On Stars, Reviews and Other Shiny Things

There's been a great deal of commentary lately about reviews and authors behaving badly, using their blogs and Amazon and Goodreads to berate less-than-perfect reviews (and reviewers!) Enough has been said about the topic, and by far more articulate people than me.

As far as behaving badly goes, you won't find me doing that. In fact, you won't find me commenting at all, even if your review is glowing and super-wonderful.

Why not?

Because they're not really for me. When you publish a review, be it professional or amateur, it becomes a tool for readers to gauge whether a particular book might be something they'd like or not. The reader gets to weigh the reviewer's likes and dislikes against their own personal reading quirks. Reader me has a handful of things that can turn me off about a story, and a whiff of those things in a review gives me pause. I know I'm not alone in that. Which is why reviews are so useful (beyond the obvious marketing/exposure angle).

But know this: Just because I'm not commenting, it doesn't mean I'm not grateful. I'm very grateful and appreciative of any reader/reviewer who takes the time to read my book and give their thoughts—positive, negative, or anywhere on the spectrum in between.

Because when you leave a review, you're helping a reader find a new book to love.

So to those who have reviewed White Horse so far, and to those who review it in the future: Thank you. I sincerely mean it.

In other news:

Later this week I'll be guest-blogging over at The Qwillery--a blog directly responsible for boosting my to-be-read list.

One of the books that caught my eye at The Qwillery was Daniel O'Malley's The Rook. Holy moley, was it fun! I'm really hoping The Rook was the first of a series--that's how much I enjoyed it. Well done, Daniel O'Malley, you made me love an amnesia/memory loss story!

Giveaways, Glorious Giveaways!

If you're in the US or UK, there's a Goodreads ARC giveaway going on right here.

If you're in Canada, there's another Goodreads ARC giveaway from S&S Canada going on over here.

And if you leave a comment down below (between now and Friday), recommending a new or newish novel you've loved, I'll randomly pull a couple of names for a signed White Horse ARC.

Update: Wow, it's Friday already?

*Does some randomizer magic*

Valerie, Bettielee and Samuel, step right up! Shoot me an email at alexadamsbooks at gmail dot com with your snail mail addresses and I'll send you each a signed White Horse ARC.

(I can't count, I know; this isn't news to my parents or my former math teachers.)

Thank you so much, everyone, for entering. I now have a shiny, new pile of books to add to my to-read list! As a reminder, those Goodreads giveaways are still happening, so run on over and take a look-see.

The Kindness of Cover Gods

It's a nerve-wracking time for an author, when he or she is waiting on cover art. You never know what you're going to get. We have so much control over our stories, but covers are conceived in some magical place most authors are never privy to. If we're lucky, our editors ask for our thoughts (mine did), but more often than not what we get is what we get.

Now, I can tell a story. I can paint pretty pictures on a page using words. I can do lots of things—and fairly well. But I'm as visually artistic as a pile of still-blind newborn puppies. So I went into this without anything in mind, as far as covers go. I was quite happy to let the professionals do their jobs.

But I was nervous—oh-so nervous. Because covers can make or break books.

But it turns out I was wasting time worrying, because my US publisher gave me the amazing cover art above.

And my UK publisher gave me the wildly different, but no less incredible, cover below.

Each captures a piece of the story perfectly.

New Year, New Stuff

It's a new year, and already I'm surrounded by deadlines. This week I'm wrapping up second-pass pages, while simultaneously trying to finish Red Horse (which will be Book Two). Meanwhile, thoughts of Book Three are prancing through my head. I have a main character. I have a first line. Not just any first line, but a first line I know is perfect. And thanks to those second-pass pages, I have my delicious twist. One of the miracles of writing is how we can pen the smallest detail, what seems like a mere throwaway at the time, yet later we realize it's a large hook from which we can dangle a critical plot point. I love those days when I surprise myself.

If you'd like to start the new year with a new book, head on over to Goodreads and enter my ARC giveaway.

White Horse: The ARC Winners!

Because it's a new year (and apparently our last, according to the Ancient Mayans*), I became all overly-enthused about giving stuff away and pulled THREE names from the comments:

Ellen

Eldon

Congratulations!!! Shoot me an email at: alexadamsbooks at gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll get these right out to you.

I'm sorry I couldn't pick you all. Keep watching this space, though, because I'll be giving away more ARCs (and other pretty, shiny things!) soon. If you're a Goodreads member, there will be a White Horse giveaway there soon, too.

(No bribes were accepted, despite the generous and amusing offers of dancing, food, and belly rubs for my dog. I WAS sorely tempted. Names were drawn using random.org)

*I won't go down without a fight, Ancient Mayans, because I was promised a zombie apocalypse, and I won't accept anything else as The End.

White Horse: The ARC Competition!

If you're looking to win an Advance Reader Copy of White Horse, you've come to the right place. Because I'm looking to give two away.

For those of you who don't know, ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) are uncorrected proofs, bound for reviewers. They're pretty and they're shiny and they mean you've got a chance to read White Horse months before its April 17, 2012 release date!

But I'm going to make you work for it, just a tiny bit. Before we get to that part, though, here's the back cover blurb, just so you know what White Horse is all about:

Thirty-year-old Zoe leads an ordinary life until the end of the world arrives. She is cleaning cages and floors at Pope Pharmaceuticals when the President of the United States announces that human beings are no longer a viable species. When Zoe realizes that everyone she loves is disappearing, she starts running. Scared and alone in a shockingly changed world, she embarks on a remarkable journey of survival and redemption. Along the way, Zoe comes to see that humans are not defined by their genetic code, but rather by their actions and choices. White Horse offers hope for a broken world, where love can lead to the most unexpected places.

So if you want to win (and you do don't you?) answer this question in the comments:

In White Horse, one of the few possessions Zoe carries with her is a toy monkey—a favorite from her childhood. If the world was ending, and you were on the run, what one thing (not a person or a pet) would you take with you?

Because it's a holiday weekend, I'll give you a couple of extra days to chime in. Check for an update on Monday. The winners will be randomly chosen, so bribery won't work. Although you're welcome to try. :D

I'm happy to post these anywhere in the world. So wherever you are, jump on in!

The best book you’ll read in 2013

There are a million things I love about writing for a living, but one of the top perks is that writers tend to collect writer friends; and the side-effect of that is that we get to read amazing books, not long after they're a twinkle in the author's eye.

One of the very best novels I've read this year is by an author you haven't heard of--yet.

But you will hear about her soon. Oh yes, you will. Because Jamie Mason's novel, THE LIAR'S MARGIN sold to Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster) recently.

It's good. It's so good. Jamie's one of those writers who can do it all: true-to-life characters, compelling story, and delicious prose that enhances and never detracts.

I cried when she told me her amazing news. Her sale is so very much deserved. Yay, Jamie!

Rubbing elbows with JK Rowling

Sort of, at least.

I sneaked onto her page, right down the bottom under Apocalyptic visions.

Making it new; making it shiny

There's nothing new under the sun, they say. And that's true. Everything that's been done has been done again a million times over. So where does that leave us, the writers, the storytellers, the mythmakers? How do we take the old and freshen up it enough to keep what-happens-next a secret from the readers until we're ready for them to know it?

My answer is this: I don't know.

I don't fully understand the process, the way I take something and twist it into a shape that differs slightly from the others on the shelf. I only know how I fuel myself so it's possible:

1. I read. I read widely. Inside my genre and out.

Terry Pratchett is the poster child for reading widely. He's the guy who picks up obscure non fiction wherever he finds it, subjects like lawnmower repair, books most of us would slide right on past to pick up old favorites. And it shows. His novels are tightly packed with crunchy, delicious details that enable me to see old things through a new lens. They're a blend of philosophy, science, psychology, mystery, romance, and do-it-yourself in a Fantasy wrapper.

2. I live a life outside of books.

I have other interests. I go places. I do stuff. I talk about things that have nothing to do with books, writing or publishing. The creative well gets topped up on a regular basis by living a fun, interesting life. Every experience adds to the pool of stuff-I-have-to-write-about. Even the crappy moments (and we all have them) make the writing richer.

3. I watch movies.

My guy and I are both writers and we're both avid movie-watchers. Movies get picked to pieces over wings and beer. We rip the seams out of not-so-great films and discuss how we'd put them back together—bigger and better. We analyze what works, what doesn't work, what only works because one of us has been there/done that/has the right body parts. You can learn as much from a bad movie as you can a good one. All of this helps construct better stories. It's also a good way to see how things have been done (or overdone) already.

A good book is basically Frankenstein's monster. It's made up of bits everything we've done, read, watched, experienced. The more we take in, the better and more original we can be on the page.

If you do it differently, I'd love to hear how. There's plenty more room in my bag of writing tricks.

Release dates

So here is what I know, thus far.

WHITE HORSE will be on shelves in the US and Canada on April 10, 2012, and in stores in the UK on April 26.

The very best thing about this?

You'll be able to buy (and read!) my book before the world ends on December 21, 2012.

Not, you know, that I believe in such things.

Ignore the bunker in my backyard. Ignore it.