“It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if each speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby was required reading in high school. To my surprise, I fell in love with the story. In high school I wasn’t much of a reader unless you count scripts or lyrics to a song I had to learn. In that case, I read fast and once memorized all my lines in the second act of OKLAHOMA! in 45 minutes. I played Ado Annie, so it’s not like I had one or two lines. Anyways. I am beyond thrilled to see The Great Gatsby and Leo, you make my heart melt….How I love every time you speak.
Today I am featured on Amber’s Epic Thursday blog with the EPIC WOLF SCENE! You will get a sneak peek into my newest book, Cinderella’s Glass Stiletto.
CINDERELLA’S GLASS STILETTO is the story of a nomad teen and her suicidal half-sister who arrive at a boarding school in Germany only to learn their classmates are characters from storybooks.
The scene comes right from deep in the heart of the manuscript and it’s one of my favorites between Wolf and Norah. Please make sure to check it out and leave some love!!
“Music is a total constant. That’s why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song says the same, just like that moment.”
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
This is probably one the most empowering Sister Hazel song ever. The message is amazing. Appreciate your life for its faults–look at the good and not the bad because there is so much to be grateful for. If you can’t find a positive then change your mind instead of trying to change what is out of your control.
Favorite line?
Hey hey what ya say
We both go and seize the day
’cause what’s your hurry, what’s your hurry anyway
This is my go to song when I am weary or when I need to sing out and be silly and happy.
(how amazing is that video?! Seriously, I have chills)
I am now in the thick of revisions for my newest book CINDERELLA’S GLASS STILETTO, the story of a nomad teen and her suicidal half-sister who arrive at a boarding school in Germany only to learn their classmates are characters from storybooks.
In the teaser below, Norah meets Wolf for the first time. This is from my first chapter and one of my new favorite scenes. Keep in mind this is still rough and needs some polishing.
Without further ado, meet Wolf:
A loud creak of the door drew my attention to the boy entering. An ice pack covered his left eye and blood dried beneath his nose. His glare burned the carpet as he sat in the chair across from me.
The leg of his dark corduroy pants hiked up when he leaned down to tie his black combat boots. Dark brown hair fell in waves along his face, stopping at his chin. My eyes trailed his long, built physique until I spotted the wolf on his forearm—mouth open, fangs exposed in a defensive manner. The drawing looked too permanent to be marker. The edges were feathered and worn, like something that’d been on his skin for years.
“Is that real?” I motioned to his forearm.
“As real as the sun.”
I crinkled my nose. “Why’d you pick a wolf?”
He shrugged and the icepack fell, showing off the beginning of what would be a nasty black eye. “He tells me what to do.” Well, that made perfect sense.
“Did he tell you to get that black eye?” I asked. “No offense, but it looks like you lost.”
He chuckled and rubbed one hand over his jaw. The stubble made him appear older than a guy in high school, plus he was tall, with broad shoulders and muscles made to crush bones. “You never saw the other guy.” The light bounced off the wolf ring on his index finger. His dark eyes trailed over my body, as if he were seeing me for the first time. “You the new girl from the states?”
“One of them. How’d you know?”
“People talk.”
No matter how many schools I attended, knowing people talked always made me cringe. “What did they say?”
“They didn’t say you’d be dirty.”
“Well,” I crossed one leg over the other and shrugged. “Life is full of disappoints.”
“Touché.” A devious grin twitched at the edge of his lips. “What’d you say your name was?”
“I didn’t.”
“Right.” A chuckle, deep and low rumbled in his throat. “I’m Wolf.”
I narrowed my eyes, holding in a smile. Wolf, really? That was his name. Man, he really embraced the whole wolf-name-look persona. “Creative.”
“Isn’t it?” I held in the ironic laughter as Wolf stared me down, again, his eyes held mine as if testing to see who’d break first. “So, you gonna tell me your name or are we going to keep going back and forth like this. Not that I mind the banter. Our chemistry is undeniable.”
“Chemistry?” I flinched. “There’s no chemistry.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” His rested his elbows on his knees and leaned closer to me. My throat tightened. Heat flowed from his body to mine like a wave slamming me against the back of the sofa. “The truth is always hard to accept. Especially when it’s this good.” He gestured to himself.
My jaw dropped. “What are you insinuating?”
Wolf leaned back, a tight smile playing with his lips. “Oh, you know.”
~~~
I hope you enjoyed a bit of Norah and Wolf. I post one liners from time to time on Twitter, so if you aren’t follow me, you can find me at @angela_francis.
Oh, but I can’t sign off without reminding everyone…
PRETTY AMY by Lisa Burstein is out now!
Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.
Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over.
Lisa is awesome, so please check out her book. Its amazing. And I love supporting rock star writers…you should too.
They say good things happen in three’s and this week, they did.
This week has been a week of accomplishment, change & miracles.
As of Tuesday at 1:30am, I finished the first draft of my newest book, Cinderella’s Glass Stiletto.
When nomad teenager Norah and her suicidal half-sister are sent to a boarding school in Germany, they’re shocked to learn that their classmates are characters from storybooks.
This book literally flew out of me faster than any idea I have ever had. Maybe two months tops of writing? Either way, I finished the first draft at around 60-65k, so I will be adding probably another 20k to it in revisions and edits. Nevertheless, I am ecstatic and right on track with my goal to be finished by summer—even though some agents close submissions during that time…we shall see!
Ready for the bigger news?
Most don’t know, so I’ll share a little story. My best friends, Ash & Steph had tried to have a baby for a long time and were even told the chances of them conceiving were slim. But last year, they found out she was pregnant. And on Wednesday, May 9th 2012 at 7:52pm, Piper Renee’ Bedwell graced the world with her presence and I became an unofficial aunt to the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. Weighting it at 6lbs, she is pure perfection and so gorgeous, she captured my heart the moment I saw her. I think the husband said to me at one point last night, “You know you can’t hold her forever, eventually you have to give her back.” And I did…finally.
Piper is a miracle baby. A precious gift from God and I feel so unbelievably blessed to have her and her parents in my life. Over the past year, Ash & Steph have become family to me. So has the rest of the band and I couldn’t imagine my world without such amazing, selfless, caring people. Because they are so much more than my friends, they are family and Steph and Sarah, are the sisters I have always wanted and never got. But now I know why, because now I have them and I am so, so grateful and blessed.
Finally. The third part of this amazing week.
On Saturday at 9am, after 3 long years, my best friend Torrey–yes, I used the most non-professional photo of him I could find lol–is graduating from law school. Yep, law school, so watch out people, my best friend is a lawyer and I can sue you. Just kidding. He has worked so hard for this and despite how much I mock him and say “Law School consists of FBS’ing all day in “class”.” I know he works his butt off. He just happens to be one of those geniuses I hate who remembers everything and anything you tell him. Seriously. He is a sponge of knowledge and I have all the confidence in the world that he will excel at whatever he puts his mind to because that is the person he is. He doesn’t fail, he only gets better.
Like I said, this week has been a week of accomplishments, a week that will go down in the books as one of the best weeks of 2012. So, the rest 2012 has a lot to live up to.
Now I am off. The next few weeks I will be busy editing like a machine to get this book done and off to betas.
Fun fact of the day: Making out against an olive tree is hot. Not only that, but they are sturdy enough to be thrown into during a knife fight.
Don’t believe me?
Check out today’s Epic Thursday post on Amber’s site, the Epic Olive Grove scene by the AMAZING Tristina Wright, one heck of a writer and the ringleader of our awesome critique gang.
You get to meet Lucas (my fictional boyfriend) and read an excerpt from her current work in progress novel called Children of the Gods. I have read what she has written so far, and let me tell you…this book is pure awesomesauce. Romeo+Juliet meets Greek Mythology. It doesn’t get any better.
In other news, this week has been intense. Tomorrow I will write all about it. But for now…hurry over and leave a nice comment for Tris on Amber’s site.
Every Thursday the super awesome Amber Clites has a reoccurring blog post where writers sign up and volunteer Epic scenes . These scenes range from: , making out, fights, angry kissing, amazing action, sad kissing, anything awesome and epic.
Last week, Amber posted the Epic Closet Scene, which included hot kissing and wrist pinning. If you haven’t read it, you need to.
Today on Amber’s site, you will get a chance to read the Epic Pancake Scene by writer extraordinaire Carrie Bastyr. I LOVE this scene. After you check it out, go to Carrie’s site where she is giving away a copy of The Selection by Kiera Cass.
Next week you will get to read a scene by Tristina Wright, unofficial ringleader of our small gang of misfits. Also, stay tuned to Epic Thursdays for a scene from my current work in progress, Storybook High.
Speaking of SBH, I am ALMOST done with this draft, then editing!!! I’m SO excited, I’m pretty sure the entire book is full of epicness, not to mention humor and puns on story book characters. Who doesn’t love a psycho Cinderella, evil princesses and not-so-charming princes?
In other news, hopefully next week my best friend will pop out a beautiful baby girl…which I will spoil to death because she isn’t even here yet and I’ve bought so much stuff for her its insane. Last night I went to Old Navy and bought 2 pajamas, a onesie and matching bottoms and then a freakin’ adorable pink track suit with a princess tiara on the front. In my defense they had a sale. How can you pass up a good sale? This girl is going to be such a fashionista!
Anyways, have a great weekend and Happy Cinco de Mayo!
After reading Shannon Messenger’s post today about Trusting the Path, I felt as if I wasn’t completely alone. This week has been incredible writing-wise. I broke through my writers block YAY. But what happened when I broke through came totally out of left field. My MC defied me. The nerve of her, right?
When I sat down and plotted out my new book, Storybook High (working title) I had a plan. I had three acts mapped out and a game plan. I knew it. This would happen, then this, then this, etc. I was writing fine, hammering out chapter by chapter by chapter and then somewhere around the midway point, my mind went blank. I knew where I wanted to go but I had no clue how to get there.
So after a week of nothing, I sat down and forced myself to break through and let Norah do what she wanted. And BAM writers block gone. But as it happened, what Norah wanted wasn’t what I wanted. She had her old plan, her own feelings and I couldn’t force her feelings in the direction I wanted. I know some people might not get this, they’d say—“Well, you’re the writer, do whatever you want.”—but it SO doesn’t work like that. That’s like saying I can force my husband to like curry because I want him too. Yeah, no.
By time I *really* realized her defiance, it was too late. I ran over to my writing girls and was freaking out…because I didn’t know what to do. I had a plan!!!!! But they all told me to go with it, just see where she takes me. I did. I am. And let me tell you, she is taking me to some really crazy places now and I’ve never been so flipping energized before!! I know there are way too many exclamation points in this post but I’m excited and nervous and biting my nails as I write every word now because I’m no longer in control, she is.
I guess that’s the difference between forcing a character to do something and letting them make their own decisions. I guess what I’m saying now, writers, is this: sometimes we can plan and plan all we want. We can spend hours in outlines but the real decisions come when the characters are in motion. When the stakes are high and choices have to be made and sometimes they make the wrong ones. Sometimes they go down a different path and sometimes…just sometimes…they kiss boys they shouldn’t.
So, now I have a different plan. It’s still rough and in need of tweaking and flushing out, but I think this plan may be better than the last.
I’ll end with this…let your characters defy you. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Ciao~
P.S, leaving you with this funny rap from Chris August.LOVE IT.
