Lisa Burstein's Blog, page 6

ANOTHER BOOK! or Cassie N Ben Get Their Happily Ever After

Hey Guys,

I posted a bit about how I was working on the proposal for the Cassie and Ben Novella–the two main characters from Dear Cassie. Well, I found out on Friday that it was approved by my publisher! So I’m happy to announce The Possibility of Us will be coming March(or sometime around there) 2014 from Entangled Publishing!

I’m so excited to get to write these characters again and as a bonus BEN will be telling his story along with CASSIE, it is dual POV. Troyer, Ben’s brother and some other familiar faces will also be making appearances.

Here are the beginning of both Cassie and Ben’s first chapters!

CASSIE

“Ben better not be there,” I said, wiping away the condensation built up on the window of Troyer’s new black Range Rover. The snow banks whizzing past us on the side of the road so white and flawless from the storm the night before it made me shiver. I could also have been shivering because it was the first time I had been out of my brother’s apartment in six months.

Too bad it was for a fucking funeral.

“What am I your ex-boyfriends keeper?” Troyer asked. She seemed more confident than she had been when we first met at Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for Troubled Teens—calmer, less afraid, but that could have been because she was driving a car that was bigger than a fucking elephant.

“Nice,” I replied, feeling my skin turn as white as the snow. It was obvious she wished she was mute again as soon as she saw my face.

 

BEN

My brother Andrew insisted on driving. His usual crazy rock-star spiked hair was matted down in a red winter hat. It was the only way I could get him to agree to come with me.

Plus he owed me.

Even though I tried as much as possible not to think about that.

“You sure you don’t just want to go to Boston for the weekend or something instead?” he asked, smiling his Andrew smile a combo of burnt-out skater and I could kick your ass.

I glared at him, could feel my brown eyes searing. I didn’t need to tell him no. He understood that he owed me too, even though he tried his hardest not to think about that, either. The only reason he wasn’t in a jail cell right now was me. The only reason I even ended up at Turning Pines was him.

The only reason we were going to this funeral at all was because I’d been to Turning Pines.

 

I hope you guys are as excited as I am!!!! Add The Possibility of Us on Goodreads

Teaser Tuesday- CANDY, STRIPPED

I’m almost ready to send my edits back in on Candy, Stripped, my New Adult Contemporary book releasing Dec. 9th and I’m SO EXCITED about it I wanted to post a snippet here.

Candy, Stripped is the story of a graduate creative writing student and teaching assistant who writes erotic romance under a pseudonym. She struggles to keep her identity hidden from her academia life while also trying not to fall for her cute student.

 

My editor called this scene- HOT! Enjoy!

I logged in to my Candy Facebook Fan Page and posted, “Sorry for the absence lovely readers, but I’ve been steaming it up a little in real life so I can be even steamier for you on the page.”  I copied and pasted it into my twitter.

It was the most truthful I’d been to anyone in weeks and it wasn’t lost on me that it was because my readers who I loved and interacted with had no idea who or what I was actually like in real life. I could tell them that because it was a Candy truth.

Too bad a Candice truth was that after Candy posted that she was going to cyber-stalk the guy she was steaming it up with. Who she should have just called to ask him how he felt instead of trying to decipher it through the language, likes and (no pun intended) pokes of Facebook.

I clicked into my friends and then into his page. James Walker: Student at the University of Miami, 506 friends—more than half girls, which considering he was like a modern version of James Dean minus the angst wasn’t surprising. What was surprising?  That even with all these little lady-faces stacked up like a Jenga game on his profile, he wanted to be with me.

I scrolled down, relationship status: It’s complicated. That was the understatement of the year and different than it had been when he first friended me.

What I didn’t know was when exactly he changed that. What I couldn’t know unless I told him I’d been stalking him was if it about me. I kept scrolling down. Looking for something, anything that would give me some shred of information.

I almost fell out of my chair when a chat window with James’ picture popped up.

You’re checking out my profile aren’t you? It said. The little green circle next to his avatar almost mocking me, a circular mouth singing na-na-na-na-na I caught you.

It felt like my heart had popped out of my chest and was flopping around on my keyboard. How could he know that? Could he know that?

I might have just ignored the message, but he knew I was online. My little green circle was lit up too—stupid Facebook chat default. It was also the first contact we’d had since the restaurant and I did want to know what he was thinking even if I didn’t want to admit it.

What? I wrote. As in what are you talking about? My heart still thumping on the keyboard with a beat that repeated yeah right, yeah right, yeah right.

You’re an even worse liar in print, he wrote.

My face ignited, scorching down my neck and chest, especially when I realized that I was still clicked into his profile. That our chat window was right on top of it; could have been making sweet, sweet love to it. I switched back to my profile quickly.

It’s okay, he typed, I was looking at yours.

He meant my Candice one, which I never used except to stalk other people.

Really? I typed before I could stop myself. It was what I was thinking, but wow, I was so not following my roomate Mandy’s advice.

Yup, I have been since you friended me. You don’t post a lot.

I’m busy.

I could make you a lot busier.

He didn’t directly bring up what happened in the alley behind the restaurant, so I didn’t either. Truthfully I was kind of glad.

I’m listening. I could have played hard to get, but considering how easy I’d played it already, it seemed silly.

I’m surprised you haven’t changed your relationship status.

I don’t have a status to update, I wrote, a buzz filled my chest, a fever flitting like a bee, spreading warm and gooey honey into my stomach and down to my thighs.

I can tell you right now. You’re not single.

What am I?

Why don’t you come over to my apartment and find out?

I watched my cursor blink once, twice unsure what to write back. I wanted to, badly. I checked the clock. It was 2:00am. Mandy wasn’t here, so I couldn’t use her car.

What was worse? Accepting a booty call via Facebook and walking miles to get there, or doing it out in an alley and then going back in and eating your dinner like nothing happened?

Did it even matter at this point?

It’s late, I wrote.

How about a little nightcap? he typed back, like we’d rehearsed this before.

I understood he wasn’t asking me to go to his apartment anymore. He was asking me to be with him here, on Facebook staring at his little avatar while he stared at mine. He was asking me to do what I’d done alone in my dorm room in college at the same time he did.

I heard Candy’s voice, It’s just Cyber-sex Candice I mean you already jumped the guy, twice.

I couldn’t hear Candice’s voice over the buzz in my head.

Sounds hot, I wrote, suddenly feeling that way.

It is hot tonight. I only have my boxers on. How about you?

I could see him. That body: the perfect circle of his pecs and lines of his abs, the triangle of his waist. I felt my breath start to get heavy. The familiar tug and ache in my abdomen.

Panties and a bra, I wrote without even thinking about it. I guess Candice could be Candy when she was typing the words; when a guy like James was on the other side of the screen.

What color?

I looked down. I was in black yoga pants and a ripped Foo Fighters T-shirt. I thought about lingerie I owned, Pink, pale rose pink.

Sexy, he wrote. Describe them.

Underwire lace push up bra, matching sheer lace thong, thin as tissue paper, I wrote, wanting to do everything he told me to do.

Take them off.

You take them off, I wrote because it was definitely sexier than okay, even if it was what I was thinking.

Slowly my hands search the skin of you belly. I slide one finger in the waist band of your panties and snap them before gripping them and pulling them down to your pelvis; rolling them off of one leg, then the other, my lips, my tongue, my breath, following the whole way.

I couldn’t even write back. I just needed him to tell me what he was going to do to me next. I found the small blue vibrator I’d gotten at Eroticon and slid it under the fabric of my pants. All the way down to where I wanted James to touch me.

You know that Chekov quote about putting a loaded gun in the first act? I guess this was what happened when you put a vibrator there.

They’re off, he wrote, on the floor next to you. I also unhooked your bra.

And you’re just sitting there?

No, he wrote, I’m checking out every perfect part of your body, absorbing you, trying to keep myself from consuming you too quickly.

I don’t think I can wait much longer, I wrote. Surprised how adept I was at typing with one hand. It was me touching me and him touching me. What happens now?

Now? he typed, I’m coming over.

ADD CANDY, STRIPPED ON GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18183828-candy-stripped

WIN the First Draft of PRETTY AMY with editorial letter and line edits!

I’m deep in edits for my fourth book Candy, Stripped right now and that gave me the idea to share the editorial process with you. I’m doing something kind of crazy, allowing 3 lucky winners to have a copy of the first draft of my first novel PRETTY AMY, along with the editorial letter and line edits. You’ll also win a signed copy of the book.

This prize will allow you to see what happens during an edit, what an editor expects and how first drafts can change drastically in the final product.

I’m inviting you into my unedited mind! Good luck!

Because WordPress does not support Rafflecopter- *grumbles, grumbles* Details on entry here!

 

What are you favorite New Adult covers?

Hey Guys!

I’m working on my cover art request form for my new NA novel Candy, Stripped and I need your help.

Candy, Stripped is coming in November from Entangled Publishing’s new EMBRACE line and is about a graduate creative writing student who writes erotica under a pseudonym. While she struggles to keep her identity hidden from her academic life, she also tries not to fall for her frustrating faculty advisor or her cute student.

So what I want to know is what are some of your favorite New Adult Book Covers? Please comment below with links too if you’d like!

You can also tell me what you think this cover should look like. The main character Candice looks like Ellen Page and the love interest James is a modern version of James Dean!

Add on Goodreads

NEW BOOK DEAL & Sneak Peek!

Hi Everyone!

The deal for my NEW New Adult stand alone novel was announced yesterday:

July 8, 2013












 Digital: Fiction: New Adult

Author of THE NEXT FOREVER Lisa Burstein’s CANDY, STRIPPED, in which a college student who writes erotica under a pseudonym struggles to keep her identity hidden from her academia life while also trying not to fall for her frustrating faculty advisor or his cute MFA student, to Stacy Cantor Abrams at Entangled Embrace, for publication in November 2013, by Susan Finesman at Fine Literary (World)

Exciting right!

I thought I would share a sneak peek & let you know you can add it on Goodreads! Enjoy!

“I’m not a coward,” I said, feeling a little less chummy, my words as hard as I could make them. It seemed like everyone here, even my roomate Mandy, even Professor Martin, thought I lived my life too carefully. It was starting to piss me off. It was starting to make me wonder if the only people ever who would think I was carefree and lighthearted were my parents and in their case those traits were a negative.

“You are,” James said. “You care so much about what other people are going to think you are willing to throw this away. Lie to throw it away.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, setting his jaw to let me know he meant it, “but I’ll say it again.” He paused between each word. “You are a coward.”

Something about the way he repeated it stirred something in me. I wanted to be fearless. I wanted to ‘let go’. I wanted to be everything Professor Martin and Keith thought I was not. Everything my parents thought I was. In my writing, in my life, in the love I chose.

“Would a coward do this?” I asked pushing through the inches to his lips and kissing him hard. So hard— he stumbled back and had to steady both of us.

He held the back of my head firmly, like he was afraid I would stop kissing him.

There was no way.

He turned me and pushed the exit door so we both fell outside, our lips and bodies still joined, tripping blindly alone and with solid certainty together.

We were out in the parking lot, I was going after his belt, and he was raising my skirt. He pressed me against the back wall of the restaraunt and the humid air hit my thighs.

He slipped on a condom. His tongue was in my ear and my mouth was on his throat when his body and mine connected. It was the first time I’d ever been with someone where I felt like I was in control of what my body was doing. What my body was making his body do. I chose this. I chose him and he had no choice but to comply.

A dumpster was on one side of us, a coffee can the employees used as an ashtray on the other side. I focused only on him: on the rough touch of his hands; on his breath pulsing on my neck, on his pelvis a perfect parallel to mine. Our two hips forming a butterfly flapping its wings into oblivion. That finally wrapped us up in a cocoon of shivers and steam and release.

When we were finished we held each other for a moment just breathing, forehead to forehead, nose to nose, chest to chest.

“I guess you’re not a coward, Candice,” he said, into my lips. He kissed me lightly, deliberately; a kiss that said both hello and goodbye.

I sighed. “I’m in deep,” I said, surprised I admitted it.

“You are, we both are,” he whispered into my ear, “And, you are beautiful.”

Sneak Peek of the Ben and Cassie Novella?

Hello My Lovely Readers!

So I’m doing something kind-of unheard of for me. I have the first ten pages & symopsis of the Ben and Cassie Novella ready to hand in to my editor, but I want a readers take first. So here’s my idea. Tell me what your favorite love story is in the comments of THIS Facebook Post, if you want a chance to be the “lucky” reader who gets to give their thoughts on the Ben & Cassie Novella proposal. You have to have read Dear Cassie! I’ll pick a winner tomorrow, to give as many people a chance to comment- GO, GO, GO!

CIPHER by Cindi Madsen Cover Reveal

 

Summer Davis sees deaths before they happen. She attempts to live a normal life by focusing on the dance team and her quarterback boyfriend. But then the way-too-cheery Angel of Death shows up and tells her she’s a Cipher—a person chosen to help people who are going to die resolve problems with their loved ones. Ashlyn Moore, one of Summer’s classmates, is going to die, and she needs Summer’s help before that happens.It’s nearly impossible to get through to Ashlyn, who surrounds herself with chess nerds and geeks and makes it clear she doesn’t want to be friends. Desperate to complete her Cipher task before it’s too late, Summer turns to Troy, the guy who’s always been there for her and one of the few people she can trust. With his help, she makes progress. In fact, the closer she gets to Ashlyn and her friends, the more she feels like she’s finally found where she belongs.

As the clock starts running down on Ashlyn’s life, Summer decides to change her objective. She’s going to save her new friend before it’s too late—even if it means messing with fate.

Author Bio: Cindi Madsen sits at her computer every chance she gets, plotting revising, and falling in love with her characters. Sometimes it makes her a crazy person. Without it, she’d be even crazier. She has way too many shoes, but can always find a reason to buy a new pretty pair, especially if they’re sparkly, colorful, or super tall. She loves music, dancing, and wishes summer lasted all year long. She lives in Colorado (where summer is most definitely NOT all year long) with her husband and three children. She is the author of YA books All the Broken Pieces, Cipher, and Demons of the Sun and adult romances Falling for Her Fiancé, Act Like You Love Me, and Cinderella Screwed Me Over.

To Pen Name or Not to Pen Name-Share Your Thoughts

I think you know what this blog post is going to be about. The question many authors come to in their career. Whether or not to use a pen name? You guys all know I am fairly transparent, in my work and in who I am. I don’t shy away from tough issues, from things that might offend people, from language and situations that can be uncomfortable. So why would an author who considers her brand to be “truth” consider using a pen name?

Good question.

I don’t necessarily think pen names are about hiding who you are. Perhaps for some authors they are, but for most it seems like a way to differentiate your work. To shed expectations. To free yourself to write in different ways than you have in the past. To stretch out of your genre.

This is how I am looking at it and why I am considering it. My YA and NA books in the PRETTY AMY series are on the “heavy” side, to put it mildly. (As an example Ben and Cassie’s novella, the main characters from DEAR CASSIE is going to take place at a funeral.)*Spoiler Alert*

I like writing about issues teens really face. I like creating hard, complicated characters. I like making my readers cry and think and feel, but there are other things I’d like to write about too. There are other things I’d like to see if I can write about.

The New Adult book I have upcoming from Entangled in November is completely different from anything I have ever written. The girl in it doesn’t have any particular issue. The guy in it isn’t trying to save her. The emotional tone of it is pretty light as things I usually write go. So, I am considering a pen name. Not to hide that it is by me, but to differentiate it from my other work.

It seems crazy. I’ve spent over a year building my name, my brand. Why would I throw all of that away just to write as “someone else”?

Well, that is my dilemma.

Maybe because I am afraid people will compare this work to my other work. Maybe because I am afraid I will hear even more of what I heard from some readers when The Next Forever came out, “that I was writing it to appeal to a certain audience”. Maybe I just think this book deserves a fresh start because it is so different. It doesn’t need to be mired in the seriousness of my past work.

I don’t know. I go back and forth.

So as I have many times before, I appeal to my readers, my friends. What do you think? How do you feel about authors who use pen names?

Please comment below.

What I’ve Been Up To

Hey Guys!

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve blogged, so I thought I would let you know what I’ve been up to.

WRITING! Are you surprised? I am planning on having 3 books for you guys in Late 2013/2014 and have been writing and thinking and synopsizing like MAD.

The first book, a stand alone New Adult about a graduate writing student with a sexy secret, a professor on one side of a love triangle and her own student on the other comes out Nov. 2013.

A Novella about Cassie and Ben that takes place after DEAR CASSIE (yes you will find out what happened to them) will be coming your way in 2014.

A novel about Lila and a boy trying to help his policeman dad find her will be coming in 2014 too.

Just want to let you all know I’m thinking about you and will have LOTS new books for you soon!

This is how I feel right now:

LAST DAY! The Next Forever for only .99

Hey Guys! If you haven’t picked it up yet, you have ONE MORE DAY to get The Next Forever at this special price. Enjoy!

One night in college can change everything…

Away at college, Amy just wants one night alone without her high school sweetheart, Joe. So when he invites her to go to the library, she heads off on her own instead. How she ended up at a house party with the mysterious bad-boy Trevor is another story…

Joe so isn’t going to the library. He needs space from Amy, too, so he’s decided to rush a fraternity, to get back the swagger he had in high school. But it doesn’t take long for the brothers to invite him to the real rush–where the beer is flowing and one particular girl has set her eyes on Joe.

Over the course of one wild night, both Amy and Joe will have to decide if their futures belong with two new people, or whether the next forever will have their first loves in it.

**Recommended for ages 17+ due to sexual content and language, mature subject matter**

“An honest, raw, sexy night of self discovery. I loved Joe and Amy’s story!”- Nyrae Dawn, Bestselling author of Charade

“Sharp, heartfelt and sexy with characters so well-developed and nuanced that they feel completely real.” – Daisy Whitney, author of The Mockingbirds and When You Were Here

“A Really enjoyable and touching read that taps into heartfelt emotions about making choices between past and present.”- Lauren Blakely, NY Times and USA Today Bestselling author of Caught Up In Us

AMAZON

B & N

KOBO

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