Rachael Allen's Blog, page 3

From rough query to polished query to cover copy (or Why I love my critique group)

Today I’m showing you the evolution from the rough query for 17 FIRST KISSES to the polished query to cover copy for the book.
First up, the rough query. I wrote it all excited to send 17FK out into the agent world, but I knew it needed work (side note: even if you don’t think it needs work, if the query has never been seen by eyes other than yours, it does.). Here’s what I sent to my critique group:

Claire Jenkins has kissed the biggest jerk in school and all five members of the band Screaming Lemurs, but she still doesn’t have a boyfriend. Having to keep her messed up family a secret makes bringing a guy home problematic. Then she meets a new boy named Luke (and she can actually talk to him). The best part: Luke's a transfer student, so he's one of the only attractive guys at Rutherford High who hasn't been tainted by Megan McQueen, the most popular girl in school and Claire’s best friend.
Claire wants him. Bad. But so does Megan.
Megan gets Luke, just like she’s gotten every other guy she’s ever wanted, and Claire is crushed. But when Luke starts to realize he made the wrong choice, Claire must choose whether she wants him enough to steal him from her best friend.
17 FIRST KISSES is a young adult novel set in Atlanta, GA and is complete at 61,000 words. The story alternates between Claire's senior year and each of the 17 kisses. It’s a story about a complicated friendship, a family dealing with loss, and lots and lots of kissing.

My critique group gave me a ton of great feedback (seriously, they are amazing! LOVE all of them!):-       We need a better sense of who Claire is and what her dilemma is so we can relate to the stakes better.-       Could I get Claire’s family issues into the query somehow?-       We need to know why Luke is so special that these two girls are risking their friendship to go after him.-       Could I show off the small town setting?-       Could I put more emphasis on how the title fits in with the story since that’s a fun part of the book?-       The third paragraph needs to end with more of a bang.-       Could I show more than Megan’s queen bee side in the query?
I took it all in and put together the query below (I love this one so much more!), which is what I sent to agents (sometimes I added a personalized sentence to the last paragraph). It had a pretty good request rate, and it ended up landing me the fabulous Susan Hawk ☺


No matter how many boys Claire Jenkins kisses, she can’t seem to find a decent boyfriend. A boy who won’t decide he’d rather be dating her best friend Megan. A boy who won’t freak out when he realizes her family never recovered from her brother’s death. A boy whose kisses can carry her away from her backwoods town for one fleeting moment.
Claire’s already at 12 kisses and counting when she meets a new boy named Luke. He tells her some dark family secrets of his own, and she thinks maybe he could understand her. Plus, he’s a transfer student, so he's one of the only cute guys at Rutherford High who hasn’t been mesmerized by Megan, the most popular girl in school and Claire’s biggest support in a crisis.
Claire wants him. Bad. But so does Megan.


As usual, Megan gets the guy, while Claire gets to be ‘happy’ for her. But when Luke starts to realize he’s dating the wrong girl, Claire must choose whether backstabbing her best friend is worth a chance at love. And whether Luke’s secrets are worth all the drama.


17 FIRST KISSES is a 70,000 word YA contemporary that alternates between Claire's senior year and each of the 17 kisses. It’s a story about a complicated friendship, a family dealing with loss, and lots and lots of kissing.
17 FIRST KISSES would appeal to fans of THE BOYFRIEND LIST and 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES. Thank you for your time and consideration.

After you sign with an agent, your query will likely become the basis for the pitch letter they send to editors, which could eventually become the basis for the copy that goes on the back of your book. I love my cover copy even more than my query – it was so much fun to watch it get better with every iteration. Also, my editor came up with the tagline, and I am kind of in love with it ☺

[tagline] Sometimes a girl has to kiss a lot of frogs…
No matter how many boys Claire kisses, she can’t seem to find a decent boyfriend. Someone who wouldn’t rather date her gorgeous best friend, Megan. Someone who won’t freak out when he learns about the tragedy her family still hasn’t recovered from. Someone whose kisses can carry her away from her backwoods town for one fleeting moment.
Until Claire meets Luke.
Luke is adorable and he’s lived all over the world. But Megan is falling for Luke, too, and if there’s one thing Claire knows for sure, it’s that Megan’s pretty much irresistible.
With true love and best friendship on the line, Claire suddenly has everything to lose. And what she learns—about her crush, her friends, and most of all herself—makes the choices even harder.


In her moving debut, Rachael Allen brilliantly captures the complexities of friendship, the struggles of self-discovery, and the difficulties of trying to find love in high school. Fans of Sarah Ockler, Susane Colasanti, and Stephanie Perkins will fall head over heels for this addictive, heartfelt, and often hilarious modern love story.


Day 7 of the 17 days until 17 FIRST KISSES countdown. Other posts  here .

First Kiss Friday with Emery Lord + OPEN ROAD SUMMER (Signed!) Giveaway

I'm so excited right now, I can't even tell you, because for today's First Kiss Friday, I have Emery Lord, author of OPEN ROAD SUMMER. If you follow me on Twitter or Goodreads or talk to me ever, you know that I can't stop talking about this book. It's hilarious and heartwarming and has some of the best friendship scenes ever. It's also my favorite book of 2014 so far.
And now, here's Emery ☺
____________________________
J was kind of an enigma in high school. I knew who he was before we really met. He was smart and kind and quiet and cool, but not in a Cool Kid way. In a genuinely-don't-care-what-you-think way. He played drumset, didn't have a curfew...and was on Team Physics. So, needless to say, he was (and still can be) hard to read if you don't know him. Our first date was going so well. We'd been out for, I kid you not, 10 hours on a Saturday, roving around our favorite spots in our hometown. At a certain point, late, I started to mentally prepare to be the initiator. I mean, he is both so confident...and so hard to read. So I wasn't quite sure if he'd go for it.

Um, he did. The whole world (words and shapes and colors) blurred around me, gone. Got lightheaded. Still do :) (Married him)

Emery Lord is the author of OPEN ROAD SUMMER. She writes books about complicated families and the friends who save your life just by showing up and your worst mistakes and that boy who gets you like no one else ever has and the summer that changed everything.



The Giveaway!!
All you have to do to win a signed copy of OPEN ROAD SUMMER is comment below (Oh, and talk to me when you're done with it so we can fangirl together)! (Note: giveaway ends midnight June 17th. Available to US entries only.)

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

Add OPEN ROAD SUMMER on Goodreads.

Day 6 of the 17 days until 17 FIRST KISSES countdown. Other posts  here .

I love everybody

Instead of doing the post I was going to do today for the 17 FIRST KISSES Countdown, I need to say thank you.

After my post on Tuesday, there was such a huge outpouring of love and support from my family, friends, and the YA community. I can't tell you how much I appreciated every tweet, email, message, and comment. I'm so glad my story could touch so many people, and I'm so grateful to you all!

And for those of you that don't know, my story had a very happy ending. If we had had the other baby, it would have been impossible for us to have our daughter. She's the most special little girl, and I can't imagine a world without her in it.

((((hugs to all the people))))

xoxo,

Rachael


Day 5 of the 17 days until 17 FIRST KISSES countdown. Other posts  here .

Waiting on Wednesday: BEHIND THE SCENES by Dahlia Adler

There's no way I can talk about myself and my book for 17 straight days, so for Day 4 of the 17 FIRST KISSES countdown, I'm going to talk about another book I'm really excited about: BEHIND THE SCENES by the fabulous Dahlia Adler. Check it out!



High school senior Ally Duncan's best friend may be the Vanessa Park - star of TV's hottest new teen drama - but Ally's not interested in following in her BFF's Hollywood footsteps. In fact, the only thing Ally's ever really wanted is to go to Columbia and study abroad in Paris. But when her father's mounting medical bills threaten to stop her dream in its tracks, Ally nabs a position as Van's on-set assistant to get the cash she needs. 

Spending the extra time with Van turns out to be fun, and getting to know her sexy co-star Liam is an added bonus. But when the actors' publicist arranges for Van and Liam to "date" for the tabloids just after he and Ally share their first kiss, Ally will have to decide exactly what role she's capable of playing in their world of make believe. If she can't play by Hollywood's rules, she may lose her best friend, her dream future, and her first shot at love.



Why I can't wait for this book: I loved the Between the Lines series by Tammara Webber and OPEN ROAD SUMMER by Emery Lord, and I feel like if those two books had a book baby, it would be this book. Plus, I can tell I'm going to love Ally just from reading the blurb, and that always gets me super excited about a book :)




Day 4 of the 17 days until 17 FIRST KISSES countdown. Other posts here .

Why I had to write this book

When people ask me where I got the idea for 17 FIRST KISSES, I tell them I found a box of notes when I was cleaning and I wanted to write a book that captured different life stages and I thought of the title, and the rest of the book fell out from there. And it’s true, it really is. But it doesn’t get at the question of why I wrote the book, which is a much different (sadder) story.
The much different, sadder story of why I had to write 17 FIRST KISSES:
In January of 2010, my husband and I were sitting in a doctor’s office examination room practically giddy with glee. Five minutes earlier, we had found out we were having a son (a son!), and now we were attempting to agree on a baby name, discuss what his nose would look like, and text everyone we knew all at the same time. We were getting pretty far into our list too because the ultrasound tech had disappeared to find the doctor after having some “trouble visualizing the baby’s heart,” but who cared! We were having a son, and he was bound to be made of awesome!
And then the doctor arrived. And we found out our son had a heart defect, the worst one you can have. We went through all kinds of tests to figure out if he was a candidate for surgery. A few weeks later, we lost him.
I was wrecked. And even though I had my husband, my family, my friends, and they were all so wonderful it’s more than any one person deserves, I needed to do something, on my own, for myself, to take my mind off things. I needed to…write a book about LOTS of kissing. This is the point where you’re thinking, ‘Wait. What?’ But that’s kind of what happened.
I’m normally a very upbeat, optimistic person, so when I found this box of notes and the spark on an idea, writing 17 FIRST KISSES seemed like a good way to get back to someone who felt more like me. But the crazy thing is, even though I set out to write this fun, shenanigans-filled book, the stuff I was going through ended up on the pages anyway. The book is still fun and there are still plenty of shenanigans, but there’s a somber thread running through it all.
And the somber thread is what grabbed my agent’s and then my editor’s attention. It reminds me of something Stephen King says in On Writing, about how you have to have bad things happen to you in order to have interesting things to write about. Or something like that.
Writing this book helped me rescue myself from the dark place. And I’m not saying writing can or should be used in place of counseling or therapy or actual medical attention. I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re trying a lot of things, and you’re up for trying just one more while you’re getting through something terrible – write it.
Maybe for you that means journaling every painful thing that’s happening to you so the pain feels more manageable or maybe it means writing about a fantastical world of heroes and dragons because what you really need is a little distraction (and because dragons are awesome).
And maybe you can’t read and write your way out of everything, but the trying can ease the heartache.
So, try.
Write.
Pull yourself out of the dark place because you have the power to do it.


Day 3 of the 17 days until 17 FIRST KISSES countdown. Other posts here .

17 FIRST KISSES Blurb Giveaway

For Day 2 of the 17 FIRST KISSES release day countdown, I have blurbs and a giveaway for you!

When we discussed blurbs, and my editor asked if I had anyone in mind who wrote in my genre, I made a list. A short one, but a bold one. These were women I admired. Some of them I had been reading for years, and were we really going to ask them to read my little book???
I was so nervous, I even sent along this disclaimer:
It isn't so much a realistic list as it is a list of authors I love/wish I could be like/shamelessly fangirl :)
I wasn’t expecting much. But then a blurb came in. And another. And then there were five (FIVE!) of them, and I was thrilled and ecstatic and doing awesome terrible dance moves around my living room.
I’m so excited to share these blurbs for 17 FIRST KISSES with you! And I’m giving away one book from each author, plus a copy of 17 FIRST KISSES below, so you should enter!

"With perfect pitch, 17 First Kisses delivers laughter, tears, and hopefulness in equal measure. A sincere, emotional journey that will stay with readers long after the last kiss."-       SARAH OCKLER, bestselling author of #scandal and Twenty Boy Summer

"An insightful story about how first kisses, friendship, and family shape who we become." - CORRINE JACKSON, author of If I Lie and the Sense Thieves trilogy

“Yes, there's plenty of kissing (awesome kissing), but this story's true highlight is the complex and real friendship between Claire and Megan. 17 First Kisses is a sunny and thoughtful debut with characters you won't soon forget.”- LINDSEY LEAVITT, author of Sean Griswold’s Head and The Chapel Wars

“Full of the best ingredients: savory and sweet at the same time!”- TERRA ELAN McVOY, author of Pureand Being Friends with Boys

“Hilarious and heartbreaking with a pitch perfect voice, 17 First Kissesis completely crush worthy. Claire is one of my favorite narrators since Ruby Oliver (The Boyfriend List).” - KARA TAYLOR, author of the Prep School Confidential series
Kara also included a fake blurb that makes me love her even more :)
Fake blurb: I devoured it in one sitting like one of Megan's soufflés!




THE GIVEAWAY!
What you will win:
#scandalor The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler (you pick)The Chapel Wars by Lindsey LeavittCriminal by Terra Elan McVoy – Oh, and it’s signed (!!!)Prep School Confidential by Kara TaylorIf I Lieby Corrine Jackson17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen (also signed)

What you have to do: Leave a comment (seriously, that’s it, and you could win all of these books).

Details: Open to US residents only. Must leave a comment by midnight EST, June 17, 2014.

17 Days till 17 FIRST KISSES Countdown!

Hi! My book 17 FIRST KISSES comes out on June 17th! When I’m not hyperventilating into a paper bag or skipping around my house singing an off-key version of “Defying Gravity”, you can find me here on my blog doing a 17 day countdown with all kinds of posts and prizes and silliness.
I’ll keep a running list below so it’s easy to find all the giveaways and stuff:
[Dude, it’s the first day. There is nothing here yet.]

And now, who better to help me with my countdown than The Count himself:


This blog post was brought to you by the number 17 and the letter R (as in random).

First Kiss Friday with Melissa Kantor + MAYBE ONE DAY (signed!) giveaway

For today’s First Kiss Friday, I have Melissa Kantor, author of a ton of books (check out her bio below! Holy wow!), including her newest MAYBE ONE DAY. I love books about friendship and books with that perfect balance of sweet and dark, so I can’t wait to read this one! Plus, MAYBE ONE DAY and 17 FIRST KISSES have the same editor (Jen Klonsky! Woot!). I’m so excited about this book, I’m giving away a signed (Yes, signed!) copy below.
And now, here’s Melissa ☺
_______________________________
Let me set the scene:


It's summer camp. A warm, breezy night. Clear, star-speckled sky. The boy I've been crushed out on for two summers has finally,finally asked me out, and now he's walking me back to my bunk after evening activity. We take a detour across an open field, supposedly (wink, wink) so he can show me how to locate the North Star (you find the Big Dipper, then draw a line straight up from the bowl of the ladle--but I digress). We find and admire it. Finally, he puts his hands on my shoulders and turns me towards him. My heart is pounding. 


This. Is. It. 


But he hesitates. "Hey," he says quietly. "Have you ever kissed anyone before?" 
Truthfully, I answer, "No" before asking, "Have you?"
"Yes," he answers. 
And then, before he can press his lips to mine, I quickly say, "Oh! I forgot. I have too." 


Oh. I forgot. I have too. 


I actually said those words. 


Like, When you asked if I had ever had another boy's lips on mine I said no because I am soooo sexually experienced that I simply cannot keep track of all my romantic encounters. It's not that I've never kissed anyone before. It's that I've kissed so many boys I sometimes get confused about having kissed any. You understand how that can happen to a person. Right? 


Oh. I forgot. I have too. 


Now that I am an adult, I sometimes say or do things that I am embarrassed about. Maybe I don't remember somebody's name even though we've been introduced multiple times. Maybe I claim to have read a book I only read a few pages of. Maybe I mispronounce a foreign word. 


But you know something? When that happens, I shouldn't bother to be embarrassed. What I should do is simply repeat the following six words to myself:


Oh. I forgot. I have too.


Because honestly, who could be embarrassed about anything after that?


Melissa Kantor is the author of MAYBE ONE DAY; Confessions of a Not It Girl, an ALA Booklist Best Romance Novel for Youth; If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince?,a YALSA Teens Top Ten Pick; The Breakup Bible, an ALA Best Books for Young Adults nominee; Girlfriend Material, a Junior Library Guild selection; and The Darlings Are Foreverand The Darlings in Love, a Junior Library Guild selection. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.

The Giveaway!!
Did you love that kiss story as much as I did? Do you want to win a signed copy of MAYBE ONE DAY (Hint: You do!)? Then, enter! (Note: giveaway ends April 29th at 11pm. Available to US entries only.)

Critically acclaimed author Melissa Kantor masterfully captures the joy of friendship, the agony of loss, and the unique experience of being a teenager in this poignant new novel about a girl grappling with her best friend's life-threatening illness.
Zoe and her best friend, Olivia, have always had big plans for the future, none of which included Olivia getting sick. Still, Zoe is determined to put on a brave face and be positive for her friend.
Even when she isn't sure what to say.
Even when Olivia misses months of school.
Even when Zoe starts falling for Calvin, Olivia's crush.
The one thing that keeps Zoe moving forward is knowing that Olivia will beat this, and everything will go back to the way it was before. It has to. Because the alternative is too terrifying for her to even imagine.

In this incandescent page-turner, which follows in the tradition of The Fault in Our Stars, Melissa Kantor artfully explores the idea that the worst thing to happen to you might not be something that is actually happening to you. Raw, irreverent, and honest, Zoe's unforgettable voice and story will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.


Add MAYBE ONE DAY on Goodreads.

CRIMINAL G-Chat with Terra Elan McVoy!

I am so SO excited today because:
1) I get to interview an author I've been a fan of for a long time, the fabulous Terra Elan McVoy!
2) I love her book CRIMINAL, and the paperback release happened April 8th, which means you should have been reading this book yesterday! (Yes, I had to squeeze in that lame joke.)
3) Terra had the idea for us to do a G-Chat interview, and it was super fun, and I'm excited to share it with you! But first, here's a little more info about CRIMINAL:
A searing and gripping read that explores the depths of desperation true love can inspire, from the author of Being Friends with Boys.
Nikki’s life is far from perfect, but at least she has Dee. Her friends tell her that Dee is no good, but Nikki can’t imagine herself without him. He’s hot, he’s dangerous, he has her initials tattooed over his heart, and she loves him more than anything. There’s nothing Nikki wouldn’t do for Dee. Absolutely nothing.
So when Dee pulls Nikki into a crime—a crime that ends in murder—Nikki tells herself that it’s all for true love. Nothing can break them apart. Not the police. Not the arrest that lands Nikki in jail. Not even the investigators who want her to testify against him.
But what if Dee had motives that Nikki knew nothing about? Nikki’s love for Dee is supposed to be unconditional…but even true love has a limit. And Nikki just might have reached hers.
Now, at this point, you are probably swooning over that blurb and that cover, and you may feel the need to rush out and buy CRIMINAL right now. It's cool, go right ahead :)
…you back? Okay, good! Here's the interview:
Me: So, first of all, I was snooping on your website and saw that CRIMINAL has been nominated for an Edgar Award! 2:22 PMCongratulations! That is huge! 2:22 PM
Terra: Thank you! It was a shocking morning when I found out, for sure. Such a big honor and a nice way for the book to be recognized. 2:23 PMWe'll see what happens on May 1st! I have to buy a formal! 2:23 PM
Me: Oh! Fancy dresses and everything! That is very exciting! *crosses fingers for May* 2:24 PM
Me: So, I've mentioned this to you before, but my favorite part of CRIMINAL is how most YA/NA makes dating the bad boy seem sooo romantic and dreamy, and your book gives everybody a good whack with the truth stick and says, "This is what dating a bad boy actually does to you." 2:25 PMIs this something you set out to do, or did it just kind of happen? 2:25 PM
Terra: Well, I have done my share of bad boy romanticizing in my life. :) 2:26 PMTo be honest, I wasn't trying to do anything with CRIMINAL besides get in the head of someone like Nikki. 2:26 PMI think it's SO EASY to judge people who are different from us, or who do things we don't agree with. 2:27 PMMuch harder to actually empathize with them and see the human side of their story. The real trick was making Dee someone hot and exciting instead of just a slimeball. :) 2:27 PM
Me: Ha! Well, you did a great job there! No one can accuse Dee of not being hot. 2:28 PM
Terra: Thanks! 2:29 PM
Me: I really loved what you did with Nikki. And you're right, she causes you to think differently and really step into her life for a while. She's also very different from characters I've seen from you in the past. Did you do anything special to get in her head space? 2:30 PM
Terra: Environmental detail is really important to me in my character development, to help me get a handle on them and what their lives are like. 2:31 PMSo, I did a lot of interviews with people who either worked with incarcerated people, or people who had been in jail themselves. I found a lot of testimonials on a website for a local jail system, and that helped too. 2:31 PMI worked backwards from the murder, thinking what might be necessary to get Nikki to that place. 2:32 PMSo, her boyfriend is her whole life? She must not have many friends. Why not? She must not go to school. How come? She must have dropped out. Why would you drop out? 2:32 PMLike that. 2:32 PM
Me: I had been wondering about that. The amount of research that had to have gone into this book is mind boggling. I loved the prison scenes so much, and as I was reading them, I was like "How long did this take her? How did she make everything so real? DOES SHE HAVE A SECRET CRIMINAL PAST?!" 2:34 PMSo that makes a lot of sense. 2:34 PM
Terra: Hahahahaha. 2:35 PMNo, no jail records for me. But what was really fascinating during my research period was learning how very boring and banal jail actually is. 2:35 PMIt is not an "Oz" episode every day! Of course, Nikki wasn't in PRISON, she was in jail, which a lot of people don't know the distinction between. I didn't. 2:35 PM
Me: That is really interesting. And I didn't know that distinction either. And yes, movies and tv make it seem very dramatic and like your life is in danger every day. 2:36 PM
Terra: Which, I'm sure in some places, it is that way. 2:37 PM
Me: I really liked what a calm, structured influence it was on Nikki. And I LOVED the other girls. Priscilla. The hair stuff. And Cam and Bindi. I desperately want to give Bindi a hug! You can make that happen, right? 2:38 PMSeriously, though, tell me more about these girls! 2:38 PM
Terra: Oh I will give Bindi a hug for you, yes! Poor little thing. 2:38 PMWell, as we were talking about in terms of 17 FIRST KISSES, it's really important to me that secondary characters get just as much attention in the making-them-real department as the MC and etc. 2:39 PMI worked hard at that in PURE, and really in all of my books. 2:39 PMBut with Cam, Priscilla, and Bindi, it was mostly FUN. 2:39 PMI knew Nikki really needed a good influence in her life besides Bird, and that's where Priscilla came in. Where all of them came in, really, because one of Nikki's BIG problems is that she's been really isolated and hasn't had the power of good girlfriends in her life. 2:40 PM
Me: Totally agree. Isolation is a key player in the type of relationship Nikki is in. 2:41 PM
Terra: Nikki also needed to find out her own value without Dee. And that's where the hair stuff came in. It's a talent she hadn't thought of as a talent because it was what was buying her milk, you know? 2:42 PM
Me: That's very true. There was a bigger connection with her doing hair in jail versus on the outside, but I didn't think of it until now. 2:43 PM
Me: Kind of a different direction, but I feel like this book rides the YA/NA line because Nikki is a teen, but she isn’t going to school anymore and has some pretty grown up problems to deal with. I always recommend this book (and another YA, Rainbow Rowell’s FANGIRL) to people who love reading NA but are tired of the same old thing. With great results too! Everyone I’ve rec’d has been happy! Any thoughts on CRIMINAL and the YA/NA thing? 2:45 PM
Terra: Oh, hooray! And thank you so much for spreading it around! 2:46 PMOne thing that is interesting to me -this is a sideways start to your question- is that people LOVE YA, but get so impatient with YA characters. 2:46 PMYou'll see reviews that are like, "Put on your big girl panties already!" but the thing about teenagers is that they don't HAVE big girl panties yet. They are just learning how to make them. 2:47 PMI still get a lot of that with CRIMINAL, people wanting to slap Nikki for how dumb she is, but that's sort of the point of the book. 2:47 PM
Me: Bwahahaha. I love that about the big girl panties. 2:47 PM
Terra: You're watching her transition from Girl to Young Woman. She just happens to go to jail to do it. 2:47 PM
Me: Yeah, and I think that's kind of the point. Who wants to read a book where someone is completely strong and self-aware and has all the answers at the beginning? 2:48 PM
Terra: YA for me is interesting not to romanticize my past, or get all gooshy in nostalgia, but because that period of life is so difficult and interesting. 2:48 PM
Me: Nikki makes tremendous leaps during the book, but in real life, you have to earn those. And whenever she made a decision where I wanted to cheer for her, I felt like it had been earned, and that is so important. 2:49 PM
Terra: Oh thank you. You have no idea what a big compliment that is. 2:50 PM
Me: Also, I totally agree about why YA is interesting. 2:50 PM
Terra: About what you said about reading about self-aware characters and stuff, it feels as though, for some reason, we're more forgiving about messed-up characters in Adult fiction. 2:50 PMMaybe that's not wholly true, but I seem to see stuff all the time where a book gets bashed because the reviewer didn't adore the MC or wasn't able to superimpose her own face over the MC or whatever. 2:51 PM

Me: Yes. And also when the characters are men…but that is another soap box for another day. 2:51 PM
Terra: It's just weird. Oh man--definitely the men! In YA too! They are all losers and dorks or whatever. :) 2:51 PM
Terra: One thing that one of the lawyers I interviewed said really fed this book, and that was that it was always inspiring to her, working with a client, who at first was in TOTAL denial about his/her role in the crime. 2:52 PMHow then they moved to acknowledgment and then on to wanting to repent. 2:52 PMThat was huge for me and really shaped the whole book. 2:52 PM
Me: That's really interesting that that kind of denial and then repentance is common in real life. I mean, it makes total sense. 2:53 PMIt's just not something I would think to wonder about usually. 2:54 PM
Me: So, let's talk about Bird and her friendship with Nikki. 2:54 PMBird was one of my favorite characters, and I loved reading about their friendship. I also felt that what happened with their friendship was very real, and I don't think any other outcome would have been true to their characters. But man, oh, man, Terra, you sure know how to break hearts, don't you? 2:56 PM
Terra: Laughing, laughing! 2:56 PM
Terra: Bird is my favorite, too. My heart just . . . pulls for her. 2:56 PMMy editor and I talked a lot about Bird and Nikki, and how that should all go. 2:57 PMAnd one thing Anica reminded me about was that sometimes, when things get broken, they really don't get fixed. Sometimes you hurt someone badly enough that you really do lose them. 2:57 PMWe want things to get better for Nikki, but her actions have real consequences, and her relationship with Bird is one of those parts of her life that is HUGELY affected by Dee. 2:58 PMI would love to one day write something else with Bird though, maybe. 2:59 PM
Me: And I would love to read it!! 2:59 PMThat is a really tough lesson, but it's true. I'm glad you went the tougher route when you were writing them. 3:00 PM

Terra: Well, that's thanks to my editor. She always tells me I try to be too easy on my characters!! 3:01 PM
Me: Yay Anica :) 3:02 PM
*******WARNING: This section of the G-chat has been removed because I asked Terra a super spoilery question about the plot twists in CRIMINAL. Hint: They are so awesome, you should go read this book right now.********
Terra: But if it helps, when I talk about the book, I do talk about the fact that this was inspired loosely by a news report I heard about a guy who killed his girlfriend's parent, and that he had an accomplice--with whom he was also maybe romantically involved. 3:06 PMMy brain just went crazy with that . . . talk about a love triangle! . . . wondering who the heck would do such a thing. (Meaning, the accomplice girl.) So I knew she had to not know about the other girl. 3:07 PMThis helped me develop Dee a lot too, knowing this secret of his. That really he was a two-timing jerk, not just a killer! 3:07 PM
Me: That is such a crazy story! Excellent book inspiration! 3:09 PM
Terra: Yeah it was pretty wild. More proof that you can find stories everywhere!! 3:09 PM
Me: Yes! 3:09 PM
Terra: But, you know, without that reveal, Nikki may NEVER have finally seen Dee for who he was. 3:10 PM
Me: It was definitely critical. 3:10 PM
Me: I just have one more question. 3:09 PMIs there anything you want to tell me about IN DEEP? I don’t even know what. Just some tantalizing piece of information to see if I can be even more excited about this book! 3:10 PMOh dear. I wrote tata-lizing the first time. That would have been a different type of information indeed. 3:11 PM
Terra: Hahaha. 3:11 PMTata-lizing. I like that. That should be a new adjective for a groovy girl. 3:11 PM
Me: Haha, yes! 3:11 PM
Terra: So, IN DEEP I am very excited about, because it's revisiting a character from SUMMER OF FIRSTS AND LASTS: Brynn, the camp "bad girl." 3:11 PMMy cousin read SOFAL and afterwards asked me if there was more "about this Brynn character." I brushed it off, because I was working on other things at the time, but the question kept coming back. 3:12 PMSo I decided to find out what IS up with Brynn in the time before she goes to Camp Callanwolde. I'm also nervous/excited about it because it is, essentially, a tragedy 3:12 PMMaybe not Shakespeare-level tragedy, but it's definitely about someone falling from a place of power and confidence to . . . not so much. 3:13 PM
Me: Ohhhh. I'm excited! More than excited. I am officially tata-lized. I love the idea of getting to know more about a bad girl. That by itself would be enough. But the tragedy element too. YES! 3:14 PM
Terra: The hilarious part about Brynn being tata-lizing is that she's skinny as all hell and looks more like a 12 year-old boy than a 17 year old girl. So, that's funny. 3:15 PMI'm glad you are excited though. I am too!! 3:15 PMIt'll be fun to share this with everyone. 3:15 PM

Me: Yes. Definitely! 3:16 PM

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading this interview as much as Terra and I enjoyed doing it! And I hope you love CRIMINAL as much as I did!

First Kiss Friday + giveaway with Kara Taylor (PREP SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, WICKED LITTLE SECRETS)!

I’m starting a new feature on my blog called First Kiss Fridays where authors share a first kiss story be it good, bad, or ugly. First up is my friend Kara Taylor, author of the PREP SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL series, books that are guaranteed to get your heart racing and knock you out with one of the sassiest, funniest teen voices I’ve ever read. I really love this series, so to celebrate the release of WICKED LITTLE SECRETS (and to celebrate this being the first ever First Kiss Friday), I’m doing a giveaway below.

And now, here’s Kara ☺

_____________________________

Five months after my best friend moved out of state, and a few weeks before my fourteenth birthday, I kissed her boyfriend.

They were broken up, obviously, because long-distance relationships in eighth grade are like creatures out of a Harry Potter novel: They don’t exist. But in my head, he was still her boyfriend. Even though we’d all stopped hearing from her months ago. Even though she swore through an AOL Instant Message (remember those?) that it was okay for us to go out with each other.

He was a nice boy, and shy. The type that would tell your friends he liked you and hope for the best. He couldn't admit to liking me for some reason (which many years and therapy sessions later, I attribute to the fact that I expressed my insecurity by being intimidating and mean to boys). So he made my friends guess.

Them: “What color hair does she have?”
Him: “Brown.”
Them: “On a scale of 1-10, how pretty is she?”
Him: “7.”

(Gee, thanks.)

After weeks of making circles around each other, he asked me out via AOL Instant Message. It was early March, which made hanging out alone together difficult. In eighth grade, “dating” consisted of your parents dropping you off in the village to hang out with “friends.” On a Saturday morning, we met at the playground. And we realized it was really, really freaking cold.

He had on the heavy yellow sweatshirt he wore all winter. We laid down on the slide, and I put my hands in his pockets to warm up. We had the playground to ourselves. (It was 30 degrees, so it was a lot less romantic than it sounds.) After laying there not saying anything for a while, his lips found mine. I didn’t realize it until many years and crappy kisses later, but my first kiss was perfect.

For weeks afterward, I wondered if he was thinking of her the whole time. So naturally, I dumped him for my ex-boyfriend. I wasn’t very smart about the whole thing, and it kind of got worse. In fact, the next four boys I kissed weren’t my boyfriends at all. (Luckily, they weren’t anyone else’s boyfriends.)

Ten years later, I’ve found my prince: If there’s any universe in which a guy who makes up songs about his own flatulence can rightfully be called a prince. But I don’t regret all the frogs in between. I never asked the boy in the yellow sweatshirt if I was his first kiss too, but I like to think I am.

KARA TAYLOR is the author of PREP SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, WICKED LITTLE SECRETS and the upcoming DEADLY LITTLE SINS (St. Martin’s Press). She also writes for television. She’s represented by Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary. She lives on Long Island with her prince and a cat named Felix.


The Giveaway!!



I'm giving away a copy of WICKED LITTLE SECRETS (Trust me, you want this book. You really, really do. I'm in the middle of devouring it right now.), and if that wasn't enough, Kara is throwing in a copy of PREP SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, plus a signed bookplate and bookmark! (Note: giveaway ends April 11th at 11pm. Available to US entries only.)