How I Got my Agent: Brenda Drake PLUS Giveaway

Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2)

by Brenda Drake

Publication Date: February 7, 2017

Publisher:  Entangled Teen

 

Being a Sentinel isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens.

Sure, jumping through books into the world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it.

And if that isn’t enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be calling him “ex,” since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia.

Maybe. If she survives.

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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:

Goodreads

Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly disappears. While examining the book of world libraries he abandoned, Gia unwittingly speaks the key that sucks her and her friends into a photograph and transports them into a Paris library, where Arik and his Sentinels—magical knights charged with protecting humans from the creatures traveling across the gateway books—rescue them from a demonic hound.

Jumping into some of the world's most beautiful libraries would be a dream come true for Gia, if she weren’t busy resisting her heart or dodging an exiled wizard seeking revenge on both the Mystik and human worlds. Add a French flirt obsessed with Arik and a fling with a young wizard, and Gia must choose between her heart and her head, between Arik's world and her own, before both are destroyed.

How I Got My Agent

The journey that led me to my current agent was filled with missteps, heartbreaks, and frustrations. Before signing with the fabulous Peter Knapp of the Park Literary Group, I’d had another agent. My relationship with my previous agent had soured. Mistakes were made and the confidence in her ability to represent me waned. She’d convinced me into signing a book deal that wasn’t in my best interest. Thankfully, her agent contract had an end date. So when it expired, I took the opportunity and didn’t resign with her. Many of her clients left her at the same time. They all had similar issues as I had had with her, so I felt confident in my decision. 

I hold writer contests on my blog and host the quarterly Twitter pitch parties on the hashtag #PitMad. Just a few weeks after I’d left my agent, there was a #PitMad. I’d spotted Pete on hashtag favoriting tweets, which is a request to read more by agents. He’d been starring middle grade books, and I had one I was about to query. I invited him to be an agent in one of my contests and warned him I’d be sending him a query. He said he looked forward to seeing it. Since I’d already been agented before, I made a narrow list of six to seven agents that I would want to work with and sent them all queries. 

The next day, along with three other agents, Pete asked to read the full manuscript. Thirteen days later, he said he enjoyed reading it and wanted to talk to me on the phone. After an awkward phone call on my part, he’d offered representation. It took all my control not to scream in his ear. I had to notify the other agents of the offer and then wait for their responses. In the end, I chose Pete. I knew he was the agent for me on that first call. It was refreshing to have some who was calm and professional in my corner. 

With Pete’s help and support, I was able to get out that publishing deal. It was tough and I was scared, but I had to jump. And I’m so glad I did. Because a few months later we inked the deal with Entangled Teen for the Library Jumpers series. Though I’d had a year of disappointments, it all worked out in the end … with a slight detour. 

Brenda Drake is a New York Times bestselling author of Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1), Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2), Touching Fate (Fated Series #1), and Cursing Fate (Fated Series #2). She grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. She hosts workshops and contests for writers such as Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness on her blog, and holds Twitter pitch parties on the hashtag, #PitMad. When she’s not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment).

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Giveaway Information: 

·        $50 Amazon Gift Card with Guardian of Secrets swag pack  *International winners will only get $50 GC*

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How I Found An Agent: LOST GIRLS by Merrie Destefano

Lost Girls by Merrie Destefano

Publication Date: January 3, 2017

Publisher:  Entangled Teen

Fight Club meets Black Swan—Rachel wakes up in a ditch to find she doesn’t remember the last year of her life, and that everything—including herself—is vastly different than she remembers.

Yesterday, Rachel went to sleep listening to Taylor Swift, curled up in her grammy’s quilt, worrying about geometry. Today, she woke up in a ditch, bloodied, bruised, and missing a year of her life.

She doesn’t recognize the person she’s become: she’s popular. She wears nothing but black.

Black to cover the blood.

And she can fight.

Tell no one.

She’s not the only girl to go missing within the last year…but she’s the only girl to come back. She desperately wants to unravel what happened to her, to try and recover the rest of the Lost Girls.

But the more she discovers, the more her memories return. And as much as her new life scares her, it calls to her. Seductively. The good girl gone bad, sex, drugs, and raves, and something darker…something she still craves—the rush of the fight, the thrill of the win—something she can’t resist, that might still get her killed…

The only rule is: There are no rules.

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Finding the Right Cheerleader for Your Book

By Merrie Destefano

Writing a book is hard. It takes a long time and there seems to be a shortage of the right words; meanwhile, characters misbehave and plots meander. By the time the book is done—really done, edited two or three times until it almost sparkles—it needs to find a home somewhere else. It needs to get out of my computer and find a real home. A publishing home. An editor who will fall in love with it, nurture it, help it grow into a Real Book.

But honestly, I've never had much success by contacting an editor on my own. (Okay, there was that ONE time when I did it by myself and got a three-book deal with a big publisher, but those books never made it all the way to publication. Not my fault, but it's a long story and I digress...) Anyway, to me, the best and only way to go the traditional publishing route is to have an agent to represent me.

Alas, there have been times during this publishing journey when I've found myself all alone, without an agent. It can happen when you switch markets or genres. It can happen if your agent decides to quit being an agent. It can just happen. So, there was this time a few years ago when I had a new manuscript written, but no one to submit it to an editor.

I had to do what every new author does and what every experienced, published author does. I had to research agents and agencies, looking for someone that I thought might like my work enough to represent it. I searched Publisher's Marketplace, I followed agents on Twitter, I read agent interviews and I talked to my published friends about their agents.

In the midst of all this, while I was querying and getting rejections, I asked one of my dear friends, K.C. Alexander (author of Necrotech) about the agency that represented her at that time, the Bradford Literary Agency. I loved that agency and they represented the type of work I write. But then, discouragement set in. I confessed to Kace at a Romance Writers conference that I didn't think I was going to sub to them, even though I really wanted to and even though K.C. had already put in a good word for me and even though they were waiting for my submission.

At that point, I'd gotten so discouraged that I didn't want another rejection.

Enter my favorite mantra: Good friends don't let you quit. Even when you want to. Even when you think curling in a ball and eating chocolate is the best idea you've ever had. So Kace refused to let me quit and told me I had to sub to the agency that repped her. Somehow, she convinced me. Despite my fear and worry and inner-doubt, I listened to the confident voice of my friend.

CURRENTLY A FULL-TIME NOVELIST and magazine editor, Merrie Destefano’s next novel, LOST GIRLS, releases on January 3, 2017. Her other novels include AFTERLIFE and FEAST, both published by HarperCollins, and FATHOM, which was self-published. The editor of Victorian Homes magazine, she has also been the editor of American Farmhouse Style, Vintage Gardens, and Zombies magazine, and was the founding editor of Cottages & Bungalows magazine.

With 20 years experience in publishing, she worked for a variety of publishing/broadcasting companies that include Focus on the Family, The Word For Today, and PJS Publications (now Primedia). Besides editing and writing, her background includes print buying, writing/producing radio promos, directing photo shoots, developing new products, writing jacket copy for books, creating sales media packets and organizing direct mail campaigns.

Born in the Midwest, she currently lives in Southern California with her husband, two German shepherds, a Siamese cat and the occasional wandering possum. Her favorite hobbies are reading speculative fiction and watching old Star Trek episodes, and her incurable addiction is writing. She loves to camp in the mountains, walk on the beach, watch old movies, listen to alternative music—although rarely all at the same time.

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Blog Tour: All prizes listed below will be given to one prize winner.

Prizes listed are for a US winner only; if an International winner is chosen, the prize will be a $50 Amazon gift card.

·        1 - Kindle Fire Tablet, black: 7" Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB, 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, with the Alexa cloud-based voice service—just press and ask.

·        1 - digital Kindle copy of LOST GIRLS

·        1 - Pack of 14 vintage-style Swan Lake postcards 

·        1 - pr. Black Swan earrings, handmade by author

·        1 - "Always" temporary tattoo

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Cover Reveal: REMEMBER YESTERDAY by Pintip Dunn

I'm so excited to share the cover reveal for Remember Yesterday by Pintip Dunn with you today! You can check out the gorgeous cover below! This cover reveal is brought to you by YaReads Blog Tours and YA Interrobang! Read the YA Interrobang article here.

 

Book Title: Remember Yesterday (Forget Tomorrow, #2) 

Author: Pintip Dunn 

Release Date: October 4, 2016 

Genre: YA Sci-Fi   

Sixteen-year-old Jessa Stone is the most valuable citizen in Eden City. Her psychic abilities could lead to significant scientific discoveries, if only she’d let TechRA study her. But ten years ago, the scientists kidnapped and experimented on her, leading to severe ramifications for her sister, Callie. She’d much rather break into their labs and sabotage their research—starting with Tanner Callahan, budding scientist and the boy she loathes most at school.   The past isn’t what she assumed, though—and neither is Tanner. He’s not the arrogant jerk she thought he was. And his research opens the door to the possibility that Jessa can rectify a fatal mistake made ten years earlier. She’ll do anything to change the past and save her sister—even if it means teaming up with the enemy she swore to defeat.  

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Forget Tomorrow (Forget Tomorrow, #1) Book Synopsis:   Imagine a world where your destiny has already been decided…by your future self. It’s Callie’s seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she’s eagerly awaiting her vision―a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they’re meant to be. A world-class swimmer. A renowned scientist. Or in Callie’s case, a criminal.   In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in Limbo―a prison for those destined to break the law. With the help of her childhood crush, Logan, a boy she hasn’t spoken to in five years, she escapes the hellish prison. But on the run from her future, as well as the government, Callie sets in motion a chain of events that she hopes will change her fate. If not, she must figure out how to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all—Callie, herself.  

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Pintip Dunn graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL. She also published an article in the YALE LAW JOURNAL, entitled, “How Judges Overrule: Speech Act Theory and the Doctrine of Stare Decisis,”   Pintip is represented by literary agent Beth Miller of Writers House. Her debut novel, Forget Tomorrow, is a finalist in the Best First Book category of RWA’s RITA® contest. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Washington Romance Writers, YARWA, and The Golden Network. She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at www.pintipdunn.com

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Cover Reveal: Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey presented by Entangled Teen Crave

 

YA Fantasy / Fairytale retelling of The Swan Maiden with a blood feud twist like Romeo & Juliet? Say whaaaat?

Welcome to the cover reveal for

Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey

presented by Entangled Teen Crave!

Who else is excited for this book???

Sign up here to join the tour!

 

 

Dating isn’t easy when you’re in the middle of a blood feud.

Anastasia Vila’s family can turn into swans, but just once she’d like them to turn into responsible adults.

After hundreds of years, they still cling to the blood feud with the Renard family. No one remembers how it started in the first place—but foxes and swans just don’t get along.

Vilas can only transform into their swan shape after they have fallen in love for the first time, but between balancing schoolwork, family obligations, and the escalating blood feud, Ana’s got no time for love. The only thing keeping her sane is her best friend, Pierce Kent.

But when Pierce kisses Ana, everything changes.

Is what Pierce feels for her real, or a byproduct of her magic? Can she risk everything for her best friend? And when the family feud spirals out of control, Ana must stop the fight before it takes away everything she loves.

Including, maybe...Pierce.

This Entangled Teen Crave book contains language, violence, and lots of kissing. Warning: it might induce strong feelings of undeniable attraction for your best friend.

Love Me, Love Me Not by Alyxandra Harvey Publication Date: February 22, 2016 Publisher: Entangled Teen Crave

Alyxandra Harvey lives in a stone Victorian house in Ontario, Canada with a few resident ghosts who are allowed to stay as long as they keep company manners. She loves medieval dresses, used to be able to recite all of The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, and has been accused, more than once, of being born in the wrong century. She believes this to be mostly true except for the fact that she really likes running water, women’s rights, and ice cream. Aside from the ghosts, she also lives with her husband and their dogs. She likes cinnamon lattes, tattoos and books.

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Cover Reveal: The Society by Jodie Andrefski from Entangled Teen