We here at The Paperback Princesses often receive emails from Indie authors requesting reviews and are blessed with free book copies. Often we are unable to get to so many titles before our mass market published books take over our TBR shelves. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of great reads though! We want to give back to those Indie authors and are declaring EVERY SECOND SUNDAY our SHOUT OUT TO INDIES MEME. For those of fellow bloggers, please feel free to add our meme to your regular schedule. We only ask that you quote and link back to us as a courtesy. For all of you Indie authors, we invite you to contact us at the contact link to your top left. We will select 1 - 3 titles (each time we post) that sound interesting. Lastly, for you readers, this is a bit of a test so please do comment and let us know what you think. We will also be offering up giveaway copies whenever we can! So without further ado, here are this week's picks:
Blurb:
For as long as Anna can remember, she has had a smattering of freckles on her arm. But these freckles are starting to change, causing hallucinations and odd side effects that only she seems to notice. When a strange shadow man starts to haunt her nights, she decides to go on a hunt for the truth of what is truly happening to her.
The hallucinations grow stronger, the shadow man more nefarious, and Anna realizes that she can no longer hide from her friends and family what is happening to her. But as she shares her secret with those closest to her, Anna never imagines that her very life will be put in jeopardy.
Progressing toward the novel’s stunning conclusion, audiences will be left breathless as the ultimate question reveals itself: who—or what—is Anna?
Why I chose to write YA:
Growing up, books were always a comfort for me. They got me through a lot of rough patches by providing an escape. I wanted to write books that would do the same for other young people. I chose Young Adult, rather than children's books, because it's such an exciting time of a person's life, full of young love and new experiences. It's when a person starts to really decide who they're going to be as an adult and I think that's magical.
Author Info:
Meghan Riley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Maryland and immediately pursued her lifelong passion for the written word. Her debut novel, Anna, presented itself as a way for Riley to inspire teenage girls to expand their interests beyond the typical teenage quandaries, ultimately encouraging females toward an interest in science. She is currently hard at work on the sequel toAnna.
Prior to editing and publishing, Anna was a 2012 Watty Award winner in the Science Fiction category and garnered over 108,000 reads. Now, the book is available to everyone on all major book channels. You can keep up-to-date with developments in the series at Meghan Riley's website and Facebook page.
And our second title for today:
Blurb
Meet 14-year-old Sean Malone. He has an IQ above 200, a full-ride scholarship to one of the country’s top universities, and more than one million dollars from his winning streak on Jeopardy! However, Sean wishes he could just be normal.
But his life is anything but normal. The US government manipulates him, using him as a codebreaker in pursuit of a drug lord and killing innocent people along the way.
For reasons related to his personal security, Sean finds himself in Rome, building a new life under a new name, abandoning academics, and hiding his genius from everyone. When he’s 18 he falls in love. The thrills begin again when he learns that his girlfriend is critically ill and it’s up to him to use his intellect to find a cure, a battle pitting him against a multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical company and the demons of his past.
Elixir is a story about identity, secrets, and above all, love.
Why I write for the YA Audience
The late-teenage years are a terrific backdrop for stories because they involve a lot of "firsts": first love, first time being away from home, first taste of adulthood, etc. Revolving the conflict of a book around characters who are in the midst of some of these "firsts" amplifies the emotional journey; there's not only more uncertainty among teenage characters in the face of conflict (while compared to "seasoned" adults), but also more passion, which leads to more drama and ultimately stories that leave an impression.
From a timing perspective, I also feel I'm in a unique position to write about YA characters. As a twenty-nine-year-old, I'm far enough removed from this time in my life to be able to reflect on it with a clear head, which lets me understand the dynamics of that time without all the crazy emotions that were clouding it while I was living it. However, as a twenty-nine-year-old, I'm also not that far out of touch with this point in my life - and some of the memories are still just as vivid as ever, which helps add an authentic kick to the writing.
Bio
Ted Galdi is a twenty-nine-year-old author living in Los Angeles. Elixir is his first book. He can be contacted atted@elixirthebook.com.
Official website: www.elixirthebook.com and
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