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Final FAMOUS sneak peek

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Here’s a sneak peek from page 56! (It may not be page 56 in your copy since I picked it from my Word doc!)


“I trusted Whisper. She was at a near gallop, but it was controlled. Wisp hadn’t stopped listening to me, and as long as she didn’t forget about me, I wanted to give her a little freedom. Wind whooshedin my ears as we swept past Mr. Conner. The saddle seemed to disappear between us, and it felt as though we were one. I’d never felt closer to my horse before.”
I’m SO pumped about FAMOUS!
C’mon, tomorrow! 
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I’m going to do ONE more reveal of FAMOUS! 🙂

Pick a number between 16-172 and leave it in the comments. I’ll close my eyes and pick a random commenter. I’ll go to that page in the manuscript and selection at least a sentence and up to a paragraph and I’ll post it on Monday.

Comment away! I know we’re gonna make the best selling Canterwood book EVAH so we get to have our LiveStream party! Woo!

xoox

Famous chapter 2 :)

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You asked for it . . . so here is chapter 2 from FAMOUS! Hope that’ll help till 6/11! 🙂

I hope you enjoy it, Team Canterwood!

xoxo


2
HOW’D YOU DO IT?
Brielle sipped the tea I’d made her and gave me an appreciative smile.
“I missed this,” she said. “You making tea for us. I tried to make a cup after you left, and it was so gross! I mean, I don’t know how you mess up tea, but I did!”
This I had to hear more about. “How’d you make it exactly?” I asked.
Brielle rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “Um, poured water into a mug. Dropped in my tea bag. Put it in the microwave for a minute and a half. Took it out and added a pack of Splenda.”
“Oh, sweetie,” I said, reaching over from my end of the couch to pat her leg. “No tea bags in the microwave, remember?”
Bri smacked her forehead with her hand. “Duh! Ugh! No wonder the tea tasted like burned rubber. Ick.”
“Well, I’m here now, so I can service all of your tea-making needs,” I said. “Now tell me, how did you get here?”
“It wasn’t easy,” Brielle said. “But I talked to my parents a lot about what I wanted for myself. What they wanted for me. You know my parents—they’ve always been concerned that I don’t take school seriously enough. At first, they were convinced I only wanted to go to boarding school so that I could goof off more and get out from under their roof.”
“That does sound like your parents,” I said. “Have to admit, though; you don’t have the, erm, best track record with grades.”
Brielle raised her tea mug. “I take total responsibility for that and accept it. I wasn’t a model student at Yates. I did the bare minimum to get by and used you and Ana a lot for help. I fessed up to my parents that I hadn’t been doing my best.” Bri took a sip of tea. “I told them I wanted a fresh start at a school that I already knew had a stellar reputation—Canterwood.”
“Were they blindsided by the idea of boarding school? I am. It’s something we never talked about. I mean, did Ana know? Why Canterwood, really? Why even boarding school?” I had so many questions for Brielle. We might be in the common room all day.
“I want to let you know, first, that I didn’t choose Canterwood to come and step on your toes. I know you’ve got a new life here. New friends, new riding circle—new everything.”
I shook my head. “Please. I wasn’t worried about that, and I don’t care about stuff like that. You know it.”
Brielle smiled. “I know. But it’s just something I wanted to say. Boarding school has been in the back of my mind since you got accepted to Canterwood. I never brought it up to anyone because it seemed like such an out-there idea for me. My grades weren’t that great at my current school, so why would I transfer to a harder school?”
I nodded, listening.
“Well, it’s because of you, actually. You inspired me, Lauren. You were a model student at Yates and obviously a much better candidate for Canterwood than me, but you pushed me to want to try. I felt like I wouldn’t get a fair shot at Yates because my teachers know me as ‘Bri the kind of ditzy girl’ and the boys know me as ‘Bri the girl who is guy crazy.’ Everyone has an opinion of me that I felt would be hard to change.”
“I know all about that,” I said. “Reputations aren’t easy to change. I hate hearing you say that teachers think you’re ‘ditzy,’ though. You’re not, Brielle. I don’t think any of our teachers ever thought that.”
Brielle raised her eyes to mine. “If not that, then they definitely thought I wasn’t working up to my potential. It was a repeat note I got on all of my report cards.”
“I’ll give you that as long as you acknowledge that you know you’re capable of doing the work and getting great grades.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Brielle said. “No one has any preconceived notions of me. The teachers will view me like a new student, and I’m going to work my butt off to impress them. I want a good reputation in the classroom. It just kind of . . . clicked for me over the summer that I was wasting a lot of time focusing on boys. They’re just so not worth it right now!”
“Whoa!” I said, putting up a hand in a stop motion. “Who are you and what did you do with Brielle Monaco?”
Bri laughed. “I’m serious! Guys are great, okay, fine, but I was sooo obsessed with flirting and getting a guy that if I’d put half of that work into school and riding, I would have been getting awesome grades and would have been a stronger rider.”
“Oh! I have to interrupt! It’s killing me,” I said. “Are you riding a stable horse? Which horse is it?”
Brielle’s face morphed into a giant grin. “Nope. I’m not riding a stable horse. Laur, my parents bought Zane from Kim! He’s coming today! I have my very own horse!”
“Omigod!” I squealed. “BRI!”
The albino gelding had been a school horse at Briar Creek for years. Brielle had been the one to ride him the most, and she loved him.
“I know! Mom and Dad said if I got bad grades at any point, though, the first thing to stop is my riding. There’s no way I’m letting anyone take that from me, so you know I’m going to work hard.”
“When did you apply?” I asked. I stretched my legs out on the couch so my left foot rested on top of Brielle’s knee.
“I wrote a letter to the headmistress and asked if I could submit myself for consideration in August,” Bri said. “It was so late in the year that I was sure she’d say no. I got an e-mail back, though, with the go-ahead to submit my transcripts and stuff.
“Did you tell anyone then?” I asked. “I wouldn’t have been able to keep that to myself.”
“I told Ana,” Brielle said. “She told Taylor, but they were the only people who knew.”
Students passed by the common room, laughing. Thankfully, the door didn’t open and no one came inside. I wanted every second of one-on-one time with Bri that I could get.
“How did Taylor respond to your news?”
Brielle stared into her tea mug, then back at me. “He was totally fine with it from what Ana said. We still weren’t speaking after the voice-mail fiasco. Ana said Taylor told her that he didn’t care that we’d both applied.”
“What about Ana? I feel bad for her! She’s the only one of us left.”
“I feel the same way. She was supersupportive of my applying and thought it would be really good for me. I could tell, though, that she was sad and hiding it. I’m just glad she has Jeremy. It’s not the same as having a best friend, but they’re close.”
Almost two hours later, Brielle finished her story. I’d interjected every so often with questions. In front of us were two empty tea mugs—we’d drained two cups each—and napkins with crumbs from the kitchen’s brownies.
This was a new side to Brielle. An academic-minded Bri who wanted to be a better student and rider.
“After you see all of the cute boys on campus,” I teased, “I give you three days before you’re gaga for them.”
We giggled.
“Nooo!” Brielle said, her tone a half whine. “Don’t do that to me. I’m still . . . weak. You can’t tell me about cuties this early in my detox.”
I laughed so hard I felt my face turn red. “Okay, okay,” I managed to get out between laughs. “No boy talk.”
“Except about your boy,” Bri said. She raised an eyebrow. “I never said I couldn’t talk about my bestie’s boyfriend.”
The warm blush didn’t fade from my face. I hadn’t had much time during Parents’ Weekend to talk to Brielle about Drew. Now I could talk to her all day about Drew! Maybe not all day, but . . .
“Look,” I said. I woke up my BlackBerry, went to my “Drew” album, and set it on slide show. I held my phone between us, and Bri oohed and aahed at the pics. A lot were candids that I’d snapped of Drew swimming or riding. Some were of us that we’d gotten friends to snap of us together.
“Asking about Drew is dangerous,” I added. “You’ll have to slip me Sleepytime tea to make me be quiet after I tell you the fiftieth story about us.”
“Um, I’m still the same Brielle,” she said, a wicked grin on her face. “I want to hear boy stories!”
 
“You asked for it.” With that, I snuggled back into the couch pillow and told my best friend all about my boyfriend.

First Aladdin M!X edition June 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Jessica Burkhart
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

FAMOUS chapter one reveal!

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Hi, all!

Here’s an exclusive first look at FAMOUS! I’m sharing chapter one tonight. YAY! But . . . I don’t think *one* chapter is enough. Do you? If you want me to post chapter two this week, let me know in the comments section! 🙂

xoxo

~J

FAMOUS

1
TELL ME EVERYTHING
Everyone—Mom, Dad, Becca, and Brielle—grinned at me. They all stared at me, waiting for my reaction to Brielle’s sudden proclamation. But I stood frozen in the Canterwood Crest parking lot. Brielle’s words from seconds earlier rang through my head: Now your bestie from home is here!
Brielle didn’t live in Union anymore.
She wasn’t a student at Yates.
She didn’t take riding lessons at Briar Creek.
As of today, Brielle Monaco was an official Canterwood Crest Academy student.
Blond Brielle, who’d just released me from a hug, put both hands on my upper arms and gently shook me.
“Laaaureeen? Hello?! Omigod, are you speechless or what?!” Brielle asked.
I nodded, furiously trying to form words. “I—oh my God—Bri—” I stopped and took a deep breath. Everything was finally starting to sink in. “Brielle Monaco, you go here now! This is the biggest surprise ever!”
Brielle laughed. “I can’t believe I pulled it off. There’s no way I would have without your parents and Becca.”
“So many things make sense now,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out how you’d really gotten on campus for a family-only weekend. Or why you seemed so off at times. I can’t believe two of my Union friends are here now.”

Brielle frowned a little at my last sentence. I remembered her earlier fight with Taylor, my ex-boyfriend who was also from Union, and felt bad for bringing him up.

“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” I said, slinging my arm over Bri’s shoulder. I wiggled my fingers into my fleece jacket—the late November air was cold, and I wondered if we’d see snow at the Connecticut boarding school soon.
“We’re going to leave you girls to catch up,” Mom said from the passenger seat in our SUV.
“Have fun, you two!” Becca, my older sister, called from the backseat.
Dad waved, backed up the SUV, and guided the vehicle out of the parking lot and down Canterwood’s driveway.
I hugged Bri, laughing. I tugged on her coat and pulled her in the direction of the dorms.
“Let’s go inside before we freeze, and youare going to tell me everything,” I said.
“Lead the way,” Bri said.
Giggling, we made our way through the mass of students and parents who were headed for the parking lot and walked back to Hawthorne—my dorm hall.
“Take it all in,” I said, breathing deeply. “Looking at this campus never gets any less exciting.”
Bri’s eyes were wide as she nodded. “I had a feeling that was true. Even though I was here all day, I don’t really think I sawthe campus for what it is.”
We went up a winding sidewalk away from the stable. As we walked, we passed a pasture with turned-out horses. Two horses, blanketed, lay down next to each other.
“Aw, nap time,” I said, smiling.
Bri asked me to point out buildings to her—even ones I’d told her about this morning when I’d given her the tour with my family.
“Of course,” I said. “It would be insane to think you’d remember where everything is after an afternoon. It took me days of getting turned around to finally be able to stop sending SOS texts to Khloe that I was lost.”
We passed the media center, administration, tennis courts, and finally reached Hawthorne Hall. The three-story building was home to dozens of seventh-grade girls. Bri’s eyes were wide as she stared up at the building. I could tell the realization was hitting her that this was her home now.
“As if this dorm isn’t awesome enough, it also happens to be adjacent to Orchard Hall,” I said. Goose bumps ran up and down my arms, but they weren’t from the cold.
“What’s the big deal about Orchard?” Bri asked.
“Sasha Silver lives there.”
Bri’s mouth formed an O.
Inside my dorm hall, I shook off shivers and stopped when we reached Christina’s door.
“This is Christina’s office,” I explained. “She’s our dorm monitor. Looks like she’s gone right now, but I know you’ll like Christina once you get to meet her.”
“She sent me a few welcome e-mails,” Brielle said. “It’s so weird to be living without my parents. That part hasn’t hit me yet.”

“Oh, it will,” I said as we made our way down Hawthorne’s hall. “You’ll miss them a lot, but being on your own is pretty cool. Except the stuff like laundry!”

Brielle and I walked into the common room, kicked off our shoes, and plunked down on the couch, facing each other.
“I almost texted all my friends, but I want some alone time with you first,” I said. “Then we’ll tell Khloe, and Clare, and everyone.”

Brielle’s brown eyes were wide. “Hopefully, they’ll be as happy as you are that I’m staying.”

“Of course they will be,” I said. “They barely had five seconds with you, but I could tell they loved you.”
Today had been the definition of insanity. Parents who had decided to go out on their own had wandered around with lost looks on their faces. Some had reminded me of what my mom and dad had taught me to do when I was little. The parents had sat on a bench, not moving, just waiting for their kid to find them. It was like I’d been taught—stay where you are and Mom and Dad will find you.
I’d barely seen any of my friends today, and we’d all had a lot less time together than we’d planned. It seemed like parents took over as priority, and everyone had a different way of handling their family.
I stood, unzipped my coat, and tossed it onto a nearby recliner. I was happy that the common room was empty. Brielle and I could openly talk in private.
“Before we start talking,” I said, “want a cup of tea?”
“There’s my LT!” Brielle said. “I’d love a cup of whatever you’re having.”
With a smile, I made us both one of my fall favorites—apple spice.
“Okay,” I said. I pulled an orange throw blanket over my legs and raised my mug to my lips. “Start at the beginning and tell me everything.”


First Aladdin M!X edition June 2013

Copyright © 2013 by Jessica Burkhart

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Who wants to have a FAMOUS party LIVE with me?!

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So . . . would ANY of you guys be interested in attending a live virtual party with me?

Like, I’ll be LIVE on camera from my computer and *all* of you, Team Canterwood, can watch and type questions to me that I’ll read and answer in real time!

Here’s how it would work:

1. You can find me here. I’ll have set up a note that says what day and time the party is.

2. BEFORE the live party, you have to sign up for a free account. (The don’t spam, or use your real name–you can use a screenname for privacy.) You have to give a real email address, though, to confirm your account. Again, it’s 100% FREE. Promise!

This is what the sign up page looks like. See the “your email account” button? That’s what you want to click. 🙂 Or, “Join with Facebook” if you like.


3. On the day and time of the party, login and click on my channel. (The link in #1. You’ll see me on camera (I can’t see you), but you’ll see a chat window where you can start asking me questions. Those will be visible for everyone to see.

I’ll be able to read the comments or questions from you and will answer as many ask I can! The party would last an hour and you can join in and leave whenever you like.

If this sounds like supersparkly fun (it does to me!) then I need Team Canterwood out in full force for FAMOUS.

If FAMOUS sells more copies in the first 7 days of its release (including any pre-orders and then from June 11-June 18) then we’ll have a party!

I’ll have to get the numbers of copies sold the first week from my publisher, so if the party does happen (I know you guys can do it!) it’ll likely be the week after the 4th of July so that everyone’s home from vacay.

I really want to party with Team Canterwood! So, fingers crossed, and I hope we make FAMOUS, well, famous. 😉 If you have questions or want to trade tips on getting the word out about FAMOUS with other TC members, feel free to use the comments area to do so.

If you want to go ahead and set up your free account for my channel, please go ahead. I will definitely be doing live shows in the future.

Much love!

xoxo

One of my life and literary idols . . .

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is without a doubt, Jeannette Walls. K has even had the opportunity to meet and speak with her. I treat my personalized, signed copy of HALF-BROKE HORSES as if it’s gold. It is to me.

There’s a wonderful article about Jeanette in the NYT. Even cooler? We share a pub date! Her first novel, THE SILVER STAR, hits shelves the same day as FAMOUS on June 11th. 🙂

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

“That’s why I can’t be bitter or angry, because I got the damn castle, didn’t I? And he and my mother gave me the tools to do it. I’ve got four flush toilets in this house, O.K.? Push the little lever, life is good. I got heat, push the little buttons, life is really good. I will never take anything for granted.”

–Jeannette Walls

I already have the novel on pre-order and cannot wait to read it!

(Purposeful?) Writer’s Block

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I don’t know of a time when I’ve EVER been less productive as a writer. Okay, to clarify: less productive on ONE project.

Home for Christmas.

The ideas are there. The outline is done. Many, many pages are down. I even started the final chapter–something I NEVER do.

But a week or so ago? I quit! I was moving along and then BAM. I kept opening the Word doc and staring at it. Or writing a sentence. Or editing what I’d already written. Nothing new. Even though it’s all right there and ready to go down on paper.

Instead, I’ve done a zillion other things: finished the first unicorn book final draft (!), wrote a new proposal, attended a H-U-G-E beyond H-U-G-E meeting that could change Canterwood forever, and some other stuff, too. But Home for Christmas? To borrow a line from Titanic: “Now, it exists only in my memory.”

Not really my memory, but you know what I’m saying.

So, writers, series writers, readers, bloggers–do we ever block ourselves either subconsciously or consciously?

Am I not writing HFC because it’s the last book in Canterwood Crest? Possibly. You probably know the long, boring story of how it started, but check my Website if you don’t.

This is going to sound SO DRAMATIC, but it’s the truth: Sasha Silver saved me when I didn’t know how to save myself.

I was a nineteen year old obsessed with college and writing nonfiction. I was in an environment where I could control nothing except my body, which manifested as severe anorexia, and my work, which I did a LOT of. If I wasn’t studying or writing, I saw it as “wasted time.”

I was six years into a nightmare of a lost dream that I couldn’t let go of. Six years since I’d been told by doctors that I couldn’t be a competitive rider (or a regular one, for safety’s sake) because of severe scoliosis. I was 13 and the dream that I’d put my soul into, breathed, and bled for was taken away. By something I couldn’t control. I had two titanium rods and a bunch of screws inserted into my spine. Oh, they sawed off one of my ribs, too, and used that to fuse the rod to the bone. Risk of paralysis was high for the surgery, but part of me didn’t care. I’d been a rider since I was five. If I couldn’t do that–what was the point of having working legs?

Fast forward to the six years where I erased horses from my life. Upon receiving the news from my doctor, I tore my room apart. Down came all of the horse posters from Target. Into the trash went years worth of issues of Horse Illustrated. The Saddle Club, Thoroughbred, Pony Pals, Pony Tails, The Black Stallion, books by Marguerite Henry, The Horse Crazy series by Virginia Vail, Black Beauty, National Velvet–the hundreds of horse books that filled my room went into boxes. So did the movies. I asked relatives not to send me horsey calendars. I donated my riding clothes and any shirts with equestrian slogans.

I was OUT of horse world. Done.

October 2006: I heard about National Novel Writing Month. It was my senior year of college and I decided to sign up. Yes, I would write a book in 30 days during November. Awesome! Except I had no ideas. I checked out every fiction writing guide from my library and tried a million techniques for writer’s block.

Nothing.

One night, just two or three days before 11/1, I “saw” Sasha. Her story ran through my brain and wouldn’t go away. It bugged me so much that I got out of bed and wrote it down in hopes it would go away. No way was I writing about horses. November 1st arrived and I opened a new Word doc, ready to write a novel.

I started telling Sasha’s story.

It wasn’t painful as I’d feared. It was the opposite–I was riding again through Sasha. I felt her pain when she messed up a jump, the elation from a good gallop across the field, the giggly feeling of being on a trail ride with her besties.

Sasha and Canterwood have been part of my life for 7 years. I’ve been “riding” for 7 years and maybe I’m scared that’s going to stop.

But I have to remember that *I* am in control now. I have MANY other horse stories to write. 🙂 I have non-horse stories, too, that are asking to be told. Whatever I decide to do, I can always start a new horse story. With that, I think I’m ready to get back to HFC. That and because I’ll be sent to Author Jail if I’m late turning it in! 😉

As Sasha would say:

YouTube Contest Winners

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In no particular order . . . the winners of the YouTube contest!


A FAB video from Anna G. who’s 13.
A KILLER video from Syndey C. She’s also thirteen.
A DRAMATIC video from Celine. Congratulations to the winners and thank you all for making such unique, exciting videos that express Canterwood so well! I’m blown away by your talent at creating such edge-of-your-seat movies that make me hit REPEAT. 🙂