#brightbeforesunrise

Bright Before Sunrise takes place in ONE night – and each of the chapters is time stamped – so why not do a read-along and experience Brighton & Jonah's night together? 

The book begins at 12:57p.m. and ends at 2:46a.m. – you do NOT have to commit to that whole time frame – though you’re certainly welcome to keep me, Brighton & Jonah company the whole time.

Check-ins with questions/discussions/prizes will occur on Twitter at the following times / before the following chapters:*

(FYI-  all times are E.S.T.) *I may have surprise check-ins & contests at other times, so keep an eye on the #BrightInRealTime hashtag!

Follow me on Twitter @TiffanySchmidt & http://BrightBeforeSunrise.Tumblr.com & use the hashtag #BrightInRealTime to read along.

Whether it’s your first time reading Bright Before Sunrise, or you’re re-reading it, I hope you’ll join me for some fun & gigglefits on March 8th – 9th!

For the Bright Before Sunrise Blog Tour, instead of providing interview questions and guest post ideas to Tiffany Schmidt, the creative team at Bloomsbury Children's Books/Walker BFYR decided that they'd turn this tour upside down and pose a question to all of the bloggers involved.  As part of this reverse tour, I'm to respond to the following prompt based on the story in Bright Before Sunrise:

I've been asked to describe a single night that changed my life, much like the night that Jonah and Brighton have in the book.  Here goes:

I actually had a completely different night picked out to tell you about. I had the post written up and everything, cute GIFs and all. But the more I contemplated the "one night can change everything" mantra, the more I realized that the night I wanted to tell you about wouldn't have been possible at all if it hadn't been for another night a couple of months before that. You see, I was 21 -- barely -- and I had been in a ridiculously bad relationship for the past two years. Turning the legal drinking age and finally becoming an "adult" made me reconsider a lot of things that year. I was living with a boy -- I refuse to call him a man because no real man would have treated me the way he did -- whose past meant that he was unable to even be listed on the lease on the apartment we shared. We fought all the time, had broken up and gotten back together more times than I could count, and he'd just treated me despicably that whole last year we were together. I was ready for a change, but I was afraid to make a move on my own. Even my own family couldn't give this guy the benefit of the doubt, even though I supposedly loved him. (I say supposedly because I was young and I don't think I truly understood what it meant to love someone at that age.) On the night in question, my younger sister -- only by a year and a half -- invited me to go out to see a show with some of her friends. I had moved quite a distance away from all of my family and friends, and I didn't really feel up to making the drive into Dallas that night, especially since I knew nothing of the band we were supposed to see. But my sister is very convincing. She's also the baby of the family and gets her way more often than not.

Little did I know that her friend was also bringing her boyfriend. Cue the sad face, because me and my guy were on yet another break, as he'd just wrecked my car and our future together wasn't looking so bright. Sister was still single, though, so at least I wasn't the only one flying solo. And to help matters, sister's friend had a friend he was dragging along to the show, too. And said friend was mighty nice to look at. =) I didn't expect much out of this night, to be honest. Some music, a good buzz -- though only me and the two guys on the outing were of age -- and a little distance to provide some perspective. Well, all that turned out better than expected. While my sister looked on miserably as her friend and her friend's boyfriend fought ALL night, me and the boyfriend's friend chatted. Turns out, he hadn't planned on going out at all that night either, but some force of nature made him say yes the bazillionth time his buddy asked. We talked...and talked...and talked. About everything and nothing. It made me realize that I hadn't really talked to my own boyfriend in ages. That I hadn't really wanted to. It also made me realize that the first time me and my boyfriend had broken up should have been the first and ONLY time. (Sometimes it pays to listen to your wiser, older sister, but hindsight is 20/20. Also, don't tell her I said that.) And the next weekend when my sister's friend asked if she could give my number to her boyfriend's friend because he'd asked about me, I said okay. The lease on the apartment I shared with my ex was up and I had a new lease on life. :D Sure, I moved back home for a couple of months, but you know what? I've been with that friend of a friend of a friend who I spent all night talking to for the last ten years, and I'll have been married to him for seven years in April. One night really can make a world of difference. I can't even begin to imagine how different my life would be now if I hadn't made the decision to go out that night, against my better judgment.

  Title: Bright Before Sunrise Author: Tiffany Schmidt Series: stand-alone Publisher: Walker Childrens Publication Date: February 18, 2014 Source: received from publisher via Netgalley Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

When Jonah is forced to move from Hamilton to Cross Pointe for the second half of his senior year, "miserable" doesn't even begin to cover it. He feels like the doggy-bag from his mother's first marriage and everything else about her new life—with a new husband, new home and a new baby—is an upgrade. The people at Cross Pointe High School are pretentious and privileged—and worst of all is Brighton Waterford, the embodiment of all things superficial and popular. Jonah’s girlfriend, Carly, is his last tie to what feels real... until she breaks up with him.  For Brighton, every day is a gauntlet of demands and expectations. Since her father died, she’s relied on one coping method: smile big and pretend to be fine. It may have kept her family together, but she has no clue how to handle how she's really feeling. Today is the anniversary of his death and cracks are beginning to show. The last thing she needs is the new kid telling her how much he dislikes her for no reason she can understand. She's determined to change his mind, and when they're stuck together for the night, she finally gets her chance.  Jonah hates her at 3p.m., but how will he feel at 3 a.m.?  One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself.

About the author: Tiffany Schmidt lives in Pennsylvania with her saintly husband, impish twin boys, and a pair of mischievous puggles. She's not at all superstitious... at least that's what she tells herself every Friday the thirteenth. SEND ME A SIGN is her first novel. BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE will follow in Winter 2014. The ONCE UPON A CRIME FAMILY series begins with HOLD ME LIKE A BREATH in 2015. Find Tiffany: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr

Do you guys have a night like that, one that changed everything?  Has anyone read Bright Before Sunrise yet?  I found it adorable but not saccharine, which was kind of perfect.  You can check out my review here and April's is here. Also,how jealous am I that April gets to meet the author at YA Fest in April?!?

A new book just came out by my amazing friend Tiffany Schmidt, Bright Before Sunrise. Just check out that glorious cover!

The tagline for Bright Before Sunrise is lovely:

"One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself."

So to celebrate the book's release, I'm joining in with a group of writers and readers on the Bright Before Sunrise Tumblr to share our stories of one night when everything changed.

Here's mine. Maybe it will surprise you. It definitely surprised me:

The night I saw Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time.

Now, in retrospect, Sorcerer's Stone is not an especially great movie. It and Chamber of Secrets are clearly the weakest films in the franchise. The screenplay is juvenile, and not in a good way. The kids' acting is terrible across the board (the adults are another story, of course). There's not-at-all-clever gross-out humor, and the themes are spelled out in the most obvious ways possible. The movie wasn't aspiring to Pixar-level children's-movie quality. It clearly intended only as light entertainment for kids younger than 10.

But that night, 13 years ago, I did not care one whit about any of that. Because that movie sucked me in like few movies ever had. I saw it two more times that weekend. I can't count how many times I've watched it since.

I'd read the Harry Potter books prior to seeing the movie -- at that point, there were only 4 of them -- and I'd loved them. But I hadn't really understood the extent to which I loved Harry and his world until I saw that movie and experienced the story in a new, visceral way. Seeing the stuff I'd read on the page brought to life was magical in exactly the way it was supposed to be.

And it's what made me realize it was okay to really, genuinely love children's stories. Even as a (still-not-quite) adult.

The movie came out in November 2001. It was six months after I'd graduated from college, and two months after 9/11. It was a turning point in so many ways. That movie gave me the push I was looking for. It allowed me to embrace what I truly loved.

And, in a roundabout way, it was what led me to become an author myself. Because after that night, I became a full-fledged Harry Potter fan -- which, in 2001, meant writing fan fiction. My nervous attempts at writing Hermione/Ginny romance were the first creative writing I'd done since middle school -- when I'd decided my childhood dream of being an author was silly, and I didn't have time, and my stories weren't any good anyway so I should just stop trying.

Writing fan fiction was a safe way to try writing again. There was nothing to lose.

So I tried it. I wrote a story. Then I wrote another one. Then another. Slowly, writing stopped being this big, scary thing.

I decided to try writing a story that wasn't fan fiction. It was about characters I made up myself. It was crap, but I wrote another one. And then another one. I kept going until I'd written something that wasn't crap. And I kept going after that until I wrote one that someone decided might actually be worth publishing.

And it all goes back to Harry Potter, and sitting in that dark theater on Connecticut Avenue with a bunch of my college friends, eating popcorn and watching Harry fly on a broomstick for the first time.

So thanks for that, J.K. Rowling.

And thanks, Tiffany Schmidt, for making me remember. :)

About BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE:

Jonah and Brighton are about to have the most awkwardly awful night of their lives. For Jonah, every aspect of his new life reminds him of what he has had to give up. All he wants is to be left alone. Brighton is popular, pretty, and always there to help anyone . . . but has no idea of what she wants for herself. Her seemingly perfect life is marred only by Jonah, the one person who won't give her the time of day, but also makes her feel, well, something. So when they are repeatedly thrown together over the course of one night, anything can—and does—happen. Told in alternating chapters, this poignant, beautiful novel's energy and tension, amidst the humor and romance, builds to a new beginning of self-acceptance and hope.

About Tiffany Schmidt:

I’m so excited for Tiffany Schmidt, whose book BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE came out this week! Here’s what it’s about:

Jonah and Brighton are about to have the most awkwardly awful night of their lives. For Jonah, every aspect of his new life reminds him of what he has had to give up. All he wants is to be left alone. Brighton is popular, pretty, and always there to help anyone . . . but has no idea of what she wants for herself. Her seemingly perfect life is marred only by Jonah, the one person who won’t give her the time of day, but also makes her feel, well, something. So when they are repeatedly thrown together over the course of one night, anything can—and does—happen. Told in alternating chapters, this poignant, beautiful novel’s energy and tension, amidst the humor and romance, builds to a new beginning of self-acceptance and hope.

So, in celebration of Tiffany’s book, I am writing about one night that changed my life. When I was 16, a friend from another city gave me a ticket to an Aerosmith concert in Nashville. My friend wanted me to meet her there. I had several problems, most notably 1) I had no ride to the concert, as my parents had told me I wasn’t a good enough driver to drive over an hour to Nashville at night. 2) It was a school night. 3) I had a soccer game the night of the concert.

But I just had to go! This was Aerosmith. Love in an Elevator! I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing! Sweet Emotion!

So, I told my parents I needed to borrow their car to go to a church event. Lie! I phoned it in at my soccer game and jetted out of there as soon as it was over. I barely played hard because all I could concentrate on was the concert. My team lost to a team we should not have lost to.

I made it to the concert, but this was before the age of cell phones, so I never even found my friend. I saw two girls from school, so I ended up sitting with them. We went out to Waffle House afterwards, where we met LeAnn Rimes, who wasn’t very nice to us. We got her autograph on a Waffle House napkin, though.

The concert ended up being great, but when I look back on that night, I don’t immediately think about the music blaring or letting go and dancing in circles or the smell of weed wafting in the air. I remember the aftermath.

When I got home at 2am, my parents knew I hadn’t been at a church event. I was grounded for a couple weeks. That had never happened to me before.

But that wasn’t what changed me. The next day, my soccer coach yelled at me and cried because I’d played so badly. I couldn’t believe she cried.

I think that was the first time I realized that my actions affected the feelings of other people. When my soccer coach cried, she told me that she worked hard trying to help our team win, and I hadn’t cared at all: all I cared about was the concert. For her, it stunk that she stayed after school every day of the week with my team, missing out on time she could’ve been spending with her husband. What did any of her hard work matter if I didn’t try hard?

I wish that when I look back on the night I would feel excitement, but all I feel is shame. I learned that if I want great memories to be strong in my mind, they can’t be tainted by lies or hurt.

They have to be true.

I'm so honored that Ginger from GReadsBooks has chosen to share her very personal and powerful One Night story. Thank you, Ginger <3

Author Tiffany Schmidt, of the recently published young adult novel BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE, has asked various authors and bloggers to share their "One Night" stories in response to the book's tagline: One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself. I decided to share my own One Night Story, digging a bit deeper into a very emotional time in my life.  Most of you know that I lost my mom to cancer awhile ago.  I've shared bits and pieces of that time in my life and how it's affected me now.  But for this particular assignment, I am going beyond the surface and sharing a very personal moment, one that I immediately thought of when I read this book's tag line. Please visit Bright Before Sunrise's tumblr page to read other One Night Stories:http://brightbeforesunrise.tumblr.com/  It's been so much fun seeing which particular nights changed things for so many people.

One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself.

It was the fall of 2003 and I was 22 years old. Most of my friends had just finished college and were on the cusp of starting their career. I, on the other hand, was still slowly making my way through school, not having a clue what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. But then, life threw me a curve ball, one of the biggest plays in my lifetime that I will ever see. My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 vaginal cancer that had metastasized to her lungs. There wasn’t a cure, we were told. All that was left to do was to make sure she was comfortable. One day I was beginning classes at the community college, and then the next I was listening to doctors tell me that my mother only had months to live. There are moments in your life when time feels as though it stops, yet speeds up all at the same time. I found myself in a whirlwind tunnel of hospitals, doctors, IVs, vitals, and tears. Oh so many tears. We had been in the hospital for about ten days. I say we because between my sisters, my dad, and myself, someone was always there with my mother. Most of the time she was pumped with so much morphine through her IV that she probably didn’t even know someone was there. Looking back though, I know that was more for our benefit than hers. At this point we understood it was more about comfort, and each day there was a new task to battle, an oxygen level to maintain, or a protein count to make. I forgot about the outside world, sometimes sleeping in the same clothes I had worn the day before. One night, it must have been very late, or very early in the morning hours, I remember my mother waking up. She hadn’t spoken a lot in the past few days, so at this moment I was just happy to see a reaction from her. I don’t remember what exactly was said, but I do remember her asking me what was on the TV. I picked up the remote, only finding an early morning news broadcast on and leaving it there. She then asked me to come lie with her in bed. So I slipped out of my flip flops and snuggled up next to her.  There we were, just mother and daughter, lying in bed that early morning. She was stroking her pale, fragile fingers through my hair. If words were shared, I can’t remember what they were. All I remember is that feeling of having my mother’s comfort next to me. I told myself to hold on to this memory, that it would later be very important to me. And I was right. This is my last memory of my mother being my mother. Of her taking care of me, nurturing me, loving me. In the next few days that would follow, she slipped further into a comatose state, and then on September 20, 2003 she took her final breath. I have many memories, some nightmares, from the twenty days she was diagnosed in the hospital, to her final day here on Earth. But it is this memory I hold so close to my heart. It’s the way I want to remember her, even through all the bad days we saw there. This one night gave me strength that I could hold on to for the next few days, and eventually for the rest of my life. It’s impossible for it not to change my world, and it most certainly did. But I am ever so grateful for having this one moment to look back on and remember my last memory with my mother, as the woman who always protected me, the woman who unconditionally loved her baby until there was no strength left to fight. My world changed that night, it shifted from fear of losing my mother, to a sense of peace, knowing that whatever happens next, as horrible as it may be, I’ll be able to handle it. And ten years later, I’m continuously learning how to handle it, constantly reminding myself that this has changed me, and will continue to change me.

To celebrate yesterday’s release of BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE, I asked author and blogger friends to respond to the book’s tagline One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself, by sharing the story of One Night that changed their lives.

The responses have been as amazing as they are diverse. Humorous and serious, heartwarming and heartbreaking. There will be a couple dozen more posts to come in the next few weeks, but here’s a handy-dandy list of links to all the One Night stories so far.

Diana Peterfreund 

Michelle Hodkin 

Sarah from TheBestBooksEver  

Coranne from TheBestBooksEver 

Linda Grimes 

Kate from ExLibrisKate 

Brianna from OnePoundDreamer 

Leah Clifford 

April from MyFiveMonkeys

Susan Adrian 

Kody Keplinger 

Kelly from StackedBooks 

Jen Calonita  

A.C. Gaughen  

Kelly from KellyVision  

Erica from the theBookCellarX 

Courtney Summers 

~Me~! 

Emily Hainsworth 

Molli from Book Whimsies 

Andi from Andi’s ABCs 

Jen from Jenuine Cupcakes  

Victoria Schwab 

Jonathan Maberry 

Nicole from Paperback Princess  

  If you’d like to share YOUR One Night story, we’d love to hear it!  – details on how to participate can be found here.

BRIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE 

When Jonah is forced to move from Hamilton to Cross Pointe for the second half of his senior year, “miserable” doesn’t even begin to cover it. He feels like the doggy-bag from his mother’s first marriage and everything else about her new life—with a new husband, new home and a new baby—is an upgrade. The people at Cross Pointe High School are pretentious and privileged—and worst of all is Brighton Waterford, the embodiment of all things superficial and popular. Jonah’s girlfriend, Carly, is his last tie to what feels real… until she breaks up with him.

 For Brighton, every day is a gauntlet of demands and expectations. Since her father died, she’s relied on one coping method: smile big and pretend to be fine. It may have kept her family together, but she has no clue how to handle how she’s really feeling. Today is the anniversary of his death and cracks are beginning to show. The last thing she needs is the new kid telling her how much he dislikes her for no reason she can understand. She’s determined to change his mind, and when they’re stuck together for the night, she finally gets her chance.

 Jonah hates her at 3p.m., but how will he feel at 3 a.m.?

To celebrate the release of Bright Before Sunrise (it’s out NOW!) I asked some of my favorite authors and blogger friends to respond to the book’s tagline One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself by sharing a night that changed their lives.

This is Nicole from Paperback Princess's One Night story:

I had the hardest time with this prompt for a few reasons. One of them is that I feel that nothing too big has happened to me. I have lived an easy life and I am thankful for that, but the more I thought about One night that changed my life, the harder it was. I thought through important nights in my life, including prom and important moments in my relationships both romantic and familial.

Then I remembered the night when I was in 5th grade, and I learned something about my life that had been obvious, but not at the same time. At the time, my older sister was living with my parents and I and she was tutoring at a Sylvan Leaning Center. On our way home one night, we stopped by her office and she introduced me to some of her students.

This was not an unusual occurrence either, but as she introduced me to them, she kept introducing me to them as her half sister and this was something that was a new concept to me. She had always been my sister and while I knew we had different dads, this meant that we were only half sisters?

The thought had never really occurred to me until she said it. But even after that unspoken truth came out, it didn’t change anything. My sister was my sister and that wasn’t going to change no matter what any one said or what percentage our blood was the same. She is my sister and nothing will change that.

While that moment was just an announcement of the truth, it didn’t change a thing for me and nothing ever will.

To celebrate the release of Bright Before Sunrise (it's out NOW!) I asked some of my favorite authors and blogger friends to respond to the book’s tagline One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself by sharing a night that changed their lives.

Now, you may know Jonathan Maberry as the NYT best-selling author of the Rot and Ruin or the Joe Ledger series; as the writer of comic books and so many creepy stories, but I know him as the most supportive mentor a young author could wish for. 

And this is his heart-warming One Night Story:

One night can change how you see the world.

 One night can change how you see yourself.

 Yup. I buy that.

 Take a picture of this. A guy running hard at his fortieth birthday. Divorced. Dating around, but not enjoying it very much. Not much in the bank. Not much in the way of optimism or expectations.

 Not a loser, but a guy who’s lost. A marriage that hit an iceberg and sank. Some health issues related to bad jobs he’s worked in the past. Bum knee, bum shoulders. Leftovers from getting stabbed while working as a bouncer in a low-rent bar and as a bouncer for drugged-out celebrities. Currently working in a call center. Not rock bottom, but looking at it close enough to read the fine print.

 This guy thinks that he’s all about bad luck. He jokes that he’s the bad luck kid. He quotes that line from the old Country song: “If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.”

 He believes it, too.

 So, one night he visits an old friend. Another person on the wrong side of the happiness door. Woman with two kids going through a divorce. He comes over to keep her and the kids company. They’re old friends. No romance. Just shared pain.

They take a walk, talking about how things used to be. Smiling at memories of happier times. Wistful that those times, like happiness, is past tense.

Then something happens.

A woman comes jogging around the track. A little older than the guy. Fit. Beautiful. Red hair. A smile that could melt ice. She just happens to know the woman. They’re friends. They’re both single mothers. Both divorced. Both lonely.

The guy sees her. The redhead sees the guy.

Cue the music. Cue all of the corny tropes of love at first sight. Cue everything that the guy has come to despise as being either phone crap peddled by the makers of Valentine’s Day cards, or the product of Hollywood’s saccharine cynicism.

Except…

Except.

There’s real heat there.

There’s a real connection there.

He sees her. She sees him.

It’s palpable.

Days like that should tremble when they begin. There should be something in the air. Something that can be measured.

He never believed in days like this. Not since he stopped believing in them. Not since he lost hope in hope.

But here’s this redhead. Smiling at him. Like she knows him. Or…maybe, like she just knows.

Knows what he knows.

Something shifts inside the guy. He knows it. He feels it.

He believes it.

His luck just changed.

The bad luck kid just caught a train out of town. This guy –this new guy? He doesn’t know from bad luck. Not anymore. From then on, his luck was different. There were more colors in the sky. There was more breath in his lungs.

Yeah, as corny as that.

Yeah, as real as that.

Just like that.

When he goes home that night, he calls a friend. Another woman he knows. A woman he’s dated, but for whom a friendship had grown where romance couldn’t. A trusted friend. He tells her, that very night, that he’s met the one.

The one.

His friend is so happy for him. She hears it in his voice. She knows him, so she knows it isn’t like him to say something like that. He prizes the truth too much to spin that kind of thing. He says what he believes.

He’s met the one.

His one.

He knows it.

In less than two years they’re married.

His luck never turned bad. Now he’s successful. He has more than he ever imagined he could have. Books on the bestseller list. A home by the ocean. A son.

A wife.

He’s met her.

He found her.

His one.

Sara.

His lady luck. And his light.

Can one night change how you see the world?

Can one night change how you see yourself?

Yeah. It can.

That’s how I met my wife.

I’ve never been that guy again.

I’ve never been the same again.

The world is a different place, and I love living in it.

We love living in it.

‘Cause the world changed for her, too.