Kai Strand's Blog, page 17

February #InkRipples #Giveaway - Chocolate!

Happy February. Thanks to St. Valentine, this is a month often associated with love. And what better way to show your love than with chocolate. Sweets for the sweet, right?

I'm afraid to admit this out loud for fear it might change your opinion of me, but I'm not a chocolate fanatic. I go through short bursts of chocoholic phases where I can't get enough of the stuff, but then I come out of it and will turn my nose up at it for months on end. Even I think my Jekyl & Hyde treatment of choco...

Book Spotlight on Landry in Like by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Today I welcome Krysten Lindsay Hager and her new book Landry in Like!

Genre:contemporary clean teen fiction
Landry in Like (Landry's True Colors Series: Book 3) Things seem to be going well in Landry Albright’s world—she’s getting invited to be on local talk shows to talk about her modeling career, her best friends have her back, and her boyfriend Vladi is becoming someone she can truly count on…and then everything changes. Suddenly it seems like most of the girls in school are into hanging o...

Spotlight on Hot Ticket by Tracy Marchini #Freebook

HOT TICKET is available as a free ebook on Amazon from January 10 – January 14, 2016, and is also available in print at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Excerpt:
(Backstory: Juliet has just come from the principal’s office after accidentally hitting the most popular girl in school in the face during a hallway collision.)

At lunch detention, all I could think about was how I better get a shame ticket for accidentally punching Cindy.

There's just no way the ticket dispenser could ignore the fact that...

Travel - January #InkRipples #Giveaway

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016. Do you have any big plans for the year?

Quick housekeeping. I'm posting a chapter a week of Worth the Effort, Ella's Story over on Wattpad. A new chapter goes up every Monday. I'd love if you follow, read, recommend, rate - all that jazz. Though the novella is free to download on all e-platforms, so hop on over to my blog if you'd rather just read it all at once.

Onto 2016. I usually have big, clear writing goals, but this year I don't. I hope I publish somethin...

December #InkRipples #Giveaway - Celebration/Gifts

I must take care of some InkRipples business before I get to this month's post.  Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll and I have decided to continue the meme into 2016, and we'd love for you all to join us! We have a new streamlined name: #InkRipples (formerly Ripples in the Inkwell) and brand new images to go along with it. 

We also have a new set of monthly topics for discussion in 2016:
January - Travel
#InkRipplesFebruary - Chocolate
March - Feminism
April - Poetry
May -...

The Orion Circle by Kimber Leigh Wheaton

Welcome to my stop on the Twisted Sisters blog tour!
Here's a link to the host list if you'd like to follow the tour Click Me!
Excerpt
I sense movement, and in the next moment Tracy throws herself at the barrier, a screaming, howling banshee. She fights against the magic barring her. Static electricity sparks through the room, zooming around, visible in the darkness. I push Kacie behind me as the manic ghost continues her relentless assault on the barrier. A deafening boom reverberates thro...

A Love Letter to my Readers

Five years ago today I became a published author with the publication of The Weaver.
I suppose technically I was published before that with several short story publications to my name, but my goal was to have a book published, and that goal was realized on December 10, 2010.
I still chuckle at how anti-climactic the moment was. I found The Weaver available on Amazon. I lifted my laptop and spun it in all directions to show off the Amazon page to my family. Then the oven timer beeped and I got...

Cover Reveal - Dear Diary, E.P. Thompson Here by Judith Natelli McLaughlin

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Judith Natelli McLaughlin and revealing the cover for her middle grade novel Dear Diary, E.P. Thompson Here.

More about Dear Diary, E.P. Thompson Here

Dear Diary,E. P. Thompson here.Worst. Year. Ever. First semester in sixth grade, and my best friend Debbie has dropped me because my boobs aren’t big enough. Well, she didn’t say that exactly, but I just know that’s the reason. Then I got paired with Adam Berry, the biggest pencil-protecting geek of the decad...

Quest of the Hart by Mary Waibel #Freebook

Speaking of free books...'cause we were, weren't we?

My critique partner and dear friend, Mary Waibel's book is free for a couple more days. If you like kick butt heroines, twisted fairy tales, and princesses, this is the book for you. The whole series is great, but you can take it for a test drive for free with Quest of the Hart.


Princess Kaylee has never had to fight for anything. Her entire life has been arranged, even her marriage. But when Prince Devlin falls under an enchantment, she find...

Worth the Effort Now Available in ePub! #freebook

The tough part of self-publishing is that it all falls to you. ALL being the operative word. Because I publish independently as well as with small press, there is always something going on that gives me an excuse to put off that which I don't know. This is my official excuse for why it took more than a year for me to publish my Worth the Effort series in ePub.

But ALAS-the deed is done!

And to celebrate, I've decided to offer Ella's Story for free. Forever. Or at least for now, since this indus...