Alyne Hart's Blog, page 15

Rocking Autumn has gotten a Book Make-Over

I’ve always loved graphic design. Before deciding to delve into writing, I did design for eight years where I ran my own business designing scrapbooking materials. In all that time I used just an old school version of Photoshop 7.

I’ve designed all my covers, graphics and teasers in it – but what I could do was limited. Well recently a good friend gifted me the entire Creative Suite and my mind is blown. I took some courses and dove in to try and create my own full cover. I’m pretty excited by the results!

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I cannot wait to order myself a copy and see what it looks like in print!

I’ve added a new author service. If you hop over HERE you will see all the pre-designed eBook covers I have for sale. As soon as I feel I’ve mastered full covers, those will be available as well.

Pick up your copy of Rocking Autumn today!  It’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon → US https://goo.gl/nNxvzK

Amazon → UK https://goo.gl/iC8hGK

Amazon → CAN https://goo.gl/7pSZrE

Amazon → DE https://goo.gl/AxgSAR

Amazon → FR https://goo.gl/ct7FzN

Amazon → AU https://goo.gl/tDJA8T

Paperback → https://goo.gl/V6FcXA

Also remember, The Island is on SALE for just 99 cents all of October.

Amazon Kindle US: http://amzn.to/2v0Vd6r

I will be back later this week with exciting info as I have tons going on this month, starting with a Goodreads Giveaway and MORE. Much, much more!

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Booktober parties and giveaways!

Who’s ready to party for BookTober? I have SO much fun stuff going on…and all kinds of giveaways going on.

All links will be posted closer to the giveaway dates!

Oct 12-20 → Goodreads giveaway of a signed paperback

Oct 13 → Big goodie pack giveaway here

Oct 16-20 → Foster an Author

Oct 28 → Facebook take over with a pretty grand rad prize and lots of little prizes

Nov 1 → another Facebook takeover with a rad grand prize and lots of little prizes

Add Rocking Autumn to your Goodreads to read list today!https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36227370-rocking-autumn

Rocking Autumn is FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon → US https://goo.gl/nNxvzK

Amazon → UK https://goo.gl/iC8hGK

Amazon → CAN https://goo.gl/7pSZrE

Amazon → DE https://goo.gl/AxgSAR

Amazon → FR https://goo.gl/ct7FzN

Amazon → AU https://goo.gl/tDJA8T

Paperback → https://goo.gl/V6FcXA

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As always remember → The Island is 99 cents all of October!

Amazon Kindle US: http://amzn.to/2v0Vd6r

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071HW4VN6

Amazon AU https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B071HW4VN6

Amazon CA https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B071HW4VN6

Amazon DE https://www.amazon.de/dp/B071HW4VN6

Paperback: http://amzn.to/2iocOmt

The Island is a sexy and unexpectedly sweet MFM romance. Read all about it →HERE

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Rocking Autumn Excerpt 2

Chapter 14

Now I really feel like I can’t breathe. I stand solid, frozen in one place, watching Jax leave the stage. Everyone tries to stop him to chat or to shake his hand, but his steel blue eyes are locked on mine as he pushes forward past them. A voice is saying something over the loud speaker, and I can’t hear it. Every part of me is focused solely on the sexiest, sweetest man I’ve ever known walking straight towards me.

When he reaches me, I still can’t say anything, and I don’t think he can either. We just stand there staring at each other for ages. Jax moves an inch closer and my entire body braces, ready for his touch. “I wrote it last night,” he murmurs with a sexy, wicked grin. “Did you like it?”

I nod, blinking rapidly and trying to think of what to say.

“Well I’ll be a son of a bitch,” a loud, booming voice interrupts us. “Jaxon West and Autumn Brooks as I live and breathe.”

Both of our heads snap to the side in recognition of the owner of that voice. Gus Morris.

My face breaks into a massive grin. I haven’t seen Gus or been to his store in, well, the nearly ten years Jax has been gone. Gus owns and runs a tiny mom and pop grocery store on the outskirts of town. Almost every day for four years, except Sundays, Jax and I visited Gus and bought soda and candy. We rode our bikes until Jax got his driver’s license and his Dad let us take the Caddy out every once in awhile. I can still remember those drives, with oldies stations blaring out of the stereo, warm wind, and holding hands.

“Hi Gus,” I smile. Jax echoes the same behind me.

“I always knew you two would stay together.” He winks and his big, bright red cheeks shine with his smile. “There was always somethin’ special ‘bout you.”

I don’t correct him, and neither does Jax. For that I’m grateful. It’s easier than trying to explain it anyway. He asks us both questions about how we are, how our parents are and if we have any children yet. We oblige him with answers as truthfully as we can, and as we talk with Gus, Jax sneaks his hand into my palm and twines his fingers with mine.

“Well I best be findin’ the missus,” he excuses himself. “This is her favorite song, and she’ll ‘bout kill me if I don’t dance with her. Don’t be strangers now, you hear me?”

“Bye Gus,” I call out, my hand feeling warm against Jax’s. “Should we go find a place to sit for the fireworks?” I turn, not sure of what else to say to him.

“Dance with me,” he says, facing me.

“I hate dancing at things like this,” I look up. “Everyone is watching us.”

Jax sighs. “Autumn, just dance with me and pretend no one else is around. It’s just you and me, this Keith Urban song, the stars, and nothing else.”

I don’t argue with that, and I let him pull me into his chest, wrapping my arms loosely around his neck. Together we move slowly to the music, and it’s like everything I feel is multiplied by a thousand. His heart pounding through his tight white T-shirt, his warm breath against my neck, and the soft but firm way his hands hold me—one hand on my hip and the other around my ribs. My body molds into his, and I feel it. That thing. That magic spark.

Capturing his blues with my browns, my breath catches in my throat, and my lips curl upwards into a smile. Jax grins and snatches one of my arms from around his neck, twirling me around twice before pulling me back into him with my backside pressed against his groin. He captures both of my hands in his, crossing our arms together over my body in an X, pressing the side of his face to my cheek. The heat of his mouth is so close to my skin, I think the second I turn around, his lips will be pressing against mine.

When the song ends, Jax surprises me. He doesn’t kiss me. He doesn’t even try.

Rocking Autumn is FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon → US https://goo.gl/nNxvzK

Amazon → UK https://goo.gl/iC8hGK

Amazon → CAN https://goo.gl/7pSZrE

Amazon → DE https://goo.gl/AxgSAR

Amazon → FR https://goo.gl/ct7FzN

Amazon → AU https://goo.gl/tDJA8T

Paperback → https://goo.gl/V6FcXA

Add it to your Goodreads List → www.goodreads.com/book/show/36223753-...

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NaNoWriMo novel announcement!

I did NaNoWriMo for two years in a row (before my two year writing block took over) where I completed The Island and started another novel titled The Lost Boy. The Island got finished, The Lost Boy is something on the back burner for me as it doesn’t fit my genre-however, I will finish it one day.

I’ve decided to participate this year, to motivate me to write the novel I hope to publish around February! Without further ado-drumroll please:

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The Beautiful and The Broken.

I haven’t written a proper blurb for it yet. But it’s a classic opposites attract, with a little forbidden fruit of an ex-best friend’s little sister, and of course my own little twists. Dean is the boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Emma is the good girl who grew up sheltered on her family apple orchard. Dean strives to be a professional boxer, and does underground (ie illegal) fights to make enough money to support his ailing grandmother while all Emma wants to do is leave the ranch to get back to college and get her degree in fine arts so she can open a dance studio. Insert family drama, money woes and heart ache – not to mention some heat hot enough to start a fire between Emma and Dean.

So what are you writing for NaNo?

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The Island on sale for 99 cents!

It’s BookTober!

I started to sit up to look at him, but he came towards me and pressed his mouth against mine. His lips were soft and warm, and I pushed my tongue into his mouth sliding it against his. I didn’t have time to think—or maybe I just couldn’t. I couldn’t hear my thoughts over the crashing of my heart in my chest. So out of my mind with longing for this man I was— I couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried. When our kisses grew urgent, and my breath started to come in rapid shallow pants, I grasped his biceps and pulled him closer. He responded by climbing onto my bed.

The Island #Free on #KindleUnlimited and on sale for #99cents October 1-31st

Amazon Kindle US: http://amzn.to/2v0Vd6r

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071HW4VN6

Amazon AU https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B071HW4VN6

Amazon CA https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B071HW4VN6

Amazon DE https://www.amazon.de/dp/B071HW4VN6

Paperback: http://amzn.to/2iocOmt

The Island is a sexy and unexpectedly sweet MFM romance. Read all about it →HERE

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Meet Autumn – Character Interview

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Name: Autumn Jane Brooks, or AJ as my friends call me

Place of birth: Hood River, Oregon

Parents: Steve and Cheryll Brooks

Siblings: I was an only child

Places lived: I lived in Hood River until I was eleven, then my family moved to Walla Walla. I took off at nineteen to live in LA, but I came back a couple of years later.

Favorite subject in school: Art. Always art!

Jobs: I run Brooks Books and Patisserie with the help of my bestie, Hadley

Do you like yourself: Yeah, I guess. I mean…sure. I like myself. I’m a nice person.

What, if anything, would you like to change in your life: Nothing really. I have a great job. Great friends and a cute little condo. Maybe a nicer car? The Subaru is kind of a soccer mom car.

How much self-control and self-discipline do you have: Usually a lot. Except when it comes to one person…

Best way to spend a weekend: Grabbing a cocktail with Hadley at PH 124, snuggling with Jasper my cat and binging on Netflix shows, doing some yoga and maybe going for a hike.

What do you carry in your pockets/purse/backpack, etc.?  Oh my gosh, what don’t I carry? Wallet, about six lipglosses, sunglasses, rosewater spray for my skin, lotion, tons of old receipts that need to be thrown out. It’s just a mess.

What emotion/feeling are you afraid to experience? Love….

Rocking Autumn is available now! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075KPTYMG

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Meet Jax – Character Interview

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Name: Jaxon Anthony West. Everyone calls me Jax.

Sex: Is this the set up for a cheesy fucking joke? I’m male.

Age: Twenty eight

Interesting physical characteristics: Define interesting. Like do I have a second head or three arms? I’m tall-if that’s interesting.

Background:

Where and when were you born? Twenty eight years ago in Walla Walla, Washington.

Where have you lived? Walla Walla and Chicago.

Interview:

1.    What do you carry in your pockets/purse/backpack, etc.? A notebook and tons of pens and pencils for writing. My iPad, phone charger, gym clothes-pretty basic shit really.

2.    How do you feel about your home/living space? It’s pretty small. It’s a six hundred square foot studio. But it works for me and Buzz, my cat.

3.    What early event shaped you the most? My uncle Kenny teaching me how to play guitar and introducing me to rock and roll. Led Zeppelin, The Stones. All the good shit.

4.    Where is your favorite place and why? I have a few. The gazebo at the park in Walla Walla is one of them. But nothing beats the stage, it’s a fucking rush.

5.    What are your most important values? I’ve never really thought about it. I guess that I never give up, and I give everything a hundred and fifty percent.

6.    What emotion/feeling are you afraid to experience? Failure. Is that a feeling? I’m my own worst critic so failure might mean something different to me.

Rocking Autumn is available now! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075KPTYMG

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Rocking Autumn Excerpt

Chapter 27

When The Living Room Sessions take the stage, my stomach is full of butterflies, and my heart is pounding like a wild animal in a cage. I focus in on one person, and one person only. Jax swaggers onto the stage with his guitar slung across his back.

Jax can say what he wants. He can call himself a musician. A guitar player. Whatever it is he calls himself which is anything besides a rock star.

Tonight he is a freaking rock star. He looks like a god standing on that stage. Celestial blue and purple lights wash over him, casting a deep night sky tinted hue across his black hair that falls so effortlessly across his forehead. A thin cloud of foggy mist drifts at his feet making him look like he’s just arrived from some kind of rock and roll heaven.

When he spots me standing just feet from the stage, he winks and blows me a kiss. I don’t even know how hard I blush, but I’m thankful for the darkness. I throw one back at him, wondering what the cat squad at the bar would be saying about that.

“CHICAGO,” Luke calls into the microphone, followed by the cheers of the audience. “It’s fucking good to be home. Let’s show ‘em how it’s done and blow the roof off this motherfucker tonight.”

They start to play and, holy shit, they’re incredible. I haven’t heard him play, like really play, in ten years. It’s hands down the sexiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

The music is pounding and ear-splitting. It’s hard and intense, but so rich and thick with dark melodies that I’m completely mesmerized. The vocals shared between Luke and Jax are profound and poetic. I’m hypnotized.

Jax moves around the stage, his guitar thrusting forward with his hips. His black hair is falling across his forehead only to fly backward with one flip of his head over his shoulders. It makes me think of sex. The look on his face and the way he moves. It’s like he’s fucking everyone in the audience, seducing all of us who are lucky enough to be caught in his web.

Mid-show he takes off his white tank top, which is undoubtedly wet with sweat like his entire torso is. The fine sheen of it glistening under the purplish lighting makes every muscle on his body stand out. He keeps looking at me and smiling from the stage, filling my stomach with anxious butterflies, and the black lacy panties I have on with a warm wetness.

Towards the end of the hour-long set, Jax grabs the mic in front of him and winks at me. “My amazingly fucking beautiful girlfriend, Autumn is here tonight,” he calls out, pointing to me in the audience. I’m glad it’s dark because tingling red heat fills my cheeks once again. “I wrote this song for her about five years ago when she still hated my fucking guts—”

The crowd cheers and whistles.

“If you know it, sing along. It’s called, ‘Rocking Autumn.’”

*Rocking Autumn lyrics*

It has the same haunting, dark and melodic tone of the rest of their songs. But it’s softer somehow. Instead of screaming the lyrics, Luke sings them in a drawn out ethereal sounding murmur. Jax hammers away at his guitar and stares at me the entire time. I have to gulp down a breath of air.

In fact, he makes such a show of staring at me that I feel like everyone’s eyes are on me by the end of the song. Still, I can’t tear my eyes from the electric blue ones that hold me hostage from where he’s standing. When the song is over, he slings his guitar across his back and jumps off the side of the stage and stalks towards me.

Before I know it, one of his hands is clutching my ass closer to him, and the other is clinging to the side of my face. “I fucking love you, Autumn.” He grins before kissing me.

Around us, people are going crazy cheering us on. But I’m too lost to Jax to pay them any mind.

Amazon → US https://goo.gl/nNxvzK

Amazon → UK https://goo.gl/iC8hGK

Amazon → CAN https://goo.gl/7pSZrE

Amazon → DE https://goo.gl/AxgSAR

Amazon → FR https://goo.gl/ct7FzN

Amazon → AU https://goo.gl/tDJA8T

Paperback → https://goo.gl/V6FcXA

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Dating Myself (Day 7 Slow Down Plan)

I realize what a comical thing that is. The romance writer who has no romance in her life. I suppose it’s because I’m picky. I don’t want just anyone. I’m big on energy and chemistry. I want a best friend that try as we might – we can’t go to sleep because we can’t stop talking laughing. But I want that magical thing too. That thing deep in your stomach that says “YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS” every time you look at them. That thing where your eyes light up and you just can’t stop smiling.

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I’ve been single now, in the sense that I am not married or with a long-term partner, for three years. I remember when I first became single. I remember thinking how fun it would be to date. I’d come out of a 10 year, and an 11-year relationship respectively – and I can clearly remember my first date back on the dating scene.

God I was so eager and nervous – almost like I’d been when I was a teenager. I bought a cute new outfit, new perfume…I came home grinning ear  to ear and wondered what I had been so nervous about. This was fun!

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I entered into the dating world only to face one disappointment after the next. I dated seemingly normal men (on the surface) only to find them full of so much baggage, or who wore their pasts like suits of armor that I couldn’t find my way in. I dated people who were not my usual type, thinking that if I broke the mold maybe I’d find a knight out there somewhere. But when you realize the golden chalice being handed to you is really just a tin foil covered styrofoam cup held by a pit stop cowboy – you drop that shit like it’s hot.

I called the whole thing off after being swayed by one sexy grin and cheesy line too many.

It was all bullshit.

It’s safe to say I am not desperate for a relationship. I actually enjoy being alone. I’d say sixty to seventy percent of the time, I actually prefer being alone and think that I’d be perfectly happy being that way for the rest of my life. I like quiet activities and I’ve always been a bit on the loner side. I enjoy reading and watching movies and playing games and writing. Sometimes I find too much social activity draining. If I’m in a bad mood – I don’t have to grit my teeth and not bite someone’s head off – because there is no one there to bite. If I want to wear the same pajama pants every night for a week – I do it. Sometimes I revel in alone time. And let’s face it – I really don’t want to clean anyone’s whiskers out of the sink every day.

But then I think about how nice it might be to have someone to share the quiet moments with. Someone to sit in bed and watch movies with and lay with and kiss. I’m a physical person, and closeness is something I desire.

I did once find the love I had been hoping to find. It was easy, it was comfortable and beyond passionate. I feel like that’s all I kind of want to say about that. However, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why that ONE affected me so deeply. And though I’ve gotten over it, it sometimes still makes me a little sad. I think that by allowing myself to love him, but let him go, my heart has fully repaired itself.

I come off sometimes as cold or aloof, I know this about myself. I have a lot of walls up. I work really hard to be strong and courageous. But deep down I’m just as fragile as the rest of them. When I found something that fed the fragility of my ego and heart – it just felt right. I never thought it would end – or at least I had hoped it wouldn’t for a long time. I wasn’t prepared for it (are we ever really?) and I wasn’t prepared for how profoundly it would hurt.

I keep getting asked out on dates, and I keep turning it down. I’ve pissed a few people off. And that’s okay.

For now I am going to date myself. Buy me flowers. Take me out for coffee and lunch. Make myself special dinners and buy fancy bottles of wine. I am going to date myself. Because maybe all along I’ve been trying to push square pegs into round holes…

 

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Vlog | Living With Depression

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