How it started...

A few people have asked me how I came up with the idea for Transformation and the The Gemini Chronicles series and I have never really seriously thought about putting the process down on paper until last night. So, I'm going to dedicate this blog post to explaining how this story came to be.

About seven years ago in 2005, I started my job as an high school English teacher at a local high school in my area. I was extremely excited to teach. It didn't matter what I was going to teach, as long as I was able to do something that would allow me to give back to my community. Even though I know it sounds like an after school special, it's totally true. I was very grateful that I was able to go to school and earn my degree at the University level because I would be the first in my family to do so. And thanks to all kinds of scholarships and grants, I was able to graduate debt free. Not many of my friends could say the same.

At this time, I had two things I wanted to do with my life: 1) Have a career in teaching and love it; 2) Become a writer with moderate success with my stories. I had already achieved the first, but had no idea how to do the second. So, I enrolled in graduate classes as soon as I could, in hopes of learning everything I could to get to my second goal.

So, going back to my first year of teaching in 2005, I had to go through what all first year teachers have to go through. I had to earn my spot in the workplace. And for anyone who has been a teacher, I was given some pretty tough customers to deal with. While everyone else on campus was moving to eight different periods a day, I only had three; two two-hour blocks, and one one-hour block with a group of freshman that had been promoted by committee from their junior highs the year before. Not a single kid in my classes all day that year had ever passed the state standardized test. Not EVER. So here they were, in my classes, hating me because I represented English to them, and hating the fact that they had to sit in my class for not just one hour, but two. To say that that year was tough is an understatement. Talk about a trial by fire. Anyway, I couldn't get them to read anything. At all. But I pushed them. We read short stories, Harry Potter, Romeo and Juliet, and other things. Some they hated, some they liked, and the whole time I wished I could find something they would WANT to read.

I had Madi and Tristan's characters rolling around in my head for a while, but I never wrote them down. That is, I never thought about it until I started to write my thesis project in late 2006, early 2007. I had decided to go the Rhetoric and Composition route for a Master's degree with a focus in professional writing, which was the closest thing I could find to my second goal. And I learned a lot from those classes. A lot of the way my writing sounds in Transformation is a direct reflection of my classes at the university. Anyway, I chose to write a creative non-fiction thesis on an event that happened locally. The thesis read like a novel, but required a lot of research and transcribing, and interviews and more transcribing so, to get my mind off it, I started to write out Madi, Tannen, and Tristan's story for the first time. So my process was, write a chapter for my thesis, then write one for Madi and the boys. This process stayed the same until I was finally finished with my thesis and defended it to my committee and graduated. Then, I went back and finished off the first book to The Gemini Chronicles.

These are the things I considered as I wrote book one. I wanted to make it interesting for anyone at any age, but I wanted it to be particularly interesting for readers like my tough customers in my first year of teaching. I wanted them to feel accomplished when they were done with it so I didn't want to make it so long that they were frustrated with it, but I didn't want to make it so short that it was novella length. I wanted to roll in adventure, mystery, mythology, and romance so there was a little something for everyone, and I wanted the story to be told mostly through character interaction, which means, not a lot of description and a whole lot of dialogue.

I found that a lot of kids get stuck in the descriptions of things when they're written in long paragraphs, but for some reason, if a character described the exact same thing, it was easier for them to picture it. And I wanted it to be easy for them.  Book one is exactly what I wanted it to be as it has all of these elements all wrapped up in one.

Anyway, I learned a lot from writing book one and as I write book two, I'm taking everything I picked up into consideration. I'm about half way done with book two now and it has a little more description in it but still has a lot of character interaction and plenty of dialogue to move the plot along. There's a lot more going on in book two, a lot more explanation of the mythology, more of the mystery revealed, lots more romance, and I hope that when it's released, you'll want to read it. With book one out, my second goal is met and I'm feeling more and more self-actualized.

So that's how it came to be, my little book. The inspiration of it and the process of writing it down. I'm going to finish this series and see how it goes. I'm proud of my work and I hope others grow to like it. I know not everyone is going to like it, but if even one person finds something they like about it or is inspired by it, then I think I've done my part. Happy reading all!

Follow me on Facebook!

Hello all! I created a page on facebook where you can get the latest information on The Gemini Chronicles, the latest book, and the most up to date information. You can find it at:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/The-Gemini-Chronicles-Transformation-by-Christina-Garza/165417556862176

Please "like" the page and share the link with your friends. :) Happy Reading!

Wanna know a little secret about The Gemini Chronicles: Transformation?

Hello everyone! It has been a whirlwind few days since my novel first made it's debut on the online stores on July 10th. I'm so excited by the number of "likes" it's getting on facebook, the number of people who are interesting in reading it already on goodreads.com, and the reviews I am getting on different sites online. I keep thinking, Wow! This is amazing.

So I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Ready? :)

When I first wrote the manuscript, I had started each chapter with a line from one of my favorite songs that would essentially sum up that chapter. You may not know this about me, but I'm in love with Pandora radio and my little brother's itunes account and have taking inspiration from music the whole time I was writing the chapters. So, if you interested, you can have a soundtrack to listen to as you read the chapters to the first book of The Gemini Chronicles, Transformation. Some of the songs set the tone to the chapter, some contradict it, and well, you can decide how each of the song relates. Here's the list of songs:

Prologue: No song here, readers. The dream sets the tone for the action of the entire novel. :)

Chapter One: 
Lonely Day by System of a Down
"Such a lonely day and it's mine.”

Chapter Two:
Goodby Apathy by OneRepublic
“I can't sleep now, no, not like I used to…”

Chapter Three:
Light with a Shapened Edge by the Used“Light with a sharpened edge,
Cut through the black empty space we call sky,
beginning the cycle that stays…”

Chapter Four:
Am I Missing by Dashboard Confessional
“Sharp disaster in a fresh new coma,
was it worth it when it was over….”

Chapter Five:
Getting Away with Murder by Papa Roach
“It isn't possible
to never tell the truth…”

Chapter Six:
Good Riddance by Green  Day“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road;
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go…”


Chapter Seven:
Reinventing Your Exit by Underoath
“We all want to be somebody;
right now we're just looking for the exit…”

Chapter Eight:
9 Crimes by Damian Rice
Leave me out with the waste,
This is not what I do,
It's the wrong kind of place,
To be thinking of you.”


Chapter Nine:
Mr. Brightside by The Killers
“It started out with a kiss,
How did it end up like this?
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss.” 

Chapter Ten:
Swing Life Away by Rise Against
“If love is a labor I'll slave till the end,
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand.

Chapter Eleven:
Downtown by Copeland
“Cuz you showed up,
With your hair down,
I might not sleep tonight.”

Chapter Twelve:
Little Death by +44
“Please sleep, my darling, sleep,
Your death by information,
Won’t disturb the peace on distant stars.”

Chapter Thirteen:
I changed my Name by Sugarcult
“And you know I played it all in here,
Where everyone hides their darkest shades of fears…
You know cause everyone says that I’m not the same.”

Chapter Fourteen:
When your heart stops beating by +44
“I’ll be there when your heart stops beating,
I’ll be there when your last breath’s taken away,
In the dark when there’s no one listen,
In the times when we both get carried away.”

Chapter Fifteen:
Let Go by Boys like Girls
“So let go, jump in,
Oh well, whatcha waiting for,
It’s alright,
‘Cause there’s beauty in the breakdown.”


Chapter Sixteen:
Madi don't leave by PlayRadioPlay!
“It takes a lot to phase me,
I’m pretty stable, I’m pretty sane.
But I’m looking at my future,
And God do I have to lose her?”

I hope you like this list of songs as much as I do. Enjoy!

What a surprise... I am humbled.

Last night when I got home from hanging out with my family, my Dad found that my novel had been put into distribution by my publisher. I was really surprised because I did not expect for it to happen at the beginning of July, but rather, at the end of the month.

In perfect form, I freaked out. I was surprised, and of course, all of the possible scenarios of what could happen ran through my mind. What if people are disappointed in it? What if they expected something else? What if they expected something MORE? and of course, what if they like it?

All I can really say is that I'm proud of it. I know it has some problems but as someone already pointed out on the B&N review, it really doesn't detract from the overall idea of the piece and I have one five star review already on goodreads.com that is super positive. I thank God for these little comments. They set my heart at ease a little.

But what really got me today was the overall support of my friends and family. I was a little weary of posting it on facebook because I'm a worrier. I worry about everything. However, within minutes of the post, there was an overwhelming response that made my heart happy.

I am humbled by the kindness and constructive criticism I have already received by people far and wide. I just feel so blessed and honored. I want to thank you guys for being so supportive. This is my dream guys, and I hope to only get better and better at it.