Jenn Reese's Blog, page 9

The Book Smugglers review MIRAGE

I love The Book Smugglers, which means I get equal parts nervous and thrilled when I hear they’re going to review one of my books. Last year, Thea read and enjoyed Above World, giving it an 8 out of 10 and calling it a notable read of 2012. (I still squee when I type that).

But Mirage… Mirage was the hardest book I’ve written yet, and at times I thought it would break me. I’m glad I kept pushing myself for something better — and that my first readers and editor pushed, too. Ultimately, though, I think the blood, sweat, and sleepless nights paid off. Mirage contains some of my favorite scenes in the series, and the process taught me a lot about myself as a writer and a person.

And now I’m thrilled to report that Thea from The Book Smugglers has given Mirage the same score as Above World: 8 – Excellent.

Will there will be celebrating tonight? Oh, yes.

#SFWApro

Loss of Control

So much of my life right now is logistics: how to manage the condo repair, the dealings with insurance companies, the almost daily travel from Yucaipa to Thousand Oaks (117 miles one way!) and, perhaps worst of all, the fact that come Monday, I will be unable to take care of myself.

I’m the kind of person who gets twitchy without her car. I love having it nearby, knowing I can take off and go anywhere I want at a moment’s notice. It’s freedom, and I not only crave it, I rely on it.

But I’m having major surgery on Monday and I sat at dinner tonight with my partner, my mother, and my mother’s partner discussing who will be taking me to the hospital, who will be staying with me, who will be driving me home, who will be caring for me afterward.

I’m in incredibly good hands, but I’m also humiliated. I’ve spent most of my adulthood building my life, and it’s a life I’m very proud of. Its cornerstones are independence, strength, persistence and, yes, friends and family. And now all but one of those cornerstones are going away. I don’t think I’ve ever had to rely on other people this much since graduating college. I’m terrified of being so weak. Of being so dependent. It feels like a rejection of everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve.

But, oh, how grateful I am that I have friends and family willing to do this for me! And that I can afford to have this surgery, both in terms of time and money. I know I’m lucky, I really do. I have no idea how I’m ever going to repay all the kindness, support, and help I’ve already been shown. (And maybe I can’t, and that will be a lesson, too.)

I thought it would be the surgery that scared me most, but it’s not. It’s the idea of being so fragile.

The Shape of June

On June 10th, I’m going in for major abdominal surgery. I’m not in pain and it’s not life-threatening, but the surgery is necessary and I’ll be much happier once it’s over and I’m on the road to recovery.

I’ve known about the surgery for a month and have taken steps to re-shape my life for it. Because it will take me a few weeks to recover enough for work, and then a few months before I can lift boxes of books again, I resigned from my part-time job at the Lambda Literary Foundation. I had been planning to do it later in the summer, but this timing made it important to do sooner, so that the LLF could get a replacement in as soon as possible.

My plan was to take June “off” for surgery and recovery, then begin life as a full-time freelancer and writer in July. And, in some ways, that’s still the plan. Except…

Last week, after we returned from Wiscon, an incident occurred in the apartment above ours, and our condo was flooded with water for about an hour. We did our best to mitigate the damage, but it was still extensive. Since then, we’ve been fighting with insurance and trying to handle our tiny condo being ripped apart — floors, ceilings, and walls.

The condo is unlivable. Most of it is ripped down, and the industrial dehumidifiers have run the interior temperatures into the 100s. I have taken the three cats and fled to a guest room at my mother’s partner’s house. I’m now about 3 hours away from my doctor’s office and the hospital where I’ll be having the surgery.

Everything is now complicated, frustrating, expensive, and downright difficult. I spent most of last week alternating between trying to take control of the situation and breaking down in tears. Chris and I are both still employed and trying to keep up with our jobs (LLF’s big Lammy Awards Ceremony is tonight!). I’m waiting to hear from the insurance about whether they’ll cover our claim, or if we have to hire a lawyer and make them cover it. And then there’s the process of hiring people to rebuild our condo when the water restoration part is done.

But despite everything — despite my ruined plans for stress-free surgery and a few weeks of quiet recovery where I got to watch TV, read comics, and listen to audiobooks — we have been buoyed by the incredible outpouring of sympathy and support from our friends and family. The number of people who have offered us living space, legal advice, help of all sorts, and even money… it’s been stunning and humbling in the best possible way.

Life is messier than ever, and yet I feel as if I’ve got an army at my back.

Ebook Extravaganza

My week at Blue Heaven (and my conversations with the smart people there) gave me renewed energy for ebooks. I decided to finally put two of my humorous YA short stories online, and to re-cover my first novel, JADE TIGER, so it reads more clearly as romantic suspense. As soon as I have a few more hours, I’ll sign up with Smashwords and get these up on the remaining platforms.

Angst in D Minor (A Bulfinch High Story)

by Jenn Reese

$0.99 on Kindle and Nook.

Starting life at a new school is hard enough, but if you’re a siren who’s been raised by man-eating monsters, it’s a little rougher than most. Callie knows what she needs to do: keep her head down, get good grades, and above all, don’t sing. But when pretty-boy Pedar enters the scene, she has to fight more than one primal urge…or Pedar might end up dinner dead. [3200 words, humorous young adult fantasy]



More information

Shan Westfall is on a mission to recover five mystical jade animals before they fall into the wrong hands.

Over fifteen years ago, Shan’s mother led a secret society of female martial artists sworn to protect the statues. When the Jade Circle lost four of the five statues during a murderous attack on their sanctuary, twelve-year-old Shan’s destiny was sealed. It was she who carried the remaining tiger statue all the way to America; she who felt it clawing at her with the need to recover the crane, snake, leopard, and dragon. The Circle was destroyed that night, and Shan hasn’t seen her mother since.

Shan has grown up under the tiger’s unforgiving influence and the shadow of her mother’s legacy. Her quest to recover the statues takes her to upstate New York and Ian Dashall, a geeky but brave archaeology professor, and then on to France and England with Ian at her side. Finally, on a secret island off the coast of Hong Kong, Shan overcomes torture, betrayal, and deadly tigers in order to battle the man who destroyed the Jade Circle. But even as she faces off with him, she loses hope. How can she possibly succeed where her mother had failed?

Kindle Queen for a Day

On April 30th, Above World was advertised on Amazon as the Kindle Teens Daily Deal, and the price was reduced to $1.99. Here’s what happened.

A few weeks ago, my publicist at Candlewick let me know that Above World had been selected. I have no idea how that process worked, only that we were all excited. I wasn’t allowed to say anything until the actual day of the sale. So I made a graphic, grinned quietly in the privacy of my own home, and waited.

My graphic, based off a graphic I’d seen for Sarah Prineas’ Winterling:

I made the ad because I thought it would be more arresting if it were shared on Facebook than a simple picture of my cover, which people see all the time. Also, I thought it was important to put the date in big letters so it wouldn’t continue to be retweeted or shared after the sale was over. And really, I just like making graphics and this seemed like a good excuse.

At the beginning of the day, Above World‘s Kindle sales rank was sixty bazillion. I wish I’d taken a screenshot, because I’m not even exaggerating. (Okay, I’m exaggerating a little. But my rank was a Very Large Number.) The Amazon ranks seemed to update every few hours, so this is the first bump I noticed when I woke up in the morning:

I was already thrilled. A 4-digit rank overall was better than my little book had ever seen. If the day had ended there, I would have been happy.

But my amazing friends kept tweeting and posting on Facebook, and Amazon’s legion of Kindle deal-obsessed were not sated. By the end of the day, here’s where Above World stood:

Above World was #1 in all paid Children’s ebooks, and #196 overall. Here’s the pretty picture with book covers:

What a ride! I don’t think I made that much money in royalties — it’s a few hundred extra copies at a greatly reduced rate — but what I’m really hoping for is a bit less obscurity. I still believe that discoverability is the greatest challenge facing any new author, and that perhaps a few more people will recognize my book now, having seen it splashed across a few more Amazon pages.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped me publicize the sale. When all is said and done, it was the outpouring of friendship and support that I’ll remember most from this day.

ADDENDUM: I had nothing to do with this. The Kindle Daily Deal machine is a powerful force, and I’m not even sure it matters which book is selected for the rankings bump. I also doubt there is any long-term affect on sales. It was just fun to experience.

WonderCon Anaheim Schedule

This upcoming weekend, March 30-31, I’ll be at WonderCon in Anaheim. Most of the time I’ll be in total fan-mode: going to panels, spending too much money in the dealers room, and trying to catch glimpses of my favorite authors and TV stars. Here’s the author stuff:

 

SIGNING

Sunday, March 31st, 1:30-2:00pm

Mysterious Galaxy, Booth #1201

PANEL: “Capacity for the Fantastic: Writing for Teens and Tweens”

Sunday, March 31st, 2:30-3:30pm

Room 213

Given their flexibility and ability to embrace the fantastic and wondrous, what can’t one write about for middle graders and up? LeAnna Herrera of Mysterious Galaxy bookstore queries the limits with authors Jenn Reese (Above World, Mirage), Jessica Brody (Unremembered), James Morris (Skybound), Nancy Holder (Wolf Spring Chronicles), Cecil Castellucci (The Year of the Beasts), and Greg van Eekhout (The Boy at the End of the World).

Herb Garden, Season 2

Last summer I planted my very first herb garden (see “Herb Adventure” for all the exciting details). I absolutely loved growing my own herbs. I loved the way they looked on the porch — easily visible from the main room where I spend all my time — and I found myself cooking more often because I wanted to use herbs I’d grown myself.

And then I went away for 10 days during one of the worst heat waves Los Angeles has ever known.

So, welcome to Herb Garden, Season 2, wherein I start over and try not to let everything die this time. Huzzah! Here’s the starting lineup:

Not all the plants are visible, but I’ve got thyme, oregano, sage, lavender, dill, rosemary, two kinds of mint, basil, and Thai basil. (Plus a few more things that looked pretty and my nursery was having a sale and DON’T JUDGE ME.)

Later, when I’m feeling ambitious and my novel revisions are done, I’d like to find a plant to crawl up the wall on a trellis, perhaps raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, or peppers. Hopefully the currently herbs will live to see that day.

Book Release Day! MIRAGE and POISON

The second book in my Above World series officially makes its way into the world today, but before I get to that, I want to talk about Bridget Zinn and her YA debut Poison, also releasing today.

Bridget died from cancer in May 2011 at the age of 33, before getting to see her debut book published. I never had the opportunity to meet her, but I think I would have liked her. Her bio says:

Bridget wanted to make people laugh and hoped readers would enjoy spending time with the characters she created. As a librarian/writer she loved books with strong young women with aspirations. She also felt teens needed more humorous reads. She really wanted to write a book with pockets of warmth and happiness and hoped that her readers’ copies would show the watermarks of many bath time reads.

Yes, I’m sure I would have liked her. And I’m guessing you would have, too. If you want to honor Bridget and help make her book release day a special one for her friends and family, please take a moment and check out Poison. Kirkus says:

No grimdark teen fantasy or angst-y heroines here; just a frothy confection of a fairy tale featuring poisoners, princesses, perfumers and pigs, none of whom are exactly what they appear (except maybe the pigs)…. Good silly fun—a refreshing antidote to a genre overflowing with grit and gloom.

That sounds like my kind of book!

MIRAGE

Now what do I say about my own book release? I have such complicated feelings about Mirage, the second in the trilogy, that I’ve written and deleted four different paragraphs so far. Let’s just say that it was a hard book to write, that it contains some of the best scenes I’ve ever written, and that I hope readers enjoy it.

Here’s how I dedicated Mirage:

I’d rather not explain that first part, because I think it has a lot of meanings and I wouldn’t want to exclude the one that’s most relevant to anyone who reads this. It’s a hard thing to walk between worlds, no matter what those worlds might be.

I also dedicated the book to Christopher East, my partner, who’s been with me for over six and a half years. He was there when I got the first ideas for this series, he’s been there through all the drafts, and he continues to support and encourage me every day. As a writer, he helped me with plot issues and character arcs and world-building. When I was on deadline, he did things like make sure the bills were paid and the cats were fed. (Heck, he fed me, too, most days.) Chris talked me through slumps, sometimes at 2 in the morning, and he read each chapter as soon as I finished it, no matter the time of day or night.

One of the ways I said thank you to Chris was by naming the character Rollin in Mirage after a character from Chris’s favorite TV show, the original Mission: Impossible. The Rollin in my book does NOT look like this:

I thank a lot of other people in the Acknowledgments section of Mirage, but I’ll quote just the last paragraph here, as it applies to all of you:

Thanks to my friends, family, and fellow writers who’ve supported me on this journey. If I’m doing my job right, you already know how much I treasure you.

If you live near Los Angeles, I’ll be having a launch party at 2pm on March 23rd at Once Upon A Time in Montrose, CA. Please come help me celebrate and support a great indie bookstore at the same time.

UK Cover for Above World!

Above World releases in the UK on April 4th from Walker, and here’s the cover! Personally, I find it fascinating to see which elements of the US cover they chose to emphasize or de-emphasize. For example, the distinction between the underwater realm and the “above world” is very evident with a strong horizon line. May this little book find its way into the hands of many UK readers!

[Book Depository] [Amazon.uk] [Bookworld.com.au]

Cover Design Update & Hiatus

2012 was a great year for my cover design business, Tiger Bright Studios. I worked on so many fun and challenging covers for so many extremely talented writers. The gallery is missing the latest 5 covers I’ve done, but I’ve updated it with almost everything else, including a new section for print covers.

I don’t do a lot of print covers, and I’ve never actually held one in my hands… until now. Witness this beauty that just came in the mail: Mitigated Futures by Tobias S. Buckell!

Now, having said all that, I’m here to announce that Tiger Bright Studios is going on hiatus. (After I finish the four covers in my queue, of course.)

I’ve got an incoming edit letter and a whole heap of personal projects that I never got to last year. I’m hoping to open back up in the second part of the year, but there’s also a part of me that hopes I’ll be neck-deep in a new book by then, and won’t have time. We’ll see. I absolutely love cover design, but while I’m working part-time as a writer and part-time for the Lambda Literary Foundation, something has to give. For now, it’s this.