Cyndi Tefft's Blog, page 5
March 7, 2013
Author Spotlight: Carrie Secor
I have the honor of hosting new YA author, Carrie Secor, on the blog today. She's written a great post about the importance of being in balance, and she's even providing a chance for you to win a copy of her book,
Tell
. How cool is that??
Balanced, i.e. "Why I Love Accounting"
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. In Tell, Cadie is asked what she wants to do with the rest of her life, and her response is nearly identical to what mine was in high school: “I want to write. But I can hardly do that right away. I’ll probably pursue something in editing or publishing until I can get published myself.”
Or, teaching English. Of course, we all know how well that panned out. I loved the idea of having a positive influence on students, as so many of my teachers had on me, but when I was working toward my education degree, I found nothing less appealing than the thought of having to go back to high school, even as an educator. Do you know how early those people have to get up in the morning? I know that school starts so early so it can be finished early so kids can do extracurricular activities and then eventually spend time with their families, but seriously, the thought of having to be somewhere that early in the morning makes me physically ill anymore. I can’t believe we force kids to do that.
I bounced around with degrees. Education was a no-go. I took a year off from school to consider my options. The only thing I knew after being off from school for a year was that I could not be a waitress for the rest of my life, so I went back to school with less of a clue than I had the first time, declaring my major as general studies. After a semester, I thought, “Maybe I could be a business major.” After all, I’d always liked playing Monopoly and Zapitalism. (You can play Zapitalism too, at http://www.zapitalism.com.) I took one accounting class over that summer and enjoyed it. In my second accounting class, my professor was passing back our first tests when he stopped at my desk and asked me if I was an accounting major.
“No,” I said.
“You should be,” he answered, handing back my exam, on which I’d gotten a 108%.
Well, okey-dokey then.
I was an accounting major the last three semesters. It was the longest standing relationship I had with any major. Accounting was the degree that stuck. I still thought that accounting would be a means to an end. I was writing Tell, and that was the end goal, wasn’t it? To get published. I was still just working until I could have success as an author, and then I wouldn’t have to work at a “real” job anymore. Nobody dreams of growing up to be an accountant. I was going to be an author.
Here’s the kicker that nobody (least of all me) was expecting: I actually really like accounting. Legitimately and a lot.
Do you know what the symbol for accounting is? A yin-yang. I found that out my senior year, when ordering class rings, because you can get the symbol for your major inscribed on the ring. I saw that accounting was a yin-yang and I thought, “Lawd, how stupid.” Well, if you’ve seen me, you might have noticed that I now have a yin-yang tattoo on my wrist, not just because of its association with accounting, but because of what it represents. The reason accounting has yin-yang as its symbol is because of one word: balance. For every debit, there is an equal credit. If you are out of balance (or OOB, as we like to call it), you cannot go any further. Well, I like to live my life that way too. Balanced.
I have “Accounting” mode: DEBITS | CREDITS | ALLOCATION | ACCRUAL | RECONCILIATION | EXCEL | AUDIT | FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | GENERAL LEDGER
I have “Author” mode: WRITE | EDIT | PROOFREAD | DAYDREAM | BLOG | PROOFREAD | TALK TO MYSELF IN THE MIRROR ABOUT MY CHARACTERS | GOODREADS | PROOFREAD AGAIN
I have “Faith” mode: PRAYER | SERVICE | REFLECTION | SELF-IMPROVEMENT
I have “Girlfriend” mode: [EXPLICIT CONTENT BLOCKED BY YOUR BROWSER]
I also have “Vegetate” mode: EAT CHEEZ-ITS | PLAY WITH CAT | DRINK WINE | CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY | EARTHBOUND ON SNES | FAILBOOK
I feel balanced. I like that I spend my days at the office and then can come home and write. When I start getting OOB errors, I can adjust a little bit, reorganize myself, until things get balanced again. The life of a full-time writer was not for me. My heart also belongs to another.
Follow Carrie Secor on her blog and enter the giveaway below!
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/062ad51/
Love ties them together. Death can't tear them apart.
Senior Cadie Dawson has just been named editor of the school’s literary magazine. She hasn’t written anything decent since her breakup with Tom last year. She’s a little surprised, and a lot conflicted, to find new inspiration in Shane, a guy who runs in a completely different social circle and also happens to be her best friend’s brother.
Sophomore Melody Dawson has been friends with Andy for so many years, she’s never really known anything else. Lately she’s been wondering what it would be like to take their relationship to the next level. When she tries to build up the courage to take the risk and tell him, she finds herself facing the prospect of life without him.
Welcome to small-town Pennsylvania, where everybody lives within a stone’s throw of everybody else, and the rumor mill is the prevailing force in every high school student’s life. Relationships change, people move away, and friendships are tested, all within the privacy of a very public school. You might bluff or you might fold, but once the cards are dealt, everyone has a tell.
Balanced, i.e. "Why I Love Accounting"
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. In Tell, Cadie is asked what she wants to do with the rest of her life, and her response is nearly identical to what mine was in high school: “I want to write. But I can hardly do that right away. I’ll probably pursue something in editing or publishing until I can get published myself.”
Or, teaching English. Of course, we all know how well that panned out. I loved the idea of having a positive influence on students, as so many of my teachers had on me, but when I was working toward my education degree, I found nothing less appealing than the thought of having to go back to high school, even as an educator. Do you know how early those people have to get up in the morning? I know that school starts so early so it can be finished early so kids can do extracurricular activities and then eventually spend time with their families, but seriously, the thought of having to be somewhere that early in the morning makes me physically ill anymore. I can’t believe we force kids to do that.
I bounced around with degrees. Education was a no-go. I took a year off from school to consider my options. The only thing I knew after being off from school for a year was that I could not be a waitress for the rest of my life, so I went back to school with less of a clue than I had the first time, declaring my major as general studies. After a semester, I thought, “Maybe I could be a business major.” After all, I’d always liked playing Monopoly and Zapitalism. (You can play Zapitalism too, at http://www.zapitalism.com.) I took one accounting class over that summer and enjoyed it. In my second accounting class, my professor was passing back our first tests when he stopped at my desk and asked me if I was an accounting major.
“No,” I said.
“You should be,” he answered, handing back my exam, on which I’d gotten a 108%.
Well, okey-dokey then.
I was an accounting major the last three semesters. It was the longest standing relationship I had with any major. Accounting was the degree that stuck. I still thought that accounting would be a means to an end. I was writing Tell, and that was the end goal, wasn’t it? To get published. I was still just working until I could have success as an author, and then I wouldn’t have to work at a “real” job anymore. Nobody dreams of growing up to be an accountant. I was going to be an author.
Here’s the kicker that nobody (least of all me) was expecting: I actually really like accounting. Legitimately and a lot.
Do you know what the symbol for accounting is? A yin-yang. I found that out my senior year, when ordering class rings, because you can get the symbol for your major inscribed on the ring. I saw that accounting was a yin-yang and I thought, “Lawd, how stupid.” Well, if you’ve seen me, you might have noticed that I now have a yin-yang tattoo on my wrist, not just because of its association with accounting, but because of what it represents. The reason accounting has yin-yang as its symbol is because of one word: balance. For every debit, there is an equal credit. If you are out of balance (or OOB, as we like to call it), you cannot go any further. Well, I like to live my life that way too. Balanced.
I have “Accounting” mode: DEBITS | CREDITS | ALLOCATION | ACCRUAL | RECONCILIATION | EXCEL | AUDIT | FINANCIAL STATEMENTS | GENERAL LEDGER
I have “Author” mode: WRITE | EDIT | PROOFREAD | DAYDREAM | BLOG | PROOFREAD | TALK TO MYSELF IN THE MIRROR ABOUT MY CHARACTERS | GOODREADS | PROOFREAD AGAIN
I have “Faith” mode: PRAYER | SERVICE | REFLECTION | SELF-IMPROVEMENT
I have “Girlfriend” mode: [EXPLICIT CONTENT BLOCKED BY YOUR BROWSER]
I also have “Vegetate” mode: EAT CHEEZ-ITS | PLAY WITH CAT | DRINK WINE | CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY | EARTHBOUND ON SNES | FAILBOOK
I feel balanced. I like that I spend my days at the office and then can come home and write. When I start getting OOB errors, I can adjust a little bit, reorganize myself, until things get balanced again. The life of a full-time writer was not for me. My heart also belongs to another.
Follow Carrie Secor on her blog and enter the giveaway below!
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/062ad51/
March 5, 2013
Even In Darkness Cover Reveal This Friday!
The gorgeous cover for
Even in Darkness
, the third book in the Between series, will be revealed this Friday, March 8th. Aiden's Angels across the globe are coming together to share the cover and spread the love of Aiden MacRae.*does dance of joy*
If you want to be part of the excitement, email me at cynditefft at gmail dawt cohm (see how sneaky I am? LOL) and I will hook you up!
You're gonna love the new cover, peeps. And the release of the book is coming up really soon! April 1st will be here before you know it...
March 4, 2013
Did You Get The Email??
I sent out an exciting email to Aiden's Angels about the Even In Darkness cover reveal and what comes after. Did you get the email? If not, click here to sign up for the Aiden's Angels mailing list!
February 27, 2013
Sign up for the Aiden's Angels mailing list!
Wanna get on top of Aiden MacRae? Er, I mean, wanna stay on top of what's happening with Aiden MacRae and the Between series? Sign up for the official Aiden's Angels mailing list and you'll be the first to know about all things Aiden!Just click here and enter your email address. The cover reveal for Even In Darkness is coming very soon, so if you're on the Aiden's Angels list, you'll be the first to know the details (and can even participate!).
February 11, 2013
Dirty Rotten Post Office
My sweet hubby took books to the post office today to ship to readers who ordered them via my blog and *gasp* the Post Office has doubled their shipping fees! To ship my two books internationally, it costs $25 now! When you add that shipping fee to the cost of the books themselves, I'd be in the hole.
So I can't ship books internationally anymore.
*cries*
There is something about knowing my books are scattered across that globe that has always warmed my heart, and it pains me to pull this away. I love my readers, no matter where they live!
Dirty dang frickety frackety... *Yosemite Sam swears so my kids can't hear*
So I can't ship books internationally anymore.
*cries*
There is something about knowing my books are scattered across that globe that has always warmed my heart, and it pains me to pull this away. I love my readers, no matter where they live!
Dirty dang frickety frackety... *Yosemite Sam swears so my kids can't hear*
February 8, 2013
A Valentine From Me to You
Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I thought I'd share a guest post with you that I wrote this time last year for Romance Week over at the Snowdrop Dreams blog (slightly edited to account for the passage of time!). I hope you enjoy the lurve.
***
Marriage Proposals (aka Ooh! Ooh! Pick Me!)
One of my favorite activities is to ask couples how they met. It’s a great way to quickly dig deeper and get to know people. In fact, most couples love to talk about how they met. They get that dreamy far-away look on their faces as they think back to those early days of romance and falling in love. *blissful sigh*
Another favorite of mine is to ask couples how they got engaged. Did he ask or did she? What was the setting? Was it an intimate spur-of-the-moment question or a full-fledged production complete with llamas and skywriters? Every story is different and yet they share the common threads of love and hope for the future. I can’t help but get sucked in. Romance rocks!
So in that vein, I’ll share my story with you and I want to hear yours! Deal?
I met my husband on a boat trip the week before I started my freshman year of college. It was a make-friends-before-school-starts cruise organized by the college and it worked like a charm. When I stepped off the boat, I had a ready-made group of friends to hang out with, including Dave. The guy who lived across the hall from Dave in the dorm hung out with us, too. He was cute and we started dating. It was magical and exciting.
It lasted two weeks.
And then not-so-magical guy stomped all over my freshman heart until I was sure I would die. I poured out all my pain and heartache to Dave, who listened, who was there for me, who cheered me up, who made me laugh.
I found a new kind of magic: a deeper, lasting magic. I knew without a doubt that he was The One, that I didn’t want to go a day without seeing his face, hearing his deep, rumbling laugh, and feeling his warmth.
We spent hours under the stars, talking. There was one star down low in the horizon that blinked blue and red. It was our star. If the weather was cloudy, you couldn’t always see it, but it was special. One night, the sky was dazzlingly bright with stars and it was there.
Blue. Red. Blue. Red.
Dave was standing against a boulder, holding me in his arms, while the star blinked on and off above us. I stared at him, wishing I had telepathic abilities as I sent this message to him in my mind:
“Ask me. Ask me. Ask me.”
He didn’t.
As we left and started walking back, he stopped in the middle of the path and said, “You know what? I almost...”
“What?”
“No, you’ll think...”
“What? Tell me.”
“I almost asked you to marry me back there.”
Love surged over me like a tidal wave. He’d heard. He’d felt it, too.
“It’s not too late,” I said. He grinned.
This past December was our 20th anniversary. And I’d do it all again.
What about you? Share your story!
***
Marriage Proposals (aka Ooh! Ooh! Pick Me!)
One of my favorite activities is to ask couples how they met. It’s a great way to quickly dig deeper and get to know people. In fact, most couples love to talk about how they met. They get that dreamy far-away look on their faces as they think back to those early days of romance and falling in love. *blissful sigh*
Another favorite of mine is to ask couples how they got engaged. Did he ask or did she? What was the setting? Was it an intimate spur-of-the-moment question or a full-fledged production complete with llamas and skywriters? Every story is different and yet they share the common threads of love and hope for the future. I can’t help but get sucked in. Romance rocks!
So in that vein, I’ll share my story with you and I want to hear yours! Deal?
I met my husband on a boat trip the week before I started my freshman year of college. It was a make-friends-before-school-starts cruise organized by the college and it worked like a charm. When I stepped off the boat, I had a ready-made group of friends to hang out with, including Dave. The guy who lived across the hall from Dave in the dorm hung out with us, too. He was cute and we started dating. It was magical and exciting.
It lasted two weeks.
And then not-so-magical guy stomped all over my freshman heart until I was sure I would die. I poured out all my pain and heartache to Dave, who listened, who was there for me, who cheered me up, who made me laugh.
I found a new kind of magic: a deeper, lasting magic. I knew without a doubt that he was The One, that I didn’t want to go a day without seeing his face, hearing his deep, rumbling laugh, and feeling his warmth.
We spent hours under the stars, talking. There was one star down low in the horizon that blinked blue and red. It was our star. If the weather was cloudy, you couldn’t always see it, but it was special. One night, the sky was dazzlingly bright with stars and it was there.
Blue. Red. Blue. Red.
Dave was standing against a boulder, holding me in his arms, while the star blinked on and off above us. I stared at him, wishing I had telepathic abilities as I sent this message to him in my mind:
“Ask me. Ask me. Ask me.”
He didn’t.
As we left and started walking back, he stopped in the middle of the path and said, “You know what? I almost...”
“What?”
“No, you’ll think...”
“What? Tell me.”
“I almost asked you to marry me back there.”
Love surged over me like a tidal wave. He’d heard. He’d felt it, too.
“It’s not too late,” I said. He grinned.
This past December was our 20th anniversary. And I’d do it all again.
What about you? Share your story!
January 12, 2013
It's here! Title and First Chapter Reveal
Vicki Trask did such an amazing job that I can't even put into words how much I love the post. See for yourselves! http://aidensangels.blogspot.com/2013/01/between-3-title-reveal-and-chapter-one.html
January 3, 2013
Big Reveal Coming Soon!
On January 12th, be sure to check out the Aiden's Angels fan site to learn the title of the third book in the Between series and read the first chapter. I know you'll be screaming "WHAT?????" when you read it.
Mwahahahahaha!
December 20, 2012
Great Christmas Giveaway: Free Ebooks for Your Friends!
So you don't have enough funds to buy all of your friends a book this Christmas? No worries. I've got your back! If you have friends whom you think would fall in love with Aiden MacRae, then let's share the love together.From now through Christmas Day, simply email me at cynditefft -at- gmail -dot- com and I will send a free ebook of Between to your friend. In your email, please include your friend's name and email address. I will not save this information or add them to any lists. I will use it only to email them the gift of Between. Please include your own name in your email so I can let them know why they are receiving it. The gifting system doesn't allow me to enter a message to them, so it would be a good idea for you to let them know the gift is coming, and how you feel about the book. :)
There is no limit to the number of friends you can share Between with! Just send me the above information on each friend and I will send an ebook their way.
Merry Christmas to all of Aiden's Angels. Your encouragement, kindness, and love for Aiden MacRae is the reason I'm writing the third book in this series. I never intended for there to be more than two, but you loved Aiden so much that I *had* to keep it going, just for you.
Now let's go crazy and see how many free copies of Between we can send for Christmas gifts! *hugs*
December 15, 2012
Giveaway! Dissidence by Jamie Canosa
Jamie Canosa, Aiden's Angel extraordinaire (and maker of awesome book trailers) has her debut novel out now and you totally need to pick it up!
Connect with Jamie online!You'll be glad you did. She's a sweetie!
Facebook, Blog, Twitter, Goodreads
Links to Dissidence:
Goodreads,
Amazon
B&N
a Rafflecopter giveaway
In dystopian America, sixteen-year-old Kaleigh finds out quickly what having a big mouth and not enough brains to keep it shut can earn you. A one-way ticket to the work camps that no one even knows exists.I kid you not, this is a pulse-pounding dystopian YA story that will leave you breathless and itching for the next book! Enter to win a copy of Dissidence below. Jamie's blog tour for the release continues tomorrow at Lisa's Reads.
Nuclear war has ravished the nation, and a century later, the survivors are living in an entirely new world. In a society where everything is decided for you, from where you work to who you marry, dissidence is not taken lightly.
But, even inside the camps, Kaleigh’s fiery spirit refuses to be extinguished. In a single moment of defiance, she manages to spark a riot that ignites into a full-blown rebellion.
With growing numbers counting on her, not just for their freedom, but for their very lives, two different boys vying for her heart, and trouble brewing from within the camp itself, can Kaleigh find a way to step up and become the leader everyone is counting on her to be, or will even the most carefully laid plans come crashing down around her?
Connect with Jamie online!You'll be glad you did. She's a sweetie!
Facebook, Blog, Twitter, Goodreads
Links to Dissidence:
Goodreads,
Amazon
B&N
a Rafflecopter giveaway
