Blog Tour: Through Indigo's Eyes -- Guest Post

Hello all! Today I'm the tour stop for the title, Through Indigo's Eyes, and I have the lovely authors Tara Taylor and Lorna Schultz Nicholson stopping by to provide a post. I'd also like to thank HayHouse and both of the lovely ladies for the opportunity to be apart of the tour!

See it at Goodreads

Through Indigo’s Eyes is a YA novel written by Lorna Schultz Nicholson and is based on the real life of Intuitive Tara Taylor.  Although all plots and secondary characters are fictional, the emotions and feeling of the main character, Indigo Russell, are taken from real life.  Lorna and Tara teamed up to write this book, thinking they could hit the fiction and non-fiction market to help people understand what an Indigo child goes through.  They are excited to be able to help everyone understand that all children are different!

So what exactly is an Indigo child?

Lorna:   When I first started the novel, I really hadn’t given the Indigo child much thought.  Children are children, and each and every one is different and special and I’m not someone who likes to place a label on any child.  I’m not a fan of the “gifted” school programs either, as I think all children are gifted.   When I started working on the novel, I did my usual character development charts, only this time I was writing about someone real, (Tara Taylor), so I used her life to fill in the blanks.  I looked at likes and dislikes, family life and pets and all that kind of superficial stuff, but I also went deeper and as I did I realized that as an Indigo child she was sensitive, and had a wisdom that was probably beyond her years.  She was also intuitive, and starting at a very early age, she could see spirits and angels and her deceased loved ones.  Prone to illnesses, like ulcers, she had also been diagnosed with ADHD, which is typical, I found out, about Indigo children.  This child also has a strong desire to change the world.  Okay, so she made my character development work easy and I had pages and pages of notes.  Of course, once I started writing, I also did hours of research on other Indigo children.  Now, again, I’m going to reiterate that I’m not a big believer in the “gifted” school programs, (yes, I know I might get backlash on this), and I think that Indigo children should not be treated differently, or labeled, or segregated, but should be accepted for their uniqueness.  Tara is unique and that makes Indigo also unique.  You’ll have to read the book to find out more!

Tara:  Firstly, Lorna is an amazing writer and it takes a lot of “uniqueness” on her part to be able to write a novel like this as it is not an easy task to mix fiction and non-fiction. I agree with Lorna as the word “gifted” separates children and every child is unique and that makes them brilliant and special just the way they are. Indigo children was a term that was introduced when I was 19 and it helped explain why I had, and still have, so many experiences that doctors, specialists and so forth could not really explain.  It also helped shed some light on why I was so sensitive to my surroundings to the point that my body would have physical issues with no family history of illness. My mother used to joke and say, “If only I had read The Indigo Children by Lee Carroll & Jan Tober and The Care and Feeding of the Indigo Children by Doreen Virtue, I would have gotten more sleep when you were growing up”.   Indigo children or the Indigo child is now a title, (like boy or girl), that has become main stream to explain to the world who these children are and why they have these certain abilities.  It is no different, really, than saying a child is a really good singer, painter or writer. Indigo is a quick way of describing a highly sensitive child who is affected by energy, emotions and can see, hear, feel or know things that most people would miss in their everyday lives. Indigos are in tune to a higher frequency that never really shuts off, and they have constant distraction and background noise. This book is meant to be a form of entertainment but also an outlet to better explain what it is like to be an Indigo child. It’s possible that you might be an indigo yourself and you just did not know it yet!

Through Indigo's Eyes can be purchased through Amazon.

Website
Facebook
Twitter


Thank you so much for the visit!

Be sure to check out my review and add it to your Goodreads as well.

Blog Tour: Greta and the Goblin King (Author Guest Post)

Today I have the fabulous Ms. Chloe Jacobs as a guest here at the blog posting about her upcoming work, GRETA AND THE GOBLIN KING, as part of a tour. Don't forget to enter the tour-wide giveaway at the bottom of this post and visit the other stops! (Also, look for my review of this lovely title later this week!)

Goodreads

 

When I was writing GRETA AND THE GOBLIN KING, I started with one idea and thankfully, it ballooned from there into many other ideas which worked together to build a story. But the one little spark that started it all was actually a question.

What would you do if you were removed from everything you knew, separated from everyone you loved? If, in fact, the entire world was literally out to get you?


Once I had this little worm in my brain, it was impossible to let go of it. I immediately knew that this wasn’t going to be a simple matter of having a character who moves away from home. I needed the separation to be brutal and complete. There had to be NO way for her to reach the people she left behind. No Facebook or texting, or even snail mail.

I also knew I had to take it a step further. Her situation had to be as bleak as I could make it. To me, it wasn’t enough that she was separated from her home and friends, Greta (she had a name by this point) had to be barred from making NEW friends. In fact, if everyone she met wanted to slit her throat, that would be even better!

I even made sure that the weather was harsh and forbidding. A world where winter never ended, where the ice and snow would make anyone feel lonely, depressed, and strip you of hope for a new beginning.

Why was I so desperate to torture this poor girl?

Because when you’re left with absolutely nothing and absolutely nobody, that’s when a person’s true nature asserts itself and I wanted to see what Greta was really made of, so I could know what her story needed to be.

　

　

Thank you so much, Ms. Jacobs for being at the blog today! And thanks to Itching For Books and Entangled for the opportunity to be a part of the tour. ^^

　

So, what would you do if were thrown into a world with a bunch of nothing? No Twitter. Sorry, folks.

　

　

Chloe Jacobs is a native of nowhere and everywhere, having jumped around to practically every Province of Canada before finally settling in Ontario where she has now been living for a respectable number of years. Her husband and son are the two best people in the entire world, but they also make her wish she'd at least gotten a female cat. No such luck. And although the day job keeps her busy, she carves out as much time as possible to write. Bringing new characters to life and finding out what makes them tick and how badly she can make them suffer is one of her greatest pleasures, almost better than chocolate and fuzzy pink bunny slippers.

Official Site | Twitter

 

Enter the tour-wide giveaway below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


 

Don’t forget to visit the Itching For Books’ Greta and the Goblin King Tour Page to visit the other stops on the tour!

And look for my review of Greta and the Goblin King coming later this week.



 

Author Guest Post: J.A. Redmerski (Author of THE MAYFAIR MOON)

Today I'm happy to have J.A. Redmerski grace the blog today to tell us all about herself and her book, The Mayfair Moon. So give a warm welcome to this wonderful author! And then be sure to check out her book and follow the links at the end of the post. :)

------

OK, I admit it – I’ve always been a sucker for bad boys. Guys with power. Infallibly loyal and protective. The guy that no one wants to mess with. The one that oozes danger, but doesn’t flaunt it. Dominant, but loving. Aggressive, but completely and respectively gentle at the same time. (I swear this isn’t a dating profile!) I don’t know any supernatural being better to fit this bill more than a werewolf. And that’s the biggest reason why I decided to write a novel about werewolves.


But the werewolves in THE MAYFAIR MOON aren’t your typical shape-shifter who turns into a canine-type of ‘werewolf’. Those in TMM are beastly and terrifying, dangerous and unpredictable, yet a human teenage girl can still fall hopelessly in love with one.


I love reading YA books, those that are more geared toward readers 17 and over and have adult crossover potential. That was the kind of werewolf novel that I desperately wanted to fall in love with, and believe me, I searched for a YA book like this and found nothing. The majority of YA ‘werewolf’ novels on the market today (and for the past several years) are the shape-shifter kind. Nothing wrong with them – just not something I’ve ever been interested in. So, when I ultimately gave up my search, feeling like I would never find a series with beastly, dangerous werewolves like you see in the Underworld series, that was when I decided I was just going to have to write my own.


And so The Darkwoods Trilogy was born. THE MAYFAIR MOON is the first in the trilogy and book two, KINDRED will be released July 2012.


Thank you, Pixie for the opportunity!

Connect with Ms. Redmerski and add The Mayfair Moon to your TBR piles!

Website

Goodreads

Twitter

P.S. **I can't wait for Kindred, btw! ;)**

Thank you, Ms. Redmerski, for taking the time to be on the blog today! :)

Guest Post: Author Theodora Goss (Thorn and the Blossom)

What Are We Mything?

When I teach classes on fantasy literature, I often start by having my students read Sigmund Freud's essay "The Uncanny."  In that essay, Freud tries to figure out why we respond to certain events with a sort of creepy, uncomfortable fear, the sort of fear you feel when you see a ghost.  (Each time I teach his essay, I think of Scooby Doo, shivering and whining until Velma reveals that the ghost is really the caretaker of the dilapidated old estate.)  Freud says we feel the uncanny when we experience something that challenges our sense of reality, that makes us think our rational, scientific view of the world is inaccurate.  Suddenly, we encounter the supernatural, and we start wondering if we really live in a world that can be explained by the laws of physics.  Maybe ghosts do exist after all?

We start wondering if what Freud calls "the old, animistic conception of the universe" is the true one.  In that older world view, which we believed in for thousands of years before deciding that the world could be explained rationally, nature is seen as filled with spirit.  (The word "anima" is Latin for "soul," and it's where we get words such as animal and animation.  Bringing a cartoon Scooby Doo to life involves giving him a soul, of sorts.)  But Freud says our culture no longer believes in that view.  We no longer believe that dryads live in the trees, or that the sun is a god.  That a shaman can climb the world-tree whose branches touch the heavens, or a witch can brew a storm, or a warrior can transform into a bear.  We no longer believe in magic.  If we did see something magical, a dryad emerging from her tree or a man turning into a bear, we would feel a sense of the uncanny.  And we would run away.

Freud is probably right.  We would probably react the way Evelyn does in my story, The Thorn and the Blossom, when she encounters something that seems magical.  We would go to a good therapist.  But I think Freud's essay also misses something: he doesn't recognized that although we might be afraid if we saw an old woman creating a storm by stirring her cauldron, or Apollo walking toward us over the grass, we also long for magic.  We want it to be real.  When you were a child, didn't you check every wardrobe, just in case it led to Narnia or some other magical country?  I know I did.  In a deep and fundamental way, we need myth.

People sometimes ask me why I write fantasy, or at least stories with some sort of mythic resonance.  The Thorn and the Blossom could be read as a completely realistic story, but I do think it has that resonance.  If you read it as completely realistic, you're missing something: the possibility of myth, of a deeper meaning underneath the everyday.  That's what myth gives us, and that's why we need it and long for it.  A tree, considered scientifically, is a collection of cells that have grown into a particular configuration: it creates oxygen, prevents erosion, and provides wood for furniture.  But we don't love trees for those reasons.  We love them because they're trees: they arch over us in the forest like the ribs of a cathedral.  They make us feel as though we could ascend to the heavens, or as though the soul of the tree, the dryad, might emerge.

Life isn't exactly easy.  We experience longing, pain, and death.  But I believe that finding the myth, the magic in it, even when it's metaphorical, can help us deal with the difficulty.  It can transform the world and give it a meaning it did not have.  It can help us see trees, and bears, and even ourselves, differently.  It can help us see a magical dimension.  In my story, Evelyn eventually has to stop running away from what Freud describes as the uncanny.  She has to face her fears and acknowledge her longing.  I didn't think about any of this when I was writing the story, of course.  It's only later that you realize how much a story reflects what you believe about the world.

I started this blog post with a question that is also a terrible pun: what are we mything?  Sorry, it's awful, I know.  But it also contains its own answer.  I think we are the way Freud describes us: we live in a world where the laws of physics apply, and we've forgotten that there are other ways of perceiving reality.  But stories can remind us that once, we believed in beautiful women who could emerge from the trees, and that there was something precious in that belief.  Something we have lost, and that fantasy can help us find again.

----

A wonderful post from a kind and amazing author! My many thanks to Ms. Goss for the visit on the blog and contribution. :)

Have you entered the giveaway yet to win a copy of Thorn and the Blossom? There's still time! Go HERE for details and to enter!

Thanks!

Blog Tour--A Guest Post from author Resa Nelson

How Research Helped Me Build My Own Dragon

by Resa Nelson

Because I did a lot of library research for my 4-book Dragonslayer series, little tidbits that I discovered along the way helped me figure out how to make my fantasy world my own.  My goal was to create something unique and personal.  One of the most important things I did was to figure out how to create a different kind of dragon – one that might have really existed in our world.

When I was in school, it seemed to me that people looked down their noses at people who lived in the past.  I think people who lived in the past were just as smart as anyone today, in some cases even smarter.  For example, to the best of my understanding, no one has figured out how the great pyramids of Egypt were built – their architects were brilliant.  It always bothers me when people today ridicule people of the past, especially when it comes to creatures they reported seeing.

While doing research, I came across a report that listed recorded sightings of dragons.  The time period for these sightings began during the Roman Empire and ended as recently as the Renaissance.  This report named names, and the people reporting dragon sightings included priests and government officials.  The reports included information about what people saw and when and where they saw it.

So I figured these people saw something.  I know what it’s like to see an animal you’re not expecting to see.  I remember seeing pelicans for the first time, flying above a beach in Florida.  I’d never seen pelicans, even though I knew what they were.  I immediately thought of pterodactyls.  I didn’t know they were pelicans at first – but I felt I was looking at huge and ancient-looking creatures flying through the air.

A few years ago, I saw a fisher cat for the first time.  It was a freakish experience.  I was looking out my window and saw what looked like a giant weasel creep by.  I got a long, good look at it, and I kept thinking, I don’t know what this animal is.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  It looks like a monster!  I contacted a friend who knows about local wildlife and found out that fisher cats (which are essentially giant weasels that can measure up to 3 ½ to 4 feet in length from nose to tail) live in my area.  One of their favorite snacks is housecats.  I love animals, so it was a very bizarre experience to encounter an animal that I didn’t know existed, especially when it came creeping around my home.  If I hadn’t been able to find out what it was, I would have told people I’d seen a giant monster weasel.

So what if the term “dragon” in the past means something else today?  I’m convinced that people who reported seeing dragons saw some kind of animal – the question is what kind of animal did they see?  Could it have been a bird, like a Great Blue Heron?  Large birds look enormous when they’re flying and can have outrageously huge wingspans.  Or could it have been an animal like an alligator or crocodile?  I thought about this question for a long time.  My research led me to a specific animal I knew about (unlike the dreaded and creepy fisher cat).  When I started researching that animal, I began to see connections between what we think of as a classic fantasy dragon and this real-life animal that still exists today.  The next time I write a guest post on this blog tour, I’ll talk about that animal and why I decided to model the dragons in my series on it.

During this blog tour I’m telling lots of stories about the research I’ve done for my Dragonslayer series.  You can find out where I’ve been and where I’m going next by checking my website (http://www.resanelson.com), my Facebook page (Resa Nelson & The Dragonslayer’s Sword), or following me on Twitter (ResaNelson).

If you’d like to sample my work for free, you can download a free “mini” ebook called “Dragonslayer Stories” from my website at http://www.resanelson.com/files.  No cost, no obligation, nothing to sign up for, no information gathering.  I like giving away samples of my work so you can decide for yourself whether you like it or not.  If you do, you can enter to win a copy of the first two books in my series, which I’ll give away at the end of this tour on Feb. 14.  To enter, just send email to ResaBonusGifts@aol.com.  (I won’t keep your email address – this just makes it easier for me to keep track of entries.)  I’m also doing a book giveaway on GoodReads, so you can enter to win there, too.

***

The Dragonslayer's Sword (Book One)

For Astrid, a blacksmith who makes swords for dragonslayers, the emergence of a strange gemstone from her body sets in motion a chain of events that threaten to destroy her life. Her happiness is shattered when her lover--the dragonslayer--disappears without a trace, and the life that she knows and loves implodes without warning.

Astrid lives in a world of shapeshifters whose thoughts have the power to change not only themselves but others. Everything Astrid knows to be true is called into question when she learns the truth about her past and the mysterious family from which she was separated as a child.

Reality turns inside out as Astrid gradually learns the truth about the people she loves as well as those she disdains. With the fate of dragons, ghosts, and slaves in foreign lands resting on her shoulders, Astrid faces the challenge of deciding who she is and how she will stand up inside her own skin. Will she withdraw and hide from the world that has disappointed her so much...or will she rise to lead others to freedom and peace?

The Iron Maiden (Book Two)

Astrid is reluctant to travel the winter route beyond the Northlands, even though it’s her duty. She’d rather stay home in her village, surrounded by friends and neighbors. Ignoring the bonds of tradition, she decides to spend the cold winter months in the warmth of her blacksmithing shop. Why should she leave the comfort of her cottage to serve and protect foreigners who might raid and harm her native Northlands?

Everything changes when a traveling merchant steals Starlight, the first dragonslayer’s sword Astrid forged and her last link to her sweetheart DiStephan. Having no time to alert her friends, Astrid races in pursuit of the merchant, determined to reclaim Starlight as her own and return home in time for dinner. Instead, her quest leads her to new lands, unexpected friendships with foreigners, and a harrowing encounter with the damage done by the followers of a new god that considers women as nothing more than servants to men. All the while, she must be ready to face any dragon traveling the winter route.

In Book 2 of the Dragonslayer series, Astrid must learn that deciding who she is isn’t a decision she can make just once. It’s a decision she must make every day.

***

About the Author:

Resa Nelson has been selling fiction professionally since 1988. She is a longtime member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and is a graduate of the Clarion SF Workshop.

Resa was also the TV/Movie Columnist for Realms of Fantasy magazine for 13 years and was a contributor to SCI FI magazine. She has sold over 200 articles to magazines in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Her first novel, The Dragonslayer’s Sword, was nominated for the Nebula Award, the highest honor in science fiction and fantasy. It was also a Finalist for the EPPIE Award. This medieval fantasy novel is based on a short story first published in the premiere issue of Science Fiction Age magazine and ranked 2nd in that magazine's first Readers Top Ten Poll. The Dragonslayer's Sword is Book 1 in a 4-book series. Book 2, The Iron Maiden, was recently published. Book 3 is scheduled for publication in Summer 2012.

Resa's standalone novel, Our Lady of the Absolute, is a fantasy/mystery/thriller about a modern-day society based on ancient Egypt. Midwest Book Review gave this book a 5-star review, calling it "a riveting fantasy, very highly recommended."

In real life, Resa is a fan of chocolate, travel, summer, museums, ballet, movies, and Broadway musicals (her favorites are Les Miserables and Wicked). She lives in Massachusetts.

　

Links:

Website: http://www.resanelson.com                                                                        

Free “mini” ebook of Dragonslayer short stories:  http://www.resanelson.com/files

Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Resa-Nelson-The-Dragonslayers-Sword/122200661871

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/ResaNelson

Ebooks ($4.99 each) are available directly from Mundania Press at:  http://mundania.com/author.php?author=Resa+Nelson (get a 10% discount at checkout with the coupon code MP10)

Paperbacks are available from Mundania Press, Amazon, and Barnes&Noble:

http://mundania.com/author.php?author=Resa+Nelson (get a 10% discount at checkout with the coupon code MP10)

http://www.amazon.com/Resa-Nelson/e/B002C78D2Q/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1325972739&sr=8-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/resa-nelson

A big Thank You to author, Resa Nelson, for being a part of the blog!!

Happy reading, everyone!

Guest Post: Reflections on How Blogging Changed My Life

So I was recently visiting the wonderful book blog called Parajunkee's View-- basically the epitome of book-blogging epicness-- and saw that she had recently published her 10,000th blog post. Now, I think we can all agree, that is quite a milestone! To commemorate this achievement, Rachel, AKA Parajunkee, spent some time reminiscing on how blogging had changed her life. Well, I thought this was an awesome idea, because I know that for me personally, blogging has become a major part of my own life and what I do now. I think it is a great idea to reflect on our achievements as book bloggers, so I hope that what I have to say here inspires you to look at what you have accomplished as well. Because you know what? Whether you have 50 followers or 5,000 followers-- if you are a book blogger who loves to read, review, and share your passion for books with other people-- you have something to be proud of!!

OK, so I'm going to tell you a little of my story as the blogger behind LC's Adventures in Libraryland. I started my blog back on March 23 of this year. Up until then, I barely knew what blogging was and I didn't even have a Twitter account. My first book review was for Fallen by Lauren Kate (Which looking back, I now think I gave a fairly generous review of haha). After about one week of blogging, a wonderful blogger named Deborah from Deborah's Books, told me she loved my blog and was giving me an award! I couldn't even believe it-- I thought, hey, somebody is actually reading and LIKING what I'm writing and how I'm presenting my blog! SWEET!! I took this as a good sign and continued trying to learn as much as I could about how to create and maintain a successful blog.

 I started joining in all the weekly book blog memes, like Teaser Tuesdays, Waiting on Wednesdays, and of course Follow Me Fridays by Parajunkee. Slowly but surely, my following started to grow, and by May 13th I was hosting my first ever giveaway to celebrate the 200 follower mark. I also did a major redesign to make my blog more readable (see old design was darker!). But you know what has been most rewarding? Reading some absolutely amazing YA books, and meeting some incredibly talented and supportive bloggers who have helped me to develop a hobby into something that I am really passionate about!

Today I am nearing the 1,000 follower mark, which I am really excited about. I am also now able to confidently contact authors and publishers to request ARCs for early reviews (see nerdy picture of me below lol), I'm co-hosting online events to promote new books and authors, and I often get emails from new bloggers asking for advice on how they can get their own book blogs to grow. Honestly, that is one of my favorite things about blogging, besides gaining new followers and receiving ARCs in the mail-- I absolutely love to help and support other bloggers, because that is how I became successful with my own blog-- by looking to those who came before me for tips and advice.

 I would say that blogging has definitely changed my life. It has become not only a hobby and pastime, but something I am genuinely passionate about-- I love doing it, and I spend most of my free time reading, reviewing, and interacting with the blogosphere. I am now thinking of taking classes in web design so that I can expand my blog to include design for other blogs as well. I think that sites like Parajunkee's View that give honest advice on blogging are so cool, and I am very grateful for all the help I have gotten from them!

I hope that new book bloggers can be inspired just by knowing that you don't have to be a blogging genius or a high-tech web designer or a professional writer to have a successful book blog-- just be committed to providing the best site you can for you and your followers, and always be open to learning new things. Basically, just do what you love and be proud of it! That is the best advice I can give to any new blogger.

Thank you, Pixie, for kindly inviting me to guest post on your blog! And as always-- "Happy Reading" to all!! :)

~Lea

Guest Post- Do You Know What You're Getting Into? (Writing tips from Ink)

I began writing my series, Blood Chains, in 2007. Specifically, in the middle of English 12. I was a senior in high school, and stressed out from school and my family; and there, in the middle of class came a character. Tarius Sylvren was deposited to me in a cage, abused and waiting to die. But something about him pleaded with me to let him out. Find out who he was and who had sentenced him to death. I didn’t know at the time that this was a gift from my muse, but I took it. Though at the time we started the story before its beginning. Now, in 2011, I am on book five in the series, and beginning to upload edited chapters of Keeping Demons. I’ve been on this ride for a few years, as well as having written many short stories growing up, and while I don’t claim to know everything- I’d like to share what I have learned.

-       Always follow that idea. You’ll never know if it’s a beginning or just a wall until you write it out. So write. No matter how weird, or morbid- doesn’t matter if it’s what you normally go for or some odd kink; write it. Get it out of your system, and save it. Because if nothing else, you’ll find it a couple of weeks later, and won’t recognize it. It’ll be this interesting piece that captures you again and you won’t remember writing it.

Periodically I’ll go through my files and weed out really, really, old things. It’s usually once a year though. I’d recommend doing the same, and just- read some of the stuff you’ve written. If you have no interest in it after you read it; throw it away. But if any little piece of that calls to you- save it. It might be a future idea, or a new character. Maybe it’s the next story?

-       Don’t sweat the grammar and spelling. Just write it. All of that will come in the editing, and the re-editing. On that same note; don’t ever be the sole editor. Get someone you trust to help you. Just make sure that person won’t just tell you there isn’t anything wrong with the writing.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great hearing that your writing is awesome. But it’s not perfect. Ever. Just because they can’t find something wrong with it, doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong with it. And no matter how much you think you aren’t; you are biased to your work. Either you love it, and there isn’t anything wrong with it- or you don’t think it’s good at all. Either way, you shouldn’t be the sole editor.

-       Everyone has different ways of writing; from where we write, to how we write.
I prefer to type in Microsoft Word with the Pandora Radio playing. But if I can’t- then I write long hand, and type later. My writing has also been described as ‘choppy’. While things like spelling and grammar are fairly consistent- a writer’s voice is their own. The story is theirs, and it will sound like them. It’s how they write. It’s the beauty of writing; there is no specifically ‘right’ answer. With that said, don’t change just to please others.

-       Write for yourself first.

You, yes you my dear writer, are your audience. I hope you started this story because you wanted to know what happens. And if not, then why did you start writing? Write for yourself, write because you want to. Worry about audience, and marketing later. Fall in love with your characters; build them up, make them real- and others will fall in love with them too. You’ve got to sell the story to yourself: if you don’t believe that the character could have done this- no one else will either.

My final piece of advice is to write. You will never write a book if you can’t find the time to write. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, but it needs to be consistent. For example, I personally, write every single day. The particular time varies, but it’s every day. I write until I fall asleep or until I have to go back to reality. The important part is that I write every day. Make a goal for yourself and stick with it. Laurell K Hamilton’s goal is 4 pages. Every day. And she will stick with it until she gets that minimum. Don’t wait for inspiration- just write. Every day. Remember: words turn into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs to pages and pages equal books.

Happy Writing!

–Ink. 

You can find Ink at http://animbilivens.tumblr.com/

Guest Post W/ Sullivan Lee + Giveaway!

All About Sullivan Lee

Thank you so much for having me on The Bookaholic, Pixie! Why yes, now that you mention it, I'd love to talk about myself!

I was born in a shack and had to walk five miles through the snow to school, uphill, both ways... Wait, no, that's a character, not me. Authors are supposed to live lives of torment and suffering, and draw their inspiration from their pain, right? Well, I'm sorry to say I've had a rather happy, peaceful life. I realized I needed to be a writer from the moment I learned how to write, and though it took me about 25 years from that epiphany to finally get published, I never stopped trying. I was a lot of things in the meantime, though – a social worker, a newspaper editor, a deputy sheriff. Now I write full time, or as full time as the mother of a four year old can.

I write a LOT, too, in a lot of different genres. A thousand words is a bad day for me; I shoot for 2000 at least. So once I figured out that 1) no publisher wants 365,000 words from one author in a year and 2) no publisher wants an author to jump from sweet fairy books to violent adult crime novels, I decided a few pseudonyms were in order. But they're not secrets.

Under my real name, Laura L. Sullivan, I write traditionally published books for children. Under the Green Hill (out now) and Guardian of the Green Hill (out this October) are about a group of children caught in the middle of a fairy war. They're both from Macmillan/Henry Holt Books for Young Readers. Then in 2012 I have two young adult historicals coming out from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – the bawdy Restoration-era romp Ladies in Waiting; and Delusion, about stage magician sisters who discover a college of real magicians on the English WWII home front.

As Sullivan Lee, though, I draw on my years of experience as a deputy sheriff and write about criminals and cops. My first book under that name is Brightwing, a criminal love story. Next will be a romantic paranormal thriller called Flesh, the first in a series, I hope, about a jaded female deputy and a paranormal hottie (whose exact sort of paranormalcy is a secret at the moment – sorry!) who team up as a playful Nick-and-Nora type of couple to solve murders.

Then, in case I have any waking hours left (tons of ideas, not much time) I'll be writing short stories, novellas and maybe a sly adult comedy of manners under my nickname, LuLu Sullivan. My first short story under that name – Lana Halliday – will be out any day now.

In my free time I read, and for now that about covers my hobbies! Once the Little Guy heads to kindergarten next year, though, I'll be able to get back into my other loves – paleontology, hiking, gardening, and if my body can still take it after all these years away, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Thanks for giving me the chance to tell you a little bit about myself! If you'd like to know more, you can drop by my blog, The Omniscient Third Person – http://lauralsullivan.blogspot.com/

Thank you, Sullivan Lee, for being at The Bookaholic! So great to have had you here and I really enjoyed reading about you!


I have a wonderful surprise for you all. There's a giveaway, too! One lucky person will get a SIGNED copy of Brightwing!


If you haven't read my review of Brightwing yet, you can read it here.

• U.S./Canada only. Must be 17 and over (as it is an adult-themed novel, sorry!)
• Following my blog isn't required, but it will get you an extra entry!
• Tweeting about the giveaway will get you two extra entries. Following on Twitter isn't required but will get you an extra entry as well!
• Closes August 20th at Midnight (central time)
• Winner is chosen randomly. If winner doesn't respond to email within 48 hours, I will have another randomly picked.

Enter the contest here!

Thanks!