BLOG TOUR: Wunderkids by Jacqueline Silvester @Jacky_Silvester
Wunderkids(Part 1: Wildwood Academy)
by Jacqueline Silvester
Hey all! Welcome to my blog tour spot for this awesome YA mystery novel! Come on in and see the synopsis, about the author, my review AND a special write up from the author herself on useful tips for writers. Please be sure to check it all out below! 👇 Be sure to follow along the tour for unique content from the author on each stop!
15-year-old Nikka is invited to attend Wildwood Academy, a prestigious but secret boarding school for talented youth located deep in the Californian mountains. Once there, Nikka quickly falls in love with her bizarre classes, the jaw-dropping scenery and... two very different boys.
However, Wildwood Academy has a dark and twisted secret, one that could cost Nikka the one thing she had never imagined she could lose, the one thing that money can’t buy. It is this very thing that Wildwood Academy was created to steal.
Nikka can stay and lose everything, or she can risk death and run.
However, Wildwood Academy has a dark and twisted secret, one that could cost Nikka the one thing she had never imagined she could lose, the one thing that money can’t buy. It is this very thing that Wildwood Academy was created to steal.
Nikka can stay and lose everything, or she can risk death and run.
About the Author:
Jacqueline has had a colourful and dual life thus far; she's lived in a refugee camp in Sweden, a castle in France, a village in Germany, and spent her formative years in between Los Angeles, London and New York. As a result, she speaks four languages. Jacqueline has a Bachelors in English Literature from the University Of Massachusetts, and a Masters in Screenwriting from Royal Holloway, University Of London. After graduating she wrote her first novel and began writing cartoon screenplays. The two years she spent in an arts boarding school in the woods have inspired the particular world described in her debut novel Wunderkids. She lives in London with her husband, her excessive YA collection and a hyper husky named Laika.
Wunderkids has been translated into a number of languages and featured in Vogue magazine!
Wunderkids has been translated into a number of languages and featured in Vogue magazine!
Review:
Nikka gets a whirlwind acceptance to a prestigious school for talented teenagers as a scholarship student. Her single mother and herself sign on the dotted line without reading all the rules and Nikka's life begins to change dramatically. While she remains concerned about her mother, she has to deal with her own social pressures, two boys and a strange occurrence that sets her inquisitive nature on fire.
Although my first loves in books are horror and psychological thrillers, YA follows closely behind when I need a break. Give me a YA novel with a mystery flair then I'm in heaven! We have the makings of what you expect from a YA - a love triangle, the popular clique, so on and so forth. What I liked in this case, is that it's not an in your face instalove and plays more along the background of the story. The first half is a building of the characters and I was beginning to wonder where the storyline was going to go and then right at the halfway mark, BOOM, it get rolling into something I was just not expecting. I love the mystery concept of what is going on at the school. I can't say much without spoiling anything so I'll keep this short and sweet. The ending definitely leaves you hanging and now I NEED TO KNOW what's going to happen next!
Those who love a YA novel with a bit of a dark side will love this. It has some twists and turns and will keep you on your toes during the last half of the book. See you at Wildwood Academy!
5 Tools to Improve your Writing Schedule
A writer’s life isn’t really what people think it is, especially not if you are indie like me (meaning I’m published under a small imprint.) Yes, we spend a lot of our time sitting in coffee shops and creating new drafts, but our days are also full of other demands and sometimes getting organised can be a big challenge.
The modern publishing landscape has turned writers into marketing specialists, social media savants, photographers, event planners and so forth… It’s a necessary evil, or a great gift from the digital age, whichever way you look at it, modern writers have to wear many hats. I often interrupt my day to do giveaways, and post on Bookstagram, send out copies for reviews, and answer questions from readers online. In the end, there is a limited amount of time left for writing, and I have to forcefully carve that time out of my day and make the most out of the time that I have.
I have picked up some helpful tips and tricks along the road; useful tools that get me through my day and keep my word counts rising. Hopefully, you will find some of these useful too.
1. Pomodoro technique. I use the Pomodoro technique for my writing. The Pomodoro technique is a way of managing your time by breaking down your work into 25 minute segments, after which you take a five minute break. I find this technique incredibly helpful because the 25 minute mark is right about when I start to get distracted and begin googling random kitten videos. The five minute mandatory break helps reset me for the next 25 minute writing binge.
2. Pinterest. It might seems weird to use Pinterest boards for your writing, but it’s incredibly helpful as a point of reference. In an ideal world I would have walls plastered with magazine cut-outs and visual references for locations and characters. Since I don’t have that luxury, I create Pinterest reference boards on everything from crockery, to types of cacti to pictures of people who look similar to my characters. When I’m at a loss for descriptions, I quickly check my boards for visual cues. I set them all to private so that I’m not worried about people seeing spoilers.
3. Scrivener. When I switched to Scrivener I started wondering how I had ever written with any other program. Albeit pricey, Scrivener was created solely for writers and is worth every penny. From word count projections, to a flashcard function for outlining chapters, Scrivener is the perfect drafting tool.
4. Evernote. I used to work in screenwriting for animation and Evernote was the best place to keep my plot notes organised. Even now, it’s still the most useful tool I have for jotting down random plot notes, cataloging ideas for futures sections and organising ideas for future scenes. It’s also perfect for co-writing because you can create notes together and there is a chat function.
5. Bullet journaling. The bullet journal is a system that helps you “track the past, organise the present, and plan for the future.” Bullet journaling has helped me organise my chaotic life. It started as a fun hobby and has become essential to my work, mainly because it’s so versatile. I finally have one place where I can organise my notes, doodles, ideas, aspirations and schedule. Before I started bullet journaling, I had one notebook for quotes, one for organising, one for notes, one for posting little magazine cut outs, and one for goals; it was chaos. Bullet journals are the key to getting creative people organised.
No comments
Leave a Comment