L.E. DeLano's Blog, page 21
June 6, 2018
May 31, 2018
Enacting Radio Silence
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I will be offline through the end of the week. Sorry guys, I have a deadline fast approaching and I’m in the home stretch now.
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See you on Monday!
May 29, 2018
Teen Reads Reviews DREAMER!
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Many thanks to Teen Reads for their wonderful review of DREAMER. I’m doing the author happy dance!
May 25, 2018
#FanArt Friday! More From The Spearcraft Book Box Unboxing!
I have sooooo many gorgeous pics of TRAVELER and DREAMER thanks to Spearcraft Book Box and their April unboxing contest! This beauty is courtesy of @candaceclark22 who did a spectacular job staging this tableau!
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May 23, 2018
What’s Up Wednesday: The Trials That Test Your Soul
I had a book signing on Saturday. Normally that fills me with excitement, and I really, really enjoy getting out there and being able to talk to the readers face-to-face. But Saturday was hard. My elderly cat, a solid and faithful companion for 15 years, had to be put down on Saturday. I quite literally petted her silky fur, kissed her head, dried my tears, and drove to the book signing.
It was so great being able to talk about my book with new people and signing books for the fan that stopped by. That will never not be great. And I smiled and I thank them sincerely, all the while hoping they couldn’t see how hard I was bleeding on the inside. These are the times that try an authors soul. But they’re also the times that you can draw on and use in a story at a later date. I have a feeling there’s going to be a feline showing up somewhere in one of my books.
On top of the emotional punch of Saturday, I’m still recuperating from a rather serious injury and that has been no picnic. These last few weeks have shown me an escalated level of pain, and a whole lot of frustration battling insurance companies. The stress level isn’t exactly conducive to the mindspace I need as I’m finishing up the latest draft on the next book. that deadline is approaching, so it’s stress on top of stress.
I’ll get through it. I know I will. I’m not inherently someone who wallows in misery – quite frankly I don’t have time for that. and all of it is fabulous writing f fodder, when all is said and done.
I just wish it was done.
Onward.
May 17, 2018
Attention Suburban Philly: Book Signing This Weekend!
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I’m happy to announce that I’ll be appearing at Barnes & Noble in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania this Saturday from 1 – 4 pm. I’ll be signing copies of TRAVELER and DREAMER, handing out some swag, and talking all things YA! Come and see me!
May 15, 2018
Tidbit Tuesday: When There’s More Than One Of You, Life Gets . . .Interesting
In this scene from DREAMER, Jessa is sorting through her latest reality shift, and juggling the thoughts and memories left by her alternate self.
“You hungry, St. Clair?”
Ben’s voice startles me and I look away from my reflection in the window of the bus. It’s field trip day for the Spanish Club, and Ben is sitting next to me as we pull out of the school parking lot.
“Nah,” I tell him. “I’ll eat later.”
“You sure? I’ve got food in my bag.”
“I’m fine.”
“I have Twix in there,” he says.
“Seriously. I’m not hungry.”
“Who are you? And what have you done with Jessa St. Clair?” he quips. “It’s Twix. Twiiiiiix.” He’s waggling his brows and bug-eyed and it makes me laugh.
“It’s seven o’clock in the morning,” I point out.
“So? Twix is the breakfast of champions. Along with a fresh can of Monster.” He holds the can to his lips, draining it with a loud, gusty sigh of refreshment.
I raise my brows and look at him like the crazy person he is. “You do realize you’re going to be ? With no bathroom?”
“Sitting next to you,” he reminds me, with an overemphasized “Ha!” for punctuation.
Today we’ll be visiting the and tomorrow we visit the Museum of Natural History because they have a special exhibit about indigenous cultures in Mexico and Central America. We’ve been raising money all year, and we’ll even have some time for sightseeing while we’re in the city.
“Whatcha got there?” he asks, nosing his nosy nose over my shoulder as I pull my notebook out of my bag.
“Nothing. It’s stupid.”
“What?”
I hesitate for a moment but finally relent. Ben knows everything about me—including the fact that I am a Traveler. “One of my other selves left me a poem she’d been working on.”
“I should have known when you whipped out the notebook,” he says. “I haven’t seen you write a thing in weeks.”
“I’ve written two papers for English Lit this month and one for History,” I remind him.
“You know what I mean. Writing writing.”
I do know what he means. I’ve lost the spark. Finn had been the center of so many of my stories for so long. My dreams—which I now recognized as memories and glimpses of my other selves—fueled so much of what I wrote about. Now, the urge to write just for pleasure is gone. I even changed my schedule for next semester to remove creative writing. I’m taking a photography class instead.
“Let’s see what the damage is,” I say, flipping open my notebook and reading.
I Am Darkness
The darkness calls me and I am it
It is me
Part of we
Interminably
They pull us into the light
Flip the switch
Demanding our attention
Not seeing the fist
We keep in the darkness
Clenched in our pocket
Ready to strike
“Great googly moogly,” Ben says, reading over my shoulder.
I close the notebook with a sound of disgust. “Yeah, I’m a little rebellious over there.”
“Is that why you told Justin Taylor he looked like walking mucus in that green shirt last night at Mugsy’s?”
“Who told you that?”
“He did, when I walked in. I didn’t even think you knew his name, St. Clair.”
I search back in my mind for the memories my other self generated while she was here. “No . . . that was her assignment.”
“To tell Justin he looks bad in green?”
I shrug slightly. “Yeah, believe it or not.”
“How is that reality-altering in any way?”
“Ripples. Every decision has the possibility of making ripples that influence other decisions,” I explain. “He probably obsesses on my remarks and gets distracted and trips into a guy who drops his briefcase on the foot of an elderly woman who curses him out and that will inspire him to invent a whole new line of antibacterial mouthwash that saves the world from a terrible plague.”
Ben lets out an explosive laugh. “That is wacked.”
“Tell me about it. But there’s a reason for every little thing, and it all snowballs to be something really important, somewhere down the line,” I say. “Or so my Dreamer assures me.”
“Is the dream guy in your head every night? ’Cause that sounds . . . not fun.”
“You have no idea.”
DREAMER is the second (and final) installment of the TRAVELER series. Come join Jessa as she saves the multiverse!
May 11, 2018
FanArt Friday – A Glimpse In The Mirror
Many thanks to reader Faye Luckenbach for this awesome sketch of Mario, Jessa and Finn! Nicely done!!
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May 9, 2018
You gave him a sword?
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“Why would you give him a sword? It’s like giving a sheep an overcoat. It’s not going to be of any use. Even he knows that.”
“He felt better having it in his hand.”
#1LineWed
From WIP
Topic: “Humble”
May 7, 2018
TRAVELER & DREAMER in the April Spearcraft Box
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I announced this on Twitter and Instagram already, but I really should put it here for all posterity: TRAVELER and DREAMER were selected for the April Spearcraft subscription book box!
The box theme was “Pirates vs. Pan” and I was thrilled to be a part of it! The collage above is only a small sampling of the book unboxing pics on Instagram – check out the whole gallery!
