New Year, New Books Day 4 (Part 2): Elsie Chapman + Divided

Welcome to part 2 of Day 4 of New Year, New Books! Instead of double featuring authors, someone suggested I "stagger" the posts and just post them at different times! From now on, I will probably be doing that. Part 1 was just posted, and that one features a spotlight on author Tracy E. Banghart! Part 2 features another super awesome lady, Elsie Chapman.

2) Elsie Chapman

-author of Dualed (May 27th, 2014)

This here's a YAY gif

But seriously, Elsie is just so cool. Her books are so original, and her personality is just so sweet. If you have not read Dualed (the first book), then add it to Goodreads here. Elsie is also here today to give us an exclusive deleted scene from Divided!! It's a really awesome scene, as far as deleted scenes go ;)

Title: Divided (Dualed #2)
Author: Elsie Chapman
Shelves: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction
Publication Date: May 27th, 2014
Publisher: Random House

Goodreads|Amazon|B&N

Summary from Goodreads: The hunter becomes the hunted. . . .

West Grayer is done killing. She defeated her Alternate, a twin raised by another family, and proved she’s worthy of a future. She’s ready to move on with her life.

The Board has other plans. They want her to kill one last time, and offer her a deal worth killing for. But when West recognizes her target as a ghost from her past, she realizes she’s in over her head. The Board is lying, and West will have to uncover the truth of the past to secure her future.

How far will the Board go to keep their secrets safe? And how far will West go to save those she loves? With nonstop action and surprising twists, Elsie Chapman’s intoxicating sequel to Dualed reveals everything.

A Deleted Scene from Divided

Elsie's website|Goodreads author page

Sometimes the revision process can be quite painful in that we are asked to cut sections or even whole scenes that we've come to love. But in the end, if they aren’t working or can’t be made to work, they really do have to go in order to make the book as strong as possible.

The following section is from the rough draft of Divided, and didn’t make it into the final version. I liked that it showed some tenderness between West and Chord, and in particular, I liked revealing West having to struggle a bit with feeling vulnerable since Divided deals a lot with the fallout of her decisions.But during revisions, it didn’t read as raw as I wanted; I wasn’t feeling what I wanted to feel. So I deleted the entire thing, dug deep, and rewrote it from scratch. I’m much happier with it now (as is my editor!), and I hope readers will agree!

 Chord’s eyes meet mine and what I see in them makes my heart hurt, my pulse scatter wide so I can feel it in every part of me.

I take the final few steps until I’m standing over him. I look down, suddenly unsure of what to say. How to capture within the boundaries of words feelings that have no measure. People walk all around us, on their ways with lives that can only start with death. And we’re no different, Chord and I. We take what we can and somehow make it enough.

He takes my hand and tugs me down until I’m sitting on his lap. My bag slips off my shoulder and hits the ground. No guns or blades inside the leather, only brushes, pens, and oils. He presses his mouth against mine and kisses me for a very, very long time. That we’re not alone means nothing; the realization that people pause to look fades to zero.

I don’t want to let him go.

****GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY***

In addition to the individual giveaways each author is hosting, I am also going to have a grand prize giveaway that will run for the entire month. This is because some authors cannot contribute a giveaway, so I figured I'd give something of mine as well.

Grand Prize Giveaway:

2 Surprise 2014 ARCs + swag

Yep, these will be from my own shelf. Yep, this giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. Yep, it is a surprise and I am not telling you what the ARCs will be but here's an idea of what MIGHT be in it:

Any of these books are fair game! But in the end, the winner will only get 2. And I promise that the surprise ARCs will be good:)

Here are the rules of entry:

1) OPEN INTERNATIONALLY
2) The winner has 48 hours to respond to my email. If not, I will have to pick a new winner. 

3) The prize will be sent out at my discretion, so I might take me a little longer than a week to get it to you.

4) In order to earn the maximum amount of entries, you can comment on EVERY SINGLE DAY of New Year, New Books!

5) GOOD LUCK!

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