Anyway, I wanted to share this milestone with the readers I've come to know through all my crazy book adventures. Thank you, all, for making a life-long dream a reality.
Happy Reading!!!
Showing posts with label New Release. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Release. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
END OF MERCY is Finally Here!
Anyway, I wanted to share this milestone with the readers I've come to know through all my crazy book adventures. Thank you, all, for making a life-long dream a reality.
Happy Reading!!!
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Please Welcome Amy Durham as She Shares her New Release--DUSK!
It's always a pleasure to have Amy Durham on the blog. I'm especially excited to know more about Dusk, her latest paranormal young adult romance! So, without further ado, here she is:
Thanks
for the invitation to come hang out in your corner of the blogosphere! I’m
always happy to meet new readers and writers!
I
write young adult romance, with a bit of a paranormal twist. In DUSK, my newest
release, Zoe Gray, high school senior, must work through a tragic season in her
life and learn the power of forgiveness and second chances. There to help her
is Adrian Shaw, hot new guy at school and biker-boy. But, as Zoe discovers,
there’s more to Adrian than meets the eye.
In
the following excerpt, Zoe is getting her first, up close look at Adrian. She’s
at her locker, looking around for her best friend, Vivian. She finds Adrian
instead.
Looking to my left, I saw Viv making her way down
the hall. And then he stepped into my vision, blocking out Viv and the
rest of the chaos in the hallway.
Umm, wow. He was even better up close.
The ability to speak left me.
“Hey,” he said, and considering he was
standing so close, I knew he was talking to me.
I looked up. Way up. He had to be over
six feet tall. And looked straight into the most gorgeous set of baby blues I’d
ever seen. The deep green shirt he wore today accentuated the color of his
irises.
Black hair and blue eyes were totally
hot together.
“I saw you yesterday,” he continued,
unaffected by my stunned silence. “I’m Adrian.”
Adrian. It suited him. His name was
just as beautiful as he was.
I should talk. Say something.
Introduce myself. Wipe the drool from my chin.
“Zoe,” I squeaked, cringing at how
stupid I sounded. “Zoe Gray.”
“Adrian Shaw.” He stuck his hand out,
waiting for me to shake it.
I stared at his hand. He wanted me to
put my hand in his, and even as I told myself it was just a simple greeting,
the thought of feeling his skin against mine left me frozen.
Snap out of it! Act like you have a
brain, not just raging hormones!
I gripped his hand. His fingers closed
around mine, and everything inside me went still, calm… right. The noise
around me stopped. The bustle of the kids in the hall faded away. And I found
myself lost in the feeling of my hand in his, drowning in the way his eyes
searched mine.
DUSK (blurb)
Zoe Gray lost her father... in more
ways than one. Angry and bitter, Zoe spends the summer before her senior year
of high school doing everything she can to forget, legal or not. But a close
call triggers a reality check, and Zoe decides to put her life back together, a
task that proves a lot harder than she thought.
Adrian Shaw shows up on the first
day of school, creating quite a stir with his striking good looks and gleaming
black motorcycle. But Adrian is much more than a "biker boy", and as
Zoe discovers, he may just hold the key she needs to put her life back on the
right path.
But as they do battle with evil
forces that want nothing more than to destroy Zoe's chance at a normal life,
will their feelings for one another make them stronger, or be the reason Zoe's
happiness slips away forever?
And
will Zoe learn to forgive before it's too late?
Learn
more about Amy at the following places:
Find
DUSK:
Available soon at iBooks and in print edition from Amazon.
Thanks!
Happy Writing and Reading!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
A Sense of Magic and Wonder--L. Jagi Lamplighter with The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin
L. Jagi Lamplighter
to the blog today as she shares her novel, The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin.
I recently got to see this beautiful cover up close and personal at a sci-fi/fantasy panel in which I participated. It is GORGEOUS!
Jagi was kind enough to answer a few questions for the blog and to give all the awesome details on her latest release. I'm also giving away a $5 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky commentor today.
Without further ado, let's get right to it:
What aspect of writing comes easy to
you? What is difficult?
Dialogue comes easiest—I
love the fun banter between the characters. Also the general flow of the scene,
the basic things characters say and do comes pretty easily.
The hardest part for me is showing the character’s emotions through action and writing description. I often just write ‘description here’ and come back and fill it in later.
What inspires you?
I pray before I write. So, I would say what inspires
me is the Divine Muse. I also enjoy listening to foreign music , or any music
that does not have words. And I enjoy talking to my husband, SF and fantasy
writer, John C. Wright, about the ideas. We both find it very helpful to bounce
our ideas off the other person.
In the case of The Unexpected Enlightenment of
Rachel Griffin, the story is based on ideas created by my friend Mark A.
Whipple. So, I would count him as part of my inspiration.
Also, I enjoy taking a long walk, preferably in the
woods.
But the main thing I do to get inspiration is go rollerblading. I skate a couple hours a week and use the time of going around and around the rink to review my project to date and work out the next few scenes.
Where in the world would you want to
visit (all in the name of research, of course) and why?
My books are filled with old houses. I’m not sure
why, but all my characters seem to live in really huge fancy old houses filled
with odd magic. I always enjoy visiting castles and mansions and looking at the
rooms and smelling the smells.
I’d like to visit Dartmoor National Park in Devon,
England, as that is where the family of my main character, little British
sorceress Rachel Griffin, lives.
What does it take to be a successful
author in today’s publishing world?
It used to be that all an author had to do was
write. Advertising money made little
difference to sales. Tours made little differences to sales, except for the
very elite. Even being on Oprah is said not to matter, unless Oprah cries over
your book.
Nowadays, all of that has changed. Having an active
online presence sells books. Perhaps because people know if they like a blog
that they might like the person’s writing? I’m not sure. But the result is that
an author has to do much more than they once did.
This makes the task much more difficult!
What obstacles have you overcome to get where
you are, and what advice do you have for anyone in a similar situation?
I did not start out as a good writer. I couldn’t
spell. My grammar was so-so. And my writing was terrible. My descriptions were
flat and uninteresting.
But I wanted to write!
So, I set out to improve. When I got out of college,
I studied grammar for two hours a day, doing things like writing out passages
from authors I liked and studying how they structured their sentences.
Once I got that down, I began to work on each section
of writing I was bad at. I learned to write descriptions and add sense
impressions to make them more vivid. I practiced sentence structure. I took
classes in how to express emotion through descriptions of action.
I just kept plugging away.
Nowadays, I still have weaknesses in my writing, and
I still struggle to improve them. But my writing has improved a thousand fold.
Which just goes to show…if you want to do something
badly enough, you can! If I can write books people enjoy reading, anyone can.
What did you enjoy most about writing your
latest work?
What I enjoy most about
writing the Unexpected Enlightenment series—starting with volume one, The
Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin – is the sense of magic and
wonder. It’s a delightfully fun series to write. I love the characters. I love
the romance. I love developing the world. But the thing I like most is putting
across a sense of wonder that makes the story seem like something beyond the
norm. It is very easy when writing about magic, to make it seem humdrum. The
character gets used to it. It’s not any different than technology.
Some of my magic is that
way, but other things—such as the world around the students—maintain a sense of
mystery and awe that adds a great sense of fun to the work.
What emotional reaction are you going for
when your readers read your work?
Wonder. Awe. At times, romance and angsty sadness. At
times, rather frightening things happen—so fear. At other times, a rousing
cheer.
But most of all, I would like the reader to walk away
having had at least some moment when the world seemed greater, more
astonishing, than they had expected.
BLURB:
Rachel Griffin wants to know everything. As a
freshman at Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts, she has been granted the
opportunity to study both mundane and magical subjects.
But even her perfect recollection of every book she has ever
read does not help her when she finds a strange statue in the forest—a statue
of a woman with wings. Nowhere—neither in the arcane tomes of the Wise, nor in
the dictionary and encyclopedia of the non-magic-using Unwary—can she find
mention of such a creature.
What could it be? And why are the statue’s wings missing
when she returns?
When someone tries to kill a fellow student, Rachel soon
realizes that, in the same way her World of the Wise hides from mundane folk,
there is another, more secret world hiding from everyone—which her perfect
recall allows her to remember. Her desire to know everything drives her
to investigate.
Rushing forward where others fear to tread, Rachel finds
herself beset by wraiths, magical pranks, homework, a Raven said to bring the
doom of worlds, love’s first blush, and at least one fire-breathing teacher.
Curiosity might kill a cat, but nothing stops Rachel
Griffin!
EXCERPT:
Even among the Wise, animals did not talk.
These two were talking.
Rachel Griffin awoke in her bunk bed in prestigious Dare Hall. It was her first night at Roanoke Academy, her first night in America, her first night away from home. The other girls in her dormitory room were asleep. She could hear their rhythmic breathing. Yet she distinctly heard voices. She opened her eyes and sat up.
The tall, arched window was open. A chill blew in through it. On the windowsill sat an enormous raven, jet black with blood red eyes. The raven addressed the familiar that belonged to one of Rachel’s roommates. The girl must have been a fan of the new fad of shrinking wild animals and turning them into cute playthings. Her pet was a tiny lion the size of a house cat.
The raven croaked harshly, "You are not supposed to be here."
The lion sat regally beside his human, who lay sleeping across the room, on the other set of bunk beds. "I was called. Where I am called, I come.”
“None of my people called you.”
“You called one of my daughters. I am always in her heart."
“You need to depart.”
The lion yawned. It turned in a circle three times and settled down to sleep.
The raven cawed raucously and flew away.
Rachel replayed the conversation in her head. She did not know what the phrases meant, but she was certain she had just overhead something crucial, something not meant for her, something not meant for any human ears. It was like hearing a door swing open to another world. She would never forget a word of it.
But then, Rachel Griffin never forgot anything.
Are you hooked? Click HERE to read the entire first chapter.
Or even better, click the link to purchase the book:
Amazon BuyLink
Or even better, click the link to purchase the book:
Amazon BuyLink
A little more about L. Jagi Lamplighter:
L. Jagi Lamplighter is the author of the YA fantasy: The Unexpected
Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin. She is also the author of the Prospero’s
Daughter series: Prospero Lost, Prospero In Hell, and Prospero
Regained. She has published numerous articles on Japanese animation and
appears in several short story anthologies, including Best Of Dreams Of
Decadence, No Longer Dreams, Coliseum Morpheuon, Bad-Ass
Faeries Anthologies (where she is also an assistant editor) and the
Science Fiction Book Club’s Don’t Open This Book.
When not writing, she switches to her secret identity as
wife and stay-home mom in Centreville, VA, where she lives with her dashing
husband, author John C. Wright, and their four darling children, Orville,
Ping-Ping Eve, Roland Wilbur, and Justinian Oberon.
Her website is: http://www.ljagilamplighter.com/
Her blog is at: http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/
On Twitter: @lampwright4
Be sure to leave a comment for Jagi before you go and be entered to win a $5 gift card to Amazon. Please leave an e-mail address where you can be contacted if you win.
Be sure to leave a comment for Jagi before you go and be entered to win a $5 gift card to Amazon. Please leave an e-mail address where you can be contacted if you win.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Please Welcome Amy Durham!
So, let's get right to it.
AMY: Thanks Cherie, for inviting me to come hang out with you! I really appreciate the chance to interact with your readers and promote my latest release, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
CHERIE: Which comes first for you—plot or characters?
AMY: Usually, the characters and some kind of event or scene comes first. I find that if the characters “flesh themselves out” for me, the plot will follow smoothly after that.
CHERIE: What aspect of writing comes easy to you? What is difficult?
AMY: The initial plotting and characterizations come easy. I enjoy the rush of the beginning of the book! I’m never short on ideas! The most challenging is just finding the time to really dig in and write. I teach full time, and I have 3 kids of my own, so sometimes I have to wait until summer break to get large chunks of writing done. However, I do write in smaller batches regularly.
CHERIE: Who are some of your must-read authors and why?
AMY: Rachel Vincent, because I LOVE her “Soul Screamer” series. Nyrae Dawn, Tiffany King, and Jessica Sorenson for gritty stories that carry important messages.
Where in the world would you want to visit (all in the name of research, of course) and why?
Ireland and Scotland. There is a something deep inside me that longs – almost physically – to see these places! I’d love to set a story – or many stories – in those places someday!
AMY: Rachel Vincent, because I LOVE her “Soul Screamer” series. Nyrae Dawn, Tiffany King, and Jessica Sorenson for gritty stories that carry important messages.
Where in the world would you want to visit (all in the name of research, of course) and why?
Ireland and Scotland. There is a something deep inside me that longs – almost physically – to see these places! I’d love to set a story – or many stories – in those places someday!
CHERIE: What did you enjoy most about writing your latest work?
AMY: I enjoyed exploring the idea of “class-jumping” in high school. I remember how scandalous it was in high school when a “popular” boy dated a girl a class or two below him, or when a “popular” girl befriended another girl who didn’t run in the same circles. Others, from both “classes” aren’t quick to accept those scenarios, and, as we all know, kids can sometimes be cruel. I wanted to create a story where a popular boy and unpopular girl fell for each other, feared the ramifications of their peers, but ultimately decided their love was worth it.
CHERIE: Can you talk about what you are working on now?
AMY: I’m working on another young adult paranormal romance. ONCE AND FOR ALL, which just released, is book 2 in the Sky Cove Series. (ONCE AGAIN is book 1.) I’m taking a break from Sky Cove for a bit and writing a book called “Dusk”, another young adult paranormal romance. The paranormal element is different. Rather than reincarnation, the characters encounter a fellow high school student who is human, but with a few…. “extra abilities”!
CHERIE: Favorite movie and why?
AMY: I have several, and, as you might expect, they are all romantic stories! “When Harry Met Sally” is my absolute fave, but “Notting Hill”, “The Sound of Music”, and “P.S. I Love You” all follow pretty closely behind! I also adore the movie “Once”. It’s an independent Irish film with GREAT music!
AMY: I enjoyed exploring the idea of “class-jumping” in high school. I remember how scandalous it was in high school when a “popular” boy dated a girl a class or two below him, or when a “popular” girl befriended another girl who didn’t run in the same circles. Others, from both “classes” aren’t quick to accept those scenarios, and, as we all know, kids can sometimes be cruel. I wanted to create a story where a popular boy and unpopular girl fell for each other, feared the ramifications of their peers, but ultimately decided their love was worth it.
CHERIE: Can you talk about what you are working on now?
AMY: I’m working on another young adult paranormal romance. ONCE AND FOR ALL, which just released, is book 2 in the Sky Cove Series. (ONCE AGAIN is book 1.) I’m taking a break from Sky Cove for a bit and writing a book called “Dusk”, another young adult paranormal romance. The paranormal element is different. Rather than reincarnation, the characters encounter a fellow high school student who is human, but with a few…. “extra abilities”!
CHERIE: Favorite movie and why?
AMY: I have several, and, as you might expect, they are all romantic stories! “When Harry Met Sally” is my absolute fave, but “Notting Hill”, “The Sound of Music”, and “P.S. I Love You” all follow pretty closely behind! I also adore the movie “Once”. It’s an independent Irish film with GREAT music!
CHERIE: What can you tell us about Once and For All?
What happens when 180 pounds of football star collides with 105 pounds of art geek?
An ancient curse springs to life, of course.
Phoebe Campbell is anything but popular. Todd Miller is the epitome of the high school jock. Their socially opposite worlds collide when they are paired to work together on a project for art class. Attempting to cooperate for the sake of their assignment, Todd and Phoebe begin to look past preconceived notions and see each other for who they truly are. As genuine feelings begin to develop between them, they find themselves plagued by dangerous shape-shifting episodes and unexplained telepathic connections.
In order to stop the mysterious occurrences, Phoebe and Todd are forced into a mission to uncover the truth. In their quest, they discover unsettling stories that hint at a previous existence, and also clues to an ancient curse that has never been broken.
Can they learn to love each other despite the typical high school social expectations? And will their love be the key that breaks the ancient curse once and for all?
Find ONCE AND FOR ALL at:
AMAZON
B&N
ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS
SMASHWORDS
KOBO
Phoebe Campbell is anything but popular. Todd Miller is the epitome of the high school jock. Their socially opposite worlds collide when they are paired to work together on a project for art class. Attempting to cooperate for the sake of their assignment, Todd and Phoebe begin to look past preconceived notions and see each other for who they truly are. As genuine feelings begin to develop between them, they find themselves plagued by dangerous shape-shifting episodes and unexplained telepathic connections.
In order to stop the mysterious occurrences, Phoebe and Todd are forced into a mission to uncover the truth. In their quest, they discover unsettling stories that hint at a previous existence, and also clues to an ancient curse that has never been broken.
Can they learn to love each other despite the typical high school social expectations? And will their love be the key that breaks the ancient curse once and for all?
Find ONCE AND FOR ALL at:
AMAZON
B&N
ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS
SMASHWORDS
KOBO
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Edge of Mercy is on Amazon!
Woot! I'm so excited! Come on, world, tell me you love it!
Charlie hides her true identity, but her very presence places everyone
around her in danger. With no other choice but to remain where she is, she stays
with a community that might not be as benevolent as it appears. In this new and
dangerous version of the world, where a friend might be an enemy and an enemy
might be a friend, seventeen-year-old Charlie protects her baby sister and
herself from grotesque monsters outside the community as well as human ones
inside. Will the truth she discovers about her protectors save her or
ultimately doom her to a fate worse than death?
BN Buylink: Coming Soon
Kobo Buylink: Coming Soon
Happy Reading and Writing!
C. C.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Six Sentence Sunday--Edge of Mercy
Wow! Barring any technical difficulties, Edge of Mercy, releases Tuesday, July 31st. That's this Tuesday! Oh, happy day! I'm so excited for others to read about Charlie.
I've posted excerpts from Edge of Mercy on my other blog, but here are six more sentences from the story. If you want to read earlier snippets or the short introductory fiction story I published, you can find them here (from two weeks ago on this blog), here and here. Otherwise, let's get to the good stuff. In this scene, Charlie describes the monstrous Draghoul fighting to get inside to attack the people hiding:
Happy Writing and Reading,
C. C.
Charlie hides her true identity, but her very presence places everyone around her in danger. With no other choice but to remain where she is, she stays with a community that might not be as benevolent as it appears. In this post-apocalyptic romance where a friend might be an enemy and an enemy might be a friend, seventeen-year-old Charlie protects her baby sister and herself from grotesque monsters outside the community as well as human ones inside. Will the truth she discovers about her protectors save her or ultimately doom her to a fate worse than death?
I've posted excerpts from Edge of Mercy on my other blog, but here are six more sentences from the story. If you want to read earlier snippets or the short introductory fiction story I published, you can find them here (from two weeks ago on this blog), here and here. Otherwise, let's get to the good stuff. In this scene, Charlie describes the monstrous Draghoul fighting to get inside to attack the people hiding:
I’d seen them up close, and they were beyond frightening. Their exteriors weren’t much different from when they were human. And they were once human, as unbelievable as it was. But the transformation into a monster was permanent and dreadful. The pale sallow skin, the glazed, souless eyes, the malicious teeth were a vision I would never forget. The fact they used to be people we knew, some we loved, made the sight of them all the more devastating.Read more Six Sentence Sundays here, or sign up to participate next week. Hope you have an enjoyable Sunday.
Happy Writing and Reading,
C. C.
Charlie hides her true identity, but her very presence places everyone around her in danger. With no other choice but to remain where she is, she stays with a community that might not be as benevolent as it appears. In this post-apocalyptic romance where a friend might be an enemy and an enemy might be a friend, seventeen-year-old Charlie protects her baby sister and herself from grotesque monsters outside the community as well as human ones inside. Will the truth she discovers about her protectors save her or ultimately doom her to a fate worse than death?
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