Hooray!!!!
But just to warn you, I'm probably going to talk a bunch before I give you the buy links. So... Sorry?
This is one of the hardest books I've ever written. And because of that. Because this book took every ounce of creative energy out of me, and made me use my brain in ways I had never dreamed of using it before, and forced me to think differently, write differently and push myself to every limit and because it just all around kicked my ass, I feel the need to postulate.
So you're going to have to stay with me. :)
The thing is, when you read this book, you'll think, "This is the hardest thing she's ever written?" "She can't mean that!" "She can't be for real." "There's no way this silly thing novel was the hardest thing she's ever written!!!"
But I promise you that it was.
I have my theories as to why it was so hard, but the truth remains. It's short. It's just for fun. And it's a stand-alone. Those facts alone should have helped me turn out this book in no time.
Instead, I struggled and deliberated and stressed and grew another ulcer and nearly cried.
It was hard.
But I'm okay with that. I'm okay with hard.
It just took me by surprise.
I keep meaning to write a Writer Wednesday about Ambition. I want to talk about it because I believe in it. I write manifestos for myself around it. I am contemplating getting it tattooed on my ribs.
Okay, that last one isn't true.
But the rest of it is. I truly believe that Ambition is underrated.
There is something to be said about dreaming big and going full-stop for the thing you want most in life. Or the things you want most in life.
And that's what this project felt like to me: Ambitious.
Magic and Decay was my husband's idea. He reads lots of comic books and thought we could apply this whole Mash-Up concept that they do so well to the world of books. Think Batman and Superman save the world. Marvel especially is great at taking all their different universes and mashing them together for epic story lines.
The Avengers, for example.
So, he pitched the idea to me and I told him, I don't think my readers will like it. I don't think anyone will buy it.
But, in true Zach form, he kept pitching it. And pitching it. And pitching it. And then one day he said, I'm just going to start posting about it with a release date, then you'll HAVE to write it.
I finally started to take him seriously.
However, I still wasn't sold. So, I announced it to you guys, just to see if there would be any kind of interest.
And to my great surprise, There. Was. And with each teaser I posted, there was more and more excitement built up around this completely daunting idea.
Okay, I thought. I'll do this. I'll write this. I'll see what happens.
Like I said, this was supposed to be EASY. And FUN. And it was to a certain degree. But then there was this other problem... I had to put all of my major heroines in the SAME book and write alternating chapters BETWEEN THEM.
This is where things got, um, difficult.
I don't think I can stress how difficult that was.
Sure, Eden, Reagan and Ivy each have a unique voice in their own series, but that unique voice all draws from the same well: Me.
I have this fear every time I sit down to write a book... I really hope I'm not writing the same characters over and over and over.
And that fear was never more realized than when I had to write heroine after heroine after heroine.
I learned a lot. I learned a lot about them as characters. (And let me just say, they have never been more real to me.) And I learned a lot about me as a writer.
And as a person.
But what came out of me and into this story is something I am truly proud of.
I think that's how it goes with me. The projects that I have to fight tooth and nail for, that I have to wrestle in the mud with and work all hours of the night just to get a few hundred words on the page, those are my favorites. We bond during that struggle. We beat each other up and dig at each other's souls and in the end we walk out of the fray hand-in-hand and united for life.
That's this book. This short, fun, fast book. I hope you enjoy it! I hope it's everything you look for in a book and fills all those nostalgic places for Eden and Kiran and gets you excited for the rest of Ivy and Ryder's story and the next season of Love and Decay!
And when you're finished, if you would write a review, I would just be so honored. And so blessed by you.
This is a stand-alone by the way. Completely. You don't have to have read any of these books to understand what's going on. And it's not part of any other project.
Kobo and iBooks links are coming very soon!!!!
I'm glad your husband talked you into writing this book; it was fun to see all the groups interact with each other. I think you did a good job keeping all their voices separate and distinct. I'm a die hard star crossed fan, but this book inspired me to read the other series too. Thank you!
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