Brendan Reichs's Blog, page 2
July 6, 2018
Genesis Blog Tour with Jean BookNerd
Recently, I had the privledge of talking with Jean BookNerd about Genesis. Check out our interview, vlog, and learn about the top ten reasons you should be reading #Genesis – Click here for link.
#Nemesis #ProjectNemesis #Virals #books #ya #YAlit #IreadYA #amreading #booklovers #bibliophile #bookaddict #thrillers #conspiracytheroy #ireadeverywhere #fiction #whattoread #booknerd #Sci-Fi
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April 18, 2018
An Entertainment Weekly Exclusive for The Darkdeep Cover Reveal and Sneak Peek
The cover is finally here! *high fives and celebrations all around*
I’ve tag teamed with Ally Condie to bring you an exciting, adventurous, and dark new middle grade series. If you are a fan of Stranger Things, Goonies, or Stand by Me, you wont want to miss out. You can check out the cover and get a sneak peek of the story here. It releases October 2, 2018 and you get ahead of the game and pre-order The Darkdeep by clicking on the link.
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April 3, 2018
B&N Teen Blog with, the devastatingly cool, Veronica Roth
I think one of the questions I am asked the most is about building the world of Fire Lake in my Project NEMESIS series. Recently, I sat down with Veronica Roth to discuss how we both approach world building in sci-fi and dystopian novels. Check it out, in all of its glory, here!
#NEMESIS #GENESIS #CarveTheMark #TheFatesDivide
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YASH Spring Scavenger Hunt is here! Are you READY?? #TeamRED
Hello friends! Welcome (back) to YA Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve done this as many times as I have by now then you are a veteran to the hunt, a YASH comrade in arms! If you are new to the hunt, or need a refresher, this bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some very cool prizes! There are SIX…YES, SIX…teams out there with amazing bonus content and awesome giveaways I know you will want to get your hands on. That means there are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all!
The hunt starts at noon Pacific (so 3:00 pm Eastern) on April 3rd and runs through noon Pacific on April 8th. That means you must play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours! Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt.
SPECIAL NOTE: Im doing a separate giveaway at the bottom!
Check out these good looking book covers! Im part of the RED TEAM and in my opinion #TeamRED rocks.
DIRECTIONS: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on TEAM RED, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!)
HINT: THE SECRET NUMBER IS HIGHLIGHTED IN RED !
ENTRY FORM: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Now that you know how to play, let me introduce you to one of my fellow authors on #TeamRED!
Im excited to be hosting Paula Stokes for SPRING YASH #TeamRED. Paula is the author of several novels, most recently Vicarious, Ferocious, and This is How it Happened. Her writing has been translated into eleven foreign languages. Paula loves kayaking, hiking, reading, and seeking out new adventures in faraway lands. She also loves interacting with readers. Find her online at authorpaulastokes.com or on Twitter and Instagram as @pstokesbooks.
Check out her EXCLUSIVE content. If you think the book sound good, get ready for an amazing deleted scene!
Embry Woods has secrets. Small ones about her past. Bigger ones about her relationship with town hero Luke and her feelings for someone new. But the biggest secret she carries with her is about what happened that night at the Sea Cliff Inn. The fire. The homeless man. Everyone thinks Embry is a hero, too, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Embry thinks she’ll have to take the secret to her grave, until she receives an anonymous note—someone else knows the truth. Next comes a series of threatening messages, asking Embry to make impossible choices, forcing her to put her loved ones at risk. Someone is playing a high stakes game where no one in Embry’s life is safe. And their last move … is murder.
Paula: Hi YASHers 
February 15, 2018
GENESIS pre-order sweepstakes
Pre-order #GENESIS and upload your receipt or send Penguin Teen a postcard to be entered to win a trip for you and a friend to one of my all time favorite festivals, #YALLFEST2018! All entrants will receive a very cool custom #NEMESIS button pack. To enter click here.
December 19, 2017
Sneak Peek of #GENESIS!
To all my #NEMESIS fans, and anyone interested in a little taste of #GENESIS, this one’s for you. I hope you enjoy this brief peek into Noah’s point of view!
Also, if you like the excerpt, please consider going to the GENESIS Goodreads page and adding it to your to-be-read pile. Genesis will be released 3/6/18 and can be pre-ordered here!
Happy Reading!
Sneak Peek of #GENESIS
To all my #NEMESIS fans, and anyone interested in a little taste of #GENESIS, this one’s for you. I hope you enjoy this brief peek into Noah’s point of view!
Also, if you like the excerpt, please consider going to the GENESIS Goodreads page and adding it to your to-be-read pile. Genesis will be released 3/6/18 and can be pre-ordered here!
Happy Reading!
December 18, 2017
GENESIS RECEIVES A STARRED REVIEW FROM KIRKUS!!!
YO! THIS IS AMAZING. Following in the footsteps of #Nemesis, the sequel #Genesis has also been given a 
STARRED REVIEW by Kirkus. I am VERY EXCITE. MUCH EXCITE. SO BIG EXCITE. You can read the entire review here on the Kirkus website and an excerpt below (I only took out a line of plot explanation that was a touch spoiler-ish for readers who haven’t yet finished Nemesis):
KIRKUS REVIEW
Noah Livingston and Min Wilder rage against the machine.
The star-crossed lovers have been separated by betrayal and despair in this sequel to Nemesis (2017)…. [C]haos reigns as different factions squabble over supplies and territory. The Program’s environment is the small isolated mountain town where the teenagers grew up. This grounded setting is a blessing to the novel, a stuffed tome with a turning wheel of power structures that endlessly entertains. Each time a teen is killed they reset in one of several established points on the outskirts of town, but the rules are starting to change: some teens are dying and not coming back. Additionally, a killer who knocks a player off the boards gains strength and speed. The author crafts a heck of a page-turner, chronicling Min’s and Noah’s emotional and physical journeys, alternating between their perspectives each chapter. Violence, tactics, and politics crackle through the novel. Fans of The Hunger Games novels and the CW series The 100 will discover much to enjoy here. The book reveals the Program’s purpose and also provides some startling revelations about the Guardian’s back story before moving its characters aggressively forward in the final pages. A sequel looms, but readers will be thoroughly satisfied with this entry’s contents.
A cracking good yarn and excellent sequel. (Thriller. 12-16)
October 3, 2017
Fall 2017 YA Scavenger Hunt- #TeamRED
This is one of my favorite events of the year. The YA Scavenger Hunt is back and we have SEVEN outstanding YA teams; that is a combined 140 YA authors. There are giveaways galore and some bonus material from all of us I know you are dying to get your hands on. Once again, I am on #TeamRED with 19 other authors whose novels will knock your socks off.
Check out those book covers! It doesn’t get any better than this. This hunt will run from October 3rd to October 8th, beginning and ending at noon Pacific time. Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are seven contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all!
ARE YOU READY TO GET STARTED? For this hunt I am hosting #TeamRED author Yvonne Ventresca. Yvonne’s blog can be found here. Yvonne grew up in the suburbs of Long Island, New York. She majored in English and Computer Science, an unusual combination, but when she was stuck on a literature assignment she could debug her programs, all 33 of them, and when that got boring she could write an essay. Yvonne’s latest YA psychological thriller, Black Flowers, White Lies (Sky Pony Press, 2016) won an IPPY gold medal for National Young Adult Fiction. Her debut novel, Pandemic, (Sky Pony Press, 2014), won a Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Yvonne’s other work includes two nonfiction books and various short stories, including “The Art of Remaining Bitter,” which was selected for the anthology, Mysteries of Death and Life (Dancing Lemur Press, 2017).
You can learn more about her at YvonneVentresca.com, where she also features resources for teen writers, or connect with her here: Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads
Seriously, Yvonne is one stellar author and you definitely need to check her out!
All right, you all know I love a good PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER and Black Flowers, White Lies sounds amazing! If you don’t believe me read below and find out for yourself.
Her father died before she was born, but Ella Benton knows they have a mysterious connection. When an eerie hand print appears on her mirror, she wonders if Dad’s warning her of danger as he did once before. Could her new too-good-to-be-true boyfriend be responsible? Or the grieving building superintendent? As the unexplained events become more frequent and more sinister, Ella becomes terrified about who—or what—might harm her. Soon the evidence points to Ella herself. What if, like her father, she’s suffering from a breakdown? Ella desperately needs to find answers, no matter how disturbing the truth might be.
We were lucky enough to snag some exclusive content from Yvonne about Black Flowers, White Lies .
Novel Evolution: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Black Flowers, White Lies
By Yvonne Ventresca
My latest novel, Black Flower, White Lies, started as a mystery about a teen girl, Emma, searching for her mother who had disappeared. The story was set in Hoboken, New Jersey where Emma lived with Mom and worked in their family-owned bookstore. The original premise was that Emma was reluctantly psychic, but she needed to use her abilities to rescue her mother, even if she didn’t quite believe in the supernatural.
Despite multiple attempts, I couldn’t get the plot, the voice, and the mystery to come together. Eventually, I opened a new document and started from scratch. The story remained set in Hoboken, and her mother still owned a bookstore, but Emma got a fresh beginning as Ella. I brainstormed other possible story scenarios. What if the mother was no longer missing, but instead her relationship with Ella became strained? With this change of thinking, other ideas came as well. Instead of being a skeptic, Ella believes in ghosts, but her best friend and Mom do not, causing further conflict. I changed one of my original characters, a charismatic stepsister, into Ella’s new stepbrother. This meant another rewrite, but sparked more creative changes, resulting in less of a mystery and more of a psychological thriller.
In the final version, I focused on the relationship between Ella and her stepbrother, her belief in a mystical connection to her dead father’s spirit, and unexplainable events that make Ella question her perception of reality. Instead of rescuing her mother, the way I originally planned, Ella needs to save herself. Over time, Black Flowers, White Lies transforms into Ella’s journey of strength and self-belief, and I ultimately found the heart of the story.
The novel by numbers:
Hours it took to write Black Flowers, White Lies: The version of the novel that was acquired by Sky Pony took 383 hours to draft. (This doesn’t count the number of untracked hours spent on previous versions.)
Words in Black Flowers, White Lies: Approximately 54,000
Hours spent revising Black Flowers, White Lies since acquisition: My best guess is 168 hours. I didn’t do a great job of separating revising and proofreading time from other post-acquisition tasks (like marketing efforts).
Number of shelter cats mentioned by name in the story: 10
Time spent on social media (including asking friends for names of their cats to be used for shelter cats in the story): I have no idea! This is one area I stopped tracking because the “social” time tends to get merged with book promotion and research tasks.
Readers who enjoy the book: A large number, I hope!
Excerpt from Chapter One
I approach Dad’s tombstone with trepidation, then breathe a sigh of relief. No mysterious flowers wilt at his grave as I had feared. Last August, someone left fresh orange lilies for him throughout the month. I never figured out who. Then, in September, the flowers stopped appearing as suddenly as they started. I always wondered, with an odd mixture of anxiety and hope, if I would run into the other mourner— someone else who honored my father. But I never did.
Usually, the ritual of navigating the same cemetery rows, visiting Thomas Darren Benton, and putting a small rock on his headstone calms me. Now, the heat is relentless and sweat trickles down my back as I search for the perfect pebble. It needs to be a nice, roundish one. Despite the lilies left last summer, Dad wasn’t a bouquet kind of guy.
I know this even though I never met him. He died before I was born, so I have no memories of him, only stories from Mom that I’ve heard so many times it feels like I was actually there. I see him beam during his graduation from veterinary school and feel his hand pat Mom’s pregnant belly. I hear him pick my name from the baby book: Ariella, meaning lion, although Mom insists they nickname me Ella. I smell the damp on his clothes from the night he rescued Oscar the kitten from a storm drain and brought him home to stay. These recollections have been cobbled together into my own version of Dad for the last fifteen years.
Today the sky is gray and foreboding, but the occasional burst of wind does nothing to cool me. I finally find just the right rock nestled in a patch of grass and rub off the dirt with my fingers. My friend Jana taught me the tradition of leaving a stone as a way to mark my visits with something more permanent, more enduring than flowers.
I’m the only person who comes to his grave somewhat regularly, other than last summer’s unknown mourner. I don’t think Mom’s been here since her engagement to Stanley, a non-reading, self-absorbed, stubby man. With the wedding only days away, Stanley’s settled into our apartment, but each awkward conversation we have leaves me yearning for the father who painted my room a cheerful yellow, who created a mini-library of animal books to read to his future daughter.
I hesitate before Beloved Husband and Father, rolling the pebble between my fingers, then place it in line with the last one, making it the eighth in a row. I let my hand linger against the cool granite. Next week is Dad’s birthday, August 8. That number has been lucky for me since I was eight years old, when I could have died, but because of Dad’s warning, I didn’t.
The air gusts, whipping strands of hair across my face and scattering the pebbles to the ground. My skin prickles at the eerie timing before I realize that the wind has been stormy on and off throughout the day. Still, it spooks me because nothing has disturbed my markers in months. Until now. It’s almost like Dad is giving me another sign.
That was some cool exclusive content! To buy Black Flowers, White Lies you can go to any one of the links here: Indiebound | Amazon | B&N | AmazonUK | BAM
SPECIAL GIVEAWAY: FIND MY EXCEPT FROM GENESIS IN THE HUNT AND PUT THE SEVENTH WORD IN A COMMENT HERE TO ENTER FOR A FREE SIGNED COPY OF NEMESIS.
Please proceed to the next #TeamRED stop: Marieke Nijkamp
HAPPY HUNTING!!!
July 15, 2017
Check out the My Kind of Book Blog and find out what inspired Nemesis.
Nemesis was recently released in the UK, and I was able to talk to the wonderful people at My Kind of Book about the inspiration behind it. You can read all about it here. If you still haven’t had the chance to pick up a copy of #Nemesis, now’s the time!
