RELEASE DATE: 5th January 2016
GENRE: YA Contemporary
Seventeen-year-old Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin. Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself.
Keeping what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy- so far. Her absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’ extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela, won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what she can do in bed.
When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart, she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her heart really belongs in the process. Funny, smart, and true-to-life, FIRSTS is a one-of-a-kind young adult novel about growing up.
GUEST POST - LAURIE ELIZABETH FLYNN'S PLAYLIST
Music can be an inspiration or a distraction to a writer, and for me, it's both. My music preferences are different for each project. For some of my writing, I can't listen to music with lyrics at all because I'm too tempted to sing along and not get any work done. That’s when movie soundtracks come into play (hello, American Beauty). For FIRSTS, there was a handful of key songs that kept me going back to the keyboard and pounding out words, even when I didn’t feel like it.
More than any other song, I give credit to Lover I Don’t Have To Love by Bright Eyes, which I listened to on repeat while writing. (I’m sure my husband got sick of hearing it through the door.) But a few other songs were also on standby when I needed a burst of energy. In no particular order, they are:
Love Her Madly- The Doors
Heartbreaker- Led Zeppelin
Crazy On You- Heart
Lay Lady Lay- Bob Dylan
Glory Box- Portishead
Don’t Speak- No Doubt
Zombie- The Cranberries
Playground Love- Air
Don’t Let it Bring You Down- Annie Lennox
Sometimes, the worst sound to hear as a writer is silence—when your characters’ voices have gone quiet and you have no idea what to say next. For me, the best cure for that is to crank up a great song, get out of your desk chair, and dance like nobody’s watching. (In my case, I really hope nobody’s watching, because I’m a horrible dancer!)
There’s a quote I love by Hans Christian Andersen: “Where words fail, music speaks.” I remember this whenever I get writer’s block, and most often, after dancing myself into a stupor and singing along badly to a song I love, my characters start to speak again, too.
Laurie went to school for Journalism, where the most important thing she learned was that she would rather write made-up stories than report the news. She also worked as a model, a job that took her overseas to Tokyo, Athens, and Paris. Laurie now lives in London, Ontario with her husband Steve, who is very understanding when she would rather spend time with the people in her head. Laurie can mostly be found writing happily at her desk, with the world’s most spoiled Chihuahua on her lap. Laurie drinks way too much coffee, snorts when she laughs, and times herself when she does crossword puzzles. Laurie is represented by the amazing Kathleen Rushall of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.
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