I Will Show You the Awesome IN A HANDFUL OF DUST

Tomorrow, September 23rd, is a special day, and not just because it’s the day that Frodo leaves Bag End in The Fellowship of the Ring.  Tomorrow, you will be able to get your hot little hands on Mindy McGinnis’s IN A HANDFUL OF DUST.  You will be able to crack open the spine.  You will be able to smell the freshly printed pages.  And even better, you will get to find out what happens to Lynn, our favorite rifle-toting badass from NOT A DROP TO DRINK.

Six Additional Reasons You Want What This Book’s Got:

1. It’s like The Road for teens and also with more shooting.

2. Lynn and Lucy prove that female friendship can be just as complex and riveting as any love story.

3. It’s a journey story!  Sort of like The Fellowship of the Ring but with more shooting.  Or The Gunslinger but with young women instead of dudes and also more shooting.

4. The parched American Midwest is bleak, beautiful and unforgettable.

5. Tons of gorgeous poetry allusions:

6. There is a Plot Twist.  But I can’t tell you what it is.  But it made me do this:

Then, by the end:

So, in conclusion: IN A HANDFUL OF DUST = AMAZEPANTS.

If you're extra curious, here's the blurb:

Fans of classic frontier survival stories as well as readers of dystopian literature will enjoy this futuristic story about an epic cross-country journey. In a Handful of Dust is set ten years after the first novel, Not a Drop to Drink, as a dangerous disease strikes the community where teenage Lucy lives. When her adoptive mother, Lynn, takes Lucy away from their home and friends in order to protect her, Lucy struggles to figure out what home means. During their journey west to find a new life, the two face nature's challenges, including hunger, mountains, and deserts.

New York Times bestselling author Michael Grant says Not a Drop to Drink is a debut "not to be missed," and this companion title is full of Mindy McGinnis's evocative, spare language matched with incredible drama and danger. In a Handful of Dust is perfect for fans of Partials, Enclave, and Legend.

And here's where you can find it:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Indiebound

Book Depository

Independence Day!

The Fourth of July is one of my all-time favorite holidays. I'm patriotic, and there's something nostalgic about celebrating your heritage, spending time with family and friends, and remembering the fight for freedom. I hope everyone has an amazing holiday weekend here in the US, and everyone who isn't can find time to enjoy themselves too!

Today, we're talking aliens and freedom. Specifically the movie Independence Day. I love this movie -- we own it on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray -- because it came out 17 years ago when my husband and I were first dating. I think going to see it in the theater was one of our first handful of dates. So I have memories there, all entwined with the movie.

Second, and this needs no explanation, Will Smith. I mean, come on. As a teenage fan of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, anything with Will Smith was going to be viewed. (I may or may not still have this attitude.)

 I also really like Jeff Goldblum, and I thought he added a layer of comedy to what could've been a scary, alien movie. Okay, it was sort of a scary, alien movie. But the cast of characters from Randy Quaid to Bill Pullman, really pulled off a great movie, I think.

And last year, Twentieth Century Fox announced that they're making a sequel. I think that may be the longest time ever between sequels, but don't quote me on that! The second movie won't come out until next Independence Day (2015), and it won't have Will Smith in it, but still. I think I'll be seeing it.

With the recent emergence of aliens in YA fiction (I'm thinking specifically of The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey), I think it's a great time to be in the extraterrestrial business. So yay! More alien lifeforms!

What did you think of Independence Day? Do you think you'll see the sequel? 

Introduction to Truth Launch Week!

Sequels have been on my mind lately as I do battle with the edits for ASHEN WINTER, the sequel to my debut novel, ASHFALL. My latest plan for learning to write a sequel? I’m going to drive to Bloomington for the Truth launch party (Friday night from 7 to 10, be there!), corner Julia, and generally make an annoyance of myself until she agrees to give me a three hour seminar on writing the perfect sequel.

Because here’s the thing, Julia’s accomplished the nigh-impossible—writing a sequel that’s even better than her excellent debut. Movie directors can’t do it (I’ll give you The Empire Strikes Back, but outside of that? Watchable sequels are thin on the ground). Most authors—even the very best—can’t live up to their original work (Little Men, anyone? Prince Caspian?).

Julia achieves this feat by deepening and complicating Nina’s story. In XVI, sex is a threat that looms with Nina’s sixteenth birthday—when her dystopian society will literally brand her a sex-teen.  In Truth, sex is something to be both feared and enjoyed, making Nina’s inner struggle more complex and relatable. Similarly, the world-building deepens in Truth—we learn how the Governing Council formed—and as a consequence the book feels even more plausible than XVI.

What I’m trying to say is this—read these books. For one thing, they’re enjoyable: XVI is something of a dystopian mystery, Truth more of a thriller. But they’re also important. Like all great dystopian fiction, their real subject matter is present day society, our tragically waxing rape culture. Something is wrong when the word “rape” is used casually in many quarters, while the word “feminist” is unutterable except as a perverse portmanteau, “feminazi.”  Julia Karr’s fine work is, I hope, part of the antidote.

Where to Buy:

Indiebound: Truth/XVI

B&N: Truth/XVI

Amazon: Truth/XVI

Connect with Julia:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Sequels Week--Go For the Companion

Okay, so there's been a lot of discussion this week about writing a sequel. I especially liked Angie's assurances that writing book 2 is hard. I appreciated Jeff's list of questions to ask to see if there's sequel potential to a story. Julia reminded us that we can't change horses mid-space ship. Or something like that. ;) And Beth gave some great advice in writing that pesky sequel as fast as possible.

I'm here to say: Go the companion route. It's so much easier. (Ha!)

But seriously, companion novels are almost new novels. You can explore the world you've already created (and it doesn't have to be a dystopian or fantasy world, could just be the way you've set up your high school or whatever) with new people! Shiny new people.

And those shiny new people can have a story of their own. I'm telling you, the companion novel is the way to go about writing your sophomore novel. Because if you think the sophomore slump only happens in college, think again.

I think companion novels that have sequential elements are the best of both worlds. Think THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES as a companion to THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH. We get to see the MC from the first book in the second. The story is advanced a little bit more, amidst a new plot and new characters.

Things to think about:
1. Is there room in your world for growth? If so, you could so companion it up. I especially like going to different cities/places in the storyworld in a companion novel. Like, how cool would it be to read a book that takes place in The Capitol--the heart of the storyworld in THE HUNGER GAMES?

2. Can my MC realistically carry a second book? If no, then a companion is for you. You don't need that MC anymore. Sure, they can show up, even be a major player, but they don't have to be the shining star.

3. Have I told the whole story already? Angie sort of touched on this yesterday, but you have to really examine if you've told the whole story. If you have, then a companion novel could work for you.

So what do you think? Would you go the companion route? What are the advantages? The disadvantages?

Sequels Week: Lessons (so far) from Writing The Forgetting Curve

I didn’t start out writing Memento Nora as part of a series or trilogy. It wasn’t until well into the revision process did I even come up with the idea for the sequel.  And it’s all my editor’s fault.

She asked an innocent question about the ending. Would Nora believe her mother?  (Hopefully that's not too spoilerish.)

So I started The Forgetting Curve with that scene in mind.  And the first version was all about getting the characters back to the same point (and farther), just by a different route, as they’d gotten to in Memento Nora. In other words, could they become the same people—(spoiler alert) if they’d forgotten everything they learned the first time around? [<--highlight to see this bit.]

Thank goodness my editor wasn’t buying that idea. Literally.

That journey had been told, for better or worse, in Memento Nora, and the characters and story needed to move on to a new level in subsequent books.  (My words, not hers.)

So I revised (and am still revising). The overall plot (the outer story) hasn’t changed too drastically, but the way it’s being told has—and it’s good thing. I think.  New characters have come to the forefront to tell this piece of the story, which has meant a lot of work, but hopefully it’ll be worth it. The inner story isn’t a rehash.

Other important things I’ve learned (so far) in writing this sequel:

• It’s much harder to write book 2.  Book 1 is the story your editor fell in love with enough to buy.  And now she (as well as everyone else who’s read the book) have their own expectations about what should happen in book 2. It’s not a bad thing to surprise people, but just be aware that others will have preconceptions about this book. Plus you’ll need to write and revise it much faster than you did book 1 in order to get book 2 out within a year. Hand holding time is over.
  
  
• Don’t assume the reader has read or remembers book 1. You need to strike a balance between new story and back story (aka book 1). (But do not go overboard on the back story!) The reader needs to be pulled into the action of the new story while being brought up to speed (just enough) on the old one. 
  
  
• You need to deepen the overall (outer story) stakes.  Besides revisiting characters and a world hopefully your readers like, your reader will expect more out this book. It needs advance the storyline in the grand scheme of things.

 I'm sure I'll be learning many more important lessons with this book. 

Anyone else have lessons learned to share? Or, as a reader, what do you like to see in a sequel?

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