Nick's Book Q&A

Since I posted the news about Nick's book (my 3rd YA), I've gotten a lot of questions about it and the future of the Altered world. So I thought I'd try to answer as many of those questions here, for anyone who is curious.

++ When will Nick's book be released? 
If all goes as planned, I imagine it'll follow the same release schedule as Altered and Erased, so January 2015.

++ Will it be told from Nick's perspective, or Callie's?
When I first envisioned this book, I only saw it from Callie's POV, but that may change. It will definitely be told from Callie's first person perspective, but there may or may not be chapters from Nick's POV. That didn't really answer the question at all, did it? ;-)

++ When does Nick's book take place?
The summer after Erased.

++ Will Anna, Sam or Cas make an appearance?
Definitely. Nick will be on his own for much of the book, but I do plan to have the others pop in at least once. How could I not? ;D

++ Will the other boys --- Cas and Trev --- have their own books too?
This is a question I can't really answer, yet. A lot has to happen first for it to be a possibility. Most importantly, I have to write Nick's book first, then come up with the framework for Cas's and Trev's stories before finally submitting those ideas to Little, Brown.

I do have origin stories written for all of the boys (and Dani), so we might do something with those in the future. And I also have a loose summary of a Trev story that takes place between Altered and Erased.

++ Will Nick's cover follow the same design as Altered and Erased?
I'm not sure. I, personally, would love to see another neon, shirtless boy cover!

If I haven't covered something here that you're curious about, comment below and I'll do my best to answer. I hope this Q&A cleared up some curiosities! And, let me say again, I am SO happy to hear you all are excited to read Nick's book. I seriously cannot wait to write it.

The Who and What of my 3rd YA

A lot of people have asked me in the last few months whether Altered is going to be a trilogy or not. And the answer is no. Well, sorta no.

Anna's story definitely wraps up with Erased. In a lot of ways, so does Sam's. But, the cool thing about the Altered world is that there are still a lot of question marks about the other characters' histories that I couldn't possibly pack into one story or even two.

When Altered sold, it was in a three-book deal, but we knew from the start that my 3rd book would be decided later on down the line, that we didn't necessarily have to spread Anna's story into three books. And after finishing Altered, I knew I wanted to end her story with book 2.

But, there was someone else from that world that I wasn't quite ready to let go. I'll give you a hint.

For those of you who don't know, that is Sean O'Pry, my Nick in real life.

MY THIRD YA WILL BE NICK'S STORY!!

I am BEYOND thrilled that Little, Brown dug the Nick pitch enough to say, YES. And I'm even more thrilled that they loved Nick enough to give him his own story, beyond even Erased. I've mentioned before that Erased delves deeper into Nick's character, and his past, and how that factors into Anna's past, but there is so much more to learn about him. 

As of right now, my 3rd YA will be told from the point of view of seventeen-year-old Callie who had a run-in with Nick before the farmhouse lab. She remembers him, but his memories of her are still murky. 

I can also tell you that Nick will definitely be the love interest of this story. So there will be more shirtless Nick scenes, and some kissing too.

And, as promised, here's an excerpt from Erased, that gives you just a sliver of a glimpse inside the third Altered book. 

**Excerpt taken from the Erased ARC, some text may be different in the final copy**

"Gabriel" is the alias Nick used during the mission where he met Callie. She doesn't know him as Nick. At least not yet. ;-)

I am so excited to dive into this story and learn even more about Nick. I'm also excited to write the kissy scenes. AS USUAL. 

So, my dears, are you excited for Nick's book? Are you sad to leave Anna and Sam behind after Erased? Talk to me in the comments! 

I Want To Be Me

I just had an email exchange with someone wherein I mentioned how crappy I'd been feeling physically (and because of that, emotionally) lately. In the email, I said, "In the past, I've always been okay with myself, no matter what I looked like, but this winter has been hard on me..." Because I write full-time, I don't have to leave the house as often as I used to. And if you know me, you know I hate winters. Which means, I hibernate. And this winter, I hibernated mega hardcore. And I ate A LOT OF FOOD. And drank A LOT OF MOUNTAIN DEW.

Mountain Dew is my weakness! Tell me I'm not alone?

Directly after that email exchange, I went through the rest of the new emails that had popped in overnight. I signed up for a photography newsletter several months ago and the girl always puts out new videos every Tuesday that focus on business and marketing. But this particular video was about image and being real and confident in yourself.

And I realized something.

We all have our weak points. The things we are embarrassed about. The things that take our self-confidence down a notch or two.

We are all marvelous, weird, silly creatures and I am not alone in feeling awkward or lame or overweight or dorky at moments in my life.

To attest to that, I decided I wanted to share some images I'd taken in the last year or two---images that, to an outsider, looked like fine images, but to me reminded me of my double-chin, my chipmunk cheeks when I smile, my freckles, the weird dent in my nose. Images that show just how dorky I can be. How I don't always get my concept shoots right the first time.

Are you ready? Because I am. And it's all right to laugh at them. ;-) Because I did.


My husband helped me take my author photos last summer. And it was quite a hilarious experience. He's learning about photography, and lighting, and props. But sometimes I giggle too much while he's snapping pictures. Especially when he asked me to put this freshly picked daisy in my hair. I am not a daisy-in-the-hair kind of girl, but I realized, looking back on this image, to my husband, I am that girl. A bit carefree. Big-hearted. A pretty girl.

Moments later, he snapped this picture of me "posing". Maybe this should have been my author photo? ;-)

This next image is from a few months before the author shoot. I tried setting up a scene to take some pictures of my daughter. I wanted to have "laundry" billowing in the wind behind her. She didn't want to have any part of it. She wanted to chase the dog around the yard instead. So my husband grabbed the camera while I took down the "laundry" and he snapped this photo. I hated all of them in this set. I thought I looked fat. I thought my chin looked too big. But I'm smiling. And I'm happy. And my husband is making me laugh. And that's what makes this image something more than just an image. It's the kind of image I will carry with me as a memory. 

Last summer, I had this photo concept I wanted to try out in the water. Since we live so close to Lake Michigan, the husband and I planned to spend a few hours there trying out a few different things. I wanted to take some simple images of a figure floating in the water. In this instance, I am that figure, because I couldn't come up with a model on such short notice. My husband snapped I don't know how many images. And I hated all of them. I liked the water. The vibrant colors of the sun set in the background. But I hated the model. Here you can kinda see the dent in my nose. The dent! I've always hated the dent. But my husband has always loved it. Why, I often wondered? "Because it's cute," he said. And this is why I <3 the guy.

I like playing around with the concept of levitation in my images. This one was shot late last summer, I believe. This is the result of the shoot ---

In order to get that effect, I lay back on a stool, which I later photoshopped out. But have you ever tried to balance on a stool while whipping your hair around? It's hard work!

Which is why this happened:

This is me, falling off of said stool, caught on camera by the husband. 

And, again, on another levitation shoot. Husband wasn't quick enough to snap the actual falling this time!

Looking through these images today reminded me of something --- when I look at them, I hate them because of flaws I see in myself, but when we took the images, we were laughing. We were happy. I didn't care how I looked while taking the pictures. 

So if I take anything away from this day, from this post, it's this: I want to live more in the moment, rather than in the after-moment. The place in my head that picks apart everything about myself, my apperance. That somehow forgets the joy felt while taking the image, while creating those memories. 

I don't want to waste anymore time worrying about what I look like, or what people will think when they look at me, or images of me, or even images taken by me. 

I want to be me 100% of the time and no one else. 

And if you made it this far (I hope you did!), I'll leave you with a bonus image. Some of you may have seen this already, but it makes me giggle every time. 

My husband's blue steel look. Enjoy. ;-)