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

Sykosa Book Tour

Please enjoy this interview with Justin Ordoñez, author of the YA novel (for 18+ readers), Sykosa. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book.

 I'm personally participating in the Blogging for A to Z Challenge, where today represents the letter E and an EXCERPT of Sykosa over on Writers Ally, if you are interested in checking it out.

Hi, Justin! Welcome to our Oasis.

 Who or What is a Sykosa? Sykosa is a sixteen year old junior in high school. She’s the main character of a novel I’ve written by the same name. For a quick rundown, she attends a prestigious preparatory academy, is part of the school’s coolest clique, “the Queens,” and she has started dating the boy she’s secretly been crushing on for a year, Tom. It’s taken a year to start dating him because A) there was this SUPER HUGE thing that happened during her sophomore year, and it delayed things and made being intimate with Tom difficult, and B) she kinda starts seeing stars around him and loses the ability to behave in any type of serious manner.

Sounds intriguing.

 Why is Sykosa different from other novels? It’s different because youth driven literature has become full of metaphors for danger that seem to have split into either science fiction or fantasy. (Before I go any further, I like both genres, so I’m not being a snob!) Sometimes, it feels like instead of dealing with real problems, it’s easier to have kids use magic. And instead of facing real contemporary issues, kids should fight aliens or something. These metaphors are meant to represent real life, but I fear they’ve slightly crossed over into a bit of denial about contemporary Americanism, which is a hard topic to write about since our country is in an identity crisis, and has been for about 11 years. Sykosa is an attempt to counter-act this trend. When I was young, I read books about young people that blew me away like One Fat Summer and The Outsiders. These books felt real, and it felt like I could slip into them at any moment. The writing was gritty, it was unapologetic, it was brilliant. I just don’t see many of those around, and I wanted to write one, and I wanted to write one with a female protagonist.

 Why did you chose cross-gender writing? Toward the end of the my high school education, I was allowed to split my school day from my normal, traditional education and a newer style, self-directed educational program. I took an English class where my English teacher, someone who I’m still friends with to this day, gave me only one assignment for an entire semester, and it was, “Perform a deep self-evaluation of yourself and your writing and come up with one goal for what you’re going to improve on.” At the time, I was seriously into writing, and had taken to writing a few books per year, but most of them were in the first person, and they were just me talking about myself. The issue was that I had been in a serious car accident the year prior and I had injured a friend in it. (He fully recovered, but never forgave me). I had tried to write a first person story about myself many times since the accident, but I was constantly failing because I was dealing with some lingering self-loathing and guilt.

As a way to get away from it, I decided I wanted to work on a story I had been thinking about for a while, but that I never started writing for one super scary reason. The main character was a teenage girl. Odd as it might sound, I was intimidated by the fact that the main character was a woman. So I faced my fear and said my goal would be to write women better, and I proceeded to work with several teachers and several female students to help me craft a female character that was realistic, yet met my vision of her as well. This challenge stuck with me into my adult life, and it eventually found its ultimate form in Sykosa.

Wow. That's intense. 

How will I know I’m a fan of Sykosa? I’m glad you asked! Sykosa.com has tons of stuff to help you determine if this book is right for you. Below you’ll see some humorous diagrams I’ve made, but at the website you can read an excerpt of the book, watch the book trailer, read character profiles and really get a solid understanding of Sykosa’s world.

What kind of stuff influenced you to write Sykosa? The primary motivators for Sykosa were Buffy The Vampire Slayer and It by Stephen King. It so happened, in 2001, I moved in with a woman I was dating. She was a fan of Buffy, so I had to watch it and became a fan myself. While most people were probably drawn to the vampire killing, it was the last thing I was interested in. I thought Whedon created an interesting cast of personalities and analyzing them was something I enjoyed. At the time, I was reading It. What I liked about It was the small town, insular feel to the novel, and how the inhabitants of this town were able to show a “front” of values, but were secretly hiding and allowing evil to proliferate all around them. From these two things came Sykosa, a girl who does not have any super powers, nor does she kill any vampires, but she did have a traumatic event happen in her life, and she’s struggling to deal with it, and its made no easier by the fact that her small, insular parochial school has decided to ignore the incident.

 Do you have any tips for people who are struggling with writing or want to take it up? I do. First off, keep struggling. It’s a worthwhile struggle. There’s a lot of be gained from writing. And for those who want to take it up and for those who are already writing, I can’t stress this enough: Draft. And by the I mean, write in drafts, don’t sit in a chair and challenge yourself to make it perfect now, write it perfect now, but instead write in drafts. If something only gets 5% better, that’s fine, cause it’s just one draft of what will be many, and eventually, that 5%, that 3%, that 7%—it adds up and you end up with a really good story. But, if you try to knock it out of the park every time you step up to the plate, you’ll swing the bat a whole lot, and you’ll be tired and exhausted when you’re done, but you won’t have a ton to show for it. That’s when most people quit. They think, “I can’t do this” or, “I don’t have the talent.” They don’t understand they’re doing it wrong, that’s all. Killers, Kings of Leon, Oasis or Lauryn Hill.  

Thank you for sharing your unique experiences with us as well as your book! Best of luck from the Oasis.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Sykosa eBook edition is just 99 cents this week. What’s more, by purchasing this fantastic book at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include $550 in Amazon gift cards, a Kindle Fire, and 5 autographed copies of the book. All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win! To win the prizes:

1. Purchase your copy of Sykosa for just 99 cents
2. Fill-out the simple form on Novel Publicity
3. Visit today’s featured social media event
4. BONUS: Leave a comment on this post*

Leave a comment, win $100: One random tour commenter will win a $100 Amazon gift card. Just leave a comment on this post, and you'll be entered to win. For a full list of participating blogs, check out the official tour page. You can enter on just my blog or on all of them. Get out there and network! About the book: YA fiction for the 18+ crowd. Sykosa is a sixteen-year-old girl trying to reclaim her identity after an act of violence shatters her life and the lives of her friends. Set at her best friend’s cottage, for what will be a weekend of unsupervised badness, Sykosa will have to finally confront the major players and issues from this event, as well as decide if she wants to lose her virginity to Tom, her first boyfriend, and the boy who saved her from danger. Get it on Amazon. About the author: Sykosa is Justin Ordoñez's life's work. He hopes to one day settle down with a nerdy, somewhat introverted woman and own 1 to 4 dogs. Visit Justin on his website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.