Ginger Scott's Blog - Posts Tagged "college"

I'm excited to share the first teaser from "Going Long," the sequel to "Waiting on the Sidelines." Reed and Nolan's story continues as they navigate the challenges that come along with a long-distance relationship in college and the growing pains that come along with truly growing up.

It was important to me to stay true to the coming-of-age genre with the first book, giving you an honest look at every heartbreak and pivotal moment in Nolan's life as she matured from naive tomboy to woman in love. In "Going Long," you'll get to see the rest of the story unfold from both Reed and Nolan's perspectives. Here's a small taste to hold you over until the fall, and I'll be sharing more before the book's planned launch sometime in October.


Reed's perspective:

Nolan and Sarah were waiting on the leather sofa at the main entrance to the athletes quarters, their feet folded up in their laps. The girls had grown closer in college and even more so when Sienna moved in with her boyfriend. I was glad that Nolan had someone like Sarah to look after her. She’d told me off a time or two, and I’ll be honest, it made me nervous. I wanted that same toughness at Nolan’s side when I wasn’t around.

“Well, how’d I do?” I asked, kicking at Nolan’s folded legs a little.

She stood up, pulling her shirt down over the top of her shorts, always modest and still so damned unsure of her beauty. Chewing at the inside of her cheek a little, she put her thumb to her lip like she was considering something. “Hmmmm, I don’t know, Johnson. I’d put you at about eighty percent,” she nodded, acting with disappointment.

“Eighty percent, huh?” I said, rushing her a little and swinging her over my shoulder to carry her through the doors. Her giggling started then, the best sound in the whole damn world. “Eighty percent?”

I took off running, leaving Sarah behind. Nolan knew exactly where I was going as she started slapping at my back and threatening me that I’d ‘better not.’ When we got to the main fountain at the center of campus, I pulled her back over my shoulder and held her in my arms as I pulled off my shoes with my feet.

“Reed Johnson, don’t you dare!” she screamed as I stepped over the concrete edge and waded in the water, sliding closer and closer to the main spray. Her screams and giggles only egged me on.

“You want to rethink that B minus, Noles? Eighty percent? You sure about that?” I said, freezing in place, just one more step away from the full effects of the waterfall. I looked her in the eyes and watched as she flinched, just for a minute, and then finally did it.

“OK, maybe I was being a bit unfair. You were really more of an eighty-two,” she said, baiting me.

Our eyes locked, I pushed my lips tight into a disapproving grin and shook my head. “Oh, now you’ve done it,” I said, stepping forward and stopping us underneath the force of the fountain’s shower. Nolan wasn’t mad. Sure, she screamed and smacked at my chest as the freezing water poured over us. But my playfulness never rattled her. If anything, it had the opposite effect, which I was counting on as she reached around my neck and pulled my head to hers for a forceful kiss. Her hands grabbed at my soaked T-shirt, pulling me closer. I let her body slide from my arms so I could wrap my fingers through her hair. It was a good thing Trig and Sarah reminded us we were in public.

“God, you two. It’s bad enough that I don’t have a boyfriend, but do I really have to be the uncomfortable third wheel on our way to the bars, too?” Sarah broke us up.

“Sorry, Sar. I get carried away, what can I say,” I said, grinning.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, reaching for Nolan’s hand to help her climb over the edge of the fountain. But I wasn’t about to let her go. I grabbed her back in my arms and dunked her once more, pushing my forehead to hers as she slid her hair back out of her eyes and blinked the beaded water from her lashes, laughing. I swung her back and forth in my arms as I carried her back to the dry side, the tips of our noses touching and my lips tingling just watching her bite her lower lip. Unable to take it, I had to kiss her once more, the soft and slow kind I did when I forgot others were watching or when I wanted everyone to know she was mine. And she was…she had my whole entire heart.

I'll keep this short, sweet and to-the-point: Going Long is live and well...everywhere!!! I'm so excited to share it with you all, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the journey for Nolan and Reed.

I love these two with all my heart, and I'm deeply touched that so many of you do, too. A special 'thank you' to my beta readers, early bloggers and reviewers for helping spread the word. I can't thank you all enough. I promise to get back to my newest project soon, once the excitement settles a little. I also promise to share more about it later. A tease or two may be in order ;-)

Happy reading!

xxoo ~ Ginger

It's weeks away, but there's time for one more "Blindness" teaser! Just making final edits and doing the last reads. Here's one more glimpse inside:

Cody wraps his hand around his mug and looks at it a good long while before he lifts it to his lips and takes a loud slurping sip, like a kid with hot cocoa. The sound makes me laugh, and he winks at me, his cheeks wrinkling with his smile—it’s back, and it’s heavenly.

After another minute of looking at his cup, Cody sets it down and pushes it away. I’m staring at him now, and I know it, but I can’t seem to stop. He’s wearing a clean white T-shirt, but last night’s jeans—I recognize them. His hands, his face, his hair— he’s a mess, every bit of his rough night worn on his body. But it has my guts twisting, my insides aching. And deep down I know the way I’m looking at him is about being more than friends. But I squeeze my eyes tight to wring out those thoughts and force myself to remember that that’s all we are. We’re friends.

“I think you owe me some change,” he says, his voice a little scratchy. He coughs to clear his throat, and I lean forward on my elbow, raising a brow to question him. “The coffee? There’s no way I’m making it to the two-for-one deal. It’s pretty much the worst shit I’ve ever had.”

He busts out laughing mid sentence, unable to keep a straight face. I start to laugh, too, knowing I really have no idea how to brew coffee. I only started drinking it in college—and I usually buy my cup at Starbucks. I smile at him and shake my head, instinctively reaching forward to touch him. I push his arm with a tease, and he stops it before I can pull away, grabbing my fingers and wrapping them in his own. Suddenly, he’s holding my hand. He’s holding my hand!

I let him and watch as his fingers slowly lock into place with mine, the twists of ink and words along them like black keys on a piano against my pale skin. I steal a glance at him to see his eyes intent on our tangled hands, his gaze soft, but guarded. He’s being so careful. My mind is betraying everything I’m fighting to hold onto with visions of his mouth on mine, my lips tingling at the thought of kissing him, tasting him.


...And you'll have to wait just a little longer for the rest;-)

Blindness is live! To say that I have been biting my nails in anticipation throughout this countdown would be a gross understatement. I have bitten them to the nub, paced walking paths in the yard and carpet, chewed a lot of Tums, talked to my dogs (I've had full-on conversations with them), and driven my husband nuts. But finally…finally! Cody is live and breathing in book form.

I got the idea for this story when I was writing Waiting on the Sidelines. I wanted to create a character with real imperfections--the kind of scars that make it hard on our bodies and our hearts. Cody lived in my head for a few months. I was finishing Going Long, but in my purse I had this small little notebook that I would fill up with little bits and pieces about Cody. What made him tick--his past, his look, his dreams, his flaws. And somewhere along the way I fell in love with this character.

When Going was done, I dove right into writing Blindness. But what surprised me was how easy it was to write the main character's voice. That's right…Cody wasn't the voice in the story. Don't get me wrong, he's the heart--and you'll learn just how much of the heart he is when you read it--but he wasn't the voice. I needed a worthy woman--one with just as many battle wounds from life, one who needed Cody's penchant for risk to give her that little nudge to get her heart beating again, to push her into living. Charlotte "Charlie" Hudson embodied all of those things, and her story poured onto the pages. There's something about her--my friends would tell you that I'm drawn to her connection to her past, her love for all things old and nostalgic. And they would probably be right, to an extent. But I think I also get her hesitation--her fear of being daring, of taking a leap. I admire leapers, and I'm working on becoming one myself.

So's Charlie.

Without giving any more away, I thought I'd also share a few behind-the-scenes facts about Blindness and my journey in writing it.

~ The National 'Trouble Will Find Me' was pretty much exclusively taking up residency on my iPod while writing this story. I dig the tone of their music, and the song "I Need My Girl" pretty much sums the feeling of this book up.

~ The title is an homage to Jack White's cover of "Love is Blindness" -- nothing against U2, it's just…well…Jack does it better. While The National was my soundtrack, Jack White's rendition is this story's anthem.

~ My husband has read all of my books, and he has loved them (he even says so when he talks to people when I'm not around; it gets back to me). He reads sci-fi and fantasy, and he willingly turned in his man card after Blindness because he enjoyed it so much.

~ I'm already four chapters in on my new project. This one is going to be very important to me, and extremely personal. I hope I can grow my nails back in time.

I hope you love these characters as much as I do, and though I say it all the time, I truly mean it--thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and spending your time with my words. It's a gift, and I don't take it for granted.

I'm just pretty excited about this…I think it captures the feeling of the book pretty damn well! Hope you enjoy!

WATCH NOW

First Week's Royalties to Benefit Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center

I first came to truly know autism as a journalist. It started with a thread of an idea I had years ago—I wanted to write a true depiction of life with autism for the magazine I was working for, and I was starting with very little. I had heard of autism, knew some children who were affected by it and had this basic periphery knowledge to build on. So I called an organization based in Phoenix (SARRC) that I had run across while researching—and then it began.

You don’t just walk into SARRC and walk away unaffected. You’re changed—for the better. I talked with doctors, with families, with volunteers, with therapists and spent a great amount of time with the organization's founder and her family. And I learned what life with autism was really about. I also learned what things like hope, courage, heartbreak, fear and resolve really look like.

Since that first story, I’ve come to love SARRC and every single person connected with it. I volunteer as a writer whenever I can. I’ve had family diagnosed as well as the children of several friends. I do my best to educate others and inspire people to consider giving SARRC their attention, and that brings me to the present and this crazy little idea I had.

How We Deal With Gravity will be available as an e-book on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, Kobo and iBooks beginning July 8, 2014, and I am donating the first week of royalties to SARRC. It’s a small start, and I hope to be able to give more in the future, because this place…it has my whole entire heart.

I'll be sharing, posting, tweeting, etc. as we count down to that first week, so please consider following me on twitter @TheGingerScott or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GingerScottAuthor. And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading my words.

I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but this book has my heart and soul. I’m on pins and needles for release day. So, sharing this is just as much for me as it is for you! I hope you enjoy the prologue and first chapter–enough to want to read the entire book when it comes out July 8! And remember, the first week of royalties go to the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center.

Check it out now on my site at www.littlemisswrite.com.

How We Deal With Gravity is live! Thank you to every single one of you who have loved and pushed this book to this very exciting starting line. This story is precious to me, and I truly hope it is one you all will enjoy. My first week of royalties are benefiting the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center. I've posted a few times why this place means so much to me, so I won't make you read that again -- though feel free to visit a post or two ago if you would like to learn more. Instead I will just hold my breath and push the baby out of the nest--How We Deal With Gravity is now yours. I hope you love it as much as I do.

All my best,
Ginger


Buy link for Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/How-Deal-Gravit...

Before I get right to the thing you're really waiting for… ;-) I just need to thank you all for how you've opened your hearts to How We Deal With Gravity. This book was special to me, and I am so humbled that it has been embraced by the autism community. Getting those key moments just right was important to me, and I hope I did your stories justice.

Okay, now onto the real reason I'm awake at midnight writing a blog post…This Is Falling cover reveal time!

The countdown is officially on for August 29th! I think Waiting fans are really going to like Rowe and Nate's story in This Is Falling. Sports, college, lots of super swoon:-) Watch for teasers! In the meantime, here's the synopsis:

First, I had to remember how to breathe. Then, I had to learn how to survive. Two years, three months and sixteen days had passed since I was the Rowe Stanton from before, since tragedy stole my youth and my heart went along with it.

When I left for college, I put a thousand miles between my future and my past. I’d made a choice—I was going to cross back to the other side, to live with the living. I just didn’t know how.

And then I met Nate Preeter.

An All-American baseball player, Nate wasn’t supposed to notice a ghost-of-a-girl like me. But he did. He shouldn’t want to know my name. But he did. And when he learned my secret and saw the scars it left behind, he was supposed to run. But he didn’t.

My heart was dead, and I was never supposed to belong to anyone. But Nate Preeter had me feeling, and he made me want to be his. He showed me everything I was missing.

And then he showed me how to fall.

First, THIS IS FALLING is now available for pre-order on Amazon - click here!

Second, chapter 2 is now live on my website - along with chapter 1 in case you missed it. You can read it now at littlemisswrite.com/chapter.

Two weeks until release day!