Texas Stars Recap

Heather Reid (HR): Pretty Dark Nothing is a good read for Halloween because it's creepy, has demons. Faith or fear, love or lies. The second book will be out in September 2014.

Krissi Dallas (KD): I wrote the Phantom Island series. It's about a group of teens at summer camp who find a portal to magical island. It's got adventure, romance, magic, drama, friendships. There will be four more books, but with time gap between them.

Jeramey Kraatz (JK): The Cloak Society is about a supervillain society. My main character was born into it; his parents run the organization. Teen superheros show up during heist; he saves one and has to decide if he can be a good guy but also prove himself to parents.

Mary Gray (MG): The Dollhouse Asylum is about teens who have been granted asylum from apocalypse, but have to reenact tragic love stories or die. It's a standalone. I'm working on something different. It's the type of story about one big moment so it's a standalone.

Victoria Scott (VS): The Dante trilogy is about a seventeen year old guy, sexy, cocky, who goes to work for the devil collecting souls.

Q1. Plotter or pantser?
MG: I was a pantser, but that may change. To be seen.
JK: Talking about plotting versus pantsing with kids, I thought it meant people pulling pants down. I'm a plotter. I always start with about 20 pages so I've got about 2000 words under my belt. I have to know where I'm going.
KD: I'm somewhere in between. I know my major points and make it up in between. I like my characters to dictate where they go. I recommend My Story Can Beat Up Your Story [by Jeffrey Schechter]. Every project is different.
HR: I am a pantser. Yeah... I've tried plotting, but...no. It hems me in, feels like I'm handcuffed. The story starts organically with a character. I do plan ahead each day so I know where I'm going and what I want from each scene but nothing too rigid.
VS: I want to be a pantser, but I'm totally a plotter. I write a one-sentence pitch for my book, then write one main internal goal and external goal. For example, a character wants to buy a house (external goal), but her internal goal is that she wants a family. You often have to let go of the external goal to achieve the internal goal. I write out act 1, 2, 3, then add in bullet points. I think of scenes and where they should go.

Q2. How do you come up with your ideas?
HR: Anywhere. Pretty Dark Nothing came from own experiences with night terrors and depression when I was younger. What if that voice that tells you you're not good enough... this girl can see demons who exploit those fears. I saw a documentary on the Dust Bowl and got interested in that time period and want to do a story in that time. I have some ideas for that. I was sitting by the sea in Scotland when the character came, fully formed. I wrote four pages, couldnt do anything with her then because I was doing edits but maybe someday.
VS: I get my ideas kind of from ripping off other people. I heard about a book about a year and a half ago, loved it, but not what I expected so I wrote what I expected to, and that became Fire & Flood. Many ideas come from movies.
MG: I was living in Virginia and wanted to move to Texas. Since I couldn't move there yet, I wrote a book about going to Texas. I've been around manipulative people and wanted to explore that so I wrote about a girl trying to escape that poisonous relationship. I think the current day is lame because everyone is always on their phones; we don't interact so now I'm on a historical kick.
JK: This is the great and awful thing about ideas: they're everywhere, but I can only write so many of them. That's why there are so many unfinished novels on my computer. I read and collect comic books. I was doing a project in college and interning at Marvel for X-men, and I wondered, "What about this medium has me coming back? What do I like? What do I not like?" Villains exist for heroes to punch; then they disappear. There are lots of hero origin stories but not for villains. Oh, by the way, my cat's name is Loki. What would a kid supervillain be like? I filled notebooks full of questions. Writing a book is just answering those questions.
KD: I wanted to do something different. I couldn't do guitar because of my nails. I wanted to write novel or do music video with my students. Watching LOST, I started playing with an idea if a group of teens found an island. I spent a month plotting world and tribes. Spy novel I'm working on, had a dream, at flight school to become pilot, walked past window and a guy was there, but he was supposed to be dead.

Q3. What are you working on now in one word? [boy, authors ARE bad at math! :P]
JK: I'm working on the third book for Cloak Society. I hate this word, but... epic.
VS: Revenge.... prostitution....
MG: Guillotine

KD: Spy
HR: Sequel, sacrifice.

Q4. Favorite ice cream
VS: Fish food
MG: Cookie dough
JK: Chocolate w nuts
KD: Braums peppermint

Q5. Football: watch or fall asleep
KD: Watch football
[I think everyone else said they'd fall asleep]

Q6. Tea or coffee
MG: Hot chocolate
[Everybody else booed because hot chocolate wasn't an option, but I defended Mary's choice because she and I seriously don't drink tea or coffee. It's a religious thing.]

Q8. Who would win in a fight: you or the person to your left?
MG: Jeremy would win
JK: Krissi would win
KD: Heather would win

Q9. You have twenty bucks. What do you spend it on?
VS: Modcloth
MG: Books
JK: Books
KD: Books
HR: Books or Xbox games

Q10. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
VS: Mexican food
MG: Beef jerkey
JK: Cheese
KD: French fries or pizza

Q11. What are you watching on tv right now?
VS: Originals
MG: Rain
JK: American Horror Story
KD: Big Bang Theory
HR: Sleepy Hollow

Q12. Favorite city.
VS: Nola
MG: Austin
JK: Chicago
KD: Dallas
HR: Edinburgh

Q13. [I don't remember this question, which sucks because clearly it was a good one! May have been wrestling an alligator vs lion.]
VS: Death by alligator. I want the death roll!
MG: Can't face either one
JK: Alligator because it's cooler. Swampy and atmospheric.
KD: Alligator bec allergic to cats. Unfair advantage.
HR: Alligator because it will fall asleep if you flip it over.

Q14. Will you participate in NaNoWriMo?
VS: Yes! Just signed up. Going to continue my current wip [work in progress] but I just want to hashtag all day long.
MG: No. I would neglect my children.
JK: No.
KD: I would like to, but I need to finish my current novel.
HR: I can't do nano because I'm currently doing edits due December 15.

Q15. Who is your favorite hero or villain?
VS: Joker, all day long. Especially Heath Leger.
MG: Scarecrow, played Cilian Murphy.
JK: Gambit! I have a poster of Gambit framed on my wall. Gallactis is my favorite villain.
KD: Loki just because of Tom Hiddleston. Superman has been there all my life, but I currently love Iron Man. Maybe that's just RDJ.
HR: Wolverine, but maybe that's Hugh Jackman. Lex Luther.

Q16. How long have been writing?
VS: I started writing 3 years ago in October.
MG: I grew up in a house where it was considered a waste of time to read fiction or write.
JK: I've always been a writer, but don't let that discourage you if you haven't always been. I didn't know would write for kids or even write fiction.
KD: Always. I wrote my first book in third grade. It was about a girl who formed band and became a rock star, then woke up and it was all a dream. I called it Golden Afternoon because I loved Alice in Wonderland and the flowers.
HR: Since I can remember. I used to compile stories I loved, rip them off [her notebook], staple them and carry around the house. When I was 19 or 20, I relized it could be a serious career. Just writing.

Q17. What did you read as a kid and what have you recently loved?
VS: R.L. Stine. Christopher Pike. The Lovely and the Lost & The Beautiful and the Cursed [by Paige Morgan].
MG: Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. Recently, research and lots of nonfiction. Steelheart [by Brandon Sanderson].
JK: Lois Lowry. The Ruins. The Shining. If You Could Be Mine [by Sara Farizan].
KD: R.L. Stine. Christopher Pike. Trixie Belden. The Baby-Sitters Club. Sweet Valley High. Nancy Drew. Recently: Pretty Dark Nothing. Splintered by A.G. Howard. The Collector.
HR: Christopher Pike. V.C. Andrews. Anne Rice. Dean Koontz. The Archived by Victoria Schwab.

Q18. KitKats or m&ms.
VS: Kit kat
MG: M&ms
JK: Almond m&ms. I'm like an old man.
KD: M&ms
HR: I have an allergy to wheat so no kit kats or regular m&ms. I like peanut m&ms.

Q19. Favorite movie.
VS: What Dreams May Come
MG: Gladiator and V for Vendetta.
JK: Return of the Lving Dead
KD: True Beverly Hills
HR: Beauty and the Beast, animated.

Q20. Most important piece of advice about being an author.
VS: Decide why you're writing the book. Writing it for art's sake or yourself or being commercial. It is different, writing for yourself or wanting to sell. Artsy books, having a niche, those stories need to be told, but they are different.
MG: I don't get to write full time yet. I hate myself if I write just for the sake of writing. Write what you love. I write what's important in my heart. Imagine editing a novel you can't stand.
JK: Write. Sitting down and forcing yourself to write, after those 20 pages when it's no longer a really great idea. Pillage on. No, wait, pilgrim on? Whatever, keep going on!
KD: Study your craft. Be good at what you do. More than read the works of others. Read craft books. Don't do it halfway. Just read. Read everything, every genre. The best way to have a story is to have a story in your soul. That's not just books, but movies and tv. Study bad books, well not bad, but stories that don't resonate with you and figure out why.

Giveaway:

While at the event, I snagged signed copies of Victoria's The Liberator, Jeramey's The Cloak Society and Krissi's Windchaser for this giveaway. Open to the US and Canada. Ends 12 am cst March 27. Full giveaway policies are stated in the Site Policies tab at the top. All entries will be verified. Good luck!

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Big Brothers Big Sisters Benefit Signing Recap

Last fall, just a week or so before Thanksgiving, I took about an hour and half off from work to jaunt down to my favorite local Barnes & Noble to attend a special signing with Krissi Dallas, Mary Gray, Heather L. Reid, and Victoria Scott that benefitted Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Q1. Describe your book!
Victoria Scott (VS): My characters make worse decisions. I have a 17-year old boy who dies and works for devil collecting souls. He is not a good person. I wanted a character who makes bad decisions. When he meets someone who makes good decisions, will he stay the same or change under influence? Fire & Flood is about people in a race searching for one dose of a cure. Each participant is given an egg, which is called a pandora. The pandoras are animals with powers that may help win race.
Krissi Dallas (KD): I write out of happy places in my life. Phantom Island series is dealing with two settings. There's a certain magic at camp. You make relationships and learn things about yourself. But I also wanted the real world and magic world to have their own special magic. There's a world with elemental magic. You can deal with issues in a magical world that are easier to deal with than in real world.
Heather Reid (HR): My main character has nightmares, and then the nightmares come to life and enter reality. It's a scary, creepy book about love or lies, faith or fear, darkness or destiny. When I was younger, I suffered from night terrors and sleepwalking. I thought, what if a  teen girl saw demons. The voices that say you're not good enough, not pretty enough...they were real voices. It's all about what's beautiful and broken.
Mary Gray (MG): My story used personal experiences, and exorcised personal demons. I wanted a story that was enticing and captured the manipulation of a bad guy on women, but also had hope. I wanted to show an unhealthy relationship. I also love classic characters and wanted to showcase that. Cheyanne has to learn to remove herself from feelings with the bad guy.

Q2. How did you get into writing and why?
KD: There's something in a writer where you see storylines around you. What if this happened? You create fantasies. I started writing things down as a child because I could see characters doing stuff. It wasn't until I was an adult that I had enough material, enough life experiences to put writing into a series. Let your creativity take you!
HR: If you love to write, don't worry about anything. Just put the words on the page. I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old, re-imagining favorite stories. I would staple pages together and tell my mom, "Look I have a book!" But I still wanted to be a Dallas cheerleader or an archeologist. Then I remember being 11 and wanting to be published author. I said would publish by 16. It didn't happen, but that seed stayed with me. It took seventeen long years of hard work; not everybody's journey is the same. If there's something you're passionate about or that you love, don't give up. You'll probably have to work hard, but don't give up. VS: *starts singing "Don't Stop Believing"*
MG: I loved essay questions as a kid. I always waited until end to turn mine in so teacher would see mine on top. My parents weren't very supportive of writing so it wasn't until I had my first child that I really started to write. I would be exhausted after playdates, but I would come home and want to have something special.
VS: I started writing just because I loved books. I worked in advertising after college. Get laid off a lot. What do I really want to do.... I didn't really like anything other than books.

Q3. How much time do you write a day?
VS: Two hours in the morning, two in the afternoon plus marketing, answering emails, online chatting, etc.
KD: I do most of my writing on Mondays and Wednesdays because I'm a part time teacher, and I'll meet with writing buddies and write for hours at a time.
MG: Since I have little ones, they come first. When all my kids are in school,I'll be able to write full time. It's whenever have time right now. I have to make it happen.

Q4. Does it "flow?"

HR: Sometimes, sometimes not. I write slowly, very deliberately, because I love words. I love the rhythm of words. You build momentum. At first it is hard, but the more you know the story, the characters, the better it flows.
KD: In the writing world, you're either a pantser or plotter. I'm a pantser, and we fly by seat of our pants. I let the story flow wherever it wants, but the revision stage is really important. By the third or fourth book, the characters know where they need to go. I do plot out points. Big scenes come out, but the way to get there, I have to fight for every word.
VS: I am a plotter. I loosely outline every book. I'm militant with writing. I do 2000 words every day. I always have an idea where the story needs to go and where words come out

Q5. How do you concentrate on writing and focus on story?
MG: One night a week, I'll take off, and my husband takes kid duty. In the afternoon,  if my kids can watch a show, I have some time. My best writing, though, actually comes in the car. Alone, in the quiet. 
HR: It depends on the day. Some days I'm focused on my book; other days my focus is on laundry or dishes. When I'm thinking over a scene, not sure where it's going, it takes time. But it's easier when I know where it's going. It helps to have friends to keep focus. A support system.

Q6. How are characters people? How do you have them in your head?
VS: My characters don't exactly feel like real people to me, at least until the third Dante novel was written, then I missed him. I could hear things he would say.
KD: Reading Dante, I can hear Tori. Dante and Tori are similar. Dante is a good guy.
VS: He's a horrible good guy.
KD: My characters' lives are different from my mind; I do think about what they would do in real life. I can't imagine being done [with the series]. It will be hard to say goodbye because it's such a reflection of your heart. There's no way to separate completely. It's hard to put out there, but it could be your story. It could be your friend who helps you walk through life. I do feel sad then they're hurt. I'm like, "I'm sorry! It's okay! Pep talk!"
HR: My characters live and breathe in my head. I write organically, definitely a pantser. I start with characters and get to know them before the story starts. I was writing a scene and I was like, "what? What are you doing?!" I knew that version was what really happened. She was telling her story to me, and I was just writing it down. There's a little bit of me in all my characters.
MG: I feel closest to my characters if I hear a song that encompasses their feelings. At the gym, I heard a song and I was like, "oh yeah! Standing up to the villain!" I heard a song in the car for the love interest and wrote a scene that didn't connect to any others, but I knew him in that moment. The villain is so real to me right now.

Q7. As you develop the characters, do the characters develop you in real life?
MG: I know a woman in real life who is having trouble standing up to her husband. My main character had to stand up to the bad guy. I told her, "you have to stand up to yourself." Sitting here, you think, yeah, stand up to someone who's abusing you, but I definitely learned it in that moment.
HR: Absolutely. My writing taught me a lot about my characters and about my own demons.
KD: One main villains in book is a female character. I find myself very fascinated with the way I wrote her. It's like if I gave in to every selfish, dark part of myself, and I realized that's how I wrote her. Villains aren't entirely evil. There are some that deserve what's coming to them, but there are others that are redeemable. They're the hero of their own story. I wrote her from dark place in myself.
VS: Fire & Flood didn't affect me, but definitely felt that way about Dante. He helped me get swagger in real life!

I don't have a corresponding giveaway for this recap since I didn't get anything signed, but I hope you enjoyed it and received some special insight into these awesome authors' minds. I know I'm really lucky that I get to call these amazing women my friends, and I love having the opportunity to see them often. Do any of their answers have special meaning to you?

Cover Reveal & Name Contest: Pretty Dark Nothing #2

Heather L. Reid is a good friend of mine; she's one of the Dallas-local authors I'm always so excited to get to hang out with on a regular basis, and today, I'm helping to reveal the cover of the second book of Heather's Pretty Dark Nothing series! This cover reveal is a little different, but it is SO COOL. See, there is a cover for the book...but there are two titles and YOU get to help pick the final name for the book!

 

Help Month9Books choose a title for the second installment of the Pretty Dark Nothing series!

Book 2, a follow up to Pretty Dark Nothing, will be released this fall, and we need your help picking a title.  Below are two covers, each with a proposed title for Book 2 on it.  We can't call it "Book 2" forever, so please take a look and comment HERE to vote on which you like best. 

The winning title will be revealed at BEA 2014 and if you commented to vote and will attend BEA, we will give you a signed copy of the galley (limited to the first 20 commenters attending). Voting opens today and ends on Friday, March 14, 2014.  Thanks to artist Christel Michiels for the amazing cover!

Which do you like best?

Title One: Perfect Dark Sacrifice

Title Two: Pretty Dark Sacrifice

Please remember to comment at Chapter by Chapter for your vote to count and to qualify for the galley giveaway, but feel free to leave Heather some love here too! Personally, I'm leaning toward Pretty Dark Sacrifice myself. I like the parallelism with the title. Which do you prefer? And OHMYGOSH can we please talk about how lovely this cover is with the purple and the flowers and the font?! Gorgeous!

Pretty Dark Nothing #2
by Heather L. Reid

September 2014

Month9Books

 

Summary:

It’s been five weeks, two days, and eight hours since the demons forced Quinn to throw herself into the raging river, since Aaron sacrificed himself to save her, since he disappeared without a trace. No body, no sign of him at all. Everyone wants her to move on, but Quinn can’t. She’s convinced Aaron’s trying to contact her, but Azrael, her angel Sentinel, insists these visions are nothing more than the demons preying on her guilt, bent on distracting her from her true destiny as the reincarnation of Eve. With Aaron’s fate forever entwined with Quinn’s true Sentinel, Kaemon, they both find themselves prisoner of the underworld. For Aaron, death in the river would have been easier than ending up in Lilith’s dungeons.

Quinn's story starts with Pretty Dark Nothing!

Pub Date: April 23, 2013
Publisher: Month9Books
Genre: young adult, paranormal, urban fantasy

Summary: It’s been twenty three days since Quinn has slept for more than minutes at a time. Demons have invaded her dreams, stalking her, and whispering of her death. The lack of sleep and crippling fear are ruining her life. Energy drinks and caffeine pills don’t make a dent. When Quinn dozes off in the school hallway, Aaron, an amnesiac with a psychic ability, accidentally enters her nightmare. The demons are determined to keep them apart, and Aaron from discovering the secret locked away in his memory. Together, they could banish the darkness back to the underworld for good. That is, unless the demons kill them first.

Available from:

   

About the Author

Heather L. Reid is both American and British and has called six different cities in three different countries, home. Her strong sense of wanderlust and craving for a new adventure mean you might find her wandering the moors of her beloved Scotland, exploring haunted castles, or hiking through a magical forest in search of fairies and sprites. When she’s not venturing into the unknown in her real life, she loves getting lost in the worlds of video games or curling up by the fire with good story. For now, this native Texan is back in the Lone Star State, settling down with her Scottish husband and working on the sequel to her Young Adult paranormal debut, PRETTY DARK NOTHING.

Author Links:
   

Cover reveal organized by:

Event recap: Heather L. Reid's debut party + giveaway

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending local DFW author Heather Reid's debut party for her novel Pretty Dark Nothing. It was so much fun meeting Heather and the whole slew of DFW area authors & bloggers, most of whom I'd already met at TLA, at least in passing. I had no idea when I moved to Dallas how amazing the reading community is here, but I'm so thankful for it!

Heather started off the night by saying a few words about her journey to becoming an author:

          "It's been a dream of mine ever since I can remember. My best friend used to edit my
           stories. Sometimes dreams fade away when you get older because of the daily grind.
           You forget what you're passionate about. There wer when I didn't focus on writing,
            but 7 or 8 years ago, I sent a manuscript for query. An editor at the big six wanted
            my book, and asked for a full manuscript, then passed. It was the best thing that
            could have happened. Don't give up on your dreams. It may take time, it may take
            years, lots of work, but you can do it."

She followed up these inspirational words by reading the locker room scene from Pretty Dark Nothing, and then took some questions from the audience.

Q1. (from ya author Mary Gray) I love the tangible presence of the demons, it makes the story relatable. As a writer, I love first person pov. Why did you choose third person and multi pov?
A. Quinn and Aaron's voices came at the same time. Aaron's voice is so interesting! I prefer to read third so I always wrote in third. Right now I'm working on a story in first person.

Q2. How do you feel first and third person compare?
A. I just spent more time writing in third person, but it's a close third, not omni. Third allows more leeway for description.

Q3. Pretty Dark Nothing is your first published book, but what was the first thing you ever wrote?
A. It was a picture book that was a mishmash of my favorite picture stories. I was four or five years old, and my mom helped spell the words. No one will ever see it. In seventh grade I would be in spelling class, sneaking a pad and pen, writing my first novel, which will also never be seen. I wanted to be published by 16.

Q4. Could you describe the creative process for the title?
A. When Darkness Whispers was the first title, but it was too similar to several other novels. My publisher picked a title that I hated so they went back to the drawing board. They came back with a couple titles, and I loved Pretty Dark Nothing.

Q5. During the journey from aspiring writer to where you are now, you encountered challenges. At what point did you decide, "No matter what, this is," like a moment of conviction. How hard was it to make modifications and not feel like you were selling out?
A. That turning point came around 21 or 22. I had a magazine on my desk with an ad for the Institute for Children's Literature. It was a correspondence course to write for kids. It taught me a lot about storytelling. I started writing picture books and for magazines. I decided to try young adult. Pretty Dark Nothing came from my experience with insecurity and depression. I went to confressences and networked to figure out where to go. Networking won't always get you where you want to go, but it helps. Meet people, be genuine. Write what you love. Be who you are, do what you love. Don't write to a market. Editors are there to help, not tear your work apart like some people believe. It's a partnership. Criticism? It's there. It's not about having thick skin. Be realistic that some people love it and they get it; that's who you're writing for. Keep that in your head. Focus on the people who are interested. It does hurt because it's personal; writing is personal.

Q6. What was the last book you read that you liked?
A. Grave Mercy. Love Robin LaFevers. Divergent. Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock.

Q7. Me: Goodreads has your book listed as Pretty Dark Nothing #1. Will there be sequels?
A. I'm writing book two now. It'll be out April 2014. There's a cliffhanger in Pretty Dark Nothing, be warned! There's an option for book three, but it's not contracted. I'd love to do a third book, though!

Q8. Do you have lots of ideas?
A. Yes! Living in Scotland, I was sitting by the sea, writing in a journal, when a character seemingly exploded from the sea. I wrote three pages worth, then told that character I was too busy to write for her just then. I put her on the back burner. I've been trying to work out Pretty Dark Nothing #2 when that character just came back.

Q9. How much back and forth is there when your editor insists on a change?
A. For Pretty Dark Nothing, there weren't many structural or character changes, just pacing and some motivations. I don't know if it was luck or just what happened to me. I agreed with 98% of the cuts, but the 2% that I put my food down for, that's what's in the book.

Q10. Did you consider self-publishing?
A. There's nothing wrong with self-publishing. I just wanted to go traditional or small press. I wanted to knock on all the doors, more that traditional route. What I'd always dreamed about was holding a paperback, having a marketing plan. Self-publishing is amazing, but not was I saw for me. There are hybrids now, depending on what works, so never say never!

Heather finished out the night with a small signing with the remaining stock of first editions for Pretty Dark Nothing and I snagged a copy for a giveaway!

Details: One winner will win a signed copy of Pretty Dark Nothing and two others will win a signed bookplate. Open to US/CA only. Ends midnight June 6 EST. All entries will be verified!


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