Literary Rambles: 8/1/20

Debut Author Interview: KayLynn Flanders and Shielded Giveaway

Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have debut author Kaylynn Flanders here to share about her YA fantasy Shielded. It sounds like a real pager, and Jenna sounds like a great heroine that readers start loving right away. I’m excited to read it.

Follower News

Before I get to KayLynn's interview, I have Follower News to share. Jacqui Murray recently released

Against All Odds. Here's a blurb: Xhosa’s extraordinary prehistoric saga concludes, filled with hardship, courage, survival, and family.

And here's some helpful links:

Available digitally (print soon) at: Kindle US Kindle UK Kindle CA Kindle AU

Blog: https://worddreams.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/worddreams
Website: https://jacquimur ray.net

KayLynn's Interview

Here’s a blurb of Shielded from Goodreads:

For fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Furyborn comes a thrilling new fantasy about a kingdom ravaged by war, and the princess who might be the key to saving not only those closest to her, but the kingdom itself, if she reveals the very secret that could destroy her.

The kingdom of Hálendi is in trouble. It's losing the war at its borders, and rumors of a new, deadlier threat on the horizon have surfaced. Princess Jennesara knows her skills on the battlefield would make her an asset and wants to help, but her father has other plans.

As the second-born heir to the throne, Jenna lacks the firstborn's--her brother's--magical abilities, so the king promises her hand in marriage to the prince of neighboring Turia in exchange for resources Hálendi needs. Jenna must leave behind everything she has ever known if she is to give her people a chance at peace.

Only, on the journey to reach her betrothed and new home, the royal caravan is ambushed, and Jenna realizes the rumors were wrong--the new threat is worse than anyone imagined. Now Jenna must decide if revealing a dangerous secret is worth the cost before it's too late--for her and for her entire kingdom.

Hi KayLynn! Thanks so much for joining us!

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Thank you for having me! I’m a wife/mother/reader/athlete/editor who recently discovered a love for writing. Growing up, I always loved reading. But anytime I tried to write my own stories, I’d quite five pages in because writing a whole story is hard. However, I always believed in the power that stories have, and decided to study editing in college. Just before I turned thirty, I got the idea for Shielded and attended my first writing conference with a friend who wanted to write a book, and I decided to give writing a book another try. It took five years and over twenty huge revisions to get Shielded where it is today, but I discovered something about myself along the way: I am a writer at heart. I love everything about creating a story and crafting an experience for the reader. I love the possibility found within a blank page, and the euphoria that comes as each draft gets better. Writing is a lot of work, but it’s is a part of me I’m so glad I discovered.

2. How cool that you studied edited and were willing to edit your manuscript so many times. Where did you get the idea for Shielded?

The very first idea I had for Shielded started in a dream. I won’t share spoilers, but there were people in trouble, and I woke up before they were safe. My heart was pounding so hard at the cliffhanger, and I needed to find a way for them to be safe so I could go back to sleep. The only solution I could think of was magic. I eventually went back to sleep, but the characters stayed with me. I let that idea grow over a few months, asking questions about who the characters were, why they were in danger, and how they got out of danger. The dream was wildly different than what my book ended up being (there were neon yellow tanks in the dream, for example), but the core emotion of that scene is one of the key parts of the book that hasn’t changed over the drafts.

3. From some of the reviews, your book sounds like a real page turner that sucks readers in right away in the first chapter. What was your plotting process like? Did you change your process at all as you wrote your story?

I’ve been an editor for over ten years, so I’m all about making changes and finding better ways to do things. My plotting process started as asking questions about the characters and about their world, and piecing the information into a plot and reworking it as I received feedback. Over the twenty drafts Shielded went through, my plotting process definitely changed as I read books about writing craft and attended conferences. I’ve learned that there’s no One True Way to plot a book. I’m still revising my methods, bringing in things I think will help and integrating them into my process.

4. That's great advice on there being no One True Way. World building is so important in a fantasy. How did you develop your two kingdoms, which sound like they are very different cultures? How do keep the two different kingdoms and all their nuances straight in your head?

The two kingdoms sprouted from a need to have two kingdoms that needed to rely on each other for basic resources and supplies. So they developed as I thought about the resources needed to maintain a kingdom, and then sort of split them up so they could complement each other. Once I had a feel for what type of kingdom each was, I pulled from places I’d been and research I did to create more of a traditional culture behind the basic resources. And so, Kingdom 1 became Hálendi—influenced by Icelandic and Nordic cultures; and Kingdom 2 became Turia—based on Etruscan history with Italian influences.

As for keeping the details separate, I kept a separate document with research and details for each kingdom. I also found that having a Pinterest board for each kingdom helped get me into the right mindset as I drafted and revised. My Pinterest boards aren’t elaborate (Pinterest can be a black hole), but they are enough to help me remember the feel of each kingdom.

5. The way you describe the two kingdoms makes so much sense planning-wise. Shielded is the first book in your duology. What made you decide on a duology rather than a trilogy? How did knowing the series would continue affect the story you told in Shielded?

When I very first started writing Shielded, I had thought to make it a trilogy. Trilogies were all the rage

at the time, and I had a vague idea of what each book would be about. But as I revised and as the market changed, I realized I didn’t want it to be three books. Leigh Bardugo had released her Six of Crows duology, and I loved that I didn’t have to wait three years to finish a series, and that the classic “book two slump” wasn’t an issue. So I decided to change from three books to two, partly because it would be a stronger series that way, and partly because my own attention span is about two books long. I won’t say there will never be a third book, though.

Changing from a trilogy to a duology didn’t actually affect Shielded very much. It did affect book two. But again, I think for this particular series, the overall story is stronger with two books instead of three.

6. I like your reasoning for making this a two-book series. It sounds like Jenna is a really strong leader and heroine. Was she an easy character to write and did you discover much new about her as you told her story?

Jenna’s voice was really strong from the beginning. Almost to the point where I could say, “What if this happened,” and she’d tell me how she’d react. That being said, writing is an act of discovery, so yes, I definitely discovered new things about her as I wrote and revised.

7. Your agent is Laura Crockett. How did she become your agent and what was your road to publication like?

After I’d worked on Shielded for two years, getting a lot of feedback and attending writing conferences and revising it fourteen times, I decided I was ready to start querying. I’d written something I loved, and wanted to see how far I could take it. I queried agents for several months, getting a lot of rejections along with some interest. Laura requested the full manuscript, and then offered representation, and I’m so happy to work with her—she is fantastic! After I signed with her, we did another major revision, and then the manuscript was on submission with editors for about a year before Delacorte Press bought it. Shielded went through a few more rounds of revision with my fabulous editor, Monica Jean, and it was published July 21, 2020!

8. One thing that I liked on your website is how you share links to reviews and interviews on book review blogs. When did you start connecting with blogs for interviews and reviews and how did you find them?

I started reaching out to a few bloggers I’d heard of a little over three months before my publication date. I didn’t feel comfortable reaching out and asking people I didn’t know to help me promote my book that wasn’t even out yet, and I said something on Twitter about how nervous it made me. A ton of bloggers responded to that tweet and emailed me, offering to help however they could! It was an amazing outpouring of support, and it’s something I’ve seen again and again in the book community. I wanted my readers to be able to find those reviews, so I decided to link them to my website, hoping I could push more traffic to the bloggers as well, since they’d come through for me and my book. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with it now that the book is released and more reviews are popping up, but I’ll try as long as I can! Word of mouth really is the best way to market a book, and any success I’ve had is because people have read my book, loved it, and then told their friends about it.

9. I've found some new bloggers by following your blog tour that was going on in August. How are you planning to celebrate the release of your book and promote it given COVID-19.

My book had a couple online launch events—a Facebook Live in conjunction with my local indie bookstore, and some Instagram Lives with Instagrammers. Promotion has all gone online, so the bloggers and Instagrammers posting about my book are the lifeblood of my marketing at the moment. Shielded is a fun escape into another world, filled with hope and magic and possibility, and that’s something a lot of people are looking for during these uncertain times.

10. What are you working on now?

I’m working on the second book of the Shielded duology with my editor at the moment, and I’m really excited to take readers on another adventure within the Shielded world. There will be new point-of-view characters, and we’ll get to dive deep into the magic of the Plateau. I’m also working on a standalone fantasy that’s got loyalty and betrayal, forests of oaks with huge, twisty branches, and a knifer who must choose whether to trust the boy who’s always been her enemy, or her friends, who have started crossing lines she’s not willing to cross.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, KayLynn. You can find KayLynn at kaylynnflanders.com or on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

Giveaway Details

KayLynn has generously offered a hardback of Shielded for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by August 29th. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

Upcoming Interviews and Giveaways

Here's what's coming up:

Monday, August 24th I have an agent spotlight interview with Veronica Park and a query critique giveaway

Tuesday, September 1st I'm participating in the September to Remember Giveaway Hop

Wednesday, September 2nd I have an interview with debut author Andrea Contos and a giveaway of her YA thriller Throwaway Girls

Monday, September 7th I have an agent spotlight interview with Carlisle Weber and a query critique giveaway

Monday, September 14th I have an interview with debut author Rebecca Coffindaffer and a giveaway of her YA space opera Crownchasers

Wednesday, September 16th I have an agent spotlight interview with Erin Casey and a query critique giveaway

Hope to see you on Monday!

Debut Author Interview: Chris Negron and Dan Unmasked Giveaway

Happy Monday Everyone! Today I’m excited to have debut author Chris Negron here to share about his MG contemporary Dan Unmasked. It’s gotten great reviews and sounds so interesting with a focus on friendship, superheroes and baseball. I’m not a fan of baseball but I’m looking forward to reading this one.

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads:

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and an ABA 2020 Summer / Fall Indies Introduce pick.

Whether they’re on the baseball field or in Nate’s basement, devouring the newest issue of their favorite comic book, Dan and Nate are always talking. Until they’re not.

After an accident at baseball practice—an accident that Dan is certain he caused—Nate’s stuck in a coma. Usually, Dan can rely on his and Nate’s superpower—the secret language that only they know, a language of raised eyebrows and subtle nose taps.

Now, if Dan ever wants to see Nate tap his nose again, he’s got to figure out a way to wake him up. But for all the time he’s spent reading about the adventures of Captain Nexus, Dan knows he’s no superhero. Heroes have powers—and without Nate, all Dan has is a closet stuffed with comics and a best-friend shaped hole in his heart. There’s no way a regular kid can save the day all on his own. Right?

Hi Chris! Thanks so much for joining us.

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was probably about Dan Summers’s age in Dan Unmasked – thirteen years old. In fact, I can even remember playing basketball in a friend’s driveway after a Dungeon & Dragons session, and stating unequivocally that I was going to turn our adventures into a book one day. At the time I was obsessed with fantasy – it was as much what I was reading as what I was doing hobby-wise with those marathon D&D sessions. I think that driveway declaration was me giving myself permission to have this long-term dream to become a writer.

Ah, but long term was indeed what it turned out to be. From that day until now, I traveled a winding path that included studying Computer Science at Yale University, followed by entering the business world as an Information Technology (IT) consultant. In fact, IT is still my day job. Eventually, though, I stepped back into the version of me from that driveway. The one with the dream to become a writer as well.

It wasn’t until I started writing certain short stories that I realized I had a natural voice for the middle grade genre. After that, I started seeing how so much of the media I enjoyed could be considered “middle grade” too. I get really excited by stories like Super Eight or E.T., where bands of kids team up to solve a problem. Dan Unmasked was my first manuscript for kids, though it too traveled a long, twisting road to become the book it is today.

2. Glad you were able to follow that dream you had as a child. Where did you get the idea for Dan Unmasked?

That same year when I was thirteen was a very special one in my memory - 1984. When I look back on it, it seems like so many of my favorite things come from then, whether they be music or movies or – maybe especially so – comics. That year was also when the San Diego Padres – always and forever my favorite baseball team – made their first World Series appearance.

With all those favorites coming from that one year, it struck me that to be thirteen was – at least for me – to be at an age where you’re open to all sorts of good stuff, new stuff that seems to have been made just for you and becomes your immediate and lifelong favorite. On the flip side, though, I think that age can also be a time for a particularly strong vulnerability to the bad stuff, too.

I had a friend who was injured at a baseball practice, and I remember having a desperate urge to fix it, even though I wasn’t involved in the incident. Still, I remembered that emotion really well. And of course when I started working on Dan Unmasked, one of the things you do as a writer is ask yourself a ton of those “What If?” questions that lead to transforming something personal into something that perhaps takes on a more story-sized shape.

What if my friend’s injury had been more severe? What if I had thought the accident that caused it was somehow my fault? How much more desperate would I have been to find a way to fix what I thought I had broken?

So that’s the story I gave to Dan Summers, and it’s a big part of the inspiration for Dan Unmasked. I think I wanted to write a book for kids that spoke to the healing power of friendships – both old ones and new ones, to depending on teams, to being careful about blaming yourself too hard when accidents happen, and the rest of the story arose from merging Dan’s emotions about his best friend’s accident with those underlying themes. I hope, in the end, that the book delivers a tale that is equal parts action-packed and heartfelt, and most importantly, that it finds readers who connect with it the way I do with my own memories and emotions.

3. I’ve read that you do a good job of making Dan’s hobbies—superheroes and baseball—an integral part of the plot rather than just sides hobbies of your main character. Share a bit about your plotting process.

I’ve learned a lot about plotting since I moved into the middle grade genre. Probably the most

important tool that I employ now more than I did before is to start first with the main character of my books, understand what he or she loves or doesn’t love so much, and what their goals are. Then of course you have that inciting incident that may or may not connect directly to that character. It’s actually okay if it doesn’t, but probably best if it does, because it sort of becomes their origin story if you build it right.

After that, as the character is launched into the story by that first incident and we learn more about who they are and what they want, I really work hard to connect the rest of the plot points directly to the main character. Unlike the inciting incident, which as I said can be an either-or, the remaining plot points, in my opinion anyway, must come directly from the character’s internal goals. The interiority, in other words, drives the external events, and vice versa.

What I find is, when I follow that approach, there’s almost always this sort of magical moment when you’re stuck, and thinking about who the character is and what they would do solves whatever plot problem you’re facing in this really astonishing way. After that, things start snapping into place and feeling very connected, and that’s what you want in a cohesive plot that doesn’t have holes. The events have this sort of inevitability and yet are still surprising. I think that’s when I know I have something that could be special – when it seems like nothing else could’ve happened but the reader is still shocked or thrilled by it when it does.

For me, I absolutely need to understand the underpinnings of a story before I start writing it. That includes what I’m writing about – call it theme if you want, but it’s really the question of the book in my mind, and I also need to know the ending I’m writing towards, as well as all those plot points that progress the story in that direction I mentioned earlier.

It doesn’t mean they can’t change as I’m drafting, and sometimes things do change significantly enough that I have to stop and go back into planning (more like re-planning) mode. I also wholeheartedly agree with the “writing is re-writing” concept. I can’t tell you how many revisions my books tend to go through.

However, while it’s true I’m not big on the dreaded word “outline” that gives so many other writers the shivers, I’m also not a big proponent of the “pantsing” method I see so many writers attacking book-length works with. I’m really an advocate of having as much of a plan as possible (I like to call them “blueprints”) – even if it has to change later. My opinion is that it’s critical to understand those underpinnings of your project before starting to put actual words on the page.

4. Dan sounds like a compelling character that will pull at readers’ hearts. I think that’s harder to capture when a boy is the story’s main character. Did you struggle with his character development at all or did he come to you fairly well developed?

Because I was one myself and I’m therefore able to be very authentic about it, writing a boy character of a certain age – notably middle school – comes really naturally to me. I think it’s where I finally found my voice, so I didn’t struggle much with Dan’s voice, character, or inner feelings at all. Quite the opposite, actually, this novel flowed very easily for me from a voice perspective, though I did have a lot of work in revisions for sure to get the plot points just right.

On a more technical level, I think any character can be “easy” (or, easier, anyway) to write if you understand what they’re obsessed with – that’s where the comics and baseball aspects really helped with Dan, for example. I knew who he was because I knew what he loved, and they were things I also love. Also characters become much easier as well if their goals are clear. If either of those elements are muddled at all in the writer’s brain, problems in both voice and plot can quickly arise.

From the “writing boys” perspective, and in particular a book that at times is a “sports” book, I’m really proud that people I trust – my editor and agent among them – have said that the heartfelt aspects of this book pulled them in and, for example, made them care about what happens in Dan’s tournament even though they aren’t necessarily baseball or sports people at all. I remember when my agent signed me, she said one of the things she loved about the book was that it was “sporty but emotional.” A fellow 2020 debut author even described Dan Unmasked as “the opposite of toxic masculinity in every way”, feedback I’m really proud of.

5. Those are great tips on plotting. I read that you also write short stories and had 10 published in 2015. Has writing short stories helped you in writing a longer middle grade story? How?

It all started when one of my critique partners – the wonderful Emily Carpenter, a gothic suspense novelist everyone should definitely check out – and I sort of challenged each other back then to writing a bunch of flash fiction, kind of an accountability thing.

Working on lots of stories that typically had to begin and end in less than a thousand words helped my writing a tremendous amount. It taught my normally long-winded self how to be more succinct and to the point, and it really gave me a lot of prose-level lessons in trimming and cutting, because you have to be sort of ruthless about that sometimes to meet the word count requirements of the flash fiction publications we were submitting to.

Not to mention one of those ten 2015 stories was about a group of young baseball players reminiscing about their friendship in the outfield during a practice, and when she read that one, Emily told me I had a voice for characters that age – particularly boys – and that was the seed I needed to start working on the middle grade novel that eventually became Dan Unmasked. So I guess you could say we’re here today talking about this book because of those short stories, and that one in particular.

6. Your agent is Alyssa Jennette. Share how she became your agent and what your road to publication was like.

Yes, and she’s fantastic! Alyssa really pushed me during the query process. I think she had me do three revise-and-resubmits before signing me as a client. That extra work she encouraged me to do on the story really brought this book home, and Dan Unmasked definitely wouldn’t exist without her guidance.

When we started to submit to publishers, I discovered an equally valuable side to Alyssa – a relentless tenacity. Long past the time when I might’ve gotten discouraged and started looking toward smaller publishers, Alyssa continued to be confident my book would find a match with some editor at the Big Five, and it ended up she was right. It didn’t happen immediately, though, and neither did my signing with an agent. I went through tons of rejections in both processes first.

For writers on the submission trail now, I would just advise you to really establish the proper distance with your work to be able to be receptive to the feedback you receive in these “almost” encounters with agents and editors, because you will have them, and what you do with the information hidden away in each of those responses goes a long way in determining if you will eventually find a match, in my opinion.

I can honestly say that I used a ton of the recommendations from agents and editors who ultimately said “No” to make this book what it became. I really think that’s a crucial part of the process.

7. I saw on your website that you have partnered with FoxTale Book Shoppe for an online virtual party. Tell us a little bit about what you have planned for it and how you set it up.

Sure, yes, Atlanta has so many fantastic local bookstores. FoxTale is one I’ve been visiting for years now, especially for various events they’ve held with other local author friends. Originally, I had planned on having an event at an arts center in my specific town, and Gary Parkes at FoxTale – a sweetheart of a guy – had agreed to come and man the door with books for sale on site. However, as COVID-19 advanced and it became clear that in-person events were going to be impossible, we switched to an online, virtual format. Of course I stuck with FoxTale as we already had arrangements and also because they’ve been doing a fantastic job with their virtual events throughout the quarantine period.

My sister Lisa McClendon is a fifth-grade teacher in Naples, Florida, and, along with Gary, she’s going to moderate/interview! The plan so far is for her to ask me a couple of questions straight out of the Common Core-aligned Curriculum Guide we have for Dan Unmasked (more details on that below) and then we’ll do some giveaways.

The tiny quizzes to win the giveaways will be comic- and baseball-related, so readers should arrive to the launch wearing those particular thinking caps. After the giveaways, I hope we’ll have plenty of time for a Q&A session, also.

8. That's a great idea to be interviewed at a virtual party celebrating your book release. How else are you planning to promote your book in light of COVID-19?

First and foremost, I’m doing a lot of virtual events beyond the book launch. I have a workshop for kids I’ve developed, the “Build-A-Superhero” workshop, which is a fun way to engage young people in filling out a questionnaire on creating their own superhero, while also sneakily teaching them a little about how to create characters in novels, too. At the end of each of these workshops, it’s always my hope kids will understand a little better how important especially the main character is, and how much the character you end up creating serves as a driving force for the kinds of stories you tell about them. Even before Dan Unmasked was released, I had already given this workshop at a number of schools and during a public event hosted by my local library. I’m planning to do more of these virtual events in the coming months.

I’ll be appearing at the first ever MiddleGround Book Fest on August 1^st as well, talking villains on a panel stacked with other great middle grade authors at 4 pm EST.

I’ve worked with an expert in the field to have a Common Core-aligned Curriculum Guide developed for Dan Unmasked. Just like the other details for my workshops and school visits, it will be available on my website. The guide has a series of penetrating post-read questions that teachers can use to align a reading of Dan Unmasked with the CCSS ELA Literarcy guidelines for grades as low as third and as high as seventh, though fourth through sixth is probably the sweet spot for this particular book. The guide also has lots of fun activities that reference the book’s content as well.

Finally I have some folded cards that have pre-defined panels on the inside that can be used to draw your own comic. I send these cards out to groups whenever I can, for example to schools who tell me they’ll be reading the book. I even have some super powered sticker packs (POW! and ZAP!) I include when I mail these cards, to give the students a chance to add a little zing to their comics.

So while there have certainly been many challenges to everything being virtual, the lack of in-person school visits and bookstore events, most or all of the book festivals being canceled or very limited, I’ve still been having a lot of fun putting together these sort of “care packages” to connect Dan Unmasked with kids and other readers from afar.

9. What are you working on now?

My second book, tentatively scheduled for July 2021, is The Last Super Chef. It’s in copy edits now, so we’re nearly to the finish line! It’s about an eleven-year-old named Curtis who’s not only a mega fan of the most popular cooking show on TV, “The Super Chef”, but is quite an accomplished junior chef himself. He also has a secret: the Super Chef is his long-absent father. When an opportunity opens for kids to compete in the last televised contest the Super Chef will ever host, Curtis decides he must make the list. But when he gets to New York, Curtis learns the Super Chef has some secrets of his own. He also finds even stiffer competition to win than he expected. He’ll have to cook his heart out if he wants to go home with the big cash prize – and maybe even more importantly, the truth.

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Chris. You can find Chris at:

Website: https://chrisnegron.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNegronWrite

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/negron.ca/?hl=en

Giveaway Details

Chris has generously offered a hardback of Dan Unmasked for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment by August 22nd. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog and/or follow me on Twitter, mention this in the comments and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This giveaway is U.S.

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.

Upcoming Interviews and Giveaways

Here's what's coming up:

Monday, August 17th I have an interview with debut author KayLynn Flanders and a giveaway of her YA fantasy Shielded

Monday, August 24th I have an agent spotlight interview with Veronica Park and a query critique giveaway

Hope to see you on Monday!

Debut Author Interview: Sasha Laurens and A Wicked Magic Giveaway/IWSG & Keep Writing With Fey Blog Hop

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Hope you're all doing good. Did you see my big announcement about my agent spotlights and interviews? If not, read my birthday post to learn all about it. Also, I'm starting to participate in big monthly book giveaway hops again as they are available. You can find the link to the August giveaway at the top of the blog. I've got lots of MG and YA new releases for you

Today I am excited to have debut author Sasha Laurens here to celebrate the release of her YA fantasy A WICKED MAGIC. I’m excited to read it because it has witches and magic, and is a thriller.

IWSG and Keep Writing With Fey Blog Hop Post

Before I get to Sasha's interview, I have my IWSG Post. I'm also participating in Chrys Fey's blog hop to celebrate her new book and am doing a joint post because it all deals with my writing.

Posting: The first Wednesday is officially Insecure Writer's Support Group Day.

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The co-hosts this month are Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!

Here's a blurb of Chrys' book Keep Writing With Fey: Sparks to Defeat Writer's Block, Depression, and Burnout:
Catch the sparks you need to conquer writer’s block, depression, and burnout!
When Chrys Fey shared her story about depression and burnout, it struck a chord with other writers. That put into perspective for her how desperate writers are to hear they aren’t alone. Many creative types experience these challenges, battling to recover. Let Keep Writing with Fey: Sparks to Defeat Writer's Block, Depression, and Burnout guide you through:
· Writer's block
· Depression
· Writer's burnout
· What a writer doesn’t need to succeed
· Finding creativity boosts
With these sparks, you can begin your journey of rediscovering your creativity and get back to what you love - writing.
BOOK LINKS:
Amazon / Nook / iTunes / Kobo
Goodreads

My post is about how I've handled depression. I don't think that it's been any secret that I've been depressed since I lost my husband six years ago and then lost my job and became an empty nester within 18 months of that. I haven't been very interested in much, including this blog and my writing. I came pretty close to deleting any manuscripts I'd been working on in one of my darkest time. Going through this all has been the hardest time of my life.

Fortunately, I'm doing much better. Some of it is just that it takes time to go through the grieving process and figure out your life again. It's also included admitting that I'm depressed and sometimes have PTSD symptoms related to all the changes I went through in such a short period of time. I've helped myself by practicing gratitude, meditating, reading what I love, helping others, taking a tincture for the PTSD, spending time with family and friends, and walking daily. It's really a combination of a lot of things that helps me keep the depression and PTSD in control.

I know it will probably be a life-long journey dealing with depression, grief, and life changes for me. But I'm grateful to finally be feeling more like the person I was before all this happened to me. I'm also grateful that things like helping other writers through my blog and my writing mean more to me now.

What about you? How have you dealt with one of the issues that Chrys' book deals with?

Interview With Sasha Laurens

Now here's my interview with Sasha. First, here's a blurb of A Wicked Magic from Goodreads:

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The Craft when modern witches must save teens stolen by an ancient demon in this YA fantasy-thriller debut.

Dan and Liss are witches. The Black Book granted them that power. Harnessing that power feels good, especially when everything in their lives makes them feel powerless.

During a spell gone wrong, Liss's boyfriend is snatched away by an evil entity and presumed dead. Dan and Liss's friendship dies that night, too. How can they practice magic after the darkness that they conjured?

Months later, Liss discovers that her boyfriend is alive, trapped underground in the grips of an ancient force. She must save him, and she needs Dan and the power of The Black Book to do so. Dan is quickly sucked back into Liss's orbit and pushes away her best friend, Alexa. But Alexa has some big secrets she's hiding and her own unique magical disaster to deal with.

When another teenager disappears, the girls know it's no coincidence. What greedy magic have they awakened? And what does it want with these teens it has stolen?

Set in the atmospheric wilds of California's northern coast, Sasha Laurens's thrilling debut novel is about the complications of friendship, how to take back power, and how to embrace the darkness that lives within us all.

Hi Sasha! Thanks so much for joining us.

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

I’ve been making up stories since I was a little kid. In high school, I started taking writing classes at 826 Valencia, and when I got to college, I nearly majored in creative writing. But I was always focused on literary fiction, especially short stories. With literary fiction, the path to publication usually requires an MFA, and at a certain point, I knew an MFA wasn’t in the cards for me. This will sound horrible, but I decided to try writing YA—which I never even read at that time—because how hard could it be? I started drafting my first YA novel at NaNoWriMo in 2013, and I realized pretty quickly that I had no idea what I’d gotten myself into. I didn’t know how to plot or set up character arcs! I started taking it seriously, reading as much as I could in the genre, and studying craft, and the rest is history.

2. I think a lot of people don't realize how hard it is to write until they start. Where did you get the idea for A WICKED MAGIC?

I was reading a book about the history of folklore and magic in Russia that included stories of the dangers of crossroads. One of these stories said that if an odd number of people found themselves at a crossroads, demons might abduct one of them to even the count. I couldn’t get that story out of my head, and I knew it would work in a contemporary setting. At the same time, I was working on a story about female friendship, and the strange way it can be painful and life-giving at the same time. In particular, I was thinking about how easy it is to hurt your friends and be hurt by them when you’re young and don’t really know yourself. Those two ideas came together to form the idea-germ of A WICKED MAGIC.

3. I love that your story mixes the fantasy and thriller genres. What made you decide to combine them and what challenges did it create in developing the story?

To be perfectly honest, I had never thought about this story as a thriller until after I signed my deal. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have been able to write it! Plot doesn’t come very naturally to me—if I had my way, my characters just sit around thinking for 300 pages. I’m also not great at coming up with cool magical moments either. Because I know that about myself, I really work to make sure that every scene is pulling its weight and advancing the plot. Contemporary fantasy and thrillers both have this sense of something unknown, and possibly dangerous, lurking just beneath the surface, so I think they’re actually pretty compatible genres!

4. What was your plotting process like and what tips do you have for someone who wants to write a thriller.

Many index cards died in service to A WICKED MAGIC. I do a lot of outlining and reverse-outline

(which is outlining what you’ve already written). This allows me to check that every scene is firing at all cylinders—advancing the plot and the character arcs, and escalating towards the climax. Outlining makes it easy to see where readers might get bored. It also allows me to find places in earlier parts of the story to slip in foreshadowing, so the reader has enough information to put everything together a half-second before the characters do.

Writing gripping plots, no matter your genre, is a question of craft. Read craft books! Personally I love The Anatomy of Story and Save the Cat.

5. I'll have to check out The Anatomy of Story. Another thing that draws me to your story is that it deals with a lot f heavy contemporary issues, like suicide, mental health issues, and child abuse. Those are only a few of the issues you warn of on your website. How hard was it to write about these issues and kind of experience them through your writing?

When A WICKED MAGIC begins, Dan and Liss are dealing with the fallout of something terrible they did months ago—and they’re not dealing well. Both of them cope with their guilt, depression and other negative feelings in ways that are destructive to themselves and others. Over the course of the story, they gain some insight into those behaviors and begin to work to resolve their past trauma and guilt. I felt that was an important journey to show, even if it does require some uncomfortable scenes.

Writing these elements wasn’t difficult because I had to vicariously experience those things. Many of them were things I had already experienced myself in real life or watched close friends wrestle with. A far more difficult thing was to represent these bad coping strategies in such a way that it was clear why the girls were using them, but without glamorizing them. Glamorizing bad behavior is really easy to do when your audience is young people, and I definitely do not want any young person to walk away from this book thinking that they should follow in Dan or Liss’s self-destructive footsteps. At the same time I didn’t want to sound moralizing or inauthentic. Striking that balance was hard and I still wonder if I did it right.

On my website, I tried to cast a wide net with the content warnings I posted, to provide information to readers who wanted it. Not all those topics are a major focus of the narrative.

6. Sounds like you hit the right balance. Liss and Dan are your two protagonists who must learn to work together after their friendship sours. Which one was the easier one for you to develop as a character and why?

When I first conceived of Dan and Liss, I imagined Dan as having been taken advantage of by Liss, and Liss as this domineering, insensitive villain, who didn’t take care with Dan’s feelings. I expected to have a hard time connecting to Liss as I wrote, but Dan was ultimately much more difficult. The more time I spent with Dan, the more it became clear that because she sees herself as a victim, she’s able to ignore her responsibility for the end of her friendship with Liss. At the same time, she’s settled for feeling guilty about Johnny’s disappearance, rather than facing what she did and taking action. That passivity was super annoying to write—I just wanted her to stop feeling sorry for herself! The more time I spent writing from Liss’s POV, the more I connected with her perfectionist drive and her need to be loved, and I came to appreciate how Dan had really hurt her as well. Ultimately, the girls are foils for each other, so their characters are deeply intertwined.

7. You are also pursuing your PhD at the University of Michigan. How do you find the writing time you need with the grueling schedule of a PhD student?

It’s definitely difficult! But a PhD program also gives you near-total freedom over how you manage you time and no one cares how long you spend working if you get stuff done, so it’s much easier to find time to write than when I had a full-time job. I usually write in the morning until around 10 or 11, during the week, and then spend as much time as I can on Saturday. The exception is if I’m doing fieldwork (my research is about Russia). Then I don’t write at all.

8. That's great that you control your own schedule. Your agent is Jennifer Udden. How did she become your agent and what was your road to publication like?

I signed with Jen on a different novel that died on submission. That was the first novel I’d written (in that 2013 NaNo). It took a few years to revise it and find an agent, although I only queried about 50 total. Jen was actually the last agent I was waiting to hear from before I trunked that project entirely, so it’s pretty fortunate that she wanted to sign me! At that point, I had already begun working on what would become A WICKED MAGIC. A year or so later, we were preparing for a second round of submission for that first novel, when I realized I didn’t want that book to sell—A WICKED MAGIC was significantly better, but quite different, and I felt if I could finish it, editors would be interested. So we pulled the first novel and went out with AWM a few months later. We had interest within a month!

9. How are you planning to market your book and celebrate its release given COVID-19? What advise do you have for other authors whose book will be released during the pandemic?

This is such a tough question! Everyone is doing their best, but it’s still really hard to know at this point what works. I am running a pre-order campaign where you can get free stickers based on the book cover, if you fill out the form at https://www.sashalaurens.com/pre-order-campaign. I am also planning some live-streamed events with other authors at the end of July/early August to celebrate the release. You can follow me on twitter or Instagram for updates on that.

Personally, I’m planning to celebrate with some friends and family on zoom, and maybe have drinks with some folks in person. Still I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel a little anticlimactic.

10. What are you working on now?

I can’t say much about it, but the working title is “Vampire Boarding School.”

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Sasha. You can find Sasha at:

www.sashalaurens.com

https://twitter.com/sasha_laurens

https://www.instagram.com/sashalwrites/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48675479-a-wicked-magic?ac=1&from_search=true

https://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Magic-Sasha-Laurens/dp/0593117255/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

https://bookshop.org/books/a-wicked-magic/9780593117255

Pre-orders can request free AWM stickers here: https://www.sashalaurens.com/pre-order-campaign

Giveaway Details

Sasha has generously offered an ARC of A Wicked Magic for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment by August 22nd. If your e-mail is not on your Google Profile, you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address.

Upcoming Interviews and Giveaways

Here's what's coming up:

Monday, August 10th I have an interview with debut author Chris Negron and a giveaway of his MG contemporary Unmasked

Monday, August 17th I have an interview with debut author KayLynn Flanders and a giveaway of her YA fantasy Shielded

Monday, August 24th I have an agent spotlight interview with Veronica Park and a query critique giveaway

Wednesday, September 2nd I have an interview with debut author Andrea Contos and a giveaway of her YA thriller Throwaway Girls

Monday, September 7th I have an agent spotlight interview with Carlisle Weber and a query critique giveaway

Monday, September 14th I have an interview with debut author Rebecca Coffindaffer and a giveaway of her YA space opera Crownchasers

Wednesday, September 16th I have an agent spotlight interview with Erin Casey and a query critique giveaway

Hope to see you on Monday!