A.C. Gaughen's Blog, page 10

The YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes!

 

Welcome to my stop on the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes, a crazy whirlwind blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs featuring ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and more! If you haven't yet been to the Apocalypsies website, please click here  to start from the beginning and read the complete rules. Now on to the race!

SCARLET by AC Gaughen

Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood's thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in. It's only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

That's all you'll need to know for the quiz later on!  You can also check Scarlet out on Facebook, Indiebound, Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

And....TA DAAAA!  Just for stopping by, if you leave your name and email address in the comments section below, you'll be entered to win a SCARLET tshirt!

On to your next stop....Robin Bridges!

 

Good luck on the race! 

2012 is HERE. And so is a Giveaway!

Hello 2012!

So....it's officially my debut year, and I'm PSYCHED!! 

Thus, I'm giving away a tshirt.  This tshirt:

It's cool, it's white, it comes in many sizes. 

What you have to do:

Tell me the name of a book OTHER than mine that you're looking forward to in 2012.  All I technically need is the name, but I love details.  Give me details. Leave your email address too!

And if you're so inclined, check SCARLET out on Goodreads or maybe even buy it on Indiebound or Amazon. 

NOTES: US mailing addresses only, please.  Giveaway will end January 16th! 

I JUST *HAVE* TO SHARE...

Especially because there is no better way to close out 2011 than with a warm heart and a big smile.  So, yeah, I'm smiling about this. 

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen. This book was absolutely fantastic. It is among one of my favorites of all time. The characters were so compelling – I loved having a tough girl added into the lore of Robin Hood. Definitely a must read, y'all. I'm already thinking about rereading it and it hasn't even been released yet!

From Looking Forward to 2012...

YEAH!

AND...

The book is so good I am literally tongue-tied trying to describe all the ways I loved it--the romantic tension of the love-triangle, Gaughen's deft, beautiful prose and inventive imagery.

SCARLET is a page-turner and will easily suck in not just Robin Hood fans but also readers who aren't familiar with the legend (like me). A stunning debut! A.C. Gaughen establishes herself as a formidable fresh young talent.

From Hilary Weisman Graham

I KNOW!! 

And....

SCARLET is massively entertaining.

From Angie

and FINALLY...

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen is the newest Robin Hood retelling. Y'all, I love the story of Robin Hood and I was extremely excited to pick this book up. I am happy to tell you that Scarlet more than lived up to my expectations! It has a comfortable spot on the list of best fantasy books I've ever read...I reviewed this today as part of my End of the Year Week because it is my favorite of the 2012 releases I've read so far!

From The Allure of Books

So YEAH.  I'm a happy girl. 

 

HAVE A HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE!!!  Let's hope there are more good reviews for SCARLET waiting in the new year. 

xx

Things That Matter

So, I'm terrible with keeping this blog updated on all the other blogging I do.  And lately, it's actually important, so I'll share. 

First, here's what I spend my weekends doing with GLOW. 

 

And here's why it is so damn important to me. 

 

This is the fundraising page for Boston GLOW; or if you're in the Boston area, please consider making a donation in the form of a ticket to come to the event! 

 

I don't mean to be salesy or annoying, and hopefully if you're reading this I haven't beaten your heads in with it yet.  Boston GLOW is a tremendous organization still in its fledgling years and it's still on a make-or-break part of the path.  I just feel like I've found a sense of self through the work that I've put into this; more than my writing or personal life, this helps me better understand who I am and who I want to become.  If there's any way you can support me in this, I would deeply appreciate it; even just by spreading those two posts above.

 

I really appreciate the incredible support I've gotten from local businesses, friends and family.  I will never stop believing in your power to IGNITE Change, because in the past year I've been able to see my own.  If I can do it, you can do it too. 

 

xx

This Beast

Photos like this always make me want to writeWriting is brutally unfair.  It is cruel and insidious.  It's callous and careless. 

It doesn't care about deadlines, about alarm clocks, about daylight.  It hears nothing of "other obligations" or this thing called "stress".  It doesn't know about these other things that I care about--it doesn't want to hear about my family or the really cool girls I've been meeting in these workshops with GLOW. 

It's a greedy monster.  It keeps me up at night, thinking, watching this movie in my mind that slowly magnetizes pixels of an image to click together and form a story like a scene from Inception.  It halts; it breaks; it deviates, showing me a different picture.  Like a vision, it's watery and hazy.  I hear the words, I feel something. 

And then it stops and replays. 

And sometimes this is beyond comforting.  Most nights, these unfinished pathways of stories lull me to sleep and let me drift off.  But some nights it just keeps going, and my heart beats faster because I can feel it--I can feel when something is just so interesting.  Just so exciting.  And all I want to do is write. 

Sleep be damned.  Responsibilities be damned.  Stress--oh, stress!--be damned too. 

Lately I don't have much time, unfortunately, and the story replays slower and slower and sometimes it winks out--I don't know if this is from neglect (probably) or from an unsustainable story, but when that energy leaves it's horrible.  It's depressing.  It's like a best friend you tell all your secrets to giving you the cold shoulder. 

Maybe it's bigger than that, because when the story lights up again, it's like dawn all over--light pierces through and there is just this boundless reserve of bouyant energy.  The more you get taken away to do other things the energy ebbs, but if I'm lucky, it's still waiting. 

I love starting a new story.  It's engrossing, all-encompassing, and damn inconvenient (always!) but it is so much better than the lack of it.  With out it, it's like something's missing, and all that energy goes into anxiety and this knot that forms between my shoulderblades.  It's awful. 

So I guess I'll take manic and beastial to empty and anxious any day.  But still, Writing, sometimes you suck.  

Sheer Madness

Oh December!  Who knew you were such a manic creature? 

Much has been going on lately.  I'm resigned to bullet form. 

Delivered the first of three (more like three and a half because there was a mini one too) tailored workshops for teen girls in the Boston area to get more personal, individualized attention in the works.  Last year I was personally horrified when so many girls responded to the contest with "I won't win that--why should I apply?"  This is my personal mission to counteract that, by giving as many girls as I can face time.  Because I *DO* care what they think.  I *DO* want to read their essays.  And I think helping them realize that someone is listening is what this contest is all about.  Of course, I didn't plan on having the workshops all in a ten day period.  But, c'est la vie.
The silent auction is in full, unbelievable, wonderful, miracle of christmas swing.  The things that arrive in my inbox and mailbox are just so generous.  More on that later, because I really need to give awesome credit where awesome credit is due. 
The fundraiser is also in full swing, including a really cool corporate sponsorship by Hill Holiday, and we've hit 10% of our fundraising goal.  This does, of course, leave a loooong way to go--so buy your tickets already!  
I started a new WIP.  I know, because I don't have enough to stress about, right?  In fact, when I catch a breath, I'm going to write more about how writing is an insidious, evil monkey.  That HATES me. 
Oh, PS, Scarlet is out in nine weeks! Yeah, because I needed something ELSE to stress about.  But, plans are starting to fall into place, so if you would like to join in on the fun, check out my COME FIND ME page.  Instructions for stalking included.  

Better Ways to Give

I'm pretty blessed in my life.  I have wonderful people around me and so many more people that are eager and willing to support me in the things that I do. 

Christmas is coming, which means it's time to support others.  If you're looking for ways to give this year, here are a couple I care about. 

The IGNITE 2011 Finalists1.  Boston GLOW.  I care a lot about this organization because I see what it does.  I get the supreme privilege of watching young women pour their hearts into their writing and get rewarded for it.  I get to see how proud their families are.  I even get to see them do amazing things like start college or start a path for their chosen career.  Boston GLOW gives girls and women the chance to see what they are truly capable of and that is a tremendous thing to support. 

2.  Girls Write Now.  One of the debut author groups I'm a part of--the Class of 2k12--has organized a page for donations for Girls Write Now, an organization that pairs writers with teen girls.  So far, 100% of their participants have gone on to college, and as a part of a fledgling non-profit, I can say with authority how impressive that is. 

3.  Kickstarter.  Kickstarter is crowd-sourced funding for entrepreneurial endeavors, so it's not really "giving", it's supporting--which is the coolest thing about it.  You get to support someone's dream project, but you also get something back.  And there are some really amazing projects on there, including my friend's book that looks pretty awesome. 

4.  Indiebound.  Supporting your local independent bookstore means a lot more than you think.  It doesn't just mean better service or more local economy; it means more authors and more books.  For small and debut authors, indies are our life blood.  Every book you buy from them is supporting a new book to come out.  And they sell eBooks now too!

Any favorites of yours? 

Dear Teen Me

I forgot to mention that I was up over at Dear Teen Me!  It's a republished piece, but one I'll always love. 

 

Check it out!

Things I Keep Forgetting Recently

1.  People are petty, and small, and vengeful.  People have this remarkable capacity in them for meanness and unkindness and I generally believe this stems from deep insecurity within themselves--though it's always tough to remember, it is probably more about their problems than the problems they have with you.  I think you can only ever look to your own life for happiness, and no comparison will ever end well; still, this is something I have been forgetting lately, so I try to play LET IT GO by GREAT BIG SEA to remind me:

So yes, while the world seems to continual remind me that sucky people exist, I need to remember not to be sucky in return.  Instead, I need to remember to let it go. 

2.  I keep forgetting to buy bananas.  Dammit. 

3.  Life is not about money; it is one of the imposters that Kipling talks about; and though these things may run parallel, doing what you love, pursuing your passions and working to fulfillment have absolutely nothing to do with money.  I don't love publishing books; I love writing books, and that act is one outside of the world of money.  Publishing and being paid is AWESOME and I love the idea of getting to share my book with the world, but it still (and possibly always will) feel like something that's totally based on luck and has very little to do with me.  Similarly, working with GLOW is something I love madly but won't ever pay any bills.  Sometimes this irks me; sometimes I try to remedy the situation and get paid for what I love.  Lately I've just been feeling that I need to do things because I love them, and money will work itself out.  Let's just hope my Corolla doesn't commit suicide in the meantime. 

4.  How to talk to myself.  I think for the most part I'm a very internal person; as a writer, certainly, I have a rich and unending internal dialogue, but sometimes I get tangled in it like rigging on a boat and instead of eager to turn inward, I'm desperate to seek something outside of myself.  This is necessary, I think; balance is everything.  But often in these periods of casting out for external connection, the center doesn't hold and I end up with Libba Bray's I Suck Playlist in my head.  I'm terrible to myself!  How does talking like that--being the bully within your own head--make anything better?  No.  I need Jack Johnson and a little me time.  And I need to remember to just be kinder to myself--and probably everyone else around me. 

5.  I've had RedBox DVDs out for about seven days now. 

6.  Frustration isn't a bad thing, whether its with your job, your situation, or yourself--it means that you're in the middle of the journey, which, from the eyes of either the end or the beginning, is a wonderful place to be.  It may seem like I'm running out of ropes to try, but it actually means that I'm getting closer to the one rope that, when I pull it, rather than fall to the ground, will let me swing up to the next level. 

I'm basing this assumption on Mario Bros, of course. 

7.  27 is actually kind of awesome.  For those of you who don't know, my birthday was November 7th, and I've been kind of freaking out about being so close to 30 and not feeling like any of my ducks are in any sort of row, octagon or any shape whatsoever.  But this has to do with Number Six, and Number One, and probably Number 4 as well.  Actually it's an amalgamation of all the numbers.  But you know what, 26 rocked.  I:

Signed my first book contract (technically it sold when I was 25)
Got PAID for my first book (take that Number 3)
Helped raise more than $13k for GLOW
Handed out $5000 in scholarships
Successfully organized the first IGNITE Change Essay Contest and accompanying awards banquet
Was honored as an Emerging Leader in my community with a pretty sweet award
Shook hands with Deval Patrick as a volunteer for the Boston Book Festival
Began the grueling process of trial and error to learn how on earth to launch a book

You know what, 27?  Bring it on.  And you know why 26 is afraid of 27--because 27 28 29! 

Nope, that doesn't work with the twos in front of it.  Or written down, for that matter. 

xx

Meltdown of YAY

So as of today, SCARLET has exactly three months until she enters the world.  That doesn't mean, however, that some people haven't already gotten a peek, and I'm starting to whirl like a dervish about the really nice things they're saying.  Like check out this review, that calls SCARLET "massively entertaining".  Or this one, that called it "a cleverly crafted story". 

I even got my first fan letter about the book.  Seriously! 

I saw the jacket for the book--GORGEOUS, by the way--and I'm working on some really cool swag to giveaway shortly. 

But three months.  Three presumably crazy months, and both SCARLET and I will be out there for the world to see.  How weird?  And in the intervening months, there will be holidays and our massive GLOW fundraiser (which, keep an eye out for--it's going to be totally amazing!)

So, I'm currently sewing a crushed velvet cape for what will hopefully be a SCARLET book trailer shoot on Wednesday:[image error]

Yup.  That's me in a cape. 

This could be totally madcap or totally amazing; we'll just have to find out. 

And, hopefully, sometime in the near future I'll be able to shine up a new novel and send it out into the world.  My head needs to feel a little bit less explodey for that though. 

And with that...start the countdown!  Three months on the clock!