Beyond the Page with Kristina McBride

Kristina McBride, author of The Tension of Opposites, is stopping by today to talk about publishing her debut novel. One lucky reader will win a signed copy of her book and some cool swag. Another will win a query critique.

Release Date: May 25, 2010

Publisher: Egmont USA

Pages: 288

Description: Two years ago Noelle disappeared. Two long years of no leads, no word, no body. Since the abduction, Tessa, her best friend, has lived in a state of suspended animation. She has some friends, but keeps them distant. Some interests, but she won’t allow herself to become passionate about them. And guys? She can’t get close—she knows what it is like to really lose someone she cared for.

And then, one day, the telephone rings. Noelle is alive. And maybe, just maybe, Tess can start to live again, too.

A haunting psychological thriller taken straight from the headlines, The Tension of Opposites is a striking debut that explores the emotional aftermath a kidnapping can have on the victim, and on the people she left behind.

*Description provided by Kristina McBride

About the author: Kristina McBride, a former high-school English teacher and yearbook advisor, wrote The Tension of Opposites in response to the safe return of a child who was kidnapped while riding his bike to a friend’s house. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two young children. This is her first novel. Visit her online at http://www.kristinamcbride.com/.

By the numbers

Time it took to write The Tension of Opposites: Four to five months to write the first draft. (But revisions with my agent took an additional eleven months. And that doesn’t count edits with my publisher.)

Number of revisions: I lost count at, like, the fifth draft. Somewhere around there I deleted the book (except for five chapters) and started over. This, by the way, is just with my agent – before the book was pitched to editors. After Egmont USA picked up The Tension of Opposites, it went through at least four or five more rounds of revision and copy editing. I’m exhausted just thinking about all that!

Final word count: 70,000 ish (I’m “ishy” because the most final version I have on the computer is riddled with comments from several copy editors.)

Beyond the Page with Chelsea Campbell

Chelsea Campbell, author of The Rise of Renegade X, stopped by to by to talk about the thought that spurred her to write Damien's story, the world she created in Golden City, and whether she'd rather be a hero or a villain. Her debut novel releases next month and was optioned for a movie earlier this year. One lucky reader will win a signed copy of her book and three others will win RRX Swag.

Release Date: May 11, 2010

Publisher: Egmont USA

Pages: 352

Description:

Sixteen-year-old Damien Locke has a plan: major in messing with people at the local supervillain university and become a professional evil genius, just like his supervillain mom. But when he discovers the shameful secret she's been hiding all these years, that the one-night stand that spawned him was actually with a superhero, everything gets messed up. His father's too moral for his own good, so when he finds out Damien exists, he actually wants him to come live with him and his goody-goody superhero family. Damien gets shipped off to stay with them in their suburban hellhole, and he has only six weeks to prove he's not a hero in any way, or else he's stuck living with them for the rest of his life, or until he turns eighteen, whichever comes first.

To get out of this mess, Damien has to survive his dad's "flying lessons" that involve throwing him off the tallest building in the city--despite his nearly debilitating fear of heights--thwarting the eccentric teen scientist who insists she's his sidekick, and keeping his supervillain girlfriend from finding out the truth. But when Damien uncovers a dastardly plot to turn all the superheroes into mindless zombie slaves, a plan hatched by his own mom, he discovers he cares about his new family more than he thought. Now he has to choose: go back to his life of villainy and let his family become zombies, or stand up to his mom and become a real hero.

About the author:
Chelsea Campbell grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where it rains a lot. And then rains some more. She finished her first novel when she was twelve, sent it out, and promptly got rejected. Since then she’s written many more novels, earned a degree in Latin and Ancient Greek, become an obsessive knitter and fiber artist, and started a collection of glass grapes. Chelsea is a pop culture fangirl at heart and can often be found rewatching episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, leveling up in World of Warcraft, or spending way too much time on Livejournal and Facebook.

By the Numbers

Time it took to write The Rise of Renegade X: 28 days. Though it took me a year and a half to find a publisher, and another year and a half for it to hit the shelves.

Number of revisions: Two. I added about 20k for an editor during the submission process, and then I added another 5k when I did edits with Egmont.

Final word count: 85K

Interview

Did Damien or the story of The Rise of Renegade X pop into your head first? How did it evolve from there?

 The idea that originally spawned the book was that I wanted to have a bad guy who had to save people, and as I played around with that and the idea evolved, I knew I had this supervillain kid, who I wanted to be scheming and funny, and this story where his life gets turned upside down after finding out his dad's a superhero. So I guess you could say they came together at the same time.