Saturday, April 30, 2016

Snippet Sunday and Weekend Writing Warriors

Welcome to Snippet Sunday and Weekend Writing Warriors, your chance to authors. When you've finished here, you can find more excerpts at:


Last week my hero went to my heroine's house to pick her up. Susan won her bet with Robin when Kurt asked her to go to a party with him. Last week he couldn't stop staring at her, and today we are still in his POV.

Excerpt:


“I’ve never had a beautiful woman win a football game for me. How did you know your play would work?”

Susan laughed, a musical sound that made him want to laugh with her. “I wish I could take the credit for it, but I can’t. It’s one of my dad’s plays. He coached high school football for thirty years before he retired.”

“No wonder you always enjoy football. You were raised on it. I almost killed your messenger, but I’m glad he stood his ground. Your dad’s play won the game.” 


Blurb:

Susan English can’t stand Robin Lanford! She’s so full of herself she irritates everyone on the faculty of Fairfield High. When Robin bets Susan fifty dollars that she can’t get a date with Kurt Deveraux, the head football coach, Susan jumps at the chance to put the little heifer in her place. She had no idea that teaching Robin a lesson would irrevocably change her life, strain treasured friendships, and throw two families into chaos.

Buy Link:
http://amzn.to/1NDgnrg  

Saturday Sample: The Captain and the Cheerleader


Last week we saw that Kurt and Susan drank too much at the party and had to stay overnight.We're picking up there.



“I can’t stand uh, stay here, Kurt. There’s only one bed.”

“They think we’re lovers, remember? We’ll just share the bed. It’ll be fine.”

His reasoning seemed slightly off kilter, but darn it, she couldn’t figure out exactly why. “Okay, but I have to go to the bathroom first.”

When she got back, Kurt made a trip to the bathroom. By the time he returned Susan had thrown her clothes across a chair and got in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin.

She yawned. “You’d better hurry when you get undressed. It’s cold in here.”

He turned his back to her and removed his shirt, shoes, and jeans, a process Susan watched with interest. “Golly, you’ve got great shoulders! I no...no...noticed it when we danced together.” 

Blurb: 
Susan English can’t stand Robin Lanford! She’s so full of herself she irritates everyone on the faculty of Fairfield High. When Robin bets Susan fifty dollars that she can’t get a date with Kurt Deveraux, the head football coach, Susan jumps at the chance to put the little heifer in her place. She had no idea that teaching Robin a lesson would irrevocably change her life, strain treasured friendships, and throw two families into chaos.

Buy Link:
http://amzn.to/1NDgnrg  

Friday, April 29, 2016

After: The Battle Has Just Begun

If you came for Fashionista Friday scroll on down, but why not enjoy this post first?


It's not about the war. It’s about the warrior.

Publication Date: March 6, 2016
Genre: Military Non-Fiction

Meet eight combat-injured men who sustained life-altering injuries. Read eight inspiring stories of heroism and the re-building of independent, productive and fulfilling lives after seemingly impossible circumstances.

This project looks at the struggles of these incredible men to reshape their lives after combat. It also sets these stories within the context of current veteran healthcare; injury, suicide, and disability statistics; and looks briefly at the impacts on the caregivers who support these men. Being face-to-face with combat-injured veterans has given me an insight that all Americans should have. Veterans of the Vietnam era began the process of opening our eyes to the grim realities that await veterans both psychologically and physically. These men’s stories show how much more we have to accomplish.

This book isn't about war or politics - it is about figuring out what it takes to move forward AFTER the war. I wrote this book to raise awareness of what our warriors need most when they return, what the government does and doesn't provide and why there is a high demand for private non-profits to fill the gaps. Make no mistake - we are in this period of recovery and rehabilitation for decades to come. It also introduces the non-profit organization Warrior Foundation~Freedom Station which has taken on the task of helping our combat-injured men and women make the daunting transition from military to civilian life. 100% of the proceeds benefit them in this much-needed labor of love.

It's not about the war. It’s about the warrior.

100% of the proceeds benefit Warrior Foundation~Freedom Station.

Amazon | GoodReads


Short Interview with RJ Belle...

1. Do you have any special writing habits or routines? Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

2. DC or Marvel? Marvel

3. If you were a superhero, what would your powers be? Predicting the future.

4. Who is your most popular character, and why? More people ask me about Colonel Carmichael than about Sutton. I believe he is looked at as the co-hero and everyone loves a hero.

5. Are your characters or plots ever based on real people or events from your life? Maybe

6. Who controls your books: you or your characters? They do!

7. Are you a plot/outline writer, or by-the-seat-of-your-pants writer? Both. I begin with an outline but my characters frequently take over.


R.J. Belle began writing as a teenager as a way to express her creative side. In 2013 she made the jump into writing for publication. R.J. left her career to write full time and within three months published her first Fiction Novel, First One Down: A Paul Sutton series novel. With a new stunning cover and additional editing First One Down is set to re-release in April 2016. Book two in the Paul Sutton series, Second Sight, will release summer 2016.

R.J. released her first non-fiction project in 2016 - AFTER: The Battle Has Just Begun. After explores the daunting task of physical and emotional recovery and rehabilitation for eight combat-injured men and the private non-profit that assisted in all eight transitions.

R.J. lives in Southern California with her family.


Fashionista Friday

Working for the Weekend


Bebe lace top
bebe.com


WithChic blazer jacket
$34 - withchic.com


MaxMara pants
matchesfashion.com


J Crew leopard flat
$145 - jcrew.com



Watch
$150 - christianpaul.com.au


Alexis Bittar earrings
$190 - liberty.co.uk


Thomas Sabo sterling silver jewelry
$315 - selfridges.com


Dagmar iphone case
orchardmile.com


Muse vintage glasses
glassesusa.com


Milani blush
target.com


Benefit mascara
macys.com


Bobbi brown cosmetic
$18 - mobile.harrods.com

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Eerie

Eerie
by C.M. McCoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Mature YA Paranormal Romance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

As seen in People Magazine…

Hailey's dreams have always been, well...vivid. As in monsters from her nightmares follow her into her waking life vivid. When her big sister goes missing, eighteen-year-old Hailey finds the only thing keeping her safe from a murderous 3,000-year-old beast is an equally terrifying creature who has fallen "madly" in love with her. Competing to win her affection, the Dream Creature, Asher, lures her to the one place that offers safety--a ParaScience university in Alaska he calls home. There, she studies the science of the supernatural and must learn to live with a roommate from Hell, survive her ParaScience classes, and hope the only creature who can save her from an evil immortal doesn't decide to kill her himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:


A Guarded Girl
“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”
Bertrand Russell

Hailey stared at the empty can on her tray, silently willing the caffeine to kick in. The last thing she needed was to fall asleep, dream of monsters, and have an “episode” in front of her 200 closest non-friends.

No way she’d let that happen.

Now if only her droopy eyelids would cooperate, because the hard plastic chair under her butt sure wasn’t. The dang thing was teasing her and feeling mighty comfy, like a puffy armchair, and she was sinking fast. Thankfully, though, just as her head bobbed, the bell rang, jolting her into a wide-eyed, full-body spasm.

Great. Real smooth, she thought, rubbing her face with both hands as a few gigglers shuffled past.

She groaned, rising with all the enthusiasm of a mushroom, not at all looking forward to another two hours inside the social torture chamber, or as everyone else referred to it, South Side High School.

She was so intent on avoiding the students there for the rest of her senior year that she rarely looked up from her books anymore, and those last two hours dragged. When three o’clock finally rolled around, she bolted outside, took the first open seat on the bus, rested her head against the window, and let it bounce there. She was just about to make it through another day of school very happily unnoticed, when Tage Adams smacked her on the back of the head.

“Ah!” she yelled, startled from sleep.

The bus was waiting at their stop, like normal, and Tage was waiting for her in the aisle, politely—not normal.

Tucking a wayward strand behind her ear, she hurried off the bus.

Tage followed.

“What’s up with you today?” he said nonchalantly, adjusting his pace to walk next to her.

He’d never done that before.

“Nothing,” Hailey said, surprised Tage was talking to her. They’d been catching the bus at the same stop for four years, and he’d never so much as looked at her.

“You’re usually not like that, that’s all.”

“Like what?”

“Nodding off in class, falling asleep on the bus…you know, slacking off. It’s just, you know, you usually have your nose in a book.”

He watches me?

“Oh,” she said, unsure.

“Guess you were working late last night…St. Paddy’s Day…”

“Yeah.” Of course she was working late. Her family owned the most popular Irish pub in Pittsburgh. Hailey pressed her lips together. Small talk was not her thing. Especially not with him.

Her mind went blank.

Searching the pavement for a thought, she chewed her lip as too many seconds stretched the silence. Finally the pressure forced her good sense aside and she opened her mouth to say…anything.

“What’s—”

“Well, see ya ‘round, Dancing Queen.”

She snapped her mouth shut and waved as he peeled off and trotted down Bridge Street. She tried to form the word, “bye,” but all that came out was “buh—”. Standing dumbfounded, she stared after him. She hadn’t realized Tage knew she existed, let alone the fact that she waitressed. And danced.

Stunned, Hailey walked, then jogged, then stopped dead to puzzle over what had just happened. Then she jogged again until she finally reached the pub.

Nobody at that school “chatted” with Hailey. Not since the fourth grade, not since the day a particularly mean girl concocted a particularly ugly rumor—that Hailey had started the fire that killed her parents. The whispers and sideways glances lasted close to a year, and in trying to defend herself, Hailey only made things worse. By the time she figured out that nobody else believed in pyromaniac-nightmare-monsters, it was too late. She’d already earned the label, “weirdo,” which, unfortunately, stuck.



AUTHOR Bio and Links:

C.M. McCoy is an Irish dancer and former Air Force officer living in the Great White North. Though B.S.'d in Chemical Engineering and German, she’s far happier writing stories involving Alaska and a body bag (with an awkward kiss in the mix.) While working emergency dispatch for Alaska State Troopers, she learned to speak in 10-codes, which she still does...but only to annoy her family.

Social Media Links

Watch the awesome book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPx4FELVxH4






Buy Links:

C.M. McCoy will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Use the link below to enter.


a Rafflecopter giveaway