Adorkable Double Cover Reveal: How to Seduce a Band Geek and How to Hook a Book Worm

If you haven’t read any books by Cassie Mae, you are seriously missing out. She’s one of my Swoon Romance sisters, but I would fangirl over her anyway. Her books are just that good. Sweet and nerdy and huggable. The first book in her “How To” series is How to Date a Nerd (you can read my review here). And I am super excited to share the covers for books 2 and 3.

How to Seduce a Band
Geek (How To #2)

by Cassie Mae

Release Date: 05/06/14

Swoon Romance

Summary from Goodreads:

Sierra Livingston’s got it bad for her sister’s best friend, Levi
Mason—the boy who carries his drumsticks in his pocket, marches with the school’s
band, and taps his feet to whatever beat runs through his head. Sierra racks
her brain for ways to impress the sexy drummer, but the short skirts and
bursting cleavage don’t seem to cut it.

 

When Sierra gets paired with Levi’s sister, Brea, for a mentorship program,
they strike a deal. In exchange for Sierra keeping her mouth shut about Brea
ditching the program, Brea lets Sierra dig for more info on Levi to help get
the guy of her dreams.

But when Sierra discovers Levi no longer plays the drums, his family has moved
into a trailer, and he’s traded in his Range Rover for a baby blue moped,
Sierra’s not sure if she can go through with violating his privacy. She’ll have
to find the courage to ask him straight out—if he’s willing to let her in—and
explore other ways to seduce the school’s band geek.

How to Hook a Bookworm (How To #3)

by Cassie Mae

Release Date: TBD

Swoon Romance

 

Summary from Goodreads:

It’s Brea Mason’s sixteenth birthday, and she has three wishes. 1.
Be magically eighteen like the rest of her friends. 2. Grow a money tree for
her family whose financial problems are well known about town.  3.
Overcome her test anxiety before she flunks out of every class.

 

But one day later, she’s still sixteen, her family’s money worries
abound, and she’s no closer to passing than she was the day before!

Then a very sexy transfer student—with gobs of cash—shows up. Brea
figures she has a better chance of burping up glitter than attracting the new
guy, but he seems extremely interested in her.

 

Just when Brea thinks things are looking up, her report card
arrives marked with four giant F’s. Enter resident bookworm and Brea’s loyal
friend, Adam Silver. If he can’t help Brea pass, no one can.

 

Even with Adam’s help, Brea can’t handle the mounting pressure,
and finds an escape with the new student who knows little about her
problems. 

But spending oodles of time with her boyfriend strains the
friendship with Adam she relies so heavily on. Faced with losing the only real
comfort and support she has ever had, Brea starts to wonder if she can hook a
bookworm before it’s too late. 

Link to book one:

(cover linked to Goodreads)

About the Author

Amazon multi-category
and international bestselling author of HOW TO DATE A NERD, HOW TO SEDUCE
A BAND GEEK and HOW TO HOOK A BOOKWORM

Cassie Mae is a nerd to
the core from Utah, who likes to write about other nerds who find love. Her
angel children and perfect husband fan her and feed her grapes while she clacks
away on the keyboard. Then she wakes up from that dream world and manages to
get a few words on the computer while the house explodes around her. When she’s
not writing, she’s spending time with the youth in her community as a volleyball
and basketball coach, or searching the house desperately for chocolate.

Cassie Mae is an
Amazon.com bestselling author of the teen contemporary romance novel REASONS I
FELL FOR THE FUNNY FAT FRIEND, which she self-published. In addition to publishing
with Swoon Romance, she is published by Random House Flirt.

Author Links:

    

Cover Reveal Organized by:

Writer Recharge: When Starting Over is the Right Thing

So last week, I wrote about my freak out over a crit that wasn’t really that bad. (I’m just neurotic and it felt much bigger than it probably really was.) This week, I embraced the challenge of making my opening stronger. In my one-on-one with Nova she said, “I know you have a better first line in you.” And I am grateful to her (and all the other #YADjerassi writers) for making me rework this.

I now have a new first paragraph that really speaks to the heart of the story (not to mention a revamped whole first chapter!). And it gave me the final two lines of my book as well, even though I haven’t written that scene yet (again, thanks to Nova’s workshop where she read from Imaginary Girls to show how the end should reflect the beginning). Here’s how it starts now…

Eliot James believed in fate. She believed in it as if it was a physical thing she could make a wish on and then tuck into her pocket for safe keeping. While everyone else in the classroom took turns predicting what their evaluations would say, she lazily sketched their faces on her folder, capturing their anxiety and excitement and forced confidence in precise detail.

Music pumped from the earbuds of someone a row or two behind her. Someone else shuffled papers as if going over the transcripts and birth certificates they were all required to bring for testing would somehow help them get the placement they wanted. But the incantations and charms they’d been taught at Fuller Academy—which masqueraded as a normal private school to the rest of the town—weren’t really a factor. Each student was born with a gift, and before the end of the day, Eliot would know for certain if she would spend the rest of her life killing people or saving them.

Rolling back the cuff on her creamy leather jacket, she checked her watch. Two hours had passed as the room slowly emptied around her. She thought she’d have been called by now.

She swiveled in her chair when a knitting needle poked her shoulder. Her best friend, Amelia, leaned back, still pointing the needle in Eliot’s direction. Amelia’s eyes were so dark it was hard to distinguish her pupils from her irises.

“Do you think anyone’s ever cheated on the evaluation?” Amelia asked. She focused on the yarn pooling in her lap despite the interest in her voice.

I haven’t added as much to my overall word count this week as I’d hoped, but the new words I have written have been fundamental to the story.

Also, my entry for my adult magical realism novel (retitled by Edith while at Djerassi to WISHES TO NOWHERE) in the Cupid’s Literary Connection Blind Speed Dating Contest (#CLCBSD) got the max of two partial requests (100 pages) on day two. So, I’m calling this a good week.

Cover Reveal: Just Breathe by Tamara Mataya

JUST BREATHE

By Tamara Mataya

A New Adult Romance

Releasing May 2014

Published by Swoon Romance

Twenty-one-year-old Elle Granger’s boyfriend broke up with her like a coward. He moved to another city without so much as a “goodbye.” Devastated and embarrassed, Elle told friends the break-up was mutual and she endured the heartbreaking split without support from the people she’s closest with. Instead, she embraced her librarian job as therapy and spent her nights medicated by a thick cloud of pot smoke. With her lungs, and heart, screaming for a break, Elle quits smoking cold turkey. Just when she’s about to ask for support from her friends, and let them in on the truth of Jason’s humiliating betrayal, her best friend moves to Spain.

Enter sexy-as-hell library patron Dominic, who literally knocks Elle off her feet during a memorable first encounter. Can he help her forget Jason’s very existence? He can sure try, and Elle is more than ready to let him. Dominic makes Elle feel wanted and special, and puts effort into coming up with dates that don’t set off her Synaesthesia. Just when Elle is starting to feel whole again, Jason returns, determined to reunite. His effusive apology and reasons for leaving are a balm to her battered ego, but she rebuffs his attention.

But nothing good can last forever, and Elle catches Dominic in a devastating lie. How could she have been so wrong about both Jason and Dominic? Is letting Jason back into her heart a safe bet since he has already proven he can’t be trusted? The wrong choice could see Elle’s happy ending go up in smoke. But when your only choices are the devils you know, all you can do is JUST BREATHE.

About the Author

Tamara Mataya is currently a librarian; she lurked there for so long recommending books to patrons and shushing people, that she suspects they only hired her so it would be less creepy. Now she’s armed with a name tag, and a thin veneer of credibility. She’s also a musician with synaesthesia – which isn’t an issue until someone plays a wrong note, which makes her want to squirm inside out. It makes for a good live show.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Cover Reveal: Falling By Design

Falling by Design by Valia Lind publishes on March 12. Check out the summary below:

Brooklynn Summers has a plan for her life: graduate from high school, get into a top fashion school, prove to her family that she’s not a failure. She wishes someone in her life understood her need to create because her parents sure don’t support her dreams, her sister hates her, and the deadlines are soon approaching.

Enter Grayson Banks.

There are a few things in life Brooklynn can’t stand: mismatched patterns, cheap polyester, and Grayson. No boy has ever publicly humiliated Brooklynn like Grayson has. When he suddenly moved away in eighth grade, Brooklynn happily wished him good riddance. But on the first day of senior year, Grayson comes back, with his piercing blue eyes and a smile that melts icebergs, he is not exactly the boy Brooklynn remembers. She quickly realizes that Grayson’s intentions have completely shifted, but she’s not sure if she can put their past behind her.

Grayson understands Brooklynn’s creative ambitions and he devises a plan to showcase her work to the world. When the two agree to work together, suddenly, there is more than just fabric paint that’s having a chemical reaction to its environment. Brooklynn cannot help but feel pulled into Grayson’s arms, but memories and misunderstandings surface, putting in danger whatever small comradeship these two childhood enemies have constructed.

Can Brooklynn overcome her own insecurities, finally making her dreams come true? Even a dream she didn’t know she had.

You can find Valia online at:

Blog: http://valialind.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ValiaLind

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/journeyofadreamer

Writer Recharge: A Meltdown and Refusing to Give Up

So, last week I felt in really good shape to meet my Writer Recharge goals. I’d had a number of trusted beta readers read through the first couple chapters of my WIP in preparation for my YA workshop at Djerassi. They all loved it and only had minor things I needed to fix.

Then came my workshop. The group liked my story—loved the idea of it actually—and really liked how I handled chapter 2. But once one writer made a suggestion to change an important part of chapter 1, everyone seemed to jump on board with rewriting the story. I know I should’ve been flattered that they cared enough about the story to want it to be as good as they thought it could be, but I walked away from the critique feeling like shit. Like the whole opening of the book was wrong and needed to change, which would change the arc of the characters and the story and the almost 60,000 words that came after. And I couldn’t understand why no one else who’d read it hadn’t told me how bad it was.

Then I went to my room and cried. And cried. And cried some more.

It was by no means a bad critique. The other writers were so encouraging and professional and downright lovely, not just about my pages, but about everyone’s pages all week. I couldn’t have been with a more supportive, wonderful group. I just didn’t know how to take their suggestions and make them fit with my vision of the story. I was overwhelmed. And the self doubt took advantage of me for a bit.

But what got me out of my funk and back to the keyboard was thinking about the Writer Recharge goal I made to finish the first draft this month. I didn’t want to let something that was mostly in my head keep me from reaching that goal. Or from finishing a story I love.

So, I went on a hike with Rebekah, who talked through some of the group’s ideas and then switched to fangirling and swooning over The Raven Boys when I wasn’t ready to face revisions yet, and I talked with some of the other girls over a couple glasses of wine and started to feel better about what I needed to do. And then I had my one-on-one with Nova. She was so patient and wonderful and laid out my first chapter on a table and helped me figure out what suggestions would work with my story and how I could change a few small things in the opening and rework one scene to add in some more tension. And I left that meeting with a new plan that fit so well with the story I wished I had thought of it sooner.

I still have about 10,000-12,000 more words to finish the draft and an opening chapter to revise/gut/rewrite, but I’m not willing to let this story go. Not now. Hopefully not ever.

Yield to Whim

Inspirational sign as you drive down to the Djerassi house/barn.

To say that my YA Writers Workshop and Retreat at Djerassi with Nova Ren Suma was inspiring is almost an insult. It was inspiring and encouraging and peaceful and productive and mind blowing and delightful and so many other things.

The mornings were filled with sitting in the barn watching the fog roll in and out while we critiqued each other’s work, offered words of encouragement and praise for the sheer talent within the group; the afternoons with holing up in our rooms or the barn or some scenic spot outside to write. At night, we gathered in the living room of the house with glasses of wine and full bellies to listen to readings of fairytales and ghost stories and dystopian worlds and magical abilities.

Fog-drenched path from the house to the barn.

We shared stories of querying and working with agents and getting book deals. We talked about our cats/dogs/kids and favorite books and our progress on our WIPs. We became friends and instant fangirls for each other.

Left to right: Zoe, Me, Rebekah, Elle

And when I had a meltdown about the opening of my WIP and cried for hours because I didn’t know how to incorporate all of the excited ideas they had for my book, they wouldn’t let me give up. They listened to my self-doubt and reminded me that they loved the story and just wanted to see it live up to its potential, and in Nova’s case, sat down with a print out of my pages and calmly talked me through how the revisions could easily be handled by moving this bit here and taking out that part there and adding in this one small thing that would tie it all together so nicely.

My writing space and outline for my WIP.

And I came home feeling invigorated and excited about making this book into something they would all love.

Everything about this past week—from the enthusiasm and kinship felt from and with the other writers, to the romantic fog that hugged the top of the mountain, to the sculptures tucked into redwoods and mud-slicked hills, to late-night wine-fueled talks about books and life—made me so incredibly grateful that I have stories in my head and people to share them with.

Writer Recharge: That Time I Finally Figured Out How To Finish My WIP

I’m am a goal-oriented person. And I am also seriously lazy when I want to be. An odd combo to be sure. But it means that I don’t have much willpower when it comes to putting down someone else’s book to work on my own. Especially when it’s a book I’ve been waiting a year for and is the end of a series that I’ve enjoyed the hell out of.

That’s what I was up against this past week, the first week of Writer Recharge. Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi released on Tuesday. And you know what? Tuesday morning, instead of opening my Kindle to start the book I per-ordered months ago, I sat down with my WIP’s outline and scribbled down changes and new ideas and finally concepted how to end the book. Not just an overall idea of where it ends, but a description of the last scene and the few scenes leading up to it. Then the next morning when I had only 25% left of Ignite Me (because my willpower is not that strong and I read all of Tuesday evening), I wrote part of a new scene (!!!).

I still have a long way to go. Roughly 20,000 words (give or take, well more give than take, 5,000 words). But I’m committed to my Writer Recharge goals this month. I’m committed to this book. And I’m excited as hell to get back to work on it.

Love Is In The Air (And In My Books)

After I graduated college (with a BFA and departmental honors in creative writing), I had a VERY difficult time writing. I’d started a novel somewhere around junior year and though I was really proud of what I had written so far, I couldn’t seem to get any more words on the page. I let other things take up my time and my brain space. And I didn’t care that I wasn’t writing because I honestly had no idea what I wanted to say.

All I knew was that I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer. And in my mind that meant no romance, no young adult, no anything that wasn’t the literary style I’d spent 3 years in school studying and trying to write.

So, I wrote NOTHING.

And then one day (close to five years later), I had a major revelation that has changed everything about my writing. I LOVE romance. I want to read about swoony boys and the girls who fall in love with them. Who struggle to find their happily ever after. That’s just who I am. A BIG FAT HOPEFUL ROMANTIC. And I was keeping that part of myself from one of the most personal aspects of my life. (I see you rolling your eyes at me. It’s okay. I totally deserve it. I’d roll my eyes at me too if it didn’t make me look bat-shit crazy.) But once I allowed myself to write what I wanted, what I loved, I haven’t been able to stop. Sure, my books might make some of my former teachers and classmates roll their eyes, but romance novels aren’t the number one selling genre for nothing. And I am damn proud of what I write and what I read.

So, in honor of Valentine’s Day and all my fellow lovers of romance out there, I’m participating in a romance book giveaway. We’ve got two prize packs available: YA and NA/Adult with some seriously swoony books. (Yes, you can enter both!)

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win the YA e-book bundle!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for the NA/Adult e-book bundle!

A Week of Writing (And a Little Fangirling too)

Tomorrow I leave for my Djerassi YA Writer’s Retreat. I was beyond thrilled (and stunned) when I was accepted into the Djerassi program this past fall. The competition was fierce. I know this for a fact because I know a number of other writers who applied as well. And since I adore them and their writing, I knew it was going to be tough to get in. And that if I did, I’d be in very good company.

As it turns out, there were so many applicants, that Djerassi asked Nova Ren Suma to come back in June to lead a second retreat. My CPs and I were split up between the two groups. But tomorrow along with going to California for an amazing week of writing and talking about books and critiquing each other’s work, I also get to hang out with my very dear friend (or as M calls her, my girl crush) Rebekah. There will be copious amounts of excited flailing, laughing, fangirling over books (The Raven Cycle books! The Lynburn Legacy books! Eleanor & Park!) and characters (our own–Math! Paul! Alistair! Aiken!–and other people’s too–see those in the previously mentioned books) and authors (Nova!) and writing and plotting and working through our books in person instead of just online or through texts. (There will also whiskey.)

And there will be serious amounts of learning. From Nova and the other amazing writers who are going with us. I plan to put all of that knowledge and experience to good use on my WIP while I’m there. To come home with a manuscript that is thousands of words heavier and the determination to finish the first draft by the end of the month. And I will be grateful for every second of it.

Writer Recharge (AKA: Getting My Sh*t Together)

So, I saw this on my friend/CP Rebekah’s blog and decided this was exactly what I needed. This time last year I had a full first draft of The Art of Breaking. And not just a draft, but a draft that I LOVED. And a draft I finished in only 2.5 months. This year my NaNo project is still in progress. Very SLOW progress. And I needed something to get my ass in gear. Which brings me to…

From the kickass organizers:

January is in the books and you’ve had to deal with:
a) polar vortices
b) ice storms
c) mountains of snow
d) gray skies and general malaise
e) all of the above

We thought our writer friends might be in need of a little boost. A jump start, if you will. A recharge.

We’d like to invite you to join us for Writer Recharge 2014, a month-long motivational challenge similar to last summer’s Ready. Set. Write! So many of us benefited from setting goals, connecting with other writers, and social media-based accountability. So, hey, let’s do it again! Whether you’re delighting next to the crackling fireplace of a Shiny New Idea with a warm cup of tea and a sleepy puppy at your feet or spinning out on the ice-covered roads of revisions in an attempt to avoid the snow-packed ditch, we want to write with you! What do you want to accomplish this month? Hit a daily word count? Revise a certain number of pages or chapters each week? Complete a draft by the end of the month? Let’s get this party started!

Writer Recharge 2014

Your hosts and cheerleaders: Katy Upperman, Alison Miller, Liz Parker, Elodie Nowodazkij, and Sara Biren

The timeline:

• First week of February: Post your goals for the month on your blog, website, or Twitter. Use the hashtag #WriterRecharge. Link your blog post on Sara’s blog.
• Every Monday in February: Update your progress via your blog or Twitter. Link your blog posts on Sara’s Monday posts.
• Throughout the month: Use the hashtag to connect with other writers, have writing parties, and cheer one another on!
• February 28: Post your final update via your blog or twitter.
• Anyone who uses the hashtag or links their blog posts will be entered to win one of five query or 3-chapter critiques.

My goals for February:

• Finish the first draft of How to Take a Life (hey, it’s only another 20,000-ish words; totally doable, right?)
• Seriously flesh out the plot for Cupcakes 2 (’cause Harper and Mason need to have their own happy ending)
• Stop stressing over agents who have my manuscripts (repeat: stressing doesn’t help a damn thing!)
• Soak up all the awesome of the Djerassi YA Writer’s Retreat with Nova Ren Suma (and Rebekah!)