CHASING BEFORE by Lenore Appelhans Releases Today!

Hello and congrats to Lenore Appelhans! 
CHASING BEFORE, the sequel to THE MEMORY OF AFTER, is out today! 
*throws memory-altered confetti*

I have a bunch of questions to ask Lenore about her book, which I was lucky enough to read in the early stages and LOVED it from the beginning!

Me: I loved the new world you built in Chasing Before. Did you have this all consciously thought out when you wrote The Memory of After? If so, did a lot of it change once you began writing it?

Lenore: The Memory of After was originally conceived as a standalone, so when it came time to figure out what to do with a contracted sequel, I had to go back to the drawing board. I knew I wanted to continue to use elements of both Christian theology and mythology to create Level 3, but the landscape is vastly different than what you find in Level 2.

Me: So...you live in Germany! How does living in another country affect your writing process? 

Lenore: I often describe Germany as my writing cave. When I’m here, I’m a homebody most of the time, butt in chair, writing. I use trips to the US to be social and network. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the opportunity to be in a myriad of different countries within a few hours. Taking short trips in Europe gives me the chance to refill the creative well with new impressions and experiences. I love it!

Me: Who is your favorite new character we get to meet in the sequel?

Lenore: Great question! I am quite fond of both Libby and Brady, so much so that they get their own POV flashbacks in the eNovella THE BEST THINGS IN DEATH. But, I do enjoy the way Nate brings out a side of Neil we haven’t seen before, and I’m partial to him because I made him old enough that Ian Somerhalder could play him in the film. Ha!

Thanks Lenore! So glad to be able to chat with you!

And here's a little about CHASING BEFORE:

“I’m a ticking time bomb. And one day soon everything is going to explode.”

Felicia and Neil have arrived in Level 3 and are supposed to prepare for their divine vocations.

But during Felicia and Neil's training period, a series of explosions rips through Level 3. Tension is high, and casualties are mounting. A rift forms between the pair, one that grows wider when Felicia receives memories from the Morati. The memories cast doubt on the people she loves the most, but Felicia can't stop her curiosity. She has to know the truth about her life – even if it means putting at risk everything she’s worked for in her death.

Where to get the book:

Barnes and Noble / Amazon / IndieBound / Powell's 

Paperback Launch of THE MEMORY OF AFTER by Lenore Appelhans!

Hey all! Today is the release of the paperback of THE MEMORY OF AFTER! I'm so excited to chat about this (I was lucky enough to read an ARC of this when it was known as LEVEL 2), but first some details:

In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.

Since her untimely death, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—appears to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: if she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.

Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake…but the salvation of all mankind.

Here's some buzz on why this is such a fantastic book:

“Appelhans brings the afterlife to a whole new level. . . . A high-voltage thrill ride through love, death, and memory that will leave you breathless.” (Jess Rothenberg, author of The Catastrophic History of You and Me)

“Absolutely gripping. My heart pounded on nearly every page. You won't be able to put it down.” (Mary E. Pearson, award-winning author of the Jenna Fox Chronicles)

...and some fantastic reviews!

“This imaginative debut brings conflict to the afterlife....An absorbing, sensitive read.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Appelhans’ storytelling is well paced, tantalizing the reader with hints, and the compelling theme of the necessity of facing the wrongs of the past in order to move forward into the future will appeal to teens.” (Booklist)

So...I loved this book. 

I thought that Appelhans did a fantastically original job of envisioning this life in the "after" and how memories were accessed--with no small commentary on how lives on social media today are accessed by anybody and everybody. All the while, we as readers are doing the very same by plugging into Felicia's past and piecing together why she's here, and what led her to this place. 

The core of any good story worth its words is the everlasting why--why is the main character in this situation, and moreover, what is she going to do with that knowledge once she understands it? Ultimately, The Memory of After is a mystery, a story of self, and a story of unfolding redemption. It truly is a page turner, in every sense of the word.

If you haven't had a chance to read it, now you can own it in all its paperback glory. :)

The paperback of THE MEMORY OF AFTER is available on Amazon, IndieBound, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble.  Check out The Memory Chronicles Pinterest board for quoteables from the novel all this week! 

(Yeah. I'm going to have to buy this now just so I can own that gorgeous new cover!)

Revision Time: What Works for Me

All this week we're going to be giving you editing tips and tricks on the League.

I'm the kind of writer who prefers revision to drafting, and I enjoy the work of adding depth and layers to character, story and theme.

Recently I attended a revision workshop held by Author Sara Grant. Obviously I am not going to give away all her tips (you should totally attend her workshop if you have the chance), but I did want to share one tip that really worked for me on my latest revision of Chasing Before (my sequel to The Memory of After a.k.a. Level 2).

Go through and give each major and major supporting character's dialogue a different color.  Felicia is my main character and it is her POV, so she can stay in black, but I made Neil light blue, Libby is green, Nate is orange, etc.

Then read the entire MS through for each character and only that character.

This helps in two main ways:

1) you can isolate a single character's arc. Do they seem to have their own goals and motivations or do they exist solely to further the plot?

2) you can check that each character's voice is consistent and that their patterns of speech differentiate  them from other characters.

Hope this works for you too!

AN INTERVIEW WITH LENORE APPELHANS, AUTHOR OF LEVEL TWO

Today I get to interview the long-time YA blogger and Leaguer Lenore Appelhans about her writing and publishing process for her debut YA novel, LEVEL TWO. You’ll enjoy her contemporary take on the afterlife where reliving your past memories is key to making sense of your life.  Add in a rebellion and a love triangle and what more could you want from the afterlife?

Readers always love to hear how writers come up with their concept, especially when it is a different kind of fantasy as yours is, so let’s start there. How did this story come to you and how did you build your world?  

I’ve always been fascinated with authors’ visions of the afterlife (DEFENDING YOUR LIFE is one of my favorite movies). I’d had this idea of an afterlife where memories are currency – some more valuable than others – but for so many years, I didn’t know how to implement it. 

My friend and I were in Pompeii and a question came to me in the shower: “What would a dystopian afterlife look like?” Afterwards, the basics of the story came pouring out of me.  My friend asked me tons of logistical questions - and in the answering, Level 2 was born.

As far as world building, I did a lot of research into the afterlife visions of different religions and mythology and I dug deep into my own imagination.

I love how well-traveled you are that you can begin a sentence with “My friend and I were in Pompeii.”

The memories that your main character Felicia plugs into are so wonderfully rich with detail that it’s hard to imagine that these memories are not real.  You, like her, have lived in many countries and traveled extensively. How much did you mine your own history to write those memories?

All the places Felicia’s been in the memories, I have been – with one big exception. The trip she takes with her father to the Turkish coast is based on a trip that my husband took. He talked about his adventure so vividly, I was captivated and knew it had to be in my book.  The roofless shack they stay in is real, but the prancing goats are pure fiction.

Darn. I wanted to see the prancing goats! With a story like this, there seem to be many different places you could have started. Did Level Two always begin this way?

The first scene I wrote (right after my Pompeii epiphany) was Felicia’s death scene, but I knew even then that I wouldn’t start the book with that. I let everything percolate in my head for about five months, and when I sat down to write again, the first five chapters came very easily. The opening few pages haven’t changed at all (save a few copyedits) since my first draft.

At later points in the story the characters say that the rules are changing. Did you always plan to change the rules or did that evolve in the writing process?

Part of the writing process for this novel was figuring out what the rules were. They definitely evolved during drafting and revising.

You’ve written and turned in the sequel, Level Three. Will that be the end of the series?

Interesting question! I originally intended Level 2 to be a standalone, but then I found that there was more to tell, hence Level 3.  Theoretically, the Levels could be endless – because no one ever knows what’s next.  I could see Felicia’s story extending into one more book, but we’ll just have to see!

What has been your biggest surprise in the publishing process?

I started aiming for publication with picture books back in 2004. So it’s been a surprise to be debuting in 2013 with a novel and a picture book.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell the League readers about Level Two or about yourself?

Level 2 is exactly the kind of book I love to read – full of twists with a dash of romance, action, mystery and literary allusions.  Level 3 gets even crazier – and I can’t wait to share it with the world.

Congratulations to Lenore on Level Two, available for pre-order now, coming out in just days -- Jan 15!

Website: www.lenoreappelhans.com

Blog: http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com

Twitter: @lenoreva

Read an excerpt of the first 50 pages of LEVEL 2 here

Preorder LEVEL 2 here

Add to Goodreads

View the Book Trailer

Launching LEVEL 2 by Lenore Appelhans

We're glad to be back in 2013 with a bang! I hope you're enjoying our new site design, because this week, we're celebrating the forthcoming launch of League member Lenore Appelhans's LEVEL 2!

About LEVEL 2: In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.

Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again.

Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

We'll be celebrating all week with Lenore and LEVEL 2 and we hope you'll take a few minutes to check out some of these great things going on with the novel.

• There's a pre-order promotion going on now! You can preorder a signed, personalized copy of LEVEL 2 at the Watermark Books website until January 15th (release day). Once you put in your cart, use the "order comments" input field to specify who you want the signed copy made out to. The first 50 preorders via this channel will also get a limited edition LEVEL 2 magnet - so order soon!

• Read an excerpt of LEVEL 2 at The Memory Chronicles Facebook page.

• There's a cool trailer about the cover creation of LEVEL 2!

• Order LEVEL 2. And find LEVEL 2 on Goodreads.

• Find Lenore on the web:
• Blog
• Website
• Twitter @lenoreva

Congrats to Lenore and LEVEL 2!!

Celebrating Bloggers

Where would I be without blogs and bloggers? Maintaining a book blog and reading a ton of other book blogs and author blogs is what originally sparked my interest in YA lit – and in writing my own YA novel.

By keeping up with blogs, not only do I keep up with the zeitgeist, but I also learn what readers love and love to hate (insta-love, red-headed best friends, inaccurate college application timelines to name a few) as well as a ton about craft and how to improve my storytelling.

Let me give you one example of a blog event that directly impacted LEVEL 2. Frankie Diane Mallis (writer, blogger and member of The First Novels Club) puts on an event in January called the No-Kiss Blogfest, where participants are challenged to find or write an "almost kiss-- the rising, crushing, excruciating, longing, tension that comes when two characters get oh-so-close to kissing that you can just feel it, want it, NEED it....and then...they don't!"

Well, it just so happens that in January 2011, I was about to sit down to revise chapter 1 of LEVEL 2 when I stumbled upon Frankie’s post. My first draft of LEVEL 2 had my main character reliving one of her favorite memories with her boyfriend and it involved a kiss. But Frankie got me thinking … could the scene be even better with an almost kiss? So I tried it out. And guess what? It upped the excitement factor tenfold – and had a profound effect on the plot going forward too.

So thank you Frankie, and thank you book bloggers and writing bloggers who continually inspire me with your insights, passion and love of literature. I am proud to be a part of the conversation.

PS: For more tales of blogger love, check out YA Fusion.

Lenore's Blog

An Introductory Q&A with Lenore Appelhans

As a longtime follower of the League blog, I’m thrilled to have been asked to join this inspiring, talented group.  I’m an American living in Germany with my illustrator husband Daniel Jennewein and three fancy Sacred Birman cats.  In addition to writing books, I work as a freelance advertising copywriter, I love to travel and I blog at Presenting Lenore.

For my League introduction post, I thought I’d go to twitter and put out a general call for questions.  Here’s what I got.

From  @bermudaonion  How long have you been writing fiction?

From @ReadersInk At what age did you start writing stories, or telling them?

I dabbled in creative writing throughout my schooling, penning several short stories for assignments, literary magazines and writing contests (In 8th grade, I even made it to the state semi-finals of Ohio’s Power of the Pen competition).  My friends and I used to write terrible plays and act them out for the neighborhood. I wrote 2/3 of a novel in high school (I allude to it in LEVEL 2).  LEVEL 2 is my first completed manuscript, and I started writing it in November 2010.

From @novaren What was your journey to becoming an author?

Daniel and I used to joke about moving to a secluded cabin in the woods where he’d illustrate and I’d write novels.  The writing novels part always seemed like a pipe dream though.  I’d heard how hard it was to break into publishing.  Once I started blogging about books and meeting real life authors, I slowly started to think about writing LEVEL 2.  It wasn’t until I had my “Pompeii epiphany” (where I finally figured out how to execute my idea), that I really committed.  

I chatted with BEFORE I FALL Author Lauren Oliver about LEVEL 2 and the fact that she took me seriously, gave me advice and told me to go for it was a real confidence booster.  By the time SCBWI New York conference rolled around at the end of January 2011, I had five chapters written and soon after caught the eye of an agent.  It’s been a whirlwind since then.

From @TiffanySchmidt  Do you have any writing rituals?

Not really.  I usually write between 2-11 pm because I’m useless in the morning.  I start with a loose synopsis as a guideline, but not much is set in stone. I’m a pretty slow drafter because I prefer to write in scene order and I can’t bring myself to move on until I have something right.  I really need to work on that!

From @BethFishReads How long have you lived in Europe? What took you there? Do you plan to stay there?

I moved to Germany in March 2000 for an internship, planning to stay only six months.  I ended up meeting Daniel and not moving back. As far as staying here, only time will tell!

From @BrokeandBookish  What is your favorite place you've ever travelled? 

This is as impossible to answer as saying what my favorite book is! I've been to over 55 countries now, and every trip has been enriching in some way. That said, there are a few destinations I'd love to return to asap: Iceland (for the breathtaking nature), the Galapagos Islands (for the fascinating wildlife) and the Greek Islands (for the food). 

That's all for now - but I guess you'll be hearing a lot more from me on Tuesdays in the months to come!

Bio: League Member Lenore Appelhans

Photo credit: VLC Productions

Name: Lenore Appelhans

Title: Level 2 (Simon & Schuster BFYR, Fall 2012)

Short plot: In Level 2, the liminal place between our world (Level 1) and heaven, seventeen-year-old Felicia Ward spends her days in her pod reliving her favorite memories - until she gets broken out by Julian, a boy she once knew who wants her to join a dangerous rebellion.

Favorite Dystopian Works: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Feed by MT Anderson, 1984 by George Orwell, Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness, and so many more.

Why write dystopian? The idea for Level 2 came to me years ago, but it wasn’t until I became obsessed with dystopians and then thought about Level 2 in that context that everything really clicked. I wrote the story I wanted to read – a dystopian afterlife thriller, but one that’s grounded by
realistic characters and “contemporary” memories.

Whimper or Bang? Bang followed by whimper.

Online @
Blog: http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com
Twitter: @lenoreva
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4737695.Lenore_Appelhans
Email: lenore.appelhans@googlemail.com

Introducing LEVEL TWO by Lenore Appelhans

Lenore Appelhans is one of my favorite book bloggers, and recently she made a HUGE announcement: she got a book deal! So, while the book won't be released for quite some time, I can't wait to get my grabby hands on it!

Meanwhile, Lenore graciously offered to answer a few questions for me about LEVEL TWO, coming from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, in a joint acquisition with CBS Films. (YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT.)

What can you tell us about LEVEL TWO?

I can tell you that it’s exactly the kind of novel that I love to read! But if you want a bit more than the GoodReads description, here you go:

Level Two is a speculative young adult novel about a place that exists after our world (Level One). Seventeen-year-old Felicia Ward spends her days in her pod reliving her favorite memories - until she gets broken out by Julian, a boy she knew when she was still alive. There’s about to be an uprising in Level Two, and Julian wants to recruit her to the cause. But unsure whether she can trust Julian, and still in love with her boyfriend Neil on Earth, she finds herself torn between two loves—and two worlds.

Where did you get the idea for LEVEL TWO?

This is going to sound bizarre, but the spark of the idea developed out of an argument I had with my grandmother about whether money was better spent on Precious Moments figurines (her point of view) or travel (mine). The story started as a way for me to justify my own choices and priorities in life. I thought about how to best implement it for years, until I had a breakthrough last May while walking around the ruins of Pompeii, Italy with my critique partner. Once I had that “a ha” moment, the rest just flowed out of me.

You started out as a book blogger; how did that help you in writing?

My Precious Moments-loving grandmother had my astrological chart done by a professional when I was 10 and he said that I was destined to be a writer (apparently I have a grand trine in air signs). I’ve always enjoyed writing – even term papers in college. So when I heard that book blogs existed, I knew I wanted to start one. It was about the same time that I fell in love with young adult fiction. The book blog and the book blogging community got me reading more widely and WAY more. I am a big believer in the old adage if you want to be a writer, you need to read. It worked for me!

Which novels have influenced you or your writing?

I think every book I’ve read has influenced me in some way, even if I’m not consciously aware of it. Through what I’ve read, I’ve learned about pacing, structure, character development and other craft issues. That said, I gravitate towards novels that are high-concept and innovative - but still literary - since those are the kinds of books that really excite me and that I want to write. Books like CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell, FEED by MT Anderson, BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver and DUST OF 100 DOGS by AS King, to name a few.

What book are YOU waiting on eagerly?

So many! I have a huge appetite for anything dystopian, so I am eagerly awaiting everything on this list  as well as the sequels to all the dystopian series I’ve already started (i.e. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, DELIRIUM, MATCHED, THE PASSAGE, WITHER, etc.). And though they aren’t dystopian, I would drop everything to read WHERE SHE WENT by Gayle Forman or a new novel by Jandy Nelson (THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE).

Thank you so much for telling us about LEVEL TWO, Lenore! And I know everyone else will be as eager as me to read it--why not go ahead and add it to your GoodReads?