BLACK HEART, RED RUBY on sale now!
Category: Media
Movies, TV, Video, Music
LOVE IN A TIME OF MONSTERS IS OUT!
This is the post I’ve been waiting to write for years. YEARS! My fantasy novel, LOVE IN A TIME OF MONSTERS, is on sale!
He has a monster problem
Scotland, 1867. When Rob Stevenson’s brother is killed—and eaten—in the forest outside their estate, Rob’s sheltered world is shattered by a monster infestation. Determined to keep his village safe, Rob’s first duty as laird involves hiring a professional hunter.
She kills monsters
The sole survivor of a massacre in the Congo, Catriona Mornay is rumored to have lost her mind in the jungle. In Edinburgh’s gas-lit streets, Cat’s skill as a hunter is unmatched. Her reputation as a killer of unnatural creatures, legendary.
Two worlds collide
Faced with a rising body count, Rob takes a chance on Cat, hoping that somewhere inside this tortured yet charismatic girl is the hero he’s been searching for. But in this shadow realm of secrets, lies, and underworld crime, their lives overlap in more ways than one. And in an age where harpies flock the sky and serpents rule the sea, it’s even possible for a boy and his hunter to fall in love.
But can their love survive in a time of monsters?
You can buy it here:
The ebook is cheaper than the price of popcorn chicken (or Girl Scout cookies for those of you who do not gorge yourself on popcorn chicken) and will net you hours of entertainment. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll feel a little scared and perhaps… a little sexy? I have a dirty mind, and while that’s no secret, aren’t you curious about my dirty mind when applied to a fantasy setting?
As an added bonus, if you buy the paperback version on Amazon, you’ll get the kindle version for $0.99.
I’m thrilled to share this book with you and hope you enjoy it! And once you’ve enjoyed it… please consider leaving a review (I won’t direct you to where, but allow me to point in Amazon’s general direction) to help others find my work and spread my dirty mind around… rather like herpes but in a more pleasant way.
A New Sandbox
Come August, The Lit Connection will turn six. Six years is a long time, my friends, but sadly, all good things must come to an end. You’ve probably noticed in the past year (or more…apologies!) that my regular posting schedule has taken a dive. For me, anyway, blogging has lost some of its former glory, which is a nice way of saying ‘WordPress is soooo 2006.” After seeing so many of my book-blogging homies come and go and the great Google Reader gone to RSS-feed-heaven (OH GOD WHY?), it’s time to turn over a new leaf. Plus, need I mention that Outlander is finally going to be a TV show and my Jamie Fraser casting skills will be as defunct as Google Reader (again, WHY?!?!?!?) Also, also, many things have changed. I got engaged earlier this year and things are looking up for my writing endeavors (mums the word for now, more on this later).
So I’m taking The Lit Connection to the pound and putting her to sleep. But fear not, I’m keeping her open in case you ever feel the need to troll her archives and read about the first time I discovered Twilight and gushed over Edward/Jacob, in which case, I’ll DIE of embarrassment. That being said, you can still find me all over the interwebs.
Stalkers take note: 1) You can find me at my revamped tumblr: http://teresayea.tumblr.com/
I’m still blogging about books, musicals, shirtless men, swoon-worthy characters, and sexy sinister villains. Tumblr is a smaller garden, easier to maintain. The same silliness still applies. Y’all know me here as T.Y., but I’m taking a cue from Marky Mark and going by my full name. Consider me the ‘Blogger Formerly known as T.Y.’ So come over to my new sandbox and we shall continue to play. Put me in your new feed reader…if you have one now that Google Reader is deceased (I’M STILL PICKING THE SHATTERED PIECES OF MY HEART OFF THE FLOOR. SOB!)
3) My Pinterest With that said, I will be mounting my stallion and riding off into the sunset. I heart you all. Let us engage in a big pervy group hug. T.Y.
Revision Den & Unconventionally Sexy Men
Apparently I only ever blog anymore when I’m high on caffeine and man oh man am I CAFFEINATED.
A couple of irrelevant things. The novel. Oh man the novel. It is a fat man in need of more liposuction. Here are some word count stats that will excite no one but fellow writers and moi.
1st Draft: 113K words.
1st Revision: 103K
2nd Revision: 101K
3rd Revision: 95K
4th and current revision: 80K and shrinking…
My swiftly diminishing word count gets me so jazzed!
Almost as jazzed as thinking about Tom Hiddleston, who I think is a dreamboat but everybody just looks at me with barely concealed disgust and is all, “Of all the hotties in The Avengers, you choose Loki? EW!”
To which I reply: “Hiddleston, much like an olive, is an acquired taste.”
Them: “That’s a taste I’ll never acquire.”
Me: “I want to eat ALL the olives.” And now I realize that’s gross.
But then I hear this sexy voice clip of T.Hiddleston reading from ‘The Read Necklace’ and I want to open up a JAR of olives and GORGE!
These are my thoughts while caffeinated. Now you know I’m weird but I hope you love me anyway.
The Hunger Games Movie Casting (thoughts)
If you’re like me–a not-so-secret Hunger Games fangirl–you’ve probably prowled the four corners of the web waiting for any tidbits of casting news for the forthcoming movie. I’ve been known to indulge in book to movie fantasy casting in the past and I’ve even assembled my own Hunger Games cast last year, so when the actors for the Peeta/Katniss/Gale roles were announced, how could I let the opportunity slip by without offering my two cents?
This whole Hunger Games movie brings about so much nail-biting anxiety, especially in lieu of ‘The Great Twilight Debacle.” Because I love The Hunger Games so freaking much, I will be devastated, no, inconsolable, if the movies descends into a Michael Bay meets Twilight CGI noise-fest. In short, I’d like to impart a few words to Hollywood: Please don’t F**k this up!
KATNISS: Any actress cast in this role is sure to receive criticism. After all, these are large hunter boots to fill…Jennifer Lawrence has Oscar creds, I’m actually rather relieved she’s going to play my favorite YA heroine, though I speak from Oscar awe and not from having seen Winter’s Bone. My first choice (highly improbable due to age) was Summer Galu the Terminator girl: so perfect for the role but alas, we’re about five years too late. So Jennifer Lawrence, huh? I’m trying to imagine her sooty-faced and shooting arrows into people’s asses and you know what? I could totally see it! Give the girl a bottle of hair dye and some archery lessons and let’s see if she can incite a revolution. Plus, she’s got Suzanne Collins’ personal approval but the verdict is still out until I’ve seen Winter’s Bone.
Katniss by LitCon on Polyvore.com
PEETA: My first reaction upon hearing that Josh Hutcherson was going to play the baker boy was “Who the heck is Josh Hutcherson?” followed by “This dude has Batman’s (of the Animated series) jaw! So strong, so square!” Plus, the pictures of him sporting a fohawk was not helping his cause. An IMDB search revealed Josh H. as the somber, doe-eyed kid in 2007’s Bridge to Teribithia movie… Ah. What a relief! There was a lot of soulful ‘staring-off-into-the-distance as I contemplate my mortality’ scenes in Bridge to Teribithia, which Josh H. OWNED and he was all of twelve years old. I hoped he’s brushed up on his meaningful stares because Peeta waxes philosophic ALL THE TIME. Remember “Real vs. Not Real?” in Mockingjay? Or the “Let us stand on the rooftop and gaze upon the city while we decide how we should die with dignity” scene in Hunger Games? This square jawed, chin-dimpled boy has my seal of approval! As for the hair, I’m sure the stylist who bleached Tom Felton’s hair in the Harry Potter movies will welcome the commission…
Peeta by LitCon on Polyvore.com
GALE: Liam Hemsworth?!!!! As in the Captain America look-a-like who romanced Miley Cyrus with BABY SEA TURTLES in The Last Song?!!! Oh God… OH MAN! Oh GOD! OH MAN! Let me take a moment to drop to my knees and howl: NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! As you can see, I was not pleased with the casting. Up until the end of Mockingjay, I was waving the Team Gale banner to victory. I knew it was a lost cause but guys, Gale… Hunter. Adonis. Henry Cavill in the movie of my mind! Perhaps I’m being unfair to Liam and yet, the taint of that sacchrine Nicholas Sparks movie coupled with being Miley Cyprus’ off screen arm candy is hard to shake.
Gale by LitCon on Polyvore.com
2010 Reading Round Up
My reading stats this year won’t break any records. The reading slump months, i.e. the months I read only one book, are especially conspicuous. The thing is, I’ve changed. Whereas in the past years my focus was on quantity (I wanted to read X amount of books and beat some invisible record), this year I find myself slowing down and savoring the story. I guess after two years of speeding I finally realized that reading shouldn’t be rushed. It’s not like I have a stagecoach to catch of anything.
December is conspicuously, shamefully missing. I was lead astray by all these holiday shenanigans and have not managed to finish a single book, though, it should be noted that I am currently reading Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King and enjoying every gruesome moment of it.
Trends:
My moods seemed to swing from the big sweeping epics at the beginning of the year and whittle down to a slew of retro Christopher Pikes, a result of scavenging my local dollar bookstore in search of those sentimental ’90’s reading days.
The Best of 2010 (in no particular order). Prepare thyself for a lot of nonsensical gushing and uncontrollably sobbing:
The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough: Oh sweet Jesus, I love this book so much I could fall on my knees and say a thousand ‘Hail Marys’ to the author and even that wouldn’t be enough to express my pure devotion to the awesomeness of this book. Reading this tome took the entire month of January and carting it around was like tucking an especially heavy brick under my arm. I’ve never been to Australia but when I finished I felt like I could claim citizenship. This is the epic star-crossed love story between a Catholic priest and the spunky young woman he sort of helped raised. Gross, right? Oh but it is so romantic, not in the slushy way, but a surprisingly esoteric way that makes absolutely no sense unless you’ve read the book and fawned over the prose. Okay, I totally dogearred a few parts of this book for future re-reads. My favorite part: when Father Ralph was all “Tonight there is only Meggie. I have wanted her. She too is a sacrament.” *Descends into uncontrollably sobbing because the simile is so on the nose.* WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!!! *Sobs like the Double Rainbow guy on YouTube* What does it mean????????????????
The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard: When I mini-reviewed this book earlier this year, I gave it a B. As time progressed and the story had like time to age like a bottle of fine wine in the cellar of my mind (don’t puke, I’m listening to Phantom of the Opera on a continuous loop as I’m writing this), it dawned on me that I might have been too hasty in my grading. I claimed this book was sad, bordering on depressing. Now it is sad, bordering on bittersweet. This YA is about the secret affair between a boy from the wrong side of the tracks and a country club princess. Then she dies and her brother hands him her diary which he reads and weeps over because SOB!!!!!!! she really loves him but never officially told him and now she’s dead and he has to DEAL! This isn’t some paranormal romance where dead means zombie. This is real life where dead means dead and the survivors take long meaningful walks in the snow DEALING.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: This is another historical epic that monopolized a month out of my year. As a loyal fan of the movie, I’ve always been meaning to tackle the book but never got around to it. Boy am I glad I did. Upon finishing, I slammed the book down and sort of had a religious experience. I even managed to squeeze out a few tears. “Wow,” I said. Just wow. I am also extremely jealous of Margaret Mitchell’s novel writing prowness. From a technical perspective, GWTW has the perfect balance between beautiful prose, compelling storytelling, and deep characterization. Also, Scarlett O’Hara is my hero. In the league of resourceful heroines, I think she’s even cooler than Claire from Outlander. It’s a close race, but Scarlett has that extra ounce of bitchness that speaks to the Melrose Place (circa ’90’s) fan in me.
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls: This is the surprise of 2010. I checked this out from the library for lack of anything better to read. I’m not a big memoir reader and I approached Glass Castle with low expectations. Then the story, which reminded me of a more intense, modern day version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, blew me away. I am such a sucker for coming-of-age!
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins: While I did not find this book as exhilarating as Hunger Games and Catching Fire, the end (minus the epilogue) was so perfect that it almost made me change teams. I remember reading the last paragraph over and over again and sighing.
I Capture the Castle by Doddie Smith: This book has that jolly ole tone that Americans like me find so hilarious. Oh the Brits and their understated witticisms! No seriously, this book, it done warmed my heart and challenged my mind. Plus, it lends itself to quotes.
Books Read in 2010
Jan.2010
The Thornbirds—Colleen McCullough
Feb 2010
1. The Secret Year—Jennifer R. Hubbard
2. Thirst No. 2—Christopher Pike
3. A Woman of Substance—Barbara Taylor Bradford
4. The Sartorialist—Scott Schuman
5. Blankets—Craig Thompson
March 2010
1. Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut interview
2. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
3. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
April 2010
1. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
May 2010
- Die Softly by Christopher Pike
- Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
- Road to Nowhere by Christopher Pike
June 2010
- Story by Robert McKnee
- Monster by Christopher Pike
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
- Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
July 2010
1. The Stand by Stephen King (not finished)
2. Remember Me by Christopher Pike (Reissued trilogy includes Remember Me, The Return, The Last Story)
August 2010
1. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
September 2010
1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
2. See You Later by Christopher Pike
3. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
4. The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike
5. The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass
6. How to Write a Damn Good Thriller by James N. Frey
October 2010
1. Bury Me Deep by Christopher Pike
2. Spellbound by Christopher Pike
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
4. Witch by Christopher Pike
November 2010
1. Dream Man by Linda Howard
2. Thirst No. 3 by Christopher Pike
3. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
4. I Capture the Castle by Doddie Smith
5. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Bookish Eye Candy
I made a collage of Jude Deveraux’s A Knight in Shining Armor! This is my second favorite romance novel. I don’t need to beat a dead horse and tell you that Outlander is #1. Thanks to The Tudors, I’ve finally found my perfect Lord Nicholas Stafford: Henry Cavill. In fact, Henry is now the go-to actor for when I read Medieval/Renaissance Romance! He is also my perfect Gale (Hunger Games). I will refrain from gushing about Knight again and filing subsequent pleas to READ THIS BOOK so you can indulge in the hilarity and hotness that is Lord Nicholas!
I am currently reading I Capture the Castle. I think it’s safe to say I have Henry Cavill on the brain. Now you know that H. Cavill has played a) A rogue hunter from District 12 b) A chivalrous Elizabethan knight c) A considerate stable boy. He is currently the leading man in my book-related mind movie.
Two years ago Gaspard Ulliel used to hold the coveted title of ‘imaginary leading man.’ Back when I read Twilight, that is, BEFORE the atrocious movie (Damn you R.Patz! You’ve ruined vampires for me forever!), Gaspard was my Edward Cullen. Sigh. Oh guys, I would be so happy if, in the forthcoming Breaking Dawn movie, Edward undergoes a face transplant. When Carlisle unwraps the bandages, Edward becomes Gaspard and starts speaking French. Apparently, surgery will do that to you! Dear Twilight people, please give Bella a face/personality transplant too. Make her less annoying! At least make her close her mouth… But alas, why do I care? EDWARD IS DEAD TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!
Gaspard used to be the hero in my Novel in Progress. Back in my earliest planning stage, I didn’t have a plot or a fully developed cast of characters. The heroine, who also happens to be the first person narrator, was flatter than my chest at age thirteen. I only had one requirement. The heroine’s love interest must be HOT, ergo, he must look like Gaspard! He’s required to take off his shirt at least twice and shoot meaningful yet sexy glances at the heroine. Allow me to illustrate: one day heroine is walking down the street and she collides into lover boy. In one swift move, he leans against the wall and glares down at her like this:
Or perhaps heroine ventures into the bathroom only to find lover boy sitting in the tub waiting for her. She props her hand on her hips and says “I see you have your suspenders on…”
Don’t laugh at me! Need I remind you this was in the grassroot stage? Three years and a tower of notebooks filled with outlines later, I like to think I’ve improved. Merely describing characters by their physical attractiveness won’t make them hot in the eyes of the reader. A character is crushable because of his DEEDS. Once I fleshed out lover boy’s character, I realized that it’s in the book’s best interest that I de-hottie-fy him. Rather, he starts out ordinary; as the story progresses, he becomes more attractive in the eyes of the heroine as she gets to know him. Character transformation!
Sadly, Gaspard is out. My heroine’s love interest looks like a cross between a clean shaven Ben Whishaw and Anthony Perkins. Imagine Ben’s head on Norman Bates’ body. Or Ben Whishaw’s evil face from Perfume on Sheldon Coopers’ (Big Bang Theory) body. Lover boy used to be a pretty boy, now he needs to a) make a sinister face b) be tall and lanky, wiry and gawky. Apparently, I like making FrankenPeople. It’s really not as creepy as it sounds.
If you’ve ever wondered if I made collages of my WIP… Indeed I did. Several, in fact. Of course, this WIP has been many things. I’ve seen it through one drastic setting change, multiple character relationship alternations, and a de-hottie-fication. This is what it currently looks like in my head. I’ve included some of the characters and random objects/images that defines each character. The setting, as you can guess, is supposed to be spooky in the gothic romance tradition, i.e. lots of fog and rumbling clouds.
OMG moment: Outlander the Musical!
If you read Diana Gabaldon’s blog (and if you’re a die hard Outlander fan then of course you do!), you’re probably familiar with news of a musical in the works. While I’m not entirely positive if this musical is just a soundtrack based on D.Gal’s bestselling Outlander series or a full scale stage production with a rollicking dance number and a standing stone circle set, I’ve listened to a sample on YouTube and I approve!
The sound is reminiscent of the Celtic Women. Don’t let the lack of visual stimuli keep you from listening to the end. Around 1:06, Jamie Fraser starts whispering “Blood of my blood. Bone of my bone” in a seductive Scottish brogue which is both hilarious and strangely alluring. This is the very definition of ‘whispering sweet nothings’ into one’s ear. When he coos “I give ye my BOOODY,” I broke into uncontrollable school girl giggles.
Mini confession: I have a secret Outlander playlist. It’s not fancy in the least, just a mash up of the Braveheart and Last of the Mohicans soundtracks with a dash of Ashokan Farewell thrown in during those staring-off into the distance moments. Not too dorky, right? Okay. Suppose I tell you that I know precisely which song accompanies which scene. Like the grande finale of Braveheart (Track 17) must be played during the gut-wrenching parting between Jamie and Claire in Dragonfly in Amber. Instead of “FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Jamie will holler “SASSENACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” when he storms into battle and this is spliced with Claire scrambling through Craig na’ Dun and then FADE TO WHITE. I now see that I have screenplay writing in my blood and the echo of nerdiness in my bone!
I play “Promentory” from Last of the Mohicans—in MY HEAD—during Young Ian scenes. Young Ian does a lot of running around in buckskin breeches and if you’re ever in need of a specific musical score for when you’re keeping it real with the Mohawks, Promentory is the song.
I could go on. Or I could remind you of the time I made an Ultimate Outlander Collage OR I could show you…
Outlander fandom includes making secret playlists and fantasy movie casting. It’s not all that different from being a Trekkie. Lightbulb! Why oh why hasn’t someone started an Outlander convention and secret Vulcan/Scottish hand greeting?!!!
Wired
The world won’t end if I don’t check my email. I am a slave to the internet. Not a day goes by that I don’t check my mail obsessively or log on to my Twitter account for my daily @replies. I subscribe to 100+ book, author, fashion, food, publishing, history, and humor blogs on my Google Reader. I have a Polyvore account, a Tumblr blog, 2 WordPress blogs in addition to The Lit Connection, and somewhere floating around cyberspace is a Xanga chronicling the time I suspected someone spat in my taco or my recurring nightmares about Biochem. Lab! Add a neglected Facebook account and a newly created GoodReads and I can officially conclude that I don’t have a life. Not a real life. My virtual life, however, rocks. I count not having a MySpace or a YouTube account as my one saving grace.
Seriously, folks. I need to shut down my computer and go outside and maybe feel the sunshine on my pale, ghoulish skin. I might sparkle. Likewise, I might sizzle and explode. But I would never know if I continue living this half-life existence!
I’m part of a generation who remembers what it’s like growing up without the internet. When I was in 5th grade, we took class trips to the computer lab to play the DOS version ‘Oregon Trail’ and ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?’ Our teacher played round after round of Solitaire via Windows 3.1 while we all looked on in high-tech envy! In middle school, most of us hand wrote our book reports, which was standard, while one classmate turned her report in TYPED and that was like “Whoa. We’ve got an over-achiever here!” Around the summer of the O.J. Simpson trials (which I’m still bitter about because it pre-empted the Fox Kids line up), I turned to Ghostwriter on PBS. My favorite Ghostwriter episode was called “Who is Max Mouse?” The gang signed into a CHATROOM by hooking up their IBM computers to an external modem and dialing up a phone number. This episode more or less BLEW MY MIND. I didn’t know you could TALK TO PEOPLE ONLINE! So the Ghostwriter Gang did some intensive brainstorming and came up with LJBad (L for Lenny, J for Jamal, Bad for the Team…which is Bad Ass) as their “handle.” I, in turn, came up with my own “handle” for when I’ll convince my parents to buy one of those new Windows 95 computers with an external modem.
I didn’t get a computer until 8th grade. It had Windows 95 at a time when Win95 was phased out by Win98. I was so happy to be among the computer-owning elite that I played Solitare and surfed my Encata Encyclopedia on CD-ROM and tinkered with my flying Windows screen savers that I didn’t have time to be jealous of my friends who were already dialing up AOL or Compuserve.
Senior year of high school: it’s finally happened. I have a new Hewlett Packard, Windows ME, and AOL dial-up! I could talk to my friends ONLINE and say cool stuff at school like “Oh, just AIM me” or “I’ll EMAIL you my notes.”
I’ll save you the story about how I went off to college with my blue Ethernet cable (I didn’t know why we needed an Ethernet cable; the dorm welcome packet advised us to buy one) and discovered DSL.
I worked so hard to get connected. Now I can’t go a day without wasting at least an hour online. When my server’s down, my personal apocalypse cometh. Is it really the end of the world when you can’t check your email or reply to someone on Twitter? Can I survive the weekend without surfing the web? Or Eek! Checking my email?
Happy Valentine’s Day
I always forget to post during holidays. This year, however, I’ve amassed quite the ‘making out’ photo collection on Polyvore and must share it with you. I celebrated V Day on V Day’s Eve. Today I work until sunset. Yay me! At least I’ve got…a big box of Junior Mints to keep me warm and refreshed.
The Lit Connection 