Kate Angelella

Define Brave

2011-03-23T10:28:00.004-04:00

My BFF and I are super close. We share a lot with each other . . . but that didn't happen overnight. It took time. And a little bit more time. And then, more time.

People get hurt in this world. And the only thing that heals hurt, unfortunately, is time. But there are reasons for everything that happens-- I really believe that. My best friend, Jess, she is living proof. Because even after all this time, she's so brave that she actually put her story up there for everyone to read on the amazing website dearteenme.com

I honestly didn't know the meaning of the word brave until Jess wrote that story, attached it in an email, and pushed SEND. Now it's out there for all of you to read, and I hope, hope, hope any other teen (or even adult) who has lived or is living through what Jess did will read it. Because I promise, it will help you.

Here's a link to the full essay that Jess wrote:

http://authorjessashley.blogspot.com/2011/03/essay-live-on-dear-teen-me-and-rest-of.html

An abbreviated version is found on the amazing blog itself which I hope to God someone smart will find and decide to anthologize in print form.

Jess Ashley, you are profoundly heroic. And now, everyone else can see that too.

And to the people who "raised" you: she is who she is despite who you raised her to be. She is honest, she is kind, she is beautiful inside and out, and she is the bravest person I've ever met. Why? Because she tells the truth even when it's hard.

Your loss. My gain.

xx,

Just an FYI . . .

2011-03-16T21:57:00.001-04:00

(Cross-posted from Violet & Ruby)

Violet and I just found out that there may be someone out there posing as "Violet & Ruby." Though this may just be a big misunderstanding (we hope so, at least). But please be sure that when you're looking for us, stick to this website and this website only (other than our twitter account and each of our separate pages) until further notice.

Sorry about any confusion this may have caused . . . we are both profoundly confused ourselves. But it's safe to continue to visit this site for any updates about the real deal Violet & Ruby :)

Have a good night, all!

dominate's big reveal!

2011-03-08T22:24:00.017-05:00

Hi guys! Sorry for the lag in blogging. I've been hard at work with bestie, Jess Ashley (aka Jessica Burkhart) on our new company, Violet and Ruby.

V&R is crazy fun to be a part of and it's been keeping us both super busy. Violet and Ruby does a couple of things first, it serves as a superfun pop culture/ beauty/ fashion blog for tweens and teens (and, um, adults like us that still enjoy these sorts of things). Second, it's a two-person packaging company that creates ideas for tween and teen novels, e-books, and e-novellas that we will then write together and either send on to our agents for possible paper publication, or sell ourselves wherever e-books are sold.

Our first e-novella (a shorter novel), dominate (which is the first e-novella in a series called Wellington Prep) is available THIS FRIDAY, March 11th, wherever ebooks are sold and it's going to be super inexpensive. We can't even believe it will be out this week!

Jess and I posted the dominate trailer on YouTube last night and we are psyched! We can't wait to know what you think. Take a peek!

Plus, for anyone who might be wondering, you do NOT have to have an e-reader, kindle, nook, or ipad to purchase dominate. There is a free app that you can download. It's safe and will not harm your computer (but please do check with your parents before installing anything on your personal computers). It's called "Kindle for PC" and you can download it here. We're planning to download it soon to test it out.

Enjoy the trailer and hope you like it!

xx,
K

Saturday Blogable!

2011-02-19T14:57:00.005-05:00

It's finally here! After months of anticipation I can actually believe that my boy Ross and I are finally, officially contracted for our two YA novels, CROSSED and CURSED!!!! Why? Because the contracts arrived from Agent Doug's lovely assistant, Rebecca Leicht of Sterling Lord Literistic.

I even have proof!

The cover letter over top our ACTUAL CONTRACTS. Isn't the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Okay, maybe not to everyone else. But it is to me! And I can't wait to touch base with Editor Leah of Sourcebooks' YA imprint, Teen Fire. She's obviously ubercool for wanting our books so much that she championed it to the supercool kids at Sourcebooks.

Now, back to working on dominate-- release date tba very soon (!)

Happy Saturday, all! I know mine will be ☺

What Big Eyes You Have . . .

2011-02-18T16:02:00.010-05:00

So, Ross, Jess and I are fast-forwarding through commercials during last week's GLEE (❤) when I scream "STOP! GO BACK!" It's the trailer for RED RIDING HOOD.

Are we the only people on the planet who were blind-sided by this? Anyway--doesn't matter. I am beyond excited to go see this movie. Aside from the fact that I love Amanda Seyfried (she was HILARIOUS in Mean Girls, hypnotic in Veronica Mars, and terrifically authentic in Big Love!), I am a rabid fan of twisted fairy tales.

I AM NUMBER FOUR and BEASTLY are both high on my radar (as, suddenly, is Alex Pettyfer) and I can't wait to go see him . . . er, them. I'm actually thinking I'd love to go see NUMBER FOUR tonight or at some point this weekend. Yay!

Now, the movie teasers, posters, and billboards are everywhere. When bestie Jess and I were waiting for the F train at the 14th Street station, we saw this gorgeous new poster:

Well, the poster we saw obvi wasn't in Russian but I couldn't find the American one online and the point is the haunting beauty of the image, which you get in any languages. We'll try and take a snapshot of the one we saw next time we're in that part of town. But wow. Who else can't wait to see this movie? Decide for yourselves--enjoy!

xx,

OCD of the Sparkly Kind

2011-02-15T15:43:00.004-05:00

Every writer has his or her own routine before they sit down to write. In the last post, I talked about Jess' and my brainstorming routine. You'd think that when it comes down to each of us sitting down to write, it would be relatively similar. But writing is so much more a solitary exercise than brainstorming-- so I guess it makes sense that each of routines are so distinctly different (though we probably all share a thing or two in common ☺).

My routine is pretty simple. First, my two lucky glosses MUST be by my side (Vicky's Beauty Rush gloss in Strawberry Fizz and Bonne Bell's pinky LipSmacker Vanilla Sugar PINK). I also need my pink blanket, hot tea in my fave mug, and my glittery, pink Hello Kitty wallet by my side just in case I, um, take a TINY break from writing and feel the need to buy more pink things online--la, la, la.

Last, but certainly not least, is my ipod. If there's one thing that influences my writing more than anything else, it's the music I listen to while I write. Right now, I'm writing a suuuper dark scene for dominate, so I'm listening to the PLL soundtrack (available now on iTunes!).

Darren Criss-- the actor who plays the Warblers cutie on GLEE who I cannot stop crushing on based on his voice alone-- also has an EP that I downloaded this morning-- it's awesome and great mood music.

So those are my writing must-haves! What about you guys?

xx,

V & R Presents!

2011-01-26T12:29:00.009-05:00

Go visit my first post on Violet & Ruby to learn about my exciting new venture with my bestie, Jess!

Violet and Ruby Productions is both a supercool website targeted toward tweens and teens and a two-person production company partnership-- which is a fancy way of saying that we hang out in our cozy pajama-wear from Vicky's PINK line, drink Splenda-sweetened sugar-cookie-flavored tea, and kick around fun ideas for YA and tween novels and novellas.

Eventually, we land on something awesome and publishable that we both want to write. Then we write it!

And voilà! An idea! Our first venture together with Violet & Ruby Productions is a series told in e-novella form. The series is called WELLINGTON PREP, and our first novella in the series is entitled dominate. Here's the cover:

Wellington Prep . . . where dark lies and dangerous secrets are meant to be found out.

This series is hot, hot, hot! The novellas be published under Jessica Ashley (Jessica "Burkhart's" real name) and me--Kate Angelella--as e-book novellas for you to download via Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. (They will not be available in physical book stores--only online.)

WELLINGTON PREP, releasing in 40-page installments which will eventually make up an entire book, is a darker, slightly older series than CANTERWOOD CREST. There's a mystery woven throughout each one, which you won't know the answer to until the final novella.

If you thought Jasmine King was bad? Wait until you meet Lucy Cunningham . . . the girl who taught Jas everything she knows about competition. Lucy is an older student and knows more about Wellington than any other girl at the school. She is cold, ruthless, and drop-dead gorgeous. No wonder all the girls at school are intimidated by her-- even her BFF/dormmate! Nevertheless, every girl at Wellington either wants to be Lucy, or be her best friend. One thing's for sure: no one wants to get on her bad side.

In dominate, you'll learn how Jasmine King and Lucy Cunningham came to meet each other and got twisted up in each others' lives. In this series, you'll learn the real reason why Jasmine left Wellington for Canterwood . . . and the answer may just surprise you.

Look for dominate's release date, coming soon!

xx,

Taking a Breath . . .

2011-01-22T13:36:00.009-05:00

It’s been so long since I posted on this blog, and so much has happened since then, I figured why not start over?

Starting over can be an amazing thing. Sometimes it’s hard to get started—like going back to school after a long, relaxing vacation and finding out you have a paper due next week and a test on Friday afternoon. But sometimes, starting over is like a breath you’ve been waiting to take for a long, long time.

Starting this week, I was finally able to take that breath. You might be able to tell from my website that I’m starting a few new projects. First off, I am officially a full-time writer and freelance editor! It’s very exciting and a little bit scary at the same time.

But whenever I’m scared, I’m lucky enough to have people in my life that make that something scary seem a lot less scary.

My grandma, for example—she is the person I look up to more than anyone else in the world. Don’t give me that look! I’m not being sappy. If you knew her, you’d envy her too.

Gram is anything but your average grandmother. For example, she’s not the type to sew or knit—although she makes a killer spaghetti sauce and a mean key lime cake. She also doesn’t have a halo of silver-white hair.

Instead, she has beautiful strawberry blonde hair and an envy-worthy makeup collection. She volunteers at her local courthouse, filling out paperwork for victims of domestic abuse to help them acquire orders of protection against their abusers.

When I accidentally swore in front of Gram for the first time and apologized for my language, she looked at me as if to say what is wrong with you? And said, “Oh please. I invented that word.” She calls me every day—and loves to talk about the latest Real Housewives show on Bravo and speculates about which woman got the most recent plastic surgery and which husband she thinks is cheating on his wife. She also loves really freaking scary/often gory movies. Her fave movie? FARGO.

My Gram used to be an equestrian. She even lives in the same town as Beezie Madsen, an olympic equestrian, and often goes to watch her practice riding. So when I began editing the tween series about an elite equestrian boarding school, which my bestie happens to write—CANTERWOOD CREST (under the pen name Jessica Burkhart), she ate it up.

I should also mention that in this series? Lots of mean girls. So one day, she left a message to tell me that she couldn’t believe what the book’s mean girls had just done to the main character, Sasha. I'll never forget this. Because at the end of the message, she just said simply, “those [rhymes with witches].” Only she said the actual word.

But the thing I love most about her? If I can’t answer the phone when she calls, she leaves a voicemail and a few words to live by. Most recently, she left a message in which she told me I was going to do well in my latest venture as a full-time writer/freelance editor. Unlike many other women from her generation, she is cool with the talking-it-out thing. I saved the message and play it over and over these days. In it, she says, “talk about it. With me, or Ross [my husband and co-author], or Jessie [my bestie, and also co-author, Jess]. Talking about your fears out loud is the best form of therapy there is.”

So I guess, in a way, this blog is me talking out loud. Not necessarily about my fears—but also, about my excitement, about things I’m doing and want to share, and about my friends and family. Thank you for listening!

xx,