So what exactly is a "Palooza" anyway?

I'll tell you what it is! It's a front!

Barnes and Noble wants you to think this event coming up on February 4th is some kind of a massive book signing but it's a lie! The whole thing! It's actually a test to weed out the unlikely's for a really big and exciting dystopian, end of the world, "Uglies" meets "Matched" type of... ok.... I couldn't do it.

I was going to lie to all of you wonderful readers out there but I just can't.

Sorry!

But I can at least tell you what this whole Authorpalooza thing WILL be.

It'll be epic.

I feel that the term 'epic' is overused nowadays... Being a gamer I reserve the right to use it on a regular basis but even I can use it inappropriately sometimes.

But not today.

Today I use it perfectly when I say:

This. Signing. Is. Going. To. Be. EPIC.

Want to know why?

Let me demonstrate with the following list.

1. Barnes and Noble does this every year. They're not banging rocks together here, they know how to do this shindig right.

2. There will be over 40 authors there. Yes. That's a four with a zero after it. (And if Shannon Hale is in attendance I'm definitely going to tell her we should do an international book tour together and call it "Shanno(e)n squared"... or maybe "Camp Hale!" We'll throw some ideas around)

3. I will have fastbreaks there. Like the candy. The delicious candy that happens to be one of my favorites and also happens to be clever when placed next to my book title. That was just a happy coincidence. Or a delicious one. Whichever.

4. You love me. OK fine so maybe you don't love me but I sure do love you. And I want to see your bright shining face! I want pictures with everyone, I want to sign some books, and I want to talk about everything under the sun (though in this case it will be under the roof).

5. FREE BOOKMARKS! I have these cute little sparkly bookmarks that my lovely cousin Whitney designed. They sparkle. Seriously. So come to the signing just for that!

I'm sure there are other reasons you should come, but I'll keep the list at 5. That seems like a nice number.

Hopefully soon I'll have some news for all of you on NEW books coming out so that I'll shut up about "The Breakup Artist" and you guys will know what the heck I'm talking about when I mention "Catching June" or "Pwned" which I've just realized I have to change the title of because even though I'm an avid gamer and I think it looks cooler to write "Pwn'd" that's APPARENTLY not the right way to spell it. So much for a book title with no vowels. I was so excited!

Also, one of these days I'll get a proper camera and when I do I'm thinking video blog! Thoughts? I'd like to hear them! Whether they're "That would be so awesome as long as you don't break out your guitar and sing songs to us" or even "Please no. It's bad enough hearing your crazy thought process in text, we don't need it in video format too!"

Annnnnnd last but not least. I think I may finally do a Q&A blog. One of these days. So if you have questions on "The Breakup Artist", writing, publishing, marketing, or how to destroy the monitor in test chamber 16 (which I finally did) then e-mail me or leave your questions in the comments!

OK now I'll leave you all alone.

Don't forget to come to Authorpalooza on February 4th at Barnes and Noble!
South Towne Marketplace
10180 S. State Street, Sandy, UT 84070, 801-233-0203

Until next time,

Shannen

Interview with Jolene Perry author of "The Next Door Boys"

Jolene Perry got in touch with me a few months ago via e-mail just because we're both Cedar Fort authors. I thought I'd start off with that to show just how awesome this girl is. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say someone is really warm, friendly, and epic when I've only spoken to them through e-mail... but I don't really care. I'm going to say it anyway!

Jolene was nice enough to send me an ARC of her book "The Next Door Boys" and I must admit, once I started reading it I couldn't stop. The story just grabbed me!

I feel like before I write this review I should mention that this is the first LDS fiction novel I’ve ever read. When I first started reading it I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was surprised by the fact that prayers were written down and seeing someone living a life following the same beliefs I do was unusual for me. It was definitely a different feel from the fiction I normally read. That being said, I LOVED it. I didn’t feel like it was so focused on Leigh’s religion that non-LDS people couldn’t understand or enjoy it. I loved the compassion and understanding that you can tell went into writing this book. It’s obvious when a writer loves her characters and Jolene Perry proves that. You love Leigh and the others because you can see the heart that was put into them by Jolene. It was funny, emotional, and real. I would recommend this book to anyone! Young, old, LDS, Catholic. You name it, I’d say ‘Hey you should read this awesome book called The Next Door Boys’.

I was lucky enough to do an interview with Jolene about her book and writing in general. But before you enjoy hearing a little about Jolene, here's a little about her book (Available October 8th)... By the way, did I mention that if you comment on this post you'll automatically be entered to win either a $35 gift card to Amazon or your very own brand spankin new copy of "The Next Door Boys"? Well consider it mentioned!

The Next Door Boys

Leigh Tressman has been known as a lot of things – the girl who sings, the girl who sews, Jaron’s little sister, and last year, the girl with cancer. With her body still recovering from the cancer treatments, she’s determined to be independent and convinces her parents to let her follow her overprotective brother, Jaron, to BYU.

With an ever expanding line of young men ready to be in love with her – not to mention physical frustrations, and spiritual dilemmas – Leigh almost misses the opportunity to be with the man who has been quietly falling in love with her since they met. The Next Door Boys proves that even with (or maybe in spite of) independence, love can be found in comfortable, but delightful places.

An Interview with Jolene

1. What inspired you to write this story?

I read Ally Condie’s Being Sixteen. That was my first LDS fiction. And I was like, cool. A REAL story that felt like it was about REAL, imperfect people, and living with the beliefs that I do. I wanna do that.

"The Next Door Boys" started as a comedy about a girl who goes to college determined not to get involved with any guys, and has guys who like her. Then as I thought about what made her SO fiercely independent (and a good friend of mine got cancer) it turned into something different. Besides, I’m much better at writing emotion than comedy.

2. Do you see any of yourself in Leigh?

I love the silly, impetuous side of Leigh. That’s very much like me, or how I can be. I overdress for church, so I really wanted her to have that. Also, I sew. I had a lot of sewing projects at the time that I started this book, so I knew my time would be divided.

This was the second thing I ever wrote. This was the first book I wrote where I knew I wanted it to be a whole book when I finished. It helped a lot being able to “channel” Leigh as I was working on my sewing projects, and that’s honestly one of the main reasons I wanted her to sew – and then it ended up working for her in a lot of different ways.

3. Do you pull from your real life experiences when you write? How much do they influence your writing?

On my blog, I have all these things in this book that came from reality. Brian started out as someone I knew (who shares some of the same tattoos – the tree one was where it started) and it felt all really weird to write him at first, but Brian became his own person fairly quickly. Whew!

My real life experiences influence my writing a TON. My family laughs out loud in places no one else would think to laugh, just because they know that particular thing is all me. The love of Crown Burger, hammocks, heels, some of the specific lines. So yeah, anytime you read a book by me, you’ll know that there’s a lot of ME in there, and I do it on purpose.

4. This story seems to focus a lot on Leigh’s first impression of people and how that changes over time. Do you think Leigh judges people fairly for the most part or does she let what she sees influence her too much?

She DEFINITELY makes snap judgments. She notices clothes. She judges her roommates fairly harshly for good or bad right off the start. She judged Brian harshly, and she also put Noah into a tidy box of perfection. She also has a bit of a hard time changing her perceptions of people, or allowing them to move from one perception to another.

5. What do you do to get in the writing state of mind? Is there some essential thing you need to sit down and start writing?

Nothing is essential but the desire to put words on a page. Is a quiet house helpful? Yep. Does it happen often? Nope. When I can’t write, I listen to the playlist I have for a character or a project to get myself in the “mood” and then when I can sit down, my hope is that I’m already in it, and can just jump into writing. Sometimes I listen to music when I write, but it has to be quiet, just enough that the beat or the feel of the music seeps into what I’m working on.

6. If your book was made into a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

A mix of 500 Days of Summer and Dan In Real Life.

LOVE those two movies, and love their soundtracks.

7. What is your favorite thing about this story?

My favorite thing is that Leigh is really faced with two (main) boys. Noah – who is perfect on paper, and Brian who is a disaster on paper. I love that part of it.

My favorite scenes are –

Leigh’s rant about the romantic movies.

After her neighbor Julie has her baby, and a certain someone follows her out of the hospital.

When she falls asleep putting Nathan to bed.

OH! And when she finally asks Brian about his tattoos. I also really love it when Leigh’s forced to eat a bit of humble pie after her snap judgments. Actually, I seem to be having a hard time narrowing it down, because her and her brother have some great scenes that I just love as well. And the big scene with Noah at the restaurant with his parents . . .

8. Anything you want to say to… well… anyone reading this blog?

Umm . . . I hope you love this story half as much as I do?

That writing is the most amazing thing I’ve done outside of my family?

That I love the writing community just as much as I love the reading community. People who love books are awesome :D

Also – I wrote a book about Leigh’s first year of married life that I HOPE CFI takes on. So, I guess watch for – To Take This From You – unless they either 1. Don’t take it or 2. Make me change the name, lol.

If you want to learn more about Jolene, her books, or just be a part of her awesome world, you can visit her blog here. Don't forget to add her book to your 'to read' list on Goodreads! Also, if you're going to put the book on your 'to read' list you might as well know where you can buy it right :) That's what I'm here for! Pick up your copy of "The Next Door Boys" here!

And don't forget to leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a $35 Amazon gift card or copy of "The Next Door Boys"!

Writer's Block...

... is a myth... Or so they say. And by they I mean N.M. Kelby who wrote "The Constant Art of Being a Writer". And she may be right. I've had such great ideas all week for all of these great scenes I wanted to write in the book I'm working on right now... but between work, wife-dom, and March Madness I just haven't had time. So now this weekend, when I have bucket loads of time to write... I just can't. Doesn't it just figure? I suppose that is a bit misleading... because I am writing and I'm not doing too badly. I think writer's block isn't' so much that you can't write anything... I think it just means everything you want to write comes out a bit jumbled and just doesn't flow like your normal writing does. Take this choppy blog post as evidence of my lack of flow.

But I should still count myself lucky. I've got a book being published. I've got another book already written just begging me to finish editing it. And I've got handfuls of half-written books vying for my time. So really... this little bout of writer's block is OK because June and Joseph are still getting their scenes... they're just scenes I'll have to heavily edit once I've got my flow back... and when I say "I'll" have to edit it... I mean my mom will probably give me some fresh perspective on it.

So while Josh is out taking his test and I'm working on my book before the dreaded exercise monster comes to get me I thought I'd put my two cents out there on writer's block... although my two cents is sounding a bit more like 1 cent now that I'm reading it back. I'll give my other cent at a later date to complete the transaction.


PS: This is what the writing process looks like... for me anyways.

My calendar of events in the book. My official book file made very professional with a crayon drawing on the front. And my pages of what my characters wear... Needless to say the file for "The Break-Up Artist" has a book sized fashion section in it.




Until Next Time!

-Shannen

And the release date is.....

In the spirit of keeping everyone up-to-date on what's happening with my book I shall disclose something very exciting to you... the release date for my book! Well... at least the release month. I'm not quite sure on the actual date yet. But the month is......


Drum roll please





October!


I know it's a good 7 months away so that's why I have an assignment for everyone. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be just as excited to buy the book and learn all about Amelia in October as you are right now. Think you can do it? For those of you wanting extra credit never fear, I have that too: be even more excited in October than you are right now! I must admit at first I was thinking October was an odd choice but it is my birth month so it's like the perfect birthday present! Happy birthday Shannen... oh and by the way your book is out in stores! I like that. I'll definitely accept that birthday present. What are the chances I could get them to release it on October 7th do you think?


Alright so now for another big announcement. Cedar Fort has decided to change the title of my book. At first I was a little sad because I do make an effort to put great thought into my book titles to make them witty and fun (hence why the book I'm working on right now has no title... just can't think of something perfect). I must say, however, that I can understand why they changed it. If you didn't know anything about my book and saw the title "It's Not You, It's Me" in a list you might think it was a self-help book... or some sort of instruction on how to get over a break-up. Understandable right? But Cedar Fort is going to use "It's not you, it's me" on the cover as a sort of tag line so I'm happy. But now for the new title to be revealed.... I would ask for another drum roll but two in one blog post seems like overkill. So without further ado, and without further drum roll, the new title of my book is "The Break-Up Artist". Straight forward. Simple. And very informative to anyone checking out the book for the first time. Now I did google "The Break-Up Artist" to see what would come up and I found a movie from 2009 which made me a little frantic for a moment... until I realized, that movie came out in 2009. My copyright is from 2008. My idea. Boom roasted. Not that anyone would think I'd stolen it anyways but I wanted to avoid a "Secret Window" scenario. That didn't seem to end well for anyone involved.


So there you have it! New name and a shiny new release date.

Remember your homework!

I'll post more updates soon!


Shannen

Long Live

Well it's official. I am now a published author! Well... that may sound confusing... allow me to rephrase. I am now an author with a contract to be published and will have a book released soon. Better? Cedar Fort will be publishing my book "It's Not You, It's Me" in what I'll call a few short months but may be anywhere from 3-12 months. Trust me, as soon as I have an official release date I'll be splashing it all over every web site, car windshield, and person who stands still long enough. So never fear, my shameless self promotion will keep you all in the loop.

So, for those of you who haven't read the book yet.... which is probably most of you (minus a handful of friends and relatives) let me tell you what to expect from this book. Expect a quirky break-up artist who dyes her hair a different color every other day and changes styles completely to be a social chameleon of those girls who've hired her. Expect awkward break-ups that Amelia expertly diffuses and some she not-so-expertly deals with. Expect romance! Expect confusion... which usually goes hand in hand with romance. Expect A LOT of painting. Expect a gorgeous green-eyed boy. Expect tears. Expect joy. Expect Amelia to be your new best friend. Mostly, just expect to get lost in the world of the best break-up artist in the business.

And if that's not enough of an incentive to buy the book... Expect me to be completely and utterly devoted to anyone who buys it. Sound fair?

Alright perfect! Moving on.

At the moment I'm working on my first LDS fiction novel... though I may just go back to finishing edits on "Robin's Flight". Why, you may ask, is it so hard for me to pick one book to work on and just truck along until it's through. Well allow me to invite you into my thought process for just a moment. It goes a little something like this:

"I think I'll work on "Pwn'd"... I have been playing a lot of video games lately. It's the perfect opportunity to 'research' for the book! Oh wait... what's this? I've never written or read an LDS fiction book... that seems a little odd. Maybe I'll write one! Perfect... Let me just write out the whole plot, develop the characters, do some research, write about 10 pages and... Oooo.... what's that? "Pirates!" By Celia Rees? I haven't read that book in a while. I remember how awesome it was. Maybe I should read it again. Maybe I'll also start watching lots of "Indiana Jones" and "National Treasure". Wait... now I'm in the mood to work on my fantasy adventure book "Robin's Flight". Blast. I'll never get anything done at this rate."


And that's pretty much how my mind works. I suppose the book that I'll give the most attention to next will have to be the one I think has the best shot out there in the literary world right now... So that's what I'll do! I'll make a firm decision on which one I'll work on and I'll stick to it. Unless I watch another adventure movie... then I just may break that promise to myself. Readers. I need your help! Or maybe I'll just get my husband to take every National Treasure-esq movie out of our house.


Until next time!

Shannen

The Wonderful World of Writing

I've noticed, much to my horror, that I've completely abandon my blog for... well... let's not count how long it's been. The point is that I have returned and will now update often on the status of my books! So in a very brief game of catch-up, here's what's going on with my various books.

"It's Not You, It's Me": I've finished the millions of edits, rewrites, and alterations that have gone into this manuscript since I wrote it almost three years ago. I've been sending it out to literary agents and publishing houses alike. Hopefully it'll get picked up by a publishing house soon and will be available for purchase. Keep checking back for news on that!


"Robin's Flight": This book has been a bit trickier for me than INYIM. Because it's needed some major tweaking it's been taking me longer to finish the final revision. Lately I've been focusing all of my efforts on getting "It's Not You, It's Me" up to par for agents and publishing houses and so "Robin's Flight" has taken a bit of a back seat. I'm about half way through a major edit of the book and once that's done it should be pretty close to being ready for the great and terrible day of sending it out to every literary agent and publishing house in New York.


"Pwnd": I've been spending quite a bit of time doing research for this book... I know that sounds like code for "I've been playing video games to get me in the mood to write this book" but I have been doing legitimate, good research... although most of that involves interviewing people who spend most of their time playing video games so maybe there isn't really that big of a difference. I've plotted out the entire book and have written about half of it. After I get "Robin's Flight" ready to send out I'll finish writing this book and start on the ever wonderful process of editing.


"Delayed": Of all of my manuscripts, I'd have to say "Delayed" is my least finished. Though I've written more of this book than I have "Pwnd", one of my characters in "Delayed" just seems to be giving me trouble and I can't seem to keep him under control. As a result I've been working on my other projects and leaving this one for last, hoping that a step back and some fresh perspective will help me to get this character to act the way I want him to. I'll be working on finishing this manuscript as soon as "Pwnd" goes through its major editing process.


I've got two other untitled manuscripts that I'm working on, but as those have only been plotted out and not actually written I'll leave them a mystery for now.


Are you intrigued?


Keep checking back for updates and I'll try not to let years pass without post from now on!


Shannen