Jamie Magee's Blog, page 9

Book Signing!

For everyone's knowledge, Jamie is at the 2013 Southern Festival of Books this weekend displaying her books! If you're able, stop by and meet with our amazingly creative author!
Southern Festival of Books
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Elizabeth Kirke ~ Semester Abroad

Semester Aboard, the first book in the YA urban fantasy series More than Magic series has a brand new cover! If you haven't read Semester Aboard yet, here's a quick summary and a little peek for you!
College student Jen Maddox is a few days into her summer study abroad program and has loved every moment. She just left Mexico and is back on her cruise ship campus, ready to sail to Panama. Everyone tells her that the experience will change her life, but none of them realize just how right they really are.One night Jen goes out on deck and encounters five other students. She knows Charlie from one of her classes and he's a funny, friendly, regular guy. Picture-perfect Dani and his gorgeous wife Mariana live right down the hall from Jen. And she has seen TS, who's built like a truck, around the ship and recognizes the cute, but quiet Thomas as well.Then Jen sees something that isn't humanly possible. Jen would have thought that it was all a dream, if not for the fact that Charlie, Dani, Mariana, TS, and Thomas are making every effort to cover it up. Suddenly, the five of them are everything but normal and Jen is determined to figure out what they're hiding.When she does, her life really does change. Jen expected to spend her summer studying the cultures of Latin America, she never dreamed she'd learn about a magical culture instead.But Jen's childhood fantasy come true is about to turn into a nightmare; there's something on the ship. Something dangerous. Suddenly, everyone on board is threatened by a creature that Jen never even believed existed. Jen and her new friends might be the only people who can stop it! Now Jen has to learn everything she can about her new world before it kills her. And her friends. And maybe everyone on the entire ship! The More than Magic series is written by Elizabeth Kirke.
Sneak Peek:It started raining early in the afternoon and was a bad storm by the time I went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and stumbled over to our bathroom, feeling awful. A bit of quality time bent over the toilet didn’t help at all and I decided to try for some fresh air. I pulled a sweater on over my pajamas, hung my ID card strap around my neck, and slipped out of the room. I made my way down the corridor to the door that led outside. For the first time since getting on the ship I had to keep one hand on the railing. The halls were well lit, even though it was the middle of the night, and it was almost disconcerting to step outside into the darkness. But the moment the cool, damp wind hit my face I felt better. I hadn’t been seasick since our first night, but sometimes I felt nauseous if I stayed in our room too long. Being out on the deck always helped.
I had assumed that I’d be the only one crazy enough to go out in the rain in the middle of the night, but to my surprise I wasn’t. There were people on the other side of the deck. It was too dark to see them well, but the lights from the deck above us illuminated them a little. One of them was Charlie. He was standing under the overhang where Deck Five extended out above Deck Four. He was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans and I shivered in sympathy. A guy I recognized, not surprising since we all lived on a ship, was sitting on the bottom steps of the outdoor stairway that led to Deck Five. He was probably a football player back home or something. He had shaggy, dark brown hair and a fairly large nose. I’d heard a few girls giggling about him, but I didn’t think he was that good looking. I wasn’t sure what his name was. Another guy was sitting in a chair, probably pilfered from Deck Five, with his back to me and his feet up on the rails. Mariana was near him, wearing only a bikini top and a short skirt. I couldn't believe she wasn't cold."I didn’t scream!" she said."You totally did! You freaked out!" Dani laughed.It had been too dark to notice Dani until he spoke. My jaw dropped in shock. Dani was sitting on the railing of the ship. Messing around on the rails was one of the first things they’d told us not to do when we got on board. Even sitting on them in the middle of a calm day was suicidal at best. But to sit there in the middle of a stormy night was nothing short of a death wish."I was not!" Mariana cried."You were all like, 'Oh, Danio, save me Danio!'""Well, I...I-don’t be such a jerk!"As Mariana spoke she spun to face Dani and shoved him hard. Dani’s laugh turned into a yell of surprise and he tumbled backward off of the railing! I gasped in horror. Every second now was critical. If someone went overboard we were supposed to immediately throw them a life preserver and then run and tell a crew member. But not a single one of them did anything! The one in the chair uncrossed his legs and recrossed them with a different one on top. The guy on the stairs threw back his head and laughed! Charlie quickly stuck his head over the railing and then pulled back and shivered. It was as if Dani hadn't gone overboard at all."Oh my god!" I gasped. They must have been in shock. That was the only reason they weren't rushing to save Dani. I ran across the deck, at the very least, I could throw the life preserver in and hope he was still alive to use it.They all jerked around to look at me. They acted more surprised to see me than they were about Dani falling overboard. Mariana gasped and backed against the rail. Charlie stepped to the edge of the overhang and Football Guy jumped off of the stairs to his feet. The guy in the chair was on his feet in an instant. I hardly even saw him move; one second he was sitting and the next he was up. He stepped in front of the others, almost protectively."That's Jennifer." Charlie spoke softly like he didn't want me to hear, but the wind carried his words right to me. "She's in one of my classes."The guy in front smiled. "You're up late."They were acting like nothing had happened! This was insane!"What's the matter with you?" I cried. "We have to do something!""Do something?" He almost looked genuinely confused. "About what?""She just..." I gestured to Mariana. "She just pushed Dani overboard!"He had the audacity to laugh. "It's raining, you know. And dark. You're mistaken."Hungry for more? Find the first four chapters on Elizabeth's blog... And now, what you came for, the new cover!
In addition to the new cover, courtesy of the amazing Strong Image Editing, a bonus chapter, from a different POV as been added to Semester Aboard, along with a glossary! It has also been edited one more time, just for good measure! It's available from Amazon and Smashwords!
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Fall into UtopYA ~ Mary Ting's Halo City

  Synopsis: When a massive group of angels known as nephilim—half human, half angel—had been found by the Royal Council, they were taken to Halo City. Instead of cleansing the Earth with a flood, which had been done before, the Royal Council created a place just for this group of angels. While they were being taken, one of the Twelve, named Aden, rebelled and convinced many alkins to join his cause—to live freely among the humans and take over Crossroads. After the fall of Aden and his followers, Michael was taken to Halo City to heal. Not only did Michael had a difficult time settling into his new environment, he had conflicting issues regarding his past. Upon meeting the alkins, a particular one by the name of Davin refused to give up on helping him deal with his struggles. Together, they discovered a strange being that would appear at the Crossroads at unexpected times. Souls wandering there is nothing new, but this one aged as time passed. Mystified, they both searched for answers while refraining from telling the Twelve about her. Who is this being that had enraptured Michael’s attention? And will Michael finally forgive himself and find the happiness that he yearned to have?

Add Halo City to your Goodreads shelf.

Halo City is available for purchase at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

About Mary Ting:

M. Clarke also known as Mary Ting resides in Southern California with her husband and two children. She enjoys oil painting and making jewelry. Writing her first novel, Crossroads Saga, happened by chance. It was a way to grieve the death of her beloved grandmother, and inspired by a dream she once had as a young girl. When she started reading new adult novels, she fell in love with the genre. It was the reason she had to write one-Something Great. Why the pen name, M Clarke? She tours with Magic Johnson Foundation to promote literacy and her children's chapter book-No Bullies Allowed.

Author Contact Links:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~ Website

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Blog Tour

Due to the release of the first book in Jamie's new series RivuletA blog tour is occurring! Check them out and thank the reviewers for their honest opinion

Follow blog tour HERE!

Rivulet: Early debut

Surprise! Early release of Rivulet on Amazon for Kindle!
Rivulet - Amazon Kindle

Rivulet: UPDATE

The release date for Rivulet has been moved up to October 7th, 2013

Rivulet Cover Reveal!

Cover Reveal Day!


Unfathomable forces have always contested Genevieve Indiana Falcon, known as Indie. The curse of her cold touch entraps her just as the grief ignited in her past torments her. Yet, her mysterious ability to dream while awake saturates her in the belief that she was not always anguished. There is hope that one day a true peace in her soul can be found. Foolishly, Indie assumes she has contained her life in an odd balance, and she cherishes the visions she sees of the enigmatic boy that held her in a lost time, but can never reach. She grieves for a life she fears she'll never possess, and that grief is a weapon she uses against her aunt who stands between her and her inheritance. Weeks away from her twenty-first birthday, the date where she would assume control over her family legacy, a night terror robs Indie of the balance she was clinging to. Like the dream she had before she lost her family, it predicts a fatal catastrophe on the horizon. The fight between life and death, good and evil, began the moment her thundering heart awoke her. Everything changed after that dream. The one thing that keeps her curse at bay is stolen, and then the enigmatic boy arrives in the flesh. Face to face with her fiery born-again lover Indie realizes that the only way she can prevent the tragedy before her is to surrender everything she was, is, and could be. Can she bend the laws of nature and fight the improbability that fire and ice could ever be one? As far as Indie is concerned, there is not a myth, spoken fate, or curse that is stronger than her stubborn desire to have it all ... including him.

I fought my 'muse' and I won, wait, no I didn't...

I could tell you a thousand stories about what inspired every single word in my novels. Most are so simplistic that I tend to explain how I saw what I saw more than why something inspired me. But, the story behind Rivulet’s creation is one that I didn’t dare speak about until this point – only my family and my closest friends knew what sparked this novel. Why? Because I didn’t want people to think that I was insane!
Let me set the scene. It was November of 2012. At the time, I was balancing two careers and a young family. The career outside of writing hit its peak season right around that time of year. I had just released a novel and was preparing to have a dual release in January. Oh and did I mention it was November! Christmas was weeks away!
The days were long. Caffeine was the only thing holding my eyes open. I had lost my bliss, and I was just trying to get through my to-do list that grew ten feet every single day. My mantra – no time to write, this is a time to polish what I have. There is NO time between now and the release of the next novels. Focus Jamie. Focus! Push that muse in its box and let it out in February.
Okay scene set.
One night I was beyond exhausted so bedtime came at ten thirty—a solid two and a half hours before I usually called it a day.
I was lying there in bed and all of a sudden I heard men outside of my window. They were loud, they sounded huge, and they were talking about getting into the house. They were after me! I rose from my bed screaming (I haven’t screamed like this since I was ten at a New Kids on the Block concert!). I ran at top speed out of my room down the hall then down the stairs. My heart was thundering in my chest; my soul was pulsing with terror. I was going to die; I just knew it. Luckily, we had just installed a high tech alarm system, one that allowed you to talk to very nice emergency people. I didn’t know how to work it – so what did I do? I pushed every single button that I could the whole time jumping up and down knowing I needed to run but not knowing which direction to run.
Then, oddly, my very young son came down the stairs and innocently asked me, “Momma what are you doing?” I felt like a horrible mom at that moment. I’d run down the stairs and left him and his sister up there. More panic, “I have to get them out!” I quickly thought. I begged him to come to me so I could get his sister. “What about dad? What are you talking about?” He questioned me. Believe it or not he had a smile on his face. Probably because his mother was jumping in place like she had ants in her P.J’s.  I had made it half way up the stairs at this point. I told him, “Daddy is out of town—we have to go, baby!” He looked at me with a sideways grin like I was insane and then ran toward my bedroom door – toward DANGER. I yelled his name right as he said, “No, he’s right here,” as he turned on my bedroom overhead light. I’m not sure what I expected to see when the light kicked on – gruesome evil people? I really didn’t know—something that was going to kill me was all I thought. What did I see? My husband rise out of bed with a bewildered look on his face as I let out a horrific scream – you know the kind that you hear in those movies that you never watch in the dark? Yeah, that one—shrill, ear peircing could possibly break glass scream. Then guess what happened? Yep. I woke up.
For the first time in my life I had not only sleep walked I had also had a night terror.
One second I was at death’s door, no hope for survival and the next, my son is giggling and my husband is doing his best to figure out why the light is on, why I just screamed, and why the alarm is going off. “The alarm! The alarm!” I yelled once I figured out it was a dream. My husband charges out of bed and down the stairs to disarm the full on attack sound that was so piercing that I thought the windows would shatter. I could not catch my breath. I felt adrenaline saturating my soul. I had never once felt that sensation before.
Well, even though he disarmed the alarm and spoke the all clear code to the alarm people that called the house, the very on point company that protects our home had already dispatched an officer to our house.
While I did my best to catch my breath, my husband was downstairs talking to a very nice female police officer. He told her that I was asleep and moved from one room to the other and accidently hit the alarm pad (the basic truth of the matter – he just left out the fact that his wife may have finally lost her mind!).  I had to go downstairs and let her see that I was just fine – so humiliating! But she was nice and everyone did their job that night, no doubt.
I had only been asleep for an hour. It wasn’t even midnight yet!
I did my best to explain the dream to my husband, but it took me hours to calm down. My heart just would not stop hammering.  Finally, he settled me down and put me on his side of the bed. He hooked his legs over me and told me to go to sleep that he wasn’t going anywhere. “I’ve got you, Love. I’m not letting you go.” (P.S to this day I still sleep on that side of the bed and if I even dare to turn over too abruptly he sits up in the bed to make sure I’m ok!)
I never let things go. There is a reason for everything. That is how I see things. So why did I go psycho in the middle of the night? It was 2012—had I let the end of the world mumbo jumbo get to me? Who knew? But Google was my best friend the next day. If you have a question about a dream—I bet I can tell you where to look. Basically, I did not fit any mold when it came to night terrors. I was too old to just have one out of the blue, no dark suppressed memories or anything. The closest thing I came to fitting the classic night terror reasoning was stress. Oh, and the symptoms that the dreamers wake up when a light is turned on, and most terrors happen within the first few hours of sleep.
It still drove me mad. Did I mention the night terror made me feel half insane?
I only had one choice. I had to get over this, and there was only one way to get over something like that. I left it all behind on a word document.
In November, I began a new book. My day job was intense. My family was gearing up for the holidays. I had a dual release in a few weeks – but I opened a word document.
Three weeks later, I completed the first draft of Rivulet. I had never written a novel that fast and I did it during a time of year that simply would not allow that kind of commitment.
After the first chapter was down I had long forgotten about the night terror. I gave everything I felt and went through to the main character. It was no longer mine so I didn’t have to feel it, only manage the flow of the words.
Is Rivulet about an innocent writer who just wanted a few extra hours of sleep, who went to bed one night and had a bad dream that beckoned men and women to her home to make sure no one was harming her or her family? No. Is it a horror story that ends in a blood bath? Nope. Is it about a home invasion or even a woman who is committed because her mind finally breaks? No. BUT a night terror triggers the novel and is woven throughout the entire story.
In the early spring after life had mellowed, I pulled out Rivulet to start the next drafts. It was so awesome for me to feel, at a distance, the power of the emotions in my dream again. By then I could laugh about it.  Coincidently, we were having work done to our house then. One afternoon I retreated to my room so the painters could move through the downstairs and such. I was lying across my bed with the drapes pulled closed and my laptop before me.  All at once, I heard the music the painters were listening to outside my window; I heard the banging ladders on the side of the house, and the men talking to one another. I glanced at my screen. Then glanced to the heavens and thought: cute—love the irony.
Sometimes I think that creative souls are the most haunted beings on this rock.
My advice to other creative souls: never, ever, ever, ever, ever ever put your muse on hold.  Never tell them you will get to it when you can. That you are too busy, that they need to wait their turn. That you are the boss and what you say goes. That you just do not feel like it right now. If you put your muse on hold,  it will make you PAY. What is the worst that could happen? The idea will float away to another creative soul that is willing to make the sacrifices needed to put the words down. The best? They will make you feel like a nut case until you write it all down.
I made a deal with mine. If they promised never to scare me like that again I would listen when they spoke.
Words of wisdom to readers. Every single word you read in some way mirrors the creator’s life. Creative people weave emotions into various forms of expression with the one and only goal of making our audience understand that we are not alone. Feeling emotions, both good and bad, is an ordained right we are given from above that allows us to grasp life at its core.
The cover, blurb, and release date will be posted on September 2nd I can’t wait to see what you think of this story!

Rivulet Teaser

I glanced at the beam just beneath my hand to see ice growing. I clenched my teeth and thought of every word or image that resembled fire wanting to hide this dangerous curse. My heart was beating so fast that I couldn’t breathe. I could not understand how I was at death’s door one instant and perched up here the next. No air would come. I kept seeing the ice, the water, the blood…that couldn’t have been a dream – could it? The last thing I needed was for my night terrors to return. My wrist began to burn, then warmth eased through my hand, my arm, and my body. In my mind, I heard a familiar, deep whisper echo, ‘I’ve got you, Love. I’m never going to let you go.’ I clenched my wrist; the black scarf that was wrapped there, it was my magic, my defense, and most importantly at that moment it was my sanity.
Release date Fall of 2013

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