Empi Baryeh's Blog, page 39
February 24, 2012
Blog Tour Winner: Week 4
Finally, I have a winner for the final copy of Most Eligible Bachelor. I did things differently for this winner – I had the blog host pick. 
And the winner is…
Meninaiscrazy.
Congrats, Menina. Please send me your eamil using the 'Contact Me' form on my blog or contact Tory and she'll put you in touch with me.
There were a few adjustments as the tour progressed, but I did manage to give out 14 free books to 14 lucky winners. Here's the full list of blog destinations and winners:
DATE
HOST
BLOG ADDRESS
30-Jan
Nana Awere Damoah
Faisal
31-Jan
Ea Bloom
Celestine
01-Feb
Kiru Taye
Delaney
02-Feb
Lorraine Nelson
London
03-Feb
Empi Baryeh
Zrinka
04-Feb
Shyla Colt
Kathryn
05-Feb
Empi Baryeh
(Six Sentence Sunday)
Romance Reader Enthusiast
06-Feb
Ju Dimello
Renee Silvana
07-Feb
Joanna Stewart
Teresa Blue
08-Feb
Lara Daniels
Kehinde Bamidele
09-Feb
Georgia Fox
Kiru Taye
10-Feb
Stella Eromonsere-Ajanaku
Nana Prah
15-Feb
D Renee Bagby Presents First Chapters
(read entire first chapter of MEB)
Debby
16-Feb
Tory Michaels
Menina
***
Congrats to all winners, and thank you to everyone who followed my blog tour (whether you left comments or not). I'm tuning out for now. Stop by for my Six Sentence Sunday this weekend.
February 22, 2012
Word Wednesday: Flow and Floe
It's been a crazy couple of weeks and not looking any better for another week coming. I'm just dashing in here to give you this week's Word Wednesday – something relatively simple: flow and floe
I'll start with the shorter (and more interesting) one:
FLOE \pronounced FLOH\ meaning a flat mass of ice (smaller than an ice field) floating at sea.
***
FLOW \pronounced FLOH\
verb (used without object)
1. to move along in a stream: The river flowed slowly to the sea.
2. to circulate: blood flowing through one's veins.
3. to stream or well forth: Warmth flows from the sun.
4. to issue or proceed from a source: Orders flowed from the office.
5. to menstruate.
6. to come or go as in a stream: A constant stream of humanity flowed by.
7. to proceed continuously and smoothly: Melody flowed from the violin.|
8. to hang loosely at full length: Her hair flowed over her shoulders.
9. to abound in something: The tavern flowed with wine.
10. to rise and advance, as the tide ( opposed to ebb).
Verb (used with object)
11.to cause or permit to flow: to flow paint on a wall before brushing.
12. to cover with water or other liquid; flood.
Noun
1. an act of flowing.
2. movement in or as if in a stream.
3. the rate of flowing.
4. the volume of fluid that flows through a passage of any given section during a unit of time: Oil flow of the well was 500 barrels a day.
5. something that flows; stream.
Origin: before 900; (v.) Middle English flowen, Old English flōwan; akin to Middle Low German vlōien, Old Norse flōa; (noun) late Middle English: surge of a wave, derivative of the v.
Related forms
flowable (adjective)
flowability (noun)
reflow (noun, verb)
underflow (noun)
That's it, folks! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to step away and go attend to Chancing Faith edits.
Sources: Dictionary(dot)com and WordWeb.
Sources: Dictionary(dot)com and WordWeb.
Sources: Dictionary(dot)com and WordWeb.
Sources: Dictionary(dot)com and WordWeb.
February 21, 2012
Blog Tour Winners: Week 3
This week, there's only one winner from my blog hop, and that winner is…
Nana Prah for commenting on my guest post about improving relationships on Stella Eromonsere-Ajanaku's blog.
Congrats, Nana Prah. Please send me your email address using the 'contact me' form on this blog or through Facebook.
The last winner will be announced on 24th Feb. You have until 05:00PM GMT (12noon EST) to comment on my interview on Tory Michael's blog for a chance to win the last free copy of Most Eligible Bachelor
February 19, 2012
Six Sentence Sunday: Another Snippet from Forest Girl
Welcome to another Six Sentence Sunday. I'm sure you've been waiting for this (I hope you have). Anyway, I shared a snippet from Forest Girl last week and doing another bit from the same today. If you'll recall, FG is an arranged marriage themed story. Here goes:
"She's beautiful." Sammy's voice penetrated his thoughts.
Michael glanced at his brother and smiled. She was beautiful. He wouldn't even try to deny it. And he was attracted to her, although that he was prepared to deny.
***
Well, people, it can only be six sentences. What do you think? Loving Forest Girl? The good news is, it is about to undergo some major re-writes after which you'll get the entire book to read. However, if you want to try my work, you can check out Most Eligible Bachelor :
Evernight Publishing | Amazon | Amazon UK | All Romance eBooks | Bookstrand
Learn more about Six Sentence Sunday and find links to over a hundred other snippets, visit Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic week!
February 16, 2012
Blog Hop Winners!
First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by for my blog hop and everyone of you who chose to follow me on one or more platforms. I had fun reading your comments and responding to them. I'm pretty sure I responded to all comments – if I didn't, feel free to let me know.
Okay, on to the winners!
For the 2 copies of Most Eligible Bachelor, the winners are…
Carol Thompson
Mel Bourn
And the winner of the $10 Amazon gift certificate is…
June M
Congratulations to you three! I hope his is the icing on the cake for whatever you did this Valentine's Day
February 15, 2012
Spotlight on Tory Michaels
Hi, folks. Help me welcome Tory Michaels to my blog. This week, I'm doing something slighlty different – I'm having a blog swap! For the newbies, that means while I'm hosting Tory here, she's hosting me on her blog. So be sure to hop over to Tory's Blog and check out my interview.
Tory is a fellow Evernight Publishing author, whose debut novel, Blood Rage, came out on 8th February. Here's a blurb to give you a little taste of what the book is about:
The Dream-Walker War, Book
BLOOD RAGE
Series: The Dreamwalker War
Genre: Paranormal/Suspense/Urban Fantasy/Shifters/Vampires
For eighty years since the Great Awakening, humans and non-humans have lived in relative peace together. The peace is threatened when three bodies turn up less than a mile from the Bureau of Non-Human Affairs in Tampa, all bearing the signature of vampires who once terrorized Europe.
The Bureau's chief liaison to the vampires, Dara MacKechnie, learns that the Tampa victims are not alone when her ex-lover, and head of the vampire's Great Council, Anthony Caldwell comes calling.
The pair discovers the lie that separated them two centuries ago only banked their passion, not extinguished it. Dara must decide whether she can trust Anthony with her heart a second time as they try to head off the war that threatens all they hold dear.
BUY LINKS:
Evernight Publishing | Amazon | Amazon UK | Bookstrand | All Romance eBooks
Since our book release dates are just a few days apart, we thought it would be fun to answer similar questions, so here goes:
1) How long have you been writing?
I've been writing (stereotypically) my entire life. Seriously, aiming for publication (if you don't count the novel I wrote when I was 15), about 2.5 years.
2) How many balls do you juggle on a daily basis, and how do you manage to keep them all in the air (usually), (ball = work, writing, family, etc.)
Day job (legal assistant), family (hubby, in-laws, twin 10 m/o girls, 5 y/o boy), and supposedly writing? I don't, though my best friend seems to think I do. But assuming I do keep them going, I guess 8 or 9, if you count everything individually.
What choice do I really have? The voices won't be quiet (except right now as I'm trying to find the good starting place for the next WIP), the babies seem to think they need to eat, and someone has to provide health insurance. I just do it. I'd really like to sleep 8 hours straight for a week. I haven't managed that since before the twins were born.
The real test is going to come in May when my in-laws, who've been with us since 3 days before the girls were born, move back to Tennessee. MIL has been primary cook and major house-cleaner since she came in, along with her daycare providing.
3) When is your next release due out and can you tell the audience about it?
Blood Rage came out a week ago, and Blood-Mage Rising is due out next month(date unknown as yet). You can find tons of stuff on Blood Rage on my site, so let's talk more about Book 2 here.
Blood-Mage Rising takes place over the same 1-week period (actually a little shorter than that) that Blood Rage does, covering some of the same events. BMR, however, is being approached from the point of view of Christine Javert (a bit player in Rage) and Jordan MacNaught (medium-range player). It's due out at some point next month (exact date still unknown).
The Dream-Walker War, Book 2
BLURB:
In the eighty years since the Great Awakening, humans and non-humans have lived side by side, relatively at peace. In an attack that leaves his wife dead, Jordan MacNaught is caught up in the start of a war meant to turn the other races against the vampires. He knows beyond a doubt the vampires of yesteryear are not involved in the attacks. They're all dead, except for him.
Jordan asks for Chris Javert's help in hunting those who murdered his wife. She's no stranger to hunting vampires. After all, she nearly destroyed Jordan when she ended the reign of his Aristocrats in Europe two hundred years ago.
Barely convinced of his innocence, but determined not to let the interspecies peace she helped foster die, Chris joins forces with the man who once tried to kill her to stop the Aristocrats before it's too late.
While Rage is about the romance between Anthony & Dara, Rising is much more about the beginning of the war, and hunt for the Aristocrats who are leaving bodies all over the place. However, I'd be lying if I said there was nothing between , as Jordan and Chris begin to realize there might be more than just antagonism (and sex) between them.
4) What is it about the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre that you like so much?
I like being able to use the familiar "real world" and twist it just a bit. Rage and Rising both take place in the modern world, so I can do a lot of referencing to past events, though at least for the past 80 years (since the non-humans announced their existence), there are decidedly small differences between our world and the world of the Dream-Walker War series. For example, vampires in particular were a part of the acknowledged war effort in World War II – Anthony worked briefly with the Nazis, helping avoid vampire-based spying efforts, while he was in France for a few months. He hated their policies, but needed to be free to move around in France for a brief time.
The reason I trend more toward UF in my work is because I don't like being locked into the "happily ever after" ending with boy getting girl. Jordan, the villainous hero of Blood-Mage, isn't exactly your typical hero, but while he's not going out of his way to redeem himself, he is going to learn how to love someone else and get their love in return. This simply couldn't happen in the short period of Blood-Mage Rising (which takes place contemporaneously with Blood Rage). He makes strides toward getting a HEA/HFN ending, even ending on a peaceful note, but he simply hasn't made it there.
5) Do you think you'll move to another genre, and if yes, what to and when?
For now, unlikely. I've got a futuristic series in mind, but it's still paranormal/urban fantasy-ish. If I do, it'll probably be into pure fantasy. I have some dragons and their riders still kicking around in my head. Sooner or later they'll demand attention.
6) Silliness 1: Sweet or sour?
More sweet than sour, but lemon drops are pretty high on my candy-likes, and they're both!
7) Random silliness 2: Chocolate or vanilla ice cream?
To quote someone who answered this question on my blog, "vanilla is not a flavor."
FAN INFO
How can people contact you?
Email: torymichaels@live.com or torymichaels@torymichaels.com
Web/Blog: www.torymichaels.com
Bureau of Non-Human Affairs site (coming soon, I hope): www.bnha.org
Facebook (personal): www.facebook.com/authortorymichaels
Facebook (series): www.facebook.com/thedreamwalkerwar
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/torymichaels
Twitter: @torymichaels
Gee – ya think I'm Tory Michaels?
LOL. Tory, I've had fun with this quickie interview. Thanks for stopping by my blog and I wish you luck in your sales and everything else that comes with being a published author.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm answering similar questions on Tory's blog, so after you leave a comment here, go over there and leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of Most Eligible Bachelor.
Cheers,
February 14, 2012
Word Wednesday: Ade, Aid, Aide
Happy Wednesday! Seriously, it feels like Wednesday is becoming the new Friday, cos I'm always really excited on Wednesdays. No beating about the bush; let's launch into our homonyms: Ade, Aid and Aide.
1. ADE \pronounced eyd\ a noun referring to a sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice; fruit drink.
***
2. AID \pronounced eyd\, which functions as a verb as well as a noun
Verb
Give assistance; be of service
Improve the condition of. "These pills will aid the patient"
Noun
A resource. "visual aids in teaching"
The activity of contributing to the fulfilment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose. "rescue party went to their aid"
Money to support a worthy person or cause
The work of providing treatment for or attending to someone or something. "no medical aid was required"
A person who contributes to the fulfilment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose
***
AIDE \pronounced eyd\ a noun meaning, 1. someone who acts as assistant, 2. (military) an officer who acts as military assistant to a more senior officer.
***
That was relatively easy, wasn't it. I have to admit, I haven't used 'ade' before, but I'll make sure to do so soon, if not in speech then definitely in writing. Watch this space
***
Source: WordWeb
Happy Valentine's Day!
Happy Valentines Day!
It's Valentine's Day *and* National Chocolate Day in Ghana! This is really a post to say 'thank you' to all of you who've supported me and my writing, to all of you who've bought my book (or plan on buying it) and to all of you who are following me on various platforms (yes, I know it's not Thanksgiving, but I still think gratitude is in order).
I'm taking time off from playing cupid to tell you about my most memorable Valentine's Day. It happened in Secondary School (High School). At this point, I should confess that Valentine's Day, to me is really just another day. We shouldn't need one day in the year to remind us to love our loved ones.
So, anyway, I'd forgotten it was Valentine's Day that morning when I went to school. When I got there, my boyfriend had two Forget-Me-Nots in his pocket and asked me to take one. I did, gladly. Then he asked for a peck (open displays of affection, especially at the age was not popular – in fact it was frowned upon. He liked to obey the rules, so I was a little surprised he wanted a kiss especially since we were out in the open and there were juniors around). Anyway, I gave him a peck on the cheek, wondering what was going on. Then he said, "Happy Valentine's Day."
And to this day, it is my fondest Valentine's Day memory.
So Happy Valentine's Day to you all, and Happy National Chocolate Day to all Ghanaians.
***
[Lovely card from: http://www.zastavki.com/eng/Saint_Val...]
February 12, 2012
Six Sentence Sunday: A Snippet from Forest Girl
For this week, I'm sharing a little piece of my very first novel, Forest Girl, which I am preparing for submission. In this story, my hero finds himself in an arranged marriage. This snippet comes from the wedding, when he first sets eyes on his wife-to-be:
The bride was young, early to mid-twenties at the most, and attractive. Strike that—she was beautiful. Under different circumstances he might have chosen her of his own accord. Her eyes met his briefly and she smiled a little shy smile that was cute in every way. Don't stare. He tore his eyes away from her.
***
What do you think? Forest Girl is yet to be published, but if you want to try my work, you can check out Most Eligible Bachelor :
Evernight Publishing | Amazon | Amazon UK | All Romance eBooks | Bookstrand
(but remember that it's currently 15% off for the first 2 weeks at Evernight)
To learn more about Six Sentence Sunday and find links to over a hundred other snippets, visit Six Sentence Sunday. Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic week!
February 11, 2012
Blog Tour Winners: Week 2
Okay, so another week has passed and my blog tour is slowly but surely coming to a close. Here are the week-2 blog tour winners of free copies of Most Eligible Bachelor:
BLOG DATE
BLOG HOST
WINNER
04-Feb
Shyla Colt
Kathryn Anne Merkel
05-Feb
Empi Baryeh
Romance Reader Enthusiast
06-Feb
Ju Dimello
Renee Silvana
07-Feb
Joanna Stewart
Teresa Blue
08-Feb
Lara Daniels
Kehinde Bamidele
09-Feb
Georgia Fox
Kiru Taye
***
Congratulations to all winners! Please send me your emails through the 'Contact me' form on this blog or PM me on Facebook or Twitter. Want a chance to win a copy, too? Here are my last three stops:
DATE
HOST
10-Feb
Stella Eromonsere-Ajanaku
11-18 Feb
Flavor Full Love
16-Feb
Tory Michaels
Next round of winners will be announced on the 19th.
***
I am also giving out an additional 2 copies of Most Eligible Bachelor and a grand prize of a $10 gift certificate in the With Love Valentine's Day Blog Hop.
Have a wonderful weekend!
