Midweek Mayhem: Always trying to be one step ahead of her beast. LONGING #prequel #Snippet16 #DragonsFTW

Working it out…

• (E-publishing!) Check out Definition House, an innovative take on the e-publishing market. Recent Technical Tuesday post wherein I admit some writerly things :P
• (Coming Up) Friday on my blog: Author Spotlight The Dating Tutor by Melissa Frost!
• (Ending soon!) My lovely friend Katherine Skye is having a book giveaway to celebrate her new website! Guess who's participating?? Moi! :P Check it out here!
• (Happening!) Have you entered? 2nd Annual Finish the Damn Book writing contest is now open! Hosted by my fabulous local RWA chapter!! And we have two very special final-round acquiring judges: Danielle Fine (editor at Definition House) and Jordy Albert (agent with The Booker Albert Agency)! Visit Chesapeake Romance Writers for more info. 

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The Becoming Playlist!

Wanted to share some of the songs that inspired me as I wrote Becoming...
Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry

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 #16 from the Becoming prequel titled Longing (unedited and in Taylor's POV)! Read snippets here: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15. Excited for y'all to get to know my dragons better :) 

Longing - Chapter 1 (snippet #16)... 


She slid into the still-warm leather seat, cut on the engine and switched on the seat warmer. She traced her hands around the steering wheel and gently tapped her head against the headrest. How could she keep going like this? She was twenty-one and the past almost-decade of her life had been controlled by the beast within.

Those first few years—especially when she became a teenager—had been excruciatingly difficult. Keeping the fact that she was a man-eating monster a secret, while trying to live as a normal child proved nearly impossible. Taylor had turned into a solitary creature. Never making close friends. Always trying to be one step ahead of her beast. She filled the void in her life with anything and everything that calmed her: classical music, poetry, art. Nothing seemed to calm her quit as much as her guilty pleasure…Zoe Moore.

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Cover art by Danielle Fine

Waiting game...

• On week #29 of waiting to hear back from a lovely agent who is reading Running From Shadows.
• Requests currently out for Becoming are 6 total! Squee!!!  *fingers and toes crossed* 

Reading...

• (Finished) Over the Rainbow by Brian Rowe. ZOMG! Seriously. 5 STARS. Loved it! Review coming soon... His pitch: The Wizard of Oz meets Jurassic Park.
• 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!

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Random Alert! Alert. Alert. Alert...
 

With the deadline looming for my anthology, I've been sticking to my daily word count and Monday night I hit up Starbucks for some pumpkin spice lovin' and words! Am sooo excited about this anthology! My story is a YA LGBT reverse retelling of Beauty and the Beast with djinn!!!

Yeah, my gym got a new torture contraption... I tried to figure it out but, alas, it scared me too much so I mastered stairs instead :P All I wanted to do was stretch! Dang it. lol

Okay, not sure if you knew this about me or not, but I shoot guns. And I like it. Yup! I've grown up with them and have practiced using them--also practiced with a bow and arrow too, but that's another story. Here's my public service announcement: guns are not toys and should be handled with care. Phew, now that that's said :P Last week at the beach we totally went to the shooting range, and I so shot up a zombie target! It'd been a while since I'd used Big Ike (my .38 Special--I'm a revolver woman), anyways...he did great and despite being a little rusty I still hit what I was aiming for, 95% of the time :P

One dead undead target ;)

Totally shot the zombie's fingers! Damn straight. Took care of biddness :P

My second book signing went really well! It was at a local author day event sponsored by my city's library system. Way cool! And I made new friends and gained Twitter followers. Getting out there in the real world can be kinda tough on an introvert, but it's worth it!

This... Just because :P