Winners! and Celebrate the Small Things

The Winners of the Champion in the Darkness Book Tour Giveaway Are:

Tonja of Kidbits - winner of a paperback copy of Champion in the Darkness!

Miss Jack of However Improbable - winner of an ebook copy of Champion in the Darkness!

Jennifer Hardy - winner of a $20 amazon gift card!

Allison of GeekBanter - winner of a $10 amazon gift card!

And in case I forgot to mention it, the winner of the Champion in the Darkness ebook giveaway at Laurel's Leaves was: Michael Di Gesu

And a huge thank you to everyone who participated! And a huge round of applause and big HUGS for all the totally awesome people who helped me with that really long book blog tour:

  Susan Kaye Quinn  Laura Josephsen Dianne L. Gardner Laurel Garver Tara Tyler Allison at Geek Banter  Jamie Ayres Livia Peterson  Alex J. Cavanaugh Nickie Anderson

 Celebrate the Small Things from VikLit happens each Friday and encourages us to celebrate the small things in life!

 

1. I had an awesome exercise day on Wednesday - 2 mile walk in the morning, cardio exercises with my kids for 20 minutes in the later am, then 1 mile of jogging, 3 miles of biking, and 10 minutes of strength exercises at the YMCA in the evening with my husband. It was a hot, sweaty date. :)

 

(the rest of the week was very slow, and involved some crazy snacking - I made myself eat carrots and celery because I just had the continual nibbling feeling . . .must stop that somehow, any advice?)

 

2. I talked to another independent bookstore owner. She didn't say yes immediately, she said she would read it first, and then she told me about a tour she had at Lightning Source.

 

3. I'm collecting some bits and pieces of advice and info that I'll be giving out soon . . . hopefully next week.

 

4. My book signing at our homeschool co-op has now been extended to a two event deal - book signing at lunch, with a parent's night out + book club event in the evening. My book was the book of the month for the book club for March! The big day will be March 25th - and I'm excited.

 

5. I'm hand-selling books faster than I'm selling them via the internet so far this month and I'm surprised every time someone buys one from me. I have literally mumbled, stumbled, and said anything but the "official" pitch I have in my head, and people are still interested. It's totally amazing when someone wants to buy my book! Seriously, it is amazing every time.

 

6. My kids have been coaching me to answer the question, "How are you?" with this phrase, "Great, because I recently published my first book!" and it has definitely started some conversations I might have been too shy to have otherwise.

 

7. Nickie, my critique partner, rolled out the red carpet on her blog, Here's the Story this week with both a Book Review and an Interview! It was the perfect ending to a great book tour! Thanks Nickie!

 

And again, thank you to all who hosted, participated, encouraged, commented, and made me smile! :)

 

Oh . . .and I'm on the Amazon Breakthrough Novels of 2013 list at Goodreads. (as of this morning I'm at #21)You can vote for up to 5 people, and I would really appreciate it if you spent one of your votes on me. :) Other writers I highly recommend voting for are: Nancy Thompson, Cherie Reich, Rachel Morgan, Michael Pierce, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and Christine Rains.

 

 

 

 

 

An Interview with Nickie Anderson

Way back in May, or June, Susan Kaye Quinn had a post that included a critique partner match up.

Thanks to Susan, I met Nickie Anderson of Here's the Story, and we became critique partners. She's been a huge help to me, and I've had the privelege of reading her book Bright Star.

So, although I posted about her release on Friday, I just had to interview her, to find out exactly what her secret is for awesome writing.

Tyrean: What are the steps you took to create your novel? Are you a plotter or a pantster? Did you create the world first or the character?

Nickie: By nature, I am a total pantser. I first tried writing a novel back in 2008, a YA paranormal with mummies. I just wrote, wrote, wrote, and after about 20,000 words I realized all I had was a hot mess.

I tried rewriting a few times, changing the POV and so on, but each time I realized that what the story was actually missing was a plot. That's kind of important.

Writing fell by the wayside when I was in college, but after I graduated and had some free time I wanted to try my hand again.

For 'Bright Star' the world came first, but the characters took over! In fact, I had to do some major rewrites in the first draft because a few of my characters refused to cooperate with my original plot. (I liked their ideas better, though!)

Tyrean: I loved seeing Sadira grow as a character throughout the book. I was impressed at how you showed her becoming more confident in herself as she uncovered more secrets about the world that surrounds her.

Was that part of the plan from the beginning, or did her character develop as the story progressed?

Nickie: I wanted to show some kind of character growth from the beginning. I feel like I've seen too many YA novels with protagonists who are super strong, deadly, butt-kicking machines. What about the rest of us? It's not a relateable character. It seems like it's almost taboo for the character to be scared.

With Sadira, my goal was to create a more realistic teen, one who would be terrified by the events in the story. Her strength isn't hand-to-hand combat -- it's pushing forward even when she's scared to take another step. And with each successful step, she has a little more faith in herself.

Tyrean: Do you feel your book falls under one category more than another? YA, Dystopian, SciFi, Adventure, Fantasy?

Nickie: I feel like 'Bright Star' straddles a few categories. It's definitely YA, but has hints of all these other sub-genres, especially dystopian and sci-fi. One of the most fun trends in YA today is the mashup of different sub-genres, the mixing of different ideas to create entirely new worlds. For example, 'Blood Red Road' was an awesome blend of dystopian, action, and fantasy. I hope that trend continues.

Tyrean: As a writer, who/what encourages you to write?

Nickie: I've always enjoyed writing, but until this last year I never really considered writing a novel. But here's the thing -- it isn't a chore at all. Those characters have come alive for me, and they're constantly giving me new ideas, encouraging me to share their story. We'll be seeing more of Sadira -- she still has a few more stories to tell me.

My biggest inspiration, though, is being a part of the age-old tradition of story telling. It doesn't matter if it's a book, movie, TV show, play, or song -- we all love hearing a story, love that moment of being able to step outside ourselves.

It's bad enough that Sadira Pascal's father doesn't make it home to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. He might be a busy hovership engineer pulling overtime on a new design, but he's always been home for the important things. It's worse when she discovers her father decided to ride on the maiden voyage of his newest ship, the CAS Bright Star, without even telling her. But things really fall apart during Sadira's field trip with her class to observe the hovership launch. Instead of a successful flight, she watches the Bright Star fall out of the sky.

The Central government confirms her father's death, leaving Sadira to pick up the pieces of her former life. While she struggles with her loss, Private Baruj Haddad tries to convince her that her father and the rest of the Bright Star crew are still alive. At first, Sadira doesn't believe there's any hope. But then she stumbles across a message that makes her think maybe, just maybe, her father is still alive. As she digs deeper into the Bright Star's crash, Sadira uncovers secrets about her father's work, secrets that put her and everyone she loves in danger.

 

Bright Star can be found at: Amazon B&N and Smashwords

 

You can also put it on your to-read or read shelf at Goodreads

 

Nicke is running an Indie giveaway of Bright Star this week on her blog. Go check it out at Here's The Story!

 

 

Thank you Nickie for being an awesome critique partner!

 

 

If you haven't seen it yet . . .I also have to give a huge shout out for this awesome blogfest for the most encouraging blogger I know:

Details can be found at several sites . . .I don't have time to list them all at the moment, but you can stop by the very embarassed Alex's blog and find out more.

 

 

I Miss You Blogfest, Bright Star Release, and Jousting!

It's here, the Oh How I Miss You Blogfest, co-hosted by Ninja Captain Alex Andrew and Matthew.

Three bloggers I really miss:

Melissa from Through the Looking Glass hasn't blogged since May 2011, but I still haven't taken her off my blog roll list. Why? Because I miss her humor, her wonderfully fresh and honest posts, and her sparkling personality. I don't know what happened to her, but I miss her presence in blogland.

Carissa Taylor is a blogger I found just last year near the end of A to Z. I felt like I just started to get to know Carissa and her sense of humor, and then she disappeared. Come back Carissa!

Nikki at Inspire Nordic dropped off the blog-sphere unexpectedly in September. Again, I was a fairly new follower. I admit I probably didn't stop by often enough to let her know how much I liked her Nordic, family, and writing inspired posts.

One of the many bloggers I would really miss if he stopped blogging:
The Amazing, Spectacular, Always Encouraging Ninja Captain Alex!
I know this is a given. Every blogger I know could name Alex. Why? Because he is always supportive, always upbeat, always encouraging, always helpful. His posts are witty, and he always takes time to highlight other writers and bloggers. He rocks the word encouragement like no one else I know in the blogworld.

Thank you Alex, Andrew, and Matthew for hosting!!!

and in other news . . .news that I wish I had released earlier in the week . . .


Bright Star Book Release
My awesome critique partner Nickie Anderson released her newest book Bright Star.

It's bad enough that Sadira Pascal's father doesn't make it home to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. He might be a busy hovership engineer pulling overtime on a new design, but he's always been home for the important things. It's worse when she discovers her father decided to ride on the maiden voyage of his newest ship, the CAS Bright Star, without even telling her. But things really fall apart during Sadira's field trip with her class to observe the hovership launch. Instead of a successful flight, she watches the Bright Star fall out of the sky.
 

Available at Amazon B&N Smashwords and listed on GoodReads

I highly recommend this book. I've read it twice, and I plan on reading it again! Nickie has created a new and interesting world with compelling characters with secrets to uncover.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! This is the last day to participate in M Pax's Jousting Tournament. Pray tell if you have stopped by and given a loud Huzzah to your favorite knights this week. Knight Light has been flickering in and out of action, but I'm still on the field (I think). Pray tell is the phrase you need to double each Huzzah!

And Tara Tyler and Cassie Mae are having a 500 follower giveaway with awesome prizes!