Sarina Bowen's Blog, page 41

Two Readers Will Win $25 Gift Cards

We're celebrating Him's nomination for a RITA award! 

Entering the giveaway is easy: join my reader group and comment on the pinned post. That's it!

An Audio Book Giveaway for HIM!

Look at all the pretty! Him is an audio book!

To celebrate I'm giving two lucky readers a copy. Enter below. And good luck!

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Release Week Excerpt of US (Him #2)

We're so pumped up to bring you US! It's live, and it's finally here! At Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | B&N.

Excerpt

“Glad I wasn’t the goalkeeper.” Jamie lifts his sexy arms overhead, and I notice that he’s in our bed. That’s the wooden headboard I chose, and the flannel sheets I bought when winter hit and Jamie began objecting to the cold.

A wave of homesickness hits hard. “I would kill to be there right now.” Can’t believe I fucked up our time together last week. “I’d show you exactly how hot you look.”

Jamie grins, and I practically smack myself in the head when realization strikes. “The beard! Where’d it go?” His face is now perfectly cleanshaven.

“Eh,” he shrugs. “Got sick of it. Beards itch.” He lifts a hand to his cheek and slides it slowly down to his chin. 

When his little finger drags across his lower lip, I hear myself growl. “Do that again, Canning,” I demand.

He quirks an eyebrow at me. “Why?”

“Because I need to see it.”

He must hear something desperate in my tone, because he complies without any more lip. He lifts his palm to his cheek again and closes his eyes. I watch him take a deep breath, and on the exhale, he slides his hand down his jaw. When his fingertips reach his mouth, he slants his eyes open just a couple of millimeters. Then he slides two fingertips into his mouth and sucks on them.

“Fuck,” I breathe. I’m jealous of the fingers, the camera and the bed. “Take off your shirt for me.”

For a fractional second I think he’ll protest. We never do this. And we just had the shittiest week ever. But Jamie sits up a little, the camera losing him and showing me the ceiling instead. But then I see his arm sweep past, his T-shirt flying up and away. When the camera tilts again, Jamie’s golden chest is on full display...

Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | B&N.

Giveaway for ROOKIE MOVE Cover Reveal!

I am so excited to bring you Rookie Move!

In high school they were the perfect couple—until the day Georgia left Leo in the cold...
 
Hockey player Leo Trevi has spent the last six years trying to do two things: get over the girl who broke his heart, and succeed in the NHL. But on the first day he’s called up to the newly franchised Brooklyn Bruisers, Leo gets checked on both sides, first by the team’s coach—who has a long simmering grudge, and then by the Bruisers’ sexy, icy publicist—his former girlfriend Georgia Worthington.
 
Saying goodbye to Leo was one of the hardest things Georgia ever had to do—and saying hello again isn’t much easier. Georgia is determined to keep their relationship strictly professional, but when a press conference microphone catches Leo declaring his feelings for her, things get really personal, really fast...

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Five Priceless LGBT YA Novels

I'm not as widely read in YA as some of my author friends, but the following LGBT YA novels are all utter gems. Skip them at your peril! :)

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan. Okay, this should read anything by David Levithan, because the man is a genius. But this book wrecked me. It has a really gutsy narrative style, taken from the form of the Greek chorus. But the chorus in question is made up of men who died from AIDS during the 80s and 90s. And I knew these men. So while I was reading it I had the uncanny sensation that friends lost were speaking to me. That might be how I managed to cry on every page. Or maybe it's because the writing is just that good.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. The writing is to die for. This is a pitch perfect story of what it means to be 15 and 16. If you wanted to slap a trope label on the book, it's a coming out story. But it's so much more than that. Ms. Albertalli uses Simon's need to come out as the perfect lens on what it means to be a teenager. Every chapter is priceless. I can't wait for her to write another book.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Flawless, amazing writing. This book has about 1000 themes. (Art. Twins. Sexual assault. Death. Divorce. Coming of Age. Betrayal. Family. Ghosts. Addiction. Oh, and somebody is gay.) I'm glad it was never my job to write a synopsis for this book. But READ IT IT'S SO GOOD!

Every Day by David Levithan. This isn't a exactly an LGBT book. But it explores identity of all stripes so beautifully and thoroughly and subtly that it wins a spot on my list. :)

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. The similarities to Harry Potter are a little distracting. But Ms. Rowell is brilliant, as always. Loved it.

Sarina Makes Candy Hearts

Happy February! Tis the season of red and white decoration and heart-shaped candies! I made you a little something. If I were in charge of stamping the messages on candy hearts, I'd shake things up a little. Ready?

Right? Because what's sexier than a man who reads?

Modern love, people. The new romance.

Just saying. Some of us have racy jobs.

When you really want to make a statement.

Then I started thinking about what other people would write on a candy heart. Then things got really silly.

This is what Christian Gray would write.

A manwhore's candy heart. Or a maple sugarer's. 

This is what Wes from HIM would say. (Awww!)

A Spinal Tap candy heart. (I know. My age is showing.)

Don't you just love Valentine's Day? :-)

Sarina Makes Candy Hearts, Part One

Happy February! Tis the season of red and white decoration and heart-shaped candies! I made you a little something. If I were in charge of stamping the messages on candy hearts, I'd shake things up a little. Ready?

Right? Because what's sexier than a man who reads?

Modern love, people. The new romance.

Just saying. Some of us have racy jobs.

When you really want to make a statement.

Then I started thinking about what other people would write on a candy heart. Then things got really silly.

This is what Christian Gray would write.

A manwhore's candy heart. Or a maple sugarer's. 

This is what Wes from HIM would say. (Awww!)

A Spinal Tap candy heart. (I know. My age is showing.)

Don't you just love Valentine's Day? :-)

Cover Reveal for US! Exclusive Excerpt on iBooks

Elle Kennedy and I could not be more excited to share the cover! And you can read the beginning of the book only at iBooks.

Photo by Jackson Photographix

Titling Books is Hard. Sometimes.

Thank you Keyanna Butler for this adorable graphic!

How Sarina Spent 3 Months Trying to Name a Book: a Short Story

Well, three books. But I wanted my True North series to reflect the orchards, the heartbreak and ALL THE FEELS. And I wanted to name the (first?) three at once.

On my way to victory I came up with some truly horrible titles. Real stinkers. Some were dull. Others were pretentious.

Stuck and confused, I emailed all my author friends for help. As i went through iteration upon iteration of titles, my patient buddies were all getting burned out on the question. 

As was I.

So I gave up for a little while. The file on my computer continued with the name "Vermont book #1." And then something magical happened! I relaxed and just wrote the durned book!

As I wrote it, the word bittersweet kept coming up. Bittersweet is the way Audrey feels about walking away from Griffin. And bittersweet is a kind of apple used in cider--it has a really high sugar content, but too many tannins to be any good in a pie. It's a special kind of apple, cherished by cider-makers and hated by others.

So, duh.

Can I introduce you to the titles of my three True North books?

1. Bittersweet2. Steadfast3. Keepsake*

*An apple varietal! See what I did there? :)

Now, compare and contrast. Yesterday my editor at Penguin emailed to say that the "copy team" had been brainstorming titles for my second book about the Brooklyn Bruisers. So she included a list.

I perused. I considered. I added a few to the list and gave her my feedback. A bit later, after another chat with her peeps, they told me their favorite. 

The process took an hour. One. Hour.

The moral of this story: copy teams are awesome! Oh--and it's more fun to title a book if you've already written it.

You can add Bittersweet to your goodreads shelf. It even has a title. :)

Updated: Authors' Tools I Use Every Day

Stealthy. Like a ninja.

Update: things change so fast! Three months after I originally wrote this, I have a bunch of new toys I love.

As my backlist has really taken off, I'm basically running a medium-sized business in my kitchen these days. Designing promo art, running ads, keeping up with my blogger friends. It's a lot of work. I get a lot of questions about what tools I use to steer the ship. In case you're curious, here goes!

I use MailChimp because their free-for-the-first-2000-members sucked me in, like it does everyone else. But now I stick with this tool because they've integrated it with all my other services. So I have no plans to leave even though I'm paying for it. And the interface is clean and easy. Also? The other decent emailers aren't much cheaper. But I'm constantly reevaluating as Mailchimp's open rate with Gmail users troubles me.My number one web tool is Squarespace. In fact, I now design websites for other authors in Squarespace because I've created some very special tools that make an author's life easier. The ecommerce features rock, and the 24/7 customer service is a lifesaver.For art I use three tools, depending on what I'm doing. I keep the paid version of PicMonkey because I really like their filters. They're intuitive. I hate the fact that you can't store works in progress there, so I'd like to cut the cord. But... ooh, pretty!I finally updated from Photoshop Elements to PhotoshopCC, and I'm so glad I did. All the tools work better than they used to, and now I can use smart objects. (I know. Geeeeeeky.)I use Insightly CRM software to keep track of which bloggers have worked with me in the past. To be honest, I don't love Insightly. The syncing and mail functions are just meh. But Google contacts is just not robust enough to track relationships, so I needed something better.Booktrakr sends me an email every morning telling me how many copies I sold the previous day at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and iBooks. It doesn't handle D2D, unfortunately. And there are bugs, but it's still a free Beta so I expect that.My ebooks are formatted in the new version of Vellum, which I love. I don't expect to regret paying for the full version.My works in progress are in Scrivener, which I could not live without.Because Facebook Messenger's TOS offends me, I use a buggy third-party app called Friendly.I love Tweetdeck as a chrome plugin.  I upgraded to MeetEdgar for social media scheduling, and so far so good! Also: Latergram.me to schedule Instagram posts.

That's a lot of tools! Yikes. What are your faves?