Julie Cross | Author Blog
Time-Travel Tale ‘The Tempest’ in the Works as a Movie
In you case you’ve been wondering whatever happened to the Tempest film? Didn’t I hear something about someone making it into a movie a long time ago? You heard right and yes, the project went radio silent for a while leaving everyone (myself included) wondering if it would ever happen. Well...a little CPR and a passionate production team have made [...]
the truth about YA lit
First off, these are my opinions based on my own observations and I'm in no way making suggestions for how readers should review books. For the record, I believe a book review should focus on the readers opinion of the novel no matter what. But sometimes a little insightful, open-minded thinking can broaden our opinions.Something I've noticed lately in reviews [...]
HALFWAY PERFECT cover reveal!
Finally a cover for HALFWAY PERFECT by me and Mark Perini!Release Date: May 5, 2015Publisher: Sourcebooks FireGenre: Young AdultAmazon | | Goodreads Bestselling author Julie Cross teams up with Ford model Mark Perini to pen a poignant and gritty YA novel about love and the dark side of modeling and the fashion industry.Eve's time as a fashion model nearly [...]
Writing Tip Wednesday (5): What kind of writer are you?
Today is more of a discussion than a tip. I'm always so fascinated by the different processes different writers use. But at the same time, my second least favorite author question is: how do you write?Plotter? If yes, outlines, lists, synopsis or charts? If you said yes to the synopsis first, we can't be friends. Or wait...maybe we should be [...]
More Than Music by Elizabeth Briggs
I'm excited to participate in the More Than Music blitz because I had a chance to read this book early and it is soooo much fun and sweet and creative and emotional. I just loved it! I gave it 5/5 stars!Book & Author Details:More Than Music by Elizabeth Briggs(Chasing The Dream #1)Publication date: June 17th 2014Genres: Contemporary, New AdultSynopsis:Music major Maddie Taylor seems to [...]
Writing Tip Wednesday (4): The Truth About Voice
Truth #1: Voice got me where I am today as a writer Voice is the reason I'm published. How do I know this for sure? Because almost none of the version of Tempest sold to my publisher remains in the final version. Literally 15-20%. At most. Scary, right? It took me a lot of pondering on the question: okay, so what [...]
Thursday’s Random Thoughts(2): Literary is a dirty word
Unorganized, unedited, straight from my stream of consciousness to your head...Thursday's Random Thoughts. The above sentence is meant to excuse me from any and all forms of judgement, which I know won't happen, but whatever, I tried. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is spill exactly what you're thinking. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is spill exactly what you're [...]
Writing tip Wednesday(3): More tweets from my Agent
Nicole Resciniti @NicLitAgent Apr 19 #WritingTip: make your blurb count. It sells books and makes a must-read #queryMy thoughts: *sigh* if only this weren't true. Wouldn't life be easier? Couldn't we just write the book we want to write? I suppose we could all write the book we want to write if we're not concerned about getting it noticed, whether [...]
Cover Reveal: Whatever Life Throws At You!
Whatever Life Throws at YouA mature contemporary YA novel Expected publication date: October 7, 2014 from Entangled TeenGoodreadsSo...what do you think?
Letters to Nowhere is a 2014 RITA Finalist! Giveaway!
If you haven't ever heard of the RITA awards, it's basically the Oscars of romance novels. I'm still in shock that Letters to Nowhere has made it to the final round of judging!Here is the full list of 2014 RITA Finalists. Some of the categories have more finalists than others and that is due to a new rule this year [...]
FIFTY FIRST TIMES: Cover Reveal!
Coming February 25, 2014 wherever e-books are sold! Pre-order FIFTY FIRST TIMESAmazon Barnes and NobleGoodreadsExcerpt from my story!! DAYLIGHT: A FIFTY FIRST TIMES STORY by Julie Cross (me)Jack slides the key into the doorknob of his tiny apartment above my father’s church. His fingers still and he turns to me, “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather be at a hotel?”“That’s so [...]
Alienated by Melissa Landers
Interplanetary relations have never been more exciting! The first in a funny, romantic YA sci-fi series.Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream [...]
Altered by Jennifer Rush
When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch [...]
Letters to Nowhere on The Reading Cafe today!
Letters to Nowhere will go live on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble in just under a week and today the nice bloggers at The Reading Cafe have invited me to participate in an interview and also written a review of Letters to Nowhere. Please stop by and take a look!Catching up with Julie Cross interviewReading Cafe review of [...]
YA action/adventure for younger readers
I’m calling this segment…I Get by with a Little Help From my FriendsI get by with a little help from my friends is a series of blog posts I’m doing leading up to the August 1, 2013 Letters to Nowhere release (read more about that here) in support of all the nice folks I’ve met since beginning this journey toward [...]
YA Neighborly Love Books: Julie’s Weekly Review
This is an odd theme, I realize that, but I'm all about odd themes. If fact, if you look up at the tabs, you can read lists from previous week themes.So, neighborly love books are about finding love or at least a little fling with the character next door or down the street, or at the airport across the field [...]
YA Road Trip Books: Julie’s Weekly Review
Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the [...]
UN-COVERED #7: How Mark Got Into Modelling
Mark Perini aka model JacksonSo . . . Mark is pretty much the coolest guy ever. You can tell by the past UN-COVERED episodes: Episode #1Episode #2Episode #3Episode #4Episode #5Episode #6 Or even just by reading his "how I got into Modelling" story because it's AWESOME. *** The story of how I got started goes like this...I was working at Abercrombie Kids and they [...]
YA Titles On Death And Dying
I scheduled this theme before I knew what a hard week this would be for me to choose this particular theme, but I truly feel these books are so important and maybe more important after we've experienced loss of our own.On Saturday, I wrote a post devoted to my grandfather whom my family lost this weekend.If you missed last week's [...]
Moments I Can Recall Without Even Trying: A Dedication to My Grandfather
My Grandpa, February 7, 1928--September 15, 2012This post is solely for the purpose of expressing my feelings of loss, grief, and emotion in the way I'm most comfortably expressing it...behind my computer, with written words. But comments and personal stories are completely welcome.When I first allowed myself to envision this day, I thought that I could be the one to [...]
UN-COVERED #6: Mark Perini Reviews Looking for Alaska
As a result of the last episode of UN-COVERED and your votes, the topic chosen for Mark (aka-model Jackson) to blog about is Mark reviewing a YA favorite. He chose Looking For Alaska, by John Green and I decided to include his review this week since it’s Boarding School week and this is, in fact, a boarding school book. I [...]
YA Boarding Schools: Interviews with Boarding School Students
Continuing our YA Boarding School theme from Monday’s post, I had the pleasure of interviewing two teens who currently attend actual boarding schools! How awesome is that? Here’s what I found out from Kristina and Allie. Kristina attends a school in New York that boards only part time except for international students and Allie attends a school in Canada where [...]
German Tempest Trailer! A Must see!
I'm so excited about this trailer because...hello, it's real people that are like German versions of Jackson and Holly. First off, German Tempest isn't actually called German Tempest. It's called Sturz In Die Zeit which translated to, Fall Into Time...cool, huh?The only downfall is that Mark Perini isn't on the cover of this one. I like this dude too, but [...]
YA Boarding School Books
This week is all about YA books set in boarding schools. Only, I’ve added a twist and decided only the non-magical, non-supernatural titles will be included. I did this because I wanted to present a real, true look at boarding school. In fact, on Thursday the P10 members and guest members will be suggesting titles for your reading pleasure AND [...]
OPPOSITES ATTRACT: Episode #1
I know. You have questions about this segment, right? Like what is this Opposites Attract thing? What crazy scheme is Julie Cross up to now? Why does she always talk so much and overuse the words—so, okay, basically, just—oh…and ellipses, what’s up with all the ellipses?! I’m not sure I can answer all those questions and…so…basically, I think you [...]
Things You NEED To Know When Meeting An Author
I know the title makes it sound like I can speak for all authors, but unfortunately, I can't. BUT I want to invite any and all published authors to speak up as to whether they agree or disagree with my take on this matter. Otherwise, I guess my opinoin will stand for all.In the past several months, I've had the [...]
UN-COVERED#5: Mark at Fashion Week in Italy + BIG Contest!
This contest is now closed--thanks to all who entered!Mark Perini, Tempest Series Cover ModelYes, there's a contest in this post so read through it cause it's pretty epic!! Back by popular demand is another episode of Un-covered from Tempest (and now Vortex!) own Model Jackson, Mark Perini! Mark has been busy this summer, leaving his home base in NYC and [...]
Meeting Julie Cross: Guest post by Lauren
Introby Julie Cross Last month, I traveled to Ohio for an event at the Washington-Centerville Library where I met Lauren, a fabulous teen book blogger. After chatting with Lauren at the event and then later in email, I asked her if she'd be interested in being a guest on my blog to share her experience with everyone in my blogosphere [...]
Introducing teen me: Win a copy of Tempest!
First off, I'll be announcing the winner of the Spew Story contest tomorrow morning on the blog so check back then! And guess what? There's another chance to win a personalized, signed copy of Tempest in this post, so keep reading! In late 2010, I participated in the "Dear Teen Me" project, which is a group of authors writing letter [...]