True Colors (Landry's True Colors #1) by Krysten Lindsay Hager -- Blog Hop + Giveaway

Series: Landry's True Colors

Genre: Younger YA/Middle Grade, Contemporary

Publisher: Clean Reads

Publication date: June 17, 2014

Number of pages: 222

Landry Albright just wants to be one of the interesting girls at school who always have exciting things going on in their lives. She wants to stand out, but also wants to fit in, so she gives in when her two best friends, Ericka and Tori, push her into trying out for a teen reality show modeling competition with them. Landry goes in nervous, but impresses the judges enough to make it to the next round. However, Ericka and Tori get cut and basically "unfriend" her on Monday at school. Landry tries to make new friends, but gets caught up between wanting to be herself and conforming to who her new friends want her to be. Along the way she learns that modeling is nowhere as glamorous as it seems, how to deal with frenemies, a new crush, and that true friends see you for who you really are and like you because of it.

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Books in the Series

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, and Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2). Her work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Bellbrook Times, and on Living Dayton.

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Check out the interview with the author HERE.

​Tips for Becoming a Better Writer by Krysten Lindsay Hager

1. Take a notebook wherever you go. You never know where you might find inspiration or have some downtime. Having a notebook and pencil with you at all times will help you capture those bits of dialogue that come along and make the most out of your breaks. You might want to experiment with what type of notebook works best for you. I find those thinner ones work great for every day, but I always pack a big journal for trips.
2. Read as much as you can. The best advice I ever read in a writing book was to read one-hundred books from the genre you want to write for before you begin. That advice comes from Chapter After Chapter by Heather Sellers. I went to a writing conference where reading was listed as the most important thing a writer can do.
3. Take a lit class. It’s a great way to see how stories are written and learn about plotting, structure, etc. since you’re pretty much learning from the masters. A literature class shows you what you need to do with examples. I took a class that focused on Willa Cather and Edith Wharton and I learned a lot from how Wharton put together characters.
4. Sign up for a creative writing class. You can never learn enough about your craft and in a creative writing class you won’t just focus on the genre you want to write, which will open up your mind. You’ll also get your work critiqued by your classmates and teacher. It’s incredibly beneficial.
5. Even if your goal is to write a book, begin by starting a blog and keep it updated regularly. It’s important to get your work out there and you will show people what you’re capable of doing. Plus it prepares you for dealing with public response and criticism.
Happy writing!

Favorite quote: “That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Favorite book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
Favorite soda: Pepsi with real sugar. Very addictive!
Favorite ice cream: Chocolate coconut milk ice cream
Favorite flower: Double delight tea roses, which I only know because I looked up, “What are those yellow roses with the hot pink edges called.”
Favorite season: It’s a tie between spring and fall. Spring is beautiful, but Autumn has pretty sweaters and Detroit Lions football
Favorite T.V. series: American Dad. Roger the Alien is my spirit animal
Favorite country you want to visit: Poland
Favorite Restaurant: Does my kitchen count?
Favorite author: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath, Judy Blume, and Ann M. Martin

1. I started watching the show “Austin and Ally” when I came on it by accident and I thought that Austin is how I imagined Vladi Yagudin to look.
 
2. I participated in modeling and fashion shows at Landry’s age and wanted to show the real side of being backstage which was not as glamourous as I thought it would be. I got maced in the face with hair spray all the time.
 
3. I was into soap operas at Landry’s age and so I have her and Ashanti reading Soap Hotties magazine the way I would read the soap magazines for info on my soap star crushes. I remember feeling devastated every time I found one of them had a girlfriend or, worse, was married. Broke my heart. Sigh. My favorite soap was One Life to Live. I cried when it went off the air.
 
4. I had to wear a school uniform like Landry and even though Landry and I have very different coloring, the school colors also made me look like a dead goldfish.
 
5. I had best friend bracelets when I was in middle school and what’s funny is just this week my best friend sent me a BFF necklace. You can see a picture of it on my Instagram page HERE.
 
6. I have Landry attending a retro roller skating party for Thalia’s birthday just as she’s trying to fit in with a new group because I had the same thing happen when I was in school. I remember going to a skating party and praying I’d have someone to hang out with and sit with. I even remember what I wore to that party!
 
7. As a teen I internalized a lot and went to books to help me cope with stuff at school, so I put in advice on handling friend issues and frenemies (etc.) in the books for readers who are like I was at that age.
 
8. When coming up with the cover, I sent the cover artist, Cora Graphics, my Pinterest board of pictures I had been collecting of who I thought Landry looked like as well as her parents and friends. One of the photos of the cover models looked like she could have been the child of the “parents” I had picked out. It was crazy and that’s how I knew I found my Landry. You can find my Pinterest boards HERE.
​
9. Landry has a picture of her favorite soap actor on her door and the soap actor I was thinking of is…the same guy I pictured as being her dad. I know, so weird. But I wrote the soap crush scenes well before I came up with the father scenes. Still…weird, I know. It’s Ty Treadway I picture in case you’re wondering.
 
10. Both Landry’s friend Peyton in the book and my real life best friend have red hair which I was always wishing I had, too. Devon’s hair is based on a friend who I thought had the most amazing curly hair.

Enter the giveaway HERE.

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