Day 1 flying With Fire Review Tour

So today Gabby over at What's Beyond Forks kicked off the Flying With Fire review tour with a bang! She says "There are dark and crazy twists with some time travel mixed in, and you just don't know what to expect from one page to the next." ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Head over to her book blog to read her full review!

Another two reviews have come in from the UK & US administrators on the FB page, Claire & Marley. I have posted them below as they don't have their own blogs.

Flying with fire! Another great book from the author Emma Mills. This book is a prequel to the Witchblood series looking a little at Brittany's time at the boarding school, but in this book Brittany isn't the main character, it's a new character called Brooke and I loved this twist and was excited to learn about all the new characters including Brooks love interest Leo. This book had it all and kept me wanting to carry on reading all the way through and I'm hoping that the author continues telling Brooke and Leo's story. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Claire


This book has a great story to it. We are introduced to a new character which her story seemingly attaches to another character we met in Witchcraft. In Flying With Fire, we meet an extraordinary girl, Brooke, who is unconscious of the power she can elicit. We travel back in time and into the future with Brooke. We learn that there are certain people working against her and trying to suppress her wonderous power. Brooke fights with all her might to save others and some one who may potentially be a love interest. Emma Mills writes a dark tale compared to her previous books. This book gives you hope that her magnificent writing will develop other dark stories with themes of 
fighting what is right. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Marley 

Remember that Flying With Fire is on promotion this week and is only 99p /c so grab it now before it goes back full price!

Review Tour and lots of Reading!

I can't quite believe how fast time is flying currently. These last couple of weeks in Sept are the last I'm dedicating to Flying With Fire before I move on. So I have reduced the digital price to just 99p... or cents! If you haven't already bought it grab it quick because it will be going full price again in October.

I have a review tour kicking off on Monday over at 'What Beyond Forks'. For the full list click the 'Tour Schedule' tab above. If you have read the book please leave me an Amazon review. They are the most important thing for indie writers, and we really appreciate them!

Other than juggling life I have been doing a bit of reading over the last few weeks! I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I have also read the Delirium series by Lauren Oliver, and now I've just started Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Another book I read recently was The Spell of Summer by a fellow indie writer called Dianna Hardy. I loved this book and thoroughly recommend it for a light-hearted romantic read.

Words can change everything, but can they change your destiny?

Meredith is leading a straight-laced life in London with her straight-laced fiancé, determined to forget her reckless, wild-child past. They're about to get married.

Jamie is an old, poetic soul with a broken heart returning home to Cornwall to get his life back in order.

What binds them?

One chance meeting thirteen summers ago; one innocent spell spoken after one perfect night...

And now history is unravelling; the past and present, merging...

Words can change everything, but can they change your destiny?
And in the messy world of magic, what part does love play?
It's summer all over again, but the spell has only just begun.

My Review

I really enjoyed this book; and that was straight after reading The Book Thief (one of my most loved books!) In fact it is the perfect antidote for when you are feeling upset! I immediately fell in love with the two main characters Merri and Jamie. I thought they were believable and realistic. I adored that it was mainly set in beautiful Cornwall; the descriptions were vivid and never too involved. The story itself had just an ounce of magic peppering what is otherwise a contemporary romance. Of all Dianna's books this is my favourite. I heartily recommend you read it the next time you want a lift! 

Amazon UK Link

Amazon US Link

Goodreads

School's Back! I'm Back!

So I hope everyone had a lovely summer? It was our first summer in Somerset and luckily the UK was blessed with amazing weather for once! We managed to take full advantage of our fantastic local outdoor pool, have a couple of day trips down to the Dorset coastline and had a lovely week in the Isle of Wight.

This morning felt very quiet after I dropped the children at school. I have a long list of writing work that needs to be done, but I felt so deflated this morning that I had to get out instead, which is why I'm logging on at 2:30pm... which isn't very helpful when I have to go out for school pick-up in about 45 minutes!

I have been considering writing a Halloween Flying With Fire novella for the end of next month (& I had a great plot line) but I have decided against it as it would follow on from the FWF story and not enough people have downloaded the first book yet to make it viable... So please if you have read and enjoyed Flying With Fire leave me an Amazon review, so I know whether to carry on with it!

With regards to FWF I have instead decided to arrange a short review tour for the end of the month, for all the book bloggers who have read (or are reading FWF) and would like to review. I already have the first week full, but if you are a blogger and would like a review copy and could read by the first week in October, please get in contact. If you are yet to read FWF I will be reducing the price for the duration of the blog tour.

Happy Publication Day!

If you are a WitchBlood fan and you have arrived here, you'll be glad to know that Flying With Fire should now be available on Kindle. It has been shipped to Barnes & Noble and ibooks so will hopefully be available today, if not very soon. If you can't wait and want an epub copy, or a different format go to Smashwords and download here.

I will be hosting a month long review tour in September but for now I'm kicking off with a short publication tour. If you visit the blogs taking part you will be able to read teasers from the book along with a couple of guest posts written by me.

Don't forget to take part in the giveaway and remember to grab Witchblood while it's FREE!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Flying With Fire Mini Tour

I have decided that as my editing and proof reading has delayed the sending out of review copies I will also delay the main blog tour until September, giving bloggers plenty of time to read and review. In the mean time Flying With Fire will be published on July 17th and to celebrate it I shall run a mini tour and giveaway during the publication week consisting mainly of guest posts, teasers from the book and a couple of reviews from my Beta readers.

Here is the poster and links to bloggers taking part:

17th: Pop by the blog for a chance to enter a competition to win the FWF paperback!
18th: Dark Readers : Guest Post
21st: Aurelia B Rowl: Guest Post
22nd: Book Reviews By Lynn: Guest Post
23rd: Caffeinated Diva: Review of FWF
24th: The Avid Reader: Guest Post
25th: Pop back to this blog to read another review and more...

**Also if you are new to the WitchBlood world I have reduced Book 1 in the series, 'Witchblood'. It is going FREE for the summer!! Here is the US link, but if you search for Witchblood on any platform it should show up FREE.  http://www.amazon.com/Witchblood-Book-1-Emma-Mills-ebook/dp/B006VD5QLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405542883&sr=8-1&keywords=witchblood

Cover Reveal

Finally I feel like I'm getting somewhere! I hope you like the cover, I think it juxtaposes the innocence of the young girl well against the deadly background!

Here is the Synopsis:

Nobody who enters Ravenwood school will ever be the same again.

Fifteen year old Brooke has been in care all her life. Now she finally has an adoptive family who don’t want to send her back to The Home; but their solution for her problems is much more dangerous.

A secret boarding school for possessed children. A boarding school where any unnatural behaviour will be stamped out. A boarding school with no escape; where witchcraft is punished and vampires are murdered in the sunlight.

Brooke is the only one with the power to escape the security wards, yet she must find a way to help them all before it is too late.

And here is a brief snippet:

‘Run! I’ll catch you later. Oh, and Brooke, don’t admit to anything! Ember wouldn’t want you to get in trouble and you really mustn't let the old witch think there’s even the tiniest chance you can get through those wards. Be careful!’ Blade whispered.

Brooke knocked on the door tentatively. The discussion with Blade had distracted her from her worries, but in the two minutes she stood waiting outside Mrs Willing’s room, Brooke had revisited them. Where were they keeping Brittany and Ember and when would they be allowed back to class? Erica’s words kept haunting her… punishable by death… and she had to keep shaking them away and telling herself she was being ridiculous.

Lastly here is the Goodreads link. I'd love it if you added my book to your lists and helped spread the word!

Let The Edits Begin!

Hoorah! I have finished writing Flying with Fire! I actually wrote 'The End' on Friday and have had a lovely weekend relaxing and catching up with some gardening. On Saturday morning we took the kiddies into Wells, which is the smallest city in England. It is so small in fact that it's population is actually smaller than most towns with a population of only about 12,000, whereas the town I moved from, Glossop has a population of 30,000!

I love Wells and luckily for me it's only about 20 minutes away; so we spent the morning mooching round the market and lazing on the green in front of the Cathedral... heavenly.

Yesterday I had an appointment in Bristol which is a big, vibrant city 40 miles away, so that took up most of my day. So today I am back at my desk. Until the first proof read is completed I can't do anything on the manuscript so I'm going to design the front cover today, and if I get time I shall write a synopsis so that I can upload it onto Goodreads. Keep a look out on Goodreads as it should be up this week with a publishing date.

Also I have finally managed to change the name on my Facebook page; so the weblink is the same, but the title is now 'Emma Mills, Author', instead of 'Witchblood the Novel'. In case you haven't liked it, here is the link so you can keep up to date with all my news.

Nearly There...

Last week was half term which we split spending half the week at my mum's house on the Isle of Wight in Freshwater and the last half of the week at home in Somerset. Fortunately we had some half decent weather the first half of the week and the last half was pretty much rained out... which was good for our new seeded lawn!

This week however the kiddies are back at school and I am back writing. My deadline for the first draft is Friday 20th June giving me almost three weeks to finish. This Friday's target was to reach the 60k mark and with my hubs away in London yesterday I got cracking and broke my personal best. I did 4000 words in a day which for me is amazing! Once or twice I've done 3.5k, but normally I do 1500 and I aim for 2000. So I was really chuffed. I was going to blog last night, but my head was killing me LOL from all the brain strain! 

I think I channelled J.K :D

I've Got a Date!

With half term coming up tomorrow I'm heading to the Isle of Wight, with my lovely Hubs and kiddies, to see my mum. The manuscript is at 50k words which feels like an achievement, after the past couple of weeks I've had, with headaches and gardeners disrupting my life!

With approximately 25k words to go I am hoping that I can still publish before the summer holidays. In fact I have pencilled in a date... 14th July. My plan is to give myself 3 weeks writing and 3 weeks editing. Yes I'm going to be VERY busy!

But it will be totally worth it when I can kick back and enjoy our first summer in Somerset!

Enjoy the Half Term people and I'll be back writing on June 2nd!

Sneak Peak: Have a read of Chapter Two

For any readers out there waiting for Flying with Fire to publish, here is a little sneak peak to keep you going! I have pasted the first section of chapter two onto the 'Excerpts & Book Trailers' Link, so just click the kink and away you go!

Make sure you leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

Have a lovely weekend... I better get back to my writing now!

Pink Haired Heroines and Headaches

So my writing has had to slow down over the last week. In fact I only managed 1.5 days of writing last week due to my meningitis headaches returning. Meningitis is really a pain in the butt as it has left me with some kind of nerve sensitivity and tinnitus. I get really weird hot flushes streaking up my right leg and then about thirty minutes later the headaches begin... not nice. So last week I had to take it easy. The headaches are still hanging around so I've got some meds that will hopefully get me back in the game. In the meantime I have done a little googling and found myself some character inspiration for the novel.

Here are my girls:

The top girl is my inspiration for my leading character, Brooke. She is a natural blonde but dyes it pink... that is until she is forced to wash it out! I'm sure you all recognise my inspiration for Brittany as she is a favourite from my WitchBlood Series? The girl with the red hair is called Ember; she's a witch with a talent for fire-starting!

Flying With Fire: Progress Report

So I thought I'd update the blog this afternoon as I've done 1800 words of my daily 2k target and I've hit a wall... and secondly the blog needed updating!

It's been weird suddenly thrown back into writing. Initially it felt nice, but after 4 hard days slog my brain feels a little fried! I think a daily target of 1500 is my ideal. It leaves enough time for daydreaming, pulling story threads together and the afternoon free to do the everyday stuff like tidy up after the pets & kids, and buy some food!

I really wanted to get the first draft finished by the Whit holidays, which I hadn't initially realised was in 4 weeks time... now 3. That's a tighter deadline than doing NaNoWriMo! With two children I don't write at the weekends so even doing 2k a day, 5 days a week on top of the 23k I already had; I'm not going to quite finish... but at least I should be in the last chapters! Currently I've almost reached 36,000 so I guess I'm pretty much half way through!

The other thing slightly unnerving me is my writing method. I've always been a 'fly by the seat of my pants' type writer, but I do usually have a basic chapter plan and knowledge of my crisis points and how the characters are going to escape them... or not! This time... errr... not so much! I've got an old chapter plan, which only covers the first half of the book and which I have deviated from several times already! I think I know how I am going to 'save' one character, but I'm totally clueless as to how I'm going to solve another, very big, complication!

Hopefully it will come to me over the weekend!

I have also been searching for some visual inspiration as I love fantasy art and I find it helpful and inspiring. I found this great image on DeviantArt...

New Book... New Plan!

So Easter is over, the children are back at school and my laptop is switched on. From the messages I get either via Facebook or Amazon reviews I am aware that there are some amazing people out there who want to read something new, written by me of all people! I am also aware that my new project, which is totally different, and rather exciting (for me anyway) may well take anywhere up to another nine months for me to write! So I have come up with a plan.

Actually I just found my half written Witchblood tie-in novel 'Flying with Fire'. I actually forgot that I had been writing this last year! I've spent the morning re-reading and editing and actually I'm quietly confident. If you are a WB fan then this will quite possibly hit the spot. The word count is already at a nice rounded 25,000 and you'll get to see what happened to Brittany at her boarding school. With only another 50-60k words to write I will aim to have the first draft done by the Whit school holidays and the book published before the summer holidays.

What do you think? Do you still read YA paranormal?

If you want to keep track of my writing I have updated the word count meter on the right!

Voting is closed!

So it looks like we have a winning name! Thanks for all your input. 'Sam' he is!

What is his name?
Selection
Adam	30%
Sam	45%
Jack	25%

Now I can get back to my story evolution exercises!

Keep an eye out on the blog though as sometime soon I'm going to have to have rethink about the design. I think its time I have an 'Author page' rather than just Witchblood... For any newbie writers out there, learn from my mistakes and don't create a website address the same as your first books because it makes things somewhat complicated when you want to write something new!

For now though I think I'll have to just change the design and landing page and keep the address. Any smart techies out there and I would love some ideas on how to create an author page without losing all the blog traffic!

New Series : Male Character Name Poll

Right! So I've been doing some more character sketches and plot sketches today for my new series and I have this guy...

Well I don't have Michael Fassbender, but he is the inspiration for one of my main characters. He is the dad to an 8 year old girl called Lucy and the step-dad to my main protagonist 16yr old Liv and her twin brother Will. He is 35 and is loving, protective, loyal and a teeny bit controlling! He is an office designer.

I just couldn't think of a suitable name, probably because I had his real name stuck in my head lol. So I put out a call on my facebook page and got loads of great ideas. Now I'm stuck deciding between my three favourites. Which is your favourite? You Decide!

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

What is his name?
	Adam
	Sam
	Jack
pollcode.com free polls

The Mortal Instruments

So for this week's blog I thought I would do a brief review of the Cassandra Clare 'Mortal Instruments' books which I've been reading as I want to discuss 'doomed relationships' in series.

Up until Book Five (the current book I'm reading... or trying to) I have really enjoyed the series. It is something a little bit different from other paranormal YA series. I love the world building as it reminds me of the HP series in which the muggles live alongside and completely oblivious to the wizards. In Cassandra Clare's series the humans are living alongside all the supernatural species under the sun, and yet it is totally believable!

Clary is a great character and unlike a lot of YA protagonists I didn't find her annoying or unrealistic in her reactions. She comes across as fairly average, likeable and funny, but can be strong when she needs to be; which happens more as the series progresses. In Book One : City of Bones Clary finds herself drawn into the world of the Shadowhunters and her life is turned upside down. As seems the norm with this genre Clary soon finds herself in the middle of the obligatory love triangle and when things get tough with Jace, the rather irresistible and arrogant shadowhunter, she begins dating her best friend, Simon, which I found a little strange and unbelievable. Simon is a great character and is there for Clary throughout the series, I just wish the love angle had been left out as in my opinion it adds nothing to the story.

All of the first four books are totally readable and addictive. They are very easy to read and you soon find yourself loosing track of the time and becoming immersed in Cassandra Clare's world. The action scenes, are well written and exciting and the twists and turns have you double guessing plot lines throughout!

However... and this is my main negative point, over the last four books I did guess that the Clary / Jace 'problem' would be resolved and thoroughly enjoyed book four when this was all coming together. The 'happy ending' was well deserved after their struggle throughout the previous four books... So why oh why did the author feel it necessary to split them up again!! Ahhhhh! I have only got part way into Book Five and I honestly can't be bothered reading anymore. To be honest I am now fed up of seeing how many ways Cassandra Clare can keep them apart! Personally I would have much preferred to have these final books with Clary and Jace working together as a team. They could still have had the mighty battles and I'm sure there will be plenty, after all the Faerie Queen is a loose cannon and Valentine & his psychotic son are still on the rampage. So why the need for more Clary / Jace drama?

Hopefully one day I'll return to Book five and finish it, but for now I just can't be bothered.

What do you think? Have you read the series and if so what do you think about Book 5?

Do you like constant relationship drama or think it's too much?

Catching Up

Well, what can I say?
"Sorry"?
I'm totally terrible and I've completely let the blogging thing go! In fact I've completely let the writing thing go too!

I think to be honest last year, what with finishing WitchLove, writing 'Genevieve' and then writing the final book 'WitchHunt', all along with preparing for the IOW Literary Festival and moving 200 miles south kind of floored me!

I was intending on moving in, publishing WitchHunt at the end of October and then taking the rest of the year off to settle in and think of a new series idea; but in reality the new house was a mess and has needed a lot of TLC. I think as well, the longer I stayed away from writing the harder it seemed to get back into it.

I had a great idea for a new three book series, but I just didn't know how to get it going, and I was a little wary as it is a complete change for me in genre. It turned out that redecorating the tiny spare bedroom and turning it into a craft / writing room did the trick! Initially I intended it to be a craft / sewing room (as I love all things crafty!) but I found that with the sun streaming in the window and the lovely view of the fields all I wanted to do was set up my laptop!

Merely a week later, here I am, blogging away and I've even written the four main character sketches and the first two paragraphs! I'm starting to feel the excitement of getting pulled into another imaginary world!

2013 Year in Review

Wow! What a year! In the space of just 12 months I have published two novels and a short story; sold my house four times and finally moved with my family, 250 miles south to Somerset! In February 2013 we put our house up for Sale and I published book three in the WitchBlood Series, 'WitchLove'. In March I had my best sales rankings ever and sold 5000 books in one month! In April my husband got an amazing new job in Somerset and as the house was already for sale we decided to make the move a little more terrifying and explore a new county! That was where things became a little stressful!

In the months that followed we had three house sales fall apart further down the chain, my husband had to start his job in Somerset, leaving the children and I behind every week and I had the final WitchBlood book to write! At the same time as all this craziness I was invited to attend and run a workshop at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival in October. Even though I had never done anything like this before I accepted thinking we would at least be moved by then and nearer to the IOW! Little did I know just how many times things would go wrong! In the end we finally exchanged on our house two days before I was due to speak at the festival on the 19th October! The weekend was a whirlwind and my husband drove me there and back in three days and three days after that I was packing our belongings and waving goodbye to all our friends. My daughter, and our cat travelled in my car, whilst our son travelled with my husband & the dog in his car!

We arrived here on the 25th October, I somehow managed to publish 'WitchHunt' the final book in the series on November the 6th; and even with the mountainous task of DIY, decorating and cleaning involved I can honestly say I haven't looked back! I love the tiny Somerset village. I love hearing the sheep and the chickens in the morning and I love how everyone is so friendly and welcoming. What I don't love, is the mud! I am not a particularly 'car-proud' girl and tend to wash my car about once a year... but here I washed my car 3 times in as many weeks... and then I gave up! Buying a new white car last summer was my worst mistake. I really should have bought black... or even that new metallic coffee coloured brown. Now that would be perfect!

So it's been chaotic to say the least, but the children love their new school and Christmas was a good one. Hopefully 2014 will be a little quieter. A little calmer! So Happy New Year from Somerset!