GUEST POST: Jessica Therrien

Hey there! I've known Jessica for a while now and when she asked if I would help promote the re-release of her CHILDREN OF THE GODS series, I couldn't say no.

So, here in her own words, is Jessica talking about her series. Enjoy!!

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Hi! I’m Jessica Therrien, author of the YA paranormal romance series, CHILDREN OF THE GODS. Thanks for hosting me on your blog today, Andrew! This one is for all the writers out there…

I love writing. That’s why I’m a writer. Not because I’m hoping to make a bazillion dollars on the next 50 Shades of Grey (which I’ve intentionally not read, for snobby writer reasons). But what I’ve experienced in writing and publishing three novels is that you will lose the joy in writing when it becomes work.

I really had no concept of this when I first started out. It was like being a candy addict and getting really excited to work at your favorite candy store because you will be able to eat all the candy you want, only to find out that too much candy makes you sick.

Writing book one was an amazing feeling. I felt so inspired. I could write 10-20 pages in one sitting. I had a million ideas, an outline, a character map. It was FUN.

Then book two rolled around and I was in deep with a publisher. Every writer’s dream, right? A best-selling novel and a publishing contract for the next book before it had even been written.

I’m here to tell you that writing under pressure with a deadline hanging over your head is not fun. Granted, it pushes you. It forces you to get your butt in that desk chair and churn out some pages, but one thing it won’t do is inspire you.

With book one I spent so much time obsessing over getting it published that I didn’t stop and appreciate the freedom I had to enjoy the process. I had it SO good. I had inspiration and all the time in the world to play with my imagination.

I promised book three would be different, and it was. I didn’t sign a contract for book three. Instead I asked for my rights back. Something I NEVER thought I would do. I’m so glad I did, though. It took me around two years to write this last book, but in those two years I’ve been a better mother, a better wife, and a better writer. I’ve found the joy in writing again. I hope you can learn from my experience and enjoy the uninhibited process of writing on your own timeline.

Remember, we write because we love it. HAVE FUN.



Lead Council member, Christoph, is dead by Elyse’s hand, and Descendants have begun to emerge, exposing their secret to the world. Some see this as the prophecy come to fruition, but the prophecy caries a heavy consequence. It was never meant to be as peaceful as most had hoped.

Humans and Descendants struggle to live together in a world that isn’t ready for such a change. America is divided. Those who glorify the supernatural race believe Descendants truly are the gods they claim relation to. Others see them as a threat.

When Elyse gives birth to the next generation oracle, she sees one final vision—war. The destruction of the country’s major cities, and the end of America as we know it.

After her daughter is born, Elyse finds herself without the ability she needs to predict the future. Desperate to save the world from such conflict, she puts her faith in the hope that Descendants are the key to survival. After all, they have the power to supply a broken society with the means to survive.

Only from the ashes can a new world be born.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE (Links available soon)

Elyse’s Story…

OPPRESSION (Book #1)

UPRISING (Book #2)

REDEMPTION (Book #3)

The Children of the Gods Series

The Descendants have waited long enough for freedom…




About The Author

JESSICA THERRIEN spent most of her life in the small town of Chilcoot, California, high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In this town of nearly 100 residents, with no streetlights or grocery stores, there was little to do but find ways to be creative. Her mother, the local English teacher, inspired her to do all things artistic, and ultimately instilled in her a love for language. Jessica currently lives in Southern California with her husband and their two children.

You can visit her online at


www.jessicatherrien.com

Gust Post: LS Murphy On Publishing and Rejection

So today, I have the pleasure of giving you an inspiration post by L.S. Murphy.

Her debut novel, REAPER, came out back in 2013. However, that doesn't mean she didn't wade through her share of rejection getting there.

So, without further ado, I give you L.S. in her own words and gifs...because who doesn't love gifs?

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Publishing is hard. I know, duh, right?

When I first set out on this journey for the second time (the first is a long story involving really bad poetry), I wasn’t about to let rejection defeat me. I knew I’d see lots of “No, but thanks” from agents and editors. So I bucked up and prepared for the worst.

Just so you know, you can never prepare for the worst enough.

I got so many rejections I could’ve wallpapered my house with them. TWICE. That includes the floors and ceiling.

But I didn’t give up. And that’s my point.

Oh, I’m sure everyone has heard that before. But it’s definitely easier said than done.

My debut novel, REAPER, (the one with wallpapering ability) found a home at J. Taylor Publishing and released in 2013. It eventually earned Honorable Mention in the YA category of the Eric Hoffer Awards. The yes by J. Taylor erased all the pain of rejection.

Honestly, I was ready to give up and shelve the novel because I had another one ready to query.
While I worked on editing REAPER, I queried my next novel and wrote another one. My second novel eventually heard yes after another bought of rejections, only this time from an agent. And guess what? It hasn’t sold.

But I had another book, PIXELATED, ready for the agent. It will be released in February 2015 through Bloomsbury Spark. While it was on submission, I wrote another book that is currently on submission. And another one that I recently sent to the awesome agent.

Will those two sell? I don’t know. All I do know is I want to keep writing. Which means I’m going to hear a lot of “No, but thanks,” along the way. I’ll allow myself a five minute pity party then move on.
Rejections suck. Publishing is hard. But if this is what you want, then do it.

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Guest Post: BEHIND THE SCENES by Dahlia Adler

So today I have the honor of hosting the lovely, and talented, Dahlia Adler. Her debut novel, BEHIND THE SCENES, comes out June 24th. I have a copy in my hot little hands, so you can all be jealous.

After hounding* her both privately, and publicly, like a paparazzi on the hunt for the latest celeb scandal, I managed to get her undivided attention...

*in the spirit of full disclosure there was no "hounding" per-say, but a couple emails were sent back and forth. Don't tell anyone or it will ruin my street cred.

Anyway, I got to ask her a question.

No. It wasn't "Will you go out with me?" or "If not, maybe we could have some coffee?" or "Ok. You walk down the street and I'll stand over here and talk to myself and not look at you." And it definitely wasn't "What does 'Restraining Order' mean?"

Ok. Seriously?

My question was simple "Where did the idea for this story come from and what steps did you take to research it?" It's always fascinating to hear the story behind the story. What started it and stuff like that. Anyway, she obliged. So here is her answer.

Dahlia Adler is an Assistant Editor of Mathematics by day, a Copy Editor by night, and a YA author and blogger at every spare moment in between. You can find her on Twitter at @MissDahlELama, and blogging The Daily Dahlia, YA Misfits, and Barnes & Noble. She lives in New York City with her husband and their overstuffed bookshelves. Behind the Scenes is her debut novel.

Social Media Links
Website: http://www.dahliaadler.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MissDahlELama
Blog: http://dailydahlia.wordpress.com
Tumblr: http://dahlelama.tumblr.com
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/dahliaaf

Behind the Scenes

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17869397-behind-the-scenes
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Scenes-Dahlia-Adler/dp/1939392977
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/behind-the-scenes-phoebe-adler/1104516606?ean=9781939392978
IndieBound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781939392978
The Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Behind-Scenes-Dahlia-Adler/9781939392978

Where did the idea for this story come from and what steps did you take to research it?
The funny thing for me about Behind the Scenes is I actually have pretty strong memories of the early days of formulation—piecing together bits of the idea, getting up in the middle of the night to type up a query letter that seemed to come into my brain fully formed—but not what prompted the idea itself in the first place. I can tell you pieces of inspiration—the new 90210, definitely, and certain events from my own life—but not where the initial idea sprang from.

Like most stories, though, it got padded with associations and influences along the way. A huge one was Jen Calonita’s YA series “Secrets of My Hollywood Life.” It’s different in many ways—it’s narrated by the celebrity herself, it’s a six-book series, it’s geared toward a younger audience—but it was a great thing to read to get the perspectives of the characters who would be secondary in my own book. Plus, Calonita has great experience in entertainment journalism, and I was still in the early stages of research.

Research is sort of a tricky thing when you don’t have insider access, but it’s amazing the difference the Internet can make. I’ve been to LA, which is where the book is set, but I definitely still needed LA-resident input and Google Earth, and that’s despite making up one of the neighborhoods in the book. YouTube was also invaluable for behind-the-scenes (heh) videos with actors on set. And when you’re writing about celebs being besieged by paparazzi, actually looking through tons of tabloid photos helps too…no matter how dirty it makes you feel!

The truth is that the process of writing any book has so much potential to evolve as you’re doing it, and the more TV I watched, the more tabloids I read, and the more news stories broke, the more I observed Hollywood as an outsider, the more the story changed. And after all that, I’m really excited that the finished product is finally coming out into the world, and hope people love it as much as I do!
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So there you have it. The behind the scenes to Behind the Scenes. That's very meta.

'Till Next Time

GUEST POST: On Fear and Writing by Ella Martin

Today, I have the unique pleasure of having a guest post by the awesome Ella Martin. Her novel, WILL THE REAL PRINCE CHARMING PLEASE STAND UP is due to release July 2014. She can be found on here and here.

ON FEAR AND WRITING
by Ella Martin

I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all. – E.B. White

Writing is a scary business.

I’m not talking about the fear that no one will ever buy your book, or the fear that editors won’t buy it, or even the fear that agents won’t love it enough to offer to represent you.

Those are all scary things related to writing, but those are all after the fact because writing—the actual act of sitting down and getting words onto the page (or screen, as the case more often is these days)—can be pretty freakin’ terrifying.

It wasn’t always like this for me. And in all actuality, I love to write. It’s my emotional outlet. My fifth-grade teacher handed me a blank notebook one day and told me to fill it up with all my thoughts and ideas and stories, and I was hooked. In those days, writing wasn’t so scary. Writing was just something I did.

When I sat down to write my novel WILL THE REAL PRINCE CHARMING PLEASE STAND UP?, it wasn’t scary. I wrote it during NaNoWriMo 2012, and I signed up for that on a whim. I’d had the general idea for the story for month, but I finally put the words onto the screen that November. I was excited and eager to be writing the first draft, and I didn’t have a chance to be scared.

But writing the second book? I didn’t have the one-month self-imposed deadline. I wouldn’t “earn” a shirt proclaiming me a winner once I’d finished it. I didn’t have a site that would hold me accountable before all my peers. Worse, I had time to think, to second-guess myself, to wonder if I was telling the right story for my character. In that way, time can be a dangerous thing because if allowed, time can feed fear and allow it to fester.

Why, then, is writing so scary? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me, committing words to the page, knowing that people may—no, will—read them, is intimidating. My work in progress, a companion novel to WILL THE REAL PRINCE CHARMING PLEASE STAND UP?, has started and stalled more times than a lemon coming off a used car lot. In my head, I have the story perfectly mapped out, and the words are beautifully written. It’s flawless.

To actually write out the story, though, means it will lose that perfection. It subjects it to the possibility (and likelihood) of being questioned, torn apart, and rejected. And as much as I claim to welcome feedback and embrace rejection, it’s still scary.

I once read somewhere that fear and excitement, from a purely physiological perspective, are the same emotion. The body responds the same way to both. Pupils dilate, adrenaline courses, heartbeats race, breathing quickens to accommodate the increased blood flow, and the brain is on alert. How we use that energy is what determines if it’s fear or excitement.

So embrace the fear and channel that energy into your words. Know that it’s okay to be scared—but it’s not okay to give into that fear. Repurpose the fear as excitement, and write like no one but you will ever read it. There will be ups and downs. There will be passages you can’t wait to write and parts you force yourself to slog through. But when you’ve met your word count for the day or feel the euphoria that comes after finishing a chapter, you can think of the roller coaster you’ve just been on, look back on it, and say, “I wanna do that again!”

Ella Martin is a YA author represented by Julia A. Weber of J.A.W. Literaturagentur. Her debut novel WILL THE REAL PRINCE CHARMING PLEASE STAND UP? is a contemporary continuation of Snow White in which a 15-year-old girl discovers “happily ever after” only happens with the right guy. It will be available July 2014 from Astraea Press.

Soul Asylum Guest Post

Today my blog got invaded by the evil pixies, C. L. Raven...again...They're here talking about their new book Soul Asylum. Thankfully, they put everything back where it belongs and took the RedBull I left as an offering. They did mention a giveaway. I suppose I should do it. :D Leave a comment and I'll pick one of you to send their way (as another offering!). They're giving away copies of their ebooks, bookmarks, postcards, and magnets. One rule, if you want to win, you MUST be follower of my blog + leave a comment in relation to this post. I'll need your email address to send to them. I'd be more creative, but it's late and I've had a long day. ;-D

So, without further ado, I turn it over to C. L. Raven.

The pixies themselves (a.k.a the authors, C. L. Raven)

We were going to write a blog post about Soul Asylum, but then we figured there was someone much better suited to the job. Mason Strider, a journalist who visited Ravens Retreat asylum determined to expose the ghost tours there as a con. Instead he exposed the asylum’s twisted heart.

SOUL ASYLUM
By Mason Strider

After writing about Soul Searching, the ghostly tour of Ravens Retreat, I was invited to spend a few days there. Ravens Retreat is the West Wing of an old mental asylum, half of which burned down in 1904, killing staff and patients. It is believed the fire was started deliberately by one of the patients. During my stay, I participated in an Ouija board, in which the poltergeist claimed he wanted revenge. The glass then smashed. Doors slam, fires ignite and the temperature plummets. Objects are thrown and people are pushed, punched or threatened.

I’ve witnessed this ghost holding a written conversation with the asylum’s owner, in which he claimed the asylum isn’t just haunted by him, but a legion of ghosts of the unfortunate patients and staff who are doomed to spend their afterlives locked away in the asylum. Threatening messages were written on my bedroom wall in blood. I would never have believed the messages were the work of a poltergeist had I not been in the room when they were written. The ghost has, on numerous occasions attempted to take Mr. Soul’s life. I was forced to leave the asylum before events turned lethal.
Throughout the night, screaming, crying, shouting, keep me awake. The sound of wheelchairs being pushed echo along the endless corridors, accompanied by the jangling of the attendants’ keys. The poltergeist wanders the asylum, like he’s searching for something. Maybe that’s what’s keeping him here.

There is something rotten in Ravens Retreat and I’m determined to find the cause of the poltergeist’s eternal torment so his soul can be laid to rest.

His relentless persecution of Soul is interesting. If he really wanted to kill him, he would do it while he slept. He wants Soul to live in a state of constant fear. Soul doesn’t know when the poltergeist will eventually grow bored of him and kill him. Living with that fear every day is far worse that his inevitable death. Soul is a toy. Something to amuse him until more unsuspecting guests arrive. Without Soul, nobody would visit the asylum. He would be alone for eternity. He needs Soul to make his existence meaningful. At times I think he doesn’t realise he’s dead.

I’ve never seen this ghost. Maybe he was a patient who died in the fire in 1904. Maybe he lived here after that and was murdered. I don’t know what drives him to kill. The fear gives him power perhaps. The only way to stop him is exorcism or to stop guests visiting the asylum. Soul refuses exorcism. I can’t help feeling he needs the poltergeist as much as the poltergeist needs him. They’re both alone. They have a strange unexplainable bond, except one is alive and the other is dead.

The longer I’m here, the more violent the poltergeist is becoming. He’s losing control.

I plan to research this asylum more thoroughly. Delve beneath the mask it showed to the world.

This is no longer a simple story about a ghost tour in a creepy asylum. The present and past have collided in a truly horrific way. Ravens Retreat has risen from the dead and is hungry for revenge.

The blood wanted to prick a conscience that couldn’t bleed.

Poe could keep his telltale heart.

I couldn't hear it beating.

Ravens Retreat harbours a sinister secret. Inside its blackened heart lurk the ghosts of patients and staff who died when the asylum was burned down in 1904. Over a hundred years later, the West wing survives and now the patients want revenge.

Their eternal repose is disturbed by a malevolent poltergeist and the ghost tours led by the asylum’s resident, Phineas Soul, which attract the attention of journalist Mason Strider. His attempts to expose Phineas as a fraud have catastrophic consequences when it is Ravens Retreat’s dark heart that’s exposed as it awakens to claim the lives of those who dare to enter its brutal past.

Some things should never be disturbed.

Blog - http://clraven.wordpress.com/

Twitter - @clraven

YouTube channel is Ravens Retreat

Calamityville Horror S1 Outtakes

Soul Asylum fan page

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