Have you noticed that the older you get, the faster time moves? Well it's flying! So much has happened since my last post. My dear mother returned to her heavenly home. My daughter crash landed in the jungle of puberty, attitude, and selective hearing. My novel, OCEAN WYLDE, took first place in the LDStorymaker's First Chapter Contest for YA General Fiction. WOOT! The list goes on.


Overall, life is sweet. I love life, family, and most importantly, my Lord and Savior, who makes repentance and change possible.

Changes I am determined to make include:
  Cease procrastination (so far so good, I didn't wait until the New Year:)
  Increase optimism
  Decrease sarcasm
  Release imagination
  Make peace where needed
  And post on my blog regularly (which falls under change #1 above)

Are there mid-year changes you want to make? Comment here and we can encourage each other.

Awesome contest for Middle Grade writers August 13 2012 thru August 27 2012 at: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/11th-free-dear-lucky-agent-contest-middle-grade-fiction

LDStorymakers Conference

I attended LDStorymakers conference for the first time last May and I'm totally hooked! From the Boot Camp to the Workshops to Pitch Sessions with Agents and Editors, this conference has it all, and for a cost that is a fraction of other comperable conferences. If you are a writer, use to be a writer, or dream of being a writer, it is an investment you won't want to miss out on.

Check out this years conference line-up at the conference site.

The Armor of Light

Blurb

Ember has been accepted into the mage academy, but not without cost. She has gained a new enemy, ancient and dark, whose entire purpose is to destroy all white magic and her along with it. After nearly losing her life in a brutal attack, DeMunth is assigned her guardian, and the keystone he wears, The Armor of Light, begins the transition that will make it a true power. Kayla has lost most everything of importance to her—the people, the prestige, and all she fought for the past ten years. With nothing left to lose, she continues her search for the birthplace of The Sapphire Flute and the Wolfchild she believes to be its player. Her journey will take her to strange, foreign, and often dangerous places, and everything she had thought to be true will be proven wrong. In a showdown full of betrayal and heroic loss, Ember and Kayla finally meet on the battlefield, fighting a war on two fronts—against C'Tan and her people, and the mysterious enemy bent on destroying all magic—the shadow weavers. Show More

Title: The Armor of Light
Author: Karen E. Hoover
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pub Date: September 2011
Ebook, Smashwords

 Show Less

The Armor of Light is book 2 in the Wolfchild Saga fantasy series, and is filled with a perfect mix of magic, adventure, romance, betrayal, and battles between good and evil. Karen Hoover is a master world builder whose descriptiveness opens colorful panoramas in the mind and whose authentic characters capture the heart. We even get a deeper glimpse into the mind and heart of the antagonists in this second volume of the series.

Where second books in a series so often don’t live up to the first installment, The Armor of Light is a wonderful continuation, perhaps even surpassing The Sapphire Flute, in its energy and excitement!  And the ending!

 

I highly recommend The Armor of Light as well as The Sapphire Flute.

You can check out samples chapters and find ordering information of both books on Karen E. Hoover's website.

Book Review - Double Deceit by Stephanie Humphreys

Back Cover Blurb

Someone is watching...

As a young widow, all Elaina Bryant wants is a fresh start. Determined to put ten painful years behind her, she returns to her hometown and moves in with her sister, Natalie. Elaina soon accepts a job working at a small bookstore owned by the handsome Ryan Hill and his mother. Despite her reluctance to become romantically involved with anyone, she is drawn to Ryan and finds herself falling in love.
But someone isn't happy with Elaina's new life and is watching her every move. Her tormentor seems determined to destroy her sanity and her future, but Elaina can't convince anyone the threat is real. Natalie is preoccupied with her own blossoming romance, and Ryan and Elaina's friend Peter seem to believe the threat has been manufactured in her own mind a result of her guilt and grief.
Now Elaina's plans for a new start are crashing down around her. She knows she will have to find the answers on her own before she can ever overcome the past and enjoy love and happiness again. But how can she protect those she loves when she doesn't know whom to trust?

Double Deceit grabbed me from the first sentence and held me until the last! Stephanie is expert at raising the type of questions in the reader’s mind that kept me turning the page to find answers. She has created the perfect blend of suspense and romance, as well as showing realistic consequences of emotional abuse. Multiple twists and turns caused me to change theories here and there along the way. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, Stephanie blindsided me. It’s not too often that I find myself saying, Whoa, I didn’t see that coming! But Stephanie pulled it off.

The only downside: While the author was vidid in her discription of the tasks of day-today-day living, leanding a real quality to the characters, the overabundance created slight lulls in the story.

Overall:

An excellent read. I would recommend it for ages 14 and up.

Have a taste—an excerpt from chapter one:

I turned my car onto the side street that led to my childhood home. Unease settled into the back of my throat, and I didn’t know if I could get a coherent word out. I pulled into the driveway and slammed the door, hoping the noise in the otherwise quiet afternoon would draw someone out of the house. But nobody ran down the sidewalk with outstretched arms ready to welcome back the prodigal child. I wasn’t surprised.

A disturbing thought crossed my mind as I stepped away from the car. What if strangers lived there now? I pulled the packet of letters from my purse and looked at the date on the last one. It had been sent over a year and a half ago. As I unfolded the letter, the accompanying obituary fell to the driveway. My sister’s handwriting spelled out the tragic loss of our beloved mother and pleaded for me to come home—at least for a visit. I eased the letter back into the envelope and picked up the newspaper clipping. What would she say when I told her I had come back for good?

Visit Stephanie's Blog for information on her blog tour contest, and check out all of the stops on the Double Deceit blog tour:

You can also purchase Double Deceit at Amazon

FLASH!

Autobiography In Five Short Chapters
CHAPTER I

“I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost…I am hopeless.

It isn’t my fault.

It takes me forever to find a way out.

CHAPTER II

I walk down the same street.

         There is deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don’t see it.

I fall in again.

I can’t believe I am in this same place.

But it isn’t mu fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

CHAPTER III
I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the side walk.

I see it there.

I still fall in…it’s a habit…but,

my eyes are open.

I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

CHAPTER IV

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

CHAPTER V

I WALK DOWN ANOTHER STREET.

By Portia Nelson

FLASH!

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Henry David Thoreau