| Authors-Do you need help marketing your book? |
[07 Jul 2007|04:28pm] |
www.ilanawrites.com
Authors Are You Ready To Successfully Sell Your Book?
Marketing your book online doesn't have to be a hit-or-miss production. You can take control of your sales and success and attain the best-selling status your book deserves. You are your greatest advocate when it comes to your novel.
If you believe in your book--- believe that you have worked hard enough, inoculated every page with your intense passion for the subject you write about, feel as though you know your audience, and are dedicated to the cause of getting the RIGHT kind of PR and readership, then I can show you how to make your vision a reality.
I'll teach you how to sell your books through a series of marketing strategies that I, as a teenager, a reviewer, and a published author, feel are the most influential.
I'm embarking on a new six-month newsletter that can be sent to you-- brimming with strategies, Q+A's with published authors, literary agents, and publishers, teen book reviews, release dates, and advice to accompany personal consultations by phone or email. These invaluable consultations will center around a marketing campaign that is right for you and your novel.
You are the one in control of the future of your finished novel. You CAN get pre-orders that will astonish your publishing company. You CAN get teens excited about your sequel. You CAN move forward and open so many more doors for yourself and your novel.
Many authors feel completely adrift when it comes to advertising. I can't tell you how often I hear, "I'm a writer. I write. I have no idea how to market my book, I'm an artist not a car salesman." To authors who feed me that line I tell them to stop. To look at their book--particularly their published books, and tell me that they couldn't find anyone to believe them when they said they were going to make it as a writer. If writing isn't persuading others to see the world the way that you do, then what is it?
You can do this --if you have the power and the knowledge. You will be the one selling this novel at the end of the day. Would you like to be guided? I can guide you, but you're the only one who can make others believe in you and your work. Take credit for the burgeoning phenomenon that you are.
Claim it. Own it.
Then sell it.
Shawn Decker, author of MY PET VIRUS gets cover of Today's Teen Magazine
"As a first-time author, I was fortunuate to cross paths with Ilana Jacqueline online. I was impressed by her accomplishments, and responded to an online query which resulted in an interview by Ilana and a cover story for Today's Teen.
Ilana is one of the most professional people I've dealt with since my book was published. Her love for the work she does shines through."
-Shawn Decker
www.mypetvirus.com
I've been working for a teen magazine since 2004 helping to spread the word about outstanding authors and the incredible new wave of teen literature which has middle and high school readers spending their Friday evenings sunk against bookshelves at their local Barnes and Nobles.
With publishing companies investing in more appealing packaging, advertising in glossy teen magazines and sending their writers on nation-wide book tours it seems there is no better time to dive into the business that is growing like wildfire.
My job has been to weed through the stacks and pluck the roses from the crabgrass, and get those roses on the cover of our magazine. As a reviewer I painstakingly critique every book that authors or publishing companies send to me--and to be perfectly honest few of them never make it past the front door.
Want to find out why these books are getting the bin before I ever make it to the first page?
That, I can help you with.
- Learn how to use Myspace to get readers!
-Learn how to build your website!
-Learn what attracts agents and publishers!
-Learn how to please critics!
-Learn the basics of query letters and submissions!
-Learn how to start marketing campaigns with national appeal!
-Learn how to garner the attention of the media!
-Learn how to avoid scams in the industry!
-Learn about up and coming publishing companies, literary agencies, and book stores!
-Learn about merchandising!
-Learn how to get your book on summer reading lists!
Newsletter and Consultations
The newsletter includes insider information on the young adult publishing industry, author or agent interviews, book reviews, marketing strategies for published and unpublished authors, and release dates of upcoming teen books.
A 6-month subscription to the newsletter is $120.00. A one-hour private phone consultation with Ilana Jacqueline is $120.00. A half-hour consultation by phone is $60.00. As an introductory offer all private phone consultations will receive 50% off the first 6-month newsletter subscription.
-Quick start your marketing campaign with a two- hour phone consultation for $200.00.
To schedule a consultation please send an email to IlanaWrites@msn.com
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| Interviewing @ a signing tomorrow |
[14 Apr 2007|08:44pm] |
So much new stuff @ http://www.ilanawrites.com
New interview with Nico Medina. New reviews of Better Than Yesterday and Street Pharm. New SCANDELOUS article on student-teacher relationships!
Tomorrow I'll be at Borders in Boca, FL to interview Karen Luddy about her new book SPELLDOWN. Hope to see some of you there for her signing!
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| Sign up for the YA Review Newsletter! |
[01 Apr 2007|12:57pm] |
Do you want the latest news and reviews and author interviews surrounding Young Adult Fiction? Sign up for my new newsletter The Young Adult Review and receive everything in your mailbox.
I’ve read a lot of great and not-so-great book lately and I thought it was about time I fill you all in.
Street Pharm by Allison can Diepen-- Street Pharm is an urban drama centered around an ambitious 16-year-old hustler. Ty Johnson is taking over his father’s thriving drug- dealing empire. He’s young and yes, he is getting kicked out of high school-- but in the real world he knows how to get what he wants without getting caught. Everything is going well, and he thinks he’s on top--but a new hustler’s in town and he’s looking to bring down the king of the streets.
Van Diepen’s real life experiences with teaching at-risk teens in one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous public high schools, has clearly given her a powerful voice.
Secrets of a Model Dorm by Amanda Kerlin and Phil Oh-- Phil Oh and Amanda Kerlin shine in this high-gloss, heavy drama memoir. Throw an assortment of gorgeous girls, competitive castings, and a mutt named Tom Ford into a tiny model dorm in the heart of NYC and you’ll get 272 pages of glamorous mayhem. Read More @ my myspace
My Pet Virus by Shawn Decker--In his hilarious debut novel, Shawn exposes his "pet virus" for the world to see. My Pet Virus: The True Story of a Rebel Without a Cure shows Shawn's path to acceptance surrounding hemophilia, AIDS and long-distance relationships. Shawn conquers everything life puts in front of him with a positive attitude. Read more @ http://www.ilanawrites.com/id115.html
Past reviews @ www.ilanawrites.com :
Weight of The Sky by Lisa Ann Sandel
Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez
Stake That! by Mari Mancusi
Saint Iggy by K.L Going
Goy Crazy by Melissa Schorr
I Don't Want To Be Crazy by Samantha Schutz
Recently Received:
Any Place I Hang My Hate--Susan Isaacs
The Girlfriend Project-- Friedman
Boot Camp-- Strasser
Returnable Girl --Lowell
Beastly--Flinn
Angel’s Choice--Baratz-Logsted
Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You-- Cirrone
Blessings In Disguise Reshonda Tate Billingsley
Alfred Kropp--Yancey
So Not The Drama Paula Chase
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[19 Nov 2006|12:57pm] |
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Can anyone point me towards some recent op-eds that aren't about politics?
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| Big Brothers Big Sisters |
[18 Nov 2006|08:15pm] |
*Raises flaming flag* This is my article for the december issue of Today's Teen and I think you should all read it-- not because it's my article, because you should all be MENTORS. Check it...
Big Brothers Big Sisters
by Ilana Jacqueline / Today's Teen -- December Issue
Step one you say we need to talk / He walks, you say sit down it's just a talk/ He smiles politely back at you /You stare politely right on through /Some sort of window to your right /As he goes left and you stay right /Between the lines of fear and blame /And you begin to wonder why you came
Everyone has heard How To Save a Life, the hit song by The Fray. It’s laced with beautiful piano, a harmonious beat, and a hypnotic passionate voice. Maybe you’ve downloaded it on your iPod and use it as background music as you jog. Maybe you’ve got it blasting from your computer as you finish up calculus homework. Either way, you’ve all heard the song. But have you heard the lyrics?
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend /Somewhere along in the bitterness /And I would have stayed up with you all night /Had I known how to save a life
One summer, while working at a camp for troubled teens Issac Slade, who would later become The Fray’s lead singer, met a boy deep into recreational drugs and alcohol. Many had approached the teen with efforts to save him.
“They would come against him, like an enemy.” Issac said in an interview, “and he told me all he wanted was for someone to come alongside him and be a friend, a helper, a companion almost. Just someone who was on his team, and he never really got that, you know? And it really made me think about my approach to somebody else and how I would want someone to approach me as, if I was doing something wrong.”
Let him know that you know best/ Cause after all you do know best /Try to slip past his defense/ Without granting innocence /Lay down a list of what is wrong /The things you've told him all along /And pray to God he hears you
Issac Slade hasn’t ever performed life-saving surgery. He hasn’t run into a burning building to save a trapped child. Even so, with a small act of compassion Issac Slade has saved a life.
While a select few of us are piled with life-saving conversations on a weekly basis, some of us are never granted the ability to shock someone out of complacency, to pull someone out of confusion, to grant them a clearer view of the world. Someone of us will never change a life. Some of us will never save a life.
Community service may seem like a chore to teenagers. And to some teens, all that’s important is to get as many as hours as they can, give universities the impression that they’re good people, and move on with their lives. I can almost grant this understanding, I can almost see how some people can believe that what they say and what they do and the conversations they have and the advice they give is ineffectual to anyone. These people, more than those who have had nothing given to them, but everything hard earned, are the ones in need of life-saving.
If you are a person who believes that they know where they’re going. Someone who can see through the thicket of issues layered like burly fabric on top of the latest fashions– someone who believes that there are lives out there to change. I believe I might have something to interest you.
It’s called being a mentor and it’s something that Issac Slade knew could make a difference in today’s world. One of the leading organizations for youth mentoring is Big Brothers Big Sisters. Since 1904 this organization has brought together those who can give and those who can receive with astonishing results.
A study done in 1992 and 1993 proved that 46% of children in the program were less likely to begin using illegal drugs. 27 % were less likely to begin using alcohol. 52 % were less likely to skip school, and 36% less likely to skip a class. There was a marked improvement about performance in schoolwork. One-third were less likely to hit someone. And most got along better with their families.
This is the effect a little guidance can have in someone’s life. It doesn’t take much more than friendship, companionship, a little attention to change the life of someone else. Be aware of the difference you can make, of the difference you have made. Get involved– save a life.
To find out more go to bbbs.org or call 888-412-BIGS.
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[17 Aug 2006|04:59pm] |
I sorted through all of my ARC’s and have come up with a good list of how I’m going to do all of this:
September issue is done.
The October issue will star the MTV books including The 310 Series, Plan B, Wuthering High, The Pursuit of Happiness, Cruel Summer, Oh My Goth, and Such A Pretty Girl.
The November Issue will star books about growing up, or so dubbed “The Growth” on my sticky note, which includes but is not at this time limited to: Weight of the Sky, Generation SLUT, Dress Your Family in Corduroy And Denim, Nailed, and Street Pharm.
There are also two other spreads I’m working on but I don’t have enough books for either of those yet, but they include The Mental Disorder spread which so far has I Don’t Want To Be Crazy, and From Panic to Power and the Cutesy spread which so far only has Gossip Girl and The Love Series.
I’ll probably be requesting more ARC’s but I want to finish reading the four on my shelf first. Wow, I didn’t realize I’d read mostly everything I have by now. I’m pretty much all set for the first few months.
Gwen and I also discussed some of the articles I’ll be doing for the next few issues. I’ll be doing an article on Florida’s foster care system, and I’ll be doing a spread on plastic surgery, and then I’ll be doing an article on The Boys and Girls Club.
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| reality chick give away contest! |
[24 Jul 2006|09:11pm] |
Introducing....
THE REALITY CHICK BUZZ THE BOOK contest!
The PRIZES:
(1) Your choice of either an iPod Shuffle, OR a fifty dollar Amazon.com gift certificate
(2) An autographed copy of REALITY CHICK by Lauren Barnholdt
(3) A copy of the August issue of Teen People, which lists REALITY CHICK as a Can't-Miss Pick for August
(4) Free tuition to a session of Lauren's YA writing class
THE CONTEST:
STEP ONE: Simply copy and paste this whole message (including the info about the contest) into any blog, message board, email list, or myspace bulletin.
REALITY CHICK by Lauren Barnholdt is NOW IN STORES!
Going away to college means total independence and freedom. Unless of
course your freshman year is taped and televised for all the world to
watch. On uncensored cable.
Sweet and normal Ally Cavanaugh is one of five freshpeople shacking up
on In the House, a reality show filmed on her college campus. (As if
school isn't panic-inducing enough!) The cameras stalk her like
paparazzi, but they also capture the fun that is new friends, old
crushes, and learning to live on your own.
Sure, the camera adds ten pounds, but with the freshman fifteen a given anyway, who cares?
Ally's got bigger issues -- like how her long-distance bf can watch her
loopy late-night "episode" with a certain housemate...
Freshman year on film.
It's outrageous.
It's juicy.
And like all good reality TV, it's impossible to turn off.
IN STORES NOW!
Check out Lauren on the web at www.laurenbarnholdt.com or on her myspace at www.myspace.com/laurenbarnholdt
STEP TWO -- Email Lauren at lauren (at) laurenbarnholdt.com and let her know you've posted about the contest and the book, and you'll be entered to win the prize pack! The winner will be picked at random on September 1st. The more places you post, the more entries you get. Have fun and good luck!!!
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| LOOKING FOR AUTHORS TO ADVERTISE! |
[24 Jul 2006|07:50pm] |
Ads! Come advertise your book in one of South Florida's rising Teen Magazines! Request a copy and more information today!
"Why a teen newspaper?
Why not? Teens today are intelligent, politically
aware, business-oriented, civic-minded,
sophisticated... It makes perfect sense for
them to have their own newspaper in which to
express what’s on their minds. Today’s Teen
encourages teens to share their thoughts,
concerns, opinions and dreams. At the same
time, the paper gives them an opportunity to
hone their writing and creative skills, work in
a team environment, and learn about deadlines
and responsibilities. An added bonus -
Today’s Teen provides educators, parents
and the entire community with the opportunity
to view life through their teen’s eyes, and to
send in comments of their own as well."
Why you should advertise in Today’s Teen...
"1. Teens spend more than $125 billion dollars annually, on everything from movies,
magazines, clothing, personal hygiene (hair and nails), electronics, food,
and coffee, to books, traveling, and gifts for friends & family.
2. National surveys indicate that more teens today are reading newspapers
than ever before. It makes sense that they should have one of their own.
3. Thousands of teenagers read Today’s Teen in print and online at
www.todaysteenonline.com.
4. Today’s Teen is distributed to more than 350 locations including area high schools, middle schools,
alternative schools, universities and specialty stores frequented by teens and their parents, such as book
stores, test prep centers, clothing boutiques, fitness centers, shoe stores, hair and nail salons, sporting
goods stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, etc...
5. The newspaper can also be found in the offices of doctors, dentists, orthodontists, dermotologists,
psychologists, attorneys and many other professional practices.
6. The paper features monthly articles from college students at UF, UCF and several other Universities.
Teens look forward to reading about everything having to do with college life.
7. Advertising shows your support of the teen voice in our community.
8. Not-for-profit status pending - your ads and any donations of goods or services may be tax deductable."
I really hope all you authors consider our magazine as a potential place for ads! We really do have a quite a following down here, and our readers are especially looking for book reccomendations and reviews.
We've even got some events/displays in negotiations with area bookstores like Borders and Barnes and Nobels. They distrbute our magazine as well just so you know! Teens around town do walk around our bookstores with the paper in their hands.
To hear more about our advertising rates you can email me at Ilanawrites@msn.com or call at 561-542-1105. Check out our website at www.todaysteenonline.com
-Ilana Jacqueline
www.ilanawrites.com
www.todaysteenonline.com
(In other words, please fund my paycheck.)
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| blahblahblah |
[23 Jul 2006|11:36am] |
*headdesk*
I finally finished that cult article. Complete with Ricky Rodriguez story, interview with an Xmember of the family, and "happy words!" for about a page near the end. Complete and shipped off to Today's Teen and another magazine called Skeptic Magazine which I caught a sniff of from watching Dateline (they had a segment and showed an article from it) I sent a query to the editor who said he was looking for cult articles so I sent mine right along. All 2753 words of it.
So I'm all set for Today's Teen September Issue I've got five book reviews, an interview and the cult article.
Now I've got to set up for the next issue. I'm thinking (and this is just a though, not an actual decision) that I'll save the I Don't Want to Be Crazy review for a while because I want to have a whole layout on mental disorders review spread sometime in the near future. I'm getting some books in now about anxiety disorders...I've got to see what else I can incorporate into that spread.
I definatley want to go ahead and get the reviews out for A) Saint Iggy B) Beth Killian's new novels C)(mabye) Edward Tulane. The Miaraculous Journey of Edward Tulane which is a book my mother's been pushing on me for a few days. If she loved it then I will too, I think.
And then for actual articles I've been hanging on the idea of something like.."Humanizing the Employee: Minumum Wage Won't Cover Therapy Bills" Sort of an inside look at teen jobs and how we treat waiters, and busboys, and basically any working store/resturant people under the age of 20. Because we really aren't kind.
Then I start the new section of the other paper on August 19th, but I think they assign articles. Which is fine...I can take assignments. Hopefully though they'll let me do a lot of book reviews..
My book is coming along. I'm on page 16. Which is like nothing, but at least I'm making something like a dent in the manuscript.
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[19 Jul 2006|04:08pm] |
Oh my god.
Did anyone just see Jessica Simpsons new video?
That was seriously, one of the most hilarious things I've seen on MTV thus far. She is adorable.
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| Attack of the ARCs! |
[14 Jul 2006|08:09pm] |
My novel is not coming along at all lately. I've been content to lay around reading ARC's and chugging down Godiva Frappucinos (which are exactly $4.50 and cheaper than starbucks and more wonderful because they have crushed truffles in them).
I finally got Beth Killian's sequel to Life as A Poser in the mail and I was jumping up and down with joy. I'm almost done with it, I got it at 4:00.
ARC's are taking over my bedroom I have to figure out some sort of system. I think I'm going to go to Office Depot and get me some orange stickers and put them on all the books I haven't read yet which is at this point exactly: 21. Look at that, I'm legal.
21 books. I'm going to have to ween some off my shelf. I've developed this system where I examine the books cover, read the first chapter and put it back on my shelf. The system is when I go to put it back on my shelf, if I walk away and it takes me more than five seconds to dive back for it, then it can stay on the shelf.
I think the books I've already reviewed didn't even make it to my bookshelf. But then I've got a lot of them who I just recieved in boxes from publishing companies so I haven't even examined them yet.
I will finish reading these two books this weekend and write reviews on them.
Yes. I will.
Oh, and check out my website I've been doing lots of updates on it:
www.ilanawrites.com
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| Fish and Theives. |
[09 Jul 2006|03:53pm] |
Orphan Fish
A few days ago my mother, my sister, Alan, and I were all sitting around the table having breakfast and my Mother was grabbing some cream cheese from the kitchen when she looked outside the window. She went outside and came back in with a fishbowl.
"Who's that from?" I asked.
"I have no idea." My mom said.
Somebody left a fish on our doorstep. An orphan fish. We still do not know whom the fish belongs to.
THEIVERY
My sister took me to starbucks to get my daily fix two days ago. We were sitting outside sipping frappucinos watching the scenic view of the parking lot when these five guys sat down behind us. They started off welcoming each other to their meeting. I listened for a little bit and I gathered that they were a self-help group. Then I zoned out. I started thinking that it would be really cool if they were like theives. Like Theives Anon, and they all met at like this collective self-help group but decided to branch off into their own select self-help group and THEN thought "Why are we helping ourselves when we could form a major criminal organization?" And so, they decided to meet at starbucks-- BUT the initiation into the group was you had to steal your own starbucks, and one of the members showed up and asked "Anybody want anything? I'm going to go get mine." And everyone shook their heads and so began one of the greatest and most succesful criminal organizations in Boca Raton.
Oooh! bagels...
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| Interview with Lauren Barnholdt author of Reality Chick! |
[05 Jul 2006|10:47am] |
Interview with Lauren Barnholdt author of Reality Chick!
IJ: I know you’ve been extremely excited about your book coming out this week. How was your first book signing?
LB: My first book signing was awesome. Although I got really nervous right before it was about to start -- I kept thinking no one was going to come, or that I was going to freak out once I got up there. But it was good. I liked the actual signing part, but the reading out of my book was kind of weird. When I read stuff I write, it never sounds the same as I imagine it in my head.
IJ: What is your writing procedure? Do you have a daily goal or do you just write when you feel like it?
LB: I have to have some sort of beverage, usually Diet Coke with Lime. I'm not sure why the Diet Coke with Lime, except that when I was writing REALITY CHICK, I was drinking a lot of it, so maybe I just associate the taste with writing. Usually I have the TV or music on, but it's strictly for background noise, I'm not really listening to it.
I used to just write when I felt like it, but now that I actually have deadlines, I try to set goals for myself. I use the word count on my word document and set a certain number of words for myself each day, depending on my deadlines.
IJ: How did you come up with the plot for Reality Chick?
LB: A few years ago I tried out for The Real World. (I know, I'm lame.) I didn't get through to the next round, and one of my friends was like, "It's because you're too normal." And I thought "That's why they should put me on!" I thought it would be really cool to see how a "normal" person reacts to living with a bunch of people that have issues. Ally's audition in the book is actually based on my own audition for Real World. (I won't tell you what's real and what isn't though )
IJ: Which writers inspire you?
LB: J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee, Sarah Mlynowski, Stephen King, Meg Cabot, Marian Keyes, Bret Easton Ellis, Robyn Schneider
IJ: What do you do besides write books?
LB: I'm actually kind of boring. I read a lot. I watch a lot of TV and read a lot of celebrity gossip magazines. I go to the gym a lot, but that's mostly because they have a subscription to US Weekly and MTV at every treadmill. I hang out with my friends.
I also teach an online writing class in addition to writing my novels.
IJ: What did you do before you started writing books?
LB: Oooh, I did all sorts of stuff. I worked at an answering service. I relayed phone calls for deaf people. I had a few articles and short stories published in magazines and online, but I always wanted to write novels. For some reason, making up stories and writing books is way more fun to me than writing non-fiction.
IJ: What sort of advice do you have for aspiring writers?
LB: Don't give up! Before I sold REALITY CHICK, I wrote a book that never sold, and it was really hard to keep going. But it definitely is the people who don't give up that will break through. Also, make sure you WRITE, even if it's stuff you end up getting rid of. The more you write, the better you get.
IJ: What are your plans for the future? Any sequels or new books?
LB: My first book for tweens, DEVON DELANEY'S SECRET IDENTITY will be out in Spring '07. It's about a girl who goes away for the summer and lies about how popular she is to the local girls, only to be left scrambling to recreate her "secret identity" when one of the girls shows up at her school. My second young adult book, tentatively titled ROAD TRIP, will be out in Summer '07, and it's about a girl who ends up having to drive cross country to college with the boy who just broke her heart.
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| Name dropping. |
[03 Jul 2006|03:46pm] |
Did an interview with everyone's favorite YA author Lauren Barnholdt last night. I'll post it later. I got in four book reviews with Today's Teen (including the interview) and my first bad review. Which I'm now kind of excited about. I mean how often do you get to spew all over someones career? NOT OFTEN ENOUGH I SAY! (oh. wow. that was really terrible. I need to go swallow some Dial.)
Right now I'm reading The 310: Life as a Poser by Beth Killian which I'm loving. It's just one of those fun summer reading books. It's great for beach-reading, and rainy day-reading, and those ever so popular after-exam-readings. It'll be my next review, possibly--- I still have to write a review on I Don't Want To Be Crazy by Samantha Schutz which was also excelent, if not a bit dark. It fit me well, anyways. I hope other people can relate to it as well as I could. It was geared towards teens with anxiety disorders.
Today was such a lazy day for me. Lately, everyday has been unneccesarily lazy. I woke up, went for a bike ride around my neighborhood (twice) and then went into the library for all of ten minutes. I was going to A) Pay my ludicrus $16 late fee's and check out some books I need for research, B.) Screw the late fees, pay 10 cents to photocopy the pages I needed, C.) Walk to the isle where my books were and find that they were CHECKED OUT.
Ok first of all, who checks out books on religious sects and cults in America?
WHO?
(Besides me) There is no one else in Boca Raton who NEEDED that book. I am telling you-- this library is out to get me. If I wasn't so incredibly lazy I would walk the extra mile to Borders and do my research there but...ah...its like 200 degrees outside (hyperbole? ME?) and...uh...well I have a high-maintinance complexion.
I'm bored stiff. My friend Jadebellamushroom (her real name is Kimberly. Everyone calls her Jade though. I can't just call her Jade though. I have to embellish because Jade is not interesting enough. So I started calling her Jadebella -- and actually, she'll kill me for spilling this --but Jade in Chinese (or japanese, or thai..or something) means whore and of course, bella means beautiful so she's a beautiful whore...and then mushroom...If you say Jadebella enough times it sounds like portabella--and well....self explinatory) That was the evolution of Jade. Fascinating stuff. ANYWAYS-- she's in California right now. Along with my other friend Hallie (who is going to be a big movie star) and my other friends are working at the camp I got fired from (don't ask), and all the girls I met at the workshop live about three hours away from Boca...and so...I'm updating my Lj at 4:00, which is just a tad bit pathetic.
Well, there are books to be read-- careers to be sullied, ciao for now.
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| I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU: ALLY CARTER! |
[30 Jun 2006|02:48pm] |
Review!
I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You: Ally Carter
In a small town in Virginia there is a boarding school called The Gallagher Academy. Unlike most other schools that educate their students on the importance of passing the SAT, Gallagher’s curriculum is a little more complex. Replace biology with CIA Code-breaking , replace Spanish II with advanced Mandarin Chinese, and replace PE with Covert Operations and you’ve got yourself an average course schedule at America’s top school for spies.
Cammie Morgan has a legacy at Gallagher. She is the daughter of a former student and current headmistress of the Academy. In her few years here she has made some of the best friends, easily taken up fourteen different languages, and earned herself the nickname “Chameleon” for her superior camouflage skills. In short, Cammie has been trained to be one of the best agents in the field. Unfortunately, CIA training at Gallagher hasn’t taught her how to respond the boy she meets on one of her first missions. Cammie utilizes her training and her school’s technology to go undercover in her most difficult role yet: girlfriend.
Ally Carter’s I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You is a suspense-packed action-adventure geared specifically for teens with a thirst for thrills. Laugh-out-loud funny and loveable lead characters will leave you wanting more and waiting on edge for this novel to become a movie. You’re in luck, too! Disney has recently optioned I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You. It’s being produced by Debra Martin Chase (Princess Diaries and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) The Sequel to I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have To Kill You is planned to be released in Fall 2007.
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| SAINT IGGY: K.L GOING |
[30 Jun 2006|02:42pm] |
I worked today.
I did FIVE reviews.
Here is Saint Iggy by K.L Going which will be going into The Sun-Sentinel very, very, soon.
Saint Iggy
About 100-pages into K.L Going’s newest novel Saint Iggy I was ready to march into my principals office and explain to him in about a hundred reasons why Saint Iggy should be on every students reading list this summer. I consider myself pretty well-versed in the science of Young Adult books, having read mountains of them. I would be shocked if Saint Iggy doesn’t become one of the young adult genre’s best sellers in the next few years.
Iggy Corso, an unpretentious teen, is on the verge of expulsion from high school. He sits before his principals desk ineloquently trying to explain why his teacher thought he was trying to start trouble when he he was only following his train of thought which told him to follow this pretty girl into her classroom. Iggy isn’t the most well-behaved student and with a typical malefactor’s background he doesn’t seem to have anyone to turn to. At home, his father is passed out on the sofa. There is no money for food. His mother has disappeared again.
He heads over to his friend and former mentor’s apartment. Mo and Iggy set out on an escapade for drugs and find them. Iggy fantasizes about finding his mother inside the bowels of the broken down apartment building where Mo will get his fix. It is painfully obvious how much Iggy misses her even if he won’t quite admit it to himself. When Mo calculates how much his supply of drugs is going to cost him he realizes that he will have to visit his mother and ask for her financial support. Iggy doesn’t want to return home to his father and his father’s dealer, so he tags along. There, Iggy will hear the first voice that might be able to guide him towards redemption.
Iggy is an unusual character. He isn’t smart. He isn’t focused. He’s messed up royally and the only thing that sets him apart from the crowd of uninterested faces is his willingness to redeem himself. Iggy wants to be a hero. Saint Iggy is the story of a boy who is cluttered by bad choices but who retains the heart of a good person. There is a innocence woven between the lines of this story flooded with the modern troubles of our world. K.L Going has provided an insight into the minds of delinquent teens that might give observers a little understanding necessary to revolutionize the state of our schools, our students, and our future.
(this is unedited.)
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| The Family (The Children of God) |
[24 Jun 2006|11:07pm] |
It’s Saturday evening, nearing eleven and I’m at home as always. I’m doing research on the Children of God, a rapidly growing cult infecting around 90 countries across the world. I’m sitting in my chair watching a grainy image on screen of Ricky Rodriguez, AKA Davidito. An ex-member and former child idol of the COG. On screen he is wearing a maroon sleeveless shirt and bandying idly about suicide while loading a gun and fiddling with a knife.
“I’m trying to do something lasting– something that if god forbid in the next life, it does go on, that I can look back on this -- if I’m able to – and.. and know that – okay maybe — ok technically I didn’t do the right thing, but I tried to do something to help. I didn’t just fade away, I didn’t just turn tail and run And let those ******s win I did what I could to make a difference. I don’t really know how far I’m going to get. I’m starting to think now that it’s not going to be that far. But I’ll get one person– that’s for sure.”
In a matter of hours he will drive to his mothers apartment and brutally murder her. From there he will drive to a garage and shoot himself. For a few weeks now I’ve been doing research on The Family and only after all of my researching can I fully understand Ricky’s plight. At this very moment children are being raped, brain washed, abused, and beaten. There is nothing being done about it for so many reasons. Fear, blatant obliviousness and the most peculiar of all: government protection. Religious freedom is protected by the U.S Goverment. I’m sure though, that this is not what we intended.
I often find myself enraged by the laws of the United States. I’ve found myself irate to the point of speechlessness. My own issues with the government although, do not even compare to the burning need that consumes Ricky day and night. He hears voices. He wants revenge.
Growing up he was sexually abused. He watched as his sister was beaten. He had a book published about him within the cult, that showed sexually explicit photos of him and was coined as the guide to child care. This book was The Story of Davidito.
His mother and father were supposed prophets of the cult and when he was born they deemed him a future prophet. They said they would save his people.
He tried.
Just not in the way his people intended.
It’s all up to interpretation, but from what I’ve heard on this video this boy has seen horrors the world knows not of. Children. Just innocent little children bred in captivity, abused, beaten, raped. All in the name of the lord.
It’s to much to even think about. It’s to much to even comprehend. In the video Ricky expresses his wishes for it “to just all be over”. He doesn’t want to go onto another life. He wants the flat line. To just not be.
After a life like his and the world inability to provide him with the basics of care and proper emotional physical and psychological support– how can he not want the flat line? How can we save these children? What can we do?
I’m just going to keep researching and when I’ve got more information I’ll let you know. In the meantime just fight your own battles and try to remember how lucky we are to be brought up outside religious fanaticism and high demand organizations. Please support Movingon.org .
-Ilana
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| DRAMA. |
[21 Jun 2006|09:29pm] |
You are going to die laughing. As I was, just five minutes ago.
My sister, Brittany, and I are in her room watching To Catch a Predator on Dateline. She’s checking her Myspace and I’m petting coco and we’re having a nice time. It’s nine O’clock and Brittany is wearing her NO DRAMA t-shirt.
Then we hear this crash coming from downstairs. We are the only ones home. If you’ve ever been 16, and home alone with your sister who is even smaller than you are, and you hear a noise from a portion of the house that you aren’t in, you’ll know just how scary that is. So, being the paranoid- YET prepared family we are, Brittany and I grab the butcher knives (I’m not kidding) that we keep in our desk drawers and timidly step down the three steps. We can’t see all the way downstairs and we’re to scared to do anything so we go back into her room and try to think of what to do. Then we hear a really fucking LOUD crash from outside her room and we start flipping out. Now I take the panic button (still not kidding) off from the chain it hangs on by the thermometer and hold it in my hand. We don’t know what to do because say we’re wrong and we press the panic button– that’s $350 for a fake alarm. What if we don’t press the button and some crazed pedophile is downstairs and they come to kill us. LIKE OH MY GOD.
So we do the only logical thing which just happens to be opening up the bedroom window and screaming at the neighbors getting out of the car across the street...
“HELP US THERE’S SOME CRAZED PEDOPHILE DOWNSTAIRS AND HE’S GOING TO KILL US.” (Not all that unusual to hear in my neighborhood, STILL not kidding.)
So Jane and Tom (who’s names we later learned) rushed into our home guarded with an umbrella and some very lethal looking Hawaiian style T-shirts. “WE DON’T SEE ANYTHING GIRLS!”
And after some looking around downstairs (knives, panic buttons, and Umbrella in hand) we discover that there isn’t anyone downstairs. Nope, no one but the crickets for my sister’s chamaeleon (Prince Charles I)
Brittany I shamefacedly make our way back upstairs now that we’ve assured Tom and Jane that “we’ll be fine..Thanks..”
We call Mom, and we walk around in the hallway trying to think of what caused the bang. We’re partway through telling mom about tonight’s trauma when we almost fall over the costco sized detergent tub. On the floor.
Yeah. When fallen detergent tubs are mistaken for pedophiles– things can get very bad.
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| In The Paper Again! |
[20 Jun 2006|03:40pm] |
Oce and School District of Palm Beach County tap local authors to teach 'Future Authors of Palm Beach' Camp
Published Tuesday, June 20, 2006
by Nicol Jenkins
Max Ruback keeps a notebook by his side at all times.
He's even used those scribbled notes to write his book, Monster.
"It's the greatest feeling in the world to write and forget about time," said Ruback, a local author who was one of the speakers at the Future Authors of Palm Beach camp held at Boca Raton Community High School.
Oce, a Boca Raton-based digital document management and delivery firm, and the School District of Palm Beach County, enlisted six local published authors to participate in the district's first-ever free summer camp for local ninth and tenth graders interested in becoming authors. Participating authors include Mary Monroe, Max Ruback and journalists- Scott Travis, Eliot Kleinberg, Frank Cerabino, and Leslie Gray Streeter.
District officials said the purpose of the camp was to improve students' writing skills and provide them with a hands-on understanding of how authors become published. Students will gain insight into the process of writing, editing, and digitally publishing books along with an understanding of real business processes through interactions with published authors.
Twenty high school students, recommended by English teachers and guidance counselors, participated in the eight-day Future Authors of Palm Beach Camp, which began held June 12. Works produced by the students during the camp will be printed digitally and bound into a book by Oce Digital Document Systems, a local corporate partner in education for the Palm Beach School District.
Palm Beach educators, Stephanie Tomaselli and Steve Woloszn were facilitators, according to English Language Arts Curriculum Administrator for the District Mary Wilkeson, who is coordinating camp details. "We're thrilled that Oce is helping make this unique educational opportunity possible," she said. "We look forward to this camp becoming an annual summer offering."
According to Oce Digital Document Systems Vice President of Marketing Joyce Virnich, this partnership with the School District of Palm Beach County underscores the company's commitment to education.
"This camp is a perfect vehicle for inspiring young people to pursue their love of writing and to appreciate what goes into a published work," she said. "We're honored to be a part of this program and look forward to its growth and expansion in future years."
Ruback has published fiction and essays in magazines ranging from Descant, New Orleans Review, Quick Fiction, Zing, Zone 3, the Crab Creek Review, and elsewhere. In 1999, he was awarded a Florida Individual Artist Grant in Fiction. Twice, his stories have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. And this past December, his story, Monsters, was read at the New York Public Library after being recognized from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. For nearly a decade he was a social worker dealing with foster children as well as working with developmentally delayed adults and patients with Traumatic Brain Injury. Currently, he teaches high school English and Reading at John I. Leonard, where he also coaches the boys JV basketball team.
"Writing is the easy part. Publishing is the challenge," Ruback told the aspiring authors. "To find out if you're really a writer, try quitting to see if you miss it."
Ilana Jacqueline, 16, decided to attend the camp to get some tips on publishing her two books. Jacqueline's first book The Evidence of Ilana Jacqueline is about dealing with anxiety disorder.
"I'm hoping to get published by a big company before I graduate high school," said the Olympic Heights High School junior. "Guest speakers come in every day and they have helped me figure out what to do to publish a book."
Giacomo Cernjul, 17, hoped to "hone my writing skills."
The Olympic Heights High School student said the experienced journalists and authors taught him some vital lessons.
"So far I've learned that writing is a passion, it's not easy to get into the business," he said. "It takes a lot of time and work. You have to be very dedicated."
For more information about Oce, visit http://www.oceusa.com/.
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| 15 Plans for 15 Chapter |
[10 Jun 2006|02:43pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 curious |
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I finally have the chapter plans complete for half my book. Yay me!
Umm...Does anyone know what the roads in Israel are made of? And if it were 7 A.M there, what hour would it be in Florida? And -- no, that's all. Thanks!
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| On a completly unrelated note.. |
[08 Jun 2006|12:07pm] |
Next Reviews:
-Saint Iggy by K.L Going (working on it now)
-I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
Geez, I think those are the only ones I've actually read so far. I need to read the rest of them. That would probably be the first step in writing a good review: reading the book.
My editor just got in touch and we're going to have a meeting to work on the next issue. I really really really need to get in touch with my other editor. I need to read more books, write more reviews, and get in touch with my editor.
...and clean my room. Because its a big mess.
I need to update my website with that new poetry.
I need to get hardcopies of my Sun-Sentinel articles for my portfolio.
I need to find my flip-flops.
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