Five for Friday

Happy Friday!
Can you believe it's almost May?

Here's what I'm obsessed with/getting ready for/having fun with, this week:

1. Still flying high from yesterday's PM announcement about IT WASN'T ALWAYS LIKE THIS, coming in 2016 from Soho Press. A girl. A boy. Two families that stumble upon a fountain of youth. And the crazy things that happen when you're stuck at 17 and searching for the boy you love.

Yeah. I kinda love it. I bet you do, too.
Tuck Everlasting meets Veronica Mars.
That's all I'll say for now.
(except that the blurb itself is on yesterday's blog post if you haven't seen it!)
Also that my agent, Jen Rofe, totally rocks.

2. Getting ready for this weekend's Houston SCBWI conference. I'm honored to be part of the local faculty, critiquing manuscripts. And looking forward to all the panels and sessions and just hanging out with authors, editors and agents. Yay!

3. Just ordered some fun giveaways for the A-WORD launch. Can you say cowboy boot keychains? They're seriously adorable. (Okay, I tried to type 'adorbs' but you know, I think I am officially done with the cloying cuteness of that word. There, I tossed that out there. Now you know.)

4. Finally watched most of The Trouble With the Curve w/Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams. Predictable. But sweet. A perfect rainy day/cleaning the family room/getting my head together before I leap into another project kind of movie.

5. Vampire Diaries is still holding my attention. There are far too many plot threads going on, some of which drag me from what I want to watch which is the Elana/Damon/Stefan triangle, but no matter. I'm still a fan. I do believe I could be a fan of The Originals, too, but I will need to actually watch more than the one ep I perused months ago. And it seems that perhaps this summer I need to catch up on Agents of Shield, which after its hiatus turned into a much stronger show. Sometimes, things just have to simmer a bit until the writers hit their stride. And I think this is one of them.

What are you doing/reading/watching this week?

SOME YA BOOT KICKING IN THE LONE STAR STATE: WRITING TEXAS

Mall Culture Heaven: French Fry Heaven!

So here’s the story: One day recently, it occurred to authors Tricia (PJ) Hoover, Mari Mancusi, Mary Lindsey and I that we all had new YA novels set in Texas. This is perhaps not surprising since we all live here in the Lone Star State – Mary and I here in Houston and Mari and Tricia in Austin. But the more we brainstormed, the more we realized that we really had a lot to say about not only why we set our stories here as well as the process involved in the specifics of a Lone Star state setting. Thus was born a panel presentation that we’ll be doing all over Texas this fall at a variety of regional library conferences. Sometimes it will be all four of us; sometimes it will be two. But it’s been both fun and eye-opening to look at the various aspects of setting a novel in Texas and what inspired each of us as well as what Texas elements play key roles.

To catch you up to speed: PJ Hoover’s SOLSTICE is a morph of dystopian and mythology, set in a slightly future Austin where global warming has changed a great deal. Plus two hot guys and one girl who is not quite who she thinks she is!  Mari Mancusi’s brand new SCORCHED uses a West Texas setting to begin a story that is best described as Game of Thrones meets Terminator and has—yup—2 hot guys (twins!) and girl and a dragon egg and a potential dragon apocalypse! Mary Lindsey’s SHATTERED SOULS series has—yup!—two hot guys and a girl who can help lost souls. Right here in Galveston. And finally, my SWEET DEAD LIFE series is about a girl whose brother returns from a fatal car accident as her less than angelic guardian angel, setting in motion a vast family mystery with huge global consequences. Also a cute guy who appears in book 1 for the beginning of a love story that will wind its way through the series. Just 1 guy. At least for now. And set – right here in Houston, with a few Austin road trips.

(Plus all our title start with 's'--something I just noticed)

For some stories, setting is an aspect, but it’s not crucial to the story telling. Certain romances, for example. The story is so much about the couple that the setting feels secondary. But imagine Twilight set in Miami? Uh, no. Even something like Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall is deeply intertwined to the specificity of a certain economic class in a certain type of suburban CT high school. At least as I see it.

So setting. For those of you who haven’t thought about setting since your 10^th grade English teacher asked you to draw a map of Maycomb Alabama or whatever, there’s more to it than just a geographic location. Setting is everything: time period, social milieu, climate; time of year; physical and political environment and more. Here’s a quick Writer’s Digest article if you really haven’t thought about it in a while:  http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/discover-the-basic-elements-of-setting-in-a-story

When my Soho Press editor first suggested the basic idea for the TSDL series, I remember being a bit nervous when I sent him an email saying that I would love to write this series but that I envisioned it set in suburban Houston. I figured he would say, ‘uh no,’ or perhaps, ‘hell no’ or perhaps wtf are you thinking, Prebs?’ But instead, he said, YES!

So why Texas? Well first of all, I live here. So the small societal details come easily to me because I live them every day. I mean let’s face it, there is a stunning specificity to the ‘wasteland’ of the northern Houston ‘burbs’ : Breakfast tacos and kolaches and mall culture and Olive Gardens and strip centers and stuff like how here in the more affluent suburb where I live, they’ve built us a town center that looks like a small town’s downtown, with stores built into old brick buildings. Only it’s just a façade. The buildings aren’t old at all, just a few years old, really. So in essence – a FAKE town center that everyone raves about. Stuff like that sticks in your head, you know?

So when my brain went whirring about where I would set a story about a 14 year old girl who’s older brother came back as a guardian angel, I thought WHAT BETTER PLACE than in the middle of giant high school football stadiums and Crocs kiosks and FAKE TOWN CENTERS, and western wear and cowboy boots devoid of actual farm work, and churches so enormous that they have a Starbucks inside (yes really) and a societal culture that often professes to have a pipeline to all the answers about faith and salvation and things of that nature. So, my brain said, what if the stoner dude (formerly a football star but down on his luck  and failing his classes because he’s been supporting the family since his dad disappeared and his mom went all depressed) in one of those ordinary suburban houses actually came back as his sassy sister's guardian angel? Right before Christmas. When the next door neighbors were putting out their lights and lawn angels? And became the most unlikely hero ever? And what if there was a big global mystery that could change life as we know it and its center was the Houston Medical Center? And the newly minted Texas boy angel and his narrator sister were at the epicenter of it all?

You see what I mean? Houston Texas was the PERFECT setting for this novel—for not only the main story but also much of the subtext. In fact, the setting works as a character of sorts. I can’t imagine this novel taking place anywhere else.

So what novels have you read where the setting plays a huge role in the story?

SWEET DEAD EARLY READER PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY!

THE SWEET DEAD LIFE arrives from Soho Press on May 14th, but I have decided that's still far away! Cause everyone is dying (pun intended) to read this Texas twist on the angel genre. Find out about Jenna Samuels and Casey, her less than saintly brother and guardian angel. There's mystery and poison and breakfast tacos in this irreverent novel of family, love, and the healing power of kolaches. None less than Kirkus declares: "Hallelujah! A paranormal tale of angels that's not a romance. A novel that breaks the mold."

This is the book that begins: "I found out two things today: One, I think I'm dying. And two, my brother is a perv."

You KNOW you want to read on. Casey and Jenna want you to read on!

Best of all, one of you is going to get to read before everyone else!!!

Here's what you could win: A hardback copy of THE SWEET DEAD LIFE! SWEET DEAD LIFE postcards! AND.... A cowboy boot can coozie!  Your SWEET DEAD EARLY READER PRIZE PACK looks like this:

All you have to do is comment here on the blog and tell me your favorite angel book or movie or TV show and why. (of course, after you read TSDL, you will discover what you've been missing and it will be your favorite!)

Contest is open through Saturday. I'll announce the winner on Monday 4/29.
Make sure that you check back or that I can easily contact you when you win! Otherwise the prize will go to someone else!

SWEET!!!