When Life has Got You Down

It's day 16 of the book release blog tour. Yippee!

Are you feeling down? Feeling like life is coming at you with unfair force?

Combat it with cheese! Let's lighten some of that today with a few EPIC and fun posts.

The Maiden of Time Series:

The romance of Jane Eyre meets Supernatural.

In a world where people can heal with a touch, kill with a scream, and rob a person of their memories, Alexia is struggling to find her place and learn her gifts--before the Soulless come for her.

BUY

on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or get signed print copies from yours truly!

Tour stops

November 16

Hogwarts Sabbatical: Writing Tips--How to Balance Prose

The Five Year Project: Writing Tips--What Makes an Epic First Chapter

Lidy Wilks: Doppelganger Time! Who is Yours?

November 17

What's Beyond Forks? : Review & Little Know Facts--Where Do the Passionate Come From?

November 18

Mark Noce Stories: Book Spotlight 

(Email address is required for awarding prizes.)

Last week, Joylene Nowell Butler shared MATOWAK: WOMAN WHO CRIES along with two truths and one lie. Anyone who guessed the lie correctly was entered to an eBook.

The game:

1.  Joylene trained a wild tomcat by attaching a hair-brush to the end of a yard stick so she could brush his coat at a distance of three feet without having her legs torn to shreds. 
2. Robert Goulet, singer, actor, best known for The Naked Gun 2 & 1/2, and for being portrayed by Will Ferrell in Saturday Night Live is Joylene’s cousin. 
3. Joylene once won 10 bags of jujubes by eating 15 jujubes in one-minute while being blindfolded and having to pick up the candy one at a time with a toothpick.

The lie: #3. 

From Joylene: I do love jujubes, but because I live such a boring life, I had to look up a good lie. I found this one in the Guinness Book of Records.

Way to guess everyone! And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Hilary Melton-Butcher!

Congrats, Hilary!

And now, how about a wonderful book giveaway? (This one is one of the INSTANT prizes you can win in my Wheel of Death giveaway game.)

In this modern day retelling of Rapunzel, Anya has her books, her photography, and her daydreams. She doesn’t think she needs anything else.

She lives in a house on the edge of town with her adopted mother, who goes to extreme measures to keep her daughter safe. Anya doesn’t even go to school, but instead has a private tutor. Anya tries not to acknowledge her loneliness; she puts her efforts into pleasing her mom, and gives her heart to her stories, secretly wishing for a story of her own.

Then one day at the library, the only place she's allowed to go, she takes a picture of a beautiful boy.

Before long she's lying to her mom, and sneaking out late at night to meet Zander. But Zander wants more than a secret romance. If Anya wants to be with the boy of her dreams, she will have to risk her relationship with the only other person she's ever cared about.

Get Your Copy HERE.

Ready to meet the author?

Rachel grew up in a tiny town in Minnesota. She still lives there, with her husband and their four kids. She coaches high school speech and theater, rides Arabian horses, reads as much as she can, and writes stories.

You might find Rachel, kicking back with her kids and eating Colby Jack in crackers. Meet her on her FACEBOOK PAGE.

Rachel gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out either lie will go into my magic hat for the chance to win an eBook (open internationally):

You have until Tuesday, November 29 at 2 p.m. EDT to guess. Be sure to come back for the answer (and some FUN trivia) on November 16, 8 a.m. EDT.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. I caught a Snorlax in my living room.
2. I almost died when I was four. 
3. I saw Patrick Swayze at a horse show.

So sleuths, which is the lie? Have you met Rachel? Love fairy tale retellings? What's got you down lately? And more importantly, how are you going to fight it? Now guess the lie and get out of here--on to the next tour stop!

How NOT to Accomplish Goals (in 5 Easy Steps)

Have you completely given up on your goals for 2016?

Several of my wonderful blogging buddies do a monthly check in about their goals for the month/year. I don't. I live off the "list." There's a master list of things I'd like to accomplish each day, and as I accomplish them, they get scratched off the list. Looking beyond that tends to overwhelm me...because you know, I'm home schooling 4 kids.

So enough about healthy habits. Let's talk about some not so healthy habits. (Because they're funner.)

At the beginning of the year, my 2016 writing goals included:

1. Finish TIMELESS (book 3 in the Maiden of Time trilogy). DONE!!!! First trilogy completed. You better bet I'm celebrating. 

2. Publish an anthology of my short stories. .....

3. Record the audiobook for MOONLESS. (Maybe after TIMELESS releases?)

4. Finish PROJECT ALASKA and start querying. 32K words, and holding...until (you guessed it) after TIMELESS releases.

5. Read 60 novels. Yeah, I knew it would be a small reading year. I'm at 34, unless you count the ones I'm critiquing and beta reading, but I don't count those--only the ones I review.

SO How Not to Accomplish Goals (in 5 Easy Steps):

#5: Get Netflix. (You'll probably spend an entire hour just trying to decide what to watch.)

(Credit: Shutterstock/Dave Clark Digital Photo)

#4: Develop a social media dependence.

Source

#3: Have kids. And home school them. Every day. All day.

Source

#2: My favorite, stay up all night every night reading EPIC books.

#1: Forget the goals because...OOHH!! Chocolate. (Or cheese.)

Source

Whether you're a list, calendar, or check in kind of goal keeper, I hope your goals are going swimmingly this year.

Time to give some away some book love, eh?

Last week Misha Gerrick shared two truths and one lie. The winners were entered to win an eBook: ENDLESS.

The game:

1. I'm currently wearing my hair the shortest I've ever worn it. 
2. Mashed potatoes is my ultimate comfort food.
3. I've recently resumed my classical vocal lessons.

The lie: #2. Misha hates mashed potatoes. If she wants comfort, she'd chow down on chocolate. She is actually back in voice lessons as a soprano.

Way to guess everyone! And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Cherie Reich!

Congrats, Cherie!

And now for today's giveaway: 

In You. I. Us, Annalisa Crawford captures everyday people during poignant defining moments in their lives: An artist puts his heart into his latest sketch, an elderly couple endures scrutiny by a fellow diner, an ex-student attempts to make amends with a girl she bullied at school, a teenager holds vigil at his friend’s hospital bedside, long distance lovers promise complete devotion, a broken-hearted widow stares into the sea from the edge of a cliff where her husband died, a grieving son contacts the only person he can rely on in a moment of crisis, a group of middle-aged friends inspire each other to live remarkable lives. Day after day, we make the same choices. But after reading You. I. Us., you’ll ask yourself, “What if we didn’t?”

Get Your Copy HERE.

Ready to meet the author?

Annalisa Crawford lives in Cornwall UK, with a good supply of moorland and beaches to keep her inspired. She lives with her husband, two sons, a dog and a cat. Annalisa writes dark contemporary, character-driven stories. She has been winning competitions and publishing short stories in small press journals for many years, and is the author of Cat & The Dreamer and Our Beautiful Child.

You might run across Annalisa munching on cheddar with her feet paddling in the sea.

Annalisa gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for the chance to win an PRINT copy of You. I. Us. (Open internationally.)

You have until Tuesday, August 2 at 2 p.m. EDT to guess. Be sure to come back for the answers on August 3, 8 a.m. EDT.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. I sink when I try to swim, but float away when I'm upright.
2. Due to repeats in the UK, I have watched the complete series of Star Trek: TNG, Castle, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother multiple times.
3. It took me 6 attempts to pass my driving test.

So sleuths, which is the lie? What are your goals for 2016? How are you doing with them? What's your favorite distraction? Have you met Annalisa?