Rachele Alpine's Blog, page 9

DFTBA: Nerds Rule!

My new glasses have arrived and they are even bigger and clunkier than before!  Woo-hoo!  
I totally believe that when I put them on, magic writing superpowers ensue!  
Nerds Rule!  DFTBA!

Happy Book Birthday! Colleen Clayton's WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

Today, fellow NEOMFA alum, Colleen Clayton's amazing book, What Happens Next, hits the book shelves!  I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, and I'm so excited that she gets to finally share it with all of you today.


Here's the Goodreads' summary:

How can you talk about something you can’t remember?

Before the ski trip, sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy was a cheerleader (at the bottom of the pyramid, but still...), a straight-A student, and a member of a solid trio of best friends. When she ends up on a ski lift next to handsome local college boy, Dax Windsor, she’s thrilled; but Dax takes everything from Sid—including a lock of her perfect red curls—and she can’t remember any of it.

Back home and unable to relate to her old friends, Sid drops her college prep classes and takes up residence in the A/V room with only Corey “The Living Stoner” Livingston for company. But as she gets to know Corey (slacker, baker, total dreamboat), Sid finds someone who truly makes her happy. Now, if she can just shake the nightmares and those few extra pounds, everything will be perfect... or so she thinks.

And the review I wrote for it on Goodreads:

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of WHAT HAPPENS NEXT as part of an interview I’ll do of Colleen and the book for The Lucky 13s Debut 2013 Author blog. I am so excited that I got to read this book now instead of waiting until October (but trust me, it’s worth the wait). It’s one of my favorite reads in a long time, and I read a lot as a high school English teacher. A real lot! I pretty much eat, sleep and breath YA literature. It takes a lot for a book not only to grab my attention but for me to want to flag it as a multiple order for my school and classroom library. This is one of those books. It’s a book that I’ll make a point of pushing it into the hands of as many of my students as I can. The book is powerful, the writing is beautiful and Sid is one of the best characters I’ve met in a long time. It is a story that is important for teenagers to read, and one that I think will speak to them.

One of my favorite things about this book is the character of Sid. Because the thing is, unlike a lot of characters facing tragic events in YA literature, Sid is broken by a rape she doesn’t remember, but she doesn’t let it break her. She’s such a strong character and you understand why she’s dealing with the rape the way she is (even though I wanted to shout at her many many times to tell someone, I understood why she didn’t…why she couldn’t). I also love love love that she comes from a family that loves her. Her mom is a part of her life, her little brother adores her and Sid feels the same way back toward the two of them. It’s good to see a book with a strong family relationship, because it shows readers that bad things can happen to anyone, and even if you come from a family who loves and supports you, it still isn’t always easy to tell the truth. The story also has a sweet love story, Colleen Clayton’s sense of place transports you right to this town, and the antagonists are real. Oh…the antagonists. I totally bought how Sid fell prey to her Dax and the cheerleaders in this book are so so awful. But again, it speaks so truthful to high school and I think it’s in that honesty that teens will relate and connect to Sid’s journey.

There are novels out there that as a teacher, I MUST get into the hands of students. This is one of those important books.

And if you still can't get enough...an interview I did of Colleen for The Lucky 13s on our blog!

What are you waiting for?????  Go buy What Happens Next...you'll love it!

Companions for Heroes and a Critique

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!

My First TV Interview!

I was interviewed by my high school's Video Production class!  How fun is that?  It aired during our weekly announcements.

I love you all, so I will share this very awkward and long winded interview about CANARY.  I think I need to figure out how to shorten my elevator's pitch...yikes!  I can sure go on and on with my answers (and what's up with the Joey Potter expressions?!?).

Don't you love the books behind me!?!   ; )  I may have strategically placed some of my favorites around me for moral support!

Click to 2:40 to see me interview about CANARY...

What Are You Waiting For?

Today is the last day to enter to win an advance reader's copy of CANARY at Iceybooks.com to celebrate my cover reveal!

I was lucky enough to get my marketing department to promise an ARC for this contest.  They don't come out until April, and I don't know how many more I'll get.  If you can't wait to read CANARY and want the chance to read it sooner, you should totally click here to enter right now!  Quick!  The contest ends at midnight!

The Making Of A Book Cover

I'm overwhelmed by the cover love for CANARY.  It's been crazy to find my cover show up on blogs and in tweets.  I'm glad you're all digging it as much as I do.


The cover process was one that both excited me and made me nervous as heck.  A cover can sometimes make or break your book (even though we all like to believe the saying that you can't judge a book by its cover).  I knew the day was coming close when I would get a copy of my cover, and anytime I got an e-mail from my publisher, I'd approach it with a bit of trepidation.  Crazy, right?

I didn't have any say in my cover, but I was able to give a little bit of feedback.

Do you want to hear about it?

My input all took place in a sheet I got from my publisher called PPTS (Pre-Pubbed Title Sheet).  It was over twenty pages long and contained questions about everything you could think of in terms of marketing my book (I promise to do another post on this in the future...some of the information is really interesting!).  There was a section in the packet that asked me specifics about my cover.  Questions such as (with my responses):

Height, weight, hair/eye color of my main character:

Kate:  Brown hair (long enough to pull into a ponytail)

Jack:  His eyes are a greenish-blue…kind of like looking at earth from space.

Personality descriptions:

Kate:  She’s going through some tough times for a lot of the story…she misses her mom and feels alone during most of the story because her Dad can’t/won’t connect with her and her brother has enlisted into the Army (which scares her).  She wants to find a connection to people, but has a hard time doing that because she doesn’t want to compromise herself. 

Jack:  A bit cocky because he’s a star athlete and feels he gets privileges, but he’s also a good guy…he respects Kate and her father (the coach)

Movie stars that I could compare my characters to:

Kate: Ellen Page, Willa Holland, Molly Ephraim, Ashley Rickards

Jack: Chord Overstreet, Chad Michael Murray

Clothing and outstanding physical features or items:

Kate:  She's current with the trends, but not too trendy…jeans (maybe skinny jeans), ballet flats…I picture her shopping at Old Navy or American Eagle.  She also wears a navy blue uniform skirt with white blouse at school.

Jack:  I picture him in typical preppy type clothes (Hollister, American Eagle), I reference him wearing jeans with Converse sneakers, a hooded sweatshirt.  He wears navy blue or khaki dress pants, white dress shirt and tie as part of his school uniform.  His basketball uniform is maroon and canary yellow.

Main locations where my book took place and important scenes:

*The state of Indiana

*Basketball court (Kate’s dad is coach and her boyfriend plays on the team)

*Beacon Prep School (old brick school)

*Swimming pool at night (Kate often swims laps at night, her mom swam at night when she was sick)

Issues:

*The main character fights off a sex assault (after being slipped a date rape drug) by a player on the basketball team.  She finds the courage to speak up about it, but her dad silences her in order to protect the basketball team. She must decide whether to say something or not.

*The main character has lost her mom and feels like her dad has shut himself down and won’t talk to her and her brother.  She feels like she’s alone with no one to talk to.

*The main character is pulled into the world of privilege and perks given to the basketball players at her school.  The players are basically treated like gods and can do no wrong (they get away with everything).
Important Colors: 

Maroon and canary yellow (the basketball team’s colors)
I also attached pictures of what I thought my characters looked like, pictures that evoked the mood of the piece, and covers that I liked.  
My cover artist, Michal Wlos, created the whole cover with original artwork.  I sure do love it (especially the part with my name on it!).  The symbolism in the cover is amazing, and I can't wait for people to read the book and connect to all the little details that he included.  Hot diggity dog!
If you haven't entered to win an advance copy of my book (the first that's being given away), jump on over to IceyBooks and enter.  You have until Friday at midnight!

Just Pin It

Do you use Pinterest?

I've been obsessed with it for about half a year now (2,403 pins and counting!).  One of my favorite things to do is to create inspiration boards for my books.

Check out the following:

CANARY Inspiration

OPERATION PUCKER UP Inspiration (my MG novel that my agent has right now!)

CIRCLES Inspiration (my YA novel that I am revising)

Can you guess what my books are about just from the boards?

I also have two general writing boards:

General Writing Inspiration

Awesome Book Items/Quotes

And while you're at it...check out the covers that have been released so far for The Lucky 13s (2013 Debut Authors)

If you use Pinterest, I'd love to follow you!  Leave you link in the comments box.

Winner! Winner!

Congrats to Reyes S who has won the advance copy of Tiffany Schmidt's SEND ME A SIGN!

Woo-hoo!

But...you can all be winners by helping Tiffany do a very good thing.  She's donating a dollar for every book that is pre-ordered in September to two important cancer charities.  It is in remembrance of a former student she had who passed away from cancer.


Tiffany writes about her student, 
In her memory, I’ll be donating $1 to two cancer charities for each person who sends me proof that they’ve pre-ordered a copy of SEND ME A SIGN during the month of September.
You can read the story here and find out how to help donate by purchasing an advance copy of her book.
This is a great book, so why not make sure you have your copy now and do a good thing?

Interviews Galore!

You know you've made it big when you've been interviewed by your school's journalism class!

Check out this interview that one of my former students did for our school website.  Of all the interviews I've done so far, this one is my favorite.  There's nothing cooler than having one of your students ask the questions (btw...he's a pretty talented fiction writer too!).

And if you're in the mood to read another interview, the wonderful Hilary Graham (author of REUNITED) has a blog post about me up today.  Check it out here!

*In case you're confused, I go by my married last name now (Mielke), but I'm publishing under my maiden name (Alpine).

SEND ME A SIGN: Advance Copy Giveaway

I was lucky enough to get an advance reader's copy of Tiffany Schmidt's book SEND ME A SIGN.  I plan to buy a few copies for my classroom when it comes out in October, so I'd love to pass mine on my ARC to one lucky reader.


Here's the Goodreads' summary:
Mia is always looking for signs. A sign that she should get serious with her soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that she’ll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. One sign she didn’t expect to look for was: “Will I survive cancer?” It’s a question her friends would never understand, prompting Mia to keep her illness a secret. The only one who knows is her lifelong best friend, Gyver, who is poised to be so much more. Mia is determined to survive, but when you have so much going your way, there is so much more to lose. From debut author Tiffany Schmidt comes a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story of one girl’s search for signs of life in the face of death.

This contest is a quick...it will close Friday night at midnight (so I can put the book in the mail right away).  Good luck!  You will love this book!
And if you are feeling lucky, you still have time to enter to win an advance copy of my book CANARY!  
a Rafflecopter giveaway