Julianna Keyes's Blog - Posts Tagged "undeclared"
"Undeclared" Now Available for Pre-Order!
I have officially (and finally) declared (see what I did there?) February 27, 2017 as the release day for “Undeclared,” book two in the Burnham College series. It’s been a long time coming, and we’re nearly there.
The pre-order price for “Undeclared” will be $2.99USD, rising to $3.99USD (regular price) on release day. Paperbacks will be available as well, but not for pre-order, mostly because they’re not ready yet, and also because the last time I made one it went live immediately, about a week and a half too soon. Lesson learned, Createspace. Lesson learned.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know this has been a long road for me. I’ve tried to keep the complaining and panicking to a minimum, but I can honestly say that without those #WednesdayWIPReports and the responses to keep me motivated, I might have given up long ago. I could try to put a spin on things and say how it’s life imitating art, how Kellan’s struggles mirror mine, but that’s annoying. This book was hard! But it was worth it. As someone who has read it approximately 100 million times and is not at all biased—it’s good. Honest. If you can laugh at a joke 99 million times, you’re onto something. And if your cold, dead heart resumes a hopeful beating when you read the last page—you’re really onto something. Or on something. Let’s not look too closely.
You can check out the excerpt I’ve added to my website, you can pre-order and save yourself a buck, or you can wait until the reviews come in and decide for yourself. And if you’re a reviewer, the book should be up on NetGalley by the weekend.
Thank you all in advance (and after the fact) for your support!
Amazon US: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B01MUKDJIF/
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/unde...
**Buy links for B&N and iBooks should be live soon!
The pre-order price for “Undeclared” will be $2.99USD, rising to $3.99USD (regular price) on release day. Paperbacks will be available as well, but not for pre-order, mostly because they’re not ready yet, and also because the last time I made one it went live immediately, about a week and a half too soon. Lesson learned, Createspace. Lesson learned.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know this has been a long road for me. I’ve tried to keep the complaining and panicking to a minimum, but I can honestly say that without those #WednesdayWIPReports and the responses to keep me motivated, I might have given up long ago. I could try to put a spin on things and say how it’s life imitating art, how Kellan’s struggles mirror mine, but that’s annoying. This book was hard! But it was worth it. As someone who has read it approximately 100 million times and is not at all biased—it’s good. Honest. If you can laugh at a joke 99 million times, you’re onto something. And if your cold, dead heart resumes a hopeful beating when you read the last page—you’re really onto something. Or on something. Let’s not look too closely.
You can check out the excerpt I’ve added to my website, you can pre-order and save yourself a buck, or you can wait until the reviews come in and decide for yourself. And if you’re a reviewer, the book should be up on NetGalley by the weekend.
Thank you all in advance (and after the fact) for your support!
Amazon US: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B01MUKDJIF/
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/unde...
**Buy links for B&N and iBooks should be live soon!
"Undeclared" Release Week - Post 1
UNDECLARED
RELEASE WEEK POST 1
SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Supporting characters are a tricky thing. You want them to be great, but not so great that readers wish the story was about them instead. You want them to be familiar enough that they don’t feel like strangers popping in and out of the story at convenient (or inconvenient) moments, but you don’t want them to feel familiar because they’re taking up too much page space. At the same time, they can’t be so infrequent that readers have to flip back to remember who they are each time they make an appearance, either. They have to add value without detracting—it’s a difficult balancing act.
“Undeclared” has a lot of supporting characters, most of whom we met in “Undecided.” Crosbie and Nora are back, of course, and so are Marcela and Nate. We get to know Dane, Kellan’s frat brother who we met briefly in book one, and a new frat brother named Choo. These characters represent three different relationship dynamics: Crosbie and Nora are the settled down couple Kellan is terrified of becoming; Marcela and Nate are the dysfunctional pair he’s also terrified of becoming; and Choo and Dane are the safer middle ground.
When Kellan started college he had a vision of what his life was supposed to be like, the college life we see in the movies. And it’s only now that he has that life that he’s realizing it might not be what he wants. As the story develops and the various relationships deepen, he finds himself with a ragtag circle of friends he might not have expected, but most definitely needs.
If we were handing out awards for Best Supporting Character, I think we’d all agree that title would go to Marcela, and if we dared give it to someone else, she’d pull a Kanye and get up on stage and take the mic anyway. Characters like Marcela are a gift to authors: they’re impulsive and decisive, they take action, and they’re admirable even when they’re horrible. Marcela is a constant lurking threat of terror for Kellan, showing up to shove him along the story whenever he might linger or turn back. She’s not a friend he would have chosen, but he’s stuck with her now, even if she’s just as likely to club him with her award as mention him in her acceptance speech.
RELEASE WEEK POST 1
SUPPORT SYSTEMS
Supporting characters are a tricky thing. You want them to be great, but not so great that readers wish the story was about them instead. You want them to be familiar enough that they don’t feel like strangers popping in and out of the story at convenient (or inconvenient) moments, but you don’t want them to feel familiar because they’re taking up too much page space. At the same time, they can’t be so infrequent that readers have to flip back to remember who they are each time they make an appearance, either. They have to add value without detracting—it’s a difficult balancing act.
“Undeclared” has a lot of supporting characters, most of whom we met in “Undecided.” Crosbie and Nora are back, of course, and so are Marcela and Nate. We get to know Dane, Kellan’s frat brother who we met briefly in book one, and a new frat brother named Choo. These characters represent three different relationship dynamics: Crosbie and Nora are the settled down couple Kellan is terrified of becoming; Marcela and Nate are the dysfunctional pair he’s also terrified of becoming; and Choo and Dane are the safer middle ground.
When Kellan started college he had a vision of what his life was supposed to be like, the college life we see in the movies. And it’s only now that he has that life that he’s realizing it might not be what he wants. As the story develops and the various relationships deepen, he finds himself with a ragtag circle of friends he might not have expected, but most definitely needs.
If we were handing out awards for Best Supporting Character, I think we’d all agree that title would go to Marcela, and if we dared give it to someone else, she’d pull a Kanye and get up on stage and take the mic anyway. Characters like Marcela are a gift to authors: they’re impulsive and decisive, they take action, and they’re admirable even when they’re horrible. Marcela is a constant lurking threat of terror for Kellan, showing up to shove him along the story whenever he might linger or turn back. She’s not a friend he would have chosen, but he’s stuck with her now, even if she’s just as likely to club him with her award as mention him in her acceptance speech.
"Undeclared" Release Week Post 2!
UNDECLARED
RELEASE WEEK POST 2
TIME TO WRAP IT UP
Figuring out when to write “The End” is harder than you might expect. Figuring out whether or not you need an epilogue is also a challenge. Some time ago (quite a long time ago, actually) I wrote a post about Want vs. Need, and I generally use that thought process to determine whether or not a story should have an epilogue. As a reader, I’m fairly indifferent. I don’t love them, I don’t hate them. Sometimes it’s an unnecessary bonus, a few extra pages with characters you’ve grown to love. Sometimes it’s necessary – the main story resolved, but we need to see a bit farther into the future to know for certain that things have worked out the way we hoped.
I wrote the epilogue for “Undecided” because I wanted to. I don’t believe it’s wholly necessary, but because so many of the story beats were centered on holidays, it seemed fun to include an epilogue that took place on Valentine’s Day. Lots of readers loved it, though I did see a review that actually deducted a star simply because it existed. Not much you can do about that!
“Undeclared” doesn’t have an epilogue because I don’t think it’s necessary, and I really have no idea what it would be about. Because it wouldn’t have any new information, I didn’t want to write something simply for the sake of it. Kellan and Andi have known each other their whole lives, and once they got their HEA, there was no new ground to cover. I’ve already had a few comments from people saying they wish there was an epilogue, and that’s when want vs. need comes back into play. I don’t think this book needs one, so it doesn’t have one. (Though, in hindsight, I think “Going the Distance” should have had an epilogue, and I now regret that I didn’t include one.)
Writing a book is hard. Getting to the end is hard. And knowing when you’ve reached that “real” end is hard too. It’s just something you know in your gut. Sometimes I shunt aside the want vs. need question and ask myself if I’m satisfied with the story. And that’s my answer.
The end.
I hope.
RELEASE WEEK POST 2
TIME TO WRAP IT UP
Figuring out when to write “The End” is harder than you might expect. Figuring out whether or not you need an epilogue is also a challenge. Some time ago (quite a long time ago, actually) I wrote a post about Want vs. Need, and I generally use that thought process to determine whether or not a story should have an epilogue. As a reader, I’m fairly indifferent. I don’t love them, I don’t hate them. Sometimes it’s an unnecessary bonus, a few extra pages with characters you’ve grown to love. Sometimes it’s necessary – the main story resolved, but we need to see a bit farther into the future to know for certain that things have worked out the way we hoped.
I wrote the epilogue for “Undecided” because I wanted to. I don’t believe it’s wholly necessary, but because so many of the story beats were centered on holidays, it seemed fun to include an epilogue that took place on Valentine’s Day. Lots of readers loved it, though I did see a review that actually deducted a star simply because it existed. Not much you can do about that!
“Undeclared” doesn’t have an epilogue because I don’t think it’s necessary, and I really have no idea what it would be about. Because it wouldn’t have any new information, I didn’t want to write something simply for the sake of it. Kellan and Andi have known each other their whole lives, and once they got their HEA, there was no new ground to cover. I’ve already had a few comments from people saying they wish there was an epilogue, and that’s when want vs. need comes back into play. I don’t think this book needs one, so it doesn’t have one. (Though, in hindsight, I think “Going the Distance” should have had an epilogue, and I now regret that I didn’t include one.)
Writing a book is hard. Getting to the end is hard. And knowing when you’ve reached that “real” end is hard too. It’s just something you know in your gut. Sometimes I shunt aside the want vs. need question and ask myself if I’m satisfied with the story. And that’s my answer.
The end.
I hope.
"Undeclared" Release Week Post 3!
UNDECLARED
RELEASE WEEK POST 3
W.I.P.
If you’ve been following along on my Facebook page, you know that WIP has traditionally stood for Work In Progress. Now that “Undeclared” has been released into the world, W.I.P. can stand for something else! (Well, today it can.)
Today those three little letters mean Win an Interesting Prize! The prize includes a signed copy of “Undeclared,” and comes with some interesting (obvs) secret bonus gifts to thrill one lucky winner. To enter, all you have to do is like my Facebook author page (www.facebook.com/JuliannaKeyesAuthor) and tell me in the Facebook comments: What else do you think W.I.P. could stand for? (Wow, I’m Pretty! Wild Indigenous Porcupines!) I’ll pick a winner from the Facebook entries on Friday.
Open internationally.
Wanted: Invigorated Postulating
Good luck!
RELEASE WEEK POST 3
W.I.P.
If you’ve been following along on my Facebook page, you know that WIP has traditionally stood for Work In Progress. Now that “Undeclared” has been released into the world, W.I.P. can stand for something else! (Well, today it can.)
Today those three little letters mean Win an Interesting Prize! The prize includes a signed copy of “Undeclared,” and comes with some interesting (obvs) secret bonus gifts to thrill one lucky winner. To enter, all you have to do is like my Facebook author page (www.facebook.com/JuliannaKeyesAuthor) and tell me in the Facebook comments: What else do you think W.I.P. could stand for? (Wow, I’m Pretty! Wild Indigenous Porcupines!) I’ll pick a winner from the Facebook entries on Friday.
Open internationally.
Wanted: Invigorated Postulating
Good luck!
"Undeclared" Release Week Post 4!
UNDECLARED
RELEASE WEEK POST 4
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING
When starting a new book, readers have expectations. If it’s a comedy they want to laugh, if it’s horror they want to be scared, if it’s romance they want to swoon. Writers have expectations, too. When we sit down to write comedy, we want it to be funny. We want romance to be romantic, and we want horror to keep you awake at night.
When I write, I normally have a general outline. Nothing too specific, but I divide the story into acts and make sure events are happening at certain times to keep the story on pace. I know the characters, their voices, their hopes and fears, what they want and what they need. And I generally know the plot.
That all went out the window when I started “Undeclared.” I knew a lot of things, when I started. And then slowly but surely, they started to change. They morphed into something different, then back to the original, then into something entirely different all over again. I thought I knew what to expect with this story, but I didn’t. That’s not my writing style, and it kind of drove me crazy. I mean, when I write, it’s not simply because I love writing (though I do). It’s because my end goal is to publish a book. That’s hard to do when the story won’t cooperate.
As I was working I thought of the parallels of my own difficulties writing Kellan’s story, and Kellan’s challenges within the story. Then I thought, that’s so annoying. I don’t want to talk about that. And as the story slowly unfurled itself, it turned into something new. It surprised me, in a nerve-wracking but ultimately delightful way. And that’s the real parallel between Kellan’s story and mine. We went into the experience (college for Kellan, the book for me) thinking we knew what we wanted it to be, and it simply refused to cooperate with our expectations. It put us through the wringer on the way, but once we got to the end and looked back, I reluctantly admit that the torture was worth it.
As a general rule I prefer to be the one telling the story, but this time it was the other way around, and once I stopped expecting this book to be what I wanted it to be, I think it became exactly what it was supposed to be.
RELEASE WEEK POST 4
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING
When starting a new book, readers have expectations. If it’s a comedy they want to laugh, if it’s horror they want to be scared, if it’s romance they want to swoon. Writers have expectations, too. When we sit down to write comedy, we want it to be funny. We want romance to be romantic, and we want horror to keep you awake at night.
When I write, I normally have a general outline. Nothing too specific, but I divide the story into acts and make sure events are happening at certain times to keep the story on pace. I know the characters, their voices, their hopes and fears, what they want and what they need. And I generally know the plot.
That all went out the window when I started “Undeclared.” I knew a lot of things, when I started. And then slowly but surely, they started to change. They morphed into something different, then back to the original, then into something entirely different all over again. I thought I knew what to expect with this story, but I didn’t. That’s not my writing style, and it kind of drove me crazy. I mean, when I write, it’s not simply because I love writing (though I do). It’s because my end goal is to publish a book. That’s hard to do when the story won’t cooperate.
As I was working I thought of the parallels of my own difficulties writing Kellan’s story, and Kellan’s challenges within the story. Then I thought, that’s so annoying. I don’t want to talk about that. And as the story slowly unfurled itself, it turned into something new. It surprised me, in a nerve-wracking but ultimately delightful way. And that’s the real parallel between Kellan’s story and mine. We went into the experience (college for Kellan, the book for me) thinking we knew what we wanted it to be, and it simply refused to cooperate with our expectations. It put us through the wringer on the way, but once we got to the end and looked back, I reluctantly admit that the torture was worth it.
As a general rule I prefer to be the one telling the story, but this time it was the other way around, and once I stopped expecting this book to be what I wanted it to be, I think it became exactly what it was supposed to be.
