My 5 Reasons guest post

This is the scene I was greeted with as I rounded the hedge from one field to the next on Monday morning.

It was cold, and I'm starting to wonder where I put my gloves at the end of last winter. But, so glorious. Artoo doesn't like me to linger for too long - apparently, walking means just that to him!

I thought it was too nice a photo not to share.


Today I'm guest posting on Tyrean Martinson's blog, sharing my 5 Reasons to Write to Music. I hope you'll pop over and see what my reasons are.

I've got another music-based guest post on the cards next week. Details to follow.

More travels

And today I'm visiting Yolanda Renee at Defending the Pen, to explain why we all need to embrace rejection!

Be sure to visit and tell me all your best rejections!

On my virtual travels...

Today I am over on The Five Year Project, telling Misha Gericke why I love entering competitions, and what they can do for you. Pop over and tell me about your competition experiences.

***

I haven't been around much, because I've been redrafting a novella. I was hoping to turn it into a novel, but at the moment it's just a slightly longer novella. But I've cleared up some dodgy plot issues, and improved some of the characterisation.

I've hit a bit of a problem with the last couple of chapters, though. I know what I want my poor character to suffer next, but I'm not sure if it actually makes sense in the life I've created for her. She's also started to whinge quite a lot about the same thing, over and over. So this isn't my final draft - I'm going to have to go back over it and work out where the whinging is a step too far.

***

With surprise, the other day, I opened up our local community magazine and saw me!

Thank you to everyone at Love Saltash. I'm just about getting used to people recognising me in the street now.

Help! World-Building!

In a very occasional blog series, I reach out to bloggers and yell "Help!" In this case, I had a speculative fiction idea, but the whole world-building element scared me.

"Gwen Tolios," I said, "how do you world-build?"

And she said... 

My World Building Secret - Pretending I'm Five by Gwen Tolios

  

When Annalisa asked me to do a guest post on world-building, I was so excited. Because world-building is my favorite part of the writing process. I like naming things, drawing maps, figuring out how things work.  To me, it's no different then going to a new city and hitting the streets to explore. Instead, I'm just hitting the keyboard and peering into stories.

So how do I world-build?

I ask my favorite question - why? - ten million times.

For example, in my current WIP I am running with the idea of humans being modified for space colonization instead of the planet. But this just can't happen, oh no, there has to be a reason.  So why did it happen? Is it cheaper? Faster? A science experiment?  Or maybe something a little more dramatic, such as the disastrous Moon Failure that highlighted just how risky living in artificial environments were.

The thing is, the world your story takes place in might be fictional, but it still has to function as a real one. It's real to your characters and it has to be real to your readers. And here in the real world, there is always a reason. Why aren't airships a thing anymore?  It has to do with the dramatic intersection of incidents like the Hindenburg and the improvement of airplane technology. Why did Westeros build a giant ice wall? To protect it from the White Walkers.

It's often not just one thing, one reason.  If I've learned anything in life it's how interconnected things are.  America has a problem with obesity and it's because there are lots of fast food chains. But fast food is also cheap food and it can be the only way for low income families to get a full meal. Eating right and healthy is expensive and out of reach.  So obesity is a poverty issue. Or maybe a cultural one, because America is a car culture that's also addicted to TV and the Internet. Or a social one, as social movements preach body positivity and more and more people are okay with being overweight.

Things can get messy, but that's life, and often times in your fiction that same thing has to happen.

Take the Hunger Games. Why do those Games even exist? It's a way for the government to install fear and control over the Districts. It is symbol of how a previous uprising had tried pull down the Capital, but didn't. It is a show of power. It is a distraction and entertainment for those in the Capital. It's a way to pit districts against each other. It gives the average citizen a rare chance at getting a better life.

Why is a minority treated harshly? Their country attacked this one 50 years ago, but lost, and it's the remnants of the army that live in the slums and fill the bars. Why must wizards use wands? They need its a buffer, because channeling magic through the body can be deadly. Why is do people never address gods by name? It draws their attention, which you might not want. Pick a part of your world, or even your plot, and ask why?

Dig deeper and deeper, asking questions, and before you know it you'll have a world with a history and a reason for why things are they way they are. 

Thank you so much, Gwen. I love asking myself What If...? but now I know I need to ask Why? as well.

About Gwen Tolios
Gwen Tolios hails from the American Midwest and uses her experiences abroad to shape her speculative fiction. Author of Flicker, she's currently working on YA SF story inspired by her time in Ethiopia.
Gwen blogs at Fulfilling Dreams.

I'm a housewife really...

... Well, I must be because the lovely ladies at the Really Real Housewives blog have asked me over for the week.

I promise to be a good guest, tidy up after myself, and cook dessert on Wednesday!

Pop back here on Wednesday, though, when I will be sharing just how brilliant at dessert-making I really am.

Today I am somewhere else...

I am sharing some tips on How to Write Scary, over on Write...Edit...Publish today - and no, I don't mean forget to put your make-up on!

Do you write scary stories? What tips would you share?

What do you think of my tips?

See you there!

Maggie Tideswell: I love the paranormal romance genre!

I'm taking part in a blog swap with author Maggie Tideswell today. She's here and I'm there. I hope she finds the chocolate cake I left out for her!

Take it away, Maggie, tell me, why do you love the paranormal romance genre??

Maggie Tideswell, author of
Paranormal Romance

Let’s face it, love really is all around us. Even when you read a murder mystery or a horror novel, there are romantic elements in it, because people fall in love. Even in the most unexpected or dangerous situations, people find each other. It is human nature.

What fascinates me about romance is firstly what characteristics attract people to each other enough to fall in love and secondly, what traits keep them in love for a lifetime when one in three relationships fail. This is a throw-back from studying psychology at university.

People want to be scared. Fright gets the primitive fight or flight response going. And that is where the paranormal comes in. When I say paranormal, I don’t mean zombies and vampires. Creatures with tentacles and many teeth also don’t interest me. Those are not scary and only have entertainment value as far as I am concerned. Don’t get me wrong, I am not putting authors of those genres down, all I’m saying is that those elements are not what I write about. I am interested in what isn’t visible to the eye, things that go bump in the night, ‘nothing is as it seems’, and witches getting up to mischief or doing genuine work to help. And ghosts, of course.

We all have those creepy little experiences of something moving just at the edge of vision and when you look, there is nothing there. Or the sound we hear for which there are no logical explanations. And who of us haven’t know what was going to happen next or what somebody was going to say before it actually happened? This is what is termed deja-vu.

People are not always what they seem. It is a known fact that people represent themselves in the best light and what they show to the world is only the tip of the iceberg of their personality. I like to say people wear ‘masks’ to hide their true selves from others, for reasons of their own.

But my biggest interest is ghosts and why some people seem to get stuck on the earthbound plane after death. I even joined a paranormal investigation group, but I am yet to come face to face with a ghost I could have a conversation with. I have been told I look too hard and that was why I am unlikely to see a ghost, but I do experience them. On one occasion I had fallen asleep on the couch and I startled awake with the distinct feeling that somebody was leaning over me. There was nobody there, but the room had been freezing. It was the middle of summer.

Romance in combination with the paranormal is what I write. Instead of placing my characters in mortal danger of burning buildings, an erratic gunman or in the path of a tidal wave, I scare them with what they cannot see.

I have two paranormal romance novels in print, both published by All Things That Matter Press, a small press in Maine, USA.

My debut novel, Dark Moon came out in 2011. Chance meetings can have far-reaching effects. Loved ones may not be who they seem. The line between comprehension and confusion is thin, particularly when one’s thoughts are being manipulated by another.

My second published novel, Moragh, Holly’s Ghost (2013) is, well, a ghost story. A marriage of convenience, helpful fey friends, a custody battle that cannot be won and a haunting - could love blossom?

Still to come is Roxanne’s Ghost, Poppet Nicole, which is the sequel to Moragh, Holly’s Ghost, and a story set on one of the Portuguese islands off the coast of Africa called Bazaruto, titled Adorable Crook.

As I was born in South Africa and still live here, I like to set my stories in South Africa, in and around Cape Town to be specific. South Africa is a country of breathtaking natural beauty, diverse population and many unexplored ghosts.

Find Maggie on her blog Wonderful Words, on Amazon and on Twitter.

Guest posts and a new story

To celebrate the release of Our Beautiful Child in paperback, I've been hanging out at a couple of other blogs this week...

• I'm over on Between the Lines sharing Five Books I've Read More Than Once
• and explaining why I think Novellas are Awesome at Beck Valley Books.

Thanks to both Cathy and Sharon for inviting me to their blogs.

Yesterday and today

Yesterday's post didn't quite go as I'd planned. I'd hoped to have a debate about whether short stories are worth the money people are placing on them at the moment, whether that money is bringing more attention to the short story form, and - implied, rather than asked - do people actually take notice of short stories, or are they seen as a stepping stone to novel writing?

Instead, you lovely people just told me I was a great writer, which is lovely - and thank you - but unintended.

Perhaps I should read my posts properly before I press publish.

**     **     **     **     **

Today I am over at Sia McKye Over Coffee talking about why I don't consider myself a paranormal writer. Please take a moment to stop by and say hello to us.

**     **     **     **     **

Later today, I'm going to attempt to write down the short story idea that I was considering while I fell asleep last night. Fingers crossed it works as well as I think it might!!

Just a little bit starstruck

I'm not really here today, I'm over on the most awesome blogger ever's blog, the Ninja Captain himself, Mr Alex J Cavanaugh talking about what I would be if I wasn't a writer. It's a huge honour to have been invited over - I hope I don't make a fool of myself.

In other news, I sent off a submission this weekend, and felt nothing - no terror, no fear, no excitement. The submission was an open request to a massive publisher, so I assume they will be completely inundated. There's really no point getting your hopes on for such a small window of possibility. If anything comes of it, then I can be excited! 

I've also been watching as many World Cup games as I can. It was great watching Spain lose, less so watching England lose. Although, the consensus is, they played well, so hopefully the other two games in our group will be easier.

I have a problem though... I wore England pants, and England lost. Do I risk wearing them next time they play, or are they now unlucky pants which I should avoid wearing? Your advice will be most welcome!

40 - argh! - Charlie's Scribes

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.
Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's final post is brought to you from the very special minds of Charlie's Scribes...

We've all heard about the beauty of saying YES...

but sometimes saying NO is a wonderful thing too.

Saying NO could save you from a mental break down or an STD.

NO is a wonderful word.

Learn it.

Love it.

Flaunt it.

And if just saying NO is too boring for you...

here's 40 ways to do it...saying NO, that is... in honor of Annalisa's 40th birthday!!

Nee Non Lo Nahi Jo Ara Nem Nei

La Nein Tidak Ni Voch Ohee Ni No

Deyil Pa Nai Aniyo Nie Non Ne Tidak

Bu Ma Na Nie Nej Nao Nu Niet

Ei Hapana Nej Mai Hindi Khong Illai Naaku Vaddu

Oh wait, Elizabeth! Mark and I came up with some stellar NO's, too. But to avoid the STD bit. We hear it'll ADD 40 more years!!

It's not you, it's the game...NO look it's starting on ESPN!

NO wait, let's do our taxes first. And recheck last years!

NO, I think we should wait till we're married...to other people.

NO it's not the dress but the burgers that make your butt look big.

NO, I'll respect you in the morning - what's your name again?

I like to facetime during. Is that a NO?

NO I'm ready. I'll Tweet and Facebook update that I'll be back in 5 mins.

Has my baldness spread to my groin? Because it's dry and itchy. NO that's not balding!

NO? But the toupee clips back on!

NO Karma Sutra, I'm more in the mood for Mexican or Thai food really.

NO you can turn off the lights. I like that, too. **snores**

This post was courtesy of:

 a new FREE service featuring the angelic smiles of:

Mark Koopmans, Elizabeth Seckman, and Tammy Theriault.

Annalisa Crawford-

40 - argh! - Penny and Gary

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.
Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's guest is Penny the Jack Russell Dog and modest internet superstar, and her fictional human, Gary...

Forty Happens.

Hi there, yes it's me, Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar!  My human, Gary, was telling me what it was like for him when he turned forty.

"Penny, I remember the day I woke up and realised it was my fortieth birthday.  I had this incredible urge to go jogging.  That urge soon left and the only thing I thought of jogging was my memory.  I got out of bed and cranked up the stereo for the first time in ten years.  Yep, nothing like waking up to rap music.  I was forty and I was officially cool. 

I then knew that turning forty required me to purchase my very own mid-life crisis mobile.  Upon the purchase of my flashy sports car, complete with the wobbling furry dice on the driver's mirror, I was horrified that the police officer who pulled me over for speeding looked like a kid.  I was officially past forty and beyond.

More signs of my passing the forty year milestone became apparent to my son.  I started chatting to my son's friends. I was convinced they thought I was well ace with my real with it conversations.  They smiled.  My son looked totally agitated n' stuff.  Hey dudes, let's paaarrttty!  Oh yeah and far out, maaaan!"

"Very interesting, Gary!"  I responded.  "This explains your going on about, life's too short to be miserable.  Your new found appreciation for elevator music.  Soon, Gary, you will have a fondness for tacky cardigans and slippers in the shape of a cute little dog.  Are you ready for Bingo, Gary?" 

"Fair enough, Penny!  What say I mention something totally predictable like, forty is the new thirty.  Or thirty is the new twenty.  Which might make you wonder what that makes a ten year old.  Ah Penny, anything but Bingo!" 

Gary

About Gary...

Greetings, I have been honoured to have my blog 'klahanie' featured on the B.B.C.'s radio station 'Radio 5 Live'. On a show titled: 'Pods and Blogs', I tried to highlight in my interview, that it is time to eliminate the unfair stigma that is still attached to mental health issues. I firmly believe that the media can help redress the balance. How about sensationalizing the positive recovery stories rather than the negative stereotypes that people with mental health issues have to endure? I am a man challenging his 'inner critic.' I will not 'surrender' to my symptoms. I give myself permission to be positive. I try to live my life with positive anticipation. I refuse to let negative speculation overwhelm me. We all have the right to peace and contentment. I want to give others

Penny

positive affirmations. I am not daunted by my loneliness. For in my solitude, I have discovered a determined resilience. I care passionately for people who have been undermined in an unjust world. I challenge the stigma that still surrounds mental health issues.

Find Gary on his blog, on Twitter, and on Facebook

40 - argh! - PK Hzero

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.
Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's guest is PK Hzero...

On Turning 40

Big thanks to Annalisa for having me here today. She’s especially fortunate to have my expertise on this subject, since I’ve been 40 now for almost four whole months.

Yes, wise in the ways of forty-something. That’s me. When I stop and dwell on the fact I actually made it to forty I find myself slightly baffled. There were days in my twenties when I never thought I’d make it. Life was a bullet train to everywhere I wasn’t supposed to be going, and I had nothing but a bunch of one-way tickets.

Yet, here I am. I leapt over the hurdles, foraged through the obstacles, and lived to tell about it. That’s what 40 is for me. Not just a big ‘ol scary number that means my metabolism is about to drop and age lines show up. It’s a badge of honor. Of accomplishment. Of wiping a hand across the forehead with an audible phew! It’s the middle of the road, and here is where things happen. Life starts making sense, and we finally (thank God!) know who we are.

My mom gave me a card for my fortieth that sums it up perfectly. So here’s to you Annalisa on your fortieth! I’m hoping these words make as much sense to you as they did to me at this life milestone:

40 is the beginning of everything that matters.It’s when you start to be respected in the world, make an impact, and get listened to.
It’s when you let go of everything fake and pursue what’s important to you for real.It’s when you realize that knowing what you know,you wouldn’t go back.
40 is when you deserve to celebrate yourself and take pride in your strengths without apologizing.So celebrate today—where you are right now.You deserve it.

About PK...

PK Hrezo is the author of the new adult novel, Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc. and writes YA and NA spec fiction, among other things. She can be found at any of her various web haunts, and loves doing guest blog posts, so if you’re interested, just ask!

PK can be found: Blog // Web // Twitter // Facebook // Goodreads 

40 - argh! - with Crystal Collier

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.
Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's guest is Crystal Collier...

Hello lovelies!

I’m guest posting today for Annalisa (and thank you for the opportunity!), so who’s ready to stretch your creative muscles?

Door 40

Lissa lifted her hand toward the lock, the chrome key rattling against her fusia-painted nails. She’d been down this hall a thousand times, but no one ever entered room 40. A whole subculture of school myths had sprung up about it: a chamber where Mr. Peters kept jarred brains, or where evil lunch ladies fed on kids with too many tardies, or where they locked up the wolf man on full moons.

Metal grated against metal.

She pulled her hand back and wiped sweaty palms against her gray-scale skirt. Her pulse thumped in her ears. It was a stupid dare. She should have told Ryan to go suck on an egg, but he had that video of her wakka-wakka dance in the cafeteria and she really didn’t need that to go viral.

Lissa took a deep breath and wrapped her fingers around the key. It was probably a just supply room.

It had been too easy to swipe the key from the principal’s office while the janitor stepped away to clean an “accidentally” spilled bottle of window cleaner.

Why did Principal Skinner keep this key framed in his office anyway? It was lucky her mom was a custom framer, or she wouldn’t have known how to dismantle the frame without breaking it to leave the counterfeit key Ryan gave her.

But was that luck, or had he been targeting her? She didn’t want to think about the implications. How had Ryan even known where the key for this room was?

Click.

The sound left a hollow ringing in her ears, like she’d done the unthinkable. The handle twisted under her grip and the door slanted inward.

Your turn! Finish the story. What do you think is waiting on the other side of the door? 

Crystal Collier is a young adult author who pens dark fantasy, historical, and romance hybrids with a thriller pace. She can be found practicing her brother-induced ninja skills while teaching children or madly typing about fantastic and impossible creatures. She has lived from coast to coast and now calls Florida home with her creative husband, three littles, and “friends” (a.k.a. the slaves scientists locked in her basement). Secretly, she dreams of world domination and a bottomless supply of cheese. Her debut novel, MOONLESS, is now available for purchase and you can find her on her blog, Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

40 - argh! - with Linda King

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.
Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's guest is Linda King...

Happy birthday, Annalisa and welcome to your next decade!

So… 40. What to write about 40? I feel myself drawn to the Top 40 (the British music chart, for our friends from other places), remembering laying on my belly in my best friend’s bedroom on a Sunday tea-time, listening to and – this shows my age – taping our favourite tunes. We’d be in a state of hushed excitement, waiting to discover whether The Boomtown Rats were at number one or whether David Bowie’s new, unusually ‘dancey’ single had made it into the chart. It mattered to us, back then. Now, I have hardly any idea what’s in the chart. Sad, in a way, but right in another way. Kids don’t want us grown-ups laying claim to their musical territory.  

Music seems so much less exciting now. It’s lost its raw edge, its inventiveness, its shock value (unless you count the recent ‘twerking’ and that wrecking ball video – and to be honest, I didn’t find it shocking, just a bit pitiful.) I don’t know if anything will ever again be as deliciously shocking as the Frankie Goes to Hollywood video for ‘Relax’ was at the time. Even the way music is delivered to our ears is less exciting… CDs, those sterile, shiny silver disks, so far removed from the black vinyl we were used to. Tapes got chewed up in the machine or wore out – vinyl was the medium of choice! Vinyl had album covers that often opened out and a lyric sheet printed large enough to read, sometimes even in the artist’s handwriting. I don’t often bother trying to sing along with the right words these days – the print on CD covers is so tiny.  And then, there are downloads. No physical album cover, let alone lyric sheet, although of course you can go online and find the cover and (probable) lyrics for anything. I think I remember lyrics being published in The Record Mirror, somewhere near the back. In an age of ‘wait and wonder’ as opposed to the instant scurry of a computer mouse, that was really exciting!

I’m not meaning to come over as a fuddy-duddy. I love progress, technology and all things that genuinely move us forward, but I think we all hanker a little for the days of our youth; days of discovery, of new feelings, of innocent anticipation and thrill. I miss looking forward to the Top 40 on a Sunday, even if it was slightly tainted by the looming prospect of school the next morning!

In honour of your birthday, Annalisa, I was going to collate my own Top 40 of favourite singles and albums, but I think I’ve probably rambled for on long enough already!

Instead, here’s one of my best-loved album tracks by Bowie, who really has to be my all-time favourite artist, and which takes me straight back to my early teenage years. It’s not too long and I think it’s rather beautiful!

)

Which track or artist would have to make it into your Top 40?

Thanks for reading – and thank you so much for having me, Annalisa! 

Linda King blogs at Excuse Me While I Note That Down

40 - argh! - Elizabeth Seckman

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.

Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's guest is Elizabeth Seckman...

Turning 40 was a big deal for me.

I didn’t get a tattoo. Or a belly button ring. It didn’t spark a mid-life crisis, but it did light a fire.

Not the sort of fire that leaves nothing but ashes in its wake; the sort that reminded me if I was to accomplish everything I wanted to do (publish a book), then I needed to do things a little differently.

Pre-40 me had all these rules. At dinner, the last person barely had a chance to drop their fork on their plate before I nabbed it and started cleaning up. The laundry pile never overflowed the basket. The floors were vacuumed twice a day.

That left me with about fifteen minutes of writing time per day.

Hardly enough.

So, I had to re-organize and re-think my life and I came to this realization - there are plenty of things I can NOT do and NOT go belly up!

1. Make the bed (it’s actually healthier…allows the sheets to dry and cuts down on microbes)
2. Vacuum (once a day is plenty…once a week if you have no pets!)
3. Do my hair (sloppy bun is easier if you don’t brush it out!)
4. Wash the car (I’m certain the dust coating protects it from the UV rays)
5. Obsessive parenting (allowing them to eat pizza for breakfast every now and then preps them for the single, bachelor life…so does doing their own laundry)
6. Make-up (Going au natural allows my pores to breath…or so I tell myself)
7. Laundry (The dirty clothes will be there tomorrow, trust me…I’ve checked!)
8. Cooking (Make a double pot of whatever…voila- leftovers! Just like take out, though not as good)
9. Farming and jeweling (whatever games are popular now…delete them. Playing games on Facebook is NOT platform building)
10. Television (Shut off the TV. I have no clue who is dancing with what stars, but it does up the word count.)

Go ahead. Don’t do some of the things on the list…I swear, it won’t kill you.

Caleb, Cole, me, Carter, Conner

Here are my guys and me on my 40th birthday. I had to get this photo from my Facebook page, seems I deleted the file. Now my only copy of my monumental day has the Coal Miner tribute ribbon...in honor or fallen miners in West Virginia. 






About Elizabeth...
Elizabeth is a wife, a mom, and a writer. She has four wonderful boys, one dusty house,  and three published books to her credit. Feel free to check them out and buy them HERE! Erm, the books, not the kids or the house...though all things in life are negotiable ;)

You can find her here - Blog // Facebook // Twitter

The Ghosts of Aquinnah

Please give a warm welcome to Christopher Casey, one of the characters in Julie Flanders's new novel, The Ghosts of Aquinnah. After hearing about this book for so long, I am desperate to get my hands on it!

Aquinnah, Massachusetts

The Ghosts of Aquinnah Character Interview 

What is your name?

Christopher Casey

What do you look like?

I have dark curly brown hair and brown eyes, I always seem to have the beginnings of a scruffy beard on my face. I’m athletic and wiry and because I’m Irish I’m cursed with pale skin. 

When were you born? Where do you live?

I was born in 1863 and at the moment I’m bouncing between homes. I was born in Galway, Ireland and lived there until recently. Then I moved to Boston, Massachusetts and have recently lived with the Winslows in the town of Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard. That didn’t work out too well, so now I’m temporarily living in the fishing village of Menemsha on the Vineyard. 

What has been the most important event in your life?

I left Boston on January 17, 1884 to sail to Savannah, Georgia on The City of Columbus. I’ve always wanted to live where it’s warm. I didn’t get very far, as the ship sank off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. My life has been a bit strange since I ended up on this island. I’m fortunate I survived the wreck though, as more than 100 people didn’t.

Have you ever been in love?

I am now, actually. Crazily so.

Do you hold grudges?

No, not really. Life is too short for that, isn’t it? 

Who is the person you respect the most? Despise the most?

I respected my mother. She raised me on her own because my father died before I was born. She’s dead now though. I can’t say I really despise anyone, but I’m not particularly fond of Josiah Winslow. 

What goal do you most want to accomplish in your lifetime?

I want to marry Stella Winslow.

Blurb:

A brilliant flash of light transcends through time.

Another freezes a cloaked figure within a frame of salty mist as waves crash against a rocky shore. Her harrowing expression shadows the beacon to a pinprick.

By the next blaze, she is gone. Only the lighthouse remains.

Hannah’s eyes blink in step with each heartbeat. Images of her deceased parents and Martha’s Vineyard explode like firecrackers inside her mind.

She shakes her head.

For weeks this eerie woman dressed in nineteenth century garb has been haunting my webcam, but tonight she stared into my soul.

Why? ...

Who is she? ...

Casting aside months of research on historic lighthouses, Hannah drives to the coast and boards a ferry.

What is the strange connection she has to this mysterious woman suspended in time?

Hannah finds out.

But, it’s not at all what she expects...

Hannah unravels a century old murder.

Buy The Ghosts of Aquinnah:

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Smashwords ~ Ink Smith Store

Author Bio: Julie Flanders is a novelist and freelance writer in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a life-long love affair with the ocean and has spent more summer vacations than she can count on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. When not writing, Julie can be found playing with her pets, reading, cheering on her favorite sports teams, and watching too much television. The Ghosts of Aquinnah is Julie’s second novel. Her debut novel Polar Night was released in February, 2013 by Ink Smith Publishing.

Find Julie at:

 

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Goodreads

I've been writing...

Even though I'm not doing NaNo, I've been writing a lot this month. Until today I hit a bit of a roadblock because my notes - tucked inbetween the pages of my first draft - say 'some more drinking stuff', and although I know it made sense when I wrote it, I can't for the life of me remember what I meant! Today I have mostly been staring into space with my pen poised waiting for the drinking stuff to happen... Maybe I meant I should really be drinking more? Hmm, something to ponder.

And while I do that...

... here's a linked to a post I've written  over on Slashed Reads where I talk about all the Random Things I Search for on the Internet - ooh, that doesn't sound good at all, does it??

What's the most random thing you've searched for recently?

TF Walsh blog tour post

As promised, I'm cutting into my brief blogging breaking and welcoming T.F. Walsh to my blog as part of her Cloaked in Fur tour. Take it away, T.F...

Hi Annalisa, thanks for having me on your blog. Today I want to chat about what lead me to become a writer.

As a child I remember scribbling short stories on the inside cover of my sister’s books, and I have no idea why. Perhaps I was pretending my stories were published, or I secretly wanted everyone to pay attention to me, after all I was the middle child, but whatever the reason, one thing is certain, I’ve always loved telling tales. It may have something to do with my father’s passion for writing. He’s a well-respected Romanian poet and author, and holds the same dedication to books I do. After all, he had converted our family garage into a miniature library, filled with all sorts of books. A grand table ran the length of the room, piled high with papers and books. He still spends his time in the garage today, typing on his computer, which used to be a typewriter, and to be honest that’s exactly how I see myself in many years to come (but maybe not in a garage) creating fictional worlds and characters and bringing them to life. This would completely satisfy me, a fact my husband is well aware of and comfortable with.

What do you see yourself doing in ten years?

Buy Cloaked in Fur Here:

Amazon

AmazonUK

Barnesand Noble

iTunes

CrimsonRomanceBooks

Publisher: Crimson Romance 

About The Author

T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she's always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.

Author Links

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Pinterest / Goodreads / Amazon