Daniel Clausen's Blog - Posts Tagged "libby-heily"
Excerpt from Libby Heily's Tough Girl
The following is an excerpt from my friend Libby Heily's new YA novel, Tough Girl.
The book in short:
Danger lurks everywhere in eleven year old Reggie's world—from the bully next door to the unwanted attentions of a creep at school. Raised by her mentally ill mother, Reggie is left to fend for herself. She escapes in daydreams, battling aliens with her alter ego, Tough Girl.
When Reggie's mother disappears, her fantasy life spirals out of control and starts to invade reality. She is hunted by a creature of her own design, and even Tough Girl is not strong enough to stop him.
Will Reggie survive long enough for her mother to return, or will her dream world take over?
The excerpt:
The Art of Aliens
I remember when I was 8 I drew a picture of an alien. He was immense, too large for the page. His flesh was brown and lumpy and his eyes were wobbly. He had no mouth, and no arms or legs. My mom looked over my shoulder and said, "That's not what aliens look like."
I smirked at her. "How can you know for sure?"
She shrugged and said, "Fair point."
Fast forward twenty some odd years later and I'm still making up aliens. Now, my aliens are more similar to humans, but I blame that on Star Trek and old age.
In Tough Girl, there are several alien species created by eleven year old Reggie. There's the evil alien overlords, the Octhmuslans. This nasty bunch evolved from octopuses. They slide along on 6 tentacles and use the last 2 as arms.
The Octhmuslans regularly employ Klecks - graceful muscular creatures who love to party but are also skilled at torture.
There's also Chihihaga, an insect like alien in charge of Planet Girth. He has a weakness for scotch and female humans.
And then there's my favorite, the Bublaran - the life giver. This is a giant ball that does not speak. She communicates through pulsating light and creates life just by existing.
I created aliens because I was curious about other worlds. Reggie creates them as a means to escape her life. That leaves me to wonder how all the other creatures in the realm of sci-fi came into being, and if any of them found life in the fiction realm because someone asked, "How can you know for sure?"
*If you're interested in purchasing a copy of Tough Girl, you can contact Libby Heily at: libbyheilyauthor@gmail.com
The book in short:
Danger lurks everywhere in eleven year old Reggie's world—from the bully next door to the unwanted attentions of a creep at school. Raised by her mentally ill mother, Reggie is left to fend for herself. She escapes in daydreams, battling aliens with her alter ego, Tough Girl.
When Reggie's mother disappears, her fantasy life spirals out of control and starts to invade reality. She is hunted by a creature of her own design, and even Tough Girl is not strong enough to stop him.
Will Reggie survive long enough for her mother to return, or will her dream world take over?
The excerpt:
The Art of Aliens
I remember when I was 8 I drew a picture of an alien. He was immense, too large for the page. His flesh was brown and lumpy and his eyes were wobbly. He had no mouth, and no arms or legs. My mom looked over my shoulder and said, "That's not what aliens look like."
I smirked at her. "How can you know for sure?"
She shrugged and said, "Fair point."
Fast forward twenty some odd years later and I'm still making up aliens. Now, my aliens are more similar to humans, but I blame that on Star Trek and old age.
In Tough Girl, there are several alien species created by eleven year old Reggie. There's the evil alien overlords, the Octhmuslans. This nasty bunch evolved from octopuses. They slide along on 6 tentacles and use the last 2 as arms.
The Octhmuslans regularly employ Klecks - graceful muscular creatures who love to party but are also skilled at torture.
There's also Chihihaga, an insect like alien in charge of Planet Girth. He has a weakness for scotch and female humans.
And then there's my favorite, the Bublaran - the life giver. This is a giant ball that does not speak. She communicates through pulsating light and creates life just by existing.
I created aliens because I was curious about other worlds. Reggie creates them as a means to escape her life. That leaves me to wonder how all the other creatures in the realm of sci-fi came into being, and if any of them found life in the fiction realm because someone asked, "How can you know for sure?"
*If you're interested in purchasing a copy of Tough Girl, you can contact Libby Heily at: libbyheilyauthor@gmail.com
Micro-Author Interview with Libby Heily
The following is a short interview with Libby Heily.
Libby is the author of an excellent book entitled "Tough Girl"
Tough Girl
You can read my review of that book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
What does being an indie author mean to you?
Hmmm. Let's see. It means doing a lot of work and research and learning about book promotion and finding your audience. It also means putting out work that you're proud of and not compromising.
Being indie, I can explore and experiment and I have no one to answer to other than my readers. Right now, I'm taking a chance by publishing my first ever serial, "Our Beloved Dictator." It's a darkly comedic somewhat satirical story that will take place over the course of 26 weeks. Each episode is roughly 1000 words. The story follows George, a hapless twenty-something, as he encounters a dictatorship in a small town in VA but it also branches off into the lives of the people living in the town. I think of it as story set up like a flak cloud. I don't think I could do publish my own serial on my website if I were with a big publishing house.
What’s your favorite sentence or paragraph from one of your books? What does it mean to you?
I'm not sure about favorite, but the first sentence that came to mind is from Tough Girl. Tough Girl is the name of Reggie's imaginary friend who is a sci-fi hero and comes from an extremely rough background. When anther character references her he says, "Tough Girl. It's not a name, it's a warning."
The reason I like that sentence is because it's actually about Reggie. When it's said about TG, the warning part is meant to say that she's such a badass, you better watch your back. When it's the tagline of the novel, it means that Reggie is in trouble and people need to look out for her.
What advice would you give other indie authors starting out?
Write as much as you can and put your work out for critique. Learn to write and write well. Read a ton. Start googling book promotion now, because it takes a long time to learn.
What question would you like to see in future interviews?
What else do you love to do besides write and read?
What are your writing quirks and habits?
I keep tons of notebooks. Every project has it's notebook and I take notes, sketch out scenes and plan the plot. I am addicted to notebooks.
What's children's cartoon best represents your personality?
I get told all the time that I'm either Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts (I'm a tomboy) or Daria from Daria–I'm sarcastic and generally underwhelmed.
How do you see the indie scene in 50 years time?
I think it depends on the tech. My guess, we'll see a rise of small pockets of readers that are incredibly devoted to certain authors. It might be possible to have several hundred incredibly loyal fans with only a handful of writers really being well known.
Thank you Libby for letting me interview you.
Libby is the author of an excellent book entitled "Tough Girl"
Tough Girl
You can read my review of that book here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
What does being an indie author mean to you?
Hmmm. Let's see. It means doing a lot of work and research and learning about book promotion and finding your audience. It also means putting out work that you're proud of and not compromising.
Being indie, I can explore and experiment and I have no one to answer to other than my readers. Right now, I'm taking a chance by publishing my first ever serial, "Our Beloved Dictator." It's a darkly comedic somewhat satirical story that will take place over the course of 26 weeks. Each episode is roughly 1000 words. The story follows George, a hapless twenty-something, as he encounters a dictatorship in a small town in VA but it also branches off into the lives of the people living in the town. I think of it as story set up like a flak cloud. I don't think I could do publish my own serial on my website if I were with a big publishing house.
What’s your favorite sentence or paragraph from one of your books? What does it mean to you?
I'm not sure about favorite, but the first sentence that came to mind is from Tough Girl. Tough Girl is the name of Reggie's imaginary friend who is a sci-fi hero and comes from an extremely rough background. When anther character references her he says, "Tough Girl. It's not a name, it's a warning."
The reason I like that sentence is because it's actually about Reggie. When it's said about TG, the warning part is meant to say that she's such a badass, you better watch your back. When it's the tagline of the novel, it means that Reggie is in trouble and people need to look out for her.
What advice would you give other indie authors starting out?
Write as much as you can and put your work out for critique. Learn to write and write well. Read a ton. Start googling book promotion now, because it takes a long time to learn.
What question would you like to see in future interviews?
What else do you love to do besides write and read?
What are your writing quirks and habits?
I keep tons of notebooks. Every project has it's notebook and I take notes, sketch out scenes and plan the plot. I am addicted to notebooks.
What's children's cartoon best represents your personality?
I get told all the time that I'm either Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts (I'm a tomboy) or Daria from Daria–I'm sarcastic and generally underwhelmed.
How do you see the indie scene in 50 years time?
I think it depends on the tech. My guess, we'll see a rise of small pockets of readers that are incredibly devoted to certain authors. It might be possible to have several hundred incredibly loyal fans with only a handful of writers really being well known.
Thank you Libby for letting me interview you.
