JULIA DURANGO GUEST POST AND THE LEVELLER GIVEAWAY

Happy Monday! Hope you've all had a fantastic July 4th holiday weekend and a good start to summer. Before I get to my fantastic guest post, I have a bit of news to pass on.

In celebration of Pride Month, Penguin Young Readers and Listening Library are teaming up to provide resources for LGBTQ teens, parents, teachers, and librarians. Resources include book recommendations and audiobooks highlighting LGBTQ issues and highlighting good role models. You can find more information at www.readproudlistenproud.com.

Today I'm excited to have debut YA author Julia Durango here to share about her science fiction story LEVELLER. It sounds like an exciting book set in part in a virtual world. Here's a blurb from Goodreads:

Nixy Bauer is a self-made Leveller. Her job? Dragging kids out of virtual reality and back to their parents in the real world. It’s normally easy cash, but Nixy’s latest mission is fraught with real danger, intrigue, and romance.

Nixy Bauer is used to her classmates being very, very unhappy to see her. After all, she’s a bounty hunter in a virtual reality gaming world. Kids in the MEEP, as they call it, play entirely with their minds, while their bodies languish in a sleeplike state on the couch. Irritated parents, looking to wrench their kids back to reality, hire Nixy to jump into the game and retrieve them.

But when the game’s billionaire developer loses track of his own son in the MEEP, Nixy is in for the biggest challenge of her bounty-hunting career. Wyn Salvador isn’t some lazy kid looking to escape his homework: Wyn does not want to be found. And he’s left behind a suicide note. Nixy takes the job but quickly discovers that Wyn’s not hiding—he’s being held inside the game against his will. But who is holding him captive, and why?

Nixy and Wyn attempt to fight their way out of a mind game unlike any they’ve encountered, and the battle brings them closer than either could have imagined. But when the whole world is virtual, how can Nixy possibly know if her feelings are real?

Gamers and action fans of all types will dive straight into the MEEP, thanks to Julia Durango’s cinematic storytelling. A touch of romance adds some heart to Nixy’s vivid, multidimensional journey through Wyn’s tricked-out virtual city, and constant twists keep readers flying through to the breathtaking end.

Now here's Julia!

 WRITER BRAIN

            If you haven’t seen the new Pixar-Disney film Inside Out yet, go see it. Right now! I’ll wait.

            (Waiting…)

            (Waiting…)

            (Waiting…)

            There. Wasn’t that a great movie?  So clever. So sweet. Bing Bong Forever! But my favorite part

by far was the visual representation of the brain and how the different parts of it – imagination, memory, subconscious, emotions, thoughts – work together (or fight each other) to determine how we engage with the world. It also reminded me of what my writer friends and I often refer to as “writer brain,” a separate place in our heads that functions both as repository and think tank for every book we write (and many more we won’t write).

            If I were to depict “writer brain” as a room or location a la Inside Out, I’d show you a messy attic with a big telescope in the window. File drawers, old trunks, wardrobes, map stands, and costumed mannequins cover the floor. Little scraps of paper, photographs, and post-it notes litter every surface. A secret passage behind the bookcase leads directly to the heart. Sometimes the room is awash in sunlight, other times a single searchlight scans the room, and every now and then a candle flickers in the window when “writer brain” pulls an all-nighter. So what does “writer brain” do anyway? And why the big mess?

            First of all, whether they mean to or not, most writers I know keep a constant warehouse of sensory data at their disposal. When I was writing The Leveller, for instance, I found myself paying much more attention to the teen girls around me—what they wore, how they spoke, how they expressed themselves physically—so that my main character, Nixy, would seem more “alive” on the page. I did the same for my setting descriptions. Because the first part of the book takes place in a neighborhood much like my own, I began to look harder at my surroundings, to catalog small details, like a weedy patch of lawn, the gray chill of November, the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee in the kitchen, the play of light across a room.

            Not only does the “writer brain” function as a storage facility for sensory details, but it also provides instant access to our emotions – the good, the bad, and the ugly. While most of us would rather forget negative emotions and push them to the darkest corners of our brain, most writers recognize the value of keeping them close to the surface, even when uncomfortable. In The Leveller, Nixy experiences a range of emotions: fear, anger, exhilaration, boy angst (!), betrayal, and more. Everything she felt came from my own memories, my own inventory of similar feelings: a breath held too long, a stomach turned upside down, a heart on the sleeve.

            Most of the time “writer brain” works on auto-pilot, constantly observing, analyzing, and archiving like a trustworthy assistant. Just recently I walked down to the railroad tracks with my son to watch 4^th of July fireworks over the river of our small town. While we sat there, my senses were on high alert, soaking up the details for a potential scene in a future novel. I watched fireflies twinkle in the long grass while fireworks boomed overhead. I slapped at mosquitoes, smelled the charred wood of a nearby bonfire, and listened to dogs howl in the distance.  I noticed the comfortable silence my son and I shared sitting side by side on the tracks, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I filled my attic with new images, new feelings, new senses. And then (and listen up, because this part’s important), I softly closed the attic door, turned off the lights, and let “writer brain” go to sleep for the day.

            Because life is always better than fiction.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Julia! You can find Julia at:

Website: http://juliadurangobooks.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/julia_durango

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliadurango

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/203730.Julia_Durango

Julia has generously offered a copy of THE LEVELLER for a giveaway.  To enter, you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through July 25th. I'll announce the winner on July 27th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter either contest.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. This is an International giveaway.

Here's what's coming up:
 
On Wednesday I have an interview with debut author Victoria Boecker and a giveaway of her YA historical fantasy THE WITCH HUNTER.

Next Monday I have an interview with debut author Amanda Panitch and a giveaway of her YA thriller DAMAGE DONE.

The following Monday I have a guest post by debut author David Fulk and a giveaway of his MG adventure RAISING RUFUS.

Hope to see you on Wednesday!