Saturday, March 31, 2012

My A to Z Challenge Theme for 2012


For the month of April I will be writing (yes, future tense, because many of them are not yet written! I know, I know, I was going to be super prepared in advance this year ... Well, maybe next year that'll happen!) 26 flash fiction pieces based on 26 different assignments that Violet has been on in the past. They will be 200 to 300 words each.

Violet Fairdale is the main character in the Creepy Hollow series. She is in her fifth and final year of training to be a guardian at the Creepy Hollow Guild. Her training requires her to take on assignments where she protects humans from dangerous magical creatures. The month of April will feature some of these assignments.

For those interested, here's how it works in Violet's world:

Assignment types:
  • Group (with mentor)
  • Paired (with mentor)
  • Paired (without mentor)
  • Solo (with mentor observing)
  • Solo

Training is divided into five years:
  • First year: training and lessons only, no assignments
  • Second year: training, lessons, group assignments
  • Third year: training, lessons, paired assignments with a mentor
  • Fourth year: training, lessons, paired assignments without a mentor, solo assignments with a mentor observing.
  • Fifth year: training, paired and solo assignments

Good luck with the challenge!


Friday, March 30, 2012

Giveaway: My Memories Scrapbooking Software

This blog is mainly about books and writing, so giveaways are usually centered around ... books and writing! Today, however, I have a different kind of giveaway -- digital scrapbooking software!



Wait, wait, wait! Before half of you run away because you think you're not creative in that way or because you've never been into scrapbooking, I'll show you how you can use this for your blog.

What You Can Do

Instead of making a scrapbook page of photos, I made a blog banner and two sidebar 'buttons' for an imaginary blog:

Click to enlarge



About the Software

Click to enlarge.
Here's a screenshot of My Memories Suite v3. It was pretty simple to find my way around. You can choose what size your pages will be when you begin an album, and then anything you might want to add to your pages can be found on the control panel on the right hand side.



There is SO much you can add to a page. Aside from the normal things you could add to a 'real life' album (like background papers, photos, text, embellishments and shapes) you can add elements that are purely digital, like video, multimedia, music and narration. How cool is that?!


And when you're finished, there are so many different ways to share the album. For this blog post, I clicked "Export Pages" and saved each page as an individual JPEG. But you can also turn your scrapbook into an interactive album or a movie, or create a calendar out of it (which I imagine would be a cool Christmas present to send to overseas family...).





The only negative I have to report is that the program runs quite slowly on my computer (by slowly I mean when I click on an element to move it around or change it, a few seconds pass before the computer responds). According to the computer system requirements, 2GB or more of RAM and 1.6 GHz processor or better is recommended. My computer says 4 GB and 2.10 GHz, so it must be something else that's slowing down the system. Um, yeah. I know next to zilch about these things!

Disclaimer: I was given two copies of this software, one to try out in order to give an honest review, and another to give away. I was in no other way compensated for this review.

Freebies for You!

I've been given a coupon code that will get you a $10 discount on the My Memories Suite v3 as well as a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store.
Share the Memories code: STMMMS93435

Feel free to share the code with anyone you think might be interested :-)

Here comes the giveaway part!

Click "Read More"

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Methods of Procrastination - Wordle

Today I was introduced to Wordle by Lisa Bouchard. You enter some text and it creates a random picture of the words that appear the most. I think. Instead of entering text, I entered my blog url. And the above is what it came up with!

This isn't as big a procrastination method as, say, Pinterest (oh, Pinterest.... *sigh*). Which is probably a good thing, because who needs to waste any more time than they already do?!

What procrastination methods have you used lately?


Come back tomorrow for a 
GIVEAWAY!
(Update: and by "tomorrow" I may possibly have actually meant Friday!)
 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Teaser Tuesday (22): Soul Thief

Title: Soul Thief (Demon Trappers, #2)
Author: Jana Oliver

Riley dug in her messenger bag, retrieved a pen, and began a list on a crisp white napkin.

Find Dad
Bust Holy Water Scam
Save the World
Buy Groceries
Do Laundry

As she saw it, if number three on the list didn't work out, the last two weren't going to be an issue.


Okay, so that wasn't exactly two sentences. More like two sentences with a list in between. So ... yeah. ANYWAY, I really enjoyed the first book in this series, The Demon Trapper's Daughter. I love Riley's voice :-) Still getting into this one, but I'm hoping to love it just as much!



Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read.
  • Open to a random page.
  • Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!
  • Share the title and author too so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

Guest Post
I have a guest post today over at A to Z Challenge co-host Tina's blog, 
I'm talking about themes for the A to Z challenge :-)


Friday, March 23, 2012

Hunger Games Sadness

I'm feeling very left out at the moment reading all the posts about people planning to watch The Hunger Games this weekend and how excited they are. Just so you guys know, I REALLY WANT TO WATCH IT NOW TOO! But, sadly, the movie is only coming out here (South Africa) in THREE WEEKS TIME :-( Because clearly none of the in-charge-of-movie-releases-in-this-country people know what a big deal this is. And they are so missing out. And they're making us miss out.
*sniff*


Feel free to tell me in the comments how awesome the movie is!

PS - Because I'm a super multi-tasker, I'm also over at Arlee Bird's Tossing it Out today, talking about stop motion videos :-)


~  ~  ~

And I got tagged!


Daisy Carter from Fresh as a Daisy and Madeleine Maddocks from Scribble and Edit have both tagged me in the Lucky Seven game :-)

The Rules:
1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating.



This is from an MS I haven't looked at in nearly a year. I promise I didn't cheat. I'm just glad there was some interesting conversation happening on page 77! (In case you're confused, the MC is talking to Seth, but the character Max is also in the room.)


“I’ll have you know that there is no world that exists where I could possibly have been attracted to you.” She glanced quickly at Max, who was watching them from the comfort of his chair. He was now lounging sideways, his hands behind his head and his feet propped up on the armrest of Seth’s chair.

Seth laughed loudly. “Your passionate denial is amusing.” He reached over and ran a finger slowly down her cheek. “I could have you if I wanted, and any other girl too,” he boasted.

~  ~  ~

And I got an award!

Thanks so much, Melissa and Krista, for passing this award onto me :-)


  • Favorite Color: Purple
  • Favorite Animal: Tough choice. I'm gonna go with Scrat from Ice Age.
  • Favorite Number: 13. It's supposedly unlucky, but I was born on the 13th :-)
  • Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink: Fruit juice
  • Facebook or Twitter: Hmm. If I had to choose to only use one forever... Ugh, no, I can't choose. They serve different purposes! Okay fine. Facebook.
  • My Passions: Reading, writing, family, friends, God (not necessarily in that order!)
  • Getting or Giving Presents: Giving. Especially when I know the person well and it's something I KNOW they will love!
  • Favorite Pattern: Something with curly-flowery-leafy vectors.
  • Favorite Day of the Week: Friday. Duh!
  • Favorite Flower: Um ... the red ones?


Thursday, March 22, 2012

Motivation: The Reward System

It's the end of the first term for the school year which means I've spent the past few days doing something I absolutely LOVE doing (<----sarcasm): marking exam papers!  This is something that gets boring quickly. Like, REALLY boring. I've tried many things to make it more exciting: listening to music, playing a movie in the background, munching on sweets, staring at the blank wall in front of my desk ... Nothing really helps.

This time I decided to motivate myself through a reward system. Mark five papers, read one chapter. Repeat. It was pretty cool! And I got to practise my self-discipline by MAKING myself put the book (Legend, by Marie Lu) back down after one chapter. Unfortunately, since I had a deadline, I ended up marking late last night after returning home from a wedding (yup, a midweek wedding) and early this morning before going to school - minus the reward system :-(

So how do you motivate yourself to do something you REALLY don't want to do?

In other awesome news, my video entry won the A to Z Video Challenge!! Yay x 500!
Arlee is featuring me on his blog tomorrow, and some of the other A to Z hosts will be featuring me on their blogs too (like Jenny Pearson and C. Lee McKenzie) - coolness! My blog tour only just ended and now I get to blog-travel again! Oh yeah, and THANK YOU to everyone who voted for my video!


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Cover Reveal for LABYRINTH (CREEPY HOLLOW #2)

The blog tour is now OVER, which means no one else's blog has to put up with my presense! Hehe! And what better way to end off a blog tour than by showing off another pretty picture? For anyone who's bought and read GUARDIAN, this won't be a surprise, as you'll already have seen this cover at the end of the book. But for everyone else . . .  here it is!



Labyrinth (Creepy Hollow, #2)

Guardian trainee Violet Fairdale has officially been suspended for bringing a human into the fae realm. No assignments, no training, and goodbye to that position at the top of the class. While this sucks, it at least allows her time to secretly keep visiting Nate, the human boy who caused her suspension in the first place. It’s not the wisest move to continue breaking Guild Law, but no one’s going to find out. And Nate is worth the risk, isn’t he?

To prevent herself from going into assignment withdrawal, Vi throws herself into investigating Nate’s real mother, Angelica, a woman who seems to be mysteriously connected to the world of the fae. Nate’s never given her much thought, but that was before an insane faerie abducted him in order to blackmail Angelica out of hiding. Now Nate wants answers, and Vi’s got the perfect ability to help him.

To be released: 1 April 2012


Saturday, March 17, 2012

GUARDIAN Giveaway Winners Announced!


I know you're just going to scroll right past this to see if your name is down there, but AFTER you've done that, perhaps you could check out the last official stop for the blog tour. Bree from The Magic Attic (such a cool blog name. I totally wish I had a magic attic) is posting a book review of GUARDIAN tonight. Thanks for ending off the blog tour, Bree!




There were sooooo many entries for the giveaway on Some Like It Paranormal (294 entries) that instead of picking one winner for that giveaway, I decided to pick THREE!

THE WINNERS ARE:

Giveaway on Rachel Morgan Writes
An ecopy of Creepy Hollow #1 and Creepy Hollow #2, plus a $20 Amazon gift card
Sher A Hart

Giveaway on Some Like It Paranormal
An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)
Beatriz
Filia
Anna

Giveaway on In Time . . .
An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)
Irika

Giveaway on The Eagle's Aerial Perspective
An ecopy of Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1)
Sheena-kay

Congratulations, winners! I shall be contacting you via email. And THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who made this blog tour and the launch of the Creepy Hollow series so much fun for me! You guys are incredible!
~  ~  ~

Come back tomorrow to see the
cover reveal
of LABYRINTH, the second installment in the Creepy Hollow series.

(For those of you who have bought and read GUARDIAN, this won't be a surprise, as the cover for LABYRINTH is included at the end of GUARDIAN, but for everyone else, you should definitely pop by to see it!)



Friday, March 16, 2012

A Chat with Violet and Ryn


  • Today the crazy-awesome Colene Murphy is sitting in between Violet and Ryn interviewing both of them. You should really (really!) check it out. (I had a ton of fun writing it!)

  • And there is one last author interview for the blog tour, this one by Jessica Therrien (who is currently finishing off her own blog tour!).

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

COME BACK TOMORROW TO SEE ALL 
THE GIVEAWAY WINNERS!

Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .
The Eagle's Aerial Perspective


Thursday, March 15, 2012

Do You See Your Writing As A Career?




~  ~  ~

Voting has now opened for the A to Z Video Challenge. You can view my entry here, and you can click here to vote on the A to Z Challenge website. Thanks! (I mean, if you vote for mine. If you don't vote for mine... well, thanks for watching it anyway!)

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~


Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .
The Eagle's Aerial Perspective


So do you see your writing as a career?


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Book Boyfriends, Interviews and Creating Cover Love




  • And, as if one interrogation isn't enough for the day, I'm also being interviewed by Heather at Buried in Books!

  • This isn't part of the blog tour BUT it is still super cool. Stina Lindenblatt posted an article today on the QueryTraker blog entitled Creating Cover Love, and GUARDIAN is at the top of the article!

~  ~  ~

In other non-breaking, non-exciting news, I have added a Linky Followers gadget to my blog because, well, I saw other bloggers doing it (even though they're on Blogger and won't lose their GFC followers) and thought, Yeah, okay, I'll do that too. (Wow, I'm such a sheep!)

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~


Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Fantasy Worldbuilding and Chatting with Characters


  • Today is Fantasy Tuesday over at Cherie Reich - Author, and I'm talking about The Fantasy World of Creepy Hollow.



~  ~  ~

Today's randomness: I visited Hunger Names to find out my Hunger Games name and which district I would have been from. Apparently my name is Chamomile Dundermifflin. I'm cool with the Chamomile part, not so much the Dundermifflin. I was a District 10 tribute in the 66th Hunger Games and I died of a snake bite. How fitting since I am, in fact, really scared of snakes!

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~


Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .


Monday, March 12, 2012

Easy Steps To Creating An eBook Cover



  • If you're at all interested in the steps involved in creating a book cover (I, for one, thought it was lots of fun!), you should visit Michael at In Time . . . 'cause that's what I'm talking about over there today. (PLUS there is a giveaway happening on his blog!)

  • As well as that, you can find a book review of GUARDIAN at Chapter by Chapter. Thanks, MaryAnn!

If you look over on the side there ---> you'll see that my blog follower count has reached the awesome round number 500! I wanted to link to the 500th follower, honey.munev, but I can't find a link for her . . . But thank you ALL OF YOU for following this blog! It has been going for a little under two years, and I had NO idea when I started what an awesome world I was about to find myself in!

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~


Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal
In Time . . .


Saturday, March 10, 2012

A to Z Video Challenge - My Entry

I'm aaaaalmost late, but not quite, since the closing time for submitting entries for the A to Z Video Challenge is tomorrow night. So ... here is my entry, featuring my attempts at stop motion animation!





The Glorious Torture of The Series



Happy weekend, everyone!

  • On this fine Saturday I am being interrogated interviewed by Melodie (the lovely purple flowers above) at Forever Rewrighting in a post she has entitled "How To Launch A Series".

  • I'm back at Trisha's W O R D + S T U F F talking about my love of The Series (both the book and TV kind. Yay for series!).



~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~


Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal




Friday, March 9, 2012

Why Do I Write Fiction For Teens?




  • And Trisha at W O R D + S T U F F (who's giving Eagle a wary look up there!) is posting a book review of GUARDIAN. Thanks, Trisha! Can't wait to read it! *UPDATE: Ohmygosh, Trisha's review is the kind you print out and keep nearby and reread when you're having down days, 'cause it just makes me so happy :-)

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal



Thursday, March 8, 2012

Kick-Ass Heroines & Some Creepy Hollow Characters



  • Today I'm visiting Some Like It Paranormal to talk about heroines that can kick villain-butt instead of waiting around for some guy to kick it for them (and there's a giveaway!).

  • Vi and Nate get to introduce themselves over at Abby Minard's blog.


~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:
Some Like It Paranormal


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

When Your Dream Goes Off On A Tangent (Without Your Permission)



Here's what's happening today:

  • When your dream goes off on a tangent and you're all like, "Hey! Dude. I'm over here! Get back!" And your dream is like, "Whatevs, man. I'm going this way. Meet you there." And after having a mini tantrum you realize your dream is having fun without you, so you give in and follow it off into the happy tangent sunset. Yeah. So that's what I'm talking about over at Sarah Pearson's Empty White Pages for the Insecure Writer's Support Group today!


~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~

Giveaways currently happening at:



Tuesday, March 6, 2012

I'm On Video!


Kicking off the blog tour awesomeness we have Cally, Misha and Soumi!


  • Okay, so I got really brave and decided to do a VIDEO interview today for Cally Jackson Writes. Scary!

  •  I'm also talking about YA Stereotypes over at Misha Gericke's My First Book.


~  ~  ~

I want to say another MAJOR THANK YOU to everyone who posted about GUARDIAN on their blogs yesterday. It was loads of fun visiting all of you and seeing my pretty cover getting around :-)

Also, I obviously have NO idea how Amazon Bestseller lists work. Before I uploaded GUARDIAN I did all this research on all the different categories and sub-categories in the Kindle Store -- you know, how many results came up for each one, searching keywords within each of those categories. But when I came to choosing categories in the upload section, they didn't match the categories in the Kindle Store! (Me: ????) Anyway, I ended up going with Fiction > Fantasy > Short Stories and Fiction > Fantasy > Contemporary. So... today I woke up and saw that my book was #90 in Books > Science Fiction and Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies. Like, how does that happen when I didn't put it there?! 'Cos, um, it's not an anthology!

Is there anyone who can explain to me how it works?

~  ~  ~

To be notified when the next Creepy Hollow story is released, join my
author newsletter mailing list
I promise I won't spam you! Book-related announcments ONLY!

~  ~  ~
Giveaways currently happening at:


Monday, March 5, 2012

Guardian (Creepy Hollow #1) Is NOW AVAILABLE!

The Creepy Hollow novelette series launches today!!!
The first book, GUARDIAN, is now available.
Squeeee!!!

Source


Thank you so, so, so much to all these wonderful people who are posting about the launch of GUARDIAN on their blogs today:


If you want to see some early reviews, check these out:
Buried in Books
In Time... 
Kittie Howard

Today I am Celebrating a List of Firsts:

First person to love my story and assure me I had a "winner": Kittie Howard
First to mention adding GUARDIAN to a to-read list: Jenn Soehnlin
First to comment on my cover reveal post: Carrie Butler
First blog sidebar I found my cover on: Madeleine Maddocks
First to add GUARDIAN on Goodreads: Cherie Reich
First to post a review on Goodreads: Laura Josephsen
First to post a shameless punt on Facebook*: Tim Slatter
*see the comment below from my crazy-awesome cousin Tim!

Thank you for all the firsts! Each and every one gave me warm fuzzy feelings ;-)
Here's to many more firsts!


1. Receive assignment. 
2. Save a life. 
3. Sleep. 
4. Repeat. 

Protecting humans from dangerous magical creatures is all in a day’s work for a faerie training to be a guardian. Seventeen-year-old Violet Fairdale knows this better than anyone—she’s about to become the best guardian the Guild has seen in years. That is, until one of her assignments—a human boy who shouldn’t even be able to see her—follows her into the fae realm. Now she’s broken Guild Law, a crime that could lead to her expulsion. 

The last thing Vi wants to do is spend any more time with the boy who got her into this mess, but the Guild requires that she return Nate to his home and make him forget everything he’s discovered of the fae realm. Easy, right? But Nate and Vi are about to land themselves in even bigger trouble—and it’ll take all Vi’s training to get them out alive.



Where to find GUARDIAN online:


AND NOW FOR A MAJOR GIVEAWAY!
(If you can't see the giveaway widget, click the "Read More" button)

(Book 1 and the $20 Amazon gift card will be emailed to the winner as soon as this giveaway is over. Book 2 will be emailed once it has been published, in early April.)

To enter, click on one of the "Login" button, fill in your name and email (this is so I can contact you if you win) and for each of the possible ways to enter, just click "Do It" and follow the instructions!

Second Campaigner Challenge: 5 Prompts, 5 Sentences

Despite the fact that I want to literally jump up and down with crazy excited happiness over the fact that my series is lauching TODAY (insert multitudes of !!), I managed to force myself to sit still for long enough to type an entry for this awesomely challenging challenge.
(PS - if you visit my LAUNCH POST you can WIN STUFF!) <--- please, please visit my launch post!

~  ~  ~

Okay, so I used one or two elements from each of the five prompts to create a five-sentence flash fiction piece of under 200 words. (The words in bold indicate what element I've used from each prompt)



With every painful throb of my heart, more blood spills from the gash in my thigh. It runs down my leg; a bright red stain pooling on the concrete beneath me. Graham crawls out from the shelter of the bridge, seemingly oblivious to the spray of rain that drenches him within seconds. He paws through the rubble, his fingers searching desperately. Through a haze of pain I see him point his arm toward the sky, pull the trigger of the flare gun, and watch the dazzling sparks soar across the sky.


I wasn't entirely sure if a flare gun would work when used in the rain (since I've never actually used one myself!), so I Googled it, and someone seemed to think that yes, it would work. Anyway, if not, let's pretend it's a special flare gun that can be used in the rain!

I'm number 12 on the list :-)
 

Friday, March 2, 2012

The Awesomeness of March

2012 has been quite a year so far for launching fellow bloggers' books:

We had Cherie Reich with DEFYING GRAVITY.
Then came Laura Josephsen with RISING BOOK 1: RESISTANCE.
After that, Jessica Therrien released OPPRESSION, and Alex J Cavanaugh released CASSAFIRE on the same day.

And now that March is here . . . 
IT'S MY TURN!

CREEPY HOLLOW is a series of paranormal fantasy novelettes.
And it's almost here!


Starting off the celebrations early we have Michael over at In Time... who posted this gorgeous review , and Kittie Howard who posted this sparkling review. Thanks, Michael and Kittie!

Monday the 5th of March is officially release day for GUARDIAN. I've already got some super-fantastic bloggers who are posting a launch announcement on their blogs on Monday. If you'd like to be one of these splendiferous people who helps me get the word out there about GUARDIAN, you can click here (or on the tab at the top of this blog that says Creepy Hollow Launch Day Announcement) and follow the instructions on that page (and I will be eternally grateful!).

Following the launch on Monday, GUARDIAN and I will be touring the blogosphere on the blog tour of awesomeness. Have you checked out the line-up of blogs taking part?




Thursday, March 1, 2012

Book Review: Oppression, by Jessica Therrien

Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. 

For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability.

Or so she thinks.

Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time.

Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

Don't you love it when a book wastes no time getting to the action? By action I mean Something Important Happens. Well, you don't have to wait long for Something To Happen in OPPRESSION. Barely three pages in and the opening scene ends in a chilling moment that, I swear, I could almost hear ringing in my ears! And the Somethings just kept coming!

OPPRESSION involves a unique take on Greek mythology. Confesssion #1: I've always been fascinated by mythology. Confession #2: I love the idea of supernatural abilties! Seriously. I was a major fan of the TV show Heroes. So give me a book full of characters with superhuman talents--like OPPRESSION's descendants of the gods--and I'm happy!

As well as mythology, there's also action, intrigue, humour, aaaaand (one of my faves) romance! And what a refreshing romance it was. In a literary world full of brooding bad boys who spend at least half the novel pushing the heroine away, OPPRESSION stands out with a love story where the guy is honest from the beginning about the fact that he likes the girl. Yay William! *swoon*

I am hooked. And I'm super keen to read the next book!

~  ~  ~



As a special treat, here's a short excerpt from a really sweet scene between Elyse and William, soon after they meet each other:

“If you could sum up your whole life into a single flavor, what would it be? What do you think your life would taste like?”
I laughed. “I don’t know. That’s a strange question.” I thought about it though. It would have to be something bitter, but still sweet in a way, something that looked better than it tasted.
“Maybe . . . semi-sweet chocolate?”
“Only semi-sweet?” he observed.
“I have my reasons,” I defended. “What about you? Something sugary and delicious?”
“Hmm, I have to rethink it. It’s definitely changed since I met you.”
He smiled at me, and I recoiled a little into the cushion seat of the booth, throwing my eyes immediately in a different direction—away from his.
“Peanut butter,” he decided.
“Why peanut butter?”
“I have my reasons,” he mocked.
“It’s not very sweet.”
“No, but it goes well with chocolate.”

Is he not totally swoon-worthy?!

~  ~  ~

$0.99 E-Book
Amazon Kindle Edition (UKFrance, Germany)

$12.99 Paperback
Amazon (US)
Barnes & Noble (US) - on sale for $7.79
Amazon (UK, FranceGermany, Japan)