In His Eyes (Indelibles Valentine’s Anthology)

Looking for a good book? Check out:

Just in time for Valentines Day, The Indelibles bring you a one-of-a-kind young adult anthology! Sixteen original short stories, all from the point of view of our favorite male characters - some are old flames from our novels and some were dreamed up especially for this anthology. 

Let these imminently crushable, swoon-worthy guys show you what romance looks like – in his eyes. 
The contributors to In His Eyes include award winners, frequent “Top 100” placers, and hot 2011 debut authors. 

In His Eyes is FREE at Smashwords, and $0.99 at Amazon and Barnes&Noble - hopefully to go free there as well by our release date on February 14th for Valentines Day. Or you can add In His Eyes to your TBR list on Goodreads.

For more information about The Indelibles, check out our(their)  blog, facebook page, or follow us on Twitter.

Stories included in the Anthology:

Surprise, Surprise by Stacey Wallace Benefiel, author of Glimpse: Half the women in Melody's family can see the future, which makes it nearly impossible for Raleigh to surprise her. What's a guy to do for Valentine's Day when his girlfriend is always one step ahead of him? 

First Kiss or First Kill? by C.K. Bryant, author of Bound: Love isn't always rainbows and kittens, sometimes it can be downright deadly. (A deleted chapter from Bound.) 

Shattered by Ali Cross, author of Become: James and Desi use each other in an effort to cling to the darkness in each of them, but in the end they discover that love changes you. (A chapter of Become from James’ POV.) 

Before by Jessie Harrell, author of Destined: When a younger Eros is exiled to a land that doesn't believe in the Greek gods, he finds the first love of his immortal life. Read Eros' first person account of his romance, and heartbreak, in the time before he met Psyche. 

The Qualm Before the Storm by Karen Amanda Hooper, author of Tangled Tides. Yara Jones doesn’t want to be a mermaid. Treygan doesn’t want to be the monster who turns her. You can’t always get what you want. (A short prequel to Tangled Tides.) 

Unspeakable by S.R. Johannes, author of Untraceable: When Mo sees a strange girl in the woods, he follows her. He soon realizes they are both in a dangerous position and might not get out alive. 

In the Beginning by Katie Klein, author of Cross My Heart: Seth is falling hard for Genesis Green, but the guardian angel is determined not to interfere, until an accident changes the course of their lives forever. (A short prequel to The Guardian.) 

A Chance Encounter by Cheri Lasota, author of Artemis Rising: Finnian's eyes hide a terrible secret. But a girl on the train home, the girl in tears with a secret of her own...She sees right through him. A scene from the upcoming novel, Echoes in the Glass. 

Family Bonds by Heather McCorkle, author of The Secret of Spruce Knoll: A Halloween party filled with teens who can channel energy and use it to kill, what could go wrong? For Spruce Knoll fans who are dying to read more about Fane. 

Getting Closer by Lisa Nowak, author of Running Wide Open: Megan is smart, hot, and an upperclassman—in other words, way out of Cody’s league. So why did she choose him? (An excerpt of Getting Sideways.) 

The Almost Assassin by Laura Pauling, author of A Spy Like Me, releasing Spring 2012: Malcolm tries his hand at the family business but his conscience and a beautiful "spy" may be his downfall. 

Mind Games by Susan Kaye Quinn, author of Open Minds: Raf wants to take Kira—the only girl in school who doesn’t read minds—to the mindware Games, but his friends have other plans. (A short prequel to Open Minds.) 

By The Firelight by Elle Strauss, author of Clockwise: When Nate McKenzie asks an unpopular girl to dance on a dare, he's in for the time of his life. 

A Very Alien Valentine’s Day by Magan Vernon, author of How To Date An Alien: After surviving confinement and an intergalactic war for his human half, Alex, now he has to live through the biggest challenge of them all: Valentine's Day. 

Aligned by RaShelle Workman, author of Exiled: A half-Eternal boy and an Eternal girl must free millions of tortured souls from a creature whose been feasting on their pain and suffering.

(This description was brought to you by:  Karen Hooper author of Tangled Tides )

Now,  go check it out.

My review for this will be up soon :)


(I am not an Indelible, I am just a messenger telling you that you should check out this Anthology and all the other wonderful books by the amazing authors who are members of the Indelibles. )

To Do List: Write

So next up on the to do:

Write:


Every writer has this on their to do list, hence the term "writer." It's not a favorite of mine, well it is sometimes, but not usually. Therefore, it tends to be a forced task. But I make sure I do some writing everyday. This could be anything-adding things to a MS already completed, working on your WIP (I'll pull out the glossary on my Favorite Blog.just in case you need it :) , posting on your blog, starting a brand new WIP, or just brainstorming. Whatever it may be, you're going to write everyday, even when you don't realize you're dong it.

So, how do you check write off your to do? Ah tis much less complicated then critiques. It is simple, once you put Write on the to do, automatically set a time to do it. Doesn't matter what time of day, or for how long, just that you make the time. As a writer, this is the most important thing on the to do list. You must make time to do some kind of writing each day-the more we write, the more we improve. If you find yourself struggling with checking this off, even when you decided on a time to do it...Then that group I mentioned you needed to join? Yeah, this is one of those times they come in handy. Go to your forum, seek their support, or their foot (you know, kicking your ass into gear :) They are writers too remember? Which means they too have days when it's hard to become motivated. Which in turn means they understand.

Now-get on with it!

Happy Writing :)

Every Little Bit Counts

I recently decided I would post reviews of books I read. This is a new thing for me. I've reviewed books on places such as Amazon and Borders (when they were still around :(  However, I thought it would be a good addition to my blog, something else for my readers. Especially since my readers, read. *GASP* I know right, odd concept, a reader, reading. BUT it does happen. Huh, who woulda thunk it...

So, I posted my first book review for my blog. First up was Calista Taylor's Viridis. (IDK if I really did it "right" but it gives you a bit to help you decide if you think you may want to read it-which you should read it.) (If you haven't read my review, and would like to: Here's the link :) This was only my first review of many more to come. There will be more and I will also recommend books as well....

The other day, I began following @Drunk_on_Books who sent me a DM telling me he is looking forward to any book recommendations I have for him. I thought, huh, recommendations, okay, I could do that. I love to read, and I love to spread the word about books. Then I thought, wait, what if I recommend a book that he thinks it total crap and doesn't want anymore recommendations from me? So I was on the fence. I sucked my worries up though and gave him my recommendation for Viridis and also one for Edge of Hyperspace by Scott Seldon.

Now, I only have 9 followers on my blog. BUT I have 157 followers on Twitter and I have two different Facebook accounts and different friends on each. Point being I am not a complete nobody, and therefore I am perfectly capable of spreading the word about someones book(s). And I love spreading the word.

Every review, every recommendation, every mention brings your book to a readers attention. Even if you think the person talking about your book is just a little silent fish in a sea of much bigger fish with much bigger prescnece. Don't knock someone who is willing to talk about your book(s)...Every little bit counts.

Writing

The inspiration
Of each word you write
The motivation
That is life

The experience
Your teacher
The knowledge
Your keeper

The narration
Is your only guide
The reality
That it's not a fun ride

The imagination
Shining light on truth
The story
In your head, screaming at you

The heart
Helps your thoughts progress
The soul
Does all the rest

To Do List: Critiques

Here is my first installment of the writer's to do list and how to get it done. If you want to see what's on the to do and/or if you have suggestions: Go Here.

Now, for the first thing up on the To Do:

Critiques:

Some of you may say, This isn't on my list, so it doesn't pertain to me. I say WHAT!? If you are a writer, you should also be a contributer. One way, and the best way, is to critique your fellow writers work(s). If we don't extend the olive branch, then how do we expand our fan base? (And if you even think a fan base doesn't matter...you need to rethink the whole writer thing) I'm a member of a critique group (which I'm sure I've mentioned) on AgentQueryConnect (which I know I've mentioned) and I love my group. We are a fairly new group, and each week we post a chapter or few for the others in the group to critique. Currently we are all beginning to wrap up our first MSs, and although I've been lucky enough to get to read each of their stories-I will buy them and read them again when they are published. In addition to my group, I swap chapters with two different people that I met on QueryTracker. And I recently began helping out with Caterina Torres' Short Stories. When I have time, I also critique queries on AQC. Through doing all this, I have gained: Friends and other writers to critique my work(s) and to give me opinions on my work(s). If that is not motivation enough for you to add critiques to your to do list, then you may not be ready to call yourself a writer.

Now that you are convinced, let me give you some tips on how to manage this task:


     1. Join some writer forums first and foremost-they will aid you in your journey and will become a very important part of it as well. This will help you network your work and yourself, it will help you connect with other people who are going through the same thing as you. This is a place that will help ground you. It will be somewhere you can go after you just got your first or thirtieth rejection letter, where there will be people to help lift you out of the funk and away from that feeling of failure. I have mentioned the best two in this post, but there are others out there. Find one, join it, and participate.

     2. Now that you have joined a forum, browse around. I don't know of other sites, but AQC and QT both have places you can put out a "Want Ad" that let's people know you want a critique partner. In addition, there are groups that you can join and places to post queries and synopsis to have critiqued. And it's going to give you the opportunity to begin critiquing others works.

     3. Once you've done those two things, you're set. Let it happen, let people find you and don't stop seeking out critique partners and groups until you've successfully found some.
Most groups are going to have a certain way of going about things. For example, in my group, we post a chapter or few each week. When I found my one on one partners, we decided what would work best for us, which ended up being 1-3 chapters/week as well. This pace works for me, and it's typically the best time-frame to use.

    4. You have your group(s)/partner(s) and you have your setup....Now what? Do it! Make that commitment, it will help you in many different ways. As long as you keep up your end of the critiquing, you will have a partner/group that will be useful and will be there for you in your journey-with each MS. If you agreed to one chapter a week...critique that one chapter a week. There may be weeks that you are swamped by other things, but you must set aside sometime to get your critique(s) done. No matter how much you have to do. Critique groups and partners are going to play a vital role in your writer life. They will be able to pick you up when you're down, they will be able to push you to do your best, they will be there to say your plot sucks or is great. Regardless, now that you have partners in your journey, you have support that you can only get from people who are going through the same things you are.

SO-Are you a writer? Then you find the time to check it off. I know I say it so simply, but that is only because somethings are just that simple. You need your critique partners and therefore, you need to find time to tend to them.

Happy Critiquing! :)