Fast Forward Five Years #IWSG

Hi everyone!

It's time to share our thoughts, insecurities, and encouraging words. Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and our co-hosts for keeping IWSG going. Not a member? Want to know more about the group? Click here. 

The first Wednesday of December snuck up on me. Things are busy right now, so I just don't have time for insecurities. I've shoved them in a box to be open... well, maybe I'll leave them there.

December's question of the month:

In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?

Easy. Still dreaming up new stories and sharing them with readers. To get there I plan to keep writing. How about you?

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

My Christmas village, 2016

Enjoy the holidays!

10 Tips to Success

While there isn't a surefire formula aspiring writers can follow to ensure success, there are some things you can do to help you reach your goals. Below are ten tips I picked up over the years. Try one or try them all, I promise you can't go wrong.

Let't start with number ten and work our way backwards, shall we?

Click for Photo Credit

10. Read. Read. Have I said read?

• Everything: the genre you love, best sellers, books outside your norm, magazines, newspapers.
• Then read some more.
• By reading you see how other authors put together complex plots, build worlds, and develop characters. You can also see how they use various techniques to hold readers' interest.

9.   Note what you like about your favorite novels and what you dislike about the books you put down. Now remember these things when you're working on your novel.

8.   Know the trends, and then avoid them and come up with a kick-butt idea of your own.

7.   Learn the rules… then dare to break them.

6.   Try everything at least once until you find the perfect fit for you.

• Different genres, short stories, novels, screenplays.
• Try outlining your stories before you start to write them.
• Then try diving right in and being a pantser.

5.   Avoid negativity.

• Instead of saying I can't say I'll find a way.
• Don't let others tell you that something's impossible, because you can do anything you set your mind to.
• Don't let anyone tell you an idea is stupid, write it down and show them they're wrong.

4.   Eat plenty of chocolate. Don't like chocolate, jelly bellies work too.

3.   Put yourself out there. Don't worry about rejection.

• Use rejection as motivation.
• Even Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Dr. Suess didn't sell their books to the first person they approached.

Click for photo credit

2.   Write with passion! Let's face it, anything worth doing should always be done with heart.

1.   Enjoy what you're doing. That is the biggest key to being successful in everything you do.


Remember, everyone's path to success is different so forge your own!

Cover Reveal Queen of Chaos by Kat Ross

Congrats to Kat Ross on her upcoming book, Queen of Chaos!
I love the cover  :)

Queen of Chaos
Kat Ross
(The Fourth Element #3)
Publication date: January 18th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Persepolae has fallen.
Karnopolis has burned.
As the dark forces of the Undead sweep across what remains of the empire, Nazafareen must obey the summons of a demon queen to save Darius’s father, Victor. Burdened with a power she doesn’t understand and can barely control, Nazafareen embarks on a perilous journey through the shadowlands to the House-Behind-the-Veil. But what awaits her there is worse than she ever imagined…
A thousand leagues away, Tijah leads a group of children on a desperate mission to rescue the prisoners at Gorgon-e Gaz, the stronghold where the oldest daēvas are kept. To get there, they must cross the Great Salt Plain, a parched ruin occupied by the armies of the night. A chance encounter adds a ghost from the past to their number. But will they arrive in time to avert a massacre?
And in the House-Behind-the-Veil, Balthazar and the Prophet Zarathustra discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. But is it enough to redeem the necromancer’s bloodstained soul and thwart his mistress’s plans?
As a final showdown looms with Queen Neblis, the truth of the daēvas’ origins is revealed and three worlds collide in this thrilling conclusion to the Fourth Element series.

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Previous books in the series:

Author Bio:
Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She lives in Westchester with her kid and a few sleepy cats. Kat is also the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day (Skyscape, 2014), about a world where the sea levels have risen sixty meters. She loves magic, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Preferably with mutants.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

The best part of being a writer #IWSG

Hi everyone!

It's time to share our thoughts, insecurities, and encouraging words. Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and our co-hosts for keeping IWSG going. Not a member? Want to know more about the group? Just follow the link. 

I'm happy to say that, at the moment, I'm not feeling insecure. I've been rotating my writing time. When it's my turn to submit something to my critique group, I work on my middle grade fantasy, using their feedback as a springboard to add more detail and polish things up. On off weeks, I've been polishing up a YA supernatural story I wrote some time ago and playing around with a short story I've always wanted to write. To be added to the mix is an adult story I've started and stopped a few times over the last couple of years. 


Now, for this month's questions:

What is your favorite aspect of being a writer?

I can't pick just one. My top reasons: creating new worlds, sharing them with readers, and meeting readers and other writers. 

Just for giggles...

Anyone else excited about the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them? I'm geeked. 

How's your writing coming? How did you answer this month's questions? Are you planning to see the new HP film?

Go on, FLIP THE BIRD!

Congrats to my talented CP and good friend, Kym Brunner, on the release of her newest YA novel, FLIP THE BIRD. 

(Be sure to follow the link below to the book tour, read an excerpt from the book, and enter the giveaway!)

About the book:

Mercer Buddie wants two things in this world: a girlfriend and the chance to prove to his master falconer father that he’s not a flake. With hunting season fast approaching, fourteen-year-old Mercer has only a short time to work with Flip, a red-tailed hawk he irreverently named to show his dad that falconers don’t have to be so serious all the time.

When Mercer meets Lucy, he falls hard for her gorgeous looks and bubbly personality. He thinks his love life is about to take flight, until he discovers that Lucy and her family belong to a fanatical animal-rights organization called HALT—a group that believes imposing any sort of restrictions on animals is a form of cruelty. Mercer soon realizes that if he wants to keep seeing Lucy, he’ll need to keep his love of falconry and his family’s raptor rehabilitation center a secret from her, and Lucy’s involvement with HALT from his family.

With humor and honesty, Mercer’s story shows how growing up means making difficult choices…and sometimes, being rewarded in unexpected ways.

Read FLIP THE BIRD today

Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

Add to Goodreads

Hop over to the tour and read that excerpt, 

plus enter the giveaway!

Connect with Kym Brunner

website | Facebook | Twitter

Join the Party for SPIKED by Jennifer Lane

Congrats to Jennifer Lane on the release of her new novel!

New Sports Romance Release

✯✯SPIKED by Jennifer Lane✯✯

Book 3 in Jennifer Lane´s Blocked Series!

They say

University is the time

To find yourself

But I don’t need to find myself

Just want to find you

After watching his older siblings find their love matches at Highbanks University, Mateo Ramirez feels unlikely to follow in their footsteps. What girl would want him? Unlike his brother and sister, he battles diabetes and chooses music over sports. But at least he can write songs about his life—and the girl who caught his eye when their parents ran against each other for US President.

Hey, chica! Come conmigo

And baby, why don’t we go

Down under the bridge to the water

With you it can only get hotter

Jessica Monroe is a talented swimmer who dreams of representing Team USA at the Olympics. When she earns an athletic scholarship to Highbanks, she’s excited to attend the same school as the cute boy she met two years ago: Mateo. Too bad he’s not around when a teammate spikes her drink. Jessica may never trust men again.

Trust

Is a hard-to-earn thing

Just

Try to keep listening

Swallow

Down all of the unjust

Hollow

My chest, my heart will bust

College years are the time to shake off the past and find your future. But will that future find Mateo and Jessica together? Dive in and immerse yourself in the eagerly anticipated conclusion to Jennifer Lane’s Blocked trilogy.

Get SPIKED today!

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Click here to join the Online Release Party on 10-1-16

Meet the Men of the Blocked Series

Blocked: Dane Monroe, 6'8" blond gigante, volleyball setter

Aced: Alejandro Ramirez, med student, baseball player

Spiked: Mateo Ramirez, soulful singer / songwriter


Check out the Blocked series FREE with Kindle Unlimited

  

Blocked:

Amazon US | Amazon UK 

Aced:

Amazon US |  Amazon UK | Add Spiked to Goodreads

Connect with Jennifer Lane on Amazon or Facebook

Review Tour Hosted by Raven Publicity. Find them on Facebook.

Enter to win a $25 gift card and series ebook set:



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#IWSG When do you know when your work is ready?

It's time to share our thoughts, insecurities, and encouraging words. Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh and our co-hosts for keeping IWSG going. Not a member? Want to know more about the group? Just click here. 

This months question: 

When do you know your story is ready?

At first, I found this question hard to answer. But it's my week to submit to my critique group and I realized the answer is simple. I know my story is ready when the my critique partners no longer have questions on plot or my characters' choices. When their suggestions start to be about word choice or small details, I know the story is working, the characters are strong and well-rounded, and the scene came alive as intended. At this point, my story is ready for line edits. Since I've never been good at spotting typos in my writing, that means sending my manuscript to my amazing editor.

~~~~~

My agent and I received positive feedback on my YA realistic fiction currently out on submissions. So far, editors enjoyed the story, liked the characters, and found the situations they faced realistic. And I've received some very nice comments regarding my writing. Unfortunately, we haven't had an offer for publication, yet. It's still with other editors. My fingers are crossed we get a yes soon. Why am I telling you this in my IWSG post? Because sometimes I wonder if that yes will come. I've chatted with Madison, my brave and loyal protagonist in the Embrace Series, about casting a spell for me. A little witchy intervention can't hurt. ;)

Be sure to visit my Monday post and enter the giveaway. You could win a signed copy of Margo Kelly's newest YA novel, UNLOCKED.

How's your writing coming? Are you good at spotting typos in your writing? Did you enter the giveaway?

Blog Tour: Unlocked by Margo Kelly

Congrats to Margo Kelly on the release of her latest novel, Unlocked!

Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour for excerpts, reviews, and more! Enter the giveaway below.

Unlocked by Margo Kelly

Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller

Release Date: October 1st 2016

Merit Press

Summary:

A provocative thriller involving hypnosis, mystery, love, and friendship!

Someone has been moving the stuffed pink elephant in Hannah's room. She thinks. And ants crawl over her hands, across the steering wheel, all the time. Don't they? They're what made her crash the car on the way home from the fair, and she wouldn't have freaked out, wouldn't have caused her friend's death, for no reason. But she doesn't know if a person is messing with her, if the paranormal is messing with her – or if she's just going psychotic like her dad before her.

When her friends bail, Hannah is left floundering. Not even her boyfriend Manny believes her, and new girl Chelsea is practically replacing her at school. Only artsy outsider and self-proclaimed occult expert, Plug, agrees to help Hannah find out the truth about hypnosis and demons, and even he can't help Hannah reclaim her mind from whatever's taking over. She'll have to do that herself if she wants to save her friends, her mom and herself.

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Buy Links:

Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Books a Million│Indiebound

Giveaway

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About the author:

Margo Kelly is a native of the Northwest and currently resides in Idaho. A veteran public speaker, Margo is now actively pursuing her love of writing. Her critically acclaimed debut, Who R U Really?, was published by Merit Press (an imprint of F+W Media) in 2014. Her second novel, Unlocked, will be published by Merit Press in October 2016. Margo welcomes opportunities to speak to youth groups, library groups, and book clubs.

Margo Kelly loves to be scared … when she’s reading a good book, watching a good movie, or suffering from the hiccups. She loves writing thrillers for young adults and hopes her stories give you the goose bumps or the itchies or the desire to rethink everyday things. Margo is represented by the not-so-scary, but totally awesome, Brianne Johnson of Writers House.

Author Links:

Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook│Instagram

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