Tag Archives: jennifer eaton

A Writer’s Muse: My Favorite Place to Write with Cindy Pon

j-eatonMy absolute favorite place to write is the local boba shop. I’ve been writing my novels here since at least 2011.

I love it because they have nice long hours, and they serve both delicious food as well as drinks. Everything I need as a writer if I’m looking for a long writing binge.

(An author must be fed and have her milk teas and coffees!)

It doesn’t hurt that the cafe is often filled with #cuteasianboys to help inspire me in my writing! 😀

I’ve been coming for so long that the owner knows my name. You really cannot beat that.


Looks yummy. I think I need to find a boba shop of my own!


Can I hear some COVER LOVE???!!!

Here’s what Cindy’s new novel SACRIFICE is all about:

Sacrifice, the sequel to Serpentine, plunges Skybright into the terrifying underworld where demons are bred and whisks her up to the magnificent Mountain of Heavenly Peace where the gods dwell.

Stone is stripped of his immortal status and told to close hell’s breach, which mysteriously remains open, threatening mortals.

Zhen Ni, Skybright’s former mistress and friend, has been wed to the strange and brutish Master Bei, and finds herself trapped in an opulent but empty manor. When she discovers half-eaten corpses beneath the estate, she realizes that Master Bei is not all that he seems.

As Skybright works to free Zhen Ni with the aid of Kai Sen and Stone, they begin to understand that what is at risk is more far-reaching then they could ever have fathomed.

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks  | Goodreads


Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Serpentine, the first title in her next Xia duology, released in September 2015 (Month9Books). Sacrifice, the sequel is due out in September 2016. WANT, a near-future thriller set in Taipei will release in summer 2017 (Simon Pulse). She is the co-founder of Diversity in YA with Malinda Lo and on the advisory board of We Need Diverse Books. Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

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Rafflecopter!

Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Serpentine and Sacrifice by Cindy Pon (INT)

Enter here! Rafflecopter!  

 


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Ashes and Fire2You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

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What the heck is Steampunk, anyway? With @LeighStatham

Steampunk is the marriage of old world manners and customs with fanciful steam powered technology and scientific advancements, or sometimes magic. My books lean heavily to the science side of things. You can take a true story, like Marguerite’s, and spice it up with all kinds of fun contraptions and plot twists. It really adds a lot of creative freedom to the author.

Marguerite’s world is very unique. Most steampunk on the market these days is either old west, or set in Victorian London. Marguerite is a wealthy girl from 17th century France chasing pirates around the world in aerships during the Golden Age of Piracy. I was able to play with time, technology and relationships while still showcasing some of the amazing truths of the age. In short, it was a blast to write! I can’t wait to see more diverse steampunk stories. Punk isn’t just for London anymore, folks.


About The Perilous Journey Of The Much Too Spontaneous Girl

Lady Marguerite Vadnay and her trusty automaton, Outil, have settled into life in New France rather well. Marguerite is top of the class at flight school and her future as an aerpilot is nearly secure. She has everything she wants— except a commission on the pirate hunting dirigible The Renegade. Using every card in her aristocratic arsenal, Marguerite wiggles her way onto the finest warship France has to offer. But as usual, Marguerite’s plans endanger the lives of those she holds dear— only this time no one else is going to save them. As Marguerite and Outil set off on a rescue mission they may not return from, she finally realizes it’s time to reorder her cogs.

This steampunk adventure is littered with facts from The Golden Age of Piracy and follows (not too closely) some of the lives and adventures of the brave men and women who sailed the seas as privateers, pirates and soldiers.


Available at all these great bookish places:

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About Leigh Statham

Leigh Statham was raised in the wilds of rural Idaho, but found her heart in New York City. She worked as a waitress, maid, artist, math teacher, nurse, web designer, art director, thirty-foot inflatable pig and mule wrangler before she settled down in the semi-quiet role of wife, mother and writer. She resides in North Carolina with her husband, four children, five chickens and two suspected serial killer cats. If the air is cool and the sun is just coming up over the horizon, you can find her running the streets of her small town, plotting her next novel with the sort of intensity that will one day get her hit by a car.

 Connect with the Author: Website |Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads


Giveaway Information: Contest ends October 7, 2016

  • One (1) winner will receive a scrabble tile book cover charm (US ONLY)
  • Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of books 1 and 2 in the Perilous Journey of the Not So Innocuous Girl series by Leigh Statham (INT)

 

[[ENTER RAFFLECOPTER HERE]]


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Ashes and Fire2You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

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What evokes childlike wonder? And as adults writing for children, how can we recapture that? @DonnaGalanti

Harnessing Your Inner Child by Donna Galanti 

Fairy Wonder AChildlike wonder. What was yours as a kid? I walked along rock walls under the stars at night. Climbed trees to sing songs to the woods. And hid away in rose bush caves with a notepad to write my stories – all the while believing that magic existed.

Regaining a childlike sense of wonder isn’t about returning to a childlike state, it’s about letting yourself be awed by the little things in your grownup life. The mundane every day is what can dull our wonder. And just because those little things happen every day doesn’t mean they aren’t miraculous.

Sled Ride BBut keeping your childlike wonder can be difficult when grownup duties mount. One winter day as I tried to write, I watched two kids sled. Their laughter and joy snapped me out of my trapped trance. I remembered being ten years old and how a whole day of sledding was magical.

 

And I realized now that in order to do my job well as a children’s author, and to find joy in it, I needed to rekindle my kid wonder again. How can we keep that kind of wonder with us?


Caption:

Me with my lion ring.

I found wonder in my hero then, the lion from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis.


My wonder list:

  1. Re-visit pictures of yourselves as a kid. Daydream about what you were doing in those photos. What were you excited about?
  2. Did you write diaries as a child or teen? Go back and read them to inspire that voice of youth in your own writing.
  3. Look at the world from a different perspective. Like the snow. I went out in it and made a snow angel and looked up at the sky. Something I hadn’t done in years.
  4. Create a new bucket list together with your kids or grandkids. What do they dream of doing that you could do with them?
  5. Read stories by your own children, or grandchildren, to see how they view the world in their words.
  6. Revive memories of being the age of your characters. Draw a map of the neighborhood you grew up in. Remember what you saw, what you felt, and how you reacted to events there and write them down.
  7. Act out a scene in your book, or any book, with dramatic flair.
  8. Face a childhood fear (mine was going down in our dark 200-year-old cellar where I had been sure dead bodies were buried in the dark hole in the wall).

Stylish YouthIn doing these things myself, I remembered how awesome it was to be a kid again and lost in the moment. And that every day as a kid was about being swept up in the magical moments. And I could once again be lost in the wonder – and the small things.

How do you harness your childlike wonder in writing for tweens or teens?


Buy Joshua and the Arrow Realm and Joshua and the Lightning Road (book one on sale now for just $.99cents through 9/20) at: http://www.donnagalanti.com/books/


About Donna: Donna Galanti is the author of the Element Trilogy (Imajin Books) and the Joshua and The Lightning Road series (Month9Books). She is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs with other middle grade authors at Project Middle Grade Mayhem. Donna has lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. She now lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse that has lots of nooks and crannies, but sadly no ghosts. You can find her books, resources for writers, and upcoming events at www.elementtrilogy.com. For more information on her writing for tweens and teens visit www.donnagalanti.com.

Connect with Donna:

Website: Facebook: Twitter: Pinterest: GoodReads: Instagram:


 


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Ashes and Fire2You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

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Twelve Year Old Reviews “My Brother is a Super Hero” by David Solomons

This book is about two brothers who hang out together in a tree house. One day, while the younger brother goes into the house to go to the bathroom, aliens come down and make Zach, the older brother, a superhero.

There is a guy who always wanted super powers so he tries to kidnap Zach.

What I liked about this book was I really liked the action and the mystery since the little brother was trying to stop his friend from finding out that Zac had super powers.

The ending was also great. It was really intense and I liked the way it all worked out. There is a really good theme, but I can’t tell you or it would spoil the ending.

I would rate this book a four out of five Oreos because I really like action books and this is a really really good action book. So, yeah, I recommend this book for young readers who like action.

Oreo Four

 

Learn more about this book HERE


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Ashes and Fire2You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

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Feeling the Pressure! AKA: Writing your second novel, after your first won so many awards @JGoochHummer

Woohoo! Today we’re welcoming Jennifer Gooch Hummer to chat about sending her second book into the world, after her first book, GIRL UNMOORED won TWELVE awards!  No pressure or anything! (List of awards is below)

So tell us about it Jennifer. What is GIRL UNMOORED about?

Hi Jennifer! Thank you for having me on your blog.

My first novel, GIRL UNMOORED, is a Young Adult book about a girl named Apron whose outcast life changes when she befriends two young men, both unbeknownst to her, have AIDS. The story takes place in 1985 when the fear of AIDS was rampant.

Clearly this is a much different genre than middle-grade fantasy! So even though I would love to repeat the amazing awards that I was lucky enough to win for GIRL UNMOORED, I can’t even begin to compare my debut to OPERATION TENLEY.

An editor once explained to me they look for two kinds of books: award-winning or commercially successful. My goal for THE FAIR CITY FILES series is to be commercially successful. I hope that does not sound too shallow. I certainly strived to write the best book possible, but it’s the story world in this book that I hope intrigues the most.

Besides, as every writer knows, each story is its own eco-system, completely separate from one another. I wasn’t sure I could love a character more than Apron Bramhall, but Tenley Tylwyth and Holden Wonderbolt have stolen my heart.

I’m writing Book II now and let’s just say… adventurous weather awaits!

Sounds awesome! So what’s Operation Tenley about?

Tenley Tylwyth is an Elemental Teen born with the power to produce weather. Cool? Not really. Elementals who can create weather make Mother Nature angry. It’s time she got rid of them. Only one thing is standing in her way—Fair Ones. These ancestors of fairies keep kids like Tenley safe, but when rookie Fair One, Pennie, fails to do so, she’s forced to travel to Earth—a place where no Fair One wants to go. Now, Pennie has forty-eight hours to convince Tenley to give up her power. It won’t be so easy. Tenley’s got a way with wind. And after falling deep into Mother Nature’s gardens, where trees grow upside down and insects attack on command, a little wind might be just what Tenley needs to survive. Even if it kills her.

Sounds great! Thanks for stopping by Jennifer!

Find out more about Operation Tenley at your favorite bookish places!

Goodreads  | Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks

Or enter the Rafflecopter [HERE] for the chance to win a copy!


About the author:

Jennifer Gooch Hummer is the award-winning author and screenwriter for her debut novel, Girl Unmoored, which has been optioned for film. Her middle grade fantasy series, Operation Tenley; Book 1 of The Fair City Files, is forthcoming September 2016. Jennifer has worked as a script analyst for various talent agencies and major film studios. Jennifer lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three daughters.



GIRL UNMOORED has been awarded:
Maine Literary Awards, YA Fiction 2013
Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards 2012, YA Fiction Adult Themes.
Reader Views Kids Award Winner, Best Teen/YA Book of the Year, 2012
Reader Views Winner, Best Teen/YA Fiction 2012
Foreword Book of The Year Finalist, YA Fiction 2012
Indie Excellence Awards 2012, Winner Cross-Genre Fiction
Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2012, Winner YA Fiction
USA Book Awards, Finalist Best New Book 2012
USA Book Awards, Finalist Best Cross-over Fiction, 2012
Paris Book Festival Awards 2012, Winner YA Fiction
San Francisco Book Festival Awards 2012, Winner Teenage Fiction.
Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2012, Finalist Chick Lit Fiction
International Book Awards 2012, Finalist Best New Book
International Book Awards 2012, Finalist YA Fiction
Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2012, Best Cover Art

Please visit her at: http://jennifergoochhummer.com/
And her book blog at: http://allstorygirl.wordpress.com/

 

What happens next? A Review of Queen by Kiera Cass

Queen by Kiera Cass (Audiobook) This is a “prequel” novella in THE SELECTION series. Here, we find out how Queen Amberly becomes queen in her own Selection experience.

This novella really can’t stand on its own. The Selection process is not explained or defined, and situation and characters happen in this book that you would have no idea what is going on unless you’ve read the first book. Also, the writing and world-building is nowhere as deep and intricate as the full novel. But that isn’t really a problem, since its target audience would have read the first book.

QUEEN is an interesting look into the past of the king and queen, and we find out why the king does some of the “meaner” things he does in The Selection.

My real beef about this novella is that it suddenly just STOPPED. I mean, we go through general selection stuff, then the prince tells Amberly that he likes her, and introduces this whole new conflict that had me sitting upright, suddenly really interested and engaged and ready to take on this new part of the adventure.

Then… nothing.

Amberly is happy that he says he liked her, and we don’t get to take the journey with them through that conflict.

Yes, this is just a novella, and if they delved into that plotline, it could have been its own full-length book, but then why not just have him choose her and not act like that conflict existed? It just left me feeling a little unfinished, if that makes sense.

I’d give QUEEN two stars, because the ebook is listed at $2.99 which is really disappointing for what you get. This should be a freebee. I look at books like this as little gifts to readers. – just little tidbits to keep them excited about a series until the next book arrives. At $2.99 (maybe even at $.99) I’m not sure this really delivers.

If you can pick this up at the library, or as a free read (in a legal promotion) And you’ve read THE SELECTION already, I think you will really enjoy this. Just don’t expect the big whirlwind romance you experienced in the first novel.


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How to become a princess: A Review of Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale (Audiobook) This book was the monthly selection for my book club. I expected this to be a YA novel, but in truth, while it does deal with YA issues, it reads more like a middle grade novel. (Which yes, I should have figured from the cover)

The characters for the most part, are 14 and up, put with all the teasing and really young behavior and actions, they all sounded more like nine year olds (Comparing them to my own kids who are 10, 12, and 15)

In this book, a mountain province has been selected as the place where the prince will choose his new bride. Since the people living there are peasants, they create an academy for all the girls to attend to make them “princess worthy”.  After a year, the prince will choose one of them.

This is a nice, light story about building friendships, love of country, family, and home, and finding out that what you dream of might be hidden right outside your front door.

I can’t say I loved this book, because I have trouble connecting to middle grade characters in any story, but this was an enjoyable read. It will probably never rank among my favorites, but if you enjoy a good story about growing up, this might be a great choice for you.


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An Analysis of my first try at Facebook Advertising


Aliens, Armageddon, and Romance

Fire in the Woods is only $.99 on Ebook

For a limited time!

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Last week, my book went on sale on Ebook for $.99. This was a bit of a surprise, and I wouldn’t have even known unless a friend happened upon it and let me know (funny how that happens in the publishing biz.)

Anyway… in a perfect world I would have had tons of marketing ready, but since my book was only going to be on sale for a week, I needed to act fast.

  1.        Instagram Posts
  2.        My Newsletter
  3.        My Street Team
  4.        Twitter
  5.        Tumblr
  6.        Facebook

When I hit Facebook, the app prompted me to boost the post. I figured, why not? It was the perfect chance to test the waters.

The process was insanely easy, and not really all that expensive.

I started with a budget of $7.00 total, for an add that would run for seven days. (A dollar a day. That’s not too bad)The results were interesting…At the end of the seven days, I had reached an additional 1,995 people, and 56 people had clicked on the buy links.

(more on WHO clicked below- stay with me)

Breaking that down, about 8 people clicked the buy link per day. NOT HUGE NUMBERS, but not that bad… because I know from research that you need to see the cover of a book at least three times before you consider buying, and then another 3-5 times before you decide to find out more or buy.

I had an “organic” reach of 150 people (that is average for me… these are the people who would have seen it in the feed without any advertising).

I asked the App to send the ad to women only in the USA between the ages of 13-50 who have shown interest in reading, science fiction, romance, young adult… etc.

Then I drilled down and found something REALLY interesting…

I looked at the demographic of the “clicks”. This was a real eye-opener. I know that my book is written for the 13-18 age group, but I went for the broader 13-50 range because I know a lot of adult women read YA as well.

But guess what?

48 of the people who clicked the buy links were in the 13-19 age brackets. My exact target audience! So sending out to a broad age range, I decided, might have been a mistake.

But the sale wasn’t over yet…

Then, I noticed that the sale had not ended on Saturday as scheduled. I decided to give my ad one last push. I was going to do one day for $1, but decided to try 1 day for $2 to send it to more people. I also adjusted the age bracket to 13-19 year olds (Sorry, adults… I was experimenting)

On that one day I received an additional 515 views and an additional 11 clicks

The final stats

So, at $1 a day I received an average of 284 views per day and 8 clicks per day

At $2 a day (On a Sunday, which might have skewed things) I received 515 views and 11 clicks

If you want to be really anal, for a total of $9.00 it cost $.00359 cents per view, or $.13 per click. Personally, I don’t only value the “click” numbers, because I know how important just the face time of the cover is.

How does Facebook stack up against other advertising?

I have purchased some other forms of advertising that cost $280 for just a few mentions. While those did provide great face time, I don’t think they were as good of a value as the Facebook ad.

So, to sum it all up, YES I would do this again, but with a few changes.

#1. I’d not shoot for such a wide age audience. If it went to more 13-19 year olds, I might have ended up with more clicks

#2. I’d taken a class on Facebook ads a few days before this happened, but I didn’t have time to create my own ad. Instead, I used just a picture of my book, and a friendly post about the sale. I’m going to experiment next time with the suggestions from the course I took. (Below is the Instagram version-same pic, same text as the Facebook Ad) Here is a link to the actual ad https://www.facebook.com/JenniferEaton.Author/

State breakdown… In case anyone is interested…

The most “clicks” came from California. 11 clicks from 167 people who saw the ad.

Followed by Ohio: 7 clicks from 123 reached

Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania: all 4 clicks from 50-99 reached

Most of the rest were 50-ish views with 1-3 clicks per state.

Yes, there were 24 states who saw the ad, but had no clickers. [Sad face]

If you’d like to know anything else about the experience, please let me know!

Has anyone else tested out the waters of Facebook advertising? How did it work for you?

.


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Ashes and Fire2You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

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The Unexpected Life of the Genie in the Bottle (Sort of): A Review of SUMMONED by Rainy Kaye

Summoned by Rainy Kaye (Ebook) I picked up this book on Netgalley. It centers on a male character who has to do whatever his master “wishes”. It is a genie/master relationship.

The only problem is, Dimitri has no magical powers. He has to figure out how to do what his master wants (Including murder) in a given amount of time, or he will experience intolerable pain.

Dimitri cannot afford relationships, instead living through a string of one-night-stands, until he meets the quirky Sid, who keeps coming back, no matter how hard he tries to push her away.

I really loved the premise of this book, and the unique take on Genie lore. This is what kept me reading. The characters seemed a little flat to me, although I can’t quite place why. They both have distinct personalities and backstories that should have hooked me. This may be due to the male POV character, who always scooted on the edge of his emotions (as I believe is realistic for his situation) We get a lot of thought from Dimitri, but for some reason I could not feel his pain (although I DID understand his pain)

I still gobbled up this book, though, really enjoying the whole idea. And when Dimitri’s master makes that last wish! Omigosh! Loved it… and then when things get even worse! (Can’t tell because of spoiler) I wish it were a little more fast paced in spots where the relationship was developing, but overall I really did enjoy this book – especially the roller coaster ride ending—and I am interested in seeing what the net book has to offer.


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Ashes and Fire2You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

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Pop Goes My Brain! This is My Worst Editing Nightmare! With @carolinetpatti

My worst editing nightmare? That would be the whole process of writing Into the Dark, the book that precedes Into the Light.

Into the Dark began as a story called Seven Days. Very often I write a prologue, which I then don’t include in the book.

Prologues serve as jumping off points for me, but once the book is written, I axe the prologue because it seems unnecessary.

Here is the prologue that got me started writing Seven Days:

Six days ago I died. Only I didn’t cross over or see a white light, or an angel, or any of the stuff you see in movies and read about in books. Instead, I landed in the body of my best friend, Millie. Now I have a choice to make. Stay in her body and live my life as hers, or leave it, and kill us both. I have one day left to decide. What would you do?

Just typing that now makes me shudder.

The writing isn’t very good. And I certainly would never pose a question to a reader. 4th wall break! But that is where I was with my writing at the time. And I can’t exactly fault myself because “everybody’s got to start somewhere.”

I submitted draft after draft of Seven Days to my then agent and she kept telling me how much she loved the story—she called it galvanizing, a word I had to look up—but the writing needed work. This went on for YEARS. But the book never went where my agent wanted it to go. She eventually dropped me. And really, can you blame her?

No._00000She suggested I take a master class, but my ego wasn’t ready to listen. A while later, my ego in check, I reached out to Georgia McBride, who at the time did free lance editing work, and begged her to whip my writing in shape. It still took a long time, but eventually I learned the difference between telling a story and crafting a novel.

The_Craft_of_Writing

I submitted Into the Dark for publication in 2014. That “final” version was the eighth draft, as in I’d written the novel eight times from beginning to end. I began writing the story in 2008, and by 2014 it was nothing like the original version, barely recognizable except that the premise, or rather the conflict presented in the original prologue, was still the heart of the novel.

Accepted by Month9Books I thought, FINALLY! I’m finally finished writing and revising this novel. And then I opened the email from the editor. Her note:

It would work better in present tense.

Whaaaaat

There was definitely some crying. Maybe a lot of crying. But I rewrote the whole thing, changing each verb, and struggling with how to write flashback scenes, until the whole novel was in present tense. It took me the entire summer of 2014.

That’s my editing nightmare. My Everest, if you will. But I made it. I think. =)


About the Author:

Caroline T. Patti is the author of the Nettie series, which includes: The World Spins Madly On, Too Late to Apologize, A Little Faith and Life After You (Sept. 2015) She also wrote Into the Dark published by Month9Books. Caroline is a former teacher, librarian and coach. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters.

When she’s not writing, she’s probably on Twitter.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads


About Into the Light:

Mercy’s family is back together and the threat of danger appears to have passed. But any relief she feels is short lived as she is ripped from her body and thrown in jail. Gage and Nathaniel’s plans to break Mercy out won’t exactly be easy. Stuffed full of a chemical binding agent, Mercy is trapped inside the body of a convict without the ability to breach and set herself free. Unfortunately for Mercy, being trapped in jail becomes the least of her problems when she meets her evil twin, Justice.

Find out more about the book at:

BAM | Chapters | Amazon | B&N | TBD | Goodreads


Giveaway Information: Contest ends August 29, 2016

  • One (1) winner will receive a scrabble tile book cover charm (US ONLY)
  • Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Into the Dark and Into the Light by Caroline T. Patti (INT)

 

Sign up for the Rafflecopter HERE!

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