When bad seeds come together and get great ideas...

...there tends to be pretty sweet results. Besides being ridiculously good-looking, we're also a little rebellious. And we write YA.

I'm a part of the YA Rebels, a vlog group coming to a YouTube near you in January 2010. We'll be covering important topics in YA fiction such as cafeteria drama, f-bombs, and how to properly cast spells without accidentally turning your boyfriend into polar bear dung. It's a pretty serious matter.

Check out the Teaser Trailer:

The happy never stops!

From Publishers Marketplace:

Courtney Allison Moulton's MY SOUL TO REAP, in which a sixteen-year-old begins seeing Reapers; monstrously sized wolf-like creatures; with the help of a handsome boy who has waited 60 years for her return, she unlocks her full power; soon the secrets of her past-lives surface - including truths that may be too frightening to remember; now she must keep an army of Reapers from consuming every soul on the planet...starting with hers, WINGS OF THE WICKED, and HYMN TO THE FALLEN, to Sarah Shumway at Katherine Tegen Books, in a good deal, In a pre-empt, by Elizabeth Jote at Objective Entertainment.

In October 2008, I was toying with some post-apocalyptic novel ideas and decided to watch The Time Machine. I'd seen it many times before(Guy Pierce is so hot) but this time was different. For those who've never seen the movie before, it's about about a scientist whose fiance dies and he builds a time machine to go back and save her. He goes back several times, but she keeps dying. Eventually he stops trying to save her and moves on. I wondered what would've happened if he'd kept trying to save her life even though he knew she was doomed to die. That's how Will character was created and I built a story around his never-ending tragedy. Ellie's character was created and eventually Will's story of tragedy became a story of hope--and scary monsters! So that's what I decided to write for NaNoWriMo '08.

On November 23, 2008 I finished the first draft and, like one of THOSE NaNoWriMo-ers, I sent out a couple of queries. When I got requests, I scrambled to edit and send out the second draft. When those requests turned into rejections, I realized that I shouldn't have been so quick to query such a crappy book. That is NOT how you get published, FYI! I stopped querying, got a couple of amazing beta readers, and did an extensive rewrite, careful to take my time.

In January 2009, I started querying again and two weeks later I had an offer of representation from the fabulous Elizabeth Jote. We had actually spoken over the phone about the book I queried 2008, so I made sure she was one of the agents I queried as soon as I felt I had a good (non-sucky) draft of the current manuscript ready. In March, we went on submission. In April, we got a lot of interest and in June, we began some extensive revisions requested from editors. After five rigorous months of revising back and forth with my genius agent, we turned in the revised manuscript in November. I held my breath and crossed my fingers, toes, and eyes.

On November 23, 2009--one year exactly to the DAY of finishing the first draft--I walked in my front door after coming home from riding my horse and my phone rings. Liz has called to tell me that we were about to get an offer. The next day, just after eating lunch with my mom at our favorite Mexican restaurant, my phone rang again. I accepted a three-book pre-empt offer from Sarah Shumway, senior editor at Katherine Tegen Books for HarperCollins.

I started to have a panic attack while on the phone with Liz, so bad that my mom had to pull the car over in a grocery story parking lot so I could get out and walk around the car in order to breathe. Within a few moments, the walking turned into running and jumping and dancing. That was definitely the best day of my life--and my mom of course embarassingly documented my whole freakout session on her camera phone and then posted the pictures on Facebook.

What are moms for, right?

I owe so much to my agent for having the guts to take on such a rough project and help me to transform it. Her advice and brilliant ideas really pushed me to be the writer I never thought I could be, and to delve into an emotional depth that I thought would kill me. I've had anyone work so hard for me and I owe her everything.

So there you have it! A not-that-exciting publishing story. I'm so thrilled for the next year and a half working with my shiny new editor and making this book even better.

Summer 2011, baby!! *dancedancebananasdancedance*

MY SOUL TO REAP - Artwork ft. Ellie and Will

(click on the image to see a bigger version!)

It's finally done!! This is a drawing of Ellie and Will, the two main characters from my Preliator Trilogy, done by the phenomenally talented 18-year-old Yue Wang. She did just... amazingly. Their expressions were captured just flawlessly...So mystical and filled with such subtle certainty. Will's eyes are perfect. I've spent the last year with his eyes in my head and seeing them for the first time is such a great feeling. Their weapons are AMAZING. I love the ancient and (very) well-used look of Will's sword and it's so beautiful. And the angelfire around Ellie's sword is just as otherworldly than I pictured. It doesn't look like ordinary fire at all, which is exactly how I saw it in my head.

Here's a little more about MY SOUL TO REAP, the first book in the trilogy currently on submission with my agent:

When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers--monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell--she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between Seraphim and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of fighting the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her--an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting extracurriculars, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to destroy Ellie's soul forever, ending her rebirth cycle. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives--including truths that may be too frightening to remember.

The Book Trailer for MY SOUL TO REAP

I made a book trailer! Please let me know what you think. It was a ton of fun to make and I got amazing advice from my friend, Leah Clifford, who is a book trailer guru!

I've been interviewed!

The fabulous and multi-talented Realm Lovejoy interviewed me on her blog today and drew a badass illustration of Ellie from MY SOUL TO REAP! She asked some great (and hard) questions about my book on submission, my writing process, and of course monsters!

Check it out by following this link!

Review: BLOOD PROMISE by Richelle Mead

This is going to be my first book review! I promise to warn you of any spoilerage. =D

Description: (from Amazon.com)

How far will Rose go to keep her promise?

The recent Strigoi attack at St. Vladimir’s Academy was the deadliest ever in the school’s history, claiming the lives of Moroi students, teachers, and guardians alike. Even worse, the Strigoi took some of their victims with them. . . including Dimitri.

He’d rather die than be one of them, and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa—the one she has sworn to protect no matter what—and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make long ago. But with everything at stake, how can she possibly destroy the person she loves most?

My thoughts:
The Vampire Academy series is my favorite YA series, hands down, but just because I love a series doesn't mean I won't be disappointed if a book sucks. There have been instances before where I read a craptacular installment of a series I loved and stopped reading the series then and there, never to pick up another book in that series again.

Luckily for BLOOD PROMISE, this was not one of those instances.

The book was perfect. Began perfect, ended perfect, and every single chapter was perfect. It was very long (125k words, I believe), but never once did it "feel" long-winded. It was never over-written. Every chapter had something extremely interesting or exciting occur and I, unable to set the book down, blazed through it in one day. I teared up, smiled, and laughed out loud too many times to count.

As most people know, Rose travels to Siberia in search of Dimitri. It was really cool to see the rest of the world Mead built. We all love the Academy, but it was time to see all of the things Rose was told about--what was really out there. We see firsthand what sort of life Dimitri led before he was sent to the Academy, and a good chunk of the book is spent inside the world of the Strigoi. That was really cool. While Rose is off in Siberia, leaving a trail of Strigoi bodies in her wake, she occasionally uses her bond with Lissa to travel into her friend's head and see all the struggles Lissa is facing without Rose. Though they're an ocean apart, Lissa isn't any safer than Rose.

Poor Rose... Some people may condemn her for some of the choices she made, but those who've ever been in love will understand that love can destroy you and make you willing to destroy yourself.

Now, I'm going to give my opinion on something, but it contains SPOILERS!! Just skip over it if you haven't read the book yet.
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SPOILERS!!!
I've read a couple reviews where people criticize Mead for Rose's lack of "emotional aftermath" after killing Dimitri. I don't really agree with that. Through the entire time Rose was staying with Dimitri, he felt wrong. It was obvious that he was no longer himself. He was scary, cruel, and invasive. Hell, I was uncomfortable around him in those scenes. We had all that time to understand that Dimitri had turned into a monster and that there was little to nothing remaining in him that we loved about him in the first place. After Rose killed him, she couldn't have been that devastated because she'd already done two months of grieving. She was still in love with him obviously, but not that Dimitri. It took her a little while, but she was smart enough to realize that. I hope that any woman in a relationship where she is more like a prisoner or possession than a beloved partner would wake up and get the hell out. I admire Rose for what she did. We saw the best and worst of her, and I think Mead did a great job. In the end, we got a glimmer of hope that Dimitri might be saved and we'll see his own self again soon. Yay! <3
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Verdict:

BLOOD PROMISE is awesome. If you have never picked up a VA book, get off your tuchus and over to your favorite bookstore and buy it.

Click here to check out BLOOD PROMISE by Richelle Mead on Amazon.com!

Teaser Tuesday: MY SOUL TO REAP

Yeah, I should be in bed, but revising is keeping me awake. This is one of my favorite scenes from MStR. Ellie is dancing with her friend, Kate, at the annual Halloween party when a stranger cuts in. I always seem to post action scenes, so here's one with more dialog (and a wee bit of action).

“May I cut in?”

Kate stepped aside and the boy took my hand, immediately drawing me close to him. His presence wrapped around me, electric and inviting, and he spun me around the hall in a waltz unbefitting to the music playing, but somehow kept in rhythm. Before I was aware, the music and commotion had drowned into a dull roar until I couldn’t hear anything at all. I looked nowhere but up into his eyes which were the most fiery opalescent kind of hazel I had ever seen. His dancing was like water, powerful and unyielding, yet fluid and smooth through every movement as if he had the predetermined course of a river. I let him lead me through the crowd in a twisted state of shock and bliss, unable to perceive anything but his face. I wanted to take the mask off his face, to reveal the beauty beneath.

Yeah, he was hot.

We danced until the end of the song and he still held me to his chest, his mouth curving into a delicious smile.

“Come with me,” he said, more pleading than demanding.

I nodded like an idiot and let him lead me across the hall back toward the archway we entered through. The hideous feeling of rejection washed away as the mystery guy led me off the dance floor. I was too eager to follow him, too eager to make myself feel worth something. For an instant, I wished Will had seen me leave with this guy. Maybe a spark of jealously would prompt him to make a move.

The Phantom stopped me around the other side of the wall and toyed with one of my curls as he studied my face with a look of both awe and amusement.

“You are a beautiful girl,” he said in a slightly surprised voice, his face close enough that he didn’t need to speak up for me to hear him over the music.

“I like your mask,” my mouth blabbed stupidly. I wanted to slap my lips off. I like your mask?

He laughed, his voice like velvet. “I’m glad you like it. What’s your name?”

“Ellie,” I answered, swooning. I leaned heavily against the wall to hold myself up.

“I’m Cainan,” he added.

“That’s an unusual name,” I noted absently.

“It’s a very, very old one.” The backs of his fingers traced along my bare collarbone. I shivered.

“Are you a friend of Josie’s?” I asked, trying to concentrate on our conversation as he touched me. He made it next to impossible to accomplish that.

“No,” he said, his fiery opal eyes on mine.

As I stared into them, I could have sworn I’d seen golden flames flickering in his irises. I blinked and the flames vanished. “Do you go to our school?”

“No.”

“Do you know a lot of people here?”

“Only one,” he responded. “Your Will.”

I was suddenly confused. “My—?”

In that moment, Will appeared beside Cainan, the back of his fist flying and slamming into the boy’s jaw. The Phantom mask flicked off and shattered on the floor, as if it were made of porcelain.

Okay, that wasn’t quite the move I wanted Will to make a few seconds ago.

“Will!” I screamed, grabbing his shoulder and yanking him back. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

He said nothing, but only stared at Cainan. Will’s eyes were bright green and, even in the dark hall, I could see his power humming furiously around him. Cainan rose to his feet, cupping his jaw—laughing. I would have bet everything I owned that hit from Will should have crushed every bone in Cainan’s face. How was he even alive?

Unless—

“What are you doing here?” Will demanded, his voice subzero, frightening even me.

“I only wanted to meet her,” Cainan said. “I had to get a look at the girl who’s been rustling everyone’s feathers so much lately. She seems to be the object of Ragnuk’s obsession and, not to forget, Askel’s. Can you blame my curiosity?”

Nausea clawed through my abdomen and my body went stiff with fear. “Reaper?”

“He’s one of Askel’s Vir,” Will growled, not looking at me.

Cainan leered knowingly at Will. He reached a hand out to me, but before I could react, Will’s sword was swinging through the air and the tip pricked into the beautiful demonic Vir’s throat.

“Don’t you dare touch her,” Will warned, pressing the blade a fraction of a millimeter deeper. Blood peeked at the tip. I glanced around, praying no one would notice.

“She’s a lovely thing,” Cainan said, still as stone, his chin up, his eyes locked on Will’s. “I see why you keep her so close. You wouldn’t want anyone like me sweeping off with her, would you?”

“Leave,” Will demanded. “Or we’ll take this outside and finish it.”

Cainan licked his lips as if the prospect was delicious. “I can arrange that.”

In my horror, my voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “I can’t fight dressed like a sexy nurse!”

“My dear,” Cainan said, his voice sensuous like wine, “I don’t intend on harming you. Your Guardian, here, is another story. We have unfinished business.”

“We aren’t carrying our quarrel into the world of humans,” Will said. “It can wait.”

I couldn’t be sure if Cainan’s face was disappointed or not. “Another time, then?” he asked.

“Agreed,” Will hissed.

Suddenly, Cainan vanished. Will stabbed forward in shock and anger, his blade punching through the wall. I felt warm lips on my neck and I screeched, wheeling away. Cainan grabbed me closer to him. As Will shot toward us, Cainan whispered into my ear, “Farewell, beautiful.”

Then, he was gone again. This time, for good.

Will swung his fists at empty air, cried out in rage, and pounded his knuckles into the wall, crushing the drywall. A couple of girls came around the archway and stared at us for a brief moment before giggling and moving on.

I grabbed his arm. “Calm down! I can’t believe you just punched a hole through Josie’s wall!” I looked around us. “We should walk away…”

Teaser Tuesday: EMPIRE OF ASHES

Here is a snippet from my YA historical fantasy, EMPIRE OF ASHES. This scene is where the teenage shapeshifter, Zuri, is whipped for killing a couple guards who attacked her friend. Because it's YA, and this is kind of a torture scene, I'm afraid it might be too brutal. I think it's less violent than most of my action sequences, but people seem to have a problem with torture.

Dawn hadn’t broken, yet, but the heat was already unbearable. My hands were tied above my head to an overhanging block of wood and I faced east. In no time, the sun would rise and cook my skin. I’d probably die of heat stroke if they didn’t crucify me first.

My head hurt where Rulla had struck me. A heavy pressure on my temple suggested a painful lump had grown, but I wasn’t sure why I was concerned about that. My body sagged exhaustedly against my chains. They must have been enchanted, like the rest of the iron found at the Ludus, or else I would have Changed and broken free. I’d given up tugging a long time ago. I ached to drop to the ground and rest my shoulder blades, but I feared any more weight on them would tear them from their sockets.

I smelled Otho behind me before he got close enough for me to feel his breath on the back of my neck. “It’s a damned shame I’m going to miss this, baby Lioness,” the vampire hissed, his breath blowing my hair over my ear.

I drew on the last of my strength and cracked the back of my skull into his forehead. He cried out and I heard him stumble to the ground, cursing loudly. Stars danced across my vision, but it was worth it. The bottom of Otho’s foot suddenly slammed flat into my back and my ribs cracked. I screamed, my body swinging on the chains, nearly ripping my arms apart. My head sagged as pain and nausea flooded through me. If he’d aimed an inch to the side, he would have broken my back instead of a few measly ribs.

“Otho!” a vaguely familiar voice roared. My gaze lifted to see the foggy form of Claudius approaching. Wrath twisted his face.

I heard Otho shuffle behind me, moving around to the very corner of my vision. He growled something in a strange language and trudged away. Claudius stepped up close to me and lifted my chin with his hand. Rulla appeared behind his superior, flanked by three other guards.

“You killed two of my men,” Claudius said, his voice lacking malice as if the statement was merely an observation of my deed. The calmness of it sent a shiver through my broken ribs. He moved my face side to side with curiosity, studying me. “Normally, I’d gut you right here and string your innards up the cage walls. But one of my men deserved his fate ten times over. Violation of a girl is not something I try to encourage, even the violation of a slave.”

I couldn’t keep the surprise from brightening my face.

He noticed. “You might think me a heartless monster, but I’d like to dispel that belief. You’re worth as much as shit to me, but I like to reward those with a certain spark. They call me a butcher, little girl, and my reputation is well-deserved. Today, you are fortunate. You will receive seven lashings and I will make an honest effort not to turn your skin inside out.”

My body locked up. He moved away from me so that all I could see was Rulla’s darkened face. I shut my eyes tight and waited for the pain.

The first lashing streaked across my back, slashing my flesh wide open, cracking against my broken ribs. I shrieked, my voice stinging my ears, and my body shuddered. Wet heat rushed down my skin and the smell of my own blood filled my nose, sickening me.

By the fourth strike, I felt nothing at all, but I still screamed. Blackness crept over my vision, and the last thing I recalled was the rising sun glaring into my eyes from around Rulla’s dark silhouette.

What do I define myself as?

Nathan Bransford's blog post got me thinking.

I want to be a career author. I define myself as a writer. But I also define myself as an equestrian, artist, photographer...lots of other things.

I don't take rejection personally. If someone rejects any of my work--whether it's my writing, art, photography, or even my riding at a horse show--then that just means it's not good enough yet.

Yet.

I hate to say it, but Nathan was right. If you're doing something you're not making a living at, then it's a hobby. Once you're able to support yourself with that hobby, then it's a career. Loosen up, people.

Teaser Tuesday: EMPIRE OF ASHES

This snippet is from the second chapter of my YA historical fantasy EMPIRE OF ASHES. It's set in a Roman province in the late third century AD and is told by a teenage shapeshifter named Zuri. Her entire village is wiped out and she's abducted by armored Romans. She finds herself caged with many other supernatural creatures and she has no idea where they're being taken.

I spotted the filthy guard from earlier, or rather, smelled him approach. His biceps, thick with more fat than muscle, dripped with sweat and his horse fared no better. It’s neck and shoulders were lathered and its mouth foamed thick saliva. The horse wouldn’t last another day if it were ridden this hard again. I could smell its agony and its fear of the other creatures locked up so nearby. I bit down on my tongue, the sharp pain bringing me back down to earth and allowing me to focus.

No matter how much the lioness ached to run down the horse, I had to maintain control. The human in me wanted to kill the man astride it.

“You, Smelly,” I called out as the guard rode by.

He yanked the reins angrily, whipping the poor horse’s head around to face me. “Are you talking to me?”

“Of course I am.”

“Do you want to die?” he barked, spittle flecking from his mouth.

“Do you?”

He pulled his staff out of its tie on his belt and he shook it at me threateningly. “If you weren’t worth so much, I’d crush your skull right here and now.”

I smiled. “You’re too slow. A human like you’d be dead before you raised your fist.”

Vorena laid a hand on my arm. “Zuri, don’t make them angry.”

I ignored her. “Tell me where you’re taking us.”

The guard smiled toothlessly. “Oh, you’ll like it. There’s a lot more room to run for you animals than in these cages, but you won’t have long to enjoy your new home. I hope you like killing, because that’s all you’re going to do from now on until you die.”

My pulse pounded a little harder and my mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”

He leaned closer and his breath stunk of carrion. “You’d better not mind some between round entertainment, either. You look untouched to me and I’ve never had a shapeshifter before.”

Faster than the guard could react, I plunged my arm through the bars, grabbed his staff, and punched the blunt end into his forehead. He crashed off his horse and into the dirt and lay for a moment, dazed. His horse scooted and swung its hind end in fear, nearly stepping on its master. My wagon rolled on and the human, cursing loudly, flopped onto his knees and began to rise.

A hand snatched the staff from my grip and I instantly recognized the fire demon from last night. He smelled of blood, brimstone, and the humans he kept company with. He could have appeared handsome if it weren’t for a crooked nose that must have been broken several times before and, not to forget, the fact that I wanted to split his belly open. His cold eyes held fast to my own gaze. He broke away at last and walked his horse back to the fallen guard.

“You’ll not touch her,” the demon growled, his voice laced with venom.

“Rulla!” the human spat. “She just—!”

“You got what you deserved.” He tossed the staff at the human and trotted up to my wagon. “And, you. I remember you well. Are you going to give me trouble?”

I stared back at him in challenge. “Until I’ve had satisfaction.”

The demon, Rulla, smirked. “This one’ll be good in the ring,” he mused aloud and rode away.

I stared through the bars as more human men rode by on horses with their staffs in hand. As soon as I figured out how to break free, I’d eat every one of their hearts.

The gryphon flicked the tip of his tail and watched me with a careful gaze. I wondered where such a creature had come from—where all of them had come from. Who else had lost their families? Who else burned with a need for revenge as I did? How many were afraid? I was still too furious and broken-hearted to feel fear, yet.

But it was only a matter of time.