WANTED: TEENS WHO LOVE YA BOOKS!

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Are you a teen who loves to read? Or do you know a teen who’s passionate about YA books?

I’m looking for teens to join my Angelhood Street Team. What’s involved and what do you get by being a member?

Angelhood 2 1400x2100

To be a member of the Angelhood Street Team, you must . . .

  1. be a teenager (ages 13-19)
  2. follow me on Instagram.
  3. come up with at least two ways you’ll help me spread excitement about my upcoming young adult book Angelhood.

What will you get in return?

Five bookmarks to share with your friends!

Five bookmarks to share with your friends!

  1. five of my awesome bookmarks
  2. entries into special exclusive drawings only for Street Team members (we’re talking autographed books, iTunes gift cards, cool book swag, etc.)
  3. the ability to brag that you were on my original Street Team before I become the next cool young adult author a la J.K. Rowling, Veronica Roth, or Suzanne Collins. 🙂

How do you become a member of the Angelhood Street Team?

Simply contact me and send me your mailing address (so I can mail you the bookmarks) and then tell me at least two (or more!) ways you will help me spread excitement about my book.

Will you . . .

  • post a pic of you with the Angelhood bookmarks on your Instagram account?
  • tell all your friends (via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that they must attend my awesome Facebook launch party on April 30?
  • post a youtube video talking about how excited you are about the book?
  • read the book and then post reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads?
  • create a book trailer for Angelhood?
  • get all your friends to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook?
  • interview me for your school newspaper?
  • come up with something even more creative????

And remember, I’m an English teacher, so the more specific you are about exactly what, how, when, and where you will help me build excitement, the better! If your ideas sound really fantastic, I’ll even throw in some extra bookmarks for you. 🙂

Blog Tour for Angelhood

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We’re getting really close to the launch of my young adult novel Angelhood, so it’s time to start looking at all the blogs that are taking part in my blog tour.

What’s a blog tour? A chance for an author to “tour” around on different blogs to talk about her upcoming book. Often these include interview questions, guest posts, and behind-the-scenes info about the book. There are also many giveaways, so be sure to check out these blogs in the near future!

 

One month until Angelhood releases!

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Only one month until my young adult novel, Angelhood, releases from Vinspire Publishing! What’s on the horizon?

Angelhood 2 1400x2100Lots of blog tours. I’m lining up a series of blog interviews, guests posts, and even some recipe sharing. I’ll also have some podcast interviews for you to listen to. Many of these will have giveaways attached, so be sure to stay tuned and check them out.

Also, on the official release day (April 30, 2015), we’ll be having an online launch party on Facebook. We’ll have lots of fun games and giveaways!

Then on May 17, we’ll have the in-person launch party. If you’ll be in the Chicago area, you can check out the details for that party here.

Looking forward to sharing all this fun with you!

Monday Book Review: Fake ID by Lamar Giles

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It’s time to review another Edgar nominee, this time for best young adult mystery.

Title: Fake ID

Author: Lamar Giles

Genre: mystery

Age group: young adult

Synopsis: Teenager Nick Pearson has been living in the Witness Protection Program for years. His father, a former mob ally, is a key witness in a case against a big-time mobster–or at least, will be a key witness once the police capture the mobster. Unfortunately, Nick’s dad has problems playing by the rules; thus, Nick’s family is forced to change names and locations several times. When Nick lands in the small town of Stepton, things go wrong quickly. A student at school commits suicide, but Nick isn’t convinced it wasn’t murder. Worse yet, he fears his dad is messed up in the whole deal.

Giles provides several nice plot twists to a story that keeps getting more complicated as Nick investigates, so I can see why it’s been nominated for an Edgar. After years of reading so many mysteries, it’s a little hard to surprise me so I’ll admit that there was one plot twist that got me.

Parents may want to be forewarned that there is foul language in the book, but it didn’t seem gratuitous to me. I’m sure high school students hear similar or worse language on a daily basis. There are also brief mentions of sex and one short make-out scene. Nick certainly isn’t the perfect hero of a romance novel, but he’s a kid trying to do the right thing despite his father’s mistakes, so we root for him to succeed, and there are definitely some humorous lines in here.

One other thing I feel compelled to mention is that after the questionable suicide, one character mentions that another character says there won’t be a Catholic funeral because it was a suicide. I don’t know if Giles purposely included this erroneous idea or if he’s unaware himself. However, as a Catholic with a book about teen suicide due out in just a couple months, I thought I should clear the air. Someone who has committed suicide can have a Catholic funeral Mass. If you’d like an explanation, feel free to see this article.

 

 

January Giveaway: Live and In-Person!

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For the past six months or so, I’ve been doing a monthly giveaway in order to celebrate the release of my upcoming YA book, Angelhood. These giveaways have been run mostly on my Facebook page, but this month, the giveaway will be in person.

On Wednesday, January 21, 2015, I’ll be speaking at St. Emily Church in Mt. Prospect, IL, to the young adult community. All those in their 20s and 30s are welcome. I’ll be giving away my new pens to all who attend!

Angelhood pens

So if you live in the area, come on out! I’ll be speaking about discovering your God-given creativity.

Spin Cycle: Lost

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This week on the Spin Cycle, Ginny Marie is asking us to write a post prompted by the word lost. I have a great fear of getting lost. Many of my childhood nightmares had to do with getting lost. I am a map fiend. If you’re in a car with me and we’re traveling some place new, please give me a map so I can keep track of us at all times.

MapsBut for this post, I’d like to talk about a different kind of lost. In the past year, I’ve lost track of a lot of the blogs I used to follow. You see, way back in the early days of my blogging. I followed my favorite blogs through a blog reader called Google Reader, which was extremely popular at the time, but then suddenly disappeared. When that happened, a lot of us hopped over to Feedly. However, I never quite felt comfortable with it, especially after tablets came on the market. I had trouble flipping back and forth between reading my blogs on my laptop and reading them on my iPad. Then to make it worse, I lost my password and couldn’t even get onto Feedly anymore.

Then some friends recommend Bloglovin. So that’s what I’m using now. You can follow me here. The problem is that I lost track of a lot of the blogs I used to follow, so now I’m in the process of getting back to following them via Bloglovin.

For example, for years I used to follow Krista Van Dolzer over at Mother. Write. (Repeat.) She was an aspiring MG/YA author just like me, and she often had great agent interviews posted on her blog to help those of us who were looking for a literary agent. I lost track of her blog there for a while, but I was happy to see when I returned that both she and I will be debut authors this year! Her middle grade book The Sound of Life and Everything comes out a month after my young adult book Angelhood.

And then there’s the author known online simply as the “Authoress,” whose blog Miss Snark’s First Victim is widely known for its writing contests that help match up authors and agents and/or editors. In fact, Angelhood was a contestant there once and got some great feedback. Without that feedback, I’m not sure I would have had the courage to find critique partners, much less seek publication.

So I’ve lost track of a lot of blogs, but I’m trying to gain them back! What have you lost lately?

 

Monday Book Review: The First Principle by Marissa Shrock

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Today I’m bringing you another young adult dystopian book by one of my fellow ACFW authors, and I’ve got to give her kudos for tackling tough subjects: teen pregnancy and abortion.

First PrincipleTitle: The First Principle

Author: Marissa Schrock

Genre: dystopian

Age group: young adult

Back-cover blurb: “In the not-too-distant future, the United Regions of North America has formed. Governors hold territories instead of states, and while Washington, D.C., is gone, the government has more control than ever before. For sixteen-year-old Vivica Wilkins, the daughter of a governor, this is life as usual. High school seems pretty much the same–until one day, that controlling power steps right through the door during study hall. When Vivica speaks out to defend a pregnant student against the harsh treatment of Populations Management officer Martina Ward, she has no idea she’s sowing the seeds of a revolution in her own life. But it isn’t long before she discovers her own illegal pregnancy. Now she has to decide whether to get the mandatory termination–or to follow her heart, try to keep the baby, and possibly ruin her mother’s chances at becoming president.”

Like I said at the beginning, kudos to Marissa Shrock for tackling the tough subject of abortion. In this futuristic society, all teens take mandatory pregnancy tests every three months, and if they are found to be pregnant, they are required to have the pregnancy “terminated” because, of course, having a baby would “ruin” the girl’s life. She’s not even allowed the option of giving it up for adoption. In other words, abortion is not only legal, it’s required. And in a law that’s rather communist in nature, even the adults are allowed only two babies. If an adult woman gets pregnant a third time, she must pay a special fee for the third child or “terminate” it.

Unlike last week’s young adult dystopian Impervious which I reviewed and found more allegorical in its Christian nature, this one is much more straightforward. It’s what I would consider “textbook Christian fiction.” In other words, you can expect scenes about one character trying to convince another character to accept Jesus as her Lord and savior, as well as a “Come to Jesus” moment.

Will this book change anyone’s mind on the pro-life/pro-choice debate? I don’t think anyone heavily entrenched in the pro-choice camp will change their mind after reading this book, but I think teens would find Shrock’s fast-paced story an interesting read, and I think it could open the doorway to some very good conversations between parents and their teenage children about sex, pregnancy, and valuing life.

 

Spin Cycle: 10 Questions

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For the Spin Cycle this week, Ginny Marie is asking us to answer ten questions about blogging. Here goes:

1. What do you love the most about blogging?

Being able to “converse” with people I don’t get to see on a regular basis–or may never even meet in person!

2. How do you find the time to keep up with all the aspects related to blogging (posting, reading, commenting, responding, etc)?

I don’t! LOL!

3. Does your family know about your blog and does this affect what you blog about?

IMG_4269Yes. In fact, when I was in Rome last summer and blogging every day of my trip, one of my brothers set it up so that my parents could get my posts via email every day, so now Mom and Dad are subscribers to my blog. Everybody wave to Mom and Dad! 🙂

I don’t think it really changes my posts because I’ve always used “If I wouldn’t want my mom to read it, I shouldn’t post it on the internet” as my golden rule for Internet usage. Did you know your my litmus test for blog posting, Mom? 🙂

4. If you didn’t blog, what would you be doing with that time?

Uh . . . my to-do list is so long, I won’t even begin to type it here.

5. Have you been in a blogging rut and how did you pull yourself out of it?

Not really a rut, but sometimes I don’t blog because I simply don’t have time. Like Gretchen over at Second Blooming, I sometimes come up with ideas for blog posts in my head. They just don’t make it on the blog because I have too many other things to do.

6. Have you ever considered leaving the blogging world and why? What stopped you?

Once upon a time, I had a baking blog, but I gave that up to focus more on writing fiction.

7. Show some blog love: Name another blog that you adore.

Well, of course I read Lemon Drop Pie and Mayor of Crazyville, and I’m glad to have discovered the aforementioned Second Blooming. In the writing world, I wouldn’t go without the blog of Literary Agent, Janet Reid. She’s funny, informative, and very generous with her time in answering writers’ questions. And I also really like the joint blog by my fellow ACFW young adult authors over at Scriblerian.

8. What’s your favorite social media outlet for sharing your blog posts?

Facebook. But I try to tweet, too.

9. What’s one thing you’ve learned about yourself since you started blogging?

My best writing comes when I let my fears go and just write from my heart, even if I’m scared by how people might react.

10. Any new blogging plans or ideas for the new year?

As you may have noticed on Monday, I’m going to try getting back to my Monday Book Reviews. I’ve got a whole line-up of books to read and review.

Want to see how others answer this week’s questions? Check out the Spin Cycle by clicking on the link below:

 

 

Monday Book Review: Impervious by Heather Letto

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It’s been a long time since I’ve had the chance to do a Monday Book Review, so I’m starting off what I hope will be a series of them in the upcoming months by discussing Impervious, a young adult dystopian novel by my fellow ACFW author Heather Letto!

Impervious

Doesn’t she have a cool cover? 🙂

Title: Impervious

Author: Heather Letto

Genre: dystopian

Age group: young adult

Synopsis: (taken from back cover): “The residents of Impervious are the remnant–the survivors of the War of Annihilation. And though the city is chockfull of pleasures to tantalize and entertain, a beast lurks in the corners, haunting the residents with its presence. The Beast–a mysterious and terminal illness killed off most of Generations One, Two, and Three. And as Gen-Four prepares to take the stage, a provocative, yet questionable, new method to avoid an untimely death incites a cultural rage. But Fran lives counter-culture, off the grid in true rebel fashion. With a life far from opulent, she scurries through dark tunnels, searching for hot meals with Pete while ditching the holographic security team. To her, it’s a healthy trade-off. Unaccountability means The Council can’t steal her sliver of hope–a belief that she’ll see The Epoch arrive before The Beast can pull her into its fetid embrace.”

If you’re a fan of dystopian stories like The Hunger Games and Divergent, you’ll probably be able to get into this story pretty easily. Heather Letto does a great job of creating a very detailed dystopian world quite different from our own, where fifteen years old is considered “mid-life.” This is also definitely a world where those familiar with sci-fi terms will probably feel comfortable, lots of terms like “holographic acquaintances,” “gaming hubs,” “sleeping-niches,” and “cybernetic vacation pods.” The book also reminded me a bit of The City of Ember, a sort of underground post-apocalyptic world in which the citizens have been tricked into believing nothing good can exist beyond the lights of their little inner world.

The book starts with a quote from the Gospel of Mark (4:23–“If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear”), but it is more allegorical in its Christian nature thus far. From a few conversations I’ve had with the author, I know she has plans for a second and third book in the trilogy, and I’d be interested in seeing how these allegorical pieces she’s set into motion play out in the next two books.

If you’re interested, you can learn more about Heather Letto on her website or Twitter.

Shake It Off!

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This week on the Spin Cycle, Ginny Marie is giving us free rein to discuss whatever we’d like for her linkup, so I’ve decided to share a funny, little story from last week.

On Thursday, I met with my spiritual director. (If you’ve never heard of a spiritual director, just think of it as an adviser or mentor who helps you in your spiritual life.)

During our session, we started talking about the fears I have regarding my book coming out next year. What if people hate it? What if they read something into it that I didn’t mean to be read there? Oh, I’m sure so-and-so is going to hate it. And what about this other person? Oh, I can just imagine the hate mail and the bad reviews!

My spiritual director responded by saying, “Well, you know someone’s not going to like it because that’s just how things are. There are people out there who are just haters. It’s their mission to put down other people. They’re going to hate simply because that’s what they do.”

And immediately my mind flipped to that Taylor Swift song “Shake It Off.”

‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake it off, Shake it off

After my brief pop-culture-induced ADD moment, I was able to pull myself back into listening to my spiritual director who had moved on to talking about how Jesus had his haters too. He had been scorned, ridiculed, ambushed–even betrayed by one of his closest friends! We can take comfort in knowing that he dealt with his share of haters, too.

And that’s when I burst out laughing. I held up a hand. “Wait,” I said to my spiritual director. “Wait right there. I just got the funniest picture in my head. First, you mentioned haters having to hate, and I thought of the lyrics ‘haters gonna hate’ from Taylor Swift. Then you mentioned Jesus having haters, and I thought of that passage where Jesus tells his disciples that if they enter a town where the people won’t listen to them, they should just leave and shake the dust of the town off their feet, so now I’m picturing Jesus leaving a town and shaking the dust off his feet, all while singing ‘Shake it off, shake it off.””

Moral of the story: When criticism comes your way (or even when the fear of criticism keeps you from moving forward), just remember the advice of Taylor Swift and Jesus–and shake it off.

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