Blog Tour: Insanity

Jun •  4 •  2012


“Sometimes love…can drive you crazy.

Adelaide Carmichael and Damien Allen couldn’t be more opposite.

Adelaide’s mother abandoned her when she was ten years old, leaving her to be raised by her abusive and alcoholic father.

Damien on the other hand came from a wealthy family, was a local celebrity, and seemed to have a bright future ahead of him.

Despite their differences, Adelaide and Damien were young, wild, and fiercely in love.

And they had a plan.

They were going to run away.

Be together forever.

And their plan was set in motion, until tragedy struck and for some reason, Adelaide wound up in The Oakhill Institution for the insane.

Adelaide has no idea what she did to wind up at Oakhill, but she knows one thing for sure…

She wants out.

And after Damien follows her there to aid her in escaping, Adelaide slowly begins putting together the pieces of her memory that are missing.

And it doesn’t take Adelaide long to figure out that sometimes…

That one true love never dies.
Excerpt~

Shoving my feet off the side of the bed, new surroundings burn my eyes. Tan plaster walls instead of thick white padded ones. One oblong barred window. Two dressers. Two closets. Two beds.

They’ve moved me to a different room.

A gentle squeaking noise bounces off the walls and my eyes avert to my right. Oh crap. They put me in a room with a nut job.

They say I’m a nut job.

But not like this.

Not even close.

She rocks back and forth on her cot, knees to her chest, twisting a piece of her wiry, red hair between her fingertips. Her freckled arms are trembling. She sings with vibrato.

I am slowly going crazy. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Switch.

Crazy going slowly am I. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

Switch.

I think about screaming again. I think about plugging my ears. Somebody turn her off.

She lifts her head slowly, a maddening look in her big, brown eyes, an eerie smile crawling across her pale, freckled lips. “Shh,” she whispers. “They’re coming for us.”

“Who’s they?”

She shakes her head and lets out a cackle laced with the deepest kind of crazy. I think they put her in here with me purposely. They’re trying to break me. They think if they put me around truly insane people that I’ll accept my place here.

Well…They are wrong.”

Thanks so much for having me, Savy!
And this is such a great topic so I’m excited to dive into it.
It took me a long…long…long… time to find my writing voice.
For what seemed like decades, I felt like I was wandering aimlessly through literary land and then came He Loves Me…He Loves You Not. And there was no looking back for me.
What I’d been lacking in the past books was packing the emotion into my characters. And I’d push myself too hard. I’d force the writing out instead and of relaxing and taking my time. That shows. Readers can tell. So with a deep breath and a break, I’ve learned to not push myself. To take my time and write the book when the words hit me. Sometimes that takes me days. Sometimes months. Sometimes I’ll change things last minute. But what’s more important than anything is that I don’t force it anymore.
I write in an emotional prose and that works for me. Some readers like that and some don’t.
That’s my style though. That’s the way I breathe life into my characters. I’ve also learned to focus on a specific portion of my novels that come easily to me. I’m not necessarily good at world-building, as far as fantasy novels and sci-fi novels go…What I am good at is romance, and suspense. I think it’s important for any writer to know their strengths and work on excelling at them. It took me a long time to learn that. It also took me a lot of books that I’ve written that aren’t necessarily as good as the others, but I will say that I write and learn. I’m not afraid to admit that. I’m not afraid to admit that I have weaknesses as a writer, but that’s how you grow. You harness those weakness, perfect your strengths, and move on to the next novel.
Thank you so much for having me!
If you get a chance, check out Insanity!
Lauren’s Links:
Purchase Insanity
About the author:

“It all began with a dinosaur, a T-Rex to be exact. He was the main character in my very first short story. Me and T, well, we went places. He is the reason I won my first essay contest at age ten. And he is probably one of the number one reasons, I pursued a career in writing.
Throughout highschool, I was what you would call a rebel. Someone who had convinced herself that she had life figured out at age sixteen. Still, writing was my only safe-haven during that time. I wrote notebooks full of poetry, even writing fellow classmates papers for them.
Unbeknowest to me, creative writing, seemed to be my one, true calling, my passion in life.
At age twenty, I began writing my first novel. After that, everything seemed to fall into place.
I won Best Poets and Poems of 2007, and The Editor’s Choice award for my poem, Summer Days.
Also, during that time I wrote or co-wrote fifteen different screenplays, some which earned me finalist spot in various screenplay competitions.
In 2010, I’ve come full force, with my novel Love Sucks, that was released by Punkin House Press, in August of 2010. On top of Love Sucks, I have six novels that are slated to be released through the next five years. Also, doing some various marketing work for authors and publishers.
I pride myself in telling fellow writers to always follow their dreams. Who knows where I would be if I would have given up.”

Check out the other tour stop for today!
Between the Pages  –  http://www.betweenthepagesreviews.com/
 

Thanks for being here today Lauren!

Happy Reading!

Posted by on Jun 4, 2012 in 2012, Blog Tour, Lauren Hammond | 1 comment

1 Comment

  1. Melissa (Books and Things)
    Jun 4, 2012

    Great post! I think my writing voice has laringitis so I stick to book reviews. I do love to read. Thanks for sharing your book.