Want to read Splintered before anyone else?

Well, at least before most anyone elses. (◕‿-)

The lovely and generous Krazy Book Lady is sponsoring a Splintered ARC blog hop over at her place. It's as easy as signing up. Just follow the link above for info and rules. One caveat: Bloggers must live in the US due to the high shipping costs and the long turn around time.

For a teaser, here's an excerpt of Splintered at the moment Alyssa discovers the magical looking glass, the answer to her future and her sanity:

“Want it with all your heart.” The command swims in my head, so quiet it’s an echo from my past. “Then step inside.”

Trembling, I step forward and let both of my hands sink into the liquid glass up to my elbows. On the other side, a cool breeze meets my arms. Someone strokes me, from my elbow down to the wrist . . . fingertips so soft and knowing, they light a firestorm inside my veins.

It’s a touch I already know, yet so different now. No longer innocent and calming.

When I look into the portal, my gloved hands appear in the landscape beyond, casting shadows on the grass next to the guy’s winged silhouette.

Before I can see him clearly, he’s gone.

I hesitate and think of Jeb. It’s almost as if I hear his voice calling out for me from somewhere far away. I wish he was here, right now, stepping in with me.

But I can’t look back. As deranged as it seems, that guy in the mirror is the answer to everything in my past. This is my one chance to find Wonderland, to cleanse the Liddell bloodline of this curse, and to save Alison. If I can do this, I can finally be normal.

Maybe normal enough to tell Jeb the way I really feel about things.
 
Taking a breath, I plunge.

Here's a black and white rendition of the winged silhouette who's luring Alyssa within, sketched by my very talented pal, Riley, from In the Jungle.

There's also a third player mentioned in the excerpt: Alyssa's best friend/secret crush, Jebediah Holt. If I were casting him for a movie, my first choice would be Ethan Peck.

If you'd like to learn more about my three main characters, sign up for the ARC tour!

Thanks for stopping by. Time for me to get back to my internet hiatus and work on my website. :) See you soon!

Times are a changin'...

First, I want to apologize to everyone for my absence on your blogs last week. Blogger kept erasing my comments the instant I pressed 'comment.'  If anyone else is having this problem, try what worked for me: clear both your COOKIES and CACHE, then shut down the browser before going to www.blogger.com . Don't login, press CTRL-F5 and then try logging in. Since I've done this, it's fixed the problem on all but a few blogs. So those of you I still haven't visited, I'm trying to get there. Darned if I'm going to let some minor programming glitch keep me from hanging w/my blog pals. Gar.

Also, thank you everyone who participated in my Happy Holiday Contest. I'm so sorry some of you had to email me your questions due to this blogger weirdness. BUT, I did have several entries who provided some great questions for my interview with Patrick. In the interest of complete fairness, I assigned each name a number in the order of their entries, and let Mister Random.org decide the winner of the Premium QT Membership. He chose:

Ms. Jenny Phresh

Yay! It couldn't have happened to a nicer pony. :)

On a final note, I have an announcement.

Things have taken a big turn for me. In the words of one of my dearest friends (Bethany, aka shakira goat--hee) my life is different than it was six months ago. Blogging, interviews, edits, book videos, twitter, web designing, and working with a young adult who has Asperger ... the list goes on and on.

My writing is suffering.

Now that I’m getting paid to do this, I can’t mess around. I used to be able to whip out a book in six months and lately I’m lucky to get in a couple of thousand words in a week. Back then I only blogged once a month or so. That tells me that the blogging has to give.

I want to keep this blog alive. I love my followers, and I love interacting with everyone. But the creative side of my mind, the one that writes posts, needs to be concentrating on the WIP. I'm under contract to write a second book, after all.

So here's my plan.

I'll keep up with the poetry posts on Mondays and the first Friday QT interviews. I'm giving up my Wednesday posts. Instead, on Thursdays, I'll post book trailers (because that requires very little thinking/preparation on my part) and leave comments open so we can discuss them. Thank you, Sarah over at Sarah's Books & Life, for hosting the Trailer Thursday blog hop. Since I'm such a visual person, this will be a fun way to keep my blog interactive and alive while I'm working on my writing.

If you'd like to join the hop, click on the button below to see Sarah's blog linky where you can sign up to take part. Or just hop over to see if any of your friends have joined in.

In keeping w/my blog's motif, I'll mainly post book trailers that strike me as dark, melancholy, creepy, or atmospheric. That is, unless I happen to have a pal w/a book coming out that needs some prop love. ♥˘⌣˘♥

And yes! That's an open invitation. If any of you have a trailer you would like me to consider posting, leave a link in the comment section. (I prefer videos that don't exceed 3 minutes.)

Please drop by tomorrow for my first official Trailer Thursday. I'm going to be posting my newest Windows Live Movie Maker creation (a book trailer for the adult lit romance that Agent Goddess is about to send out).

I will still write new posts once or twice a month, divided between here and the TeenShiver blog. Over on my sidebar, I have a calendar set up that will lay out my blog schedule for each month so you'll know where to find me.

As you can see, this Friday is a Query Trackers interview, so remember to drop by and see who the guest is.

Things are changing in the land of madness ... and I hope you'll all be willing to roll with the punches with me. I never want to lost sight of my friends and fellow writers. You are my backbone.

I'll see you all in the blogasphere, from time to time. ;)