Book Expo America

Hi, all! This is going to be a quick post because I'm in NYC for the Book Expo! Woohoo! It has been a dream of mine to attend this massive event and not only am I going this year, but I get to do so as an author. :-)

Anyway, if any of you are in the city for BEA, I'd love to meet you! I'll be at the Pendrell Publishing booth, # 2054, on Wednesday at 4 PM for a video blog session with Jamie Manning, where we'll be answering questions and talking about BEA, and I'll be there on Thursday at 10 AM for my in-booth signing. Copies of Hunted will be discounted for the event, so yay! :-)

If you have any questions about books, writing, etc, please leave them in the comments and I'll be sure to answer them for the video blog!

Hope to see you all there!

~DJ

Odds and Ends of Hunted

Hi, everyone! Can you believe HUNTED comes out next Tuesday? I can't. I'm extremely excited, nervous, terrified, and excited. :-)

Today I'm going to talk about some random things pertaining to the book. I finished the first draft on June 25th 2010, or somewhere around then. It's almost unbelievable it's only been a little over a year since that first draft. As you may know, I don't write listening to music because I get a bit distracted, but I did have an editing playlist. I've had one blogger fall in love with the songs, so hopefully you'll like them too :-).

"November" by Chase Coy

"If the Moon Fell Down" by Chase Coy (ft. Colbie Caillat)

"Black Coffee" by Breanne Duren

"Static Waves" by Andrew Belle (ft. Katie Herzig)

"Unarmed" by Mariah McManus

"The Way You Pick Me Up" by Mariah McManus

"Sleep" (live version) by Imogen Heap

"Pitter Pat" by Erin McCarley

"Sort of" by Ingrid Michaelson

"My Love" by Sia (this one was on repeat towards the end, haha)

 And guess what? I have something in common with JANE AUSTEN!! On her 235th birthday, December 16th, 2010, I was offered my contract with Pendrell. Isn't that cool? Who out there is an Austen fan?

There was really only one major change to the story from the "final" draft to the finished product, and that's the ending. Originally, there was an epilogue told through the perspective of the hunter and it left the story wide open for a sequel. After much thought, I got rid of the epilogue and rewrote the ending, making it longer and less open. I really love the new ending, though, so that's good, haha. Maybe I'll post the epilogue someday.

Some of you may know that Hunted is told through two points of view: Lily's and Alex's. I didn't intend for it to be this way when I first started, mainly because I didn't want to draw comparisons/complaints about it being similar to Shiver. But then I wrote a chapter from Alex's POV as an exercise and realized his side had to be told. Since Lily's side was supposed to be the only one given, readers will see a lot of me in her, if that makes sense. I think it's easier to write when a character shares your traits because you can describe them better than something you don't have experience with.

Well, that's all, folks! :-) I hope you enjoyed reading this and I'll leave you with an excerpt recently seen on the YA Scavenger Hunt. Enjoy and happy weekend!

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           The sirens grew louder and caught the wolves’ attention. For an instant, I saw a flicker of panic in their eyes. One of them tore off into the woods, but the other remained on top of me. It snarled and clawed at my face and clothes before leaping toward the woods. Wincing, I turned my head and watched the wolf escape. But it was no longer a wolf.

            It was a man.                                             

           He raised his brows and flashed me a wicked, arrogant smile before turning to disappear into the woods.

            The police got there too late, too late to see the impossible truth I had learned. Unable to get words off my tongue to answer their questions, I led them into the house and upstairs to the bedroom.

            Blood was everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on my hands. None of it was mine, though. Just Julia’s, the woman I loved more than anything and the woman I failed to protect. But never did I imagine I would have to protect her from such monsters as those that had burst through our front door that night.

            While the police took photographs and murmured amongst themselves, I escaped back downstairs and sat on the front steps. A crack of thunder echoed through the night as a summer storm began. Droplets of rain fell from the sky and I couldn’t distinguish the rain from my tears. But when a chorus of howls rang over the noise of the rain, my sadness turned to anger and determination.

            The next day, I bought a gun.

Big news and reviews!

This year is flying by. Seriously? It's already June? That means YAtopia has been up and kicking for six months now.

Today I have three things to share, including a mini-review:

1. Our own DJ DeSmyter has his first ARCs of his book, HUNTED, out and about! I was fortunate enough to land one and able to post a review on my personal blog. To summarize:

Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Lily Atwater has always kept to herself, living a lonely life with her workaholic dad. Not the most thrilling life, but it's quiet and ordinary, two things she's come to expect from living in Victor Hills, Michigan.

When kind and mysterious Alex takes refuge in her home, she is suddenly thrown into his world of were-wolves, a world he wants to keep her safe from. But while the two of them grow closer, a relentless hunter continues his search, stalking the woods with hopes of catching the wolf that got away...

The strength in HUNTED really lies in the characters and their interactions and relationships. Lily was a refreshing female MC. Down to Earth and sweet, but not without her flaws. Alex was the same. It was great to have a good, sweet boy as opposed to the typical bad-boy that has grown pretty common in YA these days. I was rooting for them the whole way, and that's not always something I can do!

For the full review, click here!



2. Speaking of my personal blog, I've relocated from Blogspot over to Livejournal. Anyone using GoogleReader or something similar can simply subscribe to it for continued updates. I hope some of you will drop by and say hello over at my blog's new location. I'll be having a giveaway sometime in the next two weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.



3. I'm exceptionally excited and pleased to announce that my book, HUSHED, has been picked up by Entangled Publishing and will be on shelves this coming winter!





There are no words for how ecstatic (and terrified) I am! Everyone at Entangled has been welcoming and kind, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months.


And, lastly, this week's mini-review!

WARM BODIES by Isaac Marion
R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, noidentity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.

I've always loved any books dealing with zombies (hello, THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH?), but WARM BODIES wasn't exactly your typical horror zombie novel. It puts a zombie as not only the main character, but a sympathetic protagonist and the 1st-person narrator. Not to mention, romance? I was really uncertain about this one, but it was the first e-book I purchased on my new Nook and I wasn't about to let it go to waste.

This book? Absolutely. Amazing. Gorgeous writing and not at all the type of book I thought it would be. Yes, some moments were uncomfortable and squicky, but "R" made the most charming narrator. Marion's writing style is fluid and, at times, poetic without being overwhelming and burying the plot. I can honestly think of no complaints with this book in any way and it is not only one of my all-time faves now, but one I'm already wanting to go back and re-read.


Have a great beginning-of-June, everyone!

Hunted

Hi, guys. I hope you're all enjoying the pitch contest! I wish you all nothing but the best of luck! :-)

So, as you may have already seen, the cover for my debut YA novel, Hunted, was released recently. I think it's quite lovely and I can't get over how wonderful Lani Woodland's blurb at the top is. As writers, we are constantly doubting ourselves, so reading/hearing comments like Lani's really boosts my confidence.

Today I'm just going to talk a little bit about Hunted and hopefully bring awareness to those who haven't heard of it yet. I started writing the first draft in Feburary 2010 and finished it sometime that June. I had written a couple other novel-length pieces before this, but Hunted was the first one I actually thought had a shot at becoming something other than a Word document. Have any of you felt that feeling? It's a truly wonderful feeling of accomplishment, pride and excitement. I still can't believe it's being published! When I opened my email and saw the cover, it hit me just how real this all is. I'm extremely nervous, but even more excited. This is a story I'm proud of, one that I want people to like (preferably love, but I don't want to get ahead of myself haha) and share with others. It's been amazing seeing the story change and grow, and yet it's still the same one I finished in June. I don't think it'll ever truly be "finished", but the story, and its characters, are in a good place--and so am I. Thank you all for your support thus far and as terrified as I am for people to read it, I truly can't wait until my little book is out in the world. :-)

So, fellow writers, have you written your "Perfect Story" yet? If so, what was the writing process like? If not, are you working on something that could potentially be the perfect one?

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To add Hunted on GoodReads, please click HERE and to "like" the Facebook page, click HERE.