Book Rec: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Book blurb (from goodreads):

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

This book made me SO SAD. But in a good way!

My love for the Darkling still knows no bounds. And I still want to see that spark of something redeemable in him, but I don't know that it's possible anymore. He does some really horrible things in this book, and every time, I did this:



And yet I still want under his kefta. I have issues.

I still adore Alina too. Now, more than ever, she's treading water in the middle of nowhere, hoping she's going in the right direction and will either find land or be saved before she drowns. At times, I understood exactly why she was doing something, and other times, I questioned a lot of her actions and choices. But I think that was the point. She took on much more responsibility than she was ready for or equipped to handle, and it overwhelmed her. It didn't help either that she didn't always have the emotional support of the person from whom she needed it most.

Speaking of Mal, I looooved all the time we got to spend with him in this book. It totally made up for the lack of him in Shadow and Bone. I felt for him and got intensely frustrated with him, and sometimes I just wanted to squish his and Alina's heads together and shout, "NOW KISS AND MAKE UP."

There was so much going on in this book. Preparations to face the Darkling, politics, Alina and Mal, and a whole lot of crazies. Alina again feels like she doesn't belong, but it's in a different way now.

Sturmhond is a new character, and I LOVE him. He's hilarious and charming and clever and a badass in his own right. Also, Toyla and Tamar were cool.

I think my biggest complaint is NEEDS MOAR DARKLING :D (not really a valid complaint)

His new power is freaky and I love it. But it also comes with a lot of questions that weren't answered, mostly in terms of HOW? How did he develop this power exactly? Out of sheer desperate, determination-to-live will power? How does it work and how does it connect him to Alina?

Some aspects of the plot I was able to anticipate (and I did a fist pump when I got it right), and I love how the ending was one big action sequence. When the Darkling finally appeared, it was like OH DAMN, and I found it a little funny BUT ENTIRELY ACCURATE how they would rather go up against his terrifying creatures than face the Darkling himself.

IN ANY CASE. Amazing book. Please read and then come back to commiserate with me about how we have to wait a whole year for the final book.



♥

[Miss K's Reads] One by Leigh Ann Kopans

My 10yo daughter, Miss K, and I are introducing a new feature here called Miss K's Reads. Miss K is an avid reader (she's read more of the books in my TBR pile than I have... which is just sad) and an aspiring author herself. She refuses to let me read anything she's written, but she has a whole binder full of her stories. In fact, when I told her about this contest a few months ago, she wrote furiously every day for four days, submitting a short story each day until she ran out of ideas. I fully intend to bribe her into letting me read them one day :P

In her own words, here's her introduction and first review of One by Leigh Ann Kopans.

Miss K’s Reads will feature weekly book reviews and book recommendations. Every Wednesday, one review will post along with one or more recommendation for books that are similar. On the bottom of the review, a link will be there to show you where you can get that book I recommended or the book I reviewed. I have a love for fantasy and I want to share my thoughts and opinions with you. Please comment and I hope you like it. It’ll make me the happiest girl in the world!

When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window. Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves.

I think One is a very well organized book. It shares Merrin’s thoughts on why she wants to be a Super instead of a plain old Normal.

Merrin Grey is the most determined girl I’ve ever read about. She’s very unique. She never gives up. Because when Elias’s in danger, she has to figure out a way to save him. Even if it risks her life or if she becomes some science experiment! But Elias is also always there to catch her if she falls. Literally.

Merrin’s drum skills can impress a guy. But we all know that’s not the reason why Elias likes her. And they’re not the only people falling in love. I just love how the romance doesn’t end! The romance always come back, but along with friendship right next to it. The fantasy and the romance is what brings you into the book. You can’t stop reading once you’ve started. It sucks you in and takes you to a world of love, wonder and troubles that give them the challenges that life brings us. It’s that awesome.

Leigh Ann is a wonderful writer. Her descriptive words and how she made up the characters’ personality is unbelievable. I want to write like her, and I wanted to be an author even more after I read Leigh Ann’s book. I think I just went supersonic.

You can only kick dust when you’re on the ground.
~ Miss K ~

Remember, you can still enter to win a copy of One!

♥

WoW: INK by Amanda Sun

Ink by Amanda Sun

Book blurb (from goodreads):

I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.

Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.

A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.

And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

Available June 25, 2013

No words for how gorgeous this cover is. And that blurb is fascinating. CAN'T. WAIT.

Happy Wednesday, guys ♥

[Giveaway] ONE by Leigh Ann Kopans

Today marks the release of ONE by Leigh Ann Kopans! YAY! To celebrate, I'm giving away the winner's choice of either an ebook or paperback copy.

Book blurb (from goodreads):

When having two powers makes you a Super and having none makes you a Normal, having only one makes you a sad half-superpowered freak.

It makes you a One.

Sixteen-year-old Merrin Grey would love to be able to fly – too bad all she can do is hover.

If she could just land an internship at the Biotech Hub, she might finally figure out how to fix herself. She busts her butt in AP Chem and salivates over the Hub’s research on the manifestation of superpowers, all in hopes of boosting her chances.

Then she meets Elias VanDyne, another One, and all her carefully crafted plans fly out the window. Literally. When the two of them touch, their Ones combine to make them fly, and when they’re not soaring over the Nebraska cornfields, they’re busy falling for each other.

Merrin's mad chemistry skills land her a spot on the Hub's internship short list, but as she gets closer to the life she always wanted, she discovers that the Hub’s purpose is more sinister than it has always seemed. Now it’s up to her to decide if it's more important to fly solo, or to save everything - and everyone - she loves.

Doesn't it sound awesome? And that cover? GORGEOUS.

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.
Details:
*Open to US addresses only.
*I will only email ONCE to confirm your mailing address. If you don't respond within three days, a new winner will be selected.
*Deadline is Thursday, June 20.
ALSO! If you'd like the paperback signed, just let me know and I'll order it via her website :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck! ♥

Look what arrived! :D

Edits for my book are here! These arrived FAST. My editor notified me late last week that they were coming AND HERE THEY ARE! (All the way from New York! Squee!)



BWUAHAHAH. In the digital age, I love that so many traditional publishers still edit the old-fashioned way. There's something insanely cool about having your pages physically in front of you with your editor's handwritten comments :)

Only this first round will be done this way though. Further editing will, I believe, be done digitally. And HOPEFULLY, there won't be too many more rounds before the manuscript goes to copyediting.

That's 323 typed pages, in case you're wondering haha.

If you're also wondering how much editing a book goes through before it hits the shelves, here's a general list:

~ Content edits. Big picture stuff. Plot, characterization, world building, POV. The author generally receives an editorial letter (which can be upwards of 30 pages long! lol) outlining all the issues that need to be addressed. This can go on for however long it takes until both editor and author are happy with the changes.

~ Line edits. Line by line edits that address things like inconsistencies or contradictions, word choices, paragraph changes, places that could use a little expanding or trimming, etc.

(In my case, I received both my editorial letter and line edits at the same time because my content edits weren't substantial. Win!)

~ Copyedits. This is pretty much entirely technical. Grammar and punctuation, usually adhering to the Chicago Manual of Style. Fact-checking happens here as well.

~ First pass pages. This is a copy of the text exactly how it will look in book form. All titles, text, and chapter headings will be formatted to the way it will look in the actual book. Unless you are also getting ARCs, this is basically the last chance the author gets to make changes to the book.

~ Advanced reader copies (ARCs). The purpose of ARCs is for promotion and to spread early buzz about the book. But they also provide the author a last chance to make changes to the book before it goes to print.

And that's basically how the editing process works for traditionally published books :D EXCITING!!!

♥

PREP SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL Giveaway Extravaganza!

Today, I'm so pleased to be able to participate in a massive giveaway for Kara Taylor's Prep School Confidential. Her book sounds amazing, and I can't wait to read it! I hope you feel the same :D

Details on the giveaway below.

About the Book:

Anne Dowling practically runs her exclusive academy on New York’s Upper East Side—that is, until she accidentally burns part of it down and gets sent to a prestigious boarding school outside of Boston. Determined to make it back to New York, Anne could care less about making friends at the preppy Wheatley School. That is, until her roommate, Isabella’s body is found in the woods behind the school.

When everyone else is oddly silent, Anne becomes determined to uncover the truth no matter how many rules she has to break to do it. With the help of Isabella’s twin brother Anthony, and a cute classmate named Brent, Anne discovers that Isabella wasn’t quite the innocent nerdy girl she pretended to be. But someone will do anything to stop Anne’s snooping in this fast-paced, unputdownable read—even if it means framing her for Isabella’s murder.

About the Author:

Kara Taylor wrote PREP SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL in her first semester of graduate school, in between pulling all nighters and listening to her dad say writing isn't a real job. Now, she lives on Long Island and writes full time. She is represented by Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary and Media.


About the Giveaway:

• First Prize winner will receive a signed ARC of Prep School Confidential, a signed copy of The Nightmare Affair, a paperback copy of Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, and a PSC Swag Pack
• 3-Runner’s up will receive 3 PSC swag packs
• Open US/Canada only
• Runs May 29 to June 11
• No purchase necessary to enter
• Be sure to read the terms and conditions on the giveaway


Participating Blogs:

• Kara Taylor
• Lori M. Lee
• Cat York
• Once Upon a Time In Writerland
• I Eat Words
• Chanelle Gray
• Dawn Rae Miller
• Jenn Walkup

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I'm on the OneFour KidLit blog today!

Like the title says, if you'd like to read my interview at OneFour KidLit, you can see it here: http://onefourkidlit.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/lori-m-lee-gates-of-thread-and-stone/

Hope you guys are having a great week! :)

From Draft to Book Deal

First, the contest is over and all winners will be contacted. Thank you so much for entering and for all the kind words and congratulations ♥

Okay, so here's where I promised more info about the road to yes.

Warning: TL;DR (too long; didn't read) ahead!

While I'm so happy I can finally talk about how I'm going to be published (OMG!!!), keep in mind that even though I'm focusing on the successes, they came right alongside a lot of rejection.

Like... a lot. (I have a 'rejections' folder in my email where I keep them all... I'm afraid to look in it)

And of course, in typical Lori fashion, this story will be illustrated by my gif friends.

I started GATES OF THREAD AND STONE (then called Harbinger) July of 2011 while I was querying a different manuscript, which some of you might recall from a past cover design contest. It took four weeks to write the first draft of GATES and three months of editing before I felt it was querying-ready. This was not typical. My previous ms took me half a year to write the first draft and then another year for revisions and rewrites.


Anyway, midway into editing GATES, I received an email from Super Agent Suzie Townsend. She had requested SOUL a month prior. She finished the manuscript and really liked it!


But she ultimately had to pass, and she included two pages of editorial notes. Color me shocked! And HUGELY appreciative. I mean, querying writers are lucky if they get a sentence of explanation on rejections, but Suzie went above and beyond and gave me a whole editorial letter! I immediately stopped querying SOUL and set it aside for yet more revisions. This didn't bother me in the least because I was loving GATES and couldn't wait to finish it.


A month later, I won by random drawing a first chapter critique from an author I admired. She liked my chapter so much that she forwarded it to her agent (you guessed it, Super Agent Suzie Townsend), who loved it (and remembered SOUL!) and invited me to submit as soon as I finished editing. See why I'm convinced Suzie and I were meant to work together? :)


Fast forward another month, and I was done editing. I tested the waters first with a few agent-judged contests and live pitch opportunities, all of which either earned me a request or I won. I was pretty floored. I even got this snazzy certificate (I'm not actually from the SF area but the contest was open to everyone):
Anyway, I found myself with 10 agent requests (2 from referrals) and 1 editor request before I'd even started querying. I was excited, but also terrified because if I failed now? It would mean my writing just didn't cut it.


So I sent in all requested materials and began querying in earnest. I sent my query-with-referral to Suzie on a Friday night at 11:45 pm (b/c when I'm tired is when I'm feeling bravest).

Thirty minutes later, she responded with: "YES PLEASE SEND!!!! Right now! :) :)"


I was over the moon. Fast forward four weeks. By now, I had enough rejections and requests to send me on a constant roller coaster of up and down.


Then I got a sheepish and apologetic email from Suzie saying she'd responded within days to receiving my manuscript and wondered why I hadn't replied. She checked her email and found it never sent. But she still wanted to talk! YAY! *cue freak out*


We set up a phone call, during which I was too anxious and wired to remember to say ANY of the things I'd planned to. When she asked what else I was working on, even though I had it written down right in front of me, I blanked and went, "Um... this book about... a girl who has a monster in her... and this boy... who captures her."

And then because I could unfortunately HEAR myself, I added, "Wow, that sounds terrible."


Suzie was kind enough to laugh and take it in stride, and despite my bumbling, she STILL offered me rep. Whew!


Then I hung up and ran around the house at least twice.


And emailed/called my CPs. And contacted all the other agents with my manuscript, and even some agents who only had my query (many of whom promptly requested the manuscript). I ended up with more offers of rep, in addition to several agents who passed but asked me to get in touch immediately should I ever find myself NOT agented. Wow.

(happy tears)

So then I had a decision to make. But considering everything that happened during my querying journey, it just didn't feel right to go with anyone but Suzie. Her revisions for the book convinced me it would be the best book possible, that my writing would be the best possible, under her guidance. So I accepted her offer, and it was off to the revision races.


Being on submission was crazy. Over the course of nine months, I made one minor revision and then one major revision, received a lot of rejections and several editor-loves-it-but-couldn't-get-enough-support-to-make-an-offer close calls (the first of which made me ugly cry, but we won't talk about that). But then, suddenly we had an offer. YAY! And then another editor offered! YAYx2! I spoke with Robin Benjamin from Amazon Children's Publishing on the phone, and she was absolutely lovely and so enthusiastic. And 2 weeks later, I officially accepted. YAYx3!!!

ALL THE EMOTIONS while on submission:
               

There were times I honestly didn't think I'd make it here. But I'm so insanely grateful to my agent for believing in this book, and to my CPs, Mindee and Lauren and Anna, who kept telling me I could do it even when I wasn't so sure myself. And I'll stop here because I'll save the thanks for the Acknowledgments. (OMG I'M GOING TO HAVE AN ACKNOWLEDGMENTS!!!)



YAY! ♥

Book Deal Celebration Giveaway!

Like the title says, I decided to have a giveaway to celebrate the announcement of my book deal. EVERYONE WINS! \o/

In a similar fashion to another fellow OneFourKidLit author, Francesa Zappia aka Chessie, since I had to wait 7 months to announce the deal, I am giving away 7 prizes.

Here they are:

♥ Your choice of any book released either last year or this year (2012-2013). Four winners. ♥

♥ A $10 gift card to either Barnes and Noble or Amazon. Two winners. ♥

♥ A simple bust sketch by me. Any single character. ♥
Example:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you, everyone, and good luck! :D

♥

As Effie might say: big, big, big news!

Ever since I was a little kid scribbling down horror stories about exploding heads (R.L. Stine's influence) and then fantasy stories about magical portals and flying demons (Tolkien's influence) and then bad romance novels with throbbing members SHHH WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THIS (my sisters' influence), I've only ever truly wanted one thing. Okay, wait, two things. The first was to ride a unicorn and fall into a faerie ring and live in a castle and dine with singing furniture (that totally counts as one).

But the second, more relevant thing was to be an author and someday share my writing with the world.

This is the part where I abandon all pretense at dignity b/c OHMIGOD GUYS I'M GOING TO BE PUBLISHED *runs in circles*

I've been waiting since October of last year (!!!) to share this, and now I feel like the Queen of Secret Keeping and don't think I didn't have a stare down with the Apocalypse because that sh*t needed to get in the back of the line (you're welcome).

So, right, this announcement just appeared in Publisher's Weekly:

"Tim Ditlow at Amazon Children's Publishing's Skyscape imprint has acquired a debut fantasy novel by Lori M. Lee called Gates of Thread and Stone. In the story, a teenage girl must keep her ability to manipulate the threads of time a secret, but when her brother goes missing, she risks getting caught up in a revolution in order to save him. Robin Benjamin will edit, for publication in spring 2014. Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary and Media did the two-book deal for world English rights."

LIFE HAS BEEN MADE. My agent is the bestest agent in all the world, and I'm so crazy-excited to be working with Robin and Skyscape.

Even though I've had what feels like ages to come to terms with it, it still feels unreal. I'm terrified and humbled and ecstatic that I'm going to have a REAL BOOK (OMG!) with, like, A COVER and PAGES and they'll even have to put MY NAME on it! (they have to, right?)

I hope you guys will like it half as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's got magic and mind control and family dynamics (no one is surprised) and gargoyles and fighting and romance and lots of other stuff you'll just have to wait and read to find out about :D :D :D

P.S. More details about the road to 'Yes' coming soon.

P.P.S. If you have any questions--about me, publishing, querying, whatever--please ask in the comments, and if I'm able to answer it, I will do so in a following post.


♥