It’s a brand new year and that means it’s the year of The Elevensies! *throws confetti* We have big things in store to ring in the new year. Brace yourself for 8 giveaways. Read on for fabulous author interviews, books, and be sure to scroll all the way down to enter our huge giveaway!
This Week’s Interviews
- From Goodreads: In the beginning, there’s a boy standing in the trees. . . Clara Gardner has recently learned that she’s part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what it is, though, isn’t easy. Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place–and out of place, at the same time. Because there’s another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara’s less angelic side. As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she’d have to make–between honesty and deciet, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny.
How long did you work on this book?
About six months, from when I first had the idea to when I had a completed draft. And then for another 7-8 months in the editing process.
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
My journey was very long, in some ways, and VERY short, in others. I’ll explain: I never tried to publish anything until I was in my fourth year of grad school, when I was 26 years old. By then I’d been a “serious writer” for a while, but I never thought my work was good enough to attempt to publish. At that point, I sent out one little story (mostly because my husband, who I had just started dating at the time, said “WHAT? You’ve NEVER submitted anything?!!”) and it was almost immediately accepted at a great literary journal, The Iowa Review. My agent, who back then was an up-and-coming agent on the lookout for new clients, read the story and liked it, so she contacted me about it. I was, at that time, working on a literary novel, which she also liked. But I never finished the novel–I was too busy getting married and moving to California and having a baby and all that real-life stuff. So then, 5 years later, I had the idea for Unearthly, and when I had a draft ready, I sent it to my agent, who now worked at a bigger agency. Again, she liked it and agreed to represent it. She just happened to mention my book to an editor at HarperCollins during brunch one day, who at that time was actively on the lookout for a good angel book, so she of course immediately asked to see my draft. I sent it to her, she liked it, and the rest, well, is history.
So, it took me 10 years of serious training and writing before I got a book published. But my novel was never rejected. I chalk it up to one part being patient and taking my time really learning to write before I sent anything out, and one part extremely good luck, just being in the right place at the right time.
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
Along the same lines, I’d advise beginning writers to STUDY. That doesn’t mean that you have to enter a formal program or anything, (although that was a huge thing for me, and I don’t think I would be where I am today without my education) but, if you want to be a writer, you need to do three things: A) write, because the only way to really learn to write is by writing, B) read, because reading inspires you and teaches you so much, and C) STUDY writing. This is a step most beginning writers often don’t think to take–they think writing and reading are enough. Writing is an ART, like everything else. Painters learn by painting, and by looking at other painter’s work, but they also generally study theory and technique. If you to learn to play the piano, yes, you have to sit down and play, and you can listen to music, but you also need to take lessons from a professional or at the very least read a manual about how to play. So it is with writing, I firmly believe. Again, you don’t need a program or anything; you can totally do it on your own. Read books about technique; there are some great ones out there. Take a seminar or a class. Join a crit group. Go to conferences and readings and do whatever you can to educate yourself about the craft of writing. Part of this whole “study” business is simply taking yourself seriously as a writer, making a solid commitment to it. Trust me, it doesn’t take the fun out of writing. And it does make the path to publication a whole lot smoother. Okay, lol, now getting off my soapbox. . .
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
One of the first things that surprised me was how slowly the publishing industry moves. I think it’s like 17 months, on average, before a book will hit shelves after it is officially purchased by a publisher. But, at the same time, the publishing industry is always a bit rushed. It’s definitely a hurry-up-and-wait kind of experience.
Head Games (Pretty Tough #3) by Keri Mikulski
- From Barnes and Noble: Taylor is calm, cool, collected, and ferocious on the basketball court. A total all-star. Not so much in real life. She may be tall, gorgeous, and an incredible catch, but just try telling her that! And lately, Taylor doesn’t know which way to turn: The summer showcase game is almost here. Her BFF Hannah roped her into a fashion show (eek!). And she can’t decide between Zach—the super-popular, super-tall, super-off-limits basketball dynamo—and Matt—the sweet boy from her math class (who may just be dating her BFF’s older sister). It’s enough to make any girl’s head spin! Can Taylor strike a pose, land the boy of her dreams, and win the game?
How long did you work on this book?
Head Games began as Full Court Press about three years ago. All in all, from the first idea to the finished published product, it took about two and a half years to write, revise, and edit Head Games.
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
I began writing professionally in 2007 after my first nonfiction article sold to Softball Youth. From there, I focused on writing short stories and articles, which I did for a few years while I worked on my sporty novels on the side. My first book, Screwball, was published in 2008 after I wrote a fictional short story series for Fastpitch Forever magazine. After Screwball, I landed my agent with the sequel in the fall of 2008. Then, after working with Pretty Tough for a year, I was offered a four-book deal with Razorbill in 2010. In the publishing world, my journey was pretty short.
Rejections? I’ve had so many that I’ve lost count. I look at rejections like going up to bat. If I don’t step into the batter’s box, I’ll never know if I’m going to strike out or hit a homerun. Hopefully, it’s a homerun.
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
A very wise author friend once told me, ‘Control what you can control. Keep writing’. There is so much in this business that writers cannot control – sales, publicity, reviews etc… I try to focus on what I can control, which is my writing. Everyday, I focus my time and energy into my writing.
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
The amazing glittery feeling I get every time I see my books in print or when I receive an email from a reader. There’s nothing like it!
Trickster’s Girl by Hilari Bell
- From Goodreads: In the year 2098 America isn’t so different from the USA of today. But, in a post-9/11 security-obssessed world, “secured” doesn’t just refer to borders between countries, it also refer to borders between states. Teenagers still think they know everything, but there is no cure for cancer, as Kelsa knows first-hand from watching her father die. The night Kelsa buries her father, a boy appears. He claims magic is responsible for the health of Earth, but human damage disrupts its flow. The planet is dying. Kelsa has the power to reverse the damage, but first she must accept that magic exists and see beyond her own pain in order to heal the planet.
What routines do you find helpful for you to stay actively writing?
I write a book a year, and have been doing that pretty consistently since I first started writing novels–long before I was selling them. There’s kind of question among beginning writers about when you should actually start calling yourself “a writer”. Is it when you’re published? When you’ve gotten a hundred rejections? 500 rejections? When you’re writing every day, or putting in X hours a week? There is no real answer, of course, but I remember exactly when that moment happened for me. I had just revised Songs of Power–either for my critique group to read, or after their comments–and was printing it out down in my basement office. It was actually only about midnight, but I was tired enough that it felt like two or three in the morning, because I’d been working all day and then revising into the night. I was sitting there, half asleep, watching fan-fold paper stream out of the printer, and I suddenly realized that if I was crazy enough to put this much time and effort into it, then I WAS a writer. Published or not. And I held onto that knowledge from that day forward, even though I put nine more novels and ten years behind me before Songs of Power finally sold.
How much do trends influence your writing?
In some ways, I don’t care much about my audience. (Sorry, audience.) I write the stories I want to tell, because that’s what interests me. Mind you, I adore it when other people like my work! There’s nothing cooler than hearing from someone who loves my books, and has gotten the kind of joy from them that I’ve gotten from other people’s books–because there’s nothing quite as wonderful as losing yourself in a really good story. But when you come down to it, I write for the sake of the story itself, not for my readers.
That said, a story isn’t really alive unless other people can read it. I don’t know if a tree that falls unheard makes a sound, but a story that’s not told to someone surely hasn’t…become. (Become is roughly the 6th word I’ve tried in that sentence.) And I also have to care about the market, because I make a living at this! What I’ve found myself doing lately, is writing a story I want to write and attaching it to the popular category it comes closest to. Trickster’s Girl and Traitor’s Son are sort of YA paranormal romance–except that they’re near future SF instead of a contemporary setting, and the focus is on adventure instead of romance. And I’ve also seen people put them in the dystopian category (because they’re near future SF) even though the world Kelsa and Jase inhabit is actually pretty decent. I’m calling the next novel I want to write steam punk, even though it’s not set in an alternate fantasy Victorian era, but in an alternate fantasy WWI era, where the science of magic has had a big impact on the world. But I’m going to have fun upping the cool tech quotient–and it’s close enough that I can call it steam punk, even if it isn’t, quite.
What advice would you offer writers to build their platform before they become published?
That’s a hard question, because it’s something I’m spectacularly bad at myself–and if you can do it, it’s a really good idea! Everyone says “social networking” and if you’re good at social networking, or really interested in blogging for its own sake, there are certainly people who’ve been successful that way. But I’m lousy at social networking, and too busy to give my poor wilting blog any attention. And frankly, unless it’s something you care about for it’s own sake, I doubt you’ll be good enough at it to make a difference.
I think the best notion I’ve come up with, for me, is to make a digital recording of one of my books–The Goblin Wood–and make it available as a free podcast. If you get onto my website, hilaribell.com, you can find the links to download it and it’s also available at the I-tunes store in the Podcast section. But I’ve just made it available, and haven’t really begin publicizing it yet. (Plan to in January.) So whether I’m right that I can reach an audience that way hasn’t been tested. I did mention that I wasn’t good at this, didn’t I?
Slice of Cherry (Portero #2) by Dia Reeves
- From Goodreads: Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that’s just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around. It’s no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire—the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren’t killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities….
How long did you work on this book?
I wrote Slice of Cherry during NaNoWriMo 2008 and it went to copyedits sometime in spring 2010, I believe. So about a year and a half. My first book took TWO and a half years, so having to work under a deadline makes all the difference.
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
Pretty short. I wrote my first book, Bleeding Violet, for NaNoWriMo 2005. In June of 2008, I began querying agents. I got a few rejections (maybe nine or ten) and a few requests for partials (the first 50 or so pages), and one request for a full (the whole book, which I hadn’t quite finished, oops). I ended up signing with the agent who requested the full on June 19 (Juneteenth, y’all!). I revised BV again for her in July, and by August, she was shopping it around to publishers. At the end of August 2008, we hooked up with Simon Pulse.
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
What I tell everybody: Believe in yourself and your work, but prepare to have your heart broken.
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
How unglamorous it is. And how people who aren’t authors don’t believe how unglamorous it is. They want fabulous stories about meeting authors at cocktail parties and three-martini lunches with editors. One percent of it is like that, sorta, but the other ninety-nine percent is me in my pj’s writing. Sometimes I don’t even comb my hair. Very much the opposite of glamorous.
The Education of Hailey Kendrick by Eileen Cook
- From Amazon: Hailey Kendrick always does exactly what’s expected of her. She has the right friends, dates the perfect boy, gets good grades, and follows all the rules. But one night, Hailey risks everything by breaking a very big rule in a very public way…and with a very unexpected partner in crime. Hailey gets caught, but her accomplice does not, and Hailey takes the fall for both of them. Suddenly, Hailey’s perfect life–and her reputation–are blowing up in her face. Her friends are all avoiding her. Her teachers don’t trust her. Her boyfriend won’t even speak to her for long enough to tell her that she’s been dumped. They say honesty is the best policy–but some secrets are worth keeping, no matter the cost. Or are they?
How long did you work on this book?
I’m proof that practice helps. My first book took me over five years to write. It had many, many, many, ugly variations before it finally evolved into something that could be sent out and published. The Education of Hailey Kendrick is my fourth book and it took me about a year to write and edit.
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
My journey to publication depends on part on when we want to say the clock started ticking. My parents had framed up a homework assignment I did in second grade. We were supposed to practice writing sentences. I linked my sentences together so they made a story. The teacher wrote “I’m sure someday you’ll be an author.” So my very first work was well received, but there was quite a bit of rejection after that.
For a long time I didn’t believe it was possible to be a writer. It seemed like wishing to be a princess or to be able to fly- a great idea, but not realistic. I always wrote, but I didn’t bother to send things in. In 1997, my husband’s job transferred us overseas (Belgium). I couldn’t get a work permit so I decided to see if I could write an entire book. it turns out I could write a whole book, but not a very good one. I wrote a mystery. A mystery so bad, so horrid, that it can never again see the light of day. My favourite rejection letter was “While you have some writing skill, please be advised that the point of a mystery is that we shouldn’t know who done it in the first chapter. That’s why it is called a mystery.” I still have that letter.
I put the mystery away and started another book. That book would eventually morph into my first book- Unpredictable. I sold it in 2006 and it came out in 2008.
I can’t recall the exact number of rejections along the way. (I tend to block out the unpleasant) I had enough to feel like a true tortured writer, but apparently not enough to make me feel I should give the whole thing up. I feel rejection is a part of the journey, besides who wants to be friends with a writer who tells you they sold the very first thing they wrote?
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
Someone told me that publication is a marathon not a sprint. There are times when you might have a “writer’s high,” but there are also times when it seems like everyone is passing you, you can’t get a second wind, everything hurts, you want to quit, and even sometimes like you want to throw up. You’ve got to pace yourself, surround yourself with people to cheer you on along the way, and remember that as long as you stay in the race you’re not losing.
I also fully support having emergency chocolate around.
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
The biggest surprise for me was that the world kept right on going. Despite the fact I has waited for, and wished for, publication as long as I could remember, the day my book hit the shelves:
– Oprah and/or The Today Show failed to call
– A parade was not held in my honour
– An armoured car did not show up at my front door with bags of money from the millions of first day book sales
– Trumpets did not greet my arrival in bookstores
– No paparazzi or legions of fans waited to pounce on me when I left the house
I still had to do laundry and spent most of my time in stretchy yoga pants. It seemed there should be some major event to mark such an important milestone, but things went on in their normal pattern. Despite the lack of Oprah and crazed fans, I wouldn’t change seeing my books on the shelves for anything.
- From Goodreads: Reimagining the days surrounding this unforgettable event in history, readers are brought back to 1986 as the astronauts prepare for the Challenger mission, and Christa McAullife trains to be the first teacher in space. When a teen named Annie meets Christa, she is fascinated by Christa’s courage. Truly inspired, Annie is determined to make it to Florida to see the Challenger launch, a trip that will forever change how she thinks about herself and her secret desire for her own future. Although she is devastated when tragedy strikes, Annie honors Christa by following her own dream, despite the obstacles.
How long did you work on this book?
Not long. We went from Premise to ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) in six months!
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
I’ve been writing stories since I was a kid – so if I consider all that time, it’s been a rather long journey. 🙂
I completed my first novel – called Mona Molly – in 2003. After two years of submitting Mona Molly and about 16-17 rejections, I put that one aside. During the query process, I had been working on two other novels: SHADOW and WINNIE’S WAR. I finished SHADOW first and found representation fairly quickly.
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
No matter where we are on the writer path, the business side of writing – rather that be rejections or negative reviews or other disappointments – can tread upon the joy we have in creating and writing stories, if we let it. Stay with the joy!
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
I didn’t think of my writing as a career before. I might have been pursuing publication as a way of legitimizing myself as Writer. But now I tend to look beyond the next book and plan what I’d like a career in writing to look like – if I’m so fortunate. 🙂
- From Goodreads: Writing her own love story could drive a girl insane! When you’re the daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalized for mental illness. After putting on a brave front for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue, and the Queen can’t write it. Alice needs a story for her mother—and she needs one fast. That’s when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol’s voice in her head and see things she can’t explain, she must face the truth—that she’s either inherited her mother’s madness, or Errol is for real.
How long did you work on this book?
MAD LOVE began it’s life as an adult novel. But something about the story wasn’t working so it sat on a shelf for many years. Then, when I was done writing Coffeehouse Angel, I came across the manuscript and started reading it and thought, This would be so much better as a teen novel. I had to rewrite the entire thing, of course, but the basic concept remained–a girl who must write her famous mother’s next romance novel. Once I began the rewrite of the book, it took me a little over a year to complete.
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
I started writing my first novel in Sept. 2002. By the end of one year, I’d written a novel, had found an agent, and had received 12 rejection letters from publishing houses. Yep, all that in one year. It was crazy. So I wrote two more adult novels, neither was sold. Then I decided to change course and I wrote a children’s novel called “To Catch a Mermaid.” It sold at auction in 2005 and was published in 2007. And I’ve been writing for kids and teens ever since.
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
Write the first novel for yourself. Write it from your heart. Don’t worry about market trends. Don’t stress about getting published. Write something you love.
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
On the negative side it’s the post-publication work! There’s so much promotion to do, I had no idea. Time management is crucial and I often fail at it. I’ll spend a few days catching up on emails and not write a single word on the next novel. It can be stressful at times. I think a personal assistant is in my near future.
On the positive side, it’s all the reader letters. I love getting those letters. Knowing that one of my stories has influenced or simply entertained someone is amazing! I couldn’t ask for a better job.
The Legacy (The Declaration #3) by Gemma Malley
- From Goodreads: When a Pincent Pharma lorry is ambushed by the Underground, its contents come as a huge surprise – not drugs, but corpses in a horrible state. It appears Longevity isn’t working and the drugs promising eternal youth are failing to live up to their promises. A virus is sweeping the country, killing in its wake, and Longevity is powerless to fight it. When Richard Pincent of Pincent Pharma suggest that the Underground has released the virus, something has to be done to put the story straight and once and for all alert everyone to the truth.
How long did you work on this book?
Ages! I started it about three years before it was published, then left it for a while to write The Returners. There was so much I wanted to do with the book and it took a lot of thinking time.
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
I was pretty lucky really – I got a publishing deal before I’d finished The Declaration. It was one of those things I just felt compelled to write, and luckily I found an agent who shared my enthusiasm for it.
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
Keep at it. Keep reading, critiquing, writing and re-writing. Writing is a craft – you may have a natural gift for it but you still need to work at it. Make sure your plot is there – for me, that’s the skeleton that everything else hangs on. Story is king in my book.
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
I’m not sure any of it has really surprised me, but there is something special about writing your first book when there are no expectations, no deadlines or pressure. Once you’re published, you’ve always got to think about your next book and it can be difficult to find the space and time to just let ideas wash over you. Mind you, I’ve got two small children so finding space and time for anything can be a struggle 🙂
Shadowspell (Faeriewalker #2) by Jenna Black
- From Goodreads: On top of spending most of her time in a bunkerlike safe house and having her dates hijacked by a formidable Fae bodyguard, Faeriewalker Dana Hathaway is in for some more bad news: the Erlking and his pack of murderous minions known as the Wild Hunt have descended upon Avalon. With his homicidal appetite and immortal powers, the Erlking has long been the nightmare of the Fae realm. A fragile treaty with the Faerie Queen, sealed with a mysterious spell, is the one thing that keeps him from hunting unchecked in Avalon, the only place on Earth where humans and Fae live together. Which means Dana’s in trouble, since it’s common knowledge that the Faerie Queen wants her – and her rare Faeriewalker powers – dead. The smoldering, sexy Erlking’s got his sights set on Dana, but does he only seek to kill her, or does he have something much darker in mind?
How long did you work on this book?
This is always such a hard question to answer, because it isn’t one long, continuous effort. The first draft took me about three months to write (which is about the usual for me), and then I did a couple more editing drafts after that, lasting about another month. After that, there’s a long delay before getting editorial revisions, at which time I work on it another couple of weeks, then possibly another delay (there was one with Shadowspell) before a second round of editorial revisions, followed by another week or so of work. Then another delay, followed by copyedits, delay, page proofs . . . You get the idea. It’s hard to add up the bits and pieces and come up with a good answer. (How’s that for a succinct answer to your question?)
How was your journey to publication? Long, short, how many rejections?
Long. Very, very long. It took me sixteen years and hundreds of rejections before I sold my “first” novel (Watchers in the Night, which came out in 2006). That “first” novel was actually the 18th novel I’d written. Now I have ten books on the shelves, and Shadowspell will be #11. Surreal, no?
What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?
Never give up! This business can be unbelievably frustrating, and it’s so easy to get discouraged when the rejections keep coming in. But what I went through is proof that if you work hard enough, if you keep improving your craft, and, most importantly, if you keep writing new books, you can do it. The other piece of advice is (in case you missed it) is to keep writing new books. It’s easy to fall into a trap of revising and resubmitting the same book, over and over and over. That’s not what I mean by not giving up. You have to keep learning and growing, and the only way to do that is to write new material.
What has surprised you most about becoming a published author?
No matter how many published authors I knew, no matter how much evidence was right in front of my face, I think that deep down, I believed once I became a published author, I would finally have some self-confidence. I didn’t expect to believe that every word I wrote was gold, but I thought there’d be some base level of belief that yes, I am a good writer, and yes, I can write a book, and no, it won’t be terrible. As I said, I know a lot of published authors, including NYT best-sellers, so I should have known better. I’ve heard them talk about their fears, and about how their current WIP is crap and they don’t know how they’ll ever get through it. One of my published author friends likes to describe writers as having “rock solid egos, surrounded by oceans of insecurity.” I’ve always loved that, and thought it was very apt. And every time I write a new book, I worry that it’s not good enough, that my career is about to disintegrate and I’ll have to go back to the day job, etc., etc. That part of the writing life, I could really do without!
Additional Releases
The Trouble With Half a Moon by Danette Vigilante
- From Goodreads: Ever since her brother’s death, Dellie’s life has been quiet and sad. Her mother cries all the time and Dellie lives with the horrible guilt that the accident that killed her brother may have been all her fault. But Dellie’s world begins to change when new neighbors move into her housing project building. Suddenly men are fighting on the stoop and gunfire is sounding off in the night. In the middle of all that trouble is Corey, an abused five-year-old boy, who’s often left home alone and hungry. Dellie strikes up a dangerous friendship with this little boy who reminds her so much of her brother. She wonders if she can do for Corey what she couldn’t do for her brother—save him.
XVI by Julia Karr
- From Goodreads: Nina Oberon’s life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she’ll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world—even the most predatory of men—that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a “sex-teen” is Nina’s worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina’s mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past—one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother’s killer.
The Faeman Quest (Faerie Wars #5) by Herbie Brennan
- From Goodreads: Brennan returns to the world of Faerie to introduce a new character — Mella, the daughter of King Consort Henry and Queen Holly Blue. When Mella accidentally travels to the country of Haleklind, she discovers rebel forces preparing an invasion using a terrifying new magical weapon. This novel features old favorites—Brimstone, Pyrgus, and Lord Hairstreak’s head—but readers will identify immediately with Mella, whose stubborn streak and fiesty daring must save the Faerie realm from mass destruction.
Night School (Blood Coven #5) by Mari Mancusi
- From Goodreads: After their parents’ shocking revelation about their fae heritage and an attack on their lives, the McDonald twins are forced to hide out deep in the Swiss Alps at Riverdale Academy, a secret vampire slayer training facility. And with no way to contact their vampire boyfriends for rescue, they’re going to have to play nice with the locals. But when Sunny starts acting strange, Rayne realizes that there’s more to fear at Riverdale than getting staked by the student body-leading to a showdown in Fairyland that may cost the twins their lives.
The Girl Who Became a Beatle by Greg Taylor
- From Goodreads: When Regina Bloomsbury’s band, the Caverns, breaks up, she thinks it’s all over. And then she makes a wish— “I wish I could be as famous as the Beatles.” The Beatles are her music idols. The next day, she gets up to find that the Caverns are not just as famous as the Beatles, they have replaced them in history! Regina is living like a rock star, and loving it. There are talk shows, music videos, and live concerts with thousands of screaming fans. And Regina is the star of it all. But fame is getting the better of Regina, and she has a decision to make. Does she want to replace the Beatles forever?
Giveaways
Five amazing authors have offered copies of their books! TRICKSTER’S GIRL, SLICE OF CHERRY, TAKING OFF, MAD LOVE, and SHADOWSPELL are all up for grabs. And to top it off, Keri Mikulski has offered swag for HEAD GAMES for three lucky winners. That’s a total of 8 giveaways! To enter, you must reside in the US, leave a comment, and fill out the form below. We’ve had many entrants in past weeks forget to leave a comment, which is required for entry. Good luck to all!
Happy reading,
The Ladies of ACP