Monday Muse: Jeni - Wildfire

THIS.

Feature Friday: C.J. Redwine

C.J. Redwine loves fairy tales, lemon bars, and any movie starring Johnny Depp. She is the author of the Defiance trilogy, a post-apocalyptic fantasy from Balzer + Bray/Harper Collins. C.J. lives in Nashville with her husband, four kids, two cats, and one long-suffering dog. To learn more about C.J., visit her website at http://cjredwine.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cjredwine

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/CJ-Redwine-Author/214211451945062

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cjredwine/

Tumblr: http://cjredwine.tumblr.com/

Interview: 

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

C.J.:
Write fearlessly. Your skills won't be up to par with your taste yet, but the only way to close that gap is to write without restraint. Don't worry about trends or the market or what you think you should be doing. Write to discover YOUR voice and to hone that into something good enough to be published.

Also, don't be in a hurry to be published. Pay your dues. Work hard until you've come to the point where your craft is good enough to make others in the field sit up and take notice.

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

C.J.:
Just one??? Ack! I don't think I can pick just one. I have many favorites from various points in my life. For example, in elementary school my favorite books were the Chronicles of Narnia. They simply transported me to places that no other books could do. It was like C.S. Lewis reached down into my imagination and blew the doors clean off of it.

In middle school and high school, I loved anything by Terry Brooks or J.R.R. Tolkien. Again, it was their ability to completely lift me out of my world and set me down somewhere else. I really wanted to believe in magic and in the ability of flawed but good-intentioned characters to save the day against almost overwhelming odds.

As an adult, the series I keep going back to is Harry Potter. (though my favorites shelf also includes books by Rae Carson, Emily Murdoch, Myra McEntire, Jodi Meadows, Katie McGarry, and Barry Lyga) Not to beat a dead theme, or anything, but again HP just completely captivated my imagination. I could sink into Rowling's world and be fully encompassed. I still re-read the series ever few years, and I'm one of the fans who watches the movies every time ABC Family does an HP weekend even though I own 2 copies of each movie. (One regular, one extended cut with commentary. Yeah, baby.)

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

C.J.:
Deception is the next phase in the saga of Rachel and Logan. I realized about halfway through writing Defiance that there was no way I could fit all of the plot into one book. I kept discovering layers upon layers. I sat down to write a synopsis and realized that instead of writing a stand alone, I was writing a trilogy. Deception is a story of how the survivors of Baalboden's destruction survive against all that is levied against them, but it's also the story of how the seeds of treason, corruption, and greed planted years ago have given birth to something terrible.

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

C.J.:
Yes. So many snags. It took me 5 1/2 drafts to get Deception right. The plot itself didn't change, but the arrangement did as did the pacing. It was exhausting and frustrating to keep rewriting only to miss the mark, but I just put my head down and did the work. I'm grateful I have an editor who knows how to push me to get the best work out of me.

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

C.J.:
I don't have one single favorite, and of course I love both Rachel and Logan, but the secondary characters of Quinn, Willow, Ian, and Sylph really grabbed my heart for various reasons. Mostly because this time around, I got to spend more time with my secondary characters, letting their voices into my head and learning their stories. I have to say that of all of them, Willow is my scene stealer. That girl outshines everyone when she enters a scene. Even a scene with twenty other characters. There's just something about her outspoken honesty and slightly aggressive attitude (okay, more than slightly aggressive!) that just swings the spotlight onto her.

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

C.J.:
I've been writing for most of my life, but I didn't start seriously pursuing publication until I turned thirty. I signed with my agent in 2009 but it took me two more years (and two more completed manuscripts) to sell a book. Sometimes I felt like the poster child for the girl who couldn't sell a book to save her life, but I did what I always do: I put my head down and kept working.

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

C.J.:
I'm beginning work on two new series. One is high fantasy loosely based on fairy tales (and inspired by how incredibly disappointed I was with Snow White and the Huntsman. Don't even get me started.). The other is a contemporary urban fantasy that can best be described as Percy Jackson meets Supernatural. I'm not sure which one will sell, but as soon as one of them does, I'll put all of my attention on it.

A.L.:
What's your favorite of Johnny Depp's movies?

C.J.:
Ooh, good question! I love so many of them (Benny & Joon and The Secret Window being top faves) but I have to say the movie that I can watch over and over again without ever tiring of it is Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Johnny hadn't done much that was super commercial before then, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but Captain Jack Sparrow stole my heart.

A.L.:
Can we see your favorite pair of stilettos? 

C.J.:
Sure! Here's the pair I purchased as a present to myself when I sold Defiance: http://www.angryyoungandpoor.com/store/pc/catalog/products/shoes/ifl0767us.jpg

A.L.:
Why did you choose to write YA fantasy instead of another YA genre?

C.J.:
As soon as I learned how to read, I would visit the library and check out piles of Grimm's fairy tale books. I made occasional detours into Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Black Stallion, but most of my reading time was spent on fairy tales and then later on Narnia and Middle Earth. I don't watch chick flicks. I watch sci fi, fantasy, and comic book movies. I cosplayed Harry Potter premieres. I swear allegiance to shows like Supernatural and Fringe. My imagination isn't satisfied unless I'm creating new worlds or pushing hard at the boundaries of this one. I want magic and shiny new technology and wizards and for the love of Aslan, I want a wardrobe that will let me into another world. I actually tried to write non-fantasy once. I was miserable. Every single idea that comes into my head includes monsters and magic and worlds that look nothing like the one outside my window.

The Giveaway:
C.J. is willing to offer the entrant's choice of a paperback of Defiance or hardback of Deception anywhere in the US or Canada.

Defiance:  Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city’s brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses, host dinner parties, and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father’s apprentice, Logan—the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same boy who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

At nineteen, Logan McEntire is many things. Orphan. Outcast. Inventor. As apprentice to the city’s top courier, Logan is focused on learning his trade so he can escape the tyranny of Baalboden. But his plan never included being responsible for his mentor’s impulsive daughter. Logan is determined to protect her, but when his escape plan goes wrong and Rachel pays the price, he realizes he has more at stake than disappointing Jared.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can’t be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

Read Goodreads reviews.
Buy on Amazon.
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Deception:  Baalboden has been ravaged. The brutal Commander's whereabouts are unknown. And Rachel, grief stricken over her father's death, needs Logan more than ever. With their ragged group of survivors struggling to forge a future, it's up to Logan to become the leader they need—with Rachel by his side. Under constant threat from rival Carrington's army, who is after the device that controls the Cursed One, the group decides to abandon the ruins of their home and take their chances in the Wasteland.



But soon their problems intensify tenfold: someone—possibly inside their ranks—is sabotaging the survivors, picking them off one by one. The chaos and uncertainty of each day puts unbearable strain on Rachel and Logan, and it isn't long before they feel their love splintering. Even worse, as it becomes clear that the Commander will stop at nothing to destroy them, the band of survivors begins to question whether the price of freedom may be too great—and whether, hunted by their enemies and the murderous traitor in their midst, they can make it out of the Wasteland alive.


In this daring sequel to Defiance, with the world they once loved forever destroyed, Rachel and Logan must decide between a life on the run and standing their ground to fight.

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 and Canadian entrants only.

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Monday Muse: Avicii - Wake Me Up

Fun new song!

Banned Book Giveaway/Hop

September 22 marks the first day in banned books week and in honor of this splendiferous week, I'm doing a giveaway/hop of banned and challenged books!

The Giveaway:
One lucky winner gets to pick one of these banned/challenged books!

What My Mother Doesn't Know:  My name is Sophie.
This book is about me.
It tells
the heart-stoppingly riveting story
of my first love.
And also of my second.
And, okay, my third love, too.

It's not that I'm boy crazy.
It's just that even though
I'm almost fifteen
it's like
my mind
and my body
and my heart
just don't seem to be able to agree
on anything.

The Earth, My Butt, And Other Big Round Things:  "The heroine’s transformation into someone who finds her own style and speaks her own mind is believable — and worthy of applause." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Fifteen-year-old Virginia Shreves has a larger-than-average body and a plus-size inferiority complex, especially when she compares herself to her slim, brilliant, picture-perfect family. But that’s before a shocking phone call — and a horrifying allegation — about her rugby-star brother changes everything. With irreverent humor and surprising gravity, Carolyn Mackler creates an endearingly blunt heroine who speaks to every teen who struggles with family expectations, and proves that the most impressive achievement is to be true to yourself.

Crank:  In Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the "monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or "crank." Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne'er-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: "there is no perfect daughter, / no gifted high school junior, / no Kristina Georgia Snow. / There is only Bree." Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won't, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower:  Charlie is a freshman.

And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

The Hunger Games:  Katniss, 16, takes her sister's place in the televised annual Hunger Games, competing against Peeta, the boy who gave them bread to survive after their father died. The cruel Capitol forces each of 12 districts to submit a boy and girl 12-18, to fight to the death. Only one can survive and be rewarded. President Snow manipulates behind the scenes.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone:  Harry Potter has never played a sport while flying on a broomstick. He's never worn a Cloak of Invisibility, befriended a giant, or helped hatch a dragon. All Harry knows is a miserable life with the Dursleys, his horrible aunt and uncle, and their abominable son, Dudley. Harry's room is a tiny cupboard under the stairs, and he hasn't had a birthday party in ten years.

But all that is about to change when a mysterious letter arrives by owl messenger: a letter with an invitation to a wonderful place he never dreamed existed. There he finds not only friends, aerial sports, and magic around every corner, but a great destiny that's been waiting for him... if Harry can survive the encounter.

The Golden Compass:  Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Go Ask Alice:   January 24th

After you've had it, there isn't even life without drugs....

It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life.

Read her diary.

Enter her world.

You will never forget her.

For thirty-five years, the acclaimed, bestselling first-person account of a teenage girl's harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. As powerful -- and as timely -- today as ever, Go Ask Alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction.     


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 national entrants only.

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http://maryinhb.blogspot.com/2013/09/banned-book-giveaway-hop.html
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Feature Friday: Mindy McGinnis

Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut, NOT A DROP TO DRINK, is a post-apocalyptic survival tale set in a world where freshwater is almost non-existent, available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins September 9, 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire and contributes to the group blogs Book Pregnant, Friday the Thirteeners, From the Write Angle, The Class of 2k13 and The Lucky 13s. You can also find her on Twitter, Tumblr & Facebook.

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

Mindy:
Write whatever story is resonating with you the most. Don't chase trends, and definitely don't write something just because you think it might be marketable. If your heart isn't in it, it will be obvious. 

A.L.:
What's your favorite book and why?
 
Mindy:
I don't have a particular favorite book, but THE STAND by Stephen King is up there. I've read it three or four times and I get a horrible cold every time. When something is so strong that it produces psychosomatic symptoms, that says a lot. 

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Not A Drop to Drink?
 
Mindy: 
I watched a documentary titled Blue Gold, which is about the predicted freshwater shortage for our planet. It was very frightening, and made me grateful for the pond in my backyard. That night I dreamt about teaching a small child how to handle a rifle, so that we would be able to protect our water source from other people. I woke up and said, "Hey, I think I wrote a book in my head just now." 

A.L.:
Did you hit any snags while writing Not A Drop to Drink?  What were they and how did you fix them?
 
Mindy:
Not really. I often tell people that the story literally fell out of me. And it did. I wrote it in a little under six months, I believe. There were no stalls, no periods of wondering what happened next. I just knew. Or rather, the characters did. They acted, I narrated. 

A.L.:
Which one of the characters in Not A Drop to Drink is your favorite and why?
 
Mindy:
Geez. Favorite books, favorite characters! You're killing me! They're all good (and bad) people in their own ways. A lot of the story focuses on that exactly- they live in a world where good and bad don't exist the way we think of them now. There's survival, and there's what you do to stay alive. 

A.L.:
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an author?
 
Mindy: 
Sure. It was long and horrific. I'd been writing and querying for ten years before landing Adriann Ranta as an agent. I have three trunked (as in, probably forever) adult mss, and one (and 1/2) YA mss that will probably never go anywhere. DRINK was a whirlwind in its own right - I think I only sent out 10 queries and I had 8 full requests and 2 offers of representation off of those. But there was a decade of doubt before that. 

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

Mindy:
Right now I'm giving myself some downtime. Lots of reading. A little brainstorming but nothing I'd call an active WIP. 

A.L.:
You're a YA librarian!  Of course, we're going to pick your brain:  

Mindy:
Favorite YA author. Why?  Rick Yancey - he's not afraid to just go there.
Favorite YA novel.  Why?  THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST by Rick Yancey. Because it goes there.
Whose book did you just order for your YA department? Why? Sadly, we've done zero ordering this year. Yeah. We have no money. It breaks my heart. I've got kids coming in wanting sequels and new releases, and... I don't have them. It sucks. I hate it. 

A.L.:
So -- because I'm dorky and get super excited when I find out other people also studied religion in college -- not counting your own religion (if you have one) what's the most interesting religious figure you've ever studied and why?
 
Mindy:
Oooooo I like this question. Honestly all religious figures are fascinating. But, I won't give you a non-answer -- I think any nuns or monks (anytime, anyplace) are just amazing. I'm not Catholic (in fact, I'm a Lutheran) but I think anyone who gives themselves fully over to a life commitment like that is admirable. And for the record, Martin Luther is also very kickass. There's a great example of - Hello, I have a very unpopular opinion, and I'm going to make that very clear, in a very public way.

A.L.:
You can your own food.  Do you also grow your own food? What's your favorite canned food and why?

Mindy:
Yes, actually I do. Between what I grow and can and what the boyfriend hunts, we could probably live entirely free of grocery shopping. But we'd have no dairy. And I do love yogurt.

Tomatoes. Yum. There is nothing quite like popping the lid off a jar of tomatoes in the dead of winter and smelling the tomatoes that I canned in August. Just... yum. 

A.L.:
Have YOU ever been deprived of water? 

Mindy:
Not to the extent that I thought I was going to die, no. But I am an athlete, and I know what it's like to have to run past your endurance and then have that NEED for water. It goes beyond thirsty. 

The Giveaway:
Mindy is giving away swag for NOT A DROP TO DRINK.

Not A Drop To Drink:  Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

With evocative, spare language and incredible drama, danger, and romance, debut author Mindy McGinnis depicts one girl’s journey in a barren world not so different than our own.

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 national entrants only.

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Monday Muse: Eluveitie -- A Rose for Epona

Brain candy!

Feature Friday: Sean Beaudoin

Sean Beaudoin is the author of five novels, including the old school noir mystery You Killed Wesley Payne, the rude zombie opus The Infects, and the raw-throated punk band diary Wise Young Fool (Little, Brown--August 6, 2013). His stories and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the Onion, Salon, Glimmer Train, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Spirit-- the inflight magazine of Southwest Airlines. He is also a founding editor of the arts and culture website TheWeeklings.com, which is hands-down the best site on the internet.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X23sWj8d4dI
twitter: @SeanBeaudoin
website: www.SeanBeaudoin.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SeanBeaudoin

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

Sean: 
Read. Read. Read. Read. Everything you can get your hands on, all different styles and topics and authors. Don't constrain yourself by thinking you have to sit down and write a novel, or that everything you do write is finish-quality and will go into that novel. Just right for fun. Write stuff you're willing to throw away. Get in the practice of doing it regularly without an immediately payoff. Also, be willing to be lousy at it until you aren't lousy any more. It's the same advice I'd give a budding saxophone player.

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

Sean: 
I have many of them, but the one that influenced me the most in terms of YA was The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll. Mainly because it may be the most honest book I've ever read. The best book I've read recently was Billy Lynne's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. Again, it's a mixture of humor and honesty.

A.L.:
Where did you get the idea for Wise Young Fool?

Sean: 
I found it under the sofa, being gnawed on by the cat.

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

Sean: 
I'm not entirely sure why, but it was the easiest of my five books to write. It all just sort of came out smoothly. Maybe it's because a good bit of it is based on my actual teen years, although it's not a memoir and is absolutely fiction. I swear. Just ask the lawyers.

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

Sean: 
I love them all. It's like being asked to pick your favorite niece. But Wise Young Fool would not exist if any of them were removed, so they're all essential. I love their essentialness.

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

Sean: 
I've been writing since I was sixteen. I always knew it was what I wanted to do. I've been through every possible stage of authorship: doubt, inexperience, lack of talent, elation, boredom, success, failure. My journey as an author will end the day I write a song for a Journey cover band. But not until then.

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

Sean: 
I am working on Cornelius Wrathbone, which is about Bigfoot, and should be out with Candlewick Books spring 2015.

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

Sean: 
Blueberries, almonds, garlic, grilled chicken, English cucumbers, calamari, and popcorn.

A.L.:
What's the craziest thing you've ever done?

Sean: 
Probably honestly answering questions in previous interviews about what the craziest thing I've ever done is. And then never hearing the end of it from those involved. But, for the sake of argument, let's say it was splitting college mid-semester and hitchhiking through Mexico for three months instead.

A.L.:
Ritchie Sudden, your main character from Wise Young Fool is a musician who ends up in Juvenile Detention.  Are you writing from experience on either of those fronts?

Sean: 
Yes, I played in any number of lousy bands until my daughter was born, at which point I more or less laid down my guitar and picked up a diaper. Also, my father worked in a Juvenile Detention center for many years, an experience that shaped my life. I've always wanted to write about it.

The Giveaway:
Sean is giving away a signed ARC of WISE YOUNG FOOL.

Wise Young Fool:  Teen rocker Ritchie Sudden is pretty sure his life has just jumped the shark. Except he hates being called a teen, his band doesn't play rock, and "jumping the shark" is yet another dumb cliché. Part of Ritchie wants to drop everything and walk away. Especially the part that's serving ninety days in a juvenile detention center.

Telling the story of the year leading up to his arrest, Ritchie grabs readers by the throat before (politely) inviting them along for the (max-speed) ride. A battle of the bands looms. Dad split about five minutes before Mom's girlfriend moved in. There's the matter of trying to score with the dangerously hot Ravenna Woods while avoiding the dangerously huge Spence Proffer--not to mention just trying to forget what his sister, Beth, said the week before she died.

This latest offering from acclaimed author Sean Beaudoin is alternately raw, razor-sharp, and genuinely hilarious.


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 national entrants only. 


 

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Break Open The World Blog Hop

The Giveaway:
This week I'm helping a couple of debut authors (B.R. Depue and Kristen Brokenicky) spread the word about their new collection of poems and shorts!

Break Open the World:  From happy to sad, Break Open The World contains the poems and short stories of two authors, B.R. Depue and Kristen Brokenicky, brought all together underneath one title. Break Open The World is a wonderful book that takes you through a world of different emotions and experiences that two ordinary people went through in their lifetime. Break Open The World is worth reading.

B.R. Depue website.

Read Goodreads reviews.

Get it on Amazon.

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Monday Muse: Zendaya -- Replay

I wanna pop and lock like that.

Feature Friday: Jennifer L. Armentrout

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing, she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell, Loki.
Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen.
She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.


Interview:

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

Jennifer:
I always give the same advice.  You should write what you want to write, not what you need to write.

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

Jennifer: 
I can’t pick just one!  I love the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent and the Demon Trappers series by Jana Oliver.  I absolutely love the writing and the characters in both series.

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

Jennifer: 
I had an idea about what I was going to do in Origin when I was writing Opal, but the book started to change and evolve while I was writing it.  I really wasn’t expecting what happens at the end of the book, but I’m excited about it.

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

Jennifer: 
Origin is the first book in the Lux series to be written in dual POV, so I had to adjust to alternating the POV’s between Daemon and Katy.  I had to keep reminding myself that writing a scene from Daemon’s POV was an option.

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

Jennifer: 
Katy is the hardest character to write in the Lux series because she’s changed so much from Obsidian to Origin, but that also makes her my favorite character.

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

Jennifer: 
I’m writing the second book in the Dark Elements series which is about gargoyles and demons with lots of action and kissing.

A.L.:
You've got a lot of different books/series on the table!  Of all the series that you've written, which was your favorite and why?

Jennifer:
That’s a tough question.  I’m fond of the Covenant series just because Half-Blood was my first published book.  But, I love the books that I’ve written in the Dark Elements series, too.  I’ve really fallen in love with the characters in this one.

A.L.:
Do you prefer to write for YA, NA, or Adult?  Or does it depend on the day?

Jennifer: 
I actually enjoy writing all of them, so I don’t think that I prefer one over the others.  I tend to mix it up by alternating the series and genres that I’m writing, so that keeps it interesting for me.

A.L.:
What's your favorite zombie movie?  Why?

Jennifer: 
Shaun of the Dead because it’s the best zombie movie ever!

Giveaway:
Jennifer is giving away some swag.

Origin: Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

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How to Enter:
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COVER REVEAL!

It's the cover for my new YA paranormal romance book, FOR YOUR HEART!  It still needs the blurbs added, but this is it overall!  I feel like it's a really unique looking cover, both in content and in the style of the graphic art.  I hope you all love it as much as I do!

 

Cover art: Jessica Allain

Cover graphics/typography: Stella Price

Monday Muse: Trixie Whitley -- Breathe You In My Dreams

Chill.