Midweek Mayhem: Not again... She was in control. LONGING #Snippet8 #DragonsFTW #NA

Working it out…

• (Still Happening :P) Check it out >>> I'm participating in Night Owl Reviews Scavenger Hunt! Deets here. I'm giving away a signed copy of Witch Way to Turn and a $25 Amazon giftcard!
• (NEW) Entered Becoming into the Heartbeat Romance Contest! So perfect for Zoe and Taylor! ♥ Contest closes for entries on Friday, 2nd August! Deets here.
• (NEW) I'm signing locally in Newport News, Virginia! Stop by and see me on the 21st of September from 1-4PM! Deets here

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The Becoming Playlist!

Wanted to share some of the songs that inspired me as I wrote Becoming...

Bring Me To Life by Evanescence

Hearing voices…

Cover art by Danielle Fine

• Check out my stunning cover inspiration for my dark and gritty new adult urban fantasy with cursed dragon shifters (right beside this paragraph) designed by the talented Danielle Fine!!!
• Twitter pitch for Becoming: After a transplant gives Zoe a dragon shifter’s heart, she learns that her online boyfriend is her donor and...a girl.

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 ♥Today I'm sharing snippet #8 from the Becoming prequel titled Longing (unedited and in Taylor's POV)! Read Snippets here: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7. Excited for y'all to get to know my dragons better :) 
Longing - Chapter 1 (snippet #8)... 


“No,” she said.

“What?” Jeff asked. Confusion written in the crinkle of his forehead.

She hadn’t meant to say that aloud. No, no, no. She wouldn’t let her beast take over again. She was in control. “Nothing. I’m leaving now.”

“Good. Get the fuck out.”

She didn’t respond just sped into the hallway. Not trusting herself to be trapped on the elevator with someone, she opted for the stairs. Ten flights later, heart pumping, she stood outside the high-rise dorm. At least the jaunt down the steps had warmed her up a bit. A girl in a mini skirt and gladiator sandals gave her a suspicious look as she passed by.

At the far end of the parking lot, Taylor walked up to her BMW and the keyless entry allowed her in. The July morning had already heated the inside of the car. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. The warmth was miraculous. If only she could walk around in a bubble that was this temperature, maybe she wouldn’t have to struggle so hard for control.

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Cover art by Danielle Fine

Waiting game...

• On week #20 of waiting to hear back from a lovely agent who is reading Running From Shadows.
• Requests currently out for Becoming are 8 total! Squee!!!  *fingers and toes crossed* 

Reading...

• Currently reading Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King! OMG, sooo good!!! The story is very much 'told' from an omniscient observer's perspective (which I normally don't care for), but it's sooo intriguing. I'm hooked!
• 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...  

Me and the Hubs sneakin' in a photo-opp before watching Pacific Rim... Fuuuun movie!! Trailer below for your viewing pleasure ;)

The demon pup likes to nest...he unmade the bed!! >.< But he's so adorbs that I forgave him ;) Lesson here, kids...be an adorable puppy and you will get your way in everything.

Creme brulee the other night at Bonefish. Was doing research for the heroine in my current WIP...ahhh, the hard life of a writer :P

My minion left me a note... She finds my ask-the-unicorn button both disturbing and hysterical :P She's crazy!

Weekend Writing Warriors: Are you immortal? RUNNING FROM SHADOWS #8Sunday #Unicorns

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 (last week)... Greta runs away from her surprise engagement party through the woods. Pax saves her from a shadow demon. Oh, and he's a unicorn! 
Back at Pax's cabin, Greta and Pax talk. She tells him one of her secrets. Now it's his turn. She asks if the shadow has been attacking him...

Cover Art by Danielle Fine

He nodded.

Wow, that is so freakin’ hectic.

Although that did mean we were kind of in the same boat.

“What does it want?”

“Immortality.”

I choked down a sip of coffee. The thought of living forever wigged me out. “Are you immortal?”

Tune in next week to find out!

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 ;)

 I Just Wanna Run by The Downtown Fiction
(Track #3)

   
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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: The beast bellowed... End him. LONGING #Snippet7 #DragonsFTW #NA

Working it out…

• (Still Happening :P) Check it out >>> I'm participating in Night Owl Reviews Scavenger Hunt! Deets here. I'm giving away a signed copy of Witch Way to Turn and a $25 Amazon giftcard!
• (NEW--Vote) My dear friend Jenna Jaxon's book cover--designed by the lovely and talented Danielle Fine--is up for cover of the month! Please vote >>> here. Muah! ♥
• (NEW) My lovely friend (Avery Olive's) agent journey! Check it here.
• (NEW) The Worst Week Ever by Liza O'Connor...Blog tour with $$ giveaway! Stop by here.
• (NEW) Witch Way to Turn moves on to the final round of the Aspen Gold Contest!!!! Librarians, here I come!!

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The Becoming Playlist!

Wanted to share some of the songs that inspired me as I wrote Becoming...

I Want It That Way by Backstreet Boys

Hearing voices…

Cover art by Danielle Fine

• Check out my stunning cover inspiration for my dark and gritty new adult urban fantasy with cursed dragon shifters (right beside this paragraph) designed by the talented Danielle Fine!!!
• Twitter pitch for Becoming: 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 snippet #7 from the Becoming prequel titled Longing (unedited and in Taylor's POV)! Read Snippets here: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6. Excited for y'all to get to know my dragons better :) 
Longing - Chapter 1 (snippet #7)... 

“We can find another girl. Make it a party. Or I can just wat—”

“No,” she snapped.

“So it’s just over then?” His voice had an edge to it. “I thought we had something special?”

She nodded. “I… I hoped we had. I didn’t want to hurt you. You’re a good person.”

“Fine.” He turned away and walked back to the bed. “Rich, bitch,” he mumbled as he crawled back under the covers. “Get out.” Icy pricks pimpled her skin. The sunlight coming in through the window began to darken as her vision dulled. Colors faded as anger pulsed through her veins.

How dare he speak to me like that, the beast bellowed in her mind. End him.

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Cover art by Danielle Fine

Waiting game...

• On week #19 of waiting to hear back from a lovely agent who is reading Running From Shadows.
• Requests currently out for Becoming are 8 total! Squee!!!  *fingers and toes crossed* 

Reading...

• Finished When It's Least Expected by Heather Van Fleet. 5 hearts!! Review coming soon!
  ♥♥♥♥♥
• Finished my first Stephen King book eva!! Carrie was absolutely made of awesome! The head-hopping irked me slightly, but the story and voice were so fantastic that it didn't matter! ♥♥♥♥♥
• 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!

************
Random Alert! Alert. Alert. Alert...  

Sooo, these are some big arse earrings! A friend joked that they could be an abacus :P I totally giggled cos it's true!

The demon pup beheads his toys and leaves them to die alone :P

Totally ate at a restaurant that was on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in ATL!!!! Holla! I got breakfast food ;)

Sat next to an awesome lady at one of the RWA workshops and of course when I spotted her owl ring (ahhhh, no pun intended, I swear) I had to ask her for a pic... Owls rock!

This... Just because :P

Why, yes, yes that is an owl necklace I'm wearing :)) Ohh, and that's my RWA badge with my YA flower on it... Yup, random.

Hot Atlanta as we drove into the city for RWA last week! Great time!!! Even tho there were FOUR women in ONE hotel room, we had a blast!! My CRW chapter-mates rock! <33

How to make a God-awful bad boy boss! #WorstWeekEver by @Liza0Connor #NA #Contemp

Liza O'Connor takes over my blog!!! Welcome, Liza, tell us about the Worst Week Ever and the giveaway!!

HOW TO MAKE A GOD-AWFUL BAD BOY BOSS

The way I make any character is to pull the ingredients from real life experiences.

So these are the experiences that helped create Trent.

Experience Number One:

Worst Boss Ever: I once worked for the meanest man on Wall Street. (Everyone who knew him claimed this--not just me). And yes, he was a billionaire. While he didn't technically own Paine Webber or even run the NYC division, he behaved like he did. If anyone dared get in his way, refused his demands, or complained because he had stolen their clients, they would be gone within a month.

Satan would have been more pleasant to work for.

He was the first 'real' boss I had. I was hired because I was southern, with a positive work ethic, and somehow HR hoped that meant I would be able to charm him, where as NYC girls just said 'Screw This" and left ten minutes into the job.

I did try harder. It took me two years to come to reason and say, Liza, you have skills now. You are battle scarred enough. Anyone will be a nicer boss. Jack the Ripper would be a nicer boss.

Due to the stress of the job and personal life, I'd been dropping weight until I looked like a poster child for Anorexia. So I called my former head hunter and got an after-work interview, met two partners of another firm who were very impressed that I had worked for the meanest man on Wall Street for two years. They hired me on the spot. The next Monday I went in and let Satan's Master know due to health reasons, I had to stop working for him. His reply: No. I'll be nicer. You can't quit.

During the next week, he screamed and bellowed at everyone else, then talk to me like a fireman trying to talk a frightened kitten from a tree. It was beyond creepy. On Friday, he called me in. "You're staying, right?"

"No, Gary. I'm still leaving. This job is killing me, literally."

His eyes narrowed in fury. "You have another job lined up, don't you."

The hairs on the back of my neck rose. My self-preservation was screaming 'Run Bambi, Run!"

"I have to work, I just can work here anymore."

"Get out!" he screamed. "Get the hell out, now."

I bolted to the door, got through it and had it partially closed when the first client record book hit the door. When another book slammed against the closed door, I looked at the my fellow assistant. "I won't be coming in next week. Sorry to leave you short-handed." Then I gathered my stuff and headed for the long journey home to NJ.

Experience Two: Worst Boyfriend Ever

The other toxic poison that I threw into my brew was the worst boyfriend I have ever had.

I didn't like him when we first met. In fact, my very first thought, before I even knew his name, was JERK.

He'd opened his beer can and spewed it all over me. He was a bitter rich kid with parents who didn't like him much. He was petulant, arrogant, and selfish and of all the guys flirting with me on the communal porch to my new apartment, he was my least favorite. Yes, he was good-looking, but so was the brother of the owner of the apartments, and he was so much nicer. So I had my eye on him.

Turned out that was like a red flag to a bull for JERK. He loved stealing girls from his friend. So when I was asked to go out barhopping with them, I called a girlfriend and we went. 3 guys, 2 girls. Could it get any better than that? I of course hoped to hook up with the nice cute guy. My friend would hook up with the other nice guy and JERK could wander off on his own. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. JERK became all charms and compliment and convinced me I had completely misread his character. He was delightful, fun, and sexy as hell.

So I fell in love with the good parts of him, and tried not to focus on the bad parts, which were still there. (So much like poor Carrie does with Trent.)

I was still with the JERK as I was dealing with the worst boss ever. According to my diaries at the time, I thought myself in love with the JERK. I don't see how that was possible. I think I just wanted to be in love with someone, and to have someone love me. I don't think I even understood what love really was. That comes from seeing it in your life. (My parents hated one another) or being lucky enough to discover it on your own.

Unfortunately, the ingredients from these two characters make a toxic mixture that would be great for a psychotic killer, but way too bad for a bad boy. So I pulled traits from my best boyfriend ever and funny stupid antics from my dumbest boss to create Trent.

I also blame a great deal of Trent's problems on his horrible parents (something a person can recover from) and having too much money, (which IMO is harder to overcome.) After meeting a great deal of the 1%ers, I am convinced having too much money is toxic to the soul. It takes a very strong character to survive excessive wealth. It's especially hard on the later generations.

By adding these funny and positive traits, in the end, I have bad boy that is capable of becoming a good man. However, realistically, it's going to take more than week, which means he's not quite there come the end of book one.) And honestly, success isn't guaranteed. If anything falls against him, he could so easily revert to his comfort zone of a God-awful Bad Boy.

Yes, it would have been easier to make him a nicer person, but hey, look on the bright side. Had I not added qualities from my best boyfriend, poor Carrie would have been falling in love with a psychotic killer. And don't tell me that never happens, because it does. Just google it.

Thankfully, that's not in my life experiences.

Cover art by Danielle Fine

Worst Week Ever

by Liza O'Connor

New Adult, Humor, Contemporary

Blurb:

What do you get when you put a hardworking, can-do middle-class young woman together with a egoistical, outrageous, billionaire boss, then throw in the worst week of disasters imaginable?

Book 1 of the 3 book series A Long Road to Love.

Worst Week Ever.

Trent Lancaster spends one month without his Executive Assistant, or as his drivers refers to Carrie: 'Trent's brain, left hand, and right hand'. He's had a miserable month without her at his side and to ensure it never happens again, he intends to marry his brilliant beauty. Only given all the times he's threatened to fire her, he's not sure she even likes him. However, the future of his company and his happiness depend upon him succeeding, so Trent begins a slow one week seduction that happens to coincide with Carrie's Worst Week Ever when everything that can go wrong does so in hilarious form.

(Hilarious to the reader--Carrie is not having much fun this week.)

Excerpt:

Closing his eyes, Trent enjoyed the pleasure of Carrie’s body pressed against his.

His eyes popped open in horror. Oh God, David’s right. I am besotted.

What the hell was he thinking?

Statistically, his relationships never lasted more than a month and they always ended badly. A billionaire who couldn’t make a relationship last more than a month. How horrible did he have to be to chase off women who had a billion reasons to stick it out?

If he became involved with his most valuable employee, in a month, she’d dump him and quit. Then his business would collapse into chaos and he’d finally prove his father right. The old man constantly claimed Trent was a worthless human being and the world’s worst businessman.

And then Carrie arrived and single handedly saved his company. She never gave up. If one solution failed, she’d find another way to resolve the problem.

He smiled at his sleeping EA. If anyone could make him into a better man, it would be her. Carrie could solve any problem, had the patience of a saint, and the determination of a pitbull. Best of all, she loved a challenge.

AMAZON

Author Bio:

Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

Author Links:

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Liza's Blog and Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

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