Tracy Tam - An Artist's Rendition

As many of you know, WriteOnCon was last week. Among the attendees was a very generous author/artist who offered to sketch everyone's characters. I'm not sure she knew what she was in for, but she has been diligently working on her drawings for over a week now. Here is her rendition of Tracy Tam. I love the devious smile.

 

Make sure you check out some more of Larua's work here:

In the Clouds
Deviant Art
NA Graphic Novel: "Geode Corner: Love is Conplicated"

And the winner of the Gated/Legasea/Spirit World giveaway is ...

Millie Burns!

Congratulations, Millie! An email has been sent your way. Please respond by Monday, August 19th, or we will chose a new winner.

Happy Book Birthday to Amy Christine Parker

Amy's book, Gated, has been released into the wild today. And to celebrate, I am hosting a giveaway for my books as well as hers in a huge contest. Check out the prizes below, and make sure you enter on the right hand side of the page. 

One winner receives all of the following - autographed paperback of Legasea and bookmark, ecopy of Spirit World, Spirit World bookmark and sticker, The Caged Graves bookmark, autographed bookmarks by J. A. Souders for Renegade and Revelations, autographed copy of Gated, Gated shirt, bookmarks, and owl bracelet.

 

Cut Scene from Spirit World

Spirit World is Riesa's story, but in earlier drafts, her best friend Connor took a front seat in many of the scenes. As I brought the story forward, Connor slipped into the background more and more. Here is a scene that I still believe happened in her story, but it got pulled out so I could focus on other things. It's the story of her first kiss.

***

Connor rolled on the living room floor laughing, empty soda cans at his side. I sat cross-legged next to him doubled over in hysterics. Our homework lay on the coffee table, set aside for more important things, like fun. “I’d totally forgotten about that,” he said.

“That’s because you weren’t the one waiting outside the school for two hours in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold with a backpack full of clothes and a teddy bear in your arms.”

 

His body shook with more laughter. “You came and got me though, and after wandering around town for an hour, we got too cold and had to go to the fire station and ask for a ride home.”

“And we told them to bring us here,” I said, my words tumbling on top of his, “because we figured we’d get in less trouble than at your house.”

“I remember now.” His laughter faded and turned into a kind of quiet happiness. “It was the first night I ever stayed here.”

“Was it?” I asked.

“Yeah, it was late so your mom called my parents and told them she’d bring me home in the morning.”

I smiled, reliving the feeling that night had given me. He had been willing to run away with me, knowing we wouldn’t actually go anywhere, and he would have to bear the wrath of his parents the next morning. Not everyone has a friend like that.

“There’s one thing I’d never forget about that night though,” he added thoughtfully.

“What do you … ooh.”

The memories clicked together and I knew exactly what he was talking about. Long after my mom had gone to sleep, Connor and I sat in the living room talking about nothing in particular. We were twelve and both fairly innocent, so I was surprised when he asked me, “Have you ever kissed anyone?”

“No,” I answered. “Have you?”

“No.” A moment of silence. “Do you want to try it? You know, for practice?”

“Okay. What do I do?”

“Just close your eyes.”

I did, and for about two or three seconds, I felt his lips pressing warm and soft against mine.

Then he pulled back and curled up on the couch under his blankets. I went upstairs, and we never talked about it again.

At the time, it hadn’t seemed like such a big deal. But the memory of it now, coupled with the sweet look in his eyes, sent confusion rippling through my mind.

I looked down at the floor, and he changed the subject. “I can’t believe we actually thought we could run away.”

I picked at an odd-colored section of carpet, wishing I could have that innocence back, just for a moment. “We thought we could do a lot of things.”

 

***

 

If you'd like to win a copy of Spirit World, along with some other great prizes, check out the Rafflecopter on the side.

My History Online

As an author, I need to have an online presense, especially since one of my books is only available online. As I go around the various sites, trying to figure out how to keep up with Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Goodreads, and Pinterest, I'm reminded of my early days online and the changes the Internet has gone through since then.

1991 - My grandfather purchased monthly access to GEnie. This was a text-based service where you had to pay for every minute online trolling the message boards. I hung out in the movies, TV, and books forums. This was before we all got AOL CDs in the mail on a weekly basis. Heck, this was before everyone and their mother had Internet. The Internet wasn't even a thing people talked about. On GEnie, you had to pay for chat and to download pictures. Of course, who wanted to download pictures when you were connected with a 28.8 modem? Seriously, one picture took forever.

1995 - I got my first Internet access through a local college. It was still text-based, although browsers were starting to pop up, so a few sites had pictures. Whenever I ran into a site like that, my computer simply said [image]. But I could chat! I made several online friends, including a friend with whom I began my first fantasy novel. I lost touch with her, but I still have our novel somewhere. Maybe I'll post a section from it one day. I also got my first webpage at that time. Someone else designed it for me.

1997 - I purchased my first computer! I bought local Internet access. I taught myself HTML and for the first time, created a webpage. It was full of all sorts of rainbow bars and smily face GIFs. It was my own, and I did it myself. I wish I had a cached pic of the home page. I also created a theatre page on Geocities. Remember that? It was a free site that hosted web pages. You "moved" into a neighborhood that fit your theme and built your site. I had a scanner. I could scan pictures and upload them via FTP. It still took forever though, because the world was still using dial up Internet. I think I had upgraded to 56.6.

After that, the Internet spread like wildfire. I forgot most of my HTML because you no longer needed it to create a web page. With text based programs, it's all so easy, but I still remember that first page I created. And I still remember those early days and how the world opened up when I first connected.

When did your online experience first begin?

Blogger Book Fair: Psyched by Juli Caldwell

Vance Alfaro is the “ghost-hunting hottie” we meet in Psyched, the guy who hardly knows Aisi but decides to man up and stick with her through that long, dark night. He’s a freshman in college and he’s studying paranormal phenomenon, but other than that, what do we really know about him? In this exclusive interview with him just for my readers, you get to meet the ghost-hunting hottie!

Us: So, Vance. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Vance: I hate questions like this! I don’t know how to sum myself up in a sentence or two. I guess I should go with the basics. My hometown is Webster, New York, on the shores of Lake Ontario, but right now I’m a freshman at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire. I’m youngest of four boys. For kicks we eat chili and light blue darts while our poor mom yells at us to tell us how disgusting we are. My dad works a lot but he joins in when he can.

Us: Blue darts?

Vance: Uh...let me put it this way. If you do it wrong, you end up in the emergency room.

Us: Okay then! Let’s talk about college. You’re seriously going to school to study ghosts? How did you get interested in that?

Vance: People don’t study paranormal phenomenon unless they have a reason to believe in the first place.

Us: Sounds like you have a story to tell.

Vance: I do. Most people think I’m crazy, my dad especially, but I know what I know.

Us: So what do you know?

Vance: I grew up not too far from the Webster rural cemetery. I heard weird sounds when I was growing up, especially on moonless nights. My dad always said there was no such thing as ghosts. We’re church-going people, so he taught me to believe in guardian angels and stuff like that, but he always thought that any spirit around here had a mission to protect us. Keep us safe. He didn’t think a spirit could get stuck here.

Us: So tell us about the first ghost you ever saw.

Vance: It’s that obvious, huh? Okay. I was walking home from school one day. Usually I’d walk with my brothers, but for some reason I was alone that day. I was about 13. As you go around a bend and up a little hill before you get to my neighborhood, there’s an old stone cottage set back from the road a bit. Overgrown weeping willows kind of hide it so it’s not easy to see unless you know it’s there. That house always kind of creeped me out, but I’d never had to walk by it alone before. The house has this historic marker that I never stopped to read with my brothers there. They just wanted to throw stones and see if we could break some of the windows because the place has been abandoned for years, unless you count the occasional homeless squatter or pot party.

Us: Did you stop to read the sign this time?

Vance: Yeah. I did. It said the house was one of the first built on Nine Mile Road, back in early 1700’s, and it gave the names of the original owners. For some reason I said their names out loud. As soon as I did...wow. We’re not too far from a river where I live, and this little stone cottage is close to it. So this mist rolled in as I said their names, and at first I didn’t think much of it. I mean, it’s upstate New York. Storms roll off the lake all the time, and there’s often fog in the river bottom. I just wanted to hurry home so I didn’t get drenched when the storm hit. As I started to walk away, something in the upper windows caught my eye and I stopped to look. At first it looked like gray curtains blowing out a window, but as I looked closer I saw a face. The sad, crying face of a woman. The mist rolled in and blocked my view of the window. The wind suddenly picked up and I heard this shriek that was definitely not the wind. It’s a good thing I didn’t pee my pants right there. I ran up the hill and once I got out of that little valley where the house was, the mist was gone.

Us: Wow. That’s insane!

Vance: I can’t even explain how much it scared me. Later, I looked up the name of the woman on the marker and researched her history. Turns out she died under suspicious circumstances. She was a newlywed and her husband had just finished building that house for her. Another woman in town wanted to marry her husband, and after the woman came to visit her in her new house, she got really sick. Rumor is she died of poisoning.

Us: Where did you find all this out?

Vance: Old newspapers. Libraries. The local historian. Stuff like that.

Us: Sounds like you take a very academic approach to your ghost hunting.

Vance: Aw, man. That makes me sound so boring! I just want to help these people if I can. That poor woman has been stuck in that house for 300 years, trying to find a way out...If I can help a lost soul like her, what I do is worth it.

Us: I think this brings us to Aisi. Isn’t that what she does? Help send others to whatever comes next? Oh, look! I think you’re blushing!

Vance: Aisi is seriously amazing. She’s haunted in ways a ghost hunter like me isn’t. She’s smart and sassy, and I think she’s the strongest and most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. She’s a tough nut to crack, though.

Us: What do you mean, she’s haunted? Can a person be haunted?

Vance: The stuff I go looking for? It looks for her. It wakes her up at night. It’s all around her and she can’t avoid it. If that’s not haunted...

Us: Gotcha. Last question: Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Vance: I don’t even know what that means. Is this about hockey or something?

Us: Never mind. You’re such a guy. Thanks so much for chatting with us, Vance!

Vance: Anytime.

***

Get Psyched on Amazon, Smashwords, and in paperback at CreateSpace! 

So far, great reviews:

"This is one of those books you just can't put down. What I love about Psyched in addition to a great, spooky story is strong characters and narrative voice. Aisi is the most awesome chick, strong-willed, sassy, and deals with some crazy stuff happening with a spunkiness that I loved... Psyched is well-written, riveting, surprising and genre-busting. Teens will love this book, but it definitely has a more wide-ranging appeal."

and...

"Aisi Turay is one awesome girl. She has power to see the dead...as in their souls...This is a great read, filled with suspense. I NEVER knew from one chapter to the next what was happening. It is well written and a very enjoyable...and a bit scary!"

Psyched is part ghost story, part suspense, part demon-hunting thriller, part budding romance.It's the story of a girl named Aisi who's doing her best to keep it together for her wreck of a family. She is smart, sassy, and sarcastic enough to keep things interesting. When she meets Vance on the single worst day of her life, she finds a guy who just might be the first person ever to get her, to believe in her, and to out-random her with bizarre observations at the worst possible moment. There's just something about him that she knows she can trust.

Together, Aisi and Vance wander through the memories of others to unlock the secrets of her past while battling a demon who wants to ensure she never finds what she's looking for. Aisi vanquishes demons all the time, but Malus Indolus is too strong. And he has plans for her...and her family.

Psyched is Juli's second novel, the first as an indie writer, and her first experiment with her true love as a reader: paranormal fiction. Her debut novel Beyond Perfection is also available.

You can find Juli on Twitter, Facebook, and her blog.

Blogger Book Fair: Fade by A.K. Morgan

Today, I am hosting A. K. Morgan, author of Fade, and she has shared an exciting excerpt with me today. With just the right blend of humor and tension, I know I'm anxious to read more.

FADE - The Ragnarök Prophesies: Book One by A.K. Morgen

Genre: New Adult Urban Fantasy

Summary:

What do you do when you realize nothing in your life is what you’ve believed it to be?

When Arionna Jacobs loses her mother in a tragic accident, her world is turned upside down. She’s forced to leave her old life behind and move in with her father. Dace Matthews, a teaching assistant at her new college, is torn in two, unable to communicate with the feral wolf caged inside him.

When they meet, everything they thought they knew about life unravels. Dace has intimate access to Arionna’s mind, and something deep within her fights to rise to the surface. They don't understand what's happening to them or why, and they're running out of time to sort out the strange occurrences around them.

Their meeting sets an ancient Norse prophesy of destruction in motion, and what destiny has in store for them is bigger than either could have ever imagined. Unless they learn to trust themselves and one another, they may never resolve the mystery surrounding who they are to one another, and what that means for the world.

Excerpt:

"What is it, boy?" I climbed to my feet.

My gaze landed on a solid gray wolf, half obscured by a massive tree on the other side of the trail. Unlike the animal I'd seen on the day of Mom's funeral, this wasn't the domesticated kind of wolf. This was the real deal. Big, gray, wild, and ferocious.

My heart stopped, then started racing.

The wolf stared in our direction, snarling at us. The warning sound coming from his throat screamed "I'm going to eat you" loud and clear. I suddenly understood what Little Red Riding Hood must have felt when she figured out her grandma wasn't her grandma.

I was shaking in my boots.

I looked around for something, anything, to defend myself with as the dog alternated between excited barks and low, warning growls. A menacing enough sound so far as it went, but I kind of doubted the wolf thought so. He looked curiously un-intimidated as he snarled. As per Murphy's Law of animal attacks, not a loose brick, rock, branch, or stick lay anywhere within grabbing distance.

I was so screwed.

The wolf paced forward.

The lab lowered his head and growled one long, continuous growl.

I held my breath.

The wolf looked at me and then at the dog and growled back. Unlike the dog’s, though, the wolf's growl was actually scary. Warning bells sounded in the far reaches of my mind, but they started too late. Of course.

Between one quick, panicked breath in and one sharp exhalation out, the wolf charged toward us. Bits of leaves and mud flew up where his paws hit the ground.

The dog dove in front of me, snarling protectively.

I knew the wolf would rip right through him and land on me any minute. I'd been in town a whole week, and I was going to be eaten by a wolf.

Life really wasn't fair.

FADE is available from Curiosity Quills Press at Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo.

About the Author:

A.K. Morgen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas with her husband, three dogs, and demonic cat. She has a graduate degree in Criminal Justice and Law, and plans to save the world some day. When she’s not writing, she spends her time teaching her niece and nephews how to cause mischief. You can also find her dancing in the grocery store, building a spork army, and fundraising for nonprofits close to her heart.

You can learn more about Ayden at http://akmorgen.com or by following her on Twitter, GoodReads, or Facebook.