Bree Despain’s new YA novel, The Lost Saint, the second in her Dark Divine series, has been getting tons of buzz, and the exclusive look we shared last week, starting with the  prologue, is just going to keep on coming! Now Bree is back to talk about how she won the battle against writer's block and reveal the entire first chapter of The Lost Saint!

Woohoo! Today, thanks to RT BOOK REVIEWS, I get to preview Chapter One of The Lost Saint. Along with the preview, I thought I’d give you a behind-the-scenes look at this chapter.

The problem: As I said in my last post, the beginning of The Lost Saint was a hard one to figure out (what with 20+ false starts and all), and it was frankly giving me a major case of the author crazies.  

The solution: My critique group (aka The SIX, aka the best friends an author could have) whisked me away on an author retreat to the small town of Payson, Utah — where we got completely snowed in for the weekend. Imagine six writers (who rank ourselves in the group by order of craziness—I’m number 3) trapped in a house during a blizzard! 

The result: In between dyeing three of my friends’ hair over the bathroom sink, inhaling mass quantities of chocolate, Thai food, and homemade wassail (not all at the same time — eewww), and playing Scattergories in a no-holds-barred fashion, I was hit with one of the most fantastic writing grooves I’ve ever experienced. By the time the weekend was over and the snowplows came along to dig us out, I’d pounded out the first twenty-two pages of The Lost Saint.

I love this chapter. Not only did I get to include a couple of things that I love doing with my husband (boxing — though I’m no expert — and tracking meteor showers) but for the briefest of moments I got to show my characters being truly happy. Except, considering the chapter title is “The Sky Is Falling,” you know that within the first few pages, everything is about to come crashing down. After all, what’s a story without mystery and conflict? Getting to introduce that mystery was definitely my favorite part about writing this chapter (besides being snowed in with five of my very best friends, of course).

- Bree Despain

Remember, The Lost Saint will be available on December 28th. However, you can read the prologue and the entire first chapter now. And at noon this afternoon, Bree will be launching the new booktrailer for The Lost Saint on her website here. So be sure to check that out and then stop by The RT Daily Blog next Monday for the complete second chapter and another exclusive look behind the scenes of The Lost Saint with the author!

Read the First Chapter >>

 

 

Tags: RT Daily Blog, Young Adult
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