First Love

By Jordan Dane

Bleeding Heart Artwork - Danijel-One at Deviant Art (Love Deviant Art.)

I’d like you to meet Abbey Chandler from ON A DARK WING. By getting to know my character, perhaps you’ll get a glimpse of me. I’m her shadow. Authors often share bits and pieces of their life’s experiences with the character they create. One of the big personal inspirations I shared with Abbey in her book was my first love.


Hal was the name of my first major crush. Tall and lanky, he was shy and had a quirky smile and tousled dark wavy hair. Totally cute. He played drums in my brother’s garage band and drove a yellow VW bug. The boy banged on drums, but his sweet quiet nature drew me to him. Like my character Abbey did with one perfect guy, I watched Hal from a distance and was too shy to talk to him much. Yeah, he hung out at my house for band practices, but I was too young to do more than ogle him. He stole my heart in a big way and took a piece of it when he left. I have never forgotten him.


More on Hal later.


In my upcoming book with Harlequin Teen—ON A DARK WING—Abbey falls totally in love with Nate Holden. Who wouldn’t? He’s a great guy. Nate is hot with an amazing body, smart, and popular. He dates likeable real girls, not cardboard cutouts, and volunteers as a mountain rescue guy in Alaska, sacrificing his life to save others.


Here is Nate in Abbey’s words:


“At that moment, I had two really good reasons to forget how much my life sucked and Taco Thursday paled in comparison to the reason standing next to me. Nate Holden stood talking to his buddy, Josh Poole. His deep voice tingled in my ear and made my belly twist into a major knot, the kind of thing that felt terrible and amazing at the same time.


Even with his back to me, every side of Nate Holden was excellent. I loved how his dark hair curled at his collar and he always smelled good, but with a full frontal, his hypnotic blue eyes made me forget to breathe. Whenever he talked, his lips could mesmerize me for hours. Being next to him felt like getting sucker punched—and liking it. He’d always be out of my league, an unreachable boy from an alternative universe who came to me in my sleep and tortured me. Sweet torture.


Nate Holden had been a constant reminder of how messed up I was. He was the complete opposite of me, someone I had no business even wanting. We had absolutely nothing in common. Brownie points for him. But that didn’t stop me from practically stalking him. Deduct said brownie points. I played scenarios in my head, where he needed me as much as I wanted him. How sick was that? That would never happen. My fantasies were the only way I’d ever get close to someone like him.”


~Abbey Chandler – ON A DARK WING


But of course with every book there is conflict. ON A DARK WING (Harlequin Teen - Dec 27, 2011) is a coming of age story for a girl who is lucky to be alive after she survives a car accident five years earlier where her mother was killed. She crossed paths with Death once and lived past her expiration date, yet she can’t move on with her life because she carries the burden of guilt over her part in the accident. That tragedy marks her. Tanner Lange looks out for her from a distance, the only way he thinks she’ll accept him—as her best friend. Being a boy in a wheelchair, he doesn’t feel he has much to offer her except his unflinching loyalty, the same loyalty she had always shown him after he was paralyzed. Tanner sees the major crush Abbey has on the perfect boy—a great guy who doesn’t even know she exists—Nate Holden. But Death has a reason for finding Abbey again. When she crosses paths with Death again, she’ll learn what love and loyalty truly are.


To share more about me and an inspiration behind this book, I finally need to talk about Hal, my first crush who had his own link with Death. Hal was killed by a drunk driver while he drove his little yellow VW. I can still see his cute face in my mind. I clipped out his death notice from the newspaper and for years I kept it in a special secret box of “his” things. I never told anyone how I felt about it. That was too personal. I never got to see Hal grow into a man. He’ll forever be that cute boy with a crooked grin, tooling around in his yellow bug. A first crush is special because it’s the first. It’s intense and none that come after will be quite the same, even if you find THE ONE.


But not every first crush story turned out sad like mine, so I’d like to hear from you. I want DEETS, people! You don’t have to share full names, but I’d love to hear about your first crush. Was it someone you knew or a famous celebrity? How did you stalk him or her? What things did they do that you still think about? Spill it!

ON A DARK WING Virtual Book Tour Sign up at YA Bound until October 31, 2011.

ON A DARK WING Virtual Tour – Calling all Bloggers

By Jordan Dane





As part of my cover reveal announcement for ON A DARK WING, I want to let everyone know on TeenShiver that the lovely Trisha Wolfe (talented author and avid YA blogger at YA Bound) will be hosting my virtual tour exclusively, along with the support of Harlequin Teen. Stop by YA Bound on Tuesday Oct 4th to see how you and your blog can be FEATURED on our tour.


Please show TeenShiver love to the Angel of Death. Post him, share him and tweet sweet nothings in his ear.


He’s listening.

From the first moment I saw him on my mountain, he mesmerized and controlled me. Now the danger of being with him oozed from every pore of my body, yet I had to come. Nothing could have stopped me from seeing him.

“You asked who I am,” he said. “Look into my eyes, Abbey. You tell me.”

~Abbey Chandler (staring into the eyes of Death) – ON A DARK WING (Harlequin Teen, Jan 2012)

On a Dark Wing – Cover Tease

By Jordan Dane

On Monday October 3rd, I’m revealing the cover for ON A DARK WING on TeenShiver, my second YA with the awesome Harlequin Teen (Jan, 2012). This will be an exclusive for TeenShiver, ‘cuz I love you guys. So I wanted to hint of things that will be on the cover, important images that will capture the essence of the story of a young girl who stares into the eyes of Death—twice.

The choices I had made that day, all of them led to that one moment when the school bus drove off and fate took over. I would learn a lesson I wasn’t prepared for and Death would be my willing teacher.    ~Abbey Chandler

Five years ago in Alaska, Abbey Chandler faced Death on the worst day of her life—the day her mother died. Now with gaping holes in her memory caused by the horrific car accident where she lost her mom, she struggles to remember what happened, but she can’t get past her guilt for the role she played in the crash when she missed her school bus. But Death never forgets her. For reasons of his own, he seeks her out years later with an agenda she never sees coming.

As an author, I had to imagine what it would be like for a young girl to stare into the beautiful and mesmerizing eyes of Death. What would she see? Would she even recognize the captivating boy for what he is? How would Death keep her from being afraid or would he even care if she’s scared?

I see Death as a keeper of souls, yet with the frightening power of an immortal charged with a lonely duty—being the last one to turn out the lights on humanity. By the end of the book, I ached for him and the solitude he must endure forever. His sense of duty and purpose felt like a burden that no one soul should have to bear and I wondered if he'd ever been given a choice. Below is Abbey’s first encounter with Death, before she realizes what really happened to her mother.

Excerpt – Abbey’s First Encounter with Death

Momma. Please…help me.

I searched for my mother, but couldn’t move my head. I didn’t even sense her next to me. I felt alone, cocooned in pain and deepening shadows. How long I lay there shivering, I didn’t know, but eventually I sensed something that, to this day, I have never forgotten.

A strong presence filled the SUV.

Soothing heat replaced the numbing cold that had settled in my bones. It made me want to close my eyes and sleep, but a strange urgency wouldn’t let that happen. I strained to stay awake and searched the shadows, waiting for a glimpse of something…anything to explain the eerie feeling.

After an intense light stabbed my eyes and sent a shock of pain down my spine, I saw movement. Something eclipsed the truck’s headlights. It drifted toward me, inching closer until it hovered over my body. The brilliant glimmer swept over me and through me. Even though I could see through it, the light took shape and substance. The ghostly flicker turned into a body with arms and hands…and finally a face.

A boy’s face.

I was only ten, but he looked older, like a high school boy. He had the most intense eyes that I’d ever seen. Beautiful. They were deep blue and reminded me of the frigid depths of the ocean. His eyes were the only real color on his face, but that wasn’t the most incredible thing about him. White tufts undulated and billowed within the boundaries of his filmy body, beautiful and peaceful. He conjured memories of a perfect summer day with me lying on my back on a grassy hilltop, picturing animal shapes in drifting white clouds.

When I shifted my gaze back to his eyes, I saw a long tunnel with a glimmering light at the end of it, a light eclipsed by the vague shapes of bodies undulating on a watery surface. Those wavering images calmed me. At that moment, I felt a part of them, as if I belonged. He comforted me in a way no one ever had.

The boy fascinated me. I must have had the same impact on him. He stared at me with such concentration that it looked as if he were memorizing my face. Who are you? I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t make my lips work.

When he reached out his hand, a strong impulse made me take it.

In my research of this book, I found several references to Death not traveling alone. Inky black ravens are his harbingers and signal his coming with their eerie presence. They are a chilling glimpse of things to come. Abbey is stalked by these shadowy creatures until she realizes why they seek her out.

Excerpt – His Ravens

Below my bedroom window, a tree moved in the night breeze. It wasn’t until I looked closer that I saw them. The tree was filled with ravens and crows. Hundreds of them. When their iridescent black wings flapped, they caught the moonlight in their feathers and it made the whole tree look as if it would lift from the ground and drift into the night sky. The birds had gathered for a purpose that I didn’t understand, but for some strange reason, I knew one thing.

They had come because of me.

ON A DARK WING (Harlequin Teen, Jan 2012) is a coming of age story for a girl who is lucky to be alive, but she can’t move on with her life carrying a burden of guilt over the death of her mother. The tragedy marks her. It defines her. Tanner Lange looks out for her from a distance, the only way he thinks she’ll accept him—as her best friend. Being a boy in a wheelchair, he doesn’t feel he has much to offer her except his unflinching loyalty, the same loyalty she had always shown him after he was paralyzed. Tanner sees the major crush Abbey has on the perfect boy—a great guy who doesn’t even know she exists—Nate Holden. When Death finds a unique way to face Abbey again, she will learn what love and loyalty truly are.

The cover will be posted on Monday, Oct 3^rd. I hope you’ll stop by and let me know what you think. Please show Death some love by cross posting him. Believe me, he’ll be watching.

For the question of the day – if you faced Death like Abbey, what would you say to him? Or what would you hope he’d say to you?

Book Birthdays Today!

Today is release day for three of our Team Shiver members!

Rachel Vincent's If I Die, which I've heard many readers say they will die if they don't get their hands on it as soon as possible. Congratulations, Rachel!

Jordan Dane's adult thriller, Reckoning For The Dead, #4 in her Sweet Justice series. Happy Book Birthday, Jordan!

Trinity Faegen's (me!) The Mephisto Covenant, which is my YA debut.

We're all excited to bring you books we hope you enjoy, and every release day, no matter how many an author has already experienced, is a time for happy celebration. We're looking forward to more as the months go by, so stick around and see who's next!

In the meantime, your bookshelf called, and it wants these three books. I wouldn't make your bookshelf mad. Just sayin'.

Welcome to TeenShiver!

We have so many exciting things going on at TeenShiver. We hope you’ll spread the word about our new blog that will feature & nurture Texas YA books that make you shiver.

First I will mention that we are proud to have Tori Scott & Lindsey Cummings with us. They both have agents and their first books are out on submission. Squeee!!! Please post a comment in support. I’m sure they need a heaping dose of love and a cyber hug.

Many of our TeenShiver authors are new to YA, but I can see very bright futures ahead for them. They need love too. Explore their books and see what I mean.

As Texas YA authors, we have banded together to promote literacy and our genre. If you are a school, library, or bookstore and want to reach out to our authors, please follow the instructions on our CONTACT PAGE. We’d like to hear from you if you’d love to schedule an event, are a cool reviewer looking to discover fresh voices in YA, or want to find out more about how to become a TeenShiver author.

For our followers, we will have the support of our publishers and will have very cool exclusives coming soon. I can't wait to share them. Follow us and be the first to know.

Welcome!

10 Things I Believe About Writing

With all the uncertainty in our economy and in the publishing industry, in particular, I thought it might be important to talk about the passion we all share. It’s the basic thing that drives us with such conviction. Whether you read books or create them, novels can lift our spirits, tug at our imaginations, make us believe in the impossible, and take us for a journey into the past. (Talk about a cheap vacation!) They dole out justice when it feels as if there’s none and they transcend international borders, making this a small world after all.

If you’re an aspiring author, I believe it’s harder to get noticed by traditional publishers these days, yet with the digital boom in e-books, I feel there is even greater potential for getting discovered in a whole new way that still feeds our addiction. So take heart. Below are my thoughts about writing and what I’ve learned on my journey.

1. Tell YOUR story, your way. If you have enough drive, you will discover a unique story that you must tell. If you’re lucky, more stories will follow. Ideas for books can be a contagion worth embracing. Since you use your life’s experiences to filter through your characters, scenes and settings, only YOU can tell this story. How cool is that?!

2. Develop a tough skin. There will always be negative people telling you that you can’t write or reviewers who think you should quit. Screw ‘em. If it matters to you, you will learn from your mistakes and keep doing what’s important to you. And if anyone thinks a book is easy to write, let them try. In fact, please be our guest.

3. Be picky about your critique buddies. They can be invaluable if you find the right person or group, but too much of a good thing can dilute your voice. Whatever your story, this is your book. You must have a sense of who you are as a writer in order to push back on any advice that doesn’t fit you and only you can be the judge of that.

4. Find the time to write regularly. Even if it’s only a few hundred words or a page a day, set attainable goals but don’t beat yourself up if life gets in the way. Write because it matters to you.

5. Focus on the basics. Writing is the only thing you can control. Selling your project, promoting it, dealing with proposals, these things are not in your hands and can become a mental road block. When things get tough, your writing is the backbone of your passion.

6. Keep writing. While you have a proposal out, don’t wait by the phone or the mailbox. Get on to that next project and learn from your last one. Push the envelope of your craft, because you can. It’s great to find success in a trend, but why not BE the trend?

7. Trust your talent. As human beings, we all have self-doubt. Some hide it better than others. We all deal with it, but the voice and talent you have shown with each new project will follow you. Trust your ability to tell a story, but also hone the craft of writing to be the best author you can be.Your basic talent will sustain you.

8. Make the words bleed. If the story is worth telling, it’s usually because of the emotion you have to convey. Write what you fear, what you love, what you hate. Man has been telling stories since drawing on cave walls and within those stories has been the thrill of the hunt, the profound sorrow of death, or the joy of good fortune. Emotion connects us all, regardless of any language barrier.

9. Support other authors. This is your world. Our world. We’re not in competition with each other. We’re up against people who choose video games or movies over books. Make them see how powerful the written word can be, how it triggers the magic of our imaginations. Books are brain food. READ them! If you want to understand a genre, READ IT!

10. Find a way to deal with rejections. They will come, in one fashion or another, whether you’re published or not. Rejection comes in all forms. Create a ritual to dispel the negativity and move on, but if you don’t risk rejection, you’re not getting yourself out there enough. Find a happy balance and keep writing. Not many feel passion for what they do. Count yourself lucky to be one of us, a writer.

Since we all share the love of books and writing on Fringe Dweller, please share any words of wisdom that gets you through the tough times. What keeps you going?