Winter Reading

Lots of my overseas friends are sharing their summer reading plans. It’s winter here and particularly chilly – which means perfect weather to curl in front of the fire with a good book.

Today I wanted to talk about a few I’m looking forward to from my publisher Month9 Books.

Of Breakable Things by A. Lynden Rolland

A captivating debut about the fragility of life, love, and perspective.

When Chase dies tragically, Alex embraces her own mortality. What she didn’t expect was that she’d have to make a choice: forget the years of pain and suffering once and for all, or linger as a spirit and get another chance at life and love.

Alex doesn’t hesitate to choose; she’d follow Chase anywhere. But the spirit world is nothing like she expected, and Alex finds she's forced to fight for her life once more. For even in a world where secrets are buried much deeper than six feet under, a legacy can continue to haunt you—and in a place this dangerous, no one is resting in peace.

A Whispered Darkness by Vanessa Edwards

When Claire Mallory's father leaves, her mom moves them to a new town and into a dilapidated Victorian house. The old house creaks and whistles, and smells . . . well, like it's been abandoned for years. But as the nights grow longer and the shadows take on substance, Claire wonders if the strange sounds and occurrences might be more than the house showing its age. Just as things start to pick up in Claire's love life, her mother becomes possessed. In an attempt to save her mother and their new home, Claire enlists the help of two boys, each of whom is interested in Claire for very different reasons. As she chooses one boy over the other, something dangerous is unleashed, and the spirits make their move. They aren’t content to moan and scream inside Claire’s house, or even control her mom. They want a taste of freedom, and they'll use Claire to get it. But is Claire strong enough to fight off the evil spirits, or will they claim her and her mom before it's all over?

Pretty Dark Nothing by Heather Reid

It’s been twenty three days since Quinn has slept for more than minutes at a time. Demons have invaded her dreams, stalking her, and whispering of her death. The lack of sleep and crippling fear are ruining her life. Energy drinks and caffeine pills don’t make a dent. When Quinn dozes off in the school hallway, Aaron, an amnesiac with a psychic ability, accidentally enters her nightmare. The demons are determined to keep them apart, and Aaron from discovering the secret locked away in his memory. Together, they could banish the darkness back to the underworld for good. That is, unless the demons kill them first.

 

These will warm my evenings… and probably keep me awake until I finish.

What are you reading?

Lifer

I'm so excited to have Lifer out there in the world. So far the reviews have been great, and I'm so glad people are enjoying Asher and Blank's story.

Below is a picture of the paperback - I don't think I'll ever get tired of holding a book I've written in my hands.

Lifer.jpg

Nail that first page

Something we all hear early on when we’re starting out writing is to have a great first line/paragraph/page and it makes sense. From editors to readers we know we need to hook them on that first page. People are busy and we want them to read on.

But how?

For me it’s usually a lot of pre-thinking, waiting until I have a start I’m happy with before writing. Then it’s all about the re-writing and listening to advice from those trusted first readers.

Unfortunately there’s no one perfect solution for a great first page and it’s one of those ‘know it when you see it’ things but there are a few ways to help make the magic happen.

  • Make it interesting.
  • Try to raise a question that will make the reader keep reading to find the answer. It doesn’t have to be a big question but we need to care about the answer.
  • This one is personal preference but I prefer to meet a character straight away who I want to know more about.
  • Write a first page that makes you want to read on yourself. You’re your first reader.

Remember that first page is a promise, it sets the tone for the rest of the book and if you don’t follow through it will break the reader’s trust.

The wonderful thing is that you don’t have to get it right first time. Be willing to cut and polish to make that first page shine.

 

Freshly Squeezed is running a great contest for aspiring authors to get feedback on their first page. Take a look here:

http://www.freshlysqueezedreads.com/2014/10/announcing-the-page-one-blitz/

Fake is nearly here!

What a whirlwind and a wait this journey is.

There is a month (A whole month! ONLY a month!) today until the official release of FAKE. Or as it could be called, the Fake release… which can get kind of confusing. There’s been the excitement of the Fake cover and not so long ago that magic moment of holding the real Fake book in my hands at last. A dream come true.

Fake in Hand.jpg

As a part of that I’ve planned my very first book signing, although since it’s a Fake signing I’m not sure it counts.

It’s 3rd of October at Collins Booksellers Edwardstown.

I’m super excited for other firsts ahead like seeing it on the shelves. I can’t wait to hear from readers and hope everyone loves Kath and Sebastian as much as I do.

Lifer Cover Revealed

Tremendous excitement here today with the reveal of the cover for Lifer. Check it out, along with the blurb, in the books section. Seeing my cover is a hugely special step on this journey and I can't wait to hold the real thing in my hands.

In the meantime I've been busy working on the Lifer sequel and it's been so much fun spending time with the characters (not so much for them but that's the joy of being an author). I'm also working on research for a fun road trip based YA contemporary which is a change but just as fun as the sci-fi.

What do you look for in a sequel?

Any good road trip stories to share?

It's Official!

Publisher's Marketplace
LIFER Young Adult
Beck Nicholas' LIFER in which a teen slave girl aboard a spaceship finds herself in the middle of an uprising, and a teen boy back on Earth searches for his forgotten past in the midst of a brewing rebellion, pitched as The Bourne Identity meets Under the Never Sky, to Georgia McBride at Month9Books, in a two-book deal, for publication in 2014 and 2015, by Ali McDonald of The Rights Factory (US).