Tag: S. L. Stacy

Reborn Dream Cast


As part of her NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) series of posts, my friend Sara over at WhatANerdGirlSays wrote this post about her dream cast were her WIP The Reawakened ever to be made into a movie (as I’m sure it will be!). Anyway, it made me think about my own dream cast for my debut novel, Reborn. Who would you cast? Let me know in the comments!

1. Candace Accola as Siobhan Elliot

Ms. Accola is one of my favorite actresses on The Vampire Diaries. Her Caroline is beautiful and upbeat but also independent and even a little neurotic at times. Siobhan is also very outgoing and at times a bit (a lot) of a control freak–Candace would play her perfectly. Plus, she looks the part: petite, pale, blonde. She just needs some violet-colored contacts and a pair of blue and purple butterfly wings. Amanda Seyfried would also make a good Siobhan.

2. Tom Hiddleston as Jasper Hart

If you know me at all, I know you’re shaking your head right now, groaning, “Oh, Shaina…” I have a ginormous little crush on Tom Hiddleston, most well known as playing scene-stealing Loki in the Thor franchise. Jasper has slightly longish, dark hair, pale skin, intense blue eyes and…well, you know, muscles. He’s charming and sexy with a dangerous, sinister edge. I’m not sure how told Tom is, so he may be slightly older than Jasper is supposed to look, but other than that he’s perfect for the role. Ok, we need to move on because I’m getting a little hot and bothered from this Google image search…

3. Leighton Meester as Anna Wallace

I’ve only seen a little bit of Gossip Girl…to be honest, it was too much fluffy drama, even for me. (Maybe the early seasons are better?) Anna is Siobhan’s ex-best friend from high school. They had a huge falling out in high school, but at the beginning of Reborn Siobhan realizes Anna is the only one who will understand what she’s going through; she needs her best friend back. Anna is a tall, willowy brunette with a healthy tan and hazel eyes. She’s a singer and a music education major. While Siobhan is rather flighty and impulsive, Anna is practical and discerning. At first, I wasn’t sure who would be a good fit for Anna, then Leighton popped into my head. I think she could pull Anna off, plus she contributed vocals to that one Cobra Starship song, didn’t she?

4. Mark Salling as Jimmy Wallace

This was also a hard one to “cast.” Jimmy is Anna’s brother and Siobhan’s ex-boyfriend from high school. They give their relationship another go in Reborn, but Jasper always seems to cause problems for them (like he does wherever he goes…). Jimmy’s character is inspired by Iggy Pop in his Stooges days, but Iggy’s kinda older now. If I could go back in time, extract 20-something Iggy and cast him in my pretend movie, I would. (To do list: Build time machine.) Jimmy has brown hair and hazel eyes. He’s the wild and arrogant frontman of fictional punk rock band Search and Destroy. This was hard for me because I feel like there are few male celebrities or even musicians nowadays that truly embody rebellion. Adam Levine fits the arrogant, sexy rock star stereotype well, but he doesn’t look like the Jimmy I have pictured in my head. Mark Salling played bad boy Puck on Glee, can sing and looks good with a guitar, so I think he’ll do.

5. Charlize Theron as Farrah

Farrah is the mysterious new house mother of Siobhan’s sorority, Gamma Lambda Phi. She has long, ash blonde curls, golden skin and jade green eyes. She has a bubbly personality and is nice to pretty much everyone except Siobhan. Although she seems like one of the “good guys,” she holds a grudge and has a vicious jealous streak. I haven’t seen Snow White and the Huntsman, mostly because I can’t stand Kristen Stewart’s “acting,” but I’ll bet Theron’s Queen was wonderfully evil. She could definitely pull off Farrah’s nice and naughty sides. She just needs to grow her hair out again.

6. Anna Kendrick as Victoria

Victoria is Siobhan’s big sister in Gamma Lambda Phi. She’s tall, athletic with auburn hair and amber-colored eyes. She’s not supposed to be that pretty, but her beauty and strength comes from inside. As president of her sorority, she’s a charismatic and wise leader. (Not that Reborn is a super deep book or anything, but I see Victoria and Anna as reflections of each other. They’re both characters Siobhan trusts and goes to for advice. Victoria is Anna’s counterpart in the Olympian world.) I think Anna Kendrick is very pretty, so casting her as Victoria isn’t some insult to her or something. I just think Ms. Kendrick is great at playing offbeat characters. Victoria is sort of a nice blend of offbeat, awkward but strong that I think Kendrick could pull off.

*****

So these are the “lucky” folk I’d cast as the six principal characters in Reborn. There’s quite a handful of secondary characters, so I could keep going, but I’ll save those for another day. Who would you cast? Who would you cast for your own book?

by Categories: characters, fiction, inspiration, RebornTags: , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Release Week Wrap-Up


Since you’re taking the time to read this, you probably already know that Reborn released last week: on Tuesday, November 5. You probably also know that I had a pretty exciting release week. The free promo on Amazon went better than I could have dreamed. bestseller 7Nov2013Reborn peaked at #15 among free New Adult & College ebooks and #16 among free Paranormal & Urban Fantasy. A handful of people have rated Reborn on Goodreads, and it has a few reviews on Goodreads and Amazon as well. Although (as I expected, ha!) the excitement died down a bit once Reborn went back to its regular price, I hope that the people who downloaded it enjoy it and take a moment to rate it and/or review it -and if they really liked it, help spread the word. It’s nice to make a little bit of money off of this first book, my priority is expanding my audience. So thanks for reading. 🙂

Although release week was super exciting, I know this is only the beginning of this journey. With each book in a series, an audience gets a little bit bigger. And many readers also like being able to read through a whole series at once without waiting a long time for the next book to come out. (I’m definitely one of those people who tends to jump in at the end. I get curious about book series like Twilight and The Hunger Games that get a lot of press, and then I read them all over winter break or something like that. So hopefully as I keep writing this series, I will catch all the “me’s” along the way, haha!)

My point of talking about this is, well…I’m a really impatient person. I have to remind myself that it’s only been a week…that I’m a new author -a self-published author, which comes with stigma -that there is still much work to be done. Even though I know these things, I’ve still been obsessively checking everything all week -my Amazon sales report, and Amazon and Goodreads for ratings and reviews. My thoughts go a little something like this: OhmyGodIknowallofthesepeoplehavedownloadeditwhyisn’tanybodysayinganythingratingorreviewingitcrapthey musthateiteverybodyhatesitwhatifit’stheworstthingI’veeverwrittennothat’severbeenwrittenever?

As you can probably tell, I need to chill.

Of course, not everything last week was puppies, unicorns and rainbows. Someone gave Reborn two stars on Goodreads. Was I sad? Yes, lol. Do I think said person shouldn’t have rated it thus? Not really. She’s entitled to her opinion. She probably doesn’t know the author is checking Reborn’s status updates on Goodreads every hour. (Seriously, I need to stop doing that.) And even if she did know…I guess I just feel differently about bad ratings/reviews than some other independent authors do. I mean, I get it -it’s hard when you’re just starting out, and someone gives you a bad rating, it shifts the whole average down. It’s a sucky feeling. But I’m also not sure I agree with the whole “reviewer etiquette” guidelines I keep reading about on blogs. Yes, there are trolls and people who are just mean because they can hide behind a computer screen and get away with it. But someone just being honest about how they feel…yeah, it sucks, but then I think as writers we need to rise above it and keep working, keep working hard to prove “the haters” (for lack of a better term) wrong. There’s enough stigma around indie authors without people also thinking we can’t take a little criticism. There, I said it. Sorry for the rant. If you feel differently, I hope we can respectfully agree to disagree…

There is also a pirated copy of Reborn floating around out there. I have mixed feelings about this, too. On the one hand, I just want people to read it…but on the other hand, when you pirate the work of an independent artist/writer/musician/whatever, it’s not like you’re withholding a little bit of money from a big industry that’s going to make a big profit from it, anyway. You’re stealing something from the artist herself, who probably isn’t going to make a lot of money from it. (Rather than pirate it, if you really don’t have the money to spend on it -which I totally get -ask me for a free pdf in exchange for a review. I will give you one, and probably a lot of other indie authors will, too. You can email me: urge2write@gmail.com.)

But really it’s been a fabulous week -I can’t complain! 🙂 To end on a positive note: My Facebook page also got a bunch of new likes (hello, fabulous people!) and is only a few away from 100. And if you’re the 100th person to like my page……well, you get the satisfaction of knowing you’re the 100th person to like my page. Teehee. I also saw an epic movie this weekend. It was called Loki 2: Loki is Still Awesome. Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called. 😉

Toodles for now!

xoxo Shaina

Reborn on Amazon

Reborn on Goodreads

by Categories: Reborn, updatesTags: , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

Reborn is Live, Will be Free…Tomorrow


Reborn is available for download to Amazon Kindle today! Right now it’s only $2.99, but tomorrow will be even better–it will be free! The free day was originally supposed to be today, but it wouldn’t let me select the same day it went live (today). But tomorrow (Wednesday November 6) it will be free ALL DAY! After 11:59 pm it will go back to its original price of $2.99. You can purchase it here. Also right now it’s enrolled in KDP Select, so it will only be available in digital form from Amazon until that enrollment period ends. A print version will be available on a date TBD.

I’m super excited!!!

P. S. Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads feed. 😉

by Categories: announcements, publishing, RebornTags: , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Reflections


Reborn goes live tomorrow! As I announced earlier, it will be available as a free Kindle download all day tomorrow. (If you don’t have a Kindle, I’m also giving away free pdf copies through tomorrow!) Actually, the link on Amazon will probably be live around 11 pm EST – before I go to bed, haha – and will be free through 11:59 pm November 5. After that it will be $2.99.

I haven’t really written anything substantial on the good ol’ blog for a while because I’ve been focusing, of course, on self-publishing Reborn. But I’ve been thinking a lot about how far I’ve come since I started writing Reborn a little over a year ago. I started out posting the earliest version of Reborn (then called The Fallen) chapter-by-chapter on this blog. As I’ve mentioned before, that wasn’t the best plan – it’s definitely come a long way since then. But I can’t completely regret it because I was able to lay the foundation for what Reborn would come. As far as writing advice goes, one thing I’ve heard over and over again is, when you’re trying to get back into writing, just writing something – no matter how crap-tastic it is. That first version was 33,000 words – not a full-length book, obviously. Now Reborn is just over 68K.

When I started writing it, I knew I wanted to do something with it – whether that would be getting an agent or self-publishing or whatever. I did give the traditional route a shot and queried a handful of agents a few months ago, but nothing stuck. Not that I really tried that hard, to be honest – I’m sure people send out tons of queries. Once I was done with the second (or third? fourth?) draft of Reborn, I decided that I was going to aim for self-publishing and to see that goal through. I know there are publishing companies now that don’t require an agent and will publish it for you on all of the e-book retailer sites – and that’s awesome. I know a few fellow writers who have gone down that path. Maybe I’ll give that a shot for th sequel, but for now, I’m happy with my decision.

I know there’s stigma to self-publishing, but I’m working hard to rise above that. I feel pretty lucky that I know a lot of smart people who were willing to help me with my book. It’s been beta-tested, edited, and copy-edited. For now, it feels nice to have control, haha! I also feel so incredibly lucky that my family and friends have been so supportive. It makes me so sad when I hear about writers that don’t feel supported by their friends and family. I can’t say enough how lucky I am.

Me on Halloween

So, what exactly do I hope to get out of all this? Well, writing/publishing a novel has always been my biggest dream – and now it’s becoming a reality. Maybe not exactly in the way I’d first envisioned it, but I’m making it happen. I sort of feel like I’m stepping into the great unknown. My friends and family will read it, and that’s awesome. I know not everyone will like the book – that’s an unreasonable expectation for anyone to have – but I hope I can find an audience who loves this book, and the series (more about that in a second). I love that feeling you get after you read a good book. How the world and the characters get under your skin, how you can’t stop thinking about it for days, weeks after you’ve read it. I hope Reborn can be that book for even a few people. And, eventually, I would like to make some money from writing fiction. I’m not talking blockbuster fiction and Hollywood movies – I really don’t know why that happens for some authors and not others, and really it kind of seems like a fad. (I think it’d be cooler for a series to end up as an HBO show.) But I would like to be able to make some money doing this because I love it.

Reborn isn’t the end of my writing journey. I have a sequel planned in my mind. It’s probably going to be called Relapse, and it’s probably going to come out around this time next year. I think it will take 3-4 books to tell Siobhan’s story, but I have ideas for books in the same world focusing on some of the other characters you first meet in Reborn. So really what was once a one-book project has exploded. And at some point I should probably write a dissertation. And get married and have babies.

Finally, Reborn has a Goodreads page! So if you are planning on reading it, you can add it to your shelf and leave a brief rating and/or review! (If you want to help an author out, ratings and reviews are probably the most helpful!)

Okay, so, I don’t really like Katy Perry that much, and it’s not like her videos need help getting views. BUT this song is a really good motivational song, so for today I leave you with the Roar video:

P. S. I just re-remembered that Thor 2 comes out Friday and am getting unreasonably excited. So the question of the night is: Thor or Loki? Don’t get me wrong – Chris Hemsworth is hot, but I’m kind of a Hiddlestoner. 😛

by Categories: announcements, inspiration, milestones, music, publishing, Reborn, updatesTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Character Profile: Siobhan Elliot


Siobhan (shi-VAWN) Elliot

Siobhan8

Age: Early 20s

Hometown: Laurel, Pennsylvania

“Occupation”: Student at fictional college Thurston University

Major: Biology

Physical Description: 5’2″, slim, blonde hair, violet eyes

Species: Demigod

Relationship Status: At the beginning of Reborn, she’s friends-with-benefits with Max.

Love interests:

  • College boyfriend: Max
  • Old flame: Childhood friend/Search and Destroy frontman Jimmy
  • Really old flame: Mysterious, charming World Myths and Legends teaching assistant Jasper

Goals: In Reborn, to find out who–and what–Jasper is and what her connection to him is

Obstacles: Jasper is intensely erotic and a little hard to resist.

Strengths: Smart, outgoing

Weaknesses: A little bit of a space case; doesn’t always say what she’s really feeling

Hobbies: Social chair for Gamma Lambda Phi sorority; running; sci-fi TV shows

“Spending this time with him has helped me realize there’s something else between us–something that could transcend each of our faults, our mistakes, our darkness. Something that would only become stronger and more real if I can show him what it means to truly love someone.”

***

by Categories: character profile, characters, fantasy, fiction, paranormal, romance, young adultTags: , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

By day a PHD student……But by night…..


Today smexy historical romance author Shehanne Moore featured me on her wonderful blog…you can check us out below!…and thanks again to her for letting me babble about my upcoming book “Reborn.”

by Categories: announcements, author interview, updatesTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment