GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Let's Get Lost
by Adi Alsaid
Let's Get Lost has just been released! This book blitz and giveaway is brought to you by YA Bound Book Tours.
You can also read my earlier blog post including another excerpt and guest post.
Description
Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost.
Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named Leila. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.
There's Hudson, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love.
And Bree, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday - and a few stolen goods along the way.
Elliot believes in happy endings … until his own life goes off-script.
And Sonia worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love.
Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth - sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way.
Book Video
Excerpt
Hudson could hear the car’s engine from blocks away. He stepped outside the garage and closed his eyes, listening, picking apart the sounds so that he would know exactly what he’d have to fix before he even popped the hood.
Standing there against the garage, listening to the still-far-off car, Hudson could forget about everything else. About school and girls and his future and whether his friends were actually jackasses or just acting like them. With his eyes closed, Hudson could reduce the world to a single engine and nothing more; a world where he could not only name every little part but knew what it was for, how it worked, how to fix it.
He opened his eyes when he heard the car’s brakes chirp as it slowed to turn into the garage. It was an old Plymouth Acclaim, the kind of car you either happily sent off to die or loved with your entire heart and refused to let go of. It had seen better days, its red paint job chipped and faded, its muffler not doing much muffling. He waved the driver forward to where he was standing. He was still identifying the car’s problems when the girl killed the engine and climbed out.
He only allowed himself a quick glance at her, knowing as soon as he saw her that she was the kind of girl who could make you think your life was not complete unless she was in it. She was a jumble of contradictions: short but with long legs, fierce green eyes but a kind expression, baby-faced but wise. She was wearing a snug, plain red T-shirt that matched her car. Her hair was down, the black locks reaching just past her chin.
“Afternoon,” she said, offering a polite smile.
He replied in kind, trying to adopt the professional tone he used with most customers. He asked her to pop the hood and then walked to the front of the car to release the latch. He meant to bury himself in work right away, but against instinct he stole another glance. How long would the memory of her face haunt him? Days? Weeks? “You having trouble with anything specific?”
“Well, not really,” she said, slipping her hands into the back pockets of her shorts, which made her posture change in a way Hudson couldn’t help but notice. The quiet world outside the garage noticed the change in her posture, the damp Mississippi air noticed, even the various grease stains spread out on the garage floor noticed. “I just got started on a road trip, and it’s making a lot of noise, so I wanted to be sure it’s in shape.”
Hudson grabbed a clean rag off a nearby shelf and checked the oil and the transmission fluid. He liked working in relative silence, nothing but the subtle sound of the cooling engine, his hands and tools on the machine. Something about this girl, though, made him chatty. “Where you goin’?”
“North,” she said. “All the way north.”
“You from around here?” He suddenly felt self-conscious about his drawl, the hitch in his vowels, the overall lackluster quality of his presence.
“Nope. You?”
He chuckled as he ran his hands around the engine, checking for cracks in belts. “Born and raised.”
Praise for the Book
"Reminiscent of John Green’s Paper Towns and road trip novels that feature a teen paving the way to adulthood, Alsaid’s debut is a gem among contemporary YA novels." ~ School Library Journal
"Five love stories, beautifully woven together by a special girl in search of adventure, hope, and full appreciation of life’s simple pleasures. A do-not-miss." ~ Justine Magazine
"Moving and poignant." ~ Glitter Magazine
"Characters are portrayed attractively and with a colorful authenticity ... An entertaining and romantic road-trip debut." ~ Kirkus Reviews
"An impressive novel by a rising star with effortless style and voice." ~ RT Book Reviews
"Leila's quest to find the Northern Lights takes readers on a captivating cross-country journey, where four strangers' adventures collide into one riveting tale of finding yourself." ~ YABooksCentral.com
"With romantic interludes, witty banter, some exhilarating minor drinking and law-breaking, an empowering message, and satisfying conclusions for everyone involved, this will likely be a popular summer hit, especially for older teens about to embark on their own journeys of self-discovery." ~ Sarah Hunter, Booklist
"This book is a must-read for anyone who is a fan of John Green. It’s heart-warming plot and unique characters encompass you in the book almost immediately, making you feel happy and refreshed when you finish the last chapter." ~ Sarah L., YALSA teen reviewer
"Mesmerizing. A story of love, loss, ambition, and finding the true meaning of life." ~ Glitter magazine
"Debut author Alsaid creates enough adventure to make the stories feel breathless." ~ Publishers Weekly
"... for readers of John Green or any realistic YA authors, I would highly recommend this new wonderful novel." ~ Fresh Fiction
"Follow Leila ... on her action-packed quest toward self-discovery. This feel-good novel is four love stories for the price of one." ~ Wendy Wunder, author of The Probability of Miracles
Guest Post by the Author
My Writing Process
What’s my writing process? It’s easy. Like Hemingway said, I just sit at a typewriter and bleed. Except I do the modern version, which is I go to a coffee shop, open my computer, and stare.
My typical writing day is broken up this way: Two to three hours of writing in the morning, usually beginning at around 10. Then a break for coaching basketball, or if school’s out I’ll go have lunch, do some reading, walk around until all the coffee I drank in the morning has settled. Then I write for another two to three hours, or until I’m done with my goal, which varies. At my typical non-hurried pace, that’s about 1,000 words a day. When inspired or on a shorter deadline, I aim for somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000, or a chapter every two days or so.
I grew up as a basketball player, and the training I did as a teen helped to discipline me to keep a consistent schedule for writing. Especially on first drafts, I write every single day, with very few exceptions made; special events, travel, uninspired days where it’s useless to try to churn something out (note, on these days, I’ll still sit there and stare for a few hours until I admit to myself it’s just not happening).
I prefer working in public, since staring is just more interesting out and about in the world than in my living room. Like everything else, I make exceptions to this, too. Sometimes I just feel like making a pot of coffee and blasting music as I write, rather than listening through headphones. Sometimes the Mexico City rainy season makes me feel like protesting the weather by staying in (I’m not someone who thrives or finds inspiration in rainy days - give me sun and warmth), sometimes I feel like my wallet needs a break from all the coffee shop excursions.
There are also the occasional manic bursts of productivity, where no matter where I am or what the situation is, the writing is coming, and it’s best to let it out until it runs dry. This happens sometimes on flights, at late night outings, or, recently, at five in the morning after a night of board games with friends.
My main guideline is easy: To write well, do it often.
About the Author
Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City, then studied at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While in class, he mostly read fiction and continuously failed to fill out crossword puzzles, so it's no surprise that after graduating, he did not go into business world but rather packed up his apartment into his car and escaped to the California coastline to become a writer.
He's now back in his hometown, where he writes, coaches high school and elementary basketball, and has perfected the art of making every dish he eats or cooks as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas, and Monterey, California. A tingly feeling in his feet tells him more places will eventually be added to the list.
Let's Get Lost is his YA debut.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win some great prizes.
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