Book Giveaway & Author Interview: Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey #BIR2011

Welcome back to Author Mary Lindsey!


Bio:

Mary's writing is a natural expression of her love of reading and a fascination with the flexibility of the human imagination. Books make the impossible possible.
Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, Mary received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. She has taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school. Currently, Mary teaches acting to children and teens at a private studio in Houston, Texas.
She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
Mary lives in Houston with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (The roaches are long story—don't ask.)

Interview:


If you could invite any 5 people to dinner who would you choose?

The question didn’t specify dead or alive, so I’m going with both! 

Winston Churchill

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Edgar Allan Poe

Mark Twain

Harper Lee

What is one book everyone should read?

Shattered Souls, of course! No, just kidding. The one book everyone should read is To Kill a Mockingbird.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Vanilla. Boring, I know.

Any other books in the works? Goals for future projects? 

Yes! I recently sold another book to Penguin. It is a young adult gothic novel based on Edgar Allan Poe’s last poem, “Annabel Lee.” I’m really excited about it.

If you could jump in to a book, and live in that world.. which would it be?

The post-Voldemort world of Harry Potter.

Is there a song you could list as the theme song for your book or any of your characters?

The complete playlist for Shattered Souls can be found here, but the theme songs are below.

LENZI: 


Death Came and Got Me – Rosie Thomas (Song that sparked premise) 

Hello – Evanescence (Rose in Lenzi’s subconscious)



ALDEN: 


The Space Between – Dave Matthews Band 

I Will Follow You Into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie 

Storm – Blue October 

Collide – Howie Day 

Endlessly - Muse

ZAK: 


Cheers Darlin’ – Damien Rice 

Always Midnight – Pat Monahan 

Blower’s Daughter – Damien Rice 


Everybody Hurts – R.E.M.

What's one piece of advice you would give aspiring authors?

Never give up. Period. 

What movie are you looking forward to this year?

The Raven with John Cusak. The trailer gives me chills.

What are your favorite children's books?

The ones I adored growing up were Where the Wild Things Are and The Secret Garden.

Who or what inspired you to become an author? 

I started writing several years ago by accident. My daughter had just discovered teen literature and had burned through several popular series. She was lamenting the fact that most male heroes in paranormal books were demons, vampires or some type of inherently evil creature fighting their wicked impulses. She asked me why the hero couldn’t be a “normal” guy who has some kind of special/magical power, but wasn’t evil or didn’t believe himself evil.

I told her that for her birthday, I’d write her a book like that. (To this day, I have no idea why I would offer such a crazy thing. I’d never written fiction and had no desire to do so).

True to my word, I gave her a chapter a day for a month. The result was a 700-page young adult time-travel novel.

It had a cool premise, but was awful—truly awful with respect to craft. Reading a book and knowing what works is one thing; writing one is entirely another.

After spending a month writing 8-12 hours a day, I decided I’d found the perfect job. I LOVED it. I still do. I can’t imagine a better job.

I am so honored that you picked Shattered Souls as one of your Best of 2011! Thank you for the fun interview! 

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger.
Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

You can read my review HERE

Content: A little language and innuendo




Giveaway Details
1 Galley of Shattered Souls
Open to US only (No PO Boxes)
Ends 12/31/11

Optional Extra Entries:
+1 Follow Mary on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/marylindsey
+1 Like Mary on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Lindsey/264258900265589

WINNER:
MELORA BROCK

Guest Post: Mary Lindsey Author of Shattered Souls

Welcome to Author Mary Lindsey!

Bio:

Mary's writing is a natural expression of her love of reading and a fascination with the flexibility of the human imagination. Books make the impossible possible.
Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, Mary received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. She has taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school. Currently, Mary teaches acting to children and teens at a private studio in Houston, Texas.
She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
Mary lives in Houston with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (The roaches are long story—don't ask.)

Guest Post:
The Revision Letter of Doom

When Jill Santopolo, the executive editor of Philomel Books, bought Shattered Souls, she made it clear there would be significant revisions. I love to revise (that is sick, I know), so this wasn’t an issue at all for me… or so I thought.

The first round came and I dug right in. The changes were straightforward and I ripped right through them. “No biggy,” I told myself as I sent them back completed in less than a week.

Then the second letter came: 5,000 words of doom. It was a textbook example of the “sandwich” approach to critique, beginning with praise and ending with encouragement. What was in between? Armageddon.

I read it. Then, I read it again. Then I forwarded it to my agent. I think all I wrote in the forwarding email was, “Oh, my God.”

My agent called and acknowledged it was “quite a letter.”

It was quite a letter, all right. Full of little bombs like this:

“I think that for this to work you’re probably going to have to pull the whole manuscript apart, rearrange things, add some scenes, delete some scenes and then put it all back together.”

I had just rewritten the entire book right before submitting it to Penguin, switching it over from third person point of view to first person, so receiving a revision letter saying it would need to be taken apart and completely rewritten again freaked me out a bit.

This was not a revision letter. It was a rewrite letter.

A couple of days later, it arrived in hardcopy along with the marked up manuscript and I got to hold it in my hands and read it in person, including this lovely sentence:

“Basically, the 60% of your story is working pretty well.”

That meant almost half of my book wasn’t working. At this point, I had two choices: Dig in or quit. I’ll be honest with you, the second option looked pretty good.

“Bite-sized chunks,” I told myself. Then, I developed a strategy to prevent insanity or career destruction.

The letter was divided into several parts, the largest section containing an outline of the new structure of the work. I began by cutting and pasting sections of the letter onto separate pages and printing them. Then, I pulled each of the requested scenes whether complete, or needing work and stapled them to that page. New scenes just got a blank sheet of paper attached to the scene description. Scenes that just needed tweaking got a blue cover page. Those needing a re-tool got orange and those that were to be created anew or rewritten completely got hot pink. In the end, there were far more orange and pink sections than blue.

Then, I put them in the new order. Pages from the back ended up in the front and vice versa. The book would now begin with page 40.

The worst part was a 60-page stack left over from the manuscript that would not be used at all. 15,000 words in the trash.

I emailed my agent again with another “Oh, my God.”

Then, I put my tidy, color-coded, reordered manuscript with the revision pages for each scene in a room I rarely used and closed the door.

The door remained closed for weeks. I never even peeked in to see if the manuscript had moved or begun to write itself. I just ignored it.

Well, not really. I read the 5,000-word Letter of Doom several times a day from the copy I had on my computer. At the end of two weeks, I had committed it to memory, which somehow made it less intimidating.

Looking back, it’s a wonder I made it through that round at all—and two more subsequent rounds. Yep. I got two more letters after that one, but after the Letter of Doom, nothing fazed me.

Not only did the intense rounds of revisions make Shattered Souls a better book, they made me a better writer. I’m sure I’ll get another equally terrifying revision letter one of these days. And to that, I say, “Bring it!”

Links:

Mary's Website:

http://www.marylindsey.com

Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9366996-shattered-souls

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger.
Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

Teen Book Scene Shattered Souls Blog Tour schedule:
http://theteenbookscene.weebly.com/shattered-souls.html.

Blog Tour: Book Review - Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger.
Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.
Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

Fabulous debut!

There is already a lot of hype about this book and its release date is still 3 months away.  In my opinion it is well deserved hype.  Shattered Souls is an original, engaging book that is sure to be a hit with those who enjoy young adult paranormal fiction.  I was hooked right from the start and loved the characters and storyline.  This book stands alone but I would love a sequel. 

There is an overwhelming number of books in this genre being released and it is impossible to read them all.  Shattered Souls is one you don't want to miss.

Content: A little language and innuendo

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Source: ARC Tour through The Teen Book Scene

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey will be released by Philomel/Penguin on December 8, 2011.