Author Guest Post: Sallie Lundy-Frommer

I’ve been asked to write about how to return to writing after the holidays and how to catch up.  It’s not just the holidays, it’s vacations, illnesses, work assignments if you still have a 9 to 5 job, business trips, all kinds of things can throw a writer off track.  But since we just went through Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day and New Years Eve, I know many of us have just taken down the decorations and dragged the tree out to the curb before setting down in front of the computer to pick up where we left off.

Now, I’m scratching my head because I’m not sure how to respond.  “Catch up,” what does that mean?  I’m not trying to sidestep the question, but I think almost every writer you ask will give you a slightly different answer because their goals are different.

Okay, with that said, let me just tell you what I do when returning to writing.  First of all, I never ever completely shut just down, imagination and creativity just don’t work like that.  So, when I can’t devote solid blocks of time to writing, like during the holidays, I keep notes.  I keep a small spiral binder in my pocketbook or somewhere handy. If I think of something that I don’t want to forget, I jot it down, even if it’s just a few words.

Then, when I’m ready to get serious, back to writing regularly; I take a few days to read over what I’ve written to reacquaint myself with my characters and story.  Once that’s done, I set goals as to what I want to accomplish and when to have it completed.

Next is blocking out times for writing and focusing.  When writing, I don’t allow disruptions, no cellphone, television or internet.  I just write.  But I do take at least one day off each week from writing unless I’m in the throes of creative passion.  It’s not wasting time to take a break, it’s decompressing and recharging to keep from burning out.

So, in a word, to get caught up after the holidays, organize, set goals and follow through.  Now, we all know the best laid plans of mice and men…..(smile).  But, I try my best to keep to this schedule.

I’d be interested in your suggestions for getting caught up after being away from writing.  What do you do?

Yesterday’s Daughter Book Summary

An emotionally laden paranormal vampire romance novel woven with layers of betrayal, love and loss.

Grace Stone, who later learns her true identity is Sapphira, is a loner who survives abuse in the foster care system after being abandoned as a child. A brilliant student, she escapes from her brutal foster parents as a teenager and creates a life for herself. But, her life is little more than existence; plagued with questions about what she really is, a family that she has never known and the never-ending need to keep her differences hidden.

She is alone and lonely, believing it will always remain so until Malachi appears in her life. Malachi, a Guardian of the vampire communities, has searched for his life mate, Sapphira, for decades. He refuses to cease searching for Sapphira even though she is believed dead by all. Conflict arises over the decades between Malachi and his family because of his refusals to accept another mate. But his very soul drives him on to continue his search, knowing that he could not exist if Sapphira were not in the world, somewhere.

Sallie Lundy-Frommer Bio:

I can’t remember a time when vampires have gotten more attention. With shows like True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Being Human and popular books like the Twilight and Dark Series, it’s seems like they’re everywhere. Vampires have always been my favorite supernatural characters. But why? Why am I fascinated with these fantasy beings? Why are you? My interest drove me to write a book, Yesterday’s Daughter. But I could have written about anything, werewolves, cat people or some other paranormal beings, but I chose vampires. Why, I wrote about vampires? I’m not sure I can fully explain why. Maybe I chose vampires because they exude prowess and majesty. But, that would be an all too simple answer. And when I think about it, I know it’s not a complete answer. But it’s a start. What do you think? Why are so many people so interested in these mythical creatures.

As for me, I was born on a farm in the rural South to a family of migrant farm workers. At an early age,my family moved to the urban North-East. Now I live in the suburban North-East with my husband and a large assortment of plants. I hold bachelors and masters degrees in Human Resource Management and currently work in the health care industry.

Yesterday’s Daughter web site:
https://sites.google.com/site/yesterdaysdaughter/

Sallie Lundy-Frommer’s blog:
http://yesterdaydaugher.blogspot.com/

Sallie Lundy-Frommer’s Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yesterdays-Daughter/252655401443654?sk=app_106171216118819#!/sallie.lundyfrommer

Sallie Lundy-Frommer’s Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Slfrommer

Yesterday’s Daughter Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yesterdays-Daughter/252655401443654?sk=app_106171216118819

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Yesterday’s Daughter blog tour site:
http://yesterdaysdaughterblogtour.blogspot.com/

Blog Tour Schedule:

January 20
Mrs. Papillion The Book Worm

January 24
vvb32 reads

January 30
From the TBR Pile

Guest Post and Giveaway: The Apocalypse Gene

DYSTOPIA? NAH, IT’S JUST TUESDAY.

Why do teens love Dystopian fiction? Perhaps, because it’s very familiar to them. How can that be? It’s hard to remember how the world looks a teenager, but here’s a hint: it looks dystopic. Society functions, but in a way that is unfathomable and arbitrary and so to a teenager our society is dystopic. How so? There’s enough food in the world for everyone to eat, but instead of sharing it out at least somewhat fairly, some get to stuff themselves and some starve. If you’re born to privilege everything is handed to you, born to poverty and you have to fight just to stay alive. Some become popular in school (which means so much) due to attributes they did nothing to earn, looks, athleticism, height, intelligence, etc. and all the while adults are telling you that those thing aren’t important. All of these contradictory revelations are a brand new experience. So to a teen a dystopian society is nothing new and at the same time all new.
Despite all that, the world is secondary to the characters. Seeing that no matter what situation you put teenagers in, they’re still teenagers; they have issues of love and loss and insecurity and fear and conflict with their parents and whatever “authority” they have to answer to. Of course, there’s always love, and that great power of that first love. Nothing like it; and it’s fascinating to see the way that no matter the difficulties and strictures of the society, love will not be bound by it and in much speculative fiction it is romantic love that makes all the difference, as well it should.
Watching other teenagers face seemingly insurmountable obstacles and deal with them feels like what teenagers are dealing with every day. Especially now as they watch the prosperous world they believed they would inherit revealed as an illusion. To adults, having their beliefs ripped away is a knee-trembling shock, but to a teenager it’s just Tuesday.

 


The Apocalypse Gene
By Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy

Global pandemic is raging. Olivya Wright-Ono’s once loving home has been converted to a hospice for the dying. Her ability to see auras forces her to witness, with agonizing detail, the vibrant colors of life consumed by malignancy.
The beautiful and troubled, Mikah, is an elite Empath in the ancient Kindred clan, led by the brooding, ever-morphing, monster named Prime. Mikah has learned a terrible truth .

. . the plague is linked to Kindred origins. When Olivya sees evidence of disease creeping into her mother’s aura, she has no one to turn to but Mikah. Can he unearth the Kindred secrets and find a cure? Can she trust this boy whose power allows him to manipulate her very emotions?
With her mother’s life, and that of the world, in the balance, Olivya and Mikah embark on a quest to stop the Pandemic, only to discover it is far, far more than a mere disease . .

Website:  http://www.TheApocalypseGene.com
Blog:  http://www.TheApocalypseGene.com/cy-chi
Facebook FanPage:
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About the Authors:
Suki Michelle is a life-long Chicagoan, happily divorced and still good friends with her Ex. She lives and writes with her soul-mate, Carlyle Clark. She has one beautiful daughter, Bree, who is the first reader and critic of The Apocalypse Gene, and without her input, it wouldn’t be nearly as cool! Suki’s other children are of the four-legged type, Dahlia, the German shepherd; Kilala the lazy calico chub-cat; and Koney, the tortoise-shell demon cat from the Seventh Ring.
Carlyle is a burly dude from San Diego. He can look menacing at a glance, but as soon as he opens his mouth, pure intellectual. They are eternally grateful for the day they met at an on-line writer’s workshop. They’ve been together for four years. On the outside. Suki and Carlyle are totally disparate. On the inside, they are the REAL Neo-Twins. You’ll have to read The Apocalypse Gene to find out who the Neo-Twins are, but here’s a hint: They are twisted devils with mirror-melded auras.
As writers, Suki and Carlyle have complementary skill sets. Lyle is plot master and edgy dialoguer. He is a huge fan of Japanese anime, and he draws upon this to choreograph fight scenes. Suki enjoys painting a character’s emotional landscape and writing vivid descriptions. They both have wild imagination.
Suki and Carlyle treasure every opportunity to share their work.
Twitter: @Suki_Michelle

EXCERPT:

Chapter One – The Good As Dead:  Olivya has just learned that her mother plans to upgrade their home-based hospice center to euthanasia, a service called “deliverance”.  GAD is short for “Good-As-Dead”. The first “customer” as arrived:

Deliverance. Olivya hated that slithery word, that thin euphemism. Why not call it what it was? Murder. Her legs tensed, straining to run through the front door, down the street, east to Lake Michigan, and keep on going, right into the cool deep waters. Instead, she crept to the foyer, careful to stay out of Mama’s line of sight.

The new GAD lay mummy-bound in a pale blue blanket. This one had no intention of hanging out in a tranquilized coma or happily zoned on Hypno-Peace. He just wanted out. She wanted to look into the soul of this death-wisher. Did it take courage to broadcast that invitation to the Reaper? You are cordially invited to escort me to oblivion.

The sickly sweet stench of diseased flesh and stale urine wafted from the GAD. His sweat-soaked orange hair lay like worms on his forehead. Straps held his wrists to the side rails. His lips fluttered with each labored breath. She frowned. He looked just like all the others. Nothing special – shrunken, coma-tranked, and reeking. Was he a coward or a hero? The answer didn’t show in his face, but she could find it in his aura.

A chill breeze rippled, raising gooseflesh on her arms. Maybe the old Reaper was already standing right there, ready to claim his prize. If she allowed herself to fully Sight, would she see Death’s black robes, its bottomless eyes rimmed in bone? She wanted to curse it, spit in its hideous face. Like Papa, this newcomer had set out a welcome mat for Death.

Mama would be furious if she caught her gaping, disobeying orders to stay away. Olivya would have to hurry, but a moment was all she needed.

She closed her eyes, lifted her defenses and willed the Sight to come. Colors, shapes and lights swirled behind her lids. She compressed them into a single point of white-light deep inside her mind, then she opened her eyes.

The GAD’s aura, at first vague and wavy, sharpened into view. Despite the drug-induced coma, misery rose from him in sluggish waves. The dull red of malignancy throbbed against a background of greenish-gray – similar to the other Good-As-Deads, but somehow weightier. Intuition told her to look more closely.

Faint hues darted behind that auric death-shroud, ghosts of the man’s former emotions. A streak of robin’s egg blue, shimmers of peach. An eerie feeling came over her. Something looked familiar about this combination of gentle pastels in this particular pattern.

The face of a smiling man rose in her mind’s eye, one who had always been patient with the friendless psychic girl. Mr. Gragg. Her Seventh Grade English teacher from the old brick and mortar. Could this be him? It looked nothing like him. Mr. Gragg had been thick-muscled and robust, his hair a riot of bright orange ringlets. Yes. That pastel aura was Mr. Gragg’s. She recognized the colors of his unique, unflagging kindness. Why him? Then again, so many in the world had cancer. Why not him?

Olivya caught Mama’s voice in the kitchen. “Any family?”

“Not any more,” the deliveryman said.

***

Excerpt – Chapter Two – Mikah:  Mikah, an unitiated member of the Kindred clan, dreads his encounters with the Kindred leader, a demon hybrid who goes by the name of Prime . . .

It wasn’t just the thought of Initiation and what it might do to him that made Mikah sick with dread. It was the fact that he’d have to be alone with Prime, close to the monster’s twisted energy and constantly morphing shape, that hideous creature near enough to touch. He hated thinking about that cellar-dwelling thing, yet his presence permeated the Complex. Prime. The Ancient One. Vile. Disgusting.

Sometimes at night, Mikah would gaze out his bay window, dreaming about what it might be like to plunge through the glass and ride the gravity express straight down to eternal nothingness. He’d catch a glimpse of a lurching form among the trees, a darker dark in the shadows, oozing through the expanse of park-like grounds that joined the Complex with the shores of Lake Michigan. He’d spy Prime, the monster, slipping along the beach in random directions, as if lost.

That shape sometimes caught the moonlight, a pale glow darting among the perfectly manicured hedges at the Complex boundaries. Prime. No boogieman. Real. He’d haunted Mikah’s nightmares since he was a little kid. Lately, the changes had accelerated. Prime was growing restless, leaving the Complex more and more often, capering and shrieking about the grounds.

Just a week ago, Mikah caught a rare sight of Prime inside the Complex, slinking past an open door in one of the first floor parlors. He looked thick and clumsy. Then yesterday, Mikah saw the beast again. He’d changed, become taller, oddly flexible, and lighter on his feet. Only Prime’s brown, shapeless robes stayed the same, and the absurdly long black patent leather dress shoes sticking out beneath his hems.

“You should not put your attention on him,” Changarai said.

“My shield is up. How did you know I was thinking of Prime?”

“You wear the same expression you did as a toddler when Prime was near. One doesn’t need psionic ability to recognize fear.”

“Yeah, well. It’s just another thing that separates me from all of you. I fear him. You worship him.”

“You will too,” Changarai said. “Soon.”

No way would Mikah stay alone with that shambling horror while they’re at the Gathering. Then he relaxed. He wouldn’t be alone tonight. He’ll be with Olivya.

Giveaway:

The author is giving away 1 ecopy of the book.  Please use Rafflecopter below to enter.

Continue reading Guest Post and Giveaway: The Apocalypse Gene

Review: Courting Darkness by Yasmine Galenorn

Courting Darkness (Sisters of the Moon Series #10)Courting Darkness by Yasmine Galenorn

  • ISBN-13: 9780515150070
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Publication date: 11/1/2011
  • Source: From Publisher

Synopsis:

Camille D’Artigo is Priestess of the Moon Mother and wife of a dragon. But her dragon father-in-law doesn’t want her in the family. Captured and swept off to the Dragon Reaches, Camille must find a way to escape before her husband’s father breaks her spirit…

David’s Thoughts:

Each of the novels in the Otherworld series is written from the viewpoint of one of the D’Artigo sisters, rotating through the three sisters.  This novel follows Camille as she is kidnapped and tortured by her father-in-law, who is a dragon.  Hyto blames Camille and his son for his having been cast out of the Dragon Reaches and is determined to have revenge.  He plans to kill her in front of his son before killing him as well.  With none of her family or friends knowing where she is, Camille must escape before she is killed.  In addition to this struggle, Chase, a close family friend and local police detective, has been pulled into a Fae portal and is now missing.  Camille must use her contacts in the Court of Darkness to track him down and rescue him.

I read this book a while ago and am just now writing a review for it, because I’m still not sure how I feel about it.  As an individual book, there’s nothing wrong with it.  The writing’s good, the plot kept me reading and I enjoyed it as I was reading it.  But, as book 10 in the series, it left me wanting more.  This book seemed to me to be almost all character development, with little to no forward movement of the overall plot of the series, the war with Shadow Wing.  I don’t mind character development, but I was expecting the book to be more involved with the war.  Maybe that’s not the story the author is really trying to tell, but I was disappointed when I finished the book.  It seemed to be too much of a ‘filler’ book.

However I feel about the subject matter, if you’ve read the first nine books, I’d recommend this one too.  I hate to stop reading a series before it ends and perhaps I’ll be more satisfied with the next book.  And maybe you’ll like this one more than some of the previous books.  I certainly plan to read Shaded Vision when it comes out.

David’s Rating

3 penguins

The plot was not moved along much, lots of character development though