FINAL day of Timeless Book Tour + Win cool Books

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

First of all, don't forget to guess Rachel's lie to win Don't Fall, a contemporary retelling of Rapunzel. 

Tis the season to be grateful. I feel like I've been drowning in cheese with all this awesomeness, and I have you to thank for reading, supporting, and being incredible you. So thank you for participating, playing, and commenting. It means the world to me. As you look around at life this week, I hope you'll take a moment to ponder what makes it rich, and the abundance of blessings you experience, even in the darkest times. (Especially in the darkest times.)

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 21

Ellie Garratt: Meet Your Doppelganger Quiz

books are love: Action Excerpt

Christine Rains - Writer: 3 Approaches for Developing Characters
(For Different Types of learners)

lilicasplace: Writing Tips: Does Your Middle Sag? (And how to fix it.)

Sandra Cox: Spotlight time!

November 23

Tonja Drecker: 5 Tools for Creating DEEP Characters

(Email address is required for awarding prizes.)

After today is over, I'm taking a cheese holiday. I'll be back on November 30 with a final post and giveaway for the year.

Where would you go on your cheese holiday? What are you grateful for this week? Do you celebrate Thanksgiving--and if so, how?

Broken Characters

Some characters a like a train wreck.

Yup.

No, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's true.

The only thing more amazing than watching a train wreck, is seeing if the train can be put back together after the fact, and if it will survive.

Today my blog tour continues, and you get to meet a couple reassembled wrecks.

Christine Rains presents Excerpt #4 in the Mystery Sentence Game: Unravel the mystery of the Moonless night! Gather all 8 hidden words from the excerpts and figure out the sentence to win a free copy of Moonless. Send your mystery sentence to crystal (AT) crystal-collier.com with the subject MYSTERY SENTENCE before December 10, 2013, and you will be entered to win one of 10 copies of MOONLESS—just in time for Christmas. Happy hunting!

Kiren agrees to sit down with Mary Waibel, although he may not be especially forthcoming. Go meet this tortured soul!

Bethany Kaczamarek holds an exclusive interview with Miles. Who is Miles, you ask? (See the above reference to train wrecks?)

Who is your favorite broken character? 

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The Heart of the Matter

It's been a crazy month for me, how about you?

While reading Christine Rains' The 13th Floor series this week, something really struck me. Every member of the human family has a story deep inside--whether it's theirs, or something fictitious they're dreaming up with elements of reality.

So what sets amazing stories apart from the crowd? 

It's heart.

That's one thing Christine has done especially well. She really pulled the reader into the heart of the character's desires and fears. (You rock, Christine!)

Okay, for non writers, how does that apply?

What sets a person apart from the crowd?

It's heart. It's a willingness to share who we are from our very gooey centers.

As I was answering interview questions for my upcoming blog tour, I realized that 95% of what we allow other people to see about ourselves is fluff. It's the safe exterior shell. It's a socially acceptable persona. We build those facades to keep from getting hurt based on past experiences. It can be scary to expose those precious parts of yourself, and it really takes focused effort to peel back that shell and write from your core.
 
But have you ever met someone who was willing to open their whole heart up to you right from the get go?

I have. I work with them every week, teaching three of them school, and guiding a beautiful organization that facilitates lessons and activities for more than 70 of them. Is there anything so honest or amazing as a child?


What about you, are you willing to share with people what's in your heart?