First 5 Chapters -Try before you Buy (YA Paranormal)

Here's the next volume of First 5 Chapters available free from Smashwords

Read the first five chapters from these

YA paranormal/fantasy authors:

Hunting - S.M. Hineline
Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) - Shalini Boland
Coexist (Keegan's Chronicles #1) – Julia Crane
Progeny Of Innocence - Patti Roberts
Ties To The Blood Moon - Robin Waldrop
Fire Sprite - Lenore Wolfe


Click here to download for free

First 5 Chapters Blog Tour - Character Interview from Crossroads by Mary Ting

I'm taking part in a great new author initiative called First 5 Chapters, where readers can sample large chunks of  novels from their favourite genres for free before they buy them.

Great idea right!

You download the volume of your chosen genre and can then decide which books you love enough to buy. The first volume features six authors who write YA Fantasy:

Carolyn Hockley - Arazi Crossing
KaSonndra Leigh – When Copper Suns Fall
Mary Ting – Crossroads
Starr West – Tomorrows Child
Lenore Wolfe – The Fallen One
Patti Roberts – Paradox – The Angels Are Here

                                                                                                                          I've been lucky enough to snag Mary Ting, author of bestselling novel, Crossroads, for an interview with one of the main characters in her book.






About Crossroads:
Claudia Emerson has a good friend who shares the same first name and last name. That friend unfortunately dies in a tragic accident during homecoming dance. Claudia is distraught at the loss of her friend, but is even more disturbed by her dreams, which seem to take her to another place called Crossroads. Unknown to her, Crossroads is like a second heaven, a place between heaven and earth. It is where the souls of humans in comas or near death experiences may wander.

There, Claudia meets Michael, a nephilim, a half angel, half human, whom she often meets in her dreams. It turns out that this isn't her first visit to Crossroads, which is an enigma for no human can ever travel there until Claudia. Now the fallen and demons are after her, suspecting she must be special and it is up to Michael and the other nephilims to protect her.

Can Michael fight his growing feelings for Claudia and protect her as a guardian angel should? The answer awaits you. Follow the exciting path to Crossroads!

Character Interview with Austin

We are so glad to be able to talk with you, Austin. Before your story began, what were your hopes for the future?

I really didn’t have any hopes for the future besides being the leader of the venators. My mother, Katherine, she is very proud. She hopes one day I will take a seat by her side as one of the Twelve.  

What is your biggest fear?

My biggest fear is that I would disappoint my friends. When I say friends, I mean the venators. They are the only friends I have besides Andrew. You can’t really count him because I don’t get to see him that often and he doesn’t know who I really am. 

What music do you listen to most and why?
I listen to all kinds of CDs. Currently my favorite songs are Good Life from One Republic and Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO.

What one act in your past are you most ashamed of?
I don’t know if I’m ashamed of it. I guess I shouldn’t have done it. You see… we can project our thoughts into your mind, creating a mental picture of what we want you to see. I kissed Claudia in her mind and I wanted her to know how it would feel like if she kissed me back. “Short cough” Hmmm…I think she liked it. “Wink”

If you were a regular person, what would you do with your life?
I would go through the school system, date girls, find a job and get married I suppose. 

What went through your head when you first saw Claudia? 
I could tell right of the bat she was sheltered. Very innocent and sweet. She has this natural beauty and her smile lights up the sky. Or I should say, her smile lights me up. I really can’t describe it. She was like a magnet, pulling me in. I couldn’t think of anything or anyone besides her and that was unlike me. I couldn’t think straight. Thoughts of her consumed my mind. 

Do you have any feelings in general that you are disturbed by? What are they? Why do they disturb you?
I don’t agree with everything the Twelve says or does. I’m not sure what we did to Claudia was right. My gut feeling tells me she’ll find out one day and I don’t know what she’ll do or think. We all played a part, whether we thought it was wrong or right. I guess we’ll have to find out what happens. 

What is something about you that no one else knows? 
I enjoy watching sports. My favorite color is black. I love my car. “Chuckle”

Thank you!!! Is there anything else you need?
This was fun. Thank you for having me. Would you like me to fly you around? “Wink”

That would be awesome! *winks back*

 * * *

Don't forget, you can read the first five chapters

from Crossroads and the other YA fantasy novels for free!

Just download to your ereader from here.

First Bitten by Samantha Towle

Walking home after a night out drowning her sorrows with her best friend, Carrie, Alexandra Jones stupidly takes a phone call from her cheating ex-boyfriend, Eddie, and in her anger hurls her phone into the forest before her.

But when Alex goes to retrieve her phone from the undergrowth, she and Carrie come face-to-face with a monster they never even knew existed, a Vârcolac (a nightmarish vampire-werewolf hybrid) and he's in search of fresh blood. The next thing Alex knows, she is staring at the impossibly handsome but mysterious Nathan who has helped bring her back to life, but not to the life she left.

To her horror, she discovers she has now become a blood-drinking Vârcolac herself and  is the only female of her kind, with the potential for breeding a whole new army of Vârcolacs if they can only track her down and press her into service.

And while Alex gets to know Nathan and his shape-shifting family as they offer her the protection she so desperately needs, unbeknown to all of them, the Vârcolacs are getting closer

What I thought:

I'm ultra-excited to have found such a brilliant new series! First Bitten is Book 1 in The Alexandre Jones Series and I devoured it in a day. I don't want to give anything away, so all I'll say is it has all the elements to make up the perfect urban fantasy: a very real and sympathetic main character, a terrifying supernatural situation and the hottest love interest you could imagine. It's all these things, without being  at all predictable and I can't wait for Book 2!

Congratulations, Sam Towle, looks like you've got another page-turning bestseller on your hands.

Links:

Samantha's Blog

First Bitten on Amazon.com

First Bitten on Amazon.co.uk

The Forever Girl Giveaway Winner!

The winner of The Forever Girl Giveaway is Janelle Madigan!

She gets an ebook and a beautiful scented candle,

courtesy of author Rebecca Hamilton.

Hey Janelle, can you use the 'Contact Me' page to send over your email and address

so we can get your prizes to you. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who entered! xxx

Free For One Day! Becoming Edward by Faye Meredith

Just thought I'd let you know that Faye Meredith's fantastic novel

Becoming Edward is free to download today!

A guy starts dressing up like Edward Cullen to attract a girl who’s a massive Twilight fan. Trouble is he gets it wrong and it kind of goes to his head, with disastrous consequences.

Becoming Edward is set in the UK and is a light-hearted, fun novel about what happens when obsession goes too far. Perfect for both Twilight and non-Twilight fans.

Faye Meredith talks about Becoming Edward

Becoming Edward has turned into a bit of a Marmite book (for those of you outside the UK, Marmite is a sandwich spread that people either adore or can't stand). It's really divided opninion amongst readers, which I never expected. Some loathe it, others love it.

I guess some readers were expecting another Twilight and, while it does have a love triangle, that's about as far as the similarities go. The characters are just ordinary people,and are a little bit flawed. It's more about how Twilight affects these people and makes them behave.

Rachel wants to find her own Edward Cullen to sweep her off her feet. Clive is in love with Rachel but can't figure out how to get through to her, while Lewis decides the best way of attracting her is to change his player ways and dress up like Edward. But like most guys he completely misses the point of why women love Edward. And it's this that makes the gears grind in the story.

It's not a spoof or a send up. I happen to be a massive fan of the saga and made sure that Becoming Edward doesn't mock or belittle Twilight. All the humour is at the expense of the characters in Becoming Edward, never Twilight, which I hope people appreciate!

If you want to get hold of your free copy today, here are the links:

Becoming Edward on Amazon for Kindle (UK)

Free on Thursday 8th March 8am - Friday 9th March 8am GMT

Becoming Edward on Amazon for Kindle (US)

Free on Thursday 8th March 12am-12pm Standard Pacific Time
     

The Forever Girl Book Tour - Guest Post & Giveaway

I first met Rebecca Hamilton on Authonomy, a writer's site run by Harper Collins. We chatted and bantered on the forums and then she gave me some very insightful advice on writing, specifically to do with a character's viewpoint, and how readers will often connect more fully with your protagonist if you write from inside their head and show events unfolding purely from their point of view.
Out of the hundreds of excerpts I read on the site, Becca's is one of the one's which stuck out most vividly and I'm beyond excited to see her novel has finally been published. It's on my kindle to read asap!

GIVEAWAY!!!

Rebecca has kindly agreed to give away an ebook copy of The Forever Girl  to one lucky winner. And if you live in the US, you'll also get this fantastic Forever Girl scented candle - gorgeous! 

All you have to do to win is leave your name in the comments box below.

The Forever Girl

Sophia Parsons’ family has skeletons, but they aren’t in their graves... Solving the mystery of an ancestor’s hanging might silence the clashing whispers in Sophia's mind, but the cult in her town and the supernaturals who secretly reside there are determined to silence her first. As Sophia unknowingly crosses the line into an elemental world full of vampire-like creatures, shapeshifters, and supernatural grim reapers, she meets Charles, a man who becomes both lover and ally. But can she trust him? It’s not until someone nearly kills Sophia that she realizes the only way to unveil the source of her family's curse: abandon her faith or abandon her humanity. If she wants to survive, she must accept her who she is, perform dark magic, and fight to the death for her freedom.

Rebecca Hamilton On Writing

I probably spend about 10% of my writing time actually writing. Writing is the easy part. All you have to do is follow your emotions, put your imagination to paper, and keep asking the ‘what if’ questions you’d never want to answer yourself in real life.

Beyond that, there’s listening to your beta readers, rewriting, trading critique, re-writing, revising, editing, copy-editing, proofreading, deciding that it still needs another re-write, having to revise, edit, copy-edit, and proofread again. And on it goes, with not one of those steps being as easy as they sound to those who don’t know what each of those skills entail.
Of course, we get all the help we can. Sometimes it’s free…other times, it only requires we sign over our life.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Writing isn’t a job. Some can say they will sit at their desk from 9:00 to 5:00 and write—or work on any of the above mentioned writing activities. But writing is a lifestyle. You are working on your writing while you read. You’re working on it while you shower. While you sleep, change a baby’s diaper, do the dishes…you’re writing. When you walk through a forest trail and you notice a large oak tree that looks completely out of place among a forest full of redwoods or when you notice the receptionist at your optometrist’s office is squinting to read her paperwork … you’re writing.

Writing is just one of those things that, in my experience, consumes you. It becomes part of who you are. You live your life, same as before, but everything means more now. Everything is valuable. Writing becomes an outlet for life.

This is where you can find Rebecca:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Don't forget to leave your name in the comments box below if you'd like to win a copy of The Forever Girl and that gorgeous scented candle!
The contest closes at midnight on March 9th