Wattpad Insider

Bucket List: "I'm on my way to believing..."

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:42:38 -0500

Check out this blog post from Daniela, the author of The Day, Wattpad’s newest Featured Story. She gives us the top 5 things she wants to do the most in her life.

What’s on your bucket list?

1. Tour Europe - I’ve always loved the culture. Every time I watch a movie, or even see a picture of anywhere in Europe, I kind of feel a longing to go. The people, the languages, the food - oh my GOSH, the food! - everything just connects with me. I don’t want to go on one of those touristy-tours, where they only give you like three minutes in each country. I want to do my own thing, with a best friend - maybe even a boyfriend if I have one. I want to visit the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, all of that.

2. Play in the O2 stadium - I’m in a band, and playing in the O2 stadium in England has always been a dream of mine. We’ve never really played in front of an audience before, but I can just imagine myself on that stage, yelling out to fans and whatnot. It doesn’t even have to be full. There could just be like 3 or 4 people there, but I’d be happy. Oh, and I’m the singer, by the way. My absolute FAVORITE band, Paramore, played there, and I watched a video of it, and it was their best performance, in my opinion.

3. Complete the Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk - My aunt had a scare with breast cancer once. And ever since then, I’ve been hyperaware of cancer. Everytime the commercial for the 2-day walk comes on, I watch it. It’s just so inspiring. I’ve wanted to do it for forever and a day, so I will one day. Before I kick the bucket.

4. Grant someone’s last wish - This, to me, is the most important one. I feel like seeing the look on their face whenever I grant that wish - whatever it is - so much better, because I think it will give me a whole new perspective on life. I just want to see the light in that person’s eyes when it happened. They don’t even have to know it’s me who granted it. I just want to see it.

5. Fall in love - Yeah, I know… cliche. But I feel like love was created for a reason. “The Only Exception” by Paramore (yeah, again) is my go-to song for this. When Hayley sings “Maybe I know, somewhere, deep in my soul, that love never lasts. And we’ve got to find other ways to make it alone, or keep a straight face. I’ve always lived like this, keeping a comfortable distance. And up until now I had sworn to myself that I’m content with loneliness. Because none of it was ever worth the risk.” That’s so so so true, for me. I want to find that one person who will be the exception to my rules that guys are a whole bunch of cheaters with bad intentions. I’ve read enough romance novels to believe that love exists, so I’m going to save my heart until I find my only exception.

P.S. This last Valentine’s day? I had a hot date with Ben & Jerry’s. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a brand of ice cream. I stayed home all day while my parents went out to eat and saw “The Vow”. I was in my living room, watching the sappiest romance movie in the world, and eating my ice Cream with chopsticks. And you know what? I’m okay with that. I’m not going to settle for a guy. Just because it’s Valentine’s Day, people think that it’s the time to go and be with someone you have no feelings for. I’d rather be a total loser than a pretender.

And folks, that’s my happy ending. (For now, at least.)

“I’m on my way to believing…”

Read Daniela’s mystery thriller, The Day, on Wattpad:

Eighteen-year-old Hailee Windor girl dies on her birthday. Just before she died, she wishes that she had told her best friend that she loved him. The result: she gets to keep re-living the day over and over again.

wattpadhq: Wattpad’s Social Media Week event: Post it....

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:41:51 -0500

wattpadhq:

Wattpad’s Social Media Week event:

Post it. Pin it. <3 it. Party!

Friday Find: "Secrets of Successful Writers"

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:00:05 -0500

Every Friday, we bring you an undiscovered gem to read on Wattpad. This week, our secret Wattpad Talent Hunters recommend Secrets of Successful Writers, a non-fiction:

Secrets of Successful Writers by Darell Pitt

Interviews with fifty writers as they speak about writing, publishing and promoting their books in the digital age. Some of the writers are traditional authors. Others have built careers as self-published ebook authors. It contains interviews with authors who write detective stories, westerns, romance, thrillers and children’s books.

Included are: John Locke, Micaela Wendell, Dolores Durando, and Robert J. Randisi.

Wattpad's Post It. Pin It. <3 It! Party

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Check out our cake pop giveaways (courtesy of Bruna from Cookies & Cake Pops) for Wattpad’s very first Social Media Week event tomorrow, Feb. 17th! #WattpadSMW

Cover-Off: "The Godfather"

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:00:05 -0500

Which version of Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” do you like better - left or right?

Author Interview: Wendy Mass

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:06 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post originally published in Teen Ink:

Author-Wendy Mass

By TheJust, Ellenton, FL

Her most popular book is probably “A Mango Shaped Space”, but author Wendy Mass has written many other novels for pre-teens and young adults, including “Leap Year”, “Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life” and her fractured fairy tale series, “Twice Upon a Time”.

I was recently given the opportunity to interview Ms. Mass for Teen Ink.

***

RH: When did you first get interested in writing?

WM: I wrote my first short story in 5th grade, and was hooked! I co-wrote it with my 2 sisters and it was about our cat who turned into a goat and broke into the neighbor’s house!

RH: When did you know you wanted to be an author?

WM: By the time I was in high school, I knew this was what I wanted to do. I spent most of college writing short stories, and then when I graduated I got a job in publishing, so even though I wasn’t the one writing the books, I got to have a hand in bringing them to life.

RH: What was your inspiration behind “A Mango Shaped Space”? Do you actually know someone like Mia?

WM: I didn’t know anyone with synesthesia before I started writing the book, but as I went along I met many. I think it’s a lot more common than people think. Just start asking your friends the colors of various letters and I bet some can tell you!

Continue reading here!

Bill Gourgey’s Glide USB Bracelet & eBook Giveaway!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:00:05 -0500

wattpadcommunitycontests:

From BillGourgey

Share some of your amazing Wattpad comments and reviews for Glide on Amazon and you’ll have a chance to win a black 2GB USB Bracelet imprinted with the Glide logo and filled with Glide goodies including the Glide eBook, invention imagery, and interviews with me, the author, talking about Glide. I’ll be giving away THREE bracelets.

Click Here for Full Contest Details! This contest will run from February 22 to March 21, 2012.

Thank You Wattpadders!!!

Glide on!

Green Science (and Fiction) 101

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:00:06 -0500

Anti-gravity? Efficient wind farms and solar energy? It’s not as far-fetched as you think. Check out this guest post from Glide author Bill Gourgey:

[Photo source]

The other day I was talking to my neighbor, a high level TV executive at the Discovery Channel, about Green Science. We were at a party and the topic came up because he asked me what I was up to, so I began to describe my new novel, Glide, and how one of its themes is Green Sci Fi. Well, I might as well have announced that I was writing about something as whimsical as Oz. He wrote me off with a wave of his hand. Green doesn’t sell, he said matter-of-factly. Really, I said, that surprises me. The opinion polls I’ve seen and the research I’ve done suggests that people love the concept of Green. That’s just it, he replied, they love the concept, but as soon as it comes down to the reality—to changing lifestyles to be Green—they avoid it. Trust me, he added, I know. We keep trying out Green programs on the network and they just don’t get traction.

Of course, there must be some truth to my neighbor’s advice. After all, he has the numbers to prove it. That got me a bit worried. If people don’t enjoy watching Green shows on TV, what would compel them to read Green fiction? But the more I thought about it and continued to research Green Science and Green Science Fiction, the more I realized that Green is simply too broad a term to throw around without qualifying it. For example, most people probably don’t want to be told that they should be making the extra effort to compost their organic garbage and recycle the rest. It’s a lot of work. Who has time…or money? And those are the kinds of Green How-To shows you tend to find on TV, narrated by some svelte intellectual who leaves you feeling guilty for not making more of an effort. BUT! What if there was an invention that allowed you to throw out your garbage the way you always do? Underneath the counter, this little machine would sort your trash for you and compact it so that all you would have to do is take two little biodegradable bags out to the curb each week? One labeled “Organics” the other “Recyclables.” Sounds a bit like something the Cat in the Hat might come up with, I know, but that invention, if it existed, would be Green Science. Since it doesn’t yet exist (to my knowledge) it would be Green Sci Fi. For the record, you can buy indoor compost stations (they look like fish tanks) and multi-bin trash compactors, but nothing that automatically sorts through a continuous flow of household trash. At least, not on the residential level. Commercially, lots of companies are tackling the waste-sorting problem with a fair amount of success. Hence, the lines between Science and Fiction have already begun to blur when it comes to Green Waste Management. Still with me?

In the simplest terms, Green means anything that is considered friendly to the environment. Of course, there are different degrees of green when it comes to science, technology, and invention. Using my own highly technical classification, Dark Green implies something consumable (it all comes down to consumption!) that either restores or preserves our natural ecosystems without unwanted byproducts (e.g., solar energy) while Light Green refers to the other end of the spectrum—to technologies that may not be Green in the strict sense, but are friendlier than prevailing technologies (e.g., ethanol vs. oil).

As Jordan Kessler from the Natural Resource Defense Council once wrote on Switchboard, the NRDC’s blog, “Sometimes, the facts on the ground are so grim, that all I can do is try to have hope that there’s a better tomorrow on the way. Just for today, I’m going to think about what…[Glide’s author] Bill Gourgey calls ‘Green Sci-Fi,’ a kind of anti-apocalyptic vision of the future.”

Here’s the thing. Mr. Kessler’s right about the facts on the ground being so grim when it comes to climate change and ecological stewardship, but you would be surprised to know just how much time, energy, and pure creative genius is applied to Green Science day after day, year after year. In lots of ways, that anti-apocalyptic future is already here waiting for our embrace. It’s truly amazing and rather unfortunate that there’s so little press devoted to this all-important field. It’s as if our brains have been so hard-wired by jaded journalists that we would rather watch the devastation of oil spills than celebrate the triumph of fuel cells. Ever hear of Bloom Energy? A company whose fuel cells convert natural gas and bio-fuels into electricity without generating carbon emissions. Google uses their boxes (called Bloom Boxes) to power some of their facilities. EBay uses Bloom boxes, too, and so do dozens of other companies. 60 Minutes even did an expose on them last fall, but I’ll bet Bloom’s not ringing a bell. And it’s a shame, because our Federal and State governments could be approving Bloom Power Plants instead of Nuclear ones or, even worse, “Clean Coal” (a phrase that ought to be entered into Webster’s as the definition of an oxymoron).

To prove my point that Green Science is a dynamic, growing field, here is a smattering of Green Science examples with their Fictional counterparts:

Urban Wind Farms, the Science:

The city of Hull in the UK has funded a project to deploy mini-turbines (see below) and are in discussions to expand the project to deploy these turbines throughout the city making it one of the first truly green energy cities on the planet. For more, see this article from the Hull Daily Mail.

Wind farm network develops green city

Urban Wind Farms, the Science Fiction:

The micro turbines I describe in Glide are vast arrays of wind turbines as small as nickels or dimes woven into a fabric that floats above buildings like sails, or wraps around them. That may sound futuristic, but it will probably be here before you know it.

Solar Energy, the Science:

Semprius, a start-up company, has figured out how to make miniscule solar cells about the width of a line drawn by a pen. The efficiency of these cells (and the fact that they require much less cooling), significantly reduces the size of the panels needed to generate practical amounts of electricity. For more, see the following article from MIT Technology Review:

Concentrated Solar Startup Sets a New Efficiency Record

Solar Energy, the Science Fiction:

In Glide, all manmade exterior objects (cars, buildings, homes, etc.) are painted with NanoPaint, a solar emulsifier, which is an acrylic laced with nanoscopic solar cells. While this vision is still Green Sci Fi, researchers at Ohio State University stumbled on just such a possibility using molybdenum and titanium. Again, it may not be that far from reality.

Anti-Gravity, the Science:

We’ve all heard of high speed trains, which use electromagnetics to “float” the trains and achieve, to a small extent, the illusion of defying gravity. Well, researchers at Tel Aviv University have taken it one step further to produce objects that truly float using quantum levitation. While this still does not qualify as anti-gravity, it does open up a whole host of possibilities for transportation and beyond. It’s still a long way off from commercial viability, but to learn more, check out this gizmag article:

Tel Aviv University’s astounding “quantum levitation” demonstration.

Anti-Gravity, the Science Fiction:

Glide, the title of my novel, also stands for the futuristic industry known as the Glide Industry, which came about when the protagonist, Dr. Magigate, a genius as bright as Einstein and an inventor as prolific as Edison, discovered how to manipulate the Gravitational Constant. Here is his epiphany at the moment of his breakthrough as excerpted from Glide:

His eyes grew glassy as he allowed himself to fantasize a world no longer confined by the yoke of gravity. Possibilities rushed at him with the tumult and festivity of a parade. A new industry—the Gravity Reduction Industry, or, better yet, the Glide Industry—would be born. Raw material suppliers would continuously improve upon Magigate’s superconductive sample. New pharmaceutical divisions would be dedicated to improving his Polyena virus. Glide cell manufacturers would pack these gyroscopes into bikes, cars, boats, and planes—all of which would need to be reinvented too.

Without gravity, a calculator-sized solar cell could supply enough energy to propel a family sedan or even a taxi from New York to London at Mach speeds—no need to travel by plane. And the best part: besides a small charge injected into the Glide cell just before it left the loading docks, there would be no other energy requirements and no waste. No oil, no gas, no carbon dioxide, no ozone.

Of course, Dr. Magigate goes on to imagine all of the dark consequences of his invention, but you’ll have to read the book for that! As an added enticement to read more, here’s an image of a g*car (“g*” represents all things powered by antigravity in the future) as described in Glide.

I could go on and on with examples, but here’s the point: as Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” And there are times when imagination is more important than ever, too. Green Science is real, but we don’t hear about it as much as we should. I think its scientists and entrepreneurs could use a little help from friends who create fiction for a living. Rather than imagining dystopian futures (which are easy to see when “the facts on the ground are so grim”), how about stretching for hopeful futures to draw attention to the possibilities and force a public discourse, one that might even sway our media and thus our politics. As the tyrannical Prophet in Glide says about our politicians, “oil flows through their veins and gunpowder salts their meals.” But it occurs to me that we can hardly ask corrupt politicians to set us on a more hopeful road if our artists and writers can’t even imagine one. Being an optimist by nature, I truly believe in humanity’s capacity to innovate ourselves out of the dark places our biology and self-interest often lead us. Green Sci Fi, then, is my Emerald City, my attempt to bring to life (bring back to life?) a genre that focuses on a hopeful future. And Green Science is its Yellow Brick Road.

By Bill Gourgey, author of Glide

Win a copy of the Zania Corthinn series!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0500

“What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?” Tweet us your answer @Wattpad with hashtag #hrtsmom to enter today’s special giveaway.

Hrtsmom is giving away the complete set of her five-book Zania Corthinn series to one lucky winner!

Book Review: Mockingjay

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:00:06 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post originally published in Teen Ink:

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

By LemmoDilemmo, Chico, CA

In anticipation of Suzanne Collins’ third and final Hunger Games novel, Mockingjay, I was among the crowd of impatient fans ready to flip through the pages at a papercut-worthy speed. Which is why, as I grew closer to those fateful last pages of the series, I felt disappointment pushing through my thoughts.

Mockingjay wasn’t at all what I expected. I knew the story would have to be dark like its predecessors (more so, since it was about war),
but I had no idea how dark it could be.

By the end, Collins writes of so many horrific deaths in such a short time that there is no breather. Her message is pounded into our minds with each slaughter: war is bad, War Is Bad, WAR IS BAD! And yet her writing lacks grace or subtlety. What should have been a sad yet sincere conclusion transforms into a contrived, deliberately alienating story with no regard for the characters who originally brought the books to life for readers.

Continue reading here!

Great Fashion Designers and Fashionistas: Louboutin, LV, Chanel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:00:06 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post from our newest featured story writer, KateLorraine:

Bubble Tea Girl

When I first wrote Bubble Tea Girl, I was 24 and rather poor. I had lived and gone to school in the city but I never participated in the fashion aspect of it. I was also a humanities nerd who was more interested in the ancient books at the New York Public Library on 5th avenue than I was in the Fashion Week tents in Bryant Park. My idea of a fashion splurge was purchasing a five dollar fur trimmed cape off of Forever21’s discount rack. When you’re a kid in high school with a twenty dollar weekly allowance in your pocket, five dollars seemed like an ungodly amount to pay.

As time passed, I went to medical school to become a doctor like my stepfather. I started to realize that dressing well is about more than just vanity. My stepfather is a surgeon from a long line of blue-blooded surgeons and he always told me that dressing well is a sign of respect for your patients. A well-dressed man or woman inspires confidence and security. My parents got me my first Louis Vuitton bag when I started to see patients. I was dating a lawyer at the time and he always inspired me by dressing himself with utmost care and attention to detail. This was vital as he often shared an elevator with Anna Wintour on his way to work!

When I look back on the Bubble Tea Girl, I see a young and carefree version of myself. My characters - Julia Hua, Weiliang and Kalliyan - don’t dress to flaunt their money or power. They are rich but their wealth is in time and youth. Julia dresses in lace and leather, t-shirts and sweats, Payless shoes and Hello-Kitty, to express the ultimate status symbol - being beautiful, healthy, young and free.

Coco Chanel

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel started her first formal store at Rue Cambon with the help of her lover Arthur “Boy” Capel. Coco Chanel was an avid reader of romance novels in her youth, often to the dismay of the nuns at Aubazine. When she met Boy Capel, she was swept away by his American charm. Although, Boy Capel declined to marry Coco Chanel, he gave her the resources and inspiration necessary to become financially independent. It is rumored that the interlocking Cs of the Coco Chanel logo represent the undying love Chanel felt for Capel.

Nowadays, a Chanel bag is a symbol of the maturation of a girl into womanhood. No night out on Broadway is complete without a parade of girls with the characteristic gold chains of Chanel Flapbags over their shoulders. It is ultimate symbol of both femininity and enduring style.

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton started out designing luggage for the Empress Eugénie de Montijo. Through his work with French royalty, he created a new flattened travel case that was stackable. For his signature Monogram Canvas he choose an Oriental inspired flower and quatrefoil design. Perhaps, this influence partially explains why LV is such a popular brand among Asians. Louis Vuitton is a sight that is ubiquitous in Flushing or any urban area. And why not? Louis Vuitton is a functional, classic and tasteful brand. There are some who view the Asian preoccupation with Louis Vuitton with disdain but I commend those women for choosing wisely. A Louis Vuitton bag is a symbol of strength and perseverance. I’ve carried rocks, cubby lapdogs dogs, anatomy textbooks in my Neverfull bag for years. I doubt a bag made of titanium could take that much abuse.

It is rumored that the only bag Coco Chanel ever carried that was not of her own design was a Louis Vuitton Alma. Perhaps, back then, as it remains today, a Louis Vuitton Alma was a symbol of a woman’s professional success.

Louboutin

Christian Louboutin reportedly first painted the soles of his stilettos “Chinese Red” to hide their imperfections. Now, no New York City party is complete without a girl flashing a streak of red sole with each step. Louboutins are fragile; the soles are meant to leave behind red rosettes behind on the pavement with each step. With a 500-2,000 price tag, these shoes are a reminder of the fleeing nature of youth and the preciousness of time spent with lovers and friends. I like to put protective soles on my Louboutins but sometimes I feel as though this defeats their purpose. As some of my wealthier friends would say - nothing shows that your time is worth 500 dollars an hour like wearing uber expensive shoes that will only last one hour.

This brings us to the conclusion of this blog entry on great fashion designers and fashionistas. I hope you check out my book, Bubble Tea Girl!

Wattpad Cake Pops Wattpad hosted a Social Media event on...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:03:46 -0500

Wattpad Cake Pops

Wattpad hosted a Social Media event on Friday, February 17th 2012 and had custom cake pops as giveaways. This is my time lapse experiment with it. Enjoy!

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:00:05 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post originally published in Teen Ink:

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

By AimeeJ, Vancouver, WA

If you have ever had a dog, you will love this book. If you don’t have a dog, you will want one before you reach the last page. I enjoyed The Art of Racing in the Rain from beginning to end. Told from an interesting perspective, it makes you think in a new way. While some parts are sweet and tender, others are deep and dark. You may want to keep a box of tissues nearby.

Read more!

Amazing Stories: The Evolution of Storytelling

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:00:05 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post by our newest Featured Story writer Catherine M Wilson, author of the When Women Were Warriors trilogy:

Amazing Stories

Back in the 1980s, there was a TV show called Amazing Stories. The show’s open featured a group of cavepeople sitting around a fire in a dark cave while an old man told a story. That open gave me chills, because it captured the feeling I got when I was a child and someone settled down to tell a story. Whether it was my mother telling me a bedtime story or storytime at the library or a teacher reading a story to the class, there was always something magical about storytelling.

I saw that Amazing Stories open recently on YouTube, and I got the same feeling again, and suddenly I was struck with the idea that we’re going back there. We’re starting to tell each other stories again. And I think it’s about time.

But first, a few words about the bad old days.

In the bad old days, if you wanted to tell the world your story, you had to get published. And if you wanted to get published, you had to find an agent. Then the agent would sell your book to a publisher. The publisher would pay you an advance, and you would sign a contract giving the publisher the right to publish the book. The contract also gave the publisher almost total control of how the book was presented. The publisher could change the title, create cover art designed more to sell the book than represent its contents accurately, and choose how it was marketed. The publisher could even ask you to make changes to the book’s content. In the old days, writers often complained that their publisher demanded changes that made the story a completely different one from the one the writer had meant to tell.

In those days, the only way a writer’s work could reach the public was through a traditional publisher. Writers knew that. They knew that certain kinds of books— books that appealed to niche (i.e. small) audiences or books with controversial themes—would never get past these gatekeepers, so writers wrote “for the market.” And “the market” wasn’t the people who read. “The market” was the publishing industry.

In the last few years, we’ve seen the rise of the indies. Independent publishers may be micro-publishers who publish work the traditional publishers aren’t interested in, or they may be the authors themselves. It started with POD (Print On Demand) technology, which greatly simplified the process of producing a paperback book. Then ebooks came along, and making an ebook available for sale on Amazon or Barnes & Noble was so simple that anybody could do it.

At first, writers were just glad that they didn’t have to jump through all the old hoops anymore. Writers used to spend a great deal of time trying to get the attention of someone in the industry. They went to writers’ conferences, where you could pay an additional fee to get a few minutes to pitch your book to an agent. They joined online communities of other writers to share tips: what makes a good query letter, how long should a synopsis be, which agents are looking for new clients? So in addition to writing, a writer’s other job was learning how to navigate the twists and turns set up by the people who controlled which books are published.

Many writers haven’t given up the dream of a traditional publishing contract, but many others are realizing that there is much more to be gained by publishing one’s own work than not having to jump through those hoops anymore.

What is beginning to dawn on writers is that now they can write what they want. That point is so important that I’m going to say it again. Writers can now write what they want. They can write what is closest to their hearts without worrying what their agent will say or what their publisher will or won’t be interested in publishing. This is a HUGE change, and we’re only beginning to see the consequences.

Most writers I’ve spoken with had no idea how much the need for the approval of others affected their writing, but now they realize that the feeling of someone always looking over their shoulder, ready to tut-tut their disapproval, is gone. Now they can dare to write the true stories of their lives.

When I say “writers,” I don’t just mean the folks who always intended to “be a writer,” the folks who have dozens of manuscripts covered in dust at the bottom of a drawer. Now we are all writers, each one with a story to tell, perhaps with many stories to tell.

There are so many stories we haven’t heard. There are so many stories no one has had the freedom or the courage to write. And even if people were writing those stories, few people ever got to hear them. Now we’re going to hear those amazing stories.

So the old man, the caveman, the storyteller is back. Except that now we are all storytellers, and the whole world is sitting around the fire listening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can see the open to Amazing Stories here:

Friday Find: "Portal"

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:00:05 -0500

“I think it has a very clever hook and plays so well against a variety of genres -YA, fantasy, romance, sci-fi. It’s a very tough balancing act to walk the tightrope of so many genres without slipping up on one of them, but I’ll be damned if you didn’t pull it off with aplomb”- Terry Goodman (Senior Editor at Amazon Publishing)

“Portal…when love’s just the beginning of the story” - KindleObsessed

“I love the use of time travel in this book. I haven’t seen it done in quite this way before, and I think it added an original twist to the paranormal romance genre.” –Amanda Hocking

“Twilight meets The Time-Travelers Wife!” - Stephen Windwalker (Kindle Nation)

Every Friday, we bring you an undiscovered gem to read on Wattpad. This week, our secret Wattpad Talent Hunters recommend Portal, a romantic teen fiction:

Portal by Imogen Rose

Come Find Me Two Years Ago…

Six words that propelled ice hockey playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimenson. She suddenly found herself in the past. In one moment she went from being an ice hockey playing teenager in New Jersey to a glamorous cheerleader in California. She found herself transported from a happy life with her dad, Dillard, to a new, strange one living with her mother whom she hates. Apparently it’s a life she’s always lived in.

Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn’t. She is Arizona Stevens.

As she struggles to find answer she is certain of one thing - that her mother Olivia, a brilliant physicist, is somehow responsible.

PORTAL is the story of the repercussions of Olivia Darley’s attempt at creating a perfect world for herself and her children. Arizona’s quest for answers threatens to undermine the seemingly perfect world that her mother has so carefully constructed.

PORTAL is the first book of the Portal Chronicles. Fans of time travel, romance, and the supernatural will enjoy Arizona’s quest for answers.

Imogen will be posting a few chapters every week until the story is complete, and will leave the whole story available to read on Wattpad for a month.

How To Train Your Dragon

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:00:05 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post originally published in Teen Ink:

How To Train Your Dragon

By Maddy S., Cannon Falls, MN

I say “sit” and my eager puppy drops her bottom to the floor. I give my horse a nudge with my heel and he takes the hint and begins to move. I call to my dragon and … wait, I don’t really have a pet dragon, but after watching the suspenseful, heart-tugging movie “How to Train Your Dragon,” I wish I did.

Hiccup, a scrawny young Viking, grows up in a place where dragons are known as dangerous countryside pests. The way to win fame and respect within the community is to fight and kill dragons and to do it well. For Hiccup, this couldn’t be more difficult. Know as the town clown, he tries to make a mark for himself by capturing and killing the most feared, never-before-caught dragon, the Night Fury. In attempting to do so, Hiccup has the adventure of a lifetime.

Continue reading here!

Cover-Off: "The Woman In Black"

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:00:06 -0500

Which version of “The Woman In Black” do you like better - 1, 2, or 3?

Judge A Book By Its Cover: "Fortune's Fool"

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:18:05 -0500

Congrats to FORTUNE’S FOOL, winner of the Reader’s Choice Award for best single title in the Judge a Book by Its Cover contest:

Author Interview: Dana Reinhardt

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:00:06 -0500

Wattpad brings you a guest post originally published in Teen Ink:

Author Dana Reinhardt

By zandragrey, Newton, MA

Having written four books, Dana Reinhardt is no stranger to the writing process. She currently lives and writes in San Francisco. I was lucky enough to interview her about her experiences. In her newest novel, The Things a Brother Knows, a teenage boy struggles to reawaken a relationship with his brother, who has just returned from serving in the Army.

Alex: First, I just want to say, I am not usually a fan of realistic fiction, but I enjoyed your book a lot. I really like your sense of humor.
Dana Reinhardt: Thanks. I appreciate that.

Your main characters are teens and your book is aimed at a teen audience. Why did you choose to write for teens?
I love to write YA fiction because I believe teen readers are more open to the experience books offer than adults are. I can remember how I felt as a teenager reading books; I plowed through them in a way I think adults simply don’t. As a teen reader, my favorite books were coming-of-age stories – those are the stories I still love to read, and they are the stories I like to write.

Continue reading here!

“To all our fans on Wattpad. Happy Valentine’s Day!” - One...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:00:05 -0500

“To all our fans on Wattpad. Happy Valentine’s Day!” - One Direction

Read the OFFICIAL 1D fan fiction exclusively on Wattpad!