Celebrating Debutantes 2017: The Victoria in My Head by Janelle Milanes (Playlist + Giveaway)

Posted on August 24, 2017 by blackplume

So thrilled to welcome new author Janelle Milanes to the blog as part of Celebrating Debutantes 2017 event. Janelle will be sharing a playlist she made for her debut ya contemporary novel, The Victoria In My Head.

The book will hit the shelves next month, September 19, 2017. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet you still have time to placed your order online.

Following the playlist are some information about the author, Janelle Milanes along with places where to find her online, as well as the book‘s description and where to get copies of The Victoria In My Head. And if you’d like the chance to win a personalized signed copy of The Victoria in My Head and awesome swags, Janelle is giving away below. Open to everyone. Just enter the rafflecopter form a bit further down in this post.

Happy listening!

The Victoria In My Head Playlist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janelle Milanes is originally from Miami, FL and received her BA in English Literature from Davidson College. A lifelong YA addict, she moved to New York for her first job as a children’s literature associate at Simon & Schuster. For the past five years, Janelle has worked as a teacher and librarian throughout the New York City area. THE VICTORIA IN MY HEAD is her first novel and reflects many of her own experiences growing up as a second-generation Latina in America. Janelle currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two cats. Her favorite Disney princess is Belle, since she was also a big book nerd.

Find Janelle

Website | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Goodreads

ABOUT THE BOOK

Book Details:

Title: The Victoria in My Head
Author: Janelle Milanes
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: September 19, 2017
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover, eBook

Victoria Cruz inhabits two worlds: In one, she is a rock star, thrashing the stage with her husky voice and purple-streaked hair. In the other, currently serving as her reality, Victoria is a shy teenager with overprotective Cuban parents, who sleepwalks through her life at the prestigious Evanston Academy. Unable to overcome the whole paralyzing-stage-fright thing, Victoria settles for living inside her fantasies, where nothing can go wrong and everything is set to her expertly crafted music playlists.

But after a chance encounter with an unattainably gorgeous boy named Strand, whose band seeks a lead singer, Victoria is tempted to turn her fevered daydreams into reality. To do that, she must confront her insecurities and break away from the treadmill that is her life. Suddenly, Victoria is faced with the choice of staying on the path she’s always known and straying off-course to find love, adventure, and danger.

From debut author Janelle Milanes comes a hilarious and heartfelt tale of the spectacular things that can happen when you go after what you really want.

Book Links

Giveaway:

What’s up for Grab?

personalized hardcover copy of The Victoria in My Head by Janelle Milanes
an enamel music pin,
and a small vinyl record print with the name of the book on it

The Rules:

Open International
There will be one (1) winner
Winner will be chosen and announced by rafflecopter
Winner will be contacted thru email & should response within 48 hours
Ends September 14th, 2017
Prizes will be sent by the author

To enter fill out the rafflecopter form

Good Luck!!!

Treat yourself to a complete #CelebratingDebutantes2017 experience. Click the image below for the full list of schedule and links to each feature post or check out twitter and facebook using #CelebratingDebutantes2017.

Celebrating Debutantes 2017: You Don’t Know Me But I Know You by Rebecca Barrow (Author Interview and Giveaway)

Posted on August 12, 2017 by blackplume

Welcome to another feature of Celebrating Debutantes 2017 event. Today I’m featuring new author Rebecca Barrow and her contemporary novel, You Don’t Know Me But I Know You. Rebecca is nice enough to answer few questions for me about her debut novel, and writing in general. I hope you guys enjoy the short interview.

To know more about the author and You Don’t Know Me But I Know You. Check Rebecca Barrow ’s bio and book’s description that follows after the interview. There are also links where you can catch up with the author or where to pre-order copies of the book. And if you’d like to own an advance readers’ copy of the book, there’s a giveaway at the bottom of this post. Just enter the rafflecopter form for a chance to win.

Interview with Rebecca Barrow

Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? What inspired your debut novel, You Don’t Know Me But I Know You?

Yes, I’ve pretty much always known I wanted to be a writer, along with many other things–writer was the only one that stuck, though. I wrote YDK because I wanted to explore one girl’s experience of dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and show everything she went through and felt in the process of making her decision–and how she had to make this big choice while still dealing with common teenage things like falling out with your best friend and being unsure of your future.

What qualities did you love exploring in Audrey as a character?

Audrey is quite independent and decisive–on the outside. I definitely wanted to explore the uncertainty she has about not only her pregnancy, but also her art, her family, how she feels about herself, all these things that she keeps kind of hidden away.

What was the biggest change you’ve made to the story before it reached an agent, editor, or publisher?

It went through a few different big changes over the years! I’ve talked about a couple of them in other places so this time I’ll say that in the very very first version, her best friend Rose did not exist at all, and Audrey was not a photographer.

Is there a secret or not-so-secret piece of this novel that came from something we may not realize is “real”?

This falls under not-so-secret but Audrey’s mother Laura is white and a natural redhead, while Audrey is mixed race with natural hair–this is very much taken from me and my mother (although I’m not adopted like Audrey).

Did you learn any deep, interesting, or shocking truths while working on this novel—about writing in general, or about yourself?

In terms of writing, this was definitely the book where I fully realised how much you can transform a novel from first draft to end product. First drafts are hard for me and usually so far away from what I had in my head, but this book taught me not to be afraid to just start over from scratch, to make big sweeping changes, until the thing on paper and the thing in my head somewhat match up.

What message do you hope people will take away from reading your book?

I hope people will see that people’s reproductive choices are nobody else’s but their own. Everyone has a different story and life and makes different choices, and it’s their absolute right to decide what is best for themselves.

After the release of You Don’t Know Me But I Know You, what can we expect from you in the future? Any ambitions for your writing career?

I’m working on my second book which should hopefully come out in 2018! After that: world domination–or, more books, more growth as a writer, and more challenging stories.