IWSG: First Endeavors

Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day. If you'd like to join, go HERE.

Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh and this month's co-hosts for their kindness in seeing that everyone is supported and part of the group. Please stop by and say hey.

Co-Hosts:
Tamara Narayan
Tonja Drecker
Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor
Lauren @ Pensuasion
Stephen Tremp
Julie Flanders

This month's question is: What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

Since I've always marched to the beat of my own drum and am a horse of a different color and all that, I went straight to the heart of my desire; novel writing. Givin' Up the Ghost was my first venture into publishing. As is, it has mostly 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon, but I'm really itching to take it down and rewrite it because I know I can do better. Still, the first draft was flat as a stale soda pop. It was written in third person the first go around. As a test, I rewrote part of it in first person POV. Then it came alive! It was so much better that I rewrote the whole thing in first person.

I'm feeling good this month with no new insecurities--just the old ones that pop up from time to time. I'm actually getting some work done thanks to my CP, Angela Brown, holding me accountable--and vice versa. Without her I'd be chasing the next new shiny idea!

How did your first piece of writing go?

Is it published?

How's your writing life going?

Summer Book Crush Time!

It's time for Summer Book Crush!

 

We have tons of authors with tons of books for only .99 cents!

 

June 19 - June 22, 2014

 

 

Whether you like the boy next door or the bad boy down the street,

there are lots of book boyfriends to cozy up to.

Just go to www.summerbookcrush.com and check them out.

 

Also, we're on twitter using a few different hashtags:

 

 

#SummerBookCrush

#SBCboyfriends

#romance

 

OR, Come Find Me:

 

@LadyGwenTweets

 

So, what's your type?

 

Boy With A Bite?

 

Boy Next Door?

 

Sexy Foreigner?

 

Jock?

 

Sizzler?

 

 

 



Summer Book Crushes - Who's Yours?

Let's talk about book crushes. Who hasn't had a crush on a character?  I'll admit that I used to read a lot of romance back in the day. I always fell just a little bit in love with the hunky male protagonist. I did love me some happily-ever-after. *sigh* I still do.

And now that I'm older - well, I still get little crushes. My current read is the Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices series). If you're reading the series, you know that Tessa is torn between Jem and Will. They're both good guys, but Will is a bit of a bad boy - and yeah, he's my book crush. I adore black hair and blue eyes, and by his description, I think he'd take my breath away - never mind that I could be his mother older sister. Anyway, he could be my book boyfriend, right?

 

So for a bit of fun summer reading activity, I've gotten together with some other authors to offer our books for .99 cents - and they all have elements of romance. You could find your own book boyfriend for only .99 cents!

Here's the scoop:

Hot sun, hot sand, cool drinks, dark tans. Ahhhh. But your summer won’t be complete until you land a new BOOK BOYFRIEND, right? Lucky for you, we’ve got you covered!

 

SUMMER BOOK CRUSH offers 50+ titles in many genres. This means 50+ chances to (fictitiously) fall in love. And the best part? Each of these gems is only 99¢, but for a limited time only. The SUMMER BOOK CRUSH event starts on June 26th and ends (yes, even the best things in life end at some point) on June 28th. So don't wait up! Mingle with our BOOK BOYFRIENDS and invite all your friends to participate too. There are plenty of BOOK BOYS to share!

Find your summer’s fling between the pages of a book. And don't stop on one - after all we have many BOOK BOYFRIENDS for you to mingle with.

 

 

 

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THE LOVE!

 

***

 

 

 

 

Of course I have to talk a bit about Givin' Up The Ghost.

 We all know that Indigo has a huuuge crush on Badger. But, well, they both come with some serious baggage. Here's what Badger had to say about Indigo: 

 

My name’s Badger. I’m just your average eighteen year old guy. At least, until last summer when my dad disappeared. I had to take up the slack and help out running the family pub, the Blind Badger.

But then things got really strange. This girl came around and started saying my dad was dead and that she had spoken to his ghost. I took some convincing, I can tell you. He had been murdered, in fact, and we ended up doing our own investigation.

I care for this girl, but with ghosts popping in and out all the time causing chaos, I’m pretty sure I need a break. I was knocked to the ground, thrown up on and nearly killed. What’s a guy supposed to do?

Givin' Up The Ghost now only .99 cents

Amazon

Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

iTunes
 

 So who is your current book crush?

A-Z, Review Giveaway and Other Stuff

Hey, how are you all doing on preparations for the A-Z Challenge? I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't finish the pre-writing and then I'd be stressed out trying to write them on a daily basis--or more likely, I might have had to drop out.

Well, now I only have about 5 posts to go so I'm feeling a lot better. I think I have F, J, K, Q and Z left to write. I'm thinking Z is going to be the problem! Anyway, feeling less stressed and sooo excited to do my first A-Z! I'm even a minion :-]

How about you? Are you participating? Pre-writing? Minioning? 

 

*****

So here's a pretty cool deal. Angela Brown is doing a $25 - $50 Amazon card giveaway! Check it out...

Readers and reviewers are the lifeblood of any author, no matter what path taken to publish their work. Whether the author Tweets dozens of times a day or barely has a presence on Facebook, no readers spreading the word about their work boils down to no one buying or reading an author's book.

Readers and reviewers, YOU ARE THE BEST!! To show my appreciation, I'd like to offer a chance for one of you that read and reviewed Neverlove to win a $25 Amazon e-gift card. The giveaway is a month long, so that means if you have Neverlove in your pretty little hands and you'd like to enter, you've got plenty of time to do so.

For those yet to purchase Neverlove, it is $0.99 at BN.com, Amazon and Kobo. Grab your copy and make sure to put your review at all these places (along with Goodreads which is a great site where other readers are interested in your thoughts about books).

Make sure to enter the Rafflecopter below. Of course, because this is a Reviewer giveaway, please bear in mind the mandatory option for this giveaway is that you share the link of one of your reviews so you can enter to win.Those who've already reviewed are ahead of the game. Go and grab your permalink so you can enter to win.

*****To make this even more enjoyable, let's add a challenge. If the number of reviews at Amazon reaches 35 before the end of the giveaway, I'll add $15 to the gift card. If it reaches 50 reviews, I'll make the gift card $50. You read that right. If we reach 50 reviews for Neverlove, the $25 gift card will double to $50.*******

You can enter the rafflecopter HERE.  

 

*****

And you can still win an autographed paperback of Givin' Up The Ghost on Facebook HERE  or on GoodReads HERE.

IWSG: When is Make Believe Too Much?

It's the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what today is! It's Insecure Writers Support Group day! Thanks to our host Alex J. Cavanaugh and his helpers this month.

This is where we tell the world about our insecurities, and then bloghop around to our fellow writers blogs to lend support. You can sign up or see the list of participants HERE.

You may have noticed I've been MIA lately. That's because I've been working on a new project and my current insecurity, Second Death. It's a new novella series (An Indigo Eady Afterlife novella) off-shoot of my first series (Givin' Up The Ghost.) My protag, Indigo, is a teenage ghost whispering psychic who can see and speak to ghosts, which is instrumental in solving the murder of her friend's dad.

My new novella series was actually inspired by the second book in the series, A Guilty Ghost Surprised (not yet published). There is a scene where Indigo has a conversation with Franny, a Victorian ghost madam. Franny reveals to Indigo that there is a whole spirit community in Sabrina Shores (mostly Victorian) that basically is parallel to the living world. They have community meetings, court each other, and socialize as if they're still alive.

Second Death is...more fanciful, to say the least. It picks up from the conversation between Indigo and Franny about the overactive spirit community in Sabrina Shores and takes it a bit over the top. Indigo is basically drafted onto the Missing Paranormals Committee by a ghostly high court judge during court proceedings of the highly active spirit world. She must serve on the committee alongside other spirits.

The series will also introduce other such afterlife characters that have been mutated (my theme for the A-Z!)by what they had become in previous lives and other paranormal creatures and paranormal happenings. But I think it still encompasses the light paranormal characteristics of my first series.

So you see - Indigo becomes much more active in the spirit world, rather on the periphery. AND there are some pretty off the wall creatures.

I worry that it may be too over the top and wonder whether it will reflect on my original series in any way because I'm using some of the same characters.

What do you think?

Any thoughts on what's too much?

Will it reflect on my original series?

Getting Even With Evil

Haunted banner by Tara Tyler!


TGIF!

and

Thanks to the lovely ladies who hosted us yesterday,
Linda Jackson and Michelle Pickett.

Today, Angela and I are at Tyrean Martinsons blog talking about the love scenes we cut from our young adult novels. Why? Because they were, well, too hot for YA. At least our YA's.  

AND

You are not going to want to miss the shenanigans our PIP Blogsitting teens are up to today. You know how the Devourer busted them last week by sending me and Angela the USB showing the unauthorized party they had? Well, they decided to get even with both the Devourer (Neverlove) and the Dark Shadow (Givin' Up The Ghost). If you want to see how, go through this portal. And please don't try this at home.

So how about you? Ever have to cut a hot scene? Or get even with evil entities? Want to share?

Week 3 is nearly over, but you still have time to enter the giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And you can still win the Big Swag Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cookin' Up Crazy



Banner by Tara Tyler!

Happy Tuesday!

We have winners from Week 2 Giveaway!

JC Martin - $10 Amazon gift card

Martha Campos-Arana – Neverlove ebook

Carolyn Brown – GUTG ebook

Angela Orlowski-Peart – 10 page critique

JC Martin – 50 page critique

Angela Orlowski-Peart – Personalized bookmark

Fiery Na – Personalized bookmark

Dee Dee Brinkman-Griffin – Personalized bookmark

Nick Wolford – Personalized bookmark

JC Martin – Personalized bookmark

Congratulations to the winners and Thank You So Much for participating! You will be contacted soon about receiving your prizes:)

*****

Today, Angela Brown and I are over at Nadja Notariani's for a bit of excerpting - I think.

But if not, our teen delinquents from Neverlove and Givin' Up The Ghost are cooking up a crazy plan over at Partners in ParanormYA while they blogsit for us.

~Thank you so much to yesterday's hosts~

Cherie Reich

AND

EJ Wesley

We appreciate your hospitality so much!

And there are still two giveaways!

Visit Partners in ParanormYA for the Big Swag Giveaway and for Week Three Giveaway.



Scary Grin and Mwahahahahaha!

Banner donated by Tara Tyler!


WooHoo!
Happy Friday!
It's the end of week 2 of the
Partners in ParanormYA Blog Tour.

A million thanks to yesterday's hosts,
Candilynn Fite and Susan Kaye Quinn.
Ya'll are rock stars!

*****

What's happening on this lovely Friday?

1. Should our teenage blogsitters over at PIP Headquarters be wary of a suspicious grin? Why yes. Yes, I think they should.

2. Speaking of suspicious grins, above said blogsitters are on their way to Medeia Sharif's blog for a little Q&A. Should they be scared? Why yes. Yes, I think they should. Mwahahahaha!

3. I believe I mentioned the cloning bit in one of my posts. So
that enables Angela and I to be in two places at once. We'll be at Elizabeth Seckman's talking about angels, demons and other related stuff. And we'll be making a surprise (and we're not saying who will be the most surprised) visit HERE. Mwahahahahah!

*****

Purchase Angela Brown’s Neverlove at
Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, Amazon FR, and Amazon DE.




Purchase Gwen Gardner’s Givin’ Up The Ghost
at Amazon US and Amazon UK.



And there are two giveaways! Visit Partners in ParanormYA

for the Big Swag Giveaway

The Week Two Giveaway is HERE!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quick Shoot and Shady Characters

The awesome banner? By the awesome Tara Tyler!


Thursday of Week 2 PIP Blog Tour!

A barrel full of thanks to yesterday's hosts,
Mina Burrows and Carol Kilgore. You ladies are awesome!

*****

What's happening today?

1. An interrogation at PIP Headquarters

2. A Quick Shoot at Candilynn's blog

3. And some very shady characters over at Susan Quinn's blog

~AND OF COURSE~

Week 2 Giveaway

AND

the Big Swag Giveaway

Truth is Stranger Than Fiction and A Secret

Awesome banner by Tara Tyler!


It's Wednesday of Week 2 Partners in ParanormYA Blog Tour!

Many thanks to yesterday's awesome hosts,
 C.M. Brown and Millie Holmes.

*****

What's going on today?

First, our teenage blogsitting characters are over

at PIP Headquarters trying to figure out a damage control

plan. Are they in trouble? Why yes. Yes they are.

Today Angela and I will be at Mina Burrow's blog talking

about truth being stranger than fiction - and we'll be

revealing a secret about ourselves.

And we'll also be at Carol Kilgore's blog speaking about

 stretching the imagination.

As a reminder, we have a Week 2 Giveaway

AND

A Big Swag Giveaway!

Devil at the Door



Thanks for the banner, Tara Tyler!



Happy Tuesday of PIP Blog Tour Week 2!

Thanks for hosting us yesterday, Angie Sandro!

 And Shelly Arkon do not despair about the mix-up. Sir Poops and Hair Ball did just fine. You gals rock!

*****
And, we have winners from Week 1 Rafflecopter, chosen randomly by random.org

Carolyn B. - $15 Amazon Card


Elizabeth H. – Neverlove ebook

Tara T. – Givin’ Up The Ghost ebook

Crystal Y. – personalized bookmark

Ellie G. – personalized bookmark

Ellie G. – personalized bookmark

Ellie G. – personalized bookmark

Shallee McArthur – personalized bookmark

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you so much for participating and supporting Angela and me. I'll be contacting you through email to see how you'd like to receive yours prize, i.e., email addresses and in the case of bookmarks, I'll need your physical address.

Thanks again!

*****

There's a lot going on today. For one thing, someone needs

to lecture our girls over at Partners in ParanormYA Headquarters

about not opening the door to the freaking devil!

So, um, maybe you can do it?

*shakes head*

Those girls just don't listen to me or Angela.

They think they can handle anything.

In the meantime, Angela and I are being interviewed at

C.M. Brown's blog,

and Indigo and Abby should be over at

 Millie Holmes' blog

preparing to protest over a subject near

and dear to our self-publishing hearts.

Love Bites and Phantasmic Fashionistas



Thanks for the awesome banner, Tara Tyler!



Whew! Last week was a whirlwind of touring,
talking, and delinquent teen characters.



The tour is progressing nicely, though, and I'd like to thank you all again

for the awesome support you've shown. The writing community rocks!

And a big thank you to last Friday's host, Ciara Knight.

*****

Where are we today?

The girls, Indigo and Abby, are still blogsitting at PIP Headquarters.

Angela Brown and I will be at Angie Sandro's blog with a Phantasmic Fashionista fashion show. The paranormal kind that you won't want to miss!

We will also be at Shelly Arkon's place where she's interviewing our young cast members about luurve...

*****

And of course, we have another giveaway for Week 2!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the Big Swag Giveaway is still going on!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Madam, A Priest and the Devil

Thanks for the awesome banner, Tara Tyler!

First, I want to let you know that I'm being interviewed over at Unicorn Bell today. That'd be awesome if you could stop by:)

And in case you didn't know, I've been posting

over at Run Gwen, Run! every Friday for the Healthy Writer's Club.

*****

Thank you so much, Meradeth Houston,

for graciously opening your blog to us yesterday! 

Angela Brown and I truly appreciate it.

*****

It's day five of the Partners in ParanormYA Blog

Tour - we made it through the first week! Be sure to stop

by PIP Headquarters and see what our delinquent teens have been up to.

And so where are we today?

With Ciara Knight (ever heard the one about the madam and the priest?)

and

with Cam, talking about sucking and touching...

We hope you can stop by!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Week 1 Giveaway ends Sunday night, so be sure to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the Big Swag Giveaway is still going until the end of the month!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



A Ghost of a Chance

Thanks for the awesome banner, Tara Tyler!

Thank you Jessa Russo and J.L. Campbell for hosting the Partners in ParanormYA yesterday. We are truly grateful!

Today is Day Four of the PIP Blog Tour.

Where are we today?

With Meradeth Houston.

Yes, we are breathing a slight sigh of relief after someone who owns this blog double-booked us nearly every day. But we love me her and forgive her.

And we hope you can stop by Meradeth's today!

And, if you get the ghost of a chance, please check up on our stop by our PIP blog because there are a couple of teenage characters over there who have been left on their own all week. Oh - and a GIVEAWAY!

Bullying and Organized Chaos

Thanks for the awesome banner, Tara Tyler!

Thank you so much to Brooke Johnson and Brinda Berry for hosting us yesterday. We appreciate the support so much!

And Now....Day Three of the Partners in ParanormYA Blog Tour.

Where are we today?

With Jessa Russo, talking about teenage bullying and how our characters overcome it...

...and with J.L. Campbell talking about how Angela Brown and I work together.

We hope you can stop by!

Week One Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Big Swag Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Darling Killers and You Take The Ghost



Thanks for the awesome banner, Tara Tyler!



Yesterday's launch over at Alex Cavanaugh's blog was a BLAST! Thank you so much, Alex. We can't thank you enough for your kindness and generosity.

NOW!

Day two of the Partners in ParanormYA blog tour.

Want to read about Darling Killers? Go to Brook Johnson's blog.

Or how about how paranormal activity affects technology? Head on over to Brinda Berry's blog.

Of course, you can do both. Since we've double-booked, Angela Brown and I have had to clone ourselves so we can be in two places at once. If you want, we'll send you the concoction recipe. And don't believe a word Angela says - it does not taste like devil poop!

*****

Purchase Angela Brown’s Neverlove at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, Amazon FR, and Amazon DE.

Purchase Gwen Gardner’s Givin’ Up The Ghost at Amazon US (ebook), Amazon US (print) and Amazon UK.

Okay, crazy me forgot to put up the rafflecopter links here yesterday!

And there are two giveaways! Visit Partners in ParanormYA for the Big Swag Giveaway and for the Week One Giveaway

Launch Day! GUTG and Neverlove!

Thanks for the awesome banner, Tara Tyler!

Do you know what today is?

It's launch day for the Partners in ParanormYA blog tour!

WooHoo!

Today, we'll be over at Alex Cavanaugh's blog for blast off!

Angela Brown and I are so excited for the release of our novels Neverlove and Givin' Up The Ghost.

We hope you'll follow as we tour Blogtown. Our tour schedule is over in the sidebar. Every day will be a brand new post featuring our characters, creatures, and of course, us!

Also, please feel free to spy on drop in on the Partners in ParanormYA blog - our teenage MC's are house-sitting while we're gone.

Both books are now available on Amazon:

Givin' Up The Ghost ebook on Amazon HERE.

Givin' Up The Ghost print book on Amazon HERE.

Neverlove ebook on Amazon HERE.

Yay! G.U.T.G. Bookmarks Are Here.

Just a short post today to say -

My bookmarks are here!

Yay!

I personalized a few by adding some ribbon and beads.

I thought about dropping some at local schools and libraries.

Any other ideas on how to get them out into the world?

Illustrator Spotlight: Corona Zschusschen

I don’t have to tell you all that I have some major Cover-Lovin’ going on for my book, Givin’ Up The Ghost. I finally got to show the front cover off last week during my cover reveal.

You know what else is awesome?

The back cover!

Check it out.

Of course, it’s all attributed to my very talented illustrator, Corona Zschusschen, who I am thrilled to be spotlighting and interviewing today.

_____________________________________________

Illustrator Spotlight

Name: Corona Zschusschen
Nationality: Dutch
Occupation: Illustrator and graphic designer
Lover of: Nature, stars, books-books-books, sci-fi and cats

____________________

Welcome Corona! Tell me something about yourself.

I'm Corona, 30 years young and I'm from the Netherlands. I live in a medium sized town called Enschede, with 2 cats and a great guy. Especially great, because without him I wouldn't be able to chase my dream of being an illustrator.

How long have you been illustrating?

I think I've been drawing all my life. As a child I moved around a lot. Drawing was one of the steady, constant things in my life. Something I could do anywhere at any time. Even though I've been drawing all my life, I've only started being serious about it the past few years. Now I feel confident enough to call myself an illustrator (Explaining you're an illustrator works better at parties than telling you draw things). At the same time I'm never done learning, you have to keep practicing to get better.

How do you start a new illustration?

I also do research and search for inspiration. Mostly online, but sometimes I go somewhere, take a walk after sundown, take pictures of things I see that may be relevant. Often I ask a friend to pose, so I see what gesture or angle works best. But sometimes, when I'm really lucky, it just happens. I sit behind my computer and I start drawing. It's rare when I use paper and pencils, I've become quite dependent on using my drawing tablet to sketch out ideas.

A drawing tablet? How does that work? I’m envisioning etch-a-sketch on a computer, but I imagine it’s a little more complicated than that. (Do they have etch-a-sketch in the Netherlands? Or is it something like Paintbrush in Microsoft?

I'm not sure if they have Etch a Sketch here, they do have this toy that has a white board with iron particles, and you use a magnetic pen to bring the particles up to the surface. Much easier than turning two knobs I think ;) A drawing tablet is a device that you can connect to the computer (see the picture attached, this is my current desk setup :).



It has a pressure (and angle) sensitive pen. The tablet can mimic brush and paint-like strokes. I use it in combination with Photoshop. The only thing you have to get used to when using a tablet like this, is that you have to look up at your computer screen instead of down at your paper.

That is amazing. And how do you color it in?

The same way I've drawn it. Also digital. The program I use (Photoshop) has a digital equivalent of a colour palette. So I can choose colours and paint those in. For me the process is similar to painting traditionally, except that the computer offers the (awesome) 'Ctrl+z' option. This means that when you make a mistake you can simply return to a previous non-mistake version. I once spilled a pot of black ink all over a drawing on paper, oh how I missed 'Ctrl+z' buttons.

How did you come up with the idea for my book cover?

I have to let things sink in and settle before I have any ideas. The best ideas happen in those few minutes before you fall asleep. After you mailed me I printed out the chapter and scenes you had on your website. I read them several times before I went to bed and underlined passages that described atmosphere, mood and appearance. I wanted your cover to tell a story, convey a sense of excitement and mystery, not to be just a static image. I hope I succeeded in bringing that message to the reader.
What also helped is that you clearly knew what you want and didn't want in a cover. This made it easier for me to think up a concept.
For example, the design of Indigo Eady was very important. Not just looks-wise, but also her facial expression and placement on the cover. Do we want her to look at us (the reader) or back at the mysterious people who are chasing her? Is she scared or confident? I went through several designs until Gwen gave the thumbs-up.

________________________________________

And there you have it folks, the very talented illustrator, Corona Zschusschen!

How did I find this whole process?

Fascinating!

How did I choose my illustrator?

For my part, I knew I wanted something different than the usual young adult cover. I write what I consider Young Adult Paranormal Cozy Mysteries. The emphasis is on “cozy,” which I haven’t really seen in young adult fiction.

Lovely as they are, I knew I didn’t want the edgier, realistic photographic cover. I wanted something softer, cozier. I wanted middle-grade for young adult.

I found Corona's artwork as a heading/banner on another blog months and months before I even started thinking about a cover. I added the page to my favorites, and when it was time, I approached her for an estimte.

I couldn’t have imagined a better cover than what Corona created for me. It was exactly what I wanted!

Thank you for being here today, Corona. And thank you so much for creating my awesome cover and being part of my exciting journey.

You can find Corona at:


Her websites:

http://www.sjusjun.com/


http://www.afterhorizon.com/


Email:  sjusjun@gmail.com


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corona.zschusschen

Twitter: @sjusjun