SIEGE AND STORM

In case you guys didn't know, my friend Leigh Bardugo's 2nd book, Siege and Storm, releases tomorrow. I an giddy. GIDDY. I had the good fortune to read it a few months back, but I'm already dying to read it again.

To celebrate the upcoming release, I wanted to make Leigh a little present. You might have seen the Darkling and Mal Roguish covers floating around the internet. I came up with Roguish magazine several years back after I made a fake magazine for zombies. And if zombies can have a magazine, then why not bad boys?

Behold. (Don't tell Mal, but the Darkling's cover still makes me swoon more. Sorry Mal! I still <3 you!)

You might have heard there is a new swoon-worthy character in Siege and Storm. A privateer by the name of Sturmhond. He's bold and charming and extremely handsome, and I may or may not have developed a teensy tiny little crush on him. (No one can hold a candle to my Darkling, however. I WILL JOIN HIS DRUM CIRCLE SOME DAY. MARK MY WORD. AND BY "DRUM CIRCLE" I MEAN HIS BED.) 

So, with that said, the present I made Leigh --- A Sturmhond Roguish cover!

Now, run to the bookstore and camp out until they shelve Siege and Storm and BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. You will love Sturmhond, ladies and gentlemen. 

Nick's Book Q&A

Since I posted the news about Nick's book (my 3rd YA), I've gotten a lot of questions about it and the future of the Altered world. So I thought I'd try to answer as many of those questions here, for anyone who is curious.

++ When will Nick's book be released? 
If all goes as planned, I imagine it'll follow the same release schedule as Altered and Erased, so January 2015.

++ Will it be told from Nick's perspective, or Callie's?
When I first envisioned this book, I only saw it from Callie's POV, but that may change. It will definitely be told from Callie's first person perspective, but there may or may not be chapters from Nick's POV. That didn't really answer the question at all, did it? ;-)

++ When does Nick's book take place?
The summer after Erased.

++ Will Anna, Sam or Cas make an appearance?
Definitely. Nick will be on his own for much of the book, but I do plan to have the others pop in at least once. How could I not? ;D

++ Will the other boys --- Cas and Trev --- have their own books too?
This is a question I can't really answer, yet. A lot has to happen first for it to be a possibility. Most importantly, I have to write Nick's book first, then come up with the framework for Cas's and Trev's stories before finally submitting those ideas to Little, Brown.

I do have origin stories written for all of the boys (and Dani), so we might do something with those in the future. And I also have a loose summary of a Trev story that takes place between Altered and Erased.

++ Will Nick's cover follow the same design as Altered and Erased?
I'm not sure. I, personally, would love to see another neon, shirtless boy cover!

If I haven't covered something here that you're curious about, comment below and I'll do my best to answer. I hope this Q&A cleared up some curiosities! And, let me say again, I am SO happy to hear you all are excited to read Nick's book. I seriously cannot wait to write it.

The Who and What of my 3rd YA

A lot of people have asked me in the last few months whether Altered is going to be a trilogy or not. And the answer is no. Well, sorta no.

Anna's story definitely wraps up with Erased. In a lot of ways, so does Sam's. But, the cool thing about the Altered world is that there are still a lot of question marks about the other characters' histories that I couldn't possibly pack into one story or even two.

When Altered sold, it was in a three-book deal, but we knew from the start that my 3rd book would be decided later on down the line, that we didn't necessarily have to spread Anna's story into three books. And after finishing Altered, I knew I wanted to end her story with book 2.

But, there was someone else from that world that I wasn't quite ready to let go. I'll give you a hint.

For those of you who don't know, that is Sean O'Pry, my Nick in real life.

MY THIRD YA WILL BE NICK'S STORY!!

I am BEYOND thrilled that Little, Brown dug the Nick pitch enough to say, YES. And I'm even more thrilled that they loved Nick enough to give him his own story, beyond even Erased. I've mentioned before that Erased delves deeper into Nick's character, and his past, and how that factors into Anna's past, but there is so much more to learn about him. 

As of right now, my 3rd YA will be told from the point of view of seventeen-year-old Callie who had a run-in with Nick before the farmhouse lab. She remembers him, but his memories of her are still murky. 

I can also tell you that Nick will definitely be the love interest of this story. So there will be more shirtless Nick scenes, and some kissing too.

And, as promised, here's an excerpt from Erased, that gives you just a sliver of a glimpse inside the third Altered book. 

**Excerpt taken from the Erased ARC, some text may be different in the final copy**

"Gabriel" is the alias Nick used during the mission where he met Callie. She doesn't know him as Nick. At least not yet. ;-)

I am so excited to dive into this story and learn even more about Nick. I'm also excited to write the kissy scenes. AS USUAL. 

So, my dears, are you excited for Nick's book? Are you sad to leave Anna and Sam behind after Erased? Talk to me in the comments! 

Just a quickie

I keep hearing Google Reader is disappearing (or has already? I am behind on these things), so I started using Bloglovin and WORD, I love it. I now get an email every night with summaries of the new posts made by the people/blogs I follow. And it was easy to switch everything over from my Google Reader.
I'm all about quick and easy, people.

In case you're on Bloglovin, you can find this blog HERE.

And because I don't want this post to be only a plug for following this blog or me on any of the umpteen billion places to read and/or follow me, I will also tell you all that I have some news on my third YA and that I will be posting the deets later this week. The deets will include pictures of hot guys, the who and what of my third YA, and maybe a little sneak peek at ERASED. If I can find something fun and pertinent *wink wink*.

I Want To Be Me

I just had an email exchange with someone wherein I mentioned how crappy I'd been feeling physically (and because of that, emotionally) lately. In the email, I said, "In the past, I've always been okay with myself, no matter what I looked like, but this winter has been hard on me..." Because I write full-time, I don't have to leave the house as often as I used to. And if you know me, you know I hate winters. Which means, I hibernate. And this winter, I hibernated mega hardcore. And I ate A LOT OF FOOD. And drank A LOT OF MOUNTAIN DEW.

Mountain Dew is my weakness! Tell me I'm not alone?

Directly after that email exchange, I went through the rest of the new emails that had popped in overnight. I signed up for a photography newsletter several months ago and the girl always puts out new videos every Tuesday that focus on business and marketing. But this particular video was about image and being real and confident in yourself.

And I realized something.

We all have our weak points. The things we are embarrassed about. The things that take our self-confidence down a notch or two.

We are all marvelous, weird, silly creatures and I am not alone in feeling awkward or lame or overweight or dorky at moments in my life.

To attest to that, I decided I wanted to share some images I'd taken in the last year or two---images that, to an outsider, looked like fine images, but to me reminded me of my double-chin, my chipmunk cheeks when I smile, my freckles, the weird dent in my nose. Images that show just how dorky I can be. How I don't always get my concept shoots right the first time.

Are you ready? Because I am. And it's all right to laugh at them. ;-) Because I did.


My husband helped me take my author photos last summer. And it was quite a hilarious experience. He's learning about photography, and lighting, and props. But sometimes I giggle too much while he's snapping pictures. Especially when he asked me to put this freshly picked daisy in my hair. I am not a daisy-in-the-hair kind of girl, but I realized, looking back on this image, to my husband, I am that girl. A bit carefree. Big-hearted. A pretty girl.

Moments later, he snapped this picture of me "posing". Maybe this should have been my author photo? ;-)

This next image is from a few months before the author shoot. I tried setting up a scene to take some pictures of my daughter. I wanted to have "laundry" billowing in the wind behind her. She didn't want to have any part of it. She wanted to chase the dog around the yard instead. So my husband grabbed the camera while I took down the "laundry" and he snapped this photo. I hated all of them in this set. I thought I looked fat. I thought my chin looked too big. But I'm smiling. And I'm happy. And my husband is making me laugh. And that's what makes this image something more than just an image. It's the kind of image I will carry with me as a memory. 

Last summer, I had this photo concept I wanted to try out in the water. Since we live so close to Lake Michigan, the husband and I planned to spend a few hours there trying out a few different things. I wanted to take some simple images of a figure floating in the water. In this instance, I am that figure, because I couldn't come up with a model on such short notice. My husband snapped I don't know how many images. And I hated all of them. I liked the water. The vibrant colors of the sun set in the background. But I hated the model. Here you can kinda see the dent in my nose. The dent! I've always hated the dent. But my husband has always loved it. Why, I often wondered? "Because it's cute," he said. And this is why I <3 the guy.

I like playing around with the concept of levitation in my images. This one was shot late last summer, I believe. This is the result of the shoot ---

In order to get that effect, I lay back on a stool, which I later photoshopped out. But have you ever tried to balance on a stool while whipping your hair around? It's hard work!

Which is why this happened:

This is me, falling off of said stool, caught on camera by the husband. 

And, again, on another levitation shoot. Husband wasn't quick enough to snap the actual falling this time!

Looking through these images today reminded me of something --- when I look at them, I hate them because of flaws I see in myself, but when we took the images, we were laughing. We were happy. I didn't care how I looked while taking the pictures. 

So if I take anything away from this day, from this post, it's this: I want to live more in the moment, rather than in the after-moment. The place in my head that picks apart everything about myself, my apperance. That somehow forgets the joy felt while taking the image, while creating those memories. 

I don't want to waste anymore time worrying about what I look like, or what people will think when they look at me, or images of me, or even images taken by me. 

I want to be me 100% of the time and no one else. 

And if you made it this far (I hope you did!), I'll leave you with a bonus image. Some of you may have seen this already, but it makes me giggle every time. 

My husband's blue steel look. Enjoy. ;-)

BOT WARS is officially out!

Bot Wars officially released yesterday. I was still on the couch sick. :( This is the longest I've been sick in years! But I'm trying to take it easy, to recuperate for next week. I turn 30 on Saturday, and my husband is taking me to the Detroit area for some Ikea shopping! I need curtains, ya'll.

YAYAY! 

I am still having a hard time processing the fact that I have two books available in bookstores. It's crazy to think that in 2010, I was unagented, unpublished, but trying so hard after so many years to finally get my foot in the door. I still remember, acutely remember, how hard it was to keep writing and keep submitting year after year, project after project, with no clue as to whether or not it'd pay off. There were a lot of days where I asked myself what was the point. When I told myself I wasn't good enough. Would never be good enough to get an agent or sell a book. 

But now, in 2013, I have two books out! 

Writers out there, still submitting, still trying to get an agent or a book deal, keep submitting, and keep writing! Because even if you feel like you're not good enough now, eventually you will be. Writing is like dance, or baseball, or art, or science. The more you study and practice, the better you will be. And you're probably better than you think you are. Writers are hard on themselves. I still think I suck half the time. Three-quarters of the time. A lot of the time. :-) 

Do any of you out there reading have questions about publishing? Or writing? Or submitting? If so, email me (jennifervrush [at] gmail), or leave a comment on this post and I'll put together a Q & A post in the next week or so.  

A Clarifying Post

As I'm sure many of you have heard by now, the post I wrote this weekend, about the four villains of negative energy, received quite the response. I'm going to try to clarify what the post was about, and what my views are on negative reviews.

I have since deleted the post. I didn't want to offend anyone, obviously! Truly not my intention. It was about haters in every corner of life. Whether it be someone hating on you because you like going to museums on the weekends instead of partying. Whether they're hating on you because of the music you like. Or where you live or where you go to school or where your dad works. I was hated on a lot in school. That's what the post was really about.

In fact, I've read a lot of really great negative reviews. Not because they hated the book (obviously!) but because they were able to articulate what they disliked about it, why they disliked it. In my opinion, negative reviews help me make the next books better. I can see where I went wrong, or maybe see what my weak points are on story crafting.

The post was originally inspired by reviewers that cross the line. I think Mike Mullin said it best in his responding post here.

"Let me be clear, there are real haters out there. There are reviewers who choose to comment on the author's weight instead of her work. Or her clothing. Or who write personally threatening things. I have author friends who've been victims of this kind of "review". And I used female pronouns for a reason; women seem far more likely to face this kind of internet hatred than men. I recognize that I've been fortunate not to have to face this sort of "review," and I have one message for anyone writing them: Seek psychiatric help."

This is what I was referring to. Not negative reviews as a whole. Some of the coolest book people I've met are book bloggers. And they didn't even necessarily like my book. Some of my closest friends are book bloggers and we met through Twitter and the genuine love of literature. That's the best part about my job, IMO.

So, I hope that helps clarify what the post was about, and what it wasn't about. That I am, in no way, saying all book bloggers who write negative book reviews, are haters. That would be silly and close-minded.

So, from the deepest part of my soul, I apologize if I offended anyone. I <3 book bloggers. I want book bloggers in my life. 

(A note: I am turning off comments on this post because I want this to be the last I say on this matter. My daughter is asking to go outside and play, and I think that's exactly what I need right now, after this. So I would rather this be my closing remark.)

MUCH LOVE BOOK PEOPLE!

Jenn