Romancing The R.A.

"Noelle Buckman is looking forward to making a fresh start in college, one that doesn’t involve immature high school boys. The second she steps on campus for freshman orientation, she can sense the possibilities. Especially when she spots Andy, a resident advisor who’s not just hot but also thoughtful enough to open doors for a girl.

And Andy has his eye on Noelle. Even when her nerves take control and she thinks she comes off as a hillbilly with no direction, Andy can see what she’s really like and he’s more than a little interested.

But orientation is less than two full days and there’s an entire summer between Noelle and Andy. Will her attempt to romance the R.A. be as short-lived as college orientation?"

I really liked this novella! It was cute, short and sweet. It was really funny in places too, almost like a romantic comedy. I don't read much NA because I like to keep things PG-13, but this story was not graphic at all. Noelle was a shy freshman trying to come out of her shell and learning to push boundaries at college. (And boy did she succeed at that). Her friend Julie was one of my favorite parts of the book. Julie said what she thought, and brought in a lot of the humor. Andy, the R.A. was great too. He was a straight shooter, but still managed to be light and carefree. Overall this was a light story. A chick-flick if you will. I deducted a star, because Noelle made a decision that really bothered me. More than that, she had just said she didn't want to be the girl who did that kind of thing then did it. I'd planned to deduct two stars for this, but the ending was SO CUTE it made my heart jump which made it impossible for me to give this book anything less than a 4 star rating. Although, I do wish it had been a full length. There is nothing wrong with it as written, and I'm so behind on everything I'm appreciating novellas right now, but I think I would have liked to see more of these characters and this relationship. The next book in this series is Julie's and I'm kind of looking forward to it, since she was one of my favorite characters.

Free Ebooks For Street Team Members

Hi all! I'm looking for street team members to help with some pre-release marketing before my book A Missing Peace comes out on Sept. 1. I'll give anyone who participates a free ebook  and I'll be doing  a give away for a $10 Amazon gift card for street team members on release day. The blurb of the book is below. So if you think you would enjoy this, please fill out the form under the blurb. Thanks!!!!

Angry seventeen-year-old Iraqi war refugee Mirriam Yohanna hates her new life in Killeen,Texas, where the main attraction is a military base, and army brats like Caleb Miller think it's okay to comment on a girl's looks before he's even met her. 

After Mirriam turns him down in front of everyone, Caleb rises to the challenge of taking her to prom when his friends dare him. As the two start spending time together to work on a government assignment, Mirriam proves to be a good friend to have. When Caleb's leg is crushed in a hit and run, Mirriam is there to pull him out of the street and push him to keep living. She's also able to tell him the shocking truth about his father's death, which she has firsthand information about. Something the other soldiers would never do. That single truth changes both of their lives and strengthens their bond.

Caleb and Mirriam have fallen hard for each other, but when Caleb finds out the truth about his father's death, he is determined to uncover who is at fault. And the truth will have consequences for Mirriam's safety. When her family finds out the two are together, they decide it's time to arrange Mirriam's marriage to a proper Iraqi man. Will Caleb find justice for his family? Will Mirriam find a way to be true to herself?

All Work No Play

It's no secret I'm a law school drop-out. And when I worked in a government legal office being all work and no play was to be expected--or a good thing if unexpected. Settling for second best has always been hard for me. I'm your typical class-A overachiever. (Or at least I want to be, I'm really an underachiever for the type A personality). Translating that same work ethic to my writing has been quite the ride. The year I started writing, I wrote about 300,000 words. Since they say a million words makes you an expert, that was a pretty good first year. When I got my first set of rejections, I rewrote the query and try tried again. 105 plus rejections later, I'd lost my muse. It was six months before I wrote again. But when I did it, I did it good. The next thing I wrote was a short story, "The Fate Of A Marlowe Girl," sound familiar? And the first thing I wrote after that was A Missing Peace. I was thrilled. I was enjoying what I wrote again and getting a good response. What more could I ask for? I'd gained some confidence and created a business plan. I was no longer concerned about the end result. I'd query 15 people and get a response or not. Then I'd self publish.

But I got quite the response. The Other Marlowe Girl tour was busier than expected  and I wrote like a maniac to finish the companion to A Missing Peace timely. I took a short break, rewrote it, did the edits, sent that baby out. And it's with my agent now. Before I sent it to her I was 10,000 words into my next novel, still writing like a maniac. But this time it was being a slow, painful process. For the first time in two years I had to jump ahead and write scenes I hadn't come to yet, because I was stuck where I was. And I have to plow through this book. I'd set a self imposed deadline of July 1 and I need to write two more books before school starts in August. The more books I have out the better chance I can really start to become profitable from my writing, and who knows how much writing time I'll get after school starts?

But my agent told me it's unlikely we could submit my next book next month even though it's shiny and pretty and complete, which took a lot of the pressure off of me for finishing this one by July. And I realized something else--I'm getting back to that dark place. The place that left me unable to write for six months. More importantly two different people loved sections of two different manuscripts that I wrote expecting to have to cut. One was a major event in the a manuscript that hasn't yet been published. I was afraid people would say it was over the top. I took a big chance. The other was a paragraph in the book currently with my editor. I expected it to be parred down to a line. But my editor highlighted the whole paragraph. "Such powerful sentences, Beth." And if I write like it's a business instead of an art these are chances I might not take. Opportunities I'll miss. More important, they were fun for me as a writer. And that's when I realized, I have to slow down. So my new goal is two books this summer, but it might drop again. I just want to write to the best of my ability. That should be the real goal.

Revising to an Editor’s Specifications & A Give Away!!!

First, I need to announce that as of today I'm a M-W-F blogger! Now that that's done, we have an awesome guest post today about approaching the editorial letter.

Anna Sweet, author of The Otherborn, is here today to talk about working with an editor. Take it away, Anna.

Since OTHERBORN is my first published novel, it was also my first experience working with an editor. One I will never forget. Being with a small press has its benefits, and one of them is that the people are very approachable and communication is often swift. At least, that’s the case with my publisher and I’ve heard other writers comment similarly. For me, this translated into an easy back and forth throughout the revision process. It also meant I felt free to ask as many questions as needed, regardless of how silly I might think some of them were. I really cannot be grateful enough that this was the case. When my editor sent her initial letter, I had to read it over several times. I pretty much 

kept it open on my computer for days while I worked my way through the revision process, so I could constantly refresh myself on her exact requests. My editor broke her comments down into two segments, specific issues and global issues. The specifics were little technical things that I needed to fix repeatedly throughout the manuscript. Things like formatting my em dashes correctly. Those were pretty straightforward and easy. It was the global issues that required more thought and interpretation on my part. I guess I was fortunate in that she didn’t have a ton of those for me to look at, but an example of one involved backstory. I had an info dump in an early chapter that needed to be broken 

up. How to do that was left up to me. I approached the problem in two ways. First, I went through and pulled anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary to the story. Second, I inserted dialogue, so that the reflections came in small bits, and the reader was able to stay present with the story through the dialogue. I’ve since revised another manuscript according to my agents’ specifications, and that process was very similar. Some of their requests were even less concrete, and dealt with things like my character’s motivations and how they might impact the reader. It forced me to think beyond the story, and to really dig into how I wanted this book to effect others. I went back through and made mostly small adjustments throughout which fortified my main character and added a strength and depth to her she was lacking before. In both cases, there was a real give and take. I would make changes and adjustments on my own, to the best of my ability, to address their concerns, and then resubmit with an 

“is this enough?” note attached. What really amazed me about both processes, was how much my opinion mattered. There were no hard and fast rules, or at least very few, and there were many times where I was invited to exert my personal preference and opinion. What I loved was the opportunity to discuss my characters with someone else who cared about them as much as I did. And I learned so much from both experiences, my writing has improved every time and I suspect it will continue to do so. I think the important thing, as the author, as the teller of your tale, is to see the revision process as an opportunity to learn and to engage in dialogue that will only benefit your work. Remember too, that you are the expert on this story. Don’t be afraid to diplomatically decline certain changes, but only when the advice has been thoroughly examined first. And as in all things, compromise is possible. It may be that the very best path to your very best book lies somewhere between your editor’s ideas and your own.

"London and her teenage friends live in a reprocessed world.

Confined within Capital City’s concrete walls, London has done the impossible and the illegal. She’s created something New- a song. But her mentor, club owner Pauly, is not impressed. Since the historic Energy Crisis forced everyone behind walls generations ago, the Tycoons have ensured there is truly nothing new allowed under the sun. Pauly warns London to keep her song to herself, if she knows what’s good for her. 

 

What he doesn’t know is that London is keeping an even bigger secret: she dreams. And she’s not alone. London’s band-mates and friends have begun dreaming as well, seeing themselves in “night pictures” as beings from another world. As Otherborn, they must piece together the story of their astral avatars, the Others, in order to save their world from a dreamless, hopeless future. 

 

When Pauly is murdered and an Otherborn goes missing, London realizes someone is hunting them down. Escaping along the Outroads, they brave the deserted Houselands with only their dreams to guide them. Can they find their friend before the assassin finds them? Will being Otherborn save their lives, or destroy them?" Available at Amazon.

 

About the Author

Anna Silver is an author and artist living in the greater Houston area with her family, pets, and overactive imagination. Her art has been featured in the Houston gallery Las Manos Magicas. She studied English Writing & Rhetoric at St. Edward’s University. She's freelanced for private clients and small publications like the Hill Country Current. OTHERBORN is her first published novel. She is represented by Rebecca Podos and Nicole LaBombard of Rees Literary Agency.

www.annasilverauthor.com 

twitter.com/saysannasilver

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Where's Beth

In her writing cave! I'd planned to get caught up on commenting today, but I won't be online until the evening as I need to write like a maniac. (Won't be around on fb/twitter before then either). I know I've been horrible about commenting lately, but I'll see you soon. I promise. And if you're here for the Our Song blog tour please go here.

Our Song Review &Give Away!!!

Before we get started, I'm announcing that I'm now a M-W-F blogger! Okay, now that that's out of the way on to a the review.

First of all, isn't that a beautiful cover? It's like eye candy, it's so good.

"Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place.

Then Olive meets Nick. He s dark, handsome, mysterious … and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance until Nick makes a troubling confession.

Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone."

This book was well written, haunting and somehow enchanting at the same time. What I love is that from the very first page you can tell something big has happened. Nick is a weird guy, and kind of mystery that Olive is determined to figure out--if she can keep her mind off her ex-boyfriend long enough to do it. The ex is a jerk, and I'd love to see someone slap the hell out of him. Although, Nick kind of drove me crazy for a while too. Nick's secret is tragic and when it finally comes out, I think what he's been through is way worse than what Olive has been through. Even with the heavy subject matter the book tackled, it still managed to be a fast paced enjoyable read. (Disclaimer: I use the term fast paced here to mean I never really got bored, but if you're into action scenes you may not agree). One thing really bothered me. Annie. She was this confident girl with her own sense of fashion who didn't care what anyone thought. People gave her hell because she didn't want or need a boyfriend. She was more interested in finding out who she was which is what I think 17 or 18 year old girls should be doing. But it turned out Annie didn't need or want a boyfriend, because Annie wanted a girlfriend. I don't really care that she's gay. But this cool confident chick who didn't need a relationship is replaced instead by a gay girl who is afraid to come out. There are so few strong confident girls in YA that I would have loved to see Annie hold her own, no explanation needed. My only other wish for this book is that it had more romance. At moments, it felt more like a book about self discovery than a romance, which you know is what I live for. All in all, I'd say four stars.

About the Author

Jordanna Fraiberg was born in Montreal, Quebec, and currently lives in L.A., where she settled after receiving degrees from Harvard and Oxford. A former national squash champion and Hollywood film executive, she now divides her time between dreaming up stories and chasing her toddler. She is the author of Our Song andIn Your Room.

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Follow Friday

Follow Friday is hosted by Alison and Parajunkee.

Q: Have you broken up with a series? If so which one and why?

Lots. Morganville Vampires--got repetitive. Beautiful Creatures--going off the deep end. Shade--Aura went for the wrong guy. This one really made me mad. Fallen didn't capture me, same with Hush, Hush. Delirium--didn't capture me and not enough romance.