Louder Than Words to be PUBLISHED!!

Finally, finally, I can announce:

Yes...I've found a home for Louder Than Words with Swoon Romance, a digital first imprint / sister company of Month9Books. I am so very excited to be a part of the Swoon Romance family. I have read several of their books because I already knew and loved the authors. I also love Swoon's upbeat covers, so perfect for young adult books.

Estimated publish date is September 2014.

I can't wait to share this book with the world.

I can't wait to make my official debut as Iris St. Clair!

Life is good.

Remember:  Never. Ever. Give. Up.

Ten Things I'm Horrified to Say Date Me

No, not date as in go on a date, but date as in reveal how old I am.

I'm not a teenager. I'm not even a young adult. I'm at least one generation removed from that age group. Factor in my advanced maternal age of 36 and 38 when I had my two sons and that's an even larger gap.

What's tough as an older writer of contemporary young adult fiction is finding ways to make relatable  references to modern life without dating the story on day 1 let alone day 1000. You walk a thin line and it's a bittersweet one as well, knowing your popular culture references are no longer "hip" but are up there with aging Deadheads. And I hope you even know what a Deadhead is...you probably don't because I used the term to refer to those a generation older than me nearly thirty years ago. The wry line in Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" song -- I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac -- that's how it is for me now. A joke nobody gets anymore.

Other examples of references I've been called on or nearly used in error:

1. My kids have no concept of life during the Iron Curtain days, when athletes defected during the Olympics and all we knew of places like the USSR, East Germany, etc. was dystopian and scary androgynous.

2. Manual typewriters are now antiques, even the IBM ball ones. Nobody ever mentions Pica or Elite. We're all over the Times New Roman and Courier. Carbon paper? White Out? What are they?

3. Tonya Harding, Mike Tyson and Bruce Jenner as athletes; O.J. Simpson as an athlete, actor and tried murderer. One beta reader of my very first novel wrote in the margin, "Who is Billy Blanks?"


4. Wall phones and the lack of caller ID. On a university tour with my son, I noticed the distinct lack of any land lines. Makes sense but I gotta say I kind of miss the days when you could dial and hangup on someone just to see if they were home and retain your anonymity. Crank calls were a lot of fun. Kids today don't know what they're missing. Prince Albert in a can anyone?

5. Pong vs. Grand Theft Auto--like comparing Anne of Green Gables to Fifty Shades of Grey.

6. "Playing" outside vs. gaming vs. working out. The first used to encompass the latter two, which today gaming and working out are mutually exclusive unless you **maybe** blow the dust off your Wii Fit.

7. Long skis. When I was learning, the longer your ski, the greater your speed but the greater expertise required to master them. Today those 150 cm length beginner skis work even for the pros...at least the last time I skied. Maybe they've grown longer again. No idea.

8. Skimpy Speedo bathing suits...but only on Olympic caliber swimmers and divers, thank you very much, for the rest of the population, it's good riddance. The bicycle short and long john pants (skintight and made of liquid sharkskin) now prevail.

9. Paper-based banking. I've been paying bills online for years, but it shocked the hell out of me the other day when my ATM no longer took checks via a deposit envelope but by feeding it in like a dollar bill in a vending machine. Actually, the technology is better than that used for vending machines because you can feed a whole stack of checks in. (Yeah, I know...what are "checks"?) I liked it, but the whole thing was still a little disturbing, the whole optical character recognition. Probably should have just scanned it with my cell phone and saved a trip.

10. CDs (albums, 8 tracks, walkmans, boomboxes and cassettes)--music with a tangible element to it. It's all about the MP3 now. Even today's automobiles are more likely to support a USB drive than a CD deck. There are no B-side songs anymore or "deep album cuts". There are no surprise favorites. The album notes and cover scroll across the face of an MP3 player or smart phone now days. There's something wrong about John Cusack holding up a tiny iPhone to play Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes".

What dates you? Share in the comments your examples.

My Love / Hate Affair with Rain

I live in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, it rains here. It rains a lot. While our total rainfall accumulation is not the highest in the nation, it's the constancy that gets to most people. Fall and Winter are gray and cloudy most of the time. Rain, when it falls, comes down like a Chinese water torture--slow and steady and unending.

How could I not cast rain in my stories set in this part of the country?

Answer? Impossible.

Louder Than Words was my second story set in my own backyard. Rain is mentioned at least eighteen times by my own rough Word search count.

Rain represents limitations--either self-imposed or real. It presents the challenge of action over attitude and resignation.

In pondering the instances I found, some of the story's most important turning points occurred during the rainfall--moments of clarity, of hope.

I love that.

As much as we dread our dismal rainy days here, we also know they bring fresh beginnings.

So, on the eve of December as I write this and the skies out my window are a melange of grays and white, the ground still wet from the early morning rain, I too hope I'm at a turning point in this writing business.

We'll see. In the meantime, I'd best get back to my 2013 NaNoWriMo novel set in--where else--the Pacific Northwest.

What Makes a Story "NEW" Adult vs. Adult?

I wish I could say I was a new adult...sometimes. There's a lot to be said for the ease of youth--taut dewy skin, supple joints, stamina and speed--but maturity ain't so bad either. I made some choices in my younger days that might have killed me, but ultimately made me stronger in a different sort of way, like forging steel in fire.

Where am I going with this?

Where is the divider line between those experiences that might be defined as either "coming of age" or post coming of age, experiences that thrust the protagonist up against or over the line into fully adult territory vs. just being an adult adventure? Is there a divider or is the nature of the experience and/or the chronological age of the character what separates the two reader groups? How raging is the inferno of experience that appeals to one age group vs. another?

Honestly... I don't know.

I think perhaps it's a "I know it when I read" type boundary that is fluid from one reader to another. Admittedly, I've played with that boundary, subbing my book Louder Than Words as young adult to some, new adult to others. I also flirted with new adult in my other me's debut novel, The P.U.R.E.; I just didn't realize it at the time because there was no "new adult" when I wrote and marketed it.

The protagonist in that book, Gayle, is fresh out of college and starting her first job in her chosen career field, public accounting. Hmm... seems like that's new adult territory when you factor in all her bumbles and fumbles trying to avoid the tag that is the book's title--P.U.R.E. or Previously Undetected Recruiting Error. Gayle is green, green, green, to the post-college workforce, to corporate politics, to subtle (and not so subtle) misogyny and sexual harassment, to ultimately realizing how powerful passion can be--a recurring theme throughout the story. I think what makes Gayle appealing, and of interest to new adult readers, is her wide-eyed naivete coming into the story that slowly forges through fire into a more mature, and yes, more cynical, outlook.

Now other new adult stories I've read have taken the opposite tack. The protagonists in those stories begin beaten down and cynical, and through their fires, find hope, love, and optimism.

So, perhaps that is the key--the injection of cynicism or optimism to shove that youth into an adult who more fully realizes that life isn't a bowl of cherries, but neither is it a bowl of pits. The youth of the character makes the impact of that injection more noticeable and lasting, like a drop of black paint on a white canvas or white paint on a black canvas. As adults, most of us have acquired a gray cast--hence that other book--because the splatter has been absorbed and blended.

What do YOU think separates "new" adult from adult? Is it an age cutoff thing, like under 25 is new adult, over 25 (or whatever number) is adult? Share in the comments if you would.

P.S. If you're interested in my "new adult" debut, The P.U.R.E., it's 99 cents until the end of October. Click the picture to check it out!

click me

Perry Road by Emi Gayle Release Day and #giveaway!

Perry Road is Now Available!

Release News! Perry Road, the first in the Revolution Series, by Emi Gayle released September 3, 2013

Perry Road

Revolution Series by Emi Gayle

Release Date: September 3, 2013

Target Reader: New Adult/Young Adult

Keywords: Dystopian Paperback, EPUB, Kindle

Description

In 2132, “We the people …” means nothing, and it hasn’t for a hundred years.

Like all the citizens of the American Union, eighteen-year-old Erianna Keating is not to ask questions. She is not to believe anything except what the A.U. tells her. More importantly, she’s not supposed to know what she doesn’t know, nor that she’s a pawn.

Like everyone else, though, she is, and like everyone else, she is a hundred percent oblivious to what’s going on.

Or is she? Are they?

Erianna thinks going to Perry Road and joining the national registration program is her next step toward adulthood; the 2132 candidates for adult-classification, though, are in for a big surprise. Especially Erianna.

Thanks to Zane Warren, an awkward but hot guy who won’t shut up about a history that doesn’t—or shouldn’t—matter anymore, Erianna will know. Will learn. That includes finding out what actually happens after registration and doing something, anything, about it.

Fixing what went wrong, what caused the U.S.A. to split into two countries, though, is not on Erianna’s bucket list, but as she faces her future, she must decide whether to fall in line with the American Union’s plan for her, or to consider that Zane might not be wrong, and the time for revolution begins now.

Reviews!

What are people already saying about Perry Road?

“This one, by far, is Emi’s best. Of anything she’s written.”
— Julie Reece, author, Crux

“I really hope [this] stirs up controversy and changes some youngsters thinking. God knows we could use that today in this society!”
— Terri Rochenski, author, Eye of the Soul

“… this was a total pleasure to read.”
— Kelly Said, author, Tidal Whispers & Make Believe

“… [this] will inspire an extreme diversity of opinion. It kept me involved and interested throughout, and I love novels that make me question my current understanding/viewpoint on life.”
— Amaleen Ison, author, Remember Me
 

About the Author

I had a really great bio in my head around midnight one night …. right before I fell asleep and it disappeared into the nothingness of unconsciousness. Bummer. So here’s something less well thought out.

I want to be young again, so I’m kinda sorta living it again. At least on paper. You see, I write paranormal romance. Now, that stuff can get really hot, and really gritty and well … mine does. But! My characters are teenagers, 18 and under. Like I was once … and want to be again.

Why would I want to be a teenager again? Geez. Because! If you met the man of your dreams at 14 was engaged to him at 19 and married him at 20, wouldn’t YOU want to do all that over again? Especially if you were still in love with him? I mean, c’mon! It’s love! That’s why I write, too.

You see… just because you pass a certain age doesn’t mean you forget what it was like to be 14, 15, etc. Actually, because I kinda grew up with my husband, we both still feel like the 14 and 17 year old kids we once were. So that’s where I’m coming from. You might think it’s totally lame, but you know what? That’s ok! Maybe you’ll like my other me instead. ;)
 

Excerpt

Which I could be. Don’t want to be. Really, really, really don’t, and staring at Cam in her new clothes without holes, her clean hair cut by a professional and the fact that she’s my friend reminds me why: Flukes are poor. I should know. My mom is one.

The animation keeps going as if it’s really trying for me—not that it can. I drop my P-Comm to my leg just as dark words appear on screen. My heart picks up speed, and a tingly tension takes over.

“Well?” Cam asks.

For some reason, I don’t want her to know. I want to find out by myself if I’m going to get a real life, or if I’m destined to wear hand-me-downs from twenty years ago until I’m ninety. I want to prepare, to plan, to cry if we don’t get to go together, or if I’m not like her.

I’m not, of course—in any way like her. Who am I kidding?

After what seems like hours, but is only seconds, I say, “Nothing.”

“Damn.” She throws her arms up in the air. “Figures. And it’s almost five. So, you know, I gotta go. Mom’s sure I’m going to be chosen to pop out babies, like she is, so she wants to make sure I know how to cook before the fake chefs get ahold of me to ‘teach’ me.” Cam gives me a dramatic eye roll and places a hand to her forehead. “Like, oh, my Oz, Eri, you know? We have people to cook for us for a reason. Duh! If I learn to cook, what job am I going to give someone like your mom, you know? And why would I get picked to be fat and ugly when I look like this?” She bats at her blonde curls.

Wanting to change the subject—to anything but the woes of Cam’s perfect life—I walk to her, give her a hug and a quick pat on the back. “I’ll … call you when I get it, ‘kay?”

“You better. We only have two days to shop for the perfect outfit. Why couldn’t your birthday be October twenty-ninth instead of December?” She snatches up her coat—preparation for the winter blast that will tear into uncovered skin. “And … you’re not a fluke. You will get in the white house, and when January first comes, we’ll be official!” She boogies her way out, hips wiggling. For someone who’s not happy about the prospect of becoming a baby factory, she’s awfully chipper.

I know it’s because she’s waiting to hear my fate. To prove I’m not a fluke. To validate my relevance as her friend—the one girl Cam can give backhanded compliments, and, for that matter, insults all day long, and still walk back in with a smile as if nothing happened.

Cam walks through the hallway and says goodbye to my mom who’s probably still working at her makeshift office in our miniature kitchen—trying, I assume, to avoid the whole days’ events. As much as Cam wants me to not be a fluke, my mom wants me to be one. If I’m like her, nothing will change. Like Cam, I’ll be the same old Erianna, just one day older and as useless as all the other flukes in the world.

The front door opens and closes, and I move to the window. Once Cam disappears from view, and only then, I turn over my P-Comm and touch the one message that sits inside.

The one that says: “Invitation for Erianna Price Keating.”
 

Giveaway!

Running from September 2 – October 10, with a plethora of prizes! Or, if you just can’t wait, below, you can buy it now for just $2.99!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buy It Now:

Cover Reveal: Perry Road (Revolution #1) by Emi Gayle

And the blurb!

In 2132, “We the people …” means nothing, and it hasn’t for a hundred years.

Like all the citizens of the American Union, eighteen-year-old Erianna Keating is not to ask questions. She is not to believe anything except what the A.U. tells her. More importantly, she’s not supposed to know what she doesn’t know, nor that she’s a pawn.

Like everyone else, though, she is, and like everyone else, she is a hundred percent oblivious to what’s going on.

Or is she? Are they?

Erianna thinks going to Perry Road and joining the national registration program is her next step toward adulthood; the 2132 candidates for adult-classification, though, are in for a big surprise. Especially Erianna.

Thanks to Zane Warren, an awkward but hot guy who won’t shut up about a history that doesn’t—or shouldn’t—matter anymore, Erianna will know. Will learn. That includes finding out what actually happens after registration and doing something, anything, about it.

Fixing what went wrong, what caused the U.S.A. to split into two countries, though, is not on Erianna’s bucket list, but as she faces her future, she must decide whether to fall in line with the American Union’s plan for her, or to consider that Zane might not be wrong, and the time for revolution begins now.

For More About Emi Gayle:

Check out her blog at:  Emi Gayle Bio
Find Emi online : Web  |  Blog  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Goodreads

A dystopian YA for the win!

Approximate Release Date is: September 3, 2013

Click to go to Goodreads to add.

Evernight Teen Summer Kickoff Blog Hop Winner was...

Karin!!

As the randomly selected winner for my stop, Karin wins her choice of any currently released Evernight Teen ebook. Karin, I've sent you an email requesting your book choice. I'll shoot that information over to Evernight's Marketing department for them to fulfill pronto for you.

Big thanks to everyone who participated and to S.X. Bradley, whose YA book, Unraveled, was spotlighted on my blog.

YA Debut: Ghosts in the Mirror by Joyce Mangola!

Welcome to my guest blogger Joyce Mangola! She's just released her debut novel, Ghosts in the Mirror from Lycaon Press. Here to tell you a little more about her book is Joyce herself:

***

When I was in middle school, we had to read a lot of books. While I loved to read, I didn't always want to go with the choices the teachers thrust down our throat. Still, if it wasn't for this painful part of English class, I wouldn't have been introduced to my favorite young adult book- The Pigman.

What I liked about it was the grittiness of the characters. They didn't live perfect lives by any means and got into things they would eventually regret. So when I decided Ghosts in the Mirror really fit the 13+ crowd, I had to change up a few things about it. Like take out a lot of 'boring' adult conversation. I cut out quite a bit of the original slightly over 50k novel. In the end, I like the final product. Jeremy, for me, is an endearing character. Having a unique son (and being a bit of an 'oddball' myself) helped me created Jeremy into who he is--A person comfortable in his skin, even if he has to share it with is latest ghostly passenger.

Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Jeremy Riggs has lived his life in and out of the hospital. While the doctors are clueless as to why he lapses into comas, he is well aware of his unique ability to merge with a wandering spirit. With his own soul too weak to sustain life, it's the only thing keeping him alive.

Waking up from a coma a year after being found at the county dump—next to the remains of the last spirit to inhabit him—Jeremy finds the newest spirit is nothing like the previous ones. It's bent on revenge and has the will to take control over his body. With the police lining him up as a murder suspect and an ancient evil pursuing him, Jeremy must help the ghost hitching a ride in his body find eternal rest without seeing his own soul snuffed out.

And how about an excerpt too:

To Jeremy's elation, a couple days later, he sat in a wheel chair ready for his trip home. He steeled himself for the media frenzy waiting outside the entrance of the hospital. With his grandmother behind him, he'd find the courage not to ask for a jet pack to plow through it. Since the first coma, he'd become somewhat of a local human interest story. As he grew, and his talents of being a renowned artist blossomed, the media loved to pry into his life even more.

Attention of any kind never sat well with him. It reminded him how much of a freak he was.

He always wished some colossal discovery of a Tyrannasaurusmegacreepyalodon would be unearthed from the Susquehanna River so that the local news media would have something more exciting to cover than "The Coma Kid's Release From Captivity."

Yes, the newspapers even came up with the clever name moniker as well.

He blew out a big breath, spying the masses just outside the main doors. He saw the blonde with the caked on makeup adjusting her skirt suit, and the man brushing off the remains of the cat hair from his Men's Warehouse two-for-one special. Jeremy remembered him from the last time. His breath smelled like he had the same diet as his cats.

Some of them he didn't recognize at all, but they formed up, giving him a glimpse of the car waiting to whisk him home. As soon as he passed the automatic door, the wide corridor to freedom would close as they swarmed in. They never impeded him from reaching the car, but being rude and trying to bowl past them all wouldn't happen either. His grandmother rubbed his shoulders to give him courage.

"Can't I pretend I'm sleeping this time, Meema?" He whined.

"They'll just come to the house for the interview, Jeremy." She kissed the top of his head.

"I know." He shivered. His condition made him a celebrity in the area, and it came with the territory.

As the microphone convention converged, millions of ideas rolled through his head of what to tell them. One, in particular, stayed at the forefront. 

Hello, and welcome to the freak show! Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant, Igor, have taken tissue samples to clone me so that they can build a bigger facility for their human lab rat experiments! They promise truckloads of instant potatoes and hamster wheels for exercise in their concrete laboratory! Free admission to the first fifty people! Ghosts get a free ride in my body! Special edition ectoplasmic vomit bags for everyone to enjoy!

Purchase Links:

·       AllRomance eBooks

·       Amazon

·       Bookstrand

·       Lycaon Press

 

About Joyce:

Joyce Mangola has been writing for most of her life, spinning outlandish tales since she was twelve. She is a multi-published author over several genres and Joyce is her pen name for the young adult side. Writing will always be the one dream she pursued relentlessly until she succeeded with her first short story publication. She hasn’t looked back since. Besides bringing to life the different characters in her head, she enjoys drawing and playing the flute. Though a Pittsburgh native, she calls Carlisle, Pennsylvania her home for over twenty years now and has no plans of moving—unless it’s back to Pittsburgh, of course. She’s a proud mother of two sister rescue cats, Brine and Ariel. She encourages anyone who has the heart to adopt a furry companion. Give them love and receive it back tenfold.

Evernight Teen’s Summer Kick-off Blog Hop!

WINNER:  Karin!!

Welcome to Evernight Teen’s Summer Kick-off Blog Hop!

It’s a great opportunity to get to know Evernight Teen: Gritty Fiction for Today’s Young Adult. Our stories include fresh teen fiction that’s raw, gritty and real.

My spotlight is on S.X. Bradley’s UNRAVELED:

Blurb:

Sixteen year old math whiz, Autumn, spends her days reading about serial killers and dreaming of becoming an FBI Profiler. She never dreams her first case will be so personal. Her world is shattered when she comes home from school and discovers her murdered sister’s body on the living room floor. When the initial evidence points to a burglary gone wrong, Autumn challenges the police’s theory because of the personal nature of the crime. Thinking that finding the killer will bring her family back together, she conducts her own investigation using her affinity for math and forensics, but her plan backfires and her obsession with the case further splinters her family.

When her investigation reveals the killer is someone she knows, Autumn offers herself up as bait and sets a dangerous trap to unmask his true nature and to obtain a confession for her sister’s murder.

14+ for brief violence

UNRAVELED is an Evernight Teen EDITOR’S PICK!

Exclusive excerpt:

            He lifted the folder up and produced some papers that were protected in a plastic bag. He placed them in front of me. “Are these the questions you were referring to?”

                I looked at my parents, and both of them had their eyes glued to the plastic bag in front of me.

Without touching the bag, I looked at the front page and saw the first question. It was the Bernoulli equation question that Celeste had asked me that morning over breakfast.

                “Yes, those are the ones.”

                “Care to know where we found them?” What did he mean? I’d left them on the kitchen table when I went to brush my teeth after breakfast.

                “On the kitchen table?” I asked, trying not to sound sarcastic.

                “No. In your backpack. The backpack we found at the scene yesterday.” He looked over at my parents this time. My eyes grew wide, and my mouth fell open.

                “Mr. or Mrs. Covarrubias, did either of you put these math papers back into Autumn’s backpack after breakfast?” Papi left for the bakery every morning at 5:30 a.m. so he wasn’t even home. Mami had left right after Celeste and I had eaten because she had a dentist appointment. Maybe Mami’d seen the papers and stuck them in my backpack. Celeste had left about ten minutes before me. Her boyfriend Voss had swung by to pick her up. He did that every day. 

                “Mami, did you put the papers in my backpack?” Her eyes were swollen, and I swear she was two seconds away from passing out. Her gaze wandered around the room until it fell on me. She shook her head. My heart sank.

                “Then it had to be Celeste. She must have put them in there.”

                “Her fingerprints weren’t found on the papers.” How was that possible? The oils from her hands would have been transferred onto the paper if she’d stuck them in my backpack. It couldn’t have been her then. That left no one, and I had no answer. That wasn’t good.

                “Autumn, look, I’m going to be honest with you. There are some things that just don’t add up here. We have witnesses that say you and your sister were arguing at school that morning and that she looked very upset. Care to explain what that was all about?”

I could feel the cell doors closing in around me. This was a witch hunt, and I was about to be burned at the stake.

                My parents were staring at me, begging me with their eyes to explain what was going on. The question mark stabbed my heart. They knew that Celeste and I hardly ever fought. The last time had to have been when I’d accidentally given her a black eye when I was five and was trying to learn to hit a baseball.

                I looked at the detective and said the only thing I knew to say. “Detective Kasanoff, I want a lawyer.”

Unraveled is available here!

What’s up for grabs?

•          One lucky hopper will win a KINDLE PAPERWHITE eREADER sponsored by Evernight Teen.

•          Every book blogger/reviewer site is giving away one free eBook from Evernight Teen (winner’s choice of any eBook from Evernight Teen’s website).

•          Plus, each author offers their own unique prize! So visit each blog hop stop for a host of fabulous prizes to win.

How to enter? Add your comment and email address in the comments section below to be eligible to win a prize.

Continue hopping to the next stop!

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Cover Reveal: Darkest Day by Emi Gayle (Book #3 of The 19th Year)

Darkest Day

The 19th Year

by Emi Gayle

Release Date: January 6, 2014

Target Reader: Young Adult

Keywords: Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Romance,
Thriller/Suspense,Urban Fantasy, Fairy, Shape-shifter, Vampire

Back of the Book

 

Mac Thorne’s time as a Changeling is coming to an end.

 

It may have taken eighteen years, but Mac did finally manage to do what the Council wanted: she chose a teacher and renounced the in-between. 

 

There’s just one last step. She must say goodbye to her human. Forever.

 

After being challenged in every way possible, Mac leaves what she thought would be the easiest task for the last possible moment. As midnight on July fourth draws near, though, she hasn’t found a way to give up Winn Thomas.

 

Nor does she want to.

 

With time running out, Mac stands at a literal crossroads. 

 

Choose Winn, and she’ll be stripped of the only family she’s ever known—vampires, dragons, and her favorite demon. Even her own mother. Accept her position on the Council and rule as an equal to her twelve peers, and she’ll forget Winn ever existed. 

 

Independence and freedom have never before been so limiting.

 

In this final chapter of the 19th Year Trilogy, it’s time for Mac to decide. 

 

Responsibility? Or Love?
 

URL: http://www.jtaylorpublishing.com/books/30

I'm back! (on Blogger platform, off Wordpress)

...and online again, finally.

If you're wondering why my blog keeps looking different, I got kicked off my server host permanently late last week and had to go elsewhere. Rather than try to reset up my Wordpress blog again, I decided to re-fire up my original Blogger blog and give it a facelift at the same time (cutting the winter theme and going more collegiate.) I prefer Wordpress software, but I'm going to hedge my bets and keep one of my me's on a different platform. Just in case.

So...if you're wondering where the blog with Ellen and Rex's picture show on the Autumn Vancouver background went, that was my Wordpress blog. If you're wondering where the snowy fence and bird blog went, that's this one with a new theme and my domain name pointed to it.

Any comments made on my Wordpress blog, specifically on the Writer's Voice contest, sadly, are probably lost in the bowels of my ex-host's crappy server.

I'll see about importing my last backup of the Wordpress site here when I get a chance, not that there was all that much since I had only migrated to Wordpress and my own hosted server a few months ago. But I had a few fellow authors' promo posts I'd like to restore.

Whew! Writing is a lot easier than all this stuff!

Ellen and Rex say "hey"!  :)

Doors and Windows and Never, Ever Giving Up

On Tuesday when my chances in The Writer’s Voice contest looked grim, one of my writer friends who also participated emailed me:

Sorry. It appears we are out. Maybe contests are not my bag?

To which I responded:

…yeah…depression is sinking in and getting comfy, ordering pizza and refusing to shower or shed the flannel PJ bottoms. Reminder to self:  contest results aren’t proof of worth.

Tuesday was not a good day. No book sales or reviews for my other me, my family was disappointed in me and my work situation was pretty bleak as well. I went to bed feeling like a failure in almost every nook and cranny of my life. I prayed to God for some relief from my burdens.

Fast forward two days. That same friend I commiserated with on Tuesday was picked to be on a team for The Writer’s Voice. Honestly, I was so happy for her that my joy pierced the pall enough for a glimmer of hope to burst through. That little glimmer said, “Hey, chica!” (because it’s from my former home of New Mexico where it’s always sunny), “chin up and remember how far you’ve come! And some people would kill to swap devils with you.”  Truer words were never spoken by an imaginary friend.

Fast forward one additional day. A blog running a contest I’d almost written off, because it was way past when results had been promised, posted early this AM. I’d peeked at my smart phone during a circuit training break and saw it in my Google reader. The post’s subject stated the contest results were in. OK that’s grand but seeing as how I’d received no email, I pretty much concluded I wouldn’t be seeing my name amongst the winners.

Wrong! I won! The prize? A full manuscript request! Now that’s right up there with The Writer’s Voice given who’s gonna be reading my story!!

God didn’t just open a window. He added a freakin’ solarium with a massive sliding screen door!

So while contests still aren’t proof of worth, the moral of the story remains the same:

Never, ever give up.

image from The Office, NBC

Cover Reveal: Tied by Laney McMann

TIED

Fire Born #1

by Laney McMann

Release Date: September 9, 2013

Target Reader: Young Adult

Keywords: Fiction, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

Back of the Book:

Normal people don't believe their nightmares stalk them. They don’t fall in love with boys who don’t exist, either. 

Seventeen-year-old Layla Labelle, though, is far from normal. Her delusions walk the earth. Her hallucinations hunt her, and her skin heats to a burn every time her anger flares. 

Or is that all in her head?

Layla doesn't know what to believe any more because if none of that’s true, Max MacLarnon must be an illusion, and her heart must still be broken.

No matter how much she wants to believe Max is real, doing so would mean everything else is, too. How, then, is that possible?

The answers lie in an age-old legend the supernatural aren’t prepared to reveal, and with a curse that could tear Layla and Max apart forever—if it doesn’t kill them both first. 

In TIED, book one in the Fire Born trilogy, learning the truth will mean fighting an arsenal  of demons, and being with Max will put Layla on a path toward her own destruction.

Just how far will Layla go to protect the one she loves?

The answer may never be far enough ... away. 

URL: http://www.jtaylorpublishing.com/books/31

(This post restored on June 16 as part of blog reconstruction)