Debut of the Month - All About Croak + Giveaway!

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Book Profile

Name - Croak (Goodreads)

Author - Gina Damico

Genre - Paranormal

Release Date - 20th March 2012

Available - The Book Depository

Sixteen-year-old Lex Bartleby has sucker-punched her last classmate. Fed up with her punkish, wild behavior, her parents ship her off to upstate New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is much dirtier than that of shoveling manure. 

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach her the family business. 

Lex quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated entirely by reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. Along with her infuriating yet intriguing partner Driggs and a rockstar crew of fellow Grim apprentices, Lex is soon zapping her Targets like a natural born Killer. 

Yet her innate ability morphs into an unchecked desire for justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she’s forced to Kill a murder victim, craving to stop the attackers before they can strike again. So when people start to die—that is, people who aren’t supposed to be dying, people who have committed grievous crimes against the innocent—Lex’s curiosity is piqued. Her obsession grows as the bodies pile up, and a troubling question begins to swirl through her mind: if she succeeds in tracking down the murderer, will she stop the carnage—or will she ditch Croak and join in?

The Insider's Scoop

How I Pitched Croak

I met my eventual agent at a pitch conference, which was a four-day workshop extravaganza wherein people from all over the country came to work on their pitches and present them to real live editors from real big publishing houses. I was absolutely terrified, because at the time, no one had read my draft of Croak. Not a single person other than me knew what my book was about. Even my husband was in the dark until the very night before the conference, when I pitched it to him. He nodded in a stoic manner and said little (as he always does), so even then I couldn't tell if it was a good idea or not.

But it was too late. I had sent in the check and I was going to the conference, dammit. On the first day we went through some brief introductionss, and then the workshop leader gave us a speech about how there's pretty much no way in hell any of us are going to get published. But not in a mean way - he was just giving us the cold, hard facts. And I actually appreciated that. All of the research I had done, the books I had read on how to get published - they all said it was hard, but ended with some sort of YOU CAN DO IT! cheerleading routine. It was refreshing to hear something along the lines of "Well, there is a small chance that you will be successful, but it is very small. And it will take a TON of work. So you better be in this for the long haul."

From there, we began to pitch our ideas to the group, one at a time. To be honest, it felt a lot like American Idol, or any one of those other talent reality shows. We'd get up in front of everyone, show them our stuff, and then prepare to be judged - and judged with brutal honesty. But again - that was a good thing. Mine, unlike several others, was met with relatively positive reactions, and it was only then that I started to think, hey, maybe I could make a run for this thing after all.

The next day we started pitching to actual editors, and holy banana, that was scary. It was even worse than the day before, because these were people who could actually get you somewhere, who could very well be the key to your ENTIRE FUTURE. So, you know, no pressure or anything.

Fortunately, the editors all liked my pitch. UNfortunately, none of them specialized in YA. So it seemed that the whole thing had been for naught, except that I got a lot of good feedback out of it and the motivation to keep going in the right direction. Until...one person who had been sitting in on the pitches - a woman that had been introduced, but I hadn't been able to hear who she was - started to pipe up and say that she loved my pitch. And then she gave me her card. Turns out she was an agent who DID specialize in YA, and by the time I got home that evening, she had already emailed me to request the full manuscript. And then I DIED.

Fast forward many moons later - and here I am with a book! And even though I literally just typed out how it all happened...I'm still not really sure how it all happened. Insanity.

~Giveaway~

Gina is giving away a signed ARC of CROAK, a scythe pendant, and some bookmarks!

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- International

- Ends 16th of April

- Must be 13 or older

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