Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Category: Books (Page 72 of 81)

The Chemistry of Fate by Meradeth Houston Cover Reveal

Hot off the presses, here is the cover of THE CHEMISTRY OF FATE by fellow Muse author and past guest poster Meradeth Houston.

The Chemistry of Fate 200x300

“They are everywhere, can be anyone, and are always the last person you’d expect.” When Tom stumbles across his grandfather’s journal, he’s convinced the old man was crazier than he thought. The book contains references to beings called the Sary, immortals who are assigned to save humans on the verge of suicide. They certainly aren’t allowed to fall in love with mortals. Which the journal claims Tom’s grandfather did, resulting in his expulsion from the Sary. As strange as the journal seems, Tom can’t get the stories out of his head; especially when he finds the photo of his grandfather’s wings.

Tom’s only distraction is Ari, the girl he studies with for their chemistry class.

Ari has one goal when she arrives in town: see how much Tom knows about the Sary and neutralize the situation. This isn’t a normal job, but protecting the secrecy of the Sary is vital. If Tom is a threat to exposing the Sary to the public, fate has a way of taking care of the situation, usually ending with the mortal’s death. While Ari spends time with Tom, he becomes more than just an assignment, but how far can a relationship go when she can’t tell him who she really is? When she finds out just how much Tom actually knows about the Sary, Ari is forced to choose between her wings, and her heart.

THE CHEMISTRY OF FATE is a companion to COLORS LIKE MEMORIES and is set before the latter takes place.

www.MeradethHouston.com

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http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17452243-the-chemistry-of-fate

Funny Talk with Author Anna Staniszewski

Congrats are in order for guest poster Anna Staniszewski as her middle grade adventure My Epic Fairy Tale Fail releases today! Happy book b-day and welcome to the Observation Desk.

My_Epic_Fairy_Tale_Fail_Final_Cover_RGBBreaking Down Funny Dialogue

If you think about where we find humor in real life, you’ll notice that a lot of it comes through in conversation. When we recap real-life events to friends, for example, we often highlight not only what people did, but what they said, what we said, and what we would have said (if we weren’t such wimps).

It makes sense that, given how much time we spend talking to, about, and at each other, we’d see a reflection of that in novels. So how does knowing this help with writing funny dialogue?

Let’s break it down based on what I said above.

What people say:

You can help your characters’ personalities shine through by showing us how they react verbally to the situations you put them in. The more outrageous their reactions, the more potential for humor. If you find a character seems to be hanging back in a scene, try to get them to chime in more. The result might surprise you.

What people don’t say:MyVeryUnFairyTaleLife_CVR.indd

On the other hand, we can learn quite a bit about characters by what they don’t say. If Grandpa keeps insisting that he’s a happy duck—while he’s wringing a duck’s neck—we know there’s more going on than he’s admitting. And if the characters are saying one thing and doing the exact opposite, that can be downright hilarious.

What people wish they could say:

You know when you’re too polite or too chicken to speak your mind? Well, there’s good news. Characters aren’t in control of their editing mechanisms; you are. You can make your characters say anything you want! Maybe a normal person would be too afraid to speak up in a particular scenario, but your characters shouldn’t be too normal. They should be interesting, and interesting people say and do things the rest of us might not.

So when it comes to funny dialogue, by all means, use real life examples to help you make dialogue feel authentic. But remember that you’re not writing about real life; you’re writing about the appearance of real life, which means that the rules of the real world don’t necessarily apply.

My Epic Fairy Tale Fail and the first book in the series, My Very Unfairy Tale Life, are available in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and other book retailers.

Anna_StaniszewskiAbout the Author:

Born in Poland and raised in the United States, Anna Staniszewski grew up loving stories in both Polish and English. She was named the 2006-2007 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the 2009 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. Currently, Anna lives outside of Boston, Mass. with her husband and their adopted black Labrador, Emma. When she’s not writing, Anna spends her time teaching, reading, and challenging unicorns to games of hopscotch. You can visit her at www.annastan.com.

Welcome RATGIRL: Song of the Viper by Gayle C. Krause

Today I’d like you to welcome Gayle C. Krause as she talks about the gorgeous-in-a-gritty-way cover of her debut YA novel RATGIRL: Song of the Viper.

RatGirlFinalMedYOU CAN JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

Katie, thank for having me as a guest blogger on the Observation Desk.  I’m thrilled to see my debut YA novel in print and e-book.  You’ve asked me to talk about the awesome cover art Fiona Jayde created for RATGIRL: Song of the Viper. I don’t know how she captured the essence of the story without reading the whole novel, but she did an excellent job of catching the dark, gritty atmosphere found within the pages of the book.

Let me start with Jax Stone. She’s prominent on the cover, as she should be. Fiona has captured confidence in her amber eyes; the confidence to save her best friend from a fire, to outsmart the diabolical mayor, and to lure the city rats to their death in order to save her little brother, even if it means endangering her own life.

No one messes with Jax Stone once she has her mind set on something. Intelligent, strong-willed and gifted with a hypnotic singing voice, she’s so busy taking care of her makeshift orphan family, it’s not until she meets Colt Conrad, that she discovers she can love someone other than her little brother.

Colt Conrad stands behind her, on the cover and in the story. Global warming has devastated the Earth, and the golden sun Colt wears around his neck is one of the four keys the ECOS, an environmental group, set up generations before to ensure the Earth’s survival. Together, Jax and Colt must find the other three.

The homeless fight to survive, in a dying city, where rats outnumber the citizens, and the deadly daytime sun forces them to live underground. Night is the only time they dare venture to the surface to seek food, or to barter their services. The darkness of the cover portrays the dangerous night and the characters’ treacherous lives perfectly.

The gray and white rat that dots the i in RATGIRL represents the rats in Metro City.

The buildings in the background, against the full moon, the main source of light for the homeless, are the tyrannical mayor’s headquarters. He directs the city’s entire power source to himself, and his corporation. He has no regard for human life, and Jax must outwit him to save her brother.

And lastly, the font Fiona chose is vaguely reminiscent of rattails. 🙂

photoHope our discussion of the stimulating cover for RATGIRL: Song of the Viper inspires your audience to read Jax’s story. It’s available through Noble Romance PublishingAmazon, and other retail outlets as an e-book and will be out in paperback soon.

Thank you again.

Gayle C. Krause

http://www.gayleckrause.com/HOME.html

Muse Chat and Elixir Bound Teaser News

Elixer_Bound_200x300Just a quick informative post today. I’ll be participating in a live chat with other Muse authors over at Coffee Time Romance on Thursday night at 9:00 (EST). I hear there will be giveaways and other fun stuff! This will be my first live chat as an author, so it should be interesting. Love for you all to stop by.

Also, I have some news about Elixir Bound, but I’m not sharing yet. So now that you are all annoyed with my ambiguity, what’s your favorite way to break good news? Stayed tuned for a guest post on Wednesday by author Gayle Krause about her new novel RATGIRL: Song of the Viper.

First Kisses (or Kissees)

I’m generally not an outwardly sentimental person, but I recently came across a blog post about first loves and it reminded me of my first kiss. And well, it seemed an appropriate topic for today.

I was in second grade and had a crush on a boy. I was pretty sure he liked me. Ever the bold girl, I wrote him a note (back when you still passed notes in class, not text messages). The note read, “Will you kissee me?” And there was a yes option and no option, each with a box for him to check. (I think I still have that note stashed away in a shoebox somewhere.)

He checked yes! The kiss happened during recess, I think in the middle of a game of tag. A brief touching of lips, only a peck really, that lasted maybe a few seconds. But everyone saw it. The first of *ahem* many memorable kisses I’ve experienced. I wonder who else remembers that kiss…

Another first kiss, quite a bit more steamy than my second-grade peck, is one I wrote between Katora and Hirsten in Elixir Bound. I just happen to have an excerpt of it on an old post over at the Muse blog. What are some of your memorable kissees?

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