M.C. Frank's Blog, page 465

The most exciting day of 2017 is coming up......the day y...

The most exciting day of 2017 is coming up......the day you'll discover your new favorite romance slash tear-jerker of the year! I'm talking, of course, about my baby book!Did you know that Lose Me. now has an official release date? More info is coming soon, but right now, how else can't wait for April 11th to come round?
Yep, that's the release date of Lose Me.!

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Lovely readers are already raving about it, and I couldn't be more excited and grateful to be finally ready to share my book with all of you. It's a dream come true.
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Goodreads reviews of Lose Me.
Reviews from Goodreads.com
Stay tuned for fun games, giveaways and more, and in the meantime, go check out Lose Me. on amazon and tell me how everything looks, I'd love to hear your opinion. 
This all couldn't have been possible without you, I hope you know that. Much love to all. 

Image credit to the amazing @book_sorceress


Read the first chapters of Lose Me. here and fall in love

The Pirate's Torture(a love story... well, kind of)tin so...

The Pirate's Torture
(a love story... well, kind of)



tin soldier
He wakes up hungry as a wolf.There are gunshots ringing through the walls, and he leaps off the floor, instinctively reaching for the Protector .44 in his suit before he’s even properly awake. He’s not wearing his suit of course, so his fingers only meet the cotton wool of his pants, and then his body starts screaming at him to lay back down again.Everything hurts, from his muscles to his joints. And along with the pain the memories start coming back, rushing through his brain, throbbing on his temples. Then again, his head feels oddly quiet, the usual buzz that keeps him on his toes every hour of every day faded to a calmness he’s not used to. He doesn’t feel groggy, though. Just… present. Alive. That’s creepy. What the stars happened to him?“You fell asleep,” an irritating voice calls from the other room. He bursts through the door, feeling exposed without his Hydro suit, and looks warily around for his gun. Could she have taken it? She’s sitting on the floor, her back to him, watching a Projection on the PR. She’s frozen it, but she won’t turn around as she continues to speak in that girlish, annoying tone.“I don’t think you’ve ever done that before, have you? We both slept, me because of that foul thing you forced down my throat. You slept for more than eleven hours. How do you feel?”“I…”How to answer her? If only he had his gun in his hand, he’d make her realize exactly how he feels.“I don’t sleep,” he ends up saying stupidly.“You do now,” she retorts and passes a small hand in front of the screen, which explodes with noise.That’s where the gunshots were coming from. Felix rubs his temples, feeling faint with hunger. The girl is dressed all in black.“Hold on a mercury sec,” bursts from his lips as he strides forward, reaching her in two steps. He was right. Dammit.She’s put on the Clockmaster’s black cloak, his good one, the one he wears only once a year, for the Perennial Celebration. He’s seen in countless times on the Channel. Three days ago, when he transmitted here, it was the first thing he looked for. He remembers the shiver that ran down his spine as he touched it, wishing he could see the Clockmaster with his own eyes, just once, running his hands across the shiny, silky texture like through water. And then he searched every inch of it for a hidden pocket, a compartment, anything that might contain the ‘further instructions’ the old madman had promised him.He found nothing.Now the girl just sits there, her small frame dwarfed by the black material, her hair sticking up in all directions, so red it hurts his eyes.“What in the timers do you think-?” he stops abruptly.Another gunshot rings in the PR, and the girl’s shoulders droop, shaking. Felix’s breath dies in his throat.It’s an old Visshe’s watching, one from the Terrestrial Channel. It’s not even news, it happened two years ago, he thinks. That man, the pirate, what was his name? Christopher Steadfast. It was plastered all over the news for months. He hijacked a fleet of the One World intergalactic shuttles, stock-full of air-warfare, murdered the commander pilot, and changed the coordinates so that they all crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. It was supposed to be a suicide mission, and he was supposed to have drowned along with the First Plane, the only one who had a commander -the rest were manned by stimulations, not humans. But they were waiting for him as soon as the ship’s hull hit the water.President Kun was beside himself for days, because this was a multi-billion loss for the One World, but he couldn’t do a damn thing about it while the fleet was hurtling through space to the earth’s atmosphere. What he could do was send a team of men to dig through the carcass of the First Plane and bring up Steadfast, more dead than alive. They revived him, and brought him back to the excellent health every citizen of the One Word enjoys.And then what is known as the Fortnight of Terror began.It was called so originally because Steadfast was said to be the head of a terrorist gang, but as soon as it became obvious that the pirate wasn’t going to talk no matter what they did to him, his ordeal went viral. Every day the Terrestrial Channel would broadcast a couple new Projections about what was being done to him.They cast him off on a deserted island, near the oil rigs in the Caribbean, without any pills or one stitch of Hydro to protect his skin from the scorching sun. The whole One World watched as he became emaciated and sick with fever; still he did not surrender. Then they took him to the Box. Felix hates to admit it, but he didn’t watch most of the Visuals from then on. They did inhuman things to him. Of course what Steadfast had done had been inhuman too, more than inhuman, it had jeopardized the One World’s peace directly, making the Planet vulnerable so that the Colonies would be able to contest Chairman Kun’s position. That would lead to wars of such proportions that the Revision would seem like child’s play.Everyone knew that.Everyone knew that Steadfast and his colleagues deserved everything that had happened to him two years ago.Even so, it was unbearable to watch as they filled his veins with electricity or gave him shots of canine DNA, the effects of which lasted for at least five hours at a time. It was pure torture just watching him. Steadfast didn’t breathe a word about who or what or where his friends were. By the end of the Fortnight of Terror he was mad. He kept pointing to the sky and yelling meaningless syllables and among them one word. It sounded like a code name. ‘Astra.’ They searched high and low for that thing, or person, or whatever it was -Felix himself was head of several such expeditions. ‘Operations A’ they were called, and they were relentless. Anyone who refused to give them information was immediately charged with high treason. That’s how important ‘Astra’ was. After months and months of combing the Planet, they ended up with nothing but lose ends and no conclusive evidence as to where to go next.On the floor, the girl is watching, soundless. The Projection has reached the point where the soldiers catch up to Steadfast in the Caribbean island as he’s running on the sand, his skin badly sunburned, his body skeletal. He drops to his knees, his head hanging between his shoulders as though he’s tired of keeping it upright, and a young soldier -practically a kid- approaches him and presses a magnetic rod to his neck, which floods his body with almost 1,000 volts. The pirate’s eyes roll back in his head and his body convulses, kicking up sand and seawater. The soldiers take a step back as though he’s dangerous. Felix turns his eyes away. He doesn’t know what disturbs him more.Watching Steadfast being fried alive, and knowing he woke up after that only to be fried again and again and again? The fact that in the Projection, he suddenly notices how young Steadfast looks? So young and handsome, what’s left of his muscles bulging like his own, his hair a mop of vibrant color, his eyes dark and mysterious -he can’t be older than thirty five, if that. Or that the soldier who pushes the magnetic rod into his throat is dark-skinned, shiny-eyed, and bulky? It’s Karim.The girl is shaking really badly by now, as though the electricity entered her own body.She lifts a hand to swipe in front of the PR, but it’s shaking so much the screen can’t obey her. Felix leans forward and freezes it for her, just as Steadfast wakes up and starts screaming. He cuts him off mid-scream, feeling a chill run down his back.“Are you-?” he starts to ask the girl, but then she turns around to face him and he stops.Her face is stark white in contrast to her dark curls, her eyes pools of infinite sadness. Water is streaming down her cheeks -tears. He hasn’t seen anyone cry. The mere sight of it freezes him. The girl is staring straight into his eyes, making not one sound, while her swollen lips, wet with tears, are gulping in shuddering breaths.Why on mars would she watch this thing?Why?Then she speaks five words, and he knows why. His eyes stray to her right arm, which was bleeding a few hours ago, now clean, only a slight scar indicating where her personal chip was embedded before she tore it out.He drops his head in his hands, just standing there in front of the weeping girl, the accusations shooting from her eyes, reaching his chest, opening him up like a crimson wound.“Were you one of them?” is what she said.“No,” he says in a choked voice. “No, I wasn’t.”He could very well have been, though. Karim was one of the team. He was the one who…“I’ll watch it all,” she says, interrupting his thoughts. “I don’t think you want to stay.”“Why?”She shrugs. “I haven’t seen it in three months,” she says. Does the stupid girl put on the Fortnight of Terror every month? he wonders. Is that what she means? “I miss him,” she adds, not taking her eyes off his face. “Oh.” Felix says cleverly. He still doesn’t get it. And then, out of the blue, he does. “Oh,” he breathes, horrified. “Are you… are youAstra?”

match girl
The first time he says her name, it sounds like a curse on his lips. It’s been a curse on everyone’s lips in the two years since her father’s murder. “Of course I am,” she tells him quietly, wiping her cheeks. “What did you idiot Drones think an ‘Astra’ was? His criminal accessory? His next terrorist device? His secret army of intelligent droids? He was calling for his merking daughter as he was dying!”She spits the last word out and he flinches.“They knew what he meant, you know, just as soon as he said it,” she goes on. “They didn’t wait for him to say it twice, before they had me in the Box. Then they fed you all these lies, and had you searching for… what was it? Weeks? Months? Years?”“Six months,” the soldier tries to say, but his lips have gone dry.“Well, they kept me in the Box for two years, and finally they brought me up here to kill me. I turned sixteen three days ago. They let me loose and expected me to drop dead from cold and hunger, and when I didn’t they hunted me down like an animal. They finally shot me and killed me, only it wasn’t me.”“Huh?”“It was an old man, he…” her throat catches. “I don’t think they expected anyone to be walking out in the snow, except for the girl they’d left in the cold to die. Only I didn’t die from the cold. I’ve learnt to survive without pills. Eat, light a fire, put myself to sleep… that sort of thing.”“Did he have blue eyes like mine?” the soldier asks with urgency and Astra looks at him with surprise. Does he know the old man? Is this…? Oh no. This can’t be his house!She looks straight into the soldier’s eyes. They’re the exact color of the sky at the moment when twilight has just began to fall, and the first star is shining on the horizon. Suddenly she shudders, feeling as though she’s looking into the old man’s eyes. They’re identical.The memory floods her as though it happened a moment ago. She feels again the rough texture of the old man’s hand as she held it in hers, freezing with cold; she sees the pool of blood draining from his chest, where he was shot. She sees his eyes focus for a minute on Ursa the bear, and she feels her heart dripping with sadness that he didn’t even have the time to look at the last, magnificent polar bear clearly, the beast that came to her rescue when she was dying of cold, and that she named Ursa after her favorite constellation.How such an animal has survived all this time is beyond her. The very species has been pretty much extinct for decades, only a few specimens are left, which are in the care of the Intergalactic Research Facilities, studied for their genetic material and abilities. When the ice cracked beneath her feet, about three days after she watched the old man being buried beneath the thickly falling snow, she thought that was it. She had gulped down icy water along with her panic, and had tried to hold on to the jagged ice for as long as she could, screaming in pain from the cold that pierced her every bone. She slipped under more times than she cares to remember.The mere memory of the numbing water closing over her head is enough to make her shudder. The minutes she survived in that hole were the worst she’s spent yet. Even counting the times in the Box she would open her eyes to a Drone bending over her, pushing his way between her legs -or watching her father die on the Terrestrial Channel over and over, just so that she could see him one last time.How had the bear known to run fetch the soldier?Astra swallows hard.The blue eyes that are watching her are stormy, and she knows the soldier is reaching his breaking point. She can’t imagine what must be going through his head; there’s a whole world opening up before him, a world that has been carefully kept hidden from him his entire life.As she was watching her father on the PR, she could feel him rigid with shock behind her, even though she didn’t turn to look at him. I should watch it again, she thinks. He should watch it with me. He should wake up. It’s time.He looks smart enough now that he’s missed a pill or two, who knows how he’ll become after he runs around in the cold a little? Maybe there’s some sort of actual human behind this handsomely crafted façade.‘Did he have blue eyes like mine?’“Not quite as vacant and stupid as yours,” she replies, “but yes, he did. I held his hand as he was dying.” 

Read the rest (you know you can't stop now;)here:
   

Uploading new chapters of Salt for Air on Wedne...

Uploading new chapters of Salt for Air on Wednesdays, don't...

(This time it was Thursday, due to LOSE ME.ness)

Please share and comment, I'd love for word to spread for my novel. Also, I would be thrilled to discover your stories, so don't forget to let me know if you have any published on Wattpad. I just love that site, I'm getting seriously addicted to it.

Love you xx

The best books of 2016 as you've never...Watch the video ...

The best books of 2016 as you've never...Watch the video for a special surprise.

Did you like the video? Isn't a certain someone yummy? Lol.
Don't forget to leave your favorite reads of 2016 in the comments below. I'd love to add them to my list, or have someone to talk about them with :)

First read of the year!The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Y...

First read of the year!The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon[image error] made me sad and hopeful at the same time. But it did start 2017 in a very... 
Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.
Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? 
Unnecessarily (and, in my honest opinion, a bit pretentiously) complicated narrative and POV jumps aside, this was a vibrant, real story about real people, and that's what sets it apart from every other young adult romance out there. It did pose a lot of questions too, about how we pick our future, and how circumstances sometimes happen to us, and we don't have a lot of say in what is going on, and I loved that part. Of course I also loved the characters, Natasha and Daniel. They were so real, their flaws, their histories, their personalities... They just leaped off the page, which made everything that happened between them all the more poignant and unpredictable.And speaking of unpredictable, this was one book with so many twists and turns, it kept me at the edge of my seat. I hadn't expected that to happen with a book like that, but it turned out to be so much more than a regular boy-meets-girl story.
Overall, I have to say that the storyline wasn't as straight as the one in Everything Everything, nor was the romance so intense and yummy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a completely different book, much deeper and realer, and that's why it's so powerful.
And that ending... I NEED to talk to someone about it, so if you read hits, comment or tweet me, I'll burst if I don't talk it over with someone. ;)
Have you read it? What did you think? Am I the only one who wants a sequel RIGHT NOW?

Conversations with an Empty Chair (5) - StormLessons lear...

Conversations with an Empty Chair (5) - Storm
Lessons learned during an Electrical Storm:
1. It will be over soon
2. You’re safe
3. Just wait
4. You’ll still be here afterwards

Uploading new chapters of Salt for Air on Wednesdays, don...

Uploading new chapters of Salt for Air on Wednesdays, don't miss it!
Please share and comment, I'd love for word to spread for my novel. Also, I would be thrilled to discover your stories, so don't forget to let me know if you have any published on Wattpad. I just love that site, I'm getting seriously addicted to it.

Love you xx

You really need to see this...@mcfrank_author

You really need to see this... @mcfrank_author

Don't push yourself. Your soul is not damaged, it's ...

Don't push yourself. 


Your soul is not damaged, it's just made of glass instead of...


Other people don't have the dragon of D staring at them in the face every time they try to be creative or happy or just plain have a little fun. They don't know what we're even talking about.


But you do. 


So, deal with it. 


Just think of the triumph you'll feel when you get that small tast done, yes, DONE, inspite of the dragon. Inspite of D. Other people will never feel that sort of triumph. It sucks, I know, that you even have to deal with D, why should you? It's not fair.


But then again, nothing great can be accomplished without pain. Maybe that's why our pain, yours and mine, a pain the rest of the world will never experience, a struggle they'll never know, is fragile and precious.


Maybe that's why you shouldn't stop trying, no matter how tired you get.


Don't stop fighting it. But if you get tired, rest. As often and as much as you need. Remember, it's glass, not rubber. You stretch it, it breaks. You push it, it shatters. 


But let the sun filter through it and you've got something of transcendin beauty -even if the glass is fractured.It's the light that makes it beautiful, not the glass. The light against the shadows. Let your light be greater, the darker the shadows. 


Take it slow. You deserve it.


Note: I'm starting these posts called "Trigger Warning" in order to share what I've learned from my struggle with grief and depression, among other things. If you find these helpful or want to talk to someone, please don't hesitate to email me through the contact form on this website, or my social media. 
I have been honored to receive a few messages from people who are struggling, just as I have struggled in the past (and am still, a lot of the time) and I know that there's nothing worse than feeling alone. Well, this is proof that you aren't. Everything you're going through, chances are, I've been there. So don't you think that no one understands.

I'm here.

An Impossible Task:Let's count down my favorite books of ...

An Impossible Task:Let's count down my favorite books of 2016! 
Underwater by Marissa Reichardt[image error]
is a book about a girl who is confined to her home, trapped by the hurt and fear of something really bad that happened to her. It broke my heart to read it, but by the end I was filled with a sense of hope and optimism. I can't recommend this book enough for its beautiful writing, its poignant characters, and its healing romance. Underwater was probably the biggest bookish surprise of the year, and I can't wait to read it again. (I reread the books I loved every couple of years, and this one is totally going on that list).


Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi[image error]
What can I say about this whole series, Shatter Me, that really did shatter me and put me back together? i read all three books compulsively, with my heart in my sleeve and my mouth hanging open. I loved the suspense, the world-building, the swoony parts, the language. The characters, and how they developed and changed. Everything. I had the most serious book-hangover of my life after finishing these books. Le sigh.

The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After by Jenny Colgan[image error]
This book is a reader's paradise. It's filled with books, heart-warming scenes, lovely people and lovely imagery. But most of all, it's filled with stories about people who began with no hope and even less prospects, and managed to turn their lives around. That's why Jenny Colgan is one of my favorite authors. She always manages to make me feel as if anything is possible. Even a real-life fairytale. Oh, and the romance was yummy. 

The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh[image error]
I I have nothing to say about this book except that it ruined me. It was that good. I didn't want to do anything while reading it, except keep reading. And when I finished it, I just stared at it for a day. I want to live in that world... It was the most gorgeous thing I've ever read. There are no words. Just read it.And don't say I didn't warn you.

Alienated by Melissa Landers[image error]
This fun, adventurous sci-fi book may sound like the usual high school drama plot, but it's so much more than that. It's tender and deep, and it leaves you thinking. I loved the interactions of the characters, and I can't wait to continue with the series. It was one of the most different and exciting reads of the year, not to mention one of the swooniest ones. Wink.

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider[image error]
This was a sad book. I don't ever put sad books in my best books of the year lists, but this one made it because of the incredible writing and the important message it delivers. It's about life and death and love, and about how surviving is different than living. It's about an imaginary disease (kudos to the author for that)and about a boy and a girl who live in an asylum, trying to deal with having it. Trying to deal with the hope of a cure that may or may not come in time. It just tore my heart in two to read it, but at the same time I absolutely loved it. If you're dealing with loss and sickness, like me, this book might help.I know it helped me.

Rites of Passage by Joy N. Hensley[image error]
This New Adult book, about a girl who goes to the army on a dare, and is hiding a dark, sad secret, isn't in my top 2016 books. It's in my top ALL TIME FAVORITE books. It has everything: drama, romance, action, politics, heart-wrenching moments. I can't wait to see what else this brilliant author writes. And, of course, I'm rereading this one too.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare[image error]
This romantic, fantasy read, that everyone is reading, didn't have the literary value of the other books in this list, perhaps, but it was perfect escapism for me. I loved getting lost inside that world, fighting along with Emma and Julian, I loved their chemistry, and the mystery of the plot. I can't wait for the next book, and I'm hoping we get to follow these characters and see them grow even more. I just enjoyed reading this book so much.

Paperweight by Meg Haston[image error]
Another hard read about eating disorders, love and life. I really liked the writing style of this book, and it was unique because it's written by a former therapist. You can read the full review on this site. It was really interesting to read, and if you or someone in your life has ever struggled with these issues, you'll find it an enlightening experience. As did I.
Leave a comment and tell me your favorite book of 2016, I'd love to add it to my TBR! Or maybe it's one of these, and we can fangirl over it together.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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