Souljacker: Cover Reveal!

I am officially down to five scenes remaining in the Big Boss Battle on my WIP, Souljacker. (Well, technically four remaining in the BBB, and one for story-wrapup, but still!) Whoot whoot! Kicking butt, I am. Of course, it’s all thanks to the lovely Sadie Hart, for using that cattleprod and…zapping me into submission and writing the end.

The end. Ominious, isn’t it? Ends are superbly hard for me. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’ve been with these characters for 60k+ words, and know their book’s coming to a close and don’t want to give them up? Or if it’s the fact that I’m sick and tired of them and want it to be over (LOL!) that makes me halt around the 8-scenes-left line. I’ve done if for almost every book I’ve written. xD It’s just a Kodi-thing. But that’s okay!

The important thing is: I’m getting it done. I hope to have Souljacker completely written and a pass-over done by Monday, and out to betas the next day. Edits in April. And I still have hopes of a mid-May release date, but nothing’s set in stone.

BUT I do have a…dundundun…. Cover reveal :D

Souljacker:

Only one more year until she’s 18, then Lucifer Swift can start a new life, one not filled with loveless foster homes and whispered rumors—painful reminders of her past. She knows she’ll never outrun her Need, the monster inside of her that can suck the life force out of someone with just a touch, but she can sure as hell try. Nothing holds her here. She has no family, no friends, nothing.

Until she meets him.

Iofiel is a Cyberhound—a dark Faerie creation who can shift from man to canine and back again in the blink of an eye. Pack law denies him the right to love, but Iofiel can’t suppress his want. And he wants what he can’t have: A certain girl with haunted blue eyes, a girl with secrets darker than his…

I Know It’s Not A Monday, But…

I need to share this music with you :) I’m like super-obsessed with this guy right now; I plan on buying the CDs he has available on Amazon, but just haven’t had the chance. I especially love the songs where it’s just him and the piano…brilliant. Really wish this guy was bigger than he currently is :0 He’s got raw talent…compared to people like Ke$ha who are rich and famous…for no apparent reason (I’m not bashing her! She’s fun to dance to xD But if we’re being honest here, talented isn’t a word I’d use to describe her. My opinion :P )

 

As for me, I’m surviving. Fell off the ‘healthy’ lifestyle for a bit due to Evil Bronchitis, working my fitness level back up again now. I have noticed that while I was eating healthier/exercising daily, I had more energy and was more excitable and overall happy. So I want to get back to that level!

We had to have one of our elderly dogs put down earlier this month because she was doing really bad…worse than we realized after we took her in. Immy and I didn’t see eye to eye, so I’m not that broken by it…but the fact that my girl, Lily, my heartdog, is Immy’s littermate…and is gonna be eleven…kills. I wish I could breathe years back onto her life. I love her…but I hope she sticks around a long while :) Doxies can live to be 15+ so here’s to hoping!

Writing wise, kind of all over the place, lol! TRYING to finish Souljacker (which totally has a summary now, go look ! ;D) but I’m just feeling rather…unsettled with it. Still hoping to finish up those 8 scenes in the next week or so! Still hoping for a May release :)

And in good news, my WIP from last year, Hunger, is telling me its a trilogy and the last book sounds totally badass in my head! Unfortunately, I probably won’t get to that book until mid-2013. Too many ideas, too little time.

<3

Now Available: Spellbound

This novel has come a long way from being completely pantsed one fateful NaNoWriMo when I’d been through three dead-end drafts of books I’ll never go back to and couldn’t figure out what to write. I sat down, ready to start one project…and then Spellbound ran away with me. I had my main character’s name and the fact she was a dragon. The rest? Pfft. Who needs to know? :P

Of course, me being me, after about half the book spent floundering, going “What happens next?!” I decided to plot it. Well, about halfway. Then I hit 50k, shelved it, deciding I’d go back to it later. Two years later, I dusted it off, polished it up, plotted the end, and wrote the rest of it. It turned out to be slightly darker than I’d intended, but I love it.

Today, I’m happy to announce that Spellbound is now available for sale at AmazonAmazon.co.uk Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords ($2.99). I will update Spellbound‘s page as more venues become available. :)

Until then:

Wylde Debraux is 16; sassy, fiercely independent—and the Wyvern princess of the desert tribe of Kiir’vanan. When her father demands she choose a suitor within a fortnight to become her mate, Wylde rebels…and finds herself face to face with her enemies.

Born without power, Kascien Trump is a slave to the Magi. He’s as trapped as the bio-engineered dragonhounds he breeds and fights for his master. Then Wylde blazes into his life, offering him the possibility of freedom, and he knows she’s probably his only ticket out of there. Alive, anyway.

But when Wylde’s captured, the spellbound slave and the fiery dragon-shifter have to put aside their differences and work together to outwit the Magi and escape the clutches of Kascien’s corrupt master…or lose themselves trying.

Happy reading! I hope you enjoy! :)

Update :)

Whoo, been a long month…even though the month isn’t over yet (nor is it very long, but OH WELL Long in my book).

Been really focused on eating healthier, exercising, and all that jazz. I’ve fallen off the wagon a few times, particularly with giving up pop (ugh, my Kryptonite!) but I’m doing good for the most part. Excited to see the changes in my body and mind as I go through this journey, and excited to what the future brings. I really want to go horseback riding by my birthday this summer, so that’s my goal.

Another thing that has me working double-hard: I want to be independent. Not just, “Oh I’m making money!” independent, but a car, a house, a yard, a puppy, sort of independent. It’s the puppy that’s really driving this one :P I’ll admit. I know myself too well: If I start looking up breeders now, I’ll start wanting it badly. So I’ve decided I’ll reassess my situation around Christmastime this year. And then look at breeders xD (I want an Australian shepherd, I’ve decided, btw! I’m so bad, I already have names picked out LOL)

On the writing front, after finishing Spellbound, things just went to hell in a hand basket. Had some family drama, which has resulted in my younger two siblings moving to our Dad’s house early March. We may or may not be moving to a farmhouse this summer. It’s all up in the air right now and just stressful. I hate change haha.

After deciding on a “game plan” for future releases this year, I picked up my 2011 NaNo, Souljacker, which I’d abandoned halfway through the month. Lucky for me, I’d outlined it 100% already, so I set up the outline in Sticky Notes on my desktop, made a mock-cover, and have been working on that. So far, all’s going smoothly. I forgot how much I loved Lucy :D

Spellbound‘s still in editing stages, but I’ve gotten one round of critiques back and have implemented them. I’m hoping to have it out by mid-March, but we’ll see what the future holds.

And an update on Wolfsong! My proof is on its way here. Should be here by the 4th. :D If all goes well formatting-wise, paperback should be available through Amazon, Createspace, and several other vendors in March!

2012 Goals

Happy New Years everyone! We’re doing our typical New Years Eve, celebrating the ball dropping to 2012 with virgin pina coladas (and milkshakes for the kids), but I decided to do a post for my resolutions (but…let’s just call them goals, cuz in my entire 23 years on this earth, I’ve never been able to keep resolutions :P ) So. New years goals!

I’ve decided that 2012 is a “me” year; I’m going to try and better myself in all aspects, not just writing wise. I want to lose weight this year, I want to get more fit (because I’m pretty darn sedentary atm) and I want to start being me…because atm, I’m not who I wanna be.

So~

Writing Goals:

-Finish Spellbound. This is a project I started back in 2010 and want to have it DONE by mid-January and out to the public in March.

-Finish Hunger. I need to reconnect with this cast. I love them, but I’d burned out on first-person…and Hunger was my casualty. Nonetheless, this will be done (and aiming for a July/August release) this year!

-Finish Souljacker. This one can’t be too hard, right? I have it completely mapped out/outlined. It will just be a matter of dedicating time every day to writing it out.

-Write at least two novellas. I have a couple in mind. One of them has to have zombies in it…why? Because I need to write a zombie novel :P

-Finish one new novel before 2013. Completely new words, whether it’s a rewrite or a Brand New Shiny!

-Blog at least 2x, hopefully 3x, a week AND comment more on others’ blogs. I’m horrible at blogging…and I want to get better! My goal is to get on track so I have the blog posts written (or at least figured out!) ahead of time.
My tentative plan: Monday will be for music posts, talking about bands or artists or maybe just a song I love. Wednesday will be Wednesday of Whimsy, where I’ll post book reviews, funny things, or maybe just have random posts. It’s whimsy, after all! And Saturday or Sunday will be for ‘snippets’ ie; excerpts, a few lines of my current WIP, maybe something I wrote that I’d like to share.

-Facebook and Twitter daily. I’ll be the first to admit, social media intimidates me. Terribly. The idea of interacting, socially, with people terrifies me LOL. So. I’m going to aim to dedicate an hour a day to Facebook and Twitter, and hopefully by 2013 I’ll be an active member of the FB/Tweeting community :P

Real-life “Me” Goals:

-Go gluten-free again. I’m gluten intolerant, though I don’t like to admit that. I love breads, pastas, hell, anything that has wheat/rye/barley in it. AKA gluten. So… I’m going to eliminate gluten from my diet. I did it before, lost about 30 lbs. I can do it again, and stick with it. Yeah, there’ll be days where I cheat (like, for Chinese? I can’t give up Chinese!) but I want to always get back on the horse when I fall off.

-Cut back soda intake about 90%. I’m a horrible pop-aholic. I get fountain drinks…and not the small ones x.x So. Gonna be cutting that back, because it’s unneeded calories. I don’t really care for canned/bottled pops, so I should be good there. Besides the fountain drinks. Oi.

-Change the way I eat/view food. My relationship with food…well, it could be better. I need to cut back portions, use smaller plates/cups, and start understanding when exactly I’m full. This will be a toughie, but I’m determined.

-Exercise 6 days a week. Whether it be a dance game, stretching and basic floor exercises, light weight lifting, walking, swimming, etc. I want to get active and get sweating, get my heart pumping, start losing weight and firming up.

-Get down to a size 20-22. Gonna focus on inches before weight.

-Start wearing clothes/accessories that I feel are more ‘me’ than what I’m wearing. I’m so excited for this :)

So we will see how many of these goals I can do in a year! Whoot!

What are some of your 2012 goals?

Technical Difficulties and Guest Post

I’m having a little trouble with WordPress, so a few of the pages are no longer showing under certain categories? And I’m not sure why? But I’m working on figuring it out and hopefully things will be back to normal soon!

Meanwhile, why not check out my guest post/interview over at the lovely Sadie Hart’s blog, where we talk about Wolfsong and you can read an excerpt of my next YA fantasy project, Spellbound. 

Have a wonderful day!

Wolfsong: Now available!

Whoo. Holidays are officially over (for me, anyways. We don’t really celebrate New Years). We had an awesome Christmas, saw a bunch of family, had a couple of great dinners. Despite my holiday-anxiety (which is a reoccurring theme LOL), things went awesomely.

We got a Wii. >3 It is blue and full of amazingness. So I am a happy Kodi!

Speaking of happy: I have an announcement. After multiple edits and revisions and polishes, my debut novel, Wolfsong, is officially available for sale through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. I will be updating Wolfsong’s page as additional distribution venues become available. Also, I hope to have it for sale in paperback by mid-January!

That said…

When his wolf-dog goes from furry to beautiful girl in 2.7 seconds, 17-year-old Kia doesn’t believe it. Arii’s been recruited to bring Kia home, back to her realm, where werewolves are real, the supernatural exists, and tension between the two wolf packs is threatening to erupt into a full-scale war. With his father missing, Kia is the rightful heir and without an Alpha’s power behind them, their pack is defenseless in the face of an oncoming battle.

Kia has spent his entire life being a wallflower—he’s not leader material, but he’s not given a choice. Stolen away from all he knows, he’s thrust into a world where rank is dictated by the color of your eyes and where the light of the full moon transforms you into a powerful beast. All Kia wants is to go home, where his only worry is not flunking calculus.

With the help of his new-found friends, he soon realizes that the only way to return to the real world is to end the war—but not everyone wants Kia to succeed, and as he starts to enjoy his awakening confidence as a leader and he falls deeper in love with Arii, he starts to doubt if he wants to go back at all…

~

So whoo! Much excitedness! :D

You can read the first chapter here.

And it’s available for sale ($2.99) as an e-book here: Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

I hope everyone enjoys Wolfsong as much as I have <3

Now it’s time to open up Spellbound and work on finishing it. Back into Word I go!

A Little Christmas Spirit

Wow. 6 days and counting ’til Christmas? Really? Jeez, last time I checked it was the first LOL.Time flies when you’re having fun editing a novel! :P

-climbs into Santa’s lap- Okay, big guy. I reallllly want a Wii… I miss playing Metroid Prime…and uh, well. There’s a new Zelda game out? And you know I love Zelda. So…  -puppydogeyes-

Anyway! I want to help spread the Christmas cheer! Just in time for Christmas, anyone who wants to give my YA holiday novella, Christmas Angel, a try, can read it for FREE on Wattpad. It’s also available in multiple formats at Smashwords and for the Kindle on Amazon for .99 cents (and I’m working on getting it up at BN, but PubIt is giving me some trouble. SO. Soon I hope!) for those who want to purchase a copy of their own. And if you loved it, I’d love if you’d review it :)

Ever since his girlfriend died in a car accident on Christmas Eve, 19-year-old Cheshire Morgan has been…well…a Grinch. With a dislike for Christmas and his rent two months late, his only option is to take a job playing Santa for a bunch of whiny kids. Then he meets Savannah. She tells him that his girlfriend’s spirit can’t move on to Heaven until Cheshire stops clinging to the past. He doesn’t believe her, but she’s annoyingly persistent. She makes him a deal–spend the holidays with her, let her try and teach him how to love Christmas again. If she fails, he’ll never have to deal with her again. But can the spunky girl crack the ice around Cheshire’s heart in time for Christmas?

And an excerpt from the novella, one of my favorite parts :P Enjoy! 

She passed his apartment, making him turn around in his seat. “Where are we going?”

“My place. Don’t think you get off the hook with a little shopping! There’s a reason I bought you this coat.”

“Then take it back, please,” he groaned.

Her place was a little ranch just outside of town with tan siding and gold shutters. There were several big, square bushes out front. The gravel crunched under the Toyota’s tires as they pulled in. “Home sweet home,” Savannah smiled, then got out and patted the hood of her rust bucket. “Today, you get Lesson One: How to Decorate a House for the Holidays.”

Alright. Decorating he could handle. He used to be pretty good at it. He and Rae had had a crap-ton of lights and decorations and they were always the brightest and busiest houses on the block.

“Be right back,” sing-songed the girl as she darted inside, leaving Chesh in the garage surrounded by boxes filled to the brim with decorations. Damn. Her dad must’ve been loaded. He scooted the box over to the patchy couch sitting on the left and sat down. He began to pull out and untangle yards of blue icicle lights, his fingers working the knots loose. He didn’t even realize Savannah had come back out until he heard a crackle of static, then a pop version of “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”. The music filled the garage and Savannah plopped down next to him on the couch.

“Do we have to listen to this?” Cheshire asked. “I’m not a big fan.”

“You’re a big Scrooge,” Savannah said, pulling the lights from his grasp and plugging them into the wall behind them. She began to replace the bulbs that were burnt out, humming along to the radio and Cheshire knew he had to suck it up and deal. Together, with just the music playing between them and Savvy’s off-key singing that burned Cheshire’s ears, they got several strands of lights tested.

Savannah hopped to her feet, carrying a bundle, and headed outside. Chesh spotted a ladder in the corner of the garage and hauled it out after her. He held the ladder for her as she climbed up and used little plastic hooks to hang the lights on the house. “How’s it look?”

“Good so far. Keep going.”

They lapsed back into silence. He watched her carefully as she hooked the hooks on the gutter, one by one, and if he let his eyes lose focus just a little, he could pretend that she was Rae. Then Savannah turned towards him, breaking the illusion, and he frowned and softly murmured, “Rae loved hanging lights.”

“She always used to come over and help me with my place after Dad died. I was kinda lost the first Christmas after she…passed.”

So was I, he wanted to say. So much so that he hadn’t bothered to decorate anything since.

“Just think,” she continued, “Next year, you’ll decorate your place and remember this wonderful time we’re spending together!”

He meant to snort at her—really he did—but it came out as a laugh instead. She looked startled by this, nearly falling off the ladder, which made him laugh harder. God, he was going off the deep end… “Get down,” he managed to wheeze out and she hopped to the ground, giggling at him.

“This is good, Chesh,” she said brightly. “You’re healing through laughter!”

After he regained his composure, they finished lighting the house and then did the bushes. Savannah hung a wreath on the front door and they sprayed “snow” on the garage door in a snowflake pattern (though Cheshire thought they looked more like retarded stars). Snow began to fall about halfway through and Savannah danced around in it like a crazy person, dark hair trailing behind her. He merely watched her as she flopped down on the ground and began to make a snow angel, waving her arms and legs for him to join her, but he shook his head and settled for observing instead. She really was pretty—a different kind of pretty than Rae’d been; more delicate, fine-boned and angelic, even though she herself was a demon-child from Hell with what she was putting him through. He thought back to Wal-Mart, to the lingerie, and groaned. And this was just the beginning. He had to endure an entire month with this girl.

“Wake up, Chesh,” Savannah said, suddenly next to him, her face bright pink and her hair covered in snowflakes. He blinked, pulled out of his thoughts, and she tugged on his arm. “Let’s make hot cocoa. I have the best Swiss Mocha recipe and you’re just lucky enough to help me make it!” She bounded off like a hyperactive Golden retriever and he groaned.

Doomed.

Happy reading, and happy holidays :D

Early Inspirations

I grew up in the middle grade/YA section of the library. I was am kind of a hermit, and to top it all off, I was homeschooled. What else was there to do but read?

But back when I was 12-15 years old, the books that I wanted to read? Fantasy, and not the sword-and-sorcery stuff, wasn’t popular. Or if it was, our library didn’t get it in. Harry Potter was the first big contemporary fantasy our small-town library got in, and with HP came the trends of ‘good’ fantasy. I was like, yes, finally! I got hooked on stuff like Artemis Fowl (still a huge fan of Eoin Colfer’s writing style as an adult!). But what got me truly loving fantasy enough to write it?

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. Our library had one of her books, Hawksong. I found it while browsing the shelves and liked the title. I devoured it in a sitting, and then passed it off to my mom. We became fans; Mom ended up eBaying her previous book, and we waited with bated breath for the rest of her Kiesha’ra series to come out. We bought them hardcover, which we never do :P But that’s beside the point.

Her novel inspired me: shape-shifters. I’d never heard of such a thing before Hawksong. What if I could do my own version of shifters…with my lifelong love of wolves? (Werewolves weren’t hot yet; that love came from Blood & Chocolate, as well as one of my CP’s original novels :P )

Thus, the idea for Wolfsong spawned. I wrote it in three months in 2005, in a mess of disarray and chunks of novel here and there. I skipped the middle to write the end. It’s come a long way from the original draft and I can’t wait to share my love of Wolfsong with the world :)

A Body In Motion (or: Arghhhh)

A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

While writing Wolfsong back in April, I wrote every single day, sometimes twice a day, because the story wanted OUT. Out of my mind, onto the page (hey, that’s fine with me!) and I had fun with it. I found myself waking up automatically at 7 am (and I’m a wake-at-noon sort of girl :P ) with the next scene fresh in my mind. I’d boot up Seven, write 1500-2000 words in a sitting, then crash til noon. Then depending on what I had going, I might’ve written another 2k before bedtime. I was Turned On.

Then I got tangled up in a hangup that I thought was a Big Deal…and I stopped writing, put the brakes on and skidded to a dead halt. I fretted, stressed, and worried (but ultimately figured out my problem)…but I didn’t write for a week and a half. And it was so. so. so hard to get back into that story. I was no longer a body in motion, but a body at rest. It sucked, but I powered through it and wrote the rest of the story that month (but still, I whined…a lot).

At this point in time, I’m 90% through my rewrite of Spellbound…alllmost to the point where I get to finish the rest of the book with Brand New Words. But I haven’t written in like, ehhh…almost two weeks. And I’ve found myself avoiding all things writerly. Which is Bad, seeing as I need to get “the Trio”  up by Halloween. Blargh. I know it needs to be done. I just would rather slack :P (I know -tases self- BAD WRITER!)

It’s hard, when you don’t want to do it. When you’re making up excuses (“But I need to clean the bathroom!”) BUT I know if I can -just- get myself back into the habit of writing daily, I’ll be back on the Train of Awesome! (And the soap scum in the tub will wait until I finish that story, I assure you!) …guess I’m headed to Seven to finish up the rest of the rewrite part before NaNoWriMo! XD

Anyone else having trouble motivating to do something? Do you have tips to make Jumping Back Into Writing easier? :)