Heather Demetrios's Blog, page 19
March 31, 2014
Booklist Review for SOMETHING REAL
Here's the review from the April 1, 2014 edition of Booklist:
Bonnie™ Baker had been on the reality show Baker’s Dozen her whole life—until it folded after Bonnie’s suicide attempt four years ago. Since then, the family has started over in California (Bonnie’s dad has left
and her mom, Beth, has remarried), and Bonnie, now Chloe, is incognito. It even feels safe to start a relationship with her crush, Patrick. Then, a shock! Beth reups Bonnie and her 12 siblings for a new season—Baker’s Dozen: Fresh Batch. Books about kids on reality shows are a recent minitrend, but firsttime novelist Demetrios does a particularly good job of capturing this phenomenon, wrapping it in both sleaze and excitement. Bonnie and her gay brother, Benton™, are the focus, and their considerable anguish, especially when it comes to paparazzi and missing-in-action parents, is palpable. Meanwhile, Bonnie’s romance with understanding Patrick is so sweet that readers won’t mind that no such teen boy exists in reality. Interview transcripts and episode excerpts heighten the “reality” of this smart, funny book that kids will binge read, sorta like watching a Teen Mom marathon.
--Ilene Cooper
Pretty nice, huh? :)
<br…
March 27, 2014
Friday Goodness #18
It's Friday...time to get down with your bad self.
Breaking Bad
You guys. This show…there are no words. Well, there have to be because I want to say something about it but…WOW. So, I’ve been binge watching this with Better Half for a couple months now and we spent pretty much all day last Saturday finishing it. The performances are some of the best I’ve ever seen, the premise is fantastic, and it ended exactly as it needed to. It will not disappoint and it’s only five seasons, so you can get through it pretty quickly. I was amazed by the quality of each episode, from the writing to the way it was shot. The music is fantastic, too. This show is dark and funny and sad and....I could go on. The pathos! As a writer, I couldn’t get enough of the fabulous objective correlatives and the characterization of Walt and Jesse. Oh my gosh, these two. Just get it right now. It’s streaming on Netflix, so no excuses. I could seriously teach a writing class based on this series, it’s that good. If you're a fan of the show, then check out this hilarious trailer as BB as a rom-com. I miss these guys already.
EXQUISITE CAPTIVE Advanced Copy Giveaway and more!
This has been a big week for EXQUISITE. Monday started off with a photo shoot (chronicled below),…
Breaking Bad
You guys. This show…there are no words. Well, there have to be because I want to say something about it but…WOW. So, I’ve been binge watching this with Better Half for a couple months now and we spent pretty much all day last Saturday finishing it. The performances are some of the best I’ve ever seen, the premise is fantastic, and it ended exactly as it needed to. It will not disappoint and it’s only five seasons, so you can get through it pretty quickly. I was amazed by the quality of each episode, from the writing to the way it was shot. The music is fantastic, too. This show is dark and funny and sad and....I could go on. The pathos! As a writer, I couldn’t get enough of the fabulous objective correlatives and the characterization of Walt and Jesse. Oh my gosh, these two. Just get it right now. It’s streaming on Netflix, so no excuses. I could seriously teach a writing class based on this series, it’s that good. If you're a fan of the show, then check out this hilarious trailer as BB as a rom-com. I miss these guys already.
EXQUISITE CAPTIVE Advanced Copy Giveaway and more!
This has been a big week for EXQUISITE. Monday started off with a photo shoot (chronicled below),…
March 26, 2014
Win an Advanced Copy of EXQUISITE CAPTIVE!!!
The advanced copies of EXQUISITE CAPTIVE have arrived and are ready for your hot little hands!
How to enter:
I'm doing the giveaway through Rafflecopter, so go to this link. Good luck!
How to enter:
I'm doing the giveaway through Rafflecopter, so go to this link. Good luck!
March 22, 2014
A new SOMETHING REAL GIVEAWAY
In honor of all the fun I've been having chatting about SOMETHING REAL for the NYC Teen Author Fest this week, I'm hosting a giveaway! One winner will receive a defaced copy of the novel (as in, Imma take off the jacket and use my mad tagging skills to go to town on the book cover).
How to enter:
Imagine your life is a reality TV show. Tweet the title of your show using the #SomethingReal hastag now through Friday 3/28. I'll choose a winner. Simple as that!
How to enter:
Imagine your life is a reality TV show. Tweet the title of your show using the #SomethingReal hastag now through Friday 3/28. I'll choose a winner. Simple as that!
March 21, 2014
Friday Goodness #17
It's been a crazy week, so I present the first Saturday Morning Edition of Friday Goodness. All the goodness, but even better because you had to wait for it.
The NYC Teen Author Fest
This is going on all weekend – a symposium, readings, signings, and good times! To find out where I’ll be at the festival, go here. I got to do a reading for SOMETHING REAL at Bread and Roses High School in Harlem on Thursday, which was great fun. It was my first high school visit and it was so cool to interact with my readers. The kids were great and had awesome questions. Plus, I got to meet some fab authors. On Friday, I participated in my first panel. It was moderated by David Levithan and we talked about support systems in YA lit. It was a really fun discussion. Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m part of the huge signing at Books of Wonder. Come on out to get SOMETHING REAL signed! For info. on all events, check out the festival’s Facebook page.
Bologna Book Festival
Though I’m not there, I’m living vicariously through my agent. (And crossing my fingers that she gets my books lots of foreign love – that sounds kinky, but you know what I mean). For a few days, the international children’s publishing world converges on Bologna, where they eat delicious food, drink wine, and breathe books. Here’s …
The NYC Teen Author Fest
This is going on all weekend – a symposium, readings, signings, and good times! To find out where I’ll be at the festival, go here. I got to do a reading for SOMETHING REAL at Bread and Roses High School in Harlem on Thursday, which was great fun. It was my first high school visit and it was so cool to interact with my readers. The kids were great and had awesome questions. Plus, I got to meet some fab authors. On Friday, I participated in my first panel. It was moderated by David Levithan and we talked about support systems in YA lit. It was a really fun discussion. Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m part of the huge signing at Books of Wonder. Come on out to get SOMETHING REAL signed! For info. on all events, check out the festival’s Facebook page.
Bologna Book Festival
Though I’m not there, I’m living vicariously through my agent. (And crossing my fingers that she gets my books lots of foreign love – that sounds kinky, but you know what I mean). For a few days, the international children’s publishing world converges on Bologna, where they eat delicious food, drink wine, and breathe books. Here’s …
March 17, 2014
These Shoes
This weekend, I had to throw out a pair of much-loved shoes. My big toe was about to go through the frayed top, I couldn’t get the Sahara out of them, and they were too worn and dirty to gallivant around town in with style. I’d had them for eight years. I still remember buying them at a shoe store in Ilsan, South Korea when I was living there as an ESL teacher. The store was in an outdoor mall called La Festa. One of the foreign peculiarities of these shoes is that, though they were a size eight, the inner flap said 6. I liked this about them—it always reminded me of how I got them in a place that always felt a little topsy turvy to me.
Standing in the Sahara
These Sauconys have been all over the world. Look through my travel photos and you’ll be sure to see them. There they are, traipsing through dusty Indian streets. Climbing Machu Piccu. If you look closely, you might notice tiny flecks of black paint: a result of painting the set for a show I was directing in Los Angeles for my (now defunct) theatre company.
These shoes walked the streets of New York City, explored Boston, touched the cobblestones of Rome. They strolled along the Neva, sat unused in a suitcase in Cambodia and Thailand, explored the souqs of Marrakech. And, of course, climbed…
Standing in the Sahara
These Sauconys have been all over the world. Look through my travel photos and you’ll be sure to see them. There they are, traipsing through dusty Indian streets. Climbing Machu Piccu. If you look closely, you might notice tiny flecks of black paint: a result of painting the set for a show I was directing in Los Angeles for my (now defunct) theatre company.
These shoes walked the streets of New York City, explored Boston, touched the cobblestones of Rome. They strolled along the Neva, sat unused in a suitcase in Cambodia and Thailand, explored the souqs of Marrakech. And, of course, climbed…
March 6, 2014
Friday Goodness #16
March 3, 2014
My Writing Cave
For the past few weeks I’ve been in what I’ve taken to calling my “writing cave.” With all the craziness surrounding SOMETHING REAL, I knew I’d never meet my next few deadlines if I didn’t do something drastic. It was great fun ushering my debut novel out into the world (today is its one month anniversary!), but I missed the hard work of sitting down and writing for six to eight hours a day. That’s how I work and when I’m not doing that I’m a miserable person to be around.
So I created the writing cave, which is basically my office except I now call it a cave. This is very appropriate, because the book I’m currently knee-deep in is the second installment of the Dark Caravan trilogy, in which my heroine descends into an ancient cave to look for something that may or may not change the fate of the jinn race. My cave is a little different than the one Nalia must endure, though. For starters, it has an unlimited supply of coffee and Vitamin Water.
In my cave, there are twinkly white lights around the window to beat back the winter blues. There’s a bookcase full of inspiring books on writing. There are battle boards that help me plan my books, collages I made, notes of encouragement from friends. It smells like amber oil that I got in Morocco and burn when I need inspiration. It has a constant soundtrack of Ravi and Anoushka Shankar playing. It has a yoga mat for stretching, a jinni bottle…
So I created the writing cave, which is basically my office except I now call it a cave. This is very appropriate, because the book I’m currently knee-deep in is the second installment of the Dark Caravan trilogy, in which my heroine descends into an ancient cave to look for something that may or may not change the fate of the jinn race. My cave is a little different than the one Nalia must endure, though. For starters, it has an unlimited supply of coffee and Vitamin Water.
In my cave, there are twinkly white lights around the window to beat back the winter blues. There’s a bookcase full of inspiring books on writing. There are battle boards that help me plan my books, collages I made, notes of encouragement from friends. It smells like amber oil that I got in Morocco and burn when I need inspiration. It has a constant soundtrack of Ravi and Anoushka Shankar playing. It has a yoga mat for stretching, a jinni bottle…
March 1, 2014
Instagram Fun!
I have finally gotten on the Instagram train. Come visit me and see all my pics of bookish fun and NYC life:
Heather Demetrios Instagram Adventure.
February 20, 2014
Balance
I've been dying to write this post since last year and this morning seems like the perfect time, as I get ready to go to my first yoga class in forever. It’s been a crazy whirlwind of traveling for book research, residencies for grad school, and, you know, these guys. They happen to be Christian and I happen to be Christian, but don’t let that deter you. I didn’t even really look at the website much; I just ran with this idea that captivated me. One word to focus my year and to help me find and maintain my Zen.
Several words went through my mind, but balance seemed to be the best because it wasn’t a scary sounding word (like…
Several words went through my mind, but balance seemed to be the best because it wasn’t a scary sounding word (like…
