Thursday, May 23, 2013

Feature & Follow (14)

Alison Can Read Feature & Follow


Meme: Feature Follow

Day: Friday 


Premis: The meme hosts will 1) feature two (2) blog sites and 2) propose two questions that participating bloggers will answer on their blogs sites and give their followers the chance to join in.

This week's featured blogs: Bookingly Yours and Book Junkie Joint

 *Follow these sites 

This week's featured questions: Don't forget to leave a comment.

Q: The #FF is 150 weeks old! And we want to hear from you! What would you change about the hop? What do you like about it? Or just suggest a question to be used for next week!

A: I'm relatively new to the #FF, but can honestly say I've been enjoying it. I'm not sure I would change anything about it. 

 I saw a question posted a few days ago that made me think: Which do you prefer... paperback or e-book? We all have a preference. What is it and why?  

 (Me: I like e-books for nothing more than the convenience of instantaneous ordering and the fact that I don't have to store them in my already over crowded bookshelves.) ❤


FEATURE FOLLOW RULES (as described on Parajunkee)
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
    • (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
    • (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
    • Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
    • Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
    • If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
    • Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
    • If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
    • If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
Posted by at 10 comments:

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Release Announcement: The Temporal Stone

The Temporal Stone (The Morgan Sisters) by Suzy Turner

Release Date: May 16th

Synopsis

It's been a couple of months since Emma and Lana entered the Praxos Academy and life has been hectic ever since. What with regular A level classes combined with learning all about the supernatural world, control classes, self defence and fight night, the girls are constantly busy.

But when their world seems to stop right in front of them, they and their fellow Watchers, have a huge mystery to solve. A mystery which leads them on a long road trip across south west England where they meet all kinds of strange creatures, some intent on causing harm and others desperate to put a stop to the problem.

The Temporal Stone is the second full length novel in The Morgan Sisters series. The first book is entitled The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw. There is also a free novella, Daisy Madigan's Paradise.

Links:

AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/Temporal-Stone-Morgan-Sisters-ebook/dp/B00CUGH5KK

AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Temporal-Stone-Morgan-Sisters-ebook/dp/B00CUGH5KK

SMASHWORDS: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/317159

(other sites and paperback coming soon)

Author Bio

Suzy Turner has worked as a journalist, assistant editor, features editor and magazine editor. Early in 2010 however, she began writing full time and has since completed a trilogy for young adults, The Raven Saga, as well as several books in The Morgan Sisters series.

Although Suzy is a Yorkshire lass at heart, she left her home town of Rotherham, UK, to move to Portugal with her family when she was ten.

The Algarve continues to be her home, where she lives with her childhood sweetheart and husband of 15 years, Michael.

Website: http://suzyturner.com
Blog: http://suzyturner.blogspot.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Suzy-Turner/e/B0050BSH1I
Facebook: http://facebook.com/suzyturnerbooks
Twitter: http://twitter.com/suzy_turner
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/suzyturnerbooks
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Feature & Follow (#21)

Alison Can Read Feature & Follow
Meme: Feature Follow

Day: Friday 


Premis: The meme hosts will 1) feature two (2) blog sites and 2) propose two questions that participating bloggers will answer on their blogs sites and give their followers the chance to join in.

This week's featured blogs: Picture Me Reading and The Bookish Confections

 *Follow these sites 

This week's featured questions: Don't forget to leave a comment.

Q: School is out! What is your favorite summer reading book?

A: Picking one book from a very, very large library is quite nearly impossible. I loved The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden, #1) by Julie Kagawa. Because I loved that book and its author so much, I'm completely ready to curl up and read the follow-up book, The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2)   ❤

FEATURE FOLLOW RULES (as described on Parajunkee)
To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
    • (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
    • (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
    • Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
    • Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
    • If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
    • Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
    • If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
    • If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
Posted by at 11 comments:

Indie Author Series: Categorizing Your Book

This week the YA Author Club will be talking about the importance of categorizing your book. It seems simple, and it some cases, it is. In others... well... not so much.

 While I started off specifically writing a young adult book (Warriors of the Cross) that my daughter would enjoy and one we could talk about together, I quickly realized the book (and the next 3 books in the series) could never be categorized with something as simple as young adult. There were just so many other genres that fit the book's characteristics: romance, action, suspense, medical, paranormal, fantasy, saga, ghost, tragedy, and adventure.

 For me the book's variety makes it interesting and unexpected and a great read. At the same time, it made it much harder for me to find the perfect audience for the series. 70-80,000 books later, I can safely say the series has found its way. Its path was just a little less traveled because it was not an exact replica of stories, characters, twists, and turns already written and re-written.

 For my latest series, I opted - yet again - for the path less traveled. While Grave Bound is new adult... romance... action... adventure... tragedy... saga... suspense... erotica, it is not like anything else written, making it equally difficult to pigeon hole into one genre. Because it is labeled as 18+ only, the readers adding it to their TBR list appear to enjoy reading erotica. Of course, the hard-core, erotica-loving readers are often disappointed by Grave Bound because it is a real story (novel and not short story) about life-like characters. They don't start off AND end up having sex. There's a world that had to built (only because it was so different than anything we know) and characters that had to become endearing. This is mostly because I'm not big on writing (or reading) about characters that I'm supposed to instantly care about. Like my best friends, I have to get to know them before I love them enough to become emotionally vested in their tribulations.  Don't get me wrong, there is sex in this Grave Bound. It is earth-shattering and passionate. It is not gratuitous or hard-core erotica. 

 Because I have to, I label my books with a genre. I can assure you they are never perfect, but they do represent a tiny portion of what the book is and who its characters would appeal to. I have to believe others outside of the identified genre could/would enjoy the stories if they gave them a chance and stopped judging them by their 'genre'.

 In some ways, assigning my books to a specific genre is similar to labeling my every role (wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, co-worker, boss, nurse, author,...) and saying I can only be one thing. For me, that's an impossible task. It depends on where I am and who I'm with as to which role I'm playing. The same can be said for my books. The genre depends on which character you are reading about, where they are in the story, and what challenges they are facing.

In order to show you how many different literary genres exist, I've included WiIKIPEDIA's list of genre's and subgenres. After you see them, you will understand how daunting the job can be when it comes to labeling books. The links are included so feel free to explore the options.

Posted by at 1 comment:

Friday, May 10, 2013

Feature Follow (107)

Alison Can Read Feature & Follow
Meme: Feature Follow

Day: Friday 


Premis: The meme hosts will 1) feature two (2) blog sites and 2) propose two questions that participating bloggers will answer on their blogs sites and give their followers the chance to join in.

This week's featured blogs: The Nerd Herd and Counting in Bookcases

 *Follow these sites 

This week's featured questions: Don't forget to leave a comment.

Q: Happy Mother's Day! Who is your favorite mom from fiction?

A: Hands down, my favorite fiction mom is Brody Kennedy's mother, from Warriors of the Cross (Warriors, #1).  After Lita, my mother-in-law died, I created the character, basing Brody's mother off Lita's characteristics. Lita was a wonderful woman, friend, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. My husband and I began dating when I was sixteen and he was seventeen. Lita instantly accepted me, took me in, and mentored me until the day she died. She stood by my side and held my hand when my children took their first crying breaths, and I was fortunate enough to be with her when she took her last graceful breath. For the rest of my life, I'll have a special place in my heart for her. ❤

Warriors of the Cross (Warriors, #1) Excerpt:
Without interrupting my peacefulness, three women exited through the glass doors. They had to be The Sisters recruited to watch me for the weekend.

They possessed a natural and effortless kindness, which very few people in the world exhibited. Treating me like a long-lost friend, their excitement at having me as a guest was as sincere as Brody’s. Without question, it would be easier to escape from Brody this weekend than it would be to evade them.

“Allie, Brody has told us so much about you. Thank you for staying here this weekend,” said Brody’s mother, Lita.

It was instantly obvious Lita and both her sisters looked alike. Their Native Indian heritage was evident in the high cheekbones and black hair. Like my family members fortunate enough to inherit those genes, they were all breathlessly beautiful. It was as if their bodies stopped aging at forty-five. In fact, it was almost unbelievable each of these women was nearing their seventies. Their similarities extended beyond their physical traits. They frequently shared thoughts and spoke them at the same time while constantly finishing each other’s sentences. I heard of identical twins with that type of intuition and made a mental note to read up on sibling telepathy. 

FEATURE FOLLOW RULES (as described on Parajunkee)

To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
    • (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
    • (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
    • Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
    • Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
    • If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
    • Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
    • If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
    • If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
Posted by at 3 comments:

Sunday, May 5, 2013

❤ Happy Nurses Week ❤


I'm so, so fortunate to be able to call myself a nurse. I mean really! Are there better people in the world than those who have knowingly pursued a profession that requires you to be selfless by its very definition? Then, after we study hard, endure sleepless nights, and give ourselves to our profession (mind, body, and soul), we are allowed to call ourselves a nurse. Believe me, it is a privilege that has to be earned and not gifted.

A few weeks ago, I witnessed a situation that solidified my commitment to this profession. Let me preface this story by telling you I work in the middle of the Texas Medical Center, a tight-knit community of medical professionals.

Anyway, I was leaving my office and heading to a meeting that was 5-6 miles away. I hadn't gone one block when I saw a sedan stopped in the middle of the road and faced in the wrong direction and another awkwardly pulled up and parked on side street. The fact that a wreck had just happened was obvious. In fact, it was so fresh there was not a police officer or ambulance in site. What was there was a team of pedestrians gathered around and making the necessary calls.

When I got close enough to make out people, I saw a friend of mine (my beta-reader) was one of the people gathered near the car. As soon as he saw my car, he flagged me down. I quickly pulled up right in front of the car most damaged. My friend rushed over and said, "There's a man who may be dying."

Those words are the ones that jump-start nurses, doctors, and EMT's. We train our entire lives to intervene in these types of situations. Without another word, I fly out of my car. Work heels, shift dress, jacket and all. Sight unseen, I was completely prepared to do whatever necessary should the victim of this accident be lifeless or breathless.

Here's the kicker. My friend had no idea, but there were already two nurses at the scene. They'd both ran from their office which was across from the accident. One was on the phone with EMS and shouting, "He's breathing. Leave him in the car."As you know, nurses can be quite persistent when they want or need something. 

Since I was not the first on the scene and the patient was breathing, I didn't feel the need to do much other than stay put in the event the patient deteriorated before EMS arrived.

Seconds later, two nurses come running down the road yelling, "We have an AED." An AED is an automated external defibrillator, and of course, we assured them it was not necessary at that moment. Before we finished talking to the two newest nurses, a car stopped behind the accident and another woman ran up to the scene saying, "I'm a nurse." We reiterated the fact that he was breathing and had just regained consciousness.

A minute or two later, EMS and a fire truck arrived, and those professional took control of the scene, freeing the Good Samaritan nurses to go about their way with the confidence that the patient would receive the care necessary.

While I am a nurse and this story is a tribute to the profession I've embraced, I don't want to pretend there weren't other people from all walks of life standing around and making themselves available should this man need anything. For example, a truck driver stopped the instant the wreck happened, grabbed a fire extinguisher from his truck, ran over to the car with the unconscious man, and busted out the window so others could get inside the locked car and check on the man.

When you gauge our world and its people based on all of the horrible things we hear on the news, you begin to wonder if all is lost. Then, these types of situations occur, ones where a team of strangers come together to for the sole purpose of giving aid to a person who needed help. Standing by and witnessing the selflessness I saw that day, rekindled my faith in the world we live in while solidifying my pride in the people who've given their lives to the profession of nursing.

If you know a nurse, remember to thank them for all they do every single day. Their jobs are not glamorous. They are necessary, and it takes a special person to take on the challenge.

If you are a nurse, Happy Nurses Week!



Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Feature & Follow #20

Alison Can Read Feature & Follow
Meme: Feature Follow

Day: Friday 


Premis: The meme hosts will 1) feature two (2) blog sites and 2) propose two questions that participating bloggers will answer on their blogs sites and give their followers the chance to join in.

This week's featured blogs: Pretty Deadly Reviews and Boarding with Books

 *Follow these sites 

This week's featured questions: Don't forget to leave a comment.

Q: Give us a sneak! What are you reading? Tell us about a fun or fail scene in your current read.

A: I just completed April's NaNoWriMo and am officially a 2013 winner. As such, the only book I've even looked at recently is the book I'm writing, Underground (Secrets, #2). I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing Emily Riddle's world, one that is unlike anything most of us could ever imagine because it's one where women are not equals... they are more like slaves and baby factories than actual human beings.

 This book is nowhere near finished (or edited), but I thought it would be nice to share one of my favorite (so far) excerpts from it. Please know, I will change this a hundred times before it gets published, but it will give fans of Grave Bound (Secrets, #1) a glimpse into Emily's newest adventure. Believe me when I say that  Grave Bound (Secrets, #1)  may have been filled with twists and turns, but it doesn't have anything on Underground (Secrets, #2). ❤

Excerpt (Emily):


There's no way he'll find me.

I stop, lean my hand against one of the forest's many giant oaks, bend over, and rest until my breathing slows and my lungs are no longer burning. Time does nothing for my legs. They are still contorted with searing cramps that won't seem to go away. Unable to run—or walk—another step, I slip to the ground near the tree and curl up beneath it. I scoot closer to it several times and don't stop until I'm as far into the base of the oak as I can squeeze. The last thing I want right now is for Noah to find me.

After a few minutes, I pull Levi's cellphone from my pocket, turn it on, and study it. I'm surprised the device is still charged. I search through it's folders... desperate to discover something new about the man I loved... longing to hear his voice.

Levi has dozens of people listed under his contacts. The name that catches my attention right away is Tope Bryson, DA. Without thinking, I push the call button. I'm not sure I really want to talk to him, but I dont' want to be alone either.

"Hello?" Tope says, cautiously.

I don't say anything. I just needed to hear his voice.

"Who is this?" Tope asks and there is hope in his voice. His hope may have been silent, but it spoke to the place in me that is broken, beaten, battered, and bruised.

"It's me," I whisper.



FEATURE FOLLOW RULES (as described on Parajunkee)

To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
    • (Required) Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts {Parajunkee & Alison Can Read}
    • (Required) Follow our Featured Bloggers
    • Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.
    • Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say “hi” in your comments and that they are now following you.
    • If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn’t have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed
    • Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don’t just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don’t say “HI”
    • If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love…and the followers
    • If you’re new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
Posted by at 7 comments:
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