Dystopian Giveaway Hop!

November 1st to 7th
Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & My Shelf Confessions

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my giveaway! I'm so excited for the opportunity to participate in this blog hop and offer a lucky winner one of the YA dystopian books listed below.

On to the books...


One choice will define you.

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready...
~Go to the entire Goodreads description of Allegiant by Veronica Roth

 
Reeling from the tragic events of Dust & Decay, Benny Imura and his friends plunge deep into the zombie-infested wastelands of the great Rot & Ruin. Benny, Nix, Lilah and Chong journey through a fierce wilderness that was once America, searching for the jet they saw in the skies months ago. If that jet exists then humanity itself must have survived…somewhere. Finding it is their best hope for having a future and a life worth living...
~Go to the entire Goodreads description of Flesh & Bone by Jonathan Maberry





It's been over a year since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

In the time since everyperson over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have been fought: battles against hunger and lies and plague, and epic battles of good against evil. And now, the gaiaphage has been reborn as Diana's malicious mutant daughter, Gaia. Gaia is endlessly hungry for destruction. She yearns to conquer her Nemesis, Little Pete, and then bend the entire world to her warped will...
 ~Go to the entire Goodreads description of Light by Michael Grant


After leaving Society to desperately seek The Rising, and each other, Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again. Cassia is assigned undercover in Central city, Ky outside the borders, an airship pilot with Indie. Xander is a medic, with a secret. All too soon, everything shifts again.
~Go to the entire Goodreads description of Reached by Ally Condie







Here are the official rules/guidelines for the giveaway:

1. You must be a follower of this blog. Just click the Join this Site box below "Followers" on the sidebar.
2. You can gain extra entries by following me on Goodreads, Twitter,"liking" my Facebook fan page, signing up for my newsletter, or leaving a comment below.
3. This is open to international followers. (Only if The Book Depository ships to your country; please check this link to see if your country's included.)
4. This contest runs from November 1 - 7.
5. The winner will be selected on November 8th via Rafflecopter random selection and announced in this post. You will have 48 hours to respond or I will draw another winner. 

***As the winner, if you are just dying to get another YA book, then you may substitute one of the books listed above for another of similar value from The Book Depository***

Thanks Again & Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Also, make sure to check out the other blogs participating in this Giveaway Hop, too!

SUSY Asylum Tour Reflections & What's Next

Thank you to Candace at CBB Book Promotions for organizing my blog tour and to all the bloggers that offered up their blogs for a day highlight Provex City and SUSY Asylum.

I am pleased with the response I received from SUSY Asylum, a story that seemed to evoke strong reactions from its readers (good and bad) due to choices made by the main characters. It wasn't as safe of a story as Provex City and explored some darker themes that I knew would not be for everyone.  But I am excited to be getting such emotional responses. Readers seem to deeply connect with the characters with all of their vulnerabilities and flaws..

The responses and interest lit a fire under me to begin work on the third book in the series. So I've officially set aside Project Winter for now and have begun writing Book 3. The writing status bar on the left side bar is now accurate and will be updated weekly to record my progress. I began Chapter 2 today on my lunch break and I'm excited where the story's headed.

Back in August, I shared a takeaway from the SCBWI conference, how it was important to write every day to maintain momentum, even for ten or fifteen minutes. I admit, I hadn't followed through on that with getting ready for my blog tour. Also, I felt paralyzed while waiting for the tour to start, anxious of what the reactions would be. No more. I am now on a mission to get this book written, especially since I don't want to release it in parts. It would be great to have more releases in a  given year, but the books in this series aren't linear, and I don't want to screw up the remaining two.

I must get back to writing to reach my word count goal for the day. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

SUSY Asylum Blog Tour: Week 2

Today starts the second and final week of the SUSY Asylum Blog Tour. Don't forget, there is a tour-wide giveaway, a $50 Amazon gift card, which you can enter at any of the blog stops.

Thank you so much to Candace at CBB Book Promotions for putting this tour together, and thank you to everyone visiting the stops for guest posts and reviews. Click on the links below to continue the journey, and I hope you enjoy the ride.

Monday, October 21th

• A Tiffy-Fit's reading Corner
• Bookhounds YA

Tuesday, October 22th

• Lizzy's Dark Fiction
• Curling Up With a Good Book
• Boarding With Books

Wednesday, October 23th

• Mary's Cup of Tea
• Becky's Barmy Book Blog
• Periodical Gazette

Thursday, October 24th

• Book-Mark's the Spot
• Gin's Book Notes

Friday, October 25th

•  Paperbacks & Pastries 
• Amethyst Daydreams

Next week, I'll be back to my typical Wednesday post. Have a great week!

SUSY Asylum Blog Tour Starts Today!

I'm so excited at announce the SUSY Asylum Blog Tour starts today! It is hosted by CBB Book Promotions, with scheduled stops for the next two weeks. There are even more blog participating than during the Provex City Tour, and in less time, so we have to keep moving.

There is a tour-wide giveaway, a $50 Amazon gift card, which you can enter at any of the blog stops. For Candace's Book Blog, on Wednesday of this week, there is a second giveaway just for her post, which is a $15 Amazon gift card.

Thank you so much to Candace at CBB Book Promotions for putting this tour together. Click on the links below to continue the journey, and I hope you enjoy the ride.

Monday, October 14th

• Every Free Chance
• A Diary of a Book Addict
• Gin's Book Notes
• The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl

Tuesday, October 15th

• Mommasez
• Reader Girls
• Jean Book Nerd

Wednesday, October 16th

• Kissed by Ink
• Mommasez
• Candace's Book Blog - Halloween Special for Something Wicked Returns (Flash Fiction & Extra Giveaway)
• Pink Fluffy Hearts

Thursday, October 17th

• The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something year Old Girl
• The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
• Alwaysjoart
• Eulana
• Donnie Darko Girl

Friday, October 18th

•  Insane About Books
• Leisure Reads
• Deal Sharing Aunt

Indie Life: Changing Seasons, Changing Gears

Indie Life is hosted by the indie authors of the Indelibles as a 2nd Wednesday of the month feature. It is a great way to discover and reach out to other indie authors--authors working hard and turning their dreams into reality. Share your thoughts and experiences with being an indie author, and speak with like-minded souls by visiting the author links below. Click HERE to sign up for Indie Life.

With my blog tour less than a week away, I've been thinking a lot about my next book. I have the new book I'd codenamed Project Winter outlined and started. But I keep going back to my outline for Book 3 of the Lorne Family Vault. It feels so unfinished. And it's been calling to me. And I hate things left unfinished. A big part of me wants to start something new, but another part--a nasty and more controlling part--wants me to finish what I've started.

So after much deliberation, meditation, and confrontation with the nastier part of myself, I've decided to switch gears. I am putting Project Winter aside for now and starting Book 3. I liked the idea of serializing my next book since I can't crank out multiple full-length novels in a year, and I had originally not wanted to change the format of the Lorne Family Vault halfway through the series, but what the hell. I've already figured out how to break up Book 3 into four clean parts, so I can still release in a timely manner.

I've regained the excitement I feel had been lacking most of the summer. Fall is here, and the change of season is refreshing. I look forward to continuing with Oliver on his adventure to discover who he is, what is in the Lorne family vault, and why he can no longer go home. I hope this isn't a mistake (from a business perspective), but then again, writing is never a mistake (from a  writer's perspective).

The SUSY Asylum (Lorne Family Vault, Book 2) blog tour begins on Monday, and will go for two weeks (averaging three stops a day). So I'll be posting on Monday next week with links to all the stops. See you then!

A Stopover from the Amazing M. Pax

As promised last Wednesday, I have a very special guest today, a wildly popular indie author and fellow blogger, M. Pax. She's here to share some valuable advice for finding success as an indie author from her experience with the release of multiple books in the past few years. Thank you so much for being here today, Mary!

On Being an Author-Publisher

It’s nice over here at Michael Pierce’s place. This blog swapping thing is awesomely fun.

He asked me to talk about what I’ve learned as an indie author to-date. So, I’ll share all the bounty and scoops I’ve learned.

Recently I heard a great new term for indies – Author-Publisher. Which is true. We not only write, we publish. We handle the creative and all the business. I’ve been at this two years now. Just this past summer my writing ‘habit’ started to support itself, meaning I don’t have to sink anymore money into it to publish my next book.

Here are six things I’ve learned that may help you: 

1. Have a business plan with a budget. Know what you will spend your money on and do not deviate. Know at what points you can consider expanding. Reinvest all your earnings in your business. Don’t spend it at Amazon. ie, When I began making $40-60 a month at Amazon, I invested in new cover art. Know at what income points you will expand your team and invest in improvements.  


2. Have a marketing plan. How are you going to get noticed? What worked for me: keeping The Backworlds permanently free, releasing book 2 shortly after and keeping the price low. If you do not make the impact you wish, you can change your plans as you go along. But do have one before you start. What works and doesn’t will very from book to book and author to author. Never give up. 


3. Make good use of that network on blogs, Twitter, in person, Facebook, etc... Recruit people to help you get the word out. Lately, I’m finding this blog swap thing to be my preference.


4. Find a reliable team. You should hire an editor. It’s the most costly aspect of publishing for me, but it’s worth it. I now have an editor who edits only and was recommended by a trusted friend. Do get recommendations via private communication. Just because an author credited someone as editing or creating a book cover, does not mean the author would recommend that vendor. This is where networking and friends really come in handy. Hiring out my book covers came early on in my business plan and was worth the reinvestment. 


5. The trifecta of publishing – title, cover, blurb. Play around with these and categories until you find something that works. I had recently rewritten my blurbs to match key words in google searches and on Amazon to optimize my visibility. Know what? It seemed to work, but then I noticed some typos so I updated them again. My sales spiked again. What does this mean? Write two blurbs, swap them out on Amazon and B&N every 4-6 weeks. Something about that makes you temporarily more visible. 


6. Social Media – Be active, be consistent. Pick what you love and concentrate on it. I love Twitter. I talk to people. I RT people. I have fun. I’ve gotten to like FB more and have become more active on it. I have a presence at LinkedIn and Goodreads – I’m there but not involved. I’m also on Pinterest which I find really useful for gathering images to help inspire what I’m working on. Another practical use – for the newest Backworlds cover, I sent my graphic artist to the album so she was inspired by the same images I was. I also use Wattpad and upload a new chapter/read every Tuesday.

I hope some of the lessons I’ve learned help you. What about you? What great lessons do you have to share?

M. Pax-- Inspiring the words she writes, she spends her summers as a star guide at Pine Mountain Observatory in stunning Central Oregon where she lives with the Husband Unit and two demanding cats. She writes science fiction and fantasy mostly. You can find out more by visiting her at:

Website / FB / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest / Wattpad

Beyond the Edge 

Blurb

Some truths are better left unfound.

For two years Craze’s dear friend, Lepsi, has been missing. The murmurings of a haunted spaceship might be a message and may mean his old pal isn’t dead. The possibility spurs Craze and Captain Talos to travel to uncharted worlds, searching. Out there, in an unfamiliar region of the galaxy beyond the Backworlds, they stumble upon a terrible truth.

Meanwhile, Rainly remains on Pardeep Station as acting planetlord, dealing with the discovery of her lover’s dark and brutal past. Alone and questioning her judgment, her introspection unlocks more than heartache. Latent protocols in her cybernetics activate, forcing her to face a sinister secret of her own.

In the far future, humanity settles the stars, bioengineering its descendents to survive in a harsh universe. This is the fourth book in the science fiction series, The Backworlds. A space opera adventure.

Amazon / AmazonUK / Nook / Smashwords / Kobo / Other Outlets

Now, as I also mentioned last Wednesday, today is a blog swap, so I'm over at Mary's blog today. If you've got a few more minutes to spare, then be sure to come over and say "hi!" THIS WAY TO THE M. PAX DIMENSION.

IWSG Wednesday: Committed to the SUSY Asylum Tour

Happy Insecure Writer's Support Group Wednesday. Thank you again to Alex J. Cavanaugh, the creator of the group. The first Wednesday of every month is dedicated to this group of supportive writers. If it's something you're not familiar with, then please click on Alex's link above for more information and to sign up!

Is it just me, or is each month flying by faster and faster. This week I'll finally finish everything for the SUSY Asylum blog tour, which starts on October 14th. I wanted to be done with all the posts by the 1st of the month, so I didn't quite make that, but I'm close and I'll take that as a win.

I am so anxious for the tour to begin--I haven't been this nervous in awhile. There are quite a few blogs signed up to give reviews...and I'm terrified for the responses. SUSY Asylum is longer, darker, and less restrained than Provex City. I feel like I held back a little with Provex City, but with SUSY Asylum, I went for it with everything I had. I'm spending too much time fidgeting and tapping anything within reach. I've been drowning in headphones. Music is my healthiest distraction right now. I already can't wait for the month to be over, just to know what will happen. I want to skip to the end of the book, even though I know I'll only be cheating myself.

Breathe.

Okay, aside from my blog tour anxiety, I'm excited to announce that I'll be swapping blogs with the legendary M. Pax next Monday. That's right, I'll be over at her place, and she'll be right here talking about her experience as an indie author. So if you're an indie author or thinking of becoming an indie author, then park your butt in front of your favorite computer screen and prepare to take some notes.

What do you have going on this month? Are you ready for Halloween, cooler weather, and pumpkin lattes?