Friday, November 11, 2011

What Will You BECOME?

Dude! I have the amazing Ali Cross here with me today. Ali and I have been friends ever since I eavesdropped on her conversation in the lunch line at a conference. She's been in my critique group for years (poor thing), and today is the release day of her debut novel, BECOME!

I'm giddy with excitement to have her here.

Let's start with the book itself.


About THE BOOK:

The Twitter version: tell us about your book in 140 characters or less: “The devil's daughter is sent to Earth where she must face the evil she despises and the good she's always feared.”

Hey, that’s only 113 characters. Do I get extra points for that? (Yes. Yes, you do.)

Why e-publishing? Why now?
Now because I felt that my book was ready, and I had a few friends willing to jump in this whole thing together—it’s a lot less scary to do a hard thing with friends.

E-publishing because this particular book, while it garnered a lot of agent-attention and won some awards, it just couldn’t make it in the traditional publishing market. But I didn’t believe that meant it couldn’t make it—just not by traditional means.

I think that if you’ve done your due diligence, just because your book isn’t snatched up by an agent and/or publishing house, doesn’t mean you should give up on it.

What’s the one thing you learned about publishing this way that you didn’t anticipate?
I learned that people are supportive and encouraging and all-round-awesome no matter how you publish.

What else are you working on? Secrets? Inside scoops? Give us the juicy stuff!
Juicy stuff? You know me? I’m bo-ring. ;) (Lies! All lies!)

Hmm, well. Right now it’s NaNo time, so I’m getting my NaNo on with my alter-ego—my middle grade boy-book self. But I just finished the sequel to BECOME, which will come out in the spring!



About THE AUTHOR:

Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Nope! I always loved writing, but I didn’t make the conscious choice to become a writer until ten or so years ago. Instead, I wanted to be a veterinarian, an opera singer, a constitutional lawyer or prime minister of Canada. :) (Hey, you could still make that last one happen...)

What made you decide to go that “extra step” and seek publication?
I’ve never been one to hide my light under a bushel. If I wrote a story? A whole book? You can bet I was gonna try to take it all the way!

Quick! You’ve been chosen to be a contestant on Survivor. What luxury item do you take?
Lip balm! I swear, I would DIE without it.

Tell us something about yourself we don’t know.
It might not seem like it, but I’m really shy. I’m just a good faker. ;)

And the most important of all: bacon or chocolate?
Girl, I love you but . . . CHOCOLATE ALL THE WAY!

So there you go! Make sure you get your copy of BECOME. It's only $3.99 and a great read. Click here to get it on your Kindle. Click here to add it to your Goodreads list, or to leave a review once you've read it.

Be sure to visit Ali on her blog, and here to keep up with the whole Dark Carma team.

AND.

Paul Greci interviewed Ali yesterday and there's a great prize package to be won on his blog.

AND. AND.

You didn't think there'd be two AND's, did you?

Well, there is. There's this:

Copy and paste this graphic for your blog! Help spread the word. 

"This" is a little (okay, BIG) giveaway that will happen next week, from Monday November 14 - Friday November 18. The finer print:

You have 15 chances to win Ali's BECOME.
5 chances on blogs according to the following schedule:
Monday: Michelle McLean
Tuesday: Sara Larson
Wednesday: Stacy Henrie
Thursday: LT Elliot
Friday: Nichole Giles

5 chances on twitter according to the following schedule:
Monday, November 14 - 11 am MST, 1 pm Eastern
Tuesday, November 15 - 7 pm MST, 9 pm Eastern
Wednesday, November 16 - 1 pm MST, 3 pm Eastern
Thursday, November 17 - 4 pm PST, 7 pm Eastern
Friday, November 18 - 3 pm MST, 5 pm Eastern

We'll be chatting with the hashtag #BECOME so join us for your chance to mix and mingle and win!

5 chances through filling out this Google form.

So join us in the BECOME celebrations for your chance to win, or just to show support of Ali!

And... What will you BECOME?

30 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

Awesome interview. I'm so excited for Ali. Her book sounds fantastic. And yeah for chocolate!

Unknown said...

Chocolate-covered bacon! Ooh! Okay, maybe not. It could be good though.

Yea, Ali! Congratulations!!!!!!!!! (This so deserves an exclamation point overkill.)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Yeah for Ali! I'm hosting her fellow Dark CARMA author RaShelle Workman today, but Tweeting heavy for Ali!

Unknown said...

Great interview, Ali and Elana! And huge congrats to Ali today. Happy Release Day!

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

Hooray for Ali! (I blogged about all the Dark CARMA ladies today) I wish her many sales and much success. #IndeliblesRock (secret code for you're awesome Ali)

Matthew MacNish said...

Ali is the bestest!

Laura Pauling said...

Can't wait to read this. Awesome cover. And such a great example of why to self publish!

Shannon O'Donnell said...

I've made my rounds today--SO happy for them today!! :-)

Julianne Donaldson said...

Great review! Sounds like a fascinating story!

Chelsey said...

Two of my favorite ladies!! :D

Can't wait for BECOME's release.

Meredith said...

Yay for Ali!!! So excited for this book--how amazing does it sound?!

P.S. I'm not entering the contest, because I've already been lucky enough to win a copy!

Krispy said...

Yay! I'm very happy for ali! And woohoo, another chocolate lover but I do appreciate the deliciousness that is bacon. :)

Anonymous said...

What is this betrayal of bacon? I love ali...I just didn't see this coming! ;)

So happy for ali! Congrats! Congrats!

Melissa West said...

So exciting! This book sounds amazing.

Heather said...

I'm so excited for the release of Between! Congratulations to Ali! And yay, chocolate all the way! Wait, I love bacon too, does one really have to choose?!

Candyland said...

Wow, I've been gone too long. Way to go Ali!

ali cross said...

Holy. WOW.

I just don't know what to say. Thank you Elana! Thank you Michelle, Sara, Stacy, L.T. & Nichole. I am speechless!

And thank you everyone for your kind comments! I'm, well, pretty darn excited!!

((hugs to all!!))

Cherie Reich said...

Ali's book is awesome! Everyone should go out and read it.

It's kinda funny she wanted to be a veterinarian and then an opera singer because that's what I wanted to be too. Although, I'd rather be president of the world than just a prime minister of Canada. ;)

RaShelle Workman said...

Elana - You are so sweet!! It's been so much fun getting to know Ali. She. Is. Awesome!

Anonymous said...

I love Ali, (obviously) and her book Become is very amazing!!!

Angie said...

Super, super interview. Love you both!

Jemi Fraser said...

Lip balm & chocolate - we're destined to be friends! I'd totally vote for Ali for PM :)

Donna K. Weaver said...

I love the cover of her book and can't wait to read it.

Theresa Milstein said...

This book sounds excellent. It's on my to-read list.

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Ali's book sounds wonderful. Best wishes, Ali!

ali cross said...

LOL, the comments are cracking me up. Thank you everyone!

Alice said...

fun interview and sounds like a great book. Will have to check it out.

Nichole Giles said...

Yay! So excited for Ali. Become is an amazing story. And Ali is an amazing, incredible woman who totally deserves this. So happy for you Ali.

Unknown said...

Yeah I'm gonna have to go with choc. covered bacon too! Best of Both!!

Great interview! Way to get to publication, I'm so glad you did now we can all enjoy your amazing story!

Much love~
SupaGurl

Nata Cynthia Artistadonna said...

awesome book! can't wait to read it :)

See Elana's recent blog posts

Recent Posts Widget