guest post: brian farrey talks about changing his book title

Hey guys! Today I present you Brian Farrey, author of WITH OR WITHOUT YOU (formerly titled CHASERS). I absolutely loved WITH OR WITHOUT YOU, as you can see in my review here. I read it when it was titled CHASERS, so I thought it would be very interesting to hear why the title changed. Enjoy!

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Brian Farrey recently completed his MFA in Creative Writing at Hamline University in St. Paul, where Chasers was awarded the Outstanding Fiction Thesis prize. His short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales and Project for a New Mythology. He lives in St. Paul, MN and is currently an editor at Flux Books. He tweets @BrianFarrey and he blogs at Brian Farrey Books.

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CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

Here is the completely true, totally unembellished, occasionally frustrating, but often entertaining story of how a book I wrote that was once called CHASERS became the book currently known as WITH OR WITHOUT YOU.  To really appreciate the process, it’s best to look at the timeline:

2005

After having dinner with a friend who was going to nursing school to treat patients with HIV and AIDS, I get the first inklings of the idea for a book.  I do a bit of research and, as I’ve just started an MFA program and know I’ll need to write a book for my thesis,  I start taking many notes on where the story might go, who the characters are.

2006

“The Project” is about 1/3 of the way done and it needs a name. Something better than “The Project.”  I spend nights thinking about it. I spend days thinking about it. I create a small altar and sacrifice marshmallow Peeps in the hopes that a good idea will come to me.  I finally settle on calling it CHASERS, after a group of the same name that is central to the story.  I’m not wild about it but it works. I am thoroughly convinced that a new and better title will come to me by the time I have to turn the finished book in as my thesis.

2007

I am mind-bogglingly wrong. No better title comes. First draft is finished. Revisions begin. Somewhere in this book there’s a wonderful title just waiting to get out.

2008

The wonderful title has decided it does not want to come out. It wants to keep hiding. The wonderful title turns out to be a big tease. I start to hate the wonderful title and I don’t even know what it is. Trying to explain to my writing group why I hate an unknown title only earns me sideways glances and whispers behind my back. I turn CHASERS (then a whopping 96,000 words) in as my thesis.  My thesis committee says very nice things. Nowhere in the nice things can I find a better title.

2009

I finish rewrites so the book is much more svelte and send it out to agents as CHASERS.  A wonderful agent named Robert Guinsler from Sterling Lord Literistic offers to represent me.  He has no better idea what to call it so he shops it around as CHASERS.

2009—Later

Offers come in for the book. It’s a tough decision but we go with Simon Pulse.   I’m convinced they will want to change the title as “chasers” would be confused with a popular alcoholic beverage (and the book is not about alcoholic beverages).

2010

Simon Pulse seems fine with CHASERS as the title.

2010—Later

Nope, time to change the title.  The title we’re going for is supposed to play up the drama angle (there is a lot of drama in the book).  A dramatic title will attract a certain audience. My editor and I start brainstorming titles. All of the following are discussed and subsequently rejected:

LIFE AT THE SPEED OF STUPID 
MARKED 
NOWHERE FAST 
CONTACT

2010—Later still

Nope. CHASERS really does seem like the best title.  It’s a go!

2011

“It’s a go” gets redefined as “It’s not a go!”  After further marketing analysis, a better strategy to reach the biggest possible audience is to play up the romantic aspects of the book more so than the drama.  I am okay with this.  To me, the story is really about the rise of one relationship in the shadow of one that’s falling apartment.  The relationships are important so a title that reflects that will work best.

But, remember, this is the guy who couldn’t think beyond CHASERS as the title. The elusive wonderful title has been thumbing its nose at me for almost six years now.  I have no choice. I must at last think….out of the box.  I took a good look at the book, and said “What’s really going on?”  I thought about the main character, Evan, who’s facing a choice: he can move to California to be with his boyfriend or he can stay at home in Madison and keep an eye on his best friend, Davis, who’s gotten involved with a dangerous group of guys.  He suddenly realizes that he faces a future without one of the two most important people in his life.  He’s going to have to live with or without one of them.  That’s more or less where the title sprang from.  It has resonance throughout the book. It’s a threat (“I’m doing this with or without you”). And it’s also a question (“What will I do if I stay with you? What will I do if I choose to go on without you?”). 

So…. I suggest WITH OR WITHOUT YOU to Simon Pulse.  They go bananas for it and a title is born.

2011—Later

Title still WITH OR WITHOUT YOU? Yep?  OK, just checking.

And that is the story of how I got my title. Thanks, Brent, for letting me ramble on.  Now, before I go, if you’ll indulge me in a quick plug: check out my blog for the details on a couple contests I’m having. Writers could win a full manuscript critique by a real live editor (c’est moi) and readers could win a slew of signed, first edition books.  Click the link below to learn more!

[BRENT SPEAKING: Brian's super-huge contest can be found here: http://bit.ly/lCC6kC.]

Brian Farrey’s debut YA novel, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU, will be published May 24 by Simon Pulse. He tweets @BrianFarrey and he blogs at www.brianfarreybooks.com/wordpress.

with or without you by brian farrey

Published 5/24/11

With or Without You | Brian Farrey

Simon Pulse

Paperback | 349 pp.

Eighteen year-old Evan and his best friend Davis get beaten up for being loners. For being gay. For just being themselves. But as rough as things often seem, at least Evan can take comfort in his sweet, sexy boyfriend Erik–whom he’s kept secret from everyone for almost a year.
Then Evan and Davis are recruited to join the Chasers, a fringe crowd that promises them protection and status. Davis is swept up in the excitement, but Evan is caught between his loyalty to Davis and his love for Erik. Evan’s lied to keep his two worlds separate. Now his lies are about to implode…and destroy the very relationships he’s been trying to protect.

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
Everyone is on the hunt for a book with gay characters. With gay characters, not about gay characters. Books about gay characters have plots that central around coming out, and have themes of acceptance. Books with gay characters are have plots that are, well, normal plots. Books with gay characters can be about vampires, apocalypse, or even fat mobsters who always fall down the stairs. Books with gay characters have other themes besides acceptance.

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU is a book with gay characters, not about them.

High school seniors Evan and Davis are sick of being bullied for no other reason than the fact that they’re gay. So when school lets out and they meet Sable, a weird/interesting/mysterious gay dude with a hidden agenda, they’re easily pulled into the Chasers, a group that celebrates homosexuality. With each meeting, Davis is sucked farther in to the group, and when it gets dangerous, Evan must decide between saving his best friend and following his heart.

There are a billion things I love about this book, but I’ll try to only name a few.

The protagonist, Evan, is probably my favorite main character of 2011. He’s so insanely relatable, and just straight-up real. Evan is the character that everyone will love and want to be IRL friends with. He doesn’t have the snarky, whiny, depressed attitude. When you think of him, you don’t say, “Oh, Evan? That gay character in W/ OR W/OUT YOU?” Because his sexuality is the least interesting thing about him. He paints, using windows as his canvas.

Brian Farrey writes about lots of different relationships in WITH OR WITHOUT YOU, but there are two that really take lead: Evan and Davis’s, and Evan and Erik’s. I love that the relationship between Evan and Davis stayed at the friend-level. There was nothing romantic between them, and that made the story even more real. You don’t know how many times I chill with one of my gay friends and someone asks if we’re dating. That bothers the $#&% out of me, when people assume that just because two people are gay they’re automatically in love and dating. I was beyond thrilled to see this in WITH OR WITHOUT YOU.

I think I mentioned this before, but Evan is a painter. But not your typical, average painter—he creates his art on windows. Glass is his medium. I don’t want to give too much away, but Evan’s problem is this: his art, while refreshing and beautiful, is completely unoriginal. He has no unique style. No identity. Instead, he mocks other artists. The book is a lot about relationships and balance, but it’s also about self-discovery. From the beginning to the end, we see a change in Evan, through his artwork. It’s like, as he learns more about the person that he is, he also learns about the artist he wants to be. This is what made WITH OR WITHOUT YOU brilliant.

And, of course, Mr. Farrey’s writing just made the story shine.

This is a book you definitely want to read.

FIVE STARS

CLOSED: beach bound prize pack giveaway

Jenny Han's bestselling trilogy, which includes The Summer I Turned Pretty and It's Not Summer Without You, concludes with an impossible choice in We'll Always Have Summer.
Belly has only ever been in love with two boys, both with the last name Fisher. And after being with Jeremiah for the last two years, she's almost positive he is her soul mate. Almost. Conrad has not gotten over the mistake he made when he let Belly go even as Jeremiah has always known that Belly is the girl for him. So when Belly and Jeremiah decide to make things forever, Conrad realizes that it's now or never--tell Belly he loves her, or lose her for good. Belly will have to confront her feelings for Jeremiah and Conrad and face a truth she has possibly always known: she will have to break one of their hearts.

When Anna was little, she and her mother used to search for sea glass, but since they looked at night, they called it moonglass.
Now, ten years after her mother's mysterious death, her father is working as head lifeguard on the same beach where her mother grew up and her parents first met and fell in love. Reluctant to get close to anyone (including her father) and not pleased about having to start at a new school, Anna begins to spend more time alone, running the length of the beach and wondering about who her mother really was. After meeting a lifeguard named Tyler, she slowly lets her guard down and together they start exploring the abandoned houses that dot the beach.
But when learning more about her mother's past leads to a painful discovery, Anna must reconcile her desire for solitude with ultimately accepting the love of her family and friends. Moonglass is a dazzling debut from an undeniable talent.

One lucky reader will win:

• a summer tote bag
• a copy of MOONGLASS by Jessi Kirby
• a copy of WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE SUMMER by Jenny Han

Giveaway rules:

• to enter fill out the form below
• one entry per person
• open to entries until May 31, 2011
• US mailing addresses only

**Huge thanks to Simon & Schuster + Big Honcho Media for sponsoring.

shift by jeri smith-ready

Published 5/3/11

Shift | Jeri Smith-Ready

Simon Pulse

Hardcover | 367 pp.

Aura’s life is anything but easy. Her boyfriend, Logan, died, and his slides between ghost and shade have left her reeling. Aura knows he needs her now more than ever. She loves Logan, but she can’t deny her connection with the totally supportive, totally gorgeous Zachary. And she’s not sure that she wants to.
Logan and Zachary will fight to be the one by her side, but Aura needs them both to uncover the mystery of her past—the mystery of the Shift.
As Aura’s search uncovers new truths, she must decide whom to trust with her secrets…and her heart.

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
If you have followed me on my miraculous journey into blogging from the very beginning, you may or may not remember me raving about this book called SHADE. It was this teen sci-fi / paranormal romance that I couldn’t get out of my head. Well, 98 years later, the sequel SHIFT has been released.

It only took a few pages to remember what happened in SHADE + get back in sync with Aura’s story. The book starts right where SHADE left off, with Aura and Logan trying to figure out (1) what the hell is going on and why Logan’s switching from ghost to human to shade, and (2) what their relationship is. It’s really tense (the whole book is, really) and it reminded me why I enjoyed SHADE so much.

I love Jeri Smith-Ready’s world building. In the SHADE trilogy, ghosts roam the earth, and the teenagers born before the Shift have the ability to see & communicate with them. Which makes it less tragic when Aura’s boyfriend, Logan, dies of a drug overdose. The ghost thing is perfectly pulled-off in these books, and very fresh. There’s a whole lot of Scottish influence in the books, so that spices it up and makes it even more fun to read.

SHIFT, like all good sequels, answers a few burning questions readers were left with after SHADE. We find out more about Aura’s mother, as well as what really went down the night of the Shift.

And now I’m to my last point, the boys! There’s Logan, the hot bad-boy-turned-ghost-turned-shade-turned-ghost-again, and Zachary, the sexy Scottish guy. Aura has a hard time deciding who fits her better, where her heart belongs, and the consequences of her choice, but she’s not the only one! I was completely torn between the two up until the very last pages. TEAM ZACHARY, FTW.

My point is: SHIFT is an excellent sequel, one that didn’t disappoint me at all. Definitely check these books out, if you haven’t already!

interview with author jessi kirby

website | blog | twitter | goodreads

Jessi Kirby is the author of MOONGLASS. She grew up in Mammoth Lakes, California, where scenery inspired her to write. After moving through different parts of California and passing through jobs as an English teacher and librarian, she finally settled in Orange County and wrote MOONGLASS. I think Jessi is brilliant, and am so thrilled that she agreed to an interview on Naughty Kitties. You can see my review of MOONGLASS here.


Who are some authors whose books have had the biggest impact on your writing?
Sarah Dessen, for sure. She was my introduction to YA, and the whole reason I began to write it. Other authors whose work I adore: Jandy Nelson, Sarah Ockler, Jenny Han, Heidi Kling, Deb Caletti, all amazing contemp gals!

Can we expect more emotional and vivid beach reads from you in the future? (SAY YES, JESSI. YES.)
Yes! I’ll always want to write a story that tugs at your heart, and I do adore the beach…BUT. I also adore any setting that’s big and grand and takes your breath away, so you can expect to see a few others in there as well.

MOONGLASS isn’t the first manuscript you’ve ever written, is it? Cause if so, MAN YOU ARE TALENTED.
Oh, you do know how to make a girl blush. Thank you! MOONGLASS is the first manuscript I’ve written, but by the time you read it, it’d been re-written quite a few times, so it was more like the eighth or ninth manuscript, really. It’s definitely true that revision is when you get the real writing done.

MOONGLASS is set in an easy-going beach town. I’d say that the beach is such an important part of the book, you could consider it a character! What is it that draws you to write about such landscapes?
I’m a person who will always be inspired by nature, so it will always find a way into my writing. I grew up in the mountains, so the beach held this mystique for me that was just so delicious and different from what I was familiar with. Writing MOONGLASS was a way for me to pay homage to that feeling. Hopefully my future stories will do the same for different settings!

MOONGLASS is a lot about girls and their mothers. What inspired to you to write about this relationship rather than any other one?
Some of my most favorite books are mother-daughter stories. That relationship is such an intricate, important one, and I think exploring those intricacies can lead to a really rich story.

straight from the mouth

Straight from the mouth of this lil intern right hurr: prologues are abominations.

Literary Agent Sarah LaPolla explains why—in an extremely well-written post—here.

but i love him by amanda grace

Published 5/8/11

But I Love Him | Amanda Grace (Pseudonym/Mandy Hubbard)

Flux

Paperback | 264 pp.

Tonight was so much worse than anything before it. Tonight he didn't stop after the first slap.
At the beginning of senior year, Ann was a smiling, straight-A student and track star with friends and a future. Then she met a haunted young man named Connor. Only she can heal his emotional scars; only he could make her feel so loved — and needed. Ann can't recall the pivotal moment it all changed, when she surrendered everything to be with him, but by graduation, her life has become a dangerous high wire act. Just one mistake could trigger Connor's rage, a senseless storm of cruel words and violence damaging everything — and everyone — in its path.
This evocative slideshow of flashbacks reveals a heartbreaking story of love gone terribly wrong.

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
I’ve always seen positive reviews for Mandy Hubbard, and I’ve always wondered what about her writing made readers so keysmashing enthusiastic. I joined the Mandy Hubbard fan club once I finished reading her paranormal romance, RIPPLE. I loved the way she paced the story, the way she slowly built up the tension and romance and then let it explode the last 100 pages. That book got me excited for this book. And I must say: BUT I LOVE HIM is probably the better of the two.

You know how they say it’s impossible for a writer of paranormal to switch over to contemporary w/out losing quality and/or disappointing fans? COMPLETE BULL$#^%. Mandy Hubbard flow can flow freely between genres. BUT I LOVE HIM is the best book I’ve read in a long time.

BUT I LOVE HIM is the story of Ann, a girl broken in half. It’s about Ann’s abusive relationship, and how she got into the whole mess, told in reverse chronological order. (So it starts at their 1-year anniversary, and continues to jump back until we’re at the day Ann and her boyfriend meet.)

There are so many things that made me love this story, but I’ll start with the first: the reverse chronological order. Picking up a book and flipping to the first couple pages sounds like an easy, light task, right? Right?

No. As soon as you lay eyes on the first couple of lines, you meet Ann. You meet Ann on the floor, right after she’s been hurt by Connor. I’ve always thought that stories should start out with strong beginnings, but this one, it knocks the wind out of you.

Seeing Ann at her worst dragged me in. Seeing how Ann got there pulled me along. I don’t think the book would be as powerful if it weren’t told backwards.

The second thing that made me love this story: the villain. In nearly all the dating violence books I’ve read, there is one villain. And that villain is the person who does the abusing. That villain is cruel, mean, and ugly. That villain is flat. The villain is a villain, plain and simple. There’s nothing else to it.

Not in BUT I LOVE HIM. Ann isn’t the only that’s broken. Connor is, too. There’s a whole story on why Connor does the things he does, and what possibly influenced him from early on. I just could not hate him, much as I should have or wanted to. Connor wasn’t a villain, as in the ninety-nine other dating violence books I’ve read. That’s what sets BUT I LOVE HIM apart from those other stories.

The third: it beat me up. Each page was a bruise on my arm. Every time Connor unleashed himself on Ann, it felt like a knife was jabbed into my side. Cause that’s what this book makes you do: feel.

I can't even begin to describe how much I loved this book. It's intense, scary, and an addictive mix of pretty + ugly.

This is what a 5-star story looks like.

DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth

Published 5/3/11

Divergent | Veronica Roth

Katherine Tegen Books

Hardcover | 487 pp.

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
I wanted this book ever since December, when the fiery cover caught my eye. At the time I read DIVERGENT, I was addicted to dystopian. Now I’m kind of over the trend, but I can still talk about how much I loved DIVERGENT. Every once and a while, I pick up a book that so great I wake up at 4am just to have extra reading time. These types of books remind me that reading can be the most entertaining thing ever, and that people who call it nerdy are missing out big time.

DIVERGENT is all about being given choices and making decisions. In Tris’s world, you’re forced to choose which Faction you want to live in at age 16. Choosing a place to live doesn’t seem like a big deal, right? But choosing a Faction is much more than that. Your Faction becomes your family. Your Faction becomes a part of you.

The action and characters are really what made this book so extraordinarily compelling. There’s romance that will melt your heart, and action that will blow your mind.

Divergent is that badass dystopian that makes your adrenaline pump.  It’s about a girl who lives in a society where you’re given five choices, and what happens when people start to realize that they shouldn’t be confined by the choices the government gives them.  This is the book that makes “Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God” play in your head, ON REPEAT.

DIVERGENT is magnetic. Pulling your eyes away from Veronica Roth’s storytelling will be difficult.

Also, the awesome book trailer:

WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE by Sarah Dessen

Published 5/10/11

What Happened to Goodbye | Sarah Dessen

Penguin

Hardcover | 416 pp.

Another town. Another school. Another Mclean. Ever since her parents' bitter divorce, Mclean and her father have been fleeing their unhappy past. And Mclean's become a pro at reinventing herself with each move. But in Lakeview, Mclean finds herself putting down roots and making friends—in part, thanks to Dave, the most real person Mclean's ever met. Dave just may be falling in love with her, but can he see the person she really is? Does Mclean herself know?

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
Sarah Dessen is one of the best YA authors out there. If she published a book a day, I would read one each day. Each one of her novels is better than the last, each year, when the sun comes out and the birds start signing, I get an itch to read one of her novels and return to Dessenland.  You guys don’t know how much I screamed like a girl—not to say girls scream a certain way, cause, you know, I’m all about breaking stereotypes—when I heard about WHAT HAPPEND TO GOODBYE.

In Sarah Dessen’s latest masterpiece, Mclean moves a lot. Hopping from town to town, she changes her name, her entire identity, according to her mood.  She doesn’t get close to anyone, doesn’t make any effort to make any new friends, because that would mean getting emotionally attached. And if there’s one thing Mclean knows, it’s that getting emotionally attached to one specific thing only leads to heartache.

She’s been Eliza, Lizbeth, and Beth until one day, when she moves to the quirky town of Lakeview, and she’s just Mclean. Introducing herself to the kids at school as her real, actual self—if she even knows who that is—is one of the most impulsive things Mclean has ever done.

But what shocks her the most is her blooming relationship with the residents of Lakeview. The friendships she starts forming, the romantic moments she shares with the boy next door. Mclean realizes that, all this time, she wasn’t running from love . . . she was running from herself.

Sarah Dessen has this amazing ability of writing characters and stories so real that they feel personalized to each reader’s list of things that make a perfect novel. Can I just say that she is my god, and that she could publish her grocery list and I’d give it 5 stars?

Sarah Dessen writes about the things no one else can put into words. I think that we teenagers are constantly trying to put ourselves into categories and finding out where we fit to learn more about the type of people we are, and that one of the scariest things ever is realizing you can’t categorize yourself. Realizing that you don’t really know who you are. I would say that Sarah Dessen tackles this in WHAT HAPPENED TO GOODBYE, but that wouldn’t be very accurate. She hits it upside the head with a club, rips it open, and bears its guts across the pages.

MOONGLASS by Jessi Kirby

Published 5/3/11

Moonglass | Jessi Kirby

Simon & Schuster

Hardcover | 224 pp.

From Jessi Kirby, a debut novel about confronting the past in order to move ahead.
I read once that water is a symbol for emotions. And for a while now, I've thought maybe my mother drowned in both.
Anna's life is upended when her father accepts a job transfer the summer before her junior year. It's bad enough that she has to leave her friends and her life behind, but her dad is moving them to the beach where her parents first met and fell in love- a place awash in memories that Anna would just as soon leave under the surface.
While life on the beach is pretty great, with ocean views and one adorable lifeguard in particular, there are also family secrets that were buried along the shore years ago. And the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide means that nothing- not the sea glass that she collects on the sand and not the truths behind Anna's mother's death- stays buried forever.

Brent’s opinion of the novel:
There’s something about beach reads that get me every time. I love heading to beach (vicariously) with a great set of characters. I love the sand, the bon fires, the flip flops, and the ice cream. There’s nothing better than reading about that cute boy down the beach. I’m always on the lookout for books that capture everything summer is perfectly—and I squee every time I find one! MOONGLASS is one of those books.

Anna spent her childhood on the beach, scraping through the sand with her mother to find little bits of sea glass. But that was until her mother drowned herself in the ocean.

Ten years later, when Anna’s all grown, she returns to the beach of her childhood with her father. Anna makes friends, falls in love, and learns more about her mother’s death than she ever thought possible.

Jessi Kirby hooked me with the very first page of MOONGLASS. Her writing is so, so beautiful—I had to keep reading. I was sucked into Anna’s story as Jessi Kirby slowly unfolded all her grief and emotions.
Anna’s love interest is pretty . . . uh . . . not likable at first. Tyler is cocky, over-confident, and just a little arrogant. At the very beginning of the novel, I didn’t get why Anna liked him at all. But with each chapter, I understood more and more why they were a perfect fit for each other. By the end, I think I was a bit jealous of Anna.

Read MOONGLASS because it’s almost summer. Read MOONGLASS because it will make you tear up. Read MOONGLASS because Jessi Kirby is a superb writer who perfectly captures a summer that changes a girl’s life. Read MOONGLASS because the cover is pretty. Read it for whatever reasons. You’ll love it.

Related: The dude on the cover of MOONGLASS has a real nice butt.