Today, we are so excited to be hosting the Blog Tour for A.E. Rought's Broken--a modernization of the classic, Frankenstein (one of my favorites!).
A.E. Rought was kind enough to let us in on her New Year's Writing Resolutions!
Check out what Broken is about:
Imagine a modern spin on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein where a young couple’s undying love and the grief of a father pushed beyond sanity could spell the destruction of them all.
A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.
When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.
The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.
A string of suspicious deaths near a small Michigan town ends with a fall that claims the life of Emma Gentry's boyfriend, Daniel. Emma is broken, a hollow shell mechanically moving through her days. She and Daniel had been made for each other, complete only when they were together. Now she restlessly wanders the town in the late Fall gloom, haunting the cemetery and its white-marbled tombs, feeling Daniel everywhere, his spectre in the moonlight and the fog.
When she encounters newcomer Alex Franks, only son of a renowned widowed surgeon, she's intrigued despite herself. He's an enigma, melting into shadows, preferring to keep to himself. But he is as drawn to her as she is to him. He is strangely... familiar. From the way he knows how to open her locker when it sticks, to the nickname she shared only with Daniel, even his hazel eyes with brown flecks are just like Daniel's.
The closer they become, though, the more something inside her screams there's something very wrong with Alex Franks. And when Emma stumbles across a grotesque and terrifying menagerie of mangled but living animals within the walls of the Franks' estate, creatures she surely knows must have died from their injuries, she knows.
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A.E. Rought's New Year's Writing Resolutions
New Years Writing Resolutions
Thank you for having me here, and Happy New Year!
Every New Year’s Eve the ball drops, we usually stay home
and make lots of food, my best friend throws a party, and people make
resolutions. It’s tradition.
I’ve never been one for making resolutions—I’m such
a creature of habit that my old behavior usually wins over my new found
dedication.
This year, though, I will be making a couple writing
resolutions—and setting up website blocks if necessary to keep them—because it’s
time to get serious about things. My writing life changed when Broken sold to Strange Chemistry, and I
need to make some permanent changes to make everything fit.
The first resolution I’m making is to Prioritize.
Might sound silly, but I was forever bouncing between this Work-In-Progress to
that one, to this craft, to baking these cookies. Contracts and deadlines make
this pantser behavior troublesome for me. So, I will be setting some
priorities: more writing, less social network trolling; more writing, less
yacking on the phone; more family time, less time wasted. I can wander the Net
way too much, and it does cut into writing time. I also need to start treating writing
more like a job, and limit phone calls while I’m actually supposed to be “on
the job.” And, well, family is the most important. Always.
My next resolution will be to limit my time on sites
like Goodreads and Pinterest. Those sites are addictive! While I occasionally
update the reviews on books I’ve read, I find my time on Goodreads is mostly surfing.
I drift from reviewer to reviewer, combing their lists, looking for new books
to read. Before I know it, I’ve lost an hour or more! Pinterest is absolutely
full of “Oooo, pretty!” moments, but there are also new recipes to try with the
family, crafts and tips on ways to do things yourself. I may have to give
myself a limit and set a timer. Going cold turkey would be murder.
Finally, my last writing resolution is to finish some
of the works-in-progress ghosting around in this machine. When I started Broken, the story took on a life of its
own and squashed the others in to submission, even ones that I really loved.
Lately, a couple of those subjugated stories do everything but a Broadway
routine to get my attention when I open up Word and get ready to write. It’s
obviously time to give them some attention. This resolution may end up becoming
a contingency plan, depending on what happens with a submission on my editor’s
desk, though.
So, I go from not making any resolutions at all, to
making three writing related ones. Traditions are good and I guess I’m breaking
one, and making a new one this year!
