Love to be BAD

Lovelies!

The lovely Freda Mans is featuring MOONLESS today, including a GIVEAWAY. Yay!

Also, Jessie Anderson and I are talking about our love of character weaknesses. Come chip in!

Do you ever find yourself disconnected with the world around you?

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I had a wonderful experience this week. We move around A LOT. As in, the longest my hubby and I have lived anywhere is three and half years, and in our fourteen years of marriage, we've moved thirteen times, soon to be fourteen--two of those moves being cross country.

With pulling up roots so often, it's hard to let people in. I want to, but chances are we're just going to leave (or they will) and we'll lose contact. That kills me. I'm the type who loves instantly and deeply, but in recent years I've started to build some walls.

So the other day I sat in front of a group of fifty kids, children I know and love, ones I teach weekly, and it hit me how much I care about each of them. I realized I had let each and every one of them into my heart. And the best part? It doesn't matter that I will be moving again in six months. While I'm here, I have the privilege of loving and being loved by each and every one of them. How could I NOT appreciate that opportunity?

I think often we allow our past wounds to stop us from truly enjoying life, so my encouragement today? Don't. Open your heart. Let someone in. Sure there may come a time when you'll have to say goodbye or let go, but for today love and be loved.

And now, as you know, it is WRITERLY WEDNESDAY! Are you ready to meet a new author and enter to win an awesome book? 

This is one I've been looking forward to for a long time, so I'm very stoked to share it with you.

Jeff Mean would rather set fires than follow rules or observe curfew. He wears his bad boy image like a favorite old hoodie; that is until he learns he has superpowers and is recruited by Super Villain Academy – where you learn to be good at being bad. In a school where one kid can evaporate all the water from your body and the girl you hang around with can perform psychic sex in your head, bad takes on a whole new meaning. Jeff wonders if he’s bad enough for SVA.

He may never find out. Classmates vilify him when he develops good manners. Then he’s kidnapped by those closest to him and left to wonder who is good and who is bad. His rescue is the climactic episode that balances good and evil in the super world. The catalyst – the girl he’s crushing on. A girlfriend and balancing the Supers is good, right? Or is it…bad?

Buy it: Whiskey Creek Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble 
Add it to Goodreads

And now, let me introduce you to the wonderful author: 

When her children were young and the electricity winked out, Kai Strand gathered her family around the fireplace and they told stories, one sentence at a time. Her boys were rather fond of the ending, “And then everybody died, the end.” Now an award winning children’s author, Kai crafts fiction for kids and teens to provide an escape hatch from their reality. With a selection of novels for young adult and middle grade readers and short stories for younger children, Kai entertains children of all ages, and their adults.

King of Bad released from Whiskey Creek Press in July of 2013. It has been on their Top 5 Best Sellers list since its release. Book two in the series, Polar Opposites, releases this June. It’s already on Goodreads and it would make Kai ridiculously happy if you added it to your to-read shelf also.

Kai loves cheese: sharp cheddar and muenster, brie and pepperjack, but if she could only pick one, it would be a good gouda on crackers on a fancy hotel room balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean. (With the cry of seagulls, the shoosh of the rising tide, a glass of Shiraz, and her hubby.) 

Find more about Kai and her books at www.kaistrand.com

Kai gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Can you figure out the lie? Those who do will go into my magic hat for a chance to win King of Bad. (Paper for US residents, eBook for internationals.) Eek! How cool is that? You have until Tuesday, February 25, at 1 p.m. EDT to guess--and be sure to come back for the answer on February 26.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. A long-term guest of the hotel Kai worked for became smitten with her (to be fair, as an employee she was like a captive audience for the man). He owned a high end used car dealership and allowed her to pick out any car she wanted. She chose a Porsche 928, but only kept it for a few months.

2. To celebrate the opening of a manufacturing plant in Dublin, the company she worked for raffled off big prizes. She won a 60 inch screen television with surround sound and a trip to Ireland. She was one number away from also winning the African safari!

3. As the night manager of a fancy hotel in Southern California, she saw a lot of unusual things; Tungan royalty, a drug-induced freak out requiring the police and a straight jacket. One night she found a bottle of expensive moisturizer on the front desk with a card that said, “You are so beautiful and I want to help you stay that way.”

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A quick reminder about the...

REVIEW RACE

Anyone who reviews MOONLESS between now and MARCH 10, 2014, and tells me about it HERE, will be entered to win...

An advanced copy of book 2 in the Maiden of Time Trilogy (set to release July, 2014), AND a signed copy of MOONLESS. 

Okay, which is the lie? Have you had an experience where you let someone in? And what do you think of my amazing Soulless logo? (My graphic artist needs some validation--so let it rip, eh?)

Guns, Gratitude, Babies and Reviews?

This is the most eclectic post of all time. Are you ready for this? First of all, how about a few laughs?

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I must be in a baby mood. Okay, now that we've all had some cheese...

Last week, Elizabeth Seckman shared with us her amazing romances Past Due, Healing Summer and Fate Intended, along with two truths and one lie about herself. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing to win THREE of her amazing eBooks!

Elizabeth's game:

1. Elizabeth failed kindergarten and didn't know how to read until second grade.

2. She was named the Tyler County Fair Cow Queen.

3. She asked, or rather told her husband he was going to marry her. 

And the lie is: 

#2. Elizabeth did actually fail kindergarten *gasp* and she's apparently a bossy woman, but her husband loves that about her because he obeyed.   

Way to guess those of you who got it right! You are officially human lie detectors. And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Pk Hrezo!!!

Congrats Pk. 

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My pal Sheri Larsen is hosting a gratitude hop!

The hop will run from March 3 - 5. Post any of those three days - using this badge and linking back to this list  on Sheri's site - and tell us about what you learned about yourself over the course of the month. Did it help you? How do you plan on implementing your findings? Just signup with Mr. Linky on Sheri's site, and of course, spreading the word would be greatly appreciated! 

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And next, do you have an Indie book published and want more reviews? The fabulous Susan Kaye Quinn is looking for people to join her on a Netgalley group, and you can't do better than being on Susan's team. She's a winner. Check it out HERE. 

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Only two more days to enter. DO IT NOW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And have you heard about my

REVIEW RACE

???

Anyone who reviews MOONLESS between now and MARCH 10, 2014, and tells me about it HERE, will be entered to win...

An advanced copy of book 2 in the Maiden of Time Trilogy (set to release July, 2014), AND a signed copy of MOONLESS. 

Writerly Wednesdays will resume next week, but be sure to stop back in Friday to see if you won the Valentines Giveaway. Oh, and enter my review race, or join my Goodreads Giveaway. You can be a winner too!

Did any of those funnies get you chuckling? What's the funniest thing you've seen in the last couple days? 

MOONLESS Book Release Blog Fest, and GIVEAWAY

It's time to PARTY!!!!!

First of all HUGE thanks go out to my epic co-hosts Pk Hrezo, Tammy Theriault and Michael Di Gesu. If you haven't met these amazing peeps, DO IT NOW! (Ahem, or after you've commented.)

In the English society of 1768 where women are bred to marry, unattractive Alexia, just sixteen, believes she will end up alone. But on the county doorstep of a neighbor’s estate, she meets a man straight out of her nightmares, one whose blue eyes threaten to consume her whole world—especially when she discovers him standing over her murdered host in the middle of the night.

Her nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless.

BUY IT HERE

Or today through Valentines day, buy HERE
Use this code LQJM3F84 and get $2.00 off.

So here's the question: If you lived in a society where arranged marriages were a la mode, whom would you beg your parents to set you up with? Why? (Literary characters and celebrities welcomed.) 

This was a difficult one for me because I'm totally in love with my hubby (like soul-mate, bleeding-heart kind of love), so I found the literary character who most reminds me of my other half. 

Are you ready for this?

This is Colm Wilkinson (the Sean Connery of musical theater) who first played Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. Besides having an EPIC voice, he's the ultimate Jean Valjean. And while I like Colm, if I'd had to choose my own match, I'd have chosen Jean Valjean. (And not just because my hubby played him in a high school.) This is the most compassionate, selfless person in all of literature (barring the bible), and I literally bawled my eyes out while reading his story. Best. Character. EVER.

Have you read Les Miserables? And if not, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?!? (Just get the abridged, abridged version.) 

Find the rest of the hop below!

And while you're at it, enter to win one of these great prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One more thing. This month I'm running a contest. Yup. More chances to win. This is a

REVIEW RACE

Anyone who reads and reviews MOONLESS between now and MARCH 10, 2014, and tells me about it HERE, will be entered to win...

An advanced copy of book 2 in the Maiden of Time Trilogy (set to release July, 2014), AND a signed copy of MOONLESS. 

So what are you waiting for? Go review it, eh? 

Who is your dream match? Have you read Les Miserables? Are you going to buy my AMAZING book? And review it? And win? *batting eyes* Because you're awesome like that...