Tag Time

The wonderful and talented Christine Rains, author of the fantastic 13th Floor series, tagged me for one of the writing memes that has been making its way around the blogosphere. Thanks to Christine for the tag!

The rules of this tag are very simple. All I had to do was answer four of the following nine questions, link back to Christine, and then tag four writers myself.

The questions:  

1. What are you working on right now?

2. How does it differ from other works in its genre? 

3. What experiences have influenced you? 

4. Why do you write what you do?

5. How does your writing process work?

6. What is the hardest part about writing?

7. What would you like to try as a writer that you haven't yet?

8. Who are the authors you most admire?

9. What scares you? 

My answers:

1. I am working on revising and polishing my upcoming novel The Ghosts of Aquinnah. Every time I think I'm done I start playing with it again! The novel will be released in December of this year and I'm very excited about it.

7. I would like to try writing short stories. I have written some flash fiction but have never written a longer short story and that's something I'd really like to do. I have some ideas and hope to flesh them out and get some stories written - that's a goal for 2014.

8. There are so many authors I admire that it would be impossible to list all of them. But when I read this question I thought about two author friends I have come to really admire for more than just their writing as I've gotten to know them. One is M. Pax, who is the author of The Backworlds Series, among other works. I admire Mary because she created a business plan for her writing and she's stuck with it, and she is now seeing the fruits of her labor. I am very impressed with her determination and resolve. I also admire Lisa Regan, author of Finding Claire Fletcher and Aberration. If you know Lisa, you know how many times she was rejected by agents (238!) before she finally got a "yes" on Claire Fletcher. Her perseverance is an inspiration to everyone who has ever thought about giving up and throwing in the towel.

9. Public speaking! Just the thought of having to stand up in front of people and talk is enough to make me break out into a cold sweat. 

Thanks again to Christine for tagging me for this fun meme. I am tagging Yolanda Renee, Susan Oloier, S.K. Anthony, and Murees Dupé.

IWSG and Sharing Good News

It's time once again for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. This month's co-hosts are Nancy Thompson, Mark Koopmans, and Heather Gardner. Thanks to all for hosting!

As this month's IWSG came around I was feeling insecure about the fact that I couldn't think of anything to write about for my post. Kind of ironic! But then I remembered that one of the purposes of the group is to "share and encourage," and I thought there was no better time to share some of the good news I've seen around the blogosphere in the past few weeks.

So without further ado, here are some of the fun and exciting things I've seen lately:

Tyrean Martinson released Dragonfold And Other Adventures this week. Isn't that an awesome cover? Here is some info on the book:

DRAGONFOLD AND OTHER ADVENTURES includes imaginative stories and poems, written between 2008 and 2013. Some of these adventures have been previously published, and others are waiting to be discovered for the first time.

Previously published titles include: “Dragonfold”; “Enough to Do”; “The Identity of Captain Wrath”; and “Embers.” This book also contains a sample of Martinson’s novel, Champion in the Darkness.

Find these previously published stories and more adventures in Dragonfold and Other Adventures, a collection of new and old stories and poems with fantasy and scifi elements.

Nancy LaRonda Johnson published her second book, Salted With Fire. Yet another wonderful cover! From Nancy's blurb for the book:

Black magic, murder, insanity, humor, honor and devotion. Salted With Fire is a journey of flash fiction and poetry that shows my writing transformation from worldly to wanting to please God.

Flash fiction is my passion; poetry is my release. I love creating a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end, with twists, humor, drama, compassion and horror, all under 1000 words. Salted With Fire isn’t just a book of stories and poetry, it is my journey as a writer, from writing only for the mere joy of it regardless of the message, to writing stories that highlight God’s will for people, even if the stories themselves are not religious in nature.

Congratulations to both Tyrean and Nancy!

Finally, Lisa Regan's Finding Claire Fletcher is a finalist in the eFestival of Words Best of Independent eBook Awards. Lisa is up for best novel and best heroine and if you've read her book you know she deserves to win both. Not that I'm biased or anything. :D

Visit Lisa's blog here to find out how to vote for her and help her secure these awards.

I also just want to say thank you to everyone who left such kind comments on my announcement about my second novel The Ghosts of Aquinnah. You guys always make everything even more exciting and I've honestly never met a more supportive group of people. And I guess ultimately that's what this IWSG is all about! :)

Small Celebrations

The end of another week means its time to Celebrate the Small Things with Vikki at Scribblings of an Aspiring Author. If you'd like to learn more about this hop and participate, visit Vikki's page and join us here.

I have to admit that this wasn't a good week for me. It started with the first anniversary of the death of my father, and I found that day to be even more difficult than I expected it to be. Between that and some ongoing personal issues, I found myself in a funk and spent most of the week feeling like a bit of a zombie.

But thanks to Vikki's hop I realized today was the perfect day to turn that around and focus on the good parts of the week.

1. I was interviewed by Graeme Ing and my dog Clancy was interviewed by Shelly Arkon and we both had fun doing the interviews. :) We're looking forward to being featured on Graeme's and Shelly's sites sometime soon.

2. I finally made a dent in my TBR list and read great books by two of my wonderful author friends. Lisa Regan's Abberation and Graeme Ing's Ocean of Dust are both fantastic reads!

3. I commissioned the awesome Heather Holden to create pictures of my Polar Night main characters Danny and Aleksei. This was a new experience for me and it was fun to see what Heather created based on the descriptions I gave her. Her pictures are excellent and I'm looking forward to using them to help with my ongoing marketing efforts.

4. I completed my first Rafflecopter giveaway and was amazed at how easy it was to do. I had been kind of intimidated by Rafflecopter and thought sure I would find a way to mess it up if I used it, but I managed to create the giveaway and choose the winner without adding to the abundance of grey hair I already have on my head. Nancy LaRonda Johnson of Writer's Mark won an ebook copy of Polar Night, and I'm grateful to Nancy and everyone else who entered the giveaway and helped make it a success.

I'm glad to put this week behind me but I'm also glad to celebrate the fact that there were quite a few roses among the week's thorns.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Aberration Blog Hop

Today marks the release of Aberration, the second novel from the uber-talented Lisa Regan. Congratulations to Lisa!! Lisa's first novel Finding Claire Fletcher was amazing and I have no doubt this one will be just as great. I can't recommend her work enough.

To celebrate her new book, Lisa is hosting the Aberration Blog Hop. Click here if you want to join in and compete for the great prizes Lisa is giving away in conjunction with her release party.

Here's the info on the hop:

What:  The Aberration Blog Hop: Finding the Most Aberrant Characters

When:  June 6 & 7, 2013

What to do:  All you have to do is list your top 5 choices for the most aberrant characters in fiction, television or movies.  Also, if you're a writer, you can then include a short paragraph about who you think is the most aberrant character from your own work.

Definition of ABERRATION
1 : the fact or an instance of deviating or being aberrant especially from a moral standard or normal state
2 : unsoundness or disorder of the mind
3 : an aberrant individual
— ab·er·ra·tion·al  adjective
From the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

I don't know if it is my post-vacation muddled brain or just a mental block, but for whatever reason I had a terrible time coming up with a list for this hop. But eventually I settled on these aberrant characters I find memorable, using the first definition of deviating from a moral standard. These are in no particular order:
 
1. Hannibal Lecter
The Silence of the Lambs is the only Hannibal-related movie or show I've seen, but it was more than enough to give Lecter a spot on my list. In fact, he was the first character that came to mind as soon as I read about Lisa's hop.

2. Angelus & 3. Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy is one of my favorite shows ever, and evil Angelus was so entertaining he made Angel seem quite boring in comparison. I also couldn't get enough of Spike before he was de-fanged with the chip. This show started my vampire obsession, and I love my vampires evil.

4. Eric Northman, True Blood
And speaking of vampires... I don't even think Eric is evil, but his moral standards certainly deviate from mine. And Alexander Skarsgard is so pretty that Eric is a must for any list I make. :D

5. Dolores Umbridge, Harry Potter
While I know Voldemort is the big bad of the series, I've never gotten over Umbridge's cruelty to the children in her classes. I think she brought back a few too many memories of some of the nuns who scared me on a daily basis in elementary school.

As far as my own work Polar Night, the most aberrant character is an easy call. It's the book's antagonist, Aleksei Nechayev. To find out more about him, check out the interview he did with Laurie of Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews earlier this week. You can also enter to win an ebook copy of Polar Night through the form at the bottom of this post or on Laurie's site.

Congratulations again to Lisa!! :)



a Rafflecopter giveaway

A to Z Guest Post, Aberration Bloghop, and a Blog Break

I'm over at the Blogging from A to Z Challenge site today with a guest post about promoting a book through the A to Z Challenge. This is the first time I've ever been a guest on the site so I'm excited about it, and grateful for the opportunity. Thanks to Shannon at The Warrior Muse blog for setting this up for me! I was one of Shannon's Warrior Minions in April and had a great time in my first ever stint as a minion. Come visit me here! :)

Also, Lisa Regan's new book Aberration comes out on June 6, and she is hosting a bloghop to go along with the release. Visit her here to sign up and join the party. I know I will be putting Aberration on my Kindle the first day it is available because Lisa is a fantastic writer and Aberration promises to be another great read from her. Congratulations to Lisa!

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Finally, this is my last post for the month as I am going to be going on vacation and also have a lot of writing and editing that I want to get done before June, so I am checking out of the blogosphere for a few weeks. Clancy and I, along with some other family members, will be spending a week on Martha's Vineyard for Clancy's first ever trip to the ocean, so I plan to have some travels to share when we return. Also, the picture above is of Aquinnah, which is on the Vineyard and is the setting for my WIP The Ghosts of Aquinnah, and I hope to get some inspiration from the setting and polish/complete that novel while we are on the trip. Fingers crossed, anyway. :)

I will see you all in June!

Polar Night Blog Tour and Champion in the Darkness Release Party!

I'm continuing my mini blog tour today with a visit to the amazingly talented Lisa Regan. Lisa is the author of Finding Claire Fletcher and if you haven't read her book yet, you're missing out! In addition to being a fantastic writer, Lisa is one of the nicest people you're likely to meet. I'm excited to be at her site today talking about the strange dream I had that led me to Polar Night.

My giveaway is still going on all this week while I'm out on tour, so just sign up via the Linky Tool at the bottom of this page if you'd like to sign up for a chance to win.


Now on to the big news of the day! Congratulations to Tyrean Martinson on the release of her novel Champion in the Darkness. Yay, Tyrean!!

Tyrean is also one of the nicest bloggers around and I have no doubt that her book will be excellent. I'm excited that it is the first book in a trilogy, as it's always fun to know there are more great books coming!

Here is all the info on Champion in the Darkness: 

The Blurb:

Clara is younger than most trainees, but she is ready to hold a Sword Master's blade. While visions and ancient prophecies stand in her way, they also offer a destiny unlike any other. Clara is aided by a haunted mentor, Stelia, whose knowledge of their enemy Kalidess is both a bane and a blessing. As evil threatens their land, Clara and Stelia must find the strength to overcome the darkness.

Champion in the Darkness is YA Christian Fantasy, and is the first book in the Champion Trilogy.

Champion in the Darkness can be found at these links:

Amazon Kindle   

Smashwords    

Goodreads      

About the Author:

Tyrean Martinson lives and writes in the Northwest, encouraged by her loving husband and daughters, and reminded to exercise by her dogs and cat. Champion in the Darkness is the first book in the Champion Trilogy, and she has previously published short stories and poetry.

Congratulations again to Tyrean! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm heading over to hang out with Lisa now. :)

Astronaut or Writer? Guest Post from Lisa Regan!

Lisa Regan is here today as part of her Finding Claire Fletcher blog tour. I got to read a review copy of Claire Fletcher and, while I knew it was Lisa's debut novel, I never would have believed that while reading it. After a debut this well done, I know that I can't wait to read Lisa's next novels! So it's a treat for me to have Lisa here today and I'm honored to be part of her tour.

Welcome, Lisa!

WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WANTED TO BE A WRITER?

When I was 9 or 10 I became obsessed with the movie Space Camp and all things related to astronauts. I mean totally obsessed. I watched that movie almost daily. I had books about the space shuttles and posters of the space shuttle on my wall. I thought the space shuttle was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I dug up as much information as I could on the space program and how to become an astronaut. At night, I couldn’t sleep worrying that I would be too short and too near-sighted to become an astronaut. I thought a good place to start would be actually going to space camp. My fifth grade class even collected aluminum soda cans to raise money to send me to space camp. That’s how serious I was about the whole astronaut thing. (In fact, I remember one day in particular when the giant, looming tower of cans in the back of the classroom crashed to the floor, causing quite a clatter!)

Even before my big astronaut dream developed, I had been journaling and writing poetry. And of course I was a voracious reader. My mom developed this ingenious chore system where my brothers and I could earn a seemingly unlimited amount of allowance per week based on how many chores we chose to do. There was a whole range of chores, and you could earn anything between a quarter and a dollar fifty per chore. Your weekly allowance depended entirely on you and how much work you were willing to do. The more work you did, the more money you earned, and at the end of the week, my mom totaled up how much we’d earned and paid each of us. I always picked up as many chores as I could (well I measured it in terms of how many books it would buy me—I always tried to earn enough to buy two books) but instead of putting my money away for Space Camp, I went to the local bookstore and bought as many books as I could get with my allowance that week.

So even though I truly believed that being an astronaut was the dream dearest to my heart, I was unwilling to give up my books for it. During the seemingly interminable time that I was saving up for Space Camp, I wrote countless poems about becoming an astronaut. One day, while I was writing a poem which, as I recall, was cleverly titled “On Becoming an Astronaut” I realized that I didn’t want to be an astronaut at all. I mean if I wanted to become an astronaut, wouldn’t I be boning up on math and science instead of spending all my spare time writing? The writing about becoming an astronaut was more enjoyable and fulfilling to me than the prospect of actually becoming one. So I tossed my astronaut dream out on its head and started writing stories. I was hooked.

I think the writing bug was always in me, I just didn’t realize it till that moment—that specific moment, writing that specific poem. I am not sure that that was the moment I knew I wanted to be a writer. I think it was the moment I knew I was a writer. Certainly that was the moment I gave myself permission to go all in.

After that, I wrote a lot of short stories, a lot of poetry. I kept voluminous journals.  Before I turned eighteen I had written four and a half novels. I still have them all.

Now writing is one of those things that I’ve just always done, and I know it’s one of those things that I’ll always do because no amount of rejection can take away the enjoyment it gives me or diminish how much I love doing it!

What about you?  When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

FINDING CLAIRE FLETCHER BLOG TOUR DETAILS

GIVEAWAY

As part of the Finding Claire Fletcher Blog Tour (12/6/12 through 12/21/12), Lisa Regan will be giving away the following items:

$25.00 Amazon Gift Card

1 signed copy of the paperback of Finding Claire Fletcher

1 e-book version of Finding Claire Fletcher

All you have to do is visit the Finding Claire Fletcher Blog Tour & Giveaway page on Lisa’s blog which you can find here and comment on that page letting Lisa know whose blog you’ve just come from.  Each commenter will be assigned a number and then the winners will be chosen using random.org.  Winners will be announced on 12/24/12!

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon(Paperback)

Barnes& Noble (Paperback)

Amazon (e-book)

Barnes & Noble (e-book)

SYNOPSIS

Newly divorced and with his career in jeopardy, Detective Connor Parks takes solace in the arms of a beautiful woman he meets at a bar. The next morning, Claire Fletcher is gone, leaving nothing behind but an address and a decade-old mystery. The address leads to the Fletcher family home where Claire’s siblings inform Connor that their fifteen-year-old sister was abducted from a city street ten years ago and is presumed dead.

During those ten years, Claire endured the cruel torture and depravity of the man who abducted her. Paralyzed by fear and too ashamed to return to her family, Claire is resigned to her life as Lynn, the identity her abductor forced upon her. Every time she attempts escape or betrays him in the smallest way, someone dies. Even now, her clandestine run-in with Connor Parks may have put his life at risk, as well as the lives of her family.

Connor is convinced that not only is Claire Fletcher alive, but that she is also the woman he met at the bar. Driven to see her again, he begins his own investigation, off the clock and without the police department's consent. He is determined to find her and unravel the mystery of her abduction and odd reemergence. But finding Claire Fletcher proves more dangerous than he anticipates. In fact, it may be deadly.

AUTHOR BIO

Lisa Regan is a suspense novelist.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University.  She is a member Sisters In Crime. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.  Her second novel, Aberration, is due out 6/6/13.

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. 

Writers4Writers, Being Positive, and Finding Claire Fletcher

Today is a big day in blog land, with lots to celebrate. First off, I want to send a special congratulations to Lisa Regan on the release of her fantastic novel Finding Claire Fletcher!!! Woo-hoo, Lisa!!! If you've followed Lisa's blog, you know this has been a long time coming and Lisa has been through lots of writing highs and lows to get to this point. So I couldn't be happier for her that the dream has officially come true today! Plus, I have read Finding Claire Fletcher and it is an excellent read, I highly recommend it. Way to go, Lisa!!!

Also, today is the kick-off for the Writers4Writers Group, which is a new and easy way to support our writer friends and help spread the word about their books. This month's recipient is Nancy Thompson, author of the recently released The Mistaken. Congratulations to Nancy! If you'd like to participate in the group, click here to sign up and to get all the details.

Finally, Sharon Mayhew and Robyn Campbell are throwing a party for Be Positive Day today. It's hard to argue with a day like that, and it came at a great time for me as this has been a primarily negative week for me so far, for reasons that have nothing to do with writing. So there's no time like the present to turn that around and focus on all the positives around me instead. If you want to join in, here's the info from Sharon's page:

The lovely and enthusiastic Roybn Campbell and I decided that we all should celebrate this wonderful day by going on twitter at least once that day and saying something positive followed by #bepositive.  At the end of the #bepositive day, I hope you will friend all the people who joined in and maybe do some retweets to inspire some other people on Twitter.

I hope you will join us...in our positiveness on twitter.

Congratulations again to Lisa and Nancy, and Happy #BePositive Day to everyone! :)