Susan Vaught's Blog, page 4
November 16, 2013
New Awards and New Covers and New Sales, Oh My!
Where to begin–except to say, hooray it’s almost Thanksgiving, because I’ve got a lot to be thankful for this month!
First, I am thrilled to announce that Freaks Like Us made the 2014-2015 Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award List. My gratitude to the wonderful readers in Indiana.
Thank you all very much!
Next, ARCs of my February, 2014 release, Insanity, are beginning to appear, with the spooky, wonderful final cover. For a sneak peek, check out the book trailer. I’ll be posting more information and an excerpt very soon.
Some things are so dangerous, they should never be released. . .
And last, but certainly NOT least–SALE SALE SALE NEWS.
Back in the spring, after helping bring a dozen or so of my young adult novels to the reading public, my ever-patient agent Erin Murphy supported me in dipping my toes into middle grade waters.
Bless Your Heart is the temporary title of the novel she pitched as Fannie Flagg meets WONDER, with a mystery twist. The book sold in an auction to Sylvie Frank at Paula Wiseman Books, and I look forward to shaping it with Sylvie’s guidance, and to meeting and working with the team at Simon and Schuster Children’s Books. More to come on this career development–probably with illustrations, hints, debates about whether serial killers are scarier than walruses, and excerpts that may or may not involve cleaning snake guts off of bird feeders. For now, I’ll leave you with this deeply disturbing and earth-shattering mystery:
Is this a shoe, or isn’t it?
October 13, 2013
August 21, 2013
June 23, 2013
Book Review: The False Prince: Book 1 of the Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Neilsen
I don’t just write books for young adults–I read them, too! I remain, as always, an unrepentant science fiction and fantasy geek, and I crave both classical and fresh takes on the material I love most–you know, kings, princes, queens, dragons, aliens, dragons AND aliens are always a plus…
On to this review of The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen.
Genre: Fantasy, heavy on mystery and intrigue
Summary: Resourceful and cunning orphan Sage has no choice but to go with mysterious nobleman Conner when the man comes looking for boys of a certain age and appearance . . . boys who just happen to share a lot in common with the king’s long-missing son. Conner has collected himself a group of competitors, and he pits the boys against each other to see which one can impersonate the lost prince. The winner gets a kingdom. The losers get a blade to the throat. Sage has no doubt that Conner intends to make his chosen prince a puppet, and he knows Conner’s motives are far darker than Conner would have him believe. Yet if Sage doesn’t compete, he’ll die–either at Conner’s hand, or the hands of his rivals. Reality blends with lies until a shocking set of twists and turns lead Sage to the ultimate truth, which may be more dangerous than the bloody game Conner has him playing.
My Reading/Listening Experience: The audio version of The False Prince turned out to be excellent. The reading is smooth, flawless, and well-paced, highlighting fresh, lyrical prose and a plot that just won’t quit. Sage is complex and layered, a perfect blend of defiance and dedication. His rivals and Conner are believable and very real, but never predictable. Every time I thought I had things figured out, a new twist would turn my brain upside down, and sometimes I wanted to play the narrative on fast speed just to find out what would happen next.
Really Cool Stuff: Plot twists! Other books claim to have them, but compared to False Prince, they’re kidding. Really! Murdered royals stashed underneath a palace. How gross is that? Trying to figure out who the good guys are–and really being taken for a ride.
Would I Let A Younger Kid Read This: Yes. I think the plot would keep them going even if some of the nuances of good vs. evil and where those blend into gray might get missed. Some of the violence might be briefly disturbing, but nothing is gratuitous, and all would be good fodder for discussion about right, wrong, and everything in between.
Would I Give This Book To My Daughter Who Reads Everything But Is Way Pickier Than Me And Gripes If I Give Her Something Boring: No question. She’s getting it from the Christmas box, if she doesn’t find it and swipe it sooner, like she did the latest installment of the Mercy Thompson series. She’ll bug me the whole time she’s reading it to tell her what’s going to happen. I will refuse to tell her, because I am the meanest mother on Earth.
But I Don’t Like This Genre: The mystery and intrigue trump the fantasy element. You’d have to be brain-dead not to like this.
Read more about this book at http://www.jennielsen.com/books/ascendance-trilogy/the-false-prince. There will be a movie–and, and, the sequel, Runaway King, is already out!
January 27, 2013
Diamonds Are Nice, But Fantasy Is Forever
Everything old is new again . . .
Once upon a time, two friends wrote a contemporary fantasy series about a guy whose summer vacation gets hijacked by a demanding, controlling–and terrified and beautiful–witch. Magic, adventure, romance, a seriously evil villain, a seriously cool sword–what more could a fantasy-lover want?
The L.O.S.T. trilogy was published by Llewellyn, but it’s ours again. We’ve updated the story, and gotten wicked-wonderful new covers designed by Scott Carpenter (Cover photo art for L.O.S.T. provided by TitusBoy25) of http://pandngraphics.com, and released it for today’s modern world, on Kindle and Nook and Kobo and Smashwords. My partner in crime, R.S. Collins, has a ton of L.O.S.T. extras on her website, so check them out!
How far can you go before you really get lost?
Brenden’s on his way to the beach when he makes a pit stop in a tiny desert town called Live Oak Springs Township. It doesn’t take long for Bren to realize that something’s way wrong in L.O.S.T.—and it might be that witchy girl in the general store.
Jasmina Corey has a secret, and a very big problem. Bren may be the solution.
Too bad he hates her on sight. Too bad she might have to kill him.
L.O.S.T. FAQ
Are there witches?
Yes!
Are they evil?
Some are. Some aren’t. It’s not always easy to figure that out.
Lots of snark?
Plenty.
Swearing?
No. Not in this language, anyway.
Kissing?
Some.
Dragons? Dwarves? Stuff I’ve never heard of but might have had nightmares about?
Yes!
Is it mushy?
Um, no.
Cell phones?
No. Magic and cell phones don’t get along. But Bren and Jazz know how to Twitter-fight.
Sword-fights?
Absolutely.
Blood and gore and gross stuff?
Not really. I like not throwing up while I write.
Are the other books in the series already written?
Why, yes they are! Coming very soon. I’ll post the second cover soon!
Can I get them in print with the delicious new cover?
Yes!
If I want to write a review, can I contact you?
Absolutely. susan@susanvaught.com
December 8, 2012
Birth of a Book Cover
Whenever I do a signing, a book fair, or a school visit, people ask me about my book covers. Who makes them? How are they chosen? Do I help draw them? Do I design them? Do I get to say yes or no about which cover gets used?
My answers are I don’t always know, I definitely don’t always know, No (no stick people, right?), Definitely no, and No. Seriously, most authors have very little say in our titles, much less our covers. Bloomsbury and my editor have been kind to me, asking me what I think, and sometimes redirecting if I truly hate something. That’s not what usually happens in the print publishing world.
Creating cover art that will grab attention and help to sell books is its own profession, totally separate from my scribbling and storytelling. In fact, in the computer age, it’s downright awe-inspiring. The studio that created the cover for Beyond the Wall, the essay collection focused on George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, which contains my essay The Brutal Cost of Redemption in Westeros, or WHAT Moral Ambiguity?, put out a time-lapse video about it.
This shows what it takes to make a single book cover–and this wasn’t even the cover that got chosen! Give it a look, and be amazed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-Rq2su9uU
November 25, 2012
Free Sample!
Dig into The Chronicles of Narnia!
“Permit me to remind you that a very small size has been bestowed on us Mice, and if we did not guard our dignity, some (who weigh worth by inches) would allow themselves very unsuitable pleasantries at our expense.”
Reepicheep the High Mouse offers these words to Aslan in C.S. Lewis’s Prince Caspian.
His meaning?
Read my essay It’s the Little Things – for free at Smartpop through Tuesday, November 27 — and see if you agree.
Enjoy!
August 29, 2012
Interview with Peter Salomon
Peter Salomon talks about writing angsty poetry, whether or not he needs therapy, and good places to haunt with a serial killer in a novel.
Tell us about yourself as a writer. What age group calls to you? Fiction or nonfiction? Magazines, novels, poetry–give us the scoop!
Most of my teenage and college years was spent writing angstian poetry (I know, but it should REALLY be a word!), some of which has sort of stood the test of time. I’ve spent the last year posting a poem a week on my blog, every Monday, and still have about a thousand poems to go (I spent a LOT of that time writing poetry). I tried writing a Fantasy novel after college and it was a great learning experience but you wouldn’t really want to slog through it…though, to be fair, there are some good parts. Ok, maybe decent parts?
After that I wrote a couple of adult fiction novels that really prepared me for where I am in my writing career. It wasn’t until I had kids of my own, however, that I started writing for that age group. I have found that I really enjoy writing for teens. Which, to me, is pretty much the exact same thing as writing for adults. Teens are always smarter than we give them credit for and more than willing to take a journey with an author. I’m tremendously appreciative and overwhelmed by my ‘target audience.’
As for non-fiction, I’ve written a few freelance journalistic type of things but it’s a LOT harder for me than fiction…I like being able to just make things up. Having to stick to actual facts is nowhere near as much fun.
Describe what inspires you, and how your ideas become stories or novels.
The characters, definitely the characters. I end up with free-ranging conversations going on in my head between different characters. I think there’s a term for that other than schizophrenia but I’m not positive about that! So, starting with 
the assumption that I’m not in need of serious therapy, I usually follow wherever the conversations between the characters take me.
For children and young adults interested in pursuing writing as a career–any quick advice or guidance?
The best advice I ever received was just to keep writing, to never stop writing. There’s nothing worth reading on an empty page.
One caveat I’d add to that is that you must learn to love revising. Editing/Revising is so integral to polishing a book and the writer has to understand that anyone offering constructive criticism is doing so in order to improve your writing. To make it better. To make it sell. To make it sell more. Revising is, for lack of a better term, good.
Think Fast:
Chinese take-out or fancy Italian restaurant?
Italian, though I love Chinese take-out too.
Jacob or Edward?
Jacob
Chihuahua or Doberman?
Doberman
Middle Earth or Hogwarts?
Hogwarts…I’m unwilling to give up indoor plumbing and air conditioning
Rose or dandelion?
Rose
Your fiction release, Henry Franks, looks like a scary spooky mystery/suspense. Is it? Tell us about it.
While HENRY is considered YA Horror, I think it’s more creepy/haunting than horrific. It’s tense and claustrophobic and fast-paced. Henry is 16, with no memory of the accident that killed his mother and left him covered with scars. And no memory of any of the 16 years before the accident either. All he knows about himself, his name, who he is, is what his father has told him since he woke up from the coma after the accident.
And then he starts doubting his father’s stories. As he searches for answers, trying to figure out who he really is, more mysteries start piling up, along with bodies from a serial killer stalking the small island off the Georgia coast he lives on. With the help of his best friend, Justine, who is the only person he knows who can see past the scars, Henry quickly discovers that sometimes the only thing worse than forgetting is remembering.
Is this book set in the Golden Isles? Want to tell readers about this particular spot on the U.S. coastline, and some of its history?
The Golden Isles of Georgia are St. Simons Island, Sea Island, and Jekyll Island about 30 miles north of Florida. They are surrounded by marshes and have a surprisingly distinguished literary history (see The Marshes Of Glynn by Sidney Lanier for example). They are also hot and secluded and the perfect place to haunt with a serial killer in a fiction novel.
And finally, the all-important question: What’s next for you? Working on new stories? We certainly hope so. Tell us about them!
I have just finished a proposal for a new YA action/adventure set in New York City (I wrote the first draft as well as a YA Dystopian first draft while HENRY was out on submission) and have also been working on two different picture books. I have really high hopes for the NYC story and hope to have more information on that in the near future!
August 25, 2012
Visit Podcast of Ice and Fire
For Song of Ice and Fire addicts!
Check out the Podcast of Ice and Fire’s broadcast about my essay in Beyond the Wall–in which we debate the cosmology of George R. R. Martin’s Westeros, opine about whether or not Theon Greyjoy will ever redeem himself, and hash out the true worth of Jaime Lannister.
Oh, and touch on the fact that Edward in Twilight is still an antisocial twit who glitters. (This part of the talk happened in the last five minutes–it’s in the aftershow portion).
Let the hate mail begin!
But first, have a look at this:
Podcast of Ice and Fire’s Custom-Made Sigil
Logo is by Victor. Amin Javadi from Podcast said the artist made a black and white version, and they added the colors. THIS is what I had to talk to during the whole interview. Intimidating, yes? Good thing I was wearing my direwulf WINTER IS COMING shirt. Nyah!
