Aquinnah Tour, Diamonds and Dust, and Hop Winners

The Ghosts of Aquinnah tour continues today with visits to Christine Rains and Annalisa Crawford. Thanks to both ladies for hosting me! I'm sharing my top ten favorite things about Martha's Vineyard at Christine's place and an interview with my character Christopher Casey at Annalisa's, so please stop by and see me.

Lexa Cain and I are also excited to announce the winners of our blog hop! We are in the process of contacting everyone but wanted to share a full list too. So without further ado, the winners!

An ebook copy of The Ghosts of Aquinnah ~  Sheri Larsen

An ebook copy of Soul Cutter ~ Crystal Hicken Collier

A 5 page critique from Lexa's agent Michelle Johnson of Inklings Literary Agency ~ Christine Rains

A query critique from Michelle Johnson ~ Magaly Guerrero

An ebook bundle from Julie's publisher Ink Smith Publishing ~ C. Lee McKenzie

An ebook copy of Champion in the Darkness by Tyrean Martinson ~ Susan Swiderski

A digital copy of The 13th Floor Complete Collection by Christine Rains ~ Kim Graff

An ebook copy of Drowned Sorrow by Vanessa Morgan ~ Beverly Fox

An ebook from M. Pax ~ Cathy Keaton

A Kindle copy of BESTEST. RAMADAN. EVER. by Medeia Sharif  ~ Suzi

An ebook from Nicki Elson - winner's choice of Three Daves, Divine Temptation or Hans & Greta ~ Tania Miclau

A Kindle copy of The People We Used to Be by Madeline Mora-Summonte ~ Beverly Stowe McClure

A 5 page critique from C. Lee McKenzie ~ Michael Di Gesu

An ebook set of Murder, Madness & Love and Memories of Murder by Yolanda Renee ~ Shah Wharton

An ebook set of Murder, Madness & Love and Memories of Murder by Yolanda Renee ~ Alex J. Cavanaugh

A Kindle copy of Marionette by TB Markinson ~ Samantha Geary Jones

A Kindle Copy of Dangled Carat by Hilary Grossman ~ Diane Burton

An ebook copy of  AlmaMia Cienfuegos and Other Stories by Magaly Guerrero ~ Hilary Rick Grossman

Also, we had a nearly impossible time picking a winner for our special best picture prize, so we have two! Nutschell Windsor won first place and Magaly Guerrero was the runner-up. Both of these ladies will be receiving ebook copies of Soul Cutter and The Ghosts of Aquinnah.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Also, River Fairchild's Diamonds and Dust was released yesterday and it is my pleasure to be able to share some information about it. Congratulations to River!!

Diamonds and Dust

by River Fairchild

Book 1 of the Jewels of Chandra series

Magic is real. So is betrayal.

Two heirs. A Kingdom of dust on a troubled world. One might resurrect it. One might destroy it all.

Archaeologist David Alexander investigates the cave where his father disappeared and hurtles into another world, one filled with magic and bizarre creatures. The mad ravings in his father's journals of icemen and dragons may not be fantasies after all.

Convinced his father may still be alive, David begins a treacherous journey to find him and discover a way home. Along the way, he encounters a few unlikely friends. A Dreean warrior, a beautiful thief and a satyr join him as he searches.

David's arrival into this new world sets off an explosive chain reaction of events. Faced with powerful adversaries and few clues, he may not get the chance to rescue his father before disaster strikes, condemning both of them to death. Or worse.

Buy it here:

AmazonUS

AmazonUK

AmazonDE

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

Apple

SmashWords
Paperback

**********************

 

About the author:

River Fairchild is somewhat odd, brandishes a dry sense of humor, owned by several cats. Lives in a fantasy world. A fabricator of magic. Makes stuff up and spins tales about it. Believes in Faerie crossings and never staying in one place for very long. Speculative Fiction wordsmith. The secret to her stories? Spread lies, blend in truths, add a pinch of snark and a dash of tears. Escape into her world. She left the porch light on so you can find your way down the rabbit hole.

Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Amazon /

Guest Post from Annalisa Crawford and Celebrating the Small Things

Today I'm really excited to be hosting Annalisa Crawford as part of her blog tour for her collection of short stories, That Sadie Thing. I've started the collection and love all of the stories I've read so far, and also loved Annalisa's novella Cat and the Dreamer.  I highly recommend Annalisa's work and it's a pleasure to be part of her tour. 

Take it away, Annalisa! :)

Thanks for having me today Julie. I'm going to tell you about Portrait of the Painter.

If you follow me, or even if you read the first post on my tour, you may know that I have a novel that I began writing when I was about 16 and rewrote it constantly until I was about 34. (It's still within reach, I may have another go...) Anyway, that story has been a short story, a novella, and a novel - several times over. Portrait of the Painter is one of those short story versions.

I had the character of Jo before anything, and Jo was a painter, and she didn't like to eat her crusts. In whichever version she's been in she's never liked eating her crusts. The other character is Simon. Originally he was Daniel, but when he was Daniel he was actually Jo's boyfriend and he was much older than her. In this short story version he's the same age and not her boyfriend. So when I went back to the novel, I had to change the name.

Technically, I suppose, I should have absorbed the story back into the novel once it became a novel again, but by then it had taken on a life of it's own. So I kept them separate and changed Daniel's name to Dominic then to Simon. I never find changing names easy - it's like naming a baby and then changing your name after a year; so the decision to change Daniel's name meant a lot of time looking through the baby name book.

Fun fact: I ended up naming the character after the friend who is sitting beside me as I type this. Spooky - especially since I haven't see this friend for a couple of years!!

Jo was different though, I couldn't change her name - she was perfect as she was. And besides, she had a whole paragraph about how much she liked her name!


About Annalisa
I live in Cornwall, with a good supply of beaches and moorland right on my doorstep. I live with my husband, two boys, a dog and a cat. Despite my location. I neither surf nor sail, and have never had any inclination to try. I much prefer walking along the beach and listening to the waves crashing over rocks. For this reason, I really love the beach in the winter!

Buy That Sadie Thing here (this link should take you direct to your local Amazon)
Follow Annalisa here, or Like her here
Read her blog here

 

Friday means it's time to Celebrate the Small Things with Vikki again. If you want to learn more about this hop and sign up to join in, click here.

This week I'm celebrating that I made it through a week of posting every day in the 2013 Word Count Blogathon. But I think this is where the daily posting stops for me, as I've come to the realization that I need to focus on some other goals right now. So I'm going to go back to normal posting for the rest of June, probably three times a week, and also work on getting my new animal rescue blog up and running. Thanks to everyone who stopped by here from the Blogathon and I wish all the participants the best of luck for the rest of June!

I'm also celebrating that I had a totally awesome vacation on Martha's Vineyard last week that really inspired me to whip my latest novel the The Ghosts of Aquinnah into shape so that it's ready for submission. For more on that, see Wednesday's post. I'm choosing to celebrate the fact that I enjoyed the vacation so much instead of being depressed that I'm back to real life now, even though that is the truth too LOL.

Happy Friday and weekend to all!

Two Cover Reveals and More Celebrations

Congratulations to Alex J. Cavanaugh and Annalisa Crawford, who are both revealing new covers this week!

First up, Annalisa and her cover for That Sadie Thing:

A couple break up on a rainy night; a runaway longs to go home; a woman finds comfort from eating lunch as her best friend lies in hospital; a teenager feels oppressed by her father. All of the characters in these stories are trying to find their place in the world, attempting to find connections that matter with the people around them.

This collection brings together prize-winning and published stories from the past twenty years: the ‘greatest hits’.

That Sadie Thing and other stories will be available on

Kindle from Monday 25th February 2013.

Annalisa Crawford lives and writes in Cornwall with a good supply of beaches and moorland to keep her inspired. She finds endless possibilities in the relationships between people. As this collection testifies, she has been writing for twenty years - but doesn't feel a day over twenty-one.

Find her on her blog, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

Up next, the Ninja Captain himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and the cover for CassaStorm:

CassaStorm by Alex J. Cavanaugh

http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

A storm gathers across the galaxy…

Byron thought he’d put the days of battle behind him. Commanding the Cassan base on Tgren, his only struggles are occasional rogue pirate raids and endless government bureaucracies. As a galaxy-wide war encroaches upon the desert planet, Byron’s ideal life is threatened and he’s caught between the Tgrens and the Cassans.

After enemy ships attack the desert planet, Byron discovers another battle within his own family. The declaration of war between all ten races triggers nightmares in his son, shaking Bassan to the core and threatening to destroy the boy’s mind.

Meanwhile the ancient alien ship is transmitting a code that might signal the end of all life in the galaxy. And the mysterious probe that almost destroyed Tgren twenty years ago could be on its way back. As his world begins to crumble, Byron suspects a connection. The storm is about to break, and Byron is caught in the middle…

Release date: September 17, 2013

Science Fiction - Space Opera/Adventure

Print ISBN 9781939844002

E-book ISBN 9781939844019

Huge congratulations again to Alex and Annalisa! I think both of these covers are fantastic, and both books are going right to my TBR list.

The end of the week also brings another edition of the Celebrate the Small Things Bloghop, hosted by Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author.

This week was an easy one for me, as I am celebrating the fact that I have internet at home again! As of yesterday, I got my modem from the new service provider installed and so far, so good. Everything seems to be working fine and I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that this is the end of that whole mess.

Hope everyone had lots to celebrate this week. Happy weekend! :)

Imaginary Friends and Small Celebrations

Annalisa Crawford and Kyra Lennon are hosting the Imaginary Friend Bloghop today to celebrate the upcoming one year anniversary of Annalisa's excellent book Cat and The Dreamer.

When I was a kid I spent nearly all of my time with my sister, as I followed her around like a puppy, so I never really thought about having an imaginary friend. But I did have a stuffed dog who accompanied me everywhere, including the hospital when I had to have my tonsils out, and slept with me every single night. I received the dog as a gift when I was a baby and named him Hoppy Poppy when I was too young to come up with a better name. ;)

Even though Hoppy Poppy was an inanimate object, I considered him my special friend and my confidante, and he still has a home with me in a box in my closet. He's a ragged mess now and much of his stuffing has come out, but he will always be a childhood treasure to me.

Congratulations to Annalisa and Happy Birthday to Cat and The Dreamer on February 14th! If you haven't already read Cat and The Dreamer, I highly recommend it. It is an emotional and powerful story that really packs a punch.

Thanks to Annalisa and Kyra for hosting this fun fest.

As another week ends, it's also time to Celebrate the Small Things with Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author.

My small pleasure this week is that I learned how to use rafflecopter and managed to successfully create a widget for my upcoming release party and giveaway for Polar Night. As I said last week when I learned how to add my "find me" buttons to the blog, any time I am able to figure out how to create something online it feels like a victory to me. I am often a master at turning even the simplest task into a nightmare.

Other than that, I didn't accomplish much this week as my mind has been too busy turning to mush over the fact that my release is now less than a week away. I'm beyond excited but also a nervous wreck! But now that I have the widget, I'm anxious to be able to share the details of the giveaway next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend ahead! :)

U Got the Look Meme

I've been tagged for the U Got the Look meme a few times now and had been meaning to post about it but, as my mind seems to become more scattered each day, I kept forgetting to do it. Last week I was tagged by the wonderful Annalisa Crawford, so I decided to hurry up and do the post before I forgot yet again.

Annalisa was a fellow NaNoWriMo participant this year and decided to use her NaNo project for the meme. She suggested that those she tagged do the same, so I thought that could be a great way for me to get back to my project and start the editing and re-writing I've been putting off since NaNo ended.

If you're not familiar with this meme, the rules are to find the first mention of the word "look" in your manuscript and then post the paragraph(s) surrounding it. I didn't have to go far to find the first use of the word in my ms, as my first "look" was on the second page.

So here is my excerpt from the opening chapter of  The Ghosts of Aquinnah:

“We can’t get to you, boy,” the man yelled. “We’ll sink ourselves.”

Christopher looked down at the currents swirling around the submerged deck of the wrecked ship, and his heart sunk. It was no mystery why the rescuers couldn't come any closer. The currents could easily pick up their boat and slam it into the wreckage.

“Come to us!” The man held up a boat hook. “We’ll get you!”

Christopher knew there was nothing to do but let go and fall into the churning waters. In a way it would be a relief, as he couldn’t hold on to the rigging much longer anyway. He stared at the men in the boat and then glanced back down at the sea. Within seconds, he dropped into the waves below.

Thanks to Annalisa for tagging me! I'm terrible at picking out people to tag as I think it's impossible to choose, so I'm just going to send out a general tag to everyone who comes by here and wants to do the meme. I always love reading everyone's excerpts.

Last week was crazy here as it was the end of the semester at work and I made the terrible mistake of trying to switch to a new internet and cable service at home. At first I thought the switch went very smoothly, but I should have known that was too good to be true. After several heated phone calls, numerous attempts to hook up various wires and cables, and time wasted booting and rebooting modems that didn't work, I ended up going back to the internet I already had. It's safe to say the week was a complete fiasco.

As a result, I ended up taking an unplanned hiatus from the blogosphere and fell way behind on my blog reading, so I'm anxious to get caught up as much as possible this week.

Also, Lisa Regan will be here tomorrow as part of her blog tour for her debut novel Finding Claire Fletcher. Lisa's going to be talking about when she knew she wanted to be a writer. I'm excited to have Lisa here, and I can't recommend her book enough.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and I'm looking forward to catching up with everything I missed last week. 

Catching Up

I haven't been blogging much in the past few weeks since I started editing and revising my WIP and found the task to be more overwhelming than I expected. Yikes! I knew the job was going to be difficult, but I admit I am pulling my hair out more than I anticipated.

During this time I was tagged by three great bloggers, Annalisa Crawford, Nutschell of The Writing Nut, and The Armchair Squid, and I want to catch up now and say thank you so much to all three of them for thinking of me!

Each tag came with 10 questions, but I worried I would bore everyone to death if I answered all 30 of them, so I thought I would just take 5 from each and post my answers to 15 questions. Hopefully that won't be too long! The first 5 are from Armchair, the second 5 from Nutschell, and the last 5 are from Annalisa. It was fun to think of answers to all of these. 


1. What is your dream vacation?

I'd love to drive around and explore the western United States, seeing the Rocky Mountains, visiting national parks like Yellowstone and Zion, going back to the Grand Canyon, and ending up in my favorite city I've ever visited, San Francisco. I love what I've seen of the West, and would love to have all the time in the world to explore more of it.

Rocky Mountain Gateway

2. Tell us one thing you want to do but don't dare do it.

I really want to learn to swim. I tried more than once as a child, but was very afraid of the water. Now I'm chicken to take lessons as an adult.

3. What's your biggest phobia?

I'm very uncomfortable in elevators and I hate to be in tightly enclosed spaces.

4. Name three blessings in your life.

1. I had a happy childhood and am fortunate to have a close and loving family. As I've grown older I've learned what a blessing that is. 2. I am in good health, knock on wood. 3. I have discovered this amazing opportunity to transform my life through writing, and so far it has been one of the biggest blessings of my life.

5. What is your favorite quote?

I have several, but if I had to pick just one I think it would be this:  

It is never too late to be what you might have been ~ George Eliot

6.  What’s your ultimate caffeine source?

Coffee, coffee, and more coffee.

Source

7. Favorite music source? (Radio, Pandora, Spotify, CD, Ipod, etc)

My Ipod is one of my favorite toys I've ever owned. I can't live without it.  

8. Favorite Writing book?

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

9. Favorite TV show?

I'm a total tv junkie so it's nearly impossible for me to pick just one, but of the shows on the air right now I'd say Game of Thrones is my favorite. I can't wait for it to return next month. 

10. Harry Potter or Twilight?

Harry all the way. I totally love the Harry Potter series, and I'm not a Twilight fan, so this one was easy. 

11. Which book, that you're supposed to love, do you actually hate?

Pride and Prejudice. I know it's almost considered blasphemous, but I don't enjoy Jane Austen. Flame away, I can take it. :D

12. Can you remember your first teacher?

Yes. My kindergarten teacher was Mrs. Phillips. At the time I thought she was old, but I think now she was probably only about 22. Perspectives change a great deal!

13. In which order should Star Wars be watched: IV, V, VI, I, II, III or I, II, III, IV, V, VI?

I confess I've never seen I or II. I did see III and didn't care for it. So I am just going to say IV, V, VI. 

14. Which fictional character would you like to be for a day?

Sookie Stackhouse. I don't even like the character, but having Eric Northman drooling over me would be a nice way to spend the day. :D

Eric Northman

15. Do you still have your first teddy bear? (I do.)

I do, too, and it is a very beat up and dearly loved Winnie the Pooh.

So those are my 15 questions and answers. I hope I haven't put everyone to sleep! Thanks again to Armchair, Nutschell, and Annalisa for tagging me. If you're not already familiar with their blogs, I highly recommend all 3 of them.


Now back to revising and pulling out what remains of my hair. ;)