Toni Aleo's Blog, page 21

A Teaser Tuesday

A teaser from Empty Net! Enjoy!!

She had promised herself that she would start collecting things she liked, but the only thing she had done was buy one inspirational picture. Audrey’s eyes observed the quote that was in a Victorian style frame above her bookshelf.
Move on. It’s just a chapter in the past. Don’t close the book. Just turn the page.
Well, didn’t that just apply to this moment in her life right now?

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Audrey's Cupcakes Monday

Not only are Red Velvet cake, cupcakes, basically anything, my favorite treat, its one of Audrey's too. I made these cupcakes and had the plans of putting pictures of my cupcakes on here for y'all but my husband ate them. Yes, all of them. I was only gone to the store for an hour! It makes no sense, but yeah, here is a picture of how Annie from Annie's Eats made hers.  I hope you try the recipe, its fantastic! If you do, please send me a picture! I would love to see what y'all come up with.

Red Velvet CupcakesFrom Annie's Eats. 
Ingredients:
For the cake:
2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar
For the frosting:*
8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.\

ENJOY!!!



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Been thinking!

So I've been thinking...I know scary thing! hehe, but I think I want to blog more. Since I am not writing right now, I figured that I wanted to do more blogging. I am about to start the second edit of Empty Net, I've read a couple books and I hope to read more, but I'm kinda bored. Since I can't decide what the heck I want to write next, I figured boring y'all will be fun. lol. So here is the schedule for the next couple weeks. It will go for as long as I want to do it. If you think it is pointless, please tell me! LOL! I am just trying new things! But anyways, Here we go:

Audrey's Cupcake Monday: I will be posting a recipe of super awesome cupcakes I find on pinterest or I steal from my best friend!
A Teaser Tuesday: Teaser from upcoming works of mine. Empty Net, Harper's Novella, or Blue Lines.
Totally Random Wednesday: This will be basically Writing Wednesday.
Totally Hot Thursday: I will be posting total hotness.
Tate's Playlist Friday: Songs from Tate's playlist.

So what do y'all think? Hope you think its a great idea! Starts tomorrow!!!


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ad.

I have to say, my ad looks beautiful on Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews Blog! Its gorgeous! Go check out their site and my ad!!!

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Writing Wednesday

Warning....this is a MAGIC MIKE themed post...rawr. It also contains a bunch of booty...sorry if this offends anyone. I am a horny little thing when there isnt hockey :P Is yours?




Hello Everyone!! How is everyone doing? Well, I hope, because I'm doing great! hehe! I have been sleeping and reading and relaxing! Its totally unusual but man do I love it! I have honestly blown EVERYTHING off this week. Me and the kids have been in the pool and thats it. We sleep, eat, and swim. Its been fantastic. We went to see Brave which was FANTASTIC! Then we went to Indiana this past weekend and I got to feed a giraffe! I know! Amazing right?! lol. Then we went to the childern's musem and they had umbrellas hanging from the ceiling as decoration. It reminded me off Empty Net and I shared it on my Facebook. When y'all read the book you'll see why! Its awesome. Lets see, I dont know if y'all realize but Magic Mike comes out in 2 days...yes, rawr..hm hmm. hehe!




Like I said, I've been reading like a mad man this week (its been great) and I wanted to share the books I read. Somebody to Love by Kristin Higgins. Sweet Summer Kisses by Shannon Stacy. About that Night by Julie James. They were great and everyone should go pick them up! I am reading The Look of Love by Bella Andre now and I love it. Really excited to keep reading, BUT and there is a but, the Assassins Characters are driving me insane! I dont want to give away who the next book is about so we'll call the next characters Mikey and Minnie. I really want to write their story, they are on my brain hardcore, but then there is Harper wanting me to share her story. So I was thinking of doing a little novella of Harper starting when she meets Jakob and ending at the end of Empty Net because she is in Empty Net for something, y'all will see later. So Yeah, crazy things going on in my head and I have no clue what I'm gonna do. So yeah, blah. I'm gonna read 10 books and then I'll decide. My best friend is coming home from Iraq this weekend, so I'm gonna spend time with her too, so yeah, I dont know when I'll have an idea of what I'm doing. essh. lol I'll let y'all know when I do.

Taking Shots and Trying to Score are doing well. TS is ranked 4.2 out of 5 on Amazon with 132 reviews. TSS is ranked 4.4 out of 5 with 101 reviews. On goodreads I finally hit 1,000 reviews! I'm so excited! hehe I thought it was fantastic! A tour with Charisma Blog Tours will start July 1st. Please check out the blog tour page to see where and when I'll be at each blog. I've been getting so many fantastic emails, facebook post and tweets from everyone lately and I just want to say Thanks so much, it means to the world to me!! Keep them coming! They make my day!


Oh, how I cant wait for Empty Net to come out. Since I've finished, a couple people have had the opportunity to read it and this is what some of them are saying:

 I absolutely loved this book. You get drawn in by the two main characters, Tate and Audrey, and you can't help but love them. Mrs. Aleo takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions and makes you feel like you really know these characters. She did that as well in her other books, which I loved dearly, and until this one Taking Shots was my favorite. Her books just keep getting better and better and I can't wait to see what is to come! Congratulations Toni, you did an AMAZING job! - Mary

As alway, I love every part of Toni's books! The style of writing, keeping the characters real, and the love between the characters just can't be beat!
This love story is unlike any other Toni has written. You won't want to put this book down! This book was very easy to get drawn into; I laughed, cried and celebrated with the characters thru each chapter.
Another great book Toni! Keep up the great work and I cannot wait to see what up next for all the characters! - Althea

AHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I can't be done, this can't be over!!!! It's too good! I can't put into words how much I love this book. I really think this is Toni's best ever! Seriously! You all know how much I love Lucas and I didn't think Toni could top him, esp with Tate being a charming (I find them boring) but boy oh boy was I wrong! It was like me thinking Cars Land was going to be lame!!! This BLEW me away! And I kinda need more now! :D You get a standing ovation from me lady! - my critique partner - Tara - It was funny reading her notes from the last chapter, she kept putting little bubbles that said AWWWWWWWWWW hehehe. it was funny, and I'm gonna miss all our emails but thats okay cause I'll be start something new soon. Just havent figured that out yet...lol

But really, I agree with what everyone said. Empty Net is totally different from Taking Shots and Trying to Score. Not only is the cover freaking beautiful but the content is so much different. One minute you're laughing your butt off and then the next you're crying so hard you can't breathe. Its intense and I honestly didnt think I had this in me. WOW is what I gotta say! Can't wait for the world to get it!



So I'm super excited about the cover reveal. Everything is ready, the chapter is ready, the cover, the playlist, its gonna be epic! Here is the list of blogs if you wanna go check it out! It will be on here too, so if anything I hope you come here to see me! hehe. I'll be doing a giveaway that day too, not sure what yet, but its gonna be something!!


Lets do some facts real quick.
The only thing I got to say is the Editor has the whole book. The beta readers have till chapter 25 and will get more as soon as I get it all back. Hopefully they'll have everything soon :)

rawr.............


I've decided that my writing Wednesday is probably totally boring now. I have no clue what I'm supposed to tell y'all now. Maybe I'll do a little teaser like I did with Trying to Score. I dont know. I'm sorry. blah. lol. hehe, Okay, well I leave y'all with the song that is rocking my socks right now! It is also the song that will play a BIG part in Blue Lines (assassins 4)! Annnnnnnnnddddd its the song that Joe Manganiello will be dancing too while giving me a lap dance in my dreams tonight.

SORRY Shea, but until I see you on the ice again, Joe will have to fill my lustful needs :P




Also, I think y'all need this:





Thanks everyone! I hope to see y'all next week!

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Cover reveal list!

YAYA!! Cover reveal blog list!!!!More to come! Be there or be square!!!!
1. Book Reviews and More By Kathy2. TE Garden of Books 3. Books, Books, the Magical Fruit4. Book Lovin' Mamas5. Nothing Better than a Book6. Natasja's Book Blog7. Insightful Minds Reviews8. FireStar Books9. Musings of a Bookworm10. Gimme the Scoop11. Readers Confession12. Intriguing Reads13. Spews of My Views14. New Age Mama15. Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf16. My Devotional Thoughts17. Paulette's Papers18. Reading a Little Bit of Everything19. Tana Rae Reads20. The Solitary Bookworm21. My Little Pocketbooks22. My Reading Addiciton23. Basia's Bookshelf24. Bajan Rosa Books25. Fictional Candy26. Better Read Than Dead27. Inside BJ's Head28. Full Moon Bites29. Reader Girls30. Warrior Princess Romance Author31. Love to Read Romance32. Jacitam, a ti?33. The Steamy Side34. Bunnys Reviews35. Sweeping the USA36. BookSpark37. All I Want and More38. For the Love of Film and Novels39. The Masquerade Crew40. Taking it One Page at a Time41. A Date with a Book42. Books and Needlepoint43. Forget the Housework, I'm Reading44. Reviewing Shelf 45. The eBook Reviewers46. Jersey Girl Book Reviews47. Mademoiselle le Sphinx48. The Phantom Paragrapher




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are you a blogger?

Hello Bloggers!!!
I wanted to write a little note and give all my blogger fans a chance to be apart of my cover reveal. It is set for 7/9/12 and I would LOVE to have you be apart of the celebration!! If you would like to join me, please email me at Toni Aleo and also please go here and fill out this form! Thank you so much!!

I'll see everyone on Wednesday! Have a great week!




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Did I really get tweeted by Mrs. Grey?!

HOLY MOLY!I DID!!!I can't believe it and it blew me away but yup, Mrs. Grey says I'm an adult author to follow!!!ISNT THAT FANTASTIC?!??!

I know that this blog post was a total wast of your time, but really, I was tweeted by a fictional character and it made my freaking day! lol :P
Have a good weekend everyone :)



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Writing Wednesday! - I'm DONE!

Hello everyone!!!!! I got my stunnin' shades on because I'm feeling VERY awesome this morning. I didnt wake up till 12 because I was up FINISHING EMPTY NET! I know! Isnt it fantastic!? I think so! So lets get all the boring stuff out of the way so we can talk about total awesomeness and watch this AMAZING video I made!!! Just a warning, this is going to be a long post. I have A LOT to say, so I hope you stay with me all the way through!


I told y'all I wanted to get stuff done this week and I did! I wrote 5 chapters, an epilogue and my acknowledgement in a week! Thats pretty bad ass I think! Between all that, you know how I told you my husband was leaving to go canoeing...he made me go with him. I got ate up, fell out the canoeing tons of times and came home completely bruised up. But its okay, it was a great time with my hubby and son. Other than that, I wrote like a mad man all week. My kids have only drove me half bat shit crazy and my husband is being supportive but is ready for this so called break off of mine.



Let me explain the 'break' thing real quick. I didnt take a break between Taking Shots and Trying to Score. I went right into writing Trying to Score. Well when I was done with Trying to Score I was like break time! Yehaw go Toni, read something and give your mind a rest. It lasted a week. Then I started writing Empty Net. Well funny story, I finished Empty Net last night and Blue Lines is hardcore on my brain right now. I swear to God! I have SOOOOOOOO many books to read, I want some time to myself, but apparently these two characters have a mind of their own. I know this makes all of you happy but me not so much. Jeez. lol!






OH MY GOD! WE HAVE HIT 100 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!! Yehaw!!! Now I get to share all kinds of fun stuff with y'all but first I need to discuss something with everyone, but before I do that. 




Let me give you your Wednesday dose of Magic Mike.



Now, please control your breathing because this is important. I think I messed up when I wrote Trying to Score. I wrote Lucas so freaking amazing, so freaking hot and manly that I feel people arent giving Fallon a chance. I do not write cookie cutter romances. I'm not going to either. I want to write these females that have real feelings, real issues, I dont want some fake bitch that was hurt in the pass but its okay because she is gonna have sex and get married anyways with the hero. Nope, I want you to feel for Fallon, I want you to feel the struggle she goes through because she was hurt so young. Some people dont come back from something like that, and not everyone is so forgivable. Lord knows I'm not. So I apologize if Fallon pissed you off so bad because she has a mind of her own and wont take shit from no one, I didnt want some push over, I wanted someone different. Fallon is that for sure. But I guess, really I cant win. People hate Elli cause she whines to much about being fat, people hate Fallon because she is a bitch, it makes me scared out of my mind, because what the hell are people gonna say about my Audrey? I thought all three of these women were amazing, and fantastic but some people didnt. So yeah, a little worried about my Audrey! I was complaining about this last night because of a review and my husband said, 'Females are gonna bitch about other females, no matter what!' he's so smart. Lol. But thats not the only thing that I am having a problem with.

Something that has come up again was the editing of my book. I have found that a couple of reviewers (yes, I read all my reviews…hehe.) have started to mention my editing again. People that have been with me since the VERY beginning know my back story on this. (Long story short, the first guy ever I hired, f-ed me over something serious. Took all my money and gave me this book that wasnt even edited!) One girl said I need to hire editor and proofreader; I wanted to write her and say I have, actually, 5 editors and 10 proofreaders. I really don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t ask for the reader to send me what they find cause that’s not their job and it isn’t fair for me to ask that. A lot of you know how personal and how bad it hurts me when people say that to me because I have done everything in my power to make my books as perfect as they can be. Being a self published author has its perks and then its downs. One of my favorite perks is that this book is mine and no one can tell me how it should be. The downside, is that I hire these people to edit my book and on three accounts, I was screwed over. The editor for Trying to Score, I feel did do her job, but somewhere between accepting her edits and publishing, something went wrong, so I hired the editors I have now for Empty Net and they are doing fantastic. But when I get mentions of my editing for the last two books, it makes me paranoid for this next book. I don’t want to be label as that author that cant get her books at a 100%. Its not that I don’t want them to be, I do, and I have spent as much money as needed to get it done and I don’t know what else to do. How many editors do I need to go through before people leave it alone? I mainly wanted to address the situation so in case those people come and read this, they see that I am not just a greedy bitch that is publishing shit and not making sure my books have been through editors and proofreaders, cause I have. A lot actually, but people seem to always find something they dont like. I am starting to think it isnt an editing problem, its the way I write and they dont like it. But if that is the case, why did they read the second book and put my third one as a to-read? It drives me insane, but oh well, I'm done, stepping off my soap box and on to something that makes me happy……Like Magic Mike…mmmm



Um wow. 
Now, lets do some book stats!!! Taking Shots is doing fantastic with 130 reviews, with a 4.3 out of 5 star rating. Also! On Goodreads, I am like 7 ratings away from having a 1000. It made me happy :) Trying to Score just reached 100 reviews! Yehaw! with a 4.4 out of 5 star rating, its rocking it! Yehaw! Cool thing to mention, Ms. Tabby from Insightful Minds Design Studio is putting together a cafepress store of Assassins Gear. I am so excited to see what she comes up with. Its bound to be fantastical. I mean its Tabby! lol. I am also looking into getting more swag for the release of Empty Net! So stay tuned for that!



So EMPTY NET IS DONE! as I've said, I think 10 times in this post! A little excited over here! hehehe. The ending is perfect in my opinion. I love it, and it made me so happy inside. Everything came together and just was perfect and made me feel like everything was right in the world of the Assassins. Tate is just yummy and Audrey is amazing and funny. They are a hoot together and I can't wait for this book to come out, so y'all can read what I think is total epicness!




Okay, Lets do the final stats:
I AM DONE and I only cried a little!
The ending word count is: 157,257
Ending page count: 348
When I get Chapter 21-25 back from the editors, I will send out to the beta readers.
Editors are done to 21, about to send chapters 27 - epilogue when I get all the feed back from Critique partner.
Critique partner is right there with me! But I havent gotten the feedback from her about the ending. She is going out of town though! HAVE FUN TARA! One of my other girls that read the book as I go said the ending was great and that she is totally in love with Tate over everyone else! hehe. So yay!
Last line I wrote: Yeah right, I'm not ruining that for y'all! lol.

Music from the chapter:
Oh Justin Bieber - Be Alright - really go download this song everyone. Its magic.
Only Girl - Boyce Avenue
Wanted - Hunter Haynes


Now before I put the amazing video I made for y'all, let me say this:
On July 9th, 2012 there will be a massive cover reveal on over 75 blogs for Empty Net. On that day, I will be revealing the cover, the first chapter, playlist, and book trailer. The review giveaway ends that day too, so please if you've left a review go enter! I will be announcing the winners that day. I will also be running another giveaway that day. Now here is what y'all really want.
The release date for Empty Net is:9/11/12
Go ahead, go all fangirl on me! hehehe! Why that day you may ask? It's my daughter's birthday :)I am really excited and you should be too, this is going to be epic and man I am hoping I break the top 20 with this one! I got to 50 for Trying to Score, so fingers crossed I break the top 20 with Empty Net!!

Okay, on the the video I made!

So thats it! I hope you enjoy the video and the post. I am really excited for the upcoming weeks and I just think we only have 11 weeks and 5 days until Empty Net is released! I am thinking of doing some kind of thing like I did for Trying to Score. I just gotta think it up! If you have ideas, let me know! hehe Thank you so much guys and I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks!!!!




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A little reminder!

Hey Everyone! I hope everyone has a great weekend!My husband is making me go camping this weekend, so yeah, I dont know, I just wanted to tell everyone that in case I get eaten by a bear or something. I am not the outdorsy time, I'm more of a air conditioning, computer in my lap, water from a Britta Filter system type gal. So yeah, pray for my return.Anyways, my tour is done with Reading Addiction Tours! In case you missed a stop, here is the complete list!! Thanks to Cami for a great tour! June 4 - The Story of a Girl - REVIEW/Giveaway/Interview/ExcerptJune 5 - Bunny's Reviews - REVIEW/Interview/Guest PostJune 5 - My Reading Addiction - REVIEW/GiveawayJune 6 - Tana Rae Reads - REVIEW/Giveaway/ExcerptJune 7 - Lady Caella - REVIEW/ExcerptJune 8 - A Case of Reading Insomnia - REVIEW/GiveawayJune 11 - Always YA at Heart - REVIEW/Giveaway/ExcerptJune 12 - Reader's Confession - REVEW/Giveaway/Interview/ExcerptJune 13 - Sweeping the USA - REVIEW/Giveaway/ExcerptJune 14 - Reading A Little Bit of Everything - REVIEW/Giveaway/InterviewJune 14 - For the Love of Film and Novels - REVIEW/Giveaway/ExcerptJune 14 - My Cozie Corner - REVIEW/Giveaway/InterviewJune 15 -In Between - REVIEW/GiveawayAlso we are up to 86 reviews!! Only 14 more and we can have a cover!
I hope everyone has a nice weekend!! bye!

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