S.M. Boyce's Blog: My Journal, page 44

Guest Post by Emerald Barnes

Today, the lovely Emerald Barnes is stopping by as a part of her blog tour for her new novel, Read Me Dead. She's a sweetheart, so I'm sure you'll love her. Enjoy!

 

First of all, thank you, S.M., for hosting me today! Secondly, let's talk about YA fiction!

YA literature has taken the world by storm lately, which makes me happy being a YA author, you know. Back when I began writing, YA wasn't as big as it is now. I remember thinking that I wanted to write for young adults, but when I started my first book, the genre wasn't as popular. I honestly didn't believe that people would read about my young characters and their stories.

But that didn't stop me from writing them. I've been working on my upcoming novel, Read Me Dead, for years. It started as a dream, as so many of my novels do. A dream about this young girl having revealed a secret at a football game with her friends that was overheard and then someone trying to kill her for revealing that secret.

I spent many years trying to get the right story out. To tell the right story with the right characters. (Trust me when I say, no one wants to read those first drafts!) Finally, two years ago, I sat down and plotted out The Article as it was wittily called then. I wanted there to be a suspense/thriller with some romance dabbled into it. But, the romance took a big turn and become a lot of the focus of the story. I was surprised at that actually. It wasn't supposed to be that way originally because I'm a suspense/thriller author (or so I thought at the time). But, as it turns out, you can write both. Duh, you say.

Which isn't all that bad. Most YA novels do have romance aspects in them. There are a lot of love triangles and wanting that guy or girl you just can't have. Think about it, isn't that what we think of during out adolescent years? We love the idea of love triangles or that guy or girl we've crushed on and can't have finally falling in love with us.

Think about some of the more popular YA books out there. Take The Hunger Games for instance. If you've read the trilogy, you know that although the main focus is on Katniss and the Capitol, you also know that the undercurrent is of who she will choose, Peeta or Gale.

In Divergent by Veronica Roth, the main focus isn't just on the factions and Tris. It's about Tris and Four as well.

The examples could go on for miles, but I'll stop now.

I love the romance aspect of a YA book! I love yelling at the characters for making some stupid mistake when it comes to love. I love the whole feeling of first love from the eyes of another character! That's why when I wrote Read Me Dead I put in a love triangle! I wanted to put my character, Alexia, through the ringer of having to choose between to dudes she really cares about. I wanted her to suffer! (Come on, it makes for good reading and you know it!) Okay, maybe I didn't want her to suffer, but I wanted her to make a huge decision, and trust me, it was hard for us all!

Do you write YA fiction? Are you an avid YA reader? How do you feel about the romantic aspect in YA literature?

Leave me a comment about it, and two of you could win a free advanced digital copy of my novel, Read Me Dead!

 

Follow Emerald:

Twitter

Facebook

Like her Facebook page for a chance to win a prize pack giveaway! More details to come.

Blog

Website

Read Me Dead Tour Page

 

Win Your Copy

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Monkey Bars Review

I found a great new site. It's called Monkey Bars.

It's a distributor of indie content, and not just books: you can buy videos, music, books, and artwork. It's all digital, of course, but there's a fun tweak that makes this site unique from any other distributor I've seen so far.

You can make money for recommending the things you like.

Yep.

Here's how it works:

Sign up and set up your account.
Add friends (add me!)
Browse for items you like. Share them via facebook, twitter, what have you…the more you get your link out there, the better your chances of making money.
When someone clicks on your link and buys the product, you get "rewards"…i.e. a portion of the product price.
Repeat steps 2-5.

So the basic premise is that authors set the award price for their work as a percentage of the total price. My book Lichgates is set at an award of 30%, which is the same royalty I pay Amazon for ever book sold. But here, that money goes to you as a thank you for sharing my work. This way, both the author and the reader win.

Of course, Monkey Bars has to make money somehow, and they do. The site is free to use, but you can upgrade to paid subscriptions for higher rewards, more perks, and other funsies. They leave the basic principle alone, though, so you don't have to pay them to make money off the site. It's really innovative, and I love it.

The downside is that this is still beta. There are bugs. I tried to upload a new cover for the book, and it gave me an error. I tried changing my password, and it gave me an error. I'm banking on them fixing these bugs, though, and soon.

So make sure you check out this site. I think it's going to quickly surpass Smashwords as a method for buying indie work. Be sure to add me as a friend on Monkey Bars once you join, and please stop by the Lichgates page to comment on and rate my book. Thanks!

Book Review: Night Glimmer by Stephen Weagraff

The Short Version

Night Glimmer is an interesting take on the vampire world. It takes the myths of witches, vampires, and werewolves, but gives us insight into the origins and everyday lives of the beings in this society. There were moments of excellent description, beautiful images (I will forever remember the butterfly on the window), and a lot of cute humor. While bits got a tad cliche, I liked the read. I do, however, hope I have an older version and that the editing errors have since been fixed.

 

The Details

I got a review copy back in January — I'm so sorry for being so slow to review it, I'm usually better about this :/ — and I noticed that there are 2 editions to this book. I'm not sure if I got the older copy of the novel, but there were tons of typos. Sometimes there were wrong words, sometimes duplicate words, sometimes punctuation errors (a period and then a comma), but it was very distracting and often kicked me from the story. That could be just my issue, since there have been reviews already and no one else commented. If I have the older copy, my concerns with editing might be outdated, but I can only review on what I received.

The story itself had an intriguing start, though the sudden (and only) shift from third to first perspective caught me very off-guard. After this shift, though, we stay in the first person and aren't throttled out again.

We know from the beginning that our MC is special, and that's great. We see his struggle with who and what he is, as well as the constant battle he has to find an internal balance with himself. That was lovely. I remember thinking that bits were cliche, but can't recall them now. They were smaller details, mostly about the vampire culture and being turned. Must not be that important if I can't recall them.

The story builds well overall, though it does slow down a bit about 2/3 of the way. Then it picks up, though, and we're off again. The climax was well done; though some of the villain's dialogue seemed forced, the rest I enjoyed. The resolution was impressive, and the secrets revealed well.

The last paragraph, though, annoyed me. I can appreciate a good cliffhanger, but there's a difference between a cliffhanger and a metaphorical snowball to the reader's face. No one's going to smile and say, "how clever! Throw another one at me!" as the snow melts and drips down their neck. I felt like it was thrown in the last few lines and I needed more development for me to understand the reasoning behind what happened (Sorry I'm being so vague. I'm trying to avoid spoilers). Maybe this is just me. It was a neat development, but I needed to know the reason behind it to believe it.

I was annoyed, too, that the women didn't play as much a role as the men did in the trials that built to the climax…especially since the women were as bad ass as the men (mostly). They seemed like cheerleaders, standing in the background except for a rare occasion or two when the men had no clue. It really got to me that they took such a backseat.

I couldn't do this paragraph without spoilers, so screw being vague.
That said, Tess & Aidan's banter was almost always adorable. While the love between them seemed to grow too quickly for me to believe, they didn't waiver in it. It was wonderful to see their love grow, and I really liked that he gave her a choice to be in his world. That was really refreshing and it was a big "FINALLY!" moment for me that the MC let the love interest actually have a say in whether or not she wanted to be in the action, rather than just "protecting" her the whole time. Loved that.

I think readers who adore vampire fiction will really like this book. There's a fun set of trials which lead to the climax, a lot of action, lovers' banter, and crazy snowboarding flips. Check it out if that sounds up your alley.

Get Your Copy:

Amazon (US) | Barnes & Noble

 

Book Review: Leftovers by Arthur Wooten

Rating

4 Stars

 

The Short Version

Leftovers is a book about making mistakes and getting second chances. Though it was a bit predictable at times and a little slow in the beginning, the novel had me rooting for the heroine in the end. Fans of literary or historical fiction will probably really enjoy this novel, since the book covers everything from the role of women in the 50's to the start of McDonald's. I don't usually read this genre, but it was a pretty good read.

 

The Details

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So when Wooten sent me an ARC of Leftovers, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting a novel for adults. My last and only read of his was Wise Bear William, which for some reason had me thinking that this would be another children's book.

….nooooooooo.

Leftovers is about picking yourself up by your bootstraps when absolutely everything in your life has crumbled to bits. It's a real success story, complete with cuss words and near-death experiences. Even though I wasn't ready for that, I still enjoyed the read.

Here's the blurb:

Vivian Lawson's fantasy of being the perfect 1950s suburban housewife is shattered when an uncontrollable event changes her life forever.

Destitute and left to fend for herself in a man's world, she searches her New England town unable to find a job. With nowhere to turn, Vivian takes the advice of her wisecracking best friend, Babs, and reluctantly becomes a Tupperware lady.

Vivian struggles with low self-esteem as well as stage fright but with the support of Bab's lovesick brother, Stew, and the creator of Tupperware's Home Party Plan system, Brownie Wise, she may just find the strength to conquer her inner demons and take control of her life.

A story of empowerment, Leftovers is a delectable romantic dramedy with an inspirational journey that reveals to us what can be achieved by using one's guts, determination and a little bit of a self-deprecating humor.

Keep in mind that this is literary/contemporary fiction (depending on your camp and branding style, either term applies). I'm a fan of wizardry and magic and full moons, so this isn't my usual read. I think I didn't enjoy it as much as the book really deserved because of that. So keep that in mind as you read through the review.

Hmm. That came out more ominously than I intended.

The story itself was inspiring. I was rooting for Vivian, and each time she grew as a person, I smiled. There are a lot of lessons here, and a lot of good morals.

That said, it was a bit cookie cutter in parts. I don't want to give anything away, but the ending was pretty much what I expected would happen. It was a very neat bow. I used to be of the "I want a perfectly trimmed ending" camp, but that has changed in recent years. Still, it was by no means bad…just predictable.  That might be a staple of this genre; I don't know.

The story often wandered into what *I* thought were excessive details about clothing or hairstyles. Maybe I'm the odd chick out, but I couldn't care less what characters are wearing most of the time. I barely care what I'm wearing, though. I mean, you want to know that they're wearing clothes, but I didn't need that level of detail. Other people might love that.

The story is written in 3rd person omniscient. At first, I thought it would follow the vein of Terry Pritchett's Mort, and while it did settle out towards the end, it was a bit confusing and shaky at first. The scenes would switch between characters without a real break or indication of a change, and I had to reread passages a few times in the beginning to figure out what was going on and where I was.

For instance, there's one moment where two characters are talking on the phone. In this scene, we switch between characters within just a couple of paragraphs, learning of their environments and background conversations without a momentary pause in between. That kicked me from the narrative because, with the omniscience, I actually lost track of where I was completely.

Wooten's narrative becomes smoother as the book goes on, though, so either he polished it out or I got used to it. Either way, I stopped thinking about it a third of the way through.

I won't make any comment on editing because Wooten told me that he was still polishing the final draft of the novel while I was reading my ARC. (Sorry about it being in the rating above. My theme will not let me delete it.)

All in all, I think you'll enjoy Leftovers if you read a lot of literary or historical fiction, or if you have an affinity for the fifties. It's a real story about not giving up, and I like rooting for the underdog.

Grab Your Copy:

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | CreateSpace

Win Your Copy:

Wooten was kind enough to let me giveaway the ARC as part of this review, so enter below for your chance to win.

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Pre-Sale for the Real-Life Grimoire Pendant!

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I've had an outpouring of amazing readers who want me to bring the Grimoire pendant to life. I had mine made from scratch before I finished the first novel in the trilogy, to remind myself to never give up on my dreams. You can see the original over there ——>

What's absolutely amazing is that now, I can bring you your own! What's even cooler is that I can bring you two different kinds.

The pendants I'm having made for you are modeled after the original, complete with interwoven crescent moons. The detail, from what I've been told, is almost identical. It will be a pewter pendant coated in a thick layer of lightly antiqued silver to give it the proper sheen, and a Swarovski crystal will sit in the center.

Now here's the fun part. In the Grimoire Trilogy, the pendant glows blue whenever the Grimoire is hiding within it. So I'm going to offer you two different pendants: one with a clear Swarovski crystal, and one with a rich blue Swarovski crystal. That way, you can switch them out when you want to take the Grimoire with you!

Did anyone just geek out with me? I had a little happy-fit when I came up with that. If you want both, I've bundled them together to save you some dough.

For those of you who want the print edition of Lichgates as well, I've included a couple bundles where you can get a signed copy with your pendant, all delivered at once. I aim to please. Fun note: if you buy the bundle with the print edition of Lichgates, I will also add a Grimoire bling prize pack for FREE (Grimoire symbol temporary tattoos, book-themed wristbands, and even a bookmark with original artwork).

 

How to pre-order yours:

So here's the fun part: the pre-sale. Here are the details:

They will be ready in early June 2012.
Shipping is FREE on all USA purchases.  I have to charge more for international shipping. Sorry.
Shipping is sent via USPS Priority Flat Rate envelopes for domestic buyers.
FREE Grimoire bling packs will be included if you buy the bundle with a signed print edition (see below).
Payments are taken through PayPal. (If you don't have an account, you can enter your card information without having to sign up. It's completely safe and my trusted way to buy and sell things online.)


Ordering the pendant is easy. There are just a few steps. In step 1, you pick your pendant/bundle. In step 2, you pick the length of chain that you want. Step 3 is choosing your shipping location. Step 4 is an easy and fast check out. See? Easy as pie! Get going!

 

Step 1: Pick Your Pendant

Note: clicking "Add to Cart" will open a new window with your PayPal cart. Leaving it open is easiest. Just click back to this page after it opens to choose your pendant style in Step 2 below.

 

The Pendant Bundle

Get both pendants!
$49





The Grimoire Pendant

(Clear Stone)
$29





The Grimoire Pendant

(Blue Stone)
$29







The Pendant/Book Bundle

Get both pendants

PLUS

a signed copy of Lichgates

and a FREE set of bling!
$59





The Grimoire Pendant

(Clear Stone)

PLUS

a signed copy of Lichgates

and a FREE set of bling!
$45





The Grimoire Pendant

(Blue Stone)

PLUS

a signed copy of Lichgates

and a FREE set of bling!
$45

 

Step 2: Pick Your Chain Length

Only pick as many chains as you buy pendants. I'm not selling these chains individually & will refund any extra chains in the order.

16″ Chain

Sterling Silver

Box Chain

Included

(default)

 

18″ Chain

Sterling Silver

Box Chain

Add $2






20″ Chain

Sterling Silver

Box Chain

Add $3






22″ Chain

Sterling Silver

Box Chain

Add $4








 
Step 3: Pick Shipping

Where am I shipping this?

USA
FREE

(Included)

 

Canada, Europe, Mexico
Add $5









Ship to India
Add $9









Shipping to any

Other Country
Add $12











 
Step 4: Check Out

You're all set! Go ahead and check out from PayPal. They'll send me your order, and I'll notify you when your bundle ships. Thank you for your interest in this! Let me know if you have any questions. You rock.

The Grimoire Symbol Temp Tattoo Contest!

The Grimoire Symbol Tattoo Contest!

The Challenge:

Wear one or more of the included Grimoire Symbol temporary tattoos and take the winning picture for one of the following categories:

Funniest
Most Original
Most Grimoire-Obsessed 


The Prizes:

One winner will be chosen for each category. Each of these winners gets a signed print edition of Lichgates!

How to Enter:

Win your temporary Grimoire Tattoos in the bajillions of contests and giveaways I host all the time. I'll be playing a boatload of games on Twitter, so keep an eye out for Twitter Hangman, word scrambles and more. Winners get their choice of prizes, including these tattoos!

Email your submission (one per person for each category) and submit it to GrimoireContest[at]gmail.com.

The semi-finalists will be posted on July 1, 2012 here. Check back to vote on the winners after that! Category winners announced Sept. 1, 2012.

Blog Tour Recap: The Character Interviews

Hey Grimoire fans! For those of you who missed the Hidden World Blog Tour, I wanted to share the character interviews again.

There were 3 character interviews: one with Kara Magari, another with Braeden Drakonin, and a third with Deirdre. Check them out at these blogs!

Kara: J. Scott Sharp's Blog

Braeden: Wendy Russo's Blog

Deirdre: L.G. Kelso's Ramblings of a Redhead

Enjoy!

-Boyce

The winners of the Hidden World Blog Tour giveaways have been announced!

I want to say one more thank you to everyone who participated in the *amazing* Lichgates Hidden World Blog Tour. It was just awesome. I loved reading through the comments, seeing the discussions, and laughing along with you.

I just notified the winners of the over 145 prizes in this tour. In hindsight, it was probably not the best idea to notify winners on April Fool's Day, but eh. No one's complaining. The prizes are real, promise!

So thanks again. For those who missed it, never fear! Follow along via whatever means you like and I'll let you know about the sequel's blog tour, which I'm hoping will be much sooner than its anticipated release in Fall 2012 (if you know what I mean…*nudge*wink*).

Never fear! You all know me. I have more contests lined up. There will be one particularly fun one that's coming up soon where you get to be goofy, and there's anotehr one going on right now. Head over to the Lichgates 10k Giveaway for more info.

 

Here's a little bit about Lichgates for all who haven't had the chance to read it yet. Thanks again for being just absolutely amazing.

 

Want to snag your own Grimoire?Buy Lichgates anywhere online:Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) |  Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Createspace.
 

 

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Lichgates is the first in my young adult fantasy adventure series called the Grimoire Trilogy. It's is about a young woman named Kara who finds a book—the Grimoire—while hiking a hidden trail in the Rocky Mountains. It pulls her into Ourea: a beautiful world full of terrifying things that all want the Grimoire's secrets.

 

Everyone in this new world is trying to find her, and most want to control the new-found power the book bestows upon her. Though a native soldier named Braeden swears to keep her safe, it isn't long before she uncovers the hidden intentions that unravel his charming persona.

 

 

 

Learn more!

Read the full book blurb.

Read the first chapter for FREE.

Buy here:

Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Monkey Bars | CreateSpace | Buy from Boyce

Add it on Goodreads.

See my Grimoire-Trilogy-themed Kara Magari Munny!

Well gang, I did it! I made my first ever Munny (click here to read my introduction post on that).

Just to recap: 

a Munny is a blank figurine that you can customize however which way you'd like.
I decided to make my Munny into one of my characters: Kara Magari from my debut novel, Lichgates. 
I'm geeking out because it actually turned out kinda cool.

So, without further adieu, Kara Magari the Munny!

The Photos
Before

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After

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Gah! I think it turned out pretty well! What do you think? If you want to see how I did it, I made a how-to video to hopefully inspire you to make your own Munny. Who will you make?

The Video

I filmed how I made the Munny, but my video editing software seems to have finally crapped out completely. Every time I try to save it as a movie, it deletes another few clips from the overall movie. I'm pretty frustrated with it, so I'm just going to have to wait to post the how-to video until I get better software. Thanks for understanding.

Young Adult vs. New Adult vs. Adult Fiction

So I've actually been in a few conversations with people about the young adult genre, and I figured I'd open the forum to get your input, too.

 
Young Adult

Here's what I'm thinking: young adult isn't really a genre so much as an age-appropriate rating. It's something you tag on to the end of a genre, to let people know that this is, say, a romantic comedy good that won't have your kids Googling new, naughty phrases late at night.

Young Adult (henceforth "YA" because I'm lazy) is a combination of factors. At least so far as I see it, it means it's a story with:

Appropriate for ages 14+ (at a minimum)
Little-to-no sex (I thought this was "no" sex until the Twilight Saga seemed to break the rule in book 4).
Little-to-no cussing.
Generally (but not always) a young main character in high school.
Straightforward tone/language that's easy to comprehend.

That last one is a bit vague, I know, but I think it's just as important as the other points. A YA narrative has to be accessible and easy to read. I think this is what makes the label so appealing to people: the language will be easy to slip into.

I think a lot of what is considered YA today appeals to adults because of its easy-to-understand language and more PG-13 content. Not everyone wants to read about sex or curse words, and YA offers a safe way to avoid that sort of thing if you're not into it. That's one of the many reasons why I like to write YA: it's more accessible to more people.

I think The Grimoire: Lichgates is YA because it fits into each of the categories mentioned above, and thus can appeal to a wide variety of readers with different tastes. It's even being taught to a group of advanced readers in a New Jersey middle school! How cool is that?

So, by my thinking, here are some examples of YA books:

 
New Adult

Now, on that note, there is a newly emerging age label called New Adult (NA). New Adult has several of the same components of Young Adult, but with some adult situations. So here, you're looking at approachable language with some steamier moments or situations that are harder for young adults to relate to, like college course work or having a child.

Here's what I'm thinking for the New Adult checklist:

Appropriate for ages 17+ (sometimes 18+)
Moderate-to-very little sex (showing them taking off the clothes, maybe some mild steamier details, too).
Moderate-to-very little cussing.
Generally (but not always) a main character between the ages of 18 and 29.
Adult situations that are less relatable for young adults (such as having a baby, attending college, etc.).
Straightforward tone/language that's easy to comprehend.

So really, only the last bullet point is the same. The rest are just a minor step up from young adult. This is a new age label that's still developing, so nothing is set in stone with it as far as I can see. I'm eager to see what you add to the comments, and I'll make adjustments up here as needed.

Rebecca Hamilton wrote a great post on NA, so I highly suggest checking it out for yourself to further this discussion.

So, by my thinking, here are some examples of New Adult books:

 
Adult Fiction

So…what's left?

I think Adult Fiction is a broad age label that has a multiplicity of possible identifying factors. A lot of what appeals to young adults could just as easily be considered adult fiction, too.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Appropriate for ages 18+

And has any one (or more) of the following:

Explicit sex (Erotica).
Complex language that requires more effort to understand.

Dont' get me wrong. It's weird that I'm basically grouping the literary classics with erotica, but this isn't a genre classification; it's a discussion of age labels.

In that vein, I think these are good examples of Adult Fiction:

Classics

Erotica

So what do you think? Please add your thoughts in the comments below. If you have any other recommendations for good books in each category, just let me know in the comments and I will consider adding them to the post.