Hot Little Book Releases!

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Check out some fun summer reads!


August 2012 - The Flutter of Luv by LM Preston. Availableon Amazon.


Dawn, the neighborhood tomboy, is happy to be her best friend’sshadow. Acceptance comes from playing football after school with theguys on the block while hiding safely behind her glasses, braces, andboyish ways. But Tony moves in, becomes the star Running Back on herschool’s football team, and changes her world and her view of herselfforever.

This is a short story told in ten episodes similar to an anthology ofshort stories over the course of Dawn’s and Tony’s realization of howmuch they mean to one another.

Also there is a short story at the end called Hush A Bye My BabyBrother for the reader to enjoy along with samples of LM Preston’sother book



August 2012 - Broken Shell Island by Dalya Moon.

Available on Amazonand Kobobooks.com.


Opal gets a dirty old suitcase for her birthday. She’s not impressed.Her grandfather tells her she’ll need it, because she’s going to livewith her great aunt on Broken Shell Island. Opal wonders if hergrandfather hasn’t gone senile, because Broken Shell Island is amade-up magical place that their family friend Flora Fritz writespicture books about.

Length: 78,800 words

Genre: Fantasy

Ages: Family-friendly; ages 10+




August 2012 - A Gathering of Angels by Cate Dean. Availablein ebook on Amazon.


*This is Book 2 of the series. Book 1, Rest For The Wicked, is alsoavailable on Amazon.

Claire Wiche sacrificed everything to keep her friends safe, revealingher true self. She expected the final battle to be the end for her.But she is back, breathing - and threatened by an enemy she doesn'thave the means to fight.

An enemy bent on vengeance and possession, whatever the cost.

Trapped, alone, Claire has to find the strength to stand against whatshe knows she can't defeat. And the courage to face the people shethought she left behind.

*Includes a short preview of Back in Black, Book 3 of The Claire WicheChronicles, coming in Fall 2012.





August 2012 - Broken Yeah Wow by Kerem Mermutlu. Available inebook on Amazon.


Nina is a British teenager who only lives for one thing. Her blog. Forher, nothing else matters and nothing will stop her from becoming afamous blogger.

Yet, things are getting complicated. She's already trying to forgetthat her mum has been missing for weeks. She's also trying to ignorethe feeling that the clouds in the sky seem to keep following her allthe time. And then one day, Nina gets a message on her blog that mightexplain everything. A message that might just change her lifeforever.

From the acclaimed young adult writer Kerem Mermutlu, Broken YeahWow is a novel that revolves around blogs, coffee, trying tounderstand your best friend, staying up all night because you can'tsleep, and figuring out who you are.



July 2012 - FanGirl! by Angel Lawson. Available in ebook andpaperback onAmazon.

When Ruby Miller and her best friend, Iris, post an amateur video ontheir Zocopalypse fansite, neither expect the film to go viral, to beinvited to lead the FantasyCon parade or meet Gabe Foster, the creatorand artist behind the graphic novel.
Gabe announces Zocopalypse’s adaptation to a television miniseries andpegs college-bound Ruby to play iconic zombie hunter, Alexandra. Shereluctantly accepts, pushing aside her summer babysitting job andplans to lounge around the pool in favor of negotiating with agents,hot actors and the paparazzi.
Attending zombie boot camp and memorizing lines is hard enough, butRuby must learn to trust her instincts in a world where the linebetween fiction and reality ceases to exist, and the two worlds blurinto one.
July 2012 - The Wedding Cake Girl by Anne Pfeffer.  Availablein ebook onAmazon.
Seventeen-year-old Alexandra spends so much time helping othersrealize their dreams that she never has time for her own. An expertocean diver and reluctant maker of wedding cakes, she longs to leaveroses and frosting behind to study oceanography. Alex’s mother won’thave it—needy and dependent, Mom can’t run the family wedding cakebusiness on her own. 
No matter what Alex does, things only get worse for her. When shesaves a man's life while scuba diving and becomes the local hero,Mom's angry with Alex for going diving at all. Mom discourages Alex'snew friendship with Jeremy, a fun and insanely wealthy boy who happensto have a secret. Then, Alex's best friend, Zack, a hunky island guy,starts to take an interest in her as well. The problem is, he's datinganother girl.
As Alex struggles to learn where she stands between her two difficultand confusing Prince Charmings, it occurs to her that maybe what shereally needs is a Prince Charming for Mom. If she doesn't do somethingfast, they'll bury her in her "Sue's Wedding Cakery" apron with aspatula in her hand. 
The Wedding Cake Girl features a colorful island setting, dangerousunderwater diving adventures, a family of billionaires, and lots andlots of buttercream. The book is Alex's journey toward not onlyfinding love, but learning how to step forward and take control of herown life, a rite of passage that faces all young readers.

July 2012 - Apocalypsis by Elle Casey. Available onAmazon.


APOCALYPSIS is a 3-book, YA Post-Apocalyptic series, beginning withBook 1, Kahayatle. Books 2 and 3 will be available July 31 and August31 respectively (2012).

KAHAYATLE
My name's Bryn Mathis. I'm seventeen years old and I live in aneighborhood outside of Orlando, Florida. I live alone because my daddied almost a year ago, along with all the other adults in the world.I'm almost out of food and the gangs of kids that roam around my townare getting more vicious by the day.

It's time for me to leave and find another place to live … a placewhere I can find food and shelter … a place where they won't be ableto find me.

Alone, it might have been possible; but now I've got company. I'mworried that I don't have what it takes to get from here to my finaldestination.

And I have no idea what might be waiting for me when I get there.

**No drugs, or sex. Yes violence and some foul language. This is DARKSCIENCE FICTION/HORROR featuring teen characters only.**
~
Note to contributors: we just added this page on July 29th, 2012 -please let Dalya know when you have a new book launched so it can beadded here from now on!

Benefits Of Being A Writer You Never Considered

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During my years pursuing my writing career I’ve met all types of authors, poets, screen writers. Many who just write because it’s something in them that drives them to do so. But there are some that write out of necessity to support other talents. Most of all writing does something for me I never thought it would – expose me to others.


WRITING IS A DOOR THAT OPENS TO…

Meeting others. In my desire to do my best to write that one novel that will expose me to a larger audience I searched around my city for a writers group. I found a few and I joined them all. Maryland Writers Association, The Romance Writers (I just hang out a few of their meetings), The Columbia writers group (I found them off of www.meetup.com) , the Black Writer’s Guild, Mid-Atlantic Book Publishers, and Independent Book Publishers Association, Critique Circle, AbsoluteWrite.com/forum and YaLitchat.org. All of which I joined not to meet people but to learn about writing. But throughout the years I’ve met tons of amazing and best-selling authors who’ve further inspired the best from me.

Speaking Platforms. Did you know you don’t have to be a bestselling author to get speaking gigs? Well you don’t. Matter of fact, sometimes you don’t necessarily even have to have anything published. You can support others to becoming published and be able to speak about this. I never knew this before I started speaking and touring for my books. I have met people who have spoken at events (maybe for free or even sometimes paid) that support the art of writing by being a long standing board member of writerly organizations, being a freelance editor who edit books of other authors, or someone that organizes and promotes authors and such. Sometimes just starting to write something and exposing yourself to people in the business gains you knowledge that you can share on the speaking circuit.

Gives you something to talk about. I’ve met quite a few writers that have been writing their novel for over 5yrs or even more. They sometimes admit that they may never finish but love to just write. They often share their challenges with their writing and their triumphs and from one author to another I totally understand that writing is like putting together a puzzle. Some people like to finish it, others like to widdle at it. But in both cases, it is pleasurable and freeing.

Can Support Other Goals. There are many people in my day time career and some of my peers that love their career areas in medicine, engineering and social services. They’ve found it a necessity to have a published work to support their speaking or to give to peers on their subject matter. Many of them don’t like to write. But they’ve worked with writing coaches to help them write books, pamphlets, support documents and white papers to share. Sometimes this has turned into a profitable venture for them. Believe it or not, many of these folks self-publish their materials and make a pretty penny on speaking and selling these items to their guest.

SO….



With all I’ve shared about writing and being an author, what has just putting pen to paper have exposed you to? Or grown in you? Are you a Blogger who has a following or a writer who’ve met great friends in your journey or a student who wrote a story that moved your class. Please share.

Finally! An upgrade!

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These were my 'dressers' in high school.  Then, they were painted mauve and smokey blue.  They were painted white with red knobs about 20 years ago.

These are the dressers mom gave me when I moved into the rental house in Phoenix.  They were from Kristy's room, which was then the craft room.  At the time she gave them to me, I'm thinking they were a few, maybe 8 or 10 years old.
As you can see, pieces are missing and broken.  I had ended the fight with the drawer pulls coming off all the time.  The dresser on the right, the 2nd and 3rd drawer actually have to come out together because the bottom of the 2nd drawer is gone so all the clothes in those drawers are as one.

One guess as to  what I have been using as dressers for the last 25 years???

YEP!  But I broke down and bought new ones!!  My bedroom is super small and these are on the large side.  They were from the Highland Hall Collection.  And I was lucky enough to find them at a little over 50% off (which is the reason I got 2)  1 would have only helped me with half my problem.  Why the super sale?  They were suppose to have mirrors but they were lost, broken, missing, sold separately... 
They are a little darker then I would have liked, but these pictures are actually making them look darker then they are.  So here is a closer view.
I am so happy that I finally have bedroom furniture :)

Got to get ExCiTeD!

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The possibility of a Senior camp trip came up last year and I decided to jump on it.  We just went to the meeting tonight and Sahara got her t-shirt!  She is all paid for (1st one to pay in full actually) and ready to roll.  On the 3rd day of school this year, she and about 25 other students will meet in the parking lot of the school at 6:15 and be on their way!  They are going to The University Of Mississippi - Gulf Coast Research Laboratory for 5 days/4 nights.


Sea Camp Shark Fest is the program they are going into.  It turns out they are the only students scheduled for this particular week, so the campus is theirs!!


These are example pictures of what she will be doing there.  Going to a class about sharks and their anatomy and shark safety.  Catching and documenting sharks, tagging them, dissecting them (in the lab).  Going to Ship Island for a tour of Fort Massachusetts (built in 1859-1866).   

          

The University is small and RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!  Of course they will have beach time too!  She is getting excited and I am jealous.

First stop on the way there is for dinner at Isle of Capri.  I hear the crab leg buffet is A-maaaaaay-zing!

Room Re-Do

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I woke up Saturday morning with an itch to get SOMETHING done this summer.  Canyon's room was in bad shape.  Why is it that projects always cost at least twice as much and take 3 times as long to finish!?!
Canyon had a re-makeover 4 years ago, but as you will see in the following pictures, it was needed again!

RAZORBACKS
is the new theme.

First project is new toy buckets.  Instead of oversized toy tubs that would lose everything down at the bottom, we went with 5 gallon buckets.  They had these at Lowes which inspired the whole makeover.


I made labels for different types of toys such as 'matchbox cars', 'people', 'animals'...  It was Canyon's job to sort everything.  Plus 2 bags went to donate, 2 bags went to trash, and 1 bag went to Jared's house for his new Nephew when he gets a little older (like toddler Legos, road carpet, preschool laptop...

This is the damage we have to repair.  
This turned into a HUGE job!
The peeling paint would not stop!
Thank you so much humidity!!

The buckets are ready to go.  He usually enjoys playing with one thing at a time.  Cars, or stuffed animals, or whatever.  I am hoping he will pick up and put away before he takes down the next bucket.  Time will tell.
Finally!  Primer is going on the walls.  A step I usually skip and hope for the best, but I'm glad we did it because Sunset Orange is hard to cover.

Primer done (day 3!!!)

Then I lost 2 helpers to the Olympics.  Can't really tell, but swimming is on.

Then, a disappointment.  We bought trim and painted it red.  The only piece we were able to use is the one here on the protruding corner.  The other corners of his wall are so damaged and bowed, the trim would not lay flat or stick.  Nails split the wood.  It was $60 we spent and couldn't use or take back.  So, here I sit trying to figure what we are going to do with these horrid corners.
Day 4
LOTS of joint compound, primer, paint and another day (day 5) and the corners are done...let's hope they last!

Since red was now pretty much out of the picture, we had to do something to make Canyon happy.  He was sad that his room wasn't a color any more.  So, I bought a flag and for now it is just tacked up.

This is the extent of his toys!  Much better.  We also eliminated a piece of furniture.  It was a red cabinet that mainly held 5000 books.  He has a handful of books he likes to look at.  We kept about 25.

We also found him a Razorback licence plate with the diamond plate that will tie in with his dresser and light switch plate.
A poster we framed and the background has silver to tie in too.
Last was a night light for the wall, but it turned on and off at will so I took it back.
For his birthday he will get a new blanket/quilt and curtains and maybe some pennants.  There is lots of stuff available but kind of pricey because they have to be licensed.  Anyway...that's that! and Day 6!!

Birthday ideas if anyone is interested :)  Sahara said he should have a Razorback b-day to go with it!