Book Blitz: My Ex From Hell by Tellulah Darling (Guest post + Giveaway)


My Ex From Hell by Tellulah Darling 
(The Blooming Goddess Trilogy #1) 
Publication date: April 1st 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult


Synopsis:


Sixteen-year-old Sophie Bloom wishes she’d been taught the following:
a) Bad boy’s presence (TrOuBlE) + teen girl’s brain (DraMa) = TrAuMa (Highly unstable and very volatile.)
b) The Genus Greekulum Godissimus is notable for three traits: 1) awesome abilities, 2) grudges, and 3) hook-ups, break-ups, and in-fighting that puts cable to shame.

Prior to the Halloween dance, Sophie figures her worst problems involve adolescent theatrics, bitchy teen yoga girls, and being on probation at her boarding school for mouthy behaviour. Then she meets bad boy Kai and gets the kiss that rocks her world.

Literally.

This breath stealing lip lock reawakens Sophie’s true identity: Persephone, Goddess of Spring. She’s key to saving humanity in the war between the Underworld and Olympus, target numero uno of Hades and Zeus, and totally screwed.

Plus there’s also the little issue that Sophie’s last memory as Persephone was just before someone tried to murder her.

Big picture: master her powers, get her memories back, defeat Persephone’s would be assassin, and save the world. Also, sneak into the Underworld to retrieve stolen property, battle the minions of Hades and Zeus, outwit psycho nymphs, slay a dragon, rescue a classmate, keep from getting her butt expelled from the one place designed to keep her safe …

… and stop kissing Kai, Prince of the Underworld.

My Ex From Hell is a YA romantic comedy, Greek mythology smackdown. Love meets comedy with a whole lot of sass in book one of this teen fantasy romance series. Compared to Kai and Sophie, Romeo and Juliet had it easy.



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GUEST POST:


My sucky first kiss or Why I write YA romantic comedy books
I don't actually remember my first kiss. And believe me, it's not because there was such a variety of them in my teen years that it just got lost in the shuffle. Which, sigh, is probably another reason I write YA romantic comedy. At least my characters fare better than I did.

While I may not remember my actual first kiss, the first one I do remember is forever burned in my brain. I was fifteen years old and a cute boy (cute being relative to my age and the decade) had asked me to go to the fireworks with him.

Sounds romantic, doesn't it? Yeah, throw that idea out. Imagine you and ten thousand of your closest friends packed onto a beach to listen to a deafening soundtrack of rock ballads while watching the light show overhead. Now make at least half of those people drunk.

But silly, innocent girl that I was, I though this was going to be highly romantic - a night of cuddling with perhaps one perfect kiss as the final firework burst overhead and in that moment of silent awe, I would feel, nay hear our two hearts beat as one.

I remember that we got there about three hours early to secure a spot. The boy had not brought any kind of blanket, so this was three hours of sitting in sand, while families and yahoos settled in around us. But that was okay. It gave us a chance to talk, probably about such scintillating topics as which of our friends was screwing around on whom and what TV shows were we watching. I remember having overlooked the fact that he didn't read because he was cute. (Never again.) It did allow a pleasant sexual tension to build between us and by the time the sun had set and the show started, I was all ready for the hand holding to begin.

Now, skip the hand holding because in a blink, as the crowd around us roared and the first flare lit up the sky, I felt myself pushed back onto the sand and these giant lips come towards me. Tongue may have been hanging out. And while I can't remember that part exactly thanks to some very excellent trauma

repression, I do have a very clear memory of thinking, "this is going to be gross." Which then warred with the thought, "but I am about to be kissed." The kissing won out. Because I was 15 and stupid. But it was a curiously detached experience, with me trying to figure out if his lips were growing and what the polite amount of time was that I could allow this before I shoved him off me and grabbed a desperately wanted tissue to wipe off my face.

Forty minutes. That was the length of the fireworks show (of which I saw nothing) and the amount of time he kissed me with those massive, fleshy, wet lips. I take responsibility for not shutting down the action sooner, but my mother had raised me to be polite and I wasn't sure what the polite way to express "EW THIS IS SO DISGUSTING!" was.

So I kind of tuned out and focused on all the places that sand was creeping in. And not in a pleasant "yay friction" kind of way. At long long last, the show ended. At which point he did sweetly take my hand and we began the trek to the bus stop. I tried one last time to salvage my romantic ideals with a cuddle on the bus, but that seemed to give him the idea that I wanted to kiss some more. Which I so didn't. So I moved seats. And that was the first kiss I can remember having.

Which leads me, good people, to why I write YA romantic comedy. Because while I can appreciate the humour of awkward teen passion, I'm
determined to write girls who will push that boy off them for not being romantic. Or ruining the kissing experience. Girls who will say, "Nope. This isn't working for me." Who will make their boys smarten up and figure out how to treat a girl, even if they have to teach the guy themselves.

And I figure if I write enough great kisses, I'll end up believing that one of them was mine.

Post #3: Inside Tellulah’s head: The writing of The Blooming Goddess Trilogy

I am obsessed with the naming of things. Characters, projects, I can spend ages finding just the perfect fit. And while that may sound like procrastination, it’s super important procrastination. Since I’m gearing up to release My Life From Hell, the final book in my YA romantic comedy/Greek mythology series, The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, I thought I’d share the thinking behind my book titles in this trilogy.

The one thing I knew going in was that this was the story of an underachieving girl who discovers that she is Persephone, Goddess of Spring. When it came time to name this girl, Sophie Bloom just immediately popped into my head. Sophie as the human derivative of Persephone, and Bloom both for spring and for her journey. Because, what was clear to me, was that each book thematically had a flowering-esque cycle to it.

Book one, My Ex From Hell, dealt thematically with the idea of “emerge.” I remember being sixteen and waiting for the day my “real” life would start. But is there really any event that allows that to happen? Once I got into university, maybe I’d wait for my real job? Or the love of my life, or children, or success, or ... You get the picture. So I wanted to explore this idea that here’s this girl, waiting, and suddenly, with the discovery that she is the Goddess of Spring and key to humanity’s survival, there can be no more waiting. Life has just very gotten real. And should be real for every moment we live it.

To get all obvious here, Sophie is the bud emerging from the sleep of her life. However, I chose to start her journey on Halloween and not in spring. To me, spring is the height of Sophie’s powers and abilities. Therefore, I wanted to start her at the furthest point from spring and gradually build her up to that point.

It’s important to remember as well, that this entire trilogy is a romantic comedy. Again, then, for the relationship between Sophie and Kai, the idea of “emerge” is in place. It’s the classic “meet cute” of our couple.

Book two, My Date From Hell, moves Sophie’s journey along to the idea of “grow.” Without any spoilers, Sophie grows in terms of her abilities and her sense of self. And for the romance? See how the titles move from My Ex From Hell to My Date From Hell? Progress/growth for Sophie and Kai as well.

The final book in the trilogy is called My Life From Hell. This, thematically, is the “bloom” stage. Sophie finally, and in all ways, will come into her fabulous self. “But Tellulah,” you protest, “you’ve taken the relationship element out of the title.” I don’t know about any of you, but when I was teenager, my idea of love was all-consuming. Overwhelming. A girl could get lost in that vision. And maybe, just maybe, that’s going to be part of Sophie’s journey as well. Learning that romantic love is only one (albeit important) part of life.

Or maybe I’m just going to kill Kai. heh heh

Anyhoo, all that to say, that if you take the emerge/grow/bloom idea as a whole, it brings us back to why this is The Blooming Goddess Trilogy. And also, a bit cheekily, I also liked the Brit slang aspect of “blooming.”

There you have it. Questions? Thoughts? Discuss.

GIVEAWAY

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AUTHOR BIO:

Tellulah Darling
noun

Sassy girls. Swoony boys. What could go wrong?

1. YA romantic comedy author because her first kiss sucked and she's compensating.
2. Alter ego of former screenwriter.
3. Sassy minx.

Writes about: where love meets comedy. Awkwardness ensues.

Tellulah Darling is a firm believer that some of the best stories happen when love meets comedy. Which is why she has so much fun writing YA romantic comedy books. Her books span contemporary, teen fantasy romance, and YA Greek mythology, and range from stand alones to series. For Tellulah, teen romance is the most passionate, intense, and awkward there is – a comedy goldmine. Plus smart, mouthy, teen girls rock.

Author links:


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