Meet @beegurl13: Graphic Artist and Contest Queen

I have another introduction to make today, loves!

Please welcome the amazingly talented Brandi Whitmer to the spotlight. I met Brandi in the fanfic community ages ago, and have been blessed to call her a dear friend since. Her writing has a tendency to seriously hurt my heart. I'm not kidding. She's responsible for more of my tears than any other author. No one does angst better. And she's got some wicked graphic art skills too!

When I thought of artists to make the winner's bragging rights banner, Bee's name was the first to pop up. She has let me rope her into making banners for all sorts of things in the past, and I have always been impressed with her work. Most of them are not appropriate to post here because we're always up to no good, but I did find two that are moderately tame.

Ms. Brandi generously donated her time to help authors Spike Marlowe and Christopher Reynaga represent their stories in the Team Losh Compilation at the beginning of the year. Both authors were thrilled with the outcome. Because that's just how Ms. Brandi rolls. ;)

But enough from me. Let's hear from Bee!

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I'm beegurl13 and I'm a fanfic fanatic. I have a messy house full of kids, pets, and a Twilight-hating hubby. I'm boring as sin and easily sidetracked, yet can multi-task like nobody's business. I love Robert Pattinson, ALIAS, candy, Cherry-Vanilla Pepsi's, green olives and broccoli. Super cool, huh? Not even. :D

If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?

Obsessed: A Tale of Randomness, Procrastination, and Sleeping

You just made the newspaper! What did you do?!

Most likely...I was stalking Robert Pattinson. :D

In high school you were most likely to ....

...be a mom...with 12 kids.

Tell us about your publishing credits. Have you won any awards?

I've posted several fan fiction stories on FanFiction.net, as well as designed several banners for various authors and contests.

I won First and Second Places in the first story contest I ever entered, The Unhappily Ever After contest, with my stories What Hurts the Most and What I Really Meant to Say. In the writing contest Never Ever Happily Ever After, my fanfic wifey, Mrs. Robward, and I won the Public Vote, as well as Judges Honorable Mention and Best Plot Twist with our story Exhaust. I won nine different awards (seven First Place & two Second Place) for my story The Maiden, which was written for FAGE2, a story exchange in the FanficAholics Anon Facebook group. And my story Worship won Second Place in the Best Lemon Drabble category of the Eclipse Awards.

Where else can readers find you?

People can find me on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/beegurl.fanfickee
on Twitter - https://twitter.com/beegurl13
on Fanfiction.net - http://www.fanfiction.net/~beegurl13
and on my blog- http://beegurl13.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for participating, Brandi! And holy crap, seven 1st place awards in one contest?! That's amazing.

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Teaser Tuesday: #Fall - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book Two

Happy Tuesday, loves.

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, and Fall is halfway to completion. I can see the finish line, but I feel like I'm crawling toward it at the moment.

My migraines have been out of control again lately. The doctor has me dragging my ass through his front doors every two weeks like clock work so he can keep an eye on things. He wants to do more tests, but I'm stressed so we're in that "wait and see" holding pattern at the moment. There's no point spending thousands of dollars to repeat inconclusive tests if it's just stress and weather changes causing the spike. 

The good news is even though writing is going at a snail's pace right now, it is still going. The pre-readers have the first half of the novel in their loving hands, and the second half is taking shape.

So that's something to celebrate, yes?

Anyway, enough from me. Let's get on with your teaser for the week. In case you hadn't already guessed, it is from Fall.

"Dace, you've used up all of your vacation time! If you don't go back, they'll fire you."

"I have money, Arionna. It's not like I'd be living on the streets if I lost my job."

"But you love your job."

"And?" He shrugged as if that didn't matter to him.

I buried my face in a pillow and screamed.

When I stopped, I didn't feel any better. I felt childish, and I still wanted to strangle him.

I pulled the pillow away reluctantly.

"Did that help?" he asked me, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking an eyebrow. Amusement flickered in his gaze momentarily, but the stubborn determination pouring through him didn't lessen any at all.

"No." I turned my face away from him like a child. My gaze landed on Ronan, who stood beside my bedroom window, staring out as if he didn't even hear the ridiculous argument happening behind him. I knew he was listening though. Ronan always heard more than he let on. "Tell him he has to go back to work," I said.

Ronan turned to look at me. "He won't listen to me either." He paused. "Maybe you should try screaming again."

I huffed and pulled the pillow over my head again. Maybe if I ignored them long enough, they'd both go away.

Men. Heh. ;)

As a bonus... I have a song teaser for you this week. The song is Letters From the Sky by Civil Twilight. I'm not going to tell you how it relates to Fall though..

 

 

 

Until next time,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Meet @MGraybosch: Upcoming Author and Judge

I bet you thought we were done meeting our fearless judges and awesome authors and artists, didn't you? You'd be wrong because I still haven't introduced you to everyone working behind the scenes to judge the amazing entries submitted to the contest. :)

Let's remedy that now, eh?

Please welcome judge Matthew Graybosch to the spotlight. Matthew's play-by-plays of his writing day frequently keep me entertained. We'll skip over the fact that they're usually going a lot more swiftly than mine, and I'll tell you instead that I am eagerly waiting for him to finish the first book so I can read all about the mayhem he's been teasing us with for months now.

Without Bloodshed, the first book in his science fantasy series, Starbreaker, will be released from Curiosity Quills Press in the coming months.

Summary:

After Nationfall, the Phoenix Society led the human race in their efforts to rebuild the world. A veteran Adversary, one of the Society’s corps of enforcers, begins to doubt his work and must find a new path. Questioning his ideals, this Adversary will find himself forced to confront the true purpose of the Phoenix Society and the truth of his own origins and nature.

Can he determine a new purpose for his existence, create a new meaning for his life, and find a new way to uphold his old ideals? The survival of intelligent life on Earth and elsewhere may depend on the answer.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I'm the author of the forthcoming science fantasy tetralogy, Starbreaker, from Curiosity Quills Press. I'm also a mercenary programmer, an incorrigible bookworm, and a long-haired metalhead with delusions of erudition. I studied computer science and applied demonology at Miskatonic University, and moonlight as a shotgun exorcist.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?

21st Century Schizoid Man

You just made the newspaper! What did you do?!

Threatened to kick a local school board's ass after they proposed making my books required reading in high school English classes. I want to earn my audience, damn it.

In high school you were most likely to ....

I wasn't most likely to anything. I had the nicest hair.

Tell us about your publishing credits. Have you won any awards?

None yet, but I will soon be done with part one of Starbreaker, Without Bloodshed.

Where else can readers find you?

Your absolute best bet is to find me on Google+ at "+Matthew Graybosch" (https://plus.google.com/u/0/103251633033550231172/about). I'm also on Facebook, but I spend very little time there.

Thanks so much for participating, Matthew!

Don't forget to keep an eye out for Without Bloodshed, and be sure to check Matthew's blog, Witness Protocol while you're at it!

 

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Howloween Confessions of a Coward #bloghop

I have a confession to make. I'm afraid of everything.

I run from spiders. I don't go out alone after dark. I always check the backseat of my car before I get into it. I never accept candy from strangers. I can't watch scary movies at all. And I'm pretty sure the evil ninja racoon living in my backyard is plotting my murder. The squirrels are probably helping him.

That's right, I'm a big coward.

I'm also completely hopeless.

I lock myself and the dogs outside. I can't change a flat tire to save my life. I refuse to go within ten feet of a spider. I'm not above sitting on the counter and waiting for someone to come and deal with anything that creeps, crawls, or otherwise looks like it might eat me. I'm more likely to cause a riot than a bunch of angry hockey fans. And if it causes trouble, I'm bound to find it.

But this is okay with me. I've learned that you've gotta work with what you've got. And I've got the heart of a bunny rabbit being chased by a wolf. Lucky for me, I have my alpha male to keep me safe. And let's just say, it's a good thing he's got rescuing me down to a fine art because I seem to require it a lot.

Oddly enough though, despite my fear of everything, Halloween is my favorite holiday. The costumes, the candy, the cute decorations... I love it all. Except the entire being scared part.

Somehow though, I manage to let my husband convince me to go to a haunted house with him every year. And every year, it ends the same. I cling to him for dear life, eyes firmly shut, while he leads me through the entire production, warning everyone in a costume not to even think about jumping out to scare me.

He's 6'8", 290 pounds of towering authority, so they tend to heed his warnings.

Once we survive the terror and are safely on the way home, I have to confess that I saw absolutely nothing and he gets to laugh at me. I grumble and pretend I think he's a jerk, but really, I'm secretly in awe of him. Because despite his teasing, he can keep up with me like no one else.

I know that no matter what crazy things I do to drive him insane, he'll still put the fear of God into haunted house actors all across the land just so no one jumps out to scare me. And I know that the next time I call him in a panic because there's a bug staring at me, he'll come home on his lunch break to capture and release it for me without making me explain why he's not allowed to kill it.

In this day and age, women are supposed to be all about rescuing themselves, but having come to accept the fact that I have been and always will be a chicken who needs adult supervision at all times, I'm not afraid to say I find it sexy as hell when a man is up to the task of keeping me in line. Not all of us are self-rescuing princesses. Some of us are more likely to burn the house down trying to rescue ourselves.

Everyone says we should be embarrassed to admit that.

Pfft.

I say embrace it.

We might not survive the zombie apocalypse or lead a rag-tag band of survivors to safety, but the world needs us. We keep things interesting. We keep our men on their toes. And we make sure they always have something to do to make them feel big, powerful, and useful. There's nothing wrong with that. Especially when it comes to the gory, ghostly, and downright creepy that makes Howloween such a fun time for our alpha males.

What about you? Are you the self-rescuing type, or are you more likely to burn the house down trying?

Comment on this post before 11:59pm on the 29th and you could win an ebook copy of my debut new adult novel, Fade, where you'll be introduced to my other favorite alpha male, Dace Matthews. Like my husband, he's got his job cut out for him keeping up with his heroine. And with a possible apocalypse in the mix, let's just say there's a lot of scary going on!

Summary: What do you do when you realize nothing in your life is what you’ve believed it to be?

When Arionna Jacobs loses her mother in a tragic accident, her world is turned upside down. She’s forced to leave her old life behind and move in with her father. Dace Matthews, a teaching assistant at her new college, is torn in two, unable to communicate with the feral wolf caged inside him.

When they meet, everything they thought they knew about life unravels. Dace has intimate access to Arionna’s mind, and something deep within her fights to rise to the surface. They don't understand what's happening to them or why, and they're running out of time to sort out the strange occurrences around them.

Their meeting sets an ancient Norse prophesy of destruction in motion, and what destiny has in store for them is bigger than either could have ever imagined. Unless they learn to trust themselves and one another, they may never resolve the mystery surrounding who they are to one another, and what that means for the world.


This post is part of the Howloween Blog Hop. Check out other participants and win great prizes here.

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo. Through March of 2013, 10 percent of proceeds go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas, and 10 percent to the March of Dimes.

#Teaser Tuesday: Call Your Name (My @Fandom4Preemies Short Story)

It's time for another round of Teaser Tuesday. This week, I'm giving you a little teaser from Call Your Name, my Fandom for Preemies short story. This teaser is PG rated (one instance of language), but the story itself is rated M. I know, bad YA author. But sometimes you just have to write what comes.

Enjoy!

Lily spun around and threw the door open wide.

"Noa-!" Her shout died on her lips as she caught sight of him, still standing on her porch with one hand clutched in his hair. He was breathing hard, as if he'd run around the block twice in the five minutes she'd been debating with herself. He hadn't moved though. Not one step.

"Noa-" She started again.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it the way it came out."

Lily froze, his words ripping through her. He hadn't meant it. The realization crushed her, mangling her heart. Unbidden tears burned at her eyes. She sucked in a breath to fight them back. "It's fine."

"Lily-" Noah's face fell. "Lily, I-"

Here it comes, she thought. The "you're a great friend, but" speech. She couldn't stand here and listen to that speech. Not coming from Noah. Not tonight.

"It's fine, Noah," she said again, trying to find the ability to smile at him or laugh off the entire situation. So he called her beautiful. So what? Didn't mean he wanted her like she did him.

"You don't owe me an explanation. We're friends." She turned toward the door, ready to flee before the tears in her eyes gave away that lie for what it was. Noah wasn't just a friend to her.

"Screw that. We're not friends."

Lily spun toward him again. "Wha-"

"I've been falling for you for four fucking months, Lily," Noah whispered, his voice as ragged as it'd been in the restaurant. The expression on his face burned through her. He looked wrecked, haunted. "Tell me you don't feel the same way. Tell me that you feel nothing for me, and I swear I'll drop this if that's what you want. But I swear I didn't just say that to get you to sleep with me. Just . . . tell me I don't have a shot. Please."

* * *

If you want to read the rest of the story, it will be included in the Fandom for Preemies Compilation along with a chapter of Fall (The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book Two) and stories from authors far and wide. All you have to do is donate a minimum of $5 to the March of Dimes by November 30th, 2012, and forward your confirmation email (minus personal information) to fandomforpreemies@gmail.com. For more information, please visit: http://fandomforpreemies.blogspot.com

Easy, right?

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Cover Reveal: Sanity Vacuum by @TheaIsis

You know what I love more than cookies? Cover reveals! And today I'm very happy to help reveal the cover for Thea Gregory's upcoming Sci-Fi novel, Sanity Vacuum!

Summary:

Vivian Skye just finished university, and qualified for her first-choice internship. Not many would consider the distant and isolated Extra-Galactic Observatory cushy, but it’s a dream come true for Vivian. Hailing from the low-tech planet of Aurora, she studied hard for this opportunity—and to leave her old life, and planet behind.

 

Her assignment is simple: perform a routine upgrade for the station’s supercomputer, quIRK. Her reception isn’t a friendly one, and eccentric quIRK becomes her only friend. However, the station’s administrator, Bryce Zimmer is obsessed with quIRK—he suspects that the station’s computer may have achieved sentience, something explicitly prohibited by the ABACUS Protocol. Compounding their issues, Bryce’s traumatic and privileged past makes him distrust Vivian from the beginning. Desperate to keep control, he sabotages quIRK in order to eliminate Vivian. But, his plan threatens to consume the entire station and send them into the unknown void of intergalactic space.

 

Vivian must struggle to survive not only Bryce’s megalomania, but also the emerging artificial super intelligence that is quIRK. Can Vivian and quIRK learn to trust each other and work together, before it’s too late?

 

Sanity Vacuum is book one of The ABACUS Protocol.

 

Sanity Vacuum will release from Curiosity Quills Press on December 6, 2012.

 

Author Bio:

Thea Gregory is a farm girl from English Western Quebec, a total nerd, and she loves science fiction, zombies and physics. Between marathon cooking sessions, her clerktastic day job, and part-time studies, she manages to find time to write. Author of the Zombie Bedtime Stories, her debut sci-fi novel, Sanity Vacuum releases December 6. Thea's blog can be found at: http://nerdygnome.wordpress.com.

Make sure you mark your calendars to grab a copy.

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Meet @SarahAisling: Upcoming Author and Judge

Please welcome Sarah Aisling, our first Pitch Contest judge to the spotlight. Sarah is no newbie to contests. In fact, her first publishing contract with The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House came after she won their pitch contest. Her first novel, The Weight of Roses, is currently in the editing phases.

I've been a big fan of Sarah's writing for a while now, and am so excited to have her help judging the contest. I've been reading one of her serials for ages, and she never ceases to make me cry or squirm. It's ridiculous how amazing she is at capturing emotion. That's a good thing. My favorite kind of story is one that breaks my heart into little pieces and then puts it back together again. As if that didn't make her awesome enough, she also has great taste in friends. I just adore her  nd her partner in crime, Keye.

I'll shut up now and let Sarah speak for herself. :)

My name is Sarah, and writing is as essential to me as breathing. I live on the East Coast of the US with my Prince Charming, who indulges and encourages my writing one hundred percent. Someday, I hope to write full time instead of fitting it in between.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?

Sarah Aisling: No Regrets

You just made the newspaper! What did you do?!

Hopefully, wrote a bestselling novel that was made into a multi-million dollar movie. :)

In high school you were most likely to ....

Party until 3am and then drag myself to class with a few hours of sleep.

Tell us about your publishing credits. Have you won any awards?

I won a romance writing contest with TWCS Publishing House, much like the pitch contest Curiosity Quills is now running, and was offered a publishing contract. My novel, The Weight of Roses, is in the editing process and has not been assigned a publication date as of yet. I'll be working on the sequel The Path of Thorns during my first stint in NaNoWriMo in November!

Where else can readers find you?

My website: http://www.SarahAisling.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahAisling

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SarahAislingAuthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6442087-sarah-aisling

Thanks so much for participating, Sarah!

Don't forget to keep an eye out for The Weight of Roses!

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Meet @theCLParker: Supernova Saga Author

Please welcome our second participating Pitch Contest author, C.L. Parker. C.L. has generously offered to gift our grand prize winner with an hour long live plot session via instant message, where she'll offer advice, answer questions, and likely keep you laughing. C.L. Parker is the author of the Supernova Saga (Supernova, Nexus, and Cataclysm), and is signed with The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House. 

The Supernova Saga is a paranormal romance about destiny, free will, and fate. Our tale begins when Kerrigan Cruz comes into her gift of the Light. The Light has been handed down from generation to generation of members from chosen bloodlines - Guardians of the Light. The Guardians are responsible for ensuring our right to choose our own path in life from those who wish to alter it for their own design.

Follow Kerrigan as she meets a handsome stranger with a secret of his own, Dominic Grayson. Together, Kerrigan and Dominic will battle to protect those they love, while finding an undeniable love of their own.

If you know C.L, you know how hysterical she is. In the time I've known her, she's never ceased to amaze me with her passion, her sense of humor, and her ability to make me sweat with the delicious things she writes. The woman has a gift for naughty, and an eye for gorgeous men.

Check out what C.L. had to say!

 

I’m a paranormal romance author who writes smut, smokes like a cowboy, drinks Patron Silver like a fish, and cusses like a sailor. I love hard, laugh until it hurts, and live like there’s no tomorrow. In my world, everything truly does happen for a reason.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?

C.L. Parker: Keeping it Real

You just made the newspaper! What did you do?!

I probably kidnapped Jensen Ackles and held him prisoner in my bed.

In high school you were most likely to ....

Join the circus

Tell us about your publishing credits. Have you won any awards?

The third and final installment of my Supernova Saga, Nexus, has just been released. Supernova and Cataclysm preceded that. No awards that I know of.

Where else can readers find you?

Facebook: theclparker

Twitter: @theclparker

Goodreads: CL Parker

Blog: www.cl-parker.blogspot.com

Website: www.cl-parker.com

 

Thanks so much for participating, C.L.!

Don't forget you can grab your copies of Supernova, Cataclysm, and Nexus on Amazon now.

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Teaser Tuesday: Fall Teaser 2

Hey lovelies!

Tuesday keeps sneaking up on me. Possibly because I never know what day it is.

I wavered between giving you another unedited teaser from Fall this week or a teaser from Call Your Name, a short story written exclusively for the Fandom for Preemies fundraiser. The Fall teaser won the day, mostly because I couldn't find anything suitably PG rated in Call Your Name. So, without further ado, I bring to you Fall Teaser #2!

           "What am I going to do with you?" Dace asked, laying me down in my bed.

            I kept my arms around his neck, refusing to let him go. I'd thrown up everything in my stomach, and I felt horrible. Not on the verge of panic anymore, but embarrassed. Horrified. I would throw up as soon as I walked in the front door.

            Dace settled down on the bed with me, shifting me around until I could curl up against his chest. He rubbed my back in soothing lines up and down. I closed my eyes, too emotionally drained to hold them open. I just wanted to forget the last fifteen minutes ever happened. Hell, I wanted to forget the last couple weeks of my life ever happened.

            "I'm sorry," I mumbled.

            "You have nothing to be sorry for, love." Dace pressed his lips to the top of my head. Clearly, he didn't remember holding me on his lap while I vomited into the trashcan Dad held for me. And clearly he didn't remember Ronan watching the entire disgusting scene unfold.

            "Forget it," Dace whispered, tightening his arms around me.

            Easy for him to say.

            "We expected this."

            "You expected me to throw up?" I snorted, burying my face in his chest. I hadn't expected that. "Thanks for the warning."

            Dace chuckled. "That's not what I meant."

            "Oh."

            "We both knew coming home would be hard for you. Last time you were here . . . ."

You'll be excited to hear that the first few chapters of Fall are officially with the pre-readers. Now just to finish the last half of the book! :) Before I dash off to work on that . . . I was interviewed by Fel over at The Peasants Revolt today. We talked cookies, Fade, and more. Make sure you check it out and leave Fel a little love! :)

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Meet @KrystalWade - Author and Editor Extraordinaire

The last entries for the Perfect Paranormal/Fantasy Pitch Contest are in, and your first round judges have a tough decision ahead of them! But I think they're up for the task, don't you?

While our contest judges do their thing, I thought it was high time we heard from them and our prize panel directly. I've asked each of our participants a few questions, and I have to say their answers made me laugh.

Please welcome our first participant, Krystal Wade. Krystal has generously offered to gift our grand prize winner with ebook copies of Wilde's Fire and Wilde's Army, the first two novels in the Darkness Falls Trilogy. The third and final installment, Wilde's Meadow will release on November 5, 2012 from Curiosity Quills Press.

Wilde's Meadow Summary:

Happy endings are hard to find, and even though Katriona is in the middle of a war with someone who’s already stolen more than she can replace, she aches for a positive future with her Draíochtans.

Armed with hope, confidence in her abilities, and a strange new gift from her mother, Kate ventures into the Darkness to defeat a fallen god.

Losses add up, and new obstacles rise to stand in the way. Is the one determined to bring Encardia light strong enough to keep fighting, or will all the sacrifices to stop those who seek domination be for nothing?
I first met Krystal about a year ago, and absolutely adore her. In addition to being a phenomenal author, she's the Best Editor Ever (B.E.E.), a great friend, and a huge Nationals baseball fans. If you've had the pleasure of meeting her, you know how awesome she is. For those that haven't had the honor yet, check out what she had to say below!

Krystal Wade can be found in the sluglines outside Washington D.C. every morning, Monday through Friday. With coffee in hand, iPod plugged in, and strangers - who sometimes snore, smell, or have incredibly bad gas - sitting next to her, she zones out and thinks of fantastical worlds for you and me to read. How else can she cope with a fifty mile commute?

Good thing she has her husband and three kids to go home to. They keep her sane.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?
From there to here: How she did it.

You just made the newspaper! What did you do?!

If I made the newspaper, I'd probably hide. Couldn't be anything good. And if my feature has anything to do with my books, then I'll need a makeover before I step outside. :-)

In high school you were most likely to ....

Wear bunny slippers instead of shoes.

Tell us about your publishing credits. Have you won any awards?

I have two published works, a third on the way, and a fourth book in progress. No awards. Not YET!

Where else can readers find you?

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Author.KrystalWade

https://www.facebook.com/wildesfire

https://www.facebook.com/WildesArmy

Twitter: @krystalwade

www.krystal-wade.com

Thanks so much for participating, Krystal!

Don't forget you can grab your copies of Wilde's Fire and Wilde's Army on Amazon now. And Wilde's Meadow will be released in a few short weeks!

 

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade- The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

Teaser Tuesday: Fall - The Ragnarok Prophesies - Book 2

Hello, lovelies!

It's time for another edition of Teaser Tuesday.

Everyone keeps telling me to hurry up and finish Book Two. Since I can only write so fast, I've decided to get you a little unedited excerpt from the book today to tide you over. As usual any errors are mine. Keep reading after the teaser for your chance to take a chapter-length sneak peek at the continuation of their story before it's even finished. :)

Ready for it?!

...........

"Men suck," I muttered to Chelle.

She nodded, wide-eyed.

Dace growled behind me before jumping to his feet.

"Put me down," I hissed when he scooped me up like a child.

One of the blankets wrapped around me fluttered to the bench.

Twenty pairs of eyes turned in our direction.

Chelle’s mouth dropped open.

"No." Dace straightened, his face a thundercloud as he stormed down the bleachers with me in his arms.

I glared up at him, wanting to strangle him. Or bite him. Hard. I did not appreciate being manhandled like an unruly child in the throes of a temper tantrum. I had a legitimate reason to be pissed, and he knew it.

"Let me go now, Dace," I hissed again when his feet hit the snow at the bottom of the bleachers.

He ignored me, his long, angry strides carrying us quickly away from the crowd. Only when he’d cleared the administration building, effectively blocking three hundred sets of prying eyes, did he set me on my feet again.

"You wanted to yell at me, so yell," he said, leaning back against the building with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked furious with his jaw set and his green eyes flashing fire like they were.

"You don’t get it, do you?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to scream at him, cry, or pull my hair out. "I’m not a freaking child, Dace!"

"I never said you were, Arionna."

"You didn’t have to say it." I clutched my blanket around me, trying not to lose my temper. He was so freaking infuriating! "You, Dad, Ronan, Gage, all four of you make decisions without consulting me or even telling me what’s going on. You talk about me like I’m not in the room. You refuse to listen to what I have to say. You lie to me. Every time I think you’re getting better at dealing with this, you prove me wrong. Do you even care what I think?"

"You know I do."

"Really?" I clenched my hands inside the blanket, a last ditch effort not to strangle him. My heart pounded in my chest, causing blood to rush through me in a torrent of sound. "When was the last time you asked my opinion on any of this? When was the last time you stopped for two seconds to ask what I thought we should do? Or what I wanted?"

"What do you want, Arionna?" he asked. The words were soft, a lot softer than the razor-sharp frustration stinging at me through our bond.

 

               "I want you to wake up!" I took a deep breath as the shouted words reverberated in the frigid air around us. "You’re so insistent on protecting me, you don’t even care that I’m not the only one in danger here. You and Ronan decided to let him do this thing today, and didn’t even ask what I thought about it, or consider that it could end badly."

"It’s not going to end badly."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked him. "Can you promise me, one hundred percent, with absolutely no doubts whatsoever that something won’t go wrong today?"

Dace clamped his jaws together without speaking.

 

            "That’s what I thought. You can’t promise me that, because you don’t know."
............

Eeek! I wonder what he did to get her all riled up?!

Want to see more of Ari and Dace sooner rather than later? I will be contributing a new chapter of their journey to the Fandom for Preemies compilation, and all you have to do to get it is donate a minimum of $5 to the March of Dimes before between 10/1 and 11/30. For complete details about Fandom for Preemies and the organization it supports, please check out the Fandom for Preemies site at: http://fandomforpreemies.blogspot.com. And for those of you that write, we would love to have you submit a piece to the compilation as well. You can find the details on that on the website as well. :)

Also, if you surf over to Coffee Time Romance this month, you could win an autographed copy of Fade! See: http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/ContestPage.html.

Have you submitted your Perfect Paranormal/Fantasy Pitch Contest entry yet?! You could win a manuscript read by a Curiosity Quills Submission editor, a live plot session with author C.L. Parker (of the Supernova Saga), a critique by Jamie Ayres (upcoming author of 18th Things), not to mention a ton of ebooks from authors like Krystal Wade, T.M. Franklin, Vicki Keire, and more. PLUS! You're judging panel includes CQ Submission editor and author Jessa Russo, Matthew Graybosch, Sarah Aisling, Gerilyn Marin and more. Submissions are being accepted through October 15th. You can find all of the pertinents here: http://www.akmorgen.com/2012/09/pitch-contest.html

xoxo,

Ayden

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo. 10% of proceeds are being donated to the March of Dimes, and 10% to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas.

18 Things by @JamieMAyres Cover Reveal!

I'm so excited for this cover reveal, loves. I've been eagerly awaiting 18 Things since interviewing Jamie as part of the Buccaneer Blogfest over the summer. We're getting closer! 18 Things will release from Curiosity Quills Press in the coming months. Woohoo!

In the meantime, I'm loving this cover. The lightning, the storm, the color selection. It's fabulous. The entire cover reminds me of some of the pieces in Jonathon Earl Bowser's Goddess Art collection. And I fully intend to own every one of those some day. Maybe Jamie will let me borrow this cover to hang alongside them.

18 Things Summary:

Can eighteen things save a life? Olga Gay Worontzoff thinks her biggest problems are an awful name (after her grandmothers of course) and not attending prom with Conner, her best friend and secret crush since kindergarten. Then Conner is killed in a freak accident and Olga feels responsible. The sarcastic, nerdy girl who never missed a day of school is suddenly lost and unable to deal with the emotional pain. When she downs an entire bottle of pain pills, her parents force her into counseling. There, her therapist writes a prescription in the form of a life list titled 18 Things. Eighteen quests to complete the year of her eighteenth birthday. Olga enlists the help of her friends and becomes a catalyst for healing in their own lives as they eagerly offer suggestions. Alls she has to do is fire-walk, try out for the cheerleading squad, break a world record, and err . . . go on her first date. Good thing Nate, a new hottie in town, enters her life with perfect timing. He brings the fun factor to her list and helps her discover the beauty and strength inside herself, then complicates things by falling in love with her. Maybe it's time to put into practice the lessons her list has taught her. Just as she's finally embracing the joys of YOLO, her therapist reveals a big secret and Olga's world is shaken. In the past year it took eighteen remarkable things to change a life, but nothing she believed about her mission is true. Now she doesn't just risk losing her true soul-mate forever, she risks losing her very soul. There's only one thing she knows for certain. Her choice will affect their future for all eternity.

Jamie Ayres writes young adult paranormal love stories by night and teaches young adults as a public school teacher by day. She lives in southwest Florida with her husband and two daughters. 18 Things is her debut novel. Visit her website at www.jamieayres.com.

Congratulations, Jamie!

xoxo,

Ayden

My Biggest Fan's 22nd Surgery and How #Fade Made it the Operating Room

It has been a very long day here. We had to be at the hospital bright and early this morning for my biggest fan Aloshua's 22nd surgery. Yes, you read that right. I said 22nd. But let's skip back to last night really quickly.

Mama Ayden, the Keeper of the Cheerios, Losh, and his brother and sister (Kai and Little Princess) came and stayed with me and the husband so they didn't have to get up at 4am to make it the hospital for surgery this morning. My mom brought in a stack of books for me to sign, and the kids were so excited to get my autograph. They squealed and squee'd and were absolutely giddy because I autographed a copy of my book for them.

Once I finished signing, Losh grabbed the book and demanded I start reading. We read through the first three chapters before we convinced him to go to bed. The first thing he asked for this morning was for me to read his book to him again. Same thing when we got checked in for surgery. We read in the waiting room.

Reading FADE before surgery

He took his book to pre-op with him, and while waiting for his surgeon to come in and see him, he said, "Uhhh, mama? Can you weed my fave-wit book?" So, his mama read to him some more.

When the surgery team came to take him to the operating room, he asked to take the book to surgery with him. Normally, they don't let the kids take anything into the OR, but Aloshua's big eyes and hopeful smile are so hard to resist. His surgeon agreed to let him take it with him, and when he woke in recovery, Fade was the first thing he reached for.

Recovering from surgery

When I kissed him goodbye in the car on his way home this afternoon, he had the book clutched in his hands.

I wanted to cry. After everything he's been through, all of the surgeries and hospitalizations and near misses and almost losses, it's such an amazing thing to realize how much something as simple as an autograph in a book means to him.

This is why I call him my little superhero. In seven years, I think he's taught the people in his life more about living than we learned in all the years before him. No matter what obstacles stand in his way, he finds a way around them with such innocence and grace.

All smiles at his sleep study last week

He rarely has a bad day, and it's always the little things that make him happy. A bowl of oatmeal in the morning. Mickey Mouse on TV. Playing games with his grandpa. Showing my husband magic tricks. Or getting my autograph. Every day is an adventure for him, and he makes those small things so much more for everyone in his life. He makes those moments powerful, beautiful, and unforgettable.

He came through surgery with flying colors today, and we got fabulous news. It looks like our little superhero is ready for the next phase of his amazing journey. No more airway reconstruction surgery will be needed! Soon, he'll get to come off of his ventilator full time. And by this time next year, his doctors are hopeful he'll have his trach taken out, too. While Aloshua celebrated getting my autograph today, we celebrated this amazing news.

Holding onto his book after surgery

It's humbling to realize that someone as amazing as Aloshua views you as a superhero, too. It's more than a little strange, too. All I did was write a book. He's taught everyone around him how to live. I can't compete with that. I don't want to. But I'm glad that, so far as he's concerned, I'm still in the running. I couldn't be happier to have the love and support of my biggest fan, and I am so grateful for everything he's taught me. I may never be as inspiring a superhero as he is, but he certainly has a way of making me feel ten feet tall and bulletproof.

Now it's your turn to be a superhero for kiddos like him. Fandom for Preemies began on October 1st, and we're raising money for the March of Dimes, one donated story or raffle item at a time. I encourage each and every one of you authors and graphic artists out there to sign up to help us support an organization that fights for children like my nephew. He's not the only little superhero out there, and they could all use your help as they fight their own battles and teach the people in their lives the importance of living with grace and compassion.

You can sign up to write or donate at: http://fandomforpreemies.blogspot.com/p/sign-up.html. 

Trust me when I say it's worth it.

xoxo,
A Very Grateful Author

 
P.S. Have you submitted your entry for the Perfect Paranormal/Fantasy Pitch Contest yet? Prizes included a read by a Curiosity Quills submission editor, a critique from author Jamie Ayres, a plot session with author C.L. Parker, ebook copies from T.M. Franklin, Krystal Wade, and more! Details at: http://www.akmorgen.com/2012/09/pitch-contest.html

Fade - The Ragnarok Prophesies: Book One - On Sale at: Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | Barnes and Noble | Kobo. 10% of proceeds are being donated to the March of Dimes, and 10% to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas.