Rush for bookish prizes and exclusive content

YA/NA Scavenger Hunt: Rush Hunt is now on. Get exclusive content, including from my debut novel SLEEPER (out December 2). Check out Lola’s Reviews for my Scavenger Hunt stop. Also there are awesome bookish prizes.

Kiya 2: Mother of a King – Release Day

Today is the day that the second book in the Kiya Trilogy releases; Kiya: Mother of a King.


You can find book one, Kiya: Hope of a Pharaoh HERE


To celebrate, Katie has opened up the comments on her blog for you to ask what you want to know about the series. And yes, book 3 is written and contracted so you will be seeing the final installment before you know it.


So, here is the details for Kiya book 2:

Amazon Kobo B&N Goodreads

Nefertiti has forced Naomi to flee


 Amarna with Malachi and the 


three children. But even under 


the protection of Naomi’s family 


in Thebes, Nefertiti still hunts her 


and Tut. Nefertiti sends assassins 


to kill them, and while Naomi 


fights to protect the children, 


Malachi fights to keep her safe.


With three children in tow, one 


of which isn’t her own, she is 


labeled the harlot outcast wife of the pharaoh and is 


shunned. She isn’t safe among her own people, and flees 


from being stoned to death. Although her family protects her, 


she must find a way to survive.


While Naomi struggles to keep herself and Tut alive, old 


adversaries return as Smenkhkare takes advantage of 


Akhenaten’s ailing health. Naomi must rely on Horemheb’s 


promise to protect Tut’s birthright, but her feelings for 


Malachi could cause more problems with Horemheb than she 


expects.






CQ is also hosting a giveaway for Kiya: Mother of a King on 


Goodreads! So jump in!

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Goodreads Book Giveaway

KIYA

by Katie Hamstead

Giveaway ends November 20, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Fall for New Adult Campaign

 

 

 

Fall for the new New Adult: is a campaign to spread the word that New Adult
is expanding into new and exciting categories like
Historical, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Gothic, and more! Follow along
to find out why best-selling NA authors & NA bloggers are excited to see
New Adult expand outside of contemporary.
And as an incentive to give the new NA a try, the Fall for New Adult bundle set
will be available for a limited time. Set includes 4 great non-contemporary NA
novels for only $3.99!

 

My Journey: When I first wrote SLEEPER, New
Adult wasn’t the emerging category that it is today. This left me, and my
manuscript in limbo. An agent asked me to make the MC, Mishca in high school so
it was clearly YA (as college/university stories didn’t sell back then). But
that would mean removing the plot point that sparked the whole novel in the
first place: Mishca falling in love at first sight with her university
professor. Workable with a university age MC, not with a high school aged MC.

So imagine my excitement when the New Adult
Category started coming into it’s own. Books like LOSING IT, SLAMMED and EASY
captured the hearts of the NA hipsters, but now it’s Genre’s turn to shine. Historical,
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction and mash-ups in between are
coming to the fore thanks to stories like Elsker and Apollo Academy.

SLEEPER will follow in a few weeks time, coming to
an eReader near you on December 2, 2013.

Can’t
wait until then to try out genre NA? Then you can purchase the Fall
for New Adult bundle set here! 

The
Fall For New Adult team want to know why YOU want to see NA expand too! Join
the campaign by grabbing the gif. above and blogging/tweeting about why YOU
want to see NA expand! #NACampaign

 

Cover Reavel: ENTRUSTED by Connie Ann Micheal

 

 

 

 

Thrust
into a world of Native American legends about Skinwalkers and Ancient Ones,
Emma Hunter finds herself in the middle of a battle for a heart holding great
powers – A heart hidden within her.

 

Seventeen-year-old
Emma wants what every teenage girl wants: a life that revolves around school,
her friends, and a boyfriend who only has eyes for her. Little does she know
that in order to get one, she must sacrifice the other two. After a series of
events put into motion by Luke, the boy she thought loved her, Emma is kicked
out of her group home and her school. Her best friend mysteriously vanishes and
now she’s forced to move to a secluded coastal town, where she hopes to escape
Luke’s obsessive control.  Instead, she
finds her dreams invaded not only by Luke, but Solomon, a mysterious Native
American warrior sent to protect her. 

 

But
when Solomon shows up in her reality to explain he’s her protector, she soon
learns that he’s so much more. As Emma struggles to understand what’s happening
to her, she must also deal with her undeniable attraction to Solomon. Their
connection is stronger than anything Emma has ever experienced before and now
she must decide: can she trust him with her heart? And just how far will she go
to protect it?

You
can add Entrusted to your to-read list on Goodreads:

www.goodreads.com/book/show/18187423-entrusted

 

 

 

Information about the
book:

Title: Entrusted

Author: Connie Ann Michael

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal

Release Date: 18 November, 2013

About the Author:

Connie
Ann Michael was raised a city girl, but was converted to a country girl after
college and now resides in a speck of a town in Central Washington State.  She is married to her former boss as she
worked at the local Pizza place and has two college age boys that provide
endless material for her books.  She
loves the outdoors and can be found mountain biking, kayaking, or camping with
her family.  Being a busy family, she can
be found working on her newest novel while on long road trips.

You
can find and contact Connie Ann Michael here:

– Website

–
Facebook 

–
Twitter

– Google +

–
Goodreads

 

12 Days of Halloween

From about mid-October until Christmas was
always a magical and much anticipated time when I was young.

Probably not an uncommon statement from a kid.
My mom should have been a party planner, because our house was always decked
out for the season. We were the house that people do that double-take with,
because looking only once wasn’t enough to take it all in.

Mom’s favorite holiday was Halloween. Since I’m
a fantasy/paranormal writer, it’s safe to say that rubbed off on me, and with
kids of my own, I enjoy Halloween in a completely new way, with my kids
excitement about dressing up and their enjoyment in the *fun* scares.

While her favorite might have been Halloween,
Mom excelled in overall holiday planning. My mom was a generous lady. She never
liked cooking, but she loved to bake the holiday pies and cookies and other
goodies that come with the season, and everyone who knew us came away during
the holiday season with loads of culinary delights. If you ask me to name my
favorite food ever, it would have to be Mom’s pumpkin pie.

It’s probably because this time was usually so
joyous that one memory sits there, lumpy and misshapen and not a fit with the
rest.

Don’t ask me how old I was, but I came down the
stairs one night – going to get some water I think – and Mom was on the couch,
staring at the Christmas tree. The packages weren’t under the tree yet, which
was odd since Mom tended to put them under as soon as the tree went up (Mom is
not a last minute shopper – in fact, I’m pretty sure her shopping is done in
July.) Now I haven’t believed in Santa ever,
so it was no question in my mind about who presents come from.

What set this memory in my mind so sharply was
my mother’s face the few moments before she realized I was in the room. At the
time I didn’t have the words or the emotional knowledge to name what emotions
were in play. All I knew was it wasn’t good.

Several years later we were talking, and in the
way of conversations everywhere, somehow that night came up, and I asked Mom
what was going on.

She confided that when I saw her, the reality of
our situation was none of us kids were going to get Christmas presents. It had
been a bad year with lots of doctor bills and not as much work as they hoped to
get. Maybe they would be able to get
a practical clothing item, but certainly nothing beyond that. Then she told me
that a couple days after I saw her that night, her uncle heard about our
situation. Without her or my dad asking, he went out and got presents for us
kids and told her that it was his early Christmas gift to her and he would not
accept any money or repayment.

Mom told me she cried while she wrapped them.
She told me it was the best gift she’d ever gotten.

While my childhood would never fit in a
Dickinson narrative, there were a few years there where we did with minimal, so
hearing after-the-fact that no presents was a possibility didn’t surprise me.
What did surprise me was the lurch in my chest at the thought of it as a near reality. That didn’t make sense – after
all, we were several years past by then, and I was a grown person who
understood economic realities.

That lurch, though, was real. And as time has
marched on, I think I understand the reason for it, just like now that I’m a
mother I understand the look on my mother’s face that night. The holidays were a
safe and sacred time. The rest of the year – okay, it’s life, and life
happened. But in my memory, the holidays were apart from that, not touched with
the ickiness that could happen at other times.

If I didn’t get presents that year, I think that
safety and warmth that the holidays (or the thought of) always caused would
have disappeared. I wouldn’t have had that protective bubble anymore that
helped get me through bad times, and the loss of that would have been a greater
tragedy than not getting a doll under the tree.

So while Toys for Tots was not responsible for
me getting presents that year, I recognize in a deep and personal way the very
good work they are doing.

Toys for Tots is my favorite holiday charity. There
are many excellent charities I celebrate and give to, but this time of year my
thoughts and my wishes are for the kids who are not in the best circumstances
and are in danger of not having a gift under their own tree. It’s not the
material item that matters (though it’s always nice to get a great gift,
right?) What I never want them to lose is that safe warmth that should
categorize the holidays, a warmth that sometimes might be the only thing that
gets them through the rest of the year.

Which leads me to the 12 Days of Halloween!

12 Days of Halloween is my (and many other
excellent authors) way of having a great time and celebrating the beginning of
this wondrous time of year – with giveaways and gifts and raising money for
Toys for Tots!

What is involved?

 

 

First! My novel Stone Guardian  is on a very special sale. From now until Halloween, it is half-off with part
of the proceeds going to Toys for Tots! So you get a book for cheaper than
usual, and a chunk of the money will be going to an amazing cause! Huzzah!

And on the other side, I’ll be sharing lots of
giveaways! Ebooks (donated by many generous authors) gift cards, swag sets, a
Coach (!) bag, and finally…

An iPad Mini!

 

Yes, you read that right – an iPad mini with a
special Entwined Realms designed cover set is the grand prize.

So if you are interested, please keep up with me
at twitter or facebook or my blog with all the ways to win.

Let’s celebrate the beginning to this great time
of year, have a great party, maybe win some stuff, and most important of all –
support Toys for Tots and make sure they can help a lot of kids this year!

 

 

FINDING HOME Blog tour Guest Post with Lauren McKellar

Today my friend and beta editor, Lauren McKellar, is stopping by to talk about her debut novel FINDING HOME. At the bottom is a great giveaway for you to enter.

I have a confession to make: when I first
started writing, I didn’t know what character development was. Sure, it sounded
like a good thing, but my novels were full of action. Things happened to my
characters; my characters didn’t happen to things.

 

My stories read like something a first grader
would write: Amy went to the beach. A boy
kissed Amy. Amy went to bed.

 

Okay, so maybe they weren’t quite that bad, but
by no means did they show arc, or growth, or even a basic learning curve. If
I’d thrown poor Amy into a fire, I’m not even sure she would have learnt that
flames are hot, and so she shouldn’t do it again.

 

It wasn’t until I read a great blog post by the
YA Muses that I realised the true importance of character development, and
what a big part it plays in building a novel. Growth allows you to impart an
overall message. Growth enhances the likeability factor of a character
(depending on the growth in question, of course). And growth adds a perfect
sense of closure to what otherwise could be a quite unsatisfying read.

 

In Finding
Home, my debut novel from Escape
Publishing, growth was the starting point for my story. I
really wanted to impart a message concerning drinking and young people, and I
knew I’d need strong character development to do this.

 

At first, I started out with a blank canvas. I
knew I wanted my lead character to move from Point A (uses drinking as an
emotional crutch) to Point B (no longer relies on alcohol as an assist). But
why would she use drinking in this fashion in the first place? What would make
her reach Point B before it was too late? And how do we know that, in times of
extreme stress, she wouldn’t turn to alcohol again?

 

After a lot of brainstorming, I came up with a
series of circumstances that would let my heroine test herself. She would
plummet to the lowest of lows, learn to trust her friends to try and get out of
the deep, dark pit she’d stumbled into, and then face a situation similar to
the one that sent her spiralling in the first place to truly test her
character.

And this time, when I threw Amy into the
flames, she didn’t get burnt. This time, she took an extinguisher.

 

About Lauren McKellar

 

Lauren McKellar is a writer and reader of Young
and New Adult books. Her debut novel Finding
Home is out now, and can be bought from all your usual eBook sites (links
available here). She also works as a
freelance editor for novels for all age
groups and you can chat to her on twitter or facebook any time you’d like. 

 

About Finding Home

 

Moody, atmospheric, and just a little bit punk, Finding Home takes contemporary YA to a
new level of grit…

 

When Amy’s mum dies, the last thing she expects is to
be kicked off her dad’s music tour all the way to her Aunt Lou in a depressing
hole of a seaside town. But it’s okay — Amy learned how to cope with the best,
and soon finds a hard-drinking, party-loving crowd to help ease the pain.

 

The only solace is her music class, but even there she
can’t seem to keep it together, sabotaging her grade and her one chance at a
meaningful relationship. It takes a hard truth from her only friend before Amy
realises that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys her
future.

 

Here’s your chance to win one of two $5 Amazon
cards, one $10 Amazon card or a copy of Finding
Home.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

 

 

Cover Reveal: Breakable by Aimee L. Salter

This is one book that I am mega excited about. I was privileged enough to beta read BREAKABLE and it is one of the most heart-wretching reads ever. I love the gorgeous cover. It really fits the story. 

 

When
seventeen-year-old Stacy looks in the mirror she can see and talk to her future
self. “Older Me” has been Stacy’s secret support through the ongoing battle
with their neurotic mother, relentless bullying at school, and dealing with her
hopeless love for her best friend, Mark.Then Stacy discovers Older Me is a liar.

Still reeling from that betrayal, Stacy buries herself in her art. But even
that is taken from her when her most persistent tormentor uses her own work to humiliate
her – and threaten her last chance with Mark.

Stacy’s reached breaking point.

Literally.

 

Breakable
is a YA, Magical Realism (reads like a
contemporary, but with one fantastic element).

The premise was inspired by a visit to the
website www.dearteenme.com in which
authors write letters to their teen selves.

 

Breakable
will release for general sale on November 4^th
on Amazon (Kindle and paperback) and B & N (for Nook).

 

This is the author’s first book.

 

About the Author

 

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Aimee L. Salter is a Pacific
North-Westerner who spent much of her young (and not-so-young) life in New
Zealand. After picking up a Kiwi husband and son, she’s recently returned to
Oregon.She writes novels for teens and the occasional adult who, like herself, are
still in touch with their inner-high schooler.

 

 

Aimee is the author behind Seeking the Write Life, a popular blog
for writers at www.aimeelsalter.com.
You can also find her on Twitter (www.twitter.com/@AimeeLSalter)
and Facebook (www.facebook.com/AimeeLSalter).

 

Aimee’s debut novel, Breakable, releases November 4^th for Kindle, Nook and in
paperback. You can add Breakable to
your to-read list on Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18377058-breakable

Cover Reveal – Kiya: Mother of a King by Katie Hamstead

Nefertiti has forced Naomi to flee Amarna with Malachi and the three children. But even under the protection of Naomi’s family in Thebes, Nefertiti still hunts her and Tut. Nefertiti sends assassins to kill them, and while Naomi fights to protect the children, Malachi fights to keep her safe.

With three children in tow, one of which isn’t her own, she is labeled the harlot outcast wife of the pharaoh and is shunned. She isn’t safe among her own people, and flees from being stoned to death. Although her family protects her, she must find a way to survive.

While Naomi struggles to keep herself and Tut alive, old adversaries return as Smenkhkare takes advantage of Akhenaten’s ailing health. Naomi must rely on Horemheb’s promise to protect Tut’s birthright, but her feelings for Malachi could cause more problems with Horemheb than she expects.

Katie is one of my blogger pals at Aussie Owned & Read and I’m happy to be part of her cover reveal. You can check out the pre-release blog tour here.  ] 

Find Katie on Twitter, Facebook and in the Blogosphere. 

Add Kiya: Mother of a King on Goodreads. 

Buy Book 1 – Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway