Lisa Burstein's Blog, page 14
July 15, 2012
INBETWEEN COVER RE-REVEAL
Blurb:
Since the car crash that took her father’s life two years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky—and unending—lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option.
It’s not easy being dead; especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left. His soul.
Publication Date: August, 2012
Imprint: Entangled Teen
Novel length: 400 pages
Format: Trade paperback and eBook
Add Inbetween to Goodreads
Pre order: Amazon/Barnes & Noble/The Book Depository/Books A Million
About The Author: Tara Fuller writes novels. Some about grim reapers. Some about witches. All of course are delightfully full of teen angst and kissing. Tara grew up in a one stop light town in Oklahoma where once upon a time she stayed up with a flash light reading RL Stine novels and only dreamed of becoming a writer. She has a slight obsession with music and a shameless addiction for zombie fiction, Mystery Science Theater, and black and white mochas. Tara no longer lives in a one stop light town. Now she lives with her family in a slightly larger town in North Carolina where they have at least three stoplights.
Where you can find Tara.
Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook
Go to Tara’s website to read the prologue! http://www.tarafuller.com/
July 11, 2012
Pretty Amy’s magazine review censorship – a teen librarian’s take
I tweeted yesterday about a national teen magazine that was supposed to write a review for PRETTY AMY, but wasn’t because it contained drug use. I’m not sure how much you all know about getting reviews from major publications, but it is damn hard, and I was ecstatic that an actual in-print magazine liked PRETTY AMY enough to want to review it. My publicist worked her butt-off for it and it was a real win for PRETTY AMY.
I don’t know exactly what went down or how it did, but yesterday I was told they were passing on their review because “the book contained drug use and they didn’t want to promote that to their readers.” They were professional and I have no complaints. They are certainly entitled to their opinion, but as they say, so is everyone else.
I was amazed by the amount of followers of mine who were outraged by this. A teen librarian so much so, that she wrote the post below and I am sharing it with you now.
I could write my own post about the experience, but I’m going to be honest- hers is just better than mine would be.
As a reader, I know that story has the power to change lives. From the moment I read It by Stephen King in the 6th grade, I knew that I wanted to be THAT type of friend. When I read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee I knew I wanted to be THAT type of a person. You can, in fact, read about a couple of my life changing experiences as a reader here and here.
As a librarian, as someone who cares about teens, who cares about the future of the world, I count on the fact that story has the power to change lives. I put books in the hands of teens every day and hope that they will have their Pandemonium or Ask the Passengers moment.
As a girl, I understand that story has the power to help us understand who we are, how we think, and how we can be so much more than the world sometimes seems destined to let us be. I imagine that is also the case for boys, but have less personal insight into it. But that is why there is such tremendous value in authors like Judy Blume and Sarah Dessen and Sara Zarr and yes, in the book Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein.
You see for me, the heart of Pretty Amy is the story that most girls have within them: we are struggling to be at peace in our own skin, we are struggling to find a group of people that we can be It level friends with. We want to find a way to hold our head up high and feel pretty – not on the outside pretty, but inside valuable to the world no matter what pretty. And this is the heart that beats in the core of Pretty Amy.
However, before Amy can get to the climb towards self acceptance, she must – like so many of us must – realizes that she needs to take that journey of self discovery. In Pretty Amy, that moment comes when she is arrested on prom night for drug possession (marijuana) and intent to sell. Yesterday, author Lisa Burstein tweeted that a magazine had decided not to publish a review of her book Pretty Amy because it had teens using drugs in it.
Let’s take a side step for a moment, shall we? You may have heard that there is a mega hot selling book out right now called 50 Shades of Grey. I have not read this book, but it is my understanding that many people consider it to be a model of unhealthy relationships. There are articles about this book on every major news outlet and you can see commercials for it on TV. You can not escape the phenom that is 50 Shades. So, while we are busy being told time and time again that these types of relationships – and trust me, 50 Shades is not the only example out there, I have even discussed before my concerns about the way unhealthy relationships are portrayed in teen fiction and, in this case, adult fiction (trust me, teens are reading it too) - are okay, we are going to sweep Pretty Amy under the rug because a teen does drugs. Please note: drug use is in no way glorified or condoned in this book, in fact, it is the impetus for Amy’s journey to a healthy sense of self which means she must move away from these activities. What’s the take away teen readers get here? Reading about unhealthy romantic relationships good and titillating, reading about non glorified drug use is bad. Let’s unpack that a little further shall we: it is your role to subjugate yourself in unhealthy ways to a man to find fulfillment as a woman, but we can’t let you read about a teenage girl smoking pot, being punished for it and finding ACTUAL healthy self-fulfillment.
So while Bella must surrender her soul and become a member of the immortal undead to find her true love and we accept that, we can’t let teens grapple with a very real life scenario and come to a sense of understanding that some of the choices that we make are unhealthy and unwise but we can fix them. They don’t have to define us as we can move forward and make different choices. Please note Bella can never make a different choice – she has surrendered her soul – but Amy most definitely can.
That is part of the value of realistic fiction. It allows us as readers to step into someone else’s shoes, to live another person’s life, and learn from it. We may learn compassion for others. We may learn to make different choices. We may learn to act, think or feel differently – but we learn. The question we must ask ourselves is this: how do we want our teens to learn? Do we want them to learn in the safety of their rooms in the pages of a book? Or do we want to shelter them to such an extreme that they don’t understand the dangers of the world they live in and are forced to learn in very real ways? I personally vote safety of a book, but that’s just crazy talk.
I have known teens and have watched them disintegrate before my eyes because they have fallen into the rabbit hole of drugs. It is such a horrible sight to witness, drugs are a powerful force. Abuse, drugs, crime – literature, the power of story, can help teen readers figure out how to live in the world without making very painful and sometimes irreversible mistakes. If we want our teens to be critical thinkers who can make good decisions for self and future, then we must be willing to let them enter into the pages of a book and examine the story critically.
Amy becomes pretty, pretty on the inside pretty, because she learns to love herself. Her story can teach teen girls everywhere to do the same. I wish that we would understand that our teens are on those crucial steps toward adulthood and we need to allow them to make safe steps on that journey by allowing them the opportunity to think and feel and interact with the real world. And let’s not forget, some of our teens are already living those lives that we are trying to protect other teens from, we devalue them and their story when we censor their truth. Just because you want to pretend something isn’t there doesn’t really make it go away. I think the question we have to ask ourselves is how to we learn about the lives of our teens, give them voice, and have meaningful conversations with teens and each other about the lives of teens. And the answer is found in the pages of books like Pretty Amy.
Read my previous thoughts on censorship:
A Banned Books Week Primer
Banned Books Week: Teen fiction is . . .
Here is my review of Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein
Pretty Amy’s first book ban- a teen librarian’s take
I tweeted yesterday about a national teen magazine that was supposed to write a review for PRETTY AMY, but wasn’t because it contained drug use. I’m not sure how much you all know about getting reviews from major publications, but it is damn hard, and I was ecstatic that an actual in-print magazine liked PRETTY AMY enough to want to review it. My publicist worked her butt-off for it and it was a real win for PRETTY AMY.
I don’t know exactly what went down or how it did, but yesterday I was told they were passing on their review because “the book contained drug use and they didn’t want to promote that to their readers.” They were professional and I have no complaints. They are certainly entitled to their opinion, but as they say, so is everyone else.
I was amazed by the amount of followers of mine who were outraged by this. A teen librarian so much so, that she wrote the post below and I am sharing it with you now.
I could write my own post about the experience, but I’m going to be honest- hers is just better than mine would be.
As a reader, I know that story has the power to change lives. From the moment I read It by Stephen King in the 6th grade, I knew that I wanted to be THAT type of friend. When I read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee I knew I wanted to be THAT type of a person. You can, in fact, read about a couple of my life changing experiences as a reader here and here.
As a librarian, as someone who cares about teens, who cares about the future of the world, I count on the fact that story has the power to change lives. I put books in the hands of teens every day and hope that they will have their Pandemonium or Ask the Passengers moment.
As a girl, I understand that story has the power to help us understand who we are, how we think, and how we can be so much more than the world sometimes seems destined to let us be. I imagine that is also the case for boys, but have less personal insight into it. But that is why there is such tremendous value in authors like Judy Blume and Sarah Dessen and Sara Zarr and yes, in the book Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein.
You see for me, the heart of Pretty Amy is the story that most girls have within them: we are struggling to be at peace in our own skin, we are struggling to find a group of people that we can be It level friends with. We want to find a way to hold our head up high and feel pretty – not on the outside pretty, but inside valuable to the world no matter what pretty. And this is the heart that beats in the core of Pretty Amy.
However, before Amy can get to the climb towards self acceptance, she must – like so many of us must – realizes that she needs to take that journey of self discovery. In Pretty Amy, that moment comes when she is arrested on prom night for drug possession (marijuana) and intent to sell. Yesterday, author Lisa Burstein tweeted that a magazine had decided not to publish a review of her book Pretty Amy because it had teens using drugs in it.
Let’s take a side step for a moment, shall we? You may have heard that there is a mega hot selling book out right now called 50 Shades of Grey. I have not read this book, but it is my understanding that many people consider it to be a model of unhealthy relationships. There are articles about this book on every major news outlet and you can see commercials for it on TV. You can not escape the phenom that is 50 Shades. So, while we are busy being told time and time again that these types of relationships – and trust me, 50 Shades is not the only example out there, I have even discussed before my concerns about the way unhealthy relationships are portrayed in teen fiction and, in this case, adult fiction (trust me, teens are reading it too) - are okay, we are going to sweep Pretty Amy under the rug because a teen does drugs. Please note: drug use is in no way glorified or condoned in this book, in fact, it is the impetus for Amy’s journey to a healthy sense of self which means she must move away from these activities. What’s the take away teen readers get here? Reading about unhealthy romantic relationships good and titillating, reading about non glorified drug use is bad. Let’s unpack that a little further shall we: it is your role to subjugate yourself in unhealthy ways to a man to find fulfillment as a woman, but we can’t let you read about a teenage girl smoking pot, being punished for it and finding ACTUAL healthy self-fulfillment.
So while Bella must surrender her soul and become a member of the immortal undead to find her true love and we accept that, we can’t let teens grapple with a very real life scenario and come to a sense of understanding that some of the choices that we make are unhealthy and unwise but we can fix them. They don’t have to define us as we can move forward and make different choices. Please note Bella can never make a different choice – she has surrendered her soul – but Amy most definitely can.
That is part of the value of realistic fiction. It allows us as readers to step into someone else’s shoes, to live another person’s life, and learn from it. We may learn compassion for others. We may learn to make different choices. We may learn to act, think or feel differently – but we learn. The question we must ask ourselves is this: how do we want our teens to learn? Do we want them to learn in the safety of their rooms in the pages of a book? Or do we want to shelter them to such an extreme that they don’t understand the dangers of the world they live in and are forced to learn in very real ways? I personally vote safety of a book, but that’s just crazy talk.
I have known teens and have watched them disintegrate before my eyes because they have fallen into the rabbit hole of drugs. It is such a horrible sight to witness, drugs are a powerful force. Abuse, drugs, crime – literature, the power of story, can help teen readers figure out how to live in the world without making very painful and sometimes irreversible mistakes. If we want our teens to be critical thinkers who can make good decisions for self and future, then we must be willing to let them enter into the pages of a book and examine the story critically.
Amy becomes pretty, pretty on the inside pretty, because she learns to love herself. Her story can teach teen girls everywhere to do the same. I wish that we would understand that our teens are on those crucial steps toward adulthood and we need to allow them to make safe steps on that journey by allowing them the opportunity to think and feel and interact with the real world. And let’s not forget, some of our teens are already living those lives that we are trying to protect other teens from, we devalue them and their story when we censor their truth. Just because you want to pretend something isn’t there doesn’t really make it go away. I think the question we have to ask ourselves is how to we learn about the lives of our teens, give them voice, and have meaningful conversations with teens and each other about the lives of teens. And the answer is found in the pages of books like Pretty Amy.
Read my previous thoughts on censorship:
A Banned Books Week Primer
Banned Books Week: Teen fiction is . . .
Here is my review of Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein
July 9, 2012
A love letter to bloggers and reviewers
Publishing a book is amazing, I would never deny that, but it is also TERRIFYING.
Will people like it? Will people buy it? Will people HATE it and want to burn it and stab it with bacteria infected knives?
Aside from my publicist, my editor, my agent and my husband there has been one group of folks that have kept me sane in this TERRIFYING time.
Book bloggers.
I feel like book bloggers often don’t get their due. Usually their blogs are a labor of love, just like a book is to an author. They don’t get paid for it, they do it because they love books and reading. They work tirelessly to help promote the books they love for no other reason than they love them. Well, and free books and swag, but I was amazed by how many bloggers received review e-ARCs of my book and *STILL* bought a copy. That’s just the kind of awesome people I am talking about.
I can’t tell you what it means to a debut author like me to read an amazing review for my book on a blog. What it means to have a blogger tell me they can’t wait for my next book, that they want to create a time machine so they can read it now. What it means to be having a bad day and have a message from a blogger just saying hi, or commenting on my blog, or just telling me again how much my book meant to them.
Throughout the launch of my book, I have been in contact with hundreds of book bloggers and have never found one that wasn’t professional and passionate. Those are the kind of people you want having your back. I am lucky to call several book bloggers friends now. You know who you are. 
So thank you bloggers and reviewers who have loved and helped promote PRETTY AMY. Thank you bloggers and reviewers who haven’t loved it for being honest and professional. Thanks to bloggers and reviewers for promoting other amazing young adult titles to help keep the genre viable.
I know we don’t always have time to say it, but authors love you and appreciate you!
June 29, 2012
How have people found my blog, with highlights on faves.
I always think its fun to look at search terms for my blog, especially when they are WAY out there. Below is a list of all the search terms people have used to “find” my blog since I started it in March. I’ve highlighted the ones below that I find particularly snicker-inducing- in red and explained the ones in blue.
FAVE WEIRD SEARCH TERM: Sweet Teen Feet..EWWWW
Search
Views
lisa burstein- IT’S MY NAME
39
princess birthday cake- When I was planning my book launch- I wanted a cake made with a barbie in a prom dress- I posted this pic. There are several variations on this one.
13
pretty amy
12
princess doll cake
11
lisa burstein blog
6
lisa burstein agent
6
pretty amy blog tour
5
why rejection is good for you
4
princess doll cake ideas
4
inbetween tara fuller
4
pretty amy cover reveal
4
lisa burstein ya scavenger hunt
4
ass female
4
doll birthday cakes
3
birthday cake themes for newly married women
3
princess doll cake images
3
female singer songwriters 2012- I wrote a blog post about female singer-songwriters and how they applied to PRETTY AMY
3
princess cake ideas
3
pretty amy by lisa burstein
3
lisa burstein blog tour
3
magic city girls
3
birthday cake and princess
3
rejection is good
3
princess birthday cakes
3
how to hide books on kindle- I posted this as a video when I couldn’t think of a blog post
3
luminosity stephanie thomas pdf
2
http://lisabursteinauthor.wordpress.com/
2
author sara leighwalsh
2
how to hide books on your kindle
2
baby birthday princess dress card
2
lisa burstein pretty amy
2
cake princess doll
2
kick ass female singers
2
lisa burstein pretty amy pdf- Looking for pirated copies of my book.
2
how to hide kindle books
2
good books for teenagers 2012- HELL YEAH!
2
princess dress birthday cake
2
jessica shirvington ya scavenger hunt- I hosted Jessica Shirvington on the YA scavenger hunt this Spring
.2
amy teaser
2
jessica shirvington
2
teenage female singer songwriters 2012
2
pretty amy book
2
gravity melissa west teasers
2
teen cheer books- Just cuz AMY is NOT about a cheerleader- like at all.
2
doll birthday cake pictures
2
lazy post- i had a post titled this- as a search term, I don’t get it though?
2
pretty ass women
2
birthday cake ideas for 2 year girls
2
bird birthday cake ideas- this appears to be a mixture of my cake photo and the fact that Amy has a pet bird
2
timothy olyphant
2
pretty amy by lisa burstein.pdf- People looking for pirated copies- shame, shame
2
princess doll birthday cake
2
sayings giving and getting hurt
2
princess birthday cake for kids
2
cake ideas for teenagers
2
volcano cake ideas
2
crazy amy lisa burstein- LOVE this title change
2
whatapretty
2
pretty amy excerpt
2
benjikenworthy@gmail.com
1
embrace jessica shirvington ya scavenger hunt
1
lillyisabear@gmail.com
1
writing down the bones book
1
lisa facebook.com
1
editor of pretty amy- Only noticed this now- but Stacy at least 1 person is looking for you
1
gravity by melissa west excerpt
1
melissa west gravity excerpt
1
lisa bursteiner- People mangle my name constantly, but never quite like this…
1
pretty female words
1
pretty amy book lisa
1
young teen cake ideas
1
hide embarrassing books your kindle
1
venturinhawendy@gmail.com
1
pretty amy cover
1
liz shirvington
1
lisa burstein’s pretty amy cover reveal
1
lisa burstein wordpress
1
kick butt female singers
1
kindle books hide
1
lisa burstein mfa
1
bibbity-bobbity-boo your ass
1
singer ass
1
princess birthday cakes for girls
1
the goblin king
1
thedevilsflower@hotmail.com
1
superhero sayings
1
book why you take picture
1
pretty amy by lisa burstein/
1
pretty amy facebook
1
pretty lisa- well why not?
1
cover reveal inbetween tara
1
february 2012 win an amazon gift card
1
amy, pretty amy song
1
why rejections are good
1
“pretty amy” by lisa burstein
1
what to know for my launch date
1
solit prom fucking white big ass and comfort beautiful white girls u.s.a
1
prettily pantied teaser
1
birthday ideas for your brother
1
pretty a girl who gets arrested on prom night book- I think they meant PRETTY AMY but couldn’t remember the title
1
lisa burstein perty amy
1
pretty amy lisa burstein
1
female singer songwriters
1
it’s spanx good- Spanx is mentioned in the blurb for my book
1
pretty birthday cakes for women
1
mfas for writers are crap
1
lily @yahoo.com,@gmail.com,hotmail.com “lil” -spam -mails
1
blue princess cake
1
sweet teen feet
1
pretty amy goodreads
1
agnieszka @ymail.com@hotmail.com “@yahoo.com” -@gmail.com@aol.com
1
“episode” “peed” site:wordpress.com
1
birthday doll cake
1
pretty amy book sales- Like I don’t feel enough pressure
1
lisa spanx
1
lisa burnstein blog
1
birthday cake princess
1
why rejection is good
1
hide books on kindle
1
pretty lisa birthday
1
how do you hide embarrassing books on kindle
1
teenage cakes idea
1
where can i take photos of my fetus
1
virtual book launch
1
amy chapter 1
1
novelist without an mfa
1
ya scavenger hunt jessica shirvington
1
amy ass
1
blue princess phone
1
jessica and matt shirvington buy house
1
when rejection is good
1
kick ass female songs
1
teenage birthday cake ideas
1
pretty amy query letter
1
amy chapter
1
ballerina cake ideas
1
lisa burstein pretty amy pdf download- again- NO PIRATED COPIES!!!
1
story book cake ideas
1
jessica shirvington embrace soundtrack
1
what is a virual book launch
1
summer book club reads
1
authors’ own query letters
1
melissa west redhead 2012
1
center table design for princess birthday
1
amy summer
1
how to hide a book on kindle
1
princess birthday cake ideas
1
nice books for teenagers to read- Only b/c PRETTY AMY is anything but nice
1
if you like the embrace shirvington you will also like
1
birthday cake ideas boyfriend
1
صور تورتة عييد ميلاد 2012
1
embrace series in order
1
lisa burstein on twitter
1
divergent barnes and noble exclussive excerpt
1
lisa burnstein pretty amy excerpt
1
pretty amy ny journal
1
rejection is good for you
1
book launch what is in it for you?
1
cassandra m larsen car accident- Just b/c WTF???
1
princess cake ideas for kids
1
what my mfa taught me
1
makeup cake ideas
1
beautiful sing women ass
1
jessica shirvington deleted scenes
1
female singer, you know that
1
big ass female singers
1
how to hide books in kindle
1
pretty female asses
1
gravity melissa west excerpt
1
amy soundtrack
1
hand holding ice cream cone
1
greta and the goblin king pdf
1
a work that means strong beautful and fearless- YES- PRETTY AMY
1
when rejection is better than the unknown
1
doll birthday cake
1
do i nudge a query letter
1
rejection is good for you?
1
is an mfa necessary to be a successful screenwriter
1
virtual book launch 2012
1
kindle 4 + how to hide embarassing books
1
magazine for teenagers to read
1
lisa burnstein
1
hide books on a kindle
1
kindle share account hide books
1
pretty amy blog tour sign up
1
how to be a tv writer mfa necessary
1
pretty princess cake dress
1
pretty amy by lisa burstein pdf- STOP looking for PIRATED copies!!! Can you tell it bothers me?
1
fall of eden – the warrior back
1
lisa burstein blong
1
birthday princess cake
1
where do i buy imagesnfor my book
1
lisa burstein writing contest
1
model on goblin king cover
1
pretty ass female
1
adult girls bedroom party
1
why is rejection good
1
birthday cake design princess
1
cassie cigarette
1
second best is a book with a cover of a girl looking at herself in the mirror wearing a pink dress who is always comparing herself to the sister.
1
woman singer like amy
1
princess birthday cake ideas for girls
1
kick ass 90′s songs female singer
1
embrace jessica shirvington lincoln
1
June 26, 2012
The Girl Who Loved Words and Still Does
I was always a girl who loved words. When I was in high school I wrote in a diary and spewed out terrible poetry. Very melodramatic stuff that rhymed. Mostly because I had all these feelings of inadequacy and defectiveness inside me that I didn’t know how else to get out. So I wrote poems with titles like Pain, and my parents read them and asked me if I was okay. And, I always said yes, because how could I explain?
How could I tell them that their little girl who used to love reading and horseback riding was finding it hard to find things she loved anymore? How could I tell them that being thrust into the world of high school had turned me into a shy, scared, loser? I couldn’t.
But that girl who loved words and knew she had things to say about the world, her world, even though she was afraid no one was listening, is the one who was inside me when I was writing PRETTY AMY.
High school was not easy for me. When I was a freshman there were a lot of days I came home crying. Not because I was bullied, but because I was ignored. Made to feel like it didn’t matter if I existed or not. That is its own kind of mental bullying. When you keep being ignored, it starts to turn you into someone who just feels need all the time. Who just feels lost all the time. You just want validation that you are normal.
It’s a scary place to be.
Because of that, you try so desperately to be friends with someone, anyone. You feel yourself just wanting a friend to pick you. To say, yes, I like you, let’s sit together at lunch, like a puppy looking through glass just wanting to be taken home and hugged.
You walk through the halls at school and try to find anyone willing to give you a chance, but chances are hard to come by in high school.
That was all I wanted back then, someone to give me a chance. And, in PRETTY AMY it’s all that Amy wants.
It was a book I knew I had to write, certainly for all the girls out there who feel and felt like me, but also for myself. I knew I had to make those years of hopelessness and emptiness into something. I knew I had to take all those feelings and put them somewhere and I guess I was lucky enough to be able to put them in a novel.
The thing is I know there are so many girls like Amy, so many girls who just want someone, anyone to listen to them. Who try so hard to make sense of their lives that it hurts.
I know what it is like to be this kind of girl and I also know that all you want is a place to spill all your feelings like a bucket full of dirty mop water, which is why I created The Pretty Amy Project. I am asking teens and adults who used to be teens to Read PRETTY AMY and tell their story.As Amy says:
I’d wanted the words to be perfect. It seemed like they should be profound or something for as long as everyone had been waiting to hear them, but all I could say was yes. I guess sometimes saying what you mean is enough.
I know there are a lot of Amy’s out there. I was an Amy and I had no one who really understood. I understand. I want to listen. I want other people to listen. I am asking readers to tell us how you’ve felt like Amy. How you got over it. How you are getting over it. How you are embracing it. Tell us anything you’ve been too afraid to tell before.
I know sometimes that just saying and reading the scary and hard things can make you feel better. I know that because that’s what finally did it for me.
June 19, 2012
I get to interview Sara Zarr! Suggest a question!
Hey guys,
So I am signed up to do a guest blog post for Why YA? If you haven’t seen this series yet, it’s awesome. It is hosted by Teen Librarian Toolbox (who is awesome too), see more about it here. Authors write about YA books they think adults should read. I chose STORY OF A GIRL one of my ALL TIME faves and Sara Zarr was nice enough to agree to answer some interview questions for me. The thing is, I know a lot of you might have questions for her about this book, because it is JUST THAT AWESOME and GROUNDBREAKING.
Please leave your questions for Sara in the comments section below. I may pick one or more to ask her! And stayed tuned for my Why YA post coming soon!
If you haven’t checked out my debut novel PRETTY AMY yet, which in reviews has been compared to STORY OF A GIRL (#SQUEE!), please see the links below!
ALL THE BROKEN PIECES cover reveal
All the Broken Pieces, by Cindi Madsen is available for pre-order on: Amazon | Barnes & Noble Be sure to add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads!
Blurb:
What if your life wasn’t your own?
Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles through her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.
Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?
Excerpt:
Olivia reached up, feeling the tender spots on her head. Her fingers brushed across a row of—were those little ridges made of metal?
“Careful. The staples are almost ready to come out, but it’s still going to be sore for a while.”
Staples?!Her stomach rolled. I have staples in my head? She lowered her now-shaking hand. “Can I get a mirror?”
Mom looked at Dad, then back at her. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Not until you’ve healed a little more.”
Mom patted Olivia’s leg. “You just relax. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
The two of them left the room, but when Mom swung the door closed, it didn’t latch. Olivia could hear their voices in the hall.
“I still think we should…” She couldn’t make out the rest of Dad’s muffled words. “…know if I can do this.”
“…late for that,” Mom said. “We’d lose everything, including…” Her voice faded as they got farther away. “…have to move.”
Olivia could tell the conversation was tense, but the words were impossible to decipher now. Holding a hand in front of her face, she turned it back and forth. A plastic tube ran from her arm to a machine next to her bed. She peeked into her nightgown and stared in horror at the long red stripe running down her chest.
Sick.
You’re alive. You shouldn’t be thinking about looks.
Lowering her hand, she scanned the room. I wonder how my face looks. From the way Dad stared at me, plus the fact Mom won’t let me see a mirror, it must be bad.
Brains are more important than looks.
That’s what ugly people say.
Olivia put her hands on her head and squeezed. “Stop it,” she whispered to her arguing thoughts, hysteria bubbling up and squeezing the air from her lungs. What was happening to her? Why didn’t she recognize her parents or know where she was? Who she was? Tears ran warm trails down her cheeks. “Just make it all stop.”
Be sure to connect with Cindi at:
http://www.facebook.com/CindiMadsenBooks
https://twitter.com/#!/search/cindi%20madsen
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1029223.Cindi_Madsen
June 18, 2012
Girls Life Magazine declares PRETTY AMY a Must-Read!
Waiting on reviews from major publications is nerve-wracking. You wonder will they get it, will they like it, will they hate it? Will they hate me? Well Girls Life Magazine’s review of Pretty Amy was the best of all scenarios. They declared it a must-read!
Here is their review:
If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t belong or didn’t know what you wanted to do with your life, then Pretty Amy is a must-read for you. Even if you haven’t felt like that, this book will help you understand the people who do. The story revolves around Amy, a girl who doesn’t know exactly who she is yet. She’s friends with two of the most popular and beautiful girls, but not because they are nice to her—she doesn’t know where else she’d fit in. Well, at least sort of fit in.When all of them get stood up by their dates at prom, they somehow end up in jail. And then it’s summertime. Amy’s working and meets a new friend…and two totally opposite boys. She now has to learn to be herself so that she can finally live her own life. But we all know, the life of a teen is super tough!
Happy- dancing commence!
See the whole review/interview here!
June 13, 2012
PRETTY AMY Original Query Letter AND Query Tips!
PRETTY AMY was the little book that could and here is the query letter that got her there.
But before we start here are some tips on Querying.
1. Know what a query letter needs to look like. If you don’t know, this is key, get every book you can from the library on how to write query letters and read them- ALL OF THEM. Writing a query is not something that comes naturally. You need to learn how they work and what they need to include to make sure an agent takes you seriously.
2. Have someone who has NOT read your book read your query letter. They can tell you if it makes sense.
3. Have someone who has read your book read your query letter. They can tell you if you are leaving anything important out.
4. Re-write your query letter, over and over if you have to. I rewrote the one below probably 15-20 times. Why? Because no one will read your amazing book if you have a crap query letter.
5. Send queries out in bunches- 20 at a time. If you are sending 1 at a time, you will be waiting forever.
6. Send to your second-choice agents first. Why? To test your query. If it isn’t good and you send it to your first-choice agent, you just lost your one chance with them.
7. Address queries and send them out to one agent at a time. You might query 20 agents a day, but don’t bcc them on one email. They will delete it before they even read it.
8. Don’t nudge unless it has been an un-Godly long time. However long you think it will take for an agent to get back to you it will probably take longer, a lot longer.
9. Post your query letter to Absolute Write.com ‘s Query Letter Hell. People you don’t know will tell you if your query is ready or not. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/ (I don’t want to out anyone, but I know for a fact that NYT bestsellers have posted to this site seeking advice before they were published. So guess what? There is no shame in admitting you don’t know what the hell you are doing.)
10. Keep querying. Keep writing. Keep querying. It is HARD to find an agent. Rejection is the name of the game, until it’s not.
Okay without further ado, the query that got me my agent.
Everyone thinks Amy Fleishman has an attitude problem. And why wouldn’t she?
She’s had to deal with a mother whose estimation of parenting could be a mental disorder, a father who cares more about her teeth than the rest of her, a face that she wishes she could order different parts for like her school yearbook was a menu, and a great uncle who also happens to be her gynecologist, and that was before she got arrested.
It would have been bad enough if it hadn’t happened on prom night. Pulled over with her best friends Lila and Cassie, after Lila lamented about losing their dates and being all dressed up with no place to go, the first thought in Amy’s head was not that she had been caught, but that the fact she had been stood up for her prom would now be a part of the public record.
Thrown into a cell in her dress and heels and into a situation she never expected my 57,000 word-length YA fiction manuscript, Pretty Amy, takes us on Amy’s unwelcome crossover from delinquent to defendant, from best friend to public enemy.
Walking downstairs the morning following her arrest, thankful to be home after being bailed out by her dutiful dentist father, Amy is looking forward to a cup of coffee and some quiet, but her life is no Folgers commercial. Amy finds her mother waiting for her at the kitchen table with more bad news. Being arrested is just the beginning. Now, she’ll have to do something about it.
Required to get a job to pay for a lawyer aptly named Dick, who wishes he were a stand-up comedian, Amy applies for work at her local cigarette depository, convenient store Gas-N-Go. Managed by well-meaning, religious zealot Connor, she deals with his unwelcome sermons by tuning him out and comparing her life before and after the arrest. Before, immense and filled with possibilities, after small enough to fit into a Tupperware container like week old leftovers.
When Dick forces her to cut all contact with Cassie and Lila, go to voluntary community service and meet with therapist Daniel twice a week, who further implores her to prove to him why she isn’t just like every other rebellious teenager in the world, Amy wonders if juvenile detention might be better.
That is until her arraignment, where being convicted becomes a tangible reality. Naively, Amy thinks there is no way she can spend a year waiting for freedom, if she can’t last five minutes waiting for a latte.
But the possibility of being imprisoned becomes the least of her problems, when she is faced with making the toughest decision of her life, saving herself by turning on her best friends and sending them away, or standing by them and being convicted.
Reminiscent of “Youth in Revolt”, Pretty Amy is the story of Amy Fleishman, struggling to believe she is a beautiful and deserving person, even though she has succeeded in teaching her pet parakeet to echo those words. An edgy, hilarious look at a prom night arrest and the girl left in its wake, Pretty Amy presents a fresh female voice in young adult fiction, describing drug use, self-esteem struggles, gastrointestinal problems, broken friendships and broken teeth with irreverence, cynicism and ultimately substance.
I received my MFA in Fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and was granted a year-long fellowship during my studies there as well as a summer fellowship from the Squaw Valley Community of Write. Thank you for your time and consideration. Please be in touch should you want to request the completed manuscript.
Sincerely,
Lisa Burstein
So there it is. The book when it was published ended up being 75,000 words and added 2 new characters (hot boys of course ) based on editorial feedback. But the letter above was enough to open doors. The letter above got it in front of an editor who liked it enough to ask me to add two new characters so she could read it again. That is really all you need. The “right” door to open, with the “right” person waiting for you on the other side. Good luck!
Please feel free to post questions or comments below! I am also having a contest to celebrate PRETTY AMY being 1 month old, where you can win either a 3-chapter critique from me or my editor Stacy Cantor Abrams. Someone recently paid $335 in an auction for a critique from Stacy!
Get the entry details here! http://www.lisaburstein.com/Contests_.html
