Cassandra Page's Blog, page 32

Cover reveal: ‘Eleven Weeks’ by Lauren McKellar

I have been looking forward to this book for months, you guys. MONTHS. I’m so excited I can’t even. I have no evens.

Eleven Weeks, book two in the Crazy In Love series

Lauren K. McKellar

Genre: Contemporary Romance (New Adult)

Cover Design: KILA Designs

On sale: January, 2015

Seven shots

Five siblings

Two boys

One heartbeat …

Stacey is good at pretending.

She pretends that the boy she’s in love with doesn’t exist.

She pretends that she’s happy to live and die in this small town.

She pretends that her life is carefree while her best friend’s world crumbles before her very eyes.

But Stacey’s got a secret …

And it’s going to ruin everything.

Add it on Goodreads

Excerpt

I wake to the sound of a drill-saw attempting to channel through a concrete pylon right next to my head.

“Why?” I grunt. Only it sounds more like “uggghhh”, even to my ears. Apparently being woken by drill-saw seriously impedes my ability to form words. I reach my hand out and slam something in front of me, presumably the drill-saw, most likely a clock radio. Regardless, the action makes the noise stop, thank hell.

Ugh. While the blast of noise has stopped, there’s still a ringing in my head of dizzy-making proportions. Not to mention that my tongue tastes like I’ve been eating road-kill. Yuck.

I squint one eye open and then scrunch my lid shut immediately as protection from the harsh yellow light coming in through the window framed by black-flowered curtains. What fresh hell is this? Who has opened my—

Shit.

I don’t have black-flowered curtains.

I inch open my lid at snail’s pace, this time preparing myself for the assault of light from the left of the room. Yep. Black floral curtains still there.

I open my eyes wider and take in more of the room in front of me. Aside from the window, there’s a black bedside table with a digital clock on the top of it, right next to a red lamp. The floor is covered in a shaggy-looking cream carpet, a black skirt and red lacy bra lying on top of it.

Oh, no. Please, please no …

I slowly raise the white sheet from my body. Yep, exactly as I’d suspected.

My black skirt and red bra.

This, of course, leaves only one question. But do I really want to look? Can I?

I rack my brain, trying to put together the pieces of the night before. There was the party at Joe’s. I’d gone there with Kate, because Dave and the band were playing. Michael. I saw Michael. Tequila. Lots of tequila.

I glanced down at my hand. Seven little lipstick lines mar its surface. One for each shot. At least I can remember that.

But how the hell did I get here? And, more importantly, where is here?

Giveaway

To celebrate the cover for Eleven Weeks, enter the competition today to win one of three $10AUD Amazon gift cards.

About Crazy in Love

The Crazy in Love series consists of three titles: The Problem With Crazy, Eleven Weeks and The Problem With Heartache.

The problem with crazy is that crazy, by itself, has no context. It can be good crazy, bad crazy … or crazy crazy—like it was when my ex-boyfriend sung about me on the radio.

Eighteen-year-old Kate couldn’t be more excited about finishing high school and spending the summer on tour with her boyfriend’s band. Her dad showing up drunk at graduation, however, is not exactly kicking things off on the right foot—and that’s before she finds out about his mystery illness, certain to end in death.

A mystery illness she is likely to inherit.

When your whole life goes from adventure and ecstasy to sad and suicidal, what’s the point? Not knowing who to love, and who to trust … where does it end?

The Problem With Crazy is a story about love and life; about overcoming obstacles, choosing to trust, and learning how to make the choices that will change your life forever.

Praise for The Problem With Crazy

“Heartbreaking, life-affirming—one of my all-time favourites.” — Glass Paper Ink Book Blog

“This story is beautiful, heartbreaking and will leave you thinking about it for days to follow.” — A.K.A. The Book Harlots Review

The Problem With Heartache will be released in February, 2015, and is the conclusion to Kate’s story.

About Lauren

Lauren K. McKellar is a writer and editor of fact and fiction. She has worked in publishing for more than eight years, and recently returned to her first love: writing books that make you feel.

Lauren loves to write for the Young and New Adult markets, and blogs with Aussie Owned and Read, as well as vlogging with the YA Rebels.

In her free time, Lauren enjoys long walks on the beach with her two super-cute dogs and her partner-in-crime/fiancé.

Find Lauren McKellar at her website, or on Twitter, Facebook or Amazon.

 

The Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme by The Broke and the Bookish. It appeals to me because I like making lists and I LOVE books. Some weeks I don’t list ten, depending on the topic, but this week I had trouble keeping it to ten. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order by surname, because it was hard enough to narrow down as it was without having to be more specific than that!

The pictures are the books I read by each author. Kevin Hearne wins because I’ve been listening to the entire The Iron Druid Chronicles on audiobook in the car. (As this post goes live I’m most of the way through book six in the series, Hunted.)

Dahlia Adler

John Green

Kevin Hearne





A.G. Howard

Julie Kawaga

Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

(Two for one!)

Marissa Meyer

Madeline Miller

Stacey Nash

Maggie Stiefvater

I have a confession to make… (and a sneaky cover reveal)

Over the past month, as well as being busy with edits on the second and third books in the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy (which you’ll note is young adult urban fantasy) and spending some time drafting a young adult historical fantasy that doesn’t have a name yet, I’ve been busy with another side project.

I may have accidentally, sorta, kinda written an erotica novella. I tripped and fell and there it was. I swear!

It’s about 8600 words, which makes it about a tenth of the length of your average novel. (And I note that a tenth of the length is otherwise not a good thing in this genre… BOOM.) It is also urban fantasy — so I’m being consistent there, at least. Just not with the market.

My plan is to self-publish it under a pen name: Tammy Calder. Because the last thing I want is for some poor innocent who reads my young adult fiction to click on the “other titles” link and see something that might have their parents filing a law suit against me! For the same reason, I won’t be going crazy with promoting it on my blog or social media.

Otherwise, I’m treating it the same way I would any book I’d consider self-publishing. It’s had a couple of beta reads from friends who are still able to look me in the eye (phew!) and is now with my lovely editor friend Lauren McKellar to be whipped into shape.

(Haha, whipped*!)

Ahem.

Anyway, I have a cover all ready to go. Because Photoshop is fun. Wanna see?

If you’re wondering why “Tammy Calder”, it’s because that’s my porn star name. You know that old game, where you take your first pet’s name and your first street name, and put them together? (What’s yours? Leave a comment!)

* Yes, I’m making light of the whole thing. It’s because I’m actually kind of nervous about this blog post, and I laugh when I’m nervous. It’s gotten me in trouble before. Many, many times.

By Your Request: Query Success Stories and Why They Were Successful — AoR Ladies

Cassandra Page:

Want to see the query that landed me a contract with Turquoise Morning Press? I’m sharing it today over at Aussie Owned.

Originally posted on Aussie Writers:

Recently I asked you, our readers, what you wanted to see. The answer I received was about querying successfully, how to do it, and examples of successful queries. So today, I have the ladies here, at AOaR telling their stories.

  Cass!

First off, I should warn you that the query letter contains a minor spoiler for the book. (There was also a bigger one in there, but I’ve deleted it from the example; I don’t think it’s strictly necessary to illustrate the point.)

There are a few reasons why I think this query was successful. I followed a basic when/then structure in the pitch (the first two paragraphs). When Isla’s life starts to spin off the rails, then she must discover the truth about who she is and what she can do. It also outlines the stakes: Isla’s father is in danger and needs rescuing. (He’s such

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Book name reveal, teasers, and other goodies…

If you’re a regular around these parts of the blogosphere, you may have noticed I haven’t been posting as much as usual in the last week or so (although I did review The Jewel by Amy Ewing over at Aussie Owned a week and a bit ago). That’s because I’ve been a tad busy, and not just with the start of the silly season.

See, for some reason, someone (um, me) thought it was a good idea to have all three books in the Isla’s Inheritance trilogy come out in the space of just over six months.

So since Isla’s Inheritance came out, we’ve been going back and forth on the edits for Isla’s Oath. And the same week I sent back the galley proof on that, my editor sent me the first-round edits on the third book in the series.

“So, what is the name of the third book?” I hear you ask. “I don’t think you’ve mentioned it before.”

No, that’s right, I haven’t. Because it’s a tiny bit spoilery. Only a tiny bit, mind you. But I feel like it’s time to let the cat out of the bag. Wanna know what it is?

Melpomene’s Daughter
*flings confetti*

It’s the last book in the trilogy and although I love all my children equally (of course), it’s maybe a tiny bit more my favourite than the other two. Because I get to gather all the big plot threads, the major plot arcs of the series, and tie them into a bow. Or cut them with a knife. You know, whatever. ;)

Melpomene’s Daughter is scheduled for release on 23 April, and Isla’s Oath on 22 January. Mark those dates down in your calendar!

In the meantime, have you guys all seen my first teaser for Isla’s Oath? This is Everest. You can tell because I put his name on the teaser. I’m a graphic design genius!

If you haven’t yet read Isla’s Inheritance, here is a handy link to the Amazon page that I prepared earlier. If you have, please consider leaving a review. And if you’ve done that too, I love you more than words can say.

Review: ‘An Abundance of Katherines’ by John Green

Katherine V thought boys were gross

Katherine X just wanted to be friends

Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail

K-19 broke his heart

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun — but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

Like The Jewel, An Abundance of Katherines was another impulse purchase in a bookstore, and I decided to read it this month because I’m doing a Goodreads challenge where we have to read a mixed bag of genres. (All my choices have been young adult, but this one is contemporary, so that totally counts as different. Right? Right?)

Having only read two John Green books now, I may not be qualified to say Katherines is “typical John Green”. But it kind of is. The three main characters are flawed but very, very bright. In this case, we have Colin, his best friend Hassan, and a girl they meet on their road trip, Lindsey.

Colin is obsessed with making something of his life and, as the book begins when Katherine XIX dumps him, is struggling with heartbreak. Hassan is funny but a lazy slob — he’s also somewhat contemptuous of Colin at times, but it’s clear that Colin largely appreciates his honesty, so that softens the attitude a little. Lindsey is a bit of a chameleon. The thing I liked about Katherines, though, is that all three characters grow over the course of the story, which is just as well, because otherwise Colin’s whining about girls would have worn me down to the point where I wanted to punch him in the nose. ;)

The main thing I was wondering when I went into Katherines was how a very nerdy boy like Colin managed to get no less than 19 girls to date him. It makes more sense when you realise Colin defines even a five-minute relationship in the playground as “dating”! And then overthinks it. No wonder he’s so miserable!

Green makes abundant (seewhatIdidthere) use of footnotes throughout the book, to expand on facts Colin was prevented from relating, outline the basics of his theorum, or to provide translations and explanations, mostly for the Muslim terminology Hassan uses. I sometimes found the footnotes a little irritating, but that was largely in cases where I already knew the thing the footnotes were telling me. If I was reading this at 17, though, I doubt that would’ve been a problem.

The dialogue is clever, and the humour is a bit boyish for me at times but at other times is very funny. There aren’t any real surprises in the plot, and I can see echoes of The Fault in Our Stars in some of the dialogue (mostly the “Okay?” “Okay.” thing) and the road trip device. But since Katherines came first, it’s more like foreshadowing, I guess!

This was a fun read, despite the flashback-inducing maths!

The Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is “Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR”. Of course, it’s nearly summer here — as I write this it’s 9.30 in the evening and I still have the airconditioner running. Ick.

Whatever hemisphere you’re in, these are the books I want to read in the next three months, in no particular order.

Endsinger by Jay Kristoff. (Feudal Japanese Steampunk) Book three in The Lotus Wars trilogy, this comes out TOMORROW, you guys! Aaaah. Although I’ve heard it’s very, very sad. I did buy a Costco-sized bulk box of tissues the other day, so I’m prepared!

Allegiant by Veronica Roth. (Dystopian) Controversial, I know; I loved the first two in the trilogy but heard the fuss about the third one and never bought it. A friend has now loaned it to me so I can read it and see for myself.

Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey. (Urban fantasy) Book two in the Agent of Hel series. I was waiting for the paperback to come out and it has. Finally. Hardcovers should be banned, you guys!

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. (Urban fantasy) Another book where I loved the first one in the series and was waiting for the paperback. Although fortunately I didn’t discover the series until a while after it came out, or I’d have had even longer to wait.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. (Dystopian/paranormal) I’ve never read anything by Ms Black but this one looks good. Vampires feature heavily, I gather.

The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon. (Urban fantasy/PNR?) I think this was on my actual winter TBR but I never quite got there. I will read it in the next three months, you guys. Hold me to that.

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott. (Urban fantasy) Because there aren’t enough blokes on my TBR. And because I bought it second-hand on impulse and the cover is pretty.

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris. (Urban fantasy) The last of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which I haven’t quite gotten around to reading yet. I don’t have very strong feelings about where Sookie should end up romantically, so I expect to enjoy it.

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth. (Historical fantasy) This is the story of the girl who told the Grimm Brothers all the fairytales they became famous for. I gather it’s based on a true person. And Kate Forsyth rocks. Yay!

The Iron Daughter by Julie Kawaga. (Urban fantasy) I liked the first one in the series — see my last review — and since I “accidentally” bought the entire series as a boxed set, I might as well…

Review: ‘The Iron King’ by Julie Kawaga

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth — that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Given my book is written in the same category as Kawaga’s (young adult -> urban fantasy -> fae), part of me is a little nervous about reviewing this. I don’t want my minor gripes with the book to be viewed as sour grapes! I promise they’re not. And overall I did like the book. I just found the first third of The Iron King to be a bit slow, and a little predictable. But once Meghan got to Oberon’s Summer Court and the Winter Court arrived for their biannual party, things got interesting.

One thing I loved about this book was that Kawaga added an extra element to the original mythology and the Midsummer Night’s Dream characters: the concept of a new breed of fae that has arisen from mortal dreams of technology. Instead of being mortally wounded by it, they are often made of it or control it, making them deadly to the traditional fae. The descriptions of some of these new fae, like Virus and Ironhorse, were delightful. (In fact, Kawaga’s writing in general was very good.)

Meghan is a bit of a traditional young adult heroine: she winds up being gorgeous, and all the boys like her. It’s unclear whether the best friend is going to turn into a love interest or if his determination to protect Meghan arises from their friendship and the fact Oberon will disembowel him if he fails. But the pretty Winter Court prince, Ash, is definitely struck by a case of love at first sight (as is Meghan for him), and the nature of the Iron King’s interest is also a little predictable.

That being said, I didn’t mind Meghan too much. She reminded me of Sarah from the Labyrinth, rushing off to rescue her kid brother from the evil king. Some of the evil king’s minions were clearly inspired by the packrats in the Labyrinth’s junkyard, although I viewed this as more of a homage than outright imitation. And honestly, Labyrinth deserves more of that!

Normally I hate insta-love but the relationship between Ash and Meghan (such as it was) didn’t bother me as much as they usually do, possibly because this was urban fantasy rather than paranormal romance; it wasn’t the main focus of the plot by any means. Maybe it was just adolescent hormones, at least on Meghan’s part. (As for Ash, who knows what his excuse is? He might be a thousand years old!)

Once it got going, this was a fun read. I own the rest of the series — I have poor impulse control and bought the boxed set without having read it — and I’m happy to keep reading. The way The Iron King ended definitely made me want to know what happens next.

Top ten sequels I can’t wait to get my grubby hands on

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is “Top Ten Sequels I Can’t Wait To Get”! This is an easy one for me. Waiting, on the other hand, is haaaaard, you guys!

Endsinger by Jay Kristoff (The Lotus War #3)

Ensnared by A. G. Howard (Splintered #2)

Split Second by Kasie West (Pivot Point #2)

Under the Lights by Dahlia Adler (Daylight Falls #2)

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Starbound #2)

These ones don’t have covers yet:

The Problem With Heartache by Lauren McKellar (Crazy in Love #2)

Never Forgotten by Stacey Nash (Collective #3)

Burn by Paula Weston (The Rephaim #4)

Thunderbird by Chuck Wendig (Miriam Black #4)

Winter by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles #4)

Getting to know me, with Cuddlebuggery

Today I’m taking part in the “Getting to Know You” blog hop hosted by Cuddlebuggery (I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take advantage of that awesome blog name). I’m supposed to tell you guys a bit about myself, including my favourite book series EVAH. Gee, they aren’t asking for a lot there. ;)

Of course, if I had to pick just one it’d be the sentimental favourite that would win: the Dragonriders series by Anne McCaffrey. This won’t be a surprise to anyone that follows my blog, as I mention these books regularly when I do the Top Ten Tuesday blog hop. They were the first adult fantasy series I read (after The Hobbit but before Lord of the Rings) and opened my eyes to the fact that you don’t have to read serious, boring books as you grow older.

Given I read speculative fiction almost exclusively now, it’s a lesson I clearly took to heart.

Another way I’m steadfastly refusing to grow up is by gaming. There’s been a bit of computer-style gaming over the years — I had a WoW addiction there for a while, and more recently a Minecraft one. But mostly I’m talking about roleplaying, both live action (when I was younger, before becoming a mother reduced my opportunities for evening outings) and tabletop (still).

Live action roleplaying (or LARP) is what people who don’t roleplay think of when they think of roleplaying: people dressing up and pretending to be something they’re not. But with LARP you don’t sit around a table like the stereotype would insist; instead, you actually all meet at a venue and immerse yourselves in your characters. Think improvisational theatre.

The games I played were all part of the World of Darkness milleu: vampires and werewolves, mostly, with the occasional changeling and mage game. You’re all there with an agenda that will probably cause strife with another character, while in the meantime world events (as decreed by the Storyteller) try and screw you over. The idea is to create the most interesting story — although there are always people who are in it to “win”, which is the other reason I don’t play anymore.

Coincidentally, it is because of my time LARPing that I have a photo of myself dressed rather the same as the girl in the meme picture. SNAP!

The tabletop game I play is your traditional Dungeons & Dragons game; again, it’s sort of what you’d expect, only we don’t dress up. (YOU try sitting at a dining table for hours in a corset!) Instead of a storyteller there’s a “Game Master” who describes the setting, while the players are responsible for their own characters. It’s a great way to be a hero in your own story, with friends.

The leap from roleplaying to writing novels isn’t that big, to be honest — especially if you take a stint as GM, but even if you don’t. It provides writers with a great appreciation of the idea that the characters should drive the story. It doesn’t always have to be the players’ characters; the ones made up by the GM or Storyteller have their own motivations too. The waves of zombies may look aimless, but who is behind rising them? What does he or she want? How do we stop them and take all their stuff?! Game design tends to favour finding the villain/s and undoing their plots, which encourages stories where the villains have their own motives.

Obviously every game isn’t created equal, but I’m lucky that my current group are all experienced gamers and we have a similar approach.

So. That’s a think about me. I’m an unrepentant geek! SURPRISE!

Now, I promised a giveaway. Leave a comment telling me a little something about yourself (no matter how silly) and I will enter you in a draw to win a copy of the Isla’s Inheritance ebook. I’ll do the draw on 30 November, my time.