Awaken: Happy Release Day!!

!!!!HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY, AWAKEN!!!!

So, Bitter Angel comes out tomorrow!!!

But I am just as excited for Jaime Guerard's Awaken!

Summary

Three things run through my mind at this very moment…

ONE, my life as I once knew it will never be the same.

TWO, the person I’m in love with might not even exist.

THREE, the deception that has unfolded before me has the power of life and death.

Sixteen year old, Breanna Davis, has heard the saying; life isn’t always what it seems…well, that saying rings true now more than ever. As horrifying visions appear before her, revealing tragedies that will forever change the fate of those she loves, she realizes that she may be the only person who can stop them from becoming reality.

Amongst the chaos of this new discovery, Bre is faced with a stranger, Eve, who moves in on Bre’s friends and begins to follow her every move. As Eve’s true motives begin to surface, Bre must fight against, not only the visions, but the dangers Eve holds close.

There is another secret kept- Collin, a boy held captive in Bre’s dreams, the boy she is secretly falling in love with but isn’t sure he even exists. As she tries to make it work with Austin, an old friend who could possibly be more, Bre battles against her feelings for Collin.

Bre is faced with an almost impossible decision, to choose her life or follow her destiny. If she doesn’t intercede, people will certainly die. If she does, her own life could be at stake. In the end, if she fails, she’ll lose everything.

This story is AMAZING, guys!!! You do not  want to miss it. Rated for 14+.

Buy on Amazon
Buy on B&N

Connect with Jaime

Cover Reveal: The Do Over

I am seriously so excited to bring this beautiful cover to you today. A.L. Zaun is a friend of mine. I am unbelievably proud of her and crazy excited for her debut!! You all will fall in love with Dani, Liam, and Rick, and Maddy!! AGH! 

Okay, folks. Here you GO!

Title: The Do Over

Author: A. L. Zaun

Genre: Contemporary Adult

Cover Designer: Wicked by Design

Expected release date: May 20, 2013

Life doesn't look like it's supposed to for Daniela, aka Dani. After a painful break-up with Rick, Dani decides she doesn't want to deal with the hassles of relationship. After almost two years, Dani's friends stage an intervention, forcing her out of her holding pattern and back into the real world of dating. Liam, a down to earth firefighter, may be just the person to show her she’s still worth something. Their chemistry is instant and electric. But will Dani be able to trust her patched-up heart with him? And what will happen when Rick decides he’ll go to any lengths to get her back?    


About the Author A.L. Zaun graduated from Florida International University with a degree in English Literature a long time ago. A degree she didn’t use at all in her professional endeavors. She loves to read, write and take pictures. She walks around with her camera, and most importantly she has her e-reader available at all times. Healthcare Management by day, Mommy in the evening and most nights, you can find her sitting in front of her laptop with a bottle of Diet Pepsi, bringing the voices in her head to life on the pages of her debut novel, The Do Over.
 

A.L. Zaun| Facebook

Tuesday Teaser

Bitter Angel comes out in less than TWO WEEKS! Wow, I can't believe the time is going so fast!

If you haven't added it to your Goodreads TBR yet, you can do it HERE.

Since most of this book is listed as a thriller, today's teaser is quite the adrenaline rush. Hope you like :)


Disclaimer: Parts of this may have changed somewhat during the editing process.

I pushed up with the heels of my palms and sprung back into motion. Wind whipped at my damp, matted hair. My arms pumped forward and back, forward and back like an Olympic runner. Tonight I had no choice but to run like one. The cold air smarted against my cheek. My face – already puffy and stretched from tears, dried blood, and caked mascara – was beginning to go numb. Even with all the adrenaline powering through me, I could feel tiny pieces of broken glass crunching under my feet and slicing the soft skin. Miniature cuts for every pound against the asphalt, chaffed by dirt and grit.

I wasn’t sure how many seconds passed until the loud clamoring of metal ended and I heard the thump of rubber soles on the street. He was gaining ground.

No…

Just as I rounded out of the alleyway, I flung a glance at the street sign: Harrison Rd. The road was deserted. I didn’t care. I started shouting like a lunatic to anyone that would listen. “HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!”

Pumping harder, I kept at it, my lungs wheezing, sides cramping. “HELP!” I turned two more corners, no longer bothering with memorizing street names now that I had a roundabout location.  “Please help me!” My words were choked from the lack of air. “Help.”

Up ahead, I noticed moving lights. Headlights. Cars.

He was so close, I could hear his labored breathing, and just as I felt him trying to snatch my hair, I gunned it. Either by a second wind, survival instinct, or both. The doughy, sweet smell of fresh bread hit me in the face. Businesses. People.

I heard a strange grunt behind me but again made the next street my focus. Shutting out everything but getting around one more corner, onto a main road with consumers and proprietors and people with cars.

One last corner. I was three feet away.

Two.

One.

And then I went down, crash-landing hard. He had caught the back of the t-shirt.

Author Interview with Allie Brennan

Hi All!! I apologize for severely ignoring my blogging duties lately. I have been drowning in edits.

BUT - Good news! 

Bitter Angel is now sparkling and comes out in THREE WEEKS. Cue the EEEEEKS!!!!!!

Now that edits are done, I am excited to bring you a really cool interview with THEE talented and beautiful Allie Brennan.

_______________

Me: Hi Allie! So happy to have you here today. *adjusts microphone* Okay, everyone can hear you now. So I thought I’d get started by bringing up your sweetly awesome book, Tight Knit. I really couldn’t get enough of Talia and Lachlan.Your book brought out the fuzzies and made my stomach swim with butterflies.

I’m assuming you knit as well. When did you start knitting, and how did you come up with the idea for this beautiful book?

Allie: *picks up mic and taps* Just double checking.

Ha, funny story. Or not funny… it depends on who’s looking at it! But my mom taught me how to knit during one of the MANY times I tried to quit smoking and just needed something to do with my hands. I started again after that (but have quit for good now! YAY!) and subsequently stopped knitting. My mom knits, and my Nana (who this story was inspired by) knit and crocheted. A lot of my knitting talk came from memories of them or from my wonderful Beta reader Olivia who knits and corrected some of my jargon!

Me: That's AWESOME that you have officially quit smoking, and so sweet that you got to share this with your Nana. That must've been really special.

Share with us a little of your story on how and why you decided to self-publish.

Allie: I used to have that mentality that only people who ‘couldn’t make it’ in publishing self-published… *hangs head and mumbles apologies* But then I went to my first (and tiny) writing conference that was run by a wonderful woman who publishes both self and traditional. She writes across a spectrum of genres by a few different names AND she used to own her own Publishing House with her husband. She advocated for self publishing and challenged my beliefs of writing and publishing. It was then that I realized my beliefs were based on stigma and hearsay… I hated that, I never thought I was one of those people… Anyway, this led me on a little (and by little I mean massively huge and time consuming) research project on Self Publishing. Well, I fell in love. It was a slow burning enemies-to-friends-to-lovers kind of love. I thought LONG and hard about it. I weighed every option and I fretted over it, because I’m a fretter (Talia and I have a lot in common). In the end I decided just to write… Once I was done the book I’d decide what to do with it (I decided to shelve that book because it sucked). Then I wrote Tight Knit.

I still try to work that way. I still want to try my hand at an agent and trad house and all that fun stuff but I love being in control. More than anything I LOVE LOVE LOVE the people I’ve met along this journey.

Me: I agree, Allie. I love the people I've met. I truly feel that regardless of my level of success with my book, I am a very happy and satisfied girl to have such a wealth of amazing people surrounding me. 

Are you happy with your decision so far?

Allie: Couldn’t be happier!

Me: Did you start designing covers before or after the writing thing?

Allie: After, it happened by accident. I’m a Graphic Designer in the Production department of my local newspaper. With my schooling I just figured I could design my own cover and save some money. Well I guess people liked it… and here I am.

Me: I see your book is doing wonderfully on Amazon. Everyone hates to talk promotions, I know I do. I’m not a competitive girl, but I’m curious. How much have you done for self-promotions so far? What are your thoughts on self-promoting? And what are your plans for future promotions on books?

Allie: I’m the same as you, not competitive. I really didn’t do much. About two weeks after Tight Knit came out I did a week long blog thing and then put it up for sale for a couple days. I’m so blah when it comes to stuff like that! I like to focus more on meeting people and building legitimate long lasting relationships with readers and writers. I think that goes a long way. People can tell when you pander to them. I don’t like it, so I try not to do it. I’m not an in-your-face kind of person. I just stuck to the blog and twitter and talked to people.

Me: You are I are so alike, Allie! I can't be fake with people. I hate begging for likes on Facebook and posting my book everywhere. I would so much rather meet people, and have my stories spread by word of mouth because people genuinely enjoy them. 

Another curiosity – what’s it like to be your own cover artist? Do your own covers take longer, or do they tend to come together more quickly because you have the idea already in your head?

Allie: It depends. I was just idly sifting through iStock when I saw the pic I used for Tight Knit. My jaw just about unhinged it was so perfect. I knew I wanted the frost and I played A LOT with that and font before I decided and even then I changed it a couple weeks before release. That’s the upside AND the downside to doing your own covers.

The covers for my HOLLOWAY FARMS series all fell together so fast and so perfectly but I am still tweaking them a little.

The cover for BREATHE FOR ME is driving me nuts. It’s not right. I can’t make it right. I have become so emotionally invested in it that I hired an designer to take it out of my hands completely before I go crazy. Plus it will be nice to be able to have that cover excitement that I can’t experience doing my own. I’ll be waiting by my email ready to gasp and declare my everlasting love to the designer.

Sooooo, as you can tell, it’s a range of feelings!

Me: Completely understand. And I'm EAGERLY awaiting the release of these new books. Needless to say, I think your writing is beautiful, and has instantly become a favorite of mine. 

Being your own cover artist, how do you do your cover reveals?

Allie: I don’t. I don’t do traditional cover reveals. There is not a lot of ceremony behind anything I do. I just kind of do my thing and love it when people come along for the ride!

 Me: Share with us a little about your next project.

Allie: My next project is a 3(maybe 4) book series called HOLLOWAY FARMS. Graceland Holloway is the youngest and only girl in a family of 4 siblings. Her mother left when she was a baby and it has caused her some emotional scarring and a lack of female influence. Gracie doesn’t believe in love but she believes in memories and she’s been collecting them. She works very hard to manipulate and sculpt the world around her to create these ‘perfect memories’. The next on her list is losing her virginity, but not to some immature boy at her school. Gracie finds the perfect prospect in Bentley, the amazingly handsome and secretive farm hand. What Gracie doesn’t realize though, is that manipulation has it’s price and there’s no such thing as perfection, especially when it’s her own feelings she’s trying to control.

 Me: Sounds awesome, Allie. I can't wait!! Thanks again for stopping by today. It's nice having company once in a while (ensures the house gets cleaned. Ha! Kidding). But I truly do look forward to future stories!! Good luck!

Allie: Thanks so much for the questions, Megan! That was fun! *hands back mic and hugs you awkwardly because I suck at goodbyes*

Me: *accepts awkward hug* My pleasure! Come back anytime :)

If you haven't already checked out Tight Knit, you can buy on Amazon HERE.