Justine Manzano It’s time for a character-centric blog hop! Here you will get to meet the lead of my YA novel The Order of the Key. But first, a bit of an intro.
I was tagged by the great and powerful Hannah Goodman. Hannah is the founder and editor of Sucker Literary, which features undiscovered and new YA authors and happens to employ me as a reader. You can find the blog post that tagged me here. In that post, she discussed her novel, My Summer Vacation, which was originally published in 2006 and went on to win a bronze IPPY in 2007. It is set to be re-released in September 2014. Other books about her main character, Maddie, have been met with awards and praise. The final Maddie book in the series remains unpublished at this time but is looking forward to finding a home soon! For more info about Hannah, check her out on the web at hannahrgoodman.com.
This is what My Summer Vacation is all about:
Sixteen-year-old, Maddie Hickman is desperately seeking solace from her sophomore year of high school, a year of broken hearts, torn friendships, and family secrets revealed. Thanks to a position as a CIT (counselor-in-training) at Caleb’s Rock, a hippy, artsy-fartsy summer camp, as her mother calls it, solace has been found—or so she thinks. Maddie begins her summer at the pub shop writing short stories and poems, trying to recover from a terrible breakup with her first love and her family’s struggle with
her alcoholic sister. To maintain inner peace, Maddie swears off cute boys. Although
working alongside Noah, a fellow pub shop CIT, whose hot, nerd-boy looks and
ability to quote Shakespeare at just the right moment makes her swoon. Maddie decides a friendship with camper Zak is safe enough and can help her avoid the temptation of Noah, since Zak isn’t as cute and is a year younger. But when Zak asks her for kissing lessons so he can make the move on another girl, Maddie finds herself wondering if she should have sworn off not-so-cute boys, too.
Be sure to check it out!
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And now, without further ado, I’d like you to meet, my character. Care to answer a few questions, dear?
What is your name? Are you fictional/historical? Hi. The name’s Jacklyn. Jacklyn Madison. Or Jacks. Or Jackie. My friends, the ones who’ve known me forever, know me as Jacks. Your second question confuses me. Of course I’m not fictional. I do love to read about fictional heroes. I kinda wish I was one of them. At least the stakes wouldn’t be real then. Maybe, one day, I’ll be considered historical. You know…I kinda like that…
When and where is your story set? When? Now. Duh. I don’t have a time machine. Those aren’t real too, right? I mean, I just found out that having powers and monsters are real, so maybe? Anyway, my story is mostly set in my…um…friend…Kyp’s estate. Or, his mother’s Estate. Where she trains all of the people with powers like mine.
What should we know about you? Well, I guess the big one is that I’m a Key. Keys are humans with supernatural abilities. For one, my blood closes rifts between dimensions, and it also gives me some strengths that make it easier to battle the creatures that climb out through those dimensional rifts. And damn those things are ugly, creepy things…that want to eat you…Anyway, every Key gets their own set of talents. Mine are related to my body – and before you get gross and I have to club you over the head with a big stick, I mean super strength, super senses, super speed. Stuff like that. Anyway, I came to the Estate with my Mom, my brother Morgan, and my sister Gana. They’re Guardians. While Keys have multiple powers, Guardians get singular powers to master.
It’s nice that I’m here with my family. Even if they are probably some of the very few people I trust in this place.
What is screwing up your life? Well, at first I was really excited to be the long lost member of The Order of the Key. First, I get to be a superhero, which I kinda always wished I could do. Second, I get to learn more about my father who died when I was young. And third, I get to spend more time with Kyp, the guy who found me, who happens to be pretty adorable, if not a bit of an arrogant know-it-all.
My problems, however, began when I realized that Kyp’s mother, Lavinia, the leader of The Order, has some upsetting views. Interesting fact: Keys can’t die unless a ritual is performed over them. Guardians can die like any other human being. So why does Lavinia use the Guardians to protect the Keys? My family is not expendable. And why is The Order run like a scary dictatorship? The minute I started to realize something is screwy, Kyp told me why he really wanted to find me – to recruit me for his mission. You see, Kyp is planning a little coup…one that will get me stuck in the middle of a family feud complete with subterfuge, stand offs, and murder.
What is your goal? At first, I just wanted to be a hero. Now I just want to stop Lavinia and keep the people I love alive.
What is the title of your book? I suppose The Order of the Key would be a good title.
So, when will the book be published? When will you get to hear my story? Unsure. The Order of the Key is currently making the agent rounds. The rest depends on when someone picks it up as an agent and when someone picks it up as a publisher. I’m gonna say when, not if, because it just feels better, self-esteem wise.
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And now, I will tag the following authors, who will be participating on their blogs on Monday, September 15th.
First up – Scarlett! You may remember her from when I guest blogged on her site recently.
Scarlett Van Dijk was born in 1993 in Geelong, Victoria, before soon moving to South Australia. Her love of writing grew during her time at Wilderness School, with her first novel, Sky Stone, begun at the age of fifteen. After graduating high school, Scarlett entered the University of South Australia studying the Bachelor of Medical Radiations (Medical Imaging) and will complete the degree this year (2014). While editing Sky Stone, Scarlett began writing the second book in the Sky Stone series, titled Guardian Core. Scarlett’s love for creative writing is accompanied by an interest in martial arts, reading, and desktop publishing. Learn more about Scarlett and her writing at www.scarlettvandijk.com.
Second, meet Kay Kauffman, she’ll introduce herself below. You can find her at her blog at suddenlytheyalldied.com.
As a girl, I dreamed of being swept off my feet by my one true love. And at the age of 24, it finally happened…and he’s never let me forget it. A mild-mannered secretary by day and a determined word-wrangler by night, I battle the twin evils of distraction and procrastination in order to write fantastical tales of wuv…twue wuv…with a few bad haiku thrown in for good measure.
I’ve been spinning yarns for more years than I care to admit and I’ve got the calluses and paper cuts to prove it. My first novel, The Lokana Chronicles, is currently undergoing a major rewrite in advance of another round of queries.
I reside in the midst of an Iowa corn field with my hopelessly devoted husband and his mighty red pen; four crazy, cute kids; and an assortment of adorable kitties, chicks, and bunnies.
Third, meet the writer I once shared a writer’s workshop with, an author who can give a well-balanced critique, Ms. Kimberly A. McKenzie.
Kimberly A. McKenzie was born in 1970 on Williams Air Force base in Arizona to Robert Klemm and Casandra McKenzie. She is single, divorced, and without any children of her own. Her decision to write under a pen name is due to the respect and love she has for her mother. The passion for writing has been with her life-long and she has been employed in the technical writing field across industries for ten years. Starting in poetry in her early twenties, Kimberly has written and published short stories and poems and two books and she believes that writing comes from life, those we know, and the ever-changing possibilities of the fiction writer’s imagination.
And last, but certainly not least, meet Julaina Kleist-Corwin.
Julaina Kleist-Corwin is editor for her anthology, Written Across the Genres. She teaches creative writing for the City of Dublin, California. She has won several first place awards in short story contests. Her work has been published in The California Writers Club Literary Review and Harlequin’s 2012 and 2013 Christmas anthologies and other collections. You can find her at her blog at www.timetowritenow.com, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JulainaC, or on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/jkleistc.
Each of them will be posting their own post in the blog hop on Monday, the 15th. Be sure to go visit them then!