Blogoversary Day 8: Trish Doller

Trish Doller, the amazing author of SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL and WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE is here to do a guest post as her gift for my blogoversary :3

I've known Trish since Something Like Normal was in its ARC days - I know I'm so hipster right? And SLN is one of my favourite books of all time. We're always talking on Twitter (about what I wouldn't have a clue we just do) when she wakes up and she's always tweeting interesting things (don't ask me what off the top of my head, I just know she tweets awesome :D) and our chats can go on for ages before she has to go be an adult and do stuff LOL

Trish is giving all you lucky ducks an exclusive sneak peek into her 2015 release!!! I am so excited for this book guys, I've been waiting for it for agesssss...

Trish Doller Exclusive Sneak Peek into the-Book-Previously-Known-as-Arcadia-Falls

I'm absolutely thrilled to be part of Jaz's first blogoversary because she is one of my favorite bloggers. We have this little thing where I'll be waking up early and she'll still be up (or vice versa) and we'll compare notes on...whatever it is we're thinking about. Whenever it happens it always gets my day off to a great start!

So I have a new book coming out next year. I know. I'm sorry it's not this year, but I wanted The Book Formerly Known as Arcadia Falls to be the best it can be before it hits shelves. But time will fly––I promise––and soon will have a new title to talk about. And a cover. Until then here's an exclusive little sneak peek:

I shove Justin’s denim jacket––one he won’t ever be getting back––into my inherited-from-mom leather knapsack, along with my wallet, keys, and a bottle of bug lotion, and then call Duane Imler.

“You wouldn’t happen to be going past O’leno, would you?” I ask when he answers. “I could use a lift.”

Duane graduated a couple of years ago and drives a flatbed tow truck for a local company. He was my second boyfriend for about three weeks back when I was in seventh grade and he was in eighth. My first kiss was with Duane and I have never told him that it was like having a plunger stuck to my mouth. Clearly he’s refined his technique since he’s marrying Jessica Shiver this coming Christmas.

Anyway, our friendship survived the break-up and I still have the butterfly necklace that turned my neck green Duane gave me for my fourteenth birthday. He’s one of those guys who’s okay with spending the rest of his life in High Springs, and I’m not looking down my nose when I say that because some of us are meant to stay. He’s happy. Maybe more than I can say about myself.

“Where are you?” he asks.

“About to climb out my bedroom window.”

He laughs. “I’ll be right there.”

I wait until the tow truck comes around the corner, then slide up the screen and lower myself the short distance to the ground. I run through the too-tall grass and climb into the cab as Dad comes out the front door, wearing his Zeus-about-to-throw-lightning-bolts face. Our walls are like paper. There was no way this was ever going to be a clean getaway.


“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I call out, waving at him through the open passenger window as Duane accelerates away from the house. “And don’t forget that Daniel Boone won’t eat his eggs if they’re even a little bit runny.”

From the driver’s seat, Duane whistles, low and wolfish, eyeing my dress. It’s got a scoop neck edged with a little plaid ruffle. “Damn, Cadie. You’re going to break some hearts up there at the campground tonight.”

“Really? You think?” I’m secretly thrilled at the idea of being capable of breaking someone’s heart. Maybe that’s the new Arcadia Wells. Beautiful. Dangerous. Duane brings me back to reality with a well-placed flick to my temple.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” he says. “And don’t go thinking you’re going to win Justin back, either, because that ain’t happening.”

“I wasn’t thinking that.”

“Liar,” he says, as his walkie-talkie-type phone chirps and the dispatcher from the towing company tells him about a blown tire out on I-75. Duane acknowledges the job, then looks at me. “He’s headed for Gainesville in the fall and you’ll bust outta this town the first chance you get, so there’s no point to messing with his feelings.”

“He broke up with me, remember?”

“And you know why Cadie, so don’t play stupid.”

Between work, school, and Daniel Boone, I didn’t have time enough for my boyfriend. Truth be told, I still don’t, not even with school no longer a part of the equation. I’ve stepped into my mom’s shoes while my own grow dusty in the back of my closet.

“Besides,” Duane continues. “He’s happy with Gabrielle.”

That’s her name––the girl from Alachua––but I pretend like I don’t know it. Immature, I know, but it’s impossible to be graceful all the time over being dumped. Sometimes I’m a jerk.

“I don’t want him back anyway.” It’s a lie. Half-lie. I don’t even know anymore. Seeing Justin at the store today has me all twisted up but, honestly, most days I really don’t think about him all that much.

Duane still looks skeptical. “Good.”

Even though its already a twenty minute drive from my house to the park entrance, he pays the five bucks so I don’t have to walk all the way to the campsite, which is a really sweet thing to do. Parked beside the ranger station is a black convertible muscle car that swivels Duane’s neck. “Damn. That’s a ’69 Cougar.”

“It’s pretty.”

“Sweetheart, that car’s more than pretty,” he says. “And that one right there’s gotta be worth about twenty-five grand. Probably still has the original 351.”

“Now you’re just talking gibberish.” I say. “What I’m wondering is why someone would use a testosterone machine like that to haul canoes.”

Hitched to the back bumper is a trailer loaded with a pair of red boats and standing beside the driver’s door is a guy who looks like he stepped right off page eleven of the L.L. Bean catalog. Dark brown outdoorsy hair, red plaid shirt with rolled-up sleeves, expensive hiking boots––and I stop thinking about how he doesn’t match the car when he aims a boy-next-door smile in my direction and my insides light up like a New Year’s Eve sparkler.

“Hey! There’s a party on the Magnolia campground loop.” I shout it out the window at him. “You should come.”

The guy gives me a thumbs up, which could mean he’s coming to the party or he’s humoring the crazy girl in the tow truck. Either way, I asked. That’s what the all-new Arcadia Wells would do. Although she might have been a little more sophisticated about it.

Duane laughs. “Subtle.”

“Shut up.” I turn away from the window with embarrassment creeping red up my neck, and punch him on the shoulder. The guy at the ranger station probably isn’t into girls who bum rides from tow truck drivers, but I sure do like his smile.

Happy one year of blogging, Jaz! Here's to many, many more!

xoxo,
~Trish

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GAH TRISH *squeezes in bear hug* thank you for that <3333 it was amazing and lovely and I can't wait to meet Cadie properly next year (why is it only the beginning of 2014 right now?!) I want this book now *sighs*

Giveaway

But don't despair guys! I'm giving away a hardcover copy (I think it only comes in hardcover but I wanted to sound fancy y'know? Shhh...) of her latest book, WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE to 1 lucky person. This giveaway is AUSTRALIA ONLY. The giveaway is thanks to Bloomsbury Sydney who sent me a copy (: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Giveaway T&C:

• Please check clearly that you are in the region specified before entering the giveaway
• Winners must reply with address within 48h of being contacted or a new winner will be picked
• I assume that if you're under a certain age you need permission to enter these giveaways. You agree that by entering you have such permission from a parent or guardian (I don't even know but yeah).

And reaching the penultimate day of blogoversary celebrations, I have Leigh Bardugo tomorrow!!!