In His Eyes Anthology a Great Valentine Present: A Collection of Short Stories

Looking for a fun new read for you or a young adult in your life? I wanted to tell you about a new anthology called IN HIS EYES that is just perfect.  You can buy it TODAY for Valentine’s day!! It’s the perfect read to snuggle up to with a box of chocolates, a blanket, and tea. Read on in the blog for information about the collection and authors involved, as well as an exclusive interview about how the anthology came about from one of the authors you won’t want to miss!

A wonderful group of writers (they call themselves *The Indelibles* and write young adult fiction–check them out on FB) have put together a fun book of short stories based on either male characters in their already published books or new ones they’ve dreamed up just for your enjoyment. They told me they just want to give back to all the fabulous readers out there!!

I’ve read THE VEIL by Cory Putman Oakes and loved it and just recently also posted about author S.R. Johannes, who wrote Untraceable and On the Bright Side. Both of their short stories are fabulous as well as many of the others. If you’ve read their books, you’ll love some of the new perspective from favorite male characters. If you haven’t read their books, as with many of these for me, you’ll definitely want to go grab their books soon too because they’ll leave you wanting more, either from the characters you’ve met or from liking their writing style. This is a great collection for any lover of YA fiction.

The anthology is a FREE e-book from Smashwords.com!!! No strings attached (Note: .99 cents on Amazon and Barnes and Noble).

Promotional Blurb

*The Indelibles*bring you a one-of-a-kind young adult anthology! Sixteen original short stories, all from the point of view of our favorite male characters – some are old flames from our novels and some were dreamed up especially for this anthology.  Let these imminently crushable, swoon-worthy guys show you what romance looks like – IN HIS EYES.

Contributing Authors

The contributors to IN HIS EYES include award winners, frequent “Top 100” placers, and hot 2011 debut authors:

Surprise, Surprise by Stacey Wallace Benefiel, author of Glimpse: Half the women in Melody’s family can see the future, which makes it nearly impossible for Raleigh to surprise her. What’s a guy to do for Valentine’s Day when his girlfriend is always one step ahead of him?

First Kiss or First Kill? by C.K. Bryant, author of Bound: Love isn’t always rainbows and kittens, sometimes it can be downright deadly. (A deleted chapter from Bound.)

Shattered by Ali Cross, author of Become: James and Desi use each other in an effort to cling to the darkness in each of them, but in the end they discover that love changes you. (A chapter of Become from James’ POV.)

Before by Jessie Harrell, author of Destined: When a younger Eros is exiled to a land that doesn’t believe in the Greek gods, he finds the first love of his immortal life. Read Eros’ first person account of his romance, and heartbreak, in the time before he met Psyche.

The Qualm Before the Storm by Karen Amanda Hooper, author of Tangled Tides. Yara Jones doesn’t want to be a mermaid. Treygan doesn’t want to be the monster who turns her. You can’t always get what you want. (A short prequel to Tangled Tides.)

Unspeakable by S.R. Johannes, author of Untraceable: When Mo sees a strange girl in the woods, he follows her. He soon realizes they are both in a dangerous position and might not get out alive.

In the Beginning by Katie Klein, author of Cross My Heart: Seth is falling hard for Genesis Green, but the guardian angel is determined not to interfere, until an accident changes the course of their lives forever. (A short prequel to The Guardian.)

A Chance Encounter by Cheri Lasota, author of Artemis Rising: Finnian’s eyes hide a terrible secret. But a girl on the train home, the girl in tears with a secret of her own…She sees right through him. A scene from the upcoming novel, Echoes in the Glass.

Family Bonds by Heather McCorkle, author of The Secret of Spruce Knoll: A Halloween party filled with teens who can channel energy and use it to kill, what could go wrong? For Spruce Knoll fans who are dying to read more about Fane.

Getting Closer by Lisa Nowak, author of Running Wide Open: Megan is smart, hot, and an upperclassman—in other words, way out of Cody’s league. So why did she choose him? (An excerpt of Getting Sideways.)

Precalculus by Cory Putman Oakes, author of The Veil: a re-telling of the fateful class period that changed Addison Russell’s life, from Luc’s point of view (a.k.a. Chapter 2 of The Veil from Luc’s perspective)

The Almost Assassin by Laura Pauling, author of A Spy Like Me, releasing Spring 2012: Malcolm tries his hand at the family business but his conscience and a beautiful “spy” may be his downfall.

Mind Games by Susan Kaye Quinn, author of Open Minds: Raf wants to take Kira—the only girl in school who doesn’t read minds—to the mindware Games, but his friends have other plans. (A short prequel to Open Minds.)

By The Firelight by Elle Strauss, author of Clockwise: When Nate McKenzie asks an unpopular girl to dance on a dare, he’s in for the time of his life.

A Very Alien Valentine’s Day by Magan Vernon, author of How To Date An Alien: After surviving confinement and an intergalactic war for his human half, Alex, now he has to live through the biggest challenge of them all: Valentine’s Day.

Aligned by RaShelle Workman, author of Exiled: A half-Eternal boy and an Eternal girl must free millions of tortured souls from a creature whose been feasting on their pain and suffering.

Interview

We nabbed an exclusive interview with author Cory P. Oakes of THE VEIL. She is a contributor to the short story collection and we asked her a few simple questions about the IN HIS EYES Anthology. Check it out!

Q:  Where did this anthology come from?

A:  IN HIS EYES is a group effort of sixteen members of *The Indelibles*. We are a group of indie and small-press published authors. We host a blog (LINK: http://indeliblewriters.blogspot.com/) where we discuss a variety of fun, fierce and fabulous topics, all relating to Middle Grade and Young Adult writing. We thought it would be really fun to come out with a Valentines Day offering for our readers – something really cool and just a little bit different (kind of like us!).

Q:  What was the idea behind the anthology?

A:  We wanted to introduce people to us and to our books – and we thought a unique way to do that would be to display our writing-worlds (and our writing styles) from the point of view of our male characters. What’s more romantic than getting the guy’s side of the story?

All of the short stories from IN HIS EYES are told from a male point of view. Some of them are original shorts we made up just for this book, others are reworkings of previous writings from a new point of view (for example, my short story is called Precalculus and it’s a re-telling of Chapter 2 of THE VEIL, from the point of view of the love interest). And since it’s Valentines Day, all of the stories have a romantic angle to them.

Q:  How challenging was it to write from the male perspective?

A:  I think the members of the Indelibles who were more used to writing from a male point of view found it pretty straight-forward . . . but I for one found it very challenging! I tend to write almost exclusively from the female point of view – I had only done male characters in third-person, so jumping right into a male character’s head and writing in first-person was totally new to me.

I actually wrote a blog post about my struggles to “write like a dude” (LINK: http://www.corypoakes.com/news-and-events/writing-dude-grunt-grunt-scratch-scratch/): the gist of it was that my first attempt was absolutely horrendous! It wasn’t until I was able to remember that my character had qualities other than just being “a dude” that I was able to get inside his head. I am ultimately very proud of “Precalculus” and how much the voice in it really does sound like the “Lucas Stratton” I have had floating around inside my head for years. It took a long while to get there, but it was worth it. It actually really helped motivate me to get cracking on the sequel to THE VEIL – getting some new insight into Luc really helped to give me some fresh perspective on the series in general.

 Q:  What do *The Indelibles* hope to accomplish with this anthology?

 A:  Well, we’ve put it up for free on Smashwords and for just .99 cents on Amazon and Barnes and Noble – so we’re not trying to make a killing here, moneywise. Really, this is our Valentines Day gift to our readers. And of course we hope that if people really enjoy our short stories, they will be motivated to check out our books as well. (It worked for me! I now have a whole list of books I want to read, just from the various shorts I got to proof-read during the course of doing this anthology!)

 Q:  Where can one get a copy of the anthology?

A:  IN HIS EYES was released as an ebook for free on Smashwords at:
(LINK: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/129467)

and for just .99 cents on Amazon:
(LINK: http://www.amazon.com/In-His-Eyes-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00760G5CE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329243075&sr=1-1)

and Barnes&Noble.com:
(LINK: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/in-his-eyes-anthology-sr-johannes/1108613162).

You can also add it to your shelves on Goodreads by going to:
(LINK: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13331838-in-his-eyes-anthology)

Thanks Cory, the book is a fabulous idea! Happy Valentine’s Day!!