Anna Cruise's Blog, page 3

And The Winners Are...

WOW! Thanks for all of the entries for the IF I FALL giveaway.

The winners are now displayed in the Rafflecopter widget but I'm happy to announce them here, as well!

Deonna C.
Edi C.
Tarnya R.
Maria F.
June L.


Check your inbox -- book file was sent this morning!

For those who didn't win but are still eager to get their hands on a copy, never fear -- book should be available TOMORROW!

GIVEAWAY for IF I FALL!

Anyone want to read this before it goes live?



Here's your chance! Click below for your chance to win!

Contest begins 4/4/13 at 12:00 AM and ends 4/6/13 at 12:00 AM.Winners will be chosen at random (via Rafflecopter) for an e-ARC of IF I FALL.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Meet Me And Win Stuff!!!

Guess what?

I'm going to a SLEEPOVER!!! 

The New Adult Sleepover Weekend in Savannah, GA (one of my most favorite places on the planet) takes place December 6th thru the 8th and I'll be a featured author during the weekend.

WOOHOO!!!



So you know what you should do? You should register and plan to come see me so I don't get lonely.

And don't wait - register RIGHT NOW. Like, right this very second. Why, you ask?

I'll let the super awesome fantastic organizers of the event explain why you should register RIGHT NOW:

So with the NEW ADULT SLEEPOVER WEEKEND getting more involved we figured we would do something fun!

For those sitting on the fence about attending and securing their spot early… we have a tipping point! 

If you register by June 15th we will enter you in a special drawing to win one of 5 special VIP baskets for you and your roommates to enjoy! So what’s in the VIP baskets?

Just like they do at awards ceremonies, VIP’s get perks! For NASW the winners of these baskets will be treated to entering their room where they will find a huge basket of goodies, including waters, a bottle of bubbly, snacks, chocolate, goodies from area merchants in Savannah(anything from merchandise to gift cards), Some great bath stuff and of course, candles! Everything you need to make an evening of reading that much more special!

And to sweeten the deal, every VIP winner also gets an extra 5 entries in your welcome prize event, where attending authors will be giving away tons of awesome prizes, including meals with them, drinks at the bar and other awesome things!

And guess what? Several of our featured authors have donated books for these baskets! So not only are you treated to the NASW royal treatment, but you’re going to get awesome books outta the deal too!

So what are you waiting for? A weekend with awesome NA authors, parties, prizes, books and memories that will last forever! 

Register RIGHT HERE!

SEE??? How awesome does that sound? Register early and WIN STUFF. And then come find me and say hello in December!!!

San Diego On My Mind

Have you wondered why I set IT WAS YOU in San Diego? Did you know that IF I FALL is also set there, too?



I don't live there now. But I used to.

And I wrote about why San Diego keeps popping up as my locale of choice over at I Read Indie .

It won't always be the place I write about. I've lived in Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota, Texas and Washington, DC, as well.

But there's a reason why I write about San Diego. Especially these kinds of books.

You'll have to check out my guest post to find out why. :)

Cover Reveal: IF I FALL by Anna Cruise

Sooooo...I've been pretty damn busy lately and here's why: My next book - IF I FALL - comes out in just a couple of weeks.

 *cue the pulling of hair and consumption of caffeine*

The book is now in editing and that's sort of a relief.

And then yesterday, I got this:


Um, yeah. That...is a COVER. A cover that I am absolutely thrilled about. Beyond what I originally imagined. But that's what happens when you hire a genius like Regina Wamba to design your book cover.

What's the story about, you ask? (Even if you didn't, just play along)

Meg Calloway is at the edge.

Reeling from her parents' sudden divorce, fifteen-year old Meg has never felt more alone. Her father is about to marry a woman she can't stand and her mother's only companion is an endless supply of alcohol. When Aidan Westwood, an older boy at school, shows interest in her, she grabs on and doesn't let go, thinking he's exactly what she needs to help stem her loneliness and despair. She quickly learns that Aidan lives a darker, more dangerous life than she does and the more isolated she feels from her family, the more willing she is to step into Aidan's world.

As Meg drifts further from her friends, she tries to find comfort with a boy who is opening her eyes up to new things, none of them good. Will she listen to those around her who are warning her that she's headed down a path of self-destruction?

Or will she fall too far...too fast...too deep?

When will it be available, you ask??? (Again - play along)

Looks like second week of April. Maybe sooner.

So, go. Go tell all your friends. And your enemies. Tell them IF I FALL by Anna Cruise is coming. Tell them to add it on Goodreads or find out more on Facebook and Twitter.

And don't forget to show them this amazing cover. 

A Thoroughly Introspective Blog On Genuine Dialogue. (Or As A Guy Would Say: "A Totally Cool Blog About Words And I Totally Want To Have Sex With You.")

I absolutely adore reading New Adult and Young Adult books. It's one of the main reasons why I write those genres.
I love the girls and the stages they're at in their lives. I can totally relate to those moments from my own youth (and, no, I am NOT sixty!!), to all of the angst and uncertainty and adrenaline-fueled excitement.
But—let's be honest—I love the guys in those books more.
Hot. Charming. Sensual. Cryptic. Maddening.


Sigh.
They are delicious.
But one thing that sometimes bugs when I read? The way these guys supposedly think/talk.
I know, I know. This is all fantasy and wish fulfillment, right? We want guys to shower us with words of undying love. To praise us for our uncommon beauty and our flawless grace.
But what guy really talks like that?
I'll tell you how many.
NONE.


Confession time.
I have a guy writer friend who is...well, awesome. He writes best-selling books, even. Hell, some of you might have even read his stuff.
Guess who reads every single piece of dialogue that comes out of my male characters' mouths before I hit the publish button? Guess who emails me or calls me up and says, “Oh my God. No self-respecting guy on the planet would ever say this shit!”
He does.
And I think he makes my writing better because of it. West in IT WAS YOU is a real guy. He's sarcastic and funny and a bit of an ass. But he says some of the right things—OK, a lot of the right things—to Abby.
In my newest YA, IF I FALL, Aidan is a real guy. Guess what? He's sarcastic and funny and a bit of an ass. And, despite the fact that he is a true bad boy, he says an awful lot of the right things to Meg, too.

So, in an attempt to avoid edits and just work in general, my writer friend (I'll call him Dylan) and I made up some sample dialogue: a fake attempt by me...and his "real-guy" translation. (Note: All samples were made up on the spot for this blog post and are notfrom any published source.)
“You are the moon to my stars, the sun to my clouds.”REAL GUY translation: “You're super fucking hot. I totally want to have sex with you.”
“I loved you from the first moment I saw you. I will love you forever, until I take my last dying breath.”REAL GUY translation: “You are totally hotter than my last girlfriend. I totally want to have sex with you.”
“I'm going to make you feel things you've never felt before. I'm going to touch you the way no guy has ever touched you. I'm going to make this feel like your first time, baby.”REAL GUY translation: “I took a shower and my hands are clean. I totally want to have sex with you.”
Her eyes were like the ocean and I found myself drowning in them.REAL GUY translation: She looked so hot in a bikini and I totally pictured myself having sex with her.
Her hair looked like melted honey, soft and gorgeous and perfectly combed.REAL GUY translation: Her hair looked awesome and I totally wanted to have sex with her.
OK, so even though this is totally what guys are alwaysthinking...


...it might not make for a very good book. Because even though we know guys always want sex, we don't necessarily need to be reminded of it every third sentence in a book. Unless we're reading porn, of course.
So, here are my real examples of real guy translations:“You are the moon to my stars,” he said. “The sun to my clouds.”“There's something about you,” he said. “Don't know what it is, but it's something special.”
Or:
“I loved you from the first moment I saw you,” he said. “I will love you forever, until I take my last dying breath.”“I'm just gonna come out and say it,” he said. “I...I love you.”

Notice something?
It's not flowery.
It's not pretty purple prose.
I know, it doesn't sound as beautiful as the made-up sentences. But it's real. It's what my man says to me.

Maybe there are some guys out there who talk all flowery and shit. Maybe their dialogue is just like a poem or a love song. But I'll tell you this: of all the guys I've dated or hooked up with, I've never met one of them. 
And I'm OK with that. I don't know about you, but I'll take my real guy over any book boyfriend out there.
Even West.

I Love You Right This Very Second

Do you believe in love?
Insta-love, that is.

It's one of the biggest complaints about YA and NA books. You know the set up. Vulnerable (or angry...or hurt...or other adjective) girl meets troubled but sensitive smokin' hot boy and they immediately fall in love.
I'll be the first to admit, the whole first meeting, “I've-just-met-you-but-I-love-you-and-want-to-marry-you” is a little over the top. OK, a lot over the top.
But the other kind of insta-love? The kind where two people meet and sparks fly and suddenly they can't keep their hands off of each other?


Is that believable?
Hell yes.
Because I've been there.
No, I'm not in my early twenties anymore (thank God). But I remember my teen years and my twenties like they were yesterday. And, trust me, I fell in love faster than ice cream melted in the San Diego sunshine.
That rush of emotions. Feeling like every nerve in your body is on fire the minute your new guy touches you, lays eyes on you. Wanting to spend every waking minute with him (and every other minute, too...). Setting absolutely everything in life aside for this one person, this person you just met a week ago.
Was I the only one this happened to??
Was I the only one who daydreamed about a future with every single guy I dated? Did anyone else go out on a date or hook up with some guy and then go home and practice writing out their last name...with your own first name? Mine sorta looked like this:
Anna ShelbyAnna FernandezAnna WestwoodAnna LeMare
I might have had relationships where someone whispered "I love you" a week after we met. And I might have whispered it back. Because even though there was no way I could genuinely know every facet of every one of my boyfriends-of-the-month (or week...or day...), I loved what I did know about him--what he looked like and how he made me feel.

Insta-love is one of the beautiful things about being young. It's about embracing—fully—every single thing that happens to you. Grabbing it and holding on and running at breakneck speed. And, no, it ain't gonna last. It won't sustain. It'll run out of gas.
But it's there.
And for those few hours...or days...or weeks...it's one hundred percent real love.



Insta-love might not be what lasting relationships and marriages are made of. But it's absolutely real.
And I plan to keep writing about it.

It's Not What. It's Why.

The publishing industry seems to have given birth.


No, not to a brand new screaming, pink-faced baby—that would be weird—but to a new category.
Welcome to the world, New Adult.

I know, I know. NA isn't really new anymore. I mean, if you’ve been paying even the tiniest bit of attention to the bestseller lists over the last eighteen months, you’ve seen the NA books dominating the lists. There was this weird gray area at the beginning where no one seemed to know how to categorize these books featuring college-aged/early twenties men and women living somewhat messy lives. Messy because they’re at that point in life where no one knows exactly who the hell they are or what they want—well, besides a hot boyfriend/girlfriend, a job that gets their parents off their backs, some spending cash, access to alcohol and, of course, sex.
And, now, everyone seems in a rush to define what NA is. Which I think is a little silly because it’s pretty difficult to define any genre or category. Mysteries and romances span the gamut as to what they cover. Science fiction and fantasy encompass a multitude of themes and worlds. There aren’t one sentence definitions for those categories and there isn’t a one sentence definition for NA, either.
I think a better question is WHY? Why the hell is this new category more popular than a naked Channing Tatum handing out hundred dollar bills on a street corner? OK, that might be an exaggeration. I'd certainly abandon all of my reading materials for a piece of that...
I’ll tell you why. The people reading these books—mostly women from late teens into their forties—are finally finding something they can relate to. And escape to.
Did your college years suck because you dated some loser? BOOM. Here’s a book with the awesome boyfriend you wished you’d held out for.
Did your first time in the sack totally suck because the guy you were with didn’t have a freaking clue? BOOM. Here’s a book with this incredibly sexually talented dude who can make your toes curl just by looking at you.
Did your best friend suck because she dated the guy youwanted to date? BOOM. Here’s a book with a best friend who will walk through a wall of fire (and fat guys) for you.

And were your early twenties just a blur of job interviews and indecision and bad dates and overall just a terribly unexciting time? BOOM BOOM BOOM. Here’s a whole plethora of books that offer up the drama you wished you’d been a part of.
Because let’s face it. We wish guys had fought over us. We wish guys would have stared at us across a crowded room and tossed people aside to get to us. We wish the guy who'd asked us turned out to be a billionaire. We wish the guy we'd hooked up with made our eyes roll back in our heads the first time we slept together. And we wish for the happily ever after that every single girl grows up wanting.
Because life isn’t always happily ever after. Maybe you settled. Maybe you fell out of love. Maybe your kid threw up in your lap this morning. Maybe you’re out of work. Maybe a loved one has died. Maybe you don’t know what the hell is wrong other than you know something’s wrong.
NA provides an escape. And maybe some hope, too. Maybe the happily ever after is still out there like it is for (insert your own favorite characters and books here). It’s okay to want it and to chase it and read about it.
That, I think, is why NA has exploded. Because it’s exciting to think about all of the possibilities. To get an imaginary do-over.
And I don’t think it’s a fleeting thing. NA has tapped into a part of our lives that’s never really been covered in books. We don’t need flowery language or thought-provoking themes or fancy awards. We just need books that speak to a time in our lives that is/was both exciting and stressful.


Our instructions to these books is this: Take me away and let me do it right. Let me make it more exciting. Let me hope.
You wanna try and define it? You go right ahead.

It Was You Is Out. So What's Next?

Thanks to everyone who is helping to spread the word about IT WAS YOU. HUGS AND KISSES ALL AROUND!!!

One of the questions I keep getting is "What's next?" Here's a rundown:

First - I'm going to eat breakfast.

Then I'm going to work on a YA novel that's nearly complete. It, too, is set in San Diego and features Meg, a high school girl who hooks up with the wrong boy as the rest of her life slowly begins to implode.

Then I'm going to work on another YA novel--from a boy's point of view. Mick witnessed something awful, something he really wished he wouldn't have seen...and is now dealing with the guilt and consequences of having done nothing to stop it.

For those of you thinking, "Why YA? I like New Adult!" --  well, these stories demanded a slightly younger point of view. These are high school kids. A little broken, a little damaged. We can call them Mature YA. (YES! Yet another sub category in the genre!)

And THEN I'm going to work on my next New Adult title about a girl who is forced home from college just before Christmas. Not because it's break time and not because it's the holidays, but because her mother squandered her college savings account. Yeah, she's not happy. But she just might meet someone who makes coming back home more than worthwhile.

And THEN...I'm going to work on Tana's story from IT WAS YOU. Because she's a little lonely up in San Luis. And her grades are kind of sucking. And she just might need some tutoring from the hottest loner she's ever met.

So, when are these releasing? SOON. Like, I'm shooting for a book a month.

Be sure to follow me either here or on Facebook or on Twitter for the latest updates.

IT WAS YOU is HERE!!

Hey, peeps! IT WAS YOU is finally here -- well, not here, but on Amazon. Pop on over and grab your copy!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book. E-mail me, like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter or friend me on Goodreads. There is nothing better than hooking up with the people who read my books. Well, reviews are nice, too...but you know what I mean!