Swim Season Goes to Taiwan!

Photo by Norman Chan via Adobe Stock

Ah, the wonders of the internet! For writers it can make incredible connections and collaborations. This one happened with Swim Season, my YA sports novel released last October. 

Long story short - I met a writer named Annie Douglass Lima through an online writers group (cleanindiereads.com) a while back and we've supported each other through many endeavors. Annie's an American teacher living in Taiwan.  

It happened one day that she sat next to the school's swim coach and somehow the subject of my book came up. The coach, Randy Schmidt, was interested in the book and thought his students/swimmers might be too. The problem was he preferred to read a paperback - not an ebook - and the cost of shipping a physical book halfway across the world was 34-66 dollars, a deal breaker. Annie and Randy came up with a great idea: his parents planned to visit him in Taiwan for Thanksgiving. I could mail a book to them in Florida and they'd personally deliver it to him. 

It worked! He received the book and circulated it among his swimmers. Here are their comments on the story, including some background on the individual swimmers. It's fascinating to see their responses to the book. Big thanks to all who took the time to read it, and especially to Annie and Randy for making this happen. 

Swim Season Nominated for InD'tale Magazine's Annual RONE Award!

  

I'm proud to announce that Swim Season, my  YA  novel released in October, 2016, was nominated for a RONE Award! 

The prestigious RONE (Reward Of Novel Excellence) Award  honors the very best books in the Indie and small publishing industry. Achieving this award is no easy feat, with three distinct hurdles to clear.

First hurdle: Your book must be read and reviewed by the magazine's professional staff of reviewers and awarded a 4 out of 5 star rating to qualify as a nominee. Swim Season was awarded 4 stars. You can read the review here.

Second hurdle: In order to move on in the competition, all books rated 4 stars are voted on by the reading public (the 5 star books advance automatically.)  The books with the highest number of public votes will move on to become finalists. So, this is where you come in. I need your vote! But it's a win-win: You can help me to advance and at the same time discover a terrific, professionally produced digital readers' magazine, for FREE. You'll love it. So let's get started! (If you're already into the magazine you can skip steps one and two and go on to step three.)

Writing a Vet - How My Character Led Me to Take on the Plight of Our Returning Veterans

Here's a little insight about being a writer: Sometimes a character can surprise its author.  She can turn out to be someone more powerful than the author imagined, drive the story in new directions, grab hold of the writer's imagination and not let go until she's completely fleshed out and satisfied.

photo by Scukrov via Dreamstime.com

This is what happened with my character Devon Keane, Aerin's mom in my young adult novel Swim Season. Veteran’s Day is a great day to tell you about Devon, an Army Reserve nurse, who demanded I tell her story because it’s the story of many women who serve in our military.

The story: Devon was on duty in the ER at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City the day terrorists struck down the Twin Towers. This hospital, just outside Ground Zero, was the first stop for victims and recovery workers in need of medical care. Deeply affected by the events of that day, Devon volunteered to work double shifts during the rescue and recovery effort. When the US went to war with Afghanistan, she enlisted in the Army Reserve, against her husband's wishes,  to provide care to the troops. 

On her second tour of duty, she participated in a mercy mission to help locals in a nearby village and was caught up in a suicide bombing. Shrapnel ripped through her right hip, requiring surgery resulting in complications, infection, chronic pain issues, an addiction to narcotic painkillers, and post-traumatic stress disorder.  She returned to her family as so many other veterans do: broken in body and spirit. Her drug addiction eventually led her to steal narcotics from her employer. She was caught, took a plea deal, and is serving a six-month sentence with rehabilitation during her daughter's last high school swim season.

I didn’t know Devon too well at the start of the story.  She’s absent other than being referred to in conversations and letters and doesn’t come on to the stage until page 170. The funny thing is that as I approached the scene where Devon enters the story as a full character, I found myself excited to finally meet her. She intrigued me, and I lingered over the writing of it.  I grew attached to her, and when I finished the chapter I was unable to go on with the story for a few weeks because I didn’t want to leave her behind. She only makes two more appearances in the book, but is present in other ways, including letters and email, and her love for Aerin pervades the entire novel.

I have no military experience and don’t know any female vets or soldiers personally, so I did my research for this character through literature.  I spent the summer of 2014 reading a number of different memoirs to learn about women’s experience in war, the work of military nurses, and coming home.  Some of the best I read were Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams, Soldier Girls - The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe, and Ruff’s War, by Cdr. Cheryl Lynn Ruff, USN and Cdr. K. Sue Roper, USN (Ret.) All of these provided great insight and answered a lot of questions.  Studying these soldiers’ stories gave me a great appreciation for their service and sacrifice.

Characters can lead us into new worlds, teach us new things, and take us places we didn’t plan to go.  I would not have researched these military women were it not for writing the story of Devon Keane.  This research has enabled me to be a better nurse to the veterans I serve in my role as a campus nurse at a community college.

I’ve decided to write a sequel to Swim Season, and this will be about Devon and her recovery and re-entrance into society after she's released from her incarceration. As I go on to write this story, I will continue to read the literature and reach out to veterans for personal interviews to deepen my insight.

As our veterans return from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and from other hot spots around the globe, it’s important we recognize their dedication.  Parades and platitudes are great, but our vets deserve a health system that meets all their needs – physical and mental – without delays and with the best medical care possible.  Politics should not be a part of this equation.  Our soldiers deserve the best.  After all, that’s what they give us.

Learn more about Swim Season.

New Release Spotlight: Krysten Lindsay Hager's Landry in Like, Book Three in the Landry's True Colors Series

 
Things seem to be going well in Landry Albright’s world—she’s getting invited to be on local talk shows to talk about her modeling career, her best friends have her back, and her boyfriend Vladi is becoming someone she can truly count on…and then everything changes.

Suddenly it seems like most of the girls in school are into hanging out at a new teen dance club, while Landry just wants to spend her weekends playing video games and baking cup-cakes at sleepovers. Then Yasmin McCarty, the most popular girl in school, starts to come between Landry’s friendship with her best friend Ashanti. Things take a turn when Yasmin tells Vladi that Landry is interested in another boy. Can Landry get her relationships with Ashanti and Vladi back or will she be left out and left behind?

The Landry's True Colors Series is a clean reads young adult humor series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, crushes, and self-image. It’s a clean reads book so it’s suitable for ages 10 and up.

Excerpt

“This is going to be so much fun!” Devon said as she opened the door. We all walked in and instantly my head felt weird and I tripped. My eyes had to adjust to the light as it was way darker inside, and everything was outlined in neon and lights. It was like a huge warehouse, and it was noisy and crowded. I wanted to turn around and call Mr. Allen to save me from this big, scary mob. But the other girls were all smiling. Even Peyton. Great, I was the only one wetting my pants in fear. Liv saw some guys she knew so we walked over to watch them play pool. Almost immediately a group of boys came over and bought sodas for Kendall, Liv, Valine, India, and Devon. I went to say something to Peyton when I noticed she had a soda in her hand, too.

Just then one of the guys bumped into me. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said.

“No worries,” I said. I’m just the invisible soda-less one. Don’t mind me, I wasn’t thirsty anyway.

Kendall glanced at her phone. “My brother texted me that he and Vladi are here already. Do you want to go find them?” I nodded.

“Does he know I’m here?”

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t sure if you were coming or not when I talked to him, so I just told him you might be coming. They usually hang out over at the air hockey table.”

I tried texting Ashanti again, but no response. Was it too loud in here for her to hear her phone, or was she too busy having fun to care?  Liv and Peyton came with us to go look for Steve and Vladi. Liv spotted them over by some couches. Vladi was sitting on the edge of an ottoman and a red-haired girl was leaning over and whispering in his ear. He was nodding and looking around. She put her hand on his arm and leaned forward.

“Oh man, that does not look good,” Liv said.

“He doesn’t seem interested in her,” Kendall said. “He’s looking everyplace but at her. I’ve known him for years, and if he likes a girl then he has razor focus. Trust me.”

I felt a little queasy when she said that. How many girls had she seen him be interested in?

Peyton put her hand on my arm. “It does seem like she’s more into him.” We watched as Vladi pulled out his phone and started texting.  

“See? You don’t text when you’re with someone you like,” Kendall said, folding her arms. “That would just be rude.”

The redhead moved closer and now had both her hands on his upper arm. My eyes stung with tears.

“Clingy, much?” Liv said. “She’s, like, a stalker.”

“Do you want me to go over there?” Kendall asked. I shook my head, willing myself not to throw up on the floor.

Purchase The Landry's True Colors Series

Amazon

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Nook UK

Kobo

iTunes/iBooks

About the Author

 
Krysten Lindsay Hager is the author of the Landry’s True Colors Series, a clean reads young adult series and the new ​Star Series. Krysten writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image in True Colors, Best Friends…Forever?, Landry in Like, and Next Door to a Star (Star Series). Her sequel to Next Door to a Star will be out March 22 2016.

Krysten is a book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and writes YA, MG, humor essays, and adult fiction. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South Dakota, and currently resides in southwestern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows. She received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.

 
Connect with Krysten Lindsay Hager

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Blue Hydrangeas, an Alzheimer's love story.

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The Twelve Days of Giveaways - Day Seven: Brenda Anderson

 

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

I love Christmas season. Even with the tumult going on around the world, hope cannot be taken from us. By celebrating Jesus' birth, we're reminded that we do have a Savior. In our broken world, our messy lives, our tragedies and tears, we always have hope.

In my novel, CHAIN OF MERCY, that's a lesson both the hero and heroine need to learn. Both are broken, both have made terrible choices, and both struggle to find hope with the mess they've made of their lives. Through Christ, they eventually find that hope.

My prayer this Christmas is that, no matter what's going on in your life, you'll look to the One who was born for you. Who loved you so much, He died for you! And then He arose, leaving your sins behind, washing you white as first-fallen snow!

Have a joyous Christmas! 

About Chain of Mercy ~                     

A devastating argument

One reckless decision

An unforgivable sin

Manhattan businessman Richard Brooks was at the top of the world, drunk with success, wealth, and women until one disastrous evening, when his world came crashing down.

Richard flees to Minneapolis where he repairs ancient boilers instead of solving corporate problems, and he’s determined to live the solitary life he now deserves …

Chained to his guilt. Blending in with the gray. No luxuries in sight.

But Executive Sheila Peterson has other plans for the handsome custodian. Richard appears to be the perfect match for the no-strings-attached romance she’s after, but she soon discovers that he’s hiding more than the designer suits in his closet.

Enter to win a copy of Chain of Mercy

 

About Brenda S. Anderson ~

Brenda S. Anderson writes gritty and authentic, life-affirming fiction. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, and is currently President of the ACFW Minnesota chapter, MN-NICE. When not reading or writing, she enjoys music, theater, roller coasters, and baseball, and she loves watching movies with her family. She resides in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area with her husband of 28 years, their three children, and one sassy cat.

 To find out what the other authors are offering, 

follow the blog tour. Here’s the map!

Remember: Giveaways end at midnight 

Christmas Day so don’t delay!

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Don't miss a word! Follow my Adventures in Publishing.   Subscribe now and receive a free Kindle copy of  Blue Hydrangeas, an Alzheimer's love story.   Value 2.99. Rated 4.7 stars on Amazon, 127 reviews.