Tag Archives: jennifer eaton

Score! Here’s a scene from the next Mortal Machine novel by @jocelynadams

Oooo! I’m all a tingle. I’m a huge Jocelyn Adams fan, and I’ve been counting the days until book #2 of the Mortal Machine series comes out. Today’s the day!

And here I am, little old me, with a Sneak Peak Excerpt from Book # 2: MIDNIGHT DAWN (Below in the post)

And double score!  Book two is on release day blitz for only $.99 on ebook. How cool is that!  If you love a lot of action with a splash of romance, your will eat this series up.

Pick up a copy at only $0.99 for a limited time!:

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Back of the book:

Her soul remembers his touch, even if she doesn’t. 

With only three days until the wraith king turns the earth into an all-you-can-eat buffet, Addison Beckett is forced to enlist brooding sentinel Asher Green’s help to unlock the Mortal Machine. According to the founder, all she has to do is find the sanctuary—the same sanctuary she can’t remember because Asher erased her memories.

Trying to save humanity while navigating Asher’s lies is a royal pain. But the more time she and Asher spend together, the harder her soul tries to remind her what else he’s made her forget—that he loves her, wants her, needs her.

When she’s trapped by the wraith king and forced to pick who will stand by her in the coming battle, Addison is faced with an impossible choice: the sentinel she loves who refuses to love her back, or a powerful stranger who insists they’re meant to be together. Her decision will determine the fate of humanity, and once decided, can’t be undone.

Swivel green long

Are yea ready for that excerpt?  Strap yourself in. Here we gooooo!

Swivel green long

We flew along the freeway at a scary speed, the car floating as if not much of the rubber actually touched the road. If we hit anything, since my hands were still bound behind my back and I wasn’t a wearing seat belt, I’d end up smashing face-first into the security panel.

“We just have to keep ahead of the authorities until this phenomenon passes,” Caine said, “and then we’ll escape into the Shift.”

“Good luck with that,” Asher snapped out. “It’s still locked up tight.”

“Bloody hell.” Caine moved his hands up to ten and two on the wheel. “Hold on to your arses, girls and boys, we’re in for some turbulence.”

I leaned forward, straining to see through the clouded panel, and didn’t have to look too hard out the windshield to locate what he’d seen. In the distance, a line of headlights and police beacons cut a swath across the freeway, and they weren’t moving. How had they set up a roadblock so fast?

Had Baku tipped them off? I struggled in my cuffs, but they were tight, and I only succeeded in scraping my skin.

Asher cursed. “Goddammit, why can’t we catch a break tonight?”

“Um…why aren’t you slowing down, Caine?” I pressed myself against the back of the seat, crushing my own hands.

He grinned at me over his shoulder, and the car lurched forward, the engine growling harder into the early morning.

“Stop the damned car!” Asher raised his knees and thrust his heels against the divider screen with enough force to tip a bus on its ass, but it didn’t give at all.

Hands braced on the dash, Kyle shouted obscenities that soon turned into the Lord’s Prayer.

We bore down on the lights, closer and closer. Jesus, Caine was going to ram them, only the cruisers were parked head-on to us, so it wasn’t like we were going to get through.

“What is he doing?” I asked no one in particular.

“Spike strip!” Kyle yelled. The resulting swerve around the wicked-looking piece of metal with nails waiting to blow our tires threw me hard into Asher and shot my shoulder up with pain.

Cleared of the danger, Caine resumed course toward the barricade. He began counting down. “Five”—we were close enough to see the officers drawing weapons and settling behind car doors—“Four”—pops sounded outside from the cops who were positioned on the shoulder, firing at us, and the ones in our direct line scrambled out of the way—“Three”—the front right tire exploded, throwing me forward, and I might have smashed my face in if Asher hadn’t thrown his body across me—“Two”—I buried my face against his throat and told him I was sorry over and over again—“One.”

AAAAAAAAAAAARGHH!

Heading. Over. To buy. NOW!

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Pick Up THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW TOMORROW for only $.99

Coolness! THIS WEEKEND ONLY (August 1-3) MuseItUp Publishing is offering my young adult contemporary paranormal story THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW TOMORROW for only $.99

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If you like a fun easy speculative fiction read, or you have a teenager who likes a little explosion mixed up in their paranormal, give THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW TOMORROW a try!

Now Available from Jennifer M. EatonMaya dreams of perfect skin, beautiful hair, good grades, and Eric Brighton—the boy she’s been crushing on since middle school. No matter how hard she tries, all these things elude her, but when a creepy college recruiter arrives with news that Maya has omnipotent powers, things change quickly.

Having everything she wants is a lot harder than Maya expects, though. Will she give it all up for the chance to be normal again, even if it means losing Eric?

Zoom to MustItUp Publishing to pick up THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW TOMORROW

Zoom to Amazon to pick up THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW TOMORROW

JenniFer_EatonF

Wahoo! I’m Dork-Dancing over the cover for my novel FIRE IN THE WOODS! Coming in September from #Month9Books

I finally have a cover for FIRE IN THE WOODS and I couldn’t be happier.

Since this is a series, I asked for something that could be branded so readers could easily glance at the cover and say “Yep, that’s one of Jennifer M. Eaton’s books.”

 I am so in love with this cover, because it screams not only science fiction, but also the contemporary side, and that purple or “violescent” glow behind him has tons of meaning.

Oh!  And there’s a rafflecopter giveaway, too.  You could win a $10 gift card & a copy of the book, and most of you already qualify.  Good luck!

Are you ready to see?  Are ya? Are ya?

Here we gooooooo!

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Welcome to the Cover Reveal for

Fire in the Woods by Jennifer M. Eaton

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

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When a plane crashes in the woods near Jess’s home, the boy of her dreams falls out of the sky—literally. But David’s not here to find a girlfriend. He’s from another planet, and if Jess can’t help him get back to his ship, he’ll be stuck on Earth with nothing to look forward to but the pointy end of a dissection scalpel.

But her father runs their house like an army barracks, and with an alien on the loose, Major Dad isn’t too keen on the idea of Jess going anywhere. Ever. So how the heck is she supposed to help the sweetest, strangest, and cutest guy she’s ever met?

Hiding him in her room probably isn’t the best idea. Especially since her Dad is in charge of the squadron searching for David. That doesn’t mean she won’t do it. It just means she can’t get caught.

Helping David get home while protecting her heart—that’s gonna be the hard part. After all, she can’t really fall for a guy who’s not exactly from here.

As they race through the woods with Major Dad and most of the U.S. military one breath behind them, Jess and David grow closer than either of them anticipated. But all is not what it seems. David has a genocide-sized secret, and one betrayal later, they are both in handcuffs as alien warships are positioning themselves around the globe. Time is ticking down to Armageddon, and Jess must think fast if she’s to save the boy she cares about without sacrificing Earth—and everyone on it.

add to goodreads

Title: Fire in the Woods
Publication date: September 2014
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Jennifer M. Eaton

Chapter-by-Chapter-header---About-the-Author

Jennifer M. Eaton

Corporate Team Leader by day, and Ranting Writer by night. Jennifer M. Eaton calls the East Coast of the USA home, where she lives with her husband, three energetic boys, and a pepped up poodle.

Jennifer hosts an informational blog “A Reference of Writing Rants for Writers (or Learn from My Mistakes)” aimed at helping all writers be the best they can be.

Beyond writing and motivating others, she also enjoys teaching her dog to jump through hoops—literally.

Jennifer’s perfect day includes long hikes in the woods, bicycling, swimming, snorkeling, and snuggling up by the fire with a great book; but her greatest joy is using her over-active imagination constructively… creating new worlds for everyone to enjoy.

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

Chapter-by-Chapter-header---Giveaway

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

(Winners will receive their book on release day)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Release day is September 25th.

I’m so excited I could just spit, but I won’t ’cause that’s gross.

Goodread Add To

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Goodread Add To

 

_JenniFer____EatoN

What do you do when your conflict doesn’t work?

Ugh!  I am working off a very loose outline for my book ASHES IN THE SKY, the sequel to FIRE IN THE WOODS that releases September 23, 2014.

Here I am, cruising along with about 100 pages written, and the bad guy starts discussing the reason for being bad.   Ugh_Back_to_the_drawing_board

It totally fell flat.  I mean, the whole idea sounded great in my head. He had a perfectly good reason for doing what he was about to do. I even sympathized with him… until I wrote it all out and read it on the page.

It just seemed… I don’t know… STUPID.

Now I don’t know WHAT to do.

After stewing over it for quite a while, I just skipped to the end of the scene, and kept writing.  Hopefully I will work it all out.

I really HATE doing that, because I find my writing is much more fluid if I write chronologically.  Now, I will need to go back a rewrite that chapter from scratch.

I’m NOT feeling good about it.

Has this ever happened to you… and idea tat sounded great in your head just didn’t work once you wrote it and read it back to yourself?

Jennifer___Eaton

SUCCESS! Holy Sh— Um— Wow! BEST WEEK EVER!

Okay, I admit, I am a Twitter stalker. Some people make it easy. They use Twitter as a method to voice what they are feeling about everything from the weather to really important stuff… like editors reading submissions.

A few days ago, the editor that has had my manuscript for quite a while tweeted:

“Catching up on subs. Really like the voice and story in the YA scifi I’m reading, It’s from March. I’m so far behind.”

I tensed. My sub is a YA Sci Fi.  And I submitted in March.  I’d be lying if I did not admit my head went ka-blooey!


A few hours later an email popped up from the same editor.

Nothing definite, just a note to say she was reading AND ENJOYING my manuscript.

How_stinking_cool_is_that

Okay, deep breath. That’s good. Really good. Fingernails are now officially non-existent. Let’s hope she doesn’t have an explosion phobia!

At one o’clock in the morning the next day she tweeted:

“Stayed up late to finish a manuscript I will offer on tomorrow. Really love this story.”

Now, I’m really glad I was fast asleep at one o’clock in the morning, because there would have been no sleeping that night for me if I had read this when she tweeted it.

PKO_0001147The next morning I woke to an email sent just after that Tweet. She’d stayed up late reading because she couldn’t put it down.

Yes!!!

Now let me tell you. Spam filters can be evil. E.V.I.L. because after almost a whole day, thank goodness, she poked me to make sure I got the contract offer.

“Umm, no.”

Resend is a wonderful thing.

I spent the next half hour reading and re-reading everything she had to say about my book.  I mean, you have dreams about people going on and on about how great your work is, but you never really expect it to happen. Especially from an editor with such a great reputation in the business. I was numb. Completely numb.

Wow. Just Wow

An editor at my target publisher loves my story just as much as I do. She loves my quirky voice, and the themes blew her away. (Literally, in some cases).

Wow.__I_mean_REALLy_Wow!_00000

Now on to the nitty gritty. I hope I will have exciting news to share with everyone really soon.

_JenniFer____EatoN

Rejection. Sometimes coming to grips is harder than others.

Like everyone, I’ve had a lot of rejections. Usually form rejections. I brushed myself off and moved on. But none of them stung as badly as this one.

83 days— twenty three days over their posted “get back to you” deadline, all leading to a form rejection.

Rejection.

Wow. I was speechless. Took me a while to get over it. I mean, I understand that publishers are busy, but when they have had the manuscript so long that they probably read the whole thing, and maybe even had several people read it, and then getting a form rejection?????

Ouch.

I’d just love to know— was it good enough? Did they have two alien novels on their desk that were great, and someone flipped a coin? Do they have an explosion phobia? Do they not like the color purple? What was it?

It took me a full day to get over this. Once I did, I dusted myself off and started reading my novel from page one.

Picking myself up, and getting back to it.

You know what?  I was amazed. After not reading my novel for several months, I found myself instantly engrossed, and stunned when I realized “Hey, I actually wrote this.”

I know why the publisher had it so long, now.

It’s good. Damn good.

I was probably rejected for one of those silly reasons you read about… like they already signed a sci-fi this month, or someone spilling their coffee or something.

My novel just needs to find the right person. Someone who loves the idea as much as I do.

I’m fine. I’ll get there. Patience has never been my strong suit. In the immortal words of Yoda “You must learn patience.”

There is still one more publisher on my “wish list” reading my baby. Maybe they are “the one”.

So I sit back, relax, and hunker down into my new novel.

This sucker ain’t gonna get written on its own.

 

Jennifer___Eaton

Hollywood has destroyed the world how many times?

Hollywood Sign

Hollywood Sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hollywood has destroyed the world how many times?

Here is a nod from Time magazine to one of my favorite genres, with some of my favorite movies mentioned.   I just loved this article.  There is nothing more fun that a good, exciting, “the world is going to end, but I’m gonna do something about it” movie.  Heck, I got some story ideas just breezing over some of these comments!  Where’s the popcorn!

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/23/apocalypse-wow-10-ways-hollywood-has-ended-the-world/

 JenniFer_EatonF

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Forget about it! — Rule #32 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #32

32: If something works, forget about the rule that says it shouldn’t.

When you read long articles like this, don’t you just hate it when you get to the end and an author puts in a disclaimer like this?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say MOST of the rules in this series are very important, and should not be broken… but, some can IF DONE CORRECTLY.

Let’s talk about Rule 28 that I morphed into “Don’t make your MC unlikable”.  An unlikable MC is possible, if done VERY VERY well.

Ever watch the television show HOUSE?  What a jerk that guy was.  But a lot of people tuned in, because he was portrayed in a way that made us LOVE HIM anyway.

I WOULD NOT recommend this approach to a new writer.  It’s hard.

I’d stick to the rules as closely as you can.  Yes, any rule can be broken. Best Selling authors do it all the time.  But remember… best-selling authors are not searching for agents or publishers.  They’ve “done their time” so to speak.

Save the deviance for later in your career.

So that’s it!  All 32 Rules of Hunting Down the Pleonasm

Which one was your favorite? 

Which did you learn the most from? 

Which do you close your eyes and pretend you don’t know about, ‘cause you don’t wanna listen? 

Let’s chat!

Jennifer___Eaton

I really didn’t like this book – but I’m still giving it four stars

I finished “18 Things” by Jamie Ayres a while ago, and decided to let it sit a simmer before I wrote a review. I considered not writing a review at all, because I’m not sure how to give this book, and the brilliant author, the justice she deserves. The fact is, I really didn’t like this book at all, but I’m still going to give it four stars. Let me explain.

This book grips you from the very first page and thrusts you into a nearly unending roller coaster of emotion. The story is about a girl who witnesses a tragic accident that takes her best friend and secret love’s life. (That’s not a spoiler – it happens in the first few pages.) From there on out, the book is about dealing with loss—overcoming this loss by creating a “bucket list” of 18 things to do.

Crud! Just writing that brought tears to my eyes again!

This is the thing. I read for enjoyment – to escape everyday life. This book is NOT THAT. I cried pretty much from the first page to the last page with a very brief tear-free intermission in the middle. Let me tell you – I have enough problems…I don’t need to be depressed while I’m reading, too!

Disclaimer – I sent this review to the author before I posted it… and she was surprised that I cried so much. She felt the “middle” was fun and light. I did feel the “intermission” but it was short lived for me. (Sorry)

But see, here’s the problem. I wouldn’t give a book a low rating because it was written so well it made me cry. I think it had exactly the emotional response that the author wanted. I couldn’t even deduct a star for lack of explosions, because there was one in the first few pages (well, kind of anyway)

So, why four stars instead of five?

For one thing… this is supposed to be a YA paranormal. I’d forgotten the genre while I was reading, because nothing paranormal happens. I understand why it was placed in the paranormal category (Can’t explain or I’ll spoil it), but this IS NOT a paranormal. If you only enjoy paranormal, you will probably cry through this and be frustrated – but I think that is a category error, not the author’s fault. So I’m not subtracting a star for that – I just thought I’d mention it.

All that aside — Here’s the reason for four stars…

As the novel was winding down, I started to feel safe again. Everything came together nicely. I was readying myself to give it five stars, but at the same time explaining that I didn’t enjoy reading it.

Then…

We hit the last chapter.

Did you hear that annoying sound? It was me grinding my teeth.

I’m one for a great surprise in an ending. Totally love a twist – in most cases. This one, however, kind of bothered me. To be completely honest, I felt cheated. Does that make it not brilliant?

No. It was brilliant.

It just made me a tad miffed. No… I had it right the first time. I felt cheated. I also started crying my eyes out again.

My husband kept feeding me tissues and told me to stop reading. I said “No! I need to finish this so I can stop crying!”

So I am subtracting a star for the ending, although I realize it was needed to set up the possibility for a sequel. To me though, it felt added on to make room for the next book. I’d have given 18 Things five stars without the last chapter.

So, this is the scoop: This book is a brilliant piece of contemporary fiction about dealing with death and learning to live your life again. While there is a slight paranormal edge that you might miss if you blink, this is NOT a paranormal novel.

Readers of contemporary YA will probably love this. I, unfortunately, cried myself silly though the whole thing.

Shoot Him Later — Rule #31 of 32 Simple Rules to the Writing the Best Novel Ever

Writing_A_Great_Novel

I’m dissecting the article Hunting Down the Pleonasm, by Allen Guthrie, using it as a cattle prod to search for little nasties in my manuscript.  Yep, you can join in the fun, too.  Let’s take a looksee at topic #31

31: Spot the moment of maximum tension and hold it for as long as possible. Or as John D. MacDonald put it: “Freeze the action and shoot him later.”

Love this train of thought.  This goes along with torturing your character.  Don’t only torture your character!

Torture them longer!

I have this theme/problem in my current work.  It is high paced, and I don’t want to slow it too much, but there is this one scene that I want to hesitate on to really drag in the emotional impact.  While it doesn’t take that long, I want to really dig in to what the character feels and goes through.  This is all about building tension. And nothing makes me turn a page more than wondering what the heck will happen.

Jennifer___Eaton