A-Z Blog Challenge: E is for Eating by LY Levand

It's that time again!!!  Unwritten and some 1000 other blogs participated last year, and this year looks to be even bigger! Just like last year, I've opened up the blog to host 26 fabulous writers, with each day of the challenge representing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. I've asked each writer to focus on something that is personal to them, so we can learn more about each other. 

Please check out some of the other blogs in the challenge here: 

A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE 2013

E is for...Eating

by LY Levand

E is for eating, everybody knows that! 

Eating, like everything, has its bad points. A negative point would be the times it tastes bad. Like when your dad burned the meat on the barbecue that one summer, or when your (my) mother made you (me) eat brussels sprouts (YECH). (Those brussels sprouts were nasty, by the way. The house stank for hours.)

But eating has its good points, too, though. A point in its favor would be that (mostly) it tastes good. Another is that we get our necessary nutrients. It can also be pretty, if you like that sort of thing. Plus, if you stop eating, bad things happen to you. None of us like bad things. 

All in all, I think eating is a good thing. I wouldn't advise stopping, just because of the brussels sprouts. ;) I didn't, and I discovered that there are some vegetables I actually like! Not brussels sprouts, though. I still don't like brussels sprouts. 

****

L. Y. Levand is an aspiring family fantasy author with such an abiding love of the Lord of the Rings series that she has been forbidden from watching the movies by her family, and is anxiously awaiting her copy of The Hobbit on DVD. Her favorite color is purple, and she is an acknowledged popcorn hog. A third degree black belt does not stop her from tripping over her own feet or closing fingers in doors, and does not guarantee keeping her balance when tackled at the knees by young children. 

 Email: lylevand@yahoo.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/L.Y.Levand
Books: http://www.amazon.com/L.-Y.-Levand/e/B008MOA9NO
Website: http://lylevand.weebly.com/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6444904.L_Y_Levand

A-Z Blog Challenge: D is for Dreams by LM Fields

It's that time again!!!  Unwritten and some 1000 other blogs participated last year, and this year looks to be even bigger! Just like last year, I've opened up the blog to host 26 fabulous writers, with each day of the challenge representing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. I've asked each writer to focus on something that is personal to them, so we can learn more about each other. 

Please check out some of the other blogs in the challenge here: 

A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE 2013

D is for...Dreams

by LM Fields

What are dreams? Where do they come from? Are they just a mish-mash of images, leftover sensory experiences from the day, a puzzle your brain is determined to piece together and solve? What happens when your dream shakes your very core, then returns to visit you not once but several times? Should you take it seriously, or shrug it off as coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidence any more.

The walls were the same dirty white as I remembered when growing up. A grand, picturesque window took up most of the north-facing side of the living room; the mountains were beautifully dusted with a bit of early snow. Sun couldn’t melt the deep chill in my bones; that was normal for this evil house, darkness would always be oozing down its walls and shadows lurked in every corner. White robed strangers, carrying old parchment documents, entered the room and circled me. Some changed, their features became familiar faces I recognized from family photo albums.

Their gifts documented before the eleventh century. I experienced their history, each playing at the same time. I was given specific instructions, measurements, shown symbols, and told stories without anyone saying a word. “You must tell this story.” They motioned towards the window. Then I saw the future, a dark storm was coming, reaching like a hand of death. “You are running out of time.” A feeling of dread for all of humanity filled my soul before my ancestors disappeared and I woke up crying.

September, two thousand eleven, was a night like any other night. I dreamt of a cold living room with dirty white walls and a large, northward facing window. I was in the same circle of white robed

figures, only this time they were angels. I was seeing them as they truly were. I knew I was dreaming, and I had been there before. One angel pointed towards the mountains. It was the same story but the details were more vivid, the faces, dates, and locations were very precise. “You must tell this story.” He said without moving his lips. I wondered how I could pull it off; my seizures erase my memory, my stories suffer as a result. The same feeling of dread for humanity filled my gut. “You must find a way,” he said, “time is running out.”

It had been fifteen years since I first had this dream. What were the odds? What would it hurt to write the story? I must try. So I did, but a seizure ruined my attempt. Amazingly, I had the dream again two weeks later and my memory was renewed. “You must find a different way.” The angel told me, so I did.

The Dark Seeds may have started as a dream, but three published novellas later, I am only two books away from its completion. What are dreams? Where do they come from? I don’t claim to know the answers, but I believe an open mind is a start.

****

An Indie Author and Digital Artist, LM Fields is passionate for out-of-the-box thinking. Lifelong struggles with seizures never stopped her from going after her dreams. She believes in serving up new blends of genre writing knitted from reality; her SciFi-Horror novellas seasoned with Steampunk, the Dark Seeds, are servings of just that. LM Fields loves her Florida home and is proud of her husband and son; both serve in the military. Her dog is her seizure companion, and her stinky but no less adorable ferrets make their presence known. For LM Fields, every day is a gift, an opportunity to create so she might always leave a beautiful mark. 

LM Fields Blog

LM Fields Twitter

LM Fields Facebook

LM Fields Goodreads

Spark Inspire Publishing

LM Fields Email

Amazon Author Page

A-Z Blog Challenge: C is for Caledonii by Ian Hall

It's that time again!!!  Unwritten and some 1000 other blogs participated last year, and this year looks to be even bigger! Just like last year, I've opened up the blog to host 26 fabulous writers, with each day of the challenge representing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. I've asked each writer to focus on something that is personal to them, so we can learn more about each other. 

Please check out some of the other blogs in the challenge here: 

A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE 2013

C is for...Caledonii

by Ian Hall

In every kids ABC, C is for Cat.

Which is fine if you’re a kid or a cat person. I’m neither.

As I grew up in lowland Scotland, just a mile or so from a real life 2000 year old Roman Encampment, commonly called "the camp". So... C became synonymous with Camp. As scrawny kids, we played there a lot; our imaginations ran wild.

C for Clan seemed to be my Grandad’s quest. He must have looked in every clan tartan shop in the country, chasing us from being members of the Robertson/Skene family, to being a sect of the MacGregor clan.

As I began writing back in 1995, this ‘camp’ must have lingered in my mind, and suddenly the big picture dawned on me. C stood for Caledonia, the ancient name given to the area by the invading Roman troops twenty centuries before.

I looked up old Roman maps, from 74-79AD, and there lay the name of my tribe, my clan.

The latest ‘C’; Caledonii.

It became the name of my first novel,; a historical adventure based on archeological fact and tactical supposition.

Calach (meaning ‘the prickly one’ is another ‘C’) is the main tribal chief’s son, and despite family opposition and inter-clan politics, he must unite the Scottish tribes to stand together to face the Roman invasion.

So begins a sprawling set of novels/novellas, set from 79AD to 85AD, pitching Calach against the greatest Roman general of his time; Julius Agricola.

Calach must unite the clans/tribes, and manage a guerilla war on a huge scale, a war which pits brother against brother, with backstabbing and heinous betrayal round every corner.

The Romans only spent five years in my country, then retreated a hundred miles and built a wall a hundred miles long; Hadrian’s Wall, stretching from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.

Caledonii tells of a epic time that you’ll never find in a history book. The adage of “Only the Victor writes the History” is very apt, the infamous Tacitus being Agricola’s son-in-law.

“Caledonii: Birth of a Celtic Nation”, is available in eBooks everywhere. Currently there are four parts, Part 5 will be released in Autumn 2013. The series is planned to have 7 parts.

 

Link to Kindle/Amazon edition:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Caledonii-Celtic-Gathering-Nation-ebook/dp/B005O1AVXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364414965&sr=8-1&keywords=caledonii

 

Author’s Website: 

http://www.ianhallauthor.com/

 

Author’s Blog:

http://www.jamieleith.blogspot.com/

A-Z Blog Challenge: B is for Battle of the Books by Cristina Rehn

It's that time again!!!  Unwritten and some 1000 other blogs participated last year, and this year looks to be even bigger! Just like last year, I've opened up the blog to host 26 fabulous writers, with each day of the challenge representing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. I've asked each writer to focus on something that is personal to them, so we can learn more about each other. 

Please check out some of the other blogs in the challenge here: 

A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE 2013

B is for...Battle of the Books 

by Cristina Rehn

Back in November, in the midst of our NaNoWriMo-ing, my daughter and I did something slightly crazy (though not as nuts as doing NaNoWriMo).  Somehow, we decided that it was a great idea to sign up for an event called “Battle of the Books” (BOTB).   Sponsored by our Community Library, the event invites kids in grades 3-5 and 6-8 to organize into teams of four to read a total of twenty books.  Each child reads a minimum of five from a list selected by the Library.  The teams will face off to answer questions about the 20 books, all answers being the Title and Author.

I agreed to coach with a friend whose son participated last year.  We are Team 1000 Pages of Awesome (1000 PoA).  Our kids met every week throughout the winter, two kids discussing their assigned book and turning in a set of 10 questions.  We challenged each team member to read all twenty books, no small task with homework, clubs and sports in the mix.  My daughter was the first read all twenty, and the rest are poised to reach the goal.

Competition is fierce.  We’ve met other teams in mock battles, wins often coming down to tie-breaking challenge questions. But no matter who reigns victorious in the final battle, all BOTB book soldiers in this win, because they’ll have read at least five, and maybe twenty, amazing, often award-winning, books. 

And oh, the books!  The titles included sci-fi, historical fiction, ghost story, mystery, graphic novel, historical non-fiction, memoir and a book written entirely in rhyme.  The kids mingled with characters homeless and wealthy, from loving families and broken homes, nerdy and cool, brave and cowardly, silly and serious, boys, girls, old and young, aliens, demigods and mythical beasts.  They’ve learned about mythology, science, civil rights, disabilities, pioneer living and endangered species and pondered immortality. 

As we read, the kids grew with the characters asking insightful questions, showing an impressive attention to detail.  One girl asked “What was your favorite part of the book?” every week.  Without fail, each child spilled over with excitement about a quirky character, or passage that made them laugh, or a spine-tingling plot point. 

As an aspiring author, my genre of choice isn’t children’s books, but I still found myself delighting in each story, laughing my way through some books and crying my way through others.  The art of writing for kids and introducing them to the beautiful ways words can come together makes me grateful we enlisted for this battle, whatever the outcome.

So wish us luck.  My four book soldiers will meet their honorable enemies on April 13^th.  There will be steals, buzzer-beaters, challenge questions and much whispering.  And win or lose, we’ll be celebrating at the end, for the friendships made, for the giggling and snacks, for the team t-shirts and poster created, and most of all, for the books read, books these avid readers might not have otherwise discovered.

****

Cristina Rehn lives in the Schoharie Valley in upstate New York with her husband, who in true romance novel fashion, is her brother's best friend.  Their daughter, two stalker cats, and Cristina's' mom, round out the household and keep it lively.

In addition to her full-time job and full-time family, she's working on polishing up her National Novel Writing Month 2012 Novel, a paranormal romance, in hopes of turning it into something readable. Her hobbies are writing and reading, and eking out as much solitude and silence as she can to do both.  You can check out her writing and random musings at her oft-neglected blog, http://cristinarehn.blogspot.com/

1000 Pages of Awesome team blog: http://1000pagesofawesomebotb.blogspot.com/

NEXT MONTH: Call Me MAYbe Flash Fiction Challenge

Sometimes your life can change with just ONE phone call.

Your challenge for May, should you accept it, is to write a flash fiction piece of 1,000 words or less that begins with THIS sentence:

The phone rang.

Make it scary, romantic, suspenseful, dramatic, tragic, hilarious...but give me a story that hinges on just ONE phone call.



Prize List:

1st Place: 
ONE 6-month premium membership to Critique Circle
ONE 2-week virtual tour (authors) or ONE Magazine Feature (anyone) from Page Turners Book Tours
40-pg. beta read or edit from First Page, Last Page
The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi (PDF)
INK: Eight Rules to a Better Book by R.S. Guthrie (1 Print & 1 e-copy)
The Magic & the Mundane: A Guide for the Writer's Journey by P. June Diehl (PDF)
Book Promo 101- Learn the Basics of Book Promotion by Nikki Leigh (e-copy)
Pumping Your Muse by Donna Sundblad (Kindle or PDF)
My Only One by Gregory M. Thompson (Kindle or ePub)
Journeys Under the Moon: Writing and the Hero's Quest by Michael Hiebert (e-copy)

2nd Place:
$10 iTunes Gift Card
$20 Photo Restoration by Stone Circle Photography
INK: Eight Rules to a Better Book by R.S. Guthrie (1 Print & 1 e-copy)
The Magic & the Mundane: A Guide for the Writer's Journey by P. June Diehl (PDF)
Book Promo 101- Learn the Basics of Book Promotion by Nikki Leigh (e-copy)
Pumping Your Muse by Donna Sundblad (Kindle or PDF)
My Only One by Gregory M. Thompson (Kindle or ePub)
Journeys Under the Moon: Writing and the Hero's Quest by Michael Hiebert (e-copy)

3rd Place:

$20 Photo Restoration by Stone Circle Photography
INK: Eight Rules to a Better Book by R.S. Guthrie (1 Print & 1 e-copy)
The Magic & the Mundane: A Guide for the Writer's Journey by P. June Diehl (PDF)
Pumping Your Muse by Donna Sundblad (Kindle or PDF)
My Only One by Gregory M. Thompson (Kindle or ePub)
Journeys Under the Moon: Writing and the Hero's Quest by Michael Hiebert (e-copy)





Let's get specific and throw in some rules:

1. This contest is open to ALL writers, no matter the experience level, published or not.
2. Stories should be NO MORE than 1,000 words.
3. NO graphic sex, language, or violence. Mild profanity, hanky-panky, and bloodshed are ok. If you're in doubt, ask me.
4. Deadline for entries is May 31, 2013 at midnight. Any stories submitted after that will NOT be considered.
5. Beginning May 1, stories will be posted on my blog in the order they are received. If you wish to submit your story to another publication after this contest, you may request me to NOT publish it unless you win. Some publications do not accept "published" stories (this includes those posted on blogs).
6. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners WILL be posted. 
7. Prizes - See the list above!
8. Along with your story, you may submit an author bio (45-100 words), profile pic, and contact links (Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc).
9. Please submit ALL entries to me at: mystiparker@yahoo.com with Call Me MAYbe in the subject line. 

I'm excited to see what you all come up with. Enjoy!! ~Mysti 

NEW COVER REVEAL: The Grave Winner by Lindsey R. Loucks

I am so happy to share this cover for the debut novel by my writer buddy and critique partner Lindsey Loucks! As soon as I found this on Critique Circle, I knew the story was a "winner", and loved every minute of it. YA paranormal fans, you will undoubtedly want to add this one to your summer reading list, so make sure to check out the links at the bottom of the page.

Author – Lindsey R. Loucks

Genre – YA Paranormal/Fantasy Romance

Publisher - Crescent Moon Press

Release Date - May 15, 2013

  

Blurb:

Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead -- just like the prom queen did.

While the town goes beehive over the news, Leigh bikes to the local cemetery and buries some of her mom’s things in her grave to keep her there. When the hot and mysterious caretaker warns her not to give gifts to the dead, Leigh cranks up her punk music and keeps digging.

She should have listened.

Two dead sorceresses evicted the prom queen from her grave to bury someone who offered certain gifts. Bury them alive, that is, then resurrect them to create a trio of undead powerful enough to free the darkest sorceress ever from her prison inside the earth.

With help from the caretaker and the dead prom queen, Leigh must find out what’s so special about the gifts she gave, and why the sorceresses are stalking her and her little sister. If she doesn’t, she’ll either lose another loved one or have to give the ultimate gift to the dead – herself.

Bio:

Lindsey R. Loucks works as a school librarian in rural Kansas. When she's not discussing books with anyone who will listen, she's dreaming up her own stories. Eventually her brain gives out, and she'll play hide and seek with her cat, put herself in a chocolate induced coma, or watch scary movies alone in the dark to reenergize.

She's been with her significant other for almost two decades.

Links:

Add The Grave Winner to Goodreads.

Check out Lindsey’s website.

Follow Lindsey on Facebook.

Follow Lindsey on Twitter.

A-Z Blog Challenge: A is for Alpha Males by Barbara Donlon Bradley

It's that time again!!!  Unwritten and some 1000 other blogs participated last year, and this year looks to be even bigger! Just like last year, I've opened up the blog to host 26 fabulous writers, with each day of the challenge representing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. I've asked each writer to focus on something that is personal to them, so we can learn more about each other. 

Please check out some of the other blogs in the challenge here: 

A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE 2013

***Since A is also the first letter of the A-Z Challenge founder's name, Arlee Bird, Unwritten would like to send out a special THANK YOU for starting this challenge and all the work he's put into it!!! If you can, please add a thank you to Arlee in the comments below. ***

A is for...Alpha Males by Barbara Donlon Bradley

We love the Alpha Male. He commands attention when he enters a room. People gravitate toward him. In fiction the Alpha male is often the dark hero. The stranger who is new in town. Or the man who has been burned. The man has luggage, some deep dark secret that the heroine must get to the bottom of before he can love.

He’s normally the bad boy. A rebel in some aspect. Women want him even though they know he’s trouble. The Vampire hero is a perfect example, a predator, a killer. They make excellent bad guys, but when they become the hero women love them.

Me? I like my hero with a little bit of Beta in him. A hero who can laugh at himself. Life isn’t always perfect and crazy things happen. I don’t like men who handle things with anger or shut down when things go wrong so I don’t want to read about them in a romance book. We all have two choices in life. We can either laugh or cry when something goes wrong. I’d rather laugh. Maybe it’s because I always have a bit of humor in my life and in my books, or maybe it’s because my husband is goofy. He’s my hero and always makes me laugh.

It doesn’t mean I don’t like Alpha males. I love them as much as you do. I like a hero who knows what he wants in life and in love. Who isn’t afraid to help someone in need. Who stands up for what is right. That is alpha male to me.

The best part is we all see him a little differently. What I might think qualifies as an alpha male might not be what you think. Over all we want a strong hero. One who will sweep us off our feet and save the day.

****

Humor is also very strong in Barbara Donlon Bradley’s life. No matter how hard she tries to write something deep and dark, it will never happen. That humor bleeds into her writing. Since she can’t beat it she has learned to use it to her advantage. 

Follow Barbara at: www.barbaradonlonbradley.blogspot.com and www.barbaradonlonbradley.com