Heather Demetrios's Blog, page 18

BEA Shenanigans

From L to R: Margot…

A Few good #liveyourwhat Applicants

So many of you have heard me talk about When people watch films they are stepping…

For The Love Of What

I was nervous about going there. Not because I knew students had gotten mugged recently in broad daylight, although I wasn’t too excited about that possibility. I was nervous because I felt inadequate. I knew I would have the best audience a girl could ask for: my husband is a beloved teacher at…

The Editorial Note That Saved My Manuscript

This week, my dear friend and fellow VCFA classmate, Lisa Pademetriou, asked me to write a guest post for her. You may know Lisa from one of her many books, like the scrumptious Confectionately Yours. This weekend, she's giving a talk at NESCBWI's conference and I, for one, love the title: "The F-Word: Failure, Rejection, and the Power of Persistence." If you can get a chance to go, you should because Lisa is a fantastic speaker with years of experience in the publishing world and tons of books under her belt. Girlfriend has some pearls of wisdom. 



Here is the guest post I wrote for her about The Editorial Note That Saved My Manuscript. This is the beginning of a series she's doing with other writers and I can't wait to hear their stories. In this post, I talk about how my writer's group pointed out that my next book from Macmillan, I'll Meet You There, was actually about a Marine who lost a leg in Afghanistan, not a Lindsay Lohan starlet. Yeah - revision. 





























 

Live Your What Contest

I'm totally bribing you. 



 
Enter The Giveaway

EXQUISITE CAPTIVE Cover Reveal!

I am head over heels with this gorgeous cover! Check out the interview about the jinni trend that I did with HuffPost. It's a fun article and they did a great job with the reveal! :)




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Friday Goodness #18

To kick off Easter weekend in a less-than-mournful style, I’ve got five things that are making my Good Friday good.

 

 

New SOMETHING REAL Giveaway!

 

I’m making an annotated copy of SR for one lucky winner (I feel like I’m on The Price Is Right saying it that way). I’ll be marking up the book, making notes and writing all kinds of fun behind-the-scenes stuff. I’m excited about this particular giveaway and kinda want to make one for myself, too! It’s super easy to enter.

Cover Reveal!!

 

The EXQUISITE CAPTIVE cover reveal will…

New SOMETHING REAL Giveaway!

Giveaway!!!


For the next week, you have a chance to enter a giveaway to win an annotated copy of SOMETHING REAL. What is an annotated copy exactly? I'll be going through the book, writing all kinds of fun notes and behind the scenes info. It'll be like reading the book together!

 
Enter here. 




Below are a few photos from my last SOMETHING REAL giveaway, which was a defaced copy of the book. I had so much fun working on it! (And, don't worry, I'll be doing another defaced copy giveaway later this year).



 








 

good luck!

Blog Hop!

My panel buddy from the NYC Teen Author Fest, M. Molly Backes, invited me to participate in a blog hop. It’s like the bunny hop, but more literary. So, with baton in hand, I will now commence answering the same four questions as all the writers in the blog hop.

 

What are you working on?

 

As usual, several things at once, which is how I roll these days. First and foremost is my Dark Caravan Cycle coming out from HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray this October. Book #1, EXQUISITE CAPTIVE already has its ARC out, so I’m just doing minimal revisions now. I’m in an epic revision of Book 2, which I’m on deadline for (eek!). My second book from Macmillan/Holt, which comes out next winter (I’LL MEET YOU THERE) is currently in copyedits, so I’ll have to jump back into that pretty soon. I’m REALLY excited about my newest project, tentatively titled WE WERE ICARUS. It’s another YA, but very different from everything I’ve written. I don’t want to say too much to jinx it (I’m in the very early stages of the first draft), but it’s sort of The Grapes of Wrath for the Hunger Games set, only it’s not dystopian. It’s set in America, here and now. It’s got a cross-country road trip, riots, and a cute boy with a Boston accent. More on all that sometime soon.

 

How does your work differ…

My Trilogy Balancing Act

 

Last Monday I finished the first draft of Book 2 of the Dark Caravan Cycle (BLOOD PASSAGE). I was absolutely terrified to write this book for many reasons but mostly because it intimidated the hell out of me. We’ve all heard of the Sophomore Slump, the Saggy Middle, the Bad Second Book. I have read way too many trilogies were I loved the first book and by the end of the second book had lost my starry-eyed wonder for the world, the characters, and the story. I’m not going to name names. The thing is, a lot of these second books are huge series and the authors were lucky that readers stuck with them, trusting that the third book was going to pay off. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. There is nothing more frustrating than giving your time and heart to a series and feeling like you got ripped off. There are lots of reasons why second books have problems: crazy publishing schedules, pressure to create a trilogy when the story doesn’t require three installments, a disproportionate focus on the first and third books. I’d hate to think it was laziness, so let’s just assume it’s not. YA writers love their readers and it would make me really sad to think a writer valued their craft and their readership so little as to phone it in. I shall remain optimistic!

 

I have been very, very aware of the problem with second books. It is, perhaps, the thing I’ve been most concerned since selling my trilogy. I have given…