Horrible Flake? Me? aka Answers to your frequently asked questions

March, 7 2011

Sorry it has been a couple weeks since my last post. The move, TDD3, Costco signings, etc. Sometimes I'm not sure how I survive-- I'm so behind! But I'm making some awesome headway with the third book and getting very excited about the story, cover concepts, and titles. Of course, I will be sharing as soon as I can. But for now, waiting is the game.

Speaking of waiting, I must put out a blanket apology for any winners of contests that have not yet received their prizes. If you are still waiting on something from me, would you be willing to do me the favor of emailing my admin at admin(at)breedespain(dot)com with the deets? Please put "Contest Winner" in the subject line to help us sort through the other emails that go to that account. I've got record of what has been sent out, but I'm a little lost on what has not yet been sent, and I've finally got my stack of book prizes box unpacked ready to be... well packed again. Then shipped. :D

Are you sensing a theme to this post? As the title indicates, I've come to the conclusion that I have become a horrible flake to my readers. I have emails dating back to early October I had every intention of responding to, and yet... So here we are. In hopes of answering many of the emails at once, I ask you all to forgive me for the generic blanket answers to the frequently asked questions I have received over the last few months. And here we go:

1.) Is there going to be a third book in The Dark Divine series? I'm hoping if you are reading this blog you are already aware of this. If not - YES :D. I am working on it now.

2.) When does the third book come out? It is scheduled to release in the US in Dec. 2011 (probably around the 27th-ish, but that's not official, just my current guess). I don't know the release date of any other market, but imagine it will be about a year following whenever The Lost Saint was released there.

3.) Will you be writing another series/book after The Dark Divine series? That's the plan. I have several stories floating around in my head and I'll write until they tell me I can't anymore. And then I'll figure out a way to defy them anyway.

4.) What's happening with the movie deal for The Dark Divine/Will they be making your books into a movie? Fingers crossed. The option rights were purchased last year by a production company in LA (same producers that did the X-Men movies), but where it goes from there is completely unknown and out of my hands. All we can do is hope the planets and stars align. Believe me. Nobody wants this more than I do.

5.) Can I get a copy of your book(s) to do a review on my blog? Sorry, but I don't have many copies of my own books to go around. In fact, all that I have has already been spoken for and any additional copies that I give out are purchased by me. However, you are welcome to contact my publisher (Egmont, USA) directly to try your luck. But I can't guarantee they are giving any more ARCs out (since, you know... you can go out and buy the books or get them from the library now.)

6.) Will you read my manuscript/do my homework for me? Honestly guys, I am often putting in 16 hour days writing and researching for my writing. And when I'm not being Writer-Bree, I've still got to be Momma-Bree. As much as I would love to help (and I really really mean that) I just don't have the time to give. As for questions with regards to homework, most of the answers you are looking for can be found on my website with a little effort... or you know, by actually reading the books. Sorry if that came out a little snarky. I just want to make sure you get the most out of your education :D.

7.) Can I interview you on my blog? Normally I would say "Yes! I'd love to do that." Unfortunately I am uber swamped right now. But that doesn't mean I can't/won't in the future. If you've already asked me, I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible, but please forgive me for taking FOR-EV-ER to respond. In the meantime, the best thing to do is contact my publicist, Virginia, directly as she may be putting together a blog tour. Contact her assistant, Brooke, at Goodman Media: Bbotsford@goodmanmedia.com.

8.) Can I tell you how awesome you are? *blushes* Sure. *bats eyelashes* But I can't guarantee I'll always believe you. By the way, you're pretty awesome too. In fact, you readers are the most awesomest people ever. I just hope we can always be friends.

9.) Can I send you chocolates? Always :P. My PO box is listed on the website.

Okay, that last one doesn't actually get asked very often, but I think it's a travesty that it doesn't. So I decided to include it anyway.

Thank you everyone for all the awesome notes and comments I get. You guys really do rock and I'm so freaking grateful to have so many supportive friends and readers. Please know that I do in fact read every email that comes in, but in the words of the late great Sammy Davis Jr., "somthin's gotta give" and I can't respond to them all. Having said that, I am a very active tweeter (twitter-er?) and you may find I respond much faster if you contact me that way. If you have any more questions that I haven't answered above, leave them in the comments and I'll either reply or save them up for another FAQ blog post or a post of it's own.

Oh, and while I've got your attention, I'll be speaking at the Whitmore Library (Cottonwood Heights, UT) on March 12th at 1:30 pm, where I'll be giving my advice for aspiring writers. I'd love to see you there if you can make it.

Ok, apology session over. Gotta get back to the grind. *crawls back into writing hole*

Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Daniel Kalbi

*** Business First:

1. I'll be speaking and signing at the Bingham Creek Library in West Jordan at 7 pm on the 15th of November. Attendees may get a chance to get their hands on THE DARK DIVINE paperback (with a TLS preview) before anyone else.

2. Speaking of the TDD paperback, it comes out November 23rd (just in time for Christmas gift shopping)!!! The pb includes a the prologue & first chapter of TLS.

3. Mark your calendars: THE LOST SAINT hits bookshelves on December 28th! We'll be celebrating the launch at The King's English Bookshop at 7 pm on December 28th. You are all invited, of course. ***

Yowza, Bridget Moynahan smashed the competition to play Meredith Divine with 61 votes out of 108 (56%). Kelly Preston came in second with 18 votes (16%). Talk about a landslide!






Now on to the event we've all been waiting for. . . casting:

DANIEL KALBI!!!!

Physical description: Age 18. Naturally very blond but sometimes dyes his hair black. Deep, dark brown eyes. Lean build, but tall and well-muscled. Devious smile. Sometimes described as being "wicked hot" but also sometimes he looks like an angel. (A hot angel, of course.)

This one was super hard to narrow down the votes for. Seriously, I'm very protective of my Daniel, plus there were so many hot guys nominated to choose from. This is a very important decision, so I couldn't just show one picture of each actor. And since Daniel needs to have a nice upper-body, it only made since to include a shirtless photo of each nominee for proper inspection.


Thomas Felton (Who knew Draco Malfoy could be so attractive in real life?)


Alex Pettyfer (So, so, so, so hot!)


Chace Crawford (Very cute, but I think he may be too old.)


Mitch Hewer (Can you say "hot angel"? There's a part in TLS where Daniel looks just like the photo of Mitch with his eyes closed.)


William Moseley (was actually nominated for Jude, but I thought he might be better for Daniel. Perhaps a little too fresh-faced?)


Now I give you all the arduous task of picking one of these beautiful boys to play the part of Daniel in our fantasy casting of a TDD movie.

Be sure to vote for your favorite choice up over in the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT to get another entry to win 1 of 10 bottles of TLS nail-polish. The poll will be open until 11:59 pm MST on Tuesday, November 9th.

And be sure to keep spreading the word about the $2.99 special on the TDD ebook that runs until November 22nd. Let me know in the comments what you've done to spread the word and I'll enter you to win 1 of an additional 5 bottles of TLS nail-polish. I'll announce those winners when I announce the fantasy casting winners.

MY HALLOWEEN TREAT FOR YOU ALL + Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Pator Divine

10/25/2010

****IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

You guys know how much I love Halloween, right? Like love, love, love, love it. And not because I'm into creepy things (really, I'm not--says the paranormal fiction author). I love Halloween because it's an entire day (more like week at our house) devoted to playing dress-ups and eating chocolate. What could be awesomer than that?

Oh wait, I know something that would make it even sweeter!

Here's my Halloween treat for you all: Starting today until November 22nd, the e-book version of THE DARK DIVINE will be available for only $2.99 from most major e-book retailers (Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-million, Amazon etc.) and many indie bookstores.

UPDATE: B&N and Amazon are both now offering the e-book for only $2.39!!

Please share this promotion with your friends and followers. Tweet about it, blog about it, facefook it. The more people we can get to read TDD, the better things will be for THE LOST SAINT out of the gate. And who can deny such a fabulous price? I'm going to buy an e-book copy of TDD for the kindle app on my phone just to have a portable version of it with me at all times--and at $2.99, why the heck not?!

But wait, it gets even better. If you help spread the word about this special promotional TDD e-book price--I'll enter you to win 1 of 5 bottles of TLS nailpolish. (That's 5 bottles in addition to the 10 I'm giving away in the fantasy casting contest.) Just be sure to share link to where you announced the promotion in the comments of this blog post.



Also, to kick off the TDD ebook promotion, the ROMANTIC TIMES posted an essay I wrote about "The story behind the story of THE DARK DIVINE." So if you want to know the real life inspiration for the book. Be sure to check out the essay HERE.****

Okay, on to the fantasy casting for THE DARK DIVINE movie!

So Adam Gregory slammed the competition to play Jude in our fantasy cast of THE DARK DIVINE. He pulled in 54 votes out of 109 (that's a whopping 49%)! But seriously, with those eyes, who could compete? Nolan Gerard Funk came in 2nd with 24 votes (22%) but Logan Lerman was nipping at his heels with 22 votes (20%).







Now on to our next character:

PASTOR DIVINE

Physical description: Half Scandinavian, half Russian-ish ancestry. Fair. Wears glasses. In his early forties.

Colin Firth (Is it okay to have a crush on the actor playing Grace's dad?)


Nathan Fillion (Ditto on the crush thing. I LOVE Nathan Fillion!)


Tim Daly (Has a good fatherly look)


Mathew Settle (Possibly a little too rock & roll to play a pastor?)


Now be sure to vote for your fave choice up over in the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT to get another entry to possibly win 1 of 10 bottles of TLS nail-polish. The poll will be open until 2:30 pm (MST) on 11/27/10.

And be sure to spread the word about the ebook promo price--and tell me what you did in the comments to be entered into a seperate drawing for 1 of 5 additional bottles of TLS nail-polish.

Fantasy casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Jude Divine

***I'm participate in a the YA Spooktacular. It's a ghost story told in a round by a bunch of YA authors and writers. I wrote part 2 of the story called A SOUL LAID BARE that was posted today. You can read my part of the story HERE and find the links to the other parts of the stories.

Also, I'm speaking and signing at the St. George Book Festival on Saturday, October 23st at 1:00 pm. If you're in the area, come check out the event.***

Emily Osment won with 31 votes out of 87 (35 %) to play April Thomas. Sasha Pieterse came in second with 20 votes (22%).

Now on to the next character candidate:

JUDE DIVINE

Physical description: Almost 18. Short, dark brown, hair. Violet eyes. Square jaw. Also has a "roman nose." Jude and Grace look very much like brother and sister.

So Chase Crawford and Pen Bagdley got the most nominations for Jude, but even thought I love both of them, I decided both are a little too old for playing high school students now. (Note: If you haven't noticed, I decided to narrow down to the nominations to only actors/actresses the right age to play the characters now. There were so many great nominations, I had to do something to help narrow it down.)

Logan Lerman (What a cutie!)

Adam Gregory (Those eyes!!)

Zac Efron (Used to be anit-Zac, but I loved him in 17 AGAIN. Totally a Zac-convert now.)

Nolan Gerard Funk (Kinda pale, but he looks a lot like the Jude in my head.)

Gregg Sulkin (Maybe a little goofy looking, but he has cute potential.)

Okay, remember to vote up over in the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT to be entered to win 1 of 10 bottle os TLS nail-polish. This poll will be open until 3:30pm on Sunday, October 24th.

Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: April Thomas

10/20/2010

***I'm speaking at the St George Book Festival this Saturday at 1:00. If you're in the area, come on over to the festival and visit me.***

Wow, Matt Lanter won by a landslide to play Pete Bradshaw with 45 votes out of 106 (that's 42%). Except I kinda liked the idea of Matt playing Talbot . . . but the people have definitely spoken! Robbie Amell came in second with 32 votes (30%)

Next up in our fantasy casting is April Thomas, best friend of Grace Divine. Surprisingly, she was one of the hardest characters to narrow down the nominations for--there were so many great suggestions!

Remember to vote in the poll over on the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT if you want to be entered to win 1 of 10 bottles of TDD nail polish. Each character you vote for (and comment on) will get you an entry into the giveaway. . . so that's 8 possible entries total.

So here we go. . .

APRIL THOMAS

Physical description: Age 16. Blond, curly hair that resembles Cocker Spaniel ears. Blue eyes. Has that Minnesota "Scandinavian" look.

Taylor Swift (I'm an indie music kind of girl, but I have a lot of respect for Taylor. Plus, I thought she was really cute in Valentine's Day--where she played the BFF of Emma Roberts, our winner for Grace Divine.)

Sasha Pieterse (her hair of reminds me of cocker spaniel ears like April's)

Katija Pevec (love her smile--it feels like April's to me)

Anna-Sophia Robb (I absolutely love her! And I think KidZ has had a crush on her ever since he watched Bridge to Terrabithia)

Emily Osment (Totally rockin' the cocker spaniel ears look, don't you think?)

Ok, be sure to vote AND comment! The poll will be open until Friday at 2:30pm (MST).

Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Pete Bradshaw

10/17/2010

***Business First: I'll be speaking at the Saint George Book Festival this Saturday at 1:00 pm, and I will be a featured author at the Provo Teen Book Festival on October 30th (along with Scott Westerfeld!! and others) from Noon until 4:00 pm. Oh, and be sure to check out this article in the Deseret News to hear more about how the TDD movie deal came about.***


Sorry for the delay on this post--My computer and Blogger are having a little spat. Not sure who's at fault, though.

We had a great voting turnout for casting Grace Divine. 177 votes in all!

Emma Roberts ended up winning the race with 60 votes (33%) but Allison Miller came in at a close second with 54 votes (30%).

(Winner: Emma Roberts!)

Remember to come back and vote (AND leave a comment on the post) for each character because I'll be selecting 10 random voters to win a bottle of the TLS nail-polish--and each character you vote for equals and entry into the giveaway.

Our next contestant on Fantasy Cast THE DARK DIVINE movie is:

PETE BRADSHAW

Physical description: Age 18. Big and athletic. Captain of the school's hockey team. Rusty colored hair. April describes him as having a "triple threat" smile.

It was really, really hard, but I managed to narrow it down to my top four choices (including the actor most nominated).

And the nominees are:

Cris Olivero (Really like his look, but according to Google Images, he doesn't smile very often).

Kellan Lutz (Got the most nominations [8] and has a great smile--but looking he's kinda too old to play 18 years old.)

Matt Lanter (Great look)

Robbie Amell ( Great smile)

Now consider your choices carefully, vote for your favorite in the poll up over there in the SIDEBAR, and then be sure to LEAVE A COMMENT on this post if you want to be entered to win the nail polish.

The Pete Poll will be open until 2:30 pm (MST) on Tuesday, October 19th.

Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Grace Divine

10/13/10

***First things first, I wanted to tell you all that I'm speaking at the Salt Lake City Main Library this Friday (October 15th) at 7 pm in the main auditorium as part of their Dewey Lecture series. I'll be speaking about the power of words--and I may have a special little present for people who come out to the event.***


On to the fantasy casting:

Phew! Can I tell you how much work it was to compile all the pictures of the actors/actresses you guys nominated and then narrowing it down to my favorites? Pleasant work, yes, but hard and time consuming, none the less. There were so many great nominations!

I decided to make an individual post for each character rather than overwhelm you guys with too many options at once. That will be 8 posts in all over 16 days. Each post will stay up for 48 hrs so you guys can vote--and then in the end I'll post the "Ultimate Fantasy Cast" for a TDD movie. Be sure to vote in the poll over on the SIDEBAR of the blog, AND also leave a comment on EACH post saying you voted. I will select 10 random commentors/voters to each win a bottle of the new THE LOST SAINT Nail-polish.*

You will get an 1 entry for each character-post you comment on/vote for. But only 1 entry per vote per character--voting multiple times for each character won't get you additional entries.

Today we're starting with Grace. I've narrowed down the nominations to my 5 favorite choices, including the actress who got the most nominations.

So let's get started...

GRACE DIVINE

Physical description: Almost 17. Fair skinned with long, dark brown, loosely curly hair and violet eyes. She describes her nose as being "Roman." Has that "girl next-door" fresh-faced kind of beauty going on. Short.

Actress choices:

Lucy Hale (I think she looks a lot like the actress in the TDD book trailer)


Emily Browning (Got the most nominations [8] but not my own most favorite...)


Allison Miller (Love her "girl-next-door" look)


Dakota Fanning (Not dark-haired, but she gets tons of bonus points for her talent. Plus, she can always dye her hair, right?)


Emma Roberts (Always one of my personal faves)


Now cast your vote in the poll (over on the SIDEBAR of this blog,) AND leave a comment saying you voted on so I can give you credit for your entry. You know you want some of that nail polish!* The poll for Grace will be open until 2:30 pm MST on October 15th.

*Nail polish can only she shipped within the United States. If an international winner is selected, they will be sent TDD stickers and a signed bookmark instead of nail polish.