Jun 20, 2013

the research of zoom.

All novels require some sort of research. Whether it's watching Youtube videos of Kate Middleton attending a gala, lugging around tomes of Civil War books or eating dumplings in Chinatown.

Latest project (Motorcycles & Tattoos), has required a bit more in depth research than most of my books. It does involve maps and tomes of a war, but by far the best research I've done so far made me go outside. In the sunlight! (Believe me, when you start spending weeks on weeks in your writer's cave, this becomes a commodity). 

Actually, it was my wonderful husband who surprised me. He's been very excited about Motorcycles & Tattoos, but has rightly insisted that I learn how to ride a motorbike. He told me we were going on a day-long date and brought me to a dirt bike course!!!



The point was to A) learn how to operate a motor-bike. B) learn how to drive said motor-bike over tumultuous terrain. I'm always up for acquiring new life skills, so I was really eager to get on and drive. 



But first I had to put on a helmet that smelled oh-so-distinctly of sweaty boys. (Blurgh). My husband patiently guided me through the kickstart and the shifting of the gears. We practiced weaving around cones in a gravel lot. And then--THEN--we tackled this:


I think it's safe to say that this map was a mixture of happy, thrill and terror. (Combined those trails are hundreds of miles!!) Even the "easy" trails looked daunting, with hills and mud and sharp turns! We tackled it bit by bit. There were a few falls. A few expletives. Many bruises. I started to feel very, very bad for my main character.



Once we tackled the easy trail we moved on to "moderate."

Haha. Moderate.

Moderate saw an exponential rise in the expletive department. (Though, fortunately, this did not correlate with the bruises). And I felt even worse for my poor MC.

Poor MC.

Though on the bright side, we did forage berries from the trail:



So, there you have it. I can now drive a dirt bike. And describe riding a motorcycle on less than pristine roads!

in which i gush about my cover

One of the most exciting things about the publishing process has been getting a cover! Usually, when I start a new project, I'm daydreaming about the cover as well! HarperTeen did such a great job capturing the feel of ALL THAT GLOWS in this beautiful image:


The mist and the elegant script and the stars (THE STARS YOU GUYS! THE STARS!!!! (I love stars)) really give the cover an ethereal feel, which is very much in line with the tone of the novel! It captures the exquisite mystery of the Fae.

And the model? You guys, she's perfect! I was really stunned when I first opened the email. My editor Alyson did SUCH a great job with the casting. She looks exactly the way I imagine Emrys: a gorgeous, fierce and fiery redhead. She still holds the mystique of a Fae too!

Plus it's pretty dang cool to see my name down there. :)

Also, there's an ARC giveaway over at YA Books Central, who so graciously hosted the original cover reveal! Go on over and enter for a special chance to read ALL THAT GLOWS before anyone else. I'll also sign it and personalize it for you too!!

Jun 19, 2013

my cover!!!

So this is one of those super surreal THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING author moments! The cover of ALL THAT GLOWS just went live! Go and check it out HERE.

More thoughts later! I'm running off to tweet up a storm! ;)

Jun 18, 2013

tomorrow, tomorrow

The cover of ALL THAT GLOWS will be released into the wild! For all to see! Keep an eye out, I'll be posting a link to the cover reveal here.

There's also a chance to win a signed and personalized ARC (advanced review copy), so you don't want to miss out!

Jun 13, 2013

a debut author moment

So I was bumping along through the world of internet last night and LO AND BEHOLD what did I find?

ALL THAT GLOWS is available for pre-order on Amazon!!!

One of those sweet and unexpected debut author moments. :)

It's a pretty sparse page right now. With just an ISBN number and a page count of 320. But next Wednesday, the 19th, I'll be having my cover reveal over at Young Adult Book Central! So there will be a nice splash of pretty to go along with the title!

Exciting things are happening, which is probably (definitely) why the blog has stayed sparse for the time being. But not to fear. I'll talk about them as soon as I can!

Jun 5, 2013

getting fit

Operation "get-fit-for-hike-in-the-Andes" has seen some success. (And some setbacks... though really the biggest one is that we really don't want to pay the fee to join a gym. I mean, who needs air conditioning and water fountains anyway?)

First, we decided to take wolf-pup (who's really more a wolf-dog in size now, but still a flailing six-month-old in action) for a hike in the woods. Charleston is rather lacking in the hiking department (being in the Lowcountry and all), so we took a weekend trip to Toccoa, GA. At Jessica Khoury's very sound advice we decided to go on the Panther Creek Trail, which was about 8 miles round trip and quite pretty.


Wolf-pup has had limited interaction with nature (ie. chasing feral cats and squirrels out of our yard and growling at incoming waves on the beach). He LOVED the trail, though he had some vertical doubts at first (jumping over logs and stones and such) and tumbled into a rather deep part of the creek. There were parts of the trail where he bounded ahead (always on a leash of course) and people coming the opposite direction clutched their chests and said, "For a moment I thought it was a wolf!" (because there are so many of those in northern Georgia...)
After nearly tumbling into the stream. 
This foliage looked so much like something from Alice in Wonderland to me.
HELLO, CAMERA
Pretty waterfalls made the hike worth it.
Raiden enjoys a quick swim!

Outside of the weekend hike I've been running with wolf-pup. Three miles a day seems to be our standard at the moment (sticky humidity makes it that much harder).