Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which we create bookish lists about everything from our favorite characters to love triangles and everything in between!
This Week's Theme: Colorful Book Covers
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which we create bookish lists about everything from our favorite characters to love triangles and everything in between!
This Week's Theme: Colorful Book Covers
In 2019, we made it our goal is to work with as many debut authors as possible and to spread the word about their debut novels. It was such a success last year that we decided to continue the fun for years to come! Follow us this year as we pick the minds of the 2021 debuts and chat with them about their writing process and what it's like to be a new author. Also stay tuned for news of giveaways, Twitter chats, and more!
Miel Moreland writes character-driven contemporary Young Adult novels. Born and raised in Minneapolis, she has a Midwestern heart but wandering feet. When not making pop music references and celebrating fandom, she is likely to be found drinking hot chocolate and making spreadsheets. She currently resides in Boston
The Book Bratz: First of all, congratulations! How does it feel to be a debut author?
Miel: Absolutely surreal. I’ve wanted to be an author since I was five or six years old, once I realized this was a job people had, and now my book is coming out! Part of me still feels like it’s early 2018 and IT GOES LIKE THIS is just something fun between me and my critique partners. It’s difficult (but exciting!) to try to grasp the fact that people I don’t know are reading it, and my story is becoming part of someone else’s story.
The Book Bratz: In your opinion, what's the best part of the writing process? What's the hardest?
Miel: Is it a cop-out to say the best part of the writing process is any part that’s going smoothly? Although I do enjoy revisions in general, once I have a plan for them, starting revisions is often difficult for me because I always have to add tension—and that’s not at all natural for me! I hate giving my characters more problems.
The Book Bratz: Where did you get the idea for IT GOES LIKE THIS?
Miel: IT GOES LIKE THIS came out of a number of interests or threads in my life that all finally converged together into this one book. I’ve been a pop music fan for most of my life, and for a couple of years before I started drafting IGLT, I researched the music industry and played around with a few music-centric short stories. I started writing the novel about a year after I graduated from college, when I was thinking a lot about changing friendships. And I’d been reading some books where the band (or the team, group, and so on, depending on the book) breaks up at the end of the book. I wanted to write a book that started where the others ended. What happens after? I felt I was presented with this question: does growing up always mean growing apart? I don’t think the answer is always yes.
The Book Bratz: Who was your favorite character to write? Who was the most difficult?
Miel: This is such a difficult question, and during different drafts, I had a different favorite band member. Eva might have been my favorite to write overall, simply because I spent the most time in her head and so feel closest to her. Gina was the most difficult, because it took me a long time to be able to identify and articulate her arc, and then longer to properly build it into the book. But I adore her, and she is worth every re-written chapter.
The Book Bratz: Are there any other books or authors who give you inspiration for your own writing?
Miel: So many! I’ll shout-out just two authors right now: Tess Sharpe and Zan Romanoff.
The Book Bratz: What do you hope that readers will take away from IT GOES LIKE THIS?
Miel: It’s okay to change your mind, more than once, about what you want, what you need, and in what places and relationships you are able to be your truest, fullest, most seen and respected and beloved self at any particular moment in your life.
The Book Bratz: Do you plan on returning to the world of IT GOES LIKE THIS in the future, or do you have any other projects in mind? Can you tell us anything about them?
Miel: I don’t have any immediate or formal plans to return to the world of IT GOES LIKE THIS, but I would love to at some point! At minimum, I am hoping to share some bonus short stories (including at least one AU, because this is a fandom novel at heart) within the next year. I’ve been working on a few other novels over the past year, but I’m always wary of talking too much about specific projects until deals are announced!
Summary: Eva, Celeste, Gina, and Steph used to think their friendship was unbreakable. After all, they've been though a lot together, including the astronomical rise of Moonlight Overthrow, the world-famous queer pop band they formed in middle school, never expecting to headline anything bigger than the county fair. But after a sudden falling out leads to the dissolution of the teens' band, their friendship, and Eva and Celeste's starry-eyed romance, nothing is the same. Gina and Celeste step further into the spotlight, Steph disappears completely, and Eva, heartbroken, takes refuge as a songwriter and secret online fangirl...of her own band. That is, until a storm devastates their hometown, bringing the four ex-best-friends back together. As they prepare for one last show, they'll discover whether growing up always means growing apart.
Thank you so much to Miel for stopping by and answering our questions! We are super excited about IT GOES LIKE THISand can't wait for it to be out in the world on May 18th!
Hi everyone! Today's post is a little different than a bookish meme or a review -- instead, I'm going to talk about writing. As many of you may know -- if not all of you, by this point -- I (Jessica) am a huge romance writer and reader. If it has a steamy or swoon-worthy storyline and it's a contemporary, the chances are it's probably already on my to-read list. Which is why, of course, I've been a huge fan of Jane the Virgin for so long. I'm currently on my eighth rerun because I just can't get enough of it!
And that's when I noticed something -- for those of you who don't know, the story follows Jane, a young Latina woman living in Miami who goes through some pretty hilarious, stressful, and even scary circumstances (which I won't spoil for you!). But one of the biggest parts of the story is the fact that Jane is an aspiring romance novelist, which you see unfold a lot on the screen. And this is what I've noticed: Every single time there's a scene where Jane is working on her novel, or getting a burst of writing inspiration, or staying up until the sun rises to add words to her manuscript, I feel this sudden urge to pick up my own laptop and work on my own book. Every single time. It's seriously like magic -- any time I need some motivation or inspiration to write, I end up watching an episode or two of Jane the Virgin. It's my magic cure for writer's block.
And I thought I was alone in that endeavor, but apparently not! Plenty of people I've spoken to said that they too feel more motivated to write when a character in pop culture -- whether it's a show or a podcast or even another book that follows another writer -- features someone who is chasing their dream of becoming published. And it really made me think about it -- why exactly is this? My unofficial guess is that there's something about seeing a character in a story that you love achieving the same dream that you want that just really lights that fire in you and makes you want to hit the ground running with your own work. But maybe it's just the fact that Jane the Virgin is a show centered around a woman who is an aspiring writer and a hopeless romantic -- AKA, just like me -- so I see a lot of myself in Jane and aspire to be a lot like her. Who knows? All I know for sure is that an episode or two of the show is like my magic writing potion on the days where the words just won't come, and that's pretty cool.
So I wanted to ask, because I was curious -- does this happen to anyone else out there? Does seeing someone else in a book or movie achieving their writing goals make you want to put the pen to the paper (or your fingers to the keyboard!) yourself, or is this just a me thing? Comment down below and let me know!
Hi everyone! Today on the blog, we have an excerpt from THESE FEATHERED FLAMES by Alexandra Overy, courtesy of Inkyard Press. So without further ado, let's get into it!
Summary: When twin heirs are born in Tourin, their fates are decided at a young age. While Izaveta remained at court to learn the skills she’d need as the future queen, Asya was taken away to train with her aunt, the mysterious Firebird, who ensured magic remained balanced in the realm. But before Asya’s training is completed, the ancient power blooms inside her, which can mean only one thing: the queen is dead, and a new ruler must be crowned. As the princesses come to understand everything their roles entail, they’ll discover who they can trust, who they can love—and who killed their mother.
Alexandra grew up in London and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her undergraduate degree in history at UCLA, followed by her MFA in screenwriting also at UCLA. She loves writing in all formats, from novels to screenplays to graphic novels, always centring on fierce women and morally grey characters, often with a bit of magic and murder. When she’s not writing, she can be found baking, fangirling over her favourite books, or cuddling her cat.
"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine where we highlight some of the upcoming books we can't wait to read!
Summary: Stella and Ellie Steckler are only a year apart, but their different personalities make their relationship complicated. Stella is single-minded, driven, and she keeps to herself. Cross-country running is her life and she won't let anything get in the way of being the best. Her sister Ellie is a talented runner too, but she also lets herself have fun. She has friends. She goes to parties. She has a life off the course. The sisters do have one thing in common, though: the new girl, Mila Keene. Both Stecklers' lives are upended when Mila comes to town. Mila was the top runner on her team back home and at first, Ellie and Stella view her as a threat. But soon Ellie can't help but be drawn to her warm, charming personality. After her best friend moved away and her first boyfriend betrayed her, Ellie's been looking for a friend. In a moment of weakness, she even shares her darkest secret with Mila. For her part, Stella finds herself noticing the ways she and Mila are similar. Mila is smart and strong--she's someone Stella can finally connect with. As the two get closer, Stella becomes something she vowed she'd never be: distracted. With regionals approaching and college scouts taking notice, the pressure is on. Each girl has their future on the line and they won't let friendships get in their way. But then, suddenly, Mila goes out on a training run and never returns. No one knows what happened, but all eyes are on the Steckler sisters.
I read Jessica Goodman's debut novel, THEY WISH THEY WERE US, last year, and I loved it so much. So when I found out that she had another thriller on the horizon, I eagerly added it to my TBR! You can even read my review of THEY WISH THEY WERE US here.
You guys, I am so excited to once again be shocked and thrilled by another Jessica Goodman book!!!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl in which we create bookish lists about everything from our favorite characters to love triangles and everything in between!
This Week's Theme: Book Titles That Sound Like They Could Be Crayola Crayon Colors
Summary: Meredith Fox has been going to Martha's Vineyard for the summer as long as she can remember. But this summer is the first one back since the death of Meredith's sister. It will all be overwhelming, but even more since since the entire extended family will be together for her cousin's big wedding. Unfortunately, Meredith's longtime boyfriend unexpectedly dumped her two weeks before the wedding, leaving her dateless. Luckily, she has the perfect distraction. Her family has a tradition of playing the ultimate game of Assassin every summer, and this year it will take place during the week of wedding festivities. But her target just happens to be a very cute groomsman. She's determined to not let herself get distracted, not let herself be lost in another doomed relationship. But as the week progresses, she can't help falling for him, which may cost her not only the game, but also her heart.