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Archive for June, 2011

Chill your hot summer days with some cool reads – or maybe shivery is the word – by Elevensies authors Randy Russell (Dead Rules) and Dawn Metcalf (Luminous). Congratulations Randy and Dawn!

(I hope you’ll find Breath of Angel to be a cool read too. In this last week of the virtual book tour, the character Iona is interviewed at The Book Butterfly, and Nova gives Breath of Angel four stars in a review at Nova-Psych.)

Now for chills and shivers:

 Dead Rules by Randy Russell: Billed as a slightly different paranormal romance, Dead  Rules is “a hilariously macabre story with a voice like no other. Jana and Michael were  destined to be together forever. Of that, Jana was sure. But Jana just died – in a bowling  accident. And when she finds herself in Dead School her carefully planned future unravels.  All she can think about is reuniting with Michael, so she decides to take matters into her  own hands and bring Michael to her. Nothing, not even handsome, mysterious Mars  Dreamcote and his irresistably warm touch, will distract Jana from making her dreams  come true.”

 

 Luminous by Dawn Metcalf: “When sixteen-year old Consuela discovers that she can  remove her skin, revealing a lustrous mother-of-pearl skeleton, she slips into a parallel  world known as the Flow, a place inhabited by archetypal teens with extraordinary  abilities. Crafting skins out of anything – air, water, feathers, fire – she is compelled to  save ordinary people from dying before their time. Yet now someone is murdering her new  friends, one by one, and Consuela finds herself the focus of an intricate plot to end the Flow  forever when all she really wants is to get back home, alive.”

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As promised, here’s a first look at the cover of Eye of the Sword, book 2 in the Angelaeon Circle. Now  that Breath of Angel is on the shelves, many of you are already reading the first chapter of  book 2, which appears as a preview at the end of book 1. Eye of the Sword is scheduled to  release on March 13, 2012, but the cover is already on display at several book sites online.  Why so soon? Because in order to get the book on the shelves for you next March, sales  reps must learn about the book and present it to bookstores and libraries, who have  to  consider it and order it – all of which takes time.

Meanwhile, I’m still on virtual tour with Breath of Angel. Kristen gives Breath of Angel a  five-rose rating in a review at Bookworming in the 21st Century and Kari at A Good Addiction interviews me with some quirky – and delightful – questions.

Before I sign off, a reminder for those of you in the Memphis area: I’ll be appearing Tuesday morning (June 28) on “News Channel 3 Live at 9″ and then at a book signing Tuesday evening, 6:00 pm at Booksellers at Laurelwood (387 Perkins Road Extended). Come if you can! I’d love to see you there.

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June 24, 2011  Barnes and Noble Cool Springs, Franklin, TN

Karyn reads an excerpt.

Karyn signs "Breath of Angel."

Robbie Bryan, Community Relations Manager, B&N

Karyn tells how she wrote "Breath of Angel."

 

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Fantasy can be edgy and dark. Very dark. Occasionally I’ll read a wonderfully written fantasy that makes me literally shiver in my comfy chair. If the darkness feels too deep, I don’t enjoy the experience and don’t usually read those authors again, even if I appreciate the quality of writing and see truth in the story.

As I write my own YA fantasy, I sometimes feel I’m walking a tightrope across the darkness. To one side is the overly edgy darkness, too dark to fall into. To the other side is a watered-down darkness so shallow that it tempts me to pull my punches and avoid the real conflicts my characters must face. Why must they face the dark? So they can move through it to the light. Think of it this way: We shiver and catch our breath in the dark, and when we finally make it to the light, we take a deep breath of relief. A deep breath is literally inspiration. The struggle between darkness and light in fantasy can be truly inspiring.

Some scenes in Breath of Angel may give readers the shivers if they’ve never read anything darker. The same scenes may seem tame if a reader is familiar with the darker novels on the shelves today. I suspect I’ll always be walking the tightrope, trying to achieve a balance. Trying to find and provide inspiration.

To read more about my tightrope in Breath of Angel, visit Through the Tollbooth, where the discussion this week centers around taboos in YA fiction.

Plus, Breath of Angel gets a 4.5 star review at The Book Cellar.

And discover what I was reading as I grew up (including favorite book recommendations) at Lost for Words.

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To celebrate the launch of Breath of Angel today, I’m giving away an angel gift basket. To enter for a chance to win, go to the Elevensies site and comment on my entry there.

The gift basket is filled with angel goodies, including  an  angel wing/heart necklace, an angel figurine, and  of  course an autographed copy of Breath of  Angel.  (Contest ends Sunday night, June 26.)

And for another treat, read an interview of a character  from the novel, the Archon Seaspinner, at Just Another  Book Addict.

Happy launch day! Enjoy!

 

P.S. Remember: If you live in or near Nashville, you’re  invited to join me for my launch/release party this  Friday night, June 24, at 7 pm at Barnes & Noble Cool  Springs/Brentwood. I’ll be autographing copies of the novel and giving away another gift basket like the one you see here!

 

Where to buy Breath of Angel:

Waterbrook Multnomah

Flying Pig Bookstore

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Berean Christian Bookstores

Books-A-Million

Borders

Christianbook.com

Cokesbury

Family Christian Stores

Lifeway

Mardel

Parable Christian Stores

Powell’s

The Tattered Cover

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On the eve of the release of Breath of Angel (yes, it’s tomorrow!), here’s a scavenger hunt for you:

Who has been my best supporter? Who is my agent? Discover the answers in an interview at Night Owl.

What role do I think angels will play in the end of the world? Find out at the 2012 author debut site Apocalypsies.

Do I prefer sweet or sour? Pen or pencil? I reveal my “this-or-that” choices at Novapsych.

And on today’s virtual blog tour for Breath of Angel see Tara’s review at hobbitsies.

Enjoy!

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“It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, ‘How good or how bad am I?” — Erma Bombeck

Recently my fellow debut authors and I have been sharing our views of reviews. It’s amazing how a good review can make your day, while a bad review can erase the good one, ruin your whole week, and derail your writing schedule. But with so many blogs and reviewers around these days, critiques hit from all directions. Some love a book passionately, others dislike it with a vengeance, others criticize but say they’ll definitely read the next book by that author.

One writer friend recently bemoaned a bad review, and I told her this story: A tour guide was leading a group through a modern art exhibit in a museum. At one painting, a man in the group squinted his eyes, scowled and said, “That’s the worst painting I’ve ever seen. A monkey could have painted it.” To which the guide replied, “It’s not the painting that’s being judged here, sir.”

A review reveals the reviewer. What does the reviewer like? What does the reviewer hate? And why? They prefer more romance. Or less romance. They want a strong message in the book, and they can’t find it. Or they want no message in the book, but they think there is one.

About Breath of Angel, reviewer #1 said, “This is the best Christian fantasy I have ever read.” Reviewer #2 (independently of #1) said, “This is not Christian fantasy.” Ah, the roller coaster. Who is right: reviewer #1 or reviewer #2? Want to know what the author thinks? Drum roll please. Reviewer #2 is right. Breath of Angel is not a Christian fantasy. Never was, never will be. I wrote it for the general market. Reviewer #2 gets it, but I don’t think she’s happy about it. Reviewer #1 missed it, but is delighted.

I’ve learned by experience that reading reviews of my own books puts me on a roller coaster I don’t need to ride. So as a general rule, I read reviews of my own books only if my agent or PR rep sends me a specific review and says I need to read it.

Roll on, roller coaster, roll on without me. I’m busy riding the Tilt-a-Whirl plot of my next story.

 

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A couple of treats for you today:

At First Page Panda read the first page of Breath of Angel and comment for a chance to win the giveaway of the novel – not an ARC, but the real thing!

Try another Elevensie author’s debut this week. Congratulations to Sonia Gensler on the release of her first YA novel, The Revenant:

 ”When Willie arrives in Indian Territory, she knows only one thing: no one can find out who she really is.  To escape a home she doesn’t belong in anymore, she assumes the name of a former classmate and accepts  a teaching job at the Cherokee Female Seminary. But her pupils are the daughters of the Cherokee elite—  educated  and more wealthy than she. What’s more, a student drowned in the river  last year,  and Willie’s  room is the very room the  dead girl  slept in. The students say her spirit haunts it. Willie doesn’t believe in  ghosts, but when  strange things start happening, even she has to admit that the revenant may be trying to  tell her something.”

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Want to see a book launch? There’s no rocketship fire and smoke and rumble, but it’s exciting anyway. So if you live in or near Nashville (or want to visit), you’re invited to see Breath of Angel launch and start its life on bookstore shelves. (If you’ve followed this blog since its inception last year, congratulations! You’re now witnessing the final stages of the manuscript-to-bookstore journey.) Here are the launch details:

Barnes & Noble, Cool Springs/Brentwood, 7:00 PM, Friday night, June 24. I’ll do a brief reading from the book, sign and personalize copies for you, and give away a basket of “angel” goodies. Bring a teen group or your reading group or just yourself and a friend. I’d love to meet you there.

Meanwhile, Breath of Angel is still on virtual tour. Today’s stop is an author interview I did at Missy Reads and Reviews. You can join me on tour every day this month with Teen Book Scene.

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  Fifth stop on the Breath of Angel blog tour lists my top ten songs. (That was a hard one – I like all kinds of music. But I chose ten.) Curious? Visit the Reading Room.

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