Monday, January 28, 2013

Wolf Spell Blog Tour

With Death Starts a New Beginning...

What would you do if you where faced with the enormous task of awaking the dead to save your life and those around you?

Wolf Spell

by
M.R. Polish

    Esmerelda ~ Wimpy witch my ass, all of the week’s frustrations I had pent up, churned inside me. I’d show him. The sprout grew about an inch and blossoms formed into tiny leaves, letting me know I’d made a connection with it.
He used his hands to beckon me. “Come on, I have all night for you to make me whine.”
I ignored him and focused on growing the ivy. It was no longer a sprout, but a full–grown wild plant with wide leaves covering the ground.
“Hey, wait a minute Es, what are you doing.” His voice hinted at uncertainty with a small hesitation. He looked over to where I concentrated.
“Nothing.” I turned back around to face him.
“Whatever you’re thinking in that pretty little head, don’t”
I held my arms up in front of me, boxing style, waiting for him to make a move. I’d be danged if he got me in another headlock.
We walked around each other in a tight circle. He held a smirk that made me think he was amused by all of this. The morning sun shone on his already bronzed skin, showing his many days in the sun. For one short moment, I forgot I should be fighting. We circled one more time, and he reached out his arm, trying to get me off balance, but I was ready and moved out of the way before his hand made contact.
He backed up again making space between us. “Es, I mean it, don’t you even dare think about it.”
It was too late. He could beg all he wanted, but I wouldn’t change my mind. The bush sprang to full life as I used its energy to create my spell with it. My mind locked on my target, and I grinned.
After a deep breath, the spell came to life in my hands. All the energy sizzled as if I held a thousand ants in the palm of my hand. An orb illuminated, growing in power, cupped in my hands. Tiny sparkles of energy floated out around the orb.
Lunging forward, I threw the orb as fast as I could. It spiraled as if it went a hundred miles per hour, smashing into Jarak’s chest, covering him in a raw poison ivy spell. If he wasn’t a Guardian, my spell would’ve hurt him, soaking into his skin and making him sick. As it was, the only part of the poison ivy that would affect him was the sore itchiness.
He looked up at the sky, and threw his arms in the air as if wondering ‘why him’, then exhaled loudly before turning away. He never said one more thing to me as he entered the house, letting me stand there with a smug look of victory on my face.
Lesson over.   


Jarak ~  I winced as I grazed my fingertips over the wound in my forehead. I never saw what hit me, but whatever it was, left a nasty gash. I groaned. None of that mattered now. She was gone.
Guilt consumed me. I hadn’t protected her. I pulled my hand away staring at the sticky red liquid that covered my fingers from the blood that still seeped from the wound.
I leaned back against the wall of Es’s room. I hated that I couldn’t control my emotions for her better. With her gone, I hated myself even more. I didn’t protect her, and it killed me.


Ian ~ Every time I saw her, my heart still raced. I couldn’t let her or anyone I knew about how I’d dreamed of her, even before meeting her. It killed me every time I saw her with my brother, but she was probably better off with him anyway. I shook my head trying to clear my thoughts. My dreams made me feel as if I would find love, but now I just think the universe teased me. Things I saw in them couldn’t possibly happen now that she was with Jarak. My heart ached for me to touch her as I once had in my dreams.
I looked away. It was too painful. I opened my cell phone and pretended to dial Jarak’s number. There was no way I would tell him that I found her. Not yet. I wanted some time alone with her before I had to give her back to him.

~Blurb ~ 


With a death starts a new beginning...

Eighteen-year-old Esmerelda thinks she’s just a normal girl, but all of that changes the day of her mom’s funeral, when a warlock, intent on using her special powers, kidnaps her. Powers she didn’t know existed. Thrown in the middle of a magical battle, Es struggles to learn her magic while fleeing both vampires and warlocks, at the same time, hunting for the witches that can help defeat her adversary. The only problem is that they are dead.

Thankfully, she has the help of Jarak—her Guardian—who quickly captures her heart, but she wonders if she can win his? Just when she thinks Jarak is the one for her, Ian appears with daggers drawn to save Es from a vampire attack. Ian is cocky and rude, but there is something magnetic about him—something that attracts her to him. With her heart torn between two men, she faces the foes that are out for her blood.
Can Es do the unthinkable and awaken them from their graves before time runs out?

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You can find M.R. Polish here:


 

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Without Consent by Bev Irwin Release Day!

Release Day! Here is Bev Irwin. Welcome to my blog!

Without Consent by Bev Irwin 

What an exciting day! And a contest too!

Another release day. Today is the day my medical / police thriller, WITHOUT CONSENT, comes out. So thrilled, I’m doing the happy dance. Glad you could come and join me.

What type of dance would you do? Jive, polka, rumba, or would you be refined and do a graceful waltz?

I’m doing a rock and roll. This is the fifth book in just over a year to be published which leads me to the today’s topic.

What to do while you are waiting for the train to stop at your corner?

The first thing you need to do is decide where you are going?

Do you have a specific genre you love to write and read? Or are you like me and like to genre hop?

I guess it’s my ADD but I like to multitask and I also like to flit from one writing project to the next. Not the most effective way to get the job done but it does keep things interesting.

Usually, I have several projects in varying stages of completion. Right now, in the romance genre I have a contemporary, a medical, and a suspense manuscript nearing completion. Another medical thriller with the same characters in WITHOUT CONSENT is partially written. I have three young adult novels in progress, one of them a sequel to my paranormal young adult, GHOSTLY JUSTICE with Daria and ghost, Amanda.

Now to just get them finished. But I have been so busy with edits and promotion for the books that came out this year that my writing time has been limited. I’m not complaining. It has been an amazing time. I’m so glad I’m ADD and had so many projects to pitch once the train stopped and let me get on.



So how did my journey begin?

It started with a pitch session with Savvy Authors in the summer of 2011. I pitched my medical romance, WHEN HEARTS COLLIDE to Debby at Soulmate Publishing and that book came out in December of the same year. At the same session, I pitched two books to Lauri at Black Opal Books and she contracted me for both of them! The first, my paranormal YA, GHOSTLY JUSTICE, was released in April, the second, a suspense with romantic elements, MISSING CLAYTON, came out in July.

Then, in October, Black Opal Books published IN HIS FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS, a middle grade/ YA, adventure. This book is about a boy’s survival in Northern Ontario while he searches for his missing father.

And, now today, (I’m doing a drum roll) my medical / police thriller, WITHOUT CONSENT, is being released. Wow! What a ride it’s been.

Now to get back to writing and finishing all those other projects and pray that they also find homes.

But I’m digressing. The point I’m getting at is that while you are waiting for that first amazing contract, you need to be writing, revising, writing, revising... It’s always good when you get a contract to be able to say, “Well, if you like that one...I do have...”

And there you go, possibly not only published but multi-published.

You write, you write some more. Keep that pen moving. You take courses, learn your craft, join on-line groups, go to conferences, meet other authors, network.

Go to conferences in the genres you like to write in. There are a ton of them out there and at different prices and lengths. You can find some that are an afternoon, a day, or even a week. Remember they can be a tax right-off when you do get published.

For myself I really enjoy a good mystery or thriller so I tend to go to conferences like Bouchercon (for writers and readers), Sleuthfest, Book Passages.

Network at the conferences. You never know what will happen. For me one of the most thrilling thing was chatting with Lee Child and him offering to read my manuscript and giving me the book endorsement: “A fine medical thriller.” Now how cool is that?
I’ve met so many wonderful writers at these conferences. You don’t harass them, you chat about life and interests. Respect them and their privacy, but don’t be afraid to approach them and say how much you like their books or their characters.

Do all the prep work so that when the train stops you are ready to leap on board with your bags packed with a variety of the best you can write manuscripts.

And keep dancing. I know I hope to.

Enter the Giveaway Below for a chance to win an eBook of your choice of one of my novels.  


You can check out my other books and an excerpt of each one on my website:

Bev Irwin Website
Black Opal Books
Soul Mate Publishing

Without Consent Links


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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Star Cursed Release Day Online Party!

Hey Everyone! I love partying it up with you all, and Release Day Diva is a pro at putting together parties. We are going to have so much fun, February 8th! I have lots of fun swag and prizes to give away, also. I'll post pictures when they come in next week.

We are already at 40 people coming to the party on Facebook, an it has only been posted for 24 hours! You guys are so awesome! So how about something for you. When we reach 75 people coming, I will post and excerpt from Star Cursed!  And if we can get 200+ people coming, I will post a one day Smashwords.com code on Feb 8th to get Star Cursed for 99cents!! How does that sound? So invite your friends :-) The more the merrier!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

E-book Formatting Tips

I am gearing up to format Star Cursed and thought I would post my quick list of helpful reminders that I compiled to make it easier for me to format for Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.com. I get asked a lot about this so I thought I would post. I hope it helps. Plus Smashwords.com has a free book that is great when formatting: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52



When formatting for e-book
   
  • ·                      Always use Next Page and not page breaks. Go up to Page Layout, Breaks, Next Page (under breaks)!

  • ·          Never use tabs. If you do then you will have to delete them later and format it again.

  • ·         Always use the Paragraph set up and fill in the Special and click First line, By 0.5 . Don't fill in other fields. 

  • ·         Table of contents will be different for Smashwords than for the Kindle and Nook. You can do it the smashwords way and it will work on Kindle and Nook, but not the other way around.

  • ·         Never simply hit the enter button for an extra space in the document, like for separating a chapter title from the chapter body. Always hit Shift and Enter, together.
Hope this was helpful! Happy Formatting to you all!