Kimberly Kinrade's Blog, page 20

Real Magic: The Making of The Darkening Dream

I'm excited to welcome to my blog Andy Gavin, author of The Darkening Dream, a chilling, new, dark fantasy novel that is FREE today only on Amazon! In this post, Andy sheds some light on the magic system and world he has created.

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In constructing The Darkening Dream I wanted the meta-story to play off conventional tropes. Broadly, a cabal of ancient supernatural beings has sent one of their number to recover an artifact needed to destroy the world. And surprise, it turns out a group of teens are all that stands between them and Armageddon.

How much more Buffy can you get?

But that's just the high level. I also wanted to ground this preposterous scenario in real history and legend. So as a methodology, in designing my array of supernatural beings and occult practitioners I turned to historic sources. Before our modern science and technology rendered magic quaint, it was the domain of religion and superstition. Of belief.

And each spiritual and magical system has its own framework. Proponents wrote out of certainty, out of faith. I merely dig up their writings and take them at their word.

Villains

What binds a group of ancient evil beings together? Not some grand principle of villainy. Evil is just extreme selfishness. But hatred can go a long way. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So who from the ancient world has suffered the most?

Might it be the old gods? Or those who worship them? Who offers sacrifice anymore to Osiris? Who fears the shadow of Anubis as they step from this world into the next? Who believes the beetle god Khepri drags the sun across the sky behind him?

No one. And those that remember the glory days are pissed off.

So who's been lurking around since the time of the pharaohs?

The comte at Versailles

The Comte de St. Germain has, or so he told everyone in the court of Louis XV. Apparently, at the very least, he is party to the secret magics of Osiris, Son of the Earth, King of the Dead. The elixir of Osiris is said to prevent death. And so the comte, which is but one of his many names, has been lurking about for some time. But the old magics are not what they once were. Their power has diminished with their gods. So he whispers in the ears of kings, pulling on what strings he can, seeking allies where he can find them.

And old gods may fade, but as long as a single soul still believes, they never die.

Even the ancient blood gods and their vampire acolytes. Born in ancient forests of the north where men offered midnight blood sacrifice. Of their king, their Ancient Master, raised from the dead a hundred centuries past, nothing remains but pure fury. Hatred for the burning sun, hatred for his mortal prey, hatred for the new world of foul brick and lifeless steel.

But in hatred, perhaps, there is common cause.

The Artifact

Observe the all important Ram in the Thicket (lower right)

Clearly, the physical goal of our baddies had to be something really big. Something useful to them in their plots. The fall of antiquity was not about barbarians at the gates of Rome. No. The rising tide of monotheism was what really swept away the old order.

So it is against God that our villains lash out.

And I found the perfect legend in the most unlikely of places. I was passing the time during Yom Kippur services by reading the story of Abraham offering Isaac for sacrifice (Genesis 22). This has always been a passage of particular interest to me, dealing as it does with the nature of the relationship between man and God and the meaning of ritual sacrifice. But it was in the commentary that I noticed something peculiar, a cryptic remark that "the Ram in the Thicket is but one of ten special things created by God on the eve of creation."

How's that for a magic seeker's wet dream.

Back at home I dug into this and discovered that on the eve of the first Sabbath, before the creation of world, God created ten special things (which besides the Ram include the rainbow of Noah, the staff of Moses, and other goodies). These items are eternal, having existed before the universe, they have no temporal beginning or end. God, it seemed, placed the Ram into the trust of the Archangel Gabriel, who kept it in the Garden of Eden until Abraham needed it at Mount Moriah. Afterward, nothing of the Ram was wasted. Gabriel took the horns and brought one to Moses so that he could sound the arrival of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. The other was kept by the archangel, hidden in the Garden, so that at the appointed time it might be brought to Elijah to sound the End of Days.

This notion of a horn blast sounding the end of the world is a highly persistent meme. It's found not just in the Jewish traditions regarding the Messiah, but in the Revelations of John where seven angels (including presumably, Gabriel) sound the end of time and the Last Judgment. And also in diverse mythologies such as the Norse, where the Gjallarhorn shall announce the onset of Ragnarök.

In the world of The Darkening Dream, all beliefs are simultaneously true, as brought forth and conceived by their believers. This means that anything as consistent as the horn legend is doubly true. Archetypal truth made manifest.

And what of Gabriel's Horn? Eternity is a long time and the archangel flits hither and yon. Might not a busy seraph misplace such a thing… if only for a short time?

The Myriad Layers of the Esoteric World

How to properly envision a world in which vampires, the Archangel Gabriel, witchcraft, and Egyptian gods all exist? Many might just toss them together arbitrarily, but I wanted to find a framework consistent with traditional mysticism. Having read hundreds of religious and magical texts I have identified numerous consistencies in the thought patterns of the esoteric mind.

The Tree of Life

By way of example, let's place ourselves in the mind of my protagonist Sarah's father Joseph. As a Rabbi, scholar, and mystic Joseph draws his world view from the Zohar and other great texts of the Kabbalah. In this conceptualization, which can be summed up as "hidden and not revealed," the world is a many layered thing, like an onion, with the portion we perceive merely the lowest of ten modalities, all simultaneously overlaid. The pure conceptualization of God pervades everything, and is the highest. Yet the human mind can not fully comprehend this level of divine and celestial purity. In between are various layers that express important truths like "Beauty" and "Wisdom." In Joseph's orthodox world, God is all powerful, so powerful that even the Archangel Gabriel is but a manifestation of His Strength. The angel is not an independent entity, but a protrusion of God's will into these middle layers of reality. Joseph might actually see the angel, but in his mind, this is just his perception of an aspect of God leaking into the mortal layers. The human mind cannot comprehend the divine, so God softens the blow with the angelic form.

Sitting down to the witches Sabbath

As hard as this might be to get your head around, it seemed reasonable to extend this kind of framework to many forms of magic in the book. The villainous Puritan warlock, Pastor John Parris, works a school of traditional witchcraft, yet it too is based on layered perception of reality. For him, the magical realm is twisted into a less spacial form, with objects and people adjacent not just by physical proximity, but by the likeness of their form and nature. So, a person's hair, separated as it might be from their body, provides magical access to the owner. Likewise, his religious conceptualization allows for the layering of hell dimensions, separated by flame. With the help of his succubus lover he is able to step through these fiery gateways and bend the rules of time and space.

While occasionally, as is the case with the Horn, the mythological drives the story, most often the structural needs of my plot demanded esoteric action. I therefore required interoperability between diverse magic systems in order to make the action work. For example, when Joseph wishes to protect his home from the intrusions of the evil Parris and the ancient vampire al-Nasir, he prays to invoke the archangels and align the physical rectangle of his house with the metaphysical form of King Solomon's Temple. For him this is an act of faith drawing on protective aspects of God's divinity.

But Parris too is able to perceive this change in the nature of reality, albeit in his own terms. His plans to gain entry requires the construction of an elaborate ritual analog. Like a voodoo doll for a building. Just as the limbs of the doll can be broken, the metaphysical walls of the temple may be breached.

Succubus from the source

For each of my supernatural beings I strove to draw upon classical source materials rather than rely on 20th century pop culture. My warlock, Pastor Parris, is a man of repressed passion based on serial killer profiles. His only emotional connection to the outside world has been through a series of dominating female figures. First his puritanical grandmother, then following her grisly demise, his succubus lover Betty. Like all magic in the world of The Darkening Dream, Betty is a conceptual product of her beholder. So I turned to The Malleus Maleficarum, the rantings of two 15th century clergymen, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. This book, which translates as the The Witch Hammer, was used by the Inquisition as a handbook for identifying and persecuting witches and demons.

Along with a five page essay on the mechanism by which Succubi and Incubi transfer semen, the Maleficarum has this to say about Succubi:

Devils have no lungs or tongue, though they can show the latter, as well as teeth and lips, artificially made according to the condition of their body; therefore they cannot truly and properly speak. But since they have understanding, and when they wish to express their meaning, then, by some disturbance of the air included in their assumed body, not of air breathed in and out as in the case of men, they produce, not voices, but sounds which have some likeness to voices, and send them articulately through the outside air to the ears of the hearer.

From this passage, we know that one of the means of identifying Succubi is that they do not move their lips when speaking, but manipulate the elements of fluid air near their mouths directly. Hence, in my novel, Betty does not open her mouth to speak, but the air in front of her shimmers as she does. In keeping with my fast paced action oriented novel, I never make an issue of this, but like thousands of other details in the book it is informed by the source. Clearly brothers Kramer and Sprenger knew what they were talking about, as they inspired thousands to burn at the stake.

Khepri and Osiris in the good old days

The Power of the Word

With each different school of magic I tried to extract the historic flavor and mindset of past occultists. The mysterious Khepri, another of my villains, practices an ancient Egyptian magic entirely different from Parris' devilish thaumaturgy. The spirit of Egyptian magic often derives from the use of secret names and the spoken word — nay command. The sorcerer/priest orders, by way of his secret magic, the very gods and demons to do his bidding. So it is that when Khepri invokes the miniature sun which is his weapon, he cries these words from The Egyptian Book of the Dead:

Re sits in his Abode of Millions of Years. The doors of the sky are opened for me, the doors of the earth are opened for me, the door-bolts of Geb are opened for me, the shutters of the sky-windows are thrown open for me. I know you, I know your names; Release him, loose him!

By sheer force of his sorcerous will he demands the sun yield to him. And so it does.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

By writing a modern fantasy adventure, but by grounding the magic and supernatural in tradition, I wanted to prove that the old adage really is true: Truth is stranger than fiction. The twisted imaginations of our ancestors, devoid of the distractions of the current age, were often far more creative than the half-assed creations of Hollywood and the like.

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[image error]Get The Darkening Dream by Andy Gavin FREE on Amazon today!

Andy Gavin is an unstoppable storyteller who studied for his Ph.D. at M.I.T. and founded video game developer Naughty Dog, Inc. at the age of fifteen, serving as co-president for two decades. There he created, produced, and directed over a dozen video games, including the award winning and best selling Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter franchises, selling over 40 million units worldwide. He sleeps little, reads novels and histories, watches media obsessively, travels, and of course, writes. Learn more about him at http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/.

Help Me Solve A Mystery!

[image error]Help me solve this mystery and win a signed paperback copy of your choice of Forbidden Mind, Forbidden Fire (in about a month) or Bits of You & Pieces of Me. I'll also throw in some Three Lost Kids and Forbidden bookmarks!

Here's the mystery:

The world of my Forbidden trilogy had me completely absorbed when a knock on the door broke my concentration. It must be one of the neighbor kids looking for our girls.

"Madelynne, can you get the door?"

She ran our of her room and greeted a man who stood on our porch with two packages. "Certified mail for Kimberly Kinrade."

I had mail? Cool! I went to sign for them, thinking my parents had sent me early birthday presents, but why would they send it certified? I closed the door and took my two presents to the couch to open.

One bubble envelope and one purple letter envelope. They both had the same[image error] return address, but they weren't from my parents.

Clue #1: the return address

Candies R Us, Inc.

371 Lakeport Blvd., #379

Lakeport, CA 95453

I opened the bubble envelope first, and found a Snickers bar and a blank, white sheet of paper folded up. Nothing else.

This is so bizarre. Why would someone send me a Snickers bar? I don't even like Snickers.

I opened the letter, thinking it would explain why they had sent me a candy. Maybe they packaged it and forgot to sign the paper?

[image error]The envelope contained another white sheet of paper. Blank. Someone had taken the time to pay for a certified letter that I had to sign for… and only sent a blank sheet of paper. Why?

The postage for the Snickers package was $7.42 and was sent from Lakeport, California.

Clue #2

I lived in Lake County (which is the where Lakeport is) several years ago, and my best friend lives near there, but I have no contact with anyone else and she didn't send this.

Clue #3

This is less of a clue, and more of a mystery. We just moved a little over a month ago (We don't live in California) and almost NO ONE has our address. I've used a P.O. Box for everything and the only people who have this new address are my best friend, my parents (who live 14 hours from Lakeport and my mom just had surgery… so not a contender), my publishing company (not in California, and not likely to spend $12 to send me random blank notes and Snickers bars,) and one other person who lives in Washington.

My address is not listed, yet these were addressed specifically to me.

Clue #4

The manilla bubble package had pre-printed labels on it, but the purple envelope[image error] was handwritten and looks female.

What My Kids Think:

Assassins have been sent to kill me and they poisoned the Snickers. Time to test for poison and call the police!

What I've done:

I contacted the address listed, it's a UPS store and the box number is attached to a business (not Candies R Us). They are calling the business (they aren't allowed to disclose the name of the business) but they know the business and are confident the business is not in any way involved in this. They have not heard of this happening to anyone else.

I've googled Candies R Us, Inc. and didn't find anything useful.

Here's the mystery you need to solve.

WHO sent me these packages and WHY? And HOW did they get my address?

To win the signed book, you must solve the mystery. If no one can solve the mystery, I will award a signed copy to the person who has the best theory!

So, let's see who's the best P.I.!

UPDATE as of Monday 4:14 p.m. PST

I opened the Snickers bar. All I found was a smooshed Snickers and no evidence of tampering. (But no one is eating it.)

I also used water, fire and pencil rubbings on the paper and nothing! I'm out of ideas!!

Great comments and ideas, keep 'em coming!

My Unbreakable Heart: Part 1: Why We Stay

[image error]I wrote of this once. In fiction. It was easier to speak in third person, hiding behind the characters I created. When he choked her to near unconsciousness, I could protect myself with that invisible wall.

But it's time. To speak out. To use my name in telling my story. For myself. For others. Because I have the words to speak of it when so many others don't. And then the question inevitably arises…

Why do women stay in abusive marriages? This is what most people think, if they don't ask it outright. Hell, I STILL ask this question, as I have yet to come up with an adequate answer for myself.

The short answer is I don't know. But it's not why you think. How do I know? Because I stayed for almost 10 years. And it wasn't for any reason that most people imagined.

After all, why does a dying frog stay in a boiling pot of water? Because it takes time for the heat to be a true threat.

By then it's too late.

The signs were there from the beginning, but to a young girl blind with love (or lust?) they were easy to ignore.

We met at a bar, but it was a fluke, right? I rarely went to bars. No reason to think he was an alcoholic just because he was there that night too.

He promised to cut back, and he did. Our whirlwind courtship left little room for the demon of doubt to wiggle his way into our love.

The first time his arms wrapped around my body, not in love, but in hate and anger, I was unprepared. He was drunk. I was desperate to keep him from driving. I ended up in a heap on the floor, throat sore from choking, the sound of his screeching tires telling me I'd lost him.

I was still there three days later when he finally decided to come home.

It was then that I knew I'd also lost myself. (And everything in our joint bank account!)

Next, the demon of war came to our home. He was on alert to fight in Iraq. To save lives with his medic training. In and out of these threats, we tried to stay strong. Ignoring the heat building around us.

This death of soul crept into me slowly. Stealing away at who I was, while I fought to keep my life from falling apart. Then the demon of fear came to live with us. It was to him I was married for nearly a decade.

If you had asked me 15 years ago what I would do if a man strangled me, threatened to kill me, or hurt me in any way physically, my answer would have involved many expletives and a detailed description of what his key body parts would be doing without him.

I was strong. Beautiful. Independent. Intelligent. Educated. Trained in martial arts. A feminist. I was all the things you would NEVER expect of an abused wife. And then I became an abused wife. And all those other adjectives fell to the wayside as I became a ghost of myself, haunting my own life.

My husband wasn't an evil man. I wasn't a spineless, uneducated wimp. These are stereotypes that people like to imagine are true, so they feel immune to the realities of what could be.

Why do women stay in abusive relationships? Because we don't feel the heat until we are already dying.

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This is the first part of a 10-part series on domestic violence and relationships based on my life that I will be posting every Monday. Please come back next Monday for the next post, The Beginning of The End , or follow my blog or sign up to receive email updates. You can also like my Facebook Page for updates on my blog, my books and more.

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A Charity Giveaway to Bring Awareness to Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease

[image error]As some of you know, my daughter Lexie and I are both allergic to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, malts and more. It hides in sauces as a thickening agent and cloaks itself in soups and dressings. It's hard to avoid and takes a lot of planning to eat well without it.

Lexie was very sad when we first found out she couldn't eat bread and pasta and pancakes and so many other things anymore. (So was I!) I've since found substitutes, but it's hard. When there's a surprise birthday party at school with cupcakes, she's stuck with her fruit snack back up. When we go out to eat, she has very few options, and almost none on the kids menu.

When I wrote Lexie World, the first of The Three Lost Kids Trilogy, I made sure it was a world without gluten, so Lexie could eat there. Each of these books are based on my kids and the worlds they found, so Lexie was very excited to see her world with gluten-free food.

Lexie isn't the only kid out there with this condition. It's estimated that Celiac disease affects 1 every 133 people, and intolerance and allergies even more. To raise awareness of this disease, there is a charity giveaway happening, and Lexie World is a part of it. Go check it out on the Krazy Book Lady's blog. She's one stop on a whole blog tour devoted to giving books away for charity!

Leave a comment and tell her Lexie's mom says hi while you're there!

Harry Potter Broke Amazon, but The Day Still ROCKED!

[image error]Okay, I don't actually have any proof that Harry Potter broke Amazon yesterday, but it was a pretty dramatic day over all.

Evolved Publishing planned a BIG promotional event for March 27th, 2012. They planned to give away, for FREE, 9 books and 3 short stories, including two of my books: Forbidden Mind and Lexie World.

I placed ads, and signed my books up for the all the big sites and tweeted and Facebooked and scarified chickens (mostly for dinner) and prayed to gods and made deals with demons… all in anticipation of having an awesome FREE day that would 1) Lead to more fans of my two series and 2) Lead to big post-promo sales of my books.

This is the second time I've given away these two books, the first was in January. I had over 17,000 downloads of Forbidden Mind that day with major sales in the week and weeks following. Lexie World didn't take off nearly as much, but still, it helped.

Ironically, we planned our first big promo day the same day that everyone chose to boycott the internet!

And yesterday, the entire Harry Potter series was released in ebook for the first time. Not only that, but to buy it, you click a box on the Amazon page and are redirected to another site for purchase.

And Amazon broke.

For almost 3 hours.

Right in the middle of our big promotion, which happened (not by chance) to coincide with the launch of the second book in my Forbidden Trilogy, Forbidden Fire.

The. Longest. Three. Hours. Of . My. Life.

Now, I don't have proof that it's Harry's fault, but come on? It can't be a coincidence. Basically, all ebooks showed "this book is not available in the US" and had no pricing or buy option on them. And I had major sites all over the internet directing people who wanted my book, to those pages.

Broken pages.

It was agonizing.

But, despite all that, we had a great day. As a group, we had over 53,000 downloads! Forbidden Mind had almost 12,000 downloads, Lexie World had almost 2,000, and my launch of Forbidden Fire was a stellar success. So many awesome people have already posted on Facebook how much they love this book. I just can't stop doing my happy dance!

I have the best fans. The best online peeps. I owe all of you BIG for making this day such a tremendous success for me, my books and for all of us at Evolved Publishing. Thank you!

Because of you and your support, even Harry Potter couldn't stop us!

Oh, and I have some exciting news. Forbidden Life, the final book in the Forbidden Trilogy, now has a launch date. Look for it on Amazon, June 26th! This is a firm date, so mark your calendars. (My editor will KILL me if I don't meet my deadline, so you will have this book on June 26th.)

In the meantime, add it on Goodreads.

[image error]The road to redemption starts in hell.

The older Rent-A-Kids are free, but a powerful force still pulses in the darkness, keeping them all prisoners to their power.

With Drake gone and her power spiraling out of control, Sam doesn't know how she'll make it through the birth of her child–or how she'll protect that child from the evil that stalks her.

Drake will do anything to get his powers back… but when his choices lead to drugs and secrets, he has to decide what he's willing to lose forever.

Lucy's shadow powers are growing stronger–too strong. As she and Luke work with the mysterious I.P.I. agents to free the babies and young children still held captive at Rent-A-Kid, Lucy must make some difficult decisions that could jeopardize her friendships, and their mission.

In this final installment of the award-winning Forbidden trilogy, each character must conquer their darkest demons or lose everything in this final battle against the evil Rent-A-Kid organization.

Did you forget to pick up your copy of Forbidden Mind and Forbidden Fire? Get them on Amazon now and journey into a world where paranormal teens are raised in secret and rented out for their abilities until one girl who reads minds finds out what is truly behind the Rent-A-Kid organization.

Forbidden Mind.

Forbidden Fire.

If you're interested in my children's series, The Three Lost Kids, check out the new site I created for them. ThreeLostKids.com. This is a kid-friendly place that also will have resources and ideas for parents and educators. Join us over there. It's fun and there are pretty pictures!

Random Poll: Who is your favorite character in the Forbidden series and why?

For fun, I will select 3 random people from the responses and send them a Forbidden bookmark and note! So don't forget to comment.

Take a dip into the Forbidden… and load up your Kindle without unloading your wallet!

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She reads minds.

He controls minds.

Together, they might get out alive.

Forbidden Mind is FREE and
Forbidden Fire is HERE!

Everyone loves to dabble in the forbidden, which is why Evolved Publishing is giving you a free teaser into my award-winning Forbidden Trilogy.

On Tuesday, March 27th, Forbidden Mind, a YA paranormal thriller/romance and winner of the Forward National Literature Award, will be FREE on Amazon, on the same day the sequel, Forbidden Fire, launches!

Read a free sample of Forbidden Mind and get it FREE here>> http://amzn.to/GS1F24

Check out some of these reviews:

"…a thrilling, dark and deeply romantic read that had me sitting on the edge of my seat and eagerly awaiting the next installment." – Refracted Light Young Adult Book Reviews

"Do not make any plans on the day you begin, as once you start, you will not be able to put it down." – L.M. Stull

"…hooked me in from the beginning." – L.E. Manning

"Forbidden Mind is beautifully written and worth your reading time." – BookWormSans

About Forbidden Mind

Sam thinks she's months away from freedom. After spending her life in a secret school, rented out to the rich and powerful as a paranormal spy, she is ready to head to college like any normal eighteen-year-old.

Only Sam isn't normal. She reads minds. And just before her big going-away party, she links to the mind of a young man who changes everything.

Drake wasn't raised as a 'Rent-A-Kid.' He was kidnapped and taken there by force. But his exceptional physical strength and powers of mind control make him very dangerous, especially to Sam.

When they meet, Sam is forced to face the truth of her situation, and to acknowledge that not all is as it seems in her picture-perfect world. For what awaits her on her eighteenth birthday isn't a trip to college, but an unexpected nightmare from which she may not be able to escape.

To survive, they must work together.

But will their powers be enough to save them before it's too late?

Get it FREE here> http://amzn.to/GS1F24

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More Forbidden?

[image error]Do you like to have the next book in a series ready to go before you read the first? Have you already read Forbidden Mind and are chomping at the bit to find out what happens next?

The sequel, Forbidden Fire, officially launches on Tuesday as well. Twice the length as Forbidden Mind, with more of the characters we love: Sam, Drake, Lucy and Luke! So get Forbidden Mind for free and pick up the sequel at the same time.

Read a sample and get Forbidden Fire here>> http://amzn.to/GQENvy

About Forbidden Fire

She escaped, but she'll never be free

"Time held no meaning as my mind darted in and out of memories. Past and present collided to create a full-sensory collage out of my life: playing hide-n-seek with my best friends Luke—who always cheated by walking through walls when he was about to be caught—and Lucy; Mr. Caldrin critiquing my sketches and offering ideas to make them more realistic; targets changing faces, blending into the same person, their thoughts rippling through my mind like waves. Through it all, a demon stalked me from the shadows of my memories, never quite showing its face, but crouching, waiting.

And then I dreamed…."

Sam and Drake may have escaped, but they aren't free—not with a powerful Seeker after them. As Sam struggles with the ethics of her new powers and embraces a blossoming physical relationship with Drake, Lucy and Luke face challenges of their own.

With forces coalescing inside and outside the Rent-A-Kid dorms, it's only a matter of time before the fire they started forces each of them to make choices they can't undo. But will it be enough to save them?

Read a sample of Forbidden Fire and get it here>> http://amzn.to/GQENvy

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More FREE books?

Yup! It's not over yet! Evolved is offering 8 more free books on Tuesday, in addition to[image error] Forbidden Mind, including my children's illustrated fantasy chapter book, Lexie World. http://amzn.to/xxMzaA

Written for 4-9 year olds, but great for all ages, Lexie discovers the consequences of her littering. Lexie World is overrun by Garbage Goblins and she and her sisters must cross the Waters of Waste, climb the Mountain of Lost Clothes, and retrieve a piece of the Mirror of Ice, in order to break the curse and save the world.

With the help of her new Unicorn friends, Lexie must find the courage to face her fears and find her true self in this wonderful adventure book for children.

Read a sample of Lexie World and get it FREE here>> http://amzn.to/xxMzaA

And if you like this book, check out the next in the series, Bella World. Bella learns important lessons about sharing and anger from a misunderstood Dragon in Bella World.

Read a sample of Bella World here>> http://amzn.to/GOdZl0

Want another YA paranormal fantasy, a zombie western, an epic fantasy, a psychological thriller, an inspirational memoir, a Native American historical fiction and an anthology for FREE as well? Check them out here or click on the covers in the right menu under Books From Evolved Publishing>> http://bit.ly/zXJER7

Wow! What a day. Fill up your kindle for FREE and enjoy 9 great books, plus pick up 2 sequels.

No Kindle? No problem! Amazon offers free apps for your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad or smart phone right under the BUY button on the product page. Just download and enjoy a ton of FREE books.

Enjoy all these great books and come back and tell us what you thought. We'd love to hear about your favorites.

Forbidden deals never looked so good!

HUNGER GAMES: District Indie-I'm Team Drake

[image error]As part of the YA Indie Carnival this week, we are writing about characters from our books who would be the ultimate competitors in the HUNGER GAMES.

This one is so easy, it's almost embarrassing. Drake, from the Forbidden Trilogy, would obviously kick major butt in The Hunger Games, especially if Sam's life were on the line. (But he's got a healthy self-preservation instinct going as well, so you totally don't want to get on his bad side!)

Where to begin. Drake is A) Wicked strong and B) Controls minds. So… yeah, no brainer. I mean, do we even need a discussion about this? Oh, and he's also hot. Tall, blond, chiseled with piercing blue eyes and a California surfer tan. Granted, this wouldn't really help him in the actually killing part of the competition, but he'd charm the pants off of any ladies around!

If you need further convincing, here's a sneak peek from Forbidden Fire, book 2 in the Forbidden Trilogy that will be available on Amazon this Tuesday, March 27th.

Brad cleared his throat and fidgeted with his hands. "Right. Okay. Um. So, if you've been[image error] following my blog lately, you know I've made some pretty wild claims about some friends of mine who escaped a secret organization using paranormal powers. I have here Sam and Drake. Sam can read minds, but how do you prove that on air? But Drake here, he can not only control minds, but is ridiculously strong. That's much easier to demonstrate, so here we go."

Drake looked to Brad for the go-ahead, then put his hands out for each of them to step. When they had their feet on his palms and their arms on his shoulders, he lifted them from the ground until they had to bend over to keep from hitting their heads on the ceiling.

The professor sucked in his breath. "Astonishing."

Drake didn't break a sweat.

He lowered his arms slowly to keep them from toppling off. Drake reached for Sam and steadied her once they were both on the ground.

Brad stepped forward with wobbly legs. "There you have it, folks. What normal man could do that without so much as a blink? Want to see more? Follow us."

Brad walked around and took the camera off the stand and ushered Drake outside. Everyone else trailed after the camera.

"Now Drake will do another demonstration of his inhuman strength. Drake, can you please go lift that car?"

Drake's mouth curved into a half smile. Would Brad think of nothing to challenge him?

He reached under the belly of the Ford Taurus and lifted it like anyone else might lift a skateboard. Even Sam stared wide-eyed, mouth agape, as he stood there holding the car over his head.

After the strength demonstration, Brad interviewed Sam and focused on the pregnancy and her escape. Drake sat next to her and held her hand, but had little to contribute to the conversation until the end.

"And Drake, when you and Sam were finally about to escape, what made you decide to use mind control on Sam?"

Drake's blood pressure shot through the roof. Was Brad trying to start a fight?

"I had to protect her and our baby. I had no other choice."

The interview ended.

Drake stood and clenched his fists. "Brad. Kitchen. Now."

***

Wouldn't you want him on your sides in a race for your lives?

[image error]Now for some exciting news: (And shhh… don't tell anyone until Tuesday) but my publishers are offering 9 books FREE on Tuesday, March 27th, including the first book the Forbidden Trilogy, Forbidden Mind, and the first book in my children's illustrated fantasy chapter book series, Lexie World.

Now, I know that if you haven't already read Forbidden Mind, you probably won't be able to wait until Tuesday, so you can click on the titles, or the book covers to the right, and get it now, if you want. I won't be mad. But just know it's there on Tuesday for free if you want, and you can pick up Forbidden Fire, fresh off the press (so to speak) while you're there. Exciting, isn't it?

Now, which character from which book do you think would make a winning contender in the The Hunger Games?

And while you're at it, check out the other YA Carnival peeps and see who they've selected this week!

1.
Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series
2.
Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series


3.
Heather Self
4.
T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series


5.
Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
6.
Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy


7.
Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog
8.
K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed


9.
Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series
10.
Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy


11.
Dani Snell's Refracted Light Reviews
12.
Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey / Callum & Harper


13.
M. Leighton, Blood Like Poison Series, Madly, The Reaping
14.
Laura Elliott, YA & MG Author


15.
Madeline Smoot, Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls
16.
Cidney Swanson, author of Rippler


17.
Gwenn Wright, author of Filter
18.
TG Ayer


19.
Melissa Pearl, Author of The Time Spirit Trilogy
20.
Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga


21.
Roots in Myth, PJ Hoover
22.
Courtney Cole Writes

Defining Genre by Age: What's appropriate for young readers?

Today I'm over at Evolved Publishing talking (err… writing) about genre categories for younger readers. Here's a little taste of what's up. Why not join us there and participate in the discussion?

Classifying Books for Kids and Young Adults

As a parent, I'm always on the lookout for great books for my kids. As a reader, I love to find a fantastic new author with whom to fall in love. As an author and marketing director for Evolved Publishing, I've taken an interest in how books are classified, especially for younger readers.

The fiction genres for adults are pretty clear-cut. There's literary fiction and genre fiction, and you find what you like within those choices. Some like to mix it up with a little of this and that, but whether you're looking for romance, horror, magic, science fiction, or a thriller, you generally know what you'll find within your genre.

For the under 18 reading crowd, it's not so simple. When does a child graduate from Goosebumps Horror books for young readers to real horror that would give grown men nightmares?

How much is too much in regards to language, sex, or violence?

Historically, children's literature has not been conservative in some of these areas. I think back to the original telling of Cinderella, and remember her evil stepsisters cutting off parts of their feet to squeeze into that coveted glass slipper. Hey, at least they were committed!

Even stories featuring younger children often portrayed them alone and fending for themselves. Guardians and parents were removed from the story, in order to give the child the freedom to move about the adventure and learn the lessons they needed on their own. This is still true in children's literature and cinema, from Dora the Explorer, to Harry Potter, to the whole trend of boarding school books in Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction.

There will always be books that push the envelope of what some consider "appropriate" for a particular age group, but, for the purpose of this article, let's look at the ages typically assigned to each category and what they mean.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

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The best fermented enzyme salad

To go along with my health post today about getting back into shape and healthy, here's a fermented enzyme salad recipe that is not only tasty but super-healthy for your digestion and body! Enjoy!

A Plan to Get in Shape AND Keep Publishing Books

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Me as a bad-ass. Don't I look like I could take someone down?

My birthday is next month and I'm using it as a wake-up call. It turns out, spending 14 hours a day sitting behind a computer writing doesn't actually lead to a toned, trim me. Go figure.

So now, here I am, about to turn 30*cough*something and about to marry a gorgeous younger man–my sexy Russian Prince, Dmytry Karpov. We have three little girls who look to me as their role model and I'm more out of shape than I have ever been in my life.

It's depressing. I used to be a kick-ass martial artist and mountain biker, did you know that? I could ride the entire day up and down killer mountains, and still have energy to roller blade and kayak after. I could spend hours in martial arts lessons, working so hard the skin on my toes peeled off, and still I would prevail. I was hard-core.

Now I'm what? Flab-core? lol We just bought new bikes and I realized quickly that I'm not the woman I was. Twenty minutes around the neighborhood (we're talking flat roads, people, not straight up hill mountains) nearly killed me. So, yeah, it's time for something to change.

So what's the best way to get in shape when you work from home and are addicted to work? Given the flexibility of my schedule, you'd think it would be easy for me to prepare fresh, healthy food daily and squeeze in some exercise.

Right? Wrong.

The thing is, in the six hours a day that my kids are gone, I have about 10-12 hours of work to get done. I work full-time as a novelist, I'm the Marketing Director for Evolved Publishing and a Sr. Project Manager for Novel Publicity. I also have three kids who need my time and attention when they get home. Plus, if I'm being honest, I actually don't look cooking and, given how out of shape I am, working out isn't so fun either.

But you know the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I can't keep ignoring my body, feeding it junk and sitting on my bum all day and expect to live a long, healthy life with my family.

So, I looked around, talked to some people and tried to figure out the best way to start. I needed a whole body-mind approach. Something that would be effective, results-oriented, but without sacrificing healthy for skinny. A diet that could be life-long and allow for the many food allergies I have. A work out that would work up to where I want to be without killing me at where I am.

And I think I found it.

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As seen on the PinkMethod.com website

It's called The P.I.N.K. Method and it's designed specifically for women (sorry guys) who want to lose weight, get in shape and get their sexy back!

Yes, please!

It's an approach that doesn't leave anything out: Nutrition, exercise, the body-mind connection–it's all addressed. I just got my kit yesterday and read through the book in one sitting. I will be shopping this weekend to set up my life for this change.

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired–not to mention out of shape.

And I know I'm not the only one out there. I have a lot of writer friends who are struggling with the same issues. Ours isn't a career that lends itself to toned bodies and an active lifestyle, but that doesn't mean we can't reshape our lives to get a new shape for our bodies.

Even if you're not a writer, if you're on my blog, chances are you're a reader–and that's not exactly a high-calorie burning activity either. Let's face it, most of us need help with some area of our health, if not all areas, like me.

So why not do this together? The kit is only$67.99 and it comes with everything you need to change your life. Check it out here>> The PINK Method

Plus, it includes an online support system that I'm excited to participate in. Now, don't worry, I'm not going to use my blog to start selling work out stuff. And I don't get ANY kickbacks or commissions if you decide to use this product. I'm sharing because I am actually certified as a nutritionist, raw vegan chef and personal trainer. I'm also a Reiki Master and certified hynotherapist.

For many years I've been looking for the answers to take care of my body, and I really think PINK is it! I've never been more impressed with a diet and exercise routine before. It has different levels you work through, changes in food and exercise to keep your metabolism on its toes, and it's all backed by science without eliminating any major (healthy) food groups. (It even allows for chocolate, in the form of raw cocao powder… )

Even if you don't want to use this program, I'd love for you to join me in committing to being more healthy. Together, let's clean up our diet, get out bodies moving and improve our health.

Who's with me?