In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety

In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety

by Krysten Lindsay Hager

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GENRE:   YA

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BLURB:

Cecily feels like she has it all: great best friends, the beginnings of a career as a model/actress, and she’s dating her favorite singer, Andrew Holiday. Then Cecily’s best friend Lila begins to ditch her every time Lila’s boyfriend calls. Cecily feels lost, but she and Andrew begin connecting more and she’s never been in a relationship where she felt so understood. Andrew even begins to confide in her about his anxiety. Soon Cecily experiences her own anxiety on a magazine photo shoot, but she manages to impress the magazine staff. Just when it seems like all her dreams are coming true, everything comes crashing down when a photo of Andrew with another girl appears online. He swears nothing happened, but Cecily is crushed. She feels like she’s lost two of the people closest to her.

Was her perfect relationship real or was she in over her head?

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EXCERPTS:

“Good luck at the photo shoot tomorrow,” he said. “You’ll be great.” 

I stared out the window on the ride back to the hotel taking in all the sites. As I walked into the hotel I felt a new air of confidence. Instead of just reading about someone going out with a pop star to some fabulous rooftop hotel restaurant and being in the big city, I was living it. This was my life and not some YA book heroine’s. Tomorrow I was off on a modeling shoot. I was living a dream and proving how I was ready for a big life. This was my destiny. I could do this. 

****

My alarm went off and at the same time an alarm went off in my brain saying, no, I could not do this. What was I thinking? Me, model? That’s where people take photos of you for the sole purpose of other people looking at them, which encouraged judgement and evil comments. People don’t just keep those comments to themselves anymore. Oh no, they grab their phone or laptop or whatever device helps them spew out unhelpful and cruel comments on people’s appearances online for all the world to see. 

My stomach felt like spewing all over the nice hotel sheets I was wrapped in.  Why did I ever think I was up for this? Those strangers online would destroy me within seconds. Girls like Harlow who were born with an undeniable beauty could do stuff like this and even then, I had seen strangers criticize her online when she posted selfies. 

Being anxious always made all my senses go nuts. I ate two slices of toast and then my stomach did a weird flipping thing. Oh no, not today. Looking over at the clock I realized it was almost time for us to leave. Come on, stomach. You’re fine. Just relax and…nope, time to hit the bathroom. Why can’t I just be a big girl and go to this stupid shoot which most girls would kill to do without my stomach freaking out?

A Word From the Author

1.Did you always want to be an author?

Yes, I was always coming up with stories when I was a kid and writing little storybooks from the time I learned how to write. I had a Cabbage Patch Kid kit that helped you create picture books and I used to play with that all the time. I always loved reading and dreamt of writing my own books someday. 

2.Tell us about the publication of your first book.

I had been learning about the business for years and writing and submitting. The year before I got my book contract for True Colors (my first novel), I spent it doing constant critique groups and basically devoted my time to writing and editing. I was completely in that book world. I didn’t know what to expect when I found out I was going to get published, but I remember hearing authors say it’s not what you think it’ll be. There were always published writers at writing groups who looked like they hadn’t slept in days and going on about stress, deadlines, and expectations and you think, oh they don’t know how lucky they are and then one day it’s you and it’s like, I’d kill to sleep for a couple hours in a row and not have expectations I can never meet chase me down.

3.Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

There are so many in the YA genre, but I enjoy Cathy Hopkins so much. I was going through a difficult time one year after moving overseas and having a horrible reaction to a medication and her work helped me to escape my own world. I had been a fan of hers before, but I really appreciated the worlds she created to take my mind off my own troubles.

4.What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

The best part is hearing something you wrote made you feel less alone. The worst would be the expectations of others.

5.What are you working on now?

I’m working on the next book in the Cecily Taylor Series which has Cecily going back to NYC and being in a music video for a different singer. She also gets another acting job and her friend Allie has a big life change coming as well. I’m also working on another YA book as well as some adult romantic comedies.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star,  Landry in Like, Competing with the Star, Dating the It Guy, and Can Dreams Come True. True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for childen/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Landry in Like is a Literary Classics Gold Medal recipient.

Krysten's work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton.  

Author links:

Website: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystenlindsay/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrystenLindsayHagerAuthor

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/krystenlindsay/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystenLindsay

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VRYS65N/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRYS65N

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07VRYS65N

Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07VRYS65N

Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07VRYS65N

Book One: https://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Come-True-Cecily-Taylor-ebook/dp/B079S3KJSH

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:

Krysten Lindsay Hager will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Competing with the Star

Title: Competing with the Star

Author: Krysten Lindsay Hager

Genre: Mature YA Romance

Release Date: March 22, 2016 Publisher: Limitless Publishing

The perfect guy, the perfect location. What could go wrong? 

Hadley Daniels’s life seems perfect…

Before the beginning of sophomore year of high school, Hadley and her family move to a beautiful beach town, where she makes amazing new friends and lands the boyfriend of her dreams—Nick Jenkins. He’s the kind of guy every girl swoons over, and it isn’t long until Hadley discovers some are still swooning.

A famous ex-girlfriend makes matters more complicated…

After some time dating, Hadley and Nick form a deep bond. But insecurity sets in when Hadley discovers her boyfriend once had a huge crush on her friend—who just happens to be the beautiful former teen TV star, Simone Hendrickson.

The past is the past—or so they say…

Hadley confronts Nick, who confesses about his history with Simone. Though he claims to only have eyes for Hadley now, it’s hard to believe—especially when she’s blindsided with the news that Nick and Simone kissed after school.

Now Hadley must determine who is telling the truth. Love, betrayal, friendship…who needs soap opera drama when you’re busy competing with a star?

“Lovers of YA romance will definitely love The Star Series.” Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews “Hadley our teenage heroine has many of the insecurities, which inflict most of us at this young age…A lovely story, with some good lessons about friendship, self-esteem and relationships, perfectly pitched for teen/young adult readers.” From author Jane Hunt. “…Hadley realizes is that even celebrities have their own insecurities, make bad decisions and underneath all that make up and the clothes they are just teenage girls hiding their own problems.” Review: for Living in a Bookworld (Greece) “It brings to life the beauty of YA romance with all its uncertainties and possibilities. In the midst of all the drama, confusion, and romance, the story also gives off a beautiful and serene sense of family.” Readers’ Favorite Book Reviews. “I love this series and highly recommend it to both teenagers and adults. For me Krysten Lindsay Hager's books always mean a wonderful trip down memory lane.” With Love for Books Book Reviews

Then the most beautiful sound in the world came along—the final bell. I grabbed my bag and rushed out the door to my locker, where I ran into Reagan O’Hara, Nick’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend. “Watch where you’re going, spaz,” she said, glaring at me. “Exactly where are you in such a hurry to get to anyway? I can’t imagine that you’d have plans.” I could have said, “Off to meet my boyfriend, you know, the guy you used to badmouth me to,” but no, I took the high road and said, “Excuse me,” and kept going. “Whatever, loser,” she said. My shoulders tensed. As I tried to ignore her and tell myself it was just jealousy, I couldn’t pretend that her words didn’t hurt. I had been considered kind of a loser at my old school in Goodacre. I had had one super close best friend who I did everything with, Lexi Irvin, and when she moved to Dallas, it was as if I had been abandoned. So yeah, I had felt like a complete loser in Goodacre, but now I was here in Grand Haven, with new friends and a new positive outlook on life. I had a new best friend, Charlotte Lidstrom, and had become friends with former teen TV star Simone Hendrickson and her best friend, Asia Milanowski. It could be intimidating hanging out with Simone since she was popular, pretty, and famous. Sometimes I felt invisible next to her, and unfortunately, hanging with Simone sometimes meant spending time with people like Reagan or Simone’s other friends, Pilar Ito and Morgan Kemp. Morgan was the ultimate mean girl. I swear, even if she told me she loved my outfit and was hooked up to a lie detector test saying she was telling the truth, I still wouldn’t want to risk it and I’d go home and change. But today I was not going to worry about Morgan, Reagan, or any of that. I was just going to focus on my first date with Nick. Until I rounded the corner and ran into Simone, who was waiting for me at my locker with Morgan and Pilar. “Hey, Hadley,” Simone said. “Wanted to return your lucky bracelet. Let’s hope it helped me pass my math test.” She handed me my heart and natural stone charm bracelet and I slid it on my wrist. Morgan looked down at my hands and made a face. “Why are you wearing such dark nail polish?” she asked me. My face got warm. “I thought the color was pretty when I saw it in the store. I’ve never seen this shade of purple with so much blue in it.” “Guys aren’t into weird nail polish colors,” Morgan said as she fluffed her long curly blonde hair with her red polished fingers. Great, so even my nail polish was wrong. Could I do anything right? “Here comes Nick,” Pilar said, and the girls all got quiet. “Hey, guys,” he said, coming up and nodding at them. I started to curl my fingers under so he wouldn’t notice my dark polish—the color that up until a few minutes ago I thought was unique and beautiful was now making me feel like a little oddball. “Cool color,” Nick said. “Huh?” “I like the blue. It’s very you,” he said, and then he reached over and intertwined his fingers with mine. Take that, you dark nail polish haters. “So are we all heading over to Scoops together?” he asked. Simone played with a strand of her long blonde hair, but didn’t say a thing. “Yup, we thought we’d go over with you guys,” Morgan said, smiling up at him with her gleaming white teeth. Wait, what? No, not cool. This was our first date and I knew I’d feel awkward talking to him around a group—a group judging me on what I said, did, and apparently even the colors I wore.

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, and Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2). Her work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Bellbrook Times, and on Living Dayton. 

Besides mining her teen years and humiliating moments for her novels, ​Krysten is a also a book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and writes young adult, middle grade, new adult, and adult fiction as well as humor essays. 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's addicted to American Dad to the point where she quotes episodes daily and she also loves Girl Meets World). She's a big Detroit Lions fan and even has a team gnome she inherited from her dad. She received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.

HOSTED BY:

Meet My Character Blog Tour

Welcome to the Meet My Character Blog Tour. I was invited to participate by Teresa Cypher, one of my favorite authors. Teresa loves writing, reading, gardening, glass sculpture (garden art) and walking. You can find Teresa at http://dreamersloversandstarvoyagers.blogspot.com/  or at http://www.wewriwa.com She's also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/teresa.cypher?fref=ts

I'm supposed to introduce a character to you, so I might as well use a character from my book that's coming out on September 23. The title of the book is Rest Thy Head, and the character I'm introducing is Jake, one of the owners of the inn. I'd love to show you a cover, but I don't have one yet.

1.What is the name of your character?
Jake Douglas.

2.When and where is the story set?
Rest Thy Head is set in the present in the Laramie Mountains of Wyoming.

3.What should we know about him/her?
Jake served in the marines until Afghan insurgents poured gas on him and set him on fire. He survived, but he's scarred pretty badly on the left side of his body. His fiancee rejected him when she saw the scars, and he now lives at Rest Thy Head as an embittered hermit. His brother Patrick does most of the duties that require face to face interaction with guests, but Jake has turned into a great chef, so he manages the kitchen.

4.What is the main conflict?
The main conflict is between Jake and Peyton O'Malley who takes a job in Rest Thy Head's kitchen after she leaves her cheating fiance at the altar. Peyton knows that Jake loves her, and she loves him, but no matter what she does, she can't make him believe that the scars don't matter.

5.What is the personal goal of the character?
Jake's personal goal is to be selfless enough to let Peyton go even though he loves her. As he said, "I'm virtually a prisoner, and you have the entire world at your feet. It wouldn't take long for you to get tired of me and my limitations."  (Men!  They can be so silly.  Will he really throw away their love over a few scars?)

6.Is there a working title and can we read more about it?
The title is Rest Thy Head, and it's published by Astraea Press. Beginning in September you can read excerpts and learn more right here at my blog. For now, here's a blurb:

Running away from a fiancé who betrayed her, Peyton O’Malley finds employment at a beautiful bed and breakfast inn called Rest Thy Head.  She didn’t expect to live in the haunted room or to fall for the inn’s owner, a fire-scarred, war veteran who uses the inn to hide away from the world.  She didn’t expect her sister to show up at Rest Thy Head either, much less her formidable mother.

Now, thanks to the aid of a friendly ghost, Peyton has a shot at true love, and so does her sister Ashley, provided the guys cooperate of course!  Can Peyton convince Jake that they belong together, or will he turn his back on her and the future that she offers?

7.When can we expect the book to be published?

September 23, 2014. 

Next week your hosts for the Character Blog Tour will be:

Jennifer Gravely at http://www.jenniferraegravely.blogspot.com/

Jillian Jenkins at https://www.facebook.com/jenkinsjf?fref=ts

Krysten Lindsay Hager at http://www.krystenlindsay.com/

Stephanie Smith at  https://www.facebook.com/authorstephysmith?ref=hl

            

Kimberly Troutt at http://www.kimberleytroutte.blogspot.com

True Colors

Today is Astraea Press Day and also Fashionista Friday. Take a look at two great AP books, and then move on to my fashion post. Thanks so much for coming.

True Colors by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Tagline: A little competition can really bring out people’s true colors.

Back Cover Blurb: Every day I walked down the sidewalk to school and wished I were one of the interesting popular girls who ran up with exciting news. Just once I’d like to be one of those girls instead of the being the one who didn’t get invited to things because people “forgot” about me.

Landry gets pushed into trying out for the American Ingénue reality show modeling competition with her two best friends.  She doesn’t think she stands a chance, but she advances to the next level in the competition and her friends ignore her when they get cut. 

Enter the gorgeous Devon, who also makes the first cut and includes Landry in her clique. Devon becomes the perfect best friend, but can their friendship survive the competition?

Landry hopes her big break could come at any moment, but soon sees there’s much more to modeling. She begins missing out on being with friends and has the chance to have a boyfriend when she meets a boy named Vladi from another school.

Part of Landry wants to be famous (and have her hair look good for once), but part of her just wants to be accepted. She learns about friendships, being true to yourself, and that a good hair conditioner doesn’t hurt.

Excerpt:

The competition was for girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, but it felt like Ericka, Tori, and I were the youngest ones there. I only saw a couple of girls from school, and the lineup looked more like something you’d see on a music video set. All the girls were gorgeous, and they had these curvy womanly bodies. I looked like a skinny little kid next to them. The first girl walked out, and I heard the judges say she “owned the runway,” and, “walked like a gazelle.” I was starting to feel ill. I wasn’t sure which way it was going to come, but I knew I had to find a bathroom — fast. I started to get out of line when Ericka grabbed my wrist.

“It’s almost time,” she said. A tiny bit of spit flew out of her mouth and hit my cheek.

I wasn’t sure why she was so intent on me going through with it, but she had a death grip on my arm, so I didn’t have much of a choice. Her number was called and she walked out to the stage. One of the other girls said she walked like a kid with sand bucket stilts on her feet, but she came back with a smirk on her face like she knew she’d get chosen.

“They said they had never seen such long legs,” she said.

Tori was next.

“She walks like a gorilla at feeding time,” said the girl behind me. I went next, and I tried to focus on not tripping over my feet. My mom’s pumps had a rubber sole on the bottom, which probably wasn’t the brightest idea seeing as my shoes were making squeaking noises as I walked. I was so nervous I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked. I looked like the plastic clown who blows up balloons with its mouth at the Pizza Palace. When I got to the end of the runway, I tried to cross my feet to turn like the other girls had, but I over rotated and ended up doing a full spin which made my kilt fan out and gave the mall walkers a view of my blue underpants. I tried to act like it was intentional and did an extra turn. One of the judges put her hand up to stop me, and I held my breath as she started to speak.

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/True-Colors-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager-ebook/dp/B00L2G0YJS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403025172&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Krysten+Lindsay+Hager

Barnesandnoble.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/true-colors-krysten-lindsay-hager/1119742726?ean=2940149747658

Author bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager is an author and book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and also writes middle grade, YA, humor essays, and adult fiction. Her debut novel, TRUE COLORS, will be out June 17th from Astraea Press. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in South Dakota, Portugal, and currently resides in Southern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows.

Links:

Website: www.krystenlindsay.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrystenLindsayHagerAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystenLindsay

Instagram: http://instagram.com/krystenlindsay

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22444090-true-colors

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jxcUH54hU