Upcoming Appearances and Blog Tour Info

So, try as I might to hold those finished copies tight, it seems that Silver shipped early to retailers, and in some places Silver is already available.  Three weeks early!  Needless to say, I am not at all prepared.  I do have some fun events coming up in the next few months that I wanted to share in case you get a chance to check them out.

APPEARANCES:

August 26, 2012 4:00 p.m.  Litquake, Palo Alto, CA

Appearing at Litquake with a panel of Young Adult authors including Katherine Longshore (GILT), Corrine Jackson (IF I LIE) and Veronica Rossi (UNDER THE NEVER SKY). We will be discussing our books and publication journey, and doing a signing. The event takes place at the Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303. Admission is free.

September 15, 2012 4:00 p.m. The Avid Reader, Davis, CA

SILVER launch party! Come celebrate the release of my debut novel at the Avid Reader in Davis, CA. I will be joined by Katherine Longshore (GILT), Veronica Rossi (UNDER THE NEVER SKY) and Donna Cooner (SKINNY).

September 29, 2012 2:00 p.m.  Bay Books, San Ramon, CA

Appearing with Katherine Longshore (GILT), Corrine Jackson (IF I LIE) and Veronica Rossi (UNDER THE NEVER SKY).

October 12, 2012  2:00 p.m.  NCIBA Annual Conference

Signing finished copies of Silver at the Flux booth during the Northern California Independent Booksellers Annual Conference in South San Francisco. 

October 24-26 Charlotte, NC

YOUR BEST BOOK Workshop. I'll be on a panel with fellow YA Muses Katherine Longshore (GILT), Veronica Rossi (UNDER THE NEVER SKY) and Donna Cooner (SKINNY) and Bret Ballou, discussing revision and our journey to publication. We are also planning to do a local signing so stay tuned for details.


BLOG TOUR:

Stop by the SILVER blog tour hosted by the fabulous Jaime and Patricia at 2 Chicks on Books:

9/1/2012- YA Sisterhood- Blake Interview
9/2/2012- Page Turners Blog hosted by Sophie- Lightening Round Q&A
9/3/2012- The Review News- Review
9/4/2012- Two Chicks On Books- Dream Cast Post
9/5/2012- What The Cat Read- Silver Playlist
9/6/2012- I'm a Bookshark- Top Ten Scenes from Silver
9/7/2012- Debbie's World Of Books- Guest Post
9/8/2012- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads *****Release Day**** Scene from Blake’s POV
9/9/2012- The Ravenous Reader- Interview and Review
9/10/2012- Taters Tall Tales- Review
9/11/2012- Books Over Boys- Interview
9/12/2012- Jean Book Nerd- Interview
9/13/2012- Fiktshun- Celtic Myth Guest Post
9/14/2012- Literary Exploration- Interview

Reality is Sweet and Sad and Scary

Every writer dreams of the day when a story becomes a book.  Since Flux first offered on Silver nearly two years ago, I knew this day would come.  But knowing it and experiencing it are two totally different things.

Today, the dream is a reality. I am holding a finished copy of Silver in my hands.  I don't know whether anyone will buy it.  I hope so.  I hope that some of them will like it.  But as I sit here today, one month before my debut novel is released, I don't want to think about sales and reviews and marketing. The reality of my dream is something completely unexpected to me. 

I am excited, of course.  Still, there is a bittersweet quality to publication that no one warned me about.  The reality is that this book is no longer going to be mine.  I am going to have to let it go out into the world, to succeed or fail on its own.   

Before that happens, I want to keep it close.  I want to remember that when I sat down to write this book, there was no expectation that anyone but me would ever see it.  This book was a labor of love, a place to explore characters and themes and stories that mattered to me.  It was a playground for me to escape to and let my imagination run loose. 

I want to remember how these characters took on a life of their own, surprising me in the most delightful and exciting ways.  I loved uncovering their secrets, especially the ones they tried to keep buried. 

I want to remember how difficult it was to keep going at times.  There were days when I thought I might never finish.  Still, I kept coming back to it, one weekend day at a time.  There were days when my heart bled onto the page, and days when I laughed out loud.  Everyday was a journey.

I want to remember that I didn't write this book for others.  I wrote it for me.  And whether it sells or not, whether people read it, whether they love it or hate it, one simple thing will always be true: I love this book.  I am proud of how far Silver has come from those quiet days when it was just me and these characters and a keyboard, feeling my way through the story.  But it is those days, when I wrote for the sheer joy of discovery, when pieces of me tangled up with the words, those days are the reason this book even exists.

In a month, Silver won't be mine anymore, it will belong to the marketplace.  I will let it go and hope for the best.  For now, I am holding my finished copies tight. 

My Favorite Quotes

I think every writer has a few lines or passages that they are especially attached to, those “darlings” that managed to stay in the manuscript.  In creating this list, I realized that I love most of my favorite passages not because they were particularly well written or poetic, but because they captured a character or a moment in a way that made everything fall into place for me as a writer.  I also realized that some of them contain spoilers, so I’ve tried to limit this list to quotes that don’t give too much away.  Occasionally, I have hidden the identity of one of the speakers in the quotes from Gold, so as not to spoil some things that happen in Silver.  The last caveat- all are subject to change on final publication.

“So you’re saying I’m a slut?”  Probably true at this point, but no way I’m going to stand for Joe insulting me in my own car.  It’s bad enough that I’m never going to get the hair gel off the ceiling.

– Brianna Paxton, Silver

I loved this moment because it made me laugh when I wrote it.  I had no idea Joe was so tall until he folded himself into Brianna’s compact car, and his pompadour smashed against the ceiling.

                                                                        ***

      I don’t mention the fact that I got kicked out of my dojo.  I never understood that one.  What was the point of teaching someone how to take out a knee if you weren’t actually allowed to do it? 

_         -Berry Fields, Spies and Prejudice

Berry is describing an incident in sixth grade where she beat up a boy who was harassing her best friend.  It’s a small piece of backstory that helped me understand Berry’s voice and personality.

                                                                  ***   

His breath comes harder as his hand finds the bare skin of my thigh.  “Do you want me to make you forget him?”

“Yes,” I say, though I barely remember who it is I’m supposed to be forgetting.

 – Brianna Paxton and [???], Gold

This moment came as a complete surprise to me.  The scene revealed so much about these two characters, and the guy in particular.  It was supposed to be a romantic scene, and it was, but it was also a scene full of raw emotion that I wasn’t expecting.

                                                            *** 

Tanner’s voice is low and warm next to my ear. “You know I can hear you, right? I’m standing right here.”

I clutch the latte to my chest, creating a makeshift shield.  “So you are.  What’s the matter?  Yogurt not your thing?”

“Something like that.”  He starts to smile.  “You think I’m hot?”

“You think you’re hot. There’s a difference.” 

-Berry Fields and Tanner Halston, Spies and Prejudice.

This moment really captured the push and pull of Berry and Tanner’s relationship for me.  Berry deliberately pushes him away because of her dislike of him, but there is an undercurrent of attraction too.

                                                                ***

5     Sparks of silver illuminate the green in his eyes.  “I know you, Brianna.  Not just what you are.   Who you are.  If you come after me, you’ll have a damn good reason for it.”

-  Blake Williams, Silver.

I love that Blake doesn’t sugarcoat the danger Brianna poses, but still wants to trust her on some level, even when she can’t trust herself.

                                                                      ***

            I laugh with him.  “You know for an evil killer, you’re kind of fun to hang out with.”

            “I could say the same thing about you.”

-Brianna Paxton and [???], Gold

            

 This exchange was fun, because Brianna needs a friend so badly at this moment in the story. I loved that she found one in such an unexpected place. 

                                                          ***

         The school day drags by in a haze of distraction.  I try to look forward to my A.P. biology and calculus classes, where everything will have an explanation.  A right answer.  When I was kicked out of middle school and put on independent study, math and science were my only friends.  They helped me make sense of the world again.  Today, they’re no help.  There’s no comfort in the Pythagorean Theorem, no solace in the Punnett square.  

‑Brianna Paxton, Silver

This passage is one of my favorites because Brianna’s ability to shut out the things she can’t explain is slipping.  It’s the moment in the story when Brianna can no longer hide from who she is.

So those are some of my favorite quotes from my manuscripts.  At least for today.

 

WINNERS!

Thanks to all who stopped by on the YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes!  I loved meeting you here, and it was great to see all the cover love for Silver. I hope you'll come back from time to time to share my latest news.  If you're interested in all things writing related, you can catch me on Wednesdays at the YA Muses blog where I blog about craft along with fellow Apocalypsies Donna Cooner, Katherine Longshore and Veronica Rossi, and the always entertaining Bret Ballou. 

Without further ado, the winners (courtesy of Random.org) are:

1.  Emily the Ninja Librarian (Comment No. 3)
2.  Becky Lejuene (Comment No. 6)
3. The second Joy (we had two) (Comment No. 74)

I'll be contacting each of you to get shipping addresses for you pre-orders of Silver.  Congratulations, and thanks again for participating in the Race!

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

6 3 74

Timestamp: 2012-05-09 03:30:56 UTC

Note: The numbers are generated left to right, i.e., across columns.

The YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes

Welcome to my little corner of the YAmazing Race! The Contest Runs from May 2, 2012 beginning at noon EST and runs to May 8, 2012.

THE CONTEST IS OFFICIALLY OVER.  THANKS TO THOSE WHO ENTERED
Don't forget to check the Apocalypsies blog on May 9th for winners of the YAmazing Race.  Winners of my giveaway will be announced here on May 9th!

The YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes is a fabulous blog hop featuring over 50 debut authors, and prize packs that include ARCs, gift certificates, swag, and more! If you haven’t yet been to the Apocalypsies website, please click here to start from the beginning and read the complete rules. Now on to the race!

SILVER by Talia Vance (Flux, September 8, 2012)

 Beauty is pointless when no one's looking.

Brianna Paxton has been invisible to guys since the eighth grade. She’s pretty enough, it’s just that no one bothers to look. There’s almost nothing that can’t be explained with science, and Brianna has a theory: she’s missing the pheromone that attracts people to one another. Brianna’s theory is shot to hell in one frozen, silver moment, when time stops and Blake Williams not only sees her, he recognizes something inside her that she’s been hiding from even herself.

Before Brianna fully understands who and what she is, she accidentally binds her soul to Blake. Forced to find a way to reconcile forbidden love and her bloody heritage, Brianna discovers that there's nothing pointless about her, and Blake may be in the most danger of all.

But wait there's more:  In addition to the great prizes you can win by completing the questions at the end of this leg of the race, I am going to give away three pre-orders of Silver to three lucky North American resident who leave a comment here! Leave a comment and then check back on May 9, to see if you are a winner!  And don't forget to add Silver to Goodreads.

The next stop on the race is HERE

GO FLYING GRIZZLIES!!!

SILVER Cover

In case you missed it, the cover for SILVER is out!  I love the way it evokes both Brianna's invisibility and her epic journey.  I just want to hug the designer.

Beauty is pointless when no one's looking.

Brianna Paxton has been invisible to guys since the eighth grade. She’s pretty enough, it’s just that no one bothers to look. There’s almost nothing that can’t be explained with science, and Brianna has a theory: she’s missing the pheromone that attracts people to one another. Brianna’s theory is shot to hell in one frozen, silver moment, when time stops and Blake Williams not only sees her, he recognizes something inside her that she’s been hiding from even herself.

Before Brianna fully understands who and what she is, she accidentally binds her soul to Blake. Forced to find a way to reconcile forbidden love and her bloody heritage, Brianna discovers that there's nothing pointless about her, and Blake may be in the most danger of all.