Above The Earth Is Heaven...Below It's Core Is...The Everneath...

Gobble! Gobble! Readers!

Who's ready for Turkey Day? And what are you thankful for?

Me, I'm thankful for my family and my health because I wouldn't be here without either one. <3

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's... (summary from goodreads)

Who loves Greek myth re-tellings? (I do! I do!)

Seriously this book rocked.... Rocked hard... I'm talking like a Lynard Skynard eight minute guitar solo hard. And all in all its like a mishmash of several mythological re-tellings in one--which I thought was awesome.

But... it mainly focuses on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. And I don't believe until the Everneath it has been touched on.

What I loved most about this book was the relationship between Jack and Nikki. Loved the way the author brought out bits and pieces of it at a time and by the end of the book, you're weeping.

Trust me when I say this; Buy this book...Read this book... And love this book!

You won't be disappointed. <3

Cheers!

Happy Turkey Day!

Creative Writing Goals... What are some of yours?

Hello.... Literary Land!


With Turkey Day quickly approaching... (and let's face it, I'm sure we could all use a few days to relax, have some turkey, and spend time with family) that will also give us some down time. So what do you plan to do with it?

Today's post is about Creative Writing Goals. I know everyone has them. But what exactly are they and what do they mean to each person? Take mine for example, I like to write off the wall books... and I'm always striving to write something different. Books that really have something to say.

Among my slew of idea's I'm determined to write a zombie romance without dialogue. Challenging, huh? What's a book without dialogue? How can it be pulled off? I think as writers we always try to challenge ourselves with every book we write. And Imo, a challenge is a good thing.

So what are some of the challenges in writing you'd like to cross? What are some of your goals for 2012?

Have a good Friday, everyone!

Cheers!

So... It's official! I am a best seller!

So this past week has literally been insane for me!

And as of Saturday I officially became a best selling author. YaY!

This post is going to be short simple and to the point. For those of you who've read... He Loves Me...He Loves You Not... THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Most importantly, I never in a million years would have ever expected this. It means so much to me!

Some more news... You can definitely look forward to some more YA romances from me. I have a new one coming out at the end of the month called If I Can't Have You... And many many more coming in the future.

Thank you all so much for your support and love of He Loves Me... I am humbled and flattered that you enjoyed it!

Have a great week!

Cheers!

Talking Destined, With Author Jessie Harrell and eBook Giveaway!

 Yay! Readers!

So I loved, loved, loved this book! And I am super excited to welcome Jessie Harrell to the blog today so she can tell you a little bit about her upcoming YA release, Destined.

DESTINED BLOG TOUR: EXAMINING THE OTHER FOOT

Hi everyone! I want to thank Lauren for letting me take over her blog today as part of the official Destined blog tour.  This is the first guest post I’ve ever done for someone else’s blog and I hope you don’t hate it. :) The twitter summary of my topic: u can improve ur writing by figuring out what happens when the shoe is on the other foot. Bottom line, if you’re a reader and not a writer, just go ahead and skip to the bottom to read about the novel and the contest.  **you can win a free e-book**

For those of you still with us, here’s my thought for the day --

I remember having to come up with a thesis for a 4000 level English lit class on folk tales back in undergrad.  (Not quite the most awesome class ever, but close.)  As I struggled to come up with something to write about, another student told me that my thesis needed to challenge a common idea.  You can’t just say: anthropomorphism is common in folk lore.  That’s not a thesis, it’s a fact.  A thesis would be something more along the lines of ancient peoples used anthropomorphism in fables as a way of doing x.  (btw - I had no recollection of what my thesis actually was for that class)  The point being, by learning that I had to challenge a belief to write a compelling paper, I learned to examine things from many different angles.

Fast forward to this spring.  Destined was sitting on my computer waiting for me to find the perfect tweak for it.  I knew the story was so close, but it was just lacking that little something.  After a talk with Georgia McBride (thank you, Georgia!), I realized I’d forgotten to look at my story from all the possible different angles.  I’d latched onto the myth of Cupid & Psyche as written and just accepted that Cupid was a spoiled playboy and Venus was a complete b!tch.  But was that the best way to tell the story?  If I could start from scratch, what would be their motivations, their backstory?

Which made me realize, despite being “gods,” these characters needed to be humanized.  Venus needed a reason to become irate with Psyche.  Cupid needed a reason to reject Psyche the first time he met her.  Along the same lines, I heard someone remark recently that the bad guys in stories don’t think they’re being evil.  They have their own perfectly logical explanation for what their doing.  To make all of my characters come to life on the page, I realized I needed to find those “logical explanations.”

So my advice to you as writers is to turn each of your characters around and look at them from the other side.  You’ve got good guys and bad guys, but how would they act if the shoe was on the other foot?  How would the story be different if you were telling it from the “bad guy’s” perspective?  Would he or she really seem so bad?  

** I note that Lauren does this incredibly well with her new novella He Loves Me, He Loves You Not, telling the story of the “other woman” in a way that makes her the more sympathetic character. Not any easy task.

DESTINED BLURB AND CONTEST

For those of you who skipped ahead, START READING HERE.  :)  Here is where you get to learn how to win Destined.  But first, the blurb:

When Psyche receives a prophecy gone horribly wrong, she learns that even the most beautiful girl in Greece can have a hideous future. Her fate? Fall in love with the one creature even the gods fear.

As she feels herself slipping closer into the arms of the prophecy, Psyche must choose between the terrifyingly tender touch she feels almost powerless to resist and the one constant she's come to expect out of life: you cannot escape what is destined.(summary from goodreads)

If you leave your e-mail address in your comment, you'll be automatically entered to win an e-copy of Destined. The contest will stay open for 48 hours after the post goes live, and then Jessie will use random.org to select a winner. Available formats include .mobi, .epub and .pdf. And please be sure to visit the other stops on Destined's official blog tour for chances to win copies of Destined and other goodies.

Check out the list below!
1-Nov Once Upon A Twilght -  Book Trailer +Interview Ebook giveaway
2-Nov Books With Bite - Interview Ebook giveaway
3-Nov Living in Literary La La Land Guest Post Ebook giveaway
4-Nov I am a Reader, Not a Writer Guest Post Ebook giveaway
5-Nov Paper Hangover Interview Ebook giveaway
6-Nov Nikki Katz Interview Ebook giveaway
6-Nov Fictional Distraction Review Ebook Giveaway
7-Nov Daisy Chain Book Review Interview Ebook giveaway
8-Nov MundieMoms Review + Short Story Ebook giveaway
9-Nov Safari Poet Guest Post Ebook giveaway
10-Nov Good Choice Reading WOW CONTEST + Review Ebook giveaway
11-Nov LM Preston Guest Post VLOG - Read a Scene Ebook giveaway
12-Nov An Avid Readers Musings Interview VLOG Ebook giveaway
13-Nov Skyla11377 Review Ebook giveaway
14-Nov Dark Readers Interview Ebook giveaway
15-Nov Shortie Says... Character GUEST POST Ebook giveaway
16-Nov A Cozy Reader's Corner Reviews  Guest post - Sneak Peek Ebook giveaway
17-Nov Stuck In Books Character Interview Ebook giveaway
18-Nov From A to Z Review  Ebook giveaway
19-Nov Turning Pages Interview Ebook giveaway
20-Nov A Tale of Many Reviews Guest Post Ebook giveaway
21-Nov Read My Mind - AliseonLife Interview Vlog Ebook giveaway
22-Nov S.A.Larson Review Ebook giveaway
23-Nov Starry Sky Books Prize pack giveaway + Guest Post Ebook giveaway
23-Nov Angels and Demons and Portals. Oh My! Prize pack giveaway Ebook giveaway

Thank you for dropping in on this stop of the blog tour.  Hope you found a useful nugget from my advice.  And better yet, I just hope you love reading Destined as much as I loved writing it.

Jessie Harrell

jessieharrell@me.com

The Great Asphodel Cover Reveal!!

Hi everyone!

So I have something super exciting to share with you today! The cover reveal of Asphodel, the first book in the Underworld Trilogy.

The designers are Jeremy & Jeff West... They are seriously geniuses! <3 YAY!

Persephone has been running for her entire life. Running from the humans to keep her immortality a secret. And running from a man who haunts her dreams. Not a man but a god, who will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. And what he wants most, is her.

Trapped in the realm of the dead, Persephone plans to return to the land of the living. The underworld is a terrifying place where ghosts roam freely, three headed dogs patrol the gates, and it’s a living grave where the rules of earth and the warmth of the sun no longer apply. But then, something unexpected happens. Persephone finds herself falling for the god who abducted her, the god who has chased her for five thousand years, a god who is none other than death himself, Hades.

Ripped out of the underworld by Zeus, Persephone must find a pomegranate to return to the realm of the dead and to her beloved. Consuming only a seed of the fruit of the dead would bind Persephone to spend her life beneath the earth’s core with Hades. But Zeus has reduced every pomegranate tree in the world to ash. Except one. Persephone must locate that one remaining pomegranate tree, a quest that could ignite a war between the two mightiest of the god’s. A war that could cause Persephone to lose the only family she’s ever known or give up a love that comes only once every five thousand years. (Summary from goodreads)

And here's a teaser from the novel!!! Hope you enjoy it!  

Persephone - There’s an awkward moment of silence. I hug my knees tighter as my legs start trembling. Tears swell in my eyes and I swallow hard, exhaling, rolling my head back, doing everything I can to keep my tears from spilling. Across the Styx? If I cross the Styx I know I can kiss the sunshine goodbye, I can forget the smell of wildflowers, I can forget the earth in its beauty and the living things that inhabited it. Goddess or not, I do know this; if you become one with the realm of the dead, you might as well consider yourself dead because there is a high probability that you’ll never come back.

Hades - The boy rose from his seat, trying desperately to lock his trembling knees in place. Hades placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and the young teen blanched, turning away. “Do not fear me,” Hades said boldly. Slowly, the boy turned toward Hades, peaking up at him from the corner of his eye. Then the God of the Dead closed his eyes and recited the same thing he’d recited for the last five-thousand years. “The realm of the dead welcomes you. Go forth and find your home in the Field of Asphodel so that you may live out your eternity in peace.”

Demeter - Demeter had even tried using transformation magic to shield her appearance and her child’s from death himself, but not even some of her powers were of any use because he was that much more powerful. One time, on a off year Hades had visited Demeter while her child was at school. She had been at the kitchen sink, washing dishes and she didn’t even need to look up to know he was behind her. The moment he entered the room a slight chill whipped through the lavender curtains right above the kitchen sink. Demeter tensed up, gripping onto the tan ceramic plate in her left hand and let go of the dish sponge. “What do you want, Hades?”

He crept closer to her, the sound of his footsteps pounded into the hardwood floor. “I think you know what I want, Demeter,” he stated calmly. “I think you’ve always known what I want.”

And you can add Asphodel on goodreads here.

Have an awesome Tuesday everyone!

Cheers!