Mostly these days I'm writing and trying to stay away from Internet distractions and also, like, limit my attempts to catch up to the current season of Nashville to a couple of episodes a week!

But I didn't want to let too much time go by before posting a link to the second part of the"Kid Lit Can conversation with Susan Hughes: Sex, and drugs, and rock and roll: Writing edgy YA" that went up last week. Canadian YA writers Cheryl Rainfield, Don Aker and I talk about our writing processes, the challenges of writing for teenagers and other things.

Find it here:

Kid Lit Can Q & A at Open Book Toronto

Also, I'm slowly, slowly beginning to roll out new covers for a bunch of my books. If you buy a Kindle copy of I Know It's Over, One Lonely Degree, The Lighter Side of Life and Death, My Beating Teenage Heart, Yesterday or Tomorrow from Amazon.co.uk they'll now look as you see below. This change will also come into effect globally for all Kindle copies of Tomorrow within the next couple of days and ePub copies shortly after that.

I'm in the process of having my North American rights reverted (not a speedy process, by any means!) and when that happens new Kindle, ePub and paperback copies will also appear as you see below. I hope you like them! Just about one of my favourite things is tinkering around with cover designs and I pored over these for hours and hours. In a timed challenge like Face Off I would probably never get a make-up completed!

But now without further ado:

 

Once my rights for Yesterday have been reverted I'll also be releasing a paperback bind-up version of Yesterday and Tomorrow. Here's the cover for the upcoming bind-up:

Canadian YA writers Cheryl Rainfield, Don Aker and me. - See more at: http://www.ckkellymartin.com/2016/02/writing-news.html#sthash.xLkNUcim.dpuf

Canadian YA writers Cheryl Rainfield, Don Aker and me. - See more at: http://www.ckkellymartin.com/2016/02/writing-news.html#sthash.xLkNUcim.dpuf

Technically I'm in the middle of an Internet break, working on a new young adult book that I'm very excited about and is unlike anything I've done before. I have miles and miles to go before I'll be anywhere near finished but I hope I can share more about it down the road.

In the meantime I want to point anyone curious about my my most recent YA, Delicate, (currently available in Canada and releasing in the U.S. on May 14th) in the direction of the lovely review Kirkus posted for the book last week, describing it as, "Thoughtful and honest":

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/c-k-kelly-martin/delicate/

Writers or readers who are into 'edgy' YA fiction might also want to head over to Open Book Toronto where Susan Hughes leads a Q &A with Canadian YA writers Cheryl Rainfield, Don Aker and me.

Kid Lit Can, with Susan Hughes: Sex, and drugs, and rock and roll: Writing edgy YA (Part 1)

The second part of the interview will be posted next month.

And because I'm writing this the day after watching The Walking Dead episode "The Next World" (avert your eyes NOW if you haven't seen it yet), hurray for Richonne! The fact that the writers took their time leading up to the relationship made their coming together all the more satisfying.

Michonne & Rick, The Walking Dead

Filmmaker’s Deniz Gamze Ergüven horrifying portrait of patriarchy and it’s impact on five free-spirited Turkish sisters is the most powerful film I've seen this year. In my opinion Mustang deserves a best picture Oscar. Not just best foreign film, best picture. Incandescently candid performances by the five young actors are the heart of the film. We admire them in the full flame of youth—spirited and fiercely joyful, play-fighting among a group of boys at the beach—and are shattered when their uncle takes over the parent-less girls upbringing from their grandmother, trampling their potential and, after virginity testing and turning the house into a literal prison (high walls and bars are erected), ordering them—one by one—to marry.

When the second daughter, Selma, is reluctantly wed and fails to bleed after her wedding night, family drags her along to a doctor. He questions her about her virginity and when she apathetically replies she has slept with every man around he counters she indeed has not because he can see her intact hymen. Why say that then, he wonders? Selma's answer: because nobody believes her anyway.

It’s the youngest sister, Lale, who has absorbed the full strength of her sisters' untamed essence and as the girls’ situations grow ever more urgent her rebellion is an act of survival and courage.

Beautiful, harrowing and moving, please don't miss Deniz Gamze Ergüven's stunning debut film.

I’ve been—and will continue to be—mostly staying offline in an effort to avoid Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers until I get a chance to see the movie on Monday night. But I didn’t want to wait until then to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. Even as I type that a part of me bristles, not because whoever is reading this might not celebrate Christmas (as an atheist I celebrate the season not as a religious event but as a time we can aspire to peace and goodwill towards our fellow man. I also treasure the lustrous decorations and festive lights that temporarily brighten our long winter nights), but because the pressure to be happy can make the season so difficult—amplify feelings of loneliness, stress and sadness.

Life is not always happy, even on the most beautiful May days when flowers are blooming and the sky is pure blue, even in December when holiday tunes are blaring and work-places are holding ugly sweater contests.

If times are tough right now, I wish for much better for you in the future. I know it’s possible because you and I are still here. Life changes and then changes again. I think what most people really mean when they say Merry Christmas is I wish you well. And that’s what I’m saying here. Peace. Happiness. Health. I wish you all of it.

"Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” ~ Calvin Coolidge 

 “Mankind is a great, an immense family. This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” ~ Pope John XXIII

Joyeux Noël. Je vous souhaite tous mes meilleurs vœux!

It's been a good couple of days for Delicate reviews so if you're thinking of picking up a copy and want to know more about the book, you may want to check out The Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire reviews.

 This is the first time one of my books has ever been reviewed in The Globe and Mail, which is really exciting. Here's a snippet of their review:

"Authentic portrayals of teen sexuality are few and far between...But Ontario author C.K. Kelly Martin unabashedly portrays the hormonal realities of being 16 and 17 in this dual narrative of second cousins Ivy and Lucan. Martin does not shy away from the messier realities of young love, including a laudably prolonged and uncomfortable description of an STI..."

And an outtake from the Quill & Quire write-up:

"C.K. Kelly Martin’s YA writing is the kind you want to give the teens in your life. It’s written for them, not adult crossover readers, and it meets teens where they live. Her latest novel, told in two characters’ alternating voices, is a flinchingly accurate look at the confusion and conviction of adolescence."

If you're in Canada you can pick up Delicate in various bricks and mortar bookstores and online shops right now. Delicate's U.S. release is scheduled for May 16th but I'm currently running  a Goodreads contest (U.S. only) to celebrate the January 16th U.S. release of my previous Dancing Cat Books offering, The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing. Each winner will receives a copy of both The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing AND Delicate. Good luck!

C.K. Kelly Martin’s YA writing is the kind you want to give the teens in your life. It’s written for them, not adult crossover readers, and it meets teens where they live. Her latest novel, told in two characters’ alternating voices, is a flinchingly accurate look at the confusion and conviction of adolescence. - See more at: http://www.ckkellymartin.com/p/ivys-seemingly-perfect-master-of-social.html#sthash.f1Dwpqd2.dpuf

C.K. Kelly Martin’s YA writing is the kind you want to give the teens in your life. It’s written for them, not adult crossover readers, and it meets teens where they live. Her latest novel, told in two characters’ alternating voices, is a flinchingly accurate look at the confusion and conviction of adolescence. - See more at: http://www.ckkellymartin.com/p/ivys-seemingly-perfect-master-of-social.html#sthash.f1Dwpqd2.dpuf

Authentic portrayals of teen sexuality are few and far between...But Ontario author C.K. Kelly Martin unabashedly portrays the hormonal realities of being 16 and 17 in this dual narrative of second cousins Ivy and Lucan. Martin does not shy away from the messier realities of young love, including a laudably prolonged and uncomfortable description of an STI... - See more at: http://www.ckkellymartin.com/p/ivys-seemingly-perfect-master-of-social.html#sthash.f1Dwpqd2.dpuf

Authentic portrayals of teen sexuality are few and far between...But Ontario author C.K. Kelly Martin unabashedly portrays the hormonal realities of being 16 and 17 in this dual narrative of second cousins Ivy and Lucan. Martin does not shy away from the messier realities of young love, including a laudably prolonged and uncomfortable description of an STI... - See more at: http://www.ckkellymartin.com/p/ivys-seemingly-perfect-master-of-social.html#sthash.f1Dwpqd2.dpuf

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing

by C.K. Kelly Martin

Giveaway ends January 15, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

This week and into next the DELICATE blog tour rolls on. There have been some fantastic tour stops already. Thank you and Liz, Jenn and Amanda for your insightful reviews—they made last week such a good one! You can read their thoughts here:

•

• Midnight Bloom Reads

• Lost in a  Great Book

• Brains, Books, and Brawn

Tomorrow Michelle Lynne will be posting her musings about Delicate on

• Musings of a Writer. I’ll also be over at

• Bookshipper, being interviewed by the wonderful Tina Avon so if you want to learn more about what makes me, and/or Delicate, tick please drop in to their blogs.

I'll link to additional blog tour stops here as they go up. (Updated December 4th):

• The Book Wars: guest post on teen dating violence

•  Books at Dawn review

•  Bookish Notions: guest post on putting characters in the driver's seat

Finally, I want to remind anyone who resides in Canada and is interested in contemporary young adult novels to enter the DELICATE Goodreads giveaway.