Rachele Alpine's Blog, page 8

KidLit Cares: Auction for Hurricane Sandy

The writing community is amazing.  They organized a huge auction to help victims of Hurricane Sandy just days after she hit.  The auction was such a success, that they've added another round.  And up for bid?  A 30 page manuscript critique by me!

You should check it out and all the other great items you can bid on!

I love the blog Cup of Jo, and on her Facebook page, she posted this incredible picture her brother took from the top of the Empire State Building after Sandy had hit.  Half of the city had power, the other half was without.

A Little Bit About Me

The wonderful Allison from Allison Writes interviewed me yesterday!  Check out her interview here and then stay for awhile...her blog rocks!

Character Names

How do you come up with your characters' names?

Do you have a secret method?  Or does the name just come to you?

My husband is the driving force behind all of my characters names.

How?

I have a bunch of names that I love, love, love, but my husband's love, not so much.  So all of the names that he's vetoed for future kids' names, have become the names of my main characters!

Such as:

Haddie (Operation Pucker Up)

Rhylee  (Back to the Start)

Jack (Canary)

Tessa  (Back to the Start)

Beck  (Operation Pucker Up)

Don't worry...my husband and my taste in names clash a lot, so I have a bunch more names saved up for future characters!

I'd love to hear where you get your names from!

Bookmarks!!!

The bookmarks are here!  The bookmarks are here!


And they are so so pretty!



So who wants one?  I'm giving five prize packs away (each will include a few bookmarks...one for you, and some to give away to friends!).
All you need to do is fill out the form below.  The contest runs until midnight on Wednesday.  So what are you waiting for!?!  Go enter!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stay Safe

If you're in the course of Hurricane Sandy, please stay safe!

We're supposed to get very high winds, flooding rains, and super high waves up here in Cleveland.   I'm hoping the power doesn't go out (which I don't think is the same wish as my students!).

Weather like this translates into cozying up with some hot coffee, a fire, a snuggly pup, and a good book!

Literary Tattoos

There is a rumor that seems to have been going around my school for the last two years.  Once it gets cold outside, I wear tights pretty often.  As in, almost every day.  I think it's the private school education in me...I'm used to uniform skirts with tights!  Whatever the reason is, my students seem to think that I wear tights because I'm trying to cover up all my tattoos.

No really.  A bunch of them "got up the nerve" and asked me about it last year.  And now that I've brought them out again this year, the rumors are swirling again.  Never mind the fact that I do come to school with bare legs in August/September.  The kids claim this isn't true and everyone loves a good rumor, so the next time they asked me I told them I did have tattoos.

Five to be exact:

*A stack of books on my leg

*A heart on my bicep that has the word "books" in the middle of it

*A tattoo on my lower back that says, "I love to read"

*A tattoo that goes down my side that says, "Too many books, so little time"

*And my personal favorite, a big huge spine of a book going all the way down my spine.  The book is then open across either side of my entire back

I tell them about these tattoos with a straight face whenever they ask.

The truth is, I'm too much of a wimp with needles to get a tattoo, but if I ever did, I'd totally get the last lines of The Great Gatsby somewhere on me or CANARY's ISBN number.

What about you?  Do you have any tattoos?  Are there any you would want?

Here's a site of some good literary tattoos.

And a site of some crazy Twillight tattos!

2013 Debut Author Challenge

I know we still have a few months before 2013 starts, but the 2013 Debut Author Challenge is ready to go!

Have you ever done it before?  It's a great way to discover some new books and challenge yourself!  And there are some great books on the list (cough, cough...CANARY!).

Sign-up and read about it here.


You can check out some of them here and here!  I'd love to know...what 2013 debut books are you looking forward to?

Repost: Companions for Heroes and a Critique

*I'm posting this one more time because today is the last day to enter, and I really think Cassandra is doing a great thing helping both servicemen and shelter dogs (and writers...with a critique!).  Visit her blog right now and make sure you enter!*

As many of you know, I like...uhm...love...uhm...okay, okay, I am obsessed with dogs!
The wonderful Cassandra Marshall is having a contest where she will donate up to $1,000 dollars to a program called Companions for Heroes.  The organization rescues shelter dogs, trains, and then pairs them up with veterans suffering from PTSD.  How amazing is that?

But she's not just donating to that organization, she's also giving away a critique.  I've been a fan of her blog for over a year...she offers great writing advice.

If you have a moment, check it out!

Week 19: The Next Big Thing

I was asked by fellow Lucky 13s member, Liz Coley, to participate in The Next Big Thing.  

The rules are simple...I talk about my WIP progress and then tag five (or a few more in my case) people who will talk about their WIP next week!  Sounds fun, right?

Let's get started, shall we?

What is the working title of your book?

BACK TO THE START

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea started from a short story that I wrote for my MFA program.  It was about 30 pages long and it pretty much wrote itself.  I was seriously a woman on fire when I was writing!  I workshopped it with my class, but I couldn't get the characters out of my head.  That's when I realized that this short story wasn't a short story at all, but a novel waiting to be told.

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary YA (my favorite!) with a few touches of magical realism
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I always have a hard time with questions like this, because I never have actors in my mind when I'm writing.  I kind of just "see" my characters.  Ugh!  Next question, please!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Okay, I'm cheating here...I stink at the one sentence elevator pitch.  How about a few more?
When Rhylee’s sister goes missing, Rhylee sees the loss as a way to step outside of her old life-one overshadowed by her big sister- and begin anew.  A life, she tells herself, she’s living to keep her sister’s memory alive.  But as she starts to change, Rhylee questions whether she wants to remember her sister or become her.   

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I'm represented by John Rudolph at Dystel and Goderich.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took about a year to have a pretty strong first draft.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Nova Ren Suma's IMAGINARY GIRLSKat Rosenfield's AMELIA ANNE IS DEAD AND GONEJohn Green's LOOKING FOR ALASKAAryn Kyle's THE GOD OF ANIMALS

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I have a certain setlist of songs that I write to when working on this book.  They are my biggest inspiration right now:Coldplay "Back to the Start"Mumford and Sons "Below My Feet"Snow Patrol  "Chasing Cars"Snow Patrol  "Run"The Swell Season  "In These Arms"
I have these five songs on a playlist and just run it over and over again while I write.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The book starts with the first line, "The first time I betrayed my sister was two weeks before she disappeared."
I can't wait to share this book with all of you; I'm very much in love with it (fingers crossed it gets sold!). 
You can read all about Liz Coley's WIP here and make sure to visit the following blogs next Wednesday to see what other people are working on:
Amber June
Elle LaMarcaBreeann CampbellAlisia LeavittBeth FredBeth Pond
Rose

The Pup In The Mirror

"She's looking at the pup in the mirror.  She's asking if she'll change her ways..."

Hope you're having a great weekend!  It's cold here, so I've been snuggling with this fur ball!
Remember...there is still time to enter Cassandra Marshall's critique giveaway.  She's donating a dollar for every entry to an amazing program that pairs pound dogs with veterans.  Love it!