CRIMSON BOUND by Rosamund Hodge; Blog Tour: Author Guest Post / Giveaway

Hello and welcome to today's CRMSON BOUND blog tour! I'm so thrilled to have author Rosamund Hodge on the blog. I loved her debut, and I'm so thrilled that her sequel is out. If you've not picked up her books yet, I highly recommend that you do. Before Rosamund takes it away, after you read her guest post, please be sure to enter to win the giveaway at the  end of the post. I highly recommend reading Rosamund's post before you skip to the bottom. It's a very empowering post. 

AUTHOR GUEST POST

Cosmetics for Bad*****

by Rosamund Hodge

To begin with, I went to Oxford for my Master's degree, and I lived in a garret.

Maybe that's not the best place to begin. Let me try again:

When I was planning out Crimson Bound, I knew right from the start that there would be a subplot involving cosmetics: that my badass warrior heroine's best friend would be an aspiring makeup artist, that her use of cosmetics would be treated as a serious artistic endeavor, and that the heroine letting her friend put makeup on her would be an important moment of bonding between them. 

Why?

When I was a teenager, voraciously reading novels about teenaged girls having magical adventures, it felt like most of those novels had a scene where the heroine talked about how she hated skirts, embroidery, and makeup--with the implication that this made her special and not like all those other vain, shallow girls. As a girl who loved skirts, embroidery, and makeup (but also swords, horses, and killing dragons), I found that trope extremely frustrating.

Nowadays, it seems like it's a lot more common for novels to let their heroines be both girly and badass. For instance, both Leigh Bardugo's Grishatrilogy and Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass novels have extremely badass heroines who also enjoy dressing up and looking pretty. And in discussions of books, there are a lot more people saying that "feminine" shouldn't mean "weak," and girls should be allowed to want to be pretty andwant to have adventures.

I am 100% on board with these developments. Go, girliness!

But there's one part of my experience with makeup that I still haven't seen written, and that's what I really wanted to put in Crimson Bound.

I didn't wear makeup as a teenager. It's not that I was forbidden it so much as that I wasn't sure if it was something that real people actually did. My mother was completely uninterested in it, and I didn't have any sisters who might have blazed a more girly path. All my close friends were online, so I wasn't learning it from them, either. I knew that I wanted to wear makeup, but I was pretty embarrassed about it, because most of the novels I read said that it was silly.

When I went to college, I discovered that there were actual, intelligent girls who liked wearing makeup. I realized that it really was okay if I wanted to look pretty. And my friends taught me that makeup could be about more than just looking nice. When they helped me do my makeup for the Spring Formal, I leaned that somebody trying to make you pretty could actually be an expression of love.

Then I graduated and went to grad school in Oxford, where I lived in--not quite a literal garret, but nearly: a tiny little room on the fourth floor, at the top of a narrow spiral staircase where I nearly broke my neck about twice a day. But the view more than made up for the near-death experiences, and anyway: OXFORD.

On the whole, I had a pretty wonderful time getting my degree. But I did make a few questionable life choices. Not buying any real blankets, for one: by the time they turned on the interior heating in December, I had spent several months wearing four layers of clothing to bed and still shivering.

More importantly, I didn't talk to anyone. Pretty much ever, except for monthly meetings of the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society (where they basically kidnapped me and forced me to become club secretary, but that's another story). And while I'm pretty introverted, it is depressing for even an introvert to realize that if you were dead in a ditch, it might take a week before anyone noticed.

I was lonely in Oxford. And when you're lonely, it's easy to feel bad about yourself. "Nobody loves me and I deserve it" starts to sound pretty plausible when you literally have not had physical contact with another human being since that cashier accidentally brushed your hand while handing you groceries six days ago.

And that's when I discovered makeup all over again. I hadn't brought much with me to Oxford--at that point, I still didn't wear it everyday, just for special occasions. But one day I was sad and wanted retail therapy, so I started buying cheap makeup at the drugstore. I started putting it on in the mornings, even though I wasn't going anywhere special, even though I knew I wasn't going to talk to anybody, even though I felt sure nobody would notice if I died or wore lip gloss.

And I found that I felt better when I wore makeup. Not just prettier, but like I was more in control of my life. Like I mattered.

I'd always thought of makeup as being something you did because you wanted to look pretty. And I really, really wanted to be pretty, so I really wanted to wear makeup. But what I learned in Oxford is that makeup can also be a way of saying that you matter. It can be a way of saying: I deserve to look pretty. I deserve to be taken care of. I am precious and my body is precious and I deserve to spend time perfecting my mascara technique. 

Crimson Bound is a novel that deals a lot with self-hatred. The heroine, Rachelle, killed somebody to save her own life and has never been able to forgive herself for it--because that killing also gave her supernatural badass powers, so she's still benefitting from it. She feels completely unworthy of being alive, let alone loved or happy or pretty. Her only lifeline is her friendship with Amélie, a girl who dreams of being a makeup artist and likes to practice on her.  And it's through Amélie's cosmetics that Rachelle is first able to imagine what it might feel like to be worth loving again.

Makeup is not enough to solve your problems, especially if your problems involve magic swords, a corrupt king, and an evil magical force that wants to destroy daylight itself. But it can be a first step. It was for me, and that's what I wanted it to be for Rachelle.

Photographs were provided by the author. Photo credits: 

Lipstick photo from http://www.maccosmetics.com 
Oxford image from : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OxfordBuilding.JPG

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

(This is a standalone novel, not part of the Cruel Beauty Universe.)

Crimson Bound will be available in stores and online on May 5, 2015 in hardback, as well as on audiobook. Add it to your GoodReads shelf here!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rosamund Hodge loves mythology, Hello Kitty, and T. S. Eliot. She writes YA fantasy that draws on two of those things. In her wild youth, she studied Medieval English at Oxford; she now lives in Seattle and writes wildly. Visit her on the web at http://www.rosamundhodge.net or follow her on Twitter: @rosamundhodge.

ENTER TO WIN

Thanks to Harper Teen, we're giving away two prizes! The first prize is a bundle of Rosamund Hodge books, including hardback copies of CRIMSON BOUND and CRUEL BEAUTY, and the second prize is a giveaway for the fantastic audiobook narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden. Let us know in the comments which of the two you'd prefer, or if you're open to either one.

Open to U.S. and Canadian residents, see entry form for complete details.

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Follow the Tour
Crimson Bound Tour: April 20th – May 1st, 2015

Monday, 4/20              The Midnight Garden         Fairy Tale Inspiration: Little Red Riding Hood & The Girl with No Hands
Tuesday, 4/21             Mundie Moms                    Cosmetics for Badasses
Wednesday, 4/22        Two Chicks on Books        Audiobook Clip + Interview
Thursday, 4/23            YA Romantics                    Flash Fiction #1
Friday, 4/24                 Cuddlebuggery                  The Obligatory Strong Heroine Post
Monday, 4/27              YA Midnight Reads             Writing a Bad Girl/Good Boy Romance
Tuesday, 4/28             Alice Marvels                       Flash Fiction #2   
Wednesday, 4/29        The Daily Prophecy             Interview
Thursday, 4/30            The Social Potato                Death Before Dishonor
Friday, 5/1                   The Starry-Eyed Revue       Flash Fiction #3