Musings from the Slush Pile

Today Writer Wednesday Welcomes Jason Paul!!! Jason is yet another a-m-a-zing writer of awesomeness for teens. I’m thrilled to have a guy here to talk YA. We all know I’m obsessed with the genre, but I’ll admit I tend to chose the most lovey-girlie sort. Jason’s reaching a whole other audience with his YA. He’s getting teenage BOYS into reading! That’s not as easy as you think (I know – you didn’t think it was). Jason’s written something boys can sink their teeth into, and I can’t wait to introduce you and his fierce new story Gladius and the Bartlett Trial

Meet Jason!: J. A. Paul started writing short stories ten years ago. He spent many years learning the craft of writing through the constant study of books and articles on writing. He also enrolled in and completed a two-year writing correspondence class along with various other online writing workshops. Then one night after a long bedtime story, his sons challenged him to write a book.  He borrowed an idea from a friend and asked them to choose three things to go in the story.  They chose a dragon, a tree, and a ruby, and from the seed of that idea, the story of Gladius grew.  J.A. Paul set out to show his three sons that if you set your mind to something, it can be done.  Once he started writing Gladius, he knew he wanted to create a fantasy adventure novel that would encourage preteen and teenage boys to read more.

Gladius and the Bartlett Trial Excerpt:

Turning to the interior again, Gladius thought he saw another shadow – as if it had suddenly darted between trees like an enemy spy.

Was it following his every movement? He wondered.

He strained his eyes on the new spot.

Is something there? He could see nothing, but definitely heard movement in the underbrush; perhaps it was stalking him, ready to jump him at the first chance, gnaw on one of his limbs?

Blurry instances of gloom flashed behind the trees sending shivers down Gladius’ neck. A putrid scent stung his nose.

“Who are you?” Gladius called out to the mysterious shadow.

Silence was the only response.

A gut instinct told him to turn back, to return to the comfort of his warm bed, but he suppressed his inner warning.

“Show yourself,” he called out in his most confident voice.

Fighting back the increasing tension, Gladius struggled to fill his lungs. His face flushed. His knees weakened. Fear itself was reaching out its cold bony fingers and slowly wrapping his body in a death squeeze. He tightly scrunched his toes. Afraid to die, he felt his nerves tug and rage at each other.

He backhanded the sweat from his forehead and inhaled deeply, searching for the shadow again, but it was gone.

He sensed something standing behind him. His shoulders tensed. A feeling like that of a dragon’s hot breath cascaded down his back. Immediately he withdrew his dagger and spun quickly.

Long menacing fangs and yellowed sharp claws appeared between the leaves. Gladius faced the stare of orange-slotted eyes from a large cat-like creature. A spike of dread burned through his heart.

Instantly the short pinned ears of the creature flattened and it lunged forward.

Gladius threw up his forearm…

Gladius and the Bartlett Trial is book one of a planned trilogy.

Teenage reading habits

One of my more motivating factors in choosing to write an adventure fantasy story is to get more teenage boys reading. There are many great books written for teenage boys and girls but studies have shown the male readership drops off significantly when they reach the teens. For teenage girls it remains the same or grows.

I have three boys myself so I have been very interested in these studies for some time. I work hard to find good exciting books for them to read. For my younger boys it is easier to find something they love to read, but my oldest seems to have lost his interest in reading books for enjoyment. In today’s world, there are so many distractions for the teenage boy: friends, girls, video games, sports, and more girls. One challenge is time. Books take hours to read. Their time is limited and books drop on the priority list so if they are going to read it has to be engaging.

Not all boys lose their interest in reading. If they did, authors like me would struggle to find a readership and spread the word about our stories. For those who do continue reading I think there are two divides. Those who love urban fiction and will only read books with characters that look like them, and the storylines romanticize the lifestyles they want to have. The other group will avoid urban fiction and want to escape into worlds that are very different from the challenging, unglamorous lives they lead.

I have always used fiction books to escape from my world and Gladius and the Bartlett Trial is that type of story. So far, it is receiving good reviews and not just from teenage boys but girls and adults as well. My hope is that it catches on and word of it spreads to teens who normally would not read a book — perhaps even sparking a lifelong love of reading. I remember distinctly J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit doing that very thing to me. If I would not have read that book, I may not have ever started writing.

You can read more on this topic here, it’s a great “teacher” story: How do you get boys into reading? Girls

HUGE thanks to Jason for stopping by today!!! If you’d like to know more about Jason and his book, you can find them both on the web!

Amazon Kindle and paperback
Nook

Find me on Facebook

Tweet Me!

www.authorJAPaul.com

Welcome to my mailbox. I had an awesome time at my local library this week and if you love YA as I do then you totally hate me right now LOL

Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn

Very LeFreak has a problem: she’s a crazed technology addict. Very can’t get enough of her iPhone, laptop, IMs, text messages, whatever. If there’s any chance the incoming message, call, text, or photo might be from her supersecret online crush, she’s going to answer, no matter what. Nothing is too important: sleep, friends in mid-conversation, class, a meeting with the dean about academic probation. Soon enough, though, this obsession costs Very everything and everyone. Can she learn to block out the noise so she can finally hear her heart?

Rachel Cohn makes her Knopf solo debut with this funny, touching, and surely recognizable story about a girl and the technology habit that threatens everything.

My Soul to Take my Rachel Vincent

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…

Unraveled by Gena Showalter

For once, sixteen-year-old Aden Stone has everything he’s ever wanted:

A home.

Friends.

The girl of his dreams.

Too bad he’s going to die…

Since coming to Crossroads, Oklahoma, former outcast Aden Stone has been living the good life. Never mind that one of his best friends is a werewolf, his girlfriend is a vampire princess who hungers for his blood, and he’s supposed to be crowned Vampire King – while still a human! Well, kind of.

With four – oops, three now — human souls living inside his head, Aden has always been “different” himself. These souls can time travel, raise the dead, possess another’s mind, and, his least favorite these days, tell the future.

The forecast for Aden? A knife through the heart.

Because a war is brewing between the creatures of the dark, and Aden is somehow at the center of it all. But he isn’t about to lie down and accept his destiny without a fight. Not when his new friends have his back, not when Victoria has risked her own future to be with him, and not when he has a reason to live for the first time in his life…

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared—the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in blood. But she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night really held. And when Daniel returns three years later, Grace can no longer deny her attraction to him, despite promising Jude she’ll stay away.

As Grace gets closer to Daniel, her actions stir the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind Jude and Daniel’s dark secret . . . and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it—her soul.

Timeless by Alexandar Monir

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance.

Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

In My Mailbox is a meme from the Story Siren designed to help book lovers unite, meet, greet and follow one another in our quests to find the next most awe inspiring, tear jerking, mesmerizing or just entertaining new tome.

Mailbox Monday is a meme hosted this month at MariReads. This is one more incredible way to get to know one another, build your following and find great new sites to add to your dashboard.

What was in your mailbox this week?

Be sure to follow me if you like what you see. I always follow back!!  & I love making new bookish friends!

What many writers don’t realize is that waiting is a part of the writer life. It’s frustrating, but it is part of the deal and it doesn’t change.  Writing the novel is a task in itself, but it’s also the only part without the wait, so relish it. Once you type those two final words, the game changes and the waiting begins.

Writers wait while critique partners and beta readers read their words. We wait for their feedback and we wait all over again when we make their changes and resubmit. Then comes the querying, and we wait. Partial requests? Wait. Full requests? (Squee!!) and wait.

Here’s where I once misunderstood the complete situation. You see, once you find an agent and sign that contract, the waiting doesn’t end. Your agent needs time to get to your manuscript and time to make suggestions and changes. Then you update and resubmit. The process continues. Even when it’s perfect, your agent still must submit to editors. That means more waiting, and the waiting at that point in the game can be six months or more, so patience really is a necessity. But once you find a publisher the waiting ends, right? Not even close. Writers must wait to work with editors and for cover art and release dates. It’s simply part of the deal. Because I believe most writers are compelled to write and cannot walk away, we have to learn to wait gracefully – or at least productively.

Every writer is in the same boat to some extent. We’re all waiting on something. It’s what we signed up for, or at least it was in the invisible ink.

So, the question becomes what to do while we wait. I’ve tried everything from yoga to archery to gourmet baking. All were fun, but here’s the thing…writers write.  We must. Writers who don’t write, make me nervous. I am of the opinion that the very best thing we can do while we wait is write some more. Every word counts, every sentence created enhances your skill and improves your craft. You don’t need to start another novel, start a blog, maybe just guest blog for a friend, or submit an article to an online magazine. Try your hand at flash fiction or look for an upcoming anthology.

Writing passes the time while you wait, improves your craft, and once you have enough irons in the fire, the wait time is shorter. Someone is sure to get back with you on a regular basis if you have enough submissions going on. It breaks up all the waiting and brings some good news along the way. Fabulous sites like Wow! Women on Writing feature a different writer every Friday. They’ve even let me have the floor a time or two LOL. It feels good to get your name out there and it boosts your confidence.

Another great way to pass the time while you wait is to embrace social media. Networking is a great way to establish a name for yourself in the writing community, build a web presence and drive traffic to your blog. Twitter is a great place to start. I’ve met some of my closest writer friends, beta readers, and favorite authors through twitter. It’s a huge resource that’s greatly underestimated.

In the end, waiting won’t change, but you can embrace the challenge.  Be productive. Enjoy the time away from your manuscript and test your chops. Waiting might be just what you need to discover a whole new part of your writing self. Enjoy!

Good Choice Reading has an unbelievable YA opportunity here. I’m smiling wildly as I type this post because the good folks at Good Choice Reading are giving away an ARC copy of Vanish by Sophie Jordan!!! I absolutely devoured the first book in this series Firelight and have been waiting super impatiently for Vanish. It’s in my cart at Amazon for preorder, of course, but the release so sooo far away!

Here’s what I’m dying to get my hands on and you can enter too by stopping over at Good Choice Reading!

Vanish by Sophie Jordan

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

Back home, Jacinda is greeted with hostility and must work to prove her loyalty for both her sake and her family’s. Among the few who will even talk to her are Cassian, the pride’s heir apparent who has always wanted her, and her sister, Tamra, who has been forever changed by a twist of fate. Jacinda knows that she should forget Will and move on—that if he managed to remember and keep his promise to find her, it would only endanger them both. Yet she clings to the hope that someday they will be together again. When the chance arrives to follow her heart, will she risk everything for love?

In bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s dramatic follow-up to Firelight, forbidden love burns brighter than ever.

It’s time for the Blog Hop & Follow Friday again! I love this part of the week because  I’m meeting so many awesome bloggers, writers, readers *sigh*. So to all of you hopping with me I’m smiling widely like a doofus and waving frantically as always!!

Blog Hop is hosted over at Crazy-for-Books. These memes were created to help make the web smaller, and introduce us bloggers to one another. We can find sites and meet people and follow those we love! We increase our followers and we get some fun new sites to add to our dashboards too. Its a big win-win and I am thrilled to be taking part again this week.

So the question this week at Crazy for Books is:

“If you were given the chance to spend one day in a fictional world (from a book), which book would it be from and what would that place be?”

I’m pretty embarrassed to tell you how long I’ve sat thinking about this question. I really have no  idea. I’ve read close to 50 books this year, most of which were YA and I never once thought, “Wow, I’d like to live there!” YA isn’t usually about the place and you don’t get a great look at the community. I wouldn’t want to go back to high school for all the money in the world. I suppose if I had to chose somewhere from what I’ve read lately I would say in Janet Evanovich’s Wicked Appetite, which takes place in Salem. I’ve never been to Salem, but she describes it like the super nuttiest small town in America. I do love small town America, so I’ll go with that for my answer – but please know I’m totally NOT satisfied with it

Now, I can’t wait to see what you all came up with. I’m sure I’ll be slapping my head over it. You guys always make me think “Oh! Duh Julie! WHay didn’t I think of that??”

Thanks everyone for stopping by! Leave a comment and tell me if you follow! I always follow back!!!