Check out our guest post from author Margaret Stohl. She discusses writing Icons and all the feels. Also check out the YA Icons Tour schedule and enter to win a Kindle Paper White with Icons skin.
Writing ‘Icons’: All The Feels
I hate it when writers say that something wrote itself. A librarian said that to me a few days ago, and she was right.
It’s like saying you don’t know why you’re just naturally skinny, or that you love being pregnant, or that you didn’t study for the test. Or your dog house-trained himself. YOU’RE SKINNY BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T EAT THE WHOLE BURRITO. YOU HATE BEING PREGNANT DON’T LIE. YOU STUDIED YOUR BUTT OFF FOR THAT TEST AND YOUR DOG PEED ON YOUR CARPET A ZILLION TIMES. AND YOUR DANG BOOK SURE AS HECK DIDN’T WRITE ITSELF.
I assure you. It didn’t. When I wrote the Beautiful Creatures novels with Kami Garcia, we worked our butts off. And when I wrote Icons, my first solo novel, I once again worked my butt off.
I’m telling you this because Icons might not have written itself — but it certainly lived itself into existence. It felt it’s way on to the page. I inhabited that book from the very first page, and nothing about it came easy – either in my life, or in the book. As I said in a panel at TLA this weekend, Icons is the closet thing I will ever write to a memoir. Sure, it’s a futuristic love story set during an alien occupation in a version of post-racial Los Angeles known as the Hole – and the four teens at the heart of the story may have what amounts to weaponized emotions — but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a true story.
An emotionally true story.
It’s a story about loss, and love, and what I like to call Big Feelings. It’s about being afraid to feel what you feel – being afraid that your feelings are so big they’ll destroy you. And it’s also about learning that those same feelings are the things that in the end make you human, and whole. And sure, it might feel like what you feel can destroy you – but ultimately, what you feel will also save you.
Give it a shot. At least that’s how it worked for me.
For the release of Icons Margie is having a really fun book tour check out the details below and enter to win one of several prizes including a kindle paper white.
YA Icons Tour
Friends don’t let friends tour alone! That’s right, in honor of the May 7 launch of Icons, Margaret Stohl’s new sci-fi series; she’s called up some of her most iconic friends – who also happen to be some of your favorite authors. And so, if you happen to live in LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Provo, NYC or Charleston – they’re coming to you!
The tour launches on May 7 in San Francisco at Books Inc. Icons is set in a post invasion world where people fear the unseen aliens that now control them. The story follows Dol a grass girl who leads a simple life away from the Hole, what used to be Los Angeles. Dol is not a normal teen, she somehow survived The Day when no one else in her family did. Along with Ro, another orphan from The Day, she stays hidden from the world at the Mission. But not all is what it seems with Dol and Ro. They are a secret hidden away from the Ambassador and the rest of the world.
When Dol and Ro are taken to the Embassy they discover they are not the only ones who are special. Caught between the known and unknown Dol must decide who she trusts and just how far she is willing to go to save the only home she knows.
Check out the interactive map and tour stops below. Also be sure to enter the giveaway which includes a Kindle Paper White, autographed copy of Icons and much more.
View YA ICONS TOUR: TAKE ME TO YOUR READER! in a larger map
San Francisco – Tuesday May 7 at 7:30 pm – Icons Launch at Books Inc – A Not Your Mother’s Book Club (NYMBC) event – Margaret Stohl with Andrea Cremer, David Levithan, NinaLaCour.
San Francisco area – Wednesday May 8 – Keplers – Margaret Stohl with Melissa de la Cruz, Leigh Bardugo, Kim Derting, Kami Garcia.
Seattle – Thursday May 9 at 7:00 pm – Pierce County Library – Margaret Stohl with Leigh Bardugo, Kim Derting, Marissa Meyer.
Seattle – Friday May 10 at 6:30 PM – Third Place Books – Margaret Stohl and Kim Derting in conversation with a Special Guest Moderator. Details TBA.
Los Angeles – Saturday May 11 – Dark Delicacies – Margaret Stohl with Melissa de la Cruz, 5 pm, Signing only.
Los Angeles – Sunday May 12 – venue TBA – Margaret Stohl with Ransom Riggs, TaherehMafi, Melissa de la Cruz, Marie Lu, Alyson Noel, Kami Garcia.
Salt Lake City – Tuesday May 14 – the King’s English – Margaret Stohl with Ally Condie, Shannon Hale and Stephanie Perkins.
Provo – Wednesday May 15 – Provo Library – Margaret Stohl in conversation with Stephanie Perkins.
Rochester Teen Book Festival – Saturday May 18, all day – Nazareth College, Rochester, NY – see website for more information.
New York Area (Long Island) – Sunday May 19 – Barnes & Noble Carle Place – 2 pm – Margaret Stohl in conversation with Eliot Schrefer and Barry Lyga.
New York City – Monday May 20 – 7 PM – Books of Wonder – Margaret Stohl with Gayle Forman, E. Lockhart, Robin Wasserman, Barry Lyga and Tonya Hurley.
Charleston, SC- Thursday May 23 – Blue Bicycle Books – Margaret Stohl with Beth Revis, Michelle Hodkin, Kathy Reichs and Brendon Reichs – A Yallfest event!
To check out more stops on the Icons blog tour go HERE.