Joy Preble's Blog, page 5

ROOM was a brilliant film that has stuck with me since I saw it Sunday. Everything works: the cinematography, the nuanced performances, the lighting, the stark contrast between the first half of the film and the second. It is a tough and brutal story, about a seventeen year old girl who is kidnapped and held captive in what is essentially a sound-proofed garden shed for seven years. She is raped every night by her captor. Two years in, she has given birth to Jack, whose fifth birthday opens the film. And it is quickly becoming apparent to Ma, which is what Jack calls her, although her real name is Joy, that if they do not manage to escape soon, their captor, referred to only as ‘him’ or ‘Old Nick’ will try to kill them. Or at least Ma. As with the book (which I am only now reading), the POV is through Jack’s eyes. Room is his only normal. It is not a prison to him, it is simply his life. And then he manages to help save them, a piece of the plot I won’t give away, although you do see a piece of it in all the trailers.
 If you have been afraid to go see it, go anyway. I will probably see it at least one more time. It inspired me to check the book out of the library and I can say that the film stays very true to the text.
I had not wanted to read the book. I’m not fully sure why except to say that I thought –falsely so—that it would be sensationalistic or lurid or whatever. It is none of those things, although clearly there are larger agendas in the actual text that reach beyond the story of this one mother and son. I am glad that I am reading it now and I’m honestly blown away by Emma Donoghue’s prose, by her narrative choices, her ability to use a five year old to tell this story in a way that makes sense and is in fact, the best way to show the world that Ma has created for him in one 12x12 room that seems to Jack a much larger place. His narration allows the reality of Ma’s horror to wash over use between the lines and it is all the more horrific because of that. Her true situation in contrast to the world that she has created for Jack. And the film (Donoghue wrote the screenplay as well) manages to capture all this as well, also through Jack’s eyes. Including freedom in the 2ndhalf, because Room is the only world Jack has known and so freedom means something very different to him than it does to Ma.
I’m going to be thinking about this story for a long time, about motherhood and childhood, and the awful things people do to each other and the human spirit that allows us to survive. About how generally impossible it is for us to understand situations we haven’t physically experienced. About this story of a woman and her child forced to make their own world.

Go see ROOM. Then let me know what you thought.

Twice a year, a group of us kidlit writers head out to the woods, about half-way between Austin and Houston. For three solid days we write, critique, inspire and read. Okay there’s some silliness and wine and a lot of snack food that sneaks in there. A lot of it, actually! (Full disclosure, we ran out of wine last summer, so I guess this time, everyone made sure to compensate.)
But here’s the important thing: 18 women converge in one enormous, ramshackle hunting lodge with crazy amounts of insane taxidermy. (Think tiny deer arranged in a rowboat with flowers. Mounted heads with smiles.) We range in age from 20s to 50s. We write YA, MG, and picture books. Most of us are multi-published. Some of us are not yet published. Some are in between. All of us are dedicated to our craft. All of us are committed to bringing stories to the world.
We cook meals. We respect dietary needs without making a big deal of it. (“Gluten-free folks, those paler muffins are for you!”) We support and amplify and encourage each other’s careers in ways big and small. We laugh. We write. We dream. We get a little raucous in the evenings. Okay maybe a lot. We celebrate HUGELY our successes.
And as my friend Lynne Kelly pointed out after this past weekend’s retreat, there are no fights. No posturing. No table-flipping and honestly, no cliques or sub-grouping or secret whispers. NONE.  Seriously, none. We would make a really boring reality show.
Because we started with a smaller core group and because we’ve been doing this for awhile now, sometimes I forget the true, kick-ass wonder of this. How much I appreciate these retreats, especially after a difficult, transitional year like this past one where—in ways both good and bad—almost nothing turned out the way I expected. But none of that mattered this past weekend. Only the work and the company and the inspiration of fierce, brilliant women who are my tribe, my people, my collective creative force.

And the occasional misguided squirrel crashing into the window.

Y'all!! I have waited so long for the moment when it was time to reveal the final cover for IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, which is coming on 5/17/16 from Soho Teen/Penguin Random House !!


But finally, I can show you and more. In fact, it was revealed yesterday in an exclusive on EW.com, with an interview that the brilliant E. Lockhart did with me and two sneak peek chapters! Yes, that REALLY HAPPENED!! Here's the link:
 http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/10/e-lockhart-joy-preble-interview-wasnt-always-like-this

IWALT is Tuck Everlasting meets Veronica Mars. Thriller. Murder mystery. Fairy Tale. Accidental Immortality. Star-crossed romance. A forever seventeen year old girl who won't give up the search for the boy she loves. Yeah, I know! Everything we love all in ONE BOOK!

The cover's in the EW piece but I can't stop looking at it, so here's the gorgeous cover:

I am so excited to introduce you all to Emma and Charlie and their wildly romantic story!

I don't know why I have never been down to what we in Texas call the Valley, but until this weekend, I hadn't. I didn't know what I was missing. I was missing amazing people and amazing food and landscape that was clearly different than where I lived. A library created in what had been a Wal-Mart- turning a consumer concrete jungle into a gorgeous space for people to read and create and research and learn and listen and even eat!

Let me say it right here: I love McAllen, Texas and all its surrounding cities! I had the best school visit at Fossum Middle School. I got to work and visit with amazing librarians, including Mary Rodriguez and Elizabeth Hollenbeck and Dawn Rapoza! And mostly I got to talk books, books, books, with adults and kids and everyone in between. Plus the best Mexican chocolate mocha latte I've ever had.

A few pictures for you:
Paneling with Jennifer Ziegler and Lindsey Lane

talking books with Lindsay Cummings and Chris Barton and lots of people!
A chamoy Margarita. 
Enchiladas Poblanas with mole sauce.
Fossum Middle School super librarian Mary Rodriguez
Even Gale likes reading FINDING PARIS
McAllen Library with Lindsay Cummings and Ray Villareal
Carolyn Flores teaches me and Lindsay how to draw a frog.

That time everyone wanted an arc of IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS! 

So Soho Press is still keeping the cover for next year's  IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS under wraps as best they can. ARCs are sneaking into the world to early readers/blurbers, and the come January to everyone else. But they approved these awesome bookmarks, created by my friend and writing partner Kristin Rae!

Yeah, they're pretty awesome and they hint so nicely at the cover while still not giving it away, so look closely! Very excited!

And in #2, a quick photo recap of last week's Texas Book Festival which was supremely awesome and such an honor to be part of!

Catching some sun with capitol behind us with me, A.G. Howard, Cory Putnam Oakes, Mari Mancusi, PJ Hoover
Our Blood is Thicker than Water panel in the signing tent: me, Heather Demetrios, Renee Watson
And yes, that is Margaret Atwood.  Meeting fellow Soho author and all around awesome author and human and very tall guy, Adam Silvera



3. It is still summer in Houston. It should move on to Fall. Like NOW.
4. Looking forward to Comic Con Austin and then McAllen Book Festival and then some time to just write, write, write.
5. And between all the above and a brief jaunt to Florida to just hang on the beach in Ft. Walton where it's just you and the white sand and the birds and the sea turtles and it's heaven, I am also now getting better from strep throat/sinus infection. But yeah, it was worth it! 

As soon as I heard Cammie McGovern talking about her books at Houston's Blue Willow last week (she was touring with Julie Murphy), I knew this was an author who should have already been on my radar and somehow wasn't. It happens, I know. So many books; so little time. But I grabbed a copy of SAY WHAT YOU WILL, her debut YA title from 2014 and took it to the beach with me this past weekend and promptly devoured it.

SAY WHAT YOU WILL is about many things: Friendship. An over-protected but brilliant girl whose cerebral palsy traps her in a body that she accepts and tries not to let define her but which doesn't let her have the physical freedoms that would make life easier. A boy with OCD, whose fears and anxieties trap him as well. A star-crossed romance. The good, the bad, the ugly of living in this world -- of loving and losing and making mistakes and pulling yourself up. The difficulties of overcoming perceptions and fears. The terrible things we sometimes do to the people who love us, often because we don't love ourselves enough first. How hard and miraculous it is to find someone who truly 'gets you.' About how easy it is to mess up and miss opportunities to find your tribe, your people. And as main character Amy calls one of her favorite themes (and it's one of mine, too!): Oddballs finding each other. It is not by accident that Amy's favorite book, referenced more than once in the novel, is Tell Me You Love Me, Junie Moon, the story of three misfits who meet in a hospital.

This is a beautiful, beautiful book. It is gorgeously written, gentle and thoughtful. Amy and Matthew are as imperfect and damaged yet perfect and wonderful as any two characters I have ever read. Their story broke my heart, pieced it back together, then broke it again and eventually let me know that while a happily ever after might not in their future, their story is not over. First love is like that. It is often painful and intense and confusing and wonderful and awful all at the same time.

McGovern creates fully rounded characters in SWYW. The reader learns exactly what it is like to live with CP or OCD; their disabilities are deftly drawn in ways that don't always happen in novels. But be sure: this is not an 'issue' book, although in less capable hands it could be. It is real and heartbreaking and encouraging and one of the best books I've read this year, YA or other. I cannot wait to dig into McGovern's newest book,  A Step Toward Falling, just out from Harper Teen.

I'm sitting here looking for a quote to end this review and I'm feeling teary-eyed again in the best of ways just flipping through the pages of this wonderful, wonderful book! And here's your quote, from near the end, but it doesn't ruin anything, just gives you a sense of the words:
"They sat like that for a while, hands intertwined on top of the book. If he spoke, he knew his voice would betray him. It would crack and break and he'd start to cry. So they stayed just like that, as the light through the window drained from the sky."

For more about the brilliant Cammie McGovern, go to  www.cammiemcgovern.com

YA SCAVENGER HUNT


My newest book is FINDING PARIS, out now from Balzer and Bray/Harper Collins
Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one signed book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!

The Fall YA Scavenger Hunt goes live on Thursday, October 1st at 12 pm Pacific Time and comes down on Sunday, October 4th at noon Pacific time.
 I’m Joy Preble, your hostess for this leg of the hunt and author of many young adult novels including THE DREAMING ANASTASIA series; THE SWEET DEAD LIFE series; FINDING PARIS; and the forthcoming IT WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS (Soho Press, May 17, 2016).
I am on TEAM PURPLE.

I will give you an extra special chance at the bottom of this post to win some of my books!!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the PURPLE TEAM--but there is also a RED, BLUE, GOLD, GREEN,ORANGE, TEAL, PURPLE, PINK-each with 20 authors, for a chance to win a whole different set of signed books!

Remember, you are currently hunting on TEAM PURPLE.
If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number, highlighted in PURPLE. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the purple team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 
Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday October 4th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.
SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am hosting CATRINA BURGESS on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! Catrina is the author of AWAKENING—The Dark Rituals, Book 1, from Full Fathom Five Digital.


In Awakening, the first installment in the Dark Rituals series, a former healer turns to the Death Arts to seek revenge.
Seventeen-year-old Colina was born a healer. But after a horrific event forces her to leave her clan, she becomes desperate to learn the dark magic of the death dealers, mages who draw their power from the spirits of the dead. Colina was taught to fear and hate death dealers, but becoming one of them is the only way for her to get the revenge she seeks—and the only way for her to survive.
Here's Catrina's bio:

I write because it helps keeps the darkness away and reminds me that there is magic in the world. I live with one husband, two dogs, and a cat named Shitty Kitty in a small mining town in Arizona. At night this place is definitely spooky. I swear I’ve heard the wind giggle, and sometimes there’s a very odd breeze. Luckily, I love all things that go bump in the night. I adore old movies. I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan.I’ve been known to eat pizza and cold Chinese food for breakfast, and I’m the queen of the board game Stratego. I’ve never been beaten. NEVER!What am I doing when I’m not writing? I turn into my alter ego Chaoscat, the owner and operator of RomanceJunkies.com—a romance review site that been around since 2002.
 You can find her online at: Owner/Operator Romance Junkies // http://www.romancejunkies.com RJ Blog // http://www.romancejunkies.com/rjblog/ // @RJBookReviewsWattpad // catrinaburgess 
Website // http://www.catrinaburgess.com/
And you can find buy AWAKENING here! http://fullfathomfive.com/writers/catrina-burgess/awakening/ 

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT


Catrina is giving you a sneak peek at her upcoming DARK RITUALS series!!
Waving Howdy! I’m Catrina Burgess, author of the Dark Rituals, a 4 book YA Paranormal/Horror series coming out this October.

I’m so excited for everyone to meet Colina, my heroine. I spent the last two years working away on her adventures and here are a couple things I can tell you about her:She is a bit head strong.She sometime rushes into situations without thinking. But she never gives up no matter how dark the days.


Here is a teaser from Awakening, book 1:This was it. The fighting was going to start. My breath caught in the back of my throat, but before the guy could lay a hand on him, Luke spun around, lifted his forearm, and smashed the guy on the side of the head. The guy went down, hard.The group turned in unison, all attention now focused on Luke. The woman could have scrambled away and made a run for it now that they were ignoring her, but she lay frozen on the ground. It was then that I realized all the guys sported orange-and-black bandanas. Luke was facing down the Triads. The situation had gone from bad to worse. Maybe if it was a general mugging or a bunch of hooligan teenagers out for a little mischief, Luke might have had a chance of scaring them off, but this was an organized gang that spent most of their time looking for mayhem. From what I read in the papers, they weren’t above murder.One of them shouted out, “You just signed your death warrant!”Luke stood his ground. “Death. Now that’s something I know a thing or two about.”Luke raised his hands and started to speak in an unfamiliar language—the language of magic and spells. Light flickered from his fingers, and his eyes shone as if lit from within. His voice suddenly took on a lower, deeper tone, until he didn’t sound like him at all. Then a slew of words flew from his mouth and the light moved from his hands to surround the gang.I watched in horror as one face formed within the lights, then another. Luke’s calling on spirits. A chill ran down the length of my body. I wasn’t the only one to realize what was happening.Someone cried out, “The dude is a death dealer!”Death dealers commune with the dead that have not crossed over, especially the mage dead. That gives them frightening power. It is an easy power to abuse—victimizing the dead for their own ends—and the fear that they will bind your immortal soul to their own ends terrifies any who see it.The gang began to scatter, and I didn’t blame them—lights swirled around them in a circle, carrying whirling, formless faces. It was a freaky thing to behold. Heads and partial bodies were starting to form inside the lights. The expression on each ghostly face Luke summoned was full of pain and terror. Then the noise started, an ear-splitting screeching. He was calling up the unsettled dead.He was bringing forth banshees. I’d heard of banshees—they were the death dealers’ most fear-inspiring magic. The rest of the magic clans and guilds viewed the very idea of them with horror, but to see these creatures shift out of the ether and take on a semi-solid form was something I never thought I would experience. They were souls of those trapped between life and what lay beyond, ghosts that Luke had bound into a weapon. They flowed around him, blinking in and out of the material world and glittering with the dark magic that gave them form.The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my arms were suddenly covered in goose bumps. I reached for the protection pouch I wore around my neck. My hands grasped at nothing but air. Used to wear, I reminded myself. I stopped wearing the pouch when I stopped being a healer.The banshees began filling the alley, but there was no place for them to go. I dropped the baseball bat and took quick steps backward until I felt a brick wall at my back. They had me cornered like a rat in a cage.The banshees moved faster and faster around the men. The guys were fleeing, and as they ran the lights followed, surrounding them, circling them. Men’s voices full of panic filled the air. I looked toward the woman we’d initially come to save. She was still on the ground, but she raised her head, looked at the chaos around her, and started screaming. Her screams mixed with the shrieks of the banshees.I should have been freaking out. I should have been shrieking in horror like the woman, but instead I sat as though spellbound. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene before me.Rain streamed down my face, and my hair clung to my cheeks and fell into my eyes. I pushed it aside and watched as blue streaks of light broke off from the gang members standing not far from me and began heading in my direction. I knew the bright streaks whizzing through the air were not just lights. Within the blue lights, I could see partial forms—banshees. I focused on the light closest to me and immediately regretted it. In the center of the light was a shape—a form that was almost human…or, rather, the forgotten memory of something that had once been human. It had long arms that ended in sharp claws and an angular face that had only gaping shadows for eyes and a mouth. Its thin torso ended in shreds of mist, and it flew through the air with a cloud of mist trailing behind it. The banshee howled as it floated my way.Don’t ever look into a banshee’s eyes. I heard the voice inside my head. It was a warning that had been instilled in me from childhood.“What’ll I see if I look in its eyes, Pa?”“Death. And when you look at death, child, it can take ahold of you and suck you into the ether sea.”

And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, JOY PREBLE, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 13 !! Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the purple team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

CONTINUE THE HUNT
To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author! http://www.daxvarley.com/blog
Tweet #YASH

BONUS EXTRA!!!And as a bonus for stopping by this leg of the tour, I am giving away a set of my SWEET DEAD LIFE series!

Just enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway below! I will let you know if you are the winner once YASH is over!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Coming on 10/1 is the FALL YA SCAVENGER HUNT!
I am TEAM PURPLE !!



To see the rest of the teams go HERE !

It's fall, although the Texas weather doesn't believe it. We're still in the 90s and although we had a taste of cooler weather a couple weeks ago, temps have hiked back up and now it's an endurance contest.

But in hopes of that still elusive blue norther, I give you five of my favorite fall things:

1. Sweaters, hoodies, sweat shirts, jackets. Yeah, I'm in love with outerwear. I really am. I'm having a love hate thing right now with the ponchos that have returned to the racks. I like them in theory. But it's an awkward thing to wear. Pretty if you're standing up. Meh if you're walking and it's twisting around.

2. Boots. I love boots. Moto boots and cowboy boots and tall boots and well, boots. It's no wonder that Jenna Samuels in my Sweet Dead Life series loved her red cowgirl boots.

3. Pumpkins in general, and gourds and leaves that turn color. Last year we actually got fall color here, which was honesty thrilling. But pumpkin spice everything? Including pumpkin spice lattes? Not so much. A real pumpkin. Yes. Pumpkin frosting and middles of Oreos? Nope.

4. Texas High School Football. Friday Night Lights for real. Absolutely nothing like it. Professional football pales in comparison. it really does.

5. The Renaissance Festival and cooler air and dare I say it? Being able to open the windows and have an actual breeze slip in.

What do you like about fall?

Gonna be hard to keep it to five. But let me squoosh some together:
1. The guy who fixed my pineapple lamp (it was the socket) and made it work all spiffy again. I LOVE my pineapple lamp. And I was sad that it was all blinky. Now it is PERFECT. And the lady, in the same store, who waxed eloquent on the subject of bathroom lighting ("think of it as the jewelry. Pick your faucets first, then your mirrors, then your lights"). Well who knew? And so project master bath is actually moving forward and who knew I could be so excited about countertops?
2. Entrepreneur/author Bethenny Frankel because she is knows how to reinvent and knows her flaws and her strengths and even if you are reading this and scoffing about 'reality TV' let me say that she inspires me to get it done, to believe in myself, to pick up the pieces when I fail, to keep a keen eye on the world's absurdities, and  to laugh because laughter is awesome. 
3. Julie Murphy for writing DUMPLIN' and for telling the world that women can take up as much space in this world as they want or need to. 
4. Colleen Thompson, who writes kick ass romantic suspense (among many other genres) and who also does a lot to keep my head on straight and remind me to keep my eyes on my own work because that's the only thing I can control!
5. And all the team at Soho Press, with whom writing books is an honor and a pleasure. Soon they will start giving you sneak peeks at next year's IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS and I can hardly wait! Here's a little teaser description: Part thriller, part murder mystery, part fairy tale in the vein of Tuck Everlasting, comes a story of accidental immortality, star-crossed romance, and a forever-seventeen-year-old girl who won't give up the search for the boy she loves.
Yeah, you want to read that, don't you? Well it's coming on 5/17/16.