13 to Life: Start Your Day with Serial Tour

Welcome to Shannon Delany's Start Your Day with Serial Tour! Shannon's debut novel (and first in her YA paranormal series) 13 to Life started as a winning cell phone novel written in serial segments. During the tour you can read bits of the book in order. Miss a day? Hop to Shannon's blog 13toLife.us/blog and check the link to the blog tour calendar in her sidebar. There will also be a contest that will close at the end of the tour. Winners get a bunch of stuff.





For information on the previous section, visit Intetextual Chronicles! (intetextualchronicles.blogspot.com)

13 to Life: Chapter 3, part I (used with the author’s permission)

He smiled. Sarah and Sophia giggled at me. Some friends.
Pietr speared a piece of mystery meatloaf with his fork, and popped the first bite into his mouth, chewing like eating was an exercise in efficiency, not something to be enjoyed. Well that I understood, looking at my own wilted lettuce. “So, what don’t you get?” he asked again.
I refused to answer, trying to seem absorbed in the search for a crouton with some crunch. I was absolutely unlucky today.
"There's really nothing to get,” Pietr continued. “He's out of your league." He stated it with such simplicity it sounded like undeniable truth.

Ouch, doesn't that sound good! Oh and thanks to Liyana for pointing this out...it's 13 to Release Day today!!!

I was also lucky enough to interview Shannon about 13 to Life:

You have an interesting road to publication with 13 to Life starting out as a simple entry in a cellphone novel contest! Can you tell us a bit about this.

I started 13 to Life as a sort of experiment on Textnovel.com. I was already working on a pirate-type novel (which also made the finals) but my pirate one wasn't working as smoothly for me (though I know the history inside and out--and will return to it). Ironically it was as I returned from an event in Wisconsin where I saw a student-made film using my pirate designs premiere that 13 to Life started to form very vaguely in my mind. I threw it out in serial snippets on the site so folks with cell phones could follow along. I had no idea where it was going when I started it and I wasn't very serious about it until about halfway through--I was busy writing on a bunch of freelance projects at the time. But I won!

I've always been fascinated with legends of the wolf, why did you decide to write a werewolf story (and please don't say because of Twilight! lol)

*snort* In a strange way 13 to Life was a response to Twilight--well, Twilight's influence on publishing. I wasn't familiar with Stephenie Meyer's work until that trip to Wisconsin (I was speaking at the college the same day Robert Pattinson made his first Oprah appearance and I was stunned by the crowd's reaction to him and the books). And every bookstore--airport and not--had vampire books on their shelves (thank you, Twilight) but no werewolves. Where was the wolf love?! Vampires and werewolves are sort of like supernatural chocolate and peanut butter to me--two great things that go great together. It seemed strange not to see wolves represented. So I figured: What the heck? I'll write a werewolf story. <--Please note: I never imagined my first published novels would include werewolves. Neh-vah. My brother and I still joke about it. BUT. I feel that good literature should raise questions and allow for multiple methods (symbollically and literally) of change, growth, and, dare I say it? TRANSFORMATION. Who does that better (and more boldly) than a werewolf? And in the shadow of that blatant transformation you can hide so many other, more subtle things.

Sometimes characters take on their own lives & end up surprising the writer, did any characters in 13 To Life shock you?

YES. Max really stepped out of the shadows during 13 to Life copyedits and decided to be a major player (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) in the second book in the series, too. And Pietr grew from being my baby to becoming an independent (and sometimes frustrating) boy with his own ideas. Heck. In book two and three I essentially threw my hands in the air and let the boys take over. Werewolves are not cool with being tightly controlled.

13 to life is book #1 of a trilogy. When you began expanding on the cellphone version of your story did you know this would end up being a much larger story?

*G* No. I figured I'd wrap it up in one expanded volume (how, I had little idea). But my agent asked me how many books I thought I could get out of 13 to Life and (because my husband had just asked the same thing) I said four or five, but I can easily do three. So three it was! Now, in retrospect I realize the world can open for even more books, but we'll see if that's in my near future or not. ;-)

Are you a planner who plots out the story then fill in the gaps or do you let the story lead you?

In 13 to Life I let the story's characters lead me. I had a vague direction in mind, but even if I outline I allow for "wiggle room." Which is great, because the way I thought Pietr would wrap up his part in the trilogy was far different than what he had in mind. I mean--WOW.

I think book #3 is already at the editing stage now! Can you give us a sneak peak into book #2?

Book 3 is (at this moment) in my revision stage--betas will have just seen it when this posts. A sneak peek at book 2? Remember, Jess is our narrator, so we're in here head...

Out of the car they wolfed quickly, slinking along the shadows and hugging the hedges that marked the property boundaries of suburbia.
I hopped into the front passenger’s seat and turned the car on to note the time on the dashboard clock. Just ten minutes. Reclining in the seat, I promised I’d only worry after fifteen. I pulled out my worry stone, rubbing my thumb across its glossy variegated surface. Like Pietr’s eyes it was beautiful and blue. Like what shimmered behind his eyes-—complicated.
When fifteen minutes passed and there was no sign of the Rusakovas, I decided I would not panic.
Yet.
By seventeen minutes I’d pulled apart the car’s interior looking for a weapon: a pocketknife, a pair of scissors, anything. It quickly became obvious that werewolves didn’t bother with standard weapons. Teeth and claws were more than sufficient.
By twenty minutes I’d found a hefty Maglite flashlight wedged under the driver’s seat. It would have to do.
Slipping the car key off the ring, I tucked it in my pocket opposite my worry stone and hid the other keys under the seat.
I was headed to the church twenty-two minutes after the Rusakovas had disappeared into the night.
And I was definitely worried.

Shannon's hosting several contests during the Start Your Day with Serial Tour. The big contest will award one lucky winner with a royal amber pendant, pietersite jeweled bookmark, stuffed wolf, 13 to Life mousepad, pen, tote, signed poster, personalized copy of 13 to Life and both of the 13 to Lifepins. All you need to do is comment at 13 of the blogs hosting Shannon during her 30 day tour. Everyone who does so will be entered into a random drawing. Winner may be international.