5 Ways to Add Depth to Your Fictional Relationships

My Australian Cover

In Indigo Awakening (Book #1 in my “The Hunted” series for Harlequin Teen)—there is a love triangle that is layers deep. I’m a sucker for love triangles, but I wanted the one in Indigo Awakening to be a little more than a girl’s attraction to two very different boys. At the apex of this triangle is a very strong girl, Kendra Walker, the leader of an underground movement of Indigo children and feelings run high when beliefs and ideologies are tested.
 
Lucas Darby is psychic and becomes mentally linked to a girl he hears in his head after he escapes from a mental hospital. Kendra thinks she has made contact with another lost Indigo, but after she realizes that Lucas is a powerful Crystal child, she sees the future she always dreamed would be possible. And for Lucas to connect with the “hive mind” for the first time, the link is intoxicating and seductive. Kendra is older than Lucas, but for him their connection is as intimate as making love for the first time. It changes everything for both of them. Since Lucas is evolving into a Crystal child, the next evolution of mankind, Kendra is motivated to be with him so she can be a part of a new, more powerful movement. She is a modern day Joan of Arc on a mission to save the Indigos, but someone else is her rock when it comes to protecting her Indigo children.
 
Another boy, Rafael Santana, has helped Kendra build a safe underground oasis for the homeless Indigos. Rafe has feelings for Kendra that he’s never shared with her, but he’s also driven to protect Benny, a 10-year old boy he loves like a little brother. This conflict will drive how he reacts when Kendra’s Indigo revolution threatens the home he wants for Benny. After she focuses her attention on Lucas, Rafe becomes jealous, but in his quiet way he deals with it until the conflict between the Indigos and the Believers blows up, the fanatical church zealots who hunt Indigo kids to stop the next evolution of man. Rafael’s love for Benny collides with his loyalty for Kendra and changes everything.
 
Kendra must choose how far she is willing to go to save her Indigo family—the one she has and the one she’s dreamed about. Lucas, the powerful Crystal child, represents the future she had always hoped for, but Rafael is the heart and soul of the past she started with him—the boy who made her dream possible.
 
Key steps to adding depth to your fictional relationships:
 
1.) Give a strong character vulnerabilities that conflict with what they might want and force them to choose. There are consequences to actions. Someone’s gotta lose, even in love.

2.) Give them choices that test their emotions. Their choices shouldn’t be easy. For example, make them choose between their personal happiness or the greater good. This is classic and always relatable.

3.) Pair them with opposite types of characters to enhance the conflict potential. Opposites attract for a reason. Fireworks, baby.

4.) Create internal conflicts or flaws that make them struggle with their external goals and the goals of the character(s) you’ve paired them with. Conflict is key to any great story. But add depth to your character by layering the conflict inside them first.

5.) Give them a noble cause that is a roadblock to their personal happiness. What would they do? Not every character would make the same decision.

 
Discussion Questions:

1.) What would you add to this list?

2.) What are some of your favorite literary or film love triangles? Please share your thoughts on why they resonated with you.

 
"Dane's first offering in her new series, The Hunted, is sensational. Indigo Awakening has strong characters and a wild and intense story, matched only by the emotions it will generate within you. Readers will love this book and eagerly await the next adventure. Fantastic! A keeper."
4.5 Stars (out of 5)
—Romantic Times Book Review Magazine

The Next BIG THING Blog Hop + GIVEAWAY

Jordan Dane
@JordanDane

Welcome to the latest stop on The Next Big Thing Blog Hop for Wednesday, January 23, 2013. This blog tour invites writers to answer ten questions about their current Work in Progress or an upcoming project. Each tagged author answers the questions and tags more writers to do the same. Cool, right?  

The brilliant author who tagged me upside the head was Amanda Stevens. I’ve loved her evocative dark writing. She’s had a long successful writing career. Her latest adult offering is the Graveyard Queen series (which is currently being developed by NBC for a TV series). Booyah! I’m thrilled to see she is writing YA with her upcoming Soul Jumper series in February 2014. We are blog mates on ADR3NALIN3, a daily post group blog that features authors who write dark YA. Thanks, Amanda. You rock!  

I’ve got another secret proposal being offered through my agent, Meredith Bernstein. A near future, YA Sci-fi techno-thriller that I am super-excited about and can’t wait to see who picks this up, but I can’t talk about it yet. Shhhh.  

I'm also excited about my first self-published audio book that I did through ACX for my debut YA book - In the Arms of Stone Angels. Michelle Ann Dunphy is the award-winning voice actor who narrated the recording of my book. She did an amazing job. It's available on Amazon, Audible US & UK, and iTunes. HERE is a link to a blog post I did on self-publishing an audio book at The Kill Zone.

As part of the NEXT BIG THING Blog Hop, I will giveaway ONE digital download audio book of "In the Arms of Stone Angels." See contest entry rules below.  

So here’s a sneak peek at what’s been haunting my mind and I CAN talk about:  

1) What is the working title of your book(s)?
You’d think this would be easier to answer, but my editor asked for a title change to book #2 in my HUNTED series for Harlequin Teen. It seems that the title we’ve had in mind – Crystal Storm – is the name of a porn star. Query it and see what I mean, but I won’t provide a link. The last title I submitted was Crystal Fire. No strippers there. I checked.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
This is book #2 in a series. The first book is Indigo Awakening which was just released in January 2013. The major inspiration behind the Hunted series came from my research of Indigo children. Query “Indigo Child” on the Internet and you’ll get over 8 million hits. Real life and headlines often inspire my books and this time is no exception. Conspiracy theorists have linked the CIA, the UN, and the Pentagon to the phenomenon known as Indigo and Crystal children. For the purposes of fiction, I took liberties in my portrayal of this phenomenon, but Indigo kids are generally described as highly intelligent, gifted teen psychics with a bright "indigo" aura and a mission to save the world. They have high IQs, have been known to see angels and commune with the dead. Because they are frequently misunderstood, they are diagnosed by therapists and doctors as having attention deficit or behavioral disorders and are often medicated. I portray Crystal kids as the next evolution beyond Indigos. Mankind’s future, if they survive us. 

Are Indigo children real or are they manipulated by adults to believe their sensitivities are special? Are they dysfunctional misfits or saviors who must be respected as the next evolution of mankind? You decide, but I find the notion of man’s evolution very intriguing.

3) What genre does your book fall under?
Young adult/Sci-fi, paranormal thriller

4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie version?
Landon Liboiron as Gabriel Stewart, Nikola Peltz as Rayne Darby, William Moseley as Lucas Darby, Emma Watson as Kendra Walker, and Tyler Posey as Rafael Santana. Here is the inspirational image I used for my heart throb character, Gabriel Stewart.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When 15-year old Lucas Darby becomes the prime target of a fanatical church that hunts psychic kids on the streets of LA, his sister Rayne finds her only alley is a mysterious runaway boy with unimaginable powers that could doom them all.

6) Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
My Hunted series has been sold to Harlequin Teen. My agent is Meredith Bernstein.


7) How long did it take to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I edit as I go and don’t do the draft thing. When I am done with the first pass, I’m pretty much done, except for last minute tweaks to embellish the emotional parts. I set my daily word count goal and can write a novel in 4-6 weeks, which does not include the main research or any pre-planning outline. So I generally can come up with a concept, a general guideline with research, and write the book in 3-4 months, depending on how complicated the research is. I wrote my debut YA – In the Arms of Stone Angels – in a month after my initial research into the Native American culture.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

There hasn’t been a fictional title done on Indigo children in a long while. There are plenty of novels on psychic kids in a dystopian world or where the teen deals with a gift that makes them different, but my series is a bit different since I combine thriller writing craft to elements of romance to create a fast-paced emotional story. A book that I will be reading shortly – Through Indigo's Eyes by authors Tara Taylor and Lorna Schultz Nicholson – has wonderful elements about Indigo children, since it’s based on Tara’s real life as an Indigo, but written in a fictional plot by Lorna.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I was looking for a plot with a larger cast of characters and more boys of different cultural backgrounds. And since the most important question in a writer’s arsenal is “what if,” I asked myself - What if Indigo kids are the next evolution of mankind and their psychic abilities are evolving and escalating? Who would fear this and feel threatened?

I had to have a larger than life villain with a universal reach to terrorize these children. (Yeah, that’s how authors think.) The Church of Spiritual Freedom (specifically, a covert operation of overzealous “Believers”) use their faith as justification to persecute those they fear, believing God is on their side. They fear that Indigos and Crystal children threaten humanity’s existence with their“unnatural” superiority. That’s the basic conflict, a David versus Goliath storyline. That really appealed to me. I had to write that story.

10) What else about your book might pique a reader's interest?
I blended my research on Indigo kids with the topic of psychic abilities to create a different kind of world that wouldn’t be formulaic. I wanted the reader to “feel” these powers and how they erupt or evolve within each character. I didn’t want to simply describe traditional psychic capabilities. I wanted readers to understand how these kids feel as their power explodes or how their gifts morph into something far greater after they make contact with the “hive mind.” 

I also provided a cultural context within the Indigos that would fuel more conflict. Indigos are warriors who are rebellious whereas Crystal children are more peace loving, yet ultimately more powerful in their abilities.  I also built in consequences and a dark side to wielding such power—a duty and responsibility. The church is tampering with Science and man’s future too. That makes for an interesting conflict that keeps yielding story lines in the series.  The next “Big Thing” authors on the hop are...

Ilsa J. Bick
P J Hoover
Michelle Gagnon 


Next Wednesday, January 30th, these writers will post about their own Next Big Things. You will be blown away by the diversity and talent of these authors. You won’t want to miss next week’s HOP.

Thanks for dropping by!

Enter the IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS Audio Book Giveaway BELOW.See rules for how to enter. There are many ways to get your name in & more than once. Good luck!


http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b3a3ad3/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

V-Tour for INDIGO AWAKENING Jan 4-Jan 18

The fabulous people at KismetBT – Danny & Heather – are hosting my Harlequin Teen virtual tour for book #1 in the Hunted series – Indigo Awakening (now available). Each stop will have giveaways plus a great gift pack from Harlequin Teen as a grand prize.
 
There will be character interviews & movie cast images, a feature on psychic powers, photos of the real settings used to inspire scenes, and a peek into the dark sinister world of the Believers.
 
For the deets, check out this LINK.

Congratulations Goodreads Winners!

 


My Goodreads contest to giveaway TEN copies of Indigo Awakening ended December 15th. Congratulations to the winners listed below. Santa is on his way to deliver your book. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. Happy holidays!

1.) Melodie Platt - Canada  
2.) Linda Fisher - Ohio  
3.) Melissa Miller - Canada  
4.) Morgan Musselman - Iowa  
5.) Michael Rohmann - Kentucky  
6.) Angela Evans - Iowa  
7.) Sandi Harkness - Indiana  
8.) Patricia Garner - Florida  
9.) Katelin Deushane - Illinois  
10.) Jaime Smitte - Florida   

First Review & Goodreads Contest for INDIGO AWAKENING

@JordanDane

@RachelFriars of Rochies Reads made a video review for Indigo Awakening, book #1 in the Hunted series with @HarlequinTeen. The book comes out Dec 18th. Rachel did such a fantastic job with it that I had to share. She’s so cool under fire. I would be a nervous wreck. If you have trouble viewing the embedded code below, go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc72hbI6HGc&feature=plcp





I also wanted to share that I’ve got an exclusive book giveaway set up for Goodreads to start on November 1 that will run through mid-December. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to win a signed book. TEN COPIES!!! Click HERE to go to the Goodeads link. Good luck!

Authors Are Rockstars Tour!

For deets, click HERE!

Phenom book bloggers Fiktshun & Two Chicks on Books are hosting an amazing virtual book tour during the month of August that will feature OVER 30 YA authors. Bloggers who want to participate can sign up on July 15th. Click on the link above for the deets.

Just when summer gets hottest, Fiktshun & Two Chicks on Books really know how to heat things up with more great summer YA reads. Jordan Dane will be featured on August 8th with book giveaways PLUS something special to be announced. Stay tuned!

Join in the fun every day in August. Loads of fun posts and giveaways from your fav YA authors.

One Author's Aha Moments - My First Non-fiction Book

When I first sold in 2006 to HarperCollins in auction with my debut book and two others coming out in 2008, I've been excited about realizing my passion to write. Over the years I've shared my thoughts on blog posts, workshops (online and in person), magazine/newsletter articles, speaking engagements, local writers' groups, and through people who have contacted me directly through my website. This has been my way of "paying it forward" for all the kindnesses that other authors and the publishing industry has shown me. I feel truly blessed to be living my dream and found another way to enable other authors to hopefully do the same.

I've put together a collection of my writing epiphanies, my "Aha!" moments of things that have worked for me when writing for the adult thriller and YA markets. These thoughts come from my blog posts, handouts, magazine/newsletter articles, and various other sources over the years. My hope is that aspiring authors, with the dream to write, can find nuggets in this book that will help them take a step further in achieving their goal to get published.

Here is the cover reveal. The book should be out later in May 2012. Details to come soon!

ON A DARK WING Tour Schedule Announced!

On Dec 19 through Jan 2, 2012, the fabulous YA debut author Trisha Wolfe of the YA Bound blog will host my ON A DARK WING virtual book tour. We had over 50 blogs wanting to host a stop so we will have a BLAST tour format. My dark angel will be everywhere. Be on the lookout.


Here is the LINK for the tour schedule. Check out all the great blogs and tour stops planned. We'll have loads of reviews, character interviews (including one with Death), the inspirations behind the book, Dream OADW Film Cast and plenty of excerpts from the book, plus sneak peeks at my upcoming Crystal Child series with Harlequin Teen. There will also be a LIVE CHAT hosted by YA Bound at 7:00 PM EDT on January 5th to announce the winners of the grand prize and the giveaways. What a way to kick off 2012!

For book giveaways, my character Abbey Chandler will be sending a SECRET gift with each book. Shhh! She's not telling anyone what it is, not even me. Only the winners will know when they get the package. (She's such a drama queen.)

And the grand prize is named GRAND for a reason. Stay tuned for that. Announcement coming soon!

I love you guys!

Visit Teen Shiver - For YA Books that Make You Shiver!

I'm proud to share my involvement with a new blog geared toward dark YA with Texas writers. Teen Shiver is our brand and our authors write books that make you shiver. Check out our blog site at http://www.teenshiver.blogspot.com/.

As far as I know, we are the only online author group that not only focuses on the genre of YA, but we also have an outreach program within the state we all live. We're reaching out to schools, libraries, and book stores to schedule TeenShiver events as well as signings and speaking engagements to promote literacy, author craft, or whatever our hosts want. We also will maintain contact with the reader/book reviewer bloggers, both in the state and outside our borders, to maximize the promotion of our brand of YA. One stop shopping!

Come see our featured authors. We're adding new ones soon.

For anyone wanting to contact us for book reviews, questions on how to join TS, or to book an event, we have instructions on our CONTACT page. We hope you'll follow us and sign up for our e-newsletter for exclusives on our authors. With the top notch publishers we have, they pledge their support and have fun things planned for virtual tours. I hope you'll stop by.

Publishers Weekly Reviews IN THE ARMS OF STONE ANGELS

I'm a subscriber to Publishers Weekly. It's a heavy hitter weekly review magazine out of New York and gets a lot of scrutiny from the publishing industry. Not every book gets reviewed. Since Stone Angels had been released in April, I thought my chance to see a PW review had come and gone. I was thrilled to see the New York city magazine reviewed my debut YA and posted it this week, on July 11th. Seeing my book in this iconic review mag, along with much bigger author names, still gives me goosebumps. Below is an excerpt from that review. If you'd like to see the whole enchilada, click HERE.

"In her first YA novel, adult thriller writer Dane pens a macabre slow-burner, building tension by alternating Brenna's first-person narrative with sections in omniscient third; Brenna's peers, a deputy, and an observant doctor at White Bird's hospital all contribute insight into the mystery of Heather's death. Thoroughly eerie, the plot includes flashbacks and nightmares involving crossing over into the spirit world, while Dane's well-developed characters provide an authentic exploration of guilt, loyalty, and belonging."   ~Publishers Weekly

ON A DARK WING Sneak Peek Teasers

I updated my YA website for my second book with Harlequin Teen – ON A DARK WING. I also just learned it will be released in January, 2012. I’m so excited about this book. It’s set in Alaska, where I lived for years.

Abbey Chandler and Death have unfinished business that started on the day her mother was killed in a tragic car accident, a tragedy the girl had a hand in making. And Death has never forgotten.

I’ve posted the book summary that will be on the cover, plus I have an excerpt sneak peek. Since I can’t post the cover yet, I included images of the story at the top of the book page that I picked just for you.

My Next Book with Harlequin Teen - Sneak Peek

My next YA with Harlequin Teen is ON A DARK WING, a paranormal suspense novel set in Palmer, Alaska. I lived in Anchorage for ten years and still feel like Alaska is home. DARK WING is scheduled for release in 2012. Here’s a sneak peek:

On a Dark Wing
Harlequin Teen (2012)
ISBN 978-0-373-21041-1

The choices I had made led to the moment when fate took over.
I would learn a lesson I wasn’t prepared for.
And Death would be my willing teacher.

Five years ago Abbey Chandler cheated Death. She survived a horrific car accident, but her lucky break came at the expense of her mother’s life and changed everything. After she crossed paths with Death—by taking the hand of an ethereal boy made of clouds and sky—she would never be normal again.

Now she’s the target of Death’s Ravens and an innocent boy’s life is on the line. When Nate Holden—Abbey’s secret crush—starts to climb Alaska’s Denali, the Angel of Death is with him because of her.

Abbey finds out the hard way that Death never forgets.

A Slice of Me

I suppose it says a lot about me that the battery to my fart machine is wearing down from use. When I first saw this little gem of a toy, I bought every one they had in the store, making sure my friends and family were equally armed. These machines made their first appearance at a family outing, honoring my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. (Nothing says I love you like a…well, you know what I mean.)

This machine has many uses. It makes a fun DOG TOY. And of course, anyone would bring this bad boy to a restaurant, but try sneaking it into a hospital for a real laugh riot. (You think I’m joking, don’t you? HA!)

I’m outing myself here because it occurred to me that in my fiction books, I often write about incidences that happen to my characters that may also have been inspired by a real life experience.

No, I haven’t found the right book yet to launch this little innovation on the literary world (like there IS a right book for techno-toots.) I’m waiting for the right op to spring my 50-ft range remote controlled tooter that can operate through walls and boasts 6 different kinds of “sounds.” Yes, SIX. (Some of you are saying, “Only six?”)

In my YA book – In the Arms of Stone Angels (Harlequin Teen, Apr 2011), I wrote about my character’s first kiss. This scene is below:

“Can I kiss you?” White Bird asked.
My eyes opened wide and my breath caught in my throat. I nearly choked.
“Ah, no.” My mouth said it before my brain knew what was happening.
“No?” He smiled and cocked his head in question.
I looked down at my watch. “In two minutes, okay?”
When he grinned and looked down at his watch to count down the time, I turned my head and spit out my gum. It shot out of my mouth like a pink cannonball.

A first kiss rarely happens smoothly. My first kiss was from a guy who wrote me poetry, the coolest boy in my elementary school. But the above scene had been inspired by my more laughable first French kiss. I was so shocked, I pushed the guy away and said, “What the hell are you doing?” A mood killer, but I still laugh about it today. If I had known what was coming—and that I’d need a drool rag after—I would have given him a two-minute warning and run the other way.



Brenna’s “screw you” toes are a family trait that manifested in my twin sisters. Their middle toes jut out and say, “Salute!” This was my way of saying, “I love you” to my sisters.

And a not so funny inspiration was the first argument my character Brenna has with her mom where she has an out of body experience with her rage, seeing the fear in her mother’s eyes as if she could look down on everything. That really happened to me. It made me see what I was doing to my mom yet I couldn’t stop. I wanted to capture that moment in my book…for me. Not every teen goes through something like this—thankfully—but for those of us who have, blinding rage is no fun and is definitely out of control.

Bottom line is that authors often write about things they filter through their life’s choices or experiences they’ve had or hear about. It helps to make the book more real. Some are funny. Some are heartbreaking and not easy to write about.

And some are purely fictional.

New Book Trailer & Foreign Rights Pending

This week I received the latest book trailer for my first YA novel - In the Arms of Stone Angels (Apr 2011, Harlequin Teen). Trailer to the Stars did the promotional piece and I was so excited, I had to share it. Hope you like it.

I also just heard from my editor that foreign rights are pending for a few countries. Can't wait to share that news with you, too. More later.

The Real White Bird

In the Arms of Stone Angels centers on the plight of a troubled teen girl and one very special American Indian boy. He’s in the foster care system in Oklahoma. Without a family of his own, he is in search of roots where he can truly belong. And for him, those roots would lie in the tribe he thought he belonged to. For many tribes, like the Cherokee that I researched recently, belonging to a clan is determined through the mother’s lineage. If a boy’s father is Cherokee, but his mother is not, then the ties to that clan are severed from the official tribe roster. That was hard for me to understand, so I made it hard for my characters, Isaac “White Bird” Henry and Brenna Nash, to understand too. For different reasons, both these characters feel like outsiders and that feeling strengthens the bond they have for each other.

A friend of mine, Susan Johnson, who works in the Sapulpa, Oklahoma library and oversees the American Indian cultural section, helped me research my book. The day I called to talk about the boy in my story, she listened to my thoughts on this character (who at that point did not have a name). And when I described him, she immediately said, “I know this boy.”

My story has several underlying themes, but a few dominant ones involve the dark side of bigotry, being an outsider, and wanting to belong. Often authors write about things to exorcise their own demons and perhaps I am no exception. I had told Susan that since I was part Hispanic, I had struggled with my ethnicity as a kid until I was forced to decide where I stood. And that day came in elementary school, 8th grade. At that time, I had sandy blond hair with green eyes. Except for my last name, no one knew I was Hispanic. And with the prejudice I had seen firsthand, my heritage was a hard thing to claim until the day I was forced to take sides.

One day a friend of mine (who had blond hair and blue eyes with skin as pink as a baby’s butt) was badgering a dark-skinned Hispanic girl who was really shy and small. The Hispanic girl didn’t speak English well, but I had always liked her. My time of sitting on the fence about being Hispanic had come to an end. I couldn’t stand seeing the bigotry and the mean spirited attitude of my white friend, so I got in the middle of it all and stopped her in the school yard. I told her that I was Hispanic and if she had an attitude about that, she could take it up with me instead. And with my fist balled up, I was ready to deck her and she knew it. She looked at me with wide eyes and stammered, completely taken off guard. But I remember that day being important to me. It was the day I acknowledged that being Hispanic was who I was. And that I was proud of it—and proud of the stand I took against a bully, too.

So when I thought about the boy character in my book, I wanted him to be of mixed race where he straddles the line between cultures and doesn’t fit in anywhere. And after Susan Johnson said, “I know this boy,” she told me about her friend, Whitebird. Because of his age and to respect his privacy, I won’t share his last name, but I immediately loved his first name. It was symbolic of the underlying innocence I wanted my character to have. And the spiritual aspects of the color white and the symbolic connection to a dove had meaning for me, too.

Susan told me that the real Whitebird was smart and as adaptable as a chameleon, looking for a place to fit in and belong. He was someone she admired and just plain liked. And although he was struggling to find an identity of his own as a young man, his American Indian roots were very important to him. Even as I was writing the book – In the Arms of Stone Angels – Whitebird had been moved from one foster home to another, making it harder for Susan to see him, but they stayed in touch online.

After I wrote the book and let Susan read it (before it was sold to Harlequin Teen for an April 2011 release date), she heard Whitebird’s voice in her head as she read the pages and she said certain scenes really became vivid for her because she pictured him in her mind. Of course my book is a work of fiction. I completely made up this story. (Even the Oklahoma town of Shawano isn’t real, but in another post, I will share more about why I chose to do this and what the word, Shawano, means in the Euchee language.) But I want to clarify that the real Whitebird is an outgoing guy and he’s never spent time in a mental hospital. I only borrowed his name, with his gracious permission. And through Susan Johnson, I got a glimpse into him that only a friend could share.

Today, after ten years in the foster care system, the real Whitebird is out now and living on his own. He has his own place, supports himself and is completely flying solo. And because of his outgoing nature, he’s got friends who support him like a family. Although I might have wished that he had grown up with a more traditional family and had things easier, Whitebird is the person he is because of everything that he has gone through, good and bad. He’s someone I have a lot of respect for. And I hope that the admiration and good wishes I have for his spirit shows in my book.

The Countdown Begins...

I can’t believe January 2011 is nearly gone. I’m busy writing my second young adult book for Harlequin Teen – On a Dark Wing. And I completely am in love with this book, so I can hardly wait for you to read it. But in the mean time, the countdown for the release of In the Arms of Stone Angels (Mar 22, 2011) has begun. Since that’s right around the corner, I hope you’ll pre-buy now.

If you’re a reviewer and know about NetGalley.com, In the Arms of Stone Angels is available now. Signing up for NetGalley is FREE. And if you want to know more about how to get your advance review copy, go their FAQ page.

Here’s a summary of In the Arms of Stone Angels:

"In the arms of stone angels I am not afraid"
–Brenna Nash

Two years ago I did a terrible thing. I accused my best friend of being a killer after seeing him kneeling over a girl’s body. That moment and that outcast boy still haunt me. Now my mom is forcing me back to Oklahoma and I can’t get White Bird out of my mind. But when I find out he’s not in juvie—that he’s in a mental hospital, locked in his tormented brain at the worst moment of his life—I can’t turn my back on him again.

No one wants me to see him. My mom doesn’t trust me. The town sheriff still thinks I was involved in the murder. And the other kids who knew the dead girl are after me. I’m as trapped as White Bird. And when I touch him, I get sucked into his living hell, a vision quest of horrifying demons and illusions of that night. Everything about him scares me now, but I have to do something. This time I can’t be a coward. This time I have to be his friend.

Even if I get lost, too...

I have more on the book, including excerpts and early reviews and a book trailer, on my YA website. This book was a labor of love to write. And I hope you enjoy it.

Counting down to release day, I will post articles on the many inspirations behind this book. For instance:

• Did you know that the Euchee name of the main boy character, White Bird, comes from a real boy? Find out the real story.

• Stone Angels is set in a town called Shawano, Oklahoma. I’ll share why I chose to make this town up and what the word “Shawano” means in the Euchee language.

• White Bird longs to be part of the Euchee Tribe. And I’ll share more about this Native American community and why they inspired me to write about them.

• One face inspired the book. When I found the face of Brenna Nash online, I had to create a whole book about her. And after the novel was written, her picture was taken down and I lost her. Can you help me locate the real girl who inspired the character of Brenna Nash? Could she be someone you know?

• Brenna suspects that her “gift” to see the dead comes from her estranged father—a man her mother doesn’t talk much about and Brenna has never met. The seed is planted in Stone Angels for Brenna to learn more about him. Want to know more?