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Kirkus Reviews on Blended Notes by Lilah Suzanne

Blended Notes is available to pre-order from the IP Web Store and select online book retailers.

For sure! That’s amazing that she’s been able to know about herself so young, and to be an accepting environment. Here are a few books that should be a good fit for her!

(Starred books I’ve read and recommend.)

Comics:

Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O’Neill*

Goldie Vance by Hope Larson*

Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and more*

Jem and the Holograms Vol. 1: Showtime by Kelly Thompson*

Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess by Jeremy Whitley

Novels:

Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee* (bisexual)

Letters in the Attic by Bonnie Shimko

The House You Pass On the Way by Jacqueline Woodson*

Starring Kitty by Keris Stainton

The Marauders’ Island (Hen & Chick series) by Tristan J. Tarwater

Sneak Peek! 

I asked readers what story of mine they’d like to see a little short story from, and What it Takes was the clear winner. Short story is in progress, but I thought I’d share little bits :D 

School Library Journal review of The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember

The Seafarer’s Kiss is now available from the IP Web Store and other book retailers.

Huntsmen’s main character is Kiara Lyons, and she is, in author Pene Henson’s words, “a divine grouch”.  No description could have pleased me (or Kiara) more.  

In The Better to Kiss You With, Deanna Scott is bright, bubbly, and charming.  She blushes when she flirts and would happily describe herself as a pleaser.  With the second book in the series, I wanted to write a different sort of woman. 

Enter Kiara.  The surly, scowly, stubborn Alpha-designate of her werewolf pack.  A woman with mega control issues, who has to struggle to keep her temper, and doesn’t always manage it.  Certain of her own power, and unafraid to flex it, Kiara isn’t exactly likable… and I love that.  In a year where we’ve had to hear about “nasty women”, a year where women are scolded for their persistence, a year where an under-qualified man takes the job over an exceptionally qualified woman, Kiara’s rudeness seems all the more relevant.  

Also important to me was Kiara’s position as her father’s heir.  Even before I had put any thought into writing the second book, I established in The Better to Kiss You With that Kiara, not her older brother Cole, was heir to their pack.  In Huntsmen it’s Kiara’s position as Alpha-designate that puts her in charge of the hiding werewolves, and what stands between her and her lone wolf ex-lover, Ryn.  

When Kiara finds herself facing off against the Huntsmen as well as the General North American Assembly of Werewolves (GNAAW), it’s her insolence and her persistence that keeps her pack safe.  Kiara doesn’t need to be likable, she needs to be effective.  

Nobody’s going to stop me from saving my family—and myself.

Coming in November, literary fiction for Young Adult readers: Nancy’s Stewart’s Beulah Land, a dark, evocative, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl surviving the deep-rooted clan culture of Ozark Mountain life.

Summary

Seventeen-year-old Vi Sinclair’s roots run deep in the Missouri Ozarks, where, in some areas, it can still be plenty dangerous to be a girl who likes girls. Her greatest wish is to become a veterinarian like her boss, Claire Campbell. Fitting in at school wouldn’t be so bad, either. Only one obstacle stands in the way: She may not live long enough to see her wishes fulfilled.

With help from her only friend, Junior, Vi unravels a mystery that puts her in conflict with a vicious tormentor, a dog fight syndicate, and her own mother. Vi’s experience galvanizes her strength and veracity as she overcomes the paradox of mountain life, in which, even today, customs and mores seem timeless, and where a person can wake up dead simply because of being who she is.

About the Author

As a professor of education specializing in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Nancy Stewart’s love of words and stories aligned with valuable life experiences and drew her to write her first book. She is the author of the Bella and Britt series and Katrina and Winter: Partners in Courage, the authorized biography of Katrina Simpkins, a special needs girl who found herself through Winter, the dolphin (Guardian Angel Publishing).

The original manuscript for Beulah Land received the 2015 State of Florida Rising Kite Award (first place) from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Looking for a breezy holiday read? Need a little RomCom in your life?

We’re celebrating our first stand-alone digital short story by sharing the first chapter of Lilah Suzanne’s new short story, After the Sunset. You can download it here, and the entire story will be available July 6 from the IP Webstore, Amazon, and other eBook retailers for $2.99.

Interlude Press and Duet Books authors have received a lot of honors and awards lately, and we’re celebrating with 25% off our award winners and finalists at the IP Web Store:

Hold, by Rachel Davidson Leigh (Tofte/Wright Children’s Literature Award)

In the Present Tense by Carrie Pack (Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Bronze Award for science fiction)

Into the Blue by Pene Henson (Lambda Literary Award for Gay Romance)

Luchador by Erin Finnegan (Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Gold Award for Romance)

Sweet by Alysia Constantine (Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Honorable Mention for LGBT Fiction)

Black Dust by Lynn Charles (Foreword INDIES finalist)

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee (Lambda Literary Award finalist)

Sideshow by Amy Stilgenbauer (Foreword INDIES finalist)

The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic by F.T. Lukens

Desperate to pay for college, Bridger Whitt is willing to overlook the peculiarities of his new job—entering via the roof, the weird stacks of old books and even older scrolls, the seemingly incorporeal voices he hears from time to time—but it’s pretty hard to ignore being pulled under Lake Michigan by… mermaids? Worse yet, this happens in front of his new crush, Leo, the dreamy football star who just moved to town.

Fantastic.

When he discovers his eccentric employer Pavel Chudinov is an intermediary between the human world and its myths, Bridger is plunged into a world of pixies, werewolves, and Sasquatch. The realm of myths and magic is growing increasingly unstable, and it is up to Bridger to ascertain the cause of the chaos, eliminate the problem, and help his boss keep the real world from finding the world of myths.

About the author:

F.T. Lukens is an author of Young Adult fiction who got her start by placing second out of ten thousand entries in a fan-community writing contest. A sci-fi enthusiast, F.T. loves Star Trek and Firefly and is a longtime member of her college’s science-fiction club. She holds degrees in Psychology and English Literature and has a love of cheesy television shows, superhero movies, and writing. F.T. lives in North Carolina with her husband, three kids, and three cats. Her first two novels in the Broken Moon series, The Star Host and Ghosts & Ashes, were published by Duet Books.

Connect with F.T. at authorftlukens.wordpress.com, on Twitter @ftlukens, and on Facebook at facebook.com/ftlukens.

Cover art by C.B. Messer.

Find it on Goodreads.

You’re going to get criticism as a writer. I guarantee it. A few people will hate what you’re doing (or if you’re lucky, a lot of a few people will hate it). Some people will think you’re not good enough to be published. Some people will send you long lists of all the mistakes you made in your last book. Some of those mistakes may be real. People will tell you they don’t know why your book is a big deal (or a little deal). People will also tell you they couldn’t read past the first paragraph or the first page because it was boring, or stupid or about a girl or about a dog or about something they don’t care about.

Here’s what I want you to remember: You’re not writing for everyone. You’re not writing for the people who don’t get what you’re writing. You’re not writing to get that kid who hated you in seventh grade to like you. You’re not writing for critics. You’re not writing for the future you can’t see into. You’re not writing to some writer in the past who’s dead now and will never know if you used a cool reference to his book. You’re not writing to get someone who hates this genre to change their mind.

You’re writing for friends. And by that I don’t necessarily mean the people who are your friends right now. I mean the people who get what you’re doing and care about it. If you’re writing fantasy, you’re writing for people who like fantasy and the particular kind you’re writing. If you’re writing humor, you’re writing for people who want to laugh. If you’re writing mystery, you’re writing for people who want to be scared.

For every person who thinks what you tried to do doesn’t matter, there are ten who think it does. Those are the ones you’re writing for. They laugh in the right places. They feel sick in the wrong places. They didn’t guess all the twists and turns before you wanted them to. They didn’t know that character was going to turn villainous. They believed in the rules you set forth. They let you weave your magic over them and they didn’t see any of the holes they might have seen.

So when you’re dealing with criticism, remember that you’ve got friends who are rooting for you to succeed in the next book. You’ve got people who know you can do this. You have friends who pick up the last book and think that all they want is another one just like this, that does all those same things, that surprises again and delights in the same way, and hits all the right notes. They don’t want you to wonder about if what you’ve spent your whole life perfecting matters. Of course it does! They’re your friends.

“… We have an administration in power eager to strip us of our most fundamental rights. Clearly, we have a very long way to go. But, we must persist.”