The X Factor: Confession of a Naïve
Fashion Model
by Ivan Sivec
GENRE: Young Adult
BLURB:
It
takes three mistakes to be swallowed up and spat out by the fashion industry.
You think you know everything there is to know about life.
You abuse drugs.
The almost 18-year-old Maja is a regular high-school kid, who at the threshold
of adulthood thinks she knows everything there is to know about life. As she
enters the world of fashion modelling she gets completely enchanted.
However, the more her career thrives she’s less able to see the danger lurking
around fashion industry. Maja starts falling in a downward spiral of drug
addiction and is torn between the tempting dream of becoming a world famous
model and the horrendous thought of destroying her body beyond the point of no
salvation.
At a yacht party Maja gets drugged, assaulted and tossed overboard. She’s found
the next day. Barely alive. Only a shade of her former self, in a gray space between
life and death, she realises the fashion industry sucked everything out of her
– except one thing – the will to live. Maja wants to be her old self again.
Ironically, it means losing the only thing that made her special. She has to
give up on her hidden X Factor.
The X Factor:
Confession of a Naïve Fashion Model
is a psychological YA novel showing the glamorous fashion world behind its less
glamorous scenes.
EXCERPT:
On the evening of the third day the
agent Maurizio paid them a visit. They didn’t have any money or food, so they
begged him to lend them a couple of euros to buy lunch at McDonald’s. He didn’t
want to hear anything about that.
“I came to make sure you’re
successfully losing weight. In Milan there’s currently somewhere between two
hundred and three hundred too many models, and the ones that don’t respect the
rules will be fired without compensation of any sort.”
They curled up and managed to
convince themselves they didn’t even need yoghurt. They stayed determined even
after Maurizio had left.
Later Maja and Svetlana found out
that Maurizio had locked them in the apartment, so they weren’t able to leave,
even if they had somehow been able to beg for some food money.
They managed it until midnight.
But at 00.30am Svetlana suddenly
jumped up from her sleep.
“Maja, are you asleep? I can’t
sleep. I’m going crazy from hunger.”
“Don’t even start on food,” Maja
grumbled. “My vision is blurred. I’ll probably die tonight. I’ll die of hunger.”
“I’ll die, too. We’ll both die of
starvation.”
At 1am they started banging on the
door: “Open, please! We’re dying of starvation. Help!”
There wasn’t a living soul to be
found anywhere. It seemed like there was nobody in the neighbouring apartments
and the shops downstairs were already closed. Maja started looking for the
business card. She would call that famous director. She’d ask him to bring them
half a loaf of bread. She’d do whatever he wanted as long as he saved their
lives.
“No, don’t do it! You know Monica
will be mad. For now we belong to Milleuno. We cannot make contact with anyone
outside the agency. We cannot go out. We cannot meet anyone. We have to take
care of everything by ourselves or with the help of the agency.”
At 2am they were in such crisis they
were rolling around with cramps. Maja had never experienced something like this
before. She felt like she was about to die any moment now.
“I don’t want to die!” Svetlana made
one last effort to get up and swayed to the window.
“Quickly, pass me the bed sheet!”
It was like in a film.
An entertaining film for the good
children.
AUTHOR BIO:
Ivan
Sivec is a writer, poet and publicist from Slovenia, Europe. People say he is
‘a man with a hundred stories’ and he has been sharing them with his audience,
both young and mature, for over four decades now. He is listed under the top
five Slovenian bestselling authors.
In
his rich and thriving career he has written in many genres. As a poet he has
written more than 2,500 lyrics for ethnic and entertaining music for which he
received several awards. His broad prosaic ‘repertoire’ includes biographies,
historical, psychological and adventure novels, travelogues, youth book series,
picture books as well as humorous stories. To this date he published over 130
books and is considered to be one of the most popular Slovenian authors.
His
particular interest goes to psychological novels on issues teenagers face
today, especially topics like suicide, drug addiction, adoption, AIDS... He shares true stories to let the young
reader know they’re not alone.
Sivec
devotes his free time to his wife of 44 years, their two children and three
grandchildren. Since his retirement a decade ago he enjoys his days hiking the
Alpine peaks (he is especially proud to have conquered the tallest mountain in
Europe, the French Mont Blanc (4,810 m/ 15,771 ft), together with his
daughter-in-law Tina). When he is not gathering inspiration from the mountains
he is soaking in the tranquility of the Mediterranean Sea with his wife. Nature is his source of creativity. It allows
Ivan to gather his thoughts and pour them onto paper.
Giveaway:
A free e-copy of the X Factor or a signed greeting card from Slovenia (international)
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better
your chances of winning.
2 comments:
Thanks for hosting! Readers, download the book for FREE on January 13 and 14 at Amazon!
I, too, would like to thank you for sharing The X Factor with your followers! That means so much to me! It is an exciting path I started in 2016 and I would like to thank you for being a part of it.
All your followers are kindly invited to download my novel for free on January 13th and 14th on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0141JSBC4?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
Thanks again and greetings from Slovenia,
Ivan
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