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.

Tours, Tours and more Tours!

So it's the last day of the WitchLove tour today. Head over to Gabby at http://www.whatsbeyondforks.com/2013/02/witchlove-tour-review-and-giveaway-of.html for her review and a giveaway copy of WitchLove.

I'd like to thank everyone who has given up their time and blog space to read, review and host me over the past two whirlwind weeks and I'm happy to say the fun is not about to end! The fabulous Abby from http://bookshelfconfessions.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://iluvtours.blogspot.co.uk/ has offered to run a SIX WEEK tour for the entire WitchBlood series! So from March 4th - April 12th she will be running a worldwide blog tour for all three books. I will post the schedule as soon as I have it, but look out for new giveaways, interviews and information along the way... I've been busy writing nine new guest posts for this tour and I hope by the end of it to have a WitchHunt surprise for you!

For those who entered my bookmark giveaways, here are the winners - You need to msg me your address through the Witchblood FB page:

Laura Mead - Thanks I've got your address.
@b00kr3vi3ws
Nicole Delfs
Book addicts AA
Lucinda McNulty
Laura Tidey
Jane Jones

When Everything Gets Too Much!

Yes, it's been one of these weeks, coupled with the school half term so on top of trying to help out with the WitchLove Blog Tour I've had a million other things to sort out. Firstly I have been trying to arrange the little (but terribly important) things for our big holiday to Disney World in May. So I've done the travel insurance and car hire, the hotel and flights are sorted, but I needed to apply for the ESTA... which I've been told is a simple 5 minute filling out of passport info to get the US Visa thing necessary to get into the US... so I did ours on Friday morning and it said 'Pending'! After checking with my travel consultant she said she usually gets hers back within 5 minutes... well it is now MONDAY morning and when I enter the Group id they gave me it now says 'Group Does Not Exist'! This does not put me in a happy place!

On top of this we are attempting to move house... yes one of the Top 3 most stressful things to do in your life. Only Death and Divorce apparently top it and I'm left wondering how often a house move actually leads to the aforementioned death or divorce?! So we have to sell out house in a virtually comatose market in order to buy the house of our dreams... or rather the-house-half-way-to-our-dreams-that-we-can-afford! From experience I think the ranking should be reshuffled. It is probably rank 3 if you are selling your house WITHOUT children but I think it should be joint 2nd if you have children under 10! As soon as I tidy one room another is totally and utterly trashed. Toys breed in dark corners under laundry piles as the kitchen floor is spattered with fresh glue and glitter!

Unfortunately there is more! So on top of the whole blog tour / house move / kids off school thing, my washing machine has died... or rather is in the process of a long drawn out and rather noisy death as the cement block has become loose and makes a god-awful thumping noise every time the damn thing spins! It has been fixed once and lasted all of two cycles and now the plastic casing is splitting. I think I better find a new one! Also the dryer no longer seems to have any heat come though it and my car is falling apart! Today it's in the garage having a new wiper system installed. It didn't need a wiper motor, but it's getting one because they don't sell the small CHEAP bit without you buying the whole unnecessary part GRrrrrrrrr!

So yeah... my weeks not getting off to the best start... How about yours? If you are looking for
another Witchblood fix have you seen my two recent tour stops? There was an interview with Jess and a WitchLove Soundtrack!
Today head over to The Avid Reader for a fantastic WitchLove review and short interview with me. Thanks Nancy!

Kindle Ranking Progress & Celebrations

Woohoo! I am super happy with WitchLove's progress over it's first week. Previously I have been in the Top 10 Kindle rankings with WitchBlood in its genre, when it was free, but not in paid. Currently WitchLove is getting closer and climbing steadily up the Top 100 paid ranking in several genres. Check this out!

 

US:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,129 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

• #25 in Kindle Store > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age
• #30 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age
• #31 in Kindle Store > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy > Paranormal

And amazingly the UK's not far behind!

UK:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #3,208 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

• #59 in Books > Fantasy > Paranormal

So my plea to everyone and anyone who might read this... help me get to No1... I'll be super chuffed if it happens in any genre, but the Paranormal genre is a big one so if I get into the Top 10 Paranormal I'll be dancing round the room and popping open a bottle of fizz!

I have also been having a think about the next book 'WitchHunt'. I'm thinking of starting the novel giving Jess a little romantic break... she needs it after the ending of the this one ;) However I'm not sure how far to take it. I thought I'd create a little survey for you guys to let me know my readers ages and what you'd like to read... before Jess ends up in the thick of the action chasing down vindictive vampires again :) So, keep any eye out for a new survey and check out todays review over on the tour:
http://www.fictionalcandy.com/2013/02/review-witchlove-by-emma-mills.html

 

 

 

The Tour Continues... Do you want a Giveaway?

So how is everyone liking WitchLove? I am amazed and so thrilled that so many of you have already bought it and even read it... according to the posts coming in on Facebook every day! I am so lucky to have such great fans.

So have you been following the tour? I did an interview at Chicklish on Friday, Lynn Worton reviewed WitchLove today Here and there should be more reviews going up soon. You can find the links if you click on the tour poster to your right.

To thank you guys for being so brilliant I thought I'd giveaway a couple more signed bookmarks. Who would like one?

To grab one all you have to do is tweet this:

Have you read the #WitchBlood YA series yet? #WitchLove is just released and I LOVE it! @EmmaMwriter http://amznly.com/jn

Make sure my twitter handle is included so I can confirm you have sent it. I have 5 spare bookmarks so if there are more then 5 entrants I'll get my kids to pick names out of a hat ;)

Happy Valentines... Who fancies some Witch Love?

Wow...so I had 234 blog views yesterday... that's a record I think!

So it's Valentines Day... Happy Valentines Day!

The day I chose to publish my 3rd book WitchLove, which is the 3rd book in my WitchBlood Series. If you're on my blog it's likely that you already know me, my books or both so what are you waiting for... Go get it! It's now available on Amazon Kindle worldwide and for those wanting Nook, iBooks or other formats you can download from Smashwords here as it takes a couple of weeks to go live on B&N and other retailers.

I'm so happy. It's actually quite a cool feeling having my 3rd book published. There are still the nerves in case everybody hates it... But generally it's all good. I had originally planned the series to be a trilogy, but half way through writing WitchLove I soon realised that either I was going to write a Harry Potter length finale or I'd have to write a 4th book, which was more appealing. So seeing as my lovely fans on my FB page were already asking for more books I decided to keep the length the same as the first two and split the story. Which means now WitchLove is out I better get planning WitchHunt!

To celebrate the release of WitchLove I have a two week blog tour planned, which if you click on the poster on the right should take you to all the bloggers and their web pages. Check them out for giveaways, reviews and guest posts.

I also have some Witchblood bookmarks and magnets to giveaway over the next couple of weeks, along with another Witch book/shopper bag.  The first prize will go to the first person to comment below and tell me the name of Jess's annoying American female cousin who appears in Chapter 5.
*make sure you check back to see if you're the winner so I can contact you!*

Fractured Soul Tour

Hi everyone, so today I'm part of the Fractured Soul Tour. The tour is running from Jan 29th right up to the 26th Feb & passing through some great blogs, so check them out for giveaways. I read Fractured Soul by Rachel McClellan in return for an honest review and as it is the second book in the series I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get into the story as I hadn't read the first one... but that is not the case at all and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are the details:



About Fractured Soul

Llona will do whatever it takes to protect her new found friends and home, but the dark plot threatening Lucent Academy, a school that’s supposed to be a safe place for Auras, may be too powerful for even Llona to defeat. This fast-paced tale of love, loyalty, and overcoming the darkness will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page!

Review

Llona is a teenage girl who with both parents dead (possibly murdered, but I'm not sure as I didn't read the first book) is coerced into attending a boarding school for Auras and Furys along with her best friend who happens to be a rare Fury. Even though I hadn't read the first I think you could easily jump straight to this book as it's easy to pick up the necessary facts and background info. Auras are filled with (& able to wield light) and Furys are able to create fire.

 

There are some regular, fun school type situations... girl cliques and hot boys, but the action comes from the uncovering of a huge plot to basically farm the auras blood, which the Vykens feed from. (Vykens are basically a new version of vampire, but it all works nicely and is a little bit different.) The introduction of a new supernatural type called Lizens who are basically lizard-like people who can breathe underwater... reminded me of mermaids, but I loved Tessa and thought she was a great addition to the story. 

 

The ending was great and I have to say obviously I didn't have the connection with Christian (Llona's Guardian and boyfriend) due to not reading the first book, but I preferred the new guy :)

 

Overall I'd give it a 4.5 star rating as I whizzed through it and found nothing lacking. This is definitely one to read if you like YA Paranormal fiction.

Author Bio
 

Rachel McClellan was born and raised in Idaho, a place secretly known for its supernatural creatures. When she's not in her writing lair, she's partying with her husband and four crazy, yet lovable, children. Rachel's love for storytelling began as a child when the moon first possessed the night. For when the lights went out, her imagination painted a whole new world. And what a scary world it was...

Links

Find Rachel 

Facebook  |   Blog   |   Website   |   Twitter   |   Goodreads  |  Book Trailer

 

Buy Fractured Light 

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble

 

Buy Fractured Soul 

Amazon   |   Barnes and Noble