Tag Archives: Silence

[GUEST BLOGGER] Natasha Preston on the Changes in THE CELLAR from Wattpad to Sourcebooks

Posted on March 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

Tez Says: After I requested (and was granted access to) The Cellar, the publisher offered me a spot on the book’s blog tour. I chose the topic – when you hear something’s gone from self-published to traditionally-published, you hope that improvements have been made where necessary. After the guest post you should find information on The Cellar and Natasha Preston’s web links.

I started writing The Cellar back in 2010, about four months after I started writing, and that’s the version that’s still on Wattpad today, so there has been a lot of content/developmental editing. When I spoke to my editor at Sourcebooks she gave me some initial things to address – the cliffhanger ending had to be changed to give the reader a more satisfying conclusion to the story.

There wasn’t too much to change in terms of the characters, perhaps a little strengthening, but I find it very hard to change my characters. They tend to be who they are and if I’m to force a change it’s much more difficult for me to continue writing them. Maybe in my head they’re too human!

One big change was resurrecting someone that had originally been killed off very early on. I think in the end I wrote the character back into about seven chapters. Although it wasn’t a major character it was still my biggest challenge to have her back interacting with the others and reacting to different situations.

The whole editing process has undoubtedly made the book stronger, and Sourcebooks had some incredible suggestions, things that I’d overlooked that have made me so much more excited to share the story with a new audience.

Natasha Preston
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Natasha Preston
The Cellar
Sourcebooks Fire (US: 1st March 2014)
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For months Summer is trapped in a cellar with the man who took her – and three other girls: Rose, Poppy, and Violet. His perfect, pure flowers. His family. But flowers can’t survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out…

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1st January 2013 Releases

Posted on January 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Happy Release Day to:

R. J. Anderson
Ultraviolet
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st January 2013)
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Sixteen-year-old Alison wakes up in a mental institution. As she pieces her memory back together, she realises she’s confessed to murdering Tori Beaugrand, the most perfect girl at school. But the case is a mystery. Tori’s body has not been found, and Alison can’t explain what happened. One minute she was fighting with Tori. The next moment Tori disintegrated – into nothing. But that’s impossible. No one is capable of making someone vanish. Right? Alison must be losing her mind – like her mother always feared she would. For years Alison has tried to keep her weird sensory abilities a secret. No one ever understood – until a mysterious visiting scientist takes an interest in Alison’s case. Suddenly, Alison discovers that the world is wrong about her – and that she’s capable of far more than anyone else would believe.

R. J. Anderson
Quicksilver (Ultraviolet, Book 2)
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st January 2013)
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Back home Tori was the girl who had everything a sixteen-year-old could want – popularity, money, beauty. Everything. Including a secret. That secret made her very valuable. Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the only person who truly understood her. She can’t lose the secret. But if she wants to have anything resembling a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unique…talents. Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears in Tori’s life and delivers bad news: she hasn’t escaped. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-detective now in the employ of a genetics lab. She has only one shot at ditching her past for good and living like the normal human she wishes she could be. Tori must use every ounce of her considerable hacking and engineering skills – and even then, she might need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

Ilsa J. Bick
The Sin-Eater’s Confession
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st January 2013)
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People in Merit, Wisconsin, always said Jimmy was…you know. But people said all sorts of stupid stuff. Nobody really knew anything. Nobody really knew Jimmy. I guess you could say I knew Jimmy as well as anyone (which was not very well). I knew what scared him. And I knew he had dreams – even if I didn’t understand them. Even if he nearly ruined my life to pursue them. Jimmy’s dead now, and I definitely know that better than anyone. I know about blood and bone and how bodies decompose. I know about shadows and stones and hatchets. I know what a last cry for help sounds like. I know what blood looks like on my own hands. What I don’t know is if I can trust my own eyes. I don’t know who threw the stone. Who swung the hatchet? Who are the shadows? What do the living owe the dead?

Becca Fitzpatrick
Silence (Hush, Hush, Book 3)
Simon & Schuster (US & CA: 1st January 2013)
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Nora Grey can’t remember the past five months of her life. After the initial shock of waking up in a cemetery and being told that she has been inexplicably missing for weeks, she tries to get her life back on track. So she goes to school, hangs with her best friend, Vee, and dodges her mom’s creepy new boyfriend. But there is this voice in the back of her head, an idea that she can almost reach out and touch. Visions of angel wings and unearthly creatures that have nothing to do with the life she knows. And an unshakable feeling that a part of her is missing. Then Nora crosses paths with a sexy stranger, with whom she feels a mesmerising connection. He seems to hold all the answers…and her heart. Every minute she spends with him feels more and more intense until she realises she could be falling in love. Again.

J. Kenner
Release Me
Random House Bantam (US & CA: 1st January 2013)
Review
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Damien Stark could have his way with any woman. He was sexy, confident, and commanding: Anything he wanted, he got. And what he wanted was me. Our attraction was unmistakable, almost beyond control, but as much as I ached to be his, I feared the pressures of his demands. Submitting to Damien meant I had to bare the darkest truth about my past – and risk breaking us apart. But Damien was haunted, too. And as our passion came to obsess us both, his secrets threatened to destroy him – and us – forever.