Perfectly Messy
by Lizzy Charles
Release
Date: May 2014
Summary
from Goodreads:
Popularity isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
Justin Marshall knows this better than most. For the captain of the basketball
team, small business owner, and son of Minnesota's next governor, life can get
pretty overwhelming. But Justin can handle anything as long as he has Lucy, the
girl who fell for the man he’s trying to be.
But for Justin and Lucy, finding time together proves challenging. Stolen
kisses and whispered promises just aren't enough. That is, until scandalous
photos of the couple are leaked to a press intent on creating a juicy scandal
during Justin's dad's gubernatorial campaign. And when Lucy becomes fair play
for the tabloids and gossip pages, Justin does the only thing he can to protect
her: he breaks her heart.
For Lucy, junior year is everything she hoped it would be: new friends, second
chances, and a boyfriend she can’t stop kissing. That is, until the boy she’s
pretty sure she loves chooses the life his family wants for him, over her.
Now it’s up to Lucy to teach him what it really means to have everything.
Because for Justin, being who everyone needs him to be just might cost him the
one person he can’t live without.
Buy Links:
Effortless With You
Book One in the series:
(linked to Goodreads)
Buy Links:
From Panster to Planner
Hi everyone! I’m so pumped to be on the blog today talking about my approach to writing a novel. Perfectly Messy, the sequel to Effortless With You (my first published young adult novel), was actually my third attempt at writing a novel (I’d like to think that attempt was successful). Funny enough, each time I sit down and face the daunting task of writing something new, I approach it differently. Perfectly Messy, bless its soul, was given a full court press. For the first time in my writing career, I was on deadline. I took one and half years to write the first draft of Effortless With You. Five months to write my second novel, which is not yet published. But with Perfectly Messy, I had less than eight weeks.
Now, if you aren’t a writer, that may seem like a lot of time. If you are a writer, you know that it’s tight, but doable. But life, as it often does, kept things interesting while I attempted to keep pace with that deadline. First off, I was busy tending to the promotion of Effortless With You. Second off, I work as a neonatal intensive care nurse. Third, I’m a mother. At the time, I was parenting a newly minted three year old, a twenty month old, and was twenty some weeks pregnant with our third child. Oh, and there’s the whole wife thing too. Basically, without needing to write a new book, I was barely keeping my head above water. With it? Well … I was one exhausted woman who often wore snorkeling gear.
Basically, my eight weeks really boiled down to a handful of actual evenings where I could write.
That was it.
The stress forced me to engage my type A personality that I reserve only for nursing. An outline was born. I created a word count calendar with mandatory goals. I arranged babysitters far in advance for my few hours of writing. I could not stray from the plan.
Each time I sat down to write, I sprinted. There was no “Ah, let’s have a relaxing evening to write.” It was insane concentration, pounding away on my keyboard to the point where I actually broke it. As I hammered out my word count, Perfectly Messy took on a life of it’s own. I swerved away from my outline. I believe it’s important to listen to your characters. It’s what keeps them alive. Justin broke down my doors, demanding to no longer be just a love interest, but the main character. And, no surprise here, I discovered that Justin needed to chill out and address his overly scheduled lifestyle. It was time for him to learn to let things go and live a little. Life isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being real.
And thankfully, I had Lucy available from page one of Effortless With You to teach him that in Perfectly Messy. ;-)
About the Author
When
Lizzy Charles isn’t scrambling to raise her two spunky toddlers or caring for
premature and sick babies as a neonatal intensive care nurse, she’s in a quiet
corner writing or snuggled up with a novel and a few squares of dark chocolate.
Black tea keeps her constant and she loves guacamole. She married her high
school sweet heart, a heart-melting musician, so it’s no surprise she’s fallen
in love with writing contemporary YA romance novels.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
3 ecopies of Perfectly Messy plus a $10, $15 and a $20 Amazon Gift Card up for grabs.
Blog Tour Organised by:
