Blog Tour: My Best Everything

We are so excited to join the ladies at Rockstar Book Tours and all the other awesome bloggers in the tour for upcoming release My Best Everything by Sarah Tomp.  Today we have a really fun interview and a giveaway for you guys!

Thanks so much to Sarah for taking the time to answer our questions.

Title: My Best Everything
Author: Sarah Tomp
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Release Date: March 3, 2015 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Hosted By: Rockstar Book Tours

You say it was all meant to be. You and me. The way we met. Our secrets in the woods. Even the way it all exploded. It was simply a matter of fate.

Maybe if you were here to tell me again, to explain it one more time, then maybe I wouldn’t feel so uncertain. But I’m going back to the beginning on my own. To see what happened and why.

Luisa “Lulu” Mendez has just finished her final year of high school in a small Virginia town, determined to move on and leave her job at the local junkyard behind. So when her father loses her college tuition money, Lulu needs a new ticket out.

Desperate for funds, she cooks up the (definitely illegal) plan to make and sell moonshine with her friends, Roni and Bucky. Quickly realizing they’re out of their depth, Lulu turns to Mason: a local boy who’s always seemed like a dead end. As Mason guides Lulu through the secret world of moonshine, it looks like her plan might actually work. But can she leave town before she loses everything – including her heart?

The summer walks the line between toxic and intoxicating. My Best Everything is Lulu’s letter to Mason – though is it an apology, a good-bye, or a love letter?

WHERE YOU CAN ORDER

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

Q: What was your inspiration for this story (the setting, the moonshine, etc)?
A: The setting of My Best Everything looks a little bit like the town in Virginia where I lived during my teen years. It’s a beautiful place and I did plenty of exploring when I lived there.  I rode inner tubes down the river, hiked and camped in the woods, and spent hours driving on all the many back roads.

As for the actual story, several ideas came together. It was always going to be a love story, and it was always going to be about drinking. The junkyard scenes were thanks to my son’s obsession with cars and taking things apart. I already had plenty of references to moonshine within the text, but it wasn’t until my kids watched Moonshiners on Discovery Channel and asked me if that’s what it was really like in Virginia that I started to wonder if my teen characters could pull that off.

I’ve decided that writing a novel is little bit like making moonshine. A bunch of ingredients are thrown into the pot and start fermenting. It gets kind of messy for a while, and things are thrown out, but eventually all of it works together to create the final product.

Q: Is there a particular message that you'd like your readers to walk away with or do you simply want them to sit back and enjoy a story?
A: When it comes to life, I have no answers, only questions! I think one of the most magical things about reading is that it’s a cooperative endeavor. The reader and the writer meet halfway, with each of them bringing something different to the experience. My greatest hope is that my readers finish my story and feel as though that was time well spent.

But… I also hope they ask more questions—about destiny, true love, crossing lines and breaking rules.

Q: Did you learn anything from writing this book?
A: I didn't know a lot about moonshine before writing My Best Everything. Pretty much everything beyond the tasting of it was all new to me. But the thing that truly surprised me was the importance and power of yeast to the process. I am now a bit of a yeast-geek!

Yeast is one of the deciding factors in a liquor’s taste and alcohol strength. Although these tiny microorganisms live all over the world, even on Antarctica, each strain has its own DNA and is regularly changing and evolving. Professional distillers have patents on their individual yeast strains and work hard to keep them from mutating significantly enough to change the taste.

Before moonshiners understood the science of the process, they sometimes had a fermenting stick that they used for each batch. They didn’t know why it worked, but they knew that stick made all the difference. The secret ingredient was the yeast that lived on it. The yeast would lie dormant all winter, and then come back to life when it was time to start making moonshine again in the spring.

Q: Besides writing, do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do in your free time?
A: I love free time! Unfortunately, I never seem to have enough of it!  I love being outdoors, which in San Diego is a year-round possibility. I love camping and taking long walks. I watch my kids play sports. I’m a big fan of the beach where I am very good at lying on a towel and daydreaming. I also love to play with messy art supplies.

Q: Which author(s) would you consider a mentor or role model?
A: In some ways, every author I’ve ever read a book by is my mentor. Reading is such a fundamental key to writing! However, more specifically, I was taught by some amazing and generous authors through Vermont College of Fine Arts where I earned my MFA. I worked closely with Ellen Howard, Kathi Appelt, Tim Wynne-Jones and Rita Williams-Garcia. After graduation, I was also lucky enough to work directly with Margaret Bechard during an amazing and intimate retreat. Her brilliant guidance and insights were crucial to shaping Lulu’s story.

Q: Any fun and exciting news you'd like to share with your readers?
A: I’m just so delighted to have been a guest on your blog! Thank you for having me!

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo by Roxyanne Young

Sarah Tomp has a MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

My Best Everything, a novel for young adults, will be published March 2015 by Little, Brown Books. 

She is also the author of a picture book; Red, White, and Blue Good-bye (Walker Books for Young Readers).

Sarah teaches creative writing for University of California San Diego Extension. She reviews books for Bookbrowse.com and co-authors the blog, Writing on the Sidewalk.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

GIVEAWAY

10 Finished Copies of MY BEST EVERYTHING

US Only!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview & Giveaway with Beverley Kendall

We're so excited because today we get to interview a pretty incredible lady, Beverley Kendall.

Beverley is the owner of the e-zine and blog "The Season for Romance" as well as a published author.  Today we get to ask her some questions about publishing and her latest release, An Heir of Deception which is the third installment of her Elusive Lords series.

B♥S: Your first two books were published with Kensington and Zebra (respectively) whereas your most recent books were self-published.  Can you tell us a bit about the different processes?
Bev: LOL. The process of writing the book is pretty much the same. It’s everything that comes afterward that’s different. I got to pick and approve my own cover. As lovely as my Kensington covers were, I loved this part of doing it myself. I had full say so I knew I wasn’t going to have a cover I didn’t like. Kim Killion hit it out of the ballpark in this arena.

I had to hire my own editor. I ended up hiring two because as I found, an editor like an agent needs to be a good fit. Not every editor is for every author. Full line edits, formatting the book, these are all things the publisher would also take care of. I hired one to do the former and did the latter on my own. Let me tell you these are all jobs in and of themselves.

By far self-publishing is a much more difficult process but I have to say, it’s been totally worth it.

B♥S: How do you think conventional publishing versus self-publishing affects book sales (positively and negatively)?
Bev: I think that in traditional publishing because you have no say so in terms of pricing, cover and back cover copy, if all or one is not good, it can definitely affect an author’s book negatively. If the price of your ebook is too high in the eyes of readers, they just won’t buy your book. If the back cover copy doesn’t entice them to want to read on, you’ve lost another potential reader. If your cover is God awful, you’re sunk.

On the other hand, if they do all these things right, traditional publishing offers a wider distribution, print books stocked in physical stores. There is also the publisher’s name backing the book, which gives readers the sense that things have been done “right” and the book is “professional”. There is also the matter of being able to get an author’s book up months in advance on all the major etailers sites so readers can pre-order. This is a big deal and I wish that option was open for self-published authors.

With self-publishing if you manage to do all the items I listed above right, an author can benefit greatly because they aren’t getting only 8-17% of the books gross sales, you can receive anywhere from 35% - 70%. This is a BIG deal. This can be the difference between never being able to make a living just writing, to writing full-time without fretting over money. Let’s face it, it’s one of the MAJOR reasons writers have taken to self-publishing the way they have.

Of course if you can’t write or your storytelling ability isn’t where it should be to publish and you self-publish anyway, that reflects very poorly on self-publishing as a whole. My motto there is every author NEEDS an editor. The best have them (Nora Roberts et al) and so should you. 

B♥S: Which do you prefer?  Will you continue to self-publish in the future?
Bev: Absolutely!!! I’m hooked now. I would love to go back to NY but it would have to be a contract I could live with.

B♥S: What's the one piece of advice you'd give to an aspiring writer who wants to self-publish?  
Bev: Learn your craft well. Enter contests. Get looks and lots of feedback. If you’re not a graphic artist or your talents don’t run quite that high, hire someone to give you a professional cover. Most important, hire an editor. Every author needs one and no one is the exception.

B♥S: Can you tell us about your latest release, AN HEIR OF DECEPTION?
Bev: An Heir of Deception is my baby. I came up with the idea for An Heir when I first introduced Alex Cartwright in Sinful Surrender. Alex has this very dry sense of humour and he’s so laid back, I knew I had to shake him up a bit. And by shaking him up, I mean putting him through some intense heartbreak. LOL. I’m so funny that way. I take my most adored hero and give him the worst of the situations.

This is definitely Alex’s story. Readers get to see him in his darkest hour and truly dark and brooding. In An Heir, Alex discovers the love of his life, Charlotte, who left him on his wedding day, gave birth to his child while she was gone. His son Nicholas is four and rightfully should be his heir. This infuriates him beyond belief and he is determined to have his son.

B♥S: Your hero and heroine already have a rather sordid history. Did that make it easier or harder to write their story?
Bev: It did make it easier to write because I knew them inside and out. I’d been with them through the two prior books, so I had their personalities down. This did make it easier to write them but not the book per se. ;)

B♥S: Do you have any plans to continue with the THE ELUSIVE LORDS series?
Bev: My next series, The Temptresses, is a connecting series. The first book, TWICE THE TEMPTATION is Charlotte’s twin sister, Catherine’s book. So while the series won’t continue, all the characters will persist in this series. I find it very hard to let go of much loved characters—and that’s much-loved by me. 

B♥S:  Did any authors influence your writing style?
Bev: Yes, so many. But I have to say Sherry Thomas’s writing taught me about voice when I didn’t really know what voice was. 

B♥S:  You wear many hats: reader, writer, blogger, mom, corporate employee.  How do you manage it all?  The power is in the superhero cape, isn't it?
Bev: LOL. If you only knew what falls to the wayside while I try to do it all. My house certainly isn’t as clean as it used to be and now I only mail books out once a month when I used to do it every week. No, I can’t do it all. And God willing, one day I won’t have to. 

B♥S:  You're also a reader of romance, which book(s) have you read lately that you would highly recommend to other romance-aholics?
Bev: Yeah, I do love to read. My favourite romances of 2011 were Julie Anne Long’s What I Did For a Duke, Courtney Milan’s Unveiled, Rachel Gibson’s Any Man of Mine (really, take your pick of any of Rachel’s books and you won’t be disappointed). I actually discovered Susan Elizabeth Phillips last year and I bought a number of her books. If you’re looking for some really great medieval but aren’t really a big medieval fan, I absolutely adore Margaret Mallory. Her latest series is great. I loved The Guardian and The Sinner. I’m dying to read the next one, The Warrior, which will be out later this year.

As for books I’m greatly anticipating, those would be Sherry Thomas’s Ravishing the Heiress and Tempting the Bride. I also can’t wait to read Julie Anne Long’s A Notorious Countess Confesses.

Visit Beverley at www.BeverleyKendall.com
Follow on Twitter at @beverleykendall and @season4romance
Friend on Facebook at authorbeverleykendall

GIVEAWAY!
May 10 – May 16

a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 winners get an e-book An Heir of Deception

Official Contest Information:

• To enter, please fill out the form below.
• Entrants must be 18 years of age or older.
• Contest open to EVERYONE with an email address.
• The winner will be announced on a blog post at the conclusion of the contest.
• The winner will be notified by email and will have 72 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.  Prize will be emailed directly to winner from author.
• No comment entries will be accepted.
• You may choose to be a blog follower, but it is NOT required to enter the giveaway.

Good luck!

Author Blog Soulmate: M. R. Merrick

Our BLOG SOULMATE Award for this week goes to: M. R. Merrick and his BLOG

M.R. Merrick is a Canadian writer, and author of Exiled, the first installment in The Protector Series.

Having never traveled, he adventures to far off lands through his imagination and in between cups of coffee. As a music lover and proud breakfast enthusiast, he's usually found at the computer, between a pair of headphones and in front of a large bowl of cereal.

Find him on:
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

1. What made you decide to start blogging?
   When I first started writing, I wanted to record my journey. My attempt to become a published author. I didn't want a writing advice blog because I felt like too many young writers were giving advice, and weren't necessarily qualified to do so. So instead, I wanted to record my journey, and help others see what worked for me. Maybe even learn from mistakes I was making. Once I opted to self-publish, it became a platform. A way to reach my potential audience, and have readers keep in contact with me. I try to post updates about my books and my writing, but mostly I just try to put a smile on someone's face. 
   
   
2. Favorite and least favorite things about blogging?
   I feel like if I don't do it regularly, I'm letting people down. LOL. That probably sounds ridiculous, but it's true. I don't post every day. Sometimes I don't post for weeks. Mostly because I don't want to post, just for the sake of it. I used to try to keep up with Monday - Friday posts, but with writing, interviews, guest posts, publishing, a family, and a full-time job, it just wasn't feasible.
   
   
3. If you could hang out with ONE author, who would it be and why?
   J.K. Rowling. It's not because she's a bestselling author, although I may never had heard of her if Harry Potter hadn't exploded. It's because I love the voice she gave to her stories, and her world building which I find to be incredible. More so than all of that though, I think *her* story is amazing. I'd love to just have a lunch with her and chat.
   
   
4. What is the ONE book you tell everyone they 'have to' read?
   I think I've told everybody I know to read Memoirs Aren't Fairytales by Marni Mann. It's not a YA story and it was totally different than anything I'd ever read. It's a story about addiction. It's dark, gritty, and it touched my soul in so many ways. Maybe because I've had addicts in my life? I'm not sure. Something about the main characters voice just captured me, and it sucked me in.
   
   Also, The Giver. I need to read that book again myself. I was forced to read it in school, and I loved it. It was the first book that really captivated me.
   
   
5. Do you have any bookish guilty pleasures?
   I judge a book by it's cover. Literally. I'll look at an entire shelf of books, and only pick up and read the jacket of the ones with covers that catch my eye.

Now tell us 5 random, non-bookish things about yourself:

• I eat cereal far too often, and out of a huge salad bowl. Truthfully, if I didn't have kids that I needed to feed healthy meals to, I'd eat it more often. 
• I have no problem watching a movie I love over and over again. Like...all the time.
• I listen to music non-stop. My iPod is on 8 hours a day at work, my computer blares the tunes when I'm at home working, and I listen to music to fall asleep.
• I love dogs more than cats. Don't ask why, I don't want to start some "Dogs Rule & Cat's Drool" war. Although if there was, dogs would win. Just saying...
• I know all the words to the music in Labyrinth. "Dance Magic, Dance Magic Dance!" *Ahem*...sorry.
  

Triple Whammy...Mercy by Rebecca Lim

We have a triple whammy for you guys today!

Review + Interview + Giveaway = Woot!!

Title: Mercy (Mercy #1)
Author: Rebecca Lim
Publish Date: May 17, 2011 by Hyperion
Pages: 288, hardcover
Read & Reviewed By: ISALYS
Purpose: Provided by publisher for review purposes.

An electric combination of angels, mystery and romance, MERCY is the first book in a major new paranormal series.

There's something very wrong with me. I can't remember who I am or how old I am, or even how I got here. All I know is that when I wake up, I could be any one. It is always this way. There's nothing I can keep with me that will stay. It's made me adaptable. I must always re-establish ties. I must tread carefully or give myself away. I must survive.

Mercy doesn't realise it yet, but as she journeys into the darkest places of the human soul, she discovers that she is one of the celestial host exiled with fallen angel, Lucifer. Now she must atone for taking his side. To find her own way back to heaven, Mercy must help a series of humans in crisis and keep the unwary from getting caught up in the games that angels play. Ultimately she must choose between her immortal companion, Lucifer, and a human boy who risks everything for her love.

Review:

As we come to understand, Mercy is a fallen angel.  She recalls very little of her "previous" life or how she ended up as she is. She gets impressions of doing something forbidden, of a love with someone forbidden and somehow that lead to her inhabiting host bodies. (Think classic show, "Quantum Leap" with Scott Bakula!)

She now wakes up in the body of a young, talented singer named Carmen.  She must now try  to piece together what little of Carmen and her own memories she can access.  She learns that she is staying with a family whose daughter disappeared over 2 years ago. Her twin brother, Ryan, is the only one who believes that Lauren is still alive.  Carmen/Mercy is torn between helping "Carmen" attain success as a singer and helping the damaged but irresistible Ryan find his sister.

Truthfully, there were things that I liked and things that I didn't.  I liked the characters; from non-angelic & determined Carmen/Mercy, broken but lovable Ryan, pain in the ass "frenemy" and creepy, overly-helpful teacher.  They were diversified and interesting.  I particularly enjoyed the mystery of Ryan's missing sister, Lauren and the serious curve we were thrown for at the end.  The mystery was dark and very well-done.  I was also very impressed with the quality of Rebecca's writing and music-related research. The words and descriptions flowed smoothly.

Where I struggled quite a bit is with the paranormal element of the story.  It stands to reason that because Mercy knew so little about her past, so would we.  However, I felt that the gaps were too wide to even get an inkling of who she really is.  She would have flashes that made little sense and conversations that made no sense.  I was left with more questions than answers.  I say this with all due respect to the story, but at the end I felt that while it was a good story, it needed more "meat on it's bones".


My understanding is that the following books will reveal to us more about Mercy's past (and hopefully a future with Ryan) so I fully intend to continue along for the ride.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

1) BS ♥ When and why did you begin writing?
It feels like I’ve been doodling cartoons and writing stories for almost as long as I’ve been alive, it’s just always interested me. From about the time I was seven I guess I seriously wanted to be a writer – but like a lot of people, I had no idea where to start.

School’s great for telling you exactly what you have to do to be a doctor, lawyer, scientist etc but it can only offer general pointers to people who want to be writers, video artists, baristas and other slightly left-field things.

When I was 17, it seemed possible to combine a career as a lawyer with a career as a writer because you’re working with words and ideas at the end of the day. But I ended up in the kind of law firm where you risk having your car towed away at 6am because you’ve left it out on the street in front of the office all night. The novels I was writing in those days were falling short of the mark. My creative brain and legal brain were pulling in different directions, so I gave myself a couple of years off law to try and make a go of it, and I’m happy to say that I haven’t gone back (yet!).

I was lucky enough to have a four book series of humorous detective stories for middle readers picked up by an Australian publisher. And that was the start of it. It’s weird, but it feels as if you can’t get published unless you’ve been published before, or have a really pushy agent, so that first break seems so crucial.

2) BS ♥ It seems you started as a children's writer, what made you decide to transition to YA?
Like lots of writers, I have a ton of manuscripts in my desk drawers at various stages of completion, for differing audiences. Something about the novels I was doing for middle readers sparked a publisher’s interest first, I guess, but I’ve always written for a range of ages.

An engaging story line is something that’s a constant across all readership age groups. But I’ve found that when I write for much younger readers, I just can’t build in as many layers or leave things too open-ended.

When I write for the YA readership, the reader is more able to form their own interpretations, or bring more of their “world view”, if you like, to the act of reading. And that’s the beauty of the YA readership in general – provided they are hooked into the storyline, it doesn’t matter to them what “genre” they are reading, they just go with it. So writing for YA readers is a lot more liberating. Things can be darker or more uncertain because they can handle it.

I enjoy building in a little more complexity, because I like to think that most readers are people who are sophisticated, intelligent and engaged, and who want to be challenged.

3) BS ♥ Are you working on any other projects?

I have at least three other series, for different age groups, I keep picking up and putting down because the Mercy series is kind of all-consuming right now. One is a paranormal YA series (as far from angels and vampires as you can get), one is a fantasy series for middle readers and the other one? I can’t even categorize that one at present! It’s just a mass of potential directions and interlocking storylines.

4) BS ♥ Are there any new authors or books that have grasped your interest?

I’ve only just read the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy and I thought it was fabulous. Collins treats her readership like thinking, mature individuals, which I love. It’s pacy and thrilling and unafraid to show the ugly side of life, even though it’s set in a notional world. And I think that’s important – that teens aren’t shielded from reality. The stuff that people do to each other in the real world is staggering; it’s not all hearts and flowers.

I have a teetering TBR pile right now that is liberally laced with new YA titles (though not angels, steering well clear of angels until my own series is finished). Some are Aussie, some American. I literally have them piled up in bags in one corner of my house because I keep seeing fabulous new things and buying them, then realizing I have a serious pile of deadlines to get through first.

When Fury (Mercy #4) is done, I’m just going to read and read (and eat).

5) BS ♥ Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers about "Mercy" or a general message?

Mercy, brings together some of the genre-mashing I enjoy as a reader. It’s a YA mystery/crime novel – but with angels and romance and Latin and choral music thrown in. I tried to imagine what it would be like for someone with extraordinary powers to be suffering from a bizarre kind of amnesia where she only has prismatic flashes of memory. The inklings of more than one past life, and of what she’s truly capable of, would hopefully keep things interesting for the reader.

But I also consciously set out to create a female heroine who can, literally, do anything if she puts her mind to it. I wanted to show that it's okay to be a smart-mouthed, think-on-your-feet, strong and abrasive, yet empathetic character, who also happens to be female. It's not something that should just be the province of male hero-types.

Now the thing to bear in mind with Mercy is that I was hoping to reach YA readers and female readers generally, because of some of the themes I cover. The stuff that happens to women just makes my blood boil sometimes, and I wanted to create a female heroine who looks outwardly weak, but who could actually dish out vengeance to her persecutors. Kind of an empowering revenge fantasy, I always say.

I’d like to thank everyone who has read Mercy and been happy to go along for the ride. I know you’ve had to work a little – because the reader is literally only a second or two behind (or ahead!) of Mercy – but hopefully the journey will be worth it, so hang in there.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Giveaway
June 15 - June 22

Thanks to the The Book Report Network and Rebecca, we get to give away ONE copy of Mercy to one winner.

FILL OUT THIS FORM TO ENTER GIVEAWAY
Rules:

• To enter the giveaway you must complete the form linked above and leave a comment indicating that you've entered.
• Giveaway open to U.S. residents. No P.O. boxes please.  Note: It may take several weeks to receive your prize so please be patient! 
• Winner will be drawn after the contest ends and posted soon thereafter.
• Winner will be chosen using random.org!

Feel free to contact us via email at booksoulmates[at]gmail[dot]com if you have any questions.

Happy reading!

Giveaway & Interview: Holly Schindler

We have another guest author with us today because Holly Schindler thought we were cool enough to hang with :} Woot!

Wanna stalk Holly?  Here's where you can go:

Website | Blog |Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

BS ♥ Holly, thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few of our questions.  Tell us, what was the inspiration behind PLAYING HURT?

When I drafted PLAYING HURT, I actually wanted to write about learning the difference between loving someone and really being IN love with someone.  Initially, Chelsea went on a Minnesota vacation with her parents—far from her loving boyfriend back home in Missouri—and wound up falling head-over-heels for a guide at the resort in a way that she had never fallen for her boyfriend. 

The sports subplot actually didn’t come about until the last time I rewrote the book—about five years after the initial draft.

BS ♥ You seem to be drawn to characters who have some sort of physical or mental struggle.  Why?

I do like jumping straight into a story when a character is deep in the midst of their struggle: When PLAYING HURT opens, Chelsea’s already seen her hopes for a career in college ball destroyed, Clint has already lost his girlfriend (and his beloved sport); immediately following the prologue in A BLUE SO DARK, my debut, Aura’s mother is already beginning her decent into madness. 

As a reader, I like knowing from the get-go what the central conflict is—I like to know why I’m reading.  So I usually tend to incorporate that into my own work.

BS ♥ You also seem most at home with contemporary YA; do you think you’ll ever try writing a story in another genre (paranormal, etc.)?

Though both of my books are contemporary YAs, they do differ in genre somewhat: BLUE is a literary YA, PLAYING HURT is a romance.  I read across all genres, and my writing interests are every bit as varied.  My debut MG will release in the fall of 2012, and as for YA…stay tuned!

BS ♥ What is YOUR favorite genre to read?

I like to genre hop.  Mystery, YA, poetry, literary, sci-fi, the classics…there’s just really nothing I won’t read.

BS ♥ What made you decide that you were ready to write your first book?

When I got my master’s, I was really just dying to give my writing full-time attention.  And because of incredible financial support from my family, I was able to do just that!  Though I had no financial concerns and all the time in the world to work, the first deal didn’t come easy—it took seven and a half years to snag the first deal.

BS ♥  Do you set a “writing mood” with music or lighting, etc?

I keep really long hours—usually averaging eight hours a day—and I work seven days a week.  I don’t have many “must-haves” to be productive…I usually prefer quiet (rather than having music in the background), and as long as I’ve got plenty of coffee, I’m all set!

BS ♥  Besides writing, what do you like to do in your free time?

Writers are an INCREDIBLY hard-working bunch.  Cardiologists honestly don’t keep longer hours than writers.  In addition to writing new work, there’s online networking, blogging, promotions, personal visits, revisions of work under development—all of that usually happens at the same time!

That having been said, I’m a huge music freak—music is really my “refresh” button.  And the more time I spend indoors working, the more I itch to get outside in the sun—just totally unplug, hang out next to the Finley River with my dog…

BS ♥  Tell us something completely random about Holly the person, not just Holly the writer:

I’ve always been a fairly low-tech gal.  (I STILL prefer vinyl records…)  In fact, I drafted both A BLUE SO DARK and PLAYING HURT on a real dinosaur of a computer.  It was actually built before the Internet—didn’t even have a modem!  I didn’t anything up online until I’d sold BLUE…now I can’t imagine life without the YA blogosphere!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Star basketball player Chelsea "Nitro" Keyes had the promise of a full ride to college-and everyone's admiration in her hometown. But everything changed senior year, when she took a horrible fall during a game. Now a metal plate holds her together and she feels like a stranger in her own family.

As a graduation present, Chelsea's dad springs for a three-week summer "boot camp" program at a northern Minnesota lake resort. There, she's immediately drawn to her trainer, Clint, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who's haunted by his own traumatic past. As they grow close, Chelsea is torn between her feelings for Clint and her loyalty to her devoted boyfriend back home. Will an unexpected romance just end up causing Chelsea and Clint more pain-or finally heal their heartbreak?

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Giveaway
May 25 - June 1

Thanks to the Holly, we get to give away ONE copy of Playing Hurt to one lucky winner.

FILL OUT THIS FORM TO ENTER GIVEAWAY

Rules:

• To enter the giveaway you must complete the form linked above and leave a comment indicating that you've entered.
• Giveaway open to U.S. and Canada residents. No P.O. boxes please.  Note: It may take several weeks to receive your prize so please be patient! 
• Winner will be drawn after the contest ends and posted soon thereafter.
• Winner will be chosen using random.org!

Feel free to contact us via email at booksoulmates[at]gmail[dot]com if you have any questions.

Happy reading!

Giveaway & Interview: Tatiana Vila

Hey kids!
 Today we have a special visitor.  Please help us welcome Tatiana Vila, author of The Ylem.

Tati is one of the new kids on the block so please help us give her a warm welcome :)

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BS ♥ Twitter Style: Tell us about your book, The Ylem in 140 characters or less.

It's a rollercoaster! You'll laugh, curse (yes, you heard right), smile, sigh and fall in love. It's YA Paranormal romance at its finest.

BS ♥ What inspired you to write The Ylem?

Masaru Emoto inspired me to write the whole Trilogy. Masaru who? Well, if you haven't read Messages from Water, you should. He's a Japanese writer known for his claim that water's structure can be affected by human thoughts and emotions. I loved his book and was stricken by his discoveries. So I went to one of his conferences and fell even more in love with his knowledge. But it didn't stop there. As I was listening to some experiments he'd done with Magnetic Resonance, an idea started forming in my mind, and that's when the two magic words popped up. What if. In those few minutes, I'd already created a character, Tristan. A few hours later, I already had the story. And that same night, I started writing, with a big smile on my face.  Things always come when you least expect it.

BS ♥ If you could live inside a book/story for one day, which would you choose & why?

I am torn. The first thing that comes to my mind is Harry Potter. I mean, casting spells and living in a magical castle with a cute white-bearded grandpa as a principal? You can't get any luckier than that. But then I think, where's the heart-stirring, good-looking man in the story? I need one. That's when it gets tricky. There's so many I would love to meet and get cozy with. Maybe it's because I've just recently read the Fever series by Moning, but I would love to meet Jericho Barrons. Yes, I have a weakness for bad guys, and Barrons is the crème de la crème of that type of guys.

So, since The Ylem doesn't count here, I choose a version of Harry Potter with Jericho Barrons in it. Oh, the joy…

BS ♥ Besides reading & writing, what do you like to do on your free time?

Reading on my Nook. I am kidding. I love to sing and compose songs. It's mostly pop rock, so if you happen to like Kelly Clarkson, you have a good shot at liking mine. But other than that, I am learning to do Poi, better known as fire dancing (I'll use LEDs though, not fire. I do like my skin so I care for it!)

BS ♥ What is your numero uno, must have snack food/drink?

Mmm. Tough. Really tough. There should be a numero dos and numero tres! But if I can only give one for each, then it would be Ritz bits and Arizona Iced tea.

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 An ancient book, a love-struck teenage girl and an exotic boy from a supernatural world hold the key to freedom for a long-oppressed race, but that freedom could come at the cost of the human world.

Seventeen-year-old Kalista is suffering from a broken heart, so when her playwright father proposes they move their lives from New York to New Mexico because he is in need of inspiration Kalista is 100% on-board with him. New Mexico proves to be the perfect balm for her wounds and she is just starting to feel some of her old spunk when Tristan Winfield comes into her life and pulls all of her barriers down. Kalista is captivated by Tristan's unusual silver eyes and feels an inexplicable connection to him, which begins to manifest itself in her dreams with bizarre images of a waterfall and an orb.

While searching for an explanation for her troubling dreams, Kalista discovers an ancient book which holds the secrets of a supernatural race of creatures. But when Killings hit town, she realizes her finding has come at a high price. She's in the middle of a power struggle now, a struggle that seems to be linked to the secret wrapped within the pages of that book. A secret she and Tristan part of...

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Giveaway
May 4 - May 11

Thanks to the Tatiana, we are selecting TWO winners to receive a coupon from Smashwords allowing them to download The Ylem in any e-book format.

Rules:
• Comments are appreciated but you must fill out the form to enter.
• Open to everyone.

FILL OUT THIS FORM TO ENTER GIVEAWAY

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

Giveaway & Interview with Gwen Hayes

We are VERY excited to have stopping by the blog today the fan-ta-bu-lous Gwen Hayes author of Falling Under! Yeah, you know the book that you've been constantly hearing about? The one that's been getting rave reviews? Yup! That's the one!

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B♥S: Welcome Gwen! Thanks for stopping by! What inspired you to write Falling Under?


GH: Inspiration is so strange. I had been writing a romantic comedy and the first line of Falling Under kept trolling around my head not leaving me alone. It was so bizarre. I finally had to give it a page. And then another. I kept telling my friends...this story in my head is so weird. I don't know what it is. Luckily, they encouraged me to keep writing it.

B♥S: Smart Friends! The young adult genre has been booming lately. With all the Young Adult releases lately, what makes yours stand out? Aside from the AMAZING cover (love, love, love the cover!)

GH: My cover is really amazing, isn't it? I think that one of the things that makes my book stand out is that I tend to focus a lot on the romance. I love writing about the first flush of love. Also, my secondary characters are very unique. That might be an understatement.

B♥S:  Ahhh romance. Who doesn't love LOVE? Now that your debut novel has been released, what are your thoughts on the whole process (publishing, touring, interviews, fame, etc.)?

GH: As far as publishing goes--I am so glad I surrounded myself with people who really know what they are doing. My experience with everyone at NAL/Penguin has been very positive. They are not only good at their jobs, but you can tell they enjoy them too. My book is 100 times better for getting to work with them.

I don't know about fame--I don't think I have to worry about it right now anyway.I know that being a writer means I spend a lot of time in my head and alone, so sometimes it's difficult for me to be the center of attention. I'm not really shy, but I do shy away from photographs and things like that. For instance, I'm terrified to read out loud.

B♥S:  Oh yeah. I'm terrified of public speaking too. If you could live inside a book/story for 24 hrs, which would you choose? Why?

GH: I think that in order to answer that question, I will need to try out several bookstores for 24 hours at a time. Set up my tour and I'll get back to you. *packs Snuggie and pillow*

B♥S: Snuggies! We LOVE snuggies!! What kind of planning do you do when writing? Drafts? Outlines? 'Wing-it'?

GH: Oh, I totally wing it. I mean big time. Remember how long it took for Theia to figure out what Haden was? I found out when she did.

B♥S:  Do you listen to music while writing? If so, which songs/artists? {I may just make a CD out of your suggestions!}

GH: Sometimes, I can't listen to lyrics while writing, but putting together a playlist is a very important part of learning about my characters. I put together a sample on ilike.com.

#1 Crush by Garbage

Possum Kingdom by Toadies

The World is Darker by Neverending White Lights

Breathe Acoustic by Abney Park

Ablaze by Armchair Cynics

Lovers In A Dangerous Time by Barenaked Ladies

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B♥S: WOW!! Great list!! What is the best part about being an author? And the worst?

GH: The best part of being an author is when everything is going well and the characters are talking to you. The worst is when the WRONG story is talking to you and you can't write it because you are supposed to be working on something else.

B♥S: Besides writing, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?

GH:I read. I knit. I watch Glee.

B♥S: GLEE! Yayyy! What's your favorite snack/dish?

GH:Cheese and potatoes. And any combination of the two.

B♥S: OMG, We LOVE cheese and potatoes. {It's an obsessions, lol} So... Any tour dates for the South Florida area? :P

GH: Not yet. They don't let me out of my house very often. Thanks for having me!

B♥S: Thank YOU for stopping by!!

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Giveaway

2 Copies Available

*US and Canada ONLY please*

FILL OUT THIS FORM TO ENTER GIVEAWAY

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!