Mundie Moms

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

INDIGO by Gina Linko, Blog Tour: Author Interview, Excerpt & Giveaway

Welcome to the final stop in the INDIGO blog tour. I'm thrilled to have author Gina Linko on the blog today. After you read my interview with her, check out a little bit about the book, read an exclusive excerpt from the book, and enter to win!!!

Hi Gina! Welcome to Mundie Moms. Which of the characters from Indigo would you have been friends with as a teen?  
Probably Mia-Joy.  She's a little crazy and lots of fun.  We probably all wish we had a friend like that.

Who was an authored that inspired you as a young reader?  Stephen King.  It's cliche.  Every writer loves him.  But it's true.  His writing speaks to me.  The rhythm of his writing feels so true, like home, to me, and his characters are always so real.  And as a young reader, I LOVED him because I saw in his books, normal people reflected back at me, living their normals lives --with a little bit of a speculative edge.  There would always be a little twist that seemed almost believable -- aliens, telekinesis, all kind of stuff that I love to read (and write) about.  And it would hit a little too close to home.  Because it felt like it could happen!  Isn't that always the scariest stuff?  

What's one piece of advice you'd give to an aspiring teen author?
 Read, read, read.  But don't think you only have to read the required reading list.  Read whatever you are interested in.  

Do you have a favorite place to write? If so, where is it?
I just sit very nerd-like at my dining room table with my laptop, Mabel.  (Isn't Mabel a nice, dependable name for a computer?)

What's one book you've read as a adult that you wish you had, had as a teen?  
There are so many of them.  Tons of YA, for sure.  Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty.  For me, that's a YA masterpiece.  Great writing, blending genres.  YA as literature.  Just really well written.  And also, I have to say The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.  This is hands-down my favorite book of all time (for now at least-- haha) and the writing in it is just perfect.  I LOVE her writing: the turns of phrase, the attention to the characters' motivations, the importance given to love in its many forms.  This book makes me want to be a better writer, and I wish I had read it sooner.  

About The Book


A gift?

A curse?


A moment that changes everything. . . .


Caught in an unexpected spring squall, Corrine's first instinct is to protect her little sister Sophie after a nasty fall. But when Corrine reaches out to comfort her sister, the exact opposite occurs. Her touch--charged with an otherworldly force and bursting with blinding indigo color--surges violently from Corrine to her sister. In an instant, Sophie is dead. From that moment on, Corrine convinces herself that everyone would be better off if she simply withdrew from life.


When her family abruptly moves to New Orleans, Corrine's withdrawal is made all the easier. No friends. No connections. No chance of hurting anyone. But strange things continue to happen around her in this haunting,  mystical city. And she realizes that her power cannot be ignored, especially when Rennick, a talented local artist with a bad-boy past, suggests another possibility: Corrine might have the touch. An ability to heal those around her. But knowing what happened to her sister, can Corrine trust her gift?
Released on October 22nd, 2013 from Random House, you can pick up INDIGO from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble or purchase it from Random House.

Read an excerpt from the book:
He turned, and, again, he closed the distance between us.  I tipped my face up toward his.  In the moonlight, his eyes shone, glittered.  “I want to kiss you,” he whispered, leaning in toward me, his lips an inch from my ear.  “I know you aren’t ready.  But I just wanted you to know.”   And his voice was music, the notes playing down the skin of my neck.  I closed my eyes, and I leaned in, let his breath play over me.
“A lot has changed,” I said, finally, opening my eyes.  “The bugs, the crayfish.  I –“
“Between us,” he said, and he was looking at me so intently.  My eyes had adjusted, and I could see that worry line in his brow.  I could see the want in his eyes.  “I can keep from touching you,” he said.  “And I will.  Still,” he said, swallowing, “I just needed you to know that I don’t want to stop myself.”  I watched the silhouette of his Adam’s apple in the moonlight, transfixed.  “You can’t hurt me, Corrine.”  He tipped my head back up to him, and I let him, met his eyes.  “You didn’t kill Sophie.”  I looked away, took a step back.  “Don’t do that,” he said.  “Don’t leave.”  
“I was there,” I answered.  “I know what happened.”
“But you tried to help Seth.  You must believe it on some level.”
I nodded.  “It’s …” I couldn’t really explain it. “It’s hard to give it up.”
He leaned closer again, and I let him. Again. His breath was on my neck, and then his hand was on the small of my back.  He pulled me to him, and I let him.  I melted into him, my body against his.  
The warmth, the comfort of being held.  My throat closed against the emotion of it.  
“Corrine,” he breathed into my hair.  “Corrine, please, don’t push me away.”
“Rennick,” I began to protest, but I inhaled against his t-shirt, and then I just sighed, let myself relax into him.  I let him hold me, his chin resting on top of my head, my hands still balled in my pockets.  I listened to the rhythm of his heart beat.  Da, dum.  Da, dum.  And I thought it would be perfectly okay if I never moved again.
“Corrine,” he whispered, his words shivering down my neck, his hands tracing the knobs of my spine.  “Corrine, touch me.” His voice was low, soothing.  “Believe this is okay.”
“I can’t,” I said, and after a long moment, I pulled away.  He was right.  I was on the precipice. I was.  But I wasn’t ready.
“Why?” he asked.  And he looked hurt.  “You saw what you did today.  You know –“
“I’m scared,” I said.  And this was the simplest way I could explain it.  His eyes were not mad, not angry.  But there were other things there.  Longing.  Frustration.  Worry.
I turned, and I ran back up the porch.  Things had changed, but not changed.  Things were better, but not better.  
Check out the book trailer!



About Gina




Gina Linko has a graduate degree in creative writing from DePaul University and lives outside Chicago with her husband and three children. Gina teaches college English part-time, but her real passion is sitting down at a blank computer screen and asking herself the question, "What if...?"
You can find Gina via her Blog | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

The Giveaway
Thank you to Gina, followers of the blog tour can enter to win an amazing prize pack! The 1st winner will win a KINDLE FIRE! The 2nd winner will SIGNED copies of both Flutter & Indigo from Gina! Fill out the form below to enter to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

City of Heavenly Fire Soundtrack!


Cassie treated fans to the City of Heavenly Fire soundtrack yesterday. We all know, Cassie's soundtracks always have a meaning. Yes, interrupt that how you'd like. *evil laugh* I'm sure by now Cassie has perfected that evil laugh.

Check out the playlist below per Cassie's post here:
City of Heavenly Fire Soundtrack
So in honor of my having finished City of Heavenly Fire (the first draft anyway!) I thought I would post the soundtrack. I listened to these songs on endless repeat while I was writing. All the lyrics have some sort of connection, at least in my weird little mind, to the story.
"I’m Sorry I Love You" by the Magnetic Fields
A single rose in your garden dwells
Like any rose it’s not itself
It is my love in your garden grows
but let’s pretend it’s just a rose
Well I’m sorry that I love you
It’s a phase that I’m going through
There is nothing that I can do
and I’m sorry that I love you
Do not listen to my song
Don’t remember it, don’t sing along
Let’s pretend it’s a work of art
Let’s pretend it’s not my heart.
The rose will fade when summer’s gone
The song will fade and I’ll be gone
because my heart is dying too
and it’s all the same to you.
Ryan Star “Losing your Memory”
Call all your friends 
And tell them you’re never coming back 
Cause this is the end 
Pretend that you want it 
Don’t react The damage is done 
The police are coming too slow now
I would have died
I would have loved you all my life.
Airborne Toxic Event, “Timeless”
Just help me through this moment
After everything I told you
How the weight of their loss is like the weight of the sun.
I see their faces near me,
I hear their voices calling,
It was like their lives were over before they begun.
"Us Ones In Between" by Sunset Rubdown
And I’ve heard of pious men
And I’ve heard of dirty fiends
But you don’t often hear
Of us ones in between…
And in the darkness I taught myself to hate.
But where were you, oh where were you?
And where the f*** did the sun go?
Ingrid Michaelson, “Breakable”
Have you ever thought about what protects our hearts?
Just a cage of rib bones and other various parts.
So it’s fairly simple to cut right through the mess,
And to stop the muscle that makes us confess.
And we are so fragile,
And our cracking bones make noise,
And we are just,
Breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys.
"Epic Last Song" by Does It Offend You, Yeah
I called today but missed you again
Today’s the day I go up in flames
I sent the money to you, my dear
Today’s the day I burn away
I say baby, babe I’ve loved you a long time
"Samson" by Regina Spektor
You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the stars came fallin’ on our heads
But they’re just old light, they’re just old light
"Control" by Garbage
The world might end,
The night might fall.
Rain on down and cover us all,
And drown us with the burdens of our sins.
Maybe I’ll look you in the eye,
Tell you, you don’t wanna die.
Maybe I’ll hold my breath and jump right in.
"Orange Sky" Alexei Murdoch
And I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky
With my sister standing by
I said, “Sister, here is what I know now
In your love, my salvation lies.”
"Your Ex-Lover is Dead" by Stars
This scar is a fleck on my porcelain skin
Tried to reach deep but you couldn’t get in
Now you’re outside me
You see all the beauty
Repent all your sin
"Daughter" by Youth
And if you’re in love, then you are the lucky one,
'Cause most of us are bitter over someone.
Setting fire to our insides for fun,
To distract our hearts from ever missing them.
But I’m forever missing him.
"Upward Over the Mountain" by Iron and Wine
Mother remember being so stern with that girl who was with me
Mother remember the blink of an eye when I breathed through your body
So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons are like birds flying upwards over the mountain
Mother I made it up from the bruise on the floor of this prison
Mother I lost it all in the fear of the Lord I was given
Mother forget me now that the creek drank the cradle you sang to
So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten
Sons can be birds taken broken up to the mountain.
Greg Laswell, “Goodbye”
Then lonely lay the day
I can’t remember you at all
And it’s not easy to say that day
Has already come and gone
And all that remains is a place
Where you no longer are
One day I won’t regret this
Oh how I want to believe that’s true
Once I pick up the parts I broke on you
I’ll get used to the idea
It’s not you.
"Sorrow," The National
Sorrow is my body on the waves
Sorrow is a girl inside my cage
I live in a city sorrow built
It’s in my honey, it’s in my milk.
It’s only half my heart alone,
On the water,
Cover me in rags and bones, sympathy.
'Cause I don't wanna get over you.
I don’t wanna get over you.
Bright Eyes, “A Perfect Sonnet”
We’re singing, I believe that lovers should be chained together
And thrown into a fire with their songs and letters
And left there to burn
Left there to burn in their arrogance
But as for me I’m coming to my final failure
I’ve killed myself with changes trying to make things better
But I ended up becoming something other than what I had planned to be
Now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers
And laid entwined together on a bed of clover
And left there to sleep.
Left there to dream of their happiness.
Nick Cave “The Ship Song”
We talk about it all night long
We define our moral ground
But when I crawl into your arms
Everything, it comes tumbling down

Come sail your ships around me
And burn your bridges down
We make a little history, baby
Every time you come around

Your face has fallen sad now
For you know the time is nigh
When I must remove your wings
And you, you must try to fly.
Interpret away! :->
Right now, I kind of want Sebastian to burn this playlist.... Ex-Lover is dead? Sorrow? Goodbye? Dear Cassie, if you're trying to kill me before your book is even in my hands, you've succeeded. LOL

Simon Teen's The Shadhunters' Codex Giveaway!


Check it out! Simon Teen is celebrating today's The Shadowhunters' Codex release with a giveaway! Check it out here and enter HERE!

Don't miss all the sneak peaks Simon Teen has shared with fans here. Order your copy today!

The Shadowhunters' Codex: Final Teaser


It's OUT! The Shadowhunters' Codex hits stores today and Simon Teen posted their last Shadowhunters' Codex teaser today.







Check out the previous sneak peaks HERE

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