Blog Tour + Guest Post – Love and Other Secrets by Christina Mandelski
Love and Other Secrets by Christina Mandelski
Publication Date: September 3, 2018
Publisher: Entangled Teen Crush
Star lacrosse player Alex “Kov” Koviak has it all. Or so everyone thinks. He’s real good at pretending his life is perfect…until he meets Bailey. The girl challenges him and pushes him and makes him laugh like he’s never laughed before. Their friendship is their little secret, and he’s happy to keep her to himself.
Between school, two jobs, and trying to get into NYU film school, Bailey Banfield has zero time for a social life. But then she meets Alex in her express lane at the grocery store, and their secret friendship becomes the only place she can breathe. She refuses to complicate that with more. No matter how charming Alex can be.
When Bailey decides to film outrageous promposals for her NYU application, she enlists Alex’s help to plan an over-the-top, epic promposal to someone else. Too bad the only prom date Alex wants anywhere near Bailey is him.
For a guy who seems to have it all, he’s about to lose the only thing he’s ever wanted.
Disclaimer: This Entangled Crush contains a cocky lacrosse player in over his head with his secret best friend, unexpected midnight kisses, swoon-worthy slow dancing, and movie-night cuddling that’ll make you ache. You’re going to want an Alex of your own!
If I Knew Then What I Know Now About Writing
If I knew then what I know now about writing, I would tell twenty-two year-old college graduate me to start writing now, in 1992! I mean, jeesh, I got a degree in Creative Writing and then – crickets – for like twenty years! I was forty by the time my first novel sold. Why? I didn’t know it then, but I know it now: I was scared. That’s the truth – and it’s a problem that so many artists face.
The thing is, I believe, now that I’m creeping up on fifty (creeping, I said! I’m not there yet!) and celebrating the release of my third published novel, that sense of fear never really goes away. So what I do now, is ignore it. I stick it in the corner next to my dusty stationary bike. I cover it with dirty laundry. I pretend it’s not there.
No, it’s not easy. It’s freaking hard. There are days when it takes me a good two/four/six hours of wandering around the house doing this or that just to OPEN my document, and it’s all because of that sense of dread that what I write is going to be terrible, or that even if I write it and work hard and finish something and I’m lucky enough to sell it – it’s going to get stinky reviews that will leave me curled up in the fetal position with a bottle of some sort of cheap liquor in my hands.
More truth – all of that is going to happen (though hopefully minus the liquor). Most of what is written in that first draft will likely be somewhere on the spectrum of terrible. That’s what second drafts are for, and third, and … well, you get the idea. The idea is to move up that spectrum until you’re on the ‘pretty damn good’ end of it. Then, you revise and edit and proofread and if you’re lucky, it’ll sell and then, yes, inevitably someone will skewer it in reviews. It’ll be that person who didn’t get what you were trying to do, or didn’t like your main character, didn’t think you saved enough cats, or the right kind of cats, or is just a dog person.
That’s when you remind yourself that you can’t please everyone – no one can. Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare for God’s sake, got BAD REVIEWS! But the good news is, for everyone who hates what I’ve written, there’s someone out there who will love it. And at some point, you just have to choose to focus on that and live in delirious denial of every bad review.
And once we do all these things, you and me, we’ll start the next project, and the next, and some will be published, and some won’t. Just keep working, telling your stories, and turning your back on the stationary bike. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but I’ll keep trying if you will!
Christina Mandelski was born in South Florida, where her
love of reading was cultivated in a house full of books. Stories like The
Little House series, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Island of the Blue
Dolphins and The Secret Garden, filled her imagination and fueled her dreams to
be a writer. That dream came true when her first young adult novel, THE
SWEETEST THING, was published in 2011, and she’s beyond thrilled about her
upcoming series for Entangled Crush. Chris lives in Houston with one handsome
husband, two beautiful daughters, and two freakshow cats. She has a fondness
for the beach, her family and friends, and she still loves to read (especially
curled up with a good cup of coffee!) She also enjoys shopping, traveling and
eating, especially cake. Always cake. When she’s not doing these things, you
can find her holed in a cozy spot with her laptop, writing. Visit her at www.christinamandelski.com.
