Michelle McLean's Blog, page 25
November 15, 2011
Winner of BECOME by Ali Cross
And our winner is.......
Mercedes (aka abrokenlaptop.com)!!!!!
Congrats!! Shoot me an email (addy on the sidebar) with your address, be sure to tell me if you'd like the ebook or paperback, and I'll get your copy sent out to you.
Don't forget! You have TONS more chances to win! See yesterday's post (below) or Elana's blog for the full schedule. Thanks for entering and helping us celebrate Ali's book release!
November 14, 2011
Become by Ali Cross - Giveaway of Epicness :D
I am so excited to be a part of this awesomely fun giveaway :D In celebration of the release of BECOME, you will have 15 chances to win a copy of Ali's brand new book. That's right...I said 15 chances!
Here is what you'll be winning:
Sixteen-year old Desolation Black wants nothing more than to stay in Hell where it's cold and lonely and totally predictable. Instead, she's sent back to Earth where she must face the evil she despises and the good she always feared. When Desi is forced to embrace her inner demon, she assumes her choice has been made—that she has no hope of being anything other than what her father, Lucifer, has created her to be. What she doesn't count on, is finding a reason to change—something she's never had before—a friend.Now how awesome does that book sound? :D And gorgeous cover love!!!
To enter for your first chance to win a copy of this book - all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I will announce the winner tomorrow morning.
And stay tuned for your other 14 chances to win a copy!! Here is the schedule:
5 chances on blogs according to the following schedule:
Monday: Right here, right now! :D
Tuesday: Sara Larson
Wednesday: Stacy Henrie
Thursday: LT Elliot
Friday: Nichole Giles
5 chances on twitter according to the following schedule:
Monday, November 14 - 11 am MST, 1 pm Eastern
Tuesday, November 15 - 7 pm MST, 9 pm Eastern
Wednesday, November 16 - 1 pm MST, 3 pm Eastern
Thursday, November 17 - 4 pm PST, 7 pm Eastern
Friday, November 18 - 3 pm MST, 5 pm Eastern
We'll be chatting with the hashtag #BECOME so join us for your chance to mix and mingle and win!
And 5 chances through the google form found on the awesome Elana Johnson's blog.
If you'd like to purchase a copy, you can do so HERE for the Kindle version and HERE for the paperback.
So come celebrate with us!! Leave a comment below and follow the links for more chances to win! Congrats Ali on an incredible accomplishment and amazing book! :)
(The comments feature wasn't working earlier this morning but it is working now! Comment away!)
November 11, 2011
Blog Chain - Accomplishments
Blog chain time! Check out PK's post from yesterday and head over to Tere's tomorrow. This round's topic was chosen by the lovely Michelle Hickman who wants to know:
This is the month in creating writing goals and making big accomplishments. What is your greatest accomplishment -- in writing, your life or perhaps something incidental that had a big effect on you?
This is such a great question. In my writing life, my biggest accomplishment is that I made my dream come true. I have a published book on the shelves. And while fiction is always nearest and dearest to my heart and a goal I'm still working to obtain, I gotta say I LOVE that my first published book is one geared toward helping people with something I love - writing.
In my personal life...one of my biggest accomplishments was getting my master's degree. It was hard lol Especially because when I got it I was a mommy to two very small children who had a husband that was gone for weeks at a time. I'm still not sure how I pulled it off - but I'm extremely proud that I did :)
And in my even more personal life - the fact that I somehow managed to bring two amazing kids into the world and haven't killed, seriously maimed or in any other way caused permanent mental or physical damage (that I know of) to any of us yet...though we've had some close calls :D My kids are a handful, but they are intelligent, hilariously funny, thoughtful, sweet and genuinely loving kids - it feels weird to call them an accomplishment, but I just don't think anything else in my life will ever come close to the pride I feel in those two amazing little human beings :) I am awed and blessed to be their mother.
What are your greatest accomplishments, in the writing world or in your personal life?
And - Happy Veterans Day. My deep, heartfelt thanks to those who make it possible for me to live the life I want to live.
This is the month in creating writing goals and making big accomplishments. What is your greatest accomplishment -- in writing, your life or perhaps something incidental that had a big effect on you?
This is such a great question. In my writing life, my biggest accomplishment is that I made my dream come true. I have a published book on the shelves. And while fiction is always nearest and dearest to my heart and a goal I'm still working to obtain, I gotta say I LOVE that my first published book is one geared toward helping people with something I love - writing.
In my personal life...one of my biggest accomplishments was getting my master's degree. It was hard lol Especially because when I got it I was a mommy to two very small children who had a husband that was gone for weeks at a time. I'm still not sure how I pulled it off - but I'm extremely proud that I did :)
And in my even more personal life - the fact that I somehow managed to bring two amazing kids into the world and haven't killed, seriously maimed or in any other way caused permanent mental or physical damage (that I know of) to any of us yet...though we've had some close calls :D My kids are a handful, but they are intelligent, hilariously funny, thoughtful, sweet and genuinely loving kids - it feels weird to call them an accomplishment, but I just don't think anything else in my life will ever come close to the pride I feel in those two amazing little human beings :) I am awed and blessed to be their mother.
What are your greatest accomplishments, in the writing world or in your personal life?
And - Happy Veterans Day. My deep, heartfelt thanks to those who make it possible for me to live the life I want to live.
November 9, 2011
Update:
Nano is kicking my butt...
That is all:D
How is everyone else doing on Nano or other projects?
That is all:D
How is everyone else doing on Nano or other projects?
November 7, 2011
Fairy Tale Explosion - You Tell Me...
While I was enjoying Grimm and Once Upon a Time this weekend, and looking forward to the two new Snow White movies and browsing through all the fairy tale retellings that are out in book form, I paused for a moment to marvel at everyone gettin' their fairy tale on lately.Now, I'm loving it. I'm a HUGE fairy tale nerd. I've got more fairy tale books then you can shake a stick at and I keep buying more (I say they are for my kids but...yeah...not so much) ;-) I love the originals, the Disney versions, the tales from other cultures, the new tellings, the old tellings. I love them ALL. I'd love to write my own retelling and even started doing so several times (but shelved them for various reasons).
But it's got me curious. Why do you think there has been such a fairy tale explosion lately?
November 4, 2011
Friday Funnies
Nano Update:
Ugh, I'm behind I know. But not by much - gonna catch up this weekend! If I can stay awake. I've been ridiculously tired lately. Zzzzzzzzzz
How are you all doing? Have an awesome weekend!
November 2, 2011
Don't Play Hard to Get
Well we had a bit of a snafu with the Mystery Agent contest at Operation Awesome yesterday. Several people went over on the character limit for their entries. Wanting to give them a chance to change their entries so they wouldn't be disqualified, we decided to email those affected.
There was one slight problem - there were several people I couldn't find email addresses for. Not on their blogs, their websites...nowhere.
Some of them had twitter handles so I was able to tweet them. Some had contact forms which worked fine. And some I just posted on their blogs for lack of any other way of communicating with them. There was one person I couldn't find anything for...their profile didn't have blog links, website links, email or twitter addresses or any other sort of identifying or contact info. So, I wasn't able to let them know about the problem.
Here's the thing about social networking - it only works if people can communicate with you. Why make it hard? You should have contact info plastered EVERYWHERE. I went on some sites where I had to search for the person's name just to make sure I was in the right spot. This just makes no sense to me.
You want people to know who you are. PUT YOUR NAME SOMEWHERE PROMINENT. You want people to be able to contact you. MAKE IT EASY TO FIND. You want people to be able to find you wherever you might be on the web. PUT UP LINKS.
The whole point of social networking is to connect with people, so people know who you are, where to find you, and how to contact you. Agents and editors DO go to sites. I actually very recently had an editor find me on Twitter and tweet me about a project. I ended up being able to submit a manuscript to a publisher that is currently closed to submissions. Because of TWITTER. It does happen.
That never would have happened had that editor not been able to find any contact info for me.
Moral of the story = DON'T PLAY HARD TO GET.
Make sure your contact info and links to places where you can be found are EVERYWHERE and easy to see. I have my email addy and links to all the sites I'm on plastered all over every website, blog, and social network I own or belong to. Just make sure that people have a way to easily communicate with you - it might come in handy some day :)
Nano Update:
[image error]
There was one slight problem - there were several people I couldn't find email addresses for. Not on their blogs, their websites...nowhere.
Some of them had twitter handles so I was able to tweet them. Some had contact forms which worked fine. And some I just posted on their blogs for lack of any other way of communicating with them. There was one person I couldn't find anything for...their profile didn't have blog links, website links, email or twitter addresses or any other sort of identifying or contact info. So, I wasn't able to let them know about the problem.
Here's the thing about social networking - it only works if people can communicate with you. Why make it hard? You should have contact info plastered EVERYWHERE. I went on some sites where I had to search for the person's name just to make sure I was in the right spot. This just makes no sense to me.
You want people to know who you are. PUT YOUR NAME SOMEWHERE PROMINENT. You want people to be able to contact you. MAKE IT EASY TO FIND. You want people to be able to find you wherever you might be on the web. PUT UP LINKS.
The whole point of social networking is to connect with people, so people know who you are, where to find you, and how to contact you. Agents and editors DO go to sites. I actually very recently had an editor find me on Twitter and tweet me about a project. I ended up being able to submit a manuscript to a publisher that is currently closed to submissions. Because of TWITTER. It does happen.
That never would have happened had that editor not been able to find any contact info for me.
Moral of the story = DON'T PLAY HARD TO GET.
Make sure your contact info and links to places where you can be found are EVERYWHERE and easy to see. I have my email addy and links to all the sites I'm on plastered all over every website, blog, and social network I own or belong to. Just make sure that people have a way to easily communicate with you - it might come in handy some day :)
Nano Update:
[image error]
October 31, 2011
Ready.....Set.....
NANO!!!
Yes, once again I'm going to attempt this. I think this is my fourth year. I've never actually finished. However, I've always had a really good excuse :D The first two years I ended up moving right in the middle of November and last year I was in the middle of final edits and book release prep for Homework Helpers. This year though, I don't have any such excuse. So I'd better not botch it :D
I've got my Nano calendar wallpaper up, my potato word count guy all ready to go
my projects outlined and ready (yes, I said projectS. I'm cheating a little. I'm halfway through 2 WIPs and the plan is to finish them both by Nov 30th :D )
Are you doing Nano? If so, come be my buddy! I'm michellemclean over on the site :) I'm also posting over on Pots & Pens today with a fun interview with Sandra Ulbrich Almazan and one of my favorite recipes, Chocolate Cake in a Cup - a perfect Nano treat :D
Oh - and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Yes, once again I'm going to attempt this. I think this is my fourth year. I've never actually finished. However, I've always had a really good excuse :D The first two years I ended up moving right in the middle of November and last year I was in the middle of final edits and book release prep for Homework Helpers. This year though, I don't have any such excuse. So I'd better not botch it :D
I've got my Nano calendar wallpaper up, my potato word count guy all ready to go
my projects outlined and ready (yes, I said projectS. I'm cheating a little. I'm halfway through 2 WIPs and the plan is to finish them both by Nov 30th :D )
Are you doing Nano? If so, come be my buddy! I'm michellemclean over on the site :) I'm also posting over on Pots & Pens today with a fun interview with Sandra Ulbrich Almazan and one of my favorite recipes, Chocolate Cake in a Cup - a perfect Nano treat :D
Oh - and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
October 30, 2011
Interview with Lyon's Legacy Author Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
I had the pleasure recently of reading Sandra's novella, Lyon's Legacy. I posted a review of it at Operation Awesome yesterday, so go check that out if you haven't yet. For today, the lovely Sandra was kind enough to answer some questions for me :)
Sometimes being a geneticist isn't enough to understand your family....
When scientist-in-training Joanna Lyon learns her rich uncle plans to have their rock legend ancestor, Sean Lyon, cloned, she's disgusted. Uncle Jack pushed her into music when she was younger, and she hated it. So it's particularly galling that he wants her to travel through a wormhole to an alternate universe and sample Sean's DNA. She only agrees to go so she can secretly sabotage the project. But meeting Sean forces her to re-examine her feelings about her family, including her estranged father. Can she protect the unborn clone from her uncle, and will she have to sacrifice her career and new-found love to do so?
MM: Give us the Twitter pitch :) What's your book about in 140 characters or less?
SUA: A geneticist is sent by her uncle to an alternate TwenCen universe to clone the rock star she hates—her ancestor.
MM: What inspired the story behind Lyon's Legacy?
SUA: It was inspired by a friend's story about a woman who heard the Beatles perform in the Cavern, a club in Liverpool where they performed many times before they became famous. I wanted to add a science-fiction twist to that, so I came up with the idea of a time traveler going back to the past to listen to a concert by a famous musician. I asked myself who she was, why she was there, and how she got there, and eventually I came up with Joanna, sent on a mission to get DNA and clone the musician. Instead of using the Beatles, I created a single musician who lived in Chicago in the early sixites to be Joanna's great-grandfather, the man she's supposed to help clone.
MM: What was the hardest part about writing this book?
SUA: The overall plot has been pretty much the same from draft to draft, but I did wind up changing some of the characters and the settings. Probably one of the more difficult things about writing this book was making sure the changes were consistent throughout the story. Another tough thing was figuring out what to do with this story. The story felt complete at novella length, but it's tough finding markets for novellas. For a long time, I packaged this story with the sequel, which is a full-length novel in itself, but that was then too long. Publishing this as an e-book was a great solution for me, since word count isn't so critical.
MM: What were the challenges you faced in writing this book?
SUA: I had to research many different things for this book, including plausible methods for time travel, spaceship design, 1960s Chicago, and fertility treatments.
MM: What books have influenced you the most in your life and writing?
SUA: In life, I would have to say Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. On one level, it's the story of a man on a cross-country trip with his son, but on another level it examines the philosophy of science and the importance of Quality and gumption. For writing, it would be the Writers Digest series of books. They cover everything from Characters and Viewpoint to Plot to Scene and Structure.
MM: What is next for you? Can you share a bit about current and/or future projects?
SUA: I'm currently juggling several projects. I have two projects in the revision stage: a fantasy standalone novella called "The Fighting Roses of Sharon" and Twinned Universes, the sequel to Lyon's Legacy. I'm currently drafting a fantasy novel called Scattered Seasons.
MM: Fast Fun Five:
Sweet or salty? Sweet! Panster or plotter? More of a panster, but working on my plotting. Ocean or mountains? Mountains. Morning person or night owl? Night owl. Shoes or bare feet? Shoes for medical reasons, unfortunately.Thanks so much for joining us today, Sandra!
[image error] For more information on Sandra or to purchase her book, check out the links below :)
Amazon
Barnes & NobleSmashwordsSandra's blog
Sometimes being a geneticist isn't enough to understand your family.... When scientist-in-training Joanna Lyon learns her rich uncle plans to have their rock legend ancestor, Sean Lyon, cloned, she's disgusted. Uncle Jack pushed her into music when she was younger, and she hated it. So it's particularly galling that he wants her to travel through a wormhole to an alternate universe and sample Sean's DNA. She only agrees to go so she can secretly sabotage the project. But meeting Sean forces her to re-examine her feelings about her family, including her estranged father. Can she protect the unborn clone from her uncle, and will she have to sacrifice her career and new-found love to do so?
MM: Give us the Twitter pitch :) What's your book about in 140 characters or less?
SUA: A geneticist is sent by her uncle to an alternate TwenCen universe to clone the rock star she hates—her ancestor.
MM: What inspired the story behind Lyon's Legacy?
SUA: It was inspired by a friend's story about a woman who heard the Beatles perform in the Cavern, a club in Liverpool where they performed many times before they became famous. I wanted to add a science-fiction twist to that, so I came up with the idea of a time traveler going back to the past to listen to a concert by a famous musician. I asked myself who she was, why she was there, and how she got there, and eventually I came up with Joanna, sent on a mission to get DNA and clone the musician. Instead of using the Beatles, I created a single musician who lived in Chicago in the early sixites to be Joanna's great-grandfather, the man she's supposed to help clone.
MM: What was the hardest part about writing this book?
SUA: The overall plot has been pretty much the same from draft to draft, but I did wind up changing some of the characters and the settings. Probably one of the more difficult things about writing this book was making sure the changes were consistent throughout the story. Another tough thing was figuring out what to do with this story. The story felt complete at novella length, but it's tough finding markets for novellas. For a long time, I packaged this story with the sequel, which is a full-length novel in itself, but that was then too long. Publishing this as an e-book was a great solution for me, since word count isn't so critical.
MM: What were the challenges you faced in writing this book?
SUA: I had to research many different things for this book, including plausible methods for time travel, spaceship design, 1960s Chicago, and fertility treatments.
MM: What books have influenced you the most in your life and writing?
SUA: In life, I would have to say Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. On one level, it's the story of a man on a cross-country trip with his son, but on another level it examines the philosophy of science and the importance of Quality and gumption. For writing, it would be the Writers Digest series of books. They cover everything from Characters and Viewpoint to Plot to Scene and Structure.
MM: What is next for you? Can you share a bit about current and/or future projects?
SUA: I'm currently juggling several projects. I have two projects in the revision stage: a fantasy standalone novella called "The Fighting Roses of Sharon" and Twinned Universes, the sequel to Lyon's Legacy. I'm currently drafting a fantasy novel called Scattered Seasons.
MM: Fast Fun Five:
Sweet or salty? Sweet! Panster or plotter? More of a panster, but working on my plotting. Ocean or mountains? Mountains. Morning person or night owl? Night owl. Shoes or bare feet? Shoes for medical reasons, unfortunately.Thanks so much for joining us today, Sandra!
[image error] For more information on Sandra or to purchase her book, check out the links below :)
Amazon
Barnes & NobleSmashwordsSandra's blog
October 29, 2011
Blog Chain - Monster Mash
Matt got to choose this round's topic, and he came up with a fun one :D
What is your all-time favorite monster?
At first glance, this seems like an easy question. But it really wasn't LOL See, I have different favorite monsters for all occasions. If I'm going to go with what scares me the most, I'd probably have to say ghosts.
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I reserve the right to change my mind should something more terrifying show up, but I tend to be really freaked out by things that I can't see. I mean, a big ol' yeti or something might scare my hair white, but at least I can see it coming at me. Plus, I'm pretty sure the other monsters don't exist (or if they do, they aren't bugging me). But I live in a very, very old house next to a 200 yr old cemetery and sometimes....well, let's just say weird things happen. And weird things have happened to other people I know. So...yeah...*shudder*
Then there are the monsters of the cute, cuddly variety. The ones that make you say awwww more often than AHHH!!! Like these two:
But, I guess if I'm going to pick my all time favorite, my "go-to" monster, the one I've got dozens of books and movies on, I'm going to have to go with the vampire. I even took a class on vampires in grad school (and wrote a paper called "From Van Helsing to Buffy". It rocked, if I do say so myself) ;-) It was so much fun :D Vampires are seriously cool though. I mean they run the gambit from terrifying undead monsters to these handsome hotties:
Just sayin' ;-)
What is your favorite monster?
Be sure to head over to PK's blog to see what creature she most loves and stay tuned tomorrow to find out what's hiding in Tere's closet :D
What is your all-time favorite monster?
At first glance, this seems like an easy question. But it really wasn't LOL See, I have different favorite monsters for all occasions. If I'm going to go with what scares me the most, I'd probably have to say ghosts.
[image error]
I reserve the right to change my mind should something more terrifying show up, but I tend to be really freaked out by things that I can't see. I mean, a big ol' yeti or something might scare my hair white, but at least I can see it coming at me. Plus, I'm pretty sure the other monsters don't exist (or if they do, they aren't bugging me). But I live in a very, very old house next to a 200 yr old cemetery and sometimes....well, let's just say weird things happen. And weird things have happened to other people I know. So...yeah...*shudder*
Then there are the monsters of the cute, cuddly variety. The ones that make you say awwww more often than AHHH!!! Like these two:
But, I guess if I'm going to pick my all time favorite, my "go-to" monster, the one I've got dozens of books and movies on, I'm going to have to go with the vampire. I even took a class on vampires in grad school (and wrote a paper called "From Van Helsing to Buffy". It rocked, if I do say so myself) ;-) It was so much fun :D Vampires are seriously cool though. I mean they run the gambit from terrifying undead monsters to these handsome hotties:
Just sayin' ;-)
What is your favorite monster?
Be sure to head over to PK's blog to see what creature she most loves and stay tuned tomorrow to find out what's hiding in Tere's closet :D
![[image error]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YD0KKNE6yX0/TqrLJg53xwI/AAAAAAAACII/WQgc9nuPWeA/s1600/smua+author+pic.jpg){kind=link}
![[image error]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtYyNnxUJL0/Tqrk4QrT5tI/AAAAAAAACKA/aZtQM1esHac/s1600/ghost.jpg){kind=link}