Monday, September 10, 2012

She-Wulf: Author Interview


Please enjoy this interview with Sheryl Steines, author of the action-packed urban fantasy, She Wulf. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of She Wulf, and 5 copies of its companion, The Day of First Sun.

1. When you start a book do you know how it will end or do you create the ending as you go along?
I have a rough idea of what the book will be about and I have some scene ideas and a rough ending.  When I wrote The Day of First Sun, I knew that a high profile, non-magical person was going to be murdered by magic.  I wrote out a paragraph of things that I wanted to see in the story and began writing.  I didn’t look at the paragraph again until after the book was published and realized that I didn’t keep to my original thoughts at all.  I tend to work without an outline because I feel tied to the story as if I’m trying to make everything fit.  I prefer to let it flow and change.  I like the freedom and the discovery.  Sometimes I’m wildly surprised.
2. Do your book characters ever visit you in your dreams?
Yes and no.  Not as much when I’m sleeping, but I daydream about them all the time.  It’s how I work out characters and storylines.  It’s almost as if a movie is playing in my head and I can change and add to storylines.
3. What are your favorite authors as either an adult or a child?
When I was a kid, I loved Nancy Drew.  I read every one of them, but I didn’t just want to read them, I wished I had wrote them and started to write my own detective stories when I was seven.  As I grew older, I read Judy Blume and Stephen King.  Both made me feel something and from that I wanted to keep writing.  I still read Stephen King and was very inspired by his autobiography On Writing.  It was J.K. Rowling though, that reminded me of what I loved to read and that’s what inspired me to write my own fantasy novel.
4. How do you go about finishing a chapter when you can’t get it right?
I skip it…Just kidding.  No, actually I’m not.  Sometimes, I make a note in all caps reminding me I haven’t finished the chapter and other notes that I might be thinking about for the chapter and start the next one.  Sometimes you just need to move on.  The answer will eventually hit you upside the head when you least expect it.
5. Describe your reaction when you saw and held your first book?
I think I was numb when The Day of First Sun was published.  Almost as if I had only done it to satisfy a selfish desire.  It didn’t seem real.  It was when I held She Wulf in my hands for the first time that I was overcome with emotion.  This book consumed me for so long and I was so amazed by the final product and it seemed more than just a fantasy.
6. What is your biggest achievement to date?
Writing my first book.  I always wanted to and never gave myself the opportunity.  One day I decided it was time.  It changed my life, gave me confidence.  I lost the extra baby weight, changed my wardrobe, straightened my hair and gave my girls a role model, an example of taking control of one’s life and being the best person you can be.
7. What’s your favorite color?
Pink.  I’ve always been a girly girl.  As much as I’d like to be a sporty girl, I’m just not.  It’s all about the pink, purses and shoes.
8. Favorite sound?
I love the sound of rain on the roof.  Not during the sunlight hours, but early in the morning when it’s still dark out.  I snuggle under the covers.  It makes me happy.
9. If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
An interior decorator.  I love being creative and crafty and picking paint colors and getting lost in a fabric store.  It’s almost as good as getting lost in a bookstore.
10. Worst fear?
I fear the alligators under the bed.  Since I was a kid I can’t sleep without something covering my feet incase they come and get me.  Don’t laugh, Stephen King admitted the same thing in an interview once.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the She Wulf eBook edition is just 99 cents this week–and so is the price of its companion, The Day of First Sun. What’s more, by purchasing either of these fantastic books at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, and 5 autographed copies of the book.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes isRIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment–easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
  1. Purchase your copy of She Wulf for just 99 cents
  2. Purchase your copy of Day of First Sun for just 99 cents
  3. Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity
  4. Visit today’s featured social media event
About She Wulf Annie is sent through an ancient time portal with only a prophecy to guide her; she struggles with a new destiny as she tries to figure out a way to destroy an un-killable demon and return home.  Get it on Amazon.
About The Day of First Sun A vampire, a rogue wizard and an army of soulless zombies are par for the course for Annie Pearce and Bobby “Cham” Chamsky of the Wizard’s Guard. But when the non-magical princess, Amelie of Amborix, is murdered by magical means, a deeper plot unfolds. Get it on Amazon.
About the author: Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise, using her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy. Visit Sheryl on her websiteTwitterFacebook, or GoodReads.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

She-Wulf: Guest Post


Please enjoy this guest post by Sheryl Steines, author of the action-packed urban fantasy, She Wulf. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of She Wulf, and 5 copies of its companion, The Day of First Sun.


If you could go anywhere, meet any person, in any period of time, where would you go, what would you do, who would you meet?  I know this is all hypothetical, but hey, I write in the pretend–in the fantasy.  So suspend your disbelief,  and come play with me for a moment.
Not such an easy question to answer, is it?  One option would be to go and meet someone long dead–perhaps Elvis circa 1959 makes your heart swoon.  Would you take the opportunity to meet a favorite entertainer, or maybe you want your trip to count for something meaningful?  But what if you made a change, saved a life, corrected a wrong, how would your alterations affect the future?  An interesting notion, don’t you think?
As I wrote She Wulf, my time travel adventure, I developed the idea of changing the past and how that might lead to the future you are trying to change.  Maybe our interference might just be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  That’s when The Terminator movie struck me as so relevant and important in how I shaped my ideas of time travel.
For those who don’t know, The Terminator is a science fiction adventure where machines take over the world.  The machines are human like cyborgs, ruled by an artificial intelligence program called Skynet, whose sole mission is to annihilate humanity.  In opposition, the resistance was created by John Connor and they are winning the war.  In an effort to prevent the resistance from being founded, the cyborgs send back one of their own, to murder John’s mother Sarah, before he’s born.  To protect her and ensure he is even conceived, he sends back one of his soldiers (his father), to protect her.  Got all that.  So finally to my point, and I realize this all imaginary and takes place on celluloid but really, had the cyborgs never sent back the terminator, John Connor never would have sent back his father and he wouldn’t have been born.  But what can you expect from a bunch of cyborgs anyway?
For me, in She Wulf, you couldn’t just decide one day to go to the past unless you found yourself there when the past was actually the present.  Huh?  Picture it this way.  It’s 2012 and you want to go to the past, let’s say to the year 1900.  You can’t go unless during the year 1900, you actually showed up.  I know, it’s all theory, but that’s how it happened when Annie Pearce finds herself falling through a time portal, back to eleventh century England.  She understands the concept of time travel, of altering the past and how it can affect the future which makes her reluctant to get involved.  But she realizes that she had already been there, in the year 1075, had already altered time and whatever she touched or changed or created, was meant to be touched, changed or created.
So still think time travel is cool?  I know sometimes we’d like a do-over, the ability to change a decision, to not have to live through pain and despair.  But sometimes, these things make us who we are.  Each experience shapes us, each tear, each laugh, adds to our self.  We gain something.  All those things that I’ve experienced, including the loss of a child, made me who I am.  Without that, could I have writtenShe Wulf?
So time travel–can you see it?  What if it was real and I could look at it from a purely joyful perspective, without those darned consequences hanging over my head.  Maybe an afternoon with Elvis would be fun.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the She Wulf eBook edition is just 99 cents this week–and so is the price of its companion, The Day of First Sun. What’s more, by purchasing either of these fantastic books at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, and 5 autographed copies of the book.
All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes isRIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment–easy to enter; easy to win!
To win the prizes:
  1. Purchase your copy of She Wulf for just 99 cents
  2. Purchase your copy of Day of First Sun for just 99 cents
  3. Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity
  4. Visit today’s featured social media event
About She Wulf Annie is sent through an ancient time portal with only a prophecy to guide her; she struggles with a new destiny as she tries to figure out a way to destroy an un-killable demon and return home.  Get it on Amazon.
About The Day of First Sun A vampire, a rogue wizard and an army of soulless zombies are par for the course for Annie Pearce and Bobby “Cham” Chamsky of the Wizard’s Guard. But when the non-magical princess, Amelie of Amborix, is murdered by magical means, a deeper plot unfolds. Get it on Amazon.
About the author: Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise, using her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy. Visit Sheryl on her websiteTwitterFacebook, or GoodReads.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Fiction Freak: Breathless Reads Week Wrap Up! + Giveaway!

Fiction Freak: Breathless Reads Week Wrap Up! + Giveaway!: So here's the overview of BR Week... Interview with Lili Peloquin Interview with Morgan Rhodes Interview with Jessica Khoury Intervie...

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Inbetween Blog Tour and Giveaway!


TARA FULLER INBETWEEN BLOG TOUR

Inbetween (Kissed by Death, #1)
Blurb
Since the car crash that took her father’s life two years ago, Emma’s life has been a freaky—and unending—lesson in caution. Surviving “accidents” has taken priority over being a normal seventeen-year-old, so Emma spends her days taking pictures of life instead of living it. Falling in love with a boy was never part of the plan. Falling for a reaper who makes her chest ache and her head spin? Not an option. 

It’s not easy being dead especially for a reaper in love with a girl fate has put on his list not once, but twice. Finn’s fellow reapers give him hell about spending time with Emma, but Finn couldn’t let her die before, and he’s not about to let her die now. He will protect the girl he loves from the evil he accidentally unleashed, even if it means sacrificing the only thing he has left...his soul.


Release date: August 28, 2012

Author Bio (Spotlight)
Tara A. Fuller

Tara Fuller writes novels; some about grim reapers and some about witches. All of course are delightfully full of teen angst and kissing. Tara grew up in a one stop light town in Oklahoma where once upon a time she stayed up with a flash light reading RL Stine novels and only dreamed of becoming a writer. She has a slight obsession with music and a shameless addiction for zombie fiction, Mystery Science Theater, and black and white mochas. Tara no longer lives in a one stop light town. Now she lives with her family in a slightly larger town in North Carolina where they have at least three stoplights.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Dominion Blog Tour






I am super excited to get to introduce you to Melody Manful and her terrific new book, Dominion.  




Excerpt:
I should have called the police the moment I woke up, but what was I going to say: “Hello. 911. Help. I think I’m going to die because I had a dream that I died?” Yeah, even in my head I sounded ridiculous.


What happened to me was horrifying. It still is. But you won’t read about it in the newspapers, because it never happened.

It was only a dream.” That was what everyone kept telling me. Nevertheless, they were wrong. What happened to me wasn’t a dream. I was living it. I died that night. I was murdered in a firestorm.
Yet, where I am, I’m alive.

One single white lie isn’t supposed to bring with it a lifetime of obstacles, right?
Wrong!

I lied. I said ‘Yes,’ when I was supposed to say ‘No’, and that was how I got here.

I committed a crime. Handcuff me. Sentence me to life. Execute me. Trust me, death will be a vacation compared to the punishment I’m serving.

You’re such a terrible liar, Abigail.” This is what everyone I know says whenever I try to key up a lie. Then again, what does everyone I know, know for sure? Nothing!

I wasn’t crazy. No, honestly, before I found myself in ‘wackoland’ I was a walking ray of sunshine. Everything in my over-idolized life was perfect.

Until he came.

First, I thought. Finally. Someone to chase away the monsters underneath my bed, but as it turned out, he didn’t come to chase them away. He was it.

My guardian angel.



And, checkout the cover!  I think its gorgeous.  I especially love her pink dress with the red hand prints  splattered around.  Do we think those are bloody hand prints?   Love it!  What do you think?
 

Monday, August 13, 2012

Bout of Books Goals

I'm participating in Bout of Books. My goal for the week is 5 books! I've spent about 3 hrs reading today and I'm 1/2 way through Insurgent. I'll try to finish it tomorrow. I go back to school for in-service on Wednesday and my next day off will be Monday. I hope to be able to read at least 2 hrs every day during B.o.B.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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