Emerald Bound Blog Tour Day 1

A few weeks ago, Bridging the Gap Promotions ran a blog tour to celebrate the release of my debut novel, Emerald Bound. For anyone that missed the posts or weren't able to follow along, I'm posting them here on my blog.

Here is the post that ran on Day 1 of my blog tour. It first appeared on Reviews by Crystal.

Hi everyone! I’m Teresa Richards and my debut novel, Emerald Bound is now out in the world. Emerald Bound is a dark YA retelling of the fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea. Here’s my super-short twitter pitch so you can quickly get the gist of it:

A semi-reformed stalker. A down-and-out princess. Together, they must stop an enchanted, power-hungry emerald.

And, okay, here’s the official blurb in case you want more:

A princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses. This is the sliver that survives of a story more nightmare than fairy tale. 

Maggie Rhodes, high school junior and semi-reformed stalker, learns the tale’s true roots after a spying attempt goes awry and her best friend Kate ends up as the victim of an ancient curse. At the center of the curse lies an enchanted emerald that has been residing quietly in a museum for the past fifty years. Admirers of the gem have no idea that it feeds on life. Or that it’s found its next victim in Kate.  

Enter Lindy, a school acquaintance who knows more than she’s letting on, and Garon, a handsome stranger claiming he knows how to help, and Maggie is left wondering who to trust and how to save her best friend before it’s too late.

If only Maggie knew her connection to the fairy tale was rooted far deeper than an endangered best friend.

*

I am so excited for you all to read it! Having my baby out there is all kinds of terrifying and all kinds of exhilarating, all at the same time. This is the first stop in my week-long blog tour to celebrate the release of Emerald Bound. What better way to celebrate than with a little glitz?

One of the earliest scenes I wrote for this book was the one where Maggie attempts to sneak into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC to steal the emerald that holds her friend captive. In preparation to write this scene, I visited the museum to scope everything out. My favorite area of the museum (Maggie’s favorite as well) was the national gem collection on the second floor. I based my descriptions of the cursed emerald that causes so much trouble for my characters on the MacKay emerald necklace, which I fell in love with during my visit. Here’s a picture of it—isn’t it gorgeous?

There were so many other amazing jewels there. I don’t wear much jewelry (aside from earrings—I love earrings), but one visit to the national gem collection, and I was pining for a giant necklace full of sparkly rocks.

Here are some of the other gorgeous items on display:

 

The Victoria-Transvaal Diamond

 

The Hope Diamond

 

The Carmen Lucia Ruby

I could go on and on. But I’m sure you’re wondering… is Maggie successful in her attempt to steal the gorgeous yet cursed national treasure? Does she get distracted by all of the sparkly things around her and forget why she’s there? What will happen to her friend if Maggie turns into a jewel-crazed zombie, ogling the Harry Winstons and French crowned jewels along with the rest of the museum’s patrons?

Sorry, but I can’t spoil it for you. I just can’t.

But I can tell you I had so much fun taking this fairy tale and twisting it up to create Emerald Bound. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Oh, and next time you’re at the Smithsonian, maybe keep your distance when you’re admiring the emeralds. They’re a sneaky lot.

Hallopalooza

Calling all book lovers!

I'm participating as a host for Night Owl Reviews' Hallopalooza contest, which is taking place during the month of October. It's an online scavenger hunt and the grand prize is $100. The total prize pool is a thousand dollars (!) with 113 winners, and it's free to enter. Plus, you might find some great new reads in the process. What's not to love? You can enter here. See you along the way!

Big news!

To those of you who have stood beside me and believed in me and cheered me on in my writing journey, today I have some exciting news. I am thrilled to announce that I've signed a contract with Evernight Teen to publish my book, Emerald Bound!

The book will be released as an ebook and print on demand this fall. I am so excited to be joining the Evernight Teen family. They have been very easy to work with and respond quickly whenever I have questions. Evernight Teen will be the perfect home for my book.

I'd like to share a little bit about my journey and how I got to this point, because I always enjoy reading this information from other authors.

Emerald Bound is the second book I queried. My first was an upmarket women's fiction. It had a lot of heart and I loved writing it, but it was my first attempt and the writing just wasn't strong enough.

But I didn't know that. I thought my book was the best thing ever and believed everyone else would agree. (Ha!)

After a few months of querying and entering contests with no interest at all, I found and joined a local writing critique group--The Fairfield Scribes. Though joining was a major step out of my comfort zone, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. The Scribes did not shy away from telling me exactly why my first book was not good enough. The Scribes also got me hooked on Diet Coke. (Hey, I needed something to keep me going during our weekly meetings, which often went late into the night).

I soaked up their advice, learned from it, and got to work on Emerald Bound, which is a YA fairytale retelling of The Princess and the Pea.

I began querying Emerald Bound in March of 2014, almost a year and a half ago. Right at the beginning, I entered Brenda Drake's Pitch Madness contest and was accepted onto Summer and Dee's Team Fizzee. I received several requests for partials and fulls from the contest, and so much wonderful feedback, but ultimately all of the agents passed. The feedback I received, however, was positive, and encouraging enough to keep me querying.

And querying.

And waiting.

And querying some more.   

Writers, you know how it is.

I received several requests for full and partial manuscripts. Summer happened and I spent a lot of time playing with my kids and trying not to focus on the manuscripts I had out to agents. Once the kids went back to school in the fall, I started working on another, unrelated manuscript. Every other weekend or so, I'd send out a couple of queries for Emerald Bound.

I heard about Evernight Teen in an interview I read by one of their authors and I decided I wanted to query them. They have a 'No Simultaneous Submissions' policy so I had to wait long enough to hear back on all the manuscripts and queries I had out before submitting to them. I queried them on May 22, 2015. Twenty-six days later, I had a letter in my inbox stating that they would be happy to publish my story!

For those who are interested, here are my query stats on Emerald Bound:

Number of queries: 73
Partial requests: 9
Full requests: 6
No response: 24

So the moral of this story, I guess, is to learn how to take feedback.

And to drink more Diet Coke.

Thank you to everyone who believed in me and kept me going. Thanks to my husband, who takes care of our kids for hours and hours every single Thursday night so I can go to Scribes. And thanks to the Scribes, who all hold very big pieces of my heart. I can't wait to see where our journeys take us.

The Dream Squasher

I'm a pessimist by nature. I think a lot of people are. I prefer to call it being practical, but let's face it, the end result is the same. I am a dream squasher.

Most of the dreams I squash are my own. I've been doing it to myself my whole life without even realizing it. It was all in the name of practicality. No, I won't major in music even though I'm really good at it and I enjoy doing it. There's no career there unless you're freakishly good. And of course I can't pursue writing either because, well, what are the odds of ever getting anything published? 

So I majored in Speech Pathology. And I loved it, I really did. I loved it because it was interesting. And also because it was practical. And safe. I knew that if I got a degree in Speech Pathology, I'd be able to get a good, well-paying job pretty much anywhere I'd want. And when I was in college, getting a well-paying job was all I considered. Because my inner pessimist had been busy squashing my dreams, all in the name of practicality.

Luckily, the one dream I didn't squash for myself was that of becoming a mother. I now have five kids, and watching my children dream has taught me one very important lesson: Dreams are good. Dreams are essential, even.

And dreams are worth fighting for. 

Watching my kids dream big is hard for me. My first impulse is to always be the voice of reason, the person saying  

No, I really don't think you can build a ten-story clubhouse-slash-ninja training center with an underground tunnel to our neighbors house in our backyard.

Or  

No, I really don't think you're going to make a gajillion dollars selling magic potions you brewed in our kitchen.

And, okay, maybe those things needed to be said.

But now that my kids are getting older, they have different dreams. Dreams that they actually have a shot at reaching, even if the odds are stacked against them. My natural impulse when they share these dreams is to be the voice of reason. The person saying That's a beautiful dream, but don't be disappointed if it doesn't come true. My only aim in saying something like that is to soften the blow if whatever they're dreaming of doesn't happen.

But to them, it must sound as if I don't believe in them. When you look at it in that light, trying to soften the blow for my kids by telling them they might not succeed is unforgivable. How dare I come along, with my dream squashing tendencies, and tell them to not even try?

I can't do that. It's my job, as a mother, to give life to my kids' dreams. To be the one telling them they can do it.

And maybe, since I'm learning how to do that for them, I can learn how to do it for myself as well. So here's to dreams. And to going after them no matter how far out of reach they might seem. Thank you to my kids for teaching me that it's never too late to dream.

Your Writing Fingerprint

Good news! Since I've last blogged, I've had two short stories published, in two different online ezines. The first is called Footprints in the Snow and was published in Bewildering Stories back in December. You can find it here.

The second short story is called Little Soldier, and was published in The WiFiles. You can read it here.

So I am now officially a published author, if not a paid published author!

I first got serious about writing, with the goal of publication, about two-and-a-half years ago. Since that time, I've studied numerous books on craft and read zillions of blog posts. I've attended writing conferences, talked with other writers, and studied what literary agents are saying. And, of course, I've written and written and written. I've done it all with the goal of learning as much as I can about writing and how to do it well.

As invaluable as all this information has been, I've learned that finding your own writing method is not as easy as simply picking the one tried and true method that works best for you.

A writer's method is like a fingerprint--unique to you and only you. Figuring out your own writing method is a journey. It's the journey. It's a matter of trying as many different methods and techniques as you can, taking the pieces that work for you, and then blending them with your own unique style to create something totally new. 

Finding what works best takes time. After lots of trial and error, I think I've finally found my method. It's made up of bits and pieces I've gleaned from others, as well as bits and pieces from me. The greatest part is that there's always more to learn. When I find something new that works, I add it to what I already have. Like tools in my little writers' toolbox. 

I'm so grateful for all the little bumps that have gotten me to where I am today. I know there's so much farther to go on this journey and I'm excited to see where the road will lead me.

Zombie Stories

I belong to an awesome writing group. They're my friends, my critics, my supporters, and all sorts of other great things. I've grown so much as a writer because of these people. So I'm excited to announce that we've published an anthology together.

An anthology of zombie stories, which you can find here.

Now would be a good time to admit that I'm actually afraid of zombies, and I never, ever thought I'd be writing a story about them. But here we are. I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone and out of my genre to write this.

I have two stories in the anthology. The first is called "Are You My Mombie?" and is a zombified version of the children's book "Are You My Mother?" My second story is called "The Zombie Code" and explores what happens when a zombie breaks the unwritten (and well-hid from the humans) code of honor of its people.

My son made the following video to help promote the book:

Happy Halloween and happy reading!

Picasso and Writing Groups

I recently returned from a trip to Paris. While there, we saw famous landmarks, beautiful buildings, and tons of artwork. We also learned a lot. We did a few guided tours and of course had our handy Rick Steve's guidebook (can I just say that Rick Steve is amazing?). One thing that kept jumping out at me during our visit was the fact that famous artists had support groups. 

Montmartre is a neighborhood built on Paris' only hill and topped by a church built to honor the martyr Saint Denis. (The story goes that after he was beheaded, he picked up his head and carried it several miles while continuing to preach). In Montmartre, we visited the home of the artist Pablo Picasso. You know him as the great mover and shaker of Cubism. Picasso lived in a little apartment with several other artists. They painted together, frequented the same cafes and clubs, talked about art, learned from each other, and supported each other. I found it very refreshing to think about these struggling artists celebrating each others' successes and cheering each other on.

As our trip through Paris continued, we encountered numerous stories of struggling artists relying on one another for support.

The impressionist Monet was friends with Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille. Together, they pushed the boundaries and started a new movement. One of Monet's earliest works, a painting of a sunset, was criticized by in-the-know critics as being "only an impression of a sunset" (hence the name Impressionism). The fact that Monet and his friends were pushing the boundaries together probably gave them the courage to continue doing what they loved even though the public didn't appreciate it.

The sculptor Rodin, creator of the statue "The Thinker", studied and learned by visiting the Louvre and sketching copies of works by Rafael and DaVinci, among others. One of his greatest works, The Gates of Hell, was commissioned for a church that was never finished. So the piece was left unfinished as well, after he'd spent a decade working on it. (The Thinker was actually a part of the Gates of Hell, and was meant to be Dante, sitting at the top and surveying what he'd written about).

Contrast these stories of artists supporting and learning from each other with the life of Van Gogh, father of the Expressionist movement. Van Gogh didn't get along well with others. He was roommates with the artist Gauguin briefly, until the arguments between them escalated. A sword and throwing stuff was involved. Van Gogh eventually committed suicide, having sold only one painting during his entire life. But he is now hailed as one of the greatest painters of all time.

Hopefully you know where I'm going with this. As writers, it is so easy to get caught up in our own little worlds where we work so hard to create something beautiful and fall equally hard when the public doesn't get it. When this happens--when the public is saying our art is merely an impression of art--having a support network is crucial to our sanity. I can't tell you how many times my writer friends have encouraged me when I felt like giving up or made me laugh on a day full of rejection.

Don't give in to the temptation to stay in your comfort zone, leaning on the excuse that you're an introvert so it's okay. It's not okay. Get outside yourself. Meet people who share your passion. Learn from them. Support them. And lean on them.

Learn from the examples of Picasso and Monet. As artists, we need each other. Having a support network makes us better writers and better human beings.

Sunset by Claude Monet