Ward Against Death giveaway winner!

The winner of the Ward Against Death e-book is...

                                          ...Ashley at Book Labyrinth! 

Congrats, Ashley! The author should be e-mailing you shortly.

"New Adult" Niche: Interview with Jessica Park (and E-book Giveaway!)

I'm happy to welcome Jessica Park, author of the New Adult novel Flat-Out Love, to the blog today for an interview! You can read my review of Flat-Out Love here.


First, a bit about the book and the author:

"Something is seriously off in the Watkins home. And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.

When Julie's off-campus housing falls through, her mother's old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side ... and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there's that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That's because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie's suddenly lonesome soul.

To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that ... well ... doesn't quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer." (from Goodreads)

"Jessica Park is the author of the young adult novels FLAT-OUT LOVE and RELATIVELY FAMOUS; five Gourmet Girl mysteries (written as Jessica Conant-Park); and the e-shorts FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD and WHAT THE KID SAYS (Parts 1 & 2). Jessica grew up in the Boston area and attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. After spending four years in the frigid north, including suffering through one memorable Halloween blizzard, Jessica hightailed it back to the east coast. She now lives in (relatively balmy) New Hampshire with her husband, son, bananas dog named Fritzy, and two selfish cats. When not writing, Jessica indulges her healthy addictions to Facebook, Rick Springfield, and super-sweet coffee beverages." (from the author's website)

 And now for the questions...

1.) Unlike most books about someone's first year in college, Flat-Out Love doesn't involve dormitory or apartment life, but rather a homestay–style situation. What inspired you to go this less traditional route for Julie's college experience? How much do you think living arrangements affect a student's time in college?

Getting Julie into the Watkins household was integral to the story. She just had to become enmeshed enough in their lives to be able to see and feel what no one else could. Plus, I love that it gave her “real” time with Matt… Had they met outside of this situation, odd are that neither of them would have really been themselves around the other. Living together the way they did allowed so many walls to come down.

Living off-campus vs. living at the dorms has got to be a different experience in so many ways. You may still be in a parent’s house and therefore still under some degree of house rules… College is a pretty fun time to make your own rules! If you’re in an apartment off-campus, I think it’s a great opportunity to develop strong independence and responsibility while being able to escape some of the chaos of dormitory life. Dorms give you instant access to a social life, but it can be draining and hard to find anything resembling private time.

College is housing is always going to be a mixed bag, with good and bad aspects of all options. I can, however, guarantee you that you will eat some incredibly disgusting things for four years. True story: I used to microwave white rice with peas, ranch dressing, and curry powder from the salad bar at my college’s cafeteria. And I thought it was spectacular compared to what was offered to me at the potato bar. 

2.) The focus of Flat-Out Love isn't the classes Julie attends, but the time she spends with the Watkins family. Why did you choose to make this the central storyline? Which "New Adult" themes do you think this plot highlights?

Yes, her attending classes is the backdrop to the larger story. I wanted to do a strong romance but have that tied into other complicating issues with this damaged family. The complexities of the family’s history help to make the connections between the characters all the more powerful.

Making Julie eighteen and having left home for the first time was important in terms of how she would respond to the other characters. She’s an adult… sort of. But she’s also still a kid. She’s flawed and finding herself the way that most of us are at that age.

I don’t believe in “rules” for New Adult books… I ignored all of those when writing Flat-Out Love. :) But it covers romance, pain, angst, hurt, loss, hope. I think it’s got a good degree of guts, too, which is part of what readers have really responded to: this is not a light, superficial book, although there are some readers who have seen it that way. On the surface, one could boil it down to a superficial level, but it’s really a layered book. What you see is not what you get.

3.) What's been the most common reaction when you tell people you've written a "New Adult" novel? Have you ever had to defend your choice of publishing in this category?

Readers are thrilled to pieces to see so many New Adult books. There has been a ridiculously large gap in this market for reasons that I’ll never understand. It’s why no big publisher wanted Flat-Out Love; they said that a story about a college freshman would never sell. That thinking is incomprehensible to me and readers have shown that they can’t get enough of stories about characters in their late teens and twenties. Indie authors are proving those rejections by publishers wrong over and over, and finally we are starting to see pubs snag up some of these stories.

4.) You originally self-published Flat-Out Love. What were some of the obstacles you bumped into along the way, and how did you deal with them? 

I’m not sure that I encountered obstacles so much as I encountered exhausting work. I had no built-in audience so I was really marketing my book all on my own. It was not easy, but bloggers and readers were extremely generous in taking a chance on Flat-Out Love. Dealing with formatting, covers, and editing are also piles of work--and not always entirely successful--but I also liked being in control of those.

Trying to go to any of the major book conferences, like Romantic Times or BEA would be really challenging on my own, not to mention expensive. Now that Amazon Children’s Publishing is taking over, they’ll be able to send me to all the fun conferences that I’ve been dying to go to. 

5.) If you could pick one memory from your "New Adult" days to relive, which would it be and why?

Can I pick all of college? No? Well, I’m going to cheat a little bit and say that some of my favorite memories are grounded in the friendships that I made in college. I’m still incredibly close to my friend, Alexa, who I met during the first few days of freshman orientation. Friendships that you make in New Adult years can be unbelievably powerful and long lasting.

If you want one specific memory, I could tell you about a 2 a.m. trek across campus in sub-degree Minnesota temperatures that ended with… Well, no, never mind. Probably not an appropriate story.

Thanks so much for these thoughtful answers to my questions, Jessica!

Now for the giveaway... Jessica has generously offered up Smashwords coupon codes for Flat-Out Love! 

The rules:

- There will be 3 winners, who will each receive a coupon code for the Flat-Out Love e-book
- Entrants must be 16 years or older.
- Open internationally 
- One entry per person. But anyone who's officially signed up for my New Adult reading challenge gets an extra entry! (You must have already filled in this form, prior to the posting of this giveaway, in order to qualify. Please mention that you're a participant in your comment and leave the e-mail address you signed up with.)
- Following and tweeting are not necessary but always appreciated!
- Ends August 25, at 11:59 pm EST.
- Winners will be selected randomly.

To enter, please leave a comment with your e-mail address.

 

"New Adult" Niche: Interview with Melanie Card (and E-book Giveaway!)

I'm pleased to be able to welcome Melanie Card, author of the New Adult novel Ward Against Death, to the blog today for an interview!

First, a bit about the book:

WARD AGAINST DEATH

CHRONICLES OF A RELUCTANT NECROMANCER - Book One

Ward de’Ath expected this to be a simple job—bring a nobleman’s daughter back from the dead for fifteen minutes, let her family say good-bye, and launch his fledgling career as a necromancer. Goddess knows he can’t be a surgeon—the Quayestri already branded him a criminal for trying—so bringing people back from the dead it is.

But when Ward wakes the beautiful Celia Carlyle, he gets more than he bargained for. Insistent that she’s been murdered, Celia begs Ward to keep her alive and help her find justice. By the time she drags him out her bedroom window and into the sewers, Ward can’t bring himself to break his damned physician’s Oath and desert her.

However, nothing is as it seems—including Celia. One second, she’s treating Ward like sewage, the next she’s kissing him. And for a nobleman’s daughter, she sure has a lot of enemies. If he could just convince his heart to give up on the infuriating beauty, he might get out of this alive…

And now for the questions...

1.) Many of the New Adult books being released these days are contemporary, featuring protagonists dealing with issues arising from living on their own/having their first full-time job/going to college/etc. Ward Against Death, in contrast, is a fantasy novel. Is there a reason you chose to make your characters older than those found in a typical YA fantasy? Are there some commonalities that are shared between New Adult books, regardless of genre?
 

Thanks Danya for inviting me here today. In all honesty I wasn’t thinking about YA or New Adult fiction when I wrote Ward Against Death. Historical and Epic Fantasy has a long tradition of young protagonists with books solidly placed on the adult fantasy shelves. I think one of the reasons for this is the “quest” which is often about growth and self discovery and young protagonists lend themselves well to “learning” about themselves and their world. That “quest” for fantasies can be interpreted (sometimes loosely) as the metaphoric journey into adulthood. This theme has been studied a lot in the academic world. One scholar, Joseph Campbell, did extensive research into world mythologies and wrote a fascinating (although sort of dry if you’re not into text books) study on how this “quest” theme from youth to adulthood transcends cultures. He called this universal story a “monomyth” and out of that came “The Hero’s Journey”.

At the time I wrote Ward Against Death I only had a vague idea about all that. What I wanted was a book like the others fantasies I loved reading and a hero, Ward, who just wouldn’t get out of my head.

That rather long theoretical explanation about fantasy can also explain a part of the genre of YA and New Adult books as a whole. In these genres we have young protagonists (be they in a historical setting, a modern day setting, or a futuristic setting) who are trying to figure out who they are, what they want, and how they can be independent of the adults in their lives. In New Adult fiction, that independence might be won but it’s still tentative, and the certainty we hope to have in ourselves when we’re adults isn’t there yet. These are the characters I find completely fascinating. For me, these characters have the potential for such growth and so many surprises. It’s that potential for growth and self discovery that I think is the commonality between books in the genre.

2.) How do you think the story would have played out if Ward was 16 or 17 instead? Would he have made different decisions that could have set the plot on a completely separate path?

This is a tough one and I’m not sure if Ward’s age would change things. Ward is determined and untested when the book opens. He’d be just as determined and just as untested if he was 16 or 17. I suspect he’d be even more suspicious of Celia’s attentions and that might take the story in a different direction.

3.) The New Adult category has been doing quite well in e-books, but hasn't yet managed to carve out a spot for itself on physical bookshelves. Do you think this pattern will continue? How do you see the future of NA unfolding?

I wish I did know what the future of New Adult would be. If you figure it out could you please tell me? :)

4.) Are there any NA fantasy books you can recommend to my readers?  

I highly recommend the Study series by Maria V. Snyder.

5.) I understand Ward Against Death is the first in the Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer series. Do you have any ideas for future books once the series is completed?

So many books so little time! I have a lot of ideas for future books, some New Adult, some Adult, some in the same world as Ward Against Death, some not.

6.) If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring New Adult writer, what would it be?

Write and write lots. Don’t be afraid to write badly - that can be fixed when you go back and edit. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes – that how we learn. Write the stories you want to read, about the characters that interest you. There’s a lot to know about the craft and business of writing, and yes that’s important, too, but in the end it always comes down to writing, to putting words on the page and exploring worlds, and characters, and stories.

About Melanie Card:

Melanie has always been drawn to storytelling and can't remember a time when she wasn’t creating a story in her head. Her early stories were adventures with fairies and dragons and sword swinging princesses.

Today she continues to spin tales of magic in lands near and far, while her cat sits on the edge of her desk and supervises. When she’s not writing, you can find her pretending to be other people with her local community theatre groups.

Connect with Melanie:  
Facebook  /  Twitter@melaniecard  /Goodreads / MelanieCard.com

Get your copy of Ward Against Death at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books On Board | Diesel | iTunes | The Book Depository

Thanks very much, Melanie, for answering my New Adult questions!

Now for the giveaway...courtesy of Melanie and her publisher, there is an e-book of Ward Against Death up for grabs!

The rules:

- Entrants must be 16 years or older.

- Open internationally

- One entry per person. But anyone who's officially signed up for my New Adult reading challenge gets an extra entry! (You must have already filled in this form, prior to the posting of this giveaway, in order to qualify. Please mention that you're a participant in your comment and leave the e-mail address you signed up with.)

- Following and tweeting are not necessary but always appreciated!

- Ends August 10, at 11:59 pm EST.

- Winner will be selected randomly.

To enter, please leave a comment with your e-mail address.

Come See About Me Giveaway Winners!

I've just drawn the winners of the giveaway for Come See About Me by C.K. Kelly Martin!

The signed paperback copy goes to...

...Suzi!

I've e-mailed Suzi, and she has 72 hours to reply with her mailing address before I choose another winner.
 
And the 3 e-book copies go to...

...Ashley @ Book Labyrinth, Laura (The Zealous Reader), and Tore!

The e-book winners should be receiving their prizes shortly from the author.

Congrats to all of the winners, and thanks to everyone else who entered! I was really pleased to see the level of interest in this giveaway :)

"New Adult" Niche: Interview with Sara Daniell (and Kindle Giveaway!)

Sara Daniell, author of Visions and Secrets, is on the blog today for an interview about New Adult books!

Here's a bit about Visions, the first in the series:

"It is Holly's first year in college and the most exciting thing in her life is her classes. She doesn't have any luck with dating and doesn't have many friends.

Her life is terribly boring until she receives a text message from a unknown person. Life as Holly knows it will forever change by responding to that one single text. She isn't too thrilled but will soon find herself falling in love with a complete stranger from another world." (from Goodreads)

And about Sara herself, from her blog:

" 26 year old mother, wife, self-published author, teacher, college student, saved by grace, sarcastic (extremely), love to laugh, hate fighting unless it is for something I believe in. Well that about sums me up. :) "

Now for the questions...

1.) Visions is set during Holly's first year of college. How much did you draw on your own time in college in creating Holly's experience? Are there any incidents that are autobiographical?

I actually attended college completely online with no dorm experience.  It's funny because nothing from my college experience relates to Holly's. It is all totally made up.

2.) What is the most common reaction you receive when you tell people you write New Adult novels?

They ask, "What is that? I have never heard of that genre."  I always tag my trilogy as new adult as well as young adult. I do that because this trilogy will appeal to both genres.

3.) Many traditional publishers are hesitant about taking on NA books. Why do you think this is? Do you see this changing in the future?

Probably because young adult is so popular and taking on a new genre would take time to catch peoples attention.  Traditional publishers are ready to sell and don't like waiting. Plus, a lot of traditional publishers try to appeal to the younger generation of teens.  Teens may not want to read something that says "New Adult" because they want to relate in some way to what they read.  

4.) What, in your opinion, sets New Adult novels apart from YA? From adult? Would you say it's strictly a matter of the characters' ages, or do NA novels differ in other ways?

It only differs slightly, as in the plot.  New Adult, in my opinion, focuses on characters on the "independent" time of their lives.  Not in high school living with parents like most YA novels are. But, like YA, New Adult has drama, romance, and everything else a YA novel as.  Just takes place in a different time in the characters lives.

5.) You're currently in your twenties. What's been the most interesting/exciting/memorable "new adult" experience you've had so far?

Getting married, having children, and graduating college! And of course - self publishing a trilogy!

Thanks very much, Sara, for sharing your thoughts on the New Adult category!

The giveaway:

Sara has kindly offered up Kindle e-books of both Visions and Secrets, so if you would like to be entered to win, please leave a comment with your e-mail address. Anyone who's officially signed up for my New Adult reading challenge gets an extra entry! (You must have already filled in this form, prior to this giveaway, in order to qualify. Please mention that you're a participant in your comment and leave the e-mail address you signed up with.)

The giveaway ends on June 25 at 11:59 pm EST. I'll randomly pick one winner who will receive both e-books.

"New Adult" Niche: Interview with Callie Kingston (Undertow Blog Tour)

 

I'm pleased to be able to welcome Callie Kingston, author of Undertow, to the blog today for an interview! Since I'm hosting the "New Adult" Reading Challenge, I focused my questions on that aspect of the book.

First, a bit about Undertow and author Callie Kingston:

"Marissa is nearly eighteen and can't wait to leave behind her traumatic past. With long time boyfriend Drake, she thinks she has her future all figured out--until she discovers his betrayal. She flees to a desolate beach on the wild Oregon coast hoping to escape her pain, where, overcome with emotional and physical exhaustion, she dozes off beside a log. When the first icy waves strike her, it is too late: a rogue wave drags her out to sea.
Somehow she survives, and now each night she dreams of a creature who rescues her. Determined to discover the truth, her obsession deepens until she once again risks her life in the frigid ocean. Will the creature Marissa seeks save her? Will she be lost forever in the eddies of her mind, or will Jim, her new boyfriend, keep her from drowning in the abyss?

UNDERTOW is a contemporary novel in which a young woman finds a terrible choice thrust upon her: overcome the pain in her past and the dangers which lurk in her mind, or succumb to these and be lost forever inside a beautiful dream." (from Goodreads)

Callie's bio:"My home is in the Pacific Northwest, where I live with an assortment of furry creatures (husband included). I have a masters degree in Psychology. When not writing or working, I like to explore the outdoors, especially the forests and beaches along the Oregon coast. I also enjoy a great cup of cappuccino, which happily is easily found in this part of the world."

And now for the questions...



1.) Why did you decide to make Marissa an early high school graduate, thus fitting Undertow into the New Adult category? Did you set out to tell a New Adult story from the beginning?

From the beginning, I knew Marissa was a young woman on the brink of independence. She was also a bit precocious, which masked her vulnerability. While I didn’t intend to write a New Adult story (when I began writing Undertow, I honestly had no idea that college-age protagonists were verboten in YA), I’m glad it falls into that category now.

2.) How do you think Marissa's story would have been different if it had been set during high school instead? Do you feel that setting it during the college period is essential to the storyline?

When I began querying agents and editors, I discovered that Undertow would be a tough sell because the main character and her friends were in college. I considered rewriting the story and let Marissa be in high school, perhaps a senior. It just wouldn’t work. Marissa needed to be on her own, trying out life as an independent young adult, for her story to unfold. Otherwise, her mother would see what was happening and intervene before she reached a critical stage.

3.) Ages of characters aside, how would you say YA and New Adult differ (e.g. thematically, maturity levels, etc.)?

The primary difference, as I see it, is that the crucial challenges of launching into independent adult life present such rich material for an author: first live-in relationships, whether as roommates or boyfriend/girlfriend; supporting oneself financially and emotionally, or negotiating terms of on-going support with parents; facing the great unknown of a wide-open future. It’s such a fragile and critical time in a person’s life. New Adult literature can mine these issues and also assume a higher level of maturity in the reader. While it’s true that many, if not most, readers of YA are actually adults, thanks to cross-over appeal, writers still need to be cognizant of the developmental level of their target audience.

4.) Currently, traditional publishers seem to be leery of New Adult books, preferring to bump the protagonist either down to high school level or up to adult. Why do you think that is? Do you see a place for New Adult books in traditional publishing in the future, or will they stay primarily the domain of indie publishers and self-published authors? 

The truth is, I see publishing shifting toward independent and small presses as we move more deeply into the digital age and niche marketing. The takeover might be gradual or abrupt, depending on what technologies and markets evolve. At the same time, I sense that traditional publishers are operating out of fear of these inevitable shrinkage of their business and taking on fewer risks.

5.) What was the most challenging aspect of writing Undertow? How did you tackle it?

Time. There are still only twenty-four hours in a day, and as a writer, you know how much time you pour into not just drafting a manuscript, but critiquing, revising, editing, polishing, and, if you choose the indie path, formatting, publishing, and promoting. It’s a lot of work, and I have a very demanding job and family as well.

After my mother passed away unexpectedly, I decided my creative life is a priority and have found ways to carve out time.

6.) Could you list a few New Adult books by other authors that you'd recommend?

 I’m always on the lookout, and there are many listed on the Goodreads New Adult Reading Challenge list that I’ve added to my TBR pile. I’m especially excited to read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.


Thanks very much, Callie, for sharing your thoughts on the New Adult genre! 


Readers, what do you think about the category of "New Adult" and its place in the publishing world?

Also, Callie is offering up a Kindle copy of Undertow at each stop on the tour! This is open internationally, just leave a comment on this post (if you'd like, you can answer my question above) and your e-mail address. The giveaway ends Mar. 15, at 11:59 pm EST, after which a winner will be selected randomly and contacted by e-mail. Also, everyone who comments on any of the tour stops will be entered into a grand prize giveaway! Here are the rest of the stops on the tour: