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IAM Excerpt…As You Wake by Amy Martin

 

Guest Feature

Guest Feature

One of our favourite YA books in 2012 was Amy Martin’s debut, In Your Dreams. Today she joins us for a feature on the sequel As You Wake, which is out now! You can check out an exclusive excerpt right here, and enter our grand prize competition to bag a copy of your own!

As You Wake - Cover

Zara “Zip” McKee and Kieran Lanier thought they had put the threats from Kieran’s past behind them in the first installment of the In Your Dreams series. But when danger comes for them once again, Zip, Kieran, and their families find themselves on separate summer road trips that none of them had anticipated. When all paths converge in North Carolina, the two families are forced to deal with each other and the secrets they’ve kept out of love and fear.

But Kieran is keeping the biggest secret of all from everyone but Zip. He hasn’t had a dream—about the future, about anything—for months. And while Zip and Kieran are grappling with what the new twist in Kieran’s sleeping disorder might mean, a mysterious stranger reveals information that could change Kieran’s life–or end it.

Excerpt from As You Wake: 

I grab the section of chain link fence that’s rusted away from the pole and hold it aside just enough for Kieran to crawl through to the grassy area under the press box. As I follow him, the fence snaps back into place, scraping my skin through my shirt.
“You okay?” Kieran asks after he turns just in time to see the fence smack against me. He helps me to my feet, and I lean back against one of the metal pillars hidden away in the shadows.
“Yeah. I’m good,” I assure him before changing the subject. “You probably shouldn’t have rushed through your chem final.”
His arms circle my waist, strands of hair falling into his face as he looks down at me. “It was worth it,” he whispers, the smile I give him quickly swallowed by a wave of kisses. My hands wander up underneath his plain white t-shirt, my thumbs grazing the base of his rib cage on either side. Once we finally come up for air, my head foggy and my fingers nearly stuck to his skin with sweat, Kieran takes my face in his hands and looks at me dead on. “I love you,” he says, my ears ringing on hearing him say those words to me for the first time. “I couldn’t let you leave for Chicago without telling you that.”
I don’t hesitate. “I love you, too.”
“And I’m not just saying it because we’re going to be apart for a while,” he goes on, and I hold myself back from saying Or forever in my head or out loud. “I’m saying it because I’ve known all along.” He must see the question in my eyes, because he continues with “But not because I dreamed something beforehand. I’m talking about after we met…I just…I’ve always known somehow. And I kept telling myself, ‘Kieran, you need to stop being such a wimp and tell her. If she doesn’t say it back, then she doesn’t say it back, but at least you’ve told her—‘”
“You’re babbling,” I point out, and he gives me the goofy grin that endeared him to me the day we met.
“Yeah. Little nervous, I guess.”
I put my hand to his cheek. “Don’t be. I love you, Kieran.” My mouth enjoys saying the words, words I’ve never said to anyone outside my family. “I love you. I’ll say it as many times as you need to hear it, because it’s the truth.”

He doesn’t make me say it again. We merge once more, the now-familiar ache of desire in my stomach and the early afternoon heat building up under the press box conspiring to make me weak. I just want to lie down with him in the scrubby grass so we can kiss until all thoughts of Frank Dozier or anything else become a distant memory, but after a few minutes, Kieran pulls away, my lips straining to stay on his.

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Author Biography

Amy Martin wrote and illustrated her first book at the age of ten and gave it to her fourth grade teacher, who hopefully lost it in her house somewhere and didn’t share it with anyone else. Not counting that early experiment in self-publishing, In Your Dreams is Amy Martin’s first Young Adult novel.

A native of St. Charles, MO, Amy currently lives in Lexington, KY with her husband and a ferocious attack tabby named Cleo. When not writing or reading, she can usually be found watching sports, drinking coffee, or indulging her crippling Twitter habit (and, sometimes, doing all three at once). You can follow her on Twitter at @ThatAmyMartin.

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You can read our 2012 review of In Your Dreams here and an interview with Amy here. 

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Want to know more? Check out the links!

http://www.theamymartin.com
http://www.facebook.com/amy.martin.writer
Twitter: @ThatAmyMartin

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IAM Interview…with author Jade Varden

Guest Feature

Guest Feature

Jade Varden is today’s featured author – and one of the lovely regular contributors at Aside from Writing. Her ‘Writing 101’ features, which we re-post from Jade’s author blog are a great resource for both experienced indie writers, as well as those people just starting off. She offers advice on everything from grammar to marketing your books, and now you can find out more about Jade and her own writing in our exclusive interview…

Jade Varden writes young adult novels for teen readers. When she’s not crafting mysteries in her books, Jade also blogs practical writing tips for authors who self-publish. Jade currently makes her home in Louisville, Kentucky, where she enjoys reading and reviewing indie books by other self-published authors. Follow her on Twitter @JadeVarden. Visit Jade’s blog at http://jadevarden.blogspot.com/ for reviews, writing tips, self-publishing advice and everything else you ever wanted to know about reading and writing books.

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What is something people would be surprised to know about you? I have really long nails! I spend a lot of time on them, every Sunday, and they usually look terrible by Wednesday. I think people would find that surprising, because I type all day long. It is difficult to write books on a flat keyboard with long nails, but I’ve totally mastered it. This is why I have to work on them every Sunday. If I skip a week, they get too long and start getting stuck in-between the keys!

If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want with you? Some flint, to make a fire. A good, sharp knife. And a flare.

How do you react to a bad review? No review is bad. Someone took the time to read my book, at least in part, and then took even more time to share their thoughts. This is valuable to me. I read the review, maybe I grimace a little, and I try to absorb it. I take in the information, and maybe I’ll keep it in mind the next time I’m working on a book.

If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Speed. Super-super speed.

Please tell us in one sentence only, why we should read your book. Because I know you won’t be able to predict what’s going to happen in it.

What has been your most rewarding experience since being published? I got a piece of fan mail. Fan email, to be precise, but still.

If you could jump in to a book, and live in that world.. which would it be? Gone With the Wind. Guess who I’d be.

What’s one piece of advice you would give aspiring authors?  Read what you’ve written. Read it until you’re sick of reading it, then read it some more.

If you could choose only one time period and place to live, when and where would you live and why?

The 1930s United States. Clothes were still very stylish back then, and laptops didn’t exist but electricity and indoor plumbing did. Then my love of Jimmy Stewart would be much more relevant.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you “grew up”? Since I was 9, a writer. Before then? A ballerina. Sometimes I regret giving it up. I might have made a better dancer than author.

Can you see yourself in any of your characters? I’m in all of them. Little pieces of me are scattered throughout my books, and I think some of them would surprise my readers. A lot of the really crazy stuff my characters do is actually stuff that I do.

Hidden talent? I can answer any Star Trek question you ask me.

What movie and/or book are you looking forward to this year? Catching Fire. It comes out in November, and by that time I will have a handcrafted Mockingjay necklace ordered from Etsy. Wait and see.

Favorite quote from a movie? “After all, tomorrow is another day!”

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Check out Jade’s Deck of Lies series – out now!

Jade Book