Review: DRIVE by Stephanie Fournet
I have loved everything I’ve read from Stephanie Fournet, and DRIVE did not disa[...]
Today, I have a guest post by author Helen Keeble as part of her book blitz for Fang Girl! Check out the synopsis below for this vampire comedy, read about how Fang Girl was written during NaNoWriMo, and then be sure to enter the giveaway for an awesome prize pack!
September 11th 2012 / HarperTeen
Things That Are Destroying Jane Greene’s Undead Social Life Before It Can Even Begin:
1) A twelve-year-old brother who’s convinced she’s a zombie.
2) Parents who are begging her to turn them into vampires.
3) The pet goldfish she accidentally turns instead.
4) Weird superpowers that let her rip the heads off of every other vampire she meets.(Sounds cool, but it doesn’t win you many friends.)
5) A pyschotic vampire creator who’s using her to carry out a plan for world domination.
And finally:
6) A seriously ripped vampire hunter who either wants to stake her or make out with her. Not sure which.
Being an undead, eternally pasty fifteen-year-old isn’t quite the sexy, brooding, angst-fest Jane always imagined….
Helen Keeble’s riotous debut novel combines the humor of Vladimir Tod with Ally Carter’s spot-on teen voice. With a one-of-a-kind vampire mythology and an irresistibly relatable undead heroine, this uproarious page-turner will leave readers bloodthirsty for more.
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | iTunes
NaNoWriMo and Me
by Helen Keeble
I wrote my novel FANG GIRL in thirty days.
Wait! Come back!
More accurately, I wrote the first draft of FANG GIRL in thirty days, for NaNoWriMo 2008. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month – is a yearly challenge to write 50,000 words during November (no, there are no prizes other than the satisfaction of taking part). It’s turned into quite a big thing, with thousands of people signing up on the website, cheering each other on in the forums, and even meeting up in person at regional events for bouts of communal writing. It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to force yourself to get a lot of words down on paper without worrying about whether they’re good words.
That first NaNoWriMo-produced draft of FANG GIRL is not the book you can find on the shelves of your local bookstore or library.
For a start, the published version of FANG GIRL actually has a Chapter 19, rather than a placeholder reading [And then something dramatic happens and there is a thrilling climax]. I can also personally guarantee that in the published book, two characters do not enter in Chapter 4, have a conversation with the heroine, leave, and then reappear again in Chapter 5 mysteriously merged into a single character with a combination of both their traits, a peculiar event which our heroine never comments on.
(That is not even the worst thing about that first draft. The very worst thing I did in that first draft – and people who’ve read FANG GIRL will understand why — was to kill the goldfish halfway through the book)
Like I said, NaNoWriMo does not necessarily produce good words.
So while I spewed out the first draft in thirty days, it took the better part of two years (and uncounted rewrites) to actually turn it into the FANG GIRL you can see today. But I wouldn’t have had anything at all without that initial mad flurry of writing, without worrying about producing perfect sentences or even sentences that made sense. And for that, I will always be grateful to NaNoWriMo.
Would I do it again? Oh hell no. The first draft of my second book, NO ANGEL (due out Fall 2013) was written in a much more sensible timeframe of four months, and didn’t require nearly so many rewrites. But I still highly recommend NaNoWriMo to any aspiring writers – you’ll learn that no matter how daunting and impossible the task may seem, you can sit down and produce an entire novel.
And one day, years later, you might even see it on the shelf of your local bookstore.
About the author: Helen Keeble is not, and never has been, a vampire. She has however been a teenager. She grew up partly in America and partly in England, which has left her with an unidentifiable accent and a fondness for peanut butter crackers washed down with a nice cup of tea. She now lives in West Sussex, England, with her husband, daughter, two cats, and a variable number of fish. To the best of her knowledge, none of the fish are undead.
Her first novel, a YA vampire comedy called FANG GIRL, is out 11th Sept 2012, from HarperTeen.
She also has another YA paranormal comedy novel (provisionally titled NO ANGEL) scheduled for Sept 2013.
Thank you to Helen and Xpresso Book Tours for having me part of Fang Girl’s book blitz. I’m so excited to read this now, especially since it was written during NaNoWriMo!
Twitter: fakesteph
says:
This post is adorable and this book sounds so fun!
fakesteph recently posted..Top Ten (Tuesday) Books I Read In 2012
I’ve been following along with the tour and am loving it. I really like how funny Helen is!
[…] Book Blitz & Giveaway: Fang Girl by Helen Keeble – “NaNoWriMo & Me” […]