YA Scavenger Hunt!

The YA Scavenger Hunt is over!  But my giveaway will be active until midnight, Pacific Time, Sunday, April 6th.

Hello, I am Katherine Longshore, hostess of this leg of the hunt!  I love travel, history and chocolate (though not necessarily always in that order) and am the author of three novels of friendship, love and betrayal set in the court of Henry VIII (GILT, TARNISH, and BRAZEN) and the "Downtonesque" MANOR OF SECRETS.  There will be a super-secret, exclusive deleted scene from BRAZEN on another blog stop, so keep searching!

You are currently hunting on Team Gold!

SCAVENGER HUNT RULES

During this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue at each stop. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one 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!

Directions: Somewhere in this post, I have listed my favorite number (HINT, it is highlighted in GOLD.). Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the gold 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.

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are EIGHT contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GOLD TEAM--but every team offers chances to win entirely different sets of books!

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, April 5th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

But be sure to read all the way to the bottom of the post--I'm hosting an additional giveaway and I'd love it if you enter!

P. J. HOOVER!

Today, I am hosting the fabulous P.J. Hoover for the Scavenger Hunt!

After a fifteen year bout as an electrical engineer, P. J. Hoover started writing books for kids and teens. When not writing, P. J. spends time with her husband and two kids and enjoys practicing kung fu, solving Rubik's cubes, and watching Star Trek. Her middle grade novel, Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life (Starscape/Macmillan, September 2014), tells the story of a young immortal King Tut, who's been stuck in middle school for over 3,000 years and must defeat an ancient enemy with the help of a dorky kid from school, a mysterious Egyptian princess, and a one-eyed cat. Her first novel for teens, Solstice (Tor Teen/Macmillan, June 2013), takes place in a global warming future and explores the parallel world of mythology beside our own. 

Find out more by checking out P.J's website and find out how to buy SOLSTICE here! 

Piper's world is dying. Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.


Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.





Tricia is sharing with us the exclusive opening chapter of a sequel to SOLSTICE, and I, for one, am hooked...

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Tricia's exclusive YASH content is no longer available, but I hope you'll still look her up, and check out SOLSTICE!

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CONTINUE THE HUNT

Continue the hunt and enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, P.J. Hoover, and more!  Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the gold team and you'll have the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Alexandra Monir!

And as you go through the hunt, be sure to Tweet #YASH

ADDITIONAL GIVEAWAY!

As you go through the Hunt, you will learn more about my book, BRAZEN (and read a deleted scene from the original manuscript), on Amy McNulty's blog, but I wanted to give all the hunters an exclusive opportunity to win a full set of all FOUR of my books--GILT, TARNISH, BRAZEN and MANOR OF SECRETS. The stories feature love and death, manipulation and romance, loyalty, loss, and most importantly, learning to be yourself.  As an added bonus, the Tudor books are the matching paperbacks printed only in the UK.

Entering is easy--all you have to do is one (or all!) of the things listed in the Rafflecopter below.  But while you're here, the easiest of all is to comment!

I'm always on the lookout for a fabulous new read, so tell me:

What is your favorite YA or coming-of-age novel?  And if you've got the time, tell me why!

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Come Join the YA Scavenger Hunt!

I'm so excited to be participating in this year's 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 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!

There will be EIGHT contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I will be joining the GOLD TEAM--but there are seven others, and you can participate in all of them for a chance to win books!

The Hunt will begin at 12 NOON Pacific time on Thursday, April 2nd and ends at noon on April 5th.  I'll be posting exclusive content from BRAZEN on another author's site and giving away special additional prizes right here, so stay tuned!

The Writing Process Blog Tour

I’m so excited to be taking part in the Writing Process blog tour.  I think all writers have a feeling they are somehow doing things “wrong”, that it must be easier for everyone else, that I must be the only one who stews over a plot point until it comes out my pores.  But reading previous posts (including this one by Gretchen McNeil and Stasia Ward Kehoe’s last week) makes me realize we’re all in the same situation.  We have strengths and weaknesses, victory and despair, elements that just flow and others that have to be pulled kicking and screaming into the limelight.  And I read their books (like THE SOUND OF LETTING GO by Stasia Ward Kehoe) with renewed insight and something akin to awe.

What am I working on?

I am currently working on something completely different—a contemporary novel set in a situation far removed from the English Tudor court or a country manor house.  Though my characters are still bound by social constraints, they have an illusion of freedom that gives the novel a completely different kind of energy.  I’m also brainstorming ideas for future novels ranging in time period from the 17th Century to present day…

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I write historical novels, but do my best to give them a contemporary feel.  It’s my belief that people who lived five hundred years ago aren’t so very different from people today—they had hopes and dreams, fell in love and rebelled against injustice (and social restrictions) just as we do today.  As a result, my writing voice is very contemporary, as well (for instance, I use contractions!), which I hope makes my characters relatable to modern teens, without affecting the believability of their situation.

Why do I write what I do?

I write realistic historical fiction (mostly based on actual people and actual events) because if it wasn’t real, it would seem like fantasy.  Henry VIII is so much like a Bluebeard character, and the conniving and manipulations in his court are so Mean Girls.  I love it.  And I love inventing the fictional character who can fit into those shoes.

But mostly I write what I do because I love the characters.  I can see them in my mind’s eye, hear their voices in my head, follow their actions.  I love building a character from the ground up and living in that fantasy world for as long as it takes to write and revise the novel.

How does my writing process work?

Very messily!  I am definitely more of a pantser than a plotter.  I generally start with just a seed—for BRAZEN, it was: I want to write a book about Mary Howard, who was Henry VIII’s daughter-in-law.  I look at the whys—because she became an independent woman in a world where women were treated as chattel.  I look at the history and put together a thin, basic framework of the historical events.  And then I write.  I put characters into situations.  I create scenes for them to interact.  I build what I imagine to be the pivotal moments in the narrating character’s life.  I eventually get up to about seventy or eighty thousand words.

Then I cut the first fifty pages, rip the rest of the “zero draft” apart into basic components, kill dozens of darlings and start over.  Kind of like tearing apart a LEGO creation and building something new from all those blocks.

Like I said, messy.  And definitely not something I’d suggest you try at home unless you’re a glutton for punishment.  But I love writing, so having to cut 40k out of an 80k manuscript doesn’t make me despair for long.  Because it means I can keep creating.

By the end of the second draft (which is really the first, because the first eight thousand words I write are really not a draft at all), I have a much better handle on the story and structure, and that’s when everything really takes off.  Because my favorite part of the process is the fine-tuning in later drafts—words, sentences, microtension.  So many little inspirations and surprises.

If it sounds like a bit of a hassle, I suppose it is.  But I think that knowing my process has definitely helped me move forward with every book.  For instance, I tried my damnedest to start BRAZEN in the right place, so I wouldn’t have to cut the first fifty pages.  But I got stuck.  Stalled.  For weeks.  And I had to go back and write fifty pages of what happened before the beginning, just so I could cut it and move on.

Yeah.  Definitely a hassle.

I’ve enjoyed reading other writing process posts along the tour, and I hope you do, too.

Want more craft?   Jennifer McGowan, author of MAID OF SECRETS and the upcoming MAID OF DECEPTION, will be telling us all about her writing process on May 5!

Are you a plotter?  A pantser?  An in-betweener?  What part of the process gives you the most joy?  I’d love to hear your process, too!

BRAZEN Blog Tours!

Seven weeks 'til BRAZEN publication, and I'm crafting all kinds of reveals and teasers and exclusive content for two different blog tour events.

Kathy Coe at A Glass of Wine is conducting the Tudor Thursdays (formerly Tudor Tuesdays) tour, a six-week stretch preceding the publication date.  Each post includes a taste of information about my favorite historical sites in England, as well as a (mostly) related teaser excerpt from BRAZEN.  Keep a lookout!

Jaime Arnold at Rock Star Book Tours is hosting a two-week BRAZEN blog tour right around the publication date, which will include reviews, interviews and exclusive guest posts.  More information about participating bloggers will be updated shortly!

One Day Giveaway!

Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she's married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII's illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court's inner circle. Mary and "Fitz" join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court's strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed...but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?

Want to know more about BRAZEN?  I'm giving everyone who comments on this blog special access to what goes on inside Mary's head and between the covers of the book!

Today, for one day only, if you leave a comment--any number between 3 and 512--I will reply with one sentence from that page of the book!

One comment per person (so choose your number wisely!), and every comment gets TEN entries.  Tweets, Twitter follows and Facebook likes all get one point each.  This giveaway is open internationally, but be aware that the giveaway is scheduled for EST and there may be times during the day that I'll be sleeping or otherwise occupied so there may be a delay in my reply!


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Get Ready for the One Day Giveaway!

This coming Thursday, I'm hosting a one day giveaway right here on the blog!  All day long (until midnight EST), you can leave a number between 3 and 512 in the comments section of Thursday's blog post, and I will reply with a single sentence from that page!

A few facts about BRAZEN:

It's 512 pages long, but some pages are just locations and/or dates.  Choose wisely!

It's about friendship.

It's about love.

It's about following the rules--and defying them.

All the characters in it actually lived, and many of the major events actually happened.

There will be kisses and rejections, arguments, laughter, marriage, divorce, beheadings, betrayals and reconciliations.

It was the hardest book I've ever written.  You'll find out why.

I can't wait to share it with you!

Find out more on my website.

Mary Howard has always lived in the shadow of her powerful family. But when she's married off to Henry Fitzroy, King Henry VIII's illegitimate son, she rockets into the Tudor court's inner circle. Mary and "Fitz" join a tight clique of rebels who test the boundaries of court's strict rules with their games, dares, and flirtations. The more Mary gets to know Fitz, the harder she falls for him, but is forbidden from seeing him alone. The rules of court were made to be pushed...but pushing them too far means certain death. Is true love worth dying for?

Blurbage

One of the more terrifying steps on this publishing journey has been, for me, having other writers read my work.  I think most of us want our work to be appreciated--even valued--by our peers, so when any other writer (published or unpublished) writes or tweets me that they like one of my books, I get this special glow that can last for days.  But asking someone to read--with a mind to blurb--my books is as much of a cliff jump as querying agents and submitting to editors were.

I'm not sure why.  I am honored--thrilled--to be asked to blurb a book, and I've just been devastated the times I had to refuse for whatever reason.  And so far 99.99% of all the authors I've ever met have been enthusiastic, thoughtful, considerate and encouraging.  So why am I afraid to reach out to them?

Because I'm asking them to put their credibility on the line, as well.  I'm asking them to put their faith in me, and to put their readers' with in me, too.  That's a huge thing to ask.  And a privilege to receive.

So it is with great joy (and even greater gratitude) that I can announce that BRAZEN has received these responses from two of my absolute favorite authors.

Donna Cooner, author of SKINNY and the upcoming CAN'T LOOK AWAY has this to say:

"Longshore has written an exquisite story of falling in love for the first time amidst the chaos of Henry VIII’s court.  BRAZEN will captivate readers with history and heart."

And Robin LaFevers, author of GRAVE MERCY, DARK TRIUMPH and the upcoming MORTAL HEART, said:


"BRAZEN is historical fiction at its best--crisp and elegantly written while delivering a powerful emotional punch. I adored this book and readers cannot help but be pulled into Mary Howard's world and feel the web of the Tudor court's conflicting loyalties tighten around her as she struggles to have some control over her own life. Her ultimate triumph is palpable and had me cheering in my seat! A must read for fans of historical fiction or anyone who has ever struggled to find the courage to defy others' expectation or society's conventions."

It's enough to make an author swoon. :)





Stay tuned the week of April 7th for a chance to win an advance reader copy of BRAZEN for yourself!