UtopYA Con 2015 Thunderclap for Awards Voting

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm not gonna mess around here. I know you're all busy! Plus, I have a little incentive for your help. I'll get to what in a few. So, with that being said, let's get to the meat of today's post.

UtopYA Con is inviting you to join in helping spread the word about awards voting. This is a big deal because this con is the only one with their own awards program. It's very chic, and everyone gets dressed up in their finery to attend. Trophies are awarded for a number of different categories, all related to young adult and new adult novels. See the whole list and details about how nominees are chosen here.

See last year's winners here.

The most awesome part of all this is: You, the public, get to vote once the nominees are announced! That's right, if you have a favorite author attending the con, you can go on over there and show your support for their novels by voting for them.

But utopYA and the authors need your help to spread the word to fans everywhere! All we're asking is for one tiny support of our Thunderclap campaign Your Voice, Your Vote. It's FREE, so we really just want to borrow one (or more) of your social media outlets for one tiny post on May 8th.

Here's the link to sign up: http://thndr.it/1zgCvSG

You can support with Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr (or all three). Makes no difference.

Want to see if authors you love have been nominated? Be sure and click the link on May 8th when we go boom! Then, if you see a book you loved, vote!

Now, here's the incentive I mentioned. If you support the Thunderclap, and share that you supported, with one of your social networks, you can enter below to win a utopYA 2015 t-shirt. It's easy: Support, share that you supported, copy the link, paste it in the entry form, click enter! Boom! Done!

If you've already supported, just share the Thunderclap and paste in the link where you did. Easy peasy.

You have until May 7th to support and enter! And... GO!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How fun is this? Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Cover Reveal - Had a Great Fall

Happy Friday for the second time, everyone! Today, I'm bringing you the cover reveal and an excerpt from Had a Great Fall by Shawn McGuire. If you remember Shawn, one of her novels was picked up by me for an R&R this year when I had my big request party back in December. That novel was Sticks and Stones, the first in the Wish Makers series. You can check it out on Kindle for FREE here. Go grab a copy of that book, then pop on back to continue reading!

I'll wait...

You're back? Awesome! Let's get going.

Here's the blurb:

A new home in a new state. The chance to get away from the relentless bullies and reinvent himself. Then on the first day at his new high school, Robin Westmore finds himself in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time and right back into the role of victim. All Robin can do now is wish for the harassment to stop.

Being the leader of the genie world is not what Desiree expected. The Guides aren’t happy with her or any of the decisions she makes. The only thing they all agree on is that they want their old boss back, but Kaf has vanished, leaving the Guides in shock and Desiree with a broken heart.

While Desiree hides from her responsibilities, Robin disappears into the video game he’s created. There he finds excitement, adventure, and control. When the game presents him with an escape from his tortured life, will he take it?

Here's an excerpt:

Chapter One

Robin

Maybe I could call in sick. With something fatal. Something so contagious the entire high school would contract it just by looking at me. Was there such a thing? I took out my phone. “Okay, Google. What is visual contagion?”

“Good morning, Robin.”

For half a second I thought my phone had learned my name. And had started speaking in my mom’s voice? I entered the kitchen and found Mom in her pink bathrobe with the tea stain down the front, waiting for me. She must’ve heard me talking to my phone.

“Morning.” I set my messenger bag by the back door and took a seat at the kitchen bar.

Google had only come up with only one direct hit and was now blinking at me, waiting for something that would challenge its storage banks. The ‘contagion’ it presented wasn’t even a disease. It was some company in Vancouver that spread positive messages on organic hemp or bamboo T-shirts. Great. I ask for science, I get hippies.

“Do you think Visual Contagion would be a good name for a band?” I asked Mom as I scrolled through a few of the t-shirt pictures.

“Hmm,” Mom said, tapping her fingernail against her teacup. “A band that plays music?”

My turn to sit and blink. “What other kind is there?”

“Plenty. A wrist band. Hairband. Wedding band. Waistband.”

“Okay, okay.” She’d go on and on and then open the thesaurus app on her tablet if I didn’t stop her. “I’m a guy. I don’t think about hairbands or jewelry. Yes, I meant a band that plays music.”

“Then I’d say no. Visual Contagion, great a name as it is, would not work for a musical group.” She took a sip of her tea, Irish breakfast according to the tag hanging from the string, as she contemplated. “Auditory Contagion could work. Audio? Audial?”

Auditory Contagion would indeed be a damn cool name for a band. Almost made me want to form one. Except I couldn’t play a single instrument. Not even that plastic flute-thing they made us play in elementary school. Maybe I could compose something on my computer. I needed music for my video game anyway.

“Okay, Google. Popular music software.”

“Would you like some breakfast?” Mom asked. “Or are you just going to play with your phone until it’s time to leave?”

My mom wasn’t the most domestic person. She did like to feed people though, and when she took the time to make an actual meal, she was a great cook.

I set my phone in my lap and analyzed my hunger level. “Juice and toast with butter and jam. Two slices.”

“Two? You’re hungry today. What kind of tea?” She held up her Irish breakfast to me with a questioning look and wiggled the box as if that would lure me to the Celtic side.

“English breakfast, please. With cream and two sugar cubes.”

 “Off to the range,” my dad said as he entered the kitchen and set a black case—smaller than a briefcase, larger than a lunchbox—on the gray marble counter.

“Before work?” Mom asked.

“I don’t have any meetings until ten today. I want to try out my birthday present.”

Who knew a guy could get so excited over a handgun? Then again, this one did have a built-in laser. Guns weren’t my thing, but if presented with a laser-operated piece of technology I’d be all over it. So, I could understand his enthusiasm to a point.

“Want to come with me, Robin?” Dad asked as he plugged the first of two coffee pods into the machine to fill his travel mug.

“Thanks, but I do have a meeting before ten,” I said. “I have that test first thing.”

“Finally,” Dad said. “I don’t understand the holdup on allowing you to take a placement test. You studied?”

“Of course he studied,” Mom said as though nothing could be more unthinkable than me not studying.

“I did,” I told them. “Don’t worry, I’ll pass.”

“They should put him directly into Calculus and Differential Equations,” Dad said.

“He could handle it,” Mom agreed, “but AP Calculus will be an easy A for him.”

“Good point,” Dad said and clapped me on the back, nearly knocking me off my stool. “Build that killer GPA. Get into the college of your choice and academic scholarships as well.”

“Don’t pressure him,” Mom said, setting a plate with my buttered and jammed toast on the placemat in front of me.

~  
And, lastly, here's the cover!

I love the covers for these novels. So amazing! Now, a little word about Shawn McGuire:

Shawn McGuire is the author of young adult novels that blend contemporary settings and issues with a touch of fantasy and magic. She started writing after seeing the first Star Wars movie (that's episode IV) as a kid. She couldn't wait for the next movie to come out so wrote her own episodes. Sadly, those notebooks are long lost, but her desire to write is as strong now as it was then.

Her books deal with harder topics (death of a sibling, divorce, dating violence, bullying, and teen suicide) because she believes it is important to talk about these things. Those kinds of topics can be hard to handle and a bit overwhelming, so she infuses a bit of humor in her work as well because she also believes that a sense of humor can help you get through just about anything.


Shawn lives in Colorado with her family where she spends her time reading, cooking and baking, practicing yoga and meditation, and hiking and camping in the spectacular Rocky Mountains.

Website - www.Shawn-McGuire.com

Facebook www.Facebook.com/ShawnMcGuireAuthor

Newsletter signup - http://eepurl.com/V21k1

Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/shawnmcguire1/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Shawn_McGuire

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3231214.Shawn_McGuire

Amazon Author - http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-McGuire/e/B00L0FJDFW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1420552843&sr=1-2-ent


Here are the other books in the series:

Sticks and Stones

Break My Bones

Never Hurt Me

Don't they sound cool? What are you waiting for?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Markaza and M - Writing Updates!

Happy Thursday, everyone! I know, I know, my post is late! But I was working on something for a client, and I really wanted to get it to them before I took time to write my post. Now, it's a sit and wait game as I chew my nails and watch my e-mail to see if they like my ideas. I thought you might like to have an update on what I've been doing on the writer end. I have a snippet or two for you to check out, and I'm giving you updates for books that have been in the works for a while (in case you've been waiting for them -- yes, the e-mails and PMs about release dates can stop, because I'm gonna give you those, too!). So, grab a cup of coffee and join me!

First up, the sixth and final (maybe) book of the Mystic series, Markaza. Her story comes in at just over 56k words.

Update: Book is slated for release either end of May or early June. It's in the hands of my very capable editor now! EEP! In case you missed the cover and blurb:

Markaza Turner isn't your average seventeen-year-old. She can see the future, the past, and has an eerie propensity for getting people to do things.

But what she sees is the obliteration of mankind. Worse, her visions tell her it's gonna happen on her eighteenth birthday, December 21, 2012.

All six of the ladies forming the elite group, known as WSTW, are finally together under one roof. Bronya, Lily, Shelia, Melody, Coralie, and Markaza must now figure out how to use their strange powers before an evil being rises from the ground in Central Park and destroys the world.

But Markaza's own past is dark and riddled with secrets she'll need to unearth and come to terms with before she can go to war.

In this exciting finale of the Mystic series, the women come face-to-face with a truth that will change their lives forever.

Our fate is in their hands. 

~

And, here's a snippet:

He cleared his throat. “I think we all need bulletproof vests, personally.”

Markaza quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Well, you said that thing has claws, right? What if it comes down to an ability to puncture that wins or loses the fight?”

She snorted. “You haven’t seen the size of those claws. I think they’d rip through a bulletproof vest like a snake gliding through water.”

He blanched.

“Yeah. This thing is taller than The Clementine.”

He turned green.

“And all we have are our powers. I don’t think it has any weakness apart from love and forgiveness. With all our work with the shrink, we’re getting there; but I wonder if it’ll be enough. There are only six of us.”

“Eight,” he said.

She tilted her head.

“You have me, and you have Richard. Don’t count us out because we aren’t superheroes.”

~

Second, we have M. This is a standalone novel (you all know how I love those). It should end up around 60-70k words, but is sitting at almost 35k now.

Update: This title should be finished by the end of next week. Cover reveal will be June 1st, and release is set for June 18th. Here's a peek at the blurb and snippets:

In 2042, it finally arrives, the drug promising to make life easier for the masses. One dose of M and anyone can gain an ability. There are no promises made as to what the power could manifest as, but people are crawling over one another to take a chance.

There's a problem: One pill costs a million dollars. Only those with extraordinary wealth are afforded the luxury of cleaning house with a click of their diamond-adorned fingers or solving a puzzle by talking to it.

A knockoff is circulating that does the same thing as M. Hundreds of thousands of people have mutated for a mere fifty dollars.

Seventeen-year-old Griffin is a normal kid, who has a regular job, and dreams of going to college someday. When his girlfriend of three years succumbs to peer pressure, they break up. He believes the body is a temple not to be messed with outside of nature, and she wants to fit in. Once he meets the supplier, things take a turn for the worse.

He's left with nothing but pain in his heart and the desire to make them suffer when his plans for payback blow up in his face.

Thirst for revenge consumes him, and he finds himself locked in a battle he never anticipated with a merciless kingpin as they struggle to gain the advantage.

How far is too far?

~

Snippets:

Joey stuck his hands in his pockets and bobbed his head up and down. “Yeah, I get it. That’s what you have to hold onto; that’s what’ll help you do the hard things, the things you’ve been told you’ll go to Hell for, the things your mother would smack your face for thinking. At the same time, those are the things that have to be done.”

***

Earring Guy was sitting on the couch, his feet propped on what looked like an antique coffee table. No one said anything because they were at his house, and he could do whatever he wanted to the furniture. Not that anyone would’ve said anything either way. He picked at his teeth as he spoke. “I saw two people shift into lizards then back into humans—one male, one female—and a man who was winking a light on and off every time he blinked.”

Harry wrote the information down. “Well, that makes forty-seven different recorded abilities.” His eyes bulged. “How many possible manifestations could there be?”

“There’s no limit, H,” Ruby answered.

~ 

So, what do you think? Sound intriguing?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo