SURRENDER BLOG TOUR: Interview and giveaway!

Since my time first dipping my toes into the YA waters, and paddling in the stream of social networking, I’ve made a few online writer friends. I’m proud to be part of the Oasis here, not just for the posts on the blog but the writers behind them. Equally amazing are our readers, and author friends. Elana Johnson is one of those Oasis friends, and we all adore her.

Surrender, her second book released last month, and Elana has been all over the blogosphere with guest posts and giveaways, etc. Since this blog was founded on the principal of providing an Oasis of calm and support for our readers, I wanted to make sure to give that to Elana, too, when I signed us up to help out with her promo.

So, instead of more questions about her books, I decided to try to get to know the author behind those stories better. So, thank you readers for your time and attention, and thank you Elana for gracing the Oasis for YA with your presence!

Oasis: I’m not sure, but I think it might have been an online discussion about bacon, or my #Hated posts on Twitter that brought us together, but I remember having that fangirl moment. “OMGee! Elana Johnson is talking to me?!” Are there authors out there who make your heart pitter-patter, that you feel blessed to know?

Elana: Um, all of them. I especially like it when I’m reading my friends’ books, and I’m like, “I know this person! This is so cool.”

I will say that if Scott Westerfeld would just once—just ONCE—tweet me, my life would be complete. I would even take a re-tweet. Just ONCE, Westerfeld!

Oasis:  I see from you League of Extraordinary writer’s bio that you like dystopians because of the limitless possibilities. What in you do you think draws you to the no-boundaries type of story?

Elana:  My rebellious streak? Ha. But no, really. I’m a black-and-white person. There are things that are right, and things that are wrong. There is good and evil. There is bacon and there are vegetables. (HA.) So I like things that line up and are neat and organized. I follow almost all the rules, and I always have.

But in writing, I don’t want to follow the rules. I don’t want someone telling me I can’t do something. I want to be free to create whatever I want. So my rebellious nature comes out loud and clear in my writing, which is why I love a good dystopian novel.

Oasis:  You’re involved in Write-On Con, are a tireless supporter of writers, an activist I’m proud to know on some level beyond the typed word, and am deeply honored to have blurbed my book. Your blog is a wealth of information on the publishing world, and you’re a founding author of the Query Tracker blog. Your free downloadable ebook From the Query to the Call is available on your website. What prompts you to be so involved in helping and encouraging writers to become authors? What led you to write, and make From the Query to the Call for writers?

Elana:  I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was like, five years old. I think some people are born teachers, and I think I’m one of them. I don’t mean that like, “I’m so much better than you,” but you know what I mean. Some people are born to dance. Some are born to draw. Some are born to teach.

So it’s an innate quality. I can’t imagine not helping and encouraging other writers. I have an “You can do whatever you want with your life,” mentality that extends out of my classroom and into my life. Into writing. You want to be a writer? Great! Do it. You can do it. Anyone can do it.

I wrote and released From the Query to the Call because the querying stage for authors is one of the most debilitating. It’s hard to write a query letter. It’s hard to be rejected. It’s hard to know exactly what to do. And I was living it. (Over and over.) So I thought someone could benefit from my experience.

Oasis:  I know I’m still in awe of all you do to help lift up and promote wordsmiths on their path navigating the publishing world. Someday when I gather my legs under me, I hope to take a few lessons from you. If there were one thing you would want left as your legacy to the publishing world, what would you choose?

Elana:  Oooh, tough one. I’d hope people would remember me for my overall enthusiasm and kindness. I try hard to put both of those out there front and center in all I do online.

Oasis:  If there were only one thing you would want readers to take away from your stories, what would it be?

Elana: This is also a hard one! My stories are all about free choice, and who’s influencing your choices, so I guess I’m hoping people will examine their lives and determine why they choose to do what they do.

Oasis:  Is there anything you would like to share with the Oasis readers about your latest release SURRENDER, or the world it’s set in?

Elana:  SURRENDER really widens the lens on the Possession world. We’re in the capital city, in the underground movement of the Insiders, and hopefully readers will get a fuller understanding of what Vi, Jag, and Zenn are up against. 

About Elana: Elana's work including POSSESSION, REGRET, and SURRENDER is available from Simon & Schuster wherever books are sold. She is the author of From the Query to the Call, an ebook that every writer needs to read before they query, which can be downloaded for free on her website. She runs a personal blog on publishing and is a founding author of the QueryTracker blog. She blogs regularly at The League of Extraordinary Writers, co-organizes WriteOnCon, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

About SURRENDER: Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque….

Purchase your copy here.

AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

Elana has generously offered up a signed hardcover of both POSSESSION and SURRENDER!! Fill out the Rafflecopter thingy below for a chance to win both books, and a denim book tote sewn by me!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Freestyle: Interview with Sherry Soule & GIVEAWAY

Happy Friday!  Today, we're thrilled to welcome Sherry Soule to the Oasis.  Her debut YA novel, Beautifully Broken, will be released on July 1st.  And lucky us: we get to be the first stop on her blog tour!

Before we get to the interview, let's hear about the book, shall we?

Thirteenth daughter. Heritage witch. Demon slayer.

They say every town has its secrets, but that doesn’t even begin to describe Whispering Pines. The townsfolk are a superstitious lot and the mystical disappearance of a local teen has everyone murmuring about a centuries old witch’s curse.

Sixteen-year-old Shiloh Ravenwolf is a heritage witch from the Broussard family, a family both destined and cursed. When she takes a summer job at Ravenhurst Manor, she discovers a ghost with an agenda. That’s where she meets the new town hottie, Trent Donovan, and immediately becomes spellbound by his charms.

Finally, Shiloh's met someone who is supercute and totally into her, but Trent may be the next victim on the supernatural hit list. And Shiloh is the only person with the power to save him. Complicated much?

It sucks to have a destiny, especially since Shiloh would rather spend her summer being a normal girl who worries about clothes and boys, not the supernatural. But she’s never been normal, and the stranger things become the more her own magical senses awaken.

With cryptic messages from a pesky wraith, she will begin to understand the mysterious significance of the strange mark branded on her wrist and decide how much she's willing to sacrifice to protect the other teenagers in town.

Unfortunately, for Shiloh, not all ghosts want help crossing over. Some want vengeance.

1. Wow. I can't decide if Beautifully Broken sounds like a ghost story with a paranormal twist or a paranormal romance with some horror mixed in (awesome, either way). How are you and your publisher pitching the book?

Just as a Young Adult Paranormal, but you’re right, it does mix elements of horror, romance, magick, and ghosts.

2.    This is your debut YA novel and it will be the first in a series. For those of us who fall in love with Shiloh, how many more adventures can we expect out of her?

So far, I have three other drafts in the series written. If the response is positive and the readers like her, then I’ll continue writing books for the series.

3.  We learned on your website that Shiloh is a mutt - part Native American Sioux and part French Wiccan. How did you come up with such a potent heritage for her?

I am a mutt too. My own father is Native American and English and my mother is French. So, Shiloh inherited my own DNA. LOL

4.  Your website also reveals that you have some more novels hidden up your sleeves. Please tell us about those too.

I have a vamp romance, THIRSTY that I’m tweaking and an adult paranormal romance, FOREVER KNIGHT that I’m revising and hope to publish this year too. Everything I write has some supernatural quantities. Except for a New Adult untitled novel, which is more of a romantic suspense about a VERY twisted family. 

5.  The covers for all of your novels are beautiful! Did you have a hand in designing any of them? What was the process like?

I hired the fabulous and creative Parajunkee Designs. She is a dream to work with. She actually created the cover for BB within a day and I love it. She has designed my blog and website too. Oh!—and my wicked awesome book trailer! You can watch it on YouTube:   http://youtu.be/5uqVXKygvUs

6. It’s obvious from your website that you're passionate about your characters and stories. Have you ever had moments where you thought about giving up on them? If so, how did you work through it?

Sure. I pitched to agents and editors for about 2 years and had numerous rejections. But in my heart, I knew the story had an audience. I worked on the novel for over a year before I hired a freelance editor (Jennifer Hudock) to critique it for me. With her help, I was able to polish the manuscript into a marketable product. Then I started submitting to indie pubs, and Beautifully Broken found its home with Firelight Publishing because they gave me full creative control on the novel and a VERY generous percentage of the royalties.

7.  What question do you REALLY hope you're asked on this blog tour? (Now answer it, please.)

Great question. Huh. Okay, do I really think ghosts are real? YES. Although I’ve never seen one, I think the last apartment I lived in was haunted. 

8.  BONUS QUESTION: Shiloh's stuck on a desert oasis. What's the one thing (other than Trent) that she'd have to have with her to keep from going crazy?

Her Book of Shadows, so she can use a spell to create drinking water and find her way home…

Be sure to check out Sherry's website, where you can read an excerpt and learn all about the characters occupying the starring roles.

Last, we leave you with the trailer and a CONTEST.  Sherry will give away an e-book version (Kindle or Nook) to one lucky Oasis Seeker.  All you have to do is:

1) be a follower here;
2) haunt Sherry over on her blog; AND
3) leave a comment HERE with your e-mail address, so we can contact you if you win.

The contest will stay open through July 1 -- release day!!  We will pick one lucky winner at noon EST on 7/1/11.

Freestyle Friday: SIRENZ authors' interview

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing the fabulous Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Bennardo, who are two of the craziest writers I know.  This past weekend I had the pleasure to meet them in person and they blew my mind (in a good way of course.).  

Bio:   Co-authors Charlotte Bennardo and Natalie Zaman (Bridgewater, NJ) are best friends. Both writers, their respective works have appeared in a variety of national magazines and periodicals.

Charlotte Bennardo started writing in elementary school. In high school she wrote and edited the school newspaper, then moved onto writing, copyediting, working on layouts for her college newspaper and yearbook.  After she graduated, she started writing for a small paper in Long Island, New York.  After being side-tracked with a paralegal degree and marriage she moved to New Jersey where she lives with her husband and her kids and is planning on staying put until the kids go to college.  When they do, she hopes to move to a tropical island and drink chocolate martinis.  She can be found on twitter.

Natalie Zaman is the co-author of Sirenz, the first in a YA contemporary fantasy series published by Flux. Her work has appeared in various magazines, newspapers, e-zines and anthologies for adults and children. She's currently plotting disasters for the characters of Sirenz and working on a Victorian steampunk fantasy for teens. Natalie lives in central New Jersey with her family and several fine looking chickens. 

She can be found on twitter and her blog. 

Thank you, Charlotte and Natalie for joining us here on the Oasis. 

1.    While you both write books separately from each other, the two of you co-wrote SIRENZ, can you explain a bit how that process is different from writing by yourself? 

C: I sometimes have to listen to Nat. Co-authoring means compromise, whether it’s the book going in a direction you never would have envisioned (which is not bad, just eye opening), or sometimes giving up a scene you love (there’s a tampon box story here… ) for the sake of the book.  And not inflicting bodily harm when you disagree.

N: There's no such thing as being stuck/depressed/tired/discouraged/etc. when you have a co-author. There's always 24-hour give-n-take support of some kind going on—and if both of us are stumped—well, there's the company, and that makes all of the bad stuff go away faster. As for the “tampon box” (insert sigh—I'm one of those people that hopes there's female behind the desk at the pharmacy when that stuff has to be purchased...) OK—so there was this scene in one of the earlier drafts of the book where Meg gets dressed up by Shar, and of course, doesn't like it—but for the sake of the mission, and knowing that arguing with Shar won't do any good, she plays along. Once they arrive at their glittering destination however, Meg takes matters into her own hands and flounces off to the lady's room where she promptly scoots into a stall and removes Shar's tasteful stockings. Before she dons some torn up fishnets—much more Meg, if you follow me—she disposes of Shar's pricey pantyhose. She has to put them SOMEWHERE, and what is there in a bathroom stall besides the toilet ? That's right, the box for used unmetionables. When Char saw that, she crossed it out and was like, “eeewwww, you can't put that in there, it's gross!” But that was the POINT. Meg hated those horrible stockings and she wanted to put them in the worst place possible, ergo our one writing “rule”: I did the initial draft for each Meg chapter and Char, Shar's chapters, but we edited together. The rule was that if it was your chapter you had the final say of what stayed and what went—unless it didn't go with the plotting, or if the other person's character wasn't being portrayed “in character.” So every time Char came across this particular chapter, she would cross out the t----n box, and I would smile at her and say, “Nope, it stays.” In the end it was cut by the editor—along with the other 14 chapters around it. But it might resurface again, if given the chance >:)...

2.   Why did you decide to co-write a book together? 

C: Because we were giggling, bitching about other authors’ successes and confident in our writing ability. 

N: What started out as a joke--Char sending an email to me from one of my rabbits when I was on vacation and then me writing back from the cat—turned into a picture book that went nowhere. Still, the chemistry felt right—it was too much fun not to try something else.

3.   Where you always friends or did that happen because of SIRENZ?

C:  The friendship came first, and it will be there long after SIRENZ and its sequels gather dust on the shelf groaning with our other works, written together and singly. (I’ll have to buy her books too.)

N: I love it when Char puts things in writing so that I can hold her to it later >:) The friendship definitely came first. We met when I joined Char's critique group. It became evident quickly that despite our obvious differences we had a lot in common—and lived, literally, right around the corner from each other—pretty labyrinthine and mystical, right?  

4.   Is there anything you wish you knew about co-writing before you started that you’d like to share?

C: It would have been nice to know that after working so closely that she could finish my sentences. It’s like having an evil twin. Would have saved me from a lot of talking.

N: Uummmmm... would it be bad if I say nothing (scratches head sheepishly)?

5.   How did the idea for SIRENZ come to you? 

C: We were originally going to do a vampire book, but since EVERYONE was doing a vampire book (except us) we decided on something obscure.  Who does books on Sirens? We do.

N: We both like Greek Mythology, and while we were batting around ideas, Xena Warrior Princess kept coming up in discussion. We wanted what we were doing to be fun and funny and somewhat campy. We also knew pretty much from the get-go that we needed two MC's. We put a bit of ourselves into our characters.

6.   Why sirens and not angels or some other mythology? 

C:  Tried the angel thing/demon thing, but at the time it wasn’t working.  Greek mythology is well known, everyone’s heard of Zeus, Persephone, Hades, and have some general knowledge about the gods. Hades is such a delicious character (and I think much maligned because people generally confuse him with the Devil, total evil). 

N: We did a version of Sirenz with Angels and Demons—actually it was Meg and Shar with guardian angels and Lucifer instead of Hades. This was one of the revision requests that we received, but as Char said, it didn't work—probably because angels seem so... serious? Funnily enough, Brian Farrey (our editor at Flux) brought that up in his editorial notes—that we could go the “Devil” route—but pointed out that keeping the lightheartedness of the book, it wouldn't be as fun as Greek Mythology.

7.    Why did you choose first person as opposed to third?  Especially since it’s told in alternating first person.

C: Because the girls are ‘frenemies’ not friends, not enemies, or friends and enemies, and they are so different, it seemed more natural to get into both their heads and see how they thought, how they felt about their situation, each other, and if they liked the same pair of shoes.

N: We actually tried writing it in third person (yet another revision request) but it was painfully obvious (at least to us) that it didn't have the same exuberance.

8.   Is this a series?  If so, how many more books are planned?

C: Sirenz Back in Fashion comes out in 2012, and Sirenz 3, (no title yet) comes out in 2013. We’re hoping for a fourth, dear editor…

N: I have four moth tattoos(symbolic of books)—think we gotta write that fourth one anyway...

9.   Your journey to get published is different from most authors, can you share a bit of that with us?

C: We know no one in the business, have no Hollywood connections, but we did have 2 people working on the same book toward the same goal; it halves the work, but doubles the results. (We’re hitting up twice as many family members and relatives and others to buy the book.)

N: We were plucked from the slush pile BOTH times—in landing a contract to publish Sirenz, and in getting our agent. We submitted cold. We also got our agent AFTER we landed our first contract. The lesson(s): a) It can be done and b) everyone's journey is different. c) The only absolute formula is to just keep going.

10. What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

 C: We did it. You can too if you do what you need to: learn your craft, take criticism and USE it, attend conferences and get known, network, and be persistent (not a pain in the butt).  There are a lot of success stories, so make yours one of them.

N: Never NEVER give up. NEVER. PS—never.

And our most important question, if you were trapped on a deserted island which author would you most like to be trapped with?

C: If I can have a storyteller rather than an author, I’d have to say Hades. He can tell some whoppers. And Hades is Haute.

N: That, and he can provide pretty much anything else; good weather, designer swimsuits, comfy beach chairs sunscreen, frosty drinks, chocolate covered strawberries... for a price, of course >:)

Interested in reading SIRENZ?  You can order a copy at Amazon , Barnes and Noble, Indiebound or directly from FLUX.

Bickering frenemies Meg and Shar are doing some serious damage at a midnight sample sale when the fashionistas find themselves arguing over a pair of shoes-with fatal consequences. One innocent bystander later, the girls are suddenly at the mercy of Hades, Lord of the Underworld himself. To make them atone for what they've done, Hades forces the teens to become special-assignment Sirens, luring to the 

Underworld an individual whose unholy contract is up.

Finding that delicate balance between their fashion addiction and their new part-time job in the eternal hellfire biz turns out to be harder than Meg and Shar expected, especially when an entire pantheon of Greek deities decides to get involved. Then there's the matter of the fine print in their own contracts...

Author Interview and Giveaway: Rachel Vincent

Author bio and photograph courtesy of her website.

Okay, so...I completely screwed up on Friday.  This interview was supposed to go up then, but my computer crashed and...well, it didn't get posted.  I apologize.  So...in apology I'm giving away a book.  A REALLY, really good book.

Okay, without further ado I'm pleased--THRILLED really--to present Rachel Vincent.  Author of The Soul Screamers Series from Harlequin Teen.

Rachel Vincent is the author of the Shifters series, about a werecat named Faythe Sanders, who is learning to define her own role in her family and fighting to claim a place in her Pride.
Rachel’s young adult urban fantasy series, Soul Screamers, is about a teenage bean sidhe (banshee) trying to balance a normal high school experience with the terrifying, hidden world she’s just discovered. My Soul To Take and My Soul To Save are available now. Look for My Soul To Keep on June 1, 2010.

A resident of San Antonio, Rachel Vincent has a BA in English and an overactive imagination, and consistently finds the latter to be more practical. She shares her office with two black cats (Kaci and Nyx) and her # 1 fan. Rachel is older than she looks—seriously—and younger than she feels, but remains convinced that for every day she spends writing, one more day will be added to her lifespan.

1.    Where did the idea for the Soul Screamers books come from?

From a lot of brainstorming, sifting through folklore for something that seemed to want to be written.

2.   Why bean sidhes?

Because I haven’t read much about them in urban fantasy, and there was little enough explained in the original lore to leave plenty of room for me to establish some pretty cool world building.

3.   When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t know that I ever really had that epiphany. I just kind of always wanted to write. I started when I was five. ;)

4.   Why did you first start writing Young Adult books when you had a successful career writing adult books?

Because writing for teenagers lets me re-experience a time of my life when everything that happened seemed so vital and important. There were so many firsts, and the whole world was in front of me. That lends an excitement and enthusiasm to everything. Also…it’s fun. ;)

5.    Why did you opt not to use a pen name when you started writing Young Adult?

I decided to use the same name because there’s decent crossover potential for adults who read my Shifters series.

6.   Do you find it hard to write both young adult and adult books? 

Writing is hard. Period. It’s more work than I could ever explain, and none of it is mindless. You have to concentrate and be thoroughly focused on every single step of the process. None of that changes depending on genre or target audience.

7.   Can you tell us how long it takes for you to write a book and what your work schedule is while writing?

Unfortunately, that’s not a simple question to answer. I write full time, and I’m always working on a minimum of three books at a time, in various stages of the process.

For rough drafts, I try to write a chapter every day. But that schedule has to have a lot of flexibility, because at this point (releasing 3-4 novels per year, plus short fiction), revisions and edits are always landing on my desk in the middle of a rough draft, and they’re always needed ASAP. So…it’s kind of chaotic. A lot of late nights and very long days.

8.   What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

The most surprising thing I learned was that I could write a book at all. ;)

9.   As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

As a child, I never gave it much thought. But by high school, I wanted to be an English teacher or a journalist.

10.  Which of your books is your favorite?

Whichever I’ve written most recently.

11.  Which of your characters is your favorite?

I have several favorites. Jace and Ethan, from the Shifters series. Sabine and Tod from the Soul Screamers books. But that’s assuming that I love Faythe and Kaylee, my viewpoint characters, the most. Which I do.

12.  Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?

Yes, I read reviews. I can’t help it. When I was starting out, a few years ago, negative reviews just killed me. But since then, I’ve come to realize a couple of things that help me deal with them. Here they are:

A.   No one book can please everyone. It’s not possible. What one person loves, another will hate, and vice versa.

B.   It’s really hard to take a negative review seriously if it’s poorly written, misspells the names of the characters, novel, or author, or references events that never happened in the book. All of which I’ve seen in reviews of my own books.

C.   It’s impossible to take a review seriously when it contains criticism of the author, rather than of his/her book, or when the reviewer is obviously using his/her reviews as a forum to express personal views, pet peeves, or prejudices which may have nothing to do with the text itself.

Beyond that, someone wise once told me that, regarding reviews, you’re never as bad as the negative reviews say you are, and you’re never as good as the glowing reviews say you are. Remember that, and you’ll be fine. ;)

13.  Which question are you most sick of answering in interviews?

“Tell us a little about yourself.” That, and, “Where do you get your ideas.” Oh, and “Tell us a little about your book.”

The reason I’m kinda sick of those questions is that the first and last are answered on my website FAQ page, and ad naseum on my blog. And the second one is impossible to answer. Ideas come from everywhere and from nowhere.

However, I answer those questions over and over because I know how hard it can be to come up with original questions for an author who’s done fifty interviews in the last month. ;)

           Ha!  No kidding!  Not to mention I was a nervous wreck writing these questions!  So I appreciate you taking the time!  :D (And I think I over did the exclamation points : ) )

And our most important question, if you were trapped on a deserted island which author would you most like to be trapped with? 

None. I’d want to be trapped with a survivalist. ;)

And here's the first book in the series--not to mention the book I'm giving away--My Soul To Take.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH KAYLEE CAVANAUGH...

She doesn't see dead people, but...

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next...

 So, now onto the contest details.

All you have to do is comment below and tell me a secret. 

Since Kaylee, the heroine of the book,  is hiding a secret, I think it's only fair we share ours.  Don't ya think?  ;) I'll give extra points for tweeting/blogging about this contest.  And another for tweeting/blogging about our #givebooks campaign (just make sure to use the #givebooks hashtag).  When you comment, let me know how many points you've got, then I'll randomly pick a winner from the top points people.  Make sense?  I hope so.  LOL.