Suze Reese's Blog, page 8

Pay it Forward and Bomb the Heck out of Variant

I want to take a second to plug a book bomb that's happening today. Yes, today, which means you need to act fast. In case you're wondering what a book bomb is, it's when everyone possible buys a book from Amazon on the same day, which drives it up in the rankings and helps with the overall success.

And why would you want to do this you may ask? Because a friend of mine, Robison Wells, has had a bit of bad luck and needs a little help from his friends. He's an author, and an awesome one. He's written several things, but just recently got his first big break with a national publishing house and a book called Variant, which is a teen mystery that I'm told appeals to young and old alike.

That all sounds great, except that unless your last name is Meyers or Rowling, odds are one book deal is not enough to support a family. Which was fine until Rob started having problems with his health, and then lost his job because of it. Which means he really needs his book to be successful. Variant has great reviews and is priced reasonably, so there's really no reason not to jump in and pay it forward. I'm on my way over to get it for my son's Christmas present.

And if you've already bought the book, today would be a good day to write that Amazon review you haven't gotten around to! Maybe a blog, twitter or Facebook post too? Cause seriously, what better way to start the holidays than to pay it forward? Buy Variant TODAY on Amazon!

YA Highway SuperPowers! Da da da daaahhh!

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered.


I came across the YA Highway last Thursday and it looked like so much fun I promptly put it on my calendar for today. I have to admit I had second thoughts when I saw this weeks topic: 


 What are your writing and publishing superpowers (drafting? beta-reading? writing queries? plotting? character creation? etc.) -- and what's your kryptonite?


I'm all about superheroes, but not bragging. Bragging would be my nemesis. And I'm fairly certain listing my superpowers falls under the bragging category. The kryptonite part of the challenge? Easy peasy. So I think I'll start there. It could be a very long list so I'll just pick the first couple that come to mind.


1. THE INTERNET - Ironically the internet is a wonderful windfall of opportunity for writers, but it is much too easy to spend ten or twenty or a million hours online for every one or two minutes of actual writing time. I try to look away, but it's a killer.


2. Commas. Don't, ask me why. I just feel, the need, to put them everywhere. Hello, my name is Suze, and I'm a comma-holic.


3. Impatience - I want my manuscript done and I want it done now. Sometimes that means blowing through scenes that should receive a little extra thought. I should actually give this comment a little more thought, but I've got things to do, so moving on...


To those superpowers. First let me show you my favorite and IMHO the most awesomest superheroes of all time: 




I bet you're slapping your head right now going, "I was all thinking of Hulk or Superman or Captain America or someone lame like that. I totally forgot about those guys!" Well don't feel bad, they're often left out of the superhero limelight. But let me illuminate you on why I love them, and I suppose why I feel connected to them.
1. Little Nemo - doesn't know, or maybe doesn't care, that he's a gimp. Or that he's a little teeny fish swimming in an ocean full of giants. He just does his thing and keeps trying.
2. Marlin - total stud superhero. I couldn't even pretend to be as awesome as him. But I guess I'll relate to his perseverance, which pretty much any author has proven if they've actually completed a novel and gotten it into publishable form. 
3. Dory - Bless her. Can't remember a minute in front or behind her, but full of compassion. What does compassion have to do with writing? Well, let's call it empathy. At the risk of sounding like I'm...bragging...I've always had an ability to empathize with what other people are going through, which I think is why I don't have much problem with developing a solid and unique point of view for each of my characters. Dory also likes to have fun in the most inappropriate places. I love throwing in a bit of humor just when things are getting tense. Plus I'm pretty much as oblivious as Dory. Which, seriously is my most incredible superpower. I get so lost in my writing that an entire day can go by in the blink of an eye. The kids get home from school and I'm blinking into the sunlight thinking, "Dang, I forgot to get dressed and eat food again today. But I swear they just left a minute ago."
So take that you big-name superheroes! I dare you to keep up with those three and their awesome abilities! http://www.yahighway.com/

Just Write It...then do it again and again and again...

For your reading pleasure, and hopefully for those curious about the upcoming paranormal romance ExtraNormal, I'm posting another in the series of questions I've received about the process of writing.

Here's the question: 3. How long did it take to write (ExtraNormal), and was it as difficult oreasy as you imagined?

ExtraNormal is my third complete novel. The first waswritten about 15 years ago, and I'm sure I would be mortified if I were to readit today. A couple of family members have asked about it recently, and were sadwhen I told them it is long gone, sitting somewhere in cyber heaven. They saidit had to have something special about it since they still remember it and thinkof it. And I guess it had some good qualities. But mostly I think it was just agood learning experience. My second novel was published under a different namein a different genre. It would probably only take a few seconds for a person tofigure it out, but I'm going not going to throw it out there. That was anexperience with several ups and many downs. Suffice it to say it was also agood learning experience.
I feel as though I found my wings with ExtraNormal. I didwork on it for about a year, (and it sat on my computer for another year). Ihave read and tweaked it more times than I like to admit. But for me a writingexperience is measured more in pleasure than difficulty. Writing is hard work,don't get me wrong. But oddly enough I enjoy writing even more than I enjoyreading (which I love). If I had my druthers the manuscript would still besitting on my hard drive. But I've been taught to share my talents, and writingtime makes me feel guilty when I don't intend to share. So in sum it probablytook longer than it should have to complete, but it was completely pleasurable.
What I want to know is how the Amanda Hockings of the world crank out a book every few days. Hopefully that will be my next parlor trick. Any tips?

Contest Contest on Bookish Delights! Did I say Contest?

Bogger Bugs caused problems over on Bookish Delights, but my Halloween guest post, along with the contest, finally made it onto their site. I'm giving away two free pre-release arcs. So if you want to get your copy of ExtraNormal before anyone else and for FREE!!! Head on over!

Inspiration: Where Do Stories Come From?

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm going to re-hash bits and pieces of interviews. Eventually I'll add the most interesting ones to my FAQ. One question I've been asked many times: How did you come up with the idea for writing the book,was there anything that inspired you?
And as a matter of fact there was a very specific inspiration. But I'm afraidit's pretty boring. I'll try to keep it lively, but snoring is perfectlyacceptable. I took about 100 years to earn my bachelor's degree—taking a classhere and there as I could afford it and had the time while raising a fairlylarge family. Eventually my adviser took pity on me and said I could go aheadand graduate—except that I absolutely had to have a general ed science class,which I had very skillfully avoided up to that point.
So for the last class of my very long college career Isigned up for the most interesting science course I could find, which happenedto be evolution. Now I know that evolution is a controversial topic, which is exactlywhat interested me—I was curious to know what is fact and what is speculation. Justto be clear I'm not making any political or religious or whatever claims aboutevolution. So don't leave me yet.
One day the professor said something to the effect that ifwe were to discover another planet with life, it would most likely not be thekind of life we see on Star Trek and such—basically humanoids with green skinor pointy ears or a hundred other variations. Because of the nature of cellreplication, life and the planet that contained it would either be almostexactly like ours or completely different.
That of course got my writer's brain off and wandering. Iimagined two worlds that were almost identical, except for their age, with theolder one discovering the newer one. The perfect recipe for life. 
But I had a problem. It might be unique to have aliens sharethe same DNA. But there's not a lot of conflict with that. I felt the racesneeded to have subtle differences to make the story interesting Fortunately,the professor had explanations for everything. When he taught us aboutGalapagos Island and how Darwin observed that some of the birds developed longbeaks to get to the only source of food, I imagined how food would make the tworaces different. And the continental divide? Yeah, total room for subtle differences.The biggest "ah ha" moment for the book was when I decided that iftheir race had embraced neuro-magnetic energy right from the beginning of time,they might have learned how to communicate on an entirely different level. Bythe end of the semester I had the story mapped out in my head. And, to top itoff, I got an A in the class, thus proving it is possible to daydream and still fake it on tests. Plus I get to come off sounding totally like a sciencegeek. Seriously, right?
So ironically the class I'd put off and dreaded for a couple of decade turned out to be more beneficial than any others to my writing career. Which sounds like there ought to be a moral. Save the best for last? Don't do it until you absolutely have to? Hmm. Not too catchy. Any suggestions? Have you had a time you've put something off only to wish you'd done it sooner? 

That Monster in your Mind

I was asked to be a guest blogger over at Bookish Delights Halloween Carnival, so I thought I'd post what I had to say here as well. (But if you're thinking of just staying here to read it, be warned that they have contests with prizes over there.)


Hey all! I'm really excited to join this Halloween carnival! What could be better than a whole holiday that celebrates zombies, vampires, witches and monsters? I thought I'd take this opportunity to chat about a monster-type topic that's a little out of the ordinary: namely mind control.Don't worry. I'm not going to make you do anything against your will. If I could do that, my kids would be eating their veggies.But the premise of mind reading and mind control is a delicious one for writers. I like to think of it like this: the creepiest part of any story is just before the bad guy arrives—when the scary music starts and a door creeks and the good guy's pulse begins to race and you know something's about to happen but you don't know what.But when mind control is involved, that monster never shows up. The hero can't stab anyone through the heart or pull a gun or even run away. Because the villain is in his head. And there's no way to fight him or even know who he is.   Mind control happens to be a major theme in ExtraNormal, where inhabitants from the planet Nreim use their own electro-magnetic energy to chat with one another in pretty much the same way we use cell phones. The problem is, we mere humans don't know what to do with someone showing up in our head to have a chat. Which means the residents of Nreim could potentially just come on in and help themselves to our puny little brains.Not that anyone would do that, would they? Yeah, of course they would, otherwise the story would be boring. And I'm in big trouble if it's boring.Anyway, Happy Halloween all. Peace, love and safe brains.Now go eat your vegetables.

Happy Halloween! Family Flick Time...What to Choose?

Top on my To Do List today is to head the video store to grab a Halloween movie for the fam before they all disappear off the shelves. While waiting for the store to open, I've been perusing possible titles.

This can't be straight horror, since tweeners and squeamish twenty-somethings are invited. (Not to mention squeamish slightly-older folks).

But we also can't do Halloween Town or the like since horror-fan twenty-somethings are also part of the group.

So is there such a thing as a Halloween movie that will please both crowds?

Following are the titles I'm considering.

1. Alfred Hitchcock movies such as: Rear Window, Psycho, & The Birds - I know, old. And corny. But you just can't get creepier. Besides, the old-time cinematics incredibly entertaining.

2. Wait until Dark - Old again. But the definition of a classic. Hepburn is the perfect combination of a vulnerable and tough heroine, and you just can't help both fear and cheer for her.

3. Signs & The Sixth Sense - My horror peeps tell me these arenb't scary enough, but they are good entertainment. And since we're trying to please both crowds it might be a good fallback.

4. Ghostbusters, Nightmare Before Christmas & Hocus Pocus - Comedies with a bit of creep that would definitely please the tweener in the group. But only the horror fans if they're in a giving mood.

5. (I'm going out on a limb with these:) Scream & Van Helsing - I've never seen either one, and they are rated as horror. But I've heard they may be campy enough to not cause psychological damage to our tweener. Any opinions? Any other ideas?

Remarkable Reads Author Interview

Here's that author interview I was talking about over at Remarkable Reads. Sandra did a great job and left me all blushing and happy.

Finding Myself and Kinda Freaking Out About It

Wow this book promotion stuff is crazy. It's like the circus part of the writing business. Writing is quiet and solitary. Promoting is busy and friendly. I guess it's good to have the balance, but I'm still adjusting.

I just got my manuscript back from my editor. She loved it, which is such a relief. She mostly just had comma issues. Since I tend, to use those, a lot, and in the wrong, places. Though my daughter is a tougher critic, and I'm still waiting on her final critique. She's not bothered by bad punctuation, but by things that don't make sense or sound lame. Which is also pretty important. So I'm happy to have them both.

But now I'm feeling the crunch. I've got to get the arc copies ready and off to those who are waiting before they lose interest. I also need to make a book trailer. And a cute little grab button. Maybe some swag. (I've got the perfect thing--twine friendship bracelets. It'll make awesome sense after you read the book.) And last night I had an idea for a couple of video blogs. And a whole new series that I'd like to draft before I forget...

As you can see I'm having a hard time focusing. But it's not just because there's so much to do. It's more because I know I'm being watched. And to keep it with a Halloween theme, it's kind of freaking me out.

Now please don't misunderstand. I love readers. And reviewers. I love feedback, even if it's negative. What I don't love is attention. I think it's one of the great ironies of being a writer--you have to have the kind of personality that doesn't mind sitting unnoticed and all by yourself for hours and days and even months at a time. But in order to have your stuff read you have to wave your arms around and say "Hey look at me! I'm totally awesome!" I suppose there are some authors who don't mind that so much, but I think for most of us it's kind of painful.

And frankly since I'm starting from scratch with ExtraNormal (I'll be explaining that in an upcoming post, so stay tuned) I feel like I've got to wave my arms real hard. I mean, I have like a half-dozen followers on my new blog. I've tried to get the followers on the other blog to make the leap, but they're not YA followers, so it's okay, I understand. But because of my low friend/fan/follower numbers I've been feeling pretty anonymous. Just me and my book in the back of a very crowded room. Which is just fine with me.

But that was before I noticed that I'm being noticed. First it was GoodReads. (Love, love, love GoodReads by the way.) A week or so ago GoodReaders started adding ExtraNormal to their shelves left and right. After that Google Alerts starting going off like crazy. Lists, recommendations. Ones that total strangers who just love the cover and the concept were making. Totally awesome. And freaky.

So I've spent most of my morning (which as you remember was supposed to be spent working on my manuscript), tracking down all the mentions I've had in the last week or so.

First I ought to do a plug for Bookish Delights, who have invited me to be a guest blogger as part of their All Hallows Eve carnival. They've got contests and prizes, so make sure you check it out!


But then there's all these other lists made up by people who are excited to read ExtraNormal. Which makes me so happy. But also, like I said, a little freaked. Because I feel like I'm moving up to the front of the room where people will notice what I do. Yes, I know. You're shaking your head and saying, "That is the point of promotion Suze, get over it." I do realize that. Really. And I'm really glad people are finding me without me having to go out and brag myself up. But it's stll not quite as cozy as anonymous.

I may have missed some. But here's the general idea:

http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/2011/10/tantalizing-future-ya-releases-im-so.html

http://www.teensreadandwrite.com/2011/10/waiting-on-wednesday-5-hot-upcoming-ya.html


http://www.missiontoread.com/2011/10/read-thon-mini-challenges.html


http://bookshelfsophisticate.blogspot.com/


http://starmetaloak.blogspot.com/2011/10/waiting-on-wednesday-extranormal-by.html


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.232521320127352.53426.108905649155587&type=3


http://reading2alba.tumblr.com/


http://besosdeunangel.blogspot.com/2011/10/extranormal-suze-reese.html


http://www.bloglovin.com/el/blog/2434183/juvenil-fyr-literatura-juvenil-y-desva#

Amazing, isn't it?

Author Interview Part One: Suze Reese & ExtraNormal

I've been finding myself and ExtraNormal all over the web, which is both exciting and a little nerve-racking. Since all this media hopping is keeping me hopping, I'm thinking maybe I'll be allowed a little cheat. I just gave an interview to Remarkable Reads, and thought I'd post bits and pieces of it here while we're waiting for the full interview. Here's question number one (the basic one): 
1. What can you tell us about your book ExtraNormal?Someone recently referred to ExtraNormal as genre bending,which I kind of like. I generally call it YA paranormal romance, but it also haselements of science fiction, adventure, and even humor. And romance. I think Isaid that already but that's importance enough to say twice.
Mira Johns is from the planet Nreim, visiting thenewly-discovered planet Earth as the first-ever representative of the student emissaryprogram. She's supposed to just blend in and observe. Her trainer tells herthat her mediocrity is her best quality for the assignment, which doesn'texactly boost her confidence. She has hundreds of rules to follow, most of whichinvolve various ways of saying she should stay away from males. She assumesthat will be easy, since their primitive pheromones are nauseating. But thereare two boys that make the rules pretty much impossible to follow—one becauseof his cruelty and the other because of his intrigue. The romance with thesecond complicates her life in ways she'd never imagined. Eventually sherealizes the awful truth that the two of them may not survive separation, yet couldvery well be terminated if their relationship is revealed. It also becomesclear that Mira was selected for the assignment for a reason, and that it ismore than a simple sight-seeing trip. The end is a fast-paced and complex rushto discover the source of threats against Mira's friends, and figure out the reasonshe was selected, all while keeping her romance a secret.
There many more questions, so stay tuned until the full interview shows up on Remarkable Reads!