Midweek Mayhem: Even dragons get paranoid...keeping the smoke alive! #PlayListVid #DragonsFTW #Excerpt

Working it out…

• (NEW) Witch Way to Turn won FIRST place in the Winter Rose Contest!!! (Yellow Rose Texas RWA Chapter for the YA category.)
• (NEW) Monday was an Author Spotlight with the lovely Juliana Haygert and her New Adult paranormal romance Destiny Gift! (On sale for 99 cent!) Check the post and deets here!
• (NEW) Entered Breena Cross from Witch Way to Turn into #CharacterBattle coming in July!! Deets to enter your kick-ass heroine or hero here!
• (NEW) I'm doing it again! Booked my agent pitch session at the Romance Writers of America conference coming up in July!! 

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The Becoming Playlist!

Wanted to share some of the songs that inspired me as I wrote Becoming...this song is on the list cos Taylor and Zoe are each others wonderwall :) 
Wonderwall by Oasis
 

Hearing voices…

Cover art by Danielle Fine

• My dark and gritty new adult urban fantasy with cursed dragon shifters, titled Becoming, is completely edited!!!!! And I'll be pitching it at RWA in July if I don't have an agent before then...but cross your fingers and toes and eyes and, erm, anything you can cross cos it's with FOUR awesome agents right now!!! :D
• Check out my stunning cover inspiration (right side above this paragraph) designed by the talented Danielle Fine!!!
• Twitter pitch: After a transplant gives Zoe a dragon shifter’s heart, she learns that her online boyfriend is her donor and...a girl.

♥ Today's excerpt immediately follows Zoe and Taylor's first kiss (Zoe's POV)...it shows the epitome of Zoe's self-doubt and paranoia. She doesn't see how wonderful she is, but Taylor does :)

Read last week's kiss scene here! 

Zoe wanted to be closer, moaned her frustration with the hateful armrest keeping them apart. Her body ached for more. Kissing Taylor made Zoe’s skin prickle with unknown desires.

She worked her fingers along the back of Taylor’s neck, trying clumsily to imitate Taylor’s gentle caresses. Too soon, Taylor backed away, and Zoe’s lips were on fire again. The sweet relief of the goddess’s kiss had been ripped away, leaving her burning with shame. She’d been too aggressive. Too forward. Too stupid. What had she been thinking, wrapping her hands around Taylor like that? She’d had no idea what she was doing. All she’d known was she didn’t want it to stop. But it had. Once again, she’d screwed things up.

She pulled her hands away from Taylor, but the goddess grabbed them in hers and squeezed gently. Taylor’s expression grew serious, and Zoe felt the urge to run.

Oh God, here it comes. The Talk.

Over before it had begun. Taylor had probably thought if things went any further she’d have to look at Zoe’s scar. Of course that was it. No one would ever want to be with her…not like that. She was a freak. A scarred, smoke-breathing, scale-flashing freak of nature.

Why had she let herself get attached? Why had she thought someone could love her? She should’ve known better.

Zoe’s heart squashed all the fireflies in its path as it fell to her feet. 

Dragon update... The prequel for Becoming is finished, and I'm almost done with my edits on it. Next step is sending it off to my editor! Now, for exciting news... It's been a tough decision, but the prequel FINALLY has a title! Are you ready?? <insert drum roll here> The title for the prequel is: Longing!!!
 Gotta ♥ a dragon!  

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Cover art by Danielle Fine

Waiting game...

• On week #12 of waiting to hear back from a lovely agent who is reading Running From Shadows.
• Requests for Becoming! Squee!!! On week #6 with one awesome agent (partial), and week #2 with the three other awesome agents (full)!! *fingers and toes crossed* 

Reading...

• Currently I am beta-reading for a fantastic friend and writer... Katheryn! Hooray for grim reapers!!
  
• Am reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Amazing premise...it's three stories in one, going on at the same time :) Am at 56%.
• Looking for book recommendations and reviews for your 2013 TBR List? Check out The Perks of Being a Book Nerd! 

Bonus material... 

*Writers, looking for a talented editor? I highly recommend Danielle Fine. She's edited four manuscripts of mine and has taught me so much! I'm a stronger writer because of her guidance. Also, she designed my beautiful inspiration cover art for Becoming and Running From Shadows! Annnnd she created the book trailer for Witch Way to Turn! 
*For more information on Dani's editing services, cover design, book trailer creation and website design stop by her site >>>> here!

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Random Alert! Alert. Alert. Alert...

Entered Breena in this battle! Follow the action on Twitter here. 

My boss brought this back from a meeting on Tuesday. This isn't a stress ball...it's a stress fishy! I named him Flounder. He is mine, and I love him. My bunny paperweight is quite jealous. It's all the scandal at my desk :P

A coworker's 40th b-day was on Tuesday...these were the decorations ;)

The background on my phone ♥

Pic from this past weekend when I was chillin' with my bff... I'd just taken a sip of coffee and it burnt my lip!! Ouchy!

One of the food tables at the City Manager's retirement banquet last week. Side note: The city didn't pay for this. Gotta cover my bases :P

Author Spotlight: DESTINY GIFT by @Juliana_Haygert!! A future NYC exists in darkness... #99cent #NA #PNR

DESTINY GIFT 
Genre: NA paranormal romance
Word Count: 73,000
Release date: April 1st, 2013

Thirty years in the future, a sinister New York City exists in permanent darkness.

A student at the secured NYU, nineteen-year-old Nadine has visions of Victor Gianni, an imaginary guy she has real feelings for. Afraid of being truly insane, she explains the visions away as simple daydreams, but she can no longer deny them when she bumps into Victor in real life. But this Victor doesn’t know her, and turns her away. After the encounter, Nadine’s visions change to those of eerie fates, gods she’s never heard of, demons with sharp claws they are not too timid to use … and instructions.

To discover if she’s losing her mind, Nadine follows the vague directions—with the real, rude and reluctant Victor—leading to a man who knows it all: Nadine can restore an ancient creed by unveiling the clues on her visions, and bring sunlight and peace to the world again. But that’s only if the demons and the other evil forces behind the darkness don’t stop her first.

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords |Goodreads | Pinterest

About the Author:

While Juliana Haygert dreams of being Wonder Woman, Buffy, or a blood elf shadow priest, she settles for the less exciting—but equally gratifying—life of a wife, mother, and author. Thousands of miles away from her former home in Brazil, she now resides in Connecticut and spends her days writing about kick-ass heroines and the heroes who drive them crazy.

DESTINY GIFT Excerpt:

I heard a heavy sigh and turned toward it. It was Victor. He was leaving the elevator down the hall and coming toward his grandma’s room. He had seen me and didn’t seem happy about it.

He wore faded jeans, a T-shirt, and a thin jacket. Too casual. I shook my head. The fact that my dream Victor and this real Victor were exactly the same physically, while their clothing styles and posture were the opposite of each other still boggled my mind.

He came to a stop before me. “You again.” There was disdain in his tone. I cringed.

“How are you?” I managed to ask and immediately felt silly. I had planted myself here in this hallway for over an hour waiting for him, and when he finally arrived, I didn’t know what to say. Though I really did want to know how he was. The last time I had seen him in the flesh, he’d been jerking on the floor of the hospital’s garage, in pain. “What was that … ah … before …?” I trailed off, hoping he would understand what I was referring to.

He shrugged, his sea-green eyes still staring at me with suspicion. “I don’t know. By the way, how do you know my name?”

I twirled a lock of my hair around my index finger as I considered my answer. I wanted to answer him. I wanted to be honest, but he would never believe me.

As if my answer would pop out of the walls, I scanned the hallway.

At the end of the corridor, a nurse left a room and entered another.

“The nurse,” I almost shouted, hoping he wouldn’t notice my sudden lie. I avoided his inquisitive eyes. “I heard a nurse calling you earlier that day.”

His deadpan expression hid his thoughts and didn’t let me know if he was buying it or not.

“What did you do to me last night?” he asked, crossing his arms. God, I hated how his voice and his posture were so guarded and mistrustful. I wasn’t used to it.

“What do you mean?”

“When you touched me, the shock and the pain went away. How did you do that?”

“I don’t know.” This time I wasn’t lying. I really didn’t know. He frowned, clearly still suspicious. “Seriously, I have no idea.”

His shoulders stiffened. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

My eyes widened as I retreated a few steps, trying to avoid his toxic tone.

Yes, he looked like my Victor—the same voice, the same hair, the same face, the same mouth that had offered me smiles that had rendered me breathless many, many times. I wanted to touch him, to embrace him, to tell him everything was going to be okay. Maybe if I touched him, he would remember me and he would want to touch me too.

I came closer to him, looking deeply into those wary green eyes, my fingers itching to stroke his skin, to feel it smoldering under my caress. But I didn’t. He was like my Victor, but he wasn’t my Victor. The Victor from my visions would never speak to me like this. He would never snap at me. No, no. My Victor loved my company, loved to hear me sing, loved to embrace me and inhale my scent.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice croaking under the heavy pressure inside my chest.

Then, I walked away.

Weekend Writing Warriors: Once upon a time, he'd been her crush... RUNNING FROM SHADOWS #8Sunday

Thank you for stopping by. I'm excited to participate with such a fantastic group of writers! Check out other warriors here!

Today I'm sharing from my (unpublished) young adult paranormal romance Running From Shadows, currently being read by a lovely agent!! Squee!! 

Follow Greta Shore (a 17-year-old, black-haired wiccan beauty) and Paxton "Pax" Craig (an 18-year-old, blond-haired college student with a dark secret) as they discover the fate of their forbidden love.

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Set-up... Greta runs away from her surprise engagement party barefooted through the woods. Pax saves her from a shadow demon. Oh, and he's a unicorn! 
There's a moment between them when she hopes for things to happen, but instead he tells her she smells like misery.
On that mood-ruining note, he shows her the bathroom to clean the grim off her feet...

Cover Art by Danielle Fine

As I shut the door behind me, I looked around the room. Black-and-white checked floors, white porcelain toilet and tub, a one-sink vanity and a small window with outdated mini blinds on the opposite wall. The room was small but clean, like the rest of the house. I sat on the edge of the bathtub and scrubbed the grit off my feet with a bar of soap I found on the lip of the tub.

Once I was no longer in the presence of a real-live unicorn, all I could think about was the reason I’d run into the woods in the first place. Mom knew how much I loathed Bain. Just thinking about his obsession with me since the Tree House Incident four years ago turned my stomach. I could barely stand it that, once upon a time, he’d been my crush.

Tune in next week for more Greta and Pax!!

Thanks again for stopping by! Your support and feedback is greatly appreciated!

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Because being a warrior is hard work, here's a vid from the Running From Shadows playlist to reward all you sexy, sweaty peeps ;)
 
End of Me by Apocalyptica
(Track #12)

 
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Extra! Extra!

*Would you like to see some pics of Greta and Pax? Check them out here! Gotta love Pinterest!! Ooo, stalk me there too, please...uh, here! ;) 

*Self-publishing? Need an editor and cover artist? Check out my uber-talented editor, Danielle Fine, she's wonderful to work with and does exceptional work! Click here for more info! 

*Check out the USA Today recommended book trailer for Witch Way to Turn!! here

Midweek Mayhem: All about the dragons...and the kissing! ;) #PlayListVid #DragonsFTW #Excerpt

Working it out…

Darlings, hellooo! Last week I was so deep in Becoming edits that I ate, slept and breathed them...and then hit send on the agent requests on Sunday! Squee!!! :D Ohhhh, guess what? I know what the title of book two will be!!! Buuuut I'm not saying cos I like tease...how I roll :P Anyway, this week has been all about catching up. I'm making progress...FINALLY unpacked from the RT Booklovers Convention and cleaned the house! Booyah, dust bunnies! 

Side note - went to see The Great Gatsby and it was FANTASTIC!!! Go see it! Just sayin' :D 

  

  

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The Becoming Playlist!

Wanted to share some of the songs that inspired me as I wrote Becoming... Love this song! Makes me think of Zoe and Taylor's inner turmoils. Plus, it talks about taking up your sword, which makes me think of Aiden (the original villain) who's a knight, bent on slaying dragons :))

War of Change by  Thousand Foot Krutch

 

Hearing voices…

Cover art by Danielle Fine

• (Update) My dark and gritty new adult urban fantasy with cursed dragon shifters, titled Becoming, is completely edited!!!!! And I'll be pitching it at RWA in July if I don't have an agent before then...but cross your fingers and toes and eyes and, erm, anything you can cross cos it's with FOUR awesome agents right now!!! :D
• Check out my stunning cover inspiration (right side above this paragraph) designed by the talented Danielle Fine!!!
• Twitter pitch: After a transplant gives Zoe a dragon shifter’s heart, she learns that her online boyfriend is her donor and...a girl.

♥ Today I'm sharing a 300 word excerpt (Zoe's POV) Zoe and Taylor's first kiss!! And I gotta say that I'm sooo proud of myself cos this scene happens at about 65 pages into the story!! No insta-love here, baby! Rockin'  that slow-burning angst :P

Be in the freaking moment, Zoe.

She opened her eyes to ward away the doubt and found Taylor had moved nearer. Her beautiful green eyes held a heat her skin didn’t. The goddess trailed the back of her fingertips along Zoe’s jaw and down to her chin, ever so gently urging her closer.

Was this really happening? Fireflies fluttered in her stomach, lighting up every nerve-ending. Her lips tingled as she parted them, hoping.

Taylor leaned in, her breath cool as a fall morning, and whispered, “I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” She slid her hand under Zoe’s hair, softly cupping the base of her neck.

Their noses touched for a second since Zoe didn’t know which direction she should go. Sudden thoughts of cheese breath from lunch sprang into her mind. What if she tasted disgusting and the goddess ran away from her? What if she failed at kissing a girl? What if she—

Taylor pressed her lips against Zoe’s. What-ifs forgotten. The kiss was more than she could’ve imagined. The fireflies in her stomach ignited, flew through her veins and tingled in forbidden places. Here and now were the only options. No more worrying about living in the moment, because this moment was all she ever wanted to live.

At first, the goddess gently devoured Zoe’s kisses then she parted her lips and searched ravenously for a deeper kiss. Touched her tongue to Zoe’s, teasing.

Zoe wanted this. Wanted Taylor. Wanted to feel her arms around her. She didn’t think…she just did. She reached out with both hands, laced her fingers in Taylor’s silky golden curls. The strands slipped and danced over her skin.

Why had she been afraid of this? Being held captive by Taylor’s kiss was the first time she’d ever felt truly free.

Dragon update... The prequel for Becoming is finished, and I'm in the process of doing my first round of edits before it goes off to my amazingly talented editor at the end of this month!! Still deciding on a title tho...I have several, but I may open it up to a poll-the-audience vote ;)
 Gotta ♥ a dragon!  

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Cover art by Danielle Fine

Waiting game...

• On week #11 of waiting to hear back from a lovely agent who is reading Running From Shadows.
• Requests for Becoming! Squee!!! On week #6 with one awesome agent (partial), and day #4 with the three other awesome agents (full)!! Not that imma counting or anything :P *fingers and toes crossed* 

Reading...

• Currently I am beta-reading for a fantastic friend and writer... Katheryn! Hooray for grim reapers!!
  
• Am reading The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Amazing premise...it's three stories in one, going on at the same time :) Am at 56%.
• Looking for book recommendations and reviews for your 2013 TBR List? Check out The Perks of Being a Book Nerd! 

Bonus material... 

*Writers, looking for a talented editor? I highly recommend Danielle Fine. She's edited three manuscripts of mine and has taught me so much! I'm a stronger writer because of her guidance. Also, she designed my beautiful inspiration cover art for Becoming and Running From Shadows! Annnnd she created the book trailer for Witch Way to Turn! 
*For more information on Dani's editing services, cover design, book trailer creation and website design stop by her site >>>> here!

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Random Alert! Alert. Alert. Alert...

So one of my potted plants at work sits on top of my cabinet and it's branches hang over the side...well, they had gotten so long that I couldn't open the doors without moving them. Today, Banshee cut a plant. Yes, she did.

Well, this was the screen on my laptop Tuesday at 5AM. I got freaked out and just powered off. After consulting my IT person (AKA the hubs), apparently you're supposed to just let this (whatever this is) do it's thing...but it was taking FOREVER. And dammit, I am NOT a patient person :P Sigh. When I rebooted last night, I decided to do other things will it did its. So, there :P

Took a picture of Tosh from Tosh.0 when the hubs was watching TV the other night. Why you might ask? Well, for one it's random...and for two, there are BOOKS on his shirt! Represent! :D

Freakin' A, can't a pup take a nap without getting his picture taken???