To work, or not to work!

I shouldn’t complain really. The winter was long and hard and I suffered through it NOT in silence. The garden looked desolate, the plants pitiful. Odin, my dog, broke his toe running on the snow covered grass and the dark months were fraught with tension. So now that spring is here and its hotter than the fires of hell, why am I now complaining it’s too hot? Because it is. I live near a beach and take Odin there in the mornings. It’s lovely. I always think the ocean re-energises you. Gently smoothing away tension and giving you a thorough clean from the inside out. Do I want to come back to a stuffy office and work...God no! It’s too hot. So I procrastinate. I sit in the garden and tell myself another hour and I’ll get back to work. That hour comes around and makes way for another until its stupid o’clock in the afternoon and there is no time to do anything practical.

So what I want to know is...how do you work and manage to stay in the sunshine? How do you procrastinate?

Crystal Power

My new book, Abigail Cottage has caused quite a stir. There is a chapter which explains how one of the characters, Rosa, a Romany gypsy, unleashed the power of her crystals to connect with the spirit world. Is this a true fact? You bet it is. Crystals work with your vibration, enhancing it and making you shine like a bright light in the darkness. We are all energy encased in a vehicle we call the body. When we pass on, that energy is released. In all my books you will read little factual titbits about the after life. Abigail Cottage has many and I think that's what attracts people to the book. If you have read it, please let us know on the blog, good or bad, it doesn't matter. If you haven't read it, maybe there are questions you'd like to ask me about the afterlife. Comment. Ask me.

Welcome to Ami Blackwelder

Good Morning. The sun is shining today and I can see the first buds begining to emerge in the garden. To make the day pefect, I have Ami Blackwelder taking breakfast tea with me today. Before we start, here is a bit about her. Ami Blackwelder is a forbidden romance writer in the paranormal and historical romance genre. Growing up in Florida, she went to UCf and in 1997 received her BA in English and teaching credentials. She travelled overseas to teach in Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, China and Korea. Thailand is considered her second home now. She has always loved writing and wrote poems and short stores since childhood; however, her novels began when she was in Thailand. Having won the Best Fiction Award from the University of Central Florida (Yes, The Blair Witch Project University;), her fiction From Joy We Come, Unto Joy We Return was published in the on campus literary magazine: Cypress Dome and remains to this day in University libraries around the country. Later, she achieved the Semi-Finals in a Laurel Hemingway contest and published a few poems in the Thailand’s Expat magazine, and an article in the Thailand’s People newspaper. Additionally, she has published poetry in the Korea’s AIM magazine, the American Poetic Monthly magazine and Twisted Dreams Magazine. So, you have read a bit about her. Fab, isn't she! Here is here new book, Shifters. The cover is so striking it made me look twice. Good news for Ami!! Click cover to buy this really good book. America 2040. Three Species. Divided Lovers. The Race is on for Planet Earth. Set in Alaska in 2040, Melissa Marn and Bruce Wilder must work under the iron fist of the SCM, while still trying to maintain humanity. Discovering a world of shifters and hybrids, the scientists must struggle with human prejudice and betrayal. With the original ancestors, dubbed shifters, still living on earth, humans are in the midst of a fifteen year old war. As the eldest hybrids, Unseen and Diamond, learn about humans the hard way, with the loss of loved ones and sacrifices, love on planet earth proves challenging. With underlining themes of how prejudice breaks human connections and animal/wildlife conservation, this novel which has received rave reviews will leave the reader flipping through the pages. View her trailer. Here is her take on What makes a good pitch. Great idea's here, so do read it and digest. What makes a good pitch? When you send your query out to agents and publishers, you want to sound professional and draw them in from the first line. Check out my sample below for my book The Shifters of 2040. Notice the gripping first line followed by information and confidence. Make sure you address the character, plot lines, and what differentiates your books from others as well as what genre and marketing might be useful behind the book. A pitch is different from a query though. Underneath my pitch, is a sample of my query for The Shifters of 2040. A pitch draws you in like a commercial, but a query gives all the needed information for the agent to make his/her decision. A synopsis goes from beginning to middle to end telling the agent what your story is, with exciting details, character descriptions and more. But I won't include my synopsis here or else your readers will know how my book ends. However, the agent wants to know you can seal the deal with the synopsis, the good ending. But enjoy my pitch and query! Alaska 2040 Three Species. Divided Lovers. The Race is on for Planet Earth. Book three in a six part saga, the author chose to first engage the reader by beginning in the middle of the series, allowing the reader to then chose between reading the past or the future. Set in Anchorage, Alaska 2040, the story begins with Melissa Marn, a dedicated and methodical scientists, working under the iron fist of General Raul for the SCM. The Shifter Counterinsurgency Military formed in 2030 and has been in charge, with bases all over the world, of eradicating the shifters from Earth. Since alien invasion in 2020, fear and panic has gripped the heart of many humans. A sentient form of light, this species fled their crumbling home planet in search of a viable one. Able to morph into animals of Earth, including the human species, the aliens were dubbed shifters. After Melissa Marn has one guiltless night with a man she picks up at a bar, she realizes she has become pregnant by a shifter and must confront her own prejudice of the species in wake of the two baby girls growing inside of her. Discovering the shifters can and most likely have mated with other humans to produce hybrids, offspring which will better survive the conditions of Earth, and yet growing a sympathy for the alien race, the scientist and her peer Bruce Wilder, struggle with what to do next. The future of her twins and the future of the Earth waver in the balance. As the eldest hybrids, Unseen and Diamond, guide the other hybrids, they learn about humans the hard way, with the loss of loved ones and sacrifices. When Diamond falls in love with Keenan, a military soldier, the two break all the rules, drawing danger to each of their lives. With a few of the younger hybrids caught by SCM, the escape proves to show them that life on the streets is as difficult as in the forest, and the reader is drawn into the plight of the shifters. As the SCM draws closer to the location of the shifters, the reader follows this thrill ride to the culminating end where the annihilation of the shifter ancestors leaves a devastating mark on the remaining hybrids. With only two elder shifters left to watch over the children, their future appears bleak. And with Melissa finally coming to terms with who the shifters really are, she realizes too late that her twins are forever out of her reach. With underlining themes of how prejudice breaks human connections and animal/wildlife conservation, this novel which has received rave reviews will leave the reader flipping through the pages. The Invasion of 2020 The SCM of 2030 The Shifters of 2040 The Hybrids of 2050 The Hunted of 2060 The Revolution of 2060 As with Star Wars, the novels do not have to be read in order to be enjoyed or understood and readers may engage the stories in any sequence, with exception to Hybrids and Revolution.

Welcome Jen Wylie

The usual rules apply on my blog. The best comment gets a virtual book basket and if you follow, you'll get a surprise pressie from me. Please remember to leave your email and tell me you have followed in your comment box.

Good Morning Everyone. I have a lovely lady in my study today, Jennifer Wylie. We are drinking breakfast tea and enjoying some home made toasted bread and butter. Yum Yum. While she chews and swallows, let me tell you a bit about her.

Jennifer Wylie was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. In a cosmic twist of fate she dislikes the snow and cold.Before settling down to raise a family, she attained a BA from Queens University and worked in retail and sales. Thanks to her mother she acquired a love of books at an early age and began writing in public school. She constantly has stories floating around in her head, and finds it amazing most people don’t. Jennifer writes various forms of fantasy, both novels and short stories. Sweet light is her debut novel to be published in 2011. Jennifer resides with her husband, two boys, Australian shepherd a flock of birds and a disagreeable amount of wildlife.

I am wondering at what point does wildlife get disagreeable lol

Series: Tales of Ever #1

Banished by Jen Wylie Short Story 0.99.

Published March 1 2011 by Echelon Press

Good Morning all. I'm glad to be tucked inside Margaret's study, as it's freezing outside.

I am really excited about my first short story series. Tales of Ever is part of a new short story program being put out by Echelon Press. Electric Shorts is a pilot program for reluctant readers. Each series contains six short stories presented once per month as electronic downloads (eBooks), much the same as a television series. Tales of Ever is a fantasy series written for young adults (13-17 year olds). The first instalment, Banished, debuted March 1st, a new instalment will be available the first of the month ending in August. At only $.99 each, the short stories are affordable for all walks of life. I was lucky enough to have a mother who was an avid reader, and became one myself at an early age. I've now passed the love of reading onto to my own children. Tales of Ever is full of action and written to captivate even the most reluctant readers. I'm hoping to share the joy of reading with many young adults. One of my favorite parts of a new work is creating the world it takes place in. Sometimes the differences between 'our world' and my invented world are few, mostly the differences being magic or what beings are there. But not always. My new short story series also has a new world. It is drastically different from what we could consider 'normal'. Needless to say, I'm having the most fun EVER (excuse the pun) creating this world as well. Though technically, Ever is not a world, but a place. I wanted Ever to be bizarre, crazy, and also wild and dangerous. Part of its deadliness is that nothing is normal or known. At least not to someone from earth. My character does her best to describe the crazy world she has been banished too, and I have a great time coming up with her descriptions of things. For example when she lands in Ever she falls on the border between two drastically different environments, a desert and a jungle. “The sand is pink. Not the washed out pink of granite, but clashed-really-bad-with-my-hair bright pink.” The jungle she describes as “one colored by some crazy kindergarten kids, maybe.” I'm very excited the series will be six stories long. Misha, my main character, stays in the Rainbow Jungle for the first two shorts, however in the 3rd she travels to the Tall Forrest. I'm sure many interesting things will happen there! The second of the series, Fire Girl, will be out April 5th! I hope you all enjoy the worlds I create! Happy reading and thanks so much for having me today! Series Blurb: Welcome to Ever. Ever, a deadly realm where feared, powerful and dangerous magical beings are banished. Though very large, it is not a world but a magically created prison. You can’t break through its circular boundary. Who, or what, made Ever? I’ve no idea. They were powerful, and cruel. That is all I can tell you. Ever is like and unlike every other world. Nothing is safe. Safety is a dream. Ever is a nightmare. Few survive their first day. Nothing is what it seems. If something appears safe, it isn’t. If something appears dangerous, well it is, but probably more so than you think. Ever has no sun, no moon, no stars at night. Time is told by the ever changing color of the sky where portals open, dropping new inhabitants, or new terrors. Time does pass. Don’t worry, you won’t get old. You won’t live that long. The landscape changes without reason form dessert to jungles. The flora isn’t safe at any time. There is food, if you can find it without getting eaten yourself. Most plants and animals are poisonous. So is the water. Are you afraid? You should be. This is the end. It gets worse of course. Remember the portals? Do think angels come through? Rarely the innocent do. Mostly, it is people of evil, people too powerful to kill. Their magic works here. The creature’s are worse. Do you understand? Well you will eventually, or you’ll die. There is no escaping Ever. Ever. Banished Blurb: My life was normal. It sucked, but it was normal. At least until I got this new power. I can control fire. It would be cool if it wasn’t so dangerous and if I knew how to use it. Pretty much my sucky life took a nose dive once I got it. Yup, everything gone. I suppose I should be thankful some uncle I never heard of took me in. Turns out the whole family isn’t normal and my power is a lot more dangerous than I thought. I thought things couldn’t get any worse. I was wrong. They banished me to Ever. If I’m lucky, I might survive my first day. Fire Girl Blurb: Surviving Ever may not be easy, but somehow I’m managing. So far. Luckily I’ve made a new friend, Jadus. He’s not exactly human, but he’s teaching me how to survive here. Even though I’m tired, I’m hungry and I miss home, he makes life bearable. Despite the not human thing I think I may be falling for him. Unfortunately Ever isn’t the place for romance. Now I have to deal with a barbarian king and a crazy shape-shifting witch on top of the everyday dangers. With each day that passes it becomes more important I learn to control my fire powers. If I can’t I might lose everything; any hope of finding my dad, Jadus…my life.

Available at

Omnilit Smashswords Amazon B&N

You can find Jen at her website www.jenniferwylie.ca and on her blog.

Prizes

For the contast run by Nora Weston, Liliut was the winner of the contest.

Cheryl gets my random comment prize. If she could contact me, I need her snail address as I can't find her email on her blogger.

WELL DONE EVERYONE!!!!