#HIFortnight - Guest post by D.R. Graham

Hi Everyone! My name is Danielle. I write young adult and new adult novels as D.R. Graham. RANK is a story about two brothers on the Canadian rodeo circuit in the aftermath of their dad's death. Like my characters, I'm also Canadian, and since I have one publisher in the UK and one in the US, I get a lot of ??? from my copy editors whenever they come across a Canadianism. Here are a few common misconceptions and little known facts about 'Canucks'.

Yes, we do say sorry a lot, but keep in

mind it isn’t always apologetic. Sorry is something we say in a variety of different situations like: if we think the other person is wrong, if we are diffusing a conflict, or if we couldn’t care less about something. We tend to be brutally honest, so the sorry sometimes just softens the blow of the truth.

 Sorry, but to set the record straight, we do not say “aboot”. To accurately tease us about the way we say about, you need to understand the influence of French on Canadian English. We enunciate both the o and the u. Our mouth literally wraps around the o and kisses out the u. The proper way to tease us is to pronounce it “ab ow uut” with a bit of a lip pucker, but the trick is to say it in one syllable. If you can do that, you can be an honorary Canadian.

A tuque is a knit cap. A keener is someone who has a lot of enthusiasm, almost to the point of being a brown-noser. Hooped means you are up the creek without a paddle, or screwed. Timbits are doughnuts, and they are from Tim Hortons, which is truly on every corner. Toonies are money. And reefing on something means yanking hard enough to almost break it.

Cole and Billy are not just Canadian, they are also from the Prairies, which has a language of its own. I'll have to save that for another post. Here is a little about the book. Hope you love it.

                                                                                                                                        - Danielle

Rank - the blurb:

Rodeo is all Billy Ryan and his brother Cole have ever known — until one deadly wreck changes everything. With their mom requiring full-time care and Cole dealing with his own demons, Billy needs to step up to take care of his family. So he walks away from his future as a champion bull rider. Convincing himself he didn’t quit because he lost his nerve…

Barrel racer Shae-Lynn, the sweet good-girl-next-door, grew up with the boys on the rodeo circuit. She’s the only person who knows Billy better than he knows himself. She could help him get back in the ring, but there’s a limit to how many times she’ll watch him make the same mistakes. Especially when it comes to her heart.

When Cole’s gambling debts get out of control and the bills at home pile up, Billy has no choice but to enter a winner takes all bull riding event. He needs Shae-Lynn by his side, but that isn’t going to happen unless he figures out a way to cowboy up and prove he’s good enough for a woman like her.

Intense, emotional and complex, RANK is Friday Night Lights meets Nicholas Sparks’ The Longest Ride… with edge!

Apple iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/rank/id968439825?mt=11&uo=4

Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/Rank-D-R-Graham-ebook/dp/B00TO3RHXM/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1424884082&sr=1-2

KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/rank-3

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rank-d-r-graham/1121228283?ean=978000814008

Author Bio:

D.R. Graham is the author of Young Adult and New Adult novels for HarperCollins and Entangled Publishing. She worked as a social worker with at-risk youth for seven years before becoming a therapist in private practice. The clients she works with are children and teenagers and the novels she writes deal with issues relevant to young and new adults in love, transition, or crisis. She is also an award winning columnist for the Richmond News. She currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband.

D.R. Graham's novels are edgy and reflect the emotional rawness of the young adult psyche. The novels contain coarse language and mature subject matter. They are intended for mature young and new adult readers.

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