Breakthrough Giveaway, 7x7 Award, & Lucky 7 Meme Revisited

Stephen Tremp's novel, Breakthrough, is available FREE to download today and tomorrow on Amazon! Click on the book cover to get your copy now. And if you haven't checked out Stephen's blog, then I suggest you do! Below is a brief description of Breakthrough taken from Stephen's Goodreads event.

“In a world about to be radically changed by a scientific discovery that will trump for good or evil purposes, a power-play struggle unfolds with breakneck speed and riveting drama in Breakthrough. Filled with intrigue, romance, betrayal, action scenes that have you gripping, some spiritual contemplation and quandary, emotions that run deep and strong, and packed with a multi-faceted cast of varied and multi-dimensional characters, Breakthrough is a novel you will find next to impossible to put down once you start reading” - Marvin Wilson, author and editor.”

Thank you to C.M. Brown for passing this award on to me! She is the author of He Comes for Me, which she is offering as a prize in her Indie Author Giveaway Blog Hop, which continues through Wednesday. Check it out!

RULE #1: Tell everyone something that no one else knows about you.

This is something that pretty much no one who knows me now except for my immediate family, knows...When I was in elementary school, I used to make haunted Forest attractions in my backyard for the neighborhood kids around Halloween. They were horrifically bad. Haha.

RULE #2: Link to one of the posts that I personally think best fits the following categories.

Most Beautiful 
"G" is for Gwendolyn  
My April A-Z Challenge entry about my now five month old daughter is very special for me.

Most Helpful & Most Popular
Self-Publishing in 300 Words or Less

I think my recent guest post of Alex Cavanaugh's blog was the most helpful and most popular (what do you expect, it was on the Ninja Captain's blog)

Most Controversial
"C" is for Customer Service
This post during the April challenge got very little response, so I wasn't sure if I had offended people. Otherwise, I don't really have any controversial posts. 

Most Surprisingly Successful
April 1st! The A-Z Challenge Begins! "A" is for Amazon
The April challenge sparked my emergence as a real blogger with real blogger interactions. I have Alex to thank for introducing me to that challenge, too!

Most Underrated
Waiting for Inspiration
No one read my early posts. They were like journal entries. I feel like I've come so far in a short period of time. This was just one of those I liked.

Most Pride Worthy
"P" is for Provex City is Finally Available in Paperback
It was such a great feeling to make this announcement!

RULE #3: Pass this award on to 7 3 bloggers
(don't feel obligated to participate if you don't want to; it's just for fun!)

Heather Murphy @ Random Interrumptions
Andrea Teagan @ The Enchanted Writer
Nick Wilford @ Scattergun Scribblings

Julie @ What Else is Possible? passed on The Lucky 7 Meme to me, and I do feel lucky...punk. I've done this twice now. You can read all my answers from my original post HERE. The second time, I just set up a link to the original post. This time, I've got a special treat. I'm redoing the excerpt part of the meme, and I'm using my WIP--Book 2 in The Lorne Family Vault Series. Page 77, Line 7, post the next 7 lines (or paragraphs). It's still rough, but here it is:

 (Oliver, Desiree, and a new character named Darius Fitz, are sitting and talking at a coffee shop in Provex City)

“You can go out and spend all your parent’s money?” Desiree asked.

“Not exactly. Parents set the parameters. I’m capped pretty low. And they’re alerted to all my transactions," Darius said.

“Oh...that actually kind of sucks.”

“But when I turn sixteen I get my permanent ID and my own private accounts and everything. I can’t wait.”

“What happened with the fake ID you tried to make?” I asked, thinking we could use something like that.

“It’s really complicated. We had to essentially create new people because we are already in the Greater Meric government files, which is practically impossible to hack into. So we had to create new identities, new accounts, and unique ID codes. I don’t know if you saw one up close, but they look similar to the code that I have, except that it’s a specialized tattoo called a DNA Brand. The ink is interlaced with your DNA for authenticity, which is picked up by the scanners. There are generator programs on the interlanet to help build a unique code, but getting the DNA percentage exact in the ink is not so easy.”

“It didn’t work, I take it.” I knew it was too good to be true.  

Guest Posting & Giveaways

As promised, today I have a guest post on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog. Yes, you heard right, the Ninja Captain himself. Thank you, Alex, for giving me the opportunity to be a guest on your blog.  I appreciate any comments you'd like to leave hear, but I don't want to write much so you have time to check out my guest post!

Secondly, I have a giveaway going on right now (see Wednesday's post below), where I am giving away two SIGNED copies of Slipstream, Michael Offutt's debut novel. Please sign up for your chance to win!

And lastly, Provex City is FREE to download on Amazon today through Sunday! It's always great to take advantage of free. I appreciate any support you can offer by telling your friends, tweeting, mentioning the offer on your blog...anything would be amazing. :) Also in the spirit of Provex City, I'd like to show you the button that Carrie Butler just finished creating for me (for being one of her blogiversary winners; and congratulations to her for scoring a contract with Sapphire Star Publishing!). She did an amazing job and I'm proud to pin it to my blog.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Start of an Eventful Week!

I hope you all had a fun weekend. I had the opportunity to see American Idiot: The Musical and it was freakin' awesome! If you appreciate the American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown albums, then I know you'll like it,too. The playlist was practically perfect. The only song I was really missing was "Restless Heart Syndrome" from 21st Century Breakdown. There were also a few songs from b-sides that I hadn't heard before. The song I loved was "When It's Time," which had the intro guitar-work of "When September Ends."

The Show has a parental advisory for language, drug use, and sexual situations. If that doesn't offend you, then I very much recommend it. The story follows the lives of three friends in modern suburbia looking for fun and excitement, meaning and purpose, and shows how their lives are ultimately affected by the choices they make. It is powerfully presented and the rearranged music is almost as good as being at a Green day concert. I want to see it again!

I'd like to highlight my good friend James Anderson (that's Mr. Anderson to you!), who has finally decided to jump into the ocean waters of blogging with both feet. He got his blog officially up and running last week and it's off to a great start. He is a professional editor by day and ready to get his fiction career started. His blog will discuss technology, entertainment, writing from an editor's perspective, and will share Friday flash fiction. Please help me in welcoming James to the blogosphere, click HERE to pay him a visit, and don't be shy about following a newbie blogger and a new member of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! :)

Since I mentioned IWSG, I will be posting mine a little early, Tuesday night, because I am participating in a blog hop giveaway starting Wednesday afternoon that goes though next Wednesday: 2012 Debut Author Blog Hop Giveaway! I'm so excited because I have the opportunity to give away a few SIGNED copies of Michael Offutt's debut novel, Slipstream. Some of you may know him....okay, most of you. :) Please enter to win!

On Friday, I will be over at Alex Cavanaugh's blog for my first ever guest post! I hope it's well received. No pressure. So, I won't have a Friday Flash Fiction this week. Sorry, but it will return next week (hopefully with a cool new graphic thanks to James).

Also on Friday (or starting Friday rather), the Kindle edition of Provex City will be free on Amazon! The free promotion will continue through Sunday. Please take the opportunity to download Provex City for the low, low price of FREE! Tell your friends. Harass your family. Tweet, post, recommend, shout from the roof tops! They all must go. :)