Hi All! I am terribly sorry but the blog was offline for about a week because our domain name with GoDaddy expired. I was on vacation when it happened, and it took me a few days to reach Casey, my former blog partner, to renew it. I am so sorry about that. I'm SO relieved that she took care of it right away.
I am extending the deadline to enter the Newly Released MG & YA Book Giveaway until August 31st because of this.
Here's what's coming up:
Monday, August 26th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Melissa Richeson
Wednesday, September 4th I have an interview with debut author Mara Rutherford and a giveaway of her YA fantasy CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL and my IWSG post
Monday, September 9th I have an interview with debut author Sara Faring and a giveaway of her YA psychological thriller THE TENTH GIRL
Monday, September 16th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Marlo Berliner
Monday, September 23rd I have a guest post by Martin Cavannagh from Reedsy
Hope to see you on Monday, August 26th!
NEWLY RELEASED MG AND YA BOOK GIVEAWAY
Happy Monday Everyone! Today I'm doing a newly released MG and YA book giveaway. It's an opportunity to spotlight some new books I can't otherwise feature, give you another chance to win recent debut author books I've shared, and shout out again about followers' newly released books.
I'm doing this because there is no giveaway hop this month. I'm starting this feature on a trial basis and will continue it if I get a good response.
So here are your choices. I've got a combination of MG and YA books and recent books by followers that I hope you're looking forward to reading. If you want an earlier book in any of these series, you can pick that instead as long as it doesn't cost more than the book here. You can find descriptions of these books on Goodreads.
To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of this blog and leave a comment telling me what book you want or that you want the gift card through August 31st. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the 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. I will also give you an extra entry if you follow me on Twitter and let me know this. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This giveaway is International as long as the Book Depository ships there for free.
Here's what's coming up:
Monday, August 26th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Melissa Richeson
Wednesday, September 4th I have an interview with debut author Mara Rutherford and a giveaway of her YA fantasy CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL and my IWSG post
Monday, September 9th I have an interview with debut author Sara Faring and a giveaway of her YA psychological thriller THE TENTH GIRL
Monday, September 16th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Marlo Berliner
Monday, September 23rd I have a guest post by Martin Cavannagh from Reedsy
Hope to see you on Monday, August 26th!
I'm doing this because there is no giveaway hop this month. I'm starting this feature on a trial basis and will continue it if I get a good response.
So here are your choices. I've got a combination of MG and YA books and recent books by followers that I hope you're looking forward to reading. If you want an earlier book in any of these series, you can pick that instead as long as it doesn't cost more than the book here. You can find descriptions of these books on Goodreads.
If you haven't found a book you want, you can win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry. I will also give you an extra entry if you follow me on Twitter and let me know this. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This giveaway is International as long as the Book Depository ships there for free.
Here's what's coming up:
Monday, August 26th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Melissa Richeson
Wednesday, September 4th I have an interview with debut author Mara Rutherford and a giveaway of her YA fantasy CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL and my IWSG post
Monday, September 9th I have an interview with debut author Sara Faring and a giveaway of her YA psychological thriller THE TENTH GIRL
Monday, September 16th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Marlo Berliner
Monday, September 23rd I have a guest post by Martin Cavannagh from Reedsy
Hope to see you on Monday, August 26th!
GABRIELLE BYRNE INTERVIEW AND RISE OF THE DRAGON MOON GIVEAWAY AND IWSG POST
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Hope you're having a great summer. I just got back from a fun weekend with my mom visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins. And I am going to Dallas later this month with my daughter to visit my late husband's family. It's been my best summer since my husband died.
Today I’m thrilled to have debut author Gabrielle Byrne share about her debut MG fantasy RISE OF THE DRAGON MOON. Her book is a Junior Library Guild selection It sounds like it has beautiful world building and a main character with mysterious past, which is my kind of book. Can’t wait to read this.
Follower News
Angela Brown has a new adult book release, PEEL. Here's a blurb:
Divinia “Divvy” Simone loves her daughter and making time for her passion for writing. Time for a love life? Not so much, especially not after being a divorced, single mother for several years.
That is, until Vance Mallard.
With Vance’s help, Divvy must put together her best friend’s wedding in under thirty days. The first week is the most crucial of all. Planning locations, music, and food are all par for the course. Peeling back the scarred layers protecting her heart? No way.
Vance has a plan of his own. And…
In one week, everything could change.
And a few links:
Today I’m thrilled to have debut author Gabrielle Byrne share about her debut MG fantasy RISE OF THE DRAGON MOON. Her book is a Junior Library Guild selection It sounds like it has beautiful world building and a main character with mysterious past, which is my kind of book. Can’t wait to read this.
Follower News
Divinia “Divvy” Simone loves her daughter and making time for her passion for writing. Time for a love life? Not so much, especially not after being a divorced, single mother for several years.
That is, until Vance Mallard.
With Vance’s help, Divvy must put together her best friend’s wedding in under thirty days. The first week is the most crucial of all. Planning locations, music, and food are all par for the course. Peeling back the scarred layers protecting her heart? No way.
Vance has a plan of his own. And…
In one week, everything could change.
And a few links:
Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/
Other ebook versions - https://books2read.com/u/
Website - https://bookjaunts.com/
Before I get to Gabrielle’s
interview, I also have my IWSG post.
The co-hosts this month are: The co-hosts this month are Renee Scattergood,Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, and LG Keltner!
Optional Question: Has your writing ever taken you by surprise?
There's two ways that my writing has taken me by surprise since I restarted writing for myself again. First, I've gotten better in writing since I took a break and focused on my contract writing job.
Second, I'm surprised where my story goes sometimes. I have a general outline but some important plot points and other parts of the story have changed in dramatic ways as I listen to my critique partners' suggestions and I try to create characters and a story line that is a little different.
How has your writing surprised you?
Now onto Gabrielle's interview. Here’s a blurb of RISE OF THE DRAGON
MOON from Goodreads:
The ice never forgives.
The ice never forgets.
Princess Toli may be heir to the throne, but she longs to be a fierce hunter and warrior. Alone in a frozen world, her queendom is at the mercy of the dragons that killed her father, and Toli is certain it’s only a matter of time before they come back to destroy what’s left of her family.
When the dragons rise and seize her mother, Toli will do anything to save her— even trust a young dragon who may be the only key to the Queen's release.
With her sister and best friend at her side, Toli makes the treacherous journey across the vast ice barrens to Dragon Mountain, where long-held secrets await. Bear-cats are on their trail, and dragons stalk them, but the greatest danger might be a mystery buried in Toli’s past.
The ice never forgets.
Princess Toli may be heir to the throne, but she longs to be a fierce hunter and warrior. Alone in a frozen world, her queendom is at the mercy of the dragons that killed her father, and Toli is certain it’s only a matter of time before they come back to destroy what’s left of her family.
When the dragons rise and seize her mother, Toli will do anything to save her— even trust a young dragon who may be the only key to the Queen's release.
With her sister and best friend at her side, Toli makes the treacherous journey across the vast ice barrens to Dragon Mountain, where long-held secrets await. Bear-cats are on their trail, and dragons stalk them, but the greatest danger might be a mystery buried in Toli’s past.
Hi
Gabrielle! Thanks so much for joining us.
1.
Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.
Hi
Everyone, and thanks so much for having me, Natalie! I’ve always loved to
write--and in fact, wrote three books before I even decided to “be a writer”.
It was really my first writing conference, and workshops on how to pitch to
agents, that lit a fire under me to get published. My brain just hadn’t made
the leap, from writing books to publishing them. Really, although of course
they’re related, those are almost two separate journeys in my mind.
2.
Where did you get the idea for RISE OF THE DRAGON MOON?
It developed
organically from two initial things. I knew I wanted Toli to be my main
character. She started as a secondary character in a different book, and just
took up residence in my brain. The other thing was the cold. I wanted to build
Toli’s life around the idea of stories being told around a fire. I wanted to
explore ideas about trust between siblings and between friends in the context
of doubting those stories.
3. Awesome that Toli started as a secondary character in another story.The world you created is cold and icy but beautiful. What was your world
building process like? What advice do you have on this for other fantasy
writers?
For
me, the story develops in tandem with the world building. I have a strong
background in science, so I use that a lot too. I start with one or two things
I want, and build around those things by asking questions about how needs are
fulfilled. For example, in a cold world, how does each animal (or person) stay
warm? What do they eat? What does their prey eat? What happens when they die?
For the humans, what are their beliefs around each of those categories? Each
question builds a richer place (and more questions). I never use all of it. I’d
say only a third to half makes it into the book. I’m also a big believer in the
setting being a character. Really, that’s about sharing emotional connections
to the world, and making it feel real enough for the reader to expect things.
For example, if your house smells like pancakes every Sunday morning, then one
Sunday you wake up and it smells like burned rubber, you don’t need anyone to
explain something’s wrong. The reader knows it, because they know the world.
They have expectations that can be fulfilled, or countered.
4. I can see how science influences your world building. Toli, your main character, sounds like a strong leader, but also has her flaws.
Share a bit about her and how her character developed as you told her story.
Toli
was tough from the start--strong, but myopic. She can’t see that needing people
doesn’t make her weak, and that making mistakes doesn’t make her a failure.
What started as a kind-of social awkwardness and discomfort with feelings,
evolved into the idea that her own flawed view of herself, and misunderstanding
of her role in the world would impact all her decisions. Those decisions have
consequences that move the story forward.
5.
Share a challenge you had in revising your story with your agent or publisher.
What did you learn from the process?
Tracking
the days and the time were a big challenge. Instead of a sun, there are two
moons that each rise and set differently on Ire. Over the course of a couple
big edits, a lot of Toli’s journey shifted around, and the rising and setting
of each moon, and the passage of time got all jumbled up. It took a while to
untangle it. Now I keep notes that specifically track of the time of day, and passage
of time in a story, at the start and end of each chapter.
6.
Your agent is Catherine Drayton. Tell us how she became your agent and what
your road to publication was like.
I
queried Catherine with a book I had worked on as a Pitch Wars mentee. She loved
it, and offered rep! Rise of the Dragon Moon was our third book together. From
the time I went to that first writing conference that got me amped to publish,
to the time I sold my debut to Macmillan, was about seven years. Depending on
how you count (which always seems to be a question with authors), I think ROTDM
was about the seventh or eighth book that I’d written.
7. That's great how Catherine worked with you on more than one book. How have you been building your social media platform and planning for your
release? What are your plans to promote your book?
I
work full time and have kids, so my time is really limited. Everything I’ve
heard is that it’s better to
8.
You have also been a #PitchWars mentor. Tell us about PitchWars and how this
can help an aspiring author get to the next step in terms of obtaining an agent
and publishing contract.
PitchWars
is amazing for a lot of reasons. Yes, it can help people reach agents, and
eventually get published, and for some it’s done just that. But one this it can
definitely do is improve craft. It’s a great place to me other serious aspiring
writers, and exchange material and experiences. For me--and for lots of other
people, the benefits of Pitch Wars are much more about building a community of
committed writers that you can rely on to help develop your craft, and
eventually, your career. While there have certainly been big successes through
Pitch Wars, writers are more likely to find their agents through the query
process (as I did), but participating does give authors the opportunity to
improve, and build a network of writers at the same time--a priceless and
ongoing resource.
9.
What are you working on now?
Right
now I’m working on a new middle grade fantasy for Macmillan/Imprint--The Edge
of Strange Hollow, about a girl named Poppy Sunshine who wants to hunt cursed
objects in a fairy tale forest called the Grimwood.
Thanks so much for your advice,
Gabrielle. You can find Gabrielle at:
Website: www.gkbyrnebooks.com
Twitter: @gkbyrne
Instagram: gkbyrnebooks
Gabrielle has generously offered an ARC of RISE OF THE DRAGON MOON for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower (just click the follow button if you’re not a follower) and leave a comment through August 24th. 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. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. The ARC giveaway is U.S. and Canada.
Here's what's coming up next:
Monday, August 12th I'm doing a monthly newly released MG and YA giveaway if there is no giveaway hop in August
Monday, August 26th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Melissa Richeson
Hope to see you on Monday, August 12th!
Monday, August 26th I have an agent spotlight interview and query critique giveaway with Melissa Richeson
Hope to see you on Monday, August 12th!
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