Authorsday:Jessie Kimmel-Freeman

1 When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I started writing when I was a kid, but that wasn’t what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a Paleontologist. I have a thing for dinosaurs. Instead of getting a degree in that, I ended up doing Anthropology. While I was doing my undergrad work I took a couple of workshops in writing and fell in love with it. By the time I had my bachelors I had started Bella Notte.

2 How did you pick the genre you write in?

You write what you know about. I write about vampires and the paranormal for that reason. I know about vampires and pirates really well. I’ve been obsessed with vampires since I was five and was convinced I was bitten by one. So I write what I know. :)

3 Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

My plotting is limited to a vague outline. Like something to keep me on track as I go, but other than that, it is all by the seat of my pants. I don’t think I could plot out every little detail. It would make me nuts!

4 What was the name of the first novel you wrote? Did you try to publish it?

I recently found a 20ish page story I wrote when I was a teen, I think it was called “Love at First Sight.” If that counts then that’s it and no, I did not try to publish it. LOL. I think I would be very embarrassed if I had. But my debut novel was Bella Notte. I tried to publish it in the traditional way. I shopped it around for two years before I decided to take matters into my own hands.

5 How many rejections have you received?

OMG hundreds! But none of them were like your work is crap. No one wanted to take a no name in a market that they weren’t sure if it was last. But let me tell you something, vampires are not going anywhere. There will always be an allure to them that won’t go away and this is speaking strictly as an Anthropologist. But it wasn’t like I could argue my point to a stock rejection letter, could I?

6 If you have a day job, what is it?

Parent. I have a five year old son and a twenty month old daughter. That’s my day job. LOL. I get to deal with all the chaos of having little kids and then channel it into my writing so I don’t go crazy! LOL. Probably why it was so hard getting Bella Tristezza finished (the third book in the Bella Vampires Series, soon to be released), well that and everything that has been going on around us.

7 What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?

My characters and my attention to detail. For me, writing isn’t about making a ton of money, but about getting the story out of the character that seems to have transplanted themselves into my head. It’s more of me channeling their words down and hoping that someone else out there will enjoy them too. And for the details, I love it when you can picture something so perfectly in your mind that it is like you’re there. I try to make sure my readers can see what I see when I write.

8 What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?

Grammar. I hated it in school, I hate it now, and I will always hate it. I have no real strategy when it comes to it. It’s something that I will always struggle with. But I have several friends that help me go through my books over and over again to catch the small things and correct my interesting use of commas.

9 What is your favorite word?

I’m showing my roots by saying this, but it’s “dude.” I know, of all the words out there, why choose that one. For me, it’s something that comes from deep within me. I grew up in Southern California. Until the day I die, I’ll still say it and I don’t think I’ve written a book that doesn’t use it at least once. It is a word that can be used in so many ways, but only a person that grew up using it like that understands what I’m talking about. Yes, I’m so weird. LOL.

10 What’s your favorite thing about your book?

That I was able to write a strong female character. I hate how many books today leave the heroines as weak or in need of someone else to pull them along. I think that there should be tons of strong females out there for girls and women to look to and idolize. We need that in society, we don’t need weak ones. Life is too rough at moments and waiting for some prince to come and rescue you, typically doesn’t work.

Author Bio:

Jesse has studied anthropology and used her “education” as an excuse to hang out with vampires- her masters' thesis was going to be modern vampire culture. They really do exist. Vampires have been her obsession since she was about five years old when she swears she was bitten by one.

She enjoys reading and writing. But most importantly being a crazy mom to her son, new daughter, and ever growing pet family. Singing silly songs at the top of her lungs and embarrassing her son is one of her favorite activities. She considers herself to be an odd duck.

Bella Notte Blurb:

Vampires? Check. Werewolves? Check. Death prophecy to hang over your head? Double check. Seventeen year old Emma Hutchinson struggles to find her place in the world she has been born to as she tries to decide whether she should be with Michael, the boy she has been dreaming about since she was three or if she belongs with Dominic, her betrothed.

ExcerpTuesday: Which Exit Angel

He shifted in the booth to sit sideways, his legs on the seat. A casual posture for someone who’d seen a dead body recently. Then he tapped his fingers on the table. His foot patted the back of the seat to the same rhythm.

“I need to ask you a few questions, Mr. Beach.”

“Reverend, actually, but everyone calls me Sandy.”

His smile made his eyes twinkle. A charmer, she was sure but that hadn’t worked on her in a few hundred years. Still it wasn’t hard to look at him. “Reverend then. What brought you down to a not-so-nice part of town late on Saturday?"

He turned to face her, his feet plopping onto the floor. “I work with the homeless.”

“I didn’t see any around.”

He shook his head. “You don’t when there are cops are nearby.”

“Is there a large homeless population in Sea Witch?” She choked on the town’s name.

He pulled two napkins out of the dispenser. “Not huge, but enough. They are more likely to get handouts from people on vacation so they gravitate down the Shore in the summer.”

She tapped keys on her phone to take down what he was saying. “What exactly do you do for the homeless?”

“I give them food. When it’s cold I give them blankets and try to convince them to go to the shelter in the next town,” Sandy explained.

His gaze had never wavered from hers as if he could see straight into her soul. She broke the connection by looking down at her notes. His gaze lasered through her making her squirm in her seat. She’d bet that stare had converted many a sinner.

Available on Kindle June 2.

Authorsday: Nancy Wood

Thanks for hosting me Chris, and for these great questions!
How did you pick the genre you write in?

I’ve been writing for a number of years and have a variety of unpublished novels under my belt, including one that explores the relationship between a birth mother and the adoptive family. I took this manuscript to a workshop, where the leader and participants suggested I turn it into a mystery. At first, the suggestion seemed so ludicrous, I almost laughed out loud: how could I possibly piece together a mystery or thriller that made sense? But by the time I left the conference, I had a 200 word pitch for Due Date that I pretty much stuck to the whole time I was writing it.

Do you plot or do you write by the seat of your pants?

I plot ahead of time, but veer off track as I write. Sometimes the plot takes a turn for the better; sometimes I end up with plots that dead-end in dark corners!

What drew you to the subject of Due Date?

I’ve always been intrigued by open adoptions, where the birth mother and adoptive parents maintain a relationship after the birth. Surrogacy, where the birth mother is carrying a baby for someone else, is even more intriguing. What would a relationship between the surrogate mom and the intended parents be like? Would the relationship continue after the birth? In the second book in the Shelby McDougall series, Shelby will be doing a lot of reading about genetic engineering, which will have a sinister component to it.

What’s your favorite quote?

A quote that often gives me inspiration is this one, by E.L. Doctorow, author of Ragtime: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

What was the best writing advice someone gave you?

“Write what you know, but pick your subject carefully.” This was said by the leader of a publishing workshop I attended. He was saying that if you want to get published, you can always write what you know, but you need to wrap it a popular genre that people like to read and publishers will publish.

What was the worst? Did you know it at the time?

I think the worst advice I got was the stand-alone “write what you know.” I did that and got nowhere in terms of publishing. (Although, in terms of writing; I did learn quite a bit.) It took me a long time to realize that this piece of advice wasn’t a good fit for me.

Why did you pick the publisher that ultimately published your book?

When I was looking on Amazon, trying to decide what to do with Due Date, I spent a lot of time studying books published by small presses. I was drawn to Solstice Publishing because I liked the entire package. The publisher did a great job with book covers. The books seemed to be well-written and well-edited. The book delivery, focused on e-books, made sense to me. So I thought I’d give them a try. The submission process was much more accessible also: no agent; just send the manuscript right to the Editor-in-Chief, Nik Morton.

If you could ask your readers one question, what would it be?

After reading Due Date, did you think about surrogacy in ways that you hadn’t considered before?

What do you consider your strengths in terms of your writing?

I like to include setting in my writing. I am lucky to live in Santa Cruz, California, which I consider to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The city is surrounded by green belts and the Monterey Bay. The landscape is amazing: coastal hills studded with live oaks and grasslands, redwood forests, the water. Sharing the local scenery with my readers via my books is one of my favorite things to do.

What do you consider your weakness and what strategies do you use to overcome it?

My biggest weakness is that I overwrite: I’ll write and write and write. For example, I have 130,000 words for the draft of the next installment of Shelby’s story. That’s way too long. I have to spend a lot of time yanking out plot lines and scenes.

Author Bio:

Nancy lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her family, where she’s been lucky enough to make writing her career. For many years she made her living as a technical writer, working in software documentation. About six years ago, she set up her own shop and is now a writing consultant and contractor, happy to spend every day grappling with words and sentences. Due Date is Nancy’s first published book and she’s now hard at work on the second book in the Shelby McDougall series.

Book Blurb:

Surrogate mother Shelby McDougall just fell for the biggest con of all—a scam that risks her life and the lives of her unborn twins.

Twenty-three year-old Shelby is facing a mountain of student debt and a memory she’d just as soon forget. A Rolling Stone ad for a surrogate mother offers her a way to erase the loans and right her karmic place in the cosmos. Within a month, she's signed a contract, relocated to Santa Cruz, California, and started fertility treatments.

But intended parents Jackson and Diane Entwistle have their own agenda—one that has nothing to do with diapers and lullabies. With her due date looming Shelby must save herself and her twins. As she uses her wits to survive, Shelby learns the real meaning of the word “family.”

Connect with Nancy here:
Website: http://www.nancywood-books.com
Blog: http://www.nancywood-books.com/blog.html
Twitter: @NancyWoodAuthor
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NancyWoodAuthor
Buy links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Due-Date-ebook/dp/B00876174M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338733457&sr=1-1
Solstice: http://www.solsticepublishing.com/featured-book/due-date/

ExcerpTuesday: RT Wolfe

Flying in Shadows (Book 2 in the Black Creek Series) Excerpt

Walking in the dark, Andy readjusted his tackle box. Moonlight shone on the dark ripples creeping down Black Creek. He spotted a raccoon as he crossed the bridge. Startled, the animal hissed at him. Andy stomped his foot and hissed back; he was in no mood for it.

He saw movement in his peripheral vision. Larger movement. A man? The shape disappeared as quickly as Andy imagined it. When you let yourself get this worked up, you start seeing things, he chided himself.

What the hell had he been thinking when he decided to date Candi?

He would go over to her house first thing the next day to end it and all of the maintenance that came with her. Never again, he vowed. He would be more like his brother. Casual relationships. No strings.

But first, he needed Rose.

She would calm him down and lighten his mood, help him feel normal again. He looked at his watch and winced. What were friends for if you couldn’t count on them to be there? Even at this time of night. Or morning.

* * *

Rose slept soundly in her twin bed dreaming of her favorite spot at the zoo. In the small rain forest building, she allowed a newly emerged monarch butterfly to dry its wings on her apron while sharing facts about the insect to one of two visiting young boys. The other threw pebbles into the nearby wishing pond. The sound of the small rocks plunked as they hit the stone wall before dropping into the water.

Oh, crap. She woke and sat up straight. The plunking noise came from outside, not in her head.

She felt her cheeks tighten in a wide smile. Biting the nails on one hand, she ripped her blankets off with the other. As she hustled to her window, she realized it was still pitch black out.

Grabbing the flashlight she always kept on her windowsill for just this occasion, she lifted the window and found Andy with the beam. “I thought you didn’t get home until tomorrow,” she whispered loudly.

“It is tomorrow.” He held up fishing poles and tackle box.

“It’s not tomorrow until the sun comes up.” She smiled wildly as she pulled on her jeans. This reaction she had to him had to stop eventually, she convinced herself. It was not healthy.

“I’ve got the worms. Get down here.”

RT Wolfe links
R.T. Wolfe website: http://www.rtwolfe.com
Flying in Shadows Amazon buy link: http://amzn.to/XtK6Lw
Flying in Shadows BN buy link: http://bit.ly/XZxMTf
Flying in Shadows Book Trailer: http://bit.ly/11wALc1
R.T. Wolfe Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/RTWolfe2012
R.T. Wolfe Twitter Handle: http://www.twitter.com/RT_Wolfe
R.T. Wolfe Pinterest Page: http://www.pinterest.com/RTWolfe

The Descent from Truth

THE DESCENT FROM TRUTH
By
Gaylon Greer

BLURB:

Alex Bryson is patrolling Rocky Mountain backcountry in his job as a security guard when he discovers a woman with a baby wandering alone in the snow far from the nearest road. He takes them to shelter in a weekender cabin and sees a newscast that suggests the woman, Pia Ulmer, kidnapped the baby from its rightful parents and that it is the sole heir of Peru’s wealthiest and most corrupt family. Pia claims that she is the baby’s mother, and Alex doesn't know what to believe. After turning her in, he continues to struggle with his budding feelings for her and remains unsure of the true story. He becomes more and more involved until finally there is no turning back—lives are on the line. He helps Pia get free from a brutal world that values money over life, and together they devise a plan to reclaim the baby. Just when it looks like they might succeed, they discover an international conspiracy that changes the game entirely.

EXCERPT:

“Please,” she said, her voice as rough as sandpaper and barely above a whisper. “Please, do not give my baby to those people.”

“Are we back to that? First you're his mother, then you're his nanny. Now you're his mother again?”

“They took him from me. Look at him, Alex. Both Mr. Koenig and his wife are blondes.”

“Koenig’s an old man. His hair's white.”

“Study Frederick's face. Do you not see me in his eyes? His chin and his mouth?”

The similarities were uncanny, he'd grant her that. Good enough to get away with claiming to be the kid's mother if Alex hadn't learned the truth. The way she had attacked him, trying to kill him with that skillet, she clearly didn’t want to go back to civilization and prove who she was. He turned away, tossed Frederick in a maneuver that brought a cry of delight, and stuffed the boy's blanket-clad feet through the leg holes in the backpack. With his parka snapped around both of them and the diaper bag tied to his waist, he gripped his rifle in one hand, his snowshoes in the other, and headed for the porch. At the door, he turned for a final glance at Pia.

She had set her mouth in a stubborn line. The eye that had been plastered shut was closed. She stared at him with the other. When she saw him looking at her, she spoke again. “Watch over him, Alex. Someone wants to harm him. Don’t let them.”

A new tack, another lie. He stepped onto the porch and strapped on his snowshoes. That should have been the last he saw of her, but the specter of her ravaged face and defiant expression stayed with him as he trudged across the sunlit expanse of glistening snow that sloped gradually toward the Warrior River Gorge.

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Working with traveling carnivals and itinerant farm labor gangs during his teen and early adult years took Gaylon Greer up, down, and across the U.S. and introduced him to a plethora of colorful individuals who serve as models for

his fictional characters. After several years as an Air Force officer and then a university professor with a Ph.D. in economics, Greer developed an interest in writing fiction and attended workshops at the University of Iowa, the University of Nebraska, and Bryn-Mawr College. He also studied with the U.C. Davis Extension program and the Algonquian Writers Group. His most recent novel, THE DESCENT FROM TRUTH is available at www.Amazon.com and other e-book retailers. Please visit Greer at www.GaylonGreer.com

 

A remarkable trip into a stunning  new world with Rys Rising, an epic fantasy series brought to you by Tracy Falbe

Rys Rising: Book I by Tracy Falbe

Blurb

Onja can control what others see. The day will come when everyone sees things her way.

She and all rys are the reviled creations of the tabre of Nufal. Onja longs to expel her hated masters and sees her best hope for an ally in Dacian. He’s a prodigy among rys but is loyal to the ruling tabre order and dreams of winning equality for the rys nonviolently. He holds tenaciously to his ideals even as the tabre brutally subjugate him. Will he endure more dark abuses for the sake of peace or reach out to Onja?

This unique epic of complex heroes and villains engulfs readers from many angles. Packed with primitive energy, the intertwining stories of this fantasy world will indulge your cravings for intrigue, bravery, desire, and freedom.

---

Links

 

Rys Rising: Book I is available worldwide at these retailers:

Brave Luck Books

 

Amazon Kindle

RY’S RISING BOOK 1-FREE ON AMAZON RIGHT NOW

Amazon Paperback

 

Barnes & Noble

 

I-Tunes

 

Kobo

 

Sony

 

Smashwords

 

Experience Her LadyShips Quest Here

 

Find Tracy on Twitter

 

Connect with Tracy on Facebook

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About Tracy Falbe

I was born in Michigan in 1972 and grew up in Mount Pleasant. It's called the "Mountain Town" but there is no mountain and it's debatable about whether it's pleasant. They say it's a party town and based on extensive research as a young adult I can concur.

Because I always had the childhood fantasy of running away and joining the circus, I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1995 and lived there until 1997. Those who only stay a week are wimps, but I will say that it's the second year in Vegas that wears you down. Then I realized the pioneers were trying to get to California, so I moved to Chico, in Northern California and lived there until 2009.

In 2000, I earned a journalism degree from California State University, Chico with the conscious ambition of becoming a fiction writer. With the rapid demise of the newspaper industry and journalism in general, novelist is not such a daft pursuit after all. It's not like I'm actually going to get a job that values my education. Luckily I'm cursed with the impulse to write in a popular yet competitive genre.

My wandering has circled back and I'm currently residing in Battle Creek, Michigan, and for now my existence within the post-apocalyptic Rust Belt is suitably fascinating.

---

Stay tuned for the Ry’s Rising  Review Only Blog Tour coming in July!

CURRENTLY SEEKING REVIEWERS/BLOG TOUR HOSTS FOR THIS AWESOME BLOG TOUR.

PLEASE EMAIL HEATHER IF INTERESTED

@

earthsbooknook@gmail.com

Brought to you by

Earth's Book Nook Blog Tours & Promos

As if the question ‘Wanna pitch to an agent or editor’ isn’t enough.

Hello! A huge thanks to all my wonderful hosts as I run all over cyberspace talking about Agent/Editor Shop at the Musetracks blog.

In this crazy world of easy access to information, it’s also easy to miss huge opportunities, or forget! Because I get so many comments that writers either forgot, or didn’t know Musetracks did pitch sessions, I asked a bunch of fellow writers, bloggers and readers to help me spread the word.

For those of you who don’t me, I’m Candi Wall, one of the authors who co-contribute to the Musetracks blog. Jennifer Bray-Weber, Marie-Claude Bourque, and Stacey Purcell are my super smart co-contributors and goodness knows where I’d be without them!

I’ve been hosting acquiring Agents at Musetracks for almost two years, and only recently, we decided to add editors as our guest. We’ve been lucky to have agents like Melissa Jeglinski, Jessica Alvarez, Mollie Glick, Becky Vinter, Kevan Lyon, Scott Eagan, Lois Winston, Jill Marsal, Michelle Grajkowski, Kimberley Cameron, Emmanuella Alspaugh (now Morgan), Laura Bradford, Jenny Bent, Sara Crowe, Weronika Janczuk and Stan Soper.

Our guest editors thus far have been Rhonda Penders w/ The Wild Rose Press, Jennifer Miller w/ Samhain Publishing, Debby Gilbert w/ Soul Mate Publishing, Beth Walker w/ Secret Cravings Publishing, and the editors at Books To Go Now have booked three dates in the future!

What we offer is a ‘Pitch Day’. I only take 30 pitches, and only the first thirty VIABLE pitches that come in on pitch day will be seen by the agent or editor. And I will warn you, I’m a stickler for following guidelines. If you don’t include exactly what is in the rules… I delete without prejudice. And I delete quite a few. (And yes, I receive plenty of hate mail.)

You can find us here:

Musetracks and there is a sidebar with Agent/Editor Shop dates and attending professionals

You can find the rules for pitching here:

Musetracks Agent/Editor Shop rules
Please read them carefully!

I’ve also created a Yahoo group so writers can sign up to receive Agent/Editor Shop updates. I only send messages with agent/editor attendance updates, reminders of pitch dates, and any information about the contests we run on pitch day. Usually a giveaway or a chance to comment for the Top Pitch Slot. You can request to join here:

Editor/Agent Shop Newsletter Group

Easy as pie! We welcome every stage of writer and at Musetracks, we strive to help other writers, the way we were all helped when we first started out, and the way we are supported today.

Hope to see you all at a pitch day, and if not, feel free to pass the word along to others.

Happy reading and writing!

~Candi
A little about Candi:

Candi Wall is an author of contemporary romance, and YA.

Her début novel PRIMITIVE NIGHTS released from Samhain in Jan 2013, and STAY, the first in the Changing Tides series releases from Samhain on Aug 6th 2013.

She’s a mother of four (21,17,12,9), a rescuer of six (4 dogs & 2 cats), proud auntie of too many to count, a soon-to-be grandmother and great-auntie, a retired Cub Scout leader of 16 years, an avid animal lover/protector and ex-animal control officer. Oh yeah, and wife. 

You can find her here:

www.candiwallbooks.com
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads
Musetracks

Which Exit Angel

A bell rang, but Detective Angela Sky wasn’t getting her wings.

Not that she wasn’t due, she just hadn’t made the commitment yet. She’d get around to it, right now she had a murder to investigate.

She fished her Smartphone out of her pocket to see who had sent her a text message. That’s what had been ringing, well, dinging because she’d left it on the default sound for incoming messages. Dang technology. Harder to solve than most homicides.

Gabriel again. Sighing, she put the device back in her pocket. He’d have to wait. She pulled her shirt from her sticky back. Dang New Jersey humidity. The dog days of August in New Jersey was not her idea of a good time. She didn’t want murders of angels to take place at all, but she’d enjoy a cooler climate. Even the sun going down hadn’t taken the heat out of the air.

The body in question had already been removed, but had there been a chalk outline it would have included wings.

Due to be released June 2. Watch for an introductory price good for only two weeks.