Tag Archives: Veronica Rossi

YA Series with intrigue, action, and suspense… Oh my!

11 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in Books, Mystery, Reading, Thriller, Young Adult

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As the days get shorter and the nights colder, there’s nothing better than curling up next to a warm fire with a good book. Preferably a story that sweeps you away with intrigue and catches your breath with excitement. “I’m in,” you say, “got any suggestions?”

As a matter of fact…there are three fantastic young adult (YA) series that may have surreptitiously slipped under your radar…

Beautiful Idols series

By Alyson Noel

The BEAUTIFUL IDOLS series is a sizzling contemporary Hollywood noir mystery, with an authentic cast of culturally diverse teenagers. UNRIVALED, the first in the series, hooked me from the start and it was tough waiting for BLACKLIST and INFAMOUS. You don’t have to wait, though. You can read all three back to back!

The mystery unfolds as a group of celebrity-seeking teens are handpicked by the owner of Los Angeles’ trendiest night clubs to promote his newest venues.

The glitz and glamour soon fades, exposing the ruthlessness of a cut-throat industry. Aster, Layla, Tommy, and Ryan find themselves caught in a web of deception, greed, and murder linked to the disappearance of Madison Brooks, A-List actress and the nation’s favorite It girl.

Secrets and lies build as the series flows with unexpected twists at each turn. As the characters’ interrelationships deepen, the consequences escalate to a supremely satisfying conclusion.

  • Publishers Weekly called this series “Addictive.”
  • New York Times bestselling author, Cecily Von Zeigesar, described it as, “Mysterious and compelling.”
  • Kirkus Reviews called it, “Chick-lit gold.”

I wholeheartedly to agree.

Riders and Seeker

By Veronica Rossi

What would you do if you woke up to find you were one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? That’s what Gideon discovers in RIDERS, recovering from an accident that actually killed him. He has new powers, a bizarre cuff he can’t remove, and a new destiny—he’s War, one of the legendary horsemen of the apocalypse, with a horse made of fire no less.

A mysterious girl arrives to help Gideon unite with the other horsemen, Conquest, Famine, and Death and their horses of light, shadow, and ash. They must save the world from an ancient evil. And they fail. Big time.

It was Daryn’s responsibility as a SEEKER to ensure the success of the Riders’ mission. Daryn’s visions started in high school, but one believed she could see the future. She became a Seeker to save lives. It was all good…until Sebastian. He was a mistake that haunted her with the threat of mankind’s destruction. Will she be able to do what the Riders could not?

Rossi’s gift for realistic world building and creating engaging—yet flawed and vulnerable—characters brings this high velocity supernatural thriller into realistic focus. For a fierce and explosive, nail-biting ride, this duology is a must read.

USA Today agrees, “Readers will surely be clamoring for more.”

Wolf by Wolf and Blood for Blood

By Ryan Graudin

What if Hitler had won WWII? In WOLF BY WOLF, that’s the reality Ya-el faces, one she’ll risk her life to change after escaping the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. A product of inhumane Nazi experimentation, Ya-el became a shapeshifter. A talent she uses for the resistance’s mission that requires Ya-el to assume the identity of last year’s motorcycle racing champion, Adele Wolf, in the Axis Tour. It’s critical that Ya-el win the race and assassinate Hitler at the victory dance.

BLOOD FOR BLOOD resumes the heart pounding race in a higher stakes arena. Seventeen year-old Ya-el is on the run, in a world that believes she killed Hitler. The truth is unbelievably complicated and the consequences are a matter of life and death. Ya-el and her band of unlikely comrades must infiltrate enemy territory and complete their mission. They must stop the Nazis or lose everything.

Publishers Weekly (starred review) of BLOOD FOR BLOOD states, “Graudin…crafts another fast-paced, enthralling tale of sacrifice and dogged determination as she fuses alternate history and spy thriller suspense. A provocative rumination on self-preservation, the greater good, and the boundaries that keep heroes from becoming as cruel as those they fight.”

Now…for that breathtaking escape…

The secret to getting published: Don’t give up!

31 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by in Inspiration, Writing

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Writing your first book is a thrill like no other, a total high. Then the rejections come, and reality sets in. Fast. The thing is, rejections are part of the process. Get over it and keep going.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success

That is…unless you count the 10 years of hard work that came before. We’ve all heard the stories of the famous author whose success happened overnight.

The truth is, it didn’t. Successful authors put in years of work before ever getting published.

All that work was the foundation for the great books that lead to their success.

  • J.K. Rowling taught school and then was a researcher and bilingual secretary for years, all the while writing fiction on the side. She was unemployed and near poverty when she wrote the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
  • Meg Cabot spent several years (!) rigorously submitting manuscripts before landing her agent. She got a book deal after that, but had to keep working at her job and New York University until her success with The Princess Diaries series.
  • Kate Dicamillo received something like 463 rejections before selling her first book. She went on to be one of six people to win two Newberry Medals—for The Tale of Despereaux and Flora and Ulysses—all because she didn’t give up.
  • Mary E. Pearson, author of the New York Times Bestselling series The Remnant Chronicles, admitted at an author event that she wrote five (!) novels that would never see the light of day, and that it took ten years before she sold the one that made her a published author.

The difference between a published author and an unpublished author is that the published author didn’t give up.

 

How to keep writing while dodging tornadoes

TornadosLife drops roadblocks and raves in our paths—like tornadoes dropping from the sky—forcing our writing onto uncharted detours. Who knew dodging tornadoes would be a valuable writing skill?

There are happy detours, and those filled with sadness and loss. Even life threatening, if you discover a loved one’s being extorted by the Russian mafia and they come after YOU when you publicize their crimes across social media, looping in the FBI. Hey, it could happen. Tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes, all equally disruptive to our writing goals.

Whatever tornado you’re dodging right now…know you are not alone. Here’s a few things that kept me going when tornado dodging got tough:

  • Write something every day. Even if it’s only a note to remind you to write something better tomorrow.
  • Go to author visits. Invariably, you’ll hear the ordeal that published author went through to get their first book deal.
  • Read. Read. Read. It’s the next best thing to writing. You’ll be surprised how much you absorb on craft, especially when reading a variety of genres.
  • Watch TV series in your genre. It’s a great way to study story and character development.
  • Read author blogs that inspire you.
  • Read books on craft that help polish your writing weaknesses. We all have them. Most of us, more than one.
  • Remember what got you excited about writing. Revisit whatever it was that sparked the creative fire that set you on your writing journey.
  • Believe you’ll make it across the publishing bridge after the tornadoes pass. Because you will. As long as you don’t give up.

Rainbow Bridge

 

What goes around, comes around ~ Stories that come back again & again…

24 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by in Reading, Story, Writing

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Girl sitting on the grass reading a bookSome things are destined to return: the seasons, fashion trends, and certain types of stories.

As a race, we have an inherent need for stories. They come from a deep place in our psyche, and shape our lives.

Science is now able to prove that stories affect our psychological make up. The New York Times article, Your Brain on Fiction, by Annie Murphy Paul, shows how reading fiction affects the way we react in social encounters in real life. The ability to internalize the emotions and actions of fictional characters, actually helps us cope with our own world in a more positive way. [image: morguefile.com]

Reading … enlarges and improves us as human beings. Brain science shows this claim is truer than we imagined.

Joseph Campbell’s interviews with Bill Moyers on The Power of the Myth discussed the universality of stories (myths), and the similarities in the types of stories told from cultures around the world.

Why We Need Certain Stories

You could write an exhaustive doctorate’s thesis on this topic. You’ll be glad to know I’m not. I was thinking about the recent vampire craze, and wondered  “why” certain story types keep coming back, each time with a huge social impact.

The following is some of my reasoning, totally unsupported by any research whatsoever. Your comments on the topic are welcome and appreciated!

Paranormal: Vampires

Vampires existed in folklore for centuries, and became world-renowned in the 19th Vampirecentury. Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (1897) was one of the first novels in the vampire craze. In recent decades, “Interview with a Vampire” by Anne Rice, “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer created by Joss Whedon, boosted the vampire pop culture phenomena.

Why the mass market fascination with blood sucking immortals? I think immortal is the operative word, with the monster factor playing a close second. [image: morguefile.com]

We are afraid of the unknown, and what happens after death is one of life’s biggest mysteries—one that makes us face our worst fear, extinction. We idolize vampires, because of their beatific immortality. They have been glamorized to such an extent that we overlook the fact that they are blood sucking monsters. In recent fiction, some vampires sparkle in sunlight and are portrayed as humanitarian—the Twilight series, for example.

In truth, vampires are at best monsters who enjoy the glamour of killing. Why do we crave stories about monsters? It’s kind of sick, if you think about it.

Or, maybe not…

I wrote an earlier blog post on this topic, titled Monsters We Love to Hate. To put it simply, we need something horrible onto which we can project our fear of the unknown—a monster that can be destroyed. The ability to vanquish monsters in a story, gives us a sense of control over our fears and conquering the unknown.

For an in-depth study of vampires in pop culture, check out “The Changing Vampire in Film and Television: A Critical Study of the Growth of a Genre” by Tim Kane.

Dystopian

Hunger GamesThe dystopian story—post apocalyptic, degenerated society—provides a venue for managing another type of fear. The primal fear of survival.

Survival is the crux of a dystopian story. Surviving under the worst possible conditions.

Dystopian stories are usually characterized by dehumanization (“1984” by George Orwell, and the 1980’s films Road Warrior and Blade Runner), totalitarian governments “(The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, “Divergent” by Veronica Roth), environmental disaster (“Under the Never Sky” by Veronica Rossi), and other characteristics associated with a severe decline in society.

The hero in a dystopian tale give us courage by showing us how to survive at all costs. How they cope with and overcome the hardships in their brutal world, helps us to face and overcome our own battles for survival, both real and imagined. In essence, dystopian stories teach us how to be our own hero. Everyone needs that type of encouragement at one time or another. There’s nothing more empowering than knowing you can save yourself. [image: The Hunger Games (movie)]

What are the stories you can’t get enough of?