Keep on keeping on

I know everyone is waiting please keep having patience I will get the second book done soon.

Exercise for writing:

Here is an exercise that I had to do for class.  I liked the outcome so I decided to share it.  Hope you enjoy!  Let me know what you think.

Throughout the day, I am captivated by her as I watch her slowly dance and sway.  As enchanting as she is in the day she is far more exotic in the night.  Her burnt orange, red and blue tones are beautiful.  I am fascinated as I watch the orange tint turn to green with her never ending appetite.  Then am amazed as the orange again returns. 

Though I believe I have mastered her control, in one inattentive moment she could obliterate all.  Like a blanket, she gives me a false sense of security.  She is never constant, never repeatable.  Some days, she stands tall others she remains small.  The one thing she guarantees each passerby is to provide light and warmth during the cold lonely nights. 

In her heart, she bares the truth of what she is, a destroyer.  Caring nothing for what she consumes indeed even willing to consume all.  Her core looks stunning with its white and red coals to help provide you with her heat, but when she leaves they will be black and hollow. 

Her breath is strong and cloudy.  Though you often do not see it you will feel it as it will bring tears to your eyes if you get in its path.  Some manipulate it and use it for communication, others use it for protection against things they are afraid of.  In the end, there is only one with the power overall.  

Exercise

With every hobby or craft one needs to practice and exercise that craft.  Writing is no different.  When you write do you do exercises.  I never had until I started my Creative Writing class.  I am surprised to find out they are actually really enjoyable.  They help me remember why I love to write and help me to want to continue to do so.

Goodnight

Wrote about another 1500 words tonight.  It's been a long day and I am headed off to bed.  I just wanted to say goodnight.  I hope you are all able to live your dreams even if you are only able to make small steps everyday, or have to take a step or two back.

For Your Patience

First of all I have to apologize for being away for so long.  I have a new goal of posting at least once a week.  I have been working very diligently on completing Reborn for all of you who have been waiting patiently for it to be released.  I have written quite a bit in the last few months and will continue to do so until it is done.  Keep in mind that I will need some beta-readers, before it is fully completed.  If that is something you would like to do just let me know :).  As of right now I am giving free e-book copies of Tormented (Immortals Saga Book 1) away for free at Smashwords.com for Labor Day weekend.  Just enter the coupon code YA46M at the checkout! 

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/240471

You have earned it!

Here is your chance to win a free printed copy of Tormented!  Having the print copy is the only way you can read the first 2 chapters of the next book in the series called Reborn!  Please play and share to win.  This contest will go from 6/14 until 6/21. 


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Proof for Tormented

I have just finished the proof read of Tormented and resubmitted the few changes to Createspace.com.  Hopefully they will approve everything and Tormented will be ready for print by the end of the week!

Almost there!

Final Revisions for Tormented are done! I will be adding the first 2 chapters of Reborn onto the paperback version of my book before I send it to print. Hope you enjoy it will be out soon!

Another Day In Paradise!

Thank you all who have hung in there and are waiting patiently for the next step. Good news! Tormented has received its final edit and is now getting reviewed to be put out in paper back. And now that this semester is almost over I can hopefully jump back into writing the Immortals Saga's sequel!

Keep on Truckin!

Things have been pretty crazy lately.  I started back to school and that consumes most of my time as well as being a mommy and working.  I have started book 2 of the Immortals Saga.  I will try to keep truckin and writing as often as possible.  I am also looking for an affordable editor for Tormented so that I can put it out on paperback.  If anyone has any good ideas let me know!

Next Big Thing Blog Hop

I am grateful for Tenaya Jayne for making this blog hop pic!

I have been tagged this Wednesday on a Blog Hop called "The Next Big Thing" by http://www.sheerak.wordpress.com . The idea is to talk about your WIP or a recent book, answering 10 questions, and then tagging another 5 author to do the same next week.

                   
What is the title of your book?  Reborn

Where did the idea come from for the book?  I've been playin around with it in my head.

What genre does your book fall under?  Paranormal

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?  Hayden Panettiere for Angelina, Zac Efron for Ethan, and Rupert Grint for Michael
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  Angelina (a vampire hunter) has a  good friend that dies and she has to join with a vampire to figure out what had happened.

 Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I self-published my book.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?  First draft, about 6 months total.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  Twilight, Drake Chronicles, Sookie Stackhouse series.
Who or What inspired you to write this book?  My daughter, I wanted a better life for her.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?  It's got a little bit of everything for everyone.  Romance, suspence, action and it's a New Adult.

Please follow this hop next Wednesday for these following Next Big Thing Blogs!

Tenaya Jayne:  http://www.tenayajayne.com/
Ivis Bo Davis:  http://www.ivisbodavis.com/
Kevis Hendrickson:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16003569-rogue-hunter
Rebekah R. Ganiere:  http://vampireswerewolveszombies.blogspot.com/
Becky Pourchot:  http://www.beckypourchot.com/

Happy Halloween!

You can choose to believe this or not but this IS a true story:

     I was about 10-12 years old living in Minot, North Dakota and had been staying at a friend's house overnight.  We were just being regular young girls having a sleepover when we started some story telling.  About part way through the night a lightning storm blew in.  There was no rain just lightning and thunder.
     We were in her parents living room.  They were upstairs asleep.  The stair way that led to them was behind us.  The front door was on my left.  It was an average white door with a small glass window on the top. A few couches sat in front of us and in front of them were 2 glass windows with light curtains hanging from them.  On our right was a sliding glass door that led to the side yard which also was covered by a thin material so as to keep people from looking in.
     We were laughing and having a fun time when a flash of lightning caught our eye from the door.  It looked as if there was someone standing there about to knock.  All we could see was a shadow.  Thinking someone was there we stopped laughing and started watching intently.
     Another flash of lightning lit up a brief shadow of a person with a hat standing just outside their door.  The hat was completely even as if the person was looking in the etched glass.  We froze in place.  The next flash showed no one there.  We sighed in relief. 
    Just as we were about to continue on when a roll of thunder caught our attention causing us to look up again.  This time the shadowed head and hat was boxed in one of the windows in front of us.  Once again the rim of the hat was flat the head even with the window.
    Another flash of lightning showed the shadow on the next window.  The rim of the hat slightly bent as if watching the ground as the hatted man walked.  By this time we were clenching onto each other in utter freight.
   The storm quieted down for a moment as if it held its breath just as we were holding our own.  Moments passed like an eternity.  Each second dragging on to the next as we waited to for the shadow.
    A loud boom echoed across the room with the brightest flash of light I have ever seen lit the entire house.  The shadow was now at the sliding glass door.  The silhouette was that of an average sized man.  We gasped and held onto each other harder.  We tried to scream but fear took our voices from us. 
    Thunder rolled again as the lightning flashed.  The man's head was turned directly to us a knife in his right hand as if he was ready to strike. 
    Darkness surrounded us.  We had no redeeming source of light.  Even the storm gave us no light as it left us.  Time froze as we waited for the man with the hat to enter.  Nothing.  No one.  Silence.
    We couldn't wait any longer.  We didn't want fate to take us whenever she decided it was time.  Together we walked to the door and brushed the coverings aside.  There was no one around.  We looked as far as we could see down the street and to the side of her house without opening the door, but the only thing that greeted us was the dim glow of the street light next to the entrance of a school a little ways down the road that began to relight as the power turned back on.
   We both looked at each other.  We hadn't been crazy, we both saw the man.  Then we both saw the man disappear.  To this day neither one of us have brushed aside the things we saw that night nor will we. 

Hope you enjoyed my scary story and thank you for reading.  Please feel free to enter the rafflecopter giveaway below!
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Scarecrow Vampire Teeth Pt. 2

The giveaway for the Scarecrow fangs has officially ended. The winner Teri Rivera was chosen by Random.org. Congradulations Teri!

The Ramblings of a Toddler's Mom: Review & Giveaway: Tormented by J. Ann

She gave Tormented 4 stars!  Check out her blog below for a chance to win an e-book copy of Tormented and to read the full review!  Ends mid-November!

The Ramblings of a Toddler's Mom: Review & Giveaway: Tormented by J. Ann:

..."The characters are absolutely fabulous! You have Angy - with her Grey eyes. She's unlike the other Ultorums not only because of her eyes but she also seems a tad faster/stronger than everyone else too. She's "special" but no one can quite explain why or how until much later in the story.

"Then there's Michael - her best friend/potential boyfriend, second highest ranking Ultorum (right below Angy's father - the Chief) in their area. He's such a good guy. I LOVE his character. Then of course there's Ethan! Can you say... YUMMY! He's the first attractive vampire that Angy has seen and oh boy is he one attractive fella. The other supporting characters are really great. Samantha, the Chief, the other Ultorum...

"I can't say enough about how creative this story is - it's completely different from any vampire book I've ever read - and trust me when I say I've read A LOT of vampire novels in my 26 years. The story has action, fighting, killing, romance, tension, suspense, compassion, mystery... It really has all the makings of a great series!

The ending of this story really left me hanging. I NEED to know what happens because book 1 definitely leaves you hanging. There's so many questions that haven't been answered yet that I really want answers too."...

The Stuff Of Success: Tormented Review

Please check out her website for the full review!

The Stuff Of Success: Book Review: Tormented by J Ann:

"Tormented was an excellent story and very well written. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. Angelina is quite a complex character. Not only do others not understand or truly know her – she is about to learn more about herself than she ever imagined. The romance piece (minimal) is initially similar to a good versus bad type of situation but that isn’t necessarily the case. Since I tend to like the underdogs I love Ethan’s character. There is a great deal left hanging at the end so I am sure J Ann plans to develop a sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this story and each adventure was developed fully. It is easy to feel like you are part of this story and to develop feelings for each character and their roles in society."

 

Tormented in Print Update

I am really excited to be able to put the natural cover of Tormented on Createspace.com for when it goes to print.  I looked over lulu but found nothing.  I could have missed it on there but since I spent so much time yesterday downloading the cover I created I am just going to stick with Createspace.com.

Hopefully we will see Tormented out in print by the end of this year! :)

One Month Anniversary!

Yay! It has been one month today since Tormented was published. Today also marked one week left for the teeth giveaway!

 

Ways to be entered to win:

 

If you like my facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Ann-Novels/472457432774684 page that is one entry, for every person you send that likes my page and tells me you sent them is another, each blog you follow adds another, and if you comment on either blog that is also an entry.

So lots of ways to enter you name a ton of times. Good luck!

Reviews Needed

If anyone is interested in reviewing Tormented please, please, please let me know.  I am grateful to those who have already done so.  Thank you.

Interview with Aleja founder of Stay Strong and Stand

I called Aleja and asked her for an interview that I could post here on  my blog for you all.  She is the author of  "All I Can Do Is Stand" and founder of  'Stay Strong and Stand'.   Her bravery is inspiring and this is her story.

Me:         How old were you when the abuse began?

Aleja:     I was 6 months old.  My mother left my siblings and I alone in an apartment and didn't return.  When the police found us they took us to the New York Foundling in Manhattan.  I had pneumonia. 

                When they found my mother she gave up all rights to me and my siblings.  They separated us,  having different families adopt us.  At 40 years old I still don't know who they are.
                Then at 2 I was adopted by a deacon and deaconess and that was when the nightmare began.

Me:         What did they do?

Aleja:     They would physically abuse me and mentally as well.  They would dress me nice, but only feed me when the felt like it. They would call me names like retard, idiot, and liar. 

Me:         So they basically only cared about what people saw?

Aleja:     Yes. 

Me:         How did you get through what your adoptive parents were doing?

Aleja:     I realized I was blessed with a voice.  Singing made all the trauma and abuse bearable.  When I would sing I would cry, which was a relief.  I also became active in church.  I joined the choir, attended bible study, excreta.  I even started writing.

                I also learned to sleep with one eye open.  As I got older I wasn't as scared.  I would stay with friends.  Though they weren't very good friends.  My boyfriends were crack heads, drug addicts, and abusers as well.
                I also would drink.  A lot.  I eventually got up to drinking about a half-gallon of liquor a day.  I did try to drink a lot of water to compensate because I was still trying to be conscious about my health.

Me:         What caused you to stop drinking?

Aleja:     I went to the doctor and he gave me clean bill of health even after all of my drinking.  It made me realize that God had been taking care of me.  There was no other excuse.  It made me realize that there was something important I had to do in my life.

Me:         You mentioned you started to write.  At what age did you first write?  What was it?

Aleja:     I started writing in High School.  It took me 4 years to write my book and when I graduated I got my writings in a book.  It was amazing to have that.  Then one day I went to go take a bath and when I got done my book had disappeared.  I didn't write again until I was 25.

Me:         What did you write then?

Aleja:     I wrote "Being Alive".  It was my first poem I had written after my book had been stolen.  In 2006 I wrote "Only The Strong Can Survive" it was published by America Published.  They also published other book of my poetry, "Beautiful Poetic Strategy and Recovery" in 2008. 

                They didn't get it out very well so I decided to become a self-published author.  Since then I have published 8 more books on my own.

Me:         Can you tell me a little bit about your family?

Aleja:     My daughter is going to college in Wisconsin.  I unfortunately went through a hard time and my grandmother had to take care of her when she was younger but I still tried to be there for her. 

                One day she broke her foot while at school.  I gave everything I had including my rent money to be there for her.  She is my daughter, I was just being a good mother.  My grandmother thought I was an idiot for doing that.
                The rest of my family was around when they found out I published my first book, but when they realized that I didn't make a lot of money off of it they all disappeared again.

Me:         Is there anything you wish you could say to those reading this or those going through something similar?

Aleja:     Yes.  Find out what your purpose is.  Find out why the enemy wants to destroy you.  When it comes down to it be the winner.  Don't let the destroyer, destroy you.

Me:         Thank you so much for doing this interview.

Aleja:     Thank you for calling me.

Stay Strong and Stand My Story

I met Author Aleja Bennett through Book Blogs.  She is an abuse survior to check out her story please log on to http://www.facebook.com/StayStrongandStand#!/StayStrongandStand/info as for me this is mine and I will be the first to admit it isn't as bad as others but it's bad enough that I should have taken a stand.
 
I was in the 4th grade, my brothers in 5th, they both shared the same teacher.  He was an old, overweight, disgusting pig of a man.  He was very aggressive to his students or at least to my brothers by grabbing so tightly to their arms he would leave bruise marks, yank them by their ears,  and literally throw them out of class.  Now, I don't know how many other students he treated that way.  Anyway, one day I went to go meet up with my brothers and he waved me to come into the class room.  He placed his hands down my back pocket of my jeans.  It freaked me out but I didn't say anything.  Shortly thereafter, I left the school with my brothers.

The next day was the best day for my brothers.  He didn't say or do anything mean to them all day.  After a while things got back to the way they had been before and once again I stopped by to pick up my brothers thinking it had been a onetime occurrence.  While waiting for my brother to get their bags from the hallway he again told me to come to him and again put his hand down my pocket.

I didn't know what else to do.  I was afraid to tell anyone, afraid they  would be angry at me for being stupid and I didn't want him to treat my brothers the way that he did so I continued to go back. Over and over again the process would play and the days after that I was there he would treat my brothers better.  So to make my brothers lives a little better I started to frequent there often.

Slowly he progressed forward to place a hand in my front pocket, then later he slipped a finger down the waist of my jeans in the back.  Luckily school got out before things got worse.  I prayed every day that summer that I wouldn't get him as a teacher and the Lord heard my prayers.  From that day forward I was able to avoid him and that room until I left the school after my 6th grade.

I heard when I was in 9th grade that he lost his job and (rumor had it) they had locked up his worthless butt because someone had finally spoke up.  I hadn't been the only girl he had done that to. Nor do I fear I was the worst.  There had been at least 2 others before someone had spoken up. 

Looking back at it and knowing what I know now, I do everything in my power to let younger girls know, that it's not okay.  When people do that it's not okay.  That if they are ever placed in a situation like that to tell an adult.  I was afraid of my parents when I was going through it but I could have gone to another person of authority like the principle.

When I finally told my parents they were horrified that I hadn't told them.  Both of my parents were angry at him and hurt that I didn't trust them enough to tell them back then.  My dad was ready to drive all the way back there and inform them (probably not in a good way he was that angry that someone had done this to his daughter and his sons) of what had happened, but I told him that he had already been taken care of.  As I said before I know what I went through wasn't as bad as some others.  I can't imagine what others have gone through in their lives, but what I went through it's bad enough.

If you are ever in that position or have ever been in that position don't be afraid to speak up.  Even a little evil, is still evil.