THANK GOD IT'S MONDAY Blog Tour

Hey, bookies! I'm participating in the campaign to promote Jessica Brody's new contemporary YA novel A Week of Mondays -- which I absolutely adored, so watch for my review soon! -- and as a special introduction to the campaign, I've got a guest post from Jessica herself. Also, in the coming weeks, look for more stops along this tour from bloggers like myself, sharing the Mondays we'd MOST and LEAST want to re-live for seven straight days. It promises to be loads of fun! And possibly maybe slightly humiliating. ;0)


Title: A Week of Mondays
Author: Jessica Brody
Series: stand-alone
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication Date: August 2, 2016
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Ellie is having the worst Monday of her life. She messes up her school speech for the class vice presidency position, she manages to take the world's worst school picture, she bombs softball tryouts, and the icing on top of this awful cake: her perfect boyfriend who is in a high school rock band dumps her. At the end of the day, Ellie wishes she could redo everything. When she wakes up the next morning, she discovers that it's Monday again! She has six more chances to redo the day in the hopes of having everything go exactly the way she wants. But in the process, she just may find out that what she really wants and what she actually needs are two very different things.

ELLISON “ELLIE” SPARKS: An idealistic, ambitious sixteen-year-old junior with a lot on her plate.

Those were the first words I ever wrote about Ellie Sparks. They were written in a synopsis for my publisher when I was first trying to sell them on the idea for a book called A WEEK OF MONDAYS.

Of course, you can’t write an entire book about a one-sentence character. Just like you can’t live your entire life as a one-sentence person. But every character has to begin somewhere. And this is where Ellie began for me.

As an idealistic, ambitious sixteen-year-old junior with a lot on her plate.

In my mind, this is who she had to be. I thought, if you’re going to write about a girl who relives the same horrible Monday over and over again, trying to “get it right,” these are the adjectives that must describe her. She has to be idealistic enough to think she can fix everything in her life. Yet, she also has to be ambitious enough to try it. And how else are you going to fill seven Mondays with interesting storylines if the main character doesn’t have a lot on her plate.

So there was Ellie. And there was me, ready to write her, thinking I understood her. Thinking I knew everything I needed to know about her.

This is the writing process for me. I start with an idea of who someone is. I draw a box around them, like an identity fence. I stuff them inside and I lock the gate. I tell them, “This is who you are. Don’t try to change that. Don’t try to be or do anything else. I don’t have time for detours. I’m on a deadline.”

I never learn.

A WEEK OF MONDAYS is my tenth published novel and I’m still trying to lock characters inside fences. Eventually, though, they always break free. They always get bigger than their boxes. And even though I try to adjust, I keep drawing bigger and bigger boxes around them, trying to contain them to the world I built, the world I envisioned, they never quite want to stay inside. Just like people. You can try to identify them, label them, build a fence around them that makes you feel safe, and yet they’ll always surprise you. Because no character—no human being—fits inside a box.

One of my favorite reviews of A WEEK OF MONDAYS says, “Watching Ellie relive her horrible day is something like peeling an onion. Each Monday, a piece of her people-pleaser facade melts away, revealing more of her real self.”

I smiled when I read that because it wasn’t until then that I realized exactly what had happened in the writing of this book. I had done it again. I had tried to put yet another character in a box, and she had slowly, word by word, page by page, Monday by Monday broken free.

This book is ultimately a story of self-discovery.

Seven days. Seven chances to completely reinvent yourself. Wear different clothes, make different choices, explore different paths, say different things, be different people.

Because sometimes it takes a whole week of Mondays to figure out who you really are. And when you finally do, you may find yourself thinking 'Thank God It's Monday' after all.

For the next five Mondays, blogger friends across the internet will be sharing their best and worst Monday. Follow along with us online with #TGIM and #AWeekofMondays, because whether a Monday is memorable for good reasons or memorable for bad reasons, we stand to learn a lot about ourselves.

About the author:

Jessica Brody is the author of several popular books for teens, including the Unremembered trilogy, 52 Reasons to Hate My Father, and The Karma Club, as well as two adult novels. She splits her time between California and Colorado.

Find Jessica:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr

Happy reading!

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Labels: a week of mondays, blog tour, contemporary, favorites, funfunfun, guest post, jessica brody, macmillan

{Blog Tour & Giveaway} Ellie Marney's Playlist for #EveryWord

Hey, guys! Thanks for checking out my stop on the Every Word Blog Tour to celebrate the US release! You might be living under a rock if you haven't heard anything about this series yet, but that's okay. You're definitely going to want to read it after you check out the author's playlist below! And you'll probably get the urge to dance, too. :)

EVERY WORD

By Ellie Marney

In stores now!!!

Order Every Word: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Fishpond | The Book Depository
Here's the blurb:

James Mycroft has just left for London to investigate a car accident similar to the one that killed his parents seven years ago...without saying goodbye to Rachel Watts, his 'partner in crime'.

Rachel is furious and worried about his strange behaviour - not that Mycroft's ever exactly normal, but London is the scene of so many of his nightmares. So Rachel jumps on a plane to follow him...and lands straight in a whole storm of trouble.

The theft of a copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, the possible murder of a rare books conservator, and the deaths of Mycroft's parents...Can Watts help Mycroft make sense of the three events - or will she lose him forever?

Sparks fly when Watts and Mycroft reunite in this second sophisticated thriller about the teen sleuthing duo.

EVERY WORD SONGLIST

Hi there, and welcome to the Every Word blog tour!

Jen has asked me to put together a little songlist for the book to show you all – that proved to be the easy part, cos I always have a playlist for every book I write.

What is a bit strange, I guess, is that I actually hate listening to music while I write.  I find it too hard to compose words in my head when there’s music-words playing in the background – actually, even instrumental music puts me off!

But like I said, each book always seems to gather its own little playlist that I usually hammer while I’m in the car, driving to wherever (you do a lot of driving when you live in the country), or while I’m doing dishes or something…I do find music inspiring, and great for setting the mood.

So here are the songs for Every Word.  Hope you find some of them enticing enough to add to your own playlist!

Prytania – Mute Math: This is the song I always imagined for the opening credits, if Every Word was ever made into a movie (in my wildest flights of fantasy this happens, lol).  I think it had something to do with the fact that when I first listened to the song, I misheard the lyric – I thought they were singing ‘Britannia’ (instead of ‘Prytania’), which made me think of England, and…yeah, okay, kinda stupid, but it still stuck with me!  Also something about the upbeat action of the music reminded me of Rachel and Mycroft’s journey for this book.

Rocksteady – The Bloody Beetroots: For the roller derby scene, obviously.  It’s actually mentioned by name on page 4.  The Bloody Beetroots are an Italian electro-house outfit.

Gold on the Ceiling – The Black Keys: Mycroft has a little obsession with The Black Keys, you might have noticed – he always has a Black Keys song on the hop, and for this book, he loved this song.

Lay Your Love on Me – Racey: This is what plays on Mycroft’s ringtone on page 18, with the ‘tacky Casio-organ intro’ – it interrupts a rather (ahem) heated moment between Rachel and Mycroft.  I changed my mind a few times about this song, because I thought it was too daggy.  But then I figured, Mycroft is kind of daggy, in an off-beat way.  That’s one of the things I like best about him!  What finally convinced me to include it were the lyrics: ‘Every word you say/ every move you make now…’

Wide Load – Ainslie Wills:  This is a beautiful, mournful song of regret by a singer-songwriter from Ballarat, which is a regional town about an hour away from where I live.  Ainslie Wills’s voice is gorgeous, and the clip for this is unusual too.  I think it sets the mood perfectly for the scene where Rachel sees Mycroft through the window of his room, late at night, on page 34.

London Calling – The Clash: Yeeess – the ultimate song for arriving in London.  What else could you use?  Plus, Mycroft mentions the Clash specifically during one of those hair-raising drives with Professor Walsh, on their way to the Westminster Mortuary on page 120.

Royals – Lorde: This song was massive while I was in London researching the book – omg, it was played everywhere.  On the day I went to visit the Sherlock Holmes museum I caught the train to Marylebone, and there was actually a busker playing it on a saxophone in the tunnel, while I was on the escalator going up…so I wrote it into the scene where Alicia and Rachel visit the Sherlock Holmes museum, on page 161.

Fine Shrine – Purity Ring : This song is for Rachel, swimming back to consciousness after a (no spoilers!) traumatic event on page 258.  It’s a very odd song: sweet but disturbing (listen to the lyrics and you’ll know why).  It sounds like a bubblegum pop song that’s been warped and turned inside out so you can see the entrails – which is a lot like I imagined Rachel would feel at that point.

Burning Down the House – Talking Heads: Omg, this song would not leave me alone during the writing of Every Word.  I love Talking Heads, and I actually wanted to use a quote from this song (‘Strange but not a stranger’) in the front of the book, but later realised that a Shakespeare quote would fit better.  But it’s still a song I associate with the book – especially after what happens on page 269…

Stay – Rihanna: This song is very melancholy and yearning – I thought of it immediately for the scene out in Rachel’s front yard, before the final scene of the book, when she and Mycroft are talking.  It’s mentioned by name on page 327.

Straight Lines – Silverchair : Another song that ear-wormed me!  Silverchair are another indie Aussie band, fronted by this incredibly talented (and gorgeous) guy called Daniel Johns.

(see?  Incredibly talented and gorgeous)

Silverchair are actually a part of a lot of people’s growing up in Australia, I think, because they began releasing music when the guys in the group were all about fifteen or sixteen, so they’ve been going a long time, and they still create amazing music now.  This song is about finding a balance in your life, and I think it would make a great ‘closing credits’ song for the (imaginary) Every Word movie.

xxEllie

About the author:

Ellie Marney was born in Brisbane, and has lived in Indonesia, Singapore and India. Now she writes, teaches, talks about kid’s literature at libraries and schools, and gardens when she can, while living in a country idyll (actually a very messy wooden house on ten acres with a dog and lots of chickens) near Castlemaine, in north-central Victoria. Her partner and four sons still love her, even though she often forgets things and lets the housework go.

Ellie’s short stories for adults have won awards and been published in various anthologies. Every Breath is her first novel for young adults.

Find Ellie:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Pinterest

A giveaway, you say!?! Yep, one lucky winner from the US/Canada will receive their very own copy of Every Word!

Rules:

• This giveaway is US/CAN only.
• One entry per household. 
• Entries will be verified. Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant.
• Please note that if you use your Twitter account solely for giveaway entries and you enter using the Tweet about the Giveaway entry, that entry will be disqualified. Please remember that this entry method is to spread the word about the cover reveal and giveaway, not simply increase your chances of winning.
• Winner will be notified via email. Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected. Please check your SPAM folder!!! 
• We are not responsible for lost packages. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thank you so much, Ellie, for stopping by and sharing your playlist with us! I love so many of the songs you featured!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Every Word Blog Tour:

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015
Samantha at Bellsie Books
Mandy C. at Forever Young Adult
Eri at Airy Reads
Heather at Books and Quilts
Nicole at Reading Lark

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015
Shelly at Books and Writing
Michelle at Michelle & Leslie’s Book Picks
Jen at The Starry-Eyed Revue (you are here!)
Amanda at Gun in Act One

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2015
Gillian at Writer of Wrongs
Shilpa at sukasareads.com
Sabrina at Hiver et Café
Adrienne at Books and Bassets

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015
Michelle at FAB BOOK REVIEWS
Marie at Ramblings of a Daydreamer
Liz at Midnight Bloom Reads
Amy at Tripping Over Books
Rachel at The Readers Den

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015
Lauren at Love is not a triangle
Kristen at My Friends Are Fiction
Morgan at Gone with the Words
Leanne at Author Leanne Dyck

You guys absolutely have to check out this series if you haven't already. It's insanely addicting, especially for a Sherlock fan like myself. Plus, it helps pass the time while we wait for the new Sherlock special! :) #Wattscroft forever!!!

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Labels: aussie, blog tour, ellie marney, every, favorites, guest post, murder mystery, random house, sherlock holmes

{Blog Tour & Giveaway} ILLUMINAE: How This Incredible Book Came to Be

What that banner says is true: you have really never read a book like this before. It's thrilling. It's ingenious. But best of all, it's told through so much mixed media, it will have your head spinning. In a very pleasant sort of way, of course. :)

As soon as I finished reading Illuminae, I immediately wanted to start reading it again. It's just fabulously twisty that you don't want it to end. So, when I was asked to participate in the blog tour for this incredible book, I immediately replied in the affirmative. And I may or may not have begged for a guest post.

Which is how I ended up getting the authors to dish on how Illuminae came to be. Read more on that below and you can check out my review here and a piece I wrote on the unusual method used to incorporate profanity in the book here. Oh, and you can also enter to win your own copy of the book, too, so be sure to read all the way to the end!

About the book:

Title: Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Series: The Illuminae Files, book #1
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 20, 2015
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Inspiration: How Illuminae Was Made

There are so many things to love about co-authoring. You’ve always got someone to help you brainstorm your way out of a plot hole. You’ve got someone to share the hard parts, celebrate the good parts, and perhaps most importantly, you’ve got someone to ask ‘what if…?’

‘What if’ is how Illuminae happened.

It’s a strange book, made up of emails, IMs, schematics, military reports, surveillance materials, comic strips, posters and the ramblings of a mad artificial intelligence. Every single page is designed, and as the story unfolds, the narrative and the format weave together so that each affects the other, and each adds new dimensions.

But it didn’t start out that way. It started with a ridiculous dream Amie had—we were already friends, and she dreamed we were writing a book together, and it was in email format. (The anxiety was that I’d forgotten the plot. Hi, my name’s Amie and I’m a writer. I have an active imagination.) Once we stopped laughing, we started thinking. Why would it be in email, we said? Well, perhaps the main characters can’t be in the same place. Why not? They’re on spaceships. Why can’t they just fly to the other one’s spaceship? What about some kind of plague, or quarantine? Okay, how else could that get worse? What if they were being chased? What if their computer was faulty? Hey, what if their computer was one of the narrators?

This sort of waterfall of ideas will be familiar to most writers—you start with a seed, and one thing leads to another, to another, to another. Another thing that’s familiar to writers is the concept of the “first idea”. When it comes to many things in life, your first instinct is often the right one. If you don’t think you should trust someone, you probably shouldn’t. If you don’t feel safe, you probably aren’t. But when it comes to writing, that’s not always so.

Your first idea is definitely something, but if you want to really find the depth in your story, you need to push past it to the next idea, then the next, then the next. You do this as many times as you can, until you start to hit unexpected territory. Until you start to hit inspiration, and move away from the familiar. The joy of having a co-author around, is that you don’t have to do it on your own. Instead of straining your brain solo to work out ‘what if’, you’ve got someone there to throw ideas at you that you never would have come up with alone.

‘If A,’ you think to yourself, ‘then what if B? Or wait, C! Oh wow, I could go with D! No, even further, what if E happened?!’

Then your co-author shows up and says ‘Have you considered 14? Or a refrigerator?’ What they do, we mean, is come up with ideas outside your frame of reference. They bring their own set of skills and strengths to what you’re doing, taking you out of your comfort zone, and like the little piece of grit that gets inside an oyster and makes a pearl, their unexpected questions make your ideas all the stronger.

Having a co-author is awesome because there’s someone who knows the story as intimately as you, and because you can eat all the chocolate (Amie) because they don’t have a sweet tooth (Jay), or because they’ll do all the mathematical stuff (Amie again) because you once got 17% on a trigonometry test (Jay HEY BACK OFF HE STUDIED HARD OKAY IT’S JUST NOT HIS STRONG SUIT.)

But more than anything, having a co-author is awesome because of the clever, funny weird and wonderful ‘what if’ questions they ask—and the places they take you that you’d never go on your own. And that’s exactly how Illuminae came to be.

About the Authors:

Amie Kaufman is the New York Times bestselling co-author of the Starbound series. Jay Kristoff is the award-winning author of the Lotus War series. Collectively, they are 12’5” tall and live in Melbourne, Australia, with two long-suffering spouses, two rescue dogs, and a plentiful supply of caffeine. They met, thanks to international taxation law, and stuck together due to a shared love of blowing things up and breaking hearts.

Find Amie:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Tumblr

Find Jay:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram

One winner will receive a finished copy of Illuminae. US only. Prizes provided by Penguin/Random House.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure to check out the rest of the tour for more awesome content and chances to win! Thanks for stopping by & happy reading!

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Labels: amie kaufman, beautiful covers, blog tour, censorship, cursing and swearing, favorite authors, favorites, giveaways, guest post, jay kristoff, penguin, random house, sci-fi, the illuminae files

{Blog Tour} Nightfall by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski - Top Ten & Giveaway

Today on the blog, I'm hosting a stop on the Nightfall Blog Tour, brought to you by Penguin Teen. For today's stop, the authors have each contributed a list of their top ten favorite things they can't live without. First, though, here's a little more about the book, which releases on Tuesday:


Title: Nightfall
Author: Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski
Series: n/a
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 22, 2015
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

The dark will bring your worst nightmares to light, in this gripping and eerie survival story, perfect for fans of James Dashner and Neil Gaiman.

On Marin’s island, sunrise doesn’t come every twenty-four hours—it comes every twenty-eight years. Now the sun is just a sliver of light on the horizon. The weather is turning cold and the shadows are growing long.

Because sunset triggers the tide to roll out hundreds of miles, the islanders are frantically preparing to sail south, where they will wait out the long Night.

Marin and her twin brother, Kana, help their anxious parents ready the house for departure. Locks must be taken off doors. Furniture must be arranged. Tables must be set. The rituals are puzzling—bizarre, even—but none of the adults in town will discuss why it has to be done this way.

Just as the ships are about to sail, a teenage boy goes missing—the twins’ friend Line. Marin and Kana are the only ones who know the truth about where Line’s gone, and the only way to rescue him is by doing it themselves. But Night is falling. Their island is changing.

And it may already be too late.

Top Ten Favorites
by Peter Kujawinski & Jake Halpern

Peter Kujawinski’s Top 10 – but in no particular order!

1. Snow – I’ve gotta have a little cold in my year. I’m notorious in my family for suggesting cold weather vacations during the winter, when everyone wants to go south!
2. Coffee – I guess this is relatively obvious, but it’s a crutch, an excuse, a well of creativity, and the sometimes the only thing that keeps me going with a full working day and three kids under the age of 5! Happily consuming since the age of 17.
3. My NYTimes.com subscription – When I was in high school, I’d go home and first thing I’d do is read the newspaper. I’m an omnivorous news junkie – local, international, style, politics, sports, everything and anything – I’ll probably want to read about it.
4. Storytime with my children – it’s the distillation of everything I love most about having children. They’re inquisitive, totally mesmerized, even if it’s an alphabet book with a very meager plot. It’s also a nice reminder that even the children of our ultra-wired generation cannot escape the lure of a good book.
5. Chicago Cubs – my hometown team. During all these years without a World Series, I can’t shake this tightly wound allegiance. It’s worse now, of course, given that they’re in playoff contention. Hope springs eternal – especially with my Cubbies.
6. Camping/canoeing/hiking – Sure, these are all slightly different, but it’s all part of the same idea. Being outside and experiencing nature in all its glory. From when I was a kid to now, going outside frequently is the surest way to keep myself on track. There is no substitute for experiencing the world they way our ancestors did many generations ago.
7. Biking – This is a more recent “can’t live without.” I completed my first triathlon about a year ago, and in preparation for that, I bought my first ever road bike. Compared to knockabout bike from years past, it was like going from crawling to sprinting. Euphoria is a word I use a lot when it comes to bike riding.
8. Writing – It’s not only what I do for a living – it helps me live. A day without writing is much, much worse than a day without a shower. If I’m writing, the rest of my life always seems to snap into place. I’m a better husband, better father, and nicer to strangers!
9. Jake Halpern – my creative partner’s infectious energy and love of life have inspired me over so many years. A day without talking to him – either about a plot point in Nightfall or what we did the night before – is a sad day indeed.
10. Ice Cream – Ask my mom about this. She claims ice cream has had profound, happiness-inducing effects on me over my entire life. I don’t know about that, but it’s true that for a 4th grade project, I did a mash-up of ice cream and cartography to produce a map of Ice Cream Land:

Jake Halpern's Top 10

1. Lifting weights. I go to this amazing Crossfit gym, which is basically in an old warehouse. I go here three times a week, sweat, grunt, gasp for air, and high-five a gang of other men and women who have become my pals.
2. Coffee. I have to down my coffee each morning. My favorite place is Manjares in New Haven.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Running. I run this rock twice a week and and love it.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Skiing at Butter Nut resort in Western Mass with my kids
   
   
   
   
   
5. New Haven pizza at “Bar.”
   
   
   
   
   
6. Exploring the old historical buildings in my hometown of Buffalo
   
   
   
   
   
7. Watching Game of Thrones
   
   
   
   
   
8. Playing Legos with my kids
   
   
   
   
   
9. My buddy and coauthor Peter, AKA KUJO. This is him as a kid:
   
   
   
   
   
10. Listening to the audio version of books by Nicholas Guy Smith, who reads Nightfall 
    
    
    

I love seeing what's most important to authors, what they can't live without. And I love that the authors each made each other's list, as did coffee! :D

About the authors:

Jake Halpern is an author, journalist, and radio producer. His first book, Braving Home (2003), was a main selection for the Book of the Month Club by Bill Bryson and was one of Library Journal's “Best Books of the Year.” His next book, Fame Junkies (2007), was the basis for an original series on NPR's All Things Considered and portions of the book were published in both the New Yorker and in Entertainment Weekly. Jake’s most recent nonfiction book, Bad Paper (FSG), was excerpted as the New York Times Magazine and it was chosen as an Amazon "Book of the Year." Jake’s debut work of fiction, a young adult trilogy, Dormia, has been hailed by the American Library Association's Booklist as a worthy heir to the Harry Potter series. In September of 2014, Jake signed a two book deal with Putnam / Penguin for two more young adult novels. As a journalist, Jake has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, GQ, Sports Illustrated, The New Republic, Slate, Smithsonian, Entertainment Weekly, Outside, New York Magazine, and other publications. In the realm of radio, Jake is a contributor to NPR's All Things Considered and This American Life. Jake's hour-long radio story, "Switched at Birth," is on This American Life's "short list" as one of its top eight shows of all time. One of Jake's stories is the basis for a new movie being produced by 20th Century Fox and Heyday Films (which made the Harry Potter movies). Last, but not least, Jake is a fellow of Morse College at Yale University, where he teaches a class on journalism. He recently returned from India where he was visiting as a Fulbright Scholar.

Find Jake:

Website | Goodreads | Instagram

Peter Kujawinski is an author and diplomat born in Chicago. His first fictional work, Dormia, was co-written with noted journalist Jake Halpern. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2009, Dormia was hailed by the American Library Association's Booklist as the next Harry Potter. The second book in the series, World's End, was released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2010. The third book in the Dormia series is tentatively titled The Shadow Tree. He also works for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. His assignments as a diplomat include US Embassies in Tel Aviv, Paris, the UN Security Council in New York City, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In addition to his fiction, his nonfiction commentaries have been published in the international edition of the New York Times.

Find Peter:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram

Thanks to Penguin Teen, we've got a hardcover of Nightfall to give away to one lucky winner! Open to U.S. residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Two Chicks on Books – Interview - 9/14
In Wonderland – Would You Rather? - 9/15
Forever Young Adult – Guest Post - 9/17
The Starry-Eyed Revue – Top 10 list - 9/18 - YOU ARE HERE! :)
The Social Potato – Guest Post - 9/21
Once Upon a Twilight – Book Playlist #1 - 9/22
The Passionate Bookworms – 25 Random Things - 9/23
Lili’s Reflections – Interview - 9/24
The Young Folks – Review & Giveaway – 9/25
Readers in Wonderland – Book Playlist #2 - 9/28
The Book Cellar – Interview - 9/29
Winterhaven Books – Interview - 10/1
A Reader Under the Sea – Review & Giveaway – 10/2

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Labels: blog tour, giveaways, guest post, horror, jake halpern, nightfall, penguin, peter kujawinski, top ten

{Blog Tour} Firewalker by Josephine Angelini: Guest Post & Giveaway

Today on the blog, I'm hosting a stop on the Firewalker Blog Tour, brought to you by Fierce Reads and Macmillan. Firewalker is the sequel to Josephine Angelini's amazing Trial By Fire. This series features parallel universes, magic, and witches, and I think I might like it even more than the author's mythology-based series. And that's saying a lot considering how much I enjoyed those books!

For today's stop, Josephine has contributed a guest post about one of my favorite types of characters ever: the redeemable villain. First, though, here's a little more about the book, which releases on Tuesday:


Title: Firewalker
Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: The Worldwalker Trilogy, book #2
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Audible

Worlds divide, magic slays, and love lies in the second book of Josephine Angelini’s The Worldwalker Trilogy.

"You think I’m a monster, but my choices, as ruthless as they seem, are justified."

Lily is back in her own universe, and she's ready to start a new life with Rowan by her side. True, she almost died in the Pyre that fueled their escape from New Salem, and must hide her magic for the safety of everyone she cares about, but compared to fighting the Woven, the monstrous creatures inhabiting the alternate Salem, life is looking pretty good.

Unfortunately, Lillian, ruthless ruler of the 13 Cities, is not willing to let Lily go that easily. If she can’t persuade Lily to return to her world, she will force her to come back by doing away with the ones she loves.

Picking up right where Trial By Fire left off, Firewalker is another sexy, fast-paced, heartbreaking thrill ride from internationally bestselling author Josephine Angelini!

My (Rambling) Thoughts on Redeemable Villains
by Josephine Angelini

Villains are such interesting characters. I think they shape the plot of a story even more than the hero. No bad guy, no obstacles. No obstacles, no plot.

Here’s a little secret: the type of villain a writer chooses says a lot about him or her. It’s almost more indicative of who we are as people—our fears, our internal quirks—than the character we create to be the hero. Think about it. The hero does what is right, and there isn’t a lot a leeway in that. Save the world, or not save the world? Save the world, of course. If not, your hero is a dink. But the villain? That’s where writers dig deep and find out what scares us. This is when we go to the dark corners of our minds and shine a light on the wee beasties there.

I came up with the idea for my WorldWalker Trilogy through the villain. I was lying in bed, chasing sleep, when a disturbing thought occurred to me. I thought that if I ever went to a parallel universe and met an alternate version of myself I’d probably hate her. I’d have the same reaction I do when I hear my voice on an answering machine, or when I see myself in a video and I wasn’t expecting it. That knee-jerk ew feeling I get whenever I have the misfortune to view myself from the outside.

And I’m not talking about looks. It’s not like I see myself and think, “Look at those giant buckteeth. Never noticed that before.” I already know my teeth look like they could chew their way through a fence post. I’m fine with that. The reaction that I have to seeing myself is something deeper. Something atavistic. There’s a special kind of horror to being literally face to face with yourself. You can’t escape your own failings. In many ways, we are our own worst enemies.

I made my hero and villain two different versions of the same person. Two sides to the same coin. But that concept comes with a problem. Two sides have to meet in the middle somewhere. If a character is good in one world and evil in another there has to be a reason she turned evil. Somewhere on the inside of even the worst character there’s a reason she became that way. Understanding that reason makes us sympathize with her, even if is just a bit.

I think it’s hard for a writer to completely hate his or her villain. There are always exceptions, but I think when we try to write even the most loathsome of characters the process of creating them makes us sympathize. On top of that, villains tend to have more interesting backstory than heroes do, and writers love them some backstory. By the time we’ve worked out all the kinks we’re so darn invested in our bad guys that we just can’t not love them.

This is probably the reason it’s so common for bad guys to turn out to be the heroes by the end of a long series. Take Darth Vader, for example. He’s the ultimate bad guy in Star Wars but by the time we get to Return of the Jedi, he’s the hero. It’s Vader, not Luke, who kills the Emperor. I wonder if George Lucas intended that when he wrote the first draft of the first movie or if he just got so caught up in loving Vader as the story deepened that he had to make him take off the black hat in the end. Or black mask, as it were. Redeemable villains are almost inevitable when you’re writing long, epic series. And anyway, after two or three books, who wants to see a bad guy stay a bad guy? There’s no character arc there.

Redeeming a villain is surprisingly easy. Readers love it. It’s chronicling the downfall of a hero that’s hard. Everyone loves a redemption story. No one wants to watch a favorite character make all the wrong choices and end up evil. Lately that idea has been gaining more traction with me. Doing it, and doing it so it breaks the readers’ heart instead of just pissing them off, would be a real feat.

Next series. :) 

I agree...I'm usually much more intrigued by the villain than the hero. So much potential there! And, gah, I would love to see a story about the fallen hero and the redeemable villiain...a role reversal of the most epic kind! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Josephine!

About the author:

Josephine Angelini is a Massachusetts native and the youngest of eight siblings. She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in theater, with a focus on the classics. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

Find Josephine:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Thanks to Macmillan and Fierce Reads, we've got a finished copy of Firewalker to give away to one lucky winner! Open to U.S. residents only.

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Tour Schedule:

August 25 - Live, Love, Read
August 26 - Winterhaven Books
August 27 - The Starry-Eyed Revue (you're here!)
August 28 - Once Upon a Twilight
August 30 - FierceReads Tumblr
August 31 - YA Bibliophile
September 1 - FictionFare

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Labels: beautiful covers, blog tour, giveaways, guest post, josephine angelini, macmillan, magic, multiverse, The worldwalker trilogy, witches