Cover Reveal -- My Alien Romance Series by Magan Vernon

 

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED my original covers for How to Date an Alien and How to Break up with an Alien, but to some people it was giving off the impression that it was a cutesy MG book.

If you still loved my original covers, the beautiful designs by CA Marshall will still grace my paperbacks. To up the stakes and grace my covers with a hot alien boy, I enlisted the help of the awesome Steven Novak who has designed covers for Rashelle Workman, Megg Jensen, and Angela Carlie.

He understood my vision and my NEED for Ace to have guyliner on the covers. These new covers will be uploaded to Amazon ASAP so hopefully the rest of the world can understand the hotness of aliens.

What do you think of the new covers?

Have you hopped over to Amazon yet and picked up How to Date an Alien for FREE?

Announcing SEAWEED by Elle Strauss!

Announcing SEAWEED by Elle Strauss!

 A teen swim athlete discovers a merfolk world that threatens to keep her out of the ocean forever.
 

Dori Seward can’t wait to get out of Eastcove, a sleepy fishing village on the border of New Brunswick and Maine. She bides her time by hanging out with friends, attending swim club, and holding her biggest competition, Colby–who wants more than just friendship, at arm’s length. Then Tor Riley comes to town and he has everything Dori dreams of in a boyfriend–looks, athleticism and mystery. But Tor also has a tantalizing secret and Dori is determined to find out what it is. The truth is crazier than her wildest imaginations and more dangerous, too. Dori has new fantastical enemies , and they will do anything to get to her. Her life, her dreams and her love for Tor are all weighing in the balance. Will Dori risk it all in order to have it all?

 SEAWEED is FREE for a limited time on Amazon! It's also free on itunes and smashwords.



Elle Strauss writes time travel and merfolk chic-lit, light SF and historical YA fiction. To ward off writer's butt she does a bit of hiking, biking and yoga. Elle is married with four children and divides her time between British Columbia, Canada, and Germany.

Happy Belated Birthday, Dream Smashers

Dream Smashers celebrated her first birthday all alone in March. I'm a horrible book parent and didn't even throw her a party. To make up for it, I gave her a facelift. I hope she likes it. And I hope her readers like it, too.

Take a look. Isn't she pretty?

Dream Smashers has needed a new cover for a while now. It's an important story, but often gets overlooked. The original cover, which I love, wasn't sitting well with the readers. It even was nominated for a most ugly cover list over on Goodreads. The second cover was an experiment, something I whipped up myself, and not very professional.  I believe this new cover captures the emotion of the story, but also has appeal for the readers. I adore it!

About Dream Smashers:

Letting go is hard to do, but sometimes, it's all you can do.

Sixteen-year-old Autumn is a human heartache. Everywhere she turns people are stomping on her hopes and dreams. Her mom's a tweaker. She's lived with her chain-smoking grandmother for as long as she can remember. Even her best friend has issues. Autumn seems to be the only responsible person she knows and she's sick of putting up with it all.

When she meets Evan, a hot guy without a worry in the world, she can only wonder if he's for real or just another Dream Smasher.

A girl who no longer wants to care and a boy who cares enough for the both of them. Dream Smashers is a love story, but most of all, it's about letting go.

Thanks to my good friend, Megg Jensen, for inspiring me to get 'er done, and Rashelle Workman who referred Megg who then referred me to the cover artisan Steven Novak. Go check him out. He's awesome.

Dream Smashers is available on Amazon Kindle and wherever else eBooks are sold.  It may take a day or two for the new version to be available.

So tell me, do you like it?

Day of Sacrifice Series: Unfavorable, by S.W. Benefiel

Stacey Wallace Benefiel is pleased to announce the publication of Unfavorable, the sixth and final installment in the Day of Sacrifice series, and the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus, all six stories bundled together in one volume.  Unfavorable and the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus:

 

Each member of the rebellion plays their part in Alexander's plan to kill the Gods. The first step: trusting Alexander.

If you're already familiar with the Day of Sacrifice series and have been waiting for the final installment, here are the buy links: Amazon, Smashwords (BN and Apple coming soon.)

If you're new to the series, you can get the first story, Day of Sacrifice, for free at Amazon, BN, Smashwords, Apple OR get all six Day of Sacrifice stories in one volume!

 

Born to die, a group of Sacrifices and their Guardian Angels band together to kill the Gods and free the world.

You can buy the Day of Sacrifice Omnibus at Amazon and Smashwords. (BN and Apple coming soon.)

Lazy Saturday Mornings Rock

It's raining. It's Saturday. I have the house to myself. And I don't have to work. Can you feel it?

To not cut into any writing time, I'll make this brief by giving you answers to the most heated did-you-knows-?. Click on the covers for more information.

Did you know Land of Corn Chips is FREE on Amazon Kindle? I'm not sure how long this will last (hopefully not too long so I can buy some groceries this month--j/k) so go snatch up your copy today!

Did you know you could win a copy of the much anticipated third book in the Cloud Prophet Trilogy, Severed, by Megg Jensen, simply by asking her a question on her blog before November 10th? Go do it now and get it over with. It's super easy. You'll help her as well as yourself all at once!

Did you know you can get yet another book for free today? Stacey Wallace Benefiel's YA novel, Glimpse, is also FREE on Amazon Kindle. Dudes and dudettes, your weekend entertainment is given to you this week. Awesome!

Now, get a cup of hot chocolate, cozy up to a blanket next to a fire, and enjoy a great story or two.

Dreaming of Wordstock

The Wordstock Festival here in Portland has been around for about five years. Every year of its existence, I've wandered the aisles of beautiful books and writing services being promoted and celebrated by local authors, publishers, editors, and the like. Then I'd sit in on a reading or two and get uber-excited to meet the authors.

While listening to the readers, I'd also fantasize that someday I'd be up there reading my pages. Lets put a little emphasis on the word FANTASY here because if I were to ever get up on a stage to read my pages, mouth farts, drool, and hiccups would probably be the only thing exiting my lips. Stage fright anyone? In Autumn's words from my novel, Dream Smashers, "One can still have hope." And in my words, "One can still dream."

This is my first year to have a published novel. I thought for sure they would definitely let me read at the festival this year, because, well, I have a published novel, darn it. Plus, I'm from the same area the festival is held, total shoe-in. Plus, plus, I whispered nice things to the book, like, "Please impress the peeps responsible for inviting authors to the festival," and "Don't fail me now," before sliding it into the bubbly envelope and addressing it to the Wordstock powers.

I waited patiently everyday for the mail-person to deliver my invitation to the ball. Did I ever receive one? Sadly, uh, it probably got lost somewhere and should arrive any day now.

Disappointed by the loss of my invitation, I scrolled through the very impressive list of YA and Middle Grade authors whose invitation didn't fall through the door panel of the mail truck. OMG! No wonder mine got lost.

Take a look for yourself: The List of YA and Middle Grade Authors attending Wordstock 2011

How is a local author supposed to compete with that? Sigh. Well, there's always next year, right?

Oh, and did you see on that list one of my favorite authors? Maggie Stiefvater! How cool is that? Very.

Chin up, peeps, we'll get there someday. Peace out for now.

(Someday) Famous YA Author -- Stacey Wallace Benefiel

Last month I read GLIMPSE, a super-cool YA novel by Stacey Wallace Benefiel--the first novel in the Zellie Wells Trilogy. A definite great read. Today, we have Stacey on the blog to participate in the (Someday) Famous YA Author series. Yay us!

Here we go--Q and A style!

Question: I loved reading "Glimpse" and I'm just about ready to read the second book in the Zellie Wells Trilogy "Glimmer." I better hurry because book three will be out this summer. How exciting! Tell us a little about the series and what inspired you to write it.

Answer:  The Zellie Wells Trilogy is about a pastor's daughter with psychic powers. That's the core of it. My sister and the show Roswell are what inspired me to write Glimpse. We were both big Roswell fans and when the show ended, my sister encouraged me to try to write something like it. I didn't want to write about aliens and I was afraid of messing up the lore of vampires or faeries or anything like that. So, I made up my own powers and applied them to a girl who was very much how I was when I was young.

Question: Zellie comes from a Christian family and goes to church. Have you had much criticism for bringing religion into the stories?

Answer:  I grew up in a religious household and went to church three times a week. Many of my friends went to my church and it was a large part of my social life. What I wanted to convey in the books was that someone, even a pastor's daughter, could both be a regular teenager and a Christian. And then I threw in some powers that seriously messed with both of those sides of Zellie. I haven't had any criticism for bringing religion into the stories. Most of the criticism I get is about the sexuality in the books and I think this is moreso because Zellie is a pastor's daughter. Again, my aim is to make her a regular, well-rounded teenager and it's been my experience that crushing on boys in Youth Group is just the same as crushing on a boy in your English class.

Question:  What are your plans after Zellie's story is finished? Will you continue writing YA?

Answer:  I actually never set out to write YA. When I wrote the first draft of Glimpse in 2005, I didn't really know what YA was. Glimpse started out as a Family Saga, but through many editing suggestions from prospective agents and publisher's, it became YA. I think a better term for what I write is Crossover. My books are for older teens and beyond. I do have more plans to write within the Zellie world - Ben, a character introduced in Glimmer is getting his own spin-off. I don't, however, know if I will write what other people consider to be YA. I think I maybe broke a few too many YA rules. :)

Question:  How long have you lived in the Pacific NW and what do you love best about living here?

Answer:  I moved to the Pacific NW in 1993 to attend U of O in Eugene. I lived there for four years and then moved up to Portland for a little less than a year. I did a four year stint in Los Angeles and then moved back up to the Portland area in 2002. I love a lot of things about living here. I like rain. No. I really do. I'm one of those people that gets sunburnt from being outside for five minutes. I love being able to go to the beach, the mountains, the desert or the city all within less than a day's drive. What I enjoy most about the Pacific NW is that I feel like I belong here more than I ever felt like I belonged in Missouri. I was a weirdo in Missouri. Here, I'm pretty normal. :)

I interrupt this wonderful Q and A dialogue (are you surprised?) to say that OMG! I ♥ this answer! Rain is AWESOME and I'm so happy we have the same outlook on this subject. As many know, I love similarities and we are totally similar now! The Pacific NW Rocks. There is no such thing as weird here. Have you watched Portlandia? Exactly. Okay, I'm done. Back to the Q and A. 

Question:  Why is your house orange on purpose if your favorite color is green?

Answer: An excellent question with an easy answer. Our neighbors painted their house green about two weeks before we were going to paint ours. Orange is my second favorite color. Now, the neighbors house is painted this weird eggplant brown color and totally clashes with ours. The orange paint job still looks good, though, and it was really hard work painting a whole house, so it's gonna have to clash for a few more years.

Thanks for the interview! Fun questions! 

ORANGE and GREEN are totally cool. You should invite me over and we can paint green and orange rainbows on the sidewalks. :) I'm going to crack open my Kindle to read Glimmer now to find out more about this Ben character. Is he that one guy who did that one thing during that one part in Glimpse? Do we ever get to see that guy again?

Thank you, Stacey, for participating in the interview. And thank you, the readers, for checking us out.

For links to Stacey's Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook and to purchase her books, please visit her website: http://staceywallacebenefiel.com/

Ladies and Gentlemen. Big News!

I'd like to let you in on a secret that will change life forever. I'm going somewhere I swore I'd never go. It was once a desolate, scary place, but times have changed, and it's now full of opportunity and growth. I'd be a fool to turn my back on a door being held open for me.

This journey will take every ounce of guts I can muster, all the endurance of a marathon runner, and the skin of a rhinoceros. A place that gets looked down on by many is now going to be where I take control of my writing career and do it my way.

The road has been paved. No longer am I going to wait on others to find the time to give me a green light. I've found the switch and my engine is revved up, ready to go.

I'm going to be an indie author.

Silence.

My books are going to be made available for the entire universe to read.


Can't. Breathe.


My first novel to be available, Dream Smashers, will be released as an Ebook on Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble in early April, 2011.

Gasp.


Shortly thereafter, it will be released in paperback and sold through Amazon.

I'll share my journey with you on this blog. I hope you'll join me.

Peace out for now. I'm going to go vomit.