#IWSG #BloggingBuddies #MayInvolveWine

It's the first Wednesday of the month and time for the Insecure Writers Support Group Hop. 

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for hosting this monthly event, and to this month's awesome co-hosts: Louise - Fundy Blue , Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, Patsy Collins at Womagwriter, and Nancy Gideon!

This month's optional question is: Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

I've met tons of friends through blogging. And through blogging, friendships pour over into other social media such as Facebook and Twitter. I've learned a lot about what these friends think and how they feel about things, and even share in their successes and failures, the highs and lows, birth, marriage, death, divorce and the loss of beloved pets. My buddies at the Untethered Realms group I belong to are very supportive. 

We've never met face to face.

Except for...

...my most special blogging-turned-real-friend, Angela Brown! She is sweet and kind, beautiful inside and out, and so, so talented! We met through the A - Z Blogging Challenge back in 2012, decided we were going to blog tour together with our new releases, and have never looked back. We've been critique partners for nine years and we have a system down that works for us. We schedule when our work is due to each other for critique, and when it's due back. Then we have our monthly Friday Night Zoom Meeting to discuss what we've written, where we're stuck, what we want to work on next, and bandy ideas around. 

We discuss everything under the sun. 

Sometimes our meetings last two hours. 

And may involve wine. 

What about you?

Have you met any lifelong blogging buddies? 

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?

Don't Miss These Reads!

Got a special treat for you today. You know it's special when I'm blogging in the middle of the week and it's not even Insecure Writer's Support Group day!

First up, just releasing today, is Angela Brown's FABLE RANGER: SUMMONS. It's a middle grade novel and something new for Angela. If you're familiar with her work, she generally writes young adult. But, you're in for a treat with this new children's book. I had the opportunity to beta read it early on and I knew some publisher was going to jump at it!

It's a mashup where you'll recognize many of the characters from your favorite fairytales growing up.

Check it out!

Take care of what you wish for. You just might get it.

Twelve-year-old Casey doesn’t think life could get anymore unfair. Plans for her special basketball tournament are tossed aside by her sister’s change in wedding plans. She even has to be a bridesmaid now, with all the lace and silk and - oh the horror! All she wants is an escape, but she never imagined she’d be swept away to a world of Mother Goose rhymes, fairy tales, stories of Arabian Nights, and oh, by the way, all but one fairy godmother is kidnapped.

Casey learns she’s been summoned as the Fable Ranger to lead the search and rescue of the missing wish-makers. She also discovers she isn’t the hero they would accept. In the world of fairy tales, damsels are not meant to swoop in to save the day.

Now all Casey wants is to go home, a wish easy to grant if the veil between worlds weren’t on lockdown. Taking fate into her own hands, she embarks on an airship flight to find the phoenix tears that can help open her way home. Her journey would’ve gone as smooth as the perfect layup if it weren’t for that pesky bounty the evil Dovetail placed on her head. Casey refuses to fail knowing it would allow the legends of Arabian Nights to disappear forever and leave her trapped in a world unraveling one fairy tale at a time.

Buy link: Amazon

Author Bio

Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, A.L. Brown now calls Central Texas home. She's a lover of Wild Cherry Pepsi and chocolate/chocolate covered delicious-ness. Steampunk, fantasy, and paranormal to contemporary — mostly young adult — fill her growing library of books. Mother to a rambunctious darling girl aptly nicknamed Chipmunk, her life stays busy. Her favorite quote keeps her moving: “You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

She is the author of the upper young adult paranormal Neverlove and its new adult follow up They All Fall Down of the Shadow Jumpers series, Frailties of the Bond and Atone of the NEO Chronicles: Characters Revealed series, andBeacon, the first action-packed title in the young adult urban fantasy series, Ripped Ties. Her debut MG (middle grade) title is coming soon from Dingbat Publishing: FABLE RANGER: SUMMONS.

You can find her on her blog, Dingbat author page, and Facebook.

Buy link: Amazon

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In the mood for something more suitable for the older crowd? I'm way behind with my TBR pile, but I did get the chance to read the first book in the series, The Rifters, by M. Pax. It was an excellent read, and sort of a mashup of Steampunk, a modern-day old-western town and a bit of sci fi, with some fun, quirky characters to boot.

A really fun read, and I highly recommend it!

Books I and II are free right now, so find the links below.

Check out the latest novel from The Rifters series, The Reader.

With the rift closed for the season and no more monsters to fight, Daelin Long gets bored as librarian in the podunk town of Settler, Oregon. A job interview and her brother’s arrival present a tempting opportunity to escape, until her brother and her best friend, a ghost, disappear.

While Daelin searches for them, more mysteries pile up: dead people coming back to life, portraits of the town founders replaced with strange white trees, and people on the other side of the rift returning. It’s impossible. The portal that allows monsters from other universes to come to Earth is sealed until next summer.

The Rifters, a secret group protecting our world, believe the troubles are nothing more than the tantrums of an offended ghost. Daelin disagrees. If she’s right, the evil hell-bent on destroying Earth has new technology making the rift more deadly.

Before the monster summons the next apocalypse, Daelin must find it and destroy it.

Book 3 in the Rifter series.

Need to catch up? You can read books 1 & 2 in the Rifter series for free by becoming an M. Pax Reader. ENTER MY DIMENSION

Author Bio

M. Pax is author of the space adventure series The Backworlds, plus other novels and short stories. Fantasy, science fiction, and the weird beckons  to her, and she blames Oregon, a source of endless inspiration. She docents at Pine Mountain Observatory in the summers as a star guide and has a cat with a crush on Mr. Spock. Learn more at mpaxauthor.com.

Buy links:

Amazon

AmazonUK / AUS / CA / DE / FR / ES / IT / NL / JP / BR / MX / IN

Bookcessories

iBook / Nook / GooglePlay / Kobo / Smashwords / inktera / Scribd

Designing Series' Covers

Designing covers is always exciting. Periodic glimpses into the progress really feeds the cover lust. The waiting on the final product is agonizing. But when it's done, it's pure love. It's one of my favorite parts of publishing.

 

Angela Brown gets a second go round on her Shadow Jumper series.

Here's what she has to say...

Check it out!

As you may recall, I mentioned I was interesed in doing some book cover changes in one of my last posts. Now, here's the deal, I LOVE my current book covers Heather McCorkle did for me for Neverlove and They All Fall Down of the Shadow Jumpers trilogy.

 

 

 

Yet, as lovely as they are, they do not let readers know these titles are part of a series or trilogy, so a change was in order. But in what way could I honor the symbolism and beauty in both covers? After I reviewed what the series was about as a whole, then did a deep dive into ThinkStock photos for some inspiration, I stumbled upon something that lit a fire under me. I turned to Heather McCorkle to bring these new covers to life as she was the designer of the originals. Here are the new covers to Neverlove and They All Fall Down of the Shadow Jumpers trilogy...

Duty or love...there can be only one.

A love worth fighting for...

To ensure book 3 is in aligntment, Heather and I have gathered a great photo that I hope rounds the book covers out nicely.

As I mentioned in my post about this coming change, change can be scary. As much as I am excited, I'm a tad afraid the covers may not be received well, despite my personal opinion that they honor the original covers justly through their fiery symbolism.

So here I am opening this up to you, my blog buddies, readers, friends and all :-)

A Haunting From The Great Beyond

 

Welcome to the From The Great Beyond bloghop, where deceased writers can gather around the séance table and chat a bit across the great divide. Come on in, pull up a seat, and take the hands of the people on each side of you. Now close your eyes while I try to summon my favorite deceased author, Charles Dickens.

 

But before we start, I'll tell you a bit about him. He wrote tons of stories about ghosts and such, the most famous being A Christmas Carol. Remember Jacob Marley, who was dead as a doornail and had to go around rattling chains for his sins? He wore the chains he forged in life. If you'll remember, Marley's chains were cash boxes, ledgers and deeds. Money was his business, when it should have been Mankind.

 

Did you know that Dickens was one of the first social activists? His father went to debtor's prison when he was a child, and little Charles was forced to work long hours at a factory. He never forgot that, and his stories are full of social commentary, disguised within the pages of his eccentric, yet amazing stories and characters.

 

Now if you're ready, let's join hands and....

 

*The table rattles*

 

What was that? Who did that?

 

*The table begins to rise*

 

*Empty chairs lie on the floor and Gwen is left standing alone*

 

Um, while I go to see what happened to my guests, perhaps you would like to leave a comment?

 

*Gwen hightails it out of there*

 









Which writer would you choose to contact?


Sorry everyone, but my linky won't work on my blog, but if you'll go to Tara, Angela or Roland, you should be able to see a list of participants to visit. Did I mention there are prizes?! Lots of prizes for both the participants and the commenters.

We'll announce the winners on Halloween (tomorrow)!

Don't Freak on Me Now

Blitz Tour, Day Three!

 

 

More fun stops today!

 

Franny Knows Best, ParanormYA Feud, Fright Night, Welcome to KPIP and another one about, erm, canines and ghosts and stuff.

 

Today's stops are here:

 

http://christinerains-writer.blogspot.com/

 

http://the-open-vein-ejwesley.blogspot.com/

 

http://cmbrown-books.blogspot.com.au/

 

http://www.jessarusso.com/

 

AND!

 

Episode 4 of the Partners in ParanormYA blogcom miniseries,

The Great Destruction:

 

The Great Destruction: Don't Freak On Me Now

 

 

 

Who Killed the WCP and The Unforgiven

Guess what day it is?!

 

The Partners in ParanormYA

New Books Release Day!

Woo Hoo!


This time, the PIPs are doing a short, quick blitz, Tuesday through Friday, but with 4 - 5 stops per day.

The posts are short so that you can follow every stop if you've a mind to. They will feature posts such as KPIP, a radio show featuring the PiPs, bloopers, and other fun character game shows and posts.

 

Todays stops are here:

 

http://julieflanders.blogspot.com

 

http://www.susankayequinn.com

 

http://anjeasandro.blogspot.com/ 

 

http://taratylertalks.blogspot.com/

 

PLUS!

As an added bonus, we're running a mystery miniseries this week over at the Partners in ParanormYA blog. We hope you'll enjoy the character/author blogcom called, The Great Destruction.

 

Here's episode 1:
(which started yesterday)

 

 The Great Destruction: Who Killed the WCP?

And, today's episode 2:
 

The Great Destruction: The Unforgiven

AND!

Don't forget the giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

)

Ghosts of Aquinnah and Paranormal Miniseries!

First, the wonderful cover reveal of The Ghosts of Aquinnah!

 

 

 

 

Blurb:

A brilliant flash of light transcends through time.

Another freezes a cloaked figure within a frame of salty mist as waves crash against a rocky shore. Her harrowing expression shadows the beacon to a pinprick.

By the next blaze, she is gone. Only the lighthouse remains.

Hannah’s eyes blink in step with each heartbeat. Images of her deceased parents and Martha’s Vineyard explode like firecrackers inside her mind.

She shakes her head.

For weeks this eerie woman dressed in nineteenth century garb has been haunting my webcam, but tonight she stared into my soul.

Why? ...

Who is she? ...

Casting aside months of research on historic lighthouses, Hannah drives to the coast and boards a ferry.

What is the strange connection she has to this mysterious woman suspended in time?

Hannah finds out.

But, it’s not at all what she expects ...

Hannah unravels a century old murder.

Author Bio:

Julie Flanders is a novelist and freelance writer in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a life-long love affair with the ocean and has spent more summer vacations than she can count on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. When not writing, Julie can be found reading, cheering on her favorite sports teams, and watching too much television. She is an animal lover and shares her home with her dog and cat.

Find Julie at:

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads

The Ghosts of Aquinnah will be released by Ink Smith Publishing on December 5, 2013

***

 

As a reminder, our Partners in ParanormYA Blitz Tour starts tomorrow...

 

 

 

But mostly, I wanted to let you in on the first day of the PiPs mystery miniseries, which starts today over at Partners in ParanormYA headquarters:

 

The Great Destruction: Who Killed The WCP?

 

Hope you can stop by!

The Partners in ParanormYA Are Baack!

 

Remember those two crazy gals who write paranormal but are too scared to read or watch it themselves? Yeah, those two - Angela Brown and Gwen Gardner. We're back with our sequels and can't wait to share them with you!

 

But for now, it is with great pleasure and a thrill in our hearts that the Partners in ParanormYA reveal the covers for our follow-up stories to our currently available novels: Givin' Up the Ghost (Gwen) and Neverlove (Angela).

*cue drumroll*

...

..

.

THEY ALL FALL DOWN by Angela Brown (Add to Goodreads)

 

Cover design by Heather McCorkle

 

 

Abby and Basil: New love reaches new heights as they finally give in to their lust and desire for each other.

Q: Consumed by the Devourer within and his base need to claim Abby as his own.

The crave: What it all boils down to. A crave for souls. A crave to keep love intact beyond betrayals. A crave for a second chance. A crave for power and The Fall of mankind.

“Love can conquer all” is put to the test and salvation may be impossible when it’s “ashes, ashes…they all fall down.”

~

A GUILTY GHOST SURPRISED by Gwen Gardner (Add to Goodreads)

Cover illustration by Corona Zschusschen

 

An Angel Among Us

 

Paranormal happenings at the Eady household are the norm. Recently, things have become downright peculiar. Childish giggles at odd hours of the night lead Indigo Eady to her little cousin, Bryan, a guileless cherub spirit, complete with Spider Man pajamas and a set of faux angel wings. The problem is that Bryan died nearly three years ago in a hit and run that killed him and his mum. The driver was never found.  Now the gang must solve the mystery of his death in order to send him back to heaven.  But where to start when the trail is three years cold?

Indigo Eady

Indigo Eady is not clumsy. At least, that’s what she keeps telling everyone. Can she help that the overactive spirit community of Sabrina Shores causes her psychic abilities to short-circuit? It’s unfortunate that her cute friend Badger is often on the receiving end of her mishaps. At times, she is positively hazardous to his health. Even so, sparks fly in more than one direction.

 

About Gwen

Gwen Gardner is a native Californian living in sunny San Diego, where her love of reading and writing led to a BA in English literature. Life is now complete with her husband, two dogs and a daily call from her daughter.

Since ghosts feature prominently in her young adult Indigo Eady Paranormal “Cozy” Mystery series, she has a secret desire to meet one face to face - but will run screaming for the hills if she ever does. Gwen adores travel and experiencing the cultures and foods of different countries. She is always up for an adventure and anything involving chocolate - not necessarily in that order.

Haunt at the following: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

 About Angela

 

Angela is a lover of Wild Cherry Pepsi and chocolate/chocolate covered delicious-ness. Steampunk, fantasy and paranormal to contemporary - mostly young adult - fill her growing library of books.

 
Mother to a rambunctious darling girl aptly nicknamed Chipmunk, life stays busy. Her favorite quote keeps her moving: "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Haunt at the following: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Partners in ParanormYA Sequel Sign Ups!

 

 

Wahoo! Guess who's getting ready to release their sequels?

The Partners in ParanormYA!

Last October, Angela Brown and I  released our debut novels, Neverlove and Givin' Up The Ghost. This October, we're releasing the sequels, They All Fall Down and A Guilty Ghost Surprised.

But first, to the covers. We're really excited for everyone to see them.

We're slated to reveal the covers on August 27th.

I'm having problems with the linky, so if you can't sign up, just leave a message in the comments.

You can add our books to your TBR list on Goodreads, too.

They All Fall Down by Angela Brown

AND

A Guilty Ghost Surprised by Gwen Gardner

http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=205920

 

Thanks so much for participating!