Kate Avery Ellison's Blog, page 15

March 29, 2013

Summary for BLUEWING!

Hi all!

Today I have the book summary for BLUEWING for you guys! And stay tuned, because I should have the cover to reveal sometime next week...

(highlight to read, because it's spoilery if you haven't read the previous books)


Lia Weaver is a fugitive. Her family's farm has been confiscated by Farther soldiers, her sister has been reassigned to a new family in the village, and her official status is "missing." Now, she and a band of fugitive followers must make their home in the harsh wilderness of the Frost. Food is scarce, and hope is scarcer still as Lia tries to find information about the whereabouts of her missing friends. She is determined to rescue them, but when a surprising ally steps forth with an offer that will both return her friends and expel the Farthers from the Frost in exchange for something very precious, Lia must make a choice.

I'm really hoping that BLUEWING will be available at the end of April for purchase. We'll see--it depends on a few things getting finished quickly. But I'm finished with the first round of edits and I'm sending the manuscript back to my editor next week. Fingers crossed, y'all.

I really hope you all enjoy this book. I think it's my favorite so far in the series, although it's hard to choose favorites.

In other news, I've already started work on the first draft of TWO more Frost books: book #5, the final book in the series(!!!), and a companion novella from Ann's perspective that spans most of the series.
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Published on March 29, 2013 10:38

February 27, 2013

Quick Update on Bluewing (Frost #4)

Hi all!

I just wanted all you wonderful people to know that I finished the rough draft of Bluewing yesterday (whew--I've been on fire with this one, guys...I was writing it during edits for Weavers and everything)!

So what does this mean?

Well, it means hopefully Bluewing will be released earlier than I had anticipated. I don't want to assign a date or anything yet, but I'm thinking definitely sometime in May and maaaaaaaaaaaybe as early as late April.

So stay tuned, and sign up for the newsletter if you want to be sure to find out about the release as soon as possible!
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Published on February 27, 2013 13:19

February 19, 2013

TOMORROW LAND by Mari Mancusi

Today on the blog I'd like to welcome Mari Mancusi, author of Tomorrow Land!


ABOUT MARI:

Two time Emmy award winner Mari Mancusi used to wish she could be a vampire back in high school. But she ended up in another bloodsucking profession--journalism--instead. Today she works as a freelance TV producer and author of books for teens, including the award winning Blood Coven Vampire series published by Penguin Books. When not writing about creatures of the night, Mari enjoys traveling, cooking, goth clubbing, watching cheesy horror movie and her favorite guilty pleasure--videogames. A graduate of Boston University, she lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Jacob, daughter Avalon and dog Mesquite.


Take it away, Mari!


When I first conceived the idea for what would become Tomorrow Land, I had this very clear vision in my mind of a girl, emerging from an underground fallout shelter and stepping into a nuclear wasteland. I imagined a decimated world filled with ruins and topped by the thick, gray storm clouds of a nuclear winter. But as I continued to explore the idea, I decided to destroy the world by plague instead of bomb--where the lucky ones are wiped out by a killer virus. The unlucky are turned into zombie-like creatures with an appetite for human flesh. But I still wanted that scene—of a girl stepping from the fallout shelter. Reconnecting with the world she’d left behind four years earlier. But what would this world look like? Certainly not a nuclear wasteland. In fact, I realized, it would probably be kind of wild and beautiful—nature wrestling back control from mankind.

Here’s an excerpt from Tomorrow Land—describing the world I created.


TOMORROW LAND EXCERPT

As Peyton stepped out from the underground bunker, she was immediately struck with wonder at the outside world. After four years inside, she’d forgotten how vast it was, how beautiful. The sky was painted a vibrant blue, sprinkled with puffy cotton-like clouds. Wildflowers tumbled across sagging porches and poked defiantly through cracked pavement. Her favorite oak tree was still standing, strong and majestic in the center of their front yard, its branches stretching high into the sky, as if to worship the heavens.

The scent of honeysuckle tickled her nose and Peyton sucked in a large breath, delighting in the fresh, clean, and warm air that seemed so much sweeter than the stale re-circulated stuff she’d been stuck breathing for the last four years.

It was strange. For some reason, down in the shelter, she’d always envisioned the outside world to have become a gray wasteland, strangled by stormy clouds that mirrored the loss of humanity below. She’d expected a graveyard, a desolate landscape, a world with acrid winds and a sepia palette. But, it turned out, nature hadn’t mourned man’s destruction after all. If anything, it appeared to be celebrating its newfound freedom from gardeners and landscaping, a once-tamed suburbia transforming into a feral forest full of emerald life.

She stuck out her arms, feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin for the first time in four years. She wanted to skip down the street, dance, cartwheel. Run for ten miles without stopping. Enjoy a world without boundaries after years in a cage.

After doing a little shimmy of joy on the front porch, she stopped herself, looking around, self-conscious, even though she knew there was no one to see her. The thought sobered her a bit. This beautiful world would most likely be empty. Or practically so. And now she didn’t even have her mother by her side. A new emotion gripped her heart: sadness, the beauty of the world fading as reality sank in. Though she’d mourned her previous life for four years on the inside, it was different to suddenly experience its loss firsthand. Back in the shelter this reality had seemed unreal, distant. Like something from a film. Actually stepping out into the world and seeing the empty, debris-filled streets, the houses crumbling from years of neglect, made the whole situation a lot more real and a lot harder to swallow.

It was the silence that felt the eeriest. Not that her middle-class suburb had ever been a bustling metropolis, but there had been sounds all the same: the droning of lawnmowers pushed by dads on their days off, the screams and laughter of kids playing wild games of tag, cars streaming down the nearby interstate, beeping away their road rage. Planes flying overhead. Normal, everyday, take-them-for-granted sounds. All were now swept clear by an overwhelming, almost suffocating silence. There wasn’t even birdsong.

A realization she had half-suppressed for too long rose up and choked Peyton. Everyone and everything she knew and loved was gone. Her friends, her teachers—everyone had succumbed. Only her father was left. Out there. Waiting for her. Waiting for her assistance in rebuilding the world he’d known would fail.


TOMORROW LAND


Can true love survive the end of the world?

Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice--between her family--and Chris Parker, the boy she'd given her heart. And now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he's the only thing on her mind.

All Chris "Chase" Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed--breaking his heart without ever telling him why.

Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones of a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk...and feed. As they begin their pilgrimage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost--all the while attempting to save what's left of the human race?



Find TOMORROW LAND for:

Kindle

Nook


FIND OUT MORE:

Website: www.marimancusi.com

Blog: www.marimancusi.blogspot.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/bloodcovenvampires

Twitter: @marimancusi
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Published on February 19, 2013 21:18

February 7, 2013

Ask Me Questions!

On Tuesday I visited a school and spoke to several classes of 8th grade students about writing. They asked me lots of questions, some of which were adorably hilarious (my favorite: what's your plan for the zombie appcalypse?"), and it gave me an idea.

I would love it if you guys would submit some questions for me that I can answer on the blog. You can email them to me at kellisonwrites@gmail.com or you can just post them in the comments. Then I can spend some time responding in a few subsequent blog posts. I think it'll be fun! They can be silly, creative, or serious. They can be about writing or just life in general. I don't know if I'll answer every question (haven't decided yet), but I think this could be fun.

So ask me some questions, readers and friends!
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Published on February 07, 2013 14:31

February 5, 2013

Weavers is Available in Print!

Hello, everyone!

Weavers is now available in paperback, so if you wanted to purchase that format of the book, you can do so now!
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Published on February 05, 2013 16:15

January 30, 2013

Character Appearance

Do you pay much attention to a character's appearance?

Confession: As a reader, I generally don't.

Perhaps this is because I rarely "see" the main character. When I read, I wriggle down into their skin and become them. So unless they're looking in a mirror, I don't give much thought to their eye color or face shape or hair color unless it's some intrinsic part of the plot of the book.

Consequently, since I don't care much about appearance as a reader, I don't spend too much time on the appearance of my own characters except when it is something one of my characters is focused on (for instance, in the case of one character analyzing another because they are attracted to that character, or trying to figure out their origins, etc). I guess to me, those kinds of things are secondary to personality. I do try to put in SOME descriptions for the sake of everyone who likes that kind of thing, though. :)

Just one of my quirks as both a reader and a writer.
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Published on January 30, 2013 16:58

January 24, 2013

WEAVERS is available for Kindle and Nook!

Hi everyone!

Great news--Weavers is now available for purchase on the Kindle and on the Nook!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

Click here for the Kindle version!

Click here for the Nook version!

The print version and Smashwords version will be available soon, so stay tuned.

Hope everyone enjoys it!
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Published on January 24, 2013 17:50

January 23, 2013

Weavers Publication Updates

Hi everybody!

Today I've been doing lots of last minute things...like checking formatting and uploading files! Weavers should be available for purchase in all the usual places--Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords--in just a few days. I will let you know via this blog as well as through the new releases newsletter, so be sure to check back here or sign up for that newsletter if you're eager to get your hands on a copy.

Thank you to everyone who has messaged, emailed, or tweeted me about your excitement for Weavers. You guys mean so much to me. Seriously. You are all the best. I really hope you love the book, and I can't wait for you all to read it.
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Published on January 23, 2013 12:20

January 21, 2013

Weavers Teaser #2

Today we have another excerpt from Weavers , the newest and third book in The Frost Chronicles!



(Weavers releases reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally soon! If you want to be sure to get a copy as soon as it hits stores, sign up for my new releases newsletter here.)



Excerpt:



The boards of the Mayor’s house gleamed the color of bleached bone in the pale sunlight, and dagger-like icicles glittered along the roof. Even the footprints left by soldiers’ boots looked like ugly scars. Everything about the house felt dangerous now.I held my breath as I climbed the back steps and rapped three times on the door.A servant opened it. She regarded me with a frown. “Yes?”The password. Ann would recognize it and know I needed to see her. “I—I need to show Ann Mayor some yarn,” I said. “I’m Lia Weaver.”The girl shook her head. “I’m sorry, but she cannot see you now. You’ll have to come back.”Then she shut the door in my face.I knocked again, and this time, when the girl opened the door I pushed against it.“Hey!” She threw up an arm to block me.“I have something to tell Ann Mayor. She will be angry when she finds out that you wouldn’t—”“Let the girl in,” a voice purred, and I froze.Korr. 

There you go...another short little teaser! I'm going to have more news about the release date very soon, and good news--it's going to be earlier than I expected! So stay tuned!
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Published on January 21, 2013 00:57

January 15, 2013

Weavers Teaser #1

Today we have an excerpt from the newest and third book in The Frost Chronicles, WEAVERS!



(Weavers releases at the end of January. If you want to be sure to get a copy as soon as it hits stores, sign up for my new releases newsletter here.)

As promised, an excerpt:



It was too dark to make out the wagon tracks that crisscrossed the frozen dirt like scars on a mangled cheek, but I knew they were there because the sight of them was branded in my memory forever. Soldiers carted prisoners along this road all year long. From one such wagon, Gabe had escaped across the river and into the Frost. The wind blew against my cheeks, teasing water from my eyes.Adam’s hand brushed my shoulder—a single, light touch. A question. Was I ready? The moonlight glinted off his eyes. In response to his unspoken words, I stepped forward into the field toward the road.
I was ready.We reached the river. Here the sky loomed over us, steel gray and too big, and I shivered. I couldn’t feel safe under such a large sky after a life beneath the trees. The water glittered like ink as it glided past, smooth and unstoppable. Once this river had formed the boundary between the Frost and Aeralis, the place the Farthers would not cross. But no longer. Now they had spilled over into our land, bringing with them their oiled weapons, their crude mechanical technology, their glove-clad cruelty.Adam crouched beside the water and dug another small hole. He filled it with supplies and marked the place by drawing the Thorns symbol on the trunk of a sapling above it.I stared across the river at the road as he worked. The sense of danger I felt looking at it mingled with a sudden, intense need to stand in the place where so many others had made their escape. I turned and scanned the bank of the river.There—a fallen tree stretched across a shallow point like a bridge. I jogged down the bank and scrambled up the roots. My heart galloped. My mouth was dry. I grasped the rough bark of the tree and hauled myself up.Adam followed at my back like a shadow. I expected him to grab my arm, hiss in my ear to stop, to tell me to wait for him while he crossed alone. But he didn’t.The tree trembled as I crossed it, but it bore my weight easily. I reached the other side and jumped down. The Frost was at my back. Aeralis’ border was before me. A shiver spread over my skin. I tingled from my scalp to my fingertips. I’d never been on this side of the river.Adam landed beside me. I caught the flash of his quick smile in the blackness.“I just wanted—” I began.His voice was just a tickle in my ear. “You’ve never been across the river, have you?”The warmth of his breath against my skin made me flush. I nodded and moved away an inch. There was a tension between us now, a dance of avoided topics and guarded looks. Perhaps the unlikely attraction had always been there, lurking just beneath the surface. But since I’d almost kissed him in the barn a few weeks ago, the feelings had grown into a thrumming heat that filled every word, every look, every interaction. I didn’t know how to deal with it. He’d become woven into the fabric of my existence, mingled with the air I breathed. If I reached out, he was there. If I spoke, he answered.Yet we were separated by a gulf of unspoken feeling that neither of us would express.

Well there you have it, folks. A short little bit of a scene between Adam and Lia. Hope you enjoyed :) And before to look for Weavers in stores at the end of January!
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Published on January 15, 2013 08:56