Lauralynn Elliott's Blog, page 32

New Release by J.R. Pearse Nelson!

My good friend and fellow author just released her latest book, Queen Witch. Isn’t the cover awesome? And the book is FULL of awesome. I loved it!

Here are the details:

QUEEN WITCH

FOULWEATHER TWINS, BOOK ONE

Stubborn and suspicious are two qualities that don’t go over well in the Queen family…

Where does my story truly begin? Maybe with the birth of twins to a soon-dead witch. Or possibly with the name bestowed on me by the Lady, the immortal we serve. She called me Sage, and my sister Wren. The Foulweather twins. As I choose to see it, my story begins when I first participated in the course of my life. When I started making my own decisions, despite everything I’d been taught. Forced recluse with a secret life? That’s me.

Sage Brighton is a young woman of incredible power, but she doesn’t decide how that power is used, or anything else about her life. As a witch of the Queen family, and a twin, Sage will serve the Lady all her days. The immortal has plans for Sage and her twin Wren. They are to be her Hands, her enforcers in the mortal, modern world. But first Sage must survive her training, learn to control her sociopathic sister without getting maimed in the process, and all the while try to keep something of her life for her own.

Excerpt:

     “Wren, take it easy!” I shouted to my sister over the howling winds that whipped along the rock-studded beach and stirred the crashing waves into froth.

     Instead, my twin threw all of her power against me, knocking aside the rock I’d held there for her, hovering in mid-air despite the fierce wind. I scowled, but played along, raising rock after rock as she dashed them back to the earth.

     Wren’s expression was a mirror of my own as we faced off. We were identical, on the surface, even if we had little in common outside the physical. The wind had already stripped strands of Wren’s long dark hair out of the braid I’d done for her not half an hour ago. Deep gray clouds studding the horizon spoke of a rainstorm on the way.

     Finally, Wren threw one of the stones far. It flew past me, into the waves. I made sure not to gape; she loved to show her superior strength in these games, and I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of knowing it bothered me.

     “My turn.” I told her, watching the trail behind her for any sign of movement. If the aunts caught us at it, we’d be days recovering from the pile of chores that would result. Since we hadn’t started twin school, we were supposed to use our powers sparingly. Too many twins explored their powers in dangerous ways without the proper training and ended up dead before they could be of any service to the Lady at all. But tell that to a pair of fourteen-year-olds who could move matter with their minds. We couldn’t resist.

     Wren raised a boulder first. A bead of sweat rolled down her temple as she concentrated her energy on the single rock. Instead of doing as she’d done, I twisted it, raising my own rock and beating it against the boulder, attempting to dislodge it and send it back to sea or sand. One rock wasn’t enough, so I was in the middle of raising an army of rocks – not one of my better ideas – when we were interrupted.

     A ball of white fur hurtled toward us. The dog had gotten pretty close before I noticed it, and Wren’s back was to it. It started barking before I could warn her, a sharp yip that made Wren jump. She dropped the boulder, which shattered into two pieces as it hit the rocks below. I stared at it for a split second. Breaking rocks. Now that was cool.

     I didn’t have time to say anything before Wren twisted to face the dog, now a scarce ten feet from her. She threw up a hand and a wave of sand and rock lifted the dog off its feet, and sent it flipping through the air.

     It was then that I noticed a man running toward us from farther down the beach, obviously coming after his dog. He stopped, confused, when he saw Wren’s action. I couldn’t be sure what he thought he saw, but I let out a little shriek that alerted Wren to his presence. If there was any rule that governed our lives, it was don’t use powers around strangers.

     The dog landed on all fours and gave a final yip before scurrying off with his tail between his legs and his ears flat against his head.

     I grabbed Wren’s hand, holding tight despite her protest, and ran toward the wooded trail. I expected to hear the man yell behind us, but if he said anything at all, the wind tore the words away before they reached my ears.

     Around a bend in the trail I slowed and dropped Wren’s hand angrily. She clasped her hands together and looked at the ground. She could tell I was mad, but I knew she had no idea why. That frustrated me even more.

     “Wren! You cannot lash out like that with your power. Don’t you know you could hurt somebody?”

     “It was a dog. An annoying dog,” she told me resentfully.

     “Did you see the man running toward us?” I didn’t even have to ask. “Wren. We’ve been over this. We’re not even supposed to use our powers like that around the aunts, much less around a stranger. You can’t act like that. We don’t own the beach, you know.”

     “We were there first.”

     “No matter. If you can’t control yourself, I’m not playing.” I stalked off, too upset to say more right now. I might say something I’d regret. Not that my sister would notice. She could be selfish, not to mention dangerously out of control. Our temperaments were polar opposites. My sister was quiet, shy, and didn’t care for people. In fact, as she’d just shown, she could be dangerous. It wasn’t that Wren actively disliked people; it was that she didn’t care. Another person’s joy, or their pain, never really got through to her.

     I stayed ahead of Wren the whole way home, taking our usual path alone. I don’t know if she trailed me or took another route. Sometimes I got tired of caring. She could find her own way home. She was capable of that much.

     I strolled by my friend David’s house, but didn’t see any signs of life no matter how slow I walked. I hadn’t seen him in weeks, which was unusual for the summer months. His family lived in the city, but came to their coastal cabin for many weekends, regardless of the time of year. In the summer even more so, as his mom exchanged the heat of city sidewalks for the serenity of a beachfront paradise, taking her kids along. David’s mom always dressed in flowery prints, bright and sunny, just like her smile. David was lucky; his family was nice. Normal.

     I’d known David since I was six. When he stayed at his family’s cabin, we had a secret way to exchange messages, and several secret places we loved to meet.

     I hoped he’d be back soon. I was getting lonely with no one but my twin for company. You might think that would be enough, a twin to share everything with. I loved my sister, but sometimes she wasn’t great company. And I had no normal friends, not the way most kids my age had friends, from what David said. I didn’t go to school. A cousin who lived in the cliff-top house with us home schooled Wren and me. We didn’t really see anyone besides cousins, aunts and uncles. Some of the cousins were close to our age, but none of them were twins. That set us apart, in our family.

     Among the Queen witches twins were precious and saved for the family’s immortal patron. Twins like us were raised to serve the Lady, as her Hands. In some ways, my twin was the only person I was taught to rely on. Our duality shaped our world and our obligations. I was only a kid and already I’d noticed that. The rest of the family held us apart, somewhat reverently, but that didn’t help children who just wanted to get in on their cousins’ games.

     I continued along the small winding road toward home, a chill running through me when I considered what had almost happened on the beach. Wren had almost hurt someone. Would she ever learn caution? Would I always have to remind her to control her emotions, and her power? Would I always be there when she needed reminding?

     These thoughts woke a fear that had long lived under my skin. What would the Lady do if she knew how Wren sometimes lost control and struck out with her power? The Queen witches hid their powers from the world. We lived outside of everything, having only as much contact with the mainstream as necessary. We didn’t mix, it was just too dangerous.

     The Lady made her family from distinguished magical bloodlines, adopting and even rescuing witches as they were persecuted across the centuries and around the world. Regular people didn’t understand witches; especially witches bred to their powers like thoroughbred horses to the race.

Bio

J.R. Pearse Nelson is a fantasy and paranormal romance author. Her work is fast-paced, adventurous, and sometimes dark.

J.R. is a native Oregonian, residing in the beautiful Portland area. She lives with her husband, two small daughters and the family dog. J.R. is always searching for the magic in our world. She weaves tales rooted in mythology, bringing legend to life in modern-day and fantasy settings. J.R. is the author of the Children of the Sidhe paranormal romance series, and Queen Witch, the first installment of the Foulweather Twins series.

You can connect with J.R. online at her blog. Visit www.jrpearsenelson.com

Full of Randomness

First, I want to let everyone know that Zoe Winters has her book, Save My Soul for FREE on Amazon. Here is the link: Save My Soul

Next, I want to mention that I’ve been trying to go natural with some of my skin care products. I’m not one of those people who think everything has to be organic, but I’m experimenting a little with different things. What started me finding some of these natural products on etsy.com is this blog Sparkling Reviews. I found the blog a awhile back when Mary favorably reviewed one of my books. I started following the blog. You should subscribe because there are usually giveaways related to the products reviewed, and I’ve actually won something. Most of the reviews lately have been Etsy shops. And I’ve been buying from some of the shops that have been reviewed. One of the things I love about natural skin care is that it usually smells AMAZING. And it feels so good on your skin. I’ve bought moisturizer, masks, soap, shampoo, and even eye shadow. Here are some of my favorite Etsy shops:

BabblingBrookSoap

MadisonStreetBeauty

EchoFriendlyLiving

Okay, and a couple of “edible” shops:

dellcovespices

jewelofthelion

I’ve placed an order for some ingredients to make my own moisturizer. I’ll let you know how THAT turns out.

In puppy news, we finally got Duke a place to run in the yard. He’s restrained but has LOTS of running room. He seems to be okay with it. I guess it’s better than being cooped up in a garage all day. And now my car can go back in the garage! Yay. And now there’s no poop in there.

My Toilet Runneth Over

Okay, if you think that title is a witty way of saying something about writing, you would be wrong. The title is actually literal.

This morning, I was getting ready for work. I had been to the bathroom and had just put my contact lenses in. My husband decided he would get up and go to the bathroom, which irritated me because I needed to go again. But I was willing to wait…and wait. When he finished, he flushed the toilet. Suddenly, all the water (and everything else) started rushing out of the bowl. It wasn’t one of those where when it’s stopped up it just slowly starts to overflow. No, this was a deluge. Hubby tried to stop the horror with paper towels, but the water was faster than he was. Now keep in mind, I have a BIG bathroom where the toilet is in a little room by itself. The water kept coming and soon the WHOLE bathroom floor was covered. I tried to walk in there with my flip flops (I don’t know why) and it came up over them and onto my toes. Then the smell hit me. Hubby almost had to clean up vomit. I started gagging and had to rush out of the room. Soon, I was going to be late for work, and I still had to go to the bathroom. I rushed to the other bathroom, hoping this was a one toilet problem, and not our septic tank. Whew, at least that wasn’t a problem. So now, what was I going to do about my shower and brushing my teeth? Hubby was still cleaning up (ahem) water. I happened to have some of those cleansing cloths, so instead of a shower, I had a little “cloth bath”. I couldn’t bring myself to brush my teeth, since it makes me gag most of the time anyway, so I swished with Listerine, and brought a toothbrush to work. After much Lysol, the floor was finally clean, just in time for me to put on my make-up. But my HUSBAND wasn’t clean. Although he had on disposable gloves, his feet were filthy. Poor guy finally got into the shower. I got off to work. My cats watched the fiasco from the safety of the bedroom. Luckily, I don’t think anything seeped into the bedroom carpet. I see a steam cleaning of the floor happening tonight.

So…how was YOUR morning?

Sunday Update 2/10/13

Well, I only wrote two days this week (my goal is five days), but that’s better than not writing at all. Which is what I had been doing…or NOT doing. Tues-999, Sat-774.

I’m not sure I like the setting in my WIP, so I might change it. This is supposed to be a fairly spooky ghost story. Right now, I have it set in a little town on the beach in the pan handle of Florida. I love that beach, but it’s really not eerie enough. I feel like there should be waves crashing against the rocks, like in Maine or somewhere. Somewhere gloomier. I was trying to do something a little different, but I don’t know if it’s going to work.

What do you all think? Can there be a spooky story on the beaches of Florida. Or is it just too sunny and laid back for that?

Puppy Pics

I’m sure you all remember Daisy who came to our house a few months ago. Well, she followed our old dog into the woods, and she never came back. I’ve heard a dog since then barking (happy barking), and I’m sure it’s her, so I think a neighbor through the woods kept her. She had a collar, but it didn’t have our name on it, so…. Anyway, I know any of our neighbors would take good care of her, and we really weren’t ready for another dog, especially since our other dog is old. But now a new puppy has come into our lives. For some reason, people tend to dump unwanted animals in our area. This puppy was only about 8 weeks old, and we all instantly fell in love. We took him and got his shots and wormer, and we got an identification tag. My son also got him a tag with his name (Duke), our phone numbers, and our address. But, now, we have to keep him in the garage because we don’t want him running off. So there is much poop cleaning in the garage. We’re working on a better way to keep him restrained since we can’t afford a fence. I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the little darling. The first picture is at about 8 weeks. The second picture is now (a little less than 3 months), but the picture makes him look smaller than he is. He went from 10 lbs. to 20 lbs. in 3 weeks! So heeerrrreeee’s Duke!

See all the little pieces of trash around Duke? Well, that’s only part of what he does to the garage. i wish I had taken pictures of some of his little disasters. Soda cans, potting soil, poop…

Fitness Friday – Ten Reasons for Losing Weight

1. Losing weight helps control diabetes (I REALLY hope I can get off insulin).

2. Losing weight can help prevent heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses.

3. Losing weight can give you a whole new wardrobe because you can suddenly wear clothes that have been in your closet for a long time.

4. Losing weight can boost your self-confidence and give you a feeling of accomplishment.

5. Losing weight can make you finally weigh less than your husband. (I’m not there yet, but I’m getting close.)

6. Losing weight can keep your body from continuing to move after you’ve stopped jumping up and down for joy.

7. Losing weight can make you able to shop longer…so, you know, you can buy more stuff.

8. Losing weight can make you able to tie your shoes straight instead of off to the side. (Does anyone understand what I mean here?)

9. Losing weight can make you feel more confident when you’re going to Las Vegas for the RNConvention in August and you’re going to meet the cover model (Jimmy Thomas) that’s been on many of your books.

10. Losing weight can make you want to start helping OTHER people be healthier because your excitement is contagious. Yay!

Those are just a few. Some of them are humorous and some are serious. But they are all relevant, at least in my case.

Stats for this week:

Beginning weight: 193

Today’s weight: 178.5

This week’s loss: 1.5 lbs.

Total loss: 14.5 lbs.

Selling Through PayPal?

I was wondering if any of you have had any experience selling on your website with PayPal’s shopping cart. It looks like it’s just a matter of copy/pasting some html on a webpage, which I assume can be done on a WordPress page. When I had lunch with Anya Kelleye and Virginia McKevitt last Saturday (lots of fun was had!), Virginia mentioned she used to have that on her site. I didn’t even realize PayPal had a shopping cart.

Another thing I need to consider is sales tax. Right now, I would have to charge sales tax to anyone in my state. But states are trying to crack down on internet sales now, so eventually I would have to pay sales tax to multiple states. Would it be worth it?

The upside to this would be that I would get to keep the whole sale (minus PayPal fees) instead of having to share royalties with retailers. The downside would be that this would be quite a bit of trouble to get set up for sales that probably wouldn’t amount to much. Most people would rather buy from a retailer who can send ebooks electronically. It might be better for print books, but my print book sales are almost nothing anyway. I can’t even offer a lower price for ebooks as an incentive to buy directly from me because I can’t price anything lower than Amazon or they will lower their price when they find out.

So would it be worth it? What do all of you think? Have any of you tried it? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Short and Sweet Wednesday Update

Last night, I finally sat down in my new chair at my desk and wrote 999 words. That’s all.

I Have an Office Chair

My first step toward getting my office more writing-friendly was to get a new chair. I thought about just sticking to the one I had and trying to find a fluffier cushion to put in the seat (not only was the seat uncomfortable, but the hydrolics weren’t working, so it was too short), but I went to Staples and found one that felt SO good to sit in. I had to have it. And just to prove there are still helpful people in this world…. My chair was in a box which the salesman had put in a buggy, and he asked me if I needed help getting it to my car. Since he already looked like he was about to have a heart attack from carrying it, I declined. When I tried to get it into the back of my car (I have an HHR, so it was like an SUV hatch), I realized the box was in the buggy in an awkward position, and I couldn’t just slide it into the car. And it was heavy. Suddenly, this lady (and she wasn’t that young) jumps out of her car, throws her purse into my buggy, and grabs the other side of the box. Between the two of us, we easily got the box into my car. I was overwhelmed by her kindness. Things like this make my heart feel good.

So now I have a comfortable place to write. It took me almost all evening to get the chair put together last night, but now it’s done, and all I have to do is sit my butt in it and write.

Sunday Update 2/3/13

I had a disagreement with my youngest son last night, so my heart is hurting a little this morning. Oh, who am I kidding…a little?…I can’t stop crying. But that’s life, I guess.

This week it’s time to get the ball rolling. The first thing I need to do is finish reading a manuscript for a friend. Then, I need to get Soul of a Vampire uploaded to CreateSpace for print. I plan on doing those two things today. Then, tomorrow, I’m going to start on a new story. I’ll probably make notes on that today, so I’ll be ready to actually write tomorrow. I haven’t gotten a new office chair yet…that might have to wait due to lack of funds. So I guess I’ll just put a cushion in the chair and go about my writing.