The Karma Club - Release Date!

Hey everyone! This just in from my young adult publisher. The Karma Club has finally been given a release date. The book will hit stores in May 2010. Yippee!!! Everyone mark your calendars!

"Awesome" New Review of The Fidelity Files

If you book lovers haven't yet discovered the blog, Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf, then you MUST head over immediately. She does some great stuff over there. And she's now my new best friend after giving Fidelity Files an A+ rating (it's been a few years since I've been in school, but if memory serves, it doesn't get any higher than that right?) and a kick-ass review!

Here's my favorite part:

Adding to the awesome main character, the plot was also intense and provided for several twists and turns you didn't see coming. Also, I enjoyed how it has a light side too it because of funny secondary characters...Overall, The Fidelity Files is definitely a book filled with awesomeness, I truly look forward to reading Love Under Cover.

Thanks Lauren!

Click here to read the full review on her blog!

I'm holed up in my office right now, putting the finishing touches on my second YA book, still untitled, and counting down the days until I turn it in and then leave for vacation!

Hope everyone's having an "awesome" day!

Jess

In Memory of Blake Snyder and John Hughes

What a sad, sad week.

I know most of you know who John Hughes is. He pretty much shaped my pre-adolescent years with films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Sixteen Candles (my personal favorite--oh, Jake Ryan) and The Breakfast Club, but less of you might know who Blake Snyder is.

He happens to be a hero of mine. A screenwriter/teacher/story guru who wrote a marvelous book called Save the Cat which incorporates a tool that no novelist, screenwriter or storyteller should live without. It's called the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (or the BS2, to those of us die hard fans!) And it's a 15-point format that can pretty much be applied to ANY Hollywood blockbuster. I use it to outline all of my books and screenplays. Check out my For Writers page to read more about my Blake Snyder Obsession.


Well, both Blake Snyder and John Hughes passed away this week from a cardiac arrest, leaving behind legacies that will be remembered for generations. Every time I outline a new book I will remember Blake and what he has done for me and writers everywhere.

Guest Star: Carleen Brice

Our Guest Star author this week is Carleen Brice author of the new novel, Children of the Waters.


Here's what the book is about:

Still reeling from divorce and feeling estranged from her teenage son, Trish Taylor is in the midst of salvaging the remnants of her life when she uncovers a shocking secret: her sister is alive. For years Trish believed that her mother and infant sister had died in a car accident. But the truth is that her mother fatally overdosed and that Trish's grandparents put the baby girl up for adoption because her father was black.

After years of drawing on the strength of her black ancestors, Billie Cousins is shocked to discover that she was adopted. Just as surprising, after finally overcoming a series of health struggles, she is pregnant--a dream come true for Billie but a nightmare for her sweetie, Nick, and for her mother, both determined to protect Billie from anything that may disrupt her well-being.

And here's my interview with the author!

1) How do you come up with the names for your characters?

I often use family names or names of friends to start and then see if the name changes as I go along.

2) When you got that first phone call announcing your had sold a novel, how did you react? How did you celebrate? If you've sold more than one novel, do you have a celebration ritual for subsequent sales?

I yelled and cried and beat on the steering wheel (my agent called just as I was leaving for work). I bought myself a pair of diamond earrings and got hubby a guitar, and there’s been lots and lots of champagne. This is my 2nd novel and it was part of a 2-book deal, so I celebrated the deals for both at once, but I also partied when each book was released.

3) If your book were to be made into a movie, who could you see playing the lead role?

Halle Berry could play Billie. Jennifer Aniston as Trish. Or Alicia Keys as Billie and Reese Witherspoon as Trish.

4) Since becoming a writer, what's the most glamorous thing you've ever done?

Attended awards ceremonies and actually received 2 awards! Almost like the Oscars! (not really, but you know what I mean)

5) If you could be a superhero, what would you superpower be?

Invisibility. (She said after months of doing self-promotion.)

Paise for Children of the Waters:

"I was exhausted and singing the blues the hour I began Carleen Brice's new novel, CHILDREN OF THE WATERS. Five hours later, I'd finished this fresh, free-rein novel about mothers' secrets and children's sorrows and was shouting 'Hurray!'"
--Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

Click here to order Children of the Waters on Amazon!

About the Author:

Carleen Brice was recently named 2008 "Breakout Author of the Year" by The African American Literary Awards Show for her debut novel Orange Mint and Honey, which was also a selection of the Essence Book Club. She is also the author of Walk Tall:Affirmations for People of Color, and Lead Me Home: An African American's Guide Through the Grief Journey and edited the anthology Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife. She lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and two cats. Visit her online at: www.CarleenBrice.com