Monday Muse: In This Moment -- The Last Cowboy

can we talk about the secret crush I have on this band? It's not so secret now, LOL. This song is so haunting and cool sounding!

Feature Friday: Ciara Knight

Ciara Knight writes to ‘Defy the Dark’ with her fantasy and paranormal books.  Her debut novel, The Curse of Gremdon, was released to acclaimed reviews, securing a Night Owl Top Pick and five stars from the Paranormal Romance Guild. Also, released in 2012 is her young adult series, Battle for Souls. Book I, Rise From Darkness, won July Book of the Month at Long and Short Reviews.

When not writing, she enjoys reading all types of fiction. Some great literary influences in her life include Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Francine Rivers and J K Rowling.

Her first love, besides her family, reading, and writing, is travel. She’s backpacked through Europe, visited orphanages in China, and landed in a helicopter on a glacier in Alaska.

Interview:
A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Ciara: 
I’d suggest they take a deep breath, read and study the craft, all while writing and rewriting their first work in progress. Don’t be in a hurry to get your first book out there, be ready to put the right book out there.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Ciara: 
Of course, I love all the famous ones, but I’d rather expose readers to one they haven’t tried. I’d have to say that Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers. It is full of a strange world, yet it existed around 2000 years ago. The characters are vibrant, and it will leave you wanting more. If you enjoy romance, try her Redeeming Love book set in the Gold Rush Era.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for The Neumarian Chronicles?

Ciara: 
I’ve always wanted to write science fiction, but I’ve been intimidated. My love of young adult literature blended with an alternate future that rose up after a great war. It became a genre smash-up of all my favorite things. Paranormal gifts, dystopian setting, steampunk gadgets, multi-cultural cast and most of all, epic romance. The kind that will survive even the greatest of wars and treachery.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing The Neumarian Chronicles?  What were they and how did you fix them?

Ciara:
Oh, there was a MAJOR snag. I’d written the entire first book, Escapement, in third person hero and heroine point of view. When I was sitting in my car one day a secondary character’s backstory came flooding in and I wrote it by the time I went to bed that night. When I put it out there for the world to read, I was ecstatic about the popularity of the little story I wrote, Weighted (Prequel novella) until I realized it was writing in first person heroine point of view only. Well, I tested Escapement on a few beta readers who enjoyed Weighted and discovered I’d have to do a major rewrite on Escapement. THAT was a nightmare, but it all worked out in the end.
 
A.L.:
Which one of the characters in The Neumarian Chronicles is your favorite and why?

Ciara: 
Raeth. I know she’s a secondary character and I LOVE my main characters, but she has a little of me in her. You wouldn’t know it now to speak to me, but I had to go through seven years of speech therapy. Raeth has a stuttering problem that gives her fits, but she has a big heart and you want her to succeed despite her challenges.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Ciara:
I wrote poems and short stories as a young adult and even had a few published in literary magazines. It wasn’t until WAY later, when I had my second child, that I wrote my first novel. That one is under my bed, but my next one, The Curse of Gremdon, was published.

A.L.:
What are you working on now?  Sequel?  Something new?

Ciara:
I’m writing the final installment of the series, Balance. I’m around 22,000 words in and loving every minute of it. After such a long journey, some of the characters are acquiring things they’ve wanted for so long. Of course, it’s only 22,000 words in so I’m sure it’s all going to be destroyed and built back up in the next 60,000 words or so.

A.L.:
What's the most exciting place you've ever visited?

Ciara: 
I think the most exciting was China, because the culture deferred from ours so greatly. I enjoyed landing on a glacier in Alaska to hike once, too. The craziest place would be on a beach in a Chipmunk Costume, but we don’t need to talk about that. ;)

A.L.:
Since you're a traveler, you've probably eaten lots of cool things.  What's the most unique food you've ever eaten?

Ciara: 
Oh, I’m a big sissy when it comes to food. I will tell you at every meal in China there was a fish head on the table. People in my group would tease me and make it talk and I’d come to dinner to find it in front of me at times. Not nice.

A.L.:
Pendulum, the second book in The Neumarian Chronicles just came out.  What can readers expect with this new book?

Ciara:
Pendulum is up for pre-order and will release in e-book December 3rd. Readers will be rewarded for their patience as almost all the questions from Semara and Ryder’s past will be answered. Not to mention they are MUCH closer in this one. ;)

The Giveaway:
A giveaway of an audio version of ESCAPEMENT.

Escapement:  Ten years after the great war of 2185 the queen’s reign is threatened by uprisings and fear. In celebration of my sixteenth birthday it is my duty as princess to sacrifice a slave to be initiated into the ruling council, solidifying my mother’s empire. When my own erratic powers surface I’m captured and tried for treason. Slaves hate me, my mother wants me executed, and my only chance of survival rests in the hands of a young man, Ryder Arteres, whose sister I sentenced to death

Read Goodreads reviews.
Buy on Amazon.

Preorder PENDULUM, the sequel to ESCAPEMENT:

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/pendulum-9

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pendulum-ciara-knight/1117054016?ean=2940045308540

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/364022

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the arrow buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winners via email.

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Monday Muse: Exo - Wolf

No clue what they are saying, but it's highly entertaining to me. While the howling seems a little silly to me, Exo makes up for it in awesome dancing, costumes, and stage presence. All boy bands should look like a pack of sexy Lost Boys in my brain-world and Exo does a faboo job of doing that. *nods*

Feature Friday: Elizabeth Langston

Elizabeth Langston lives in North Carolina (USA), halfway between the beaches and the mountains. She has two daughters (teen-ish), one husband (a geek like her), and too many computers. When she’s not writing stories or software, Elizabeth loves to travel, watch dance reality shows on TV, and ponder which restaurant ought to get her family’s business that night. Her debut novel, WHISPER FALLS, releases in Nov 2013.

Interview:

A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Elizabeth: 
Your voice is everything. Write so much that your distinctive style becomes second nature. It’s no different than being the best in sports, dance, music, or any talent; you have to practice to be good.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Elizabeth: 
Wow. There ought to be a qualifier, like What’s your favorite romance? What’s your favorite mystery?

But that’s not the question. So, if I were about to move into an underground bunker, and I was only allowed to take along one book, it would be THE PROPHET by Khalil Gibran. It “speaks to me” on so many different levels, and every time I re-read a passage, I discover something new.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Whisper Falls?

Elizabeth:
It came from two different ideas that intersected. Back in the 1980s, I watched a TV show called THE TWILIGHT ZONE.  The episode “A Message From Charity” haunted me. It featured a modern day boy who “meets” a girl accused during the Salem Witch Trials. Thirty minutes didn’t take the story deep enough, and the ending was not satisfying for me. 

Fast forward twenty years.  I came across some research on indentured servants in 18th/19th century America. A character started speaking in my head—a girl who had survived horrific cruelty with her dignity intact.  Somehow, that servant girl, Susanna, took the place of Charity. And Whisper Falls was born.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing Whisper Falls?  What were they and how did you fix them?

Elizabeth:
There were two snags. First—writing Mark.  He’s a teen male athlete. I’ve never been a boy, and both of my children are girls. I wasn’t sure if I would get Mark’s point-of-view right. So I interviewed a lot of guys.  Adult athletes. The teen sons of my friends. It helped, but I still worried. When my publishing house matched me with a male editor, I breathed a sigh of relief. He assured me that I’d done a good job and helped me make the final few tweaks.

The second snag was getting the history right. It took years of accumulating research to grow comfortable with Susanna’s half of the story. Most indentured servants could write their names (maybe) and not much else. So there are minimal first-hand materials to learn how it really felt to be “bound” the way Susanna was. I immersed myself in the details of 18th century life and then did my best to figure out what it would be like to work in a miserably hot kitchen without pay, without relief, without gratitude.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in Whisper Falls is your favorite and why?

Elizabeth:
I can’t choose between Mark and Susanna; I love them both for different reasons. It’s like asking me to pick between my two daughters. Can’t do it.
Instead, I’ll pick one of the secondary characters, Mark’s sister Marissa. In WHISPER FALLS, she is entirely off-page. Marissa has graduated from college and moved to Colorado with a guy. The reader only gets glimpses of her through phone calls or instant-messages with Mark. She adores her brother, argues with her mom, and doesn’t want to admit that her boyfriend is a jerk. We’ll see much more of Marissa in the sequels.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Elizabeth:
I was an incredibly late bloomer with writing. Most of my author-friends knew that they wanted to write from the very first time they picked up a crayon. Not me. The idea to write a book never occurred to me until both of my kids were in school. So I started late, practiced hard, collaborated with a great agent, and finally sold.

A.L.:
What are you working on now?  Sequel?  Something new?

Elizabeth: 
WHISPER FALLS has two sequels. Book 2, A WHISPER IN TIME, is nearly ready for advanced reading copies. I’m still in edits for Book 3, WHISPERS FROM THE PAST.  After we finish this trilogy, I’ll start first-round edits on something new, I WISH.

A.L.:
What's your favorite television show ever? 

Elizabeth: 
THE WEST WING.  Relevant, beautiful stories. Fabulous actors. And the most amazing writing ever in a TV series.

A.L.:
Is there a reason why you chose to set Whisper Falls in North Carolina?

Elizabeth: 
I needed something to be easy. I knew that writing Susanna and Mark would be seriously hard. Setting the story near where I lived gave me one less thing to create from scratch. Of course, I still had to research this part of North Carolina in the 18th century, but happily it ended up being the perfect setting for Susanna.

A.L.:
Why did you choose to write a book that straddles two eras?  Was it difficult?

Elizabeth: 
The TWILIGHT ZONE episode pushed me into the idea of spanning two centuries. I started to plot the book knowing that element of the story. The harder part was picking which two. I knew Mark would live modern-day, but what about Susanna?

I have to thank a librarian on the opposite side of the world for helping me narrow down Susanna’s time period. I was in New Zealand on vacation and dropped by a library to talk with the YA librarian. I asked her opinion about how to make an American historical interesting for NZ teens. She said, “No wars. American wars are boring.”  Okay, then. I matched “no wars” to Raleigh’s history and came up with 1796 for Susanna.

The Giveaway:
For USA or Canada, one signed copy of Whisper Falls.  For international, an Amazon gift certificate $10 USD and a signed bookplate.  (There are two Rafflecopters below, make sure you enter in your correct shipping area).

Whisper Falls:  While training for a mountain bike race, high-school senior Mark Lewis spots a mysterious girl dressed in odd clothing, standing behind a waterfall in the woods near his North Carolina home. When she comments on the strange machine that he rides, he suspects something isn’t right. When Susanna claims to be an indentured servant from 1796, he wonders if she's crazy. Yet he feels compelled to find out more.

Mark enters a ‘long-distance’ relationship with Susanna through the shimmering--and temperamental--barrier of Whisper Falls. Curious about her world, Mark combs through history to learn about the brutal life she's trapped in. But knowledge can be dangerous. Soon he must choose between the risk of changing history or dooming the girl he can't stop thinking about to a lifetime of misery.



Read Goodreads reviews.
Buy on Amazon.
Buy on Barnes and Noble.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the arrow buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be two winners (selected by Rafflecopter) one international, one US/Canada. I will contact the winners via email.

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Tonight's The Night of Halloween...And It's Also My Debut Day!

Happy Halloween!  

And happy FOR YOUR HEART debut day!

So, here’s Amazon’s Trick...Looks like the print edition for FOR YOUR HEART is NOT going up today.  I’m totally devastated about this, let's not talk about all the tears shed in the past twelve hours.

BUT, your consolation Treat is this pretty cover:

And also that the EBOOK is up and ready to go!  Please feel free to pick that up today.  Or, if you'd rather wait for the print book, it should be available in a couple of days.  (Or you can be awesome and buy both!).    I’m super sorry for the delay on the print edition, but I’m working to solve the issue and I’ll have it up for you ASAP!

IF YOU'RE POSTING A REVIEW (which I hope all of you do because I need 40 by the end of the day).  So, even if you just fudge a really nice sounding 20 word review and give me five stars just to be supportive, I won't yell at you...You can always change it when you're done reading, after all.  BUT PLEASE make sure you say that you read an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) – even if you didn’t read yet-- or Amazon might deny your review!

BUY THE AMAZON KINDLE or REVIEW IT HERE!

 

OMG Guys!  FOR YOUR HEART is out today!!!!  I'm so excited, I'm so for reals!

BOOM!

Monday Muse: Seeed -- Release

Because everyone should be shaking their bum on a Monday morning.

Feature Friday: Megan Miranda

Megan Miranda is the author of Fracture and Hysteria. She spends a great deal of time thinking about the "why" and "how" of things, which leads her to get carried away daydreaming about the "what-ifs." Megan has a degree in Biology from MIT and currently lives near Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and two young children.

Interview:

A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Megan:
Read. I’m sure this is a frequent piece of advice, but I think there’s a reason for that. Read A LOT. Read books in your genre, and books out of your genre, and books you never thought you’d ever read. Read books you love and books you want to throw across the room—and then think why you loved it, or why you wanted to throw it across the room, or why you picked it back up and started again. What made you care? What made you want to keep reading?

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Megan:
Oh, I can’t pick! Also, my answer probably varies depending on my reading mood. But here are a few of my favorites from the last few years: Looking for Alaska (for all the reasons); The Adoration of Jenna Fox (because it made me question what it meant to be human); I Am The Messenger (haunting and quirky and beautiful and I adore it); Gone Girl (pure brilliance, and I am filled with writer-envy).

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Hysteria?

Megan: 
I had a character in my head before the big idea for Hysteria, but I didn’t have her story yet—I had to write my way into it first. While I was writing, I got really interested in how memory works, and how the psychological can manifest in physical ways. But I think the big moment happened when I started thinking about the idea of haunting, and all the things that can haunt, and in all the ways they can haunt.

All of these ideas led me down the research-rabbit-hole, where I read about individual cases, such as that of a real-life soldier portrayed in the Band of Brothers miniseries (he went blind in a battle, though nothing was physically wrong with him). His story, and others like it, inspired the “what if” idea that became Hysteria.

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing Hysteria?  What were they and how did you fix them?

Megan:
Oh, sure. Throughout the majority of the book, my main character isn’t sure if she’s suffering from paranoia or if there’s something really after her. I focused a lot on trying to get that line right—to let the reader feel that paranoia, but to also ground them firmly in the story so it wasn’t disorienting. I addressed it in pieces, with many rounds of revision, trying to view each scene from Mallory’s perspective, and then from a reader’s.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in Hysteria is your favorite and why?

Megan:
Easy question: Mallory’s best friend, Colleen. Actually, I’m pretty sure she’s my favorite character ever. She’s fiercely loyal – and she would do anything for Mallory.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Megan: 
Sure! I started writing seriously when my youngest had just turned one (and was finally sleeping through the night). I wrote at night, every night, treating it like my job in the hopes that it would one day become my job. I queried and signed with my agent in the fall of 2009, and then spent 6 months rewriting that book from scratch (twice) before we sent it on submission to publishers. That was my debut, FRACTURE. I’ve been pretty much writing full-time ever since.

A.L.:
What are you working on now?  Sequel?  Something new?

Megan:
VENGEANCE, the sequel to FRACTURE comes out in February. I’m currently working on my 2015 book (currently called AFTERLIFE), which is a contemporary sci-fi where, much like DNA fingerprinting, the science of soul-fingerprinting also exists.

A.L.:
Do set out to write thrillers or do they just happen?

Megan: 
I’ve always loved thrillers. I didn’t set out to write a thriller for my first book – but I wasn’t quite sure what type of book it was (see question 6, about all that rewriting…) My agent asked if it was a thriller, and I was like, OF COURSE! A THRILLER! Which helped me give shape and focus to it during revision. But now, yes, it’s safe to say that I set out to write them.

A.L.:
What's your favorite place to visit in Charlotte, NC and why?

Megan: 
I live a little north of Charlotte, and my favorite place to visit is Lake Norman. I love the lake. My kids love the lake. It’s where we spend most of our summer weekends.

A.L.:
What do you do to get inspiration on those days where the words just don't want to come out of your fingers?

Megan: 
 Ugh. Those days. When the words won’t come, and I need some real inspiration, I read (see answer #1)

Thanks so much for having me!

The Giveaway:

Hysteria:  Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others.

In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.


Read Goodreads reviews.
Buy on Amazon.
Buy on Barnes and Noble.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the arrow buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to US/Canadian entrants.

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Monday Muse: Mora Mora -- Royals

Oh My God. This is like the best cover that ever happened. Like, ever. EVER. *total enjoyment*

Feature Friday: Colleen Houck

Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she's not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.

Interview:

A.L.:
What piece of advice would you give to a budding author?

Colleen:
My number one piece of advice is to read. I strongly believe that good readers make great writers. There is so much to learn by reading a variety of books.

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?

Colleen:
My favorite book changes all the time but I am a big fan of the classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Island of the Blue Dolphins. I've always loved adventure stories, books that take me to far away places.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for The Tiger's curse Saga?

Colleen:
The basic idea I had was to write a Beauty and the Beast kind of story. I ended up choosing a tiger as my beast and that led me to India.

A.L.:
 Did you hit any snags while writing The Tiger's Curse Saga?  What were they and how did you fix them?

Colleen:
The biggest snag was the prologue in book one. Tiger's Curse was my first novel and I wasn't really sure I was doing it right. I rewrote the prologue dozens of times and agonized over the first five chapters. I had to learn to let it go and move on. After that, I got into a groove.

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in The Tiger's Curse saga is your favorite and why?

Colleen:
Mr. Kadam is actually my favorite. I love my tigers but there is something regal and special about Mr. Kadam. He dedicated his life to taking care of the princes under his charge and I really admire that kind of unwavering commitment.

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?

Colleen:
I self published originally. I was about a week away from self pubbing my third book, Tiger's Voyage, when I landed an agent. Everything was put on hold while he took those three books and sent them out on submission. I had been laid off of work a few months before that and was getting a little desperate when he called to say he'd landed me a deal. I haven't looked back since.

A.L.:
What are you working on now?  Sequel?  Something new?

Colleen:
Something new. I have recently switched publishers and I just turned in a new first book in a series featuring the mythologies of Egypt. I'm very excited about it and think my fans will eat it up.

A.L.:
 What's your favorite part of living in Oregon?  Why?

Colleen:
The trees. There are miles and miles of forest in every direction. Throw in Christmas tree farms, apples the size of your head, and waterfalls. What's not to love?

A.L.:
What's your favorite show on food network and why?

Colleen:
I really like Restaurant Impossible. I love the idea of revamping the decor, the menu, and figuring out what needs to change to make something work. There's a part of me that loves that level of problem solving.

A.L.:
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

Colleen:
India. I really want to visit all the places I've written about.

The Giveaway:
Colleen is giving away two signed copies of TIGER'S CURSE with bookmarks.

Tiger's Curse:  Passion. Fate. Loyalty.

Would you risk it all to change your destiny?

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.





Read Goodreads Reviews.
Buy on Amazon.
Buy on Barnes and Noble.

How to Enter:
Enter the giveaway using Rafflecopter. Hit the arrow buttons, follow the prompts, and hit the enter buttons when you're done. (You may have to log in using Facebook to do this). There will be one winner (selected by Rafflecopter). I will contact the winner via email. This contest is open to international entrants.

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Monday Muse: Call Atlantis -- Past Regrets, Future Threats

I hope this is good. I'm winging it because I'm having troubles with YouTube, LOL. Sorry guys. :P