Bred Is Going Live!

In case I haven’t been obnoxious enough shouting about this book in all corners of my digital universe…BRED is about to go live or already is depending on where you are and what time you’re reading this!

I’m so in love with this story. And I have to admit, writing it scared the ever-loving crap out of me. At its heart, Bred is a coming-of-age love story inspired by Great Expectations. The Dickens classic happens to be one of my favorite books of all-time. Add this formula up and you get gut-unsettling fear.

But I didn’t want to let intimidation stand in my way. This was a scary thing I wanted to tackle–one that I wanted to slay. And I am so very proud of how BRED came out. It’s a unique story, but classical as well. There are small nods (and a few bigger ones) woven into the story to pay homage, but there’s also a lot of me.

Dark and wonderful. That’s what someone told me after an early read. That small review made my heart feel full, and I hope this story does the same for you.

In case you’re still waiting for it to go live (it will be on Amazon and Free in KU by the way!), here’s a small taste. I wanted to share a short excerpt just to give you an idea of what’s to come.

Enjoy! And if you read on and enjoy Bred, I would love your review.

Find BRED here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RKK8P4L

Excerpt from BRED by Ginger Scott
(copyright Ginger Scott – 2019)

“Lily, I love watching you play. I really do. And you’re getting so good. You’re better than me now. God, that first day! Remember how I played the piano?”

“I thought you were amazing,” I say, the goofy grin tickling my cheeks.

“You just thought I was cute,” he says with a tilt of his head. Arrogant and adorable. “I was awful. I know, like…six chords.”

He takes my hands, urging me to my knees in front of him as he places my hands on his chest. He spreads my fingers out and looks down.

“You can play Chopin.” He runs his thumbs over my knuckles, and I fan my fingers along his chest, then play what I remember of the most recent piece I’ve tried. I’m not nearly as good as he says, but he seems so convinced and that makes me think maybe I’m better than I say.

My fingers drum along his chest while his hands hover just above them with the occasional light, feather touch.
“What is this called?”

His lashes are like deep flecks of gold as he looks down at his chest. I love looking at him from this angle, the playful tinge on his lips and new stubble aging his young cheeks. He smells like aftershave sometimes when we’re up here on the rooftop. I like it.

“Polonaise-Fantaisie,” I say, drawing the word out with a curl to my tongue. Henry’s face lifts and his eyes glimmer, narrowing on my lips first, then lifting to my gaze.

“Can you play that for real?”

I move my hands to the right along his body for a run, then lift briefly and move back to the center to tap, just as I would on the keys. My teeth grip my top lip and I shrug.

“I’m working on it. I’m not smooth yet, but it’s getting better.”

I keep thrumming my fingers on his body as I stare at him, but eventually his gaze begins to make me flush, so I look back to my hands. His cover mine when I do, flattening them against his chest and bringing them together so he can hold on with his right hand and move his left to my chin.

“I’d like to hear it tomorrow.” His eyes penetrate, and while I know he truly would, I also know that he isn’t thinking about the piano anymore.

I’m going back to the start…

Let’s all take a moment to hear the Coldplay song my headline quotes in our heads. (If you don’t know the song I reference, it’s The Scientist…and that song has the power to make you cry, I tell you!)

Those words just felt fitting for this post. It’s release-eve…though by the time most of you read this post, The Hail Mary will be live and out in the world. This book…it was the end of a journey for me. I’ve been thinking about what to write here, for my regular-irregular blog post…and the thing that just kept sticking in my mind is the fact that this trilogy was a duet for so long. I keep asking myself why?

I know…I know…a lot of you have been asking me that for about five years. Six? Damn…shoot, yeah…six years. I know…I know…it always was meant to be a trilogy. I think I probably knew that deep down. But these characters, more than any I’ve ever written, are family. My bones are their bones, my insecurities are Nolan’s, my bravado is Reed’s, and the wisdom of my family members is in Buck. This series is my home. It’s rooted here, quite literally. And the truth of the matter is I never wanted to do anything to these books – the first two…Waiting on the Sidelines and Going Long – that would make them less than what they were.

Waiting was my first, and it will always be my precious baby. It’s the book I always wanted to write, and every time a girl like me finds it and identifies with it, my heart beats a little harder. Going Long was the ride. That book was fueled by joy and a new-found confidence that yes…I could do this. But their story–the story of the girl with a boy’s name and the screwed up, competitive, little jerk that she loved and forgave maybe more than she should–yeah…it wasn’t over. You guys were right. They needed their sunset.

I’ve said this a few times in posts and in various places, but this book – The Hail Mary – is the most satisfying cherry on top I could have ever written. I’m never this certain at the finish. I’m never this bold or confident at release. But I know that if you’ve loved the ride, you’re going to love this trip back home. The Hail Mary is for you. Turns out…it was for me, too.

It’s perfect.

I hope you all enjoy!

XOXO

Ginger

New Covers for Waiting on the Sidelines & Going Long

That’s right! Not only do I have a third book coming out in January to make this series complete, but the covers are all get a little update. Book 1 is just a little update, but Going Long is a whole new look – I can’t wait for you to see all three together! You’re going to love them! Check them out below!

Stay tuned for me to add the third soon! One more week for reveal!

That’s right! A new Waiting Series book is coming in January!

In case you missed it…which, I’ve been a bit obnoxious about it so kudos on being able to shut me out, yo!…but…there’s a new Waiting book coming out in January!

The Hail Mary, Waiting Series Book 3, will pick up where life left off for Reed and Nolan. Now grown up with a teenager of their own, our favorite high school sweethearts are facing down the harsh realities of a football marriage. Quarterbacks get older, life gets harder, and sometimes holding on through it all feels impossible. The Hail Mary is a story about climbing though the depths and fighting for the things we want- even when life gets ugly. Plus, you’ll get to see a few favorite moments from their past–from Reed’s point of view!

Stay tuned for cover reveals (that’s right…reveals…the series is getting a little look update) and lots of teasers, excerpts and pre-order mania! I can’t wait to share this third book in what is now a trilogy with you all! I’ve wanted to share their lives as they’ve grown older with my readers for a long time, but I knew it had to be just right. Reed and Nolan deserved my very best! I hope you love them!

Want to catch up on the series?
Start with Waiting on the Sidelines here- https://amzn.to/2pU4JXy
Going Long is book 2, and find it here – https://amzn.to/2yk3lSC

A Gang Member and a Love Story

Hey. It’s me. It’s been a little while since my last irregular blog post, and I was feelin’ one. I wanted to share a little about my new book (it releases tonight.). More pointedly, I wanted to tell you a little bit about my process writing this book. Where the genesis of it came from, where I drew inspiration and scenes, and a little bit about my old neighborhood.

I had the idea for Cry Baby a little over a year ago. It was sparked by a few things. Like a lot of themes I write into my fiction, some great reporting inspired me here. I was listening to an in-depth piece on NPR about a kid who had to run home after school and hide in his apartment because he was avoiding joining the gang that ravaged his neighborhood. If they saw you, and you were male and of the right age, you were in. It was that simple. Or rather, that complex and horrifying. He couldn’t hide at school, so he survived the torment there. I think about that boy and his story often, wondering if he made it out alive, or if he was sucked in.

The rest of my inspiration came from my world. I grew up in a part of Phoenix that often led the state in gang activity. My street happened to be a few hundred yards away from the one two rival gangs used to divide up territory. I used to have this recurring dream because of some of the things I’d seen and heard, and I had just had it for the first time in years right before I started this book–it had maybe been a decade. The dream always goes like this: Me and my dad are pulling out of a gas station that vaguely resembles the one on the corner of the main street in my old neighborhood. I’m always a young teen girl, twelve or thirteen, and my dad is always in his forties. It flips to slow-motion, and both my dad and I see a car slow down and begin to turn into the gas station, the passenger-side windows facing us and two men leaning out the windows with guns turned to the side and ready to fire. We’re just in the way, but it doesn’t matter. They begin to shoot. Glass shatters. Sometimes my dad is hit in his arm or his chest. He’s never killed, but we’re always both terrified. He pulls me down and ducks above me, shouting at me to push the gas because for some reason he’s no longer able. I always push it with my hand while he turns the wheel, and sometimes I can feel our car dip into the gutter and level out on the road back home. Sometimes we crash. Sometimes, we just keep turning and driving, in circles while bullets pierce our car. It goes on like this until I wake up.

It’s always the same dream. Always so real feeling. I covered a shooting at that very gas station for the newspaper when I was fresh out of college. But this last time I woke up from the dream with a strange feeling. I used to write the dream off to things I heard about at school, to the gun shot sounds we could hear at night from the living room of the house I grew up in, or to the boys I watched grow up in grade school only to read about their incarceration or tragic death in high school or after graduation. This time, though, I woke up thinking about Tristan. He had a name. He had a backstory, and a tragic existence. He was trapped in the same dream I was, and he was loud and demanding. His prologue flew out in minutes. The rest of his story would take a lot longer.

I ruminated about Cry Baby for months, while I worked on other projects. I spent time in my old neighborhood, revisiting the scene of some dreadful things. I sifted through police reports from shootings I was there for, only a block or two away from the place I slept. I began to save stories about MS13, the gang that’s made a lot of news over the last few years. It’s become a political spotlight, of sorts. The saddest part to me, though, is the kids the gang members all start out as.

Kids like Tristan.

I began researching MS13 cases, and digging into old Bloods and Crips articles. Some of the stories truly broke my heart, and every single time, I thought about the young kids who didn’t have a choice. Choice is tricky. If you’re only shown one thing when you’re young, it’s hard to realize you have one. It’s harder still when you know that not falling in line might mean torture and death.

This book is one of my greatest accomplishments. It was tough to write. Honesty is that way, I think. I didn’t sugarcoat things. I gave my readers the real world that some have to survive, and that others fall to. I also hope I gave you characters to love, to root for, and to want in your lives. Maybe people we all wish we were a little bit like, too. Brave.

I hope you enjoy Cry Baby. I hope you feel it in your bones and let it simmer in your soul. I hope it hits you like that NPR story hit me, and I hope we all think about the ways we’re lucky for just a little while, even though there are often ways we aren’t.

Until next time.

XO
Ginger

Cry Baby by Ginger Scott
A Contemporary Young Adult Romance Release day: June 22, 2018 Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2rjlag4

Purchase here–>
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2MBpTnt
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2t69Wxt
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2K3WFyY
Nook: http://bit.ly/2JZEM14i
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