The Fourth Generation Now Available as an Audiobook!

It's been a little while since I last posted, but I return to the blog bearing exciting news: My debut young adult dystopian novel, The Fourth Generation, is now available as an audiobook! It can be found on Amazon, iTunes, and Audible. I personally love the narrator's voice and style! Check it out/take a listen today!

PICKET TOWN Officially Released

I'm a little late announcing this on my blog, but my latest book - a middle-grade science fiction called Picket Town - is now officially available on amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/yb9jf3s2. It actually officially released April 24 - whoo-hoooo! It's an alien story with a dystopian and psychological thriller feel to it, and it's published by Clean Reads. Below is the cover and a short description. Check it out!

Don’t go into the woods…

Just when twelve-year-old Amanda’s town couldn’t possibly get any more boring, a bacterium breaks out. The disease only affects kids, giving them cold-like symptoms and a ring of gross, purple sores on their foreheads. Even more disturbing, none of the infected have returned from the hospital.

Meanwhile, Amanda drags her wimpy friend Sam along to explore the woods near her house. They stumble on what appears to be a spaceship in a clearing, but before they can begin to wrap their minds around that bizarre and eerie discovery, something flies out of the ship. Something they couldn’t possibly ever expect. Something far more terrifying than they ever could’ve imagined. 

And something that poses a major threat to not only their town, but the entire world.

PICKET TOWN Available for Pre-order

Hello, all! I am super honored and pleased to announce that my latest book, a science fiction adventure for the middle-school crowd (though I like to think anybody can enjoy it) is available for pre-order on amazon.com: https://tinyurl.com/yb9jf3s2. It's called "Picket Town" and it officially releases on April 24, published by the awesome indie publisher Clean Reads. For those interested in a few more details, it's an alien story with a dystopian and psychological thriller feel to it. For those interested in the full book summary, keep reading :)

Don’t go into the woods…

Just when twelve-year-old Amanda’s town couldn’t possibly get any more boring, a bacterium breaks out. The disease only affects kids, giving them cold-like symptoms and a ring of gross, purple sores on their foreheads. Even more disturbing, none of the infected have returned from the hospital.

Meanwhile, Amanda drags her wimpy friend Sam along to explore the woods near her house. They stumble on what appears to be a spaceship in a clearing, but before they can begin to wrap their minds around that bizarre and eerie discovery, something flies out of the ship. Something they couldn’t possibly ever expect. Something far more terrifying than they ever could’ve imagined. 

And something that poses a major threat to not only their town, but the entire world.

Writing Humor

Today I'm over at author-and-everything-publishing-&-writing-related-extraordinaire Janice Hardy's blog talking about writing humor (a little preview: it's quite tough). Stop on by! https://tinyurl.com/y8xdk7vo

What Makes Harry Potter Special - the 4 BIG Reasons

So I've been plotting a series lately (well, trying to - it's pretty [expletive] hard), and it's made me think about some of my favorite book series I've read over the course of my life, like R.L. Stine's Goosebumps, Louis Sachar's Wayside School, C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, and yes, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter.

Of course, there are different types of series. Goosebumps, for example, is a bunch of very short, non-connected stories, whereas Harry Potter tells an overarching story with the same characters who grow and "improve" over the course of the series (as well as a plot that comes full circle). There's no wrong way to do it, of course, but I feel like what makes a series special, or really any story for that matter, comes down to the  unique elements of the story itself, which made me wonder (at least for the point of today's post): What makes the Harry Potter series so special? Of course, my opinion may vary greatly from yours (in which case you should alter your opinion - jk), and I think all of the above series are special in their own unique ways, but when it comes to Harry Potter, these are the reasons I came up with. (Keep in mind I read the series quite a few years ago now, but if anything that distance has made it clearer to me what elements are truly special to me personally).

1. An incredible mystery

The entire, long, epic series of Harry Potter is driven by a singular, incredible mystery: What exactly happened when the dark lord Voldemort tried to kill Harry Potter when he was just a baby? Why was he not able to kill Harry even though Harry was just a defenseless baby? Heck, Voldemort was even weakened by the encounter - how and why? Why did the mysterious encounter result in a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead? Okay, okay - those are several questions, but they're all introduced in the very first book under the cloak of a single mysterious event, and in my opinion they serve as a very important piece of the engine that keeps the reader chugging through the entire series to find out every last single last piece of that mysterious event.

2. Hogwarts

Yes, yes, we all know and love Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where Harry spends most of the series learning about magic spells and the wizarding world. The name (or at least the word "Hogwarts") is pretty famous nowadays in and of itself because of the Harry Potter series. But there truly is something special about the magical, castle-like school. So what is it?

I think it all boils down to the feeling that countless magical secrets are constantly hidden from the characters (and the reader) within the castle, always hidden juuuuuust out of view. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if I was walking down one of the school's random hallways and if I just happened to know what exact spell to utter while I pointed my wand at the exact right brick on one of the hallway's walls, a whole panel of the wall or something would slide away and there would be another short hallway that led to a piece of Voldemort's soul or something - or a magical talisman that lets me speak directly to one of the castle's original founders from beyond the grave - or even just a passageway used only by the elves in the castle. You just always have this feeling that so much of Hogwarts's and the magical community's long history and ancient secrets are hidden in its very walls, under its floors, in covert side rooms accessible only if you know the magical means...and there's something so much fun about that feeling, that mystery, that it subconsciously envelopes me every time I open a Harry Potter book. That's what makes Hogwarts special to me, anyway.

3. Plotting

Make no bones about it, J.K. Rowling is a plotting genius. Every single one of the Harry Potter books is like an incredibly complex, innately woven fiction-rug with surprises and twists periodically stitched into the fabric. So many things and events are happening with so many characters that it mirrors real life in a way. And the truly magical aspect is that they all weave in and effect one another, also kind of like life - and you never see how any of them relate until - BAM - J.K. Rowling ties a couple threads together. What's more - and what might truly be impressive - is that the entire series is also an incredibly complex, innately woven fiction-rug. Events that happen in book one effect events that happen in book six. Large reveals that happen in later books have all the seeds and foreshadowing planted for them in earlier books. That is, of course, because J.K. Rowling plotted every single book out before she even started writing the first one - and the result is truly special: an intricately woven plot that not only constantly entertains, but frequently blows your mind. At least it did mine.

4. Epic-ness

Loads of fantasy stories/series are epic in nature. It's really just a part of the game (heck, there's even a fantasy subgenre specifically called epic fantasy), and Harry Potter is no exception. In particular, when I was a kid reading the Harry Potter books, there was something so awe-inspiring about each book being longer than the last. In some way it made the series feel bigger and more epic as it went along, and I remember particularity being blown away when the fourth book (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) was released, since it was quite a bit longer than the first three. I mean, it was a monster. Of course, after the fourth book, the rest of them were all around the same length (well, they were all "monsters," at least) and even though they didn't each continue to get longer than the last one like the first few books did, it was still pretty freaking epic overall, which, of course, was pretty freaking awesome.

Anyway, to me, those are the four elements that put Harry Potter in the special category. I imagine there are other things I'm missing, and I'm sure you have your own personal elements, but whenever I happen to think and look back on Harry Potter, those are the four things that pop out the most to me. How about you?

All The Missing Girls "Review"

So I recently finished another book I enjoyed a lot. Like the last one, it's a psychological thriller (or maybe it's just plain called a thriller? I'm honesty not entirely sure). Anyway, it's called All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, and it's the first adult book I've read in a while (I tend to read primarily middle-grade and young adult books, and usually of the fantasy and science fiction variety at that).

As as I was saying, it's a pretty fun book. It's about a young woman named Nicolette whose dear childhood friend went missing in her small hometown (gotta love those small-town mysteries haha) when they were both only eighteen years old. At that point Nicolette immediately left the town, abandoning her other friends and family, to start a new life elsewhere and leave her friend's mysterious disappearance and all the baggage it heaped up behind her.

However, ten years later she visits her hometown and family again, and another girl goes missing while she' s staying at her old family house. Of course, there seems to be a mysterious link between the two girls' disappearances even though ten whole years have passed between them. Nicolette winds up staying at her old family house for a while to piece together the truth of the latest missing girl, Nicolette's own family, and what really happened the night her childhood friend went missing all those years ago.

Like most thrillers, it's a very twisty read, and a unique element of it is that the story is basically told backwards from a significant event (I'm not going to say what event that is), so each large section of the book is labeled "The Day Before." I admit the format confused me a tiny bit from time to time, but overall it was a very interesting device that worked well for the story and gave it a unique feel. Anyway, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers. It's rare that I finish reading a book at all, and with this one I made it right up to the twisty end hehe.

New Release: Abby's Letters by Dana Romanin

I am excited and pleased to announce the release of fellow Clean Reads author Dana Romanin's debut novel Abby's Letters. Congratulations, Dana - looks like a fun and meaningful story!

For years, Jane’s mom told her horror stories about her time spent in foster care. Now she’s determined to keep her little sister from suffering the same fate.

Seventeen-year-old Jane Sanders has had to take care of her alcoholic mother and little sister, Abby, since her dad died seven years ago. And now Mom had to go and die too. Authorities determine it was a homeless transient who died in the fire of the old manufacturing plant, but Jane knows the truth.

There is no way she’s going to let Abby go into foster care which leaves her with one option—fake her mom’s life. As far as Abby knows, their mom is in rehab. And Jane wants to keep it that way. She’d be eighteen in a few months then she could become legal guardian to her sister. With the help of her best friend, Clark, it should be easy, right? 

Juggling nosy neighbors, a concerned school counselor, and an oblivious new boyfriend turns out to be harder than Jane thought. But the real problem begins when Abby starts writing letters to Mom. Through Abby’s letters, Jane sees a different side to their mom—a side she could have loved. And loving Mom is something she didn’t plan on. Because loving somebody makes it harder to ignore their death.

Excerpt

Clark exhaled. “Anything for you, Janie.”

Oh. He had to pull out the nickname. It crushed her. Asking Clark to lie for her—she had never asked so much of him. It went against everything he believed in. She didn’t believe in all that Christian stuff, but he did. Keeping this secret would mean disrespecting his mother. It meant he would have to go against his beliefs.

Disrespect his God.

But his God wasn’t there for her, and He certainly wasn’t going to save Abby from foster care.

Jane would, though.

She entwined her fingers with his. He was so different than the little boy who’d played hide-and-seek with her on warm summer nights, back when her world was filled with her father’s laughter and her mother’s smiles. Now his muscle twitched in his strong jawline. What happened to the freckle-faced boy she had played G.I. Joe and Transformers with? He even had stubble.

“Thanks, Superman.”

“You’re the only one allowed to call me that.”

“And you’re the only one allowed to call me Janie.”

“This is too much. You can’t do this alone.” His thumb caressed her hand.

“I’m not. I have you.”

Endorsements

Heart-wrenching, beautiful, and complex, Abby’s Letters is an exquisitely written treatise on mother-daughter relationships, forgiveness, and love. Romanin skillfully tells this fragile family’s story with tenderness and grace, highlighting the interplay of a young woman’s painful past, uncertain future, and unflinching sisterly devotion. Each moment in this novel is a treasure shaped by masterful prose and lyrical storytelling. Do not miss this book. This is a story that should be read by anyone who is a mother or who loves one.

--Megan Whitson Lee, author of Suburban Dangers and the award-winning novel, Captives.

Dana Romanin’s debut novel is a poignant tale of love and lives lost, and one girl’s attempt to keep what’s left of her family together, despite all the odds. A wonderful and thought-provoking read.

--Diana Sharples, young adult author of Running Lean.

About Dana

Dana Romanin has dreamed of being a writer since she was a little girl pretending to be Anne Shirley (from Anne of Green Gables). She used to write under a forsythia bush, but now she writes in a messy office that she shares with her sewing obsessed daughter.

Dana’s short story, The Silence of Sand, was chosen for adaptation into a short film performed by the Blue Man Group. Dana has also published short fiction for teens in Encounter—The Magazine and had a short story published in a Family Fiction anthology, The Story 2014. Her first novel, Abby’s Letters, releases in June 2017.

She lives in a small town near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with her wonderful husband, three beautiful kids, and a lot of persnickety pets.

You can find her blog and awkward videos on her website www.DanaRomanin.com. She can also be found on Twitter (@DanaRomanin) and her Facebook fan page (DanaRomaninAuthor).

Purchase

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y74ynlep

Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/y8f8kkvp