Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club (2 days late) :: DEC

I am definitely in holiday mode - I forgot to post on Friday for the book club. :)

I've read four books this month and that will probably be as many as I do read. Interestingly enough, these four books are all from writers I only know about through membership of this blogging community.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but I think I am going to have to go with ...

The Summer I Found You - Jolene Perry

I really loved this book, even if sometimes Kate was a teeny bit annoying. She had good reason to be a bit whiny. And I love how she acted around Aidan, always bluntly drawing attention to his lack of an arm and so on.

It was refreshing to read about two characters dealing with physical imperfections that you don't often find in fiction, particularly in romantic fiction. A girl with diabetes and a guy with one arm. Not your everyday 'fluffy romance' read. :)

I can't wait to read my next Jolene Perry book.

A kitty before Christmas

Maple, a little girl up for adoption through our kitty rescue. :)

It's December 22, not long before Christmas, and I don't really have much to say but I do have a rule about posting at least one blog post each week. So here I am to fill the quota. ;)

With that in mind, here are some random 'things':

• Check out the books I've read this year, HERE. (44 / 40)

• Here is my bandmate's album for digital purchase, which I sing most vocals on: The Falling Sound

• This is the Facebook page for the main kitty rescue I'm involved in

And now, holiday speak:

I'm on holidays as of Wednesday! I have so much to sort out in my home, so having a stay-cation is a very good thing. ;) And I just can't wait to have a break and relax.

Christmas will be the usual morning at the beach with champagne & orange, bagels with sour cream & smoked salmon, fruit skewers, and good company. I am also invited to my cousin's for Christmas dinner, at which point I'll enjoy a delicious chocolate Bailey's cocktail type thing. Yum.

How will be you spending your Christmas?

Maybe I won't set any goals in 2015?

After this year's hits and misses, it's definitely time to re-think my approach. But that's nothing new, I guess - at the end of every year, it's the time to reassess. I have set goals every year since starting my blog, and every year has turned out differently.

I guess you guys know what it's like to reassess every year, and maybe change or at least tweak your approach in the new year. I've done that so far I think, but in 2015 I'm thinking I might try something entirely new: just taking on one random task at a time. Who knows? I may end up with another slacker year like this one, but I may actually get one thing achieved that I've wanted to achieve for ages now. You never know. ;)

I should probably still have a list of things I could work on, and then I can throw a dart at it and hit a random agenda item. ;) e.g.

1. Finish 2014 NaNo novel
2. Finish editing SQUEAKY (so not appealing)
3. Send some photo submissions to Vine Leaves

There's a good start. Three things to achieve, and two of them are relatively easy.

Anyway, these are my current thoughts about how I might approach 2015.

What are your plans for the new year?

Reading goal = Writer Blogger novels

One of my goals for a while now has been to read as many of my blogger writer friends' books as I can. Sometimes these authors are people I don't really know but am still only aware of because of the writer blogger community I'm a part of. But often they're people I do consider to be friends.

I did make quite a bit of progress this year, with reading the following books:

• Breakthrough - Stephen Tremp
• That Fatal Kiss - Mina Lobo
• Healing Summer - Elizabeth Seckman
• Reborn - Cherie Reich
• CassaStar - Alex J. Cavanaugh
• CassaFire - Alex J. Cavanaugh
• CassaStorm - Alex J. Cavanaugh
• Motocross Me - Cheyanne Young
• Three Daves - Nicki Elson
• The Trouble With Flying - Rachel Morgan
• The Shadows Trilogy - Jolene Perry
• Not Your Fault - Cheyanne Young
• Nobody Knows - Kyra Lennon
• Dragonfly - Leigh Talbot Moore
• Strength - Carrie Butler

And I'm currently reading:

• The Summer I Found You - Jolene Perry

Obviously I still have heaps of books yet to read, that you guys have written. But I'm quite happy with the progress I made this year.

A goal in the new year is to use some of my "leftover at the end of pay period" dollars & cents to buy copies of your books that I haven't bought yet. But that will probably be a slow, gradual process. For now, I've got plenty of your books still on my Kindle not yet read. And I also have at least one or two print copies on my bookshelves to read, too. Wheeee!

Post-NaNo post! :) and IWSG #11!

First I want to say I need to catch up on visiting your blogs - I've got a bit behind but I'll get on it ASAP.

Second, I won NaNo, though my novel LOST & FOUND is not quite finished. I'm at 51,346 words and estimate I won't get beyond 55k, and will probably get to less. But whenever I get around to revisions, I can well imagine adding a good few extra words to this count, with the required fleshing-out.

I'm pretty happy with the story, even if the writing leaves a fair bit to be desired. I'm both glad and sad that it's over. I need to get back to my revision work, but that's hardly an appealing notion. ;)

Anyway ... the end of the year is nigh. How are you guys feeling about the year gone by?

I'm feeling all right this month, I guess, but as we near the end of another year, my Goals page looks quite intimidating. I'm relieved it's just a general goals page, and not a page for goals I wanted to achieve this year alone.

I can say I didn't achieve most of what's on there, but I still got some stuff done.

Could be worse. ;)

Of course, the year isn't quite over yet. Perhaps miracles will occur before we hit 2015.

Cephalopod Book Club & Goals :: NOV

Geeez, the days are flying by! It's almost December. Yikes!

I know you guys are celebrating Thanksgiving over there in the U.S., so maybe not as many people will be participating in these blog hops this month. But I'm posting anyway just 'cause it's a compulsion I generally don't ignore. ;)

So here we go ... !

I'd known for years that I should read this book, but only just got around to it this year. The first section was about Stephen King's life growing up, and his early development as a writer. A great read. When I got to the "on writing" section, I read a lot of things that I felt I already knew. Much of it seemed to be stuff I was already doing with my own writing. But later I got to sections that surprised me.

First off, I was shocked to learn Stephen King is a pantser, usually writing without a plan even if he has some general idea of where he's going. He doesn't necessarily know how his story will end when he starts it - in fact, he usually doesn't. A lot of people talk about the importance of having your plot all dot-pointed out. But Stephen King says this leads to certain doom, in the form of a stiff, boring story.

Obviously that's just his opinion, and many authors who rely heavily on plotting are still able to come up with great, gripping stories. But King's words really impacted with me, because I could relate to them. I distinctly remember becoming bored with my own story when I'd overplotted before starting.

Another section of ON WRITING that fascinated me was about editing. This section made me realise maybe I've been doing it wrong. I generally like to get stuck right into edits, but SK always reads through his entire manuscript before editing. I know I've done this before, and it worked quite well - but I stopped, for some reason. I'm considering starting again.

The book finishes up with a recount of the horrific accident that nearly took SK's life in 1999. And finally, he includes an excerpt of a rough draft, totally unedited, and ends with an edited copy. I found the comparison very useful, as I could see his wordiness needing to be whittled down, and this really reminded me of my own problems - my stories usually start out bloated before I get to trimming.

All in all, a fascinating read, and inspiring as well.

Reading

First off, I reached my annual reading goal:

2014 Reading Challenge

Trisha has completed her goal of reading 40 books in 2014!

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41 of 40 (100%)

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So that's one goal done & dusted for 2014!

Writing

Secondly, I am still working on reaching my NaNo goal, but wouldn't be surprised if I got to 50k tonight. But if I take it super easy, I will get there tomorrow, still a day ahead of November's end.

As mentioned, this has been a very slow NaNo year for me, but it's been necessary to not go at my usual breakneck speed.

Music

I should mention that my bandmate Billy is releasing his debut album, THE FALLING SOUND, under the artist name Rotting Apples (inspired by the song "Rotten Apples" by our favourite band the Smashing Pumpkins).

I sing vocals on most of the songs. I've already got my copies and have been distributing them to friends & family.

In General

It's getting to that time of year when we look back & reflect on what we've achieved since setting our goals. I think I may be disappointed when I get around to doing that, but I'll focus on the good things.

A NaNo update [after day 23]

As of today (being Day 24, but I haven't written anything for Day 24 yet), I have 43,302 words.

I need to write 957 words per day to win, which is basically what I've needed to write for a week or so now - and I've been sticking rather closely to that basic minimum word count.

I've had 2 days during November where I didn't write a single word, and then wrote double the required word count the next day to make up for it (not a big deal when "double" is only 2k of words).

All in all it hasn't been the easiest NaNo year, but nor has it been the hardest. I've had years before where every word was a struggle, at least towards the end.

I've also had years where the words just flew out.

So yeah, this year is somewhere in between.

When I was at around 41k I realised I didn't have enough left in my planned plot to get over 50k, but then I realised there was an entire chunk of story I hadn't even been going to address. So now I have the plan to address that chunk, and that'll take me well beyond 50k.

All in all, I'm "okay" with the story, but I definitely think it's messy - despite me having had a plan this time around. ;)

Anyway, that's me signing off for another day.

P.S. If I don't get to say it closer to the date,

I hope all my American friends have a great Turkeysday.

I think I have a soft spot for Thanksgiving, because my

SQUEAKY novels have turkey characters in them. ;)

NaNoWriMo ~ Slowly she goes

As of the end of Day #18 (yesterday), I had written 37,556 words.

I have slowed right down to barely 1k a day, because this is all I require to hit 50k by the end of November. I think I wrote about 1200 words yesterday.

It's possible I won't finish the novel by November's end, but I'll definitely hit 50k!

I'm still enjoying the story, but I guess I am slightly burned out with other stuff going on in my life - namely, kitty rescue stuff - so it's all I can do to hit that small amount of words.

Today we are rescuing at least 12 cats (including at least 10 kittens).
There are 8 kittens with no mum, in one lot.
The other kittens are with a mum - all I know is that there's plural kittens there, but not sure how many.
We are also rescuing an old boy who looks sore, tired, and in need of serious TLC.

I volunteer with a bunch of awesomely generous and caring people. But it takes a lot of coordination to make a rescue like today's happen.

First we have to find a rescue to take on the cats. We also have to find a carer if the rescue doesn't have one available. We always try to have carers sorted first, so we can 'entice' our affiliated rescues to take the new kitties on. ;) Then we get to think about how to collect kitty from the pound. We have to organise transport, which often involves multiple people participating in a "transport relay", as is happening today.

I guess that's the challenging part, but after rescue, we also need to get the kitties healthy, get their vetwork done, and find them a forever home! And while we're doing all this, we have to find room for new cats coming into pounds weekly.

But it's very rewarding to be a part of this. Here's an e.g. of why:

One of our little foster babies in care at the moment - Webster.
Look out on Facebook for his very own page, coming soon. ;)

Reporting from Day 16 of NaNo

It's November 16th, so we're over halfway through NaNoWriMo 2014.

I'm currently at 32,833 words, which is a result of me writing the bare minimum some nights, and far less than the bare minimum other nights.

Early on I had some good nights where I wrote well above the bare minimum.

It's all averaged out to me being 6,216 words ahead of schedule, even without having completed today's word count.

I feel that I got over a big slow-going section and from here on in I should be able to speed up a bit, or at least find the writing more free-flowing.

But I guess only time will tell!

I hope you are all having great Novembers. :)

Now I have to go outside with my cat as he's meowing his head off demanding some attention. He likes me to go for walks down the driveway with him.

NaNoWriMo - 9 days in

I got a late start on my NaNoing on Saturday, but eventually I did get stuck into the writing - and only wrote about 3k for the whole day. Yesterday was even worse, with only 1.7k written.

My explanation is that on Saturday I was exhausted and also had a few things to do - like get my car's carpets shampooed after a beer bottle broke on the front passenger floor Friday night. On Sunday I had a visit from a friend who is in my cat rescue group, and we spent about 3 hours chatting. I also cleaned my house on Sunday. So, yeah, "stuff" got in the way. Still, I got the bare minimum done on Sunday, and more than that done on Saturday. It's all good!

So I'm sitting at 21,761 words after 9 days of writing. Some years I would be over 50k by now. Every year I participate in NaNoWriMo, things go differently for me. One year I'm pretty sure I was at 50k after 6 or 7 days. In 2011, I hit 50k by day 15, and then switched to my second novel of the month. Other times, I've taken until much later in November to hit that winning mark. It's interesting to look at the variation in stats. :)

November is a pretty quiet time of year for Australians, as compared with Americans with their Thanksgiving and so on. But I guess we still have those pesky lives to live, so that is bound to get in the way. :P

How are your Novembers going?

IWSG #10 ~ It's NaNoWriMo time!

November is here, and so is the first Wednesday of that month! Of course that means it's time to post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. This awesome group was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, and November's co-hosts are:

 LG Keltner, Donna Hole, Lisa Buie-Collard & SL Hennessy.

So what am I feeling insecure about this month? Oh, just the usual - the fact that this year has basically sucked when it comes to achieving goals. Or rather, I have sucked at my main goal of trying to get a lot of revision done.

Still, I've had fun this year, including during November so far. I've kicked off with my twelfth year of NaNoWriMo and am currently at 13,802 words. I'm writing LOST & FOUND, which I've had as an idea for a while now. I am basically jotting the bare bones story down, and will need to go back and add 'atmosphere' later. But for now, I'm just doing whatever keeps the writing flowing.

I'm pretty sure also that because of the way I've been jumping from scene to scene, I already have some inconsistencies that need fixing. And I have one chapter that doesn't really fit anywhere anymore, but I'm keeping it in there because it goes towards my word count. I will remove it, amend it, or find a new place for it, after November is done. ;)

For now: bare bones word spewage. After hitting 50k later in the month?: focusing on the flesh-out task (that sounds gross doesn't it? "flesh out"? hehe. reminds me of zombies for some reason).

In other news, I got a request maybe a month ago or so to be a CP, and I am reading the lady's novel right now, a sort of thriller/mystery/romance tale. I'm loving it. It's a pretty rough draft, with words missing here & there and so on, but polishing can come later. For now, the story itself is awesome and so very gripping.

Gotta love CPing a great story!

Cephalopod & Goals - OCTOBER!

Once again it's time for those "end of month" blog hops I like to participate in. I already posted for Write ... Edit ... Publish, and if you want to check that out, click HERE. But I also need to post for the Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club, and the monthly Do You Have Goals? hop.

So here goes.

This month I read more than one great book, and while I was tempted to choose If I Stay as my "book of the month", I opted for this one instead:

I can finally say, "I've read this book!" ... and it's about time! I first read an Isobelle Carmody book after my mum bought me book #1 of the Legendsong back in the late '90s. I LOVED it, and I know I'm not here to talk about Legendsong, but the point I'm making is that Legendsong #1 came out in 1998 or so, and yet it's taken until October 2014 for me to finally pick up my first Obernewtyn book. 

Now that we've got that intro out of the way, I will say that the writing in Obernewtyn #1 did strike me as quite 'young', likely because Carmody was in high school when she wrote the book. I'm interested in finding out how her writing did or did not change across later books, as she grew into an adult. I already know they got increasingly fatter, because while book #1 is very slender, some of the later books are literal tomes.

Despite the 'young'ness of this first episode, I greatly enjoyed it. It's an intriguing world I've entered into, a post-apocalyptic world in which magic is feared, and those in charge try their very best to stamp it out. Those figures of authority are fighting a losing battle, though, because more and more people are being born as "mutant" magic users, rather than the population of freaks getting less as they'd hoped would happen. And some of those 'freaks' are getting sick of living under the oppression their kind has endured for centuries. 

I look forward to learning more about the world of Obernewtyn as I read on with this series.

Last month I shared a picture of my beautiful temp foster kitty George, who is still with me. He's still pretty naughty, and very exasperating, but he's just as cute as he was a month ago. So he's lucky about that. ;) Still, he's one of the reasons I'm still a slacker.

So, yeah, goals? Ummm, I've done a tiny bit of revision work since last month, but nothing much to write home about. And guess what? Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo starts!

In sort of related news that isn't really related, I've almost finished reading Stephen King's On Writing, which has made me realise that there's no need to entirely abandon my pantser ways. ;) Being a pantser is no crime, my friends. If it's good enough for Stephen King, it's good enough for me. Ha!

Seriously though, I suck at editing this year.

Better luck next year, perhaps!

(I think On Writing gave me some thoughts there as well about how better to approach my editing tasks in future. But I'll talk about that some other day)

For now, I'm going to sign off on this note:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :)

Write ... Edit ... Publish ~ GHOST STORY

First off, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope you all a fun day. And I hope the world is kind to all the beautiful black kitties out there.

Secondly, it's time for the WEP, which I missed last month. WEP is hosted by my awesome fellow Aussie, Denise Covey. This month's theme is, fittingly for the time of year, "Ghost Story".

My story is actually from a novel I never ended up finishing, despite working on it across 2 years of NaNo (2004 and 2005, I believe). It's technically part of a greater epic fantasy work, but is currently a little bit disconnected from the "whole". Anyway, this is the scene as it stands after a few revisions done today. MS Word tells me it's 523 words long.

Somana stared at the ghost. She knew what it must see as it looked back at her—a face haggard and sagging, red-rimmed eyes with heavy shadows underneath. No doubt it also saw a withered, worn-out body, all planes, angles and shadows.

That was how Somana felt. Desiccated.

Soft orange-red light flickered all around, filtering through the ghost, playing tricks. The ghost stood silent, its power unspoken, undefinable…inescapable. It held Somana in its thrall, a trembling prisoner barely able to draw breath.

This had been one of the bad nights—the ones that always seemed to age Somana so dramatically. And it was far from over yet.

“Why are you here?” Somana’s voice shook. “You torment me!”

The ghost did not need her accusation. It knew.

It knew all her names: Zeille. Ereta. Joenne. Somana. It even knew the name she’d gone by as a child, a name all but forgotten now even by its owner. Best forgotten. Perish the thought of anyone speaking it aloud nowadays—such an act would surely seal Somana’s doom.

In her mind, she saw the ghost’s mouth open; saw the word, the name, slip out.

Her heart seized, stuttered. Her lungs constricted, and she was convinced they would explode at any moment.

Her life hung in the balance. Cradled in a ghost’s hands.

Empty bottles lay scattered about the room—at the foot of Somana’s chair, on every windowsill, and peeking out from beneath the thick, velvet curtains. Those glass receptacles glimmered in the firelight, mesmerising representations of the depths to which their owner had sunk. Usually a visitor wouldn’t see them, for no visitors came on bad nights like these. But the ghost saw them always, and drew them out.

Somana hated this ghost. She also loved and grieved, as she had done across all these bereaved years. The sickly feeling swelled in her breast, sweeping through her entire being, threatening to obliterate her the way endless bottles of elixir could never do. Why are you being so cruel? she wanted to ask, but her mouth no longer worked. And besides, she would never ask that question. Never could. The ghost was not being cruel on purpose. It was only fulfilling its purpose.

But she couldn’t help but wonder what sort of life this was. Could she really go on this way forever?

Her limbs had grown stiff to the point of cramping. She sweated, twitched, grimaced, whimpered, but did not move from her seat, huddled as she was against the great cushions. Sometimes she leaned forward, and always her eyes remained fixed on the spectre of her fascination. She wanted to run and hide, but she also wanted to spring forward and enfold the apparition in her embrace.

A motherly embrace...

The sun crept above the horizon but the light inside Somana’s room never changed. Only when the ghost departed would the shadows relinquish their hold on her. For now, the ghost held sway, and gained some measure of vindication. No comfort. Never that. No one could ever feel comfort here.

But when vindication was all there was to gain, it would have to do.

Too lazy to post anything but a cat video

Because I don't really have much to write about at the moment, because it's a Sunday and I'm feeling extremely lazy today, I thought I'd share this video instead. It's of my temporary foster cat George:



Suffice to say, George loves chasing his tail, attacking his own reflection in the shiny floor tiles, and generally being a bit of a wacko. ;) He's definitely one of the more vocal cats I've ever met, and he has big boofy paws and is very cute. Even if he isn't quite sure how to be gentle when playing.

I hope you guys are having a great weekend. :)

NaNoWriMo 2014 ... I'm in! Are you?

It's that time of year again when lots of us are gearing up for November, and NaNoWriMo. This year I'm writing yet again about rock stars, only not the same lot I've written 5 novels about in the past. This year's novel is tentatively titled "LOST & FOUND", and here is my little rough draft blurb as it stands:

Ginna and Benedict grew up together, best friends and confidants. As they enter high school, Ben finds his calling - writing & playing music - and forms his first band. Ginna, an opinionated music connoisseur, is his strongest supporter, but he rehearses in secret with his band, refusing to let her in. At their debut gig, Ben's band isn't very good, but Ginna is convinced this is the start of something huge, at least for Ben.

She's right. Ben is destined for stardom. And as his career takes off, he leaves Ginna far behind. Soon he is caught up in living the high life, travelling the world & hanging out with other famous people. But when disaster strikes his personal life, he realises he's made a series of huge mistakes. And it may be too late for him to go back & fix what he's broken.

As usual, I have that excited feeling in the lead-up to November. But I'm still trying hard to get as much editing of SQUEAKY done before November 1st begins. I'm currently on one of those pesky chapters that needed more actual story added to it, rather than to just be edited.

But back on point... Are you participating in NaNo this November?

P.S. I have now listed all my previous NaNo novels in there as well.

Jessica Bell ~ WHITE LADY book tour [WIN a copy!]

GUESS THE TRUE STATEMENT & WIN JESSICA BELL'S THRILLER, WHITE LADY! (Statement #83)

To celebrate the release of Jessica Bell's latest novel, WHITE LADY, she is giving away an e-copy (mobi, ePub, or PDF) to the first person to correctly guess the one true statement in the three statements below. To clarify, two statements are lies, and one is true:

In White Lady, Mick, Sonia’s son ...
a. dislikes Sonia’s lover, Nash, so much so that he tries to convince her to kill him.
b. was emotionally and physically abused by his father as a child.
c. is expected to be a witness at his father’s forthcoming murder trial.

What do you think? Which one is true? Write your guess in the comments, along with your email address. Comments will close in 48 hours. If no-one guesses correctly within 48 hours, comments will stay open until someone does.

Want more chances to win? You have until October 31 to visit all the blogs where Jessica will share a different set of true and false statements on each one. Remember, each blog is open to comments for 48 hours only from the time of posting.

If you win, you will be notified by email with instructions on how to download the book.

Click HERE to see the list of blogs.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

*This novel contains coarse language, violence, and sexual themes.

Sonia yearns for sharp objects and blood. But now that she's rehabilitating herself as a "normal" mother and mathematics teacher, it's time to stop dreaming about slicing people's throats.

While being the wife of Melbourne's leading drug lord and simultaneously dating his best mate is not ideal, she's determined to make it work.

It does work. Until Mia, her lover's daughter, starts exchanging saliva with her son, Mick. They plan to commit a crime behind Sonia's back. It isn't long before she finds out and gets involved to protect them.

But is protecting the kids really Sonia's motive?

Click HERE to view the book trailer.
Click HERE for purchase links.

Jessica Bell, a thirty-something Australian-native contemporary fiction author, poet and singer/songwriter/guitarist, is the Publishing Editor of Vine Leaves Literary Journal and the director of the Homeric Writers' Retreat & Workshop on the Greek island of Ithaca. She makes a living as a writer/editor for English Language Teaching Publishers worldwide, such as Pearson Education, HarperCollins, MacMillan Education, Education First and Cengage Learning.

Connect with Jessica online:

Website | Retreat & workshop | Blog | Vine Leaves Literary Journal | Facebook | Twitter

Hello, 600th post

I started this blog in December, 2010 after hearing, as many of us do before starting out blogging, that aspiring authors should probably have some sort of online "platform". I think the general idea is to establish your online presence and 'brand'. I definitely started out with the 'online presence' thing in mind, but I never had a particular brand in mind, and I still don't.

Now in October, 2014, I'm still putting up posts about whatever I feel like on a particular day. I do participate in blogfests, book launches, tours, etc., so when it comes to those, my posts are a little bit - or a lot - pre-determined. But the only rule I really try to stick to with blogging in general is to post at least once a week. Previously I aimed for every 3 days, but I find having a general goal of one post per week works better.

It's a little way off my 4-year blogiversary, but 600 posts is a fun milestone to celebrate anyway! I'm so glad to be part of this community. You guys are awesome and I love reading your blogs & seeing what you have to say. And I really enjoy reading your books, too. ;) Particularly when I get awesome print copies of them. GO PRINT BOOKS, GO!

P.S. I'm not far off achieving my (admittedly quite modest) annual reading goal:

2014 Reading Challenge

Trisha has read 37 books toward her goal of 40 books.

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37 of 40 (92%)

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P.P.S. I am starting to think about what I want to write for NaNo, 2014. I have two ideas that are way ahead of all the rest. Haven't picked one yet, though.

Kyra Lennon's NOBODY KNOWS ~ cover reveal

Title: Nobody Knows

Author: Kyra Lennon

Genre: NA Romance

Type: First in Series (Razes Hell Book 1)

Cover Design: Najila Qamber Design

Photographer: Lindee Robinson Photography

Release Date: November 3rd 2014

 

It's not easy being friends with rising rock stars - especially when you're the glue that holds them together.

Razes Hell has taken off in the charts, and Ellie can't believe her childhood friends, Drew and Jason Brooks, are on TV and drawing crowds after years spent playing in dodgy bars. From obscurity to overnight success, Ellie soon realises life in the public eye isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as dark secrets become headline news and old conflicts are re-ignited. When a fake feud meant to boost the band’s popularity threatens to rip the boys apart for real, Ellie finds herself torn – a position which only gets more uncomfortable when her loyalty to Jason collides with her blossoming relationship with Drew.

Nobody knows how deep their issues run; nobody but Ellie. With friendship, a music career and a new love on the line, can Ellie keep their tangled pasts from ruining their futures?

AmazonUS | AmazonUK

 

Kyra is a self-confessed book-a-holic, and has been since she first learned to read. When she's not reading, you'll usually find her hanging out in coffee shops with her trusty laptop and/or her friends, or girling it up at the nearest shopping mall.

Kyra grew up on the South Coast of England and refuses to move away from the seaside which provides massive inspiration for her novels. Her debut novel, Game On (New Adult Contemporary Romance), was released in July 2012, and she scored her first Amazon Top 20 listing with her New Adult novella, If I Let You Go in November.

Facebook | Twitter | Website | Amazon | Goodreads

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator - Edit Image

Shelfie Blog Hop - last-minute appearance! :)

It's October 6th over here, and I'm just sneaking in my Shelfie post at the last minute! What's this whole Shelfie Blog Hop thing about? Well, I got the info from VikLit's blog, HERE. But the gist is:

Take a picture of you and your book(s) - your faves or your own novels. Or you can just arrange the books in a special way and take the picture - but you do get extra points for being in the photo.Formats: Tweet, Facebook, Blog - just make sure to include a link(s) to each.You have until October 6th!

It's true I haven't published any of my books yet, but I do have 2 proof copies of novels, one each of SUNDOWN and FIRE. You can see those (only a bit of FIRE) in the photo below. The book in the middle is, of course, the Vine Leaves Anthology I had my little poem published in. Unfortunately I don't yet have a physical copy of the other anthology I was published in, but I hope to get one someday soon.

The other thing you can see in this photo (other than me) is a tiny glimpse of my beloved built-in bookshelves. I have wall to wall books and DVDs and CDs in my hallway, on one side anyway. Would be a bit overkill if I had it on both sides. I think that'd make me a bit claustrophobic. ;) So yeah, I love my bookshelves.

Here is a better view of my shelves ... with a glimpse of a grey cat's back at the bottom. ;)