Never Enough Blog Tour - Thanks, Everyone!

Congratulations again to Daniela, our grand prize winner and to Kathleen and Annmarie, our other winners! As you'll notice the big box of books and Prize Packs A & B are now gone.

Here is what's still up for grabs:

Prize Pack C includes:

Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Torn by Margaret Petersen Haddix
Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Wrecked by Anna Davies
The Limit by Kristen Landon





And the last winner is...

  Tiffany!

Congratulations! Please send me your address at d(at)denisejaden(dot)com.

A reminder to international winners: While I cannot afford to ship boxes of books to you, please do contact me if you are a winner, because I have some other prizes for you to choose from!

Congratulations again to all of our winners and thank you so much for participating in my blog tour and for spreading the word about Never Enough! I really appreciate it!

Very soon I will be back as part of the YA Scavenger Hunt, where you'll have a chance to win some really wonderful prizes, including a copy of Never Enough!

Another Winner: Never Enough Blog Tour!

Eeeppp! So sorry! Time got away from me and I didn't get back here to award more prizes.

Congratulations again to Daniela, our grand prize winner and to Kathleen, our second winner! As you'll notice the big box of books and Prize Pack A are now gone.

Here is what's still up for grabs:

Prize Pack B includes:

Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan Mcvoy
Dust Lands by Moira Young
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

Prize Pack C includes:

Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Torn by Margaret Petersen Haddix
Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Wrecked by Anna Davies
The Limit by Kristen Landon





And our next winner is...

Read, Write, Read!

Congratulations! Please send me your choice of the above prizes at d(at)denisejaden(dot)com.

A reminder to international winners: While I cannot afford to ship boxes of books to you, please do contact me if you are a winner, because I have some other prizes for you to choose from!

Congratulations again to today's winner, and I'll be back soon with another winner!

Another Winner! Never Enough Blog Tour!

Congratulations again to Daniela, our grand prize winner! She chose the big grand prize box of books, but don't despair! I still have three awesome boxes of books right here, just waiting to be given away. Here is what's still up for grabs:

Prize Pack A includes:

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Black Heart by Holly Black
Lifted by Wendy Toliver
Perfect by Ellen Hopkins











Prize Pack B includes:

Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan Mcvoy
Dust Lands by Moira Young
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

Prize Pack C includes:

Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Torn by Margaret Petersen Haddix
Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Wrecked by Anna Davies
The Limit by Kristen Landon





And our next winner is...

Kathleen!

Congratulations, Kathleen! Please send me your choice of the above prizes at d(at)denisejaden(dot)com.

A reminder to international winners: While I cannot afford to ship boxes of books to you, please do contact me if you are a winner, because I have some other prizes for you to choose from!

Congratulations again to Kathleen, and I'll be back tomorrow with another winner!

The Winners! Never Enough Blog Tour

I am still absolutely FLABBERGASTED by the show of support for my new book, Never Enough! Thank you all so much for helping to spread the word about it! If I could declare all of you winners and give you prizes, I totally would.

But, alas, I cannot. It was quite a feat (a pleasurable one) figuring out how many entries each person had and throwing them all in the hat. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of little slips of paper by the time I was done.

At first I thought I'd award the grand prize last, but then I reconsidered. Because what if the grand prize winner would have actually preferred one of the smaller boxes of books? In case you need a reminder of the prizes, they are at the end of this post.

So here's what I'm going to do. Today I will announce our grand prize winner. She will have until tomorrow night to choose one of the prizes below (Box A, B, C, or the grand prize box of books). Then tomorrow I will announce another winner and give them some time to choose and so on.

So...without any further rambling... Many congratulations and thank yous to...

Daniela!

Daniela, please choose a prize pack from below, and email me at d(@)denisejaden(dot)com with your choice and your mailing address!

A reminder to international winners: While I cannot afford to ship boxes of books to you, please do contact me if you are a winner, because I have some other prizes for you to choose from!

The prizes!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Simon Pulse has been extremely generous in donating a whole lot of books to my prize vault to celebrate the release of Never Enough.

Prize Pack A includes:

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Black Heart by Holly Black
Lifted by Wendy Toliver
Perfect by Ellen Hopkins











Prize Pack B includes:

Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan Mcvoy
Dust Lands by Moira Young
The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

Prize Pack C includes:

Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Torn by Margaret Petersen Haddix
Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry
Wrecked by Anna Davies
The Limit by Kristen Landon






In case you missed it, that's THREE packs of five books. But that's not all! I have one grand prize box of books, and this is a very special box because it includes TWO celebrations! Half of the books are from Simon Pulse, or from my own bookshelf, and are celebrating the birth of NEVER ENOUGH. The other half of the books have been donated by my most amazing critique partner, Shana Silver, and I'd like to include those to celebrate a much more precious birth...the birth of her first baby!

Here's what the Grand Prize Pack includes...

White Cat by Holly Black

Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury

Paper Towns by John Green

Fury by Elizabeth Miles

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

The Season by Sarah MacLean

The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff

A Curse As Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

Red Glove by Holly Black

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Kitty Kitty by Michele Jaffe

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson

Golden (audiobook) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin 

(not pictured because I was sneaking in a quick read!)

Congratulations again to Daniela!

GCC Presents Jennifer Echols and SUCH A RUSH!

Jennifer Echols is the wildly popular author of Going Too Far, Forget You, and Love Story.  Now, Gallery Books is proud to publish her first hardcover novel SUCH A RUSH (Gallery Books/MTV; July 2012; $16.99), a sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.


 Not only that, but Jennifer and I shared a release date (Never Enough was also out July 10th!) and an editor at Simon Pulse! I'm thrilled to have Jennifer here to visit my blog today to highlight her new book. I cannot wait to read SUCH A RUSH. Hasn't it got the coolest cover ever?

High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying. While she’s in the air, it’s easy to forget life with her absentee mother at the low-rent end of a South Carolina beach town. When her flight instructor, Mr. Hall, hires her to fly for his banner advertising business, she sees it as her ticket out of the trailer park. And when he dies suddenly, she’s afraid her flying career is gone forever.

But Mr. Hall’s teenage sons, golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson, are determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business--until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers--and the consequences could be deadly.

Engrossing and intense, SUCH A RUSH is a captivating adventure that is sure to keep readers soaring.


Jennifer Echols is the award-winning author of multiple romantic dramas and romantic comedies for teens. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

Praise for Jennifer Echols:
“Echols is a tremendously talented writer with a real gift for developing relationships between her characters.”
—Romantic Times Magazine on GOING TOO FAR

"Emotional and expressive, Forget You is another intricately weaved romance from Jennifer Echols… a breathtaking ride into the world of teenage love and a perfect summer romance."
–A Good Addiction on FORGET YOU

“Love Story is just as sexy as Echols’ other MTV books with the same level of intensity."
–Books By Their Cover on LOVE STORY

Jennifer also stopped by for a short interview!


Welcome, Jennifer! Can you tell me about your book in seven words or less.
Leah will do anything to fly. Almost.

Other than your main character, who's a favorite character of yours in your novel and why?
The hero, Grayson, is a reformed bad boy trying desperately to take charge and save everyone. He’s doing the best he can, and I feel terrible for him.

What's one piece of writing advice you would give to aspiring authors?
Write the book you want to read.


What did you write when you were a teen? Did you journal? Write poetry? Write overly literary or emotional stories? Or avoid writing altogether?
I kept a journal, wrote poems and stories, and started novels. I was the editor of the school newspaper in junior high and again in high school, and I participated in every school writing activity and contest available. In ninth grade I won third place with a romantic comedy in a statewide story contest, and in twelfth grade I won second place in the same contest with a romantic drama, so you could say I’ve been moving toward the stories I write now for a long time!

What's the last book you read that you really loved?
It was my critique partner Victoria Dahl’s latest novella, which is super-secret right now but will hit the New York Times bestseller list next February when it comes out, or I will eat my hat.

Wow, I can't wait to read that one now too!

Pick up your copy of SUCH A RUSH today from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or your favorite independent retailer.

Something Ironic...

First of all, I want to remind you that today is the last day to enter to win some fabulous boxes of books from my prize vault! Make sure you stop by this post and tell me all the Never Enough posts you've created or commented on by the end of today! I will be busy tabulating this week and will be back with some winners as soon as I can!

And I also wanted to tell you about something wonderfully ironic. I've mentioned this on my blog before, but Never Enough took me many years to write. Somewhere around eight years, I believe. I put it aside from time to time, often because I was unsure of how to fix issues with the plot. This book has been through the ringer as far as revisions go. In fact, the early drafts had Loann turning twelve in the first scene, and eighteen and in college by the last scene. (The version of the book that was published had the timeline condensed from six years, to just over six months!) Big, big changes.

One of the times I remember setting this book aside, though, had nothing to do with my plot problems. One time it was because Laurie Halse Anderson released her new book Wintergirls. Remember that one? It had the whole industry abuzz because of her brilliance and unconventional storytelling. I remember reading her book and thinking I'd never ever be able to write anything so deeply powerful. And because Wintergirls was centered around the same main issue as Never Enough, I decided my book was probably not worth trying to publish, because I suddenly felt it was so much less-than. It would pale in comparison next to a book like Laurie's.

Fast forward a few years, and as you know, I did go back to my novel, reworked it and reworked it. Sent it to my agent. Reworked it again. And finally sold it to Simon Pulse (and then reworked it three more times with my editor!) But I'm so so so happy that I didn't let this book go. That I didn't let that ugly monster "Comparison" take me out for good.

Fast forward again to the point where Never Enough is releasing into the wild and starting to get reviews. I have to share with you one of my absolute favorite reviews so far for Never Enough, and after the above story, you'll know why.

It starts off like this...

Recommended for Fans of Laurie Halse Anderson

In bold letters. Just like that.

GAH!!! Like, seriously. I'm still pinching myself! If you'd like to read the full review (which I'd love it if you did, because it's wonderful) it's up with a couple more fabulous reviews at YA Books Central.

Thank you, Christina. You totally made my life!

Bad Reviews: A New Perspective

With my debut novel, Losing Faith, I was pretty nervous about how I'd handle harsh reviews. They say authors need to have thick skin and not defend their writing, but after so much hard work, I worried that I'd be one of those loose-cannon authors, or one that never writes another book because I was so depressed over reactions to my book.

I'm happy to say I didn't go either of those routes! And while I did have a really positive response to Losing Faith, there were certainly people who didn't care for it as well. That happens with every book--I'm still surprised when I find it happening with some of my favorite novels.

What shocked me with Losing Faith was what kind of negative reviews got to me the most. Surprisingly, I wasn't bothered much by a reviewer who didn't think I could write terribly well, or who thought the plot was lacking. Instead, what bothered me most were the lukewarm reactions I received from a few. Things like, "this book didn't really do anything for me," or, "I don't think I'll remember this one." After all my blood, sweat, and tears, I found that kind of reaction quite devastating. And it took me a long time to realize that it was really nothing personal against me or my characters or my book. They just didn't connect with it. And it can happen with ANY BOOK.

With my second novel, Never Enough, in some ways I felt more prepared for harsh reviews--I had been through them before, plus, with this book, I could see from the start how it would likely affect some readers differently than others. But in some ways I felt less prepared--Loann and Claire and Marcus had been a part of my life for eight years. They were very real to me, and I feared that people criticizing them would be like me standing around listening to someone criticize one of my good friends.

But we're supposed to have thick skin, I reminded myself. And it would probably be better to get reactions of either loving or hating it, than the ones who just felt meh about the whole thing and would never think of my book again.

So--I guess--it was a pleasant surprise that so far I haven't had any lukewarm reactions! I have, however had some readers that had some major problems with the book. I've handled this by telling myself over and over again, "Remember, Denise, you expected this!" And it helps. A little. I still feel somewhat over-protective about my characters and like I want to insert little defensive comments about them to retaliate against critical reviews. But I don't.

However, a couple of cool things have happened too. For one, I've noticed other bloggers standing up for my story and my characters in the comments of the blogs who are criticizing it. Let me tell you, as an author, that is a truly great feeling, to know that some of your readers care enough about your books and characters that they will fight for them.

And another cool thing that happened...before publication, while I was acting a little stalkerish on GoodReads and checking out all the people who were "currently reading" Never Enough, I came across two bloggers who were both very vocal about their thoughts while they were reading through it. One loved the book, while the other was taking issue with some big parts of the book. Being a fly on the wall as I watched the two very different reading experiences of the same book really helped put things into perspective for me. And every time I'm struggling with something I'm reading in a review, I will think back on that moment.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that for any of you who might be struggling with hearing criticism on your work. I do consider myself as having pretty thick skin, but when you pour your heart into something, I think you'd have to be a robot to not feel anything when it gets attacked.

This is a growing process for me too, definitely, and even with all the wonderful things that are being said about Never Enough, (which thankfully far outweigh the negative ones) I wonder if that feeling of bracing myself will ever completely go away.

How about you? Do you have to take criticism in a creative area of your life? How have you learned to deal with it?