The Authors Which Inspire Us

We all have authors which inspire us. Those people whose books take us into the worlds that we love and inspire us to be better writers.

I have three particular authors that really inspired me as I wrote The Crimson Hunt and all my other NA  works.  I was fortunate enough to meet each one of them this year, and I wanted to share them and the work that drew me to them!

First Up:

Jennifer Echols

Jennifer's book, Love Story, was the very first New Adult book I ever read. I was at Barnes and Noble one day looking for a book about college students. This was the category I was trying to write and had never read not one novel about one.  I couldn't find a thing, but then my eyes stopped on this book. Why I don't know, but when I picked up the book and read the blurb I had to buy it because...it was about a college student! I was seriously on the verge of happy tears. 

I immediately read the book and loved it. It had fire, smexy, diversity, drama, and everything in between. She was writing exactly the age I was trying to write for! After I bought that book, I quickly the devoured the rest of her YA titles. I was so relieved to find her and was sad when I was done with her books. 

In a frenzy, I emailed her asking for recommendations, which leads me to my next author...

Simone Elkeles

OMG, this woman!!! Jennifer Echols told me if I liked her books, I should read Simone Elkeles because she writes very similarly. So I picked up her Perfect Chemistry series and quickly devoured. It has epic street fights, awesome smexy, and even more drama! Though her titles are YA, I still felt her characters had the maturity and spunk of a twenty-something character. The themes were deep and the content was slamming.

Her awesomeness for me raised even higher when I got to meet her at a writer's conference. I gave her a ton of books I needed signed for a giveaway and told her I was a blogger who reviewed books.  She thought it was cool that I was a blogger and asked me if I wanted a bunch of swag for my giveaway. I couldn't believe she was so nice and offered! We met up and she signed everything. I don't have enough good things to say about her :D

SC Stephens

When I first started writing, I knew I had to deal with the issue of sex.  I knew I wanted sexual content in my novels, but really didn't have a suitable source to look to because I couldn't find any novels that wrote smexy scenes the way I wanted to write them for my NA novels. YA either didn't have any or didn't explain them in the way I felt was best for the twenty-something characters in my books. So, when I found SC Stephens book, Thoughtless, I thought: "Eureka! I finally found what I'm trying to do!" Not only did she write 20-something characters, but she wrote sensual scenes in a way that I felt was appropriate for what I was trying to write myself. Not too light and not too hot = perfect for me!!!

She is also a self-published NA author who just got picked up by a big six for her Thoughtless series. As a self-published NA author myself, there's nothing more inspiring than that!

Now, I ask you: what books or what authors inspire what you write? How have they helped you become the writer that you are today?

Thanks for reading my inspirations and I can't wait to see yours!!!

Post-RWA 2012 Swag Giveaway!

Well, one thing I just LOVE about these writing conferences is that authors just love giving their books away!  So, to spread the love I like to giveaway a lot of the copies that I get :D

I received many books at RWA 2012 this year, and here's my follow up giveaway post.  I'll run this one for about two weeks to give people plenty of time to enter.  So here it goes.

I have the following stack of YA books and NA books to giveaway.  Love Story by Jennifer Echols is signed.

Me with Jennifer Echols

Here's the Official List

Love Story by Jennifer Echols (signed)

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally

The Taker by Alma Katsu

Fated by Alyson Noel

Abandon by Meg Cabot

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

So, how this giveaway will work is that there will be two winners.  The first drawn will get their pick of three books and the second person drawn will get what's left.  The giveaway ends 8/17.

Rules:

You must follow me on GFC, Linky Followers, or Network Blogs

You must be 13 or older

You must fill out the rafflecopter below

Giveaway is US Only

Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

RWA 2012 VLOG with Me! and Jaycee :D

Mentions:

RWA Chicago North Conference

Hey all!  I know I promised this for yesterday's post, but I was having some audio visual issues, haha.

*Note - If the video doesn't work I'm sorry.  I'll keep toying with it this weekend and see what I can do.

So here's the VLOG I suckered Jaycee into making with me (Oh, so sorry my friend =D).  Pardon how tired we both are.  We made it LATE, LOL.

Anywho, RWA was outstanding!  I got to go to some stellar classes and learned a lot.  I wanted to share some of the pictures I took below.  It was a long week, but it was amazing.  It was so cool to meet my critique partner Jaycee and I can't wait until my next conference.

We went to Disneyland on the last day.  I am a Disney FREAK so it was too much fun and I spent way too much money.

OMG! I went totally fan girl here.  This is Jennifer Echols.  She wrote the first New Adult book I ever read.  It's called Love Story and it's a romance about a college student who lives in NYC.  

Of course, I had to pester her about New Adult and she happily listened to my babble, haha.  No but seriously, she not only is a huge supporter of NA, but fights for it, too.  She continues to write her edgy romances despite what the industry says about them not selling and her books sell like hot cakes.

I got her to sign a few of her books and guess what???  I'm doing another giveaway, baby!  Stay tuned for more details ;D

Okay so I really can't do this post without this next part.  Through the creation of NA Alley I have met so many cool and stellarific NA authors and one of which is Alysia Gray Painter.  Her fun emails brighten my day and I'm happy to call her a dear friend.  Well, she heard Jaycee and I were going to be in Cali (where she just happens to reside) and she wanted to meet up.  Unfortunately, she had to go out of town and we couldn't schedule the meet.  So imagine what I felt when Jaycee and I get a knock on the door after a long day.  There was a man with a cart of milk and cookies. 

Here's me:  "Um, we didn't order this, sir." *Laughs nervously*

Man at the door with the cart:  "Oh, miss, a guest outside of the hotel ordered this for you."

Me: *mouth agape* 

Then I remembered that Alysia kept asking me where we were staying.  I told her, but didn't really think much of it.  Well, SHE sent the milk and cookies!!!!

This woman is so sweet and you should all go out and read her awesome books.

I have copies of her first two reads and can't wait to dive in!  Thanks so much Alysia. You're a gem.  Muah!

Wilfair 

Alysia's Blog

So on a final note.  I have GREAT news for all you New Adult peeps!  It's really happening! Not only did pretty much all the editors and agents I spoke to take it, but they are rooting for it.  

Everyone, was really excited about it and I couldn't believe how supportive everyone was.  

Here is a list of some of the people I spoke to:

St. Martin's Press

Grand Central Publishing

Month 9 Books

Samhain Publishing

I will soon add this list to the NA Alley page, but go ahead and look them up.  Oh, and certain editors of St. Martin's Press take unagented manuscripts!!!! I was in shock. They are a Big Six!  They don't list that on their site, so now you know.  And Dan Weiss from St. Martin's is looking for e-serials and I heard through the grapevine that he's taken at least 3 NA authors for this, so jump on it!

Well, that's all I have for now.  I can't wait until my next conference and I'll keep you updated when I head to the next one.

Special Announcement!

Tune in Friday for a special post-RWA 2012 giveaway!  I got some major swag peeps and I've completely lost my mind.  My craziness is your gain.  I'm giving out signed and unsighed copies of YA and NA books.  So come back Friday for details :D

Don't forget about my indie giveaway. Ends 8/6. + Sign up to be a part of The Crimson Hunt cover reveal - email me at: victoria.smith775@gmail.com to take part! :)

Join me on Twitter Tonight for NaLitChat!

How Much Smexy Is Too Smexy???

So I went to my local RWA meeting yesterday (shout out to the Prairie Hearts! :D)  and the topic of the appropriate amount of smexy that one should use in their writing came up during a presentation by one of my Prairie sisters, Robyn.  It was a great presentation and it got me thinking . . . what is the acceptable level and how often should the smexy, smexy occur?

I write New Adult of course and this may come as a surprise to some, but college students-- now pull in really close so you can hear this---have sex *whispers*  I know it's insane!  This fact is indeed true.  Some more than others, but it is occurring just the same.

Now when I think about the high level romance YA novels I have read, basically anything by Simone Elkeles or Jennifer Echols, they have STEAMY scenes and these kids are in high school, so what's good for a New Adult?

I want to be conscious of the reader, but at the same time put the level that I enjoy reading as well.  You would think that when writing a novel about 20 somethings! there are no rules for this, but there really are.  You don't want to offend anyone, but at the same time you don't want to be unrealistic. 

New Adult is not Adult fiction writing.  These 20 somethings! have different worries and responsibilities and graphic sex is not necessarily what people want to read or see, but sweet "close door" isn't necessarily it either.

I enjoy Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster and S.C. Stephens' Thoughtless as far as a good example for our New Adults, but some might think it's a little too smexy.

I guess it's all subjective, but I am curious about all you readers and writers out there.  What's your "smexy" level?  Do you enjoy "close door," Euphemism City smexy scenes,  partially descriptive smexy, no holds barred, or do you just breeze over them entirely?