Happy Release Day! Guest Post and Giveaway: Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

Description:

Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost.

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most.

There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love.

Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth— sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way.

“Reminiscent of John Green’s Paper Towns and road trip novels that feature a teen paving the way to adulthood, Alsaid’s debut is a gem among contemporary YA novels.” – School Library Journal

GUEST POST

My Writing Process

What’s my writing process? It’s easy. Like Hemingway said, I just sit at a typewriter and bleed. Except I do the modern version, which is I go to a coffee shop, open my computer, and stare. 

My typical writing day is broken up this way: Two to three hours of writing in the morning, usually beginning at around 10. Then a break for coaching basketball, or if school’s out I’ll go have lunch, do some reading, walk around until all the coffee I drank in the morning has settled. Then I write for another two to three hours, or until I’m done with my goal, which varies. At my typical non-hurried pace, that’s about 1,000 words a day. When inspired or on a shorter deadline, I aim for somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000, or a chapter every two days or so. 

I grew up as a basketball player, and the training I did as a teen helped to discipline me to keep a consistent schedule for writing. Especially on first drafts, I write every single day, with very few exceptions made; special events, travel, uninspired days where it’s useless to try to churn something out (note, on these days, I’ll still sit there and stare for a few hours until I admit to myself it’s just not happening).

I prefer working in public, since staring is just more interesting out and about in the world than in my living room. Like everything else, I make exceptions to this, too. Sometimes I just feel like making a pot of coffee and blasting music as I write, rather than listening through headphones. Sometimes the Mexico City rainy season makes me feel like protesting the weather by staying in (I’m not someone who thrives or finds inspiration in rainy days—give me sun and warmth), sometimes I feel like my wallet needs a break from all the coffee shop excursions.

There are also the occasional manic bursts of productivity, where no matter where I am or what the situation is, the writing is coming, and it’s best to let it out until it runs dry. This happens sometimes on flights, at late night outings, or, recently, at five in the morning after a night of board games with friends.

My main guideline is easy: To write well, do it often.

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About the author:

Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City, then studied at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While in class, he mostly read fiction and continuously failed to fill out crossword puzzles, so it's no surprise that after graduating, he did not go into business world but rather packed up his apartment into his car and escaped to the California coastline to become a writer. He's now back in his hometown, where he writes, coaches high school and elementary basketball, and has perfected the art of making every dish he eats or cooks as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas, and Monterey, California. A tingly feeling in his feet tells him more places will eventually be added to the list. Let's Get Lost is his YA debut. 

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