repped by Andrea Somberg at the Harvey Klinger Agency, and is also a copyediting wizard, a sweet but thorough beta reader, and has the ability to organize a person's whole brain in three bullet points. Yes, she has done that for me. I'd be lost without her, and I'm going to pout when I have to share her sexy male mc's with the rest of the world, but only for a second. Because then I'll be too busy screaming my head off with glee.

Here's a chance for you to get to know Dahlia too!

G: First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Are you doing anything special to celebrate?

D: Thank you!! Just keeping it small this year, having some friends over. Mostly I’m excited for whatever birthday cake my husband’s planning.

G: How long have you been writing, and what made you decide to pursue publication?

D: I’ve been writing since I was about eight or so, but I was always really shy about it and would never let anyone read my writing, and I honestly had no intention of pursuing publication. Then, about five years ago, my husband went to law school, and money got tight, and I thought, “Okay, maybe it’s time I actually see if I can turn this into more than a hobby, because we kinda need that right now!” I dipped my toe into the querying pool and never looked back, even though obviously now I realize that was ridiculous reasoning.

G: How many novels have you written? Do you have a favorite ms in your arsenal? 

D: I’ve actually written quite a few—four books for what would now be called a “New Adult” series, four YA standalones, I’m most of the way through a chick lit, and I’m writing another YA standalone right now. My favorite as far as what’s near and dear to my heart is probably the one I shelved prior to getting my agent—it’s called MY NAME IS EVERETT, and I just love the characters and setting so much. I wouldn’t say it’s my strongest, but it’s my “baby,” even though it’ll probably never see the light of day!

G: I know what *my* favorite Dahlia story is - BEHIND THE SCENES! Tell us a little bit about it and what inspired you to write it.

D: Aw, you’re just a sucker for a certain love interest ;) 

BEHIND THE SCENES is about a high school senior named Ally whose best friend, Vanessa, lands a starring role in a huge new TV show and gets Ally a job as her on-set assistant. Once on-set, Ally and Vanessa’s co-star Liam fall hard and fast for each other, but they’re forced to keep their romance behind the scenes so Vanessa and Liam can publicly date as part of a publicity stunt.    

I don’t remember what inspired the actual story, but I can definitely tell you a few random pieces of inspiration. One huge thing that brings Ally and Liam together is the fact that her father is terminally ill, and he’s experienced that with his own mother. In this case, I pulled a “write what you know,” and gave her dad the same illness (stage IV melanoma) that my father had. The aspect of Ally’s hating Hollywood because she’s watched her best friend struggle, being an Asian-American actress, isn’t from any personal experience—just a personal desire to call more attention to the insane lack of diversity in casting. The fake show was based on the new 90210 in my head, which is also where the character name “Liam” came from.

G: How difficult was it to write Liam and Ally's love story knowing he was really in love with me the whole time? (Kidding. Totally. Not really.)

D: Nearly impossible! Do you know how hard it is to tell a character, “Dude, focus on Ally,” when he just keeps screaming, “Giiiiiiina!!” from your computer speakers? Near impossible! Fortunately, I like a challenge, and I love writing romance.

G: That's right. I knew it. Ahem... BTS also got you your agent. What do you think is the most important advice for authors seeking representation?

D: 1) Get yourself some betas, and really, really think about their critique. I got incredibly tough crit on BTS, and sometimes it’s really tempting to brush it off and say, “Oh, whatever, those are just her opinions,” but I made the decision to work with it, and I think it’s a much better book for it. It’s also 10K longer, and I don’t think the pacing hurts for it at all.

2) Be aware of what writing opportunities are out there, and avail yourself of them! I got an agent through my first contest, and I didn’t even really know contests were a “thing” before that. But they are, and they’re fantastic. Just don’t overdo them—sometimes I see the same manuscripts entered over and over and can’t help thinking, “Have you really done anything to this since the last time? Are you working on anything new or are you holding on for too long?” Plus, it’s never really in your best interest to have agents know how long you’ve been trying to “sell” something.

3) Do your research on agents before signing. Not that this had anything to do with my experience, but I see now all these agents popping up with basically no experience, no sales, and people rushing to sign with them to add a line to their Twitter bios. It’s not worth it.

G: What do you strive for when you write? In other words, what are the things you hope to hear from your readers?

D: The best compliments are the ones that tell you that you’ve really gotten into someone’s head. If I can make someone laugh, or cry, or “swoon,” that’s the greatest. I get a lot of compliments on dialogue, and I love that, but lately I’ve been getting a bunch on setting, and those are really, really flattering to me, because I tend to set things in made-up locales. if I can make you picture a place neither of us has ever been… yeah, I’ll be pretty proud of that!

G: Tell us something that would surprise people to know about you. And not that you're awesome, because we already know that.

D: Ha, I’m such an open book that I’m not even sure what would surprise people anymore. I guess maybe that although I love books and TV, I’m so not a movie person. The list of movies I’ve never seen includes: Star Wars, Titanic, Dumb and Dumber, When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, Jurassic Park, any of the Harry Potters, any of the Twilights, any of the Lord of the Rings, any of the Supermans… need I go on?

G: Because I'm food-obsessed, I have to ask: Favorite flavor of ice cream? Favorite kind of cookie? Any food you absolutely positively can't live without?

D: Ohh, you are my kind of girl, as if I didn’t know that already! My favorite ice cream is Coffee Heath Bar Crunch—so, so good. Favorite kind of cookie is tough, but I think I have to go with white chocolate macadamia nut. There are so many foods I can’t live without I don’t even know where to start. I think chicken would probably be my number one.

G: Ben & Jerry are my heroes. Last question: How would you fill in this blank? If I see _____ in one more YA novel, I will scream.

D: If I see one more couple pair up after getting to know each other through a class project, I will scream. Loudly.

 Thanks for stopping by, Dahlia! Best of luck with all your writing endeavors and of course, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

All the Cool Kids are Doing It...

Wanna know what it's all about?

More important - want one of your own?

Hop over to the YA Misfits blog right now and chat Contemporary Romance with us! See you there, peeps!

Playlists and Love Songs and Taylor Swift, Oh My!

Hi All!

So today is my very first post over at the YA Misfits Blog! I'm talking about (and sharing) the playlist for my YA contemporary romance, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE.

Hop on over and take a look, then tell me all about the songs that serve as the soundtrack to YOUR writing!

(And here's a hint to what you'll see over there)

And the Winner Is...

First, thank you to everyone who made the launch of the YA Misfits blog a success! We are truly grateful to everyone who decided to hang out at our lunch table and chat publishing with us. We're going to have so much fun together!

As promised, I'm announcing the winner of my personal YAMF giveaway today. Which, in case you forgot, is a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card.

AND THE WINNER IS......

Angelina C. Hansen!

Thank for participating Angelina, enjoy your prize! I'll be e-mailing you shortly.

Has everyone else checked out the YA Misfits blog? If not, go now! And be sure to check in over there on Thursday, when I'll be posting the soundtrack to my YA romance, LAST YEAR'S MISTAKE!

YA Misfits Launch Giveaway!

I am so excited to announce that today is the official launch of the YA Misfits Blog!

My CP's and I have been working on bringing this fun and informative writing blog to y'all for a while, and we are so thrilled to unveil our collaborative baby. And the best part?

THERE ARE MAD PRIZES TO BE WON!

That's right - all us misfits are offering prizes ranging from critiques to gift cards to books on our individual blogs, as well as ONE MEGA AWESOME PRIZE on the YAMF blog - A KINDLE!!

And to go along with it, I'm offering .... drumroll please....

A $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Because hey, you'll need to  buy BOOKS for your Kindle, right? 

So How Do You Win?

It's very simple. You must:

- Be a follower of this blog

- Be a follower of the YA Misfits Blog

AND:

*Leave a Comment Telling Me Something That Makes You a Misfit*

For example, if you follow me on Twitter, you probably know that I have a habit of singing and dancing - loudly and badly - when I'm alone in my house making dinner. If you don't, here's an example of some of the tweets you'd see if you did:

or

or

and of course:

So, peeps. Want an Amazon Gift card? Then tell me what makes YOU a misfit! (Then hop over to the YAMF blog and follow along, if you haven't already. We have some great posts and more contests planned!)

**Be sure to leave me your e-mail address in the comment so I can contact you if you win! Winner will be announced  Monday, September 10th.