Monday, January 26, 2015

The Story of Awkward Art Project

With the King of Ash and Bone release day less than a week away, I've been fortunate to have a number of projects keeping me too busy to be anxious. I'll pop back in on Monday for the big release day blitz with Tressa's Wishful Endings, but for now I thought I'd share some progress on the most enjoyable project I've been working on.


The Story of Awkward Art Project is thoroughly underway, and it's been a strange sort of delight to watch main character Perri's sketchbook come to life. If you missed the prior post, this is from the YA fantasy The Story of Awkward by R.K. Ryals, wherein poor Perri falls into her own childhood fairytale for an adventure with a onetime nemesis. Once the art is compiled and sketchbook complete, it will be added to the story in both ebook and print.



You can follow our progress on Instagram and YouTube (where I've recently discovered and fallen for time lapse video) or at author R.K. Ryals's site: AuthorRKRyals.com

We've tried to make it more fun with Flipagrams:

And videos:



And we'd love to hear what you think.

You can download The Story of Awkward now at your favorite ebook retailers free (woohoo!), though the sketchbook will not be added until later this year (but will be available as an update).


Happy reading :)


Thursday, January 15, 2015

King of Ash and Bone teaser

The King of Ash and Bone release is just weeks away! As promised, below is a little snippet of chapter one. You can preorder now at Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes & Noble, or find it online February 2nd.


Chapter One

It started with a crack. A roll of thunder. It might have been any other storm. It might not have been world-altering.

And then came the howl—the roar of wind like a train blasting past just outside—and the rush of air as it was stolen from their living room. Mackenzie opened her mouth to scream for her brother, to tell him to take cover, but they could barely make out the debris pelting the windows and the creaking shift of the house’s wood frame over the noise. He looked at her, eyes wide, and she had a remembered flash of terror, of a younger Riley calling her name.

“Kenzie!” His voice broke through, a desperate shout in the squall of the tempest, and she was running, both of them frantic as they headed for the safety of the basement. She shoved him through the hallway, his arms rising to cover his face as the kitchen door slammed open, throwing leaves and limbs and dirt onto a rain-slicked linoleum floor. The sight seemed strange to her, so unnatural against the lifelong image of it clean, its light gold squares decorated with tiny pink flowering buds. And there was something on the wind, some strange mix of ozone and cinnamon that burned her nose, that made her wonder if lightning had struck outside. But there was no flash. Only darkness. Wind.

The roar.

“Go!” she yelled, but Riley couldn't hear her. He was seventeen, but suddenly a boy again, shielding his face from a coming blow. She had to force him through the door that led downstairs. Her eyes caught on the wooden trim, the peeling paint and the worn metal of the lock chain. They hadn't stopped running, but it was as if every detail caught her eye, stretched time so she could afford its notice. And she would remember those details, those tiny, insignificant parts of that moment.
Because it was the moment their lives had changed forever.

Mackenzie Scott had covered her brother’s ears that night, shielded him from the otherworldly scream of uprooted wood and twisting metal as they crouched in the tiny alcove behind the basement’s heating system, huddled into each other, waiting for the fury to cease. She had no idea how long its rage had lasted, though she’d relived it in a thousand nightmares. She only knew one thing: it had been no true storm.

She stared into the wispy clouds outside her window now, alone in the house since the weeks had passed. She wasn't simply unaccompanied in their home, but the entire street, most of the neighborhood. They had run, all of them. She couldn't blame them, really. She’d have gone too if she’d had some place to go.

But she didn't. And she was alone. There was nothing left to do but face the facts: There were creatures outside her window, and there was no place safe on this earth.

***

Looking forward to sharing this one. Thanks for reading!  <3




Thursday, January 8, 2015

Happenings 2015

The King of Ash and Bone release is less than one month away and while I've been happily distracted with several other projects, expect some teasers soon :)  For now, here's my writing inspiration playlist:


You can preorder King of Ash and Bone at Amazon, iTunes, or Barnes & Noble.

I've had the opportunity to hear the audio performance of Descendants Series book three, Reign of Shadows and am thrilled with how it came out. The finished audiobook should hit virtual shelves in February, but I'll be sharing the audio sample here in the coming weeks.

Big news for some other projects that I can't share just yet, but fun things are coming. In a quite unexpected turn of events, I've teamed up with author R.K. Ryals to illustrate her YA fantasy The Story of Awkward.


This is one of my favorite books by R.K. and I'm thrilled to be able to re-create the fairy tale sketchbook drawn by the story's young heroine, Perri. The concept is so fun, because she falls into her own storybook with the characters she'd drawn as a child, only now she's grown up and her childhood nemesis is at her side. You can download the ebook free at Amazon, iTunes, or B&N, but the artwork won't be inside until later this year (the update should automatically be made if you already own the book when the artwork is added). Below is a sample of some of "Perri's" work.