The official blog of Allison Blanchard - A young adult novelist writing books, whilst teaching the youth of America and drinking obscene amounts of coffee.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Welcome to Allison Blanchard Books!
Welcome to the official website of Allison Blanchard. Allison Blanchard is a Young Adult Romance Novelist and High School English teacher in the Gwinnett County Area. She is the author of The Forget Me Not Trilogy, which include Forget Me Not, Morning Glory, and Tiger Lily.
Allison Blanchard is currently working on her fourth YA novel, a mystery that divulges from the Forget Me Not universe.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Book Signing, Interviews, Oh My!
If you are in the Greater Atlanta Area on Saturday, October 26th, come by Ebb and Flow Yoga Studio in Loganville, GA for a book signing, reading, and Q&A. I will be signing copies of all three of my books from the trilogy and answering all your burning questions!
Books will be available for purchase while supplies last. You can always pre-purchase books wherever books are sold.
Also, check out my recent interview in the Gwinnett Daily Post!
P.S.
Currently working on my fourth novel. It is quite different from my trilogy, but I hope to finish soon and get into your hands!
Thursday, August 15, 2019
TIGER LILY IS OUT!!!
Tiger Lily: Book 3 in the Forget Me Not Trilogy is available for purchase wherever books are sold!!!! Go get it now! :)
Tiger Lily, Book Three in the Forget Me Not Trilogy
It’s been one year since the last battle. One year since Dena’s death. One year since Elsu’s betrayal. One year since Adeline Jasley’s whole world changed and transformed into something terrifying - something she didn’t recognize.
As the Chosen attempt to recover from the events of the past year, Adeline and Cole struggle to connect with one another. Mistrust, lies, and suspicion threaten not only the tribe, but Adeline and Cole’s relationship.
As the smoke clears and a new normal begins to take root, will there be another fight around the bend? Will Adeline and Cole work together in the light of old enemies? Or will it tear them apart?
Buy Yours Now:
Friday, July 26, 2019
Cover Reveal and Press Release - Tiger Lily
Gwinnett County Teacher lands publishing contract for third novel
This war is far from over. This war is only the beginning.
Four months after her father died, Allison Blanchard, who was then a freshman in high school, began to be nagged by a small voice inside her head that just wouldn’t stop talking. Blanchard began to write every day for three months until a novel was born.
The voice eventually became known as Adeline and the main character of a manuscript that Blanchard called Forget Me Not. That manuscript is now a published novel and the high school freshman who first began penning the story is now a high school English teacher in the Gwinnett County area.
Now an 11thgrade English teacher at Brookwood High School, Blanchard has published her third novel and the final to The Forget Me Not Trilogy, Tiger Lily. This finale picks up where the last left off and takes readers on a new adventure with familiar faces, new characters, and more troubles that lie on the horizon.
Tiger Lily, Book Three in the Forget Me Not Trilogy
It’s been one year since the last battle. One year since Dena’s death. One year since Elsu’s betrayal. One year since Adeline Jasley’s whole world changed and transformed into something terrifying - something she didn’t recognize.
As the Chosen attempt to recover from the events of the past year, Adeline and Cole struggle to connect with one another. Mistrust, lies, and suspicion threaten not only the tribe, but Adeline and Cole’s relationship.
As the smoke clears and a new normal begins to take root, will there be another fight around the bend? Will Adeline and Cole work together in the light of old enemies? Or will it tear them apart?
Allison Blanchard graduated from Georgia College and State University with a double major in English Creative Writing and French in 2015. She graduated from Georgia College and State University again in 2016 with a Master's of Arts in Teaching. She currently lives in Grayson, GA with her husband and best friend, Michael, and their two dogs, Darcy and Norton, and cat, Callie. Allison is a Language Arts teacher at Brookwood High School in the Gwinnett County area.
Visit Allison’s website to find out more about upcoming venues and dates for book signings and book launch events: allisonblanchardbooks.blogspot.com
Print and e-versions of Tiger Lily, can be found at www.amazon.comand www.barnesandnoble.comas well as other online and bricks and mortar book stores wherever books are sold.
Information about the book and the author can also be found at the publisher’s website: www.martinsisterspublishing.com
###
ART INCLUDED WITH RELEASE:
Head shot: Allison Blanchard by Loria Crews
Book Front Cover: Tiger Lily, published by Martin Sisters Publishing LLC
To find more information about Tiger Lily or to schedule an interview with the author, contact information is listed below:
Allison Blanchard’s email address: allisonpblanchard@gmail.com
Author website: www.allisonblanchardbooks.blogspot.com
Publisher website:www.martinsisterspublishing.com
Photo by Loria Crews |
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Why I Wrote a Novel
One of the many questions I am asked as a young writer and novelist is how did I come up with my story and characters. It’s a very good question and one I have answered before but feel the need to revisit.
Many of you know that I am not only a writer but also a high school English teacher. I have the extreme honor and privilege of teaching two creative writing focused American Literature classes next year so I’m already thinking about the kinds of things my students will want to know. What they will ask and what they will want to gain from my experiences in order to better their own writing and hopefully publish it.
My first novel, Forget Me Not, was published in 2012, but was written when I was fifteen years old in 2008. Earlier that same year, my father passed away from cancer. While I have always been a writer before my father was ill, as soon as he passed, I dove into it. Similar to how I think an alcoholic might drink their way through bottles upon bottles of liquor. My method was certainly healthier, but a similar effect and desire. I needed to escape.
I struggled to verbalize the pain of grief, the confusion of his absence – how I would sit in the living room, staring at the clock, waiting for it to turn 5:30pm and being severely disappointed when my father’s keys didn’t unlock the back door, signaling he was home from work. My brain knew he was gone, but my body reacted violently each time it remembered he was gone. He wasn’t coming home.
It is very difficult to explain grief to someone who has never experienced the loss of someone. The best way I can describe it or even compare it is to how amputees express the way they feel after they lose an arm or a leg. There is a phantom sensation, that there is something there. But when you look down, you are overwhelmed with the realization that no, your arm really is gone. And you can’t get it back.
So, grief, like a missing limb, never really goes away. It’s constantly there every single day even if other people move on and don’t understand. You learn to live with only one arm. You figure out how to do day to day things, that most able-bodied, or in my case, people who have never experienced loss, do without thinking about it.
But I digress.
I wrote Forget Me Not and the entire trilogy, to try to put into words or at least through the actions of my characters, that feeling of intense loss in a way other people could sort of relate to. That is why I write. That is why I put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard and spend hours in a different world with characters who know exactly what I am going through on any given day. It’s absolutely a blessing to be a published writer and be able to share my stories and characters with others. Hopefully, it helps another young girl who is dealing with the loss of a limb. Or a father.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)