Write Stuff: January 2015

Friday, January 30, 2015

After Reading: INTO THE FIRE by Ashelyn Drake

Don't forget, today's the last day to enter my giveaway! Details here!

Seventeen-year-old Cara Tillman’s life is a perfectly normal one until Logan Schmidt moves to Ashlan Falls. Cara is inexplicably drawn to him, but she’s not exactly complaining. Logan’s like no boy she’s ever met, and he brings out a side of Cara that she isn’t used to. As the two get closer, everything is nearly perfect, and Cara looks forward to the future.

But Cara isn’t a normal girl. She’s a member of a small group of people descended from the mythical phoenix bird, and her time is running out. Rebirth is nearing, which means she’ll forget her life up to this point—she’ll forget Logan and everything they mean to one another.. But that may be the least of Cara’s problems.

A phoenix hunter is on the loose, and he’s determined to put an end to the lives of people like Cara and her family, once and for all. (Goodreads)

I read this a while ago and have been meaning to post on it for ages! I really enjoyed this quick read, and especially the unique way that phoenixes are portrayed. Their world was fascinating. The book opens with a scene that was utterly gripping, too--definitely one of the better opening chapters I've read in a very long time. And the ending certainly left me wanting more! Cara and Logan are cute together and I could definitely understand her struggles with knowing she'd forget him shortly. I did wish there were a bit more explanation as to what the imprinting thing was, as I didn't feel like I understood it completely (and couldn't help thinking about Twilight ;), but that was a minor thing. Overall, a fun read!

Have you read anything by Ashelyn Drake/Kelly Hashway?

Giveaway and Other Fun Things!

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

Hi! Today is the start of spring semester (aka, crazy-Meradeth time), as well as a whole lot of other insanity when it comes to the day job. I'm hoping that in about a month I'll have a much better idea of what my future holds here in Montana, and until then I may be a little light on the internet usage (my *big* interview is in three weeks--cue the stress!). BUT, that doesn't mean that I'm not up for some fun stuff :)

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you may have seen my letter that went out last week. If not, you can check it out here. (And if you want to ensure you don't miss any in the future, sign up here.) Here's the gist of things:

Colors Like Memories is still free, though this is the last week. I doubt my publisher will be doing this again anytime soon, so be sure to grab a copy, m'k? :) And because it's the last week, I'd like to have another promotional push, to, well, go out with a bang. If you'd like to help me spread the word, I'm offering two $5 Amazon gift cards.

Here's the deal:

Post a link and some kind of recommendation on your facebook/twitter/pinterest/instagram/tumblr/blog.
Collect the links.
Send me the links in an email with the subject "Colors Giveaway" to mhouston@meradethhouston.com, or post them in a comment below.
The person with the most share links with win one of the gift cards.
I will randomly chose another share link for the other gift card.
All posts must be made and sent to me by January 30th.

Questions? Ask away! And thanks a million for helping me out!

Don't know what to write? Here's a sample post for twitter or facebook:

Julia has a secret: she killed the guy she loved. It was an accident--sort of. COLORS LIKE MEMORIES is #free! #YA http://amzn.to/1rf1l6O

OR

COLORS LIKE MEMORIES is #free! "I greeted his tombstone the way I always did-with a swift kick." #YA http://amzn.to/1rf1l6O

OR, here are a few pics to share, if that's more your thing :)

Book Blast for 52 LIKES by Medeia Sharif

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

Medeia's a regular around here, and her new novel is out now. I'm really looking forward to this and am showcasing it today!

52 LIKES, Evernight Teen, 2015
Purchase from Amazon, Evernight Teen (more on the author's site)

After a brutal rape and near-murder, Valerie wants to get past feelings of victimhood from both the assault and her history of being bullied. She’s plagued by not knowing the identity of her rapist and by the nasty rumors in school about that night. Valerie follows clues from ghostly entities, past victims of the rapist-murderer, contacting her through a social media site—why do all of their eerie photos have 52 likes under them? Their messages are leading her to the mystery man, although he’ll put up a fight to remain hidden.

Find Medeia – YA and MG Author

Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram | Amazon

a Rafflecopter giveaway

After Reading: THE ORPHAN OF TORUNDI by JL McCreedy

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

To find the truth, she must first uncover the lie ….

Orphaned as an infant, Sam is raised by a pharmaceutical research mission in the rain forests of Torundi. She wields a mean machete, makes soap from candlenuts and is a fairly astute amateur entomologist. You know, the normal stuff. But a month before her seventeenth birthday, she is exiled to an American boarding school in Malaysia.

Armed with little more than her unusual upbringing and church-lady clothes, Sam must contend with her new existence as the world's most socially unprepared high school senior. Well that’s just fine. Because she is determined to solve the mystery behind her banishment and return home tout de suite.
But when she discovers the unthinkable – that her banishment is tied to an enigmatic corporation with illicit designs on Torundi – she realizes the real mystery she must uncover is ... why? Soon, Sam is caught in a whirlwind of intrigue, danger and greed. As she chases this thread of truth to its end, she unravels a plot that threatens her beloved Torundi, her trust in the boy she has grown to love and her own existence. (Goodreads)

Thanks to LibraryThing and Penelope Pipp Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really wasn't sure what to expect from this novel, but when I opened it up I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn right into the story and characters that left me engaged and interested all the way through. Actually, I read this on a flight and didn't put it down the whole time, even to sleep. In particular, I enjoyed the setting--probably my favorite thing about the book--as it was so well depicted. I've always wanted to visit Malaysia and other parts of that region of the world and had a great time reading about them. Sam was a great character with a lot of courage and a fascinating story. There were a few times I got lost with the secondary characters, and there's a lot of shifting settings between the boarding school and Sam's island of Torundi, but overall I really enjoyed the novel!

Have you read a novel where the setting made you want to visit? Which book was it, and where did you want to go?

After Reading: THE ATTIC OF SAND AND SECRETS by Medeia Sharif

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

Lily, a learning disabled girl, attempts to unravel the mystery of her abducted mother using supernatural clues from an ancient stranger, even when it means posing a danger to herself. (Goodreads)

Looking for the Evernight Teen giveaway? Check here and be sure to enter!

I am *so* behind on book reviews! Oops. Not that I haven't been reading a whole lot, because I have been, but I just haven't been blogging them. I'll get caught up one of these days. But I thought I'd start with my first book of 2015 and go in order :)

It was a treat to read this book, and Medeia has a way with creating interesting and complex characters that really draw the reader in. I enjoyed this novel a lot, especially the growth in Lily. The situation with her mother's abduction is incredibly tense and Lily manages to handle it well. Her journey to work out the clues and help bring her mother home was great and I found myself cheering her on. And really wanting to visit her father's pastry shop, haha! It was incredibly sad to see how little Lily thought of herself with her struggles in school, which made her growth and acceptance so much more rewarding. I recommend this one especially to those who enjoyed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, or if you just enjoy a good mystery with a little magic thrown in :)

Evernight Teen's Birthday Blog Hop and Giveaway!

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

Evernight Teen published my most recent release, An Absence of Light, and it was a pleasure to work with them! They're celebrating their birthday, and it's got some awesome prizes!

Happy Birthday to EVERNIGHT TEEN!

EVERNIGHT TEEN turns two this month and we’re having a huge party to celebrate! It may be EVERNIGHT TEEN’s birthday, but you get the presents. So, grab a piece of cake, hop from blog-to-blog and discover EVERNIGHT TEEN!

Be sure to visit every stop on the hop and answer each question. The more you blogs you hop, the more chances to win the GRAND PRIZE of an iPad Mini sponsored by EVERNIGHT TEEN (one entry per blog). Plus, hop each blog for a host of other fabulous prizes.

Have your TBR list handy because we have lots of new titles for you to add, including my featured book, An Absence of Light.

Today, I thought I'd share a little outtake from An Absence of Light--actually, kind of a big one: a whole character. Leah and Adam are the main couple in AAoL in the published form, but in the original draft, Leah dated a hottie from the auto shop she worked at for a while. Eddy, who was this adorable guy with dimples, well, it just hurt to cut him out. He currently lives in a file on my hard drive, and I hope that someday he finds his way into his own story. Anyhow, here's a little snippet of Eddy and Leah:

The next morning, Eddy was parked out front, driving a different car—a black Cadi composed of

more rust than metal. I stepped off of the steps from my place and crossed my arms over my chest, glaring down the drive at him.

He looked up and grinned.

“What’s going on?” I asked, walking to his window, which he pumped down with a squeal from the glass.

“Thought you might like a ride.”

“Yeah? Really?”

His tan deepened. “You always ride with Manuel. I thought I’d offer.”

It took a whole lot of effort to keep from grinning. I shouldn’t encourage him, but I had to admit there was some kind of charm with him sitting there, looking up at me all expectantly.

“So, you wanna ride to work?”

Sighing, I didn’t respond, just went around and dropped into the deep seat next to him. He pulled out a paper bag stained with grease, handing it to me. “I stopped at the bakery.”

Opening the bag let out a delicious scent that had me salivating. He’d obviously hit the Panaderia, and the warm breads coated with sugar were nearly gone by the time we pulled in at the garage.

“Damn girl, did you leave me anything?” Eddy laughed, pulling the bag away from me.

“Wait, that wasn’t my share?” I asked, feigning innocence.

He rolled his eyes and pulled out a giant pan-dulce, covered with a thick coating of white sugar in a shell pattern. “Thanks for not eating it all.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I laughed, settling back in my seat. We were actually early. Manuel wasn’t there yet, and Andy hadn’t unlocked the main doors.

“I wasn’t so sure,” Eddy shook his head, wiping crumbs from his lips.

We sat in silence for a minute, me starting out of the car, not able to see anything. Emily’s words from yesterday about the shadows were creeping back into my mind, slowly circling like a giant shark about to attack. I needed to find out more, but didn’t know where to start.

I flinched when Eddy reached over, his fingertips brushing against mine on the seat. Glancing at him, I forced a small smile, struggling to keep my hand in place and not pull it away like Eddy was a leper.

Eddy’s fingers were warm when they slipped between mine. If I’d thought about it days ago, I would have been repulsed by the idea of allowing myself to do something like this. I had to keep my distance. It was for his safety.

Now it just felt good. Felt safe. Felt, well, just felt. Like something for once wasn’t bad, or stressful, or all confusing.

The knock on my window made me flinch, and Eddy’s fingers gripped mine more tightly. Outside the glass, Adam grinned at us.

I swallowed hard, knowing I was going to hear about this later. Adam held up his keys and jerked his thumb at the shop.

“Looks like work’s started,” Eddy muttered, clearly not relishing the interruption.

I hurried into the front office, busying myself with messages on the machine, updating our schedule, and placing some orders left over from last week.

And, just for fun, another little outtake, which explains why I often refer to this novel as X-Files meets Buffy:

“You know what they’ve always kind of reminded me of?” I asked. The guys shook their heads. “Ever watch the X-Files? You know the creepy alien virus slime things that attack people?”

Manuel chuckled, nodding. Adam gave me a one-eyebrow look like I’d lost my mind.

“They always made me think of a bigger version of those things. Gross, and almost like they’d be slimy, but still like a big shadow,” I continued.

“That does seem kind of right, I mean, at least how they look,” Adam conceded. “Thanks for ruining that show for me.”

“You’re totally welcome, Mulder,” I smirked.

Enter for a chance to win EVERNIGHT TEEN’s GRAND PRIZE of an iPad Mini and my blog prize by answering this question (be sure to include your email address to be eligible to win):

If you're a writer, have you ever had to cut a character? As a reader, what do you think when you hear about characters that get cut out?

The birthday blog hop continues here:

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25 ROSES by Stephanie Faris Blog Tour

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

I love featuring fun authors here, and Stephanie is definitely great! Check out her latest release:

25 Roses

Stephanie Faris

Mia moves from the shadows to the spotlight when her matchmaking plans go awry in this contemporary M!X novel from the author of 30 Days of No Gossip.

Mia is used to feeling overlooked: her perfect older sister gets all the attention at home, and the popular clique at school are basically experts at ignoring her. So when it’s time for the annual Student Council chocolate rose sale, Mia is prepared to feel even worse. Because even though anyone can buy and send roses to their crushes and friends, the same (popular) people always end up with roses while everyone else gets left out.

Except a twist of fate puts Mia in charge of selling the roses this year—and that means things are going to change. With a little creativity, Mia makes sure the kids who usually leave empty-handed suddenly find themselves the object of someone’s affection. But her scheme starts to unravel when she realizes that being a secret matchmaker isn’t easy—and neither is being in the spotlight.

Stephanie Faris:

Stephanie Faris knew she wanted to be an author from a very young age. In fact, her mother often told her to stop reading so much and go outside and play with the other kids. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in broadcast journalism, she somehow found herself working in information technology. But she never stopped writing.

Stephanie is the author of 30 Days of No Gossip and 25 Roses, both with Aladdin M!x. When she isn’t crafting fiction, she writes for a variety of online websites on the topics of business, technology, and her favorite subject of all—fashion. She lives in Nashville with her husband, a sales executive.

Links:

Buy (Autographed); Buy (Amazon); Website; Blog; Facebook; Twitter; Instagram

25 Roses Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

To: Stanton Middle School

From: Mia Hartley

This place could use a real-life Cupid.

I don’t ask for much. A ride to school without listening to my big sister Kellie gabbing on the phone with her BFF Margeaux. Maybe a few minutes where Mom actually listens to me instead of Kellie. Oh, and extra room in the back seat to set a box full of notecards to attach to chocolate roses so I don’t have to hold it in my lap all the way to school.

Unfortunately, none of those things were happening. My sister was doing the whole, “And then I said, and then she said” thing while my mom ignored my questions about dropping me off at school first. The cards in the box on my lap had to be filled out for our Valentine’s Day sale, which was a huge deal in my school every year.

Why did I have the box? Blame it on my desire to be liked. I signed up to help sell these because my BFF wanted to do it. And because if you did things like this, people knew who you were. It was nicer than being invisible, I figured.

Why was the box on my lap? Good question. Because my cheerleader-slash-homecoming attendant-slash-most popular sophomore at Stanton High School sister had to have a place for her stupid science project. Which she’d probably get an A-plus-plus on because, in case it wasn’t obvious, she’s perfect—the golden child.

I, meanwhile, have never gotten a carnation, rose, or even a pile of fake doody from a boy. Today my best friend Ashleigh and I sell chocolate roses before school, then tomorrow—Valentine’s Day—we hand those roses out in first period. That was when things would really get boring.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terrible Titles Blog Hop & Cover Reveal for 50 LIKES by Medeia Sharif

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

How is everyone doing? Starting off 2015 well? Things here are great! In case you missed it, yesterday my first flash fiction on Lightening Quick Reads went live, with our monthly topic of "goals." It was a lot of fun to write, and I'd love to hear what you think was going on at the end :)

And Colors Like Memories is still free (yep, gotta get that in there somehow...). I hit the 400's in the overall store the other day, and #1 in one of my categories, so that's pretty sweet :)

For today, I'm taking the awesome Leandra Wallace up on her tag in the Terrible Titles blog hop. Her titles made me laugh out loud, so be sure to check those out. Plus, Leandra's a sweetheart with a great blog--well worth the click!

The rules are to pull up your manuscript and randomly stop while scrolling through. Whatever words/phrases your cursor has landed on will become your eight terrible titles. Here are mine from my (terribly titled) Coincidences, the NA paranormal thriller I'm querying. Considering I kind of hate the title it current has, but haven't been able to come up with anything better, this could be interesting ;)

Added Aass
Bite to My Words
Small Whirlpool
Damn Observant
Changing the Wording
Nothing Better Than New Undies
Smelled Like a Trap
Fake Plague

So these are pretty dang random :) Also, I'm horrible about tagging people, so does anyone want to play along?

What's the worst title you've ever heard?

52 LIKES by Medeia Sharif
Cover Reveal, Evernight Teen, 2015
Releases January 16th!!

After a brutal rape and near-murder, Valerie wants to get past feelings of victimhood from both the assault and her history of being bullied. She’s plagued by not knowing the identity of her rapist and by the nasty rumors in school about that night. Valerie follows clues from ghostly entities, past victims of the rapist-murderer, contacting her through a social media site—why do all of their eerie photos have 52 likes under them? Their messages are leading her to the mystery man, although he’ll put up a fight to remain hidden.

Find Medeia – YA and MG Author

Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram | Amazon

Guest Post by Marie Laval, author of A SPELL IN PROVENCE

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

I have a wonderful guest post today to share, with the lovely Marie Laval! Be sure to say hello!

Hello Meradeth and thank you very much for welcoming me on your blog today. I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk about my new novel, A SPELL IN PROVENCE, which is shortly to be released by Áccent Press.

A SPELL IN PROVENCE is a contemporary romantic suspense, a new genre for me since I usually write historical romances.

I first got the idea for the plot during a family holiday in the South of France. It is obvious when you travel through Provence that fountains were very important for locals. 'Water is gold' says an old Provençal saying, and true enough, there are fountains everywhere - some were very grand like in Aix-en-Provence, others a plain stone trough with only an old tap spurting fresh water.

One fountain in particular captured my imagination. It was in the lovely small town of Cassis near Marseille, where we had stopped for an impromptu picnic. As soon as I saw it and read its inscription in Latin, I knew I had the basis of a plot.

Provence is a wonderful setting for a novel. There are so many hill-top villages and old farmhouses, lavender and sunflower fields, and ancient Roman ruins...

Blurb

With few roots in England and having just lost her job, Amy Carter decides to give up on home and start a new life in France, spending her redundancy package turning an overgrown Provençal farmhouse, Bellefontaine, into a successful hotel. Though she has big plans for her new home, none of them involves falling in love – least of all with Fabien Coste, the handsome but arrogant owner of a nearby château. As romance blossoms, eerie and strange happenings in Bellefontaine hint at a dark mystery of the Provençal countryside which dates back many centuries and holds an entanglement between the ladies of Bellefontaine and the ducs de Coste at its centre. As Amy works to unravel the mystery, she begins to wonder if it may not just be her heart at risk, but her life too.

Buy Links:

http://www.accentpress.co.uk/Book/13421/A-Spell-in-Provence.html

A SPELL IN PROVENCE will be available from Amazon in early January, 2015!

Originally from Lyon in France, Marie studied History and Law at university there before moving to Lancashire in England where she worked in a variety of jobs, from PA in a busy university department to teacher of French in schools and colleges. Writing, however, was always her passion, and she spends what little free time she has dreaming and making up stories. Her historical romances ANGEL HEART and THE LION'S EMBRACE are published by MuseItUp Publishing. A SPELL IN PROVENCE is her first contemporary romance. It is published by Áccent Press.

Snippet

He looked down. The light of the rising sun played on his face and made his green eyes seem deep and warm. Time slowed down. The noise from the crowd became muffled and distant, and all she could hear was the crystalline spring water trickling in the old fountain. The spring that ran through the forest between Manoir Coste and Bellefontaine and bound hearts and lives together, or so the spell said …

Her heartbeat slowed, or maybe it stopped altogether. It was as if Fabien and she were alone. Desire, fear and another feeling she didn’t recognise overwhelmed her and made her dizzy.