Monday, January 30, 2012

Unravelling with Two Ls

I'm so excited. When I got home the other day, waiting on my doorstep was a package from HarperCollins. It felt "bookish" so I knew it was the best kind of package.

I might have let out a squee when I opened it up. Inside was a copy of the ARC of the Unravelling UK edition! (Note, it's spelled "Unravelling" with two Ls, so it's not a typo :)

Here it is, hanging with my other copies



The Cover Gods definitely smiled on me. I have not one, but two amazing covers that I love. They're both so different, but they both manage to really represent the book.

Here's the fabulous Unravelling cover 
(which will be in UK, Australia, and New Zealand)


My favorite thing about it, is the countdown numbers on the front--it's an important moment in the book! 



Friday, January 27, 2012

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

It's a Real Book

Well, almost a real book. It's officially one step closer.

Unraveling officially feels like a real book. Before the end of the year, I finished my first pass pages.



And thanks to my fabulous editor, I got a couple copies of the official jacket.



After looking through my home library for the hardcover book with the right number of pages, I managed to snap some pictures.

Of the cover



Of the back 



And with the other books on my shelves


The jacket is around Blood Red Road, which I haven't read yet, but I've heard is amazing. 






Tuesday, January 24, 2012

On the Inception of Unraveling

Like most of the crazy stories in my life, this once starts with “So I met this guy…”

Only, I didn’t actually “meet” the guy in a traditional sense—I became friends with him over the internet. He was a friend of a friend, funny, intelligent, charming. We traded meaningless comments or jokes with friends, but the more I got to know about him, the more it seemed we had in common. We liked the same movies and television shows, we both loved to read and to write, and we just seemed to be on the same intellectual wavelength. We recommended books to each other and we could talk about anything and everything.

And somewhere along the line, I realized he had become my best friend—and then we met, and it just felt like we belonged together (I’m a hopeless romantic, I know). Of course, he lived in another state and neither one of us had any ambitions to ever move so we started muddling through a long distance relationship, making up our own rules and trying to figure out what worked best for us.

Which got me thinking about long distance relationships. They’re hard—flawed and tragic. Most of them are doomed from the beginning. The emotional highs and lows in that type of relationship add an intense stress to even the most calm lives.



In June 2010 (during one of those emotional lows), I thought about how universally unfair it was, that I’d finally found this guy who was perfect for me, who really belonged with me, and yet he actually also belonged somewhere else. And that was the moment of inception of UNRAVELING. Because at its heart, it’s a star-crossed love story. Janelle and Ben are from different worlds, and in their darkest moments, they find each other.

I am also a huge science fiction and fantasy nerd, and I hate the perception that science fiction just has to be space operas (though I like those too) so I wanted UNRAVELING to be accessible to people who don’t know a lot about science or who don’t normally read science fiction. I spent about two months thinking about the plot and writing down character ideas in a notebook while riding the subway, and then I started writing pieces of dialogue and a few key scenes.

Then in December 2010 I wrote the first 100 pages. Unsure whether I should finish or set it aside, I shared those pages in a writing workshop in early 2011 and in March I reluctantly sent them along with a synopsis to my agent.

 The day the book sold, I was at lunch with three friends. Near the end of lunch my agent called and said “where are you?” When I told her she said “Come to my office. Don’t even pay your bill. Just get up and leave.” I did and when I got there she told me about the offer.

And I promptly called that guy who inspired it all.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Winners!



Congratulations to Allison who won my January Must Read Giveaway. I'm sending her a copy of Everneath by Brodi Ashton.

And congratulations to Melodie who won the YAmazing Race Bonus contest. I've preordered you a copy of Unraveling!

Monday, January 16, 2012

The YAmazing Race!

***Thank you to everyone who participated in the Race! It's officially closed.



Welcome to my stop on the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes, a crazy whirlwind blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors and prize packs featuring ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and more! If you haven’t yet been to the Apocalypsies website, please click here to start from the beginning and read the complete rules. Now on to the race!

UNRAVELING by Elizabeth Norris

Two days before her junior year, Janelle Tenner is hit by a pickup truck and killed—as in blinding light, her life flashing before her, then nothing. Except the next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school whom Janelle has never talked to, leaning over her. And though it isn’t possible, she knows with every fiber of her being that Ben has brought her back to life.

But her reincarnation, and Ben’s possible role in it, is only the first of the puzzles that Janelle must solve. While snooping in her FBI-agent father’s files for clues about her accident, she uncovers a clock that seems to be counting down to something—but to what? And when someone close to Janelle is killed, she can no longer deny what’s right in front of her: Everything that’s happened—the accident, the countdown clock, Ben’s sudden appearance in her life—points to the end of life as she knows it. As the clock ticks down, she realizes that if she wants to put a stop to the end of the world, she’s needs to uncover Ben’s secrets—and keep from falling in love with him in the process.

UNRAVELING is a gripping story of one girl’s fight to save her family, her world, and the one boy she never saw coming.

Got all that?

Store it away in your brain for the quiz ahead! And remember, you must complete ALL FIVE quizzes to be eligible for a prize pack.

But before you go – bonus contest! Simply leave a comment with your email address to be entered to win a pre-ordered copy of UNRAVELING!

Ready to move on? Click here to go to the next stop on the race!

Friday, January 13, 2012

“It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” 
 ― Marlene Dietrich

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Anticipating in 2012!

The top ten things I'm looking forward to this year.


10.


9.




8.


7.


6.



5.

4.



3.


2.



1.


What's on your most anticipated list for 2012?

Monday, January 9, 2012

The Revision Battle

I'm a perfectionist. I can't open a document on my laptop and do a read through without making some kind of revision. Every time I read something, I want to tinker with the words or the sentence structure, or I think of something else that should be happening in the scene.

And it's not just with things I've written myself. I'm that person that is always making edits to other people's writing too. At one point, I was a teacher, and I always turned back papers covered in green ink (green, because red ink apparently can hurt people's self esteem according to our principal).

I was sure that when the time came, I would rock at edits.

This is embarrassing but true: I didn't. Like at all.



My first reaction whenever I read anyone's revisions notes was that I couldn't possibly do what they were asking. Whether it was because "it would change the entire dynamic of the book!" or just because I had no idea how to implement them, my knee jerk reaction was that I couldn't do it.

Which was weird, because I've never been an "I can't" person.

So I did a couple weird things to get through edits.

1. I waited at least two full days after reading the edit letter before opening the manuscript on my computer. I wanted to really let those edit notes sink in and be committed to them before working on it.

2. I talked (and maybe whined a little) about them a lot. Writer friends and publishing industry friends had to hear me discuss edits and why I didn't think they'd work--or maybe they would--many times. Thankfully I had a good support system of people who knew when to tell me to shut up and just get it done.

3. I made a playlist of music which I blasted during revisions--the kind of music that just isn't about to let a person fail. Like this.

4. I took things one step at a time--and I rewarded myself with every step that I accomplished. And I reminded myself when I got frustrated that writing a book is never really a one person job.

And

5. I realized the trick for me was to print the manuscript out and edit on paper. It was a lot of work, a lot of writing in long hand (in green ink), and then a lot of typing everything back into the document. But it allowed me to distance myself from my own words, to view them more objectively, and it guaranteed that I going over everything at least twice (once on paper and once when I typed it in), which (hopefully) meant I wasn't going to miss things.

But of course the best thing about edits, is when they're done, and you can read the first pass pages and see the words laid out like a real book.

First, published on 10/16/2011, this post in its original form can be found on Brave New Words.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

YAMAZING RACE

January 16th starts the YAMAZING RACE - the coolest hop ever! Each of 58 debut 2012 young adult and middle grade authors will be posting information about their soon-to-be-released novels. (Many will also be hosting giveaways). At the end of the hop will be a list of questions about the books. Answer the questions correctly and you will be entered into a drawing for a whole slew of book related prizes including ARCs (advanced reader copies), book marks, T-shirts and more!

The YAMAZING RACE will run for one week only. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to "meet" 2012's newest authors! And please spread the word! In the meantime, be sure to stop by the APOCALYPSIES BLOG- http://apocalypsies.blogspot.com/ to get all the latest news about 2012 best new books!

Friday, January 6, 2012

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” 
 ― Audrey Hepburn

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

2011 in Review

This is my 2011, in photos:



Wintery walks through Ft. Tryon Park



Weekend writing dates, where I wrote most of Unraveling





Red velvet lattes on the upper west side






Macaroni spring rolls from cafeteria, where I was eating lunch when I got "the call" from Janet, that Unraveling had an offer





the ice cream cake from my friends to congratulate me on Unraveling's sale. (Beardtongues is what iphone kept autocorrecting "congratulations" to)







first ever trip to the shooting range





Trips to central park, lunches at the boathouse






research just in time for edits






summer brunches on garden patios






Lee Child speaking and signing copies of The Affair






The Renaissance Fair in Ft. Tryon Park






The view of downtown from the East River Ferry






Unraveling first pass pages

Sunday, January 1, 2012

January Must Read Giveaway

I'm insanely excited for all the awesome books coming out in 2012, and I decided what better way to celebrate than to pick the book I'm most excited for each month and give it away.

My January 2012 pick is Everneath by Brodi Ashton. I love Greek mythology, so I was excited about this one as soon as I heard it ties into the myth of Persephone and the Underworld. I also think the cover is simply to die for. (I really want that dress).

It doesn't come out until 1/24 but I managed to snag an ARC and I just finished reading it. It's amazing.

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

If you want to win a copy of Everneath, fill out the form below between now and midnight January 20th (EST).

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