Jennifer Echols's Blog, page 11

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Amanda Ashby!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!

FAIRY BAD DAY
by Amanda Ashby

It's going to be a fairy bad day.

First, my rightful designation of dragon slayer is STOLEN right out from under me by Curtis Green. Sure, he's really cute, but that doesn't give him an excuse.

On top of that, I am assigned to slay fairies. I know what you're thinking—how hard could it be, right? Wrong! These menacing beasts with their tiny hipster clothes and mocking sarcasm love taunting me. And they won't STOP!

But the thing that tops my list of stuff to ruin my day? That would be the GIANT KILLER FAIRY that I have to hunt down and slay because I am the only one who can see it. There is someone who can help me. Unfortunately…it's Curtis.

Jenn: My July release, Love Story, is set in a creative-writing class. Did you ever take a class like that, and what was your experience?

Amanda: I went along to a couple of workshops when I very first started writing but honestly most people wrote poetry or were just doing it to fill some time, I don't think anyone was seriously chasing publication. However, I clearly remember being on a few loops and getting totally intimidated when I heard people talking about character arcs and GMC, since at the time I just sat down and wrote. Of course now I throw words like that around all the time just to make myself feel clever (not really!!!)

Jenn: My heroine longs to be a novelist. Was your journey to publication filled with longing? Quick and easy? How did you make it?

Amanda: I definitely didn't grow up wanting to be a writer, mainly because I had no idea at all that normal people could do that as a job and so it wasn't until I was in my late twenties that it even occurred to me. Then once I sat down and wrote one book I was completely hooked. I wish I could say that I sold that book but it was a few more goes before I got it right (okay, it was twelve complete manuscripts but hey, in my defense, I'm a VERY slow learner!!!!!!). The one thing that totally got me through was the belief I had deep down in my gut that I would one day sell a book!!!

Jenn: In one of my creative-writing classes, I was taught never to write about writing. Oh well. Were you taught this too? Are there other writing rules you were taught that you still remember and either follow or throw out the window?

Amanda: I haven't done a lot of writing classes and the main conferences I go to are romance ones, which are normally filled with very sensible information. Of course this is probably lucky because I'm very easily intimated and if I was taught a lot of crazy rules I would no doubt attempt to follow them all!!!!!

Jenn: What good books have you read lately?

Amanda: I've always got loads of books on the go but probably my favorite read of 2011 would have to be Eon by Alison Goodman. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get to this book, but I'm so happy that I finally picked it up. It's an epic story about a girl disguised as a boy so that she can be a dragon warrior and it's got a lot of Chinese and Japanese inspired mythology in it. Plus, the heroine totally kicks ass!!!!!

Jenn: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?

Amanda: Do you know, I've never had anyone ask me that question but since I love recommending books I would suggest that they read Rachel Hawkins and Kierstin White who are both wonderful at writing light-hearted paranormals and do it so much better than I could ever dream of.

Jenn: What's next for you?

Amanda: I've got a MG series that is starting next summer called Sophie's Mixed-Up Magic about an eleven year old girl who accidentally gets turned into a djinn the day before she starts sixth grade. Let's just say that chaos ensues!!

For the latest on Amanda's book, check her web site at amandaashby.com!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Jessica Brody!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!

PLEASE READ THIS! MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but I'm sorry, I'm feeling a bit melodramatic at the moment.

Here's the deal. My name is Brooklyn Pierce, I'm fifteen years old, and I am decisionally challenged. Seriously, I can't remember the last good decision I made. I can remember plenty of crappy ones though. Including that party I threw when my parents were out of town that accidentally burned down a model home. Yeah, not my finest moment, for sure.

But see, that's why I started a blog. To enlist readers to make my decisions for me. That's right. I'm gave up. Threw in the towel. I let someone else be the one to decide which book I read for English. Or whether or not I accepted an invitation to join the debate team from that cute-in-a-dorky-sort-of-way guy who gave me the Heimlich Maneuver in the cafeteria. (Note to self: Chew the melon before swallowing it.) I even let them decide who I dated!

Well, it turns out there are some things in life you simply can't choose or have chosen for you—like who you fall in love with. And now everything's more screwed up than ever.

But don't take my word for it, read the book and decide for yourself. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll scream in frustration. Or maybe that's just me. After all, it's my life.

Jenn: What's your favorite gizmo advertising your book? (Please attach to this e-mail or send the code. It could be a soundtrack, a countdown clock, a book trailer, etc. You can skip this question if you don't like gizmos!)

Jessica: My book trailer!


Jenn: My July release, Love Story, is set in a creative-writing class. Did you ever take a class like that, and what was your experience?

Jessica: Actually, no. I really want to someday, though. I did take a lot of language classes in high school and college. And things can get pretty interesting when you're speaking those sexy Latin languages. Especially French (wink, wink).

Jenn: My heroine longs to be a novelist. Was your journey to publication filled with longing? Quick and easy? How did you make it?

Jessica: It definitely wasn't quick and easy! It took me five years to sell my first book. Actually my "first" book was never published. It's still sitting on my shelf! I tried for three years to get an agent for that book and eventually started a new book that would become my first published novel. After five years, I finally landed my first agent and she sold my book in only 10 days! That's the power of a good agent.

Jenn: In one of my creative-writing classes, I was taught never to write about writing. Oh well. Were you taught this too? Are there other writing rules you were taught that you still remember and either follow or throw out the window?

Jessica: I have written a few screenplays in the past and I feel like Hollywood is FILLED with rules like this. The biggest ones: Don't use Flashbacks, Don't Use Voiceover, Don't write about Hollywood. Of course, I managed to do all three. Hmmm…maybe that's why none of my screenplays ever sold. Haha! I feel like novel writing is so much more open. Like there are less rules. Or at least if there are, I don't know about them (and not sure I want to, cause I'll most likely break those too!)

Jenn: What good books have you read lately?

Jessica: I just finished Gabrielle Zevin's ALL THESE THINGS I'VE DONE. It releases in the fall. What a fantastic book! I love the way her mind works. She's a brilliant storyteller. I also just recently read RUBY RED by Kerstin Gier which just released. It's the first in a series and I'm now TOTALLY hooked. I'm dying for the second one. The series was originally published in Germany and I'm about this close to buying the German edition and running it through Google Translate, just so I can find out what happens! Too bad I studied French!

Jenn: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?

Jessica: I usually recommend Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen. Those are the two authors I'm told I most resemble in my writing style and storytelling. And I consider that a HUGE compliment. I'm big fans of both!

Jenn: What's next for you?

Jessica: Ooh, I have TONS of fun stuff in the works! Some I can talk about and some I can't…YET! My next book is called 52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER. It will be released in Spring 2012. I just finished all the edits. I'm so excited about this one! It's about a spoiled teen heiress, famous for her partygirl antics and tabloid headlines, who's forced by her ever-absent mogul father to take on a different low-wage job every week for a year, if she wants any hope of receiving her trust fund. I had SO much fun writing that one. And it was recently optioned for film! So fingers crossed it actually gets made! How cool would that be?

And right now I'm working on the first book in a new sci-fi trilogy I just sold called UNREMEMBERED. It's about a sixteen year old girl who wakes up amongst the wreckage of a devastating plane crash with no memories. She's forced to piece together her forgotten past with only one clue to her identity-- a mysterious boy who claims she's not from this time.

For the latest on Jessica's books, visit her web site at www.JessicaBrody.com!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Elizabeth Scott!

The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a webring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!

BETWEEN HERE AND FOREVER

Abby accepted that she can't measure up to her beautiful, magnetic sister Tess a long time ago, and knows exactly what she is: Second best. Invisible.

Until the accident.

Now Tess is in a coma, and Abby's life is on hold. It may have been hard living with Tess, but it's nothing compared to living without her.

She's got a plan to bring Tess back though, involving the gorgeous and mysterious Eli, but then Abby learns something about Tess, something that was always there, but that she'd never seen.

Abby is about to find out that truth isn't always what you think it is, and that life holds more than she ever thought it could...

Jenn: What's your favorite gizmo advertising your book?

Elizabeth: A group of bloggers decided to celebrate the release of Between Here
and Forever by dedicating an entire week to my books, with the last
day being the "official" release date of Between Here and Forever--I
was--and still--am--so amazed by this!


Jenn: My July release, Love Story, is set in a creative-writing class. Did you ever take a class like that, and what was your experience?

Elizabeth: I've never taken a creative writing class--in fact, I ran the other way any time there was a mention of "creative writing" in any class! I
totally fell into writing by accident.

Jenn: My heroine longs to be a novelist. Was your journey to publication
filled with longing? Quick and easy? How did you make it?

Elizabeth: My journey to publication was a very, very lucky one. I wrote for five years before friends in my writing group talked me into writing a
query letter for my first novel, Bloom. I then promptly saved it and
left it to rot on my hard drive.

Fast forward a few months, and I'm reading an agent's blog and the
agent is talking about e-mail queries. I think, "Perfect! I'll email
the query in, get rejected and boom! I'll have tried, so no one can
(lovingly) nag me about it."

Twenty-four hours later, I had my first agent. Three months after
that, I sold two novels, Stealing Heaven and Love You Hate You Miss
You, to an editor I met during a critique session at an SCBWI
conference, and three months after that, Bloom sold to Simon Pulse.

It was crazy, and I still can't believe how lucky I am. I wake up
everyday grateful for the chances I've been given!

Jenn: In one of my creative-writing classes, I was taught never to write
about writing. Oh well. Were you taught this too? Are there other
writing rules you were taught that you still remember and either
follow or throw out the window?

Elizabeth: I was never taught any writing rules--I learned as I wrote!

Jenn: What good books have you read lately?

Elizabeth: You can check out books I've read and loved on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/363405.Elizabeth_Scott

Jenn: What's next for you?

Elizabeth: My next book, As I Wake, will be out on September 15th and it's about Ava, who is welcomed home from the hospital by a doting mother, lively friends, and a crush finally beginning to show interest. There's only
one problem: Ava can't remember any of them--and can't shake the eerie
feeling that she's not who they say she is.

Ava struggles to break through her amnesiac haze as she goes through
the motions of high-school life, but the memories that surface take
place in a very different world, where Ava and familiar-faced friends
are under constant scrutiny and no one can be trusted. Ava doesn't
know what to make of these visions, or of the boy who is at the center
of them all, until he reappears in her life and offers answers . . .
but only in exchange for her trust.

Slouching toward summer

I am writing. A lot. And rewriting. A lot. And not seeming to make any progress on Such a Rush, because I really feel like the first four chapters need to be perfect before I move on, because they set up the rest of the book, so if I write the rest of the book one way and then go back and change the beginning again, the later writing will be wasted.

Wow, I feel better getting that off my chest! That does not move me any closer to finishing this book before my son gets out of school next Thursday, though. I hope when I check in next Friday, I will be able to report lots more progress.

Speaking of progress...did you know Love Story is going to be in stores in 59 DAYS???



It's true. A librarian here in Birmingham has posted what she thinks of it. I haven't seen a lot of opinions of it yet, but I know people are reading it. Yesterday @simplycaren tweeted a quote from it: "Serious writers know this. You would not find a nipple in The New Yorker." I think that is a very good choice of quotes. I think that should be used in all the advertising. I really loved writing this book and I can't wait for you to read it!

In other review fanciness, a literary agent has posted her opinion of Forget You. So has Book Passion for Life . And Novel Thoughts and Heaven Hell and Purgatory Book Reviews have posted reviews of Going Too Far. Getting a nice review of that book still makes me insanely happy.

Sincere thanks to everyone who has taken the time to blog about my books or tell a friend about them. Forget You is going into an 8th printing, and Endless Summer is going into a 4th printing with a 5th planned in a week or so, all because you were kind enough to spread the word.

The first week and happier news

Please don't ask me how my first week as a full-time writer went. It was interrupted by tornadoes. I was very lucky: we are safe and my house and yard look like nothing ever happened. We only lost power for a few days. People in my own suburb of Birmingham, all over Alabama, and the surrounding states were not so lucky. If you have not already done so, please consider giving to the Red Cross. Or bid on books, manuscript critiques, and other great stuff for readers and writers at http://helpwritenow.blogspot.com/ .

On a happier note, I managed to send the advance copies of Love Story to reviewers, and I've sent the final proofs back to the publisher. I'm blogging about how I feel about that today on YA Outside the Lines . Great news: even though the book will not be in stories until July 19, my publisher is going to try to have it available for purchase at the Romance Writers of America Booksigning for Literacy in New York on June 28. The booksigning is open to the public. We will also give the book away free at the Pocket signing on July 1, but that's just for RWA conference attendees. If you plan to be in New York around that time, I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

As for the work in progress, Free Falling, which is scheduled for publication in July 2012, is now called Such a Rush, and it is going great! *looking around desperately for wood to knock on*

In a blast from the past, Gone with the Words and A Blog About Nothing have posted lovely new reviews of Going Too Far. Thanks y'all! I really appreciate the reads.

Carla Swafford , the blogmistress for my local chapter of RWA, Southern Magic, has decided it is Jennifer Echols week apparently. She has posted a new interview with me , my thoughts on writing YA from 2006 when I had sold a book but it hadn't come out yet, an adorable book trailer that a reader made for Going Too Far, and details on the talk I will give to the chapter on June 25 along with four other YA authors. It will be open to the public. Please come!

And finally, the best news of all. Carla has gotten THE CALL, meaning that a publisher has asked to purchase her book! I have read the first few chapters of her book and I am dying to read the rest, and now we will all get the chance. Congratulations Carla!

Finally...

I am a full-time author!

I have worked as a freelance copyeditor for 10 years, and I have loved this job. But I love writing novels more, and since college I have wanted that to be my full-time job.

I first sold a novel, Major Crush, in 2005. The money was nice but certainly not enough to call an annual salary. So I kept copyediting.

And kept copyediting. And kept copyediting. I knew someday I would stop, and I could write novels full-time rather than trying to cram that half of my career into the tiny space between finishing my copyediting and picking up my son from school each day. But when I would stop was never clear. Maybe when I could not get the door to my office open anymore because of all the piles of money in the way.

In the end, the reason I have stopped is that I have too much to write this summer to copyedit too. If I had not stopped, I would have been forced to turn down a writing job. And there was NO WAY I was willing to do that. Not after six years of struggling through this dual career. Not after fifteen years of rejections before that. No. I may not have "arrived" yet, depending on your definition. But I am wading toward the shore, and it seems ridiculous at this point to turn around and swim back to the boat.

Even so, I am taking a leap of faith here, and if you know anything about me, you have figured out that I am really bad at those. I am hoping that I will not fall into the trap of allowing my reduced workload to expand to fill the available space. I hope I will become more productive, that I will be able to write more of the books in my head, and that those books will find a home.

But it still hasn't sunk in. I woke up at the usual time this morning--4:30 a.m., so I could get all that copyediting done and still have time to write (NOT!)--and got some work done on Free Falling. In the last hour I've addressed a lot of advance copies of Love Story to send to book bloggers. I have never, never, never addressed an advance copy of any novel to a book blogger without thinking in the back of my mind that I had better hurry up so I can get back to copyediting or writing. I have never before had an hour that I consciously dedicated to this activity. I have sneaked the hour. It just doesn't seem quite right to address them, here on my desk out in the open, as if this is part of my job.

*glancing out window, half expecting locusts*

If this writing thing doesn't work out, I can always go back to copyediting. I guess the worst thing that could happen is that my readers lose interest in my writing because my novels lose that lovable panicked quality. But I know this isn't likely. I e-mailed my concerns to my critique partner victoria_dahl and she responded, "Your whining falls over me like my favorite cozy blanket. Mm." I could panic about a lovely springtime day. I could find something. And besides, I have enough writing due this summer for a long, languid season of panic. No worries.

E-good e-news!

The e-book version of ENDLESS SUMMER is finally out today. Thank you for being so patient, and for pre-ordering it even when Amazon said it wouldn't be released until 2030. Rest assured you can download it now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Books-A-Million . If you don't see your store here, please let me know and I'll add a link. I'm interested in where you buy books.

And e-more e-good e-news: I have another romantic comedy planned for Simon Pulse! This one will be released as an e-book only, because that's how most readers are buying these novels. It's called DOUBLE DATE, and it's about about two best friends who can't figure out which of the two guys flirting with them has the hots for which girl, and who don't want to admit they're really after the same adorable guy. It will be published in December this year or possibly early spring next year, but I'll keep you updated.

And I'm happy that my friend Niki Burnham is also writing a romantic comedy for release the same day. Hers is called NOT MY BOYFRIEND. At least, that's what it's called right now, but she may change the title. I told her to call it BOYFRIEND (NOT) and she refused. Anyway, it's about a teenage boy who asks his best friend's younger sister to pretend to be his girlfriend, forcing both of them to question their offbeat views on romance. Doesn't that sound awesome? As you know, I LOVE fake boyfriend stories! You can keep track of Niki on her blog at http://nikiburnham.blogspot.com/ . We'll be doing some fun cross-promotion, so stay tuned.

Now I'm writing FREE FALLING, which will be out next year. Then I'm writing DOUBLE DATE, and LOVE STORY will be published on July 19. So I'm going to have a very busy summer, which is exactly how I like it.

My big name

My name is getting bigger! With disastrous consequences, maybe. Join me at the .

Happy to be back

Saturday when I left Alabama for spring break in Orlando, it was cool and rainy, the yucky side of spring. See Going Too Far. But we had a lovely time in Orlando's warm and sunny weather, and now that I'm back, I have brought their beautiful spring weather with me! See Going Too Far. March in Alabama is like that.

I am coming back to a huge amount of work. First I'm finishing the revision of a manuscript with suggestions from the brilliant erinkatedowning . Then I'm doing my taxes. I don't find this task particularly daunting except that my receipts for deductions (mostly for books)...well...they are in a pile. A rather large pile. I meant to record them as I went along so I would not have this pile issue now, and I did so, until a deadline drew closer, and things fell apart, which is modus operandi around Chez Echols.

And then I am going to finish writing Free Falling. I am so excited to have a deadline, because deadlines make me happy, even though they make me stack things in piles instead of recording them. But this writing project feels a little weird. I have almost always written my books during the fall. I'm still writing during the rest of the year, but spring in particular seems to be my season when I write proposals that don't sell. It is weird to sit down to write without feelings of foreboding and failure. I hardly know what to do with this strange positive energy.

I guess I will learn to deal.

Why I buy the books I buy

A few weeks ago, my editor at MTV Books told me they were changing the title of my July 19 release, LOVE STORY. I did not like the new title they came up with, and neither did my agent, so we and my critique partners came up with 15 new titles that I sent to my editor. And then yesterday she told me the book is going to be called LOVE STORY after all.

I'm so glad. I agree the title isn't the most original title in the world, but I think it conveys the content of the book perfectly. This is a romantic novel about a young woman who wants to be a romance novelist herself, and whose fictional hero is inspired by her high school crush, which works great--until he finds out.

But generally, I stay out of my publishers' marketing plans for my books. I don't have much say, for one thing. They might ask my opinion, but if they don't like my opinion, they are not going to listen to me. For another thing, I do not have any specialized knowledge of marketing. I know what I like, but I acknowledge that my tastes are kind of offbeat sometimes. So I am not going to second-guess a marketing professional unless I am really alarmed.

This has me wondering. Is there ever cause for alarm? How much does the marketing of a book really matter? I have heard so many horror stories from my writer friends who got a terrible title or cover, and whose new release tanked as a result. I believe it. And yet when I look over at my shelf piled with my most recent book purchases--there they are, shoved there willy-nilly on top of three volumes of the 1972 World Book Encyclopedia (don't ask)--I have to say that for me personally, in the last few weeks, titles and covers have had absolutely nothing to do with what I've bought. In fact, I was surprised when I hunted up some of these covers to post here, because I didn't notice what the books looked like when I bought them.

STAKED by J. F. Lewis. I've been meaning to read this for a while because it sounds awesome, it is edited by my editor, and the author lives here in Birmingham and will be at the Southern Magic luncheon .

THE GUY NEXT DOOR anthology including "Just One Taste" by Victoria Dahl. Vicki is my critique partner, so I read the manuscript of this novella. I bought the book because I wanted to read it again. It's that good. And it's the prequel to the book she's writing now, which will come out in November. Actually I thought she would send me a copy of THE GUY NEXT DOOR for free but I finally gave up.

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins. Lots of people were tweeting about how good this book is.

WARRIOR by Zoë Archer. I met Zoë at the Romance Writers of America convention last year. She is very cool. I looked up this book, thinking it might be cool like her, and it has gotten terrific reviews.

On the Kindle: THROAT by R. A. Nelson. My first Kindle purchase! I have finally taken the time to figure out how to use it! And I think this book is going to be a worthy inauguration. R. A. lives here in Alabama, and I met him at the Alabama Book Festival a few years ago. I have been meaning to read his first book, TEACH ME. His second and third, BREATHE MY NAME and DAYS OF LITTLE TEXAS, are both beautifully written, but they're also completely different from each other. I admire that in an author, and his books are now an automatic purchase for me.

DEADLY FEAR by Cynthia Eden. Cynthia lives here in Alabama too, but I met her at an RWA convention. We are always seated next to each other at the Booksigning for Literacy (Echols/Eden. Or Eden/Echols, depending on whether you ask me or Cynthia). She also came to the Southern Magic luncheon last November, and she promised to send me a copy of this book for free, and I have given up on that too.

I surmise from this list that I am most likely to buy (1) books by local authors, (2) books by authors I have met personally, and (3) books that the author promised to send me for free and then didn't. So if you want to sell me your book, you should totally try that.

I'm pretty sure these book-buying decisions are a function of my writing career. I didn't always buy books for these reasons. I remember being a teen and buying books. There was no internet, and I didn't read about teen books in magazines. I didn't have a credit card, and my town didn't have a bookstore. Every purchase I made was at B. Dalton in Eastdale Mall on my family's monthly shopping trip to Montgomery. I did read a lot of adult bestsellers at this age, but those were hand-me-downs from my mom. The books I bought with my allowance were always YA. I chose them because (1) a friend had suggested the particular book or the author in general, (2) I had read other books by the author, or (3) I was browsing and the book looked delicious. But what defined delicious? I have a pretty good memory for my childhood, but I honestly can't reconstruct what I was thinking when I was standing in front of that bookshelf in B. Dalton in the eleventh grade with my bad perm and my oversized Generra shirt from the boys' department and my Guess jeans and my high-top Converses.

How about you? Do you think you respond to the marketing campaign for a book in the way the publisher intended? Why do you buy the books you buy?