A REBORN Excerpt

A while back, someone asked me on Twitter to post an excerpt of REBORN. Of course, I said yes. Because I love sharing teasers! I had planned on posting this back when that dear, sweet reader asked for an excerpt, but I've been having website issues and just now fixed it. Or it seems to be fixed. If you have any issues posting comments or navigating on here, please tweet me or email!

So to celebrate getting the site back up and running, and to do what I promised I'd do, I'm posting an excerpt of REBORN from Nick's point-of-view. This takes place early in the book, and you'll see Nick has gotten himself in a bit of trouble. I really did love writing Nick. He was sometimes unpredictable. Sometimes so kind and caring it hurt. I seriously can't wait for you all to read REBORN.

All right, here we go!

--------------

Anna gave me a shove. "Sit down so I can take a look at your injuries." All trace of the earlier panic was gone, leaving only her exasperation, and a driving need to take care of something that was broken. Unfortunately, that something was me.

"You don't have to—"

"I know I don't have to." Her jaw tensed. "Sit down."

I closed the toilet seat and sat, feeling the ache of the fight settling into my joints. I needed pain killers. Maybe something stronger than OTC.

"Where's Sam?" I asked.

"In town, filling the gas cans."

"Cas?"

She bent down to fish out the first aid kit from beneath the sink. "He went running about a half hour ago." She unzipped the kit on the vanity top and started tearing into gauze packs. I caught her hand mid tear and she glared over at me.

"Stop," I said. "Don't waste the supplies. A rag will do."

She frowned, but didn't argue, and switched over to a rag she dug out of the closet. She wetted it down and came over to me, hunching so we were face to face.

Her blond hair was braided, and it hung over her shoulder, tied off with a black rubber band. Dark shadows painted the skin beneath her eyes. She hadn't been sleeping well lately. Flashbacks and old demons haunting her out of bed. I could relate. None of us really slept well, except for Cas. Cas could sleep through an air raid.

Anna cleaned the blood from my face, and the open wound on the side of my eye, working with the methodic confidence of a professional, even though she wasn't.

"Why do you keep doing this?" she mumbled.

I scowled. "Why do you keep asking?"

Another frown. It was her default expression with me.

"What's going on, Nick? Is it more flashbacks?"

Yes.

I looked past her at the towel hanging from the towel rack. It used to be brown. Now it was a faded mud color.

I saw a flash of a girl and I slammed my eyes shut.

I kept seeing her. The same girl. And every time I did, she was shaking. No, not shaking. Trembling.

REBORN: More on Nick's Book

I’ve received a lot of questions about Reborn (Altered #3), especially now that people have read Erased, so I thought I’d do another update post for those of you who might be new to the series (or the blog).

Altered and Erased were Anna’s books, and her story ended with Erased. But, while her story has an end, the Branch’s story doesn’t. The same could be said for the boys. There are still a lot of holes in the boys’ pasts. Who were they before the Branch? How did they come to work together? This was something I wanted to explore in Reborn, and I really really wanted to explore it with Nick.

Reborn is Nick’s book, for sure, but it will be told in a dual POV. Half from Nick’s POV, and half from a new girl character’s POV. If you read my old post about A3, then you might have heard me call her Callie, but once I started writing the book, I realized she wasn’t a Callie at all. So I changed her name! It’s now Elizabeth, and it fits so much better.

Nick has been having flashbacks about his life before and after joining the Branch, and there’s one girl he can’t get out of his head. He breaks from the group to do a bit more digging, and that’s when the action begins. Who is this girl? And is she connected to the Branch?

Reborn is very close to being finished (YAY!), so I can confidently say that it turned out to be a lot different than Altered and Erased. For one, it’s a dual POV, and one of those POVs is a genetically altered (male) badass. I’ve never really tackled writing a male POV (other than Trout in Bot Wars – but he’s a preteen, so it’s different!). Nick doesn’t see the world the same way Anna does. That was an adjustment, but a great writing experience. He’s also a lot angrier, a lot more broken, and a bit unpredictable. I loved writing him.

Elizabeth is also broken, for many reasons, and I certainly don’t want to give anything away. But, I can say, she’s a perfect match for Nick, in that they’re both confused about the past, present, and especially their future. They both have a lot of healing to do before either of them can let another person into their lives.

When I set out to write this book, and when I tried to picture who would make a great companion for Nick, I originally pictured a girl who was as equally badass as Nick, someone to whip him into shape, someone who wouldn’t take his crap. But then I realized, Nick would never let someone like that into his life. He would immediately go on the defensive. He grew up in a home where he was constantly pushed around, whipped into shape, and those kinds of strong personalities turn Nick off.

What someone like Nick needs is a person who is not afraid of a damaged past, who knows what pain is, and who would accept him, flaws and all.

I love writing characters who kickass, especially female characters that kickass! But strength can come in many forms, and I thought perhaps it was time to write a female character that, on the outside, is the opposite of kickass, but on the inside, is as strong as steel.

Reborn is a long ways away (eleven months!) but I can’t wait for people to read it. It IS different from Altered and Erased, but I think it’s a good different. And of course, there IS lots of ass kicking!

If you have any other questions about Reborn, drop them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer! 

Salt & Erased Release Day Fun

It’s Friday! And you know what that means? ERASED is only 3 days away from being released! Not only that, but my good friend, Danielle Ellison, has a book coming out the same day. SALT is a YA about witches and hot boys, and I highly recommend you read it.

Danielle and I are hosting a Twitter party January 7^th 9-10 PM EST to celebrate our release day. We’ll be giving away books and swag, answering questions, and most certainly chatting about hot guys. We hope you all can make it! But, in the event you’re busy (kids, homework, deadlines, your own hot guy), we wanted to give everyone a chance to win a prize pack simply by entering through the Rafflecopter form below. It’s that easy!

Here’s what you’ll win:

I'm throwing in some Altered bookmarks and Altered boy pins as well, and Danielle is throwing in a necklace with a salt charm. So, you'll definitely be winning some great prizes! 

Enter on the Rafflecopter form below, and if you can make it, we'd love to see you at the Twitter party on January 7th 9PM! Follow along on the #HotBoysWin hashtag.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FORGED Cover Reveal!

We are just over a month away from the release of the Altered prequel, FORGED, and I seriously cannot wait for you guys to read it. Even more so now that the cover is final and I get to share with you!

I LOVE it. Obviously. If there is a shirtless guy involved, then I'm there.

You may be wondering who it is on the cover. With Altered, Sam was on the cover. Erased, it was Nick. And with FORGED, it's Connor! The bad guy in Altered is on the cover of FORGED and I'm seriously stoked for you all to find out how he fits into Dani's story. Was Connor always the bad guy? You'll have to read FORGED to find out!

So what do you guys think? :-)

FORGED releases on December 3, 2013. Pre-order it now!

Pre-order on AMAZON
Pre-order on BARNES & NOBLE

ERASED ARC contest favs!

First, let me apologize about how long it took me to get this post together for the ERASED ARC contest. We're still in the midst of moving (I feel like I'm swimming in boxes), and Altered 3 was due today! So it's been crazy over here. 

This ARC contest is by far one of my favorite contests ever. You guys are seriously talented people, and you picked some of the hottest guys for the fan casting. It was sooooo hard to narrow it down!

For this post, I'm sharing my top 5 (actually, it ended up being 7) Altered/Erased fan art picks. You guys get to help me narrow it down to just one. There will be a poll below. Vote for your favorite one and the winner will get an ARC of ERASED! I seriously can't wait to see what you guys vote for. Because I'm not sure I could pick just one if it came down to it. 

On Friday, I will officially announce the winners of the Fan Art portion, and the Fan Casting portion (I'm picking the winner of this one), of the contest. Voting ends at 2PM EST on Friday. I will contact the winners shortly after. 

Okay, enough of me talking. Let's get to the good stuff! 

#1

by @katnipsonfire

#2
by street of mercy

#3
by mig art

#4

by sturmhond

#5

by adaamkent

#6

by @sleepsontables

#7

by Adzs

Now, get to voting! 

ALTERED: THE BEGINNING

I have news! I tweeted about this last week, so for those of you who've already heard the news, forgive the repost.

Also, a warning, if you haven't read Altered, there *may* be spoilers in this post. I will try to highlight them as a pre-warning warning. :-)

From Publisher's Marketplace:
Jennifer Rush's ALTERED: The Beginning, a digital original prequel to the Altered series, shedding light on how the Branch came to be and how the boys, and a girl's older sister first became involved with the organization, to Pam Gruber at Little, Brown Children's, for ebook publication in Fall 2013, by Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary & Media (World English).

I am BEYOND thrilled to continue writing in the Altered world, especially when it dives even deeper into the past of the characters and the Branch. [SPOILER] The "older sister" mentioned in the summary is Dani, Anna's older sister. I wrote Dani's origin story way back before Altered sold, and I couldn't wait to share them with the world. Originally we had considered putting them in the back of the Altered paperback, or the Erased hardcover, but at the time, the Dani pages were only about 2,000 words or so, and I knew her story was so much more than that. Furthermore, some of what is revealed in those original pages are revealed in Erased. And I didn't want to repeat what readers might already know. [END SPOILER]

I told my agent and editor that I wanted to do a novella in the Altered world earlier this year, and thankfully Little, Brown was on board! It all happened fairly quickly, and before I knew it, I was drafting the novella at lightning speed so it would be ready for release this year. I turned in the first draft last month, and my equally lightning fast editor already returned first round edits. Which are brilliant! No surprise there!

When I announced the news on Twitter, I received a few questions about the project, so I'm going to answer a few of them here.

What's the release date?
December 3, 2013, the same day as the Altered paperback!

How long will the story be?
I've drafted the story, but it hasn't gone through edits yet, so it will definitely change. As of right now, the story is 11,000 words, which I think roughly translates to 55 pages. 

When will the novella take place?
Far, far before the opening of Altered.

Will there be hot shirtless boys? 
OH YOU KNOW IT.

Will you have to read Altered first in order to understand what's going on in the novella?
No. Definitely not. But I think it would only add to the fun of reading the novella if you did. :-) Furthermore, if you read the novella first, a few things will be spoiled for when you read Altered. And I hate spoilers. I'm sure you do too! 

[ALTERED SPOILER FOR SURE]

Will we see Dani and Sam's relationship begin?

Kind of. Sort of. I don't think I can say more than that!

Will Anna be part of the story?

No. Anna will only appear in Dani's thoughts. 

[END SPOILER]

I can't wait for everyone to read Altered: The Beginning. I had a ton of fun drafting it (especially the Altered style twists and turns!) and I'm looking forward to revising over the next month or so to whip it into shape! 

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! 

ERASED COVER!

I have been dying to show you guys the cover of ERASED, the sequel to ALTERED. Because it's bright and beautiful, but still dark and edgy at the same time. And there is a shirtless boy on the cover. :-) Specifically Nick this time. ERASED is definitely a Nick-heavy book. We find out a bit more about his past, and how Anna factors into it. I am sealing my lips now! But let me finish by saying that I am so very excited for you all to read this book.

***SIDE NOTE: This is the ARC cover, so the design is not final yet, though I imagine at this point, any tweaks will be small. Since, HELLO THAT COVER IS GORGEOUS. 

To celebrate, and to help spread the word! I'm doing a giveaway. The winner will receive a signed hardcover copy of ALTERED, an ALTERED poster, and any (or all) of the ALTERED buttons.

Now, you must tell me what you think of the cover! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ALTERED Blurbs and Buzz

With Altered less than two months out, feedback and reviews are starting to trickle in. I am still beyond thrilled to hear that people are reading my book and even more that they seem to dig it. I continue to feel blessed to be in this position at all. And sometimes shocked that I'm a soon-to-be published author. 

I thought I'd celebrate a little, and post some of the blurbs you'll find on the final jacket, and some of the reviews I've received so far. I am particularly smitten with the review from Romantic Times. 

But first, the blurbs! This is a sneak peek of the Altered back cover. I want to throw all those wonderful writers a thank you party. I know how hard it is to read once you're a contracted writer. I've read a paltry 17 books this year, and each of those books were dragged out over several weeks, sometimes even months. So to know that all of those amazing writers took time out of their already busy schedules to read Altered pretty much makes me want to shout my thanks from the roof tops. And also fist bump them. 

The Kirkus review in its entirety isn't live yet, but here's what you'll find as an excerpt listed on Amazon.com: "Within minutes, this medical-engineering thriller will have readers glued to their seats....Riveting."

And, Publisher's Weekly:
In Rush’s action-packed debut, first in a planned series, homeschooled 18-year-old Anna Mason has a life ruled by secrecy. Her widower father works for a clandestine organization called the Branch, and four gorgeous genetically altered teenage boys live in the basement laboratory of their New York State farmhouse. Anna feels especially connected to one of the boys, Sam, even though he, like the others, has no memories of life outside his basement cell. When the Branch tries to collect “the units,” chaos erupts, and Sam, Anna, and the others take off on the run. Together, they drive across several states, decoding a trail of clues and bringing Anna and Sam closer than ever. Anna is refreshingly and realistically uncomfortable with the ongoing violence surrounding their escape. Her interactions with the boys (whose somewhat one-note personas—the leader, the smart one, the hothead, and the goofball—can’t help recalling another product of genetic manipulation, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) keep the story moving quickly, along with a steady unfolding of revelations and events.

And lastly, Romantic Times! 
"Rush keeps it fresh with this fast-paced novel, full of last-minute surprises and unexpected twists. Anna is complex, and the whole cast is well rounded. The mysteries laced throughout the action add suspense, making the moments of romance even hotter."

Making the moments of romance even hotter. I LOVE THAT LINE. Get it girl. Sam + Anna FOREVER

I hope when Altered is released, and the public gets to read it, that they have a similar reaction. After all, I would hardly write at all if it wasn't for the make out scenes. :D

Next week, I want to give a special shout-out to the bloggers and Goodreads readers who've also reviewed Altered. So many wonderful people to thank! 

Final ALTERED Cover!

I won't even bother saying much, since no words can compete with a cover reveal. Especially a cover featuring a shirtless guy.

So, here it is! I love it. LOVE IT. I hope you do too. :D

ALTERED Hot Guys: Sam

Last entry on the ALTERED Hot Guys posts!

I don't even know where to start with Sam. He was the hardest character for me to get to know, and in some ways, still is. And I think it's because he's the kind of person who will tell you what you want to hear, or need to hear, in order to keep the truth, his more personal answer, to himself. 


Everything Sam does is calculated. He'll think everything through before he does it. He is, in no way, spontaneous, or reckless. And he will be the first person to sacrifice himself if he knows it'll save others, but only people who deserve to be saved. 


Out of the four boys, Sam is the smartest, but he tries never to make that obvious. Again, he keeps all the important things, the details that make him who he is, secret. If he can manage it, that is. 


I am so looking forward to writing ALTERED #2 so I can dive a little more into Sam's past, and his character. I know there are still many things I can uncover about him. And yes, that includes his abs. I can guarantee I will uncover his abs in Book #2. 

-------------------------------------------

1. If you could be any animal, what would you be?

A spotted owl

2.  Let's say you're walking down the street. You're wearing a thick coat. You have a sandwich in your hand and a $20 bill in your pocket and a frail man stops you, begging for some change. Do you give him anything?

I would give him the food and the money.

3. You've won the lottery. What's the first thing you buy?

A house. 

4. What's the one thing you couldn't live without?

Free will

Interviewer's note: Sam's answer to the 1st question was at first an interesting, and rather telling, answer. Upon exiting the interview, it was noted that in the waiting area, on the coffee table, there was a magazine with a spotted owl on the cover. 

--------------------------------------------

That's it for the ALTERED hot guys posts! I hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. Though I suspect, for you and me, it had more to do with the visual aids, than it did the actual text. Amirite?

[Sam picture is of Henry Cavill]