Blood To Blood: Official Release

Blood To Blood: Official Release

Blood To Blood: Official Release

Blood To Blood: Official Release

Today is the official release date for Blood To Blood, and I am so grateful for all the wonderful feedback my debut novel has received over the past few months! Here’s the official press release.

It’s exciting to see your “baby” go out into the world. There’s a sense of liberation and quite frankly relief. The best feeling is knowing that there are other babies close behind waiting to get there turn. Be on the lookout for the sequel as well as more stuff about Sawyer Creed and your favorite blood donor, Justin McCarthy.

Ok, back to the writing desk.

Purchase:[mantra-button-color url=”https://www.createspace.com/4012299″ color=”#47AFFF”]B2B in Paperback[/mantra-button-color] |[mantra-button-color url=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ONWZ58/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008ONWZ58&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwrapaboutco-20″ color=”#47AFFF”]B2B on Kindle[/mantra-button-color]

Summary: Enter the world of Bostonian teen Angelika Brown: budding pop star and descendant of an immortal race of sun-loving blood drinkers known as Shimshana (the vampire prototype).

Defying her parents’ traditions of higher education (and secrecy), Angel plans to ditch high school to be a singer. She’s got an amazing voice, but she’s also maturing into a full-grown Shimshana complete with fearsome power and insatiable bloodlust. What’s worse, her soaring vocals are now capable of destroying everything, and everyone, within earshot; including her girl group, their mysterious producer and Angel’s hunky new blood donor. To top it off, she must prove her worthiness to live by passing the tests in her Mahá–the ancient, mandatory coming-out-party for new-born immortals.

Will Angel survive her Mahá and quickly learn to control her new abilities? Or will her killer instincts bring her promising career, and her life, to an end?

Read reviews and interviews for Blood To Blood.

Blood To Blood: Official Release

Blood To Blood: New Summary

Blood To Blood: New Summary

I’m swapping out my old summary for a new one which I think gives potential readers more of an idea of what Blood To Blood is about:

Blood To Blood: New Summary

Blood To Blood: New Summary

Enter the world of Bostonian teen Angelika Brown: budding singing sensation—and descendant of an immortal race of sun-loving blood drinkers known as Shimshana (the vampire prototype). Angel defies her parents’ traditions of higher education by dropping out of high school to be a pop star. She has an amazing voice, but she’s also maturing into a full-grown Shimshana complete with fearsome power and insatiable bloodlust. What’s worse, her soaring vocals are now capable of destroying everything, and everyone, within earshot—including her girl group, their mysterious producer and Angel’s hunky new blood donor. Will Angel quickly learn to control her new abilities or will her killer instincts bring her promising career, and her life, to an end?

I’m glad to have the control to decide how I want my writing to be presented. My former summary, which can be found in this press release, worked well as an industry pitch but I love giving potential readers what they need–the realness! Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on this!

Blood To Blood: New Summary

Space and Galaxy Photos

Space and Galaxy Photos

I absolutely love cool photos of outerspace; galaxies, nebulas, star systems, and the like have always captured my imagination. When I think of angels, and where they may or may not reside, pictures like these really help to fire up my imagination without bringing the preconceived notions that come with science fiction and space travel movies and television.

There is something so simple, yet complex, about pictures of these types. A lot of the space and galaxy photos I end up pinning onto my Pinterest board come straight from the NASA site. Looking at these pictures bring me a sense of peace and awe, and I’m happy to share some of my favorites with you. Some sites I visit often include:

nasa.gov

hubblesite.org

space.com

Space and Galaxy Photos from Nasa.gov

The Orion nebula  wired.com

Omega Centauri - I remember this name being thrown around a lot on one of those really old space shows from the 70s. Or was it Alpha Centauri?

Omega Centauri- hubblesite.org

Some space and galaxy photos from Nasa.gov

Space and Galaxy Photos from Nasa.gov

Merging NGC 2623
Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing Martin Pugh

Space and Galaxy Photos from Nasa.gov

This one looks like a giant eye, and always gives me the creeps.

NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

…and one of my favorite:

Space and Galaxy Photos from Nasa.gov

The Horsehead Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NOAO), KPNO, AURA, NSF

Visit my Pinterest board, where I post a lot of these. Hope you enjoyed these photos and visit the sites where you can see hundreds more of these types of photos every day.

Blood To Blood Official Release Blog Tour

The Blood To Blood Official Release Blog Tour is here!

Blood To Blood: YA urban fantasy novel

Blood To Blood Official Release Blog Tour

FINAL UPDATE:
Thanks to all the great blogs that participated in my first blog tour. Please visit these blogs and leave a comment and show them some love. They’re run by great folks who take the time out of their busy schedules (many have full time jobs, school,  kids and even more than one of these) to update readers on fabulous books. They deserve much respect and appreciation.

Participating blogs:

November 19: Book Addict – Interview
November 21 – Read Write Sleep
November 22 – The Book Vulture
November 26 – Novels on the Run Review

November 27 – Novels on the Run Interview

November 30 –  The Ramblings of a Toddlers Mom

UPDATE: The Nov. 30th stop at Ramblings… will be the last stop for this tour. Visit to enter their giveaway of a personalized copy of Blood To Blood!
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Today November 19-30th will be the time when I’ll make the rounds of the blogosphere to let folks know about my debut novel Blood To Blood (slated for official release on December 4). For two weeks, Monday through Friday, Blood To Blood will be featured for a different audience by different blogs. Fun!

More about Blood To Blood

Many people do not understand what a blog tour is, and I must admit I didn’t even know until recently. Basically, it’s the way an author can make appearances, just virtually. Back in the day, when an author wanted to do a slew of bookstore appearances, s/he would have to get on a plane, or some other type of vehicle, and travel somewhere, stay at hotels, etc, but now, thanks to the magic of the Internet, an author can “visit” a number of venues, and reach a number of audiences, all from the comfort of his/her office. There you go–the general idea behind a blog tour and the appeal of this is completely understandable, no?

 

Why Angel Brown Doesn’t Swear

Why Angel Brown Doesn't Swear

Why Angel Brown Doesn’t Swear

I’ve been having the conversation a lot lately. You know. The conversation about young adult books and why it’s important, at least to me, that they be actually written with a young adult audience in mind. I’ve been talking to a lot of readers about why the heroine of Blood To Blood, Angel Brown, doesn’t swear and, at the age of sixteen, is still a virgin.

We’ve all heard, ad nauseam, about how the young adult book market is growing by leaps and bounds. But any fan of YA literature, and classics such as Little Women, Lord of the Flies, or The Hobbit (one of the biggest fans would be me) can tell you it’s not a new thing, it’s not a trend and YA is here to stay.

But one relatively new, and glaring, aspect of YA book readership is the fact that the majority of consumers, specifically of the YA fantasy genre, is way older than the age defined as YA audience. Seemingly, the average reader is a Kindle or Nook-toting 30-something year old mom with 1.37 kids and that audience age can go as high as the 50s and beyond.

Fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 – nicknamed YA books — are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44 – Bowker

Part of this phenomenon, well-documented with the Twilight series, seems rooted in the fact that women of all ages love a good story involving the blossoming of the heart. Moms love to relive the fluttery feelings they had for hot guys when they were still young and it all seemed so exciting and over-the-top. I myself got hooked on Twilight right as my marriage was falling apart and lost myself in memories of those feelings that I once had and missed terribly.

So there’s nothing wrong with old-ass women such as myself writing and reading YA books, but what happens when something labeled and marketed to a young adult is geared towards said old-ass women?

There are a number of YA series out there that depict their teen heroines as potty-mouthed, sexually adventurous, fashion-plate, overly made-up biatches alá 80s/90s music videos. As if said old-assed women want to somehow go back in time to re-invent themselves as vampire huntresses, immortals or simply the most popular, hottest chick in school. At what point do we take responsibility for shaping how young adults see themselves and relate to the world? What happens when every other sentence features an expletive? Seriously, why not utilize more adjectives; overused swear words, like many love-lives, get old and boring quick.

Why Angel Brown Doesn't Swear

Why Angel Brown Doesn’t Swear

Take an example from ultra-violent Clockwork Orange, the 1963 classic featuring raging, raping, killing teens and a society out of control. As dark as the subject matter of this once-banned book gets, the author Anthony Burgess didn’t use swear words as a crutch or carrot, and instead developed the characters and their world through the use of unique language which, in turn, offers an expanded view into the underlying themes.

Am I a saint? Hell, no. My book’s only in pre-release right now, and already it’s gotten criticized for depicting earth craft (sometimes called witchcraft) and blood rituals. But, I feel strongly about young girls who read my books coming away from them without the feeling that it’s somehow ok to lower your standards of personal civility and self respect in order to be, or be perceived as, sexy. Preachy, maybe. Everyone’s cup of tea? Certainly, not. But that’s why Angel, with all her amazing powers, is as straight-laced and conservative as any character I’ve ever written.

At the end of the day, I believe authors have a responsibility to their audience. As responsible adults it’s up to us to decide whether what we’re writing is truly for young adults or for the unrequited fantasies lurking within our own grown-up subconscious.

Why Angel Brown Doesn’t Swear

November 7, 2014: Edited with the Heart To Heart cover

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

CBS Radio Mystery Theater… Aaah, along with the epic Dark Shadows, this was a show that I and my mom would enjoy religiously. The opening intro, deliciously dark and mysterious, featured the sound of an opening door,  ancient in its creak, and the foreboding tones of soundtrack music originally featured in the Twilight Zone episode titled “Two” and written by Nathan Van Cleave. Dark, scary music with stories that crept under the skin before establishing permanent residence in one’s cranium. Good family entertainment.

Check out 1:33-2:10. That’s the portion used as the CBS Mystery Theater theme.

The stories on Mystery Theater featured awesome actors and stories that totally sucked the listener in. The host, actor E.G. Marshall, struck the perfect tone. His voice was old-school but creepy at the same time– especially at the end of the each episode where he said “Until next time… pleasant dreams?” It was amazing that my ADD settled down long enough to become immersed in the various plots offered every week. It was appointment radio (yes, such a thing actually existed!) and the precursor to the greatest love of my imagination’s life, and one of my most enduring Muses, The Twilight Zone (prostrate and worship here).

As I write this, I’m listening to a Mystery Theater episode called “Afraid To Live, Afraid To Die.” It starts sounding mad spooky at 23:00. I wonder if a program like this would even survive in the new millennium? I like to think so, because at the end of the day the story rules, and if it’s good, people will want to experience it. I really wish there was a show, or podcast like this!

CBS Radio Mystery Theater Archives – Hear the archived episodes here.