The Next Big Thing Blog Hop!

‘The Next Big Thing’ Blog Hop is a chance for authors to tell you what they’re working on. An author answers 10 questions about her next book, then tags five other authors to help spread the word!

A huge thank you to Alyssa Goodnight, who tagged me!

Here’s my Q&A about the sequel to A Breath of Eyre, A Touch of Scarlet, releasing March 26, 2013:


1 What is the working title of your book?
A Touch of Scarlet, as the book is inspired by The Scarlet Letter.

2 Where did the idea come from for the book?
Did you ever have a book you hated in high school, but then you read it again as an adult and were like, “Wow, this book is amazing; I just didn’t appreciate it when I was sixteen.” That’s what happened to me with The Scarlet Letter. After I wrote A Breath of Eyre, in which my character gets lost in the novel Jane Eyre, I was looking for other classic novels to inspire Books 2 and 3. For the sequel, I needed to send Emma into a book that would put her through the wringer, so to speak. The Scarlet Letter deals with identity, power, guilt, hypocrisy, sexuality—many of the issues teens face in high school—so it seemed like the perfect catalyst to force Emma out of her comfort zone.

3 What genre does your book fall under?
Not an easy question, but I guess I’d say contemporary with a touch of paranormal.

4 Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Even though I don’t usually imagine actors while I’m drafting, these casting choices wouldn’t ruin my day:

Lily Collins as Emma
Olivia Thurlby as Michelle		Hayley Williams as Jess
Annasophia Robb as Elise		Colton Haynes as Gray
a young Brandon Flowers as Flynn		Steven R. McQueen as Owen

5 What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A girl with the ability to slip into the books she’s reading finds truth and fiction merging through the pages of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlet Letter.

6 Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I am represented by April Eberhardt Literary, and the book is being published by Kensington Books.

7 How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
For some reason, the sequel took much longer to write than Book 1. From start to finish, it probably took me a year and a half to write, although I was teaching full-time as well.

8 What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Maybe other books inspired by classic literature, like Kelly Creagh’s Nevermore, Lesley Livingston’s Wondrous Strange, or Kathryn Burak’s Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things.

9 Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I am always inspired by my students, who manage to navigate some treacherous waters with grace and resilience.

10 What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
I think A Touch of Scarlet might appeal to readers who love gothic novels, New England settings, romance, family dynamics, classic literature, and themes of identity and coming of age.

Now I’m going to tag the following wonderful writers:

A.C. Gaughen
Sarah Perry
Tiffany Schmidt
Jennifer Shaw Wolf

Please visit their blogs on Monday, November 12, when they will publish their answers to the same questions.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and feel free to leave me a comment below!!

Message for the tagged authors and interested others:

Rules of The Next Big Thing
***Use this format for your post
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress)
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:
What is the working title of your book?
Where did the idea come from for the book?
What genre does your book fall under?
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.

Piece of advice: Line up your five people in advance.

Cover Reveal Giveaway Winner

The winner of the signed copy of A BREATH OF EYRE & A TOUCH OF SCARLET swag is

Angelica!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered and for all your fun comments!!

A TOUCH OF SCARLET Cover Reveal Giveaway!

I have been absent from this blog for quite some time, consumed with book revisions and personal challenges and going back to school. But A Touch of Scarlet releases six months from now, and I find myself wishing it were out now. If this book had a season, it would be fall. The story begins where A Breath of Eyre left off, with Emma starting her junior year at Lockwood Prep. But everything is changing—the leaves on the trees, her relationships, and most important, Emma herself. Feeling lonely and restless, Emma begins to run in the woods behind her school—sometimes in an attempt to evade her fears, other times in search of something that seems to be calling to her. As the ghosts of the forest draw her in, she comes face to face with the characters from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. And if she’s brave enough to face them, they might just have a lesson or two to teach her. Here’s the gorgeous autumnal cover!

To those who have already read A BREATH OF EYRE, you’ve probably seen the cover in miniature on the back flap of the book, but it looks so much lusher in full size! While ARCs won’t be available for several months, the book is available for pre-order. You can also add it to your Goodreads list. To celebrate the cover reveal, I am giving away a prize package that includes:

• A signed copy of A BREATH OF EYRE
• A signed cover flat for A TOUCH OF SCARLET
• Bookmarks and magnets for both books

 

Just answer the following question in the comments: What is your favorite thing about fall? You’ll also get:

          +1 entry if you retweet this post (Win a signed copy of @evemariemont's A BREATH OF EYRE plus swag for A TOUCH OF SCARLET: http://tinyurl.com/9yeuluc)

          +1 entry if you post this link on Facebook

          +1 entry if you post the contest on your own blog (please leave a link here)

The giveaway is open internationally and will end at midnight E.S.T. on Tuesday, October 16. Good luck!

Finding the Sweet Spot; or How to Rediscover the Joy in Writing

For most fiction writers, creating stories is a passion, something they would do whether or not they had any hope of being published. In fact, when I reflect on my writing life so far, it’s those years before I was published—when I was striving for truth, daydreaming about characters, building story arcs, experimenting with language—that were the most exciting and rewarding for me. And I think it’s because that time truly belonged to me. It was my choice whether to spend an hour of the day writing or seven. My choice to try my hand at contemporary or magical realism, women’s fiction or young adult. It felt like I was in a giant sandbox of imagination playing with dozens of toys. And best of all, no one was watching.

Now that I’m published and contracted, those toys have become tools, and that sandbox has become a workshop, one with glass windows through which any number of people can peer in and pass judgment. And my time no longer belongs to me. Now I’m in the business of creating a product, and people are waiting on the sidelines to judge what I’ve created. Somewhere along the line, I stopped playing because of those eyes on me, because of the voices seeping through the windows telling me that what I was making looked wonky and strange, that it was neither functional nor beautiful.

And then those voices became so loud that I stopped listening to the most important voice of all—my own—the one that was trying to tell its next story.

So how do I find my voice again when all those other voices are shouting at me? How do I find the joy in writing when it feels like a job? How do I get myself back into the sandbox?

A writer friend of mine gave me a great sports analogy that has helped me immensely. She said that when she's playing tennis, occasionally the ball hits her racket so soundly that she can feel the impact of it in her bones. That satisfying feeling travels all through her body, telling her she's made perfect contact, that she's hit the “sweet spot.”

When I told her how I'd been feeling lately, she reminded me that when you’re writing freely and tapping into that reservoir of imagination and possibility, you can find that “sweet spot”in writing too, that place where you know instinctively that you've hit on a truth, made a connection, done something well. If you can somehow immerse yourself in the game and play like no one's watching, then the words will come pouring forth and it will feel like magic. Like joy. 

The Aftermath of a Book Launch

So you’ve written a book and snagged an agent who sold your book to a publisher who helped you revise and copyedit and promote, and now three years later, you have an actual book in the world! Most people might assume that after this long roller coaster of a journey, the writer can finally breathe a sigh of relief and just coast. But in my experience, this is just the beginning of another roller coaster, much shorter in length but with the same amount of ups and downs--the post-launch.

The first “up” in my post-launch rollercoaster was my launch party held at The Doylestown Bookshop last Saturday. I debated whether to have a launch party at all—I’m not one for being the center of attention—but I would encourage anyone with a debut coming out to have one, if only to remind yourself that you have accomplished something that the rest of the world sees as kind of awesome. It was so wonderful to have friends, family, and even some of my students come out to support me, to chat and sign, eat scones and drink wine, and basically just celebrate with the people I love. Major, major high point! A huge thank you to all who ventured out on that rainy day to help me celebrate; it was amazing!

And now for the “lows.” I’m sure there are many writers who navigated this post-launch terrain with more perspective and maturity than I did, but I also know I am not alone in becoming a dysfunctional mess of a human being during the first week after my launch. It wasn’t helped by the fact that I was on spring break; if I’d been teaching I would have had more distractions. But right after my book released, my world suddenly became very small, a bubble of minutiae that no one else really cares or knows about but that can become all consuming for the writer.

I’m talking about the internet, of course. Every morning I would hop on the computer to see if my Amazon ranking had gone down or if my Goodreads ratings had gone up (and then cry when I realized the opposite had happened). I obsessed about sales and reviews and blog comments, hoping that my little book was thriving out there but knowing that, for the first time in this entire process, I couldn’t do a single thing about it.

Because once a book releases, it’s no longer yours. Unlike the end of a pregnancy when a woman gives birth and has an actual baby to take care of, a book is immediately out of your hands, for better or for worse, and the only thing the writer can do is wish it well and get started on the next project.

I am happy to say that now, two weeks after my release, I have returned to the land of the living. This past weekend I threw myself into revisions on Book 2, and today I head back to school. Normal life has resumed.

And I know that a year from now, I’ll be going through this roller coaster all over again. But next time I’ll be armed with this knowledge and experience, no longer a green “debut author” but a seasoned writer who will have learned not to fret about things beyond her control. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself…

Has anyone else had a less-than-relaxing post-launch experience? Any tips on how to avoid the madness?