Let the WitchHunt Tour begin!

So the day is here, the day quite a lot of you have been asking about for the last three months lol! Today is quite emotional for me because it is the day I publish WitchHunt and that means the end of the WitchBlood series! I started writing WitchBlood three years ago, in 2010, but it took me a year to write as I still had my youngest child at home with me. It then took me another year to go through the wringer of publishing options and decide to self publish to Kindle. What a decision! It has honestly changed my life!

When I started out and uploaded WitchBlood to Kindle I remember being terrified - it is like putting your neck in a guillotine and waiting for the blade to drop... except amazingly it never did! Instead I got a trickle of 4 and 5 star reviews. First it was family... then friends... then I found some book bloggers who read it... and loved it! Twice now WitchBlood has been in the Top 10 Kindle genre charts and the others not far behind! By the summer of 2012 I was getting requests for a sequel and the story began to spiral in my head. My insomnia got worse and two more books began to take shape. Witchblood was to be a trilogy!

Except as I reached 70,000 words into WitchLove I suddenly realised I had a whole host of plots that needed resolving. Either I was going to write a Breaking Dawn-esque saga or I needed another book. I went for a fourth book and WitchHunt was born! Over the last year more than 20,000 of you have downloaded my books and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

 

You may ask will I write more and maybe in time I will. I may write some more short stories, like 'Genevieve', the story of Eva; but for now I want to settle into my new home in Somerset and think about writing something new! And I do have some really interesting ideas for two new series! For now though, enjoy the WitchHunt blog tour. Click the link on the right to go to the tour page. There are loads of reviews, interviews and guest posts written by me... Oh and remember if you download my books, love them and want to help me out; there's nothing better than waking up to read a new review on Amazon or Goodreads!



Isle of Wight Literary Festival

Wow! What a whirlwind of a weekend! I can somewhat proudly say I conquered my demons this weekend. On Friday I was involved with the schools programme running on the island which meant I was supposed to be chatting to a small group of teenagers about my books and writing. It turned out that I entered the college to find an auditorium, complete with microphone and no less than EIGHTY teenagers aged 11 and up! It was certainly a baptism of fire, but luckily I didn't have long to freak out about it and it all went well.

I started by reading my prologue from WitchBlood, then we chatted a bit about what might be expected from the book in the coming chapters. I did a couple more readings, chatted about self-publishing and had lots of time for questions... and happily they did seem interested and there were loads of questions! In fact we ran out of time :)

I must have done something right because 24hrs later my UK Kindle rankings had jumped up 10,000 places! Here is the programme for my slot on Sunday at Northwood House...

It was quite an experience with lots of famous faces! At one point I was selling some of my books after doing my slot in the spooky cellars and Anneka Rice wandered past! I was taken up to the 'Green Room' for a lovely lunch with my family and met Sir Max Hastings who was very nice and I saw Kate Mosse being interviewed. The children had a lovely time at a fairy workshop, listening to stories and making wings with a local children's author, Jules Marriner and then we jumped on the ferry home...

Here are a couple of photos of the beautiful Isle of Wight:

IWLF

Phew! A whirlwind week behind me and another ahead of me! I'm just packing up the car for a 5hr drive down to Southampton to get the ferry across to the Isle of Wight for the Literary Festival. Here is all my Witchblood goodies packed up...

I'm doing a 'Witchblood' event or teenagers at the college tomorrow and then again at the actual Literary Festival on Sunday morning. This is my first time, so I hope I wont freak out too much and forget simple words... like 'hello' ... You know when your brain just go blank? That happens to me a lot!

Anyway I have a plan! I have my lovely ipad (which I couldn't live without!) and I have notes to spur me on! I have my books to read from and some sweets to distract them with ;)

Wish me good luck and hopefully I'll have lots of pictures and things to tell on Monday when I'm back home.

So if you live near or on the IOW... what are you waiting for? Go grab some tickets! Here is the link:

http://isleofwightliteraryfestival.org/

Popping the Cherry Blog Tour

Today I'd like to welcome my lovely friend Aurelia B Rowl with her first YA Carina Published novel. I was lucky enough to read through the first draft and I loved it then, but with my own writing & moving chaos I haven't had time to re-read. That's on top of my to do list when we move, so keep an eye out for a review next month. And now I'll pass you over to Aurelia who has a fantasy cast list...

Hi Emma, thank you for inviting me over. It’s lovely to be here! But where are all the cardboard packing boxes ready for your big move?  

Ideally, I’d be able to wow you with a list of Hollywood actors that I would want to play the various characters from Popping the Cherry, but I’m afraid I’m not very clued in on my actors and actresses these days. It didn’t help that when I sat down and wrote Popping the Cherry, I did the usual thing of hitting the internet to find visual inspiration to bring each character to life, but that inspiration eventually came from a variety of sources:

 

Valentina 'Lena' Bell            Maria Kirilenko (tennis player)

Jake Saunders                       Luke Guldan (actor/model)

Gemma Saunders                 Zooey Deschanel (actress)

Alice Taylor                           Christina Aguilera (singer)

Nathan Harrison                   Billy Armstrong (actor)

Isaac 'Zac' Newton               William Levy (actor)

Sean Cole                              Jordan R. Legault (model)

Felicity ‘Flick’                        Not known (model/dancer?)

I’d love to share their pictures with you but I’m always terrified of breaching copyright and getting somebody’s blog shut down. Instead, you will need to click on their names to see what they look like. If you’re wondering why I’ve included so many characters—rather than just the main ones—it’s because all of these will be featuring in future books in the series if all goes to plan. 

When I came to make the book trailer, I needed images that I could use so although they’re not perfect fits, they were good enough for me...incidentally, my own friend Steve came up trumps for me when it came to filling several of the male roles. Lucky me!

 

Lena & Gemma

Jake

 

Alice

 

The boys from Popping the Cherry (3 are portrayed here by the same person LOL)

Thanks Aurelia, Alice certainly looks like a piece of work! :) So if that has whetted your appetite head over to Amazon and get out your tablet!

 



 

I am running two giveaways as part of my blog tour, with some fabulous prizes up for grabs. The international giveaway is going great guns, but there has been less take-up of the UK only contest so far so if you're in the UK, you get to enter both giveaways and have a good chance of winning something in the UK only one, just make sure you scroll all the way down to enter...

About Aurelia...

Aurelia B. Rowl lives on the edge of the Peak District with her very understanding husband, their two fantastic children, and their mad rescue mutt who doesn’t mind being used as a sounding post and source of inspiration. She regularly wows them all with her curious, hastily thrown together meals when she gets too caught up with her latest writing project... or five!... and she has developed the fine art of ignoring the housework.

Aurelia writes Young Adult/New Adult crossover fiction and contemporary romance. She is currently busy writing the standalone companion novels to both Popping the Cherry and Christmas is Cancelled. To find out more about Aurelia, you can visit her website: www.aureliabrowl.com or you can find her hanging out online, far too often, at the following:

Blog ¦ Facebook ¦ Twitter ¦ Google+ ¦ Pinterest ¦ BlogLovin ¦ Tumblr ¦ YouTube ¦ Linked-In ¦ Amazon ¦ Goodreads ¦ Booklikes

About Popping the Cherry...

You only get one first time . . .

From driving tests to relationships, Valentina Bell thinks she’s a failure, with a big fat capital F. At this rate, she’s certain she’ll be a virgin for ever. So Lena’s friends plan Operation: Popping the Cherry to help her find the perfect man first time.

Yet somehow disastrous dates with bad-boy musicians and fabulous evenings with secretly in-the-closet guys aren’t quite working out how Lena planned.

Soon Lena’s avoiding Operation: Popping the Cherry to spend time with comforting, aloof Jake, her best friend’s older brother, who doesn’t make her feel self-conscious about still clinging to her V card. But could Jake show Lena that sometimes what you’re looking for most is right by your side?

A Forever for the twenty-first century

Carina ¦ Amazon UK ¦ Amazon ¦ iTunes ¦ Google ¦ Sainsburys ¦ Nook ¦ Kobo

Giveaway...

There are two contests underway as part of the Popping the Cherry blog tour, with an assortment of prizes up for grabs. Enter via Rafflecopter below:

UK only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

International

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CoverReveal & Giveaway

Its' time!

I have finished writing 'WitchHunt' and now have a month of editing ahead of me; but I can announce that the 4th and final book in the 'WitchBlood Series', will be published on Monday the 4th November! 

 

 

WitchHunt Blurb

‘I know it’s selfish, but I don’t want you to go,’ Daniel said, a couple of minutes later.

I looked at him and smiled.

‘I’ll be fine, I will.’

‘You’d better be. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Those months I stupidly spent apart from you… they were torment for me,’ he said.

‘They were torment for me too.’
 

As the Christmas season is ripped apart by the news that Jess’ old friend Alex has been turned into a vicious killer, festivities are dropped, Jess returns to England and the hunt begins. But Alex isn’t the only one being hunted, for Mary has found a way to extinguish the entire bloodline of Malden witches, and it is Jess’s book of shadows that’s the key. As things hot up, Jess finds she must leave Daniel and the safety of Manchester in a final hunt for her nemesis, Mary. In a fight-off that only one of them can survive, loved ones will fall… daemons will rise… but who will survive?

 

 

 

As an aside I promised a Gigantic Swag giveaway for my Facebook Page reaching 1000 likes so here it is!  

This is ONE prize for ONE lucky winner and will consist of a signed paperback copy of WitchBlood, A book bag, A bookmark, A magnet, postcard and the necklace that Luke gives Jess in WitchLove. The competition is INTERNATIONAL but because the postage costs are so high there is only one prize... so Good Luck!

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Moving House and Finishing Books

So have you seen my word count linky? I've passed the 70,000 mark and I'm writing the final chapter. In fact it should be finished tomorrow! That's the first draft of course, then comes a month of editing and reading, and re-reading! And what a busy month it's going to be!

This weekend I'm running a cover reveal mini tour. You should see my WitchHunt cover far & wide as my favourite bloggers unite! It's worth clicking on them as I'm running a massive swag giveaway as well, to celebrate my facebook page getting past 1000 likes! You could win this little lot:

Then a couple of weeks of editing later and on the 18th & 20th October I'll be doing readings from my books and holding a Q&A session at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival. I'll be back home on the Monday and on the Thursday I will hopefully be moving house and family 300 miles south to Somerset... finally! And a week after I move in... Internet connection or not... I WILL be publishing WitchHunt, the fourth and final book in the WitchBlood series! Even if it means I have to sit in a Costa Coffee all day :)

Wish me Luck...

How Time Flies When You're Having Fun... or stressed out!

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged! I'm really bad at this aren't I? In my defence it has been school summer holidays, my husband is working away and we are selling our house! Well the last sale fell through, but now we've thankfully sold yet again, to a lovely young couple who seem to love the house; so I am really happy about that! We have pencilled in a move date of 25th Oct, so I expect to have no internet for a few weeks once we move!

On top of that I am desperately trying to write WitchHunt and get it done for November. Now the kids are back at school I should be able to do a good 10k a week so I'm making progress.

I have also finished the book cover for WitchHunt so expect a cover reveal mini tour on the weekend on Sept 28th.

Also if you haven't yet liked my Facebook page get on over there and like it because I'm only 10 more likes away from the magic 1000 number and when we reach 1000 I have a loads of goodies to giveaway!

So here are my current dates for your diary:

Sept 27th  - Cover Reveal
Oct 20th - Meet me at the Isle Of Wight Festival
Nov 4th - WitchHunt should be available to buy!

Now I'm sorry this isn't longer and more interesting but I really have to write!

Paperbacks R US

So here I am again, moaning about my house sale... trust me, just don't do it! So today we are in the middle of negotiating on a really low offer which we don't want to take and consequently I cannot for the life of me concentrate on WitchHunt and get writing!

Instead I decided to do something useful with my time so I don't feel so impotent! I might not have done any writing, but I have managed to get one big job done. I have FINALLY reformatted & uploaded WitchLove to Createspace to begin the process of creating the paperbacks! It has more pages than the last two, I'm not sure why because I don't think the font is bigger, but consequently the costs are stupidly high. So as always it's still much, much cheaper to buy the ebooks, and I get a little more profit on them too! It seems ridiculous when I have to price my book at £7.99 that I am actually making less than £1 on each book! So I'm not being greedy honest :)

Here is the cover:

Free Novellette

Right so finally 'Genevieve: A Witchblood Story' has gone FREE everywhere including the UK!

Here are all the links. It will probably go back to 'Paid' in September so go and download it now!
Amazon UK
Amazon US
B&N
Kobo
Sony

Enjoy!

WitchHunt Teaser...

So as I've just had a ton of fun writing chapter six, I thought I'd give you a little snippet... A taste of things to come! But I'm not going to tell you who Jess is fighting... for that you'll have to wait!

The force of the collision sent us both flying backwards across the lawn, me still gripping the end of my makeshift stake as she came down hard on top of me. She desperately tried to lever herself away from me and the three foot branch, but it was no good. She stared down at the wood in her chest, her mouth agape, but when her eyes did not dull, and her fangs did not retract I realised I'd missed her heart.

‘Missed,’ she hissed at me, spitting out blood and smiling as she finally managed to pull herself upright staggering back slightly, the branch which I’d released still embedded in her abdomen, which was already healing as she tugged it out.

Buffy: The best stake wielding vampire slayer!

Hope that whetted your appetite? I better go start write chapter seven!

Exciting News For Witchblood Fans

Hi everyone, so yesterday I had some really exciting news! I had a formal invitation to not only attend the 2 day Isle of Wight Literary Festival in October but run a 'spooky' youth event in the cellars of Northwood House, which will be decorated to reflect the Witchblood Trilogy! I will be doing an hour long event on the Sunday, doing readings from my books and then hold a Q&A session for the audience!

There will be posters, bookmarks and loads of swag and I'm hoping to do signed copies of the paperbacks for anyone that wants them.

The event sounds fantastic for any Brits who love reading and writing as there are loads of famous authors, agents and actors there. The kiddy events sound brilliant too with not only the YA stuff, but a café themed as a Mad Hatters Tea Party and special young kiddy story sessions.

Here is the link for the website and Facebook page and my info should go up on the site with the next band of speakers, after the summer hols. I'll post more info as I get it so keep a look out & I hope to see you there!

Free Summer Read

This is just a quick one (as I'm totally snowed under with writing WitchHunt!) just to let everybody know that Genevieve has finally gone FREE for the summer on Amazon US and B&N. Hopefully Amazon UK will follow suit in a couple of days.

Here are the links, please share and download, I want to get in the Top 10 :D

http://www.amazon.com/Genevieve-Witchblood-Story-Series-ebook/dp/B00CRXXTT2

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/genevieve-emma-mills/1115381103?ean=2940044536913

Jess's Diary

November 6th
So here I am, I thought it might be interesting to keep a diary after the last years events... My name is Jessie James, like the cowboy. My dad just loved cowboy movies, that's how I got my name! A year ago I was a fairly normal 17 year old human girl, totally oblivious to the frankly bizarre events that lay ahead of me.

So now, a year older... OK so officially I might have stopped ageing, but I'm keeping note and no-one I know of would dare try to tell me I'm still seventeen, especially with the arsenal of supernatural weaponry I now have available... Anyway I digress... Here I am! I'm through the worst of it. So OK my parents are both dead, but then so am I... kind of.

My best friend Alex, is also dead, properly dead and buried, like my parents; but I still have everyone else. I have my friends Brittany, Luke who I thought was a boy but turns out is actually a human born angel, and even Eva. I was so pissed at Eva, but at the same time soooo relieved. And after last month's zombie butt-kicking war of the most extreme I have forgiven Daniel. My gorgeous, super hot vampire boyfriend... yeah, after all you can't hold grudges forever can you, and I think we're made for each other... blugh I know! But still, he did make me. He chose me, saved me, turned me.

And on top of my sometimes overly protective vampire clan back in Manchester, I have my new found American family. My Aunt Sarah, her daughters, Noah her son and their super witchy coven. So I might be an odd half-breed, half vampire, half witch but things are finally looking up! I love this sticker, I found it in Salem last week... now I just need a vampire one!

If you want to read more about Jess and how she got this point in her life read the Witchblood Series:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
B&N

Who Wants a Summer Freebie?

I have decided to giveaway Genevieve. It will be FREE over the summer! Genevieve is the short story about a side character, Eva from my Witchblood series; and tells the story of how she became a vampire. It is set in the French Revolution and has some romance & violence as you would expect with vampires and the French revolution! PG13!

In return all I ask is if you like it, please, please leave me a review on Amazon or B&N, add the tags, click the LIKE button... spread the word! Oh and you might want to try reading the rest of the series :)

As a side note, I have recently joined Pinterest and started some boards for all things vampy! Check me out!  https://pinterest.com/emmamwriter/

As authors we are unable to drop our prices on Amazon under the 99c threshold so the only way I can do it, is to get B&N to drop their prices first and then we can report it to Amazon who will hopefully price match! Last time took a couple of weeks so if you click the link and it is still 99c hang on and check back another day. I will post an update when I know Amazon have changed the price.

Amazon UK
Amazon US
B&N

I'm back!

So it's been over a month with no posts... eek! Sorry! My excuse is part holiday, part stress lol! First came the holiday which was amazing. We had a lovely (but rather tiring) family holiday in Florida. We met Rapunzel, Mickey Mouse and all the rest of the Disney stars. Gaston from Beauty & The Beast was hilarious.

We were blown away by the amazing west end quality shows, and loved seeing the dolphins at Sea World. Two of the highlights of the holiday for me had to be Harry Potter World at Universal Studios where I totally geeked out. I even drank a Butterbeer...

and Clearwater Aquarium where we saw Winter the dolphin, who I am totally in love with!

Then we came home and the holiday bubble was well and truly popped with the sudden news that our house sale has fallen through again, 4 weeks before we were due to relocate down to Somerset & 1 week before my husband started his new job!

Consequently everything went on hold whilst we tried to sort it out. Unfortunately nothing is sorted out; my husband is now working 300 miles away and coming home for weekends and I have a house to sell once again! Wish me Luck! So if anyone wants to buy a 3/4 bed modern detached house in a small town called Glossop, in the High Peak, overlooking the most immense hills and a reservoir, with ponies in the field opposite and good country schools, find me on Rightmove or leave me a message!

In the meantime I am going to try and clear my head and start writing WitchHunt. I started last night and have managed a little today. My current word count is 2000 words and I've just finished the Prologue! I'll update the word count gadget on the homepage so you can keep an eye on me! Wish me luck!

'Genevieve' is published & I'm off to Disney!

So after many trials with the kindle convertor mashing all my text into a strange and indecipherable language unknown to man, I have finally got a 'clean' copy of 'Genevieve' available to buy on Amazon and Smashwords. Hopefully it will be distributed to B&N, Apple, Kobo etc in the next couple of weeks.

Here are the links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Smashwords

 

Here is the blurb:

 

Paris, France 1793

Growing up in the court of King Louis XVI, Genevieve enjoys a sheltered privileged life with the gardens of Versailles as her playground, until on the eve of her nineteenth birthday, the king is executed and all hell breaks loose.

As family members and close friends fall prey to the Revolution, Genevieve turns to the one man who promises to help her; the shadowy figure in court, and friend to the elder brother that betrayed them all, but is Sebastian worthy of her trust or will he too betray her?

Genevieve has a choice to make, one that will change her life forever. Go it alone and try to escape the murderous streets of Paris, or join Sebastian, forget her nightmares and start a new life… an immortal life? 

              

And now I've got this done... I'm off to pack our suitcases. We're off to Disneyworld Orlando!

 

 

There's been so much on my plate the last few weeks, but now... finally I can get just a little bit excited :) So I'll be back on June 3rd, hopefully tanned, probably not very rested and ready to get writing WitchHunt! Yey!

Life, Time and Action!

Strange title? Yeah I guess but it sums up my month!

Life... because my life is crazy right now. I know you are fed up of hearing about my house move saga, but that is pretty much responsible for taking over my life right now, and since the chain fell apart all we've been trying to do is get a sale before we go to Florida on Friday! We had a second viewing over the weekend and currently all I am doing is watching my phone and crossing my toes... I can't cross my fingers as I need them for typing LOL!

Time... because I am running out of it! I simply do not have enough hours in the day to look after the kids, keep the house super, super house viewing, perfectly tidy, write, edit and promote my books and get everything ready for our two week trip to Disney. I just want to hibernate, but instead I am publishing 'Genevieve' tomorrow and have a list which fills an A4 pad of things that need to be done by Thursday! I just hope that 'Genevieve' hasn't fallen prey to my fractured brain and that everybody likes it.

Action... well it's time for action isn't it lol? So far today I've not done so badly. I've done a final read through and edit, then uploaded 'Geneieve' to Smashwords and checked the formatting for kindle and epub copies. I have emailed my small army of lovely bloggers who I am hoping will help me promote a little, while I'm away. In fact any help will be appreciated so if you blog or tweet or FB and want to copy my links, read my books and comment... that would be great. Just because I've not been online much doesn't mean I don't care... I do. I care a lot, but at the moment my kids and my family have to come first. I need to get us moved and settled and then I can concentrate on my books!

Genevieve - Cover Reveal

Well guys... I don't now if you've noticed my word count widget on the blog but I've finished 'Genevieve' - the short story / Novelette. It is about 14000 words long... which would equate to about 50 pages I think, and because of its midget size it will have a midget price to match and be cheaper than a coffee!

I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out... pre-edits... as it's my first attempt at writing short fiction and it's also the first time I've written in third person narrative. It's nice to get a deeper understanding of Sebastian and Eva, who are two favourite characters of mine and who we didn't see much of in WitchLove. Although I'll warn readers now that Genevieve is set in the French Revolution and is centred around two full-on, no holds barred vampires so things get a little bloody... and yes there is some sex too so whereas the Witchblood books are YA books age 14+ I would say Genevieve is New Adult say 16+... if you're a mum / mom and your teen wants to read it just pick it up and read it through first...

Now I've got to work on the blurb for Goodreads but I'll leave you with the cover. If you voted on my covers I chose the middle picture in the end because I felt it matched my other three covers nicely as they are all face forward images. I also took the French flag colour fading off as it was too messy! Hope you like it...

Luisa Plaja: Teen Book Reviews

As my blog has been a bit Witchblood obsessed recently I thought it was time to review some books! Amazingly since January I have managed to start the Goodreads challenge and initially I started out giving YA Dystopian books a try. I really loved Earth Girl by Janet Edwards, but then I read another similar sci fi space orientated one which wasn't half as good... reviews to follow shortly. In between reading these I've also read a couple of grown-up books ie the book club/prize winning types which interestingly I can't even remember the names of right now and to mix it up a little I've read a couple of teen lit books by the lovely Luisa Plaja which I'm going to review right now!

Luisa is a Brit based author like myself and has her own website here and also runs the teen website Chicklish. Luisa has written five books: 'Split by a Kiss', 'Extreme Kissing', 'Swapped by a Kiss' and 'Kiss, Date, Love, Hate' which are all published by Random House and most recently 'Diary of a Mall Girl' published by Curious Fox.

In January I read Kiss, Date, Love, Hate and even though I didn't get on with the protagonist I tore through the book and put it down with a smile on my face.

 

Lex Murphy's group of friends have all dated, hated, ignored and lusted after each other for the last few years. If only there was a way of matching people perfectly to avoid all the unrequited love, dumping and drama!

Then Lex's friend George is give a mysterious Sims-like game by his software-testing dad which involves building character profiles in the categories of Life, Looks and Love. Lex and George populate the game with avatars for all their mates, making a few 'wishful thinking' adjustments to the settings - and find that the next day these tinkerings have come true! But how long can this new calm, loved-up atmosphere continue...?

 

 Review:

 I haven't read many young teen girls novels, but occasionally I'll pick one up for some light entertainment. The novels I would compare Luisa's too would be those of Louise Rennison. The teenagers in these books are all believable and suffer with the same anxieties and ideals. What makes this story different is the fabulous plot idea! I love the idea of a trial computer game where you input all your details and manipulate real life. It brings up fun situations of course and comedy moments but also adds some interesting moral dilemmas. As I said before I didn't get on with Lex, I found her too irritating and self obsessed, but unlike with some other books it didn't detract from the story and I still enjoyed the book.  Four pink girly stars from me!

****

Last month Luisia released her newest novel called 'Diary of a Mall Girl' so after enjoying 'Kiss, Date...' I thought I'd give it a whirl.

 

 

Fifteen-year-old Molly actually lives in the residential wing of her local mall, and mysterious twins Jewel and Jasper have just moved into the flat upstairs. As Molly grows closer to them, she becomes more determined than ever to find out their secret and so do her other friends. Will their prying spoil Molly s chances of happiness?

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 Review:

If anything I enjoyed 'Mall Girl' more than 'Kiss, Date', mainly because I loved the main girl Molly and the twins were great too. The plot in 'Kiss, Date' is more unusual, where as this is more of a typical story of teen friendship, shopping and boyfriend dilemmas, but there was something extra with this book that kept me glued until I finished at 1am! This is a fun, fast read ideal for a rainy weekend curled up on your bed! Four and a half pink stars this time!

****

 

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All Fired Up And Nowhere To Go!

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy and I'll be honest, I've really struggled. It is hard enough making the decision to move your kids out of the area and away from their friends... You just want everything to go as smoothly as possible for them. And it looked like it was, we sold our house in the the first two weeks, found a dream house in a perfect village, with a lovely school. We had a moving date of May 3rd and I was starting to panic about everything that needed to be organised... And then with one phone call after Easter weekend everything changed. The first time buyers at the start of the chain have pulled out, which means our buyers are no longer in a position to buy, consequently we can't buy either!

After a week of feeling sick and not sleeping I've had enough. It's time for an attitude change. The kiddies are back in school after the holidays and I've had a long soak in the bath and decided to let it all go. My new mantra is:

What I can't control I will do my damnedest to forget about!

 

So the house is back on the market, and I'm concentrating on my writing. Have you noticed my word count bar? I've just written a wicked, murderous scene that takes my word count up over 8000 now. I hope to be finished in two weeks, then do edits and have it published before we go on holiday on May 17th.

 

 

As I'll be on holiday I'll need some promo help, so if you want me to release before my holidays, leave a comment below if you have a blog or FB page and can help me out with a review or just a cover/blurb post.

 

Here is an unedited teaser from the section I have just written:

 

 

Instinct told her to leap from the bed and in one lithe movement she was at the window dragging the material away from their frames, eager to find the source of the beating noise that was drawing her in.

‘Eva no!’ Sebastian’s voice carried across the room and simultaneously pulled at something deep inside. She took a glance out at the dying day on the street below, her eyes squinting in the dim light before pulling her gaze back to the man by the bed.  She knew where the noise came from now and her mouth watered pleasantly at the thought, but even as every emotion in her body willed her to smash the window, leap out and sink her teeth into those warm, pulsating creatures that wandered past oblivious, she could not. An iron leash held her tight and pulled her back to the man by the bed.

 



Holiday Chaos

In case any of you were wondering why my blog is being ignored recently I'm afraid I need to blame the kids again! I think when I started writing I never expected half the interest and success... which is amazing but consequently I thought writing books would fit in nicely with my kiddies, doing a bit here, a bit there! However as any of you who are writers out there know only too well this is sadly not the case! When I'm writing a novel I'm fully immersed and ideally need to write every day to keep the flow going (although I tend to write mon-fri and have the weekends with family). Now the kids are both at school this tends to work out well, and if I'm in the right frame of mind I can write 10,000 words a week and refresh myself at the weekend.

However as I have already explained I'm currently NOT in the right frame of mind... In fact I'm rather stressed out with this house moving business. I think I'm getting more greys lol! The good news is that it is actually moving fairly speedily considering these things normally take months and months. It even looks like we might make it into our new house before our holiday in May. Which means come June I can breath out and make a start on WitchHunt.

For now I'm writing my novella/short story, but even this has come grinding to a halt this week. Why?  I was doing so well, I had almost 6000 words down! The reason it has stopped is of course due to the school holidays... 2 weeks of kiddy chaos! It seems that the only way I can actually keep them from not warring, bickering or pestering me for snacks is to let my 8yr old daughter play Minecraft on my ipad and let my 5yr old boy play games on the CBeebies website on the PC... Where does this leave me? With peace and quiet, but no technology to write my story on! Drat!

And sorry but I'm just not an evening writer! So you're going to have to wait... 1week down 1week to go and then I'll be back in the game.

'Genevieve' - A WitchBlood Story

So as you guys know I am in the middle of a big house & area move so I just haven't got the time or emotional wherewithal to start writing 'WitchHunt' yet (but I do hope to have it out before Christmas!) Instead I thought I would write a novella / novelette telling the back story of Eva and Sebastian. I am aiming for £10-12k words and hope to have it written before I move house in May.

I don't know if you remember from Eva's chat with Jess in WitchBlood, but Eva was turned during the French Revolution which makes it a little bit horrifying. Also worth mentioning is that Eva doesn't have any 'extra' witchy powers, she doesn't have Jess's independance and these are both adults ;) So I'm thinking with the full-on vampy behaviour in this story it is going to be more a 'New Adult' fit... probably 16+ readerwise! Although this excerpt only contains some revolution atrocities... nothing else.

Here are some covers I have been working on. Personally I like the 2nd one, becuase I think she has the 'Eva' glint in her eyes and I think it fits well with the the rest of the series; but what do you think?

I have added the excerpt to my 'Excerpts Page' HERE.

Also to get you in the mood, here is an amazing song by Evanescence called 'Bring Me To Life,' which I am listening to right now as I am writing the scene where Eva decides she wants Sebastian to change her. Enjoy and please let me know what you think of the excerpt.

Short Stories, Novelettes & Novellas

I've never written a short story before... well apart from the ones I did at university and college, but since I began writing as a career... I can't put 'seriously' because it doesn't quite go with me, my personality or my subject matter! Writing about vampires and witches isn't 'serious' writing is it? It's fun! Anyway when it was recently suggested that I write a short story for a potential anthology I thought it could be a good idea to write about Eva's history, because she's an awesome character and doesn't get enough attention in the WitchBlood Series.

I thought I could probably write about her 'beginning' in about 10 - 12,000 words. Is this more than a short story I wondered? Yet I thought Novellas were longer so I had a little research and apparently what I am writing is a Novelette! For anyone interested here are the guidelines:

n Short story - 7,500 words or less

n Novelette - 7,501-17,500 words

n Novella - 17,501-40,000 words

n Novel - 40,001 or more words

Now personally I wouldn't be happy if I bought a novel and it was only 40,000 words. That must be only about 100 pages long! I'd say 60,000+ is a novel... but that's just my opinion!

So here I am writing my first Novelette. The title currently is 'Genevieve, A WitchBlood Story'. I like to keep things simple LOL and I'm hoping to have it done before I move house and go on holiday in May! The only sticking point is that I'm stretching myself by doing something new and writing in 3rd person! As you all know my Witchblood Series books are written in 1st person which personally I find much easier to write in, as I'm directly in the character's head... but for this story I thought 3rd person would work better.

I'm considering posting the first section on here... Would you like to read it?

Next Big Thing Hop

So a couple of weeks ago my lovely friend and fellow writer Aurelia B Rowl tagged me for this blog hop which I believe was started by Litbridge consisting of an ever-growing chain of writer interviews spanning the globe! Cool huh? Anyway me being ditsy old me... I completely forgot I'd been tagged until yesterday when another writer friend of mine from America, Christiana Miller also tagged me! So a big hello and thank you to both Aurelia B Rowl who writes modern romance novels and the lovely Christiana who has written one of my favourite books Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead!

How it works is that I post my interview and then I tag five more writers... although this may be tricky as everyone I know seems to have done it already!

TNBT: What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?
WitchLove is the third book in the WitchBlood YA series following 18 year old Jess, a half witch / half vampire as she fights evil and finds love.

TNBT: Where did the idea come from for the book?
I'm not really sure... my warped imagination maybe? Once I began writing WitchBlood the characters just grew and plot lines developed organically.

TNBT: What genre does your book fall under?
YA (Young Adult). Paranormal. Fantasy... maybe New Adult as there is some romance. Age 14+

TNBT: What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie?
I have a whole post on this coming up soon on my latest blog tour but to make it quick : Emma Watson would play Jess, Dean Geyer would play Daniel, Mila Kunis would make a great Eva and maybe Zac Effron would play Luke.

TNBT: How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
With WitchBlood it took me about 10months, but I wrote WitchLove during NaNoWriMo so completed the final 3/4 of the book in 30days!

TNBT: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I'd say my amazing fans who reply to my posts on my Facebook page, write me amazing reviews and are constantly asking when the next book will be written. They keep me writing!

TNBT: What else about your book might pique your readers interest?
I think a lot of my American fans love the fact that my series is based in the UK, and are also entertained by Jess travelling to the US in WitchLove. Equally I think my British fans like the fact that they are reading about British places... especially Northern UK.

If you want to learn more about me, here are my links:
Blog
Facebook page
Twitter

Now here are my authors for next weeks hop:

Luisa Plaja   

Rachel McClellan

Tom Winship

Roxy Kade

Carlyle Labuschagne

Getting in the Zone...

Monday morning and I sit down at my desk, my head is in pieces, my brain is mashed and writing is the last thing coming to mind, so I thought the title apt! Why you ask? Yes it's about the third most stressful thing you can do in your life (after death & divorce)... moving house!

So last week we accepted an offer on our house, which happened somewhat sooner than expected and I am totally thrilled about, but it meant Saturday was taken up with house viewings in Cheshire. My husband has said all along (when I've been stressing out about finding a 'perfect house') that we will know when we see it. He also said that it could be the house I wasn't expecting it to be... I don't like to say this too often in case it goes to his head... but he was SO right! As soon as we walked into this house we both 'felt' it. It also happened to be the one house out of the four that was my least favourite on paper! So I find myself sitting here in my freezing cold conservatory waiting, typing in a somewhat frenzied fashion whilst I wait for a phone call from my husband who is doing the negotiating today. He has just phoned to say he has made the initial offer... and now we wait some more!

I'd just like to say for the record that
1. I' not good at waiting &
2. I'm a control freak... So this kind of scenario is not in my comfort zone!

Coming back to the title... somehow I need to put all this out of my head and do something. The choice is between cleaning the house and writing. Hmm now normally writing would come first every time but today Im just not sure I can get in the zone. Apart from anything I haven't started WitchHunt yet and starting is the bit I find hardest, so srating now, whilst I've got so much going on in my already spaced out cranium might not be the best plan!

I do however have another project I'm considering. I have a friend in the vilage who is also a writer, Aurelia B. Rowl who recently suggested putting togather an anthology of short stories and asked if I would contribute something. I was thinking about doing a short spin-off about Eva and Sebastian in the French Revoloution era...what do you think? I've never written a short story before but it could be a useful way of getting my head back in the game. Would you like to read about Eva and Sebastian?

Also just a reminder that I have a six week blog tour running currently, hosted by Abby at
Bookshelf Confessions and if you are interested in my covers you can read about my cover decisions on Friday's guest post over at FromThe BootheelCottonPatch . You can see the rest of the tour and loads of new reviews by clicking the links on the Tour Page link at the top of the blog page or the poster.