Margo Kelly's Blog, page 40

Idaho Author Awards

http://idahobookextravaganza.com/author-awards/I'm thrilled to announce that  Who R U Really?  has received first place in the Young Adult category for the 2014 Idaho Author Awards.

YAY!!!!!!!

There will be an awards ceremony next week. ... I'll post pictures!

:)

IWSG: Reading Reviews

The first Wednesday of the month is ...  http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/
Reading a review of your published book is a lot different than reading comments from a critique partner or beta reader during the writing, revising, and polishing of your unpublished manuscript. Why? Because once it's published, it's done. There's no considering the comments for possibility of improving that story. However, the comments can serve a purpose to better future stories.

I know some authors never read their reviews, because it can be quite nerve racking. I do read the reviews of WHO R U REALLY?. I love sitting in my pajamas reading reviews online. It's like a book club for introverts. ;) And I especially love the passionate reviews, because these tell me I struck a chord inside the reader and made a connection.

Maggie Stiefvater recently wrote a passionate post on Facebook about how important reviews are to her, and I agree with her post. You can read it here: Maggie's post regarding reviews

Do you read reviews of your published work? Why or why not?

Who's Your Hero Blogfest

http://www.joylcampbell.com/2014/08/whos-your-hero-for-2014.html

My daughter is my hero.

Why?

Because when we sat in a room with a police detective years ago, and he said to her, “It is your job to tell others—your real everyday friends that you go to school with—tell them what happened to you, so nothing like this can happen to them.” ... she agreed.

My daughter is my hero for being willing to share her personal choices, conversations, and thoughts in order to help others, regardless of the negative judgment she might receive as a result. ... Because my daughter did not just tell her friends what happened, she let me turn it into a novel - so we could reach more people, and hopefully help them avoid the trappings of internet predators.

The young adult novel, Who R U Really? , is primarily a work of fiction, but the essence of the plot is what happened when my daughter was nearly abducted. I don't want to spoil the plot of the book here, but after you read it, feel free to email me and ask which events actually happened in real life.


“Inspired by her own daughter's terrifying story, Kelly has painted a realistic picture of how a smart girl can get caught up in something dangerous online. … guaranteed to give readers goosebumps—particularly as events heat up toward the end. … A good choice for families to read together.” – School Library Journal 
“Thea’s mistakes, while frustrating to encounter, are frighteningly plausible, and the relationships among characters are well–fleshed out, especially between mother and daughter. Kelly’s first novel is a suspenseful page-turner with multiple suspects, a little bit of romance, and a strong but not overbearing message.” – Kirkus Reviews  
 
Margo Kelly’s Debut, Who R U Really? , was Ripped from a Real Life Event
After her daughter narrowly survived a man she met in an online role-playing game, Kelly wrote a breathless young adult thriller with the hopes of helping others spot and unmask internet predators.

Who R U Really? - published by Merit Press (F+W Media) - is currently available from all major booksellers and many public libraries.

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
 

School Visit at CHS

I had a great time with the students of the Columbia High School Creative Writing Club today. We created a great mash-up story ... combining elements of everyone's novel ideas into one plotline.

A budding witch must reunite with her brother to save him before the sun explodes. Along the way she teams up with a professional gamer and a hacker, but they are stopped in their tracks when they realize they must chop up bodies in order to find a man named John who holds the secrets for the witch to control her newfound powers.

These writers are going to have a GREAT and successful November working on their projects!
 This was "supposed" to be a funny picture, but I think I was overly enthused about the idea. ;)

Audible Acquired the Rights!

I am thrilled to announce that Audible has acquired the audio rights to WHO R U REALLY? ... uh, yay! I'm so curious to hear how those online chats will sound read aloud. :)

Until the audiobook is available, you can get a copy of WHO R U REALLY? in hardback or e-book at the links below. Thanks for your support during the launch of this book!


Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Merit Press

Behind the Scenes - - - - - Before and After

This is a simultaneous post - here and over at Uncommon YA, which is an AWESOME site. Please, go check them out, today! :)

..............................................................................................................................................................................

I love THE VOICE on NBC. I love the music. I love the competition. It relates in so many ways to writing and the publishing process, but this week there was a Battle Round that really applied to my own writing. Especially when I think about the topic of "Behind the Scenes - Before and After."

If I had to name one theme song for my novel, WHO R U REALLY?, it would easily be Breakeven by The Script. I even quoted their lyrics twice in earlier versions of the manuscript. However, due to copyright issues, I had to fictionalize all bands and lyrics in my novel. I had a number of scenes in the book where the characters debated song lyrics ... but I couldn't keep them as they were originally written because it would have cost more to pay for the right to use the quotes than I would have made in my advance or future royalties (for a long time). So the bands and lyrics were fictionalized for the final version of the book.

But when I heard this song in the Battle Round of THE VOICE this week, my heart still swooned for my character Tim in the novel, because he just loves the main character, Thea, so much ... he'd do anything for her. He just wants her to be okay. "I'm all choked up that you're okay."




So in the original manuscript the scene read:

“What am I supposed to say, when I’m all choked up that you’re okay?”
“Don’t quote song lyrics to me. Tell me the truth.”
“It’s the truth, Thia. I’ve loved you since the fifth grade.” His cheeks reddened even more, and not from the cold morning air. Then he reached up with his hand and wiped a tear from my cheek. I didn’t even realize I was crying until then. I bit my lip as his cold smooth fingers rested gently against my face.


And in the final book the scene reads:

“It would be such a disgrace, if I fell short and you were not safe.”
“Don’t quote song lyrics to me,” I said. “Tell me the truth.”
“It’s the truth, Thea. I’ve loved you since the fifth grade.” His cheeks reddened even more, and not from the cold morning. He lifted his hand and wiped a tear from my cheek. I didn’t even realize I was crying until then. I bit my lip, and his cold smooth fingers rested against my face.


I agree; it's not as good as the lyrics from The Script's song. But with all of the replaced lyrics throughout the book, I think it does work overall.

Oh, and I just noticed ... comparing the two scenes ... the second one is much tighter in the last three sentences. Did you spot that? Or were you distracted by the song lyrics? ;)

Before and after. Sometimes scenes have to be altered for legal reasons (and financial reasons).

Book Giveaway!

You may have seen this banner and contest popping up around the book blog-o-sphere, but just in case you haven't, I wanted to give you the chance to win a copy of Who R U Really? for yourself! (Scroll on down for the Rafflecopter.)

But also ... please feel to pop on over to Amazon and buy a copy for yourself and your friends and your family, because this young adult thriller is available for sale now!

“Inspired by her own daughter's terrifying story, Kelly has painted a realistic picture of how a smart girl can get caught up in something dangerous online,” said the School Library Journal. “Guaranteed to give readers goosebumps—particularly as events heat up toward the end. … A good choice for families to read together.”

According to the Fall Preview issue of Kirkus Reviews, “Thea’s mistakes, while frustrating to encounter, are frighteningly plausible, and the relationships among characters are well–fleshed out, especially between mother and daughter. Kelly’s first novel is a suspenseful page-turner with multiple suspects, a little bit of romance, and a strong but not overbearing message.”


About the Book: Who R U Really? by Margo Kelly
(ages 12-18)

When Thea discovers a new role-playing game online, she breaks her parents’ rules to play. And in the world of the game, Thea falls for an older boy named Kit whose smarts and savvy can’t defeat his near-suicidal despair. Soon, he’s texting her, asking her to meet him, and talking in vague ways about how they can be together forever. As much as she suspects that this is wrong, Thea is powerless to resist Kit’s allure, and hurtles toward the very fate her parents feared most. Who R U Really? will excite you and scare you, as Thea’s life spins out of control.


Amazon | B&N | AdamsMediaStore | Goodreads


About the Author:

Margo Kelly is a native of the Northwest and currently resides in Idaho. A veteran public speaker, she is now actively pursuing her love of writing. Who R U Really? is her first novel. Margo welcomes the opportunities to speak to youth groups, library groups, and book clubs.





Author Links:Website | Facebook | Twitter (@MargoWKelly) | Goodreads  
  
Giveaway:Hardcover of Who R U Really?US onlya Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Launch Party Snapshots

Here are a couple of snapshots from my book launch party last night at Hyde Park Books, in Boise, Idaho:

        I had a wonderful evening. The reading went well; the people were great; and the refreshments were yummy. I would not mind doing that again! :)

SURVIVAL COLONY 9 by Joshua David Bellin

Fourteen-year-old Querry Genn's world is a desert where small groups of survivors struggle against heat, starvation, and the creatures known as the Skaldi, monsters that appeared on the planet after war swept away the old world. Suffering from amnesia brought on by an accident, Querry struggles to recover the lost memories that might save the human race. But the Skaldi are closing in, and time is running out on Survival Colony 9.
In this excerpt, a scouting party investigates the western desert, where the colony has been driven following a Skaldi attack. There they find an abandoned settlement. Through Querry’s eyes, we meet some of the novel’s main characters: the commander of Survival Colony 9, Querry’s father Laman Genn; Laman’s second-in-command, Aleka; and Querry’s nemesis, Yov. We also hear rumors of the Skaldi, who are an ever-present threat in this world.


The trucks crawled up the hill, coughing and wheezing, pulled up on bare dirt and stopped with a squeal. My dad, moving faster than I’d seen him move in weeks, jumped down from the cab. He took a long look at the place, hands on hips, nodding slowly. Then he turned to us.
“Who found it?” He directed his question at Aleka, but I could tell he hoped the answer was me.
“Yov,” she said. “The kid’s got eyes like a hawk.”
My dad stepped over to Yov and reached up to pat him awkwardly on the shoulder. Yov had a calm look on his face, like he was saying, “hey, just doing my job,” but I knew I’d be hearing about this later. From both of them.
“Good work,” my dad said.
Sure enough, Yov looked sidelong at me and smirked.
“We’ll have to double-check,” my dad said. “Aleka, have your team sweep the perimeter. Querry,” he signaled. “Get over here.”
While Aleka and the others fanned out to circle the compound, I accompanied him to the interior, near the crater. For an hour he had me get down on my hands and knees to peer in the dust for signs of Skaldi. He’d taught me how to detect their presence, but it’s not easy. When they leave a body behind, there’s nothing much to see. Emptied, like a sack of skin.
He kept up a running commentary as I crawled around in the dirt searching for evidence. “It doesn’t have to be much,” he reminded me. “Scraps, flakes. Teeth. Anything they might have left behind.”
“What about this?” I lifted a long, thin strip of some translucent material from the floor of a ruined house.
He scrutinized it. “I don’t think so. Bring it back, though. I’ll have Tyris take a look at it.”
Eventually we came to the very lip of the crater. He considered sending me down inside, but the walls fell away steeply and the rock looked precarious. He made me hunt around the edge anyway.
“Seems clean,” I told him when I was done.
“Check again,” he said.
I dropped to the dust and searched once more for signs I couldn’t see.
We strolled back to the others when he was satisfied with my inspection. “Something about this place,” he said. “Familiar. Like I’ve heard someone talk about it before.”
He shook his head, remembering, not remembering. He’d told me stories about what cities used to look like, with shining towers of steel and legions of cars streaming down the avenues. But he’d never seen one himself, not that he could remember. Only the old woman had, and the holes in her memory gaped as wide as the cracks in the houses that were left.
When we returned to the others, I could feel the anticipation in the air. No one budged, but all eyes zeroed in on him.
“Aleka,” he said. “Report.”
“No sign,” she said. “And Laman—there’s food.”
The magic word shivered through the crowd. His face remained composed, but I saw his eyes light up. “Where?”
Aleka led the two of us to the structure farthest from the nucleus of camp, a windowless square of gray cinderblock overlooking the hill’s eastern edge. My dad said it looked like a bomb shelter, but even if bombs had been flying or Skaldi breathing down our necks, there was nowhere near enough room for our whole camp. Probably it had belonged to a single family in the time before. It seemed to be the only building in the compound with working locks, two in fact, one in front and one on a trapdoor that led to a basement level. But the doors stood open, the deadbolts sprung. A flight of rickety wooden stairs led below. And in a corner of the basement, on the packed dirt floor, sat a pyramid of wooden cases filled with rusty metal cans.
“You’re sure it’s edible?” my dad asked, holding one of the cans up in the glow of Aleka’s flashlight.
“According to Tyris, properly canned goods have an effective shelf life of forever,” she answered. “But Laman. . . .”
He lowered the can. “I’m listening.”
“It might be best to take what we can carry and go. I’m not—comfortable here. We’re exposed. There’s only one way out. If they were to block the road. . . .”
“Not their typical behavior,” he said. “And you told me the perimeter’s clean.”
“So far as we can ascertain,” she said. “But this room—I suspect it’s been looted.” She shone her flashlight on the floor, revealing parallel tracks where cases had been dragged. “We may not be the only colony to have visited this place.”
“And the ones who beat us to it are plainly gone,” he replied. “Driven away by Skaldi, most likely. Leaving nothing but food the Skaldi won’t return for.”
“Unless they return for us.”




SURVIVAL COLONY 9 is available now from Simon & Schuster, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, select Wal-Mart stores, and other online and physical retailers!

About me:



I've been writing novels since I was eight years old (though the first few were admittedly very short). I taught college for twenty years, wrote a bunch of books for college students, then decided to return to fiction. SURVIVAL COLONY 9 is my first novel, but the sequel’s already in the works!


To connect with me and learn more about SURVIVAL COLONY 9, check out the following links:



Website

Twitter

Facebook

Blog

Goodreads

5 Marketing Tips for Book Signing Events

It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's time for:

http://insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/
The directed purpose of the IWSG this month is to assist other writers on the journey - providing tips in the areas of writing, publishing, and marketing. I'm thrilled to be a part of this group and contribute to the process.
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5 Marketing Tips for Book Signing Events
by Margo Kelly

You wrote a book, got it published, and now what? Here are five tips in five time periods for book signing events:
 

3 MONTHS BEFORE EVENT:
1.     Research bookstores2.     Speak with event coordinator in person3.     Give her an ARC and an introductory letter4.     Have postcards or bookmarks printed, featuring book cover, short description, industry praise, and ordering information5.     Have tabletop poster (11x17 with easel back) made featuring cover and industry praise – add a starburst to top that reads: LOCAL AUTHOR
 
2 WEEKS BEFORE EVENT:
1.     Confirm details with event coordinator2.     Publicize event widely – on FB, Twitter, Community Calendars, etc.3.     Polish your website so when new contacts visit they’ll be impressed4.     Buy a new outfit to look and feel confident for your big day5.     Create an email newsletter signup sheet
   SETTING UP AT EVENT:
1.     Table – typically, the event coordinator will provide this2.     Tablecloth – solid color3.     Postcards or bookmarks – be liberal giving these away 4.     Ink pens – one to sign books and one for email signup form5.     Books – verify how many the store has and then sell them all!


DURING EVENT:
1.     Smile and sit up straight2.     Greet people and ask them how they are today3.     Ask people what type of books they like to read – engage them in conversation and describe your book4.     Tell people you’re a local author6.     Keep a positive attitude – be nice to everyone, especially store employees, because they’ll be hand-selling your book later
 
AFTER EVENT:
1.     Send a thank you card to event coordinator2.     Make notes about what worked and what did not for future reference3.     Blog about the event4.     Add new contacts to your email list5.     Email newsletter once a month with book related news

Get your very own copy of my debut novel: WHO R U REALLY? at any major bookseller or by clicking right here!

How about you? Do you have any tips for improving the book signing experience?