Secrets of the Moon Excerpt & Giveaway

Thank you Dianne at Oops I Read Again for the opportunity to be a part of this blog tour. You can follow the tour here.

Guest Post & Giveaway with Author J. Bennett

So today I’m lucky enough to have J. Bennett author of Falling- Girl with Broken Wings stop by with a guest post today. She was awesome enough to also offer five copies of her book for a giveaway. So after you read the post check out the giveaway below.

The intellectual challenge of college and the warm embrace of a serious boyfriend have given Maya the wings she needs to break away from her bookish and shy reserve. Her ideal life comes crashing down when she and her boyfriend are accosted by a stranger. A stranger with glowing hands. Maya's boyfriend is killed. She is kidnapped. Changed. A rescue comes, but not soon enough. Maya’s senses sharpen, her body becomes strong and agile, and she develops the ability to visually see the emotions of those around her as colorful auras…beautiful auras…tempting auras. And then there’s the song… Now, Maya must struggle to control the murderous appetite that fuels her new abilities, accept her altered condition and learn to trust two vigilante half-brothers she never knew she had. As she joins the battle against a secret network of powerful and destructive beings that call themselves "Angels", Maya vows to find and destroy the one who changed her. On the bright side, at least Maya's oldest half-brother has stopped trying to kill her.

CLP BLog Tour: Interview & Giveaway with Forged in Fire author Trish McCallan

Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate

Today I am happy to be able to interview Trish McCallan author of Forged in Fire. If you haven't read my review you should check it out here.

Follower Love Giveaway Hop

I am very excited to be participating in my first blog hop. This blog hop is hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Racheal Renee Anderson with over 300 blogs participating.

 I wanted to say thanks to all the people who follow my blog and take the time to leave comments even though I'm a sporadic blogger. I swear this year will be better :)

Anyways now to the giveaway:

I will be giving away one signed paperback copy of Destined by Jessie Harrell

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. ~Goodreads

Because it's My Birthday....Giveaway!

I've been stressing about today for a whole year, today I turned thirty and as the days grew closer to my birthday I found myself stressed out and cranky. Well today I am officially thirty, gone are the days when I could say I was in my twenty's and it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. So in honor of all of this and because I like receiving and giving gifts I have decided to share some books with you guys.

Below are a few books that I am dying to read, because the stories sound amazing and the covers are beautiful (what more can you ask for?).

You will have your choice of picking one book from any of the titles listed below and I will choose two winners. US only (Sorry all of my International friends)

Boo Bash Grand Finale Giveaway

Aimee and I would like to thank all of the wonderful authors who participated in our Boo Bash event this year. Thanks for donating all of the great prizes and taking the time out of your busy schedule to help.

Today we are having our grand finale giveaway event. We are going to have two contests one for our International friends and the other is US/Canada only. Below is the entry form for the US/Canada Prize Pack for International entries please visit Aimee's site here.  

Happy Halloween! Hope everyone has a great day!

Prize Package

US/Canada Entries

For International entries, please visit Aimee at Coffee Table Reviews

Boo Bash Giveaway & Interview_ Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

I am very excited to post this interview with Sarah Beth Durst author of  Drink Slay Love. This is book I am especially excited about because I've heard so many great things about it, seriously vampires and unicorns how cool does that sound?

Pearl is a sixteen-year-old vampire... fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night a sparkly unicorn stabs her through the heart with his horn. Oops.

Her family thinks she was attacked by a vampire hunter (because, obviously, unicorns don't exist), and they're shocked she survived. They're even more shocked when Pearl discovers she can now withstand the sun. But they quickly find a way to make use of her new talent. The Vampire King of New England has chosen Pearl's family to host his feast. If Pearl enrolls in high school, she can make lots of human friends and lure them to the King's feast -- as the entrees.

The only problem? Pearl's starting to feel the twinges of a conscience. How can she serve up her new friends—especially the cute guy who makes her fangs ache—to be slaughtered? Then again, she's definitely dead if she lets down her family. What's a sunlight-loving vamp to do?

Since I love twitter, I think it would be fun to see how you would describe your book Twitter-style. How would you describe it in 140 characters or less?

Pearl is a 16-year-old vampire, fond of blood, allergic to sunlight, and mostly evil... until the night she is stabbed through the heart by a were-unicorn's horn.



What inspired the concept for Drink, Slay, Love?

One night, I was thinking about how I'd love to write a story with a were-unicorn in it, and it suddenly occurred to me: Unicorns are natural vampire hunters. Seriously, look at their horn. Built in stake! Clearly, their cute and cuddly reputation is mere propaganda to disguise their true purpose...



Which character from your book did you find you could relate to the most?


Bethany. She's the human friend with zero superpowers and boundless optimism. That's me. Like Bethany, I'm the glass-half-full girl (even if the glass is half full of blood).



Not to imply that I drink blood. Totally not a vampire. Just want to clarify that.



What was the hardest part of the writing process?


Saying goodbye to the characters. Usually, my writing process involves at least one "oh, no, I'm doomed!!!" moments, but with this novel... It was so much fun to write start to finish that I cried when I was done. Kind of weird, I know.



Can you tell us a little bit about your writing environment and/or and rituals you go through before sitting down to write?



I like to be temperature regulated. (If I'm too hot or cold, I tend to start whining rather than writing.) Also, I'm not fond of bugs. So if you give me my laptop in a normal-temp room that isn't crawling with centipedes, then I have my ideal writing environment.



I don't think I have any rituals... aside from writing every day whether the writing is going well or not. I don't believe in waiting for inspiration. I believe in showing up to write, and if the muse decides to show up too... well, then, she can share my chocolate.



Do you listen to music while you write, if so what’s on your playlist?


With Drink, Slay, Love, I had a definite playlist. It included a fair amount of Tori Amos and a bit of Queen, plus a variety of songs that just seemed kind of vampiric to me. If you're curious, I posted it here on my blog: http://sarahbethdurst.blogspot.com/2011/10/drink-slay-love-playlists.html



What is your favorite Book or Series?
Ooh, so hard to choose! I read mostly fantasy. And I love books about girls who kick butt. All-time favorite... I think Tamora Pierce's Tortall books.



My favorite recent read is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Also loved Bloodshot by Cherie Priest and Soulless by Gail Carriger.



If there was one thought or feeling you would want readers to take away from reading Drink, Slay, Love, what would it be?


I want you to laugh.


And for the length of time it takes you to read, I want Drink, Slay, Love to take you away from whatever's bothering you or upsetting you in the real world. I think that's the true magic of books -- the power to transport someone out of their life and into another. I hope I've created that kind of magic.



Thanks so much for interviewing me! Thanks Sarah for giving me the opportunity too!

About the author:

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of young adult novels Drink, Slay, Love, Enchanted Ivy, and Ice from Simon & Schuster, as well as middle grade novels Into the Wild and Out of the Wild from Penguin Young Readers. She has twice been a finalist for SFWA's Andre Norton Award, for both Ice and Into the Wild.

Sarah was born in Massachusetts as Sarah Angelini and grew up in Northboro, a small town in central Mass that later became the setting for her debut novel.

At the age of ten, she decided she wanted to be a writer. (Before that, she wanted to be Wonder Woman, except with real flying ability instead of an invisible jet. She also would have accepted a career as a unicorn princess.) And she began writing fantasy stories.

She attended Princeton University, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk.

Sarah lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her two children, and her ill-mannered cat. She also has a miniature pet griffin named Alfred. Okay, okay, that’s not quite true. His name is really Montgomery.

You can find her on Twitter/Facebook/Website

Now on to the Giveaway:

Ms. Durst was gracious enough to provide (1) signed copy of Drink Slay Love to one lucky winner. This contest is open to the US only.

Boo Bash Giveaway & Guest Post_Spellbinder by Helen Stringer

Today, I am lucky enough to post a guest post by Helen Stringer author of Spellbinder and Midnight Gate, she is one of my daughters favorite authors. I love good ghost stories and although I haven't read this book yet, I can't wait to read it and find out why my daughter rambles on and on about it.  :)

Belladonna Johnson can see ghosts. It’s a trait she’s inherited from her mother’s side of the family, like blue eyes or straight hair. And it’s a trait she could do without, because what twelve-year-old wants to be caught talking to someone invisible?

It is convenient, though, after Belladonna’s parents are killed in a car accident. They can live with her the same as always, watching the same old TV shows in their same old house. Nothing has changed . . . until everything changes.

One night, with no warning, they vanish into thin air—along with every other ghost in the world. It’s what some people think ghosts are supposed to do, but Belladonna knows it’s all wrong. They may not be living, but they’re not supposed to be gone.

With the help of her classmate Steve, a master of sneaking and spying, Belladonna is left to uncover what’s become of the spirits and to navigate a whole world her parents have kept well-hidden. If she can’t find her way, she’ll lose them again—this time for good.

A Traveler’s Guide to the Land of the Dead

Ghosts. You say the word at this time of year and everyone knows exactly what you’re talking about: spirits. The wandering souls of the dead. Wraiths, who are either unaware that they are deceased, despondent and waiting for some wrong to be righted, or angry and ready to do the job themselves. Once said wrong has been righted or the fact that they have shuffled off the ol’ mortal coil has been pointed out, the ghosts are ready to cross over to the “other side.”


People tend to be a good deal more vague about what constitutes the Other Side. On TV shows and in movies it’s usually portrayed as some kind of misty tunnel with a light at the end and a bunch of smiling relatives waiting, arms outstretched, as if death were the portal to some kind of eternal Thanksgiving dinner.


None of this ever really appealed to me. It all sounded terribly dull and sort of anti-climactic. Of course, once I started looking into it, I discovered that this idea of the vengeful spirit is relatively new and that for earlier generations spirits simply “were.” In most cases the tales of white ladies, mysterious riders and the vast herds of phantom animals that haunted the crossroads, bridges, rivers and stiles of our ancestors’ landscapes didn’t have lengthy origin tales attached. The actual place was usually more important than the entity that lingered there. Crossing points were seen as sites where the veil between the land of the living and that of the dead was at its thinnest.


The terms “land of the living” and “land of the dead” are important here, because prior to the late 19th century the concept of “heaven” had little place in ghost stories. Perhaps this is because the very concept of wandering spirits is much more ancient than any organized religion and reflects a more visceral time when the line between the real and the imagined was far more blurred than it is today.


All of this affected the view of life, death and the worlds beyond our own that Belladonna Johnson and Steve Evans discover in Spellbinder and The Midnight Gate.


I started with the concept that the only difference between the living and the dead is that the dead are sure that we exist. Death isn’t the end. It isn’t a journey to some beatific la-la land. It’s just another stage of life. Of course, the transition would probably be a tad disturbing, which is why I created the small purple charnel sprites who wait beneath the earth and help the newly dead to get where they’re going. This help consists of places to rest, sandwiches and cups of tea. The charnel sprites are one of the few supernatural creatures that I invented for the books – they really ought to exist, though!


The Other Side where the dead dwell can be anything they want. For Elsie and Belladonna’s parents and grandfather it’s a version of their home town. The land of the dead is vast, however, because everyone and everything that has ever died is to be found somewhere. (Hence the mammoths in the park.) Once there the dead discover that they can move backwards and forwards from this new world (where they are as solid and real as when they were alive) to the land of the living (where they are ghosts, seen only by a few). The only condition is that they must choose a single place to haunt and cannot manifest anywhere else. Belladonna’s mum and dad select the family home so they can continue to raise their daughter. Elsie picks the school, the site of her greatest triumphs. (That last one created some problems when I needed Elsie to leave the school and travel to the ruined Fenchurch Abbey in The Midnight Gate!)


The belief in a place where all the dead reside is nothing new – it was familiar to the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as to the Norse people, where Niflheim was but one of the nine worlds that made up their world view. From a story-telling standpoint it is ideal, of course, because this version of the netherworld provides for both good and evil and the mortal traveler must use the same caution with an inhabitant of that realm as they would use in navigating their own day-to-day world.


As Spellbinder begins, Belladonna is still getting used to her ability to see ghosts. By the end she realizes that they serve an important function for those who are still alive, and that without them her world is somehow empty – as if all the trees had suddenly vanished. Of course, the fact that Steve can now also see the spirits of the dead makes things a lot more bearable…as does the news that there are Chime Children everywhere, all with the hidden ability to see the denizens of the other worlds and just waiting for someone (or something) to trigger their second sight.


But that’s another story for another day…

You can find out more about the author on her Website.

 

Now on to the Giveaway:

Ms. Stringer was gracious enough to provide a signed copy of Spellbinder to one lucky winner. This contest is open to the US only.

Boo Bash- Giveaway & Guest Post_The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

I have always loved witch stories, they were the first paranormal books I read. The Near Witch was one of those books that I had to read and I was very excited when the author Victoria Schwab agreed to take time out of her busy schedule to write a guest post.

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger—a boy who seems to fade like smoke—appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know—about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Addicted to the Fantastical



Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, because it meant that for a whole day I had permission to be someone else.

But as my mother reminded me this past week, pulling out a massive photo box, I never really needed that

permission.

I spent most of my childhood as an explorer, a princess, a villain, a conqueror, a chef, whatever I could get my hands on.

Where most kids had boxes of toys, I had chests of dress-up clothes, and would transform myself at every opportunity.

Sure, Halloween was well and good, and meant candy, but Tuesday in March was as good a day as any to become a queen.

And I really haven’t changed that much. No, I don’t parade the neighborhood on Monday afternoons as a ninja (at least not every Monday). But my favorite thing about dressing up is also my favorite thing about writing: the ability to transform, both yourself and the world around you at will.

Sure, the changes are internal, unseen except for where they sneak out, between your fingers and the keyboard or the page. But that’s okay, because even if it’s not as flashy, your costume box is so, so much bigger, and you get to share it with everyone who wants to play.

(But it never hurts to don a cape, or wear a hat now and then. For research/inspiration, of course.)


You can find the author on her website, blog, or on twitter.

Now on to the Giveaway:

Ms. Schwab was gracious enough to provide bookmarks, buttons, and a signed/illustrated bookplate to (1) lucky winner and a copy of The Near Witch.

September Giveaway-Win a Pre-Order copy of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Okay, so I'm REALLY, REALLY excited about the release of this book. I was lucky that the awesomeYani @The Secret Life of an Avid Reader let me borrow her copy back in July (Blogger friends are the best :). I fell in love with the book it had everything I could possibly want in a book mystery, romance, and a really creepy story. It definitely has the WOW factor and that ending literally was a WTF moment I never saw it coming.

I'm done gushing, I wanted to share this awesome book with you so I am giving away (1) pre-order copy of it. The book will be released on September 27th.

This is my first attempt at using rafflecopter so lets see how it goes *crosses fingers*.

Contest info:

• You must be a blog follower to enter.
• The contest will end at midnight on September 16, 2011. 
• At this time the contest is open to the US only.

Giveaway Winner! Zach Vs. Jace

The Winner is.... #13 Donna @ The Happy Booker.

Congrats! Throws confetti!

Donna, I will be sending you an email shortly. :)