UNDER THE DUSTY SKY is live on Amazon…

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Sixteen-year-old Graceland Holloway doesn’t believe in perfect love, or love at all thanks to her mother. But she does believe in perfect memories.

And she gets them.

The perfect first crush, the perfect recital, the perfect summer with her best friend, the perfect first kiss…

When her oldest brother leaves the Holloway farm, Gracie meets the gorgeous new farm hand, eighteen-year-old Bentley McKinna.

Thinking he’ll be easy, like all boys are, Gracie plans his role in her next perfect memory…

The perfect first time.
~
Bentley knows it’s all a game he can’t afford to play.

But there’s only so much a guy can take… especially from someone like Gracie.
~

*YOUNG ADULT novel with minor swearing, alcohol use, non-graphic sexual references*

 

Will be a bit for Kobo, and paperback. My apologies!

Teaser Tuesday – Under the Dusty Sky teaser pic

It’s almost time for release! I’m formatting today! Fingers crossed nothing dramatic happens, because formatting alway equals drama for me!

WINNERS of the UtDS eARCs and another teaser!

The winners of eARCs are

DAWN

&

C.K

 

YAY! Congrats, and I have contacted both of you.

*throws confetti*

 

This weekend is also the Canadian May Long Weekend, which means parks are OPEN and I am GONE CAMPING! Double YAY!

See you next week when I hopefully have a big happy announcement to make ;D

HAVE A FABULOUS WEEKEND!

Playing with convention: What happens when typical gender roles are reversed?

I don’t know… but I’m about to find out…

I love characters that take me through the entire gamut of emotion. I love characters that are hard to love. Which is why I adore Gracie and Ben.

After I began writing UNDER THE DUSTY SKY, I went through this phase where I was trying really hard to make Gracie more likeable. I was saying things to myself like “She’s too independent”-”She’s too headstrong”-”She’s too opinionated”-”She’s too sure of herself…”

Then I was horrified with myself for thinking these things. Girls like Gracie are underrepresented in YA and this might be why. Likeable=sellable. To make a girl character likeable she has to be what? Spineless? Insecure? Defined by love? Unable to make her own decisions until a boy comes into her life and ‘builds her up’?

No.

Not for me. Those characters are not for me. That’s not to say I don’t like vulnerable characters or characters who are able to build themselves up from a place of weakness to strength, but I need to see growth, change and acceptance from the inside. Love doesn’t change us. Love gives us the courage to change ourselves. That’s what I believe.

With Gracie she needed to be brought down a couple notches. And Ben was the guy to start that process. She needed to look outside herself to see how her actions were impacting others. She needs to let down the walls and allow herself to feel things that she desperately bottles up. But Ben isn’t the only reason Gracie begins to open her eyes, he’s just the catylist. Gracie has other relationships she needs to see clearer. The conflict she causes her best friend, her friends, and her brothers…just to name a few.

So ultimately in this book Gracie is the “BAD BOY” and Ben is a caring soul that tries to open her up. He’s the “GOOD GIRL” who has a soft heart and a penchant for fixing troubled people.

Essentially, I accepted Gracie and embraced where the story was heading. I’ve tipped the genre convention on it’s head and not everyone is going to like it. But I like it, and I’m wondering what other books do this.

What are some great YA reads that take archetype characters and shift the perspectives?

• Good Girl, Bad Boy gender flips

• LGBTQ as main characters instead of secondary characters

• LGBTQ stories that are NOT just coming-out stories

• Abusive relationships where the female is the abuser

• Interracial love where the race is NOT the main obstacle to overcome

• Troubled teens with loving and concerned parents

• etc…

Leave a comment and suggestion for a good risky read and be entered to win an eARC of UNDER THE DUSTY SKY!

Note: Suggestions can be romance, thriller, mystery, light, dark, fluffy, philosophical, whatever… just a story that doesn’t follow established YA convention.

In the meantime here is a fun teaser I put together where we see a bit of Gracie’s and Ben’s dynamic

Teaser Tuesday and win an eARC of UNDER THE DUSTY SKY

I am a big fan of the almost kiss. To be entered to win an eARC of UNDER THE DUSTY SKY just comment on this post and tell me the name of the book that has your favourite almost kiss (just the title is good)! Winner will be chosen randomly on Friday, May 17. 

Add UNDER THE DUSTY SKY to Goodreads here!

UNDER THE DUSTY SKY news!

Under the Dusty Sky, the first in the Holloway Farm series, has been a strange and fascinating project right from the beginning. My lovely Graceland Holloway captured my attention the moment she stormed through my thoughts and hasn’t left me since.

She’s a powerhouse of a character and I am certain that people will either love her or hate her. I want to tell you why I love her.

• She is intense.

• She is motivated.

• She is overly confident, bordering on arrogance (some will think she’s just plain arrogant).

• She goes after what she wants with reckless abandon, getting her into all sorts of trouble.

• She feels things deeper than she’ll ever let on.

• She is obsessed with how people see her and relates it to how she sees herself.

• She is contagious.

• She has no clue what love looks like.

 

I’ll tell you why I don’t always love her.

SEE ALL ABOVE REASONS

“Gracie, wait.”

I run up to her and grab her elbow just as she steps up the first porch step. She glares down at me but her eyes are glassy.

“Gracie, listen. I’m sorry if I upset you. I didn’t mean to. I just want you to know that.”

“It’s fine, Ben, really.” Her voice is cold but trembling. “I get it. I mean how could you ever be interested in someone like me. I’m just an immature child playing games I don’t understand. Just Holloway’s daughter.”

She pulls her arm from my grip and disappears into the house.

I feel extremely lost. I thought this was about sex. Somehow it feels like a whole lot more.

~~~

I sympathize with Bentley here because many a time during this book Gracie also left me feeling slightly lost. I had a definite plan for this book. I knew exactly how I wanted it to go but I should have known better. Gracie eventually took control, and TWICE I had to throw my notes out the window and just let her tell me how it was going to be. At one point I was actually angry with her and had to stop writing and come to terms with where she was heading. This is a crazy awesome feeling as a writer.

This is what made this project a lot of fun to work on. The unexpected nature of the book didn’t stop when I was done writing it. I also had a very definite idea about publishing it… But then on a whim I submitted it to a couple agents I have my eye on, to which I got one full request and two of the most encouraging rejections ever.

It is because of this wait on agents that I had to push back the publish date.

BUT WHEN IS IT COMING OUT?

Because of the crazy and unexpected adventure that was this book, I’ve decided that I am going to have a surprise release.

Yes. A surprise release.

Meaning you won’t know when it’s going to go live. Soon. But I’m not telling when exactly…

I’m such a jerk, right? >:|

To make up for it and drum up a bit of excitement for Graceland and Bentley, I’m going to keep you occupied for the next little while. From now until when I post the ‘YAY it’s up’ announcement there will be lots of fun teasers, character introductions and giveaways. I love to giveaway books so make sure to check back often.

Check back tomorrow for a Teaser Tuesday and ARC giveaway!

Trends in Self-Publishing: a breakdown

The avenues available for publication are plentiful, which means with all these choices come many opinions. Here is mine. Do what you want.

People like things neat and tidy. Defined and ordered. Black and white. This or that. But there isn’t one, two or even seven ways to look at publishing. There is a different way for every single individual who goes into it.

I was getting really worked up about it, thinking what’s the point of trying if an unedited first draft of a cliched story hits best seller lists and gets picked up by a Big Trad for a multi-book deal. Seriously? I’m asking you. What’s the point?

I love writing. I can’t stop. I will always love it and always do it. But I can’t write a story I don’t love. So the point is it might have less to do with publishing route and more to do with what’s being published.

I want to talk about an aspect of this debate that I have heard little to nothing about: speed and ease of publication and how quality might in some cases (not all) be affected by where the money is. Traditional publishing is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. So trends are hard to pin point. What’s going to be published two years from now, might be selling today but who knows by 2015… Self publishing is faster so writers are pumping out books to hit the trend and make money. Sometimes to the detriment of quality. But readers are proving that grammar is not at the top of their priority list, otherwise these self-published unedited books would not be doing well. Not all writers are in it for the love of storytelling and craft… which is hard to swallow for the ones who are. Publishing is a business. Writing is a craft.

The writers who start a trend work long and hard to establish themselves. Often taking years to become an ‘over-night success’… we forget this. We shouldn’t. If it comes fast and easy, it won’t last long.

What is a trend?

The loudest trend in self publishing is New Adult and sex. Now before everyone goes all “NA isn’t synonymous with sex book” on me, I’ll just tell you you’d be preaching to the choir. I know that.

BUT

Sex books are trendy. Sexy covers are trendy. Early-twenties abuse victims who solve all their problems by having sex with tattooed up bad-boys are trendy. Whether you like it or don’t like it that’s a fact. Saying self-published=garbage book is a cop out, too. There are tons of books I don’t like and tons I do. HOW they were published has nothing to do with it.

So let’s break down the trend a bit.

a) 50 Shades of Grey. This is also a fact. This book opened up a cross genre of contemporary romance and erotica with a young twenty-something main character. This is also why all NA gets deemed as a ‘sex book’ too, in my opinion, but it’s not always the case. The fact that it started as Twilight fan fic doesn’t help the defence against the book snobs and traditionalists. But who cares? She wrote it. People bought it. She’s happy. That’s all there is to it.

b) Ereaders. You can now read books on the subway without anyone seeing or knowing what you’re reading. Now wave your flag loud and proud if you want but I used to work in a bookstore. The erotica section was way at the back hidden from view, tucked away. People who bought erotica would mostly (not always) buy a magazine or something else and hide the erotica book cover-side down, even at the checkout. This is truth. I’ve seen it happen. Same with YA books. Adult shame for reading the things they love to read… that says more about our society then anything else, which is a post for another day.

c) Social media. Everyone is now talking about these books because a genre pioneer has bust down the barriers and like minded people are finding each other. This is why somedays it’s like ALL I hear about are these “self published NA smut books” which is ridiculous. They’ve always been around. They aren’t all smut. And they’ll never go away. But the trend will shift. It WILL. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

This is the point of a trend.

How something comes to be trendy: one or a few people do something that is different. Not cool. Shameful. Against the grain. They come to great ridicule and failure. Then someone else decides that maybe it is a little cool. So now there is a group doing this cool not-cool thing. Then other people start to notice. Then people notice that these other not cool cool people are being noticed. They want to be noticed too. So they start doing it and become bandwagon jumpers. People start noticing the followers, or abusers who are just trying to get rich off of someone else’s innovation. That gathers haters who publicly denounce the now cool thing that these not cool people were doing. Here we have a debate. Then people have to pick sides. Are we TEAM JACOB or TEAM EDWARD? The debate heats up. Then it gets national or international attention. The trend runs high and powerful. People get rich. Then in an amongst all this trendy debate a new person decides to do something different. Not cool. Shameful. Against the grain…

You get the idea…

So in conclusion, publishing will always have a divide, but change is inevitable. The divide lines will shift and morph as time passes. Things as they are today will not be the case one year from now. So do your thing. Do what you want and be proud of your accomplishments. Find like-minded people. Be happy with your decisions. If you’re trying to get rich off a trend, fine. No skin off my back. But enjoy the ride now because when the trend shifts, who knows where we’ll all be…

Teaser Tuesday with Jolene Perry

Teaser from Jolene Perry’s Paranormal/Contemporary blend SEEKER. Book three in the Shadows Trilogy

~~~

I get the yin and yang thing, now. I get it. She fills the parts of me that I didn’t know were missing and she balances me in a way that I never expected to be balanced, and all she cares about is stopping them from helping the shadows and how she was too late for Landon.

And I love how passionate she is about doing what she feels is right, but I’m not sure what to do with how stubborn I know she is, and how I’m now seeing Landon as the childhood fantasy of hers that he probably was. The thought crumples in my chest as I stare at Kara and wonder if I’ll get a chance to see what it’s like to be with someone who touches my energy and my brain and my heart all at once because I’ve never had that before.

I press my fingertips into my eyes and press until I see spots—at least it’s distracting.

Kara’s hand touches my cheek and her breath hits my face about the same time as her body slides to standing next to mine, shocking me in so many different places I lose my breath.

“I’ve never looked at you and thought you were almost like the real thing. I may look at him that way, but not you.” Once the words are out, she looks down and I’m left with this huge admission and the girl so close that all the logical parts of my brain fade out.

I can practically see the embarrassment wash through her as she scoots back onto the bed and lies down. I’m reminded again at how little she’s had normal people relationships, which overwhelms me in a different way because we’re not in an easy situation here for anyone, and still she’s opening up to me at all the right times.

I climb up and lie on my stomach next to her touching my fingers to hers. The ends of her fingers twitch, and I know she feels what I do when we touch. I love it, and I’m pretty sure it’s part of what makes her uncertain. As I slide our fingers together until we’re holding hands she tenses, and then relaxes, squeezing me back.

She turns to face me, her dark eyes taking me in. I’m not sure how to lie here and be open for her to see, but I try to relax and let her feel what it could be like for us to be together.

I’m dying to feel her lips again, but I know it’s not the time. There’s too much here. Too much between us and around us. Instead I scoot over until our shoulders are touching and clasp my hand more tightly with hers.

~~~

Get the entire Trilogy for .99!

Teaser Tuesday with Leigh T Moore

I love the idea of Teaser Tuesday but I don’t always want to be all “HEY everyone, look at me!” even though it IS my blog…

But then I remembered I have friends who write stuff… good stuff… stuff I love to read… so why not share?

Here is a (particularly heart stutteringly & smexy) teaser from Leigh T. Moore’s DRAGONFLY due out in June!

~~~

A half-step, I was in his arms. A glint of blue and his mouth covered mine. I trembled as his hands traveled up the sides of my dress to my shoulders, then lightly cupped my cheeks.

His lips moved to the corner of my mouth, then my jaw, and a tiny noise slipped from my throat. I was tense and electric, and all I could think were his soft lips touching me, my fingers exploring the hard lines of his stomach through his thin cotton shirt. 

His mouth traveled to my ear, where he kissed me lightly before whispering. “Let’s sit.” 

Taking my hand, he sat in the sand and pulled me onto his lap, and I watched as he unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his lined chest. Then he took my hands and placed my palms flat on his warm skin. Gorgeous.

“Now you,” he said, and his arms circled to my back. I was breathing fast as he slid my zipper down and my straps fell to the sides. I was sitting in my bra facing him in the silver moonlight, my hands still on his chest. My head was so light, I could barely breathe. This was all new to me, and there was no way I was stopping it. My shoulders shook, and I looked down. 

“Are you afraid?” he whispered. 

I shook my head no, lying. He cupped my chin, tilting my face up, and looked into my eyes. The breeze blew his golden hair around his cheeks, and I was convinced this was what an angel looked like.

~~~ 

Add DRAGONFLY to your TBR pile!

Tough Critter– Five tips to being a good Beta Reader

I am Beta Reading a book right now, and I was introduced to the author by another author who called me a “Tough Crit-er”. Only in this industry are connections made by saying things like “She’s harsh and brutal… you’ll love her!”

But then I thought about it, and am still thinking about it, even as I read the book for the above mentioned author.

What makes a good Beta Reader? 

(To give context to this post: I love the book I’m Beta reading right now, LOVE, but still I have like six pages of notes on the first few chapters… Picky, picky. But for me, the more I believe in the story the harsher I am.)

I hear things like it’s a professional relationship, find people in your style or genre, it takes a long time to find a good solid group of compatible readers… I agree completely with all of this, but also disagree. I argue that it has MORE to do with personality and critique delivery than what genre they read and what’s actually being said. I can be told the same exact thing by two different people and I will interpret it differently based on the delivery of the words and my association with the person that said it.

Beta’s don’t necessarily have to be compatible with you as a writer to be a good beta, and sometimes people who love all the same things you do and write the same stuff you do doesn’t mean they are the right person to give you feedback.

I have Beta Readers for my books who don’t read or even necessarily like YA… One would think this is pointless, but for me it helps tremendously because anything that is inconsistent, relying too heavily on the convention of YA or seems implausible is picked out by these readers. I’ve found plot holes in my work after going through readers notes because lovers of my genre are WAY more willing to forgive minor inconsistencies, because their brains fill in the blanks with convention.

So again, I asked what makes a good Beta Reader?

Here is the list I came up with based on my own opinions and experiences:

Ask and Listen – Ask the writer what kind of feedback they are looking for, where your attention should focus, and how in depth they want you to go… and then LISTEN to what they say. And then adhere to the guidelines the author sets up. Sometimes I Beta for structure. Sometimes I copyedit. Sometimes I proofread (Which I’m TERRIBLE at, so I try to say no to these ones…) I read a first draft piece once and was asked only to point out plot problems. So that’s what I did. I ignored all the typos, I glossed over the sentences that didn’t quite work, I left the words that were used out of context… but I tore into the plot with everything I had, which brings me to number two…

Be honest – The author wants readers to love their book after they publish it, so you being ‘gentle’ or assuming they will pick up on an inconsistency you found on their own, or not wanting to hurt feelings is not going to help them make their book the best it can be before they publish. When I’m asked to Beta I point out EVERY SINGLE TINY thing I find within the perameters that the author and I set up. This is why I’m considered brutal or harsh, but in my opinion it is a complete and utter waste of my time and the time of the author if I’m not going to put effort into it. That being said… here’s number three…

Know when to say no more – If you can’t give helpful feedback, if you strongly dislike the book, or find that you have problems with EVERYTHING, you need to say no more. Give it back to the author and say “I’m sorry but I don’t feel I can add anything that will help you with this book. My personal bias/reading style/general taste in books is clouding my ability to give constructive criticism.” This might offend the author but it’s the right thing to do. Your personal distaste for first person present is not going to help them if that’s the way they write, neither is skim reading and sending a vague email about fixing problems that are made up so the authors feelings aren’t hurt. Especially unhelpful is attacking the author’s sensibilities. If underage drinking and teen sex offends you, then don’t agree to Beta a book about an alcoholic teen who sleeps around to get her booze…I feel like this would be obvious, but I’m mentioning it anyway…It’s about the book, not the author, moving us onto number four.

Avoid ‘you’ statements – I forget this one all the time and often fall into this way of critiquing because I don’t mean it offensively and it doesn’t offend me when I’m on the receiving end, so it slips my mind. Saying things like, “You didn’t put enough character development into Chapter four… you ended this scene too abruptly…etc.” is something to be avoided. It’s hard to keep on top of this one but here’s why I think it’s important: First off, it’s not hard to say “This scene is too abrupt. Chapter four needs more development.” but for some reason people think it’s mean because it’s short and impersonal, but that’s exactly why it’s good. The second reason ties into this because if the author is sensative or having a crap day or whatever the case may be, seeing a whole pile of “YOU DID WRONG” can be crushing. Instead it should be “THIS DOESN’T WORK” because it’s about the story. It’s about making it better not stroking egos or bringing down dreams.

I don’t have a clever segway into the number one thing so I’ll just get on with it…

Be assertive and thorough – The author is the author. They were, are, will always be, the master and creator of the story. To Beta read effectively you have to assume the writer has a brain in their head with the ability to make decisions for themselves. If they don’t, they are not ready to have their work critiqued. Above I mention that I mark everything I see. Everything. Even if I pause to think about something while reading I mark it down… Why? because that’s what I was asked to do. Do I think all my suggestions are followed by the author? No. Never. I bet when I hand back a manuscript to an author I’d be lucky if half the things I point out get changed/fixed/reworked/rewritten. Because it’s not my story, and the author knows how the story needs to go, the job of the beta is to point out things for the author to think about. To catch what the author may have missed. So if I say, “I don’t feel like this scene adds to the story” the author might look at it and say “I disagree, it stays in.” When people Beta for me I don’t take all their suggestions, some of them I FLAT out disagree with, but the point is that they took the time to give their opinions and offer their suggestions so I read them, I consider them, I think about them and then I decide. Your suggestions as a Beta reader can be accepted OR rejected, so mark it down and let the author decide.

And just for fun here’s a bonus tip on what makes a BAD BETA

Making it about you – It’s not helpful to tell an author what you would have done. I had a crit once where the reader just didn’t like my writing style so instead of telling me they were not the person for the job I just got pages of notes on how THEY would have wrote it. I couldn’t use any of it and it was a waste of time for the reader more than it was for me. When I read I always try to give options when things aren’t working for me by saying “I feel like this doesn’t work for this reason but if this happened, or if they go there and do this, or if it gets cut completely, it would help.”

What are your tips to good Beta reading? Let’s try to stay positive though!