C.M. McCoy's Blog, page 13
June 10, 2016
Eerie Discussion Sheet and Crossword
A lot of readers have written to me about the underlying theme of hurtful teasing/bullying in Eerie. A lot of folks related to Hailey’s way of coping by shutting herself off socially and how that affected her in her relationships in college.
I made two things for EERIE readers:
A discussion sheet for teens, college students, and book club readers. There’s also some fun tidbits (about the German, Alaskan, and ParaScience of Eerie) as well as some space trivia
June 9, 2016
First LIVE tv Interview
Last month saw my first-ever book signing at Barnes and Noble Anchorage, and we SOLD OUT of Eerie!
I did a lot of promotion for the event, including my first LIVE tv interview with the fah-abulous Megan and James with Anchorage’s morning news show, DAYBREAK (on KTVA).
Here’s the link to the interview: https://www.facebook.com/groups/eeriefans/permalink/1003693383055835/
I won’t lie, I was a bit nervous. But Megan and James were SUPER! I felt so at ease with them.
If you haven’t checked out EERIE, it’s a “teen vs monsters in Alaska” novel featuring an Irish dancer from Pittsburgh who enrolls in a ParaScience university in Alaska.
“Deliciously dark, suspenseful, and surprisingly funny.”
There’s a Goodreads giveaway for a signed paperback of EERIE going on now. It’s quick, free, and super easy to enter: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/185806-eerie
Buy links:
One-click for $4.99 (US): www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M19RM/
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eerie-C-M-McCoy-ebook/dp/B0176M6MA6
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/Eerie-C-M-McCoy-ebook/dp/B0176M19RM
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/9781623422332
Apple iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/eerie/id1052918810
BAM: http://www.booksamillion.com/search?query=9781623422332
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/eerie-17
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/C_M_McCoy_Eerie?id=yfDPCgAAQBAJ
May 23, 2016
Cover Reveal: CAN’T FORGET (Adult Sci-Fi Romance) by Colleen S. Myers
About the Book
Can’t Forget
Adult SciFi Romance by Colleen S. Myers
Release Date: 6/6/16
Pre-order for $4.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FYTUW1S/
Summary:
Is it better to be safe or loved?
Four months have passed since the E’mani destroyed the Earth and scooped up the remains. Elizabeth “Beta” Camden was one of those taken. With the help of their enemies, the Fost, she escapes and confronts her prior captors successfully. Though she knows she should remain vigilant toward the E’mani, she follows her heart instead and falls in love with Marin, the sexy Fost warrior.
She should have trusted her first instinct.
This time the E’mani don’t come in force–they slip in silently. And any hope Beta had of a peaceful life is lost. She leaves in the dead of night to find the E’mani stronghold and end them once and for all. But love is a tricky bitch. It takes a threat to Marin’s safety to make Beta realize, if she can’t forget her past, she won’t have a future.
Excerpt:
“That is for later. No peeking.” Well, now I deeply regretted not looking. He must have read my expression because his laughter rang out.
“I love you.”
And just like that he dropped it on me. I froze like a deer in headlights. My heart fluttered. I’d suspected for a while that he did. He’d told it to me in so many small ways since I moved in. I was the first and last thing he thought of every day, that last he had told me. But this was the first time he used the L word. How I felt was more complicated. I was human and he was Fost. And to be honest, I didn’t know what I was anymore, not after the E’mani because I wasn’t me.
He laughed even more at my expression. “It is all right, I do not expect a response, but I wanted you to know.” He glanced down and shifted in his seat.
I pretended it was fine like he said and cleared my throat. “So.”
The silence stretched for a few beats. But it wasn’t all right.
Oh, forget it. I was no good at lying to myself or anyone else. He needed something.
About the Author:
Colleen S. Myers was raised in a large catholic family in the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she grew up on Harlequin teen romances and stories from her mother’s days as a paramedic. She went on to attend Allegheny College majoring in Biology and English.
After college, Colleen spent a year in service in the Americorp giving back to the community at a local Pittsburgh Women Infants and Children Clinic (WICC) before attending Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine on a military scholarship.
Upon completing medical school, Colleen attended residency at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and was on base in Washington, DC during 9/11. She earned three meritorious service awards from the military. After serving seven years of active duty, she promptly landed a position at the VA to provide fellow veterans with optimum medical care. Still an avid fan of romances into adulthood, her love of the genre inspired her to hone her craft as a writer, focusing on contemporary romance and science fiction. Her background in medicine and the military provides an inspiring layer of creative realism to her stories and characters.
Her debut, Must Remember, the first book in the Solum series, is published by Champagne Press. The sequel, Can’t Forget, coming in June 2016, won the 2015 RWA New England Readers Award.
Colleen currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her son, and she spends her spare time writing. She is also working on a new contemporary romance.
Look for her at Three Rivers Romance Writers, at Facebook Colleen Myers, and at @ColleenSMyers.
Social Media Links
FB release party link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1536609336634811/1547040635591681/
Website: http://www.colleensmyers.com/
Blog: http://www.csmyersmusings.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColleenSMyers
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColleenSMyers
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/csmyers3637/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/csmyers3637/
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/114862374558510360435/posts
Linked in:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Colleen-S.-Myers/e/B016XCBKA2/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14553363.Colleen_S_Myers
Buy the Book
Amazon $4.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FYTUW1S/
May 11, 2016
Win a Query + 1st-pg Critique
This one’s for my fellow writers:
Entering #QueryKombat this year? Here’s a chance to get some feedback on your Query plus 1st-pg before you enter. (If you win, I won’t be able to judge your entry in Query Kombat, but there’s plenty of other judges
May 6, 2016
New Book: How To Tame Beasts and Other Wild Things (Adult Romance)
About the Book
How To Tame Beasts and Other Wild Things
Adult Romance by A. Wilding Wells
Release Date: 4/11/16
Buy it for $0.99: www.amzn.com/dp/B01CF8F4GE/
Summary:
My name is Matilda Pearl. My life is a non-stop riddle I hope to one day solve.
I’ve learned to protect my heart; fate has dealt me more than a few shit cards in my twenty-two years. Invisibility tops my list, not to mention tragedy.
I was yanked out of a Paris-France life by my ass of a father, and thrown into a one year journey on a farm in Wisconsin. I’ve been assigned the impossible: Wife Catcher. Simply put, until I replace myself I’m Mary Poppins, the beast tamer, ringmaster of the unruly, complete with twin toddlers and a beast of a man. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to my three-ring circus.
The Beast – Balthazar Cox – is repulsive…as in that sexy, I-just-died-and-went-to heaven sort of repulsive. He walks the earth like he owns it, with his tatted trunk of a body and chiseled-rough, blazing good looks. The beastly Brit – did I mention that he’s English? – also happens to be my widowed brother-in-law, a man haunted by betrayal and abandonment, and for whom I’m on task to find a wife. If I succeed I’ll be rewarded with my juicy trust fund. And, yes, it will happen. You can keep your diamonds and designer clothes…. With my bag of loot, I plan on becoming the Patron Saint of Lost and Found Animals.
When the past resurfaces more than once for both of us, all hell breaks loose. Can you be lost and found at once? In other words, sometimes lies can be cathartic. Some people heal us; some of us heal others.
This is mostly a love story, an unlikely sexy romance with whiplash twists, boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed, and multiple risks of losing everything. It may have more heartache, and drama than some but in the end it’s about truth, discovery and forgiveness. Maybe it was wrong to fall for him. Or maybe the hole in his heart was always waiting for me to fill it. Now there’s a riddle for you.
About the Author:
A Wilding Wells Bio:
I’m a mother of four sons, a country dweller, a foodie, an animal and nature lover and an entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was twenty-three with my husband and partner, the lovely man I am still married to and work with twenty-four years later. Together we’ve always created. I’ve written several books in other genres under a different name. My first novel is A Mess of Reason. My second book, How To Tame Beasts And Other Wild Things, is out now!
Social Media Links
Website: http://www.awildingwells.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/awildingwells
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/awildingwells
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/awildingwells
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/awildingwells
Buy the Book
Amazon: http://www.amzn.com/dp/1530559324/
April 23, 2016
GIVEAWAY: Silver & Diamond Trinity Knot Necklace
Celebrating my first book signing with an sparkly giveaway! Enter to win this gorgeous Sterling Silver with Diamonds Trinity Knot necklace in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.
Plenty of ways to enter, including a daily free entry (so come back every day to get yours) and daily entries for tweeting or posting on FB about EERIE or this giveaway.
If you can make it to the book signing, I’d love to meet you!
What: Book signing and chat with giveaways! Play my fuzzy dice game to win an Eerie or Alaska gift. Meet local Irish Dancers and see an Irish dance demonstration!
When: Saturday, 30 April 2016, 1-3pm
Where: Barnes and Noble in Anchorage, Alaska (200 East Northern Lights Blvd)
Not in Alaska? Join me online for updates, giveaways, and I’ll even post a video in the FaceBook Party (click I’m Going to get more entries in the Rafflecopter): https://www.facebook.com/events/220471354974809/
About Eerie
** featured in the 4 April 2016 issue of PEOPLE Magazine **
Eerie is a Young Adult (YA) Paranormal novel set in Alaska. The book features an 18-year-old Irish dancer from Pittsburgh who enrolls in a ParaScience University in Alaska.
Back cover:
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.
Buy links:
One-click for $4.99 (US): www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M19RM/
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eerie-C-M-McCoy-ebook/dp/B0176M6MA6
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/Eerie-C-M-McCoy-ebook/dp/B0176M19RM
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/9781623422332
Apple iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/eerie/id1052918810
BAM: http://www.booksamillion.com/search?query=9781623422332
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/eerie-17
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/C_M_McCoy_Eerie?id=yfDPCgAAQBAJ
April 1, 2016
#FicFest – A Pitch Contest for Writers
What is #FicFest?
#FicFest is an online pitch contest for writers looking for an agnet. This is an opportunity for you to get your manuscript in front of over 2 dozen literary agents.
Your submission will consist of your query and first chapter.
#FicFest, unlike most pitching contests, is open to manuscripts in ALL genres (including those usually excluded such as Paranormal Romance or Erotica), and it’s open to ALL age categories: Picture Book, Middle Grade, Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult.
Sixty manuscripts will be selected by #FicFest mentors from the pool of entries. Forty-five of those manuscripts will be earmarked for the agent round. Fifteen will be held as alternates in case a one of the forty-five withdraws from the contest.
The forty-five “finalist” authors will receive editing suggestions from an agented/published author or a seasoned editor and will work on revisions for 8 weeks before the agent round. During the agent round, participating agents may request a partial or full manuscript from as many authors as they want with no limits and no bidding.
#FicFest mentors are structured into fifteen (15) separate teams, with 3 teams in each age category. Each team is comprised of a team leader, and two (2) team members. Once the submissions open, each team will choose three (3) finalist manuscripts and one (1) alternate manuscript. This means that an equal number of manuscripts for each age category will move to the agent round. (For example, there are 3 YA teams of 3 mentors each, which means there will be 9 YA manuscripts in the agent round. There will be 9 Picture Book manuscripts, 9 MG, and so on…)
One of the things that sets #FicFest apart from other contests is this uniform number of manuscripts in each age category moving to the agent round. Where most other contests send a majority of YA manuscripts to the final round, #FicFest offers an equal opportunity to writers of other age categories to get this coveted agent visibility.
Approximately two dozen agents will participate in #FicFest.
Entering #FicFest? Want to be my mentee??
Here’s how:
✔ Follow the entry instructions on the Host Blog
✔ Have a YA novel (I’m mentoring a YA author)
✔ Write an intriguing hook. It should be in your first paragraph of your pitch (or your query letter).
It should give me your audience (An eternal skeptic, 18-year-old Henrietta…)
It should give me your MC’s goal–BONUS points for irony (…enrolls in ParaScience University…)
It should give me your MC’s obstacle (…only to find her roommate is a banshee–)
Bonus if you can inject some voice (–a for-real, no-kidding harbinger of death–)
Close with a creative, concise “tell me more” plot summary (who’s just predicted Henrietta’s murder at the hands of an undead professor.)
✔ Follow that with a magnetic first page, and I’ll be beating down your eDoor. 
2016 #FicFest Time Line
March 20, 2016 @ 12:00 PM EST
Guidelines & Theme Reveal
(Host Blog)
March 27, 2016 @ 7:00 PM EST
Meet the Team Leads & Their Members!
(Team Lead Blogs & )
April 3, 2016 @ 6:00 PM EST
Agent List Announced
(Host Blog)
April 17, 2016 @ 7:00 PM EST – 10:00 PM EST
Q & A with Team Leads & Host
(Twitter – Using #FicFest)
April 24, 2016 @ 12:00 AM EST – April 25, 2016 @ 11:59 PM EST
SUBMISSION
April 26, 2016 – May 3, 2016
Teams will chose their finalists/alternate
May 4, 2016 @ 10:00 AM EST
Finalists/Alternate Reveal
(Team Leads Blogs)
May 5, 2016 – June 30, 2016
Revisions
July 8, 2016 @ 12:00 AM EST – July 14, 2014 @ 11:59 PM EST
Agent Round
You can find more information on the host blog:
March 27, 2016
#FicFest YA Team #1 – Scotland
Photo credit: simonthoumire.com
☆҉‿➹⁀☆҉ Team SCOTLAND (Young Adult) ☆҉‿➹⁀☆҉
Are you a YA author?
Yes? Then we WANT you on our team!
Follow us on Twitter: CM McCoy, Dea (D.H) Poirier, Kate Angelella
✔ Brave
✔ Honest
✔ Friendly
✔ Fun-loving
Meet the Mentors
Team Leader: Colleen Oefelein aka C.M. McCoy @eerie_o
Hi! Call me Colleen
My background: I’m a retired Air Force Officer living in Alaska. In the military, I was an engineer in space launch and materials research. When I got out, I moved into law enforcement, working as a 911 call-taker and emergency dispatcher for Alaska State Troopers. Currently, I’m an Irish dancer and mom to a rambunctious 4-year-old. Though I’ve got a B.S from Penn State in Chemical Engineering/Biotechnology and a separate B.S. in German, I’m now working as the PR manager for Inklings Literary Agency, helping authors build their platform and promote their work. Oh, and last year, I hugged Bono.
About my writing: I write YA, and NA novels, usually involving Alaska, monsters, and an awkward kiss. I love all books dark and edgy.
My debut novel, Eerie (YA/Crossover Paranormal) is featured in a 3-pg interview I gave for the April 4, 2016 issue of PEOPLE Magazine. Eerie released in Dec 2015 by Omnific Publishing/Simon and Schuster. My YA Thriller, 30 Days with Dr. Death, won 1st place in RWA’s Put Your Heart in a Book contest. I’m editing it for submission through my agent, Michelle Johnson, of Inklings Literary Agency. My memoir is out on submission through my non-fiction agent, Sharleen Martin, of Martin Literary Management.
My mentoring/editing style: I’m a thoughtful, brainstorming kind of mentor/editor. My comments are genuine, specific, kindly put, and followed up with suggestions/options. I usually begin with a quick manuscript or synopsis read-through to evaluate the story arc, characters, and pacing. Once I get a grip on those elements, I go back through and note any specific sections of dialogue, subplots, or plot holes that need attention. I like to work with MS Word comments.
My pledge:
✔ I will never write anything to you that I myself wouldn’t want said about my manuscript, my beloved child, or my butt and thighs. (Stolen from an RWA set of contest guidelines, because I love it.)
✔ I will never tell you there’s only one right way to do something.
Example: Lots of people like head-hopping. Lots of people are POV purists. Insisting there’s only one right way to tell a story won’t help anybody. There are trends and expectations, however, especially in YA (see this awesome post on writing YA by Team Scotland Mentor Kate Angelella), and if I see something in your MS, which may make it less likely to sell, I’ll point it out.
✔ I will keep in touch with you throughout your writing career.
My selection process: There are agents in #FicFest open to all genres of YA. I’m searching for an entry that hooks me in the 1st three pages with a fresh premise and beautifully voicey writing.
I’ll do a quick scan of the queries for storylines that grab me. From there, I’ll read a bit of each entry and begin whittling down my list. I need drama in my life, so I’ll select a MS that gets my heart pumping. It’ll be something that excites me as a reader, and it will be something I want to work on and champion. First and foremost, I want a great story with great writing, and I don’t care what your or your MC’s skin color, religion, or sexual orientation is. To me a great manuscript is great regardless of these things.
I read all genres, but I often gravitate to these:
Romance (all sub-genres)
Anything with romantic elements
Anything dark
Fantasy (except high fantasy)
Paranormal
Magical Realism
Urban Fantasy
Contemporary
Thriller
Mystery
Suspense
Team Scotland‘s AWESOME Mentors
Photo Credit: www.scrawnytobrawny.com
Dea PoirierDea (D.H) Poirier was raised in Edmond, Oklahoma, where she got her start writing in creative writing courses. She attended The University of Central Oklahoma for Computer Science. Later, she spent time living on both coasts, and traveling the United States, before finally putting down roots in Central Florida. She now resides somewhere between Disney and the swamp, with her husband, son, two dogs and two cats.
She spends her days at her day job as an Internet Marketing Manager, and her nights writing Young Adult Manuscripts.
D.H. Poirier is represented by Laura Bradford of the Bradford Literary Agency.
Dea’s mentoring/editing style: “I give highly constructive, straight-forward, and detailed feedback. My advice will cover plot development, character development, and voice.”
Dea’s selection process: “I want a manuscript that will capture me and hold me hostage. Build a world so deep and rich, that I never want to leave, and you’ll have my attention. I’ll slowly whittle down the top entries until I find the one that I just can’t live without.”
Dea gravitates to these genres:
Historical
Thrillers
Horror
Magical Realism
Paranormal Romance (no creatures)
Dystopian
Urban Fantasy
Anything speculative
I also like LGBT and diverse characters
Website: dhpoirier.com
Twitter: @PoirierPages (https://twitter.com/PoirierPages)
Kate AngelellaKate Angelella began her career working as an in-house editor for Simon & Schuster in New York City. There, she edited for the chapter book, middle-grade, tween, and YA book markets. During her time at S&S, Kate edited Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. She also acquired 30+ original novels, including the first published novels of multiple literary award-winner Kekla Magoon and #1 New York Times Bestselling author Nova Ren Suma.
Kate believes that everyone has something important to say—everyone has a story to tell. She wants to help you make your story the very best that it can be. Her critiques are thorough, yet compassionate. She looks forward to working with you to develop your skill, hone your craft, and find your voice.
Kate’s mentoring/editing style: “My mentoring/editing style: I am an extremely thorough and direct editor, but I believe that compassion and kindness are an essential part of the process. I won’t pull any punches, but I look at revision as a collaboration; I’ll guide you through edits step by step.”
Kate’s selection process: “YA novels with voice steal my heart every time. I read across all genres, but the novels with authentic, vivid voice are what get me to invest in both character and story. My favorite novels always seem to contain a little bit of magic.”
Kate gravitates to these genres:
Magical realism
Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
Anything having to do with fairy tales
I also love a killer contemporary
Website: http://kateangelella.com/
Twitter: @kateangelella (https://twitter.com/kateangelella)
March 26, 2016
Eerie — Featured in PEOPLE Magazine
This past December, Jeff Truesdell of People Magazine made his first trip to Alaska to meet with us and discuss how cathartic writing has been these past few years.
It was an interview that stretched over 3 days and included a presentation to a local high school ROTC class, a photo shoot, a video shoot, and a few sit-down interviews. Add a rambunctious 4-year-old to the mix and you get one tired mama and dada at the end of the day 
March 24, 2016
How I handle online bullies
I did an interview with PEOPLE magazine on how cathartic writing has been. It’s in this issue:
The response has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive, but of course there are trolls out there.
The other day, a friend called, worried when she saw some hateful comments directed at me. She felt helpless and didn’t want to be a bystander when she saw something so wrong happening, but she didn’t know what to do. She wondered if I should stand up for myself.
I learned long ago these trolls just want attention, and even negative attention gives them the high they seek, so I just ignore them. I don’t even read anonymous comments, and if I get a hateful email, I simply delete it
