Vanessa Barneveld's Blog, page 12

National Readers’ Choice Award Nominations!

OK, I am officially flabbergasted…in the best possible way. This morning I learned that This Is Your Afterlife is a finalist in the OKRWA National Readers’ Choice Award in the YA and the Best First Book categories. To the reader judges, I can’t thank you enough! Good luck to all the finalists! Click on the logos below for the full list of nominees and add their books to your reading list.

One person who helped me bring This Is Your Afterlife to, er, life is the enormously talented Pintip Dunn. Her debut YA, Forget Tomorrow, will be out this November from Entangled Teen. She’s celebrating the sale of her trilogy to Turkish publisher Pegasus Yayinlari. Congrats, Pintip!!! #turkishdelight It’s been a while since I last blogged, so here’s a quick update in picture form. Click or hover over the pics to read the captions.

Book Signing!




Monster hailstorm!




Reading!

At the moment, I’m hard at work writing another paranormal YA. But I’ve been sneaking peeks at a stack of books my Bloomsbury publicist shared with me:

Love Bomb by Jenny McLachlan A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

What’s on your reading list?

Giveaway Winner!

Many thanks to everyone who came by to celebrate Anna Campbell‘s 10th book release here on the blog.��What a fabulous day of “rampant scoundrelcy”.

My giveaway winner is…Kim MacCarron! Kim, keep an eye on your mailbox ��� there’ll be a Scoundrel in it very soon!

A Scoundrel by Moonlight – out now from Grand Central Forever. (Author photo by Robyn Hills.)

Anna,��thanks again for spending your book birthday at the blog. Congratulations!

For those of you who missed out on nabbing Anna’s Scoundrel,��you can find him at these retailers:

Amazon��|��Book Depository��|��Barnes & Noble

Anna Campbell’s Top 5 Scoundrels

Talented historical romance author Anna Campbell has been a dear friend of mine for over 10 years. Yes, I knew her way back when. :) Today marks another huge milestone — the release of her 10th novel,��A Scoundrel by Moonlight!��Congratulations, Anna!

Author photo by Robyn Hills.

Anything can happen in the moonlight…

Justice. That���s all Nell Trim wants – for her sister and for the countless other young women the Marquess of Leath has ruined with his wildly seductive ways. Now she has a bold plan to take him down… as long as she can resist the scoundrel���s temptations herself.

From the moment Nell meets James Fairbrother, the air positively sizzles. Yet for all his size and power, there���s something amazingly tender in his touch. Could he really be such a depraved rogue? The only way to find out is to beat the devil at his own game… one tempting kiss at a time.

A Scoundrel by Moonlight��is out now!

Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Visit Anna online at:

Website��|��Twitter��|��Facebook��|��GoodReads

Doesn’t that sound faaabulous? Details on how you could win your very own print copy of Scoundrel��in a moment, but first…here’s Anna with her Top 5 literary scoundrels.

��My Top 5 Scoundrels!

Hiya Vanessa! Thank you so much for having me as your guest today! And for doing the giveaway. I���m so excited that today marks the release of my 10th book, A SCOUNDREL BY MOONLIGHT (Sons of Sin 4, Grand Central Forever).

Ah, scoundrels! Don���t we love them?

Well, at least in the pages of a romance where rampant scoundrelcy is likely to end up in true love and a happily ever after.

Vanessa challenged me to list my top 5 Scoundrels, so here goes:

1. Mr. Edward Rochester from JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte. He���s a wounded lion when we meet him but he���s kicked up his heels in his time and paid the price. And he���s definitely a scoundrel in the way he deals with Jane (we love him anyway).

��2. Jasper, Lord Damerel, in VENETIA by Georgette Heyer. Damerel has devoted his life to being a scoundrel and he���s so touchingly aware that his colourful past makes him unworthy of the heroine Venetia. We, however, know better! One of the best Heyers. If you haven���t read it, rush to get it. There���s an audio version read by Richard Armitage ��� be still, my beating heart.

3. Sebastian Ballister, Marquess of Dain, in LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase. Is he a scoundrel? The clue���s in the title! Does he find redemption when he falls in love? What do you think? This book regularly tops the polls as the best romance ever written so if you haven���t got it, why not?

4. George Gordon, Lord Byron. Unlike my other scoundrels, he really existed ��� and provided the model for thousands of fictional scoundrels ever since. Byron���s short and wildly eventful life reads like a scandalous novel and he���s a fascinating mixture of the bad and the good, usually sinning, occasionally sinned against. But the man who wrote, ���She walks in beauty, like the night��� has to have something going for him!

5. James Fairbrother, Marquess of Leath in A SCOUNDREL BY MOONLIGHT. Actually the story turns on how much of a scoundrel Leath is. The heroine Nell Trim originally thinks he���s a rotter to the core, but as she gets to know him, that conviction gets shakier and shakier. So what percentage of Leath is scoundrel and what percentage is hero? You���ll have to read my latest book to find out!

So, for your chance to win a print copy of A Scoundrel by Moonlight, tell me,��who���s your favorite scoundrel? Have you read any of these books? Are the heroes among your favourite scoundrels?

��Anna, congratulations again on your 10th book! I reckon Leath is 100% hero. :)��

Thanks so much for joining me on your special day!

One of celluloid’s most notorious scoundrels, Rhett Butler.
(And some would say Scarlett’s a bit of a scoundrel herself!)

Click to view slideshow.

*The contest is open��to international entrants. A winner will be chosen and announced here on April 30, US time.

Cover Reveal! Letting Go by Jessica Ruddick

The Dreamweavers (aka my 2014 Golden Heart class) is going from strength to strength! Next month, YA finalist Jessica Ruddick makes her big debut with LETTING GO. Check out the cover. It’s hot off the press!

How long do you hold on?

Cori Elliott likes order. Her schedule, her social life…even her GPA is perfect. Then she finds out her high school boyfriend’s death wasn’t an accident���it was suicide. The devastating revelation is enough to fracture her perfectly structured life, sending Cori in a downward spiral of self-doubt and impulsive decisions.

And right into the arms of Luke Evans.

But Cori’s life isn’t perfect anymore. In fact, it’s all coming apart. The only way she can save herself is to let go of everything���including the girl she used to be. Even if it means losing the one guy who might just be perfect for her in the process…

��LETTING GO will be out through Entangled Embrace on May 26. Add it to your Goodreads shelf now!

 

 

About the Author:

Jessica Ruddick is a 2014 Golden Heart finalist for her new adult novel, Letting Go, which was inspired by her own college experiences. She lives in Virginia and is married to her college sweetheart���their first date was a fraternity toga party (and nothing inspires love like a toga, right?). When she doesn���t have her nose in a book or her hands on a keyboard, she can be found wrangling her two rambunctious sons, taming two rowdy but lovable rescue dogs, and battling the herd of dust bunnies that has taken up residence in her home. To learn more about Jessica, please visit her website at www.jessicaruddick.com.

Twitter�������Facebook�������Goodreads

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations, Jessica! I’m so looking��forward to your debut! And now for the obligatory celebratory gifs:

HALF-LIFE Winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who tweeted, FB-shared and��commented on my interview with Tina Ferraro! And a big thank-you, of course, goes to Tina for taking the time to join me here.

The winner of my Rafflecopter giveaway is… Drum roll, please!

(Okay, fine. A dog roll will do!)

…the winner is LORI M!

Congratulations, Lori! You’ve won a copy of Tina’s new novella, HALF-LIFE, plus a $10 Amazon e-card. Enjoy!

 

 

ABOUT��HALF-LIFE��BY TINA FERRARO
Half a life is not worth living.
Probably not a good idea to take advice from your dead twin sister. High school sophomore Trisha Traynor and friends have played the Halloween mirror game for years, the one that���s supposed to show a glimpse of the guy they���ll marry. But no one���s ever seen anything.
Until tonight���when Trisha is gob smacked by the candlelit arrival of her long-deceased twin sister, instead of her crush, Kirk Maxwell.
In a voice and vision that only Trisha can hear and see, Chessie claims to be back on a compassionate journey. Trisha fears she’s gone nuthouse crazy. But she nonetheless follows the instructions Chessie outlines in their nightly conversations, until she finds herself stepping across some ethical lines, and probably ending all chances with Kirk.
When a sisterly showdown ensues, resulting in the shattering of the mirror, Chessie���s gone again, and a heartsick Trisha sets about righting her recent wrongs. That is, until she stumbles upon the real reason Chessie had come back and the most important glimpse yet that the mirror could never predict.

Out now from Leap Books: SHINE
Goodreads��|��Amazon��|��B&N��|��iTunes

 

Tina Ferraro – HALF-LIFE novella release!

I���m so excited to present to you one of my most dear and supportive friends, the fabulous Tina Ferraro! Tina is a RITA-nominated YA author whose teen heroines are courageous, have a strong moral compass, but have a tendency to get into a few scrapes. :) And her heroes are totally endearing too. Today I���m celebrating the release of Tina’s latest novella, HALF-LIFE, which is out now from Leap Books‘s new line, Shine!

Congratulations on the release of HALF-LIFE, Tina! What was the inspiration behind the story?

The novella opens with a Halloween game, an old legend that if you look into a mirror at the stroke of midnight, you���ll see your future husband���s face. I���d heard girls playing it when I was 12 or 13, but not me���I found the supernatural aspect terrifying. As I matured both in age and in writer���s brain, the game took on an intriguing edge. Especially how playing it could go so very, very wrong. So while I never actually played it, the game became the genesis for this story.

Are you very superstitious? Which superstitions do you swear by?

I actually don���t know many superstitions, except that it���s bad luck when a black cat crosses your path. But being a cat lover, I think the crossing of any cats in my path is good fortune! But I do get a little nervous when my ears are itchy because isn���t that the one where people are talking about you? Yikes. I wonder if there���s a physical reaction when people are reading your stories���

Plots involving twins immediately draw my interest. What���s your theory on why these stories are popular?

I wonder if it���s the idea of a person being only half of a whole entity. Again, back to my younger days, I read an article about a set of teenaged twins, one an honor student, the other mentally challenged. One day the at-school twin was overcome with grief that something had happened to her sister, and managed to get to a phone, only to find out her sister was indeed terrified and needed her. I was mesmerized by the idea of twin telepathy and innate connection, that neither was complete on her own.

What are your favourite books and movies that feature twins (aside from HALF-LIFE)?

Definitely ���The Parent Trap,��� both the original Hayley Mills version (which I loved as a kid) and the remake with Lindsay Lohan (with a shout-out to Dennis Quaid for being so hot as the dad). I also liked ���Twins��� and ���Overboard.��� As for books, I fondly remember The Bobbsey Twins, and recently enjoyed The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen.

On the craft side of things, what are the challenges and benefits of writing a novella?

I���ve spent most of my writing career either writing ~ 5,000 word short stories or 50,000 word novels, so to type ���The End��� at 25,000 words is a whole new experience. Basically what I do is establish the story the same way I would a full-length, knowing it���s easier to streamline after-the-fact than add. And I control myself from veering too far into the lives of secondary and tertiary characters���gotta save the limelight for the principals! Mostly, what I like about writing novellas is that I can convince myself I���m making lots of progress and to keep with it, even on those days when I delete more than I add!

Talk us through your typical writing day.

I usually get to writing after internet/e-mail checks, and go on and off until early afternoon. (I admit to losing myself in Facebook and Twitter far too often!) If the writing is really working, I���ll write up until the evening, but then it���s reading or family time.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on two projects: a humorous YA short story, and another YA novella for Leap Books. The novella leans a little darker and more serious than my usual fare, involving a mystery. I get to trade off between projects, depending on���to use an old American saying���which side of the bed I got up on that day.

You are famous for being a friend to all felines, and you have two cats of your own. What are your cats doing right now? (Please include a photograph or two or three!)

Both my cats are rescue cats. Rascal is 8 years old, a tender hearted (although quite large) Balinese-mix. Ruby, who I found living in a patch of ivy as a tiny kitten, is now 5 years old. As you can see from a picture taken when she was about 4 months old, Rascal stepped up to help raise her! He still grooms her, which she rewards with a low rumble purr. Also included is a photo of Ruby snuggling in blankets on a winter���s day, and a not-so-clean Rascal, after he���s come inside from rolling around in the yard.

Tina, thank you so much for being with me today. I adore HALF-LIFE and I wish you every success with it!��

Tina’s website | Twitter | Facebook

Find HALF-LIFE at��Goodreads��|��Amazon��|��B&N��|��iTunes

Now, readers, for your chance to win an e-copy of HALF-LIFE plus a $10 Amazon e-gift card, click here to enter my Rafflecopter draw!��

Be sure to leave a comment below. Who’s your favourite set of literary or movie twins? Do you know any spooky Halloween games?

Happy Book Birthday, Amy Patrick!

Happy birthday to me….and to HIDDEN DEEP, the brand-new YA fantasy by my talented friend, Amy Patrick! Help us blow out the book birthday candles. Ready? One, two…

Amy, thanks so much for being here with me today. Congratulations on the release of HIDDEN DEEP! It���s the first in a trilogy. Tell us about the evolution of this story. How did the idea come about?

Thank you Vanessa! I���m so excited. This book is my passion, and it���s been thrilling to work on it and book two, which is now in the editing process. The evolution was a loooong process. HIDDEN DEEP was actually the first novel I ever completed (five few years ago) but because I was so new to novel writing, it wasn���t ready for publication. It took me a couple of years of really studying writing, going to workshops, reading craft books, and working with critique partners to get that original nugget of a story to the point where it was in good enough shape to go out into the world. I was thrilled when HIDDEN DEEP was selected as a Golden Heart finalist in 2013, but I put it aside for a little while as I wrote other books and continued to learn. Then last year I picked it up again and completely revised it, using all my new ninja writing skills. Now it���s something I���m proud to share with readers.

As far as where the idea came from, I am a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan, and in middle school was THE biggest Lord of the Rings fangirl. I read the trilogy 17 times back-to-back! When I discovered that J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired by Norse mythology, I looked into it myself, and the idea for this story was born. It���s inspired by a mix of those Norse legends and Celtic Fae mythology.

Wow, 17 back-to-back readings of LOTR?!��Now, that is one quest that deserves a medal. Or a ring. And��that’s so interesting��about the amount of work you’ve put into perfecting your craft, particularly with this book. It’s obviously paid off. I���m intrigued about your hero Lad���s hidden world. How does his world compare to ours?

Unlike LOTR or Game of Thrones, my book isn���t high fantasy���it���s more along the lines of urban fantasy and paranormals in that it takes place in a version of our current world. In HIDDEN DEEP, Lad���s people are careful to stay separate from humans, living in hiding and very close to nature. There���s also another faction of his race that live among humans in plain sight, but use glamour enhanced by modern technology to hide their true identities and basically get whatever they want. As the series progresses, we���ll see a widening of the gap between those two factions of this mysterious, secret race.

You’ve put together a gorgeous book trailer for HIDDEN DEEP. Let’s all have a good look and listen now!


Is that trailer beautiful or is that beautiful? Congrats, Amy! You are known for writing fast and writing well! Take us into your hidden world as a writer. How do you make the magic happen?

Thank you! I started off as a total pantser, but now I plot my stories out very thoroughly before actually beginning the drafting phase, determining the inner and outer journey for each character and the major plot points, then writing a few words about each scene (in pencil). I think it���s the ultimate prevention for writer���s block, and it definitely speeds things up for me���when I know where the road leads, I can drive fast!

I do make room for things to change along the way, though, and sometimes unexpected pieces will just fall from the ether and click into place within the overall master story plan. I write almost every day for 3 to 5 hours, going to the library and sitting in the same chair in the same corner in the very back, where there���s nothing to look at but a wall of old reference books. Can you tell I���m easily distracted? I have a tough time writing at home, but sometimes can pull it off when I do a writing sprint with friends���they keep me focused, at least for 20 to 30 minute bursts.

What���s the best piece of writing advice you���ve ever received?

First drafts are allowed to suck! That was really freeing to me, that I could just let the story flow during the first draft and not worry about making every word perfect. That���s what revisions are for, and this approach to drafting has allowed me to write a lot of books quickly.

Which YA books are on your ���keeper��� shelf and why do they resonate with you?

I���m crazy about the Sweet Evil trilogy by Wendy Higgins���they���re paranormals (which I usually gravitate toward) and have the perfect blend of romantic tension and sweetness and an ultra-hot book boyfriend for me to love. I was crazy about the Hunger Games and Twilight series and still re-read them from time to time. On a non-fantasy-paranormal note, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher is another enduring favorite���so poignant and haunting and brilliantly written. And there���s this debut author who wrote the coolest YA ghost story��� This Is Your Afterlife��� *loved* that one. ;)

Aw, you are very sweet and generous for mentioning that ghost book!��Now for something completely different… You���re also well known as a singer. I���m dying to hear your voice! Be careful�������I may drag you into a karaoke bar in New York come July. What are your top three karaoke songs?

Oh my goodness- how funny! We are *totally* going to do karaoke in NYC this summer���I smell a duet. Okay, let���s see. Anything by Bonnie Rait is right in my vocal range���I���m an alto. That���s a bit old school, but I���m going to go even older for the next one���Hopelessly Devoted To You- Olivia Newton John���the ultimate karaoke ballad. And for something a little more up to date, I���m in love with ���Try��� by Colbie Callait. I���m a fan of all Maroon 5���s songs, but I���m not sure I can sing as high as Adam Levine!

Thank you for having me here today, Vanessa! It���s such an honor (and I really do love THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE).

Amy, it’s��always a pleasure to have you on the blog. I look��forward to our duet in New York! I will bring earplugs for you. I guarantee you’ll need them when I start singing. ;) Congratulations again. Many happy sales to you!
When she’s not singing in karaoke bars or busy writing her YA and New Adult books,��you’ll find Amy at these places:

Website | Twitter | Facebook

About HIDDEN DEEP…

HIDDEN DEEP is out March 23, US time.
Click through to buy it on Amazon.

Give in to the Glamour…

Sixteen-year-old Ryann Carroll has just run into the guy who saved her life ten years ago. You might think she’d be happy to see him again. Not exactly. She’s a bit underdressed (as in skinny-dipping) and he’s not supposed to exist.

After her father’s affair, all Ryann wants is to escape the family implosion fallout and find a little peace. She also wouldn’t mind a first date that didn’t suck, but she’s determined not to end up like her mom: vulnerable, betrayed, destroyed. Ryann’s recently moved back to her childhood home in rural Mississippi, the same place where ten years earlier she became lost in the woods overnight and nearly died.

She’s still irresistibly drawn to those woods. There she encounters the boy who kept her from freezing to death that long ago winter night and was nowhere to be seen when rescuers arrived. He’s still mysterious, but now all grown-up and gorgeous, too. And the more she’s with him, the greater the threat he poses to Ryann’s strict policy– never want someone more than he wants you.

Seventeen-year-old Lad knows the law of his people all too well: Don’t get careless and Don’t get caught.��It’s allowed his race to live undetected in this world for thousands of years, mentioned only in flawed and fading folklore���

Lad’s never been able to forget about Ryann since that night ten years ago. When he sees her again, his fascination re-ignites and becomes a growing desire that tempts him to break all the rules. He’s not even supposed to talk to a human, much less fall in love with one.

And the timing is atrocious. The Assemblage is coming, the rift between the Light and Dark is widening, and mysterious celebrity fan pods are becoming more and more widespread and influential. Lad may have to trade his own chance at happiness to keep the humans, especially Ryann, blissfully unaware and safe.

����Tell us, readers ��� what are your��signature karaoke songs?

Cover Reveal – Lauren Blakely’s 21 STOLEN KISSES

Ooh, looky here ��� it’s Lauren Blakely’s cover for her upcoming book, 21 STOLEN KISSES! Gorgeous.

Amazon ** Barnes & Noble ** Bloomsbury ** iBooks ** Kobo

21 STOLEN KISSES is a New Adult Forbidden Romance being published by Bloomsbury Spark and will be available May 5th. Pre-order it right this very minute using the links above.

About 21 STOLEN KISSES:

When I first met him I resisted.

Like any forbidden love, I told myself he was a crush, and it would pass.

That was a lie. It never faded.

And I never expected he would fall for me just as hard.

There were so many reasons that should have kept us apart, least of all, the decade that separated us.

Growing up in New York City, I learned early on that love is a double-edged sword.

Love broke up my parents, love took away my friends, and love — the big, intense, never-been-like-this-beforelove — landed me in therapy.

Now I’m heading to college, and it’s time to give love a clean slate again. But, can I really start over when he’s still in my life?

Because the one man I’ve always wanted, is also the only guy I absolutely can’t have���

And he wants me just as fiercely.

Can I settle for anything less than the love of my life?

 

About Lauren Blakely:

Lauren Blakely writes sexy contemporary romance novels with heat, heart, and humor, and her books have appeared multiple times on the New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks bestseller lists. Like the heroine in her novel, FAR TOO TEMPTING, she thinks life should be filled with family, laughter, and the kind of love that love songs promise. Lauren lives in California with her husband, children, and dogs. She loves hearing from readers! Her bestselling series include Caught Up in Love, Seductive Nights, and Fighting Fire. She recently released Nights With Him, a standalone novel in her New York Times Bestselling Seductive Nights series that became an instant New York Times Bestseller. Her next book in that series is Forbidden Nights, releasing in early 2015. She also writes for young adults under the name Daisy Whitney. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, text BLAKELY + your email address to 678-249-3375 (please use the actual + sign).

 

Website ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Pinterest ** Instagram
21 STOLEN KISSES Goodreads ** Lauren Blakely Goodreads

 

Tree Change

I’m really ashamed to say it, but until last night I’d never visited the iconic Taronga Zoo��during my thirteen years living in Sydney. But I finally did make it there. Not to see the animals but to see jazz musician James Morrison‘s Twilight at Taronga concert. The zoo exhibits were closed, but we did spot tree kangaroos* on our way to the stage as well as a male Asian elephant.��In between songs, we could hear what sounded like a jungle full of animals screeching and baying. It wasn’t clear whether or not their calls were in appreciation of the human trumpeters, though.

*I’m also ashamed to say I didn’t know tree kangaroos existed. Did you know? I shot a little video, so now we have proof:

Tomorrow (that’s Monday, March 16, US time), I’ll be a ghost…sorry, guest on Darynda Jones‘s blog for Beam Me Up Mondays. Join me as I talk about guests…uh, ghosts, and you could win a This Is Your Afterlife audiobook!

Tickets are on sale��for the Readers & Writers Down Under event on the Gold Coast, Australia, March 27 to 28. I’m looking forward to two days of workshops and panels. Visiting authors include bestsellers Kylie Scott and Abbi Glines. If you’re planning to come along, be sure to drop in at the book signing on Saturday, March 28. I’ll be there alongside��my fellow Bloomsbury author Marianne Curley. Click here for more details.

 

 

Lived Long and Prospered

So sad to hear of ‘s passing! He was a fascinating man.��In addition to his most famous turn as everyone’s favourite Vulcan, Mr Spock, I remember him most for the paranormal documentary series he presented, In Search Of…

RIP, Mr Nimoy!