Want to Win a Nook Simple Touch AND a Gift Card to Fill It?

My publisher, esKape Press, is announcing a new contest that starts tonight.  To promote my most recent novel, and first release with them, we are doing a giveaway!

Simply read WINGSPAN, post a review and add the link to the rafflecopter here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f655e57/

And that's it!  You will be entered to win a brand new Nook Simple Touch ereader and that's not all.  You will also get a $20 egift card to start loading your new best friend!  You can enter once a day and the contest will run for a whole week.

To remind you, this is WINGSPAN:

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run.  Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men chasing her and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life.  The reluctant leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy.  Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest: finding her real father.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined.  

Not every scientific breakthrough is a gift.

Wingspan Spreads it's Wings

As of this moment, Wingspan is now available on Amazon and Smashwords, so far.  I am pretty stoked.  I have some reviews already done and I'm looking forward them to be posted.  Please take a gander at the sneak-peak at the book.  I'll post one every couple days until you can't stand it anymore and simply HAVE to get the book.  Thats how it works, at least in my mind.  And and one other thing.....thanks for continuing to support this grateful independent author.

WINGSPAN

Sneak Peak:

Chessa refused to meet his gaze.  Maybe if she kept her face straight, Ryan wouldn’t see the flush creeping its way across her skin.  “Shouldn’t you keep your eyes on the road?”

Ryan chuckled.  “Wow.  Not used to compliments is my guess.  What?  Never had a boyfriend before?”

“I’ve had my share.”

“Is that so?  You ask me, I’d have guessed never.”

“Whatever.  You don’t know anything about me.”

“Whoa.  I know more about you than most.  I know about your wings-and-things there, don’t I?”

“So what?  I have no idea what possessed my Dad to let you take me anywhere.”

“Hell, I can drop you anywhere you like.  This is a favor I’m doing you.  But, you just say the word and I’ll take this truck to the shoulder and offload you quicker than a longshoreman.”

“Fine.”  Take me to the nearest bus station.”

Ryan spread his arms wide.  “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not exactly in the big city anymore, girl.  There’s no bus station within 300 miles of here.”

Chessa glanced out the window.  She had been so involved in their conversation, she had not noticed that they had left the city limits long ago.

“Where are we?”

Ryan drummed the steering wheel.  “We’re on the way to Shan-gri-la, baby.  Just like Daddy Dearest requested.  Why?  Still want that bus station detour?”

Chessa settled back into the seat.  Might as well just get to the cabin and make some more plans once there.  She sighed.  “No.  Let’s just get to the cabin.”  She checked the speedometer.  “Think you can do that without killing us?”

“That’s my specialty.”

WINGSPAN Cover Release

I am excited to show the cover for Wingspan, designed by the unbelievably talented Elaina Lee. She designed the covers for Spellbound, Everspell, and Ghostly.  As I made my choice to release Wingspan with a new publishing company, esKape Press, I was both surprised and delighted to learn she would be my new artist.  She just knows how I like the covers to look, and she just GETS me.  Thanks, Elaina.

So, I'd love to unveil the beautiful cover here, and entice you with both it and the blurb.  Look for Wingspan, coming early December, from esKape Press!

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run.  Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men chasing her and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life.  The reluctant leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy.  Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest: finding her real father.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined.  Not every scientific breakthrough is a gift.

WINGSPAN is born...Welcome with me my tenth baby

Most posts here on the bloggy, I try to keep in line with the educational theme of helping the new and aspiring writer.  As the owner of the blog, I am hereby exercising my God given right to brag a bit.

This weekend I finally completed manuscript number 10. Wingspan is born.  This damn manuscript would NOT come out.  I have been struggling over the last five thousand words for way longer than I will ever admit in writing.  I wasn't in a funk; the ending just wouldn't come. And none of my usual tricks for jumpstarting the story machine worked.  I couldn't be philosophical, or patient, or even unemotional about it.  I was just pissed.  Know what finally worked?  I watched several hours of the ID channel.

You know the one, right?  Hour after hour of stories about really depressed and sick people plotting and then carrying out some of the stupidest murder plots in history?  Yep, watched that for a whole day, in my pajamas, eating bomb pops out of the freezer.  And just like that, the end came.  The whole thing was just waiting for those last two thousand words.  I had even desperately edited the damn thing, thinking that might rehydrate the creative juices.  It didn't.  Then, just like that, a slobby day in front of the telly worked!  And I wrote the end, nonstop, until the words stop gushing.  Sometimes it just goes like that.  I have never subscribed to the "write every day" school of thought, preferring only to write when the mood strikes.  The mood just didn't strike till this weekend.

So, I would love to know what you think.  I have no cover art even remotely imagined, but try and just run with it.  Thanks!  Here is the current query:

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run.  Or have a boyfriend.  Or grow wings.  Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men from her scientist father’s genetics company hell-bent on capturing her, and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life.  The reluctant leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy.  Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest.  Finding her real father and exacting revenge for the freaky physical deformity he burdened her with is a bigger goal than even her most trusted confidant can know.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined.  Not every scientific breakthrough is welcomed.

Please comment here and let me know what thoughts the query provokes and if it entices, intrigues or bores you.  Trust me, ten books in and I can handle the criticism.

Update on Works in Progress

I feel compelled to update this blog on the progress I have had on my current projects.  I do this not to brag, I swear.  It's more designed as a kick-in-the-ass.  See, my idea is that if I put it in writing here, then it's out in the universe and more than being compelled to document it, I might actually be motivated to finish it.

I'm talking mostly about the project I am calling The Deadlies.  This is the one about seven girls in an antebellum school who have been possessed by the seven deadly sins.  I am only about 5-10k words away from the conclusion.  The problem?  I cant get there.  I have them in the last scene before the big confrontation I am planning and everything I am writing sounds lame-ass.  It was a three-day weekend and I don't think more than two hours have gone by without my thinking about the end of this story.  Including a Dodger game Friday night with 60k other people around me.  The story arc always creeps in.  But, luckily for me, so does Musina.  She and I are sorting out different ideas and we'll hit on one soon that works perfectly, I have no doubt.

I'm also beginning to jot down notes about the final book to Spellbound.  I am playing with titles, arcs, and a couple fun new characters I want to introduce.  There are a lot of loose ends to tie up and many of my notes do just that.  I'm looking forward to starting soon.  I'm not sure why I haven't yet, but I never force myself to write.  It will come when it's supposed to come.  But, I feel like it will be soon.  I tend to write really well in the summertime.  Something about the beautiful blue skies either makes me want to paint a glorious happily-ever-after, as with my YA's, or smash it all to hell, like with my adult horror.  Won't it be fun to see which way I swing?  *giggles evilly*

It's not all bad news, however.  I have completed the adult horror collection I have been working on for the past two months.  Way Past Midnight, an assemblage of five horror stories, is through the editing and I have commissioned the coolest, creepiest cover from my go-to gal, Paragraphic Designs.  What do you think?  Spooky, right?

I have always been able to rely on Paragraphic Designs for my homegrown stuff.  She also did the cover for my YA paranormal Ghostly, released through Astraea Press.  Check her stuff out here: http://paragraphicdesigns.blogspot.com/

I have another project I am working on as well.  This one is another YA paranormal, but edgier, like Waterdancer.  Actually, even more so than that one.  This one is scientific and biologic.  Called Wingspan, I am about 1/3 of the way through this one.  I'm looking for Summer and Musina to light a fire under me for this one too.

So, let me know what you think of this new cover.  I am not certain if I want to go through my publisher or try out the kindle program again. I'll keep you posted.

And thanks.  Every so often I need a good kick in the patootie.  You just let me administer one to myself.  :-).  I'm done moving, the new house is great, and the new job is awesome.  I'm out of excuses.  So pardon me now, if you will.  An impatient Muse is waiting for me.