dominate

A swirl of new and exciting things have taken shape over the past several weeks and I have made a renewed commitment to keep posts current here, or at least more current than my lame latest attempts.  For this post, I am just thrilled and and giddy to highlight my wife's latest jukes and shakes.  Check it:

1.

She has recently gone into business for herself--the business of being Kate Angelella.  She is now a freelance editor (contact her here for her rates), full-time writer, freelance writer, and just an all-around badass.  I couldn't be prouder of her.  I have watched her work for years as an unappreciated corporate drone, honing her editorial skills, and publishing the brilliant work of many writers.  She brought the very first national award to her imprint and her books made an impressive and powerful name for herself in the industry.  On the heels of a successful run as an editor, she needed a creative change and, for this, has embraced the life of a full-time writer.

2.

In addition to her writing career, she has teamed up with her author and best-friend, Jessica Ashley, and created a packager company called Violet & Ruby.  They brainstorm, outline, write, publish and sell tween and teen fiction that is guaranteed to be successful, profitable, bullet-proof fiction.  Their professional relationship has been proven by their work together on the impeccable Canterwood Crest series, which continues to garner high-profile attention as each book in the series out-sells the one before it.  Violet & Ruby also keeps current a companion website that highlights affordable beauty products, dish out pop culture treats, and post "how-to" videos.  Not even a month old and V&R has already made noise and received packages of free merchandise from major companies (hair bling, pens, lip gloss and make-up) to give away to their readership.  Put simply, Kate and Jess write about beauty brands and art and everything in-between, educating their high-traffic eager readership.  It's a beautiful website too.  Just gorgeous.

3.

As her inaugural packager project, Kate (via Violet & Ruby) is working on a new tween/teen series called Wellington Prep, which will be their official premier.  "Wellington Prep . . . where dark secrets and dangerous lies are meant to be found out."  The first installment is called dominate and will go live on March 11, 2011.

4.

As if all of this wasn't enough, Kate is also working on our collaborative YA novels CROSSED and its sequel CURSED.  We are in the midst of our first draft for CROSSED.  So what is like working with my wife?  That's a great question and I will save a more complete answer for a future post, but she has put me on a steady diet of Young Adult novels to read, in order to educate me on a genre of fiction that is her expertise.  I have ready Holly Black's VALIANT and am currently reading Jay Ascher's THIRTEEN REASONS WHY.  Both: amazing.  More of this list and my reactions soon.

Kate Angelella: writer, editor, reader, business owner, blogger, tween/tween Svengali and, as always, my beautiful wife.  Two months into her independent venture and the word dominate is a fair description of how well she's doing.

keep on.

JRA

Blogworthy news on a Saturday Afternoon

It's finally here! After months of anticipation I can actually believe that we are finally, officially contracted for our two YA novels, CROSSED and CURSED!!!! Why? Because the contracts arrived from Agent Doug's lovely assistant, Rebecca Leicht of Sterling Lord Literistic.

I even have proof!

The cover letter over top our ACTUAL CONTRACTS. Isn't the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Okay, maybe not to everyone else. But it is to me! And I can't wait to touch base with Editor Leah of Sourcebooks' YA imprint, Teen Fire. She's obviously ubercool for wanting our books so much that she championed it to the supercool kids at Sourcebooks.

Now, back to working on dominate-- release date tba very soon (!)

Happy Saturday, all! I know mine will be ☺

What Big Eyes You Have . . .

So, Ross, our bestie Jess, and I are fast-forwarding through commercials during last week's GLEE (❤) when I scream "STOP! GO BACK!" It's the trailer for RED RIDING HOOD.

Are we the only people on the planet who were blind-sided by this movie? None of us knew anything about it until that preview! Anyway--doesn't matter. I am beyond excited to go see this movie. Aside from the fact that I love Amanda Seyfried (she was HILARIOUS in Mean Girls, hypnotic in Veronica Mars, and terrifically authentic in Big Love!),

I am a rabid fan of twisted fairy tales and Ross and I both love to go see horror movies together . . . though I tend to get through them a little more, um, smoothly than he does ;-). My faves are the Japanese remakes and psychological thrillers such as THE RING, THE GRUDGE, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS. Ross loves the paranormal horror and monster movies (the first novel the man has coming out under just his name is called Zombie), such as CLOVERFIELD, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and THE EXORCIST.  We even (don't mock . . . okay, mock. It was bad.) went to see the latest FINAL DESTINATION. In 3-D. *shakes head at self*

I AM NUMBER FOUR and BEASTLY are both high on my radar (as, suddenly, is Alex Pettyfer) and I can't wait to go see him . . . er, them. And even Ross is looking forward to BEASTLY. I'll most likely go see NUMBER FOUR tonight or at some point this weekend. I'm thinking Ross, Jess, and me at the Lincoln Center IMAX theatre followed by a Pomegranate margarita at Rosa Mexicana. Delicious.

And now that I know about RED, the movie teasers, posters, and billboards are everywhere. When Jess and I were waiting for the F train at the 14th Street station, we saw this gorgeous new poster:

The poster we saw obvi wasn't in Russian but I couldn't find the American one online and the point is the haunting beauty of the image, which you'd get no matter the language. I'll try and take a snapshot of the one we saw next time I'm in that part of town. But wow. Who else can't wait to see this movie? Decide for yourselves--and enjoy!

xx,

K

Taking a Breath

Starting over can be an amazing thing. Sometimes it’s hard to get started—like going back to school after a long, relaxing vacation and finding out you have a paper due next week and a test on Friday afternoon. But sometimes, starting over is like a breath you’ve been waiting to take for a long, long time.

Starting this week, I was finally able to take that breath. You might be able to tell from my website that I’m starting a few new projects. First off, I am officially a full-time writer and freelance editor! It’s very exciting and a little bit scary at the same time.

But whenever I’m scared, I’m lucky enough to have people in my life that make that something scary seem a lot less scary.

My grandma, for example—she is the person I look up to more than anyone else in the world. Don’t give me that look! I’m not being sappy. If you knew her, you’d envy her too.

Gram is anything but your average grandmother. For example, she’s not the type to sew or knit—although she makes a killer spaghetti sauce and a mean key lime cake. She also doesn’t have a halo of silver-white hair.

Instead, she has beautiful strawberry blonde hair and an envy-worthy makeup collection. She volunteers at her local courthouse, filling out paperwork for victims of domestic abuse to help them acquire orders of protection against their abusers.

When I accidentally swore in front of Gram for the first time and apologized for my language, she looked at me as if to say what is wrong with you? And said, “Oh please. I invented that word.” She calls me every day—and loves to talk about the latest Real Housewives show on Bravo and speculates about which woman got the most recent plastic surgery and which husband she thinks is cheating on his wife. She also loves really freaking scary/often gory movies. Her fave movie? FARGO.

She used to be an equestrian and so avidly reads a tween series that my bestie writes, and that I also happen to edit—CANTERWOOD CREST (under the pen name Jessica Burkhart).

So once, she left a message to tell me that she couldn’t believe what the book’s mean girls had just done to the main character, Sasha. In response, she simply said, “Those [rhymes with witches].” Only she said the actual word.

But the thing I love most about her? If I can’t answer the phone when she calls, she leaves a voicemail and a few words to live by. Most recently, she left a message in which she told me I was going to do well in my latest venture as a full-time writer/freelance editor. Unlike many other women from her generation, she is cool with the talking-it-out thing. I saved the message and play it over and over these days. In it, she says, “talk about it. With me, or Ross [aka J. R. Angelella], or Jessie [my bestie, and also co-writer, Jess]. Talking about your fears out loud is the best form of therapy there is.”

So I guess, in a way, this blog is me talking out loud. Not necessarily about my fears—but also, about my excitement, about things I’m doing and want to share, and about my friends and family. Thank you for listening!

xx,

K

Welcome to Carrefour

Yes, it is official.  Our agent successfully and with great enthusiasm sold our Southern Gothic supernatural YA series to Sourcebooks' Teen FIRE imprint.  We couldn't be more geeked about it.

The first book in the series CROSSED will publish in Spring 2012 and its sequel CURSED will follow sometime after that.

We don't want to give away all of the dirty little secrets about the books, but let's just say it's a teenage Southern love story set in a quaint little Louisiana town called Carrefour with a rich history of vengeful voodoo queens, complicated love triangles, and a place where a person can go to sell their soul to the Devil down at the Crossroads.

Welcome to Carrefour.