Heather Lyons's Blog, page 13

Upcoming Appearances

I have a few upcoming book signing appearances I wanted to let y'all know about!

Coming up REALLY soon:



I'll be at the LA Times Festival of Books!
When : Sunday, April 21, 2013 from 10 am - 12 pm
Where : in the Kaya Press Tent, as part of the Coffee House Writers Group
Cost : Admission to the festival is free. This is the country's largest book festival, and there will be SO many awesome authors and vendors there.
Books for sale? : Yes! I will have a limited number of copies of A MATTER OF FATE with me if you want to buy one. I'll also be signing any copies you bring/buy.


Coming up later in the year:




I'll be a featured author at the New Adult Sleepover Weekend!
When : December 6-8, 2013
Where : Savannah Riverfront Marriott Hotel, Savannah, Georgia
Cost : $55/convention registration
Books for sale? : Yes! I will have a limited number of copies of A MATTER OF FATE, A MATTER OF HEART (due out June 25th) and the third book in the Fate series (still untitled--due out November 5th). I'll also be signing any copies you buy/bring!
Panel : I'll be talking about . . . love triangles! Which obviously makes sense, as the Fate series has the mother of all love triangles in it. ;)

I hope to see you at one of these events!

AMOF's upcoming sale! AMOH playlist!

So, it's exactly two weeks until I reveal A MATTER OF HEART's gorgeous cover (designed by Carly Stevens) on Tuesday, April 3rd. But until then, I wanted to let you know that A MATTER OF FATE will also go on sale to help celebrate--it'll be only 99 cents for the day! Who doesn't love a sale? (The kind folk at Anthropologie can attest to just how much I love one, that's for sure--haha!)

Until then, I'm leaving you with another song from the A MATTER OF HEART playlist.



  What do you expect from me, after these takes, after this
What do you dream in the afternoon?
I'll never know what's in your head

Out past the cars on the railway
Out past the city's finery
We see our breath and connection
Underneath these gravel lines

You, you stole a page from the blanks
How do you weigh all of our fears?
Typical, isn't it typical
That someone like me would invite you in

We took a drive in the country
Your photographs were never mine
slapped in the face by the questions
Posed by these gravel lines

Out past the cars on the railway
Out past the city's finery
We see our breath and connection
Underneath these gravel lines

I've written a lot of the Fate series to Amy Seeley songs. If you haven't already checked her out, you really should. She and her piano make lovely music. FYI, if you look over ---> you can read an interview I did with Amy several years ago. But this song? Yeah. This song is SO A MATTER OF HEART.

A MATTER OF HEART news! Plus BIG FAT TEASERS

So! Today marks the last day of A MATTER OF FATE's tour, hosted by YA Bound, and it has been a wonderful time. I've updated the blog tour post with links from all the stops, so if you missed out on any, check them out! AMOF was featured on some really amazing blogs and got some fantastic reviews.


A lot of people have been asking if a second book is coming . . . and I'm happy to announce, YES, YES, BOOK TWO IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER! I am so stinking exciting to share the next book with you all, because Chloe's story isn't finished, not by a long shot. A MATTER OF HEART, the second book in the Fate series, will be released on Tuesday, June 25 via Cerulean Books. And if that isn't exciting enough news, it's extremely gorgeous cover, designed by the über-talented Carly Stevens, will be unveiled on April 3rd during a cover reveal hosted by Inkslinger PR! Seriously, friends. I am SO. IN. LOVE with this cover. And then, A MATTER OF HEART will be going on tour from June 24th - July 7th, also hosted by Inkslinger PR.

A quickie FAQ for A MATTER OF HEART, based on inquiries I've been getting:

* Are the Elders in AMOH? Oh, yes. They're like cockroaches--they're always coming back!

* Does the story take place in California again? Much of the book is set in Annar, so you'll really get to know the city much better this time around.

* Does Kellan come back? You will have to wait and see!

* Does Jonah find his ring? See above.

* How long is AMOH? It's currently around 450 pages--so shorter than AMOF.

* Will you release any teasers? Yes! I'll be posting some here and over on my facebook page, as well as twitter. A couple have already been posted over on facebook already.

* Can I review it when it comes out and/or host a cover reveal? All inquiries should be sent to my publicist, KP Simmon at kpsimmon@gmail.com.

And since you were super sweet enough to read to the end here, I will give you some teasers for AMOH.

There's this:



And this:



More of this:


And a little bit of this:



And this:



And most definitely this:



Intrigued yet? *evil author laugh*

BIG NEWS!

So, the last six months have been bananas for me. My debut YA Fantasy/Romance novel A Matter of Fate released in August and was featured on a number of fantastic blogs during a January tour and is just about to set off on another tour hosted by YA Bound here at the end of the month with a bunch of new fantastic blogs. To know that people are reading AMOF and loving it totally blows. My. Mind. If you've bought, read, and/or reviewed (or any combination therein) A Matter of Fate, know that I love you. And wish I could give each one of you a cupcake--the good kind, not those nasty little dry ones that you get at the store with sickeningly sweet frosting. But the kind that makes you sigh with happiness each time you take a bite, because that's how I feel whenever I read your reviews and/or your emails telling me how much you've enjoyed my story.




And now, to BIG NEWS!




Today I want to officially announce something super exciting and even better than cupcakes (*gasp*): I am now part of the Inkslinger family! I am so thrilled to know that A Matter of Fate (and the rest of the Fate series, including the upcoming sequel A Matter of Heart) will be in KP Simmon's capable hands. She will be managing all my PR from now on, including future tours, interviews, book launches, ARC requests, et. al. I cannot tell you how pleased (and relieved!) I am about all of this. KP Simmon is an amazing publicist who helms an amazing PR company (which represents outstanding authors such as KA Tucker and Courtney Cole). I know I have probably abused my fair share of adjectives above, but really. I could not be more excited about this endeavor.

Valentine's Day/Birthday Giveaway!

So, this week is not only Valentine's Day, but it's also my birthday! The truth is, I love giving gifts probably more than getting them, so I figured to help celebrate both days I would offer up not one, but TWO chances to win an ebook ARC of my YA fantasy/romance A MATTER OF FATE. Sound good? All you have to do is fill out the widget below! Winners will be notified by email. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AMOF February Blog Tour with YA Bound!

A MATTER OF FATE is going on tour again at the end of February/beginning of March on a tour hosted by the girls over at YA BOUND (thanks Nereyda for setting it up!). Obviously, I'm quite excited by this.





For years now, I have bought countless books and discovered great new authors thanks to book blogs. I LOVE reading book blogs. And book bloggers are awesome peeps in general. I hope you will follow the tour and discover a bunch of great blogs you may not have read before!  Here's the schedule of tour stops and dates:
  February 25th
* Little Library Muse - Promo Post
* Curling Up With A Good Book - Promo Post
* Reading To The Stars And Back - Review

February 26th
* I Heart YA Books - Review
* Kissed by Ink - Promo Post
* Books and Swoons - Promo Post

February 27th
* Incandescent Enchantments - Review
* Sweet Southern Home - Promo Post

February 28th
* Leisure Reads - Promo Post
* The Library for Delinquents - Review
* Have Book Will Read - Review
* Snuggling on the Sofa - Review
  March 1st
* Kaidans Seduction - Review
* Heather's Book Chatter - Review
* Pink Fluffy Hearts: Diary of a Coffee Addict - Promo Post

March 2nd
* Step Into Fiction - Review
* Ever and Ever Sight - Review
* Moosubi Reviews! - Review
* Unputdownable Books - Promo Post
* A Bookish Escape - Review
* Paperback Princess - Review
* Blog of a Bookaholic - Review
* Whirlwindbooks - Review
* Tar Heel Bibliobabe - Review


 

AMOF: Jonah's POV

MEGA SUPER SPOILERY POST FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ AMOF YET!!!


so, over on my facebook page, i promised that once i hit a certain amount of followers, i would post jonah's pov of the forest/merging scene.

but first, a bit about this writing . . .
when i was writing AMOF, there were a few times during the story in which i thought, "gee, it'd be really nice if i understood jonah better right now." so i wrote out what basically amounts to a novella that backtracks his history before he moves to california, up to the end of AMOF. until today, there was only one person who'd ever read this scene--and the truth is, certain things may vary from the actual story as i'd edited AMOF after writing this bit. it's unedited itself, and a bit rough, but i guess that's a lot like jonah overall.

i hope you guys like getting into his head, even if it's just for a small bit. :)

ONCE MORE! SPOILERS, WILL ROBINSON. SPOILERS!




            So my brother is gone, and now I feel like someone has cored me. I don’t like the distance, don’t like feeling so removed from him even when the urge to beat him senseless is so strong that it takes every last bit of willpower to resist. He is gone and I miss him.            I refused to go to school in the morning, even though Kellan did. I didn’t even offer to take him to the airport, which was stupid, because it meant Chloe would since Giules and Karl would be stuck in teleconference meetings all afternoon. Instead of staying in the house, surrounded by my brother’s smell and residual feelings which would haunt me all day, I escaped to the woods outside town. Giules and Karl fought me on it, saying it was dangerous, but I forced them into letting me go.            Being the masochist I am, I ended up by a river, only to be subjected to memory after memory of my times with Chloe over the years. They’ve beaten down on me like hail and yet I find it difficult to move from where I am, because it feels like maybe these memories are all I’m ever going to have from her from here on out. And that’s a shitty feeling, one that renders me to a helpless, pathetic state that kills me to be in.            I want to fight for her, I really do. I know I ought to be. I know I ought to force the issue, confront her and get the explanations I need. Anything is better than this horrible limbo I’ve found myself in, but now that my brother is in the equation, I find myself in a particularly debilitated state.             Besides. There’s this insecure part of me that keeps telling myself that if she really wanted me, if she really loved me, she’d be here with me, and not him. I still can’t get over that – I know she loves me. I know it. And yet, she loves him, too. And if I’m going to be honest, the love she feels for him rivals the one she has for me, which only further pisses off and crushes me, because dammit, I had years and years with her, and he’s had all of two fucking months. Two months, and she loves him. Hell, she’d loved him in the first week.            So, like being trapped on a fucked up merry-go-round, I circle back to being so insanely angry at my brother that I once more can’t see straight. The book I’ve brought is useless against the torrent of emotions crashing down over me. All I can do is hold on and hope to last out the ride.            I’ve probably reread the same page below me at least ten times before all of my senses go into overload. There’s a very distinctive pull, one like a rubberband stretched tight between me and something – somebody – else. And then there’s the overwhelming slam of emotions circling around me: fear, nervousness, sadness, anger, hope and most importantly, unconditional love. It’s all so strong that it takes me a good five seconds to even get my bearings.            She’s here.            Chloe is standing maybe twenty, thirty feet away. She’s alone, just standing there staring at me while crying silently. And because I’ve devolved into a cynic of the worst kind, I look around to see if Karl is lurking nearby. Because that’s the reason she’s here, right? Something to do with the Guard and not me?            But no one is here, or at least, no one I can see.            “They’re at my house,” she says softly, and my heart nearly stops because those are the first four words she’s said to me in over a year.            Suddenly, I’m nervous myself, and so fucking wary that I actually want to pull a Kellan and run. But I force myself to stand up and walk over to where she’s standing, because this is Chloe, and she’s here, and whether or not things go my way today, this is my chance to finally set everything to peace.             When I say her name, anger surges throughout her. She snaps at me, “Why didn’t you do anything?”            What?            “All these months,” she says hotly, “you’ve done nothing! Not a word! Not one!”            I’m so shocked that all I can do is say her name again. She starts shaking really hard, freaking me out so much that I can’t help but step forward. She nearly falls over backwards, so I reach out to grab her and…and…            Wham.            It hits me. All the things I’d been told about Connections finally coming together make sense. Something in me changes, shifts and alters and electrifies and melts and suddenly the worlds make sense. All of the doubts I’d had evaporate as I pull her closer. Home. I’m home. I am finally, mercifully, home with the person I’m meant to be with.She’s crying in earnest now, but all of the fear and sadness dissolve away until all that’s left in her is happiness and relief. And I’m right there with her, because, damn – it feels so good to have her back in my arms again. Better than good. Right. Meant to be.After crying for quite awhile, she says against me, “I’m so sorry about…uh…falling apart like that…”I pull away, just a little, so I can look at her. As always, whenever I see her, I nearly lose my breath. Every little bit of her is so familiar – those beautiful green eyes with the tiniest streaks of gold at the center, those adorable freckles splattered across her nose, her mouth, so soft and perfect…I’m mesmerized.Slowly, I lift my hands up to her face and wipe away her tears. Oh, gods, it feels so good to touch her again.And while I’d be more than content to just stand here and hold her in silence, I know how Chloe works. She likes words. Needs them. Words are just as important to her as actions, which has always been a bit of a struggle for me, as I’ve long learned words can be used as weapons against me. I prefer to shut up and observe, but I can’t do that with Chloe. I never have been good with words, which is probably why she’s so good for me. She’s always pushing me to let myself go, to expose emotions everyone else expects me to hold in. Over the years I’ve told her more about how I really feel about anything and everything than any other person save, possibly, Kellan. And that’s only because he’s in my head all the time and probably gets more of his information from osmosis rather than me handing it over.So, I force myself to speak. To give her what she needs – and right now, I know, without a doubt, she needs explanations just as much as I do. “I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you. That was never my intention. I thought I was doing you a favor by staying away.”I never said I was good with words. I simply said that she gets me to say more than anybody else does.“Favor?” she asks incredulously, tensing up once more.That’s another thing. She never lets me get away with crap answers, either. “You seemed…well, I wasn’t sure how you were feeling. Maybe unready? Uninterested? Angry at my presence? That first day, you were so unwilling to even acknowledge me. I was terrified – I didn’t know to do. So in my constant state of uncertainty, I fell into a pattern of doing nothing. I thought it’d be better that way. I didn’t want to push you into anything you weren’t comfortable with or ready for.”She relaxes, just a little bit. “I thought I was going crazy that first day.”             “I can see why. It’s not every day you actually see someone you’ve only ever dreamed about.”“Why did you disappear last year?”             Gods. She would ask something difficult, something I’m not even sure about. “I don’t know the whys. It just became harder and harder to find you until one day, I wasn’t able to anymore.”            “Then, it wasn’t by choice?”             What? “No. Is that what you thought?”            She’s a flurry of confusion and excitement. “I didn’t know what to think. I still don’t know what to think. How is this possible? Why are you here? How are you real?”             I suck at words, but I give her the truth. “I’m here for you,” I tell her. “Chloe don’t you know, haven’t you always known? My heart belongs with you.”            I’m rewarded by a tidal wave of love, which makes me dizzy and so fucking happy that I can barely believe this is real. And then she ups the ante by running her fingers through my hair. It literally takes everything in me to not kiss her senseless and lose myself in her body.            “Did you miss me at all?”             And…there’s the Chloe I know. Did I miss her. Jesus. I just about ripped apart my family and existence so I could get to her. “You’d question that, after everything we’ve ever meant to one another? Of course. Every moment of every day.”            She grins like an idiot. It’s so adorable I can barely stand it. “How did you discover the truth?”             Okay, so it’s embarrassing, but I tell her the truth anyways. “A Seer told me. I sort of went into a downward spiral after losing you. The Old Man forced me to go to one to see if it’d get me back on track. She saw our Connection, told me you were real. I was shocked. All those years, I’d hoped and prayed you were, but I never really thought you could be. And then, when I learned you were out there, I couldn’t rest until I found you. I didn’t have much to go on, though. All the Seer could tell me was that you were a Magical, too. So it took me nearly four months to figure out your location.”            “Why didn’t you call me when you first figured out who I was?”            Yes, Jonah, why didn’t you? Because looking back on what’s gone down over the last two months, I really wish now that I’d just called. “I wanted to. I actually had your number. But I thought it’d be better in person, that you might not believe me on the phone. So I manipulated my father in moving here. When I first saw you—”            “There was a shift,” she says, grinning happily.            I correct her. “Three. Don’t think I didn’t count them.”            She laughs, embarrassed and pleased. “And where were yours?”            When I tell her, “The day I found out you were real,” she squeals like she’s gotten the best Christmas present ever. “And then the day I found where you were. I guess it was the same for both of us, occurring when the other’s existence was proved to be real.”            “So why three for me?” she asks. “Why not two?”“Maybe because when I first discovered the truth, you weren’t in front of me. Maybe it would’ve different had you been there. Maybe I would have felt three, too. Or more. Who knows?”            “You were saying…? When you first saw me?”            “It was like I’d finally come home.” And then, despite the happiness of having her here, in my arms, I find I still need to let her know the hell I’ve been through. “It wasn’t easy, not by any means, staying away from you. Not after finding you. I have to admit, I nearly lost hope recently… I began to wonder if maybe I’d been the only one who’d ever felt the Connection.”            The possessiveness that radiates out of her nearly knocks me to my knees. “Jonah, I am so sorry. To think I could have lost you, due to—”            It’s one thing to open up to her about shit I haven’t talked to anybody else about, but I sure as hell am not even remotely close to being able to talk about her and Kel. No way. “Don’t,” I tell her. “Not right now. I don’t want to do that conversation right now. I don’t want to fight so soon after getting you back.”            I know she wants to push the issue, but she does as I’ve asked. Instead, she says quietly but assuredly, “I’ve missed you. Being here with you …well, I almost don’t know how to describe it. I mean, technically, we’ve only just met in the real world. But it doesn’t feel that way. It’s like it’s always been. You feel the same, you smell the same, you sound the same. Does that make any sense? How in the worlds will that ever be explained to anyone?”            “Why does it have to be explained?” I ask. And because I can’t resist her anymore, I let myself kiss her. Just a small one, on her neck, but it’s more than enough to ignite far too much lust on both of our behalves.            I have to forcefully remind myself that sex doesn’t solve anything. I learned that lesson from Callie. And while I want to make love to Chloe, right here and right now, I know that there’s a whole boatload of shit we need to work through first.             “Well,” she murmurs, leaning into me, “I mean…”I allow myself one last kiss before pulling away. Man, do I want this girl right now. I pull out all the stops to trick myself into thinking about cold showers, dads with shotguns, and things like teenage pregnancies. I pray that she doesn’t hear the strain in my voice. “You and I know the truth. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”“Speaking of others,” she says sheepishly, “I should probably warn you that we’re being watched right now.”Okay, that’ll work as my bucket of ice. “By whom?”“Five Guard. All Faerie.”What the fuck? I was pretty damn specific earlier about being left alone. Jesus. I guess I wasn’t as persuasive as I’d believed I’d been. I whip out my phone and call Karl, who answers in just a way that lets me know he knows why I’m calling. “Look, Jonah,” he says defensively, “If you think I’m going to just sit by and—”I steamroll right over him. “Chloe and I are going to my house. Let your Guard know that no one is allowed in my house for the next several hours. If I find them in there, they’ll be asleep for the rest of the night.”“How in the hell did you find out they’re there?” he barks in return. “They were ordered to stay out of sight!”“I’m talking about you and Giules, too,” I continue, knowing how they work.“Okay, I get that you’re pissed off about being babysat, J, because I would be too, but you don’t get to order me around yet! You’ve still got a few months to go before you’re on the Council, so when I say you’re going to be covered, you’re going to be covered, dammit! Deal with it!”“Fine. You two or these Faeries or whomever else it is you expect to watch us can do it from outside. Preferably from the inside of a car.”Karl starts yelling, which is stupid, because he knows it won’t fly with me, it never has, so I hang up on him. I give Chloe a smile and say, “Ready?”She stares at me like I’m a rockstar and she’s my biggest fan. From anyone else, I’d be bugged by it, totally turned off. But from her? Yeah. I love it.
   * * * * *
            The fact is, my willpower is roughly the size of a gnat’s at the moment. Chloe is laying on my bed, semi-out-of-breath, and her chest is rising and falling. Me, being a guy, can’t help but be tempted by that.            She’s teasing me, too – good lords, is she hot when she does that. She always has been. I remember thinking once – maybe three, four years ago – that nobody could turn me on like she could. Which was crazy, because I was young and really shouldn’t have been thinking such thoughts, but the truth is, when you’re an Emotional, you unfortunately learn about all of these things at a way early age. And that is an uncomfortable thing, to be young and know exactly what lust is. But I felt it in spades for her, and – oh, this is going to make me sound like a jerk, I’m well aware of it – there were many times in the past when I’d been with Callie and had pretended it was Chloe.            Eyes closed, of course.            And here she is, on my bed, looking like the best dessert in all the worlds, and I’m weak and well aware of it. Not to be crude or anything, but I totally want to eat her up, right here and right now.            Which I won’t, of course, because small as it is, I do have some willpower left. But I do plan on doing something to cement our Connection even further, something that should give me a wide edge over my brother.            Several years ago, when Karl was still in school with us, some kid who lived in Annar fulltime came to visit him. All the Magicals in the area came over to his place for a sleep over, and really late in the night the guy – who might’ve been a year older than Karl, I think – told us about Connections.            This was the first time I’d really heard much about them. I’d known they existed, of course, thanks to my parents and my aunt and uncle. Uncle Joey had even told me once, after he and Aunt Hannah had gotten into a fight, “Don’t worry about us, J. She and I, we’re connected, and because of that, nothing can hurt us. Not even an argument.”            He’d been wrong, though. Death had hurt her more than anything else ever could have, even a normal death. Death combined with a Connection made it hellish, and I remember Kel and I thinking, when Uncle Joey’s body had been found, we should make a pact to die at the same time because there was no way in hell we ever wanted to go through that. But the point here was, I saw Connections as vague things – knowing I had one with my brother, but always thinking it didn’t count because it wasn’t with a girl. And then this kid from Annar comes around and tells us about a huge perk associated with Connections. “Everyone I know wants a Connection,” he’d said, and of course, all the girls were rapt and the guys rolling their eyes. “No, really,” he assured us. “See, there’s this thing you’re supposed to be able to do when you have a Connection. Some people refer to it as merging, but it’s not like the one you go through when you’re eighteen. It’s where you’re able to merge your minds and souls together. And from what I hear, it’s better than sex. Way better.”            This, of course, got every guy’s attention, even my brother’s, who’d already been having sex from a far too young age.            “You surge at the same time,” the kid continued.             “Impossible,” Kai had snorted. “Nobody can surge at the same time.”            “Nobody,” the kid corrected, “but people who have Connections to each other. And you can only do it with that one person, just your soul mate.” He’d paused for effect, but it was enough time for Karl to give me and Kellan a meaningful look.            “Forget it,” Kel had snapped. “Our Connection doesn’t work that way.”            Callie, of course, had given me the biggest pair of moon eyes ever.            “I have a friend who recently found their Connection,” the kid said. “And he said that when they did this, this merging of their essences, it blew his mind. Like having fifty orgasms at once.”            Most of the kids present were a little naïve about orgasms, so there was a lot of faked understanding going on. Me and Kel knew what they were, being Emotionals, and Karl knew because he’d bragged about it excessively after school one day.             “What’s the point of it?” Mags had asked. “Why not simply do it?”            The kid leaned forward and whispered, “It makes the Connection permanent. Unbreakable. And that’s why it’s better than just doing it.”            I’m remembering these things as I pull her close so I can kiss her – really kiss her, like the kind of kiss that I’d wanted to do earlier but didn’t feel comfortable about yet. But here we are, on my bed, and she’s in my arms and there is no way I can discredit her feelings for me, because they are wide open for me to feel, almost like they’re magnified. This girl is wildly in love with me. Just as much as I am with her.            Okay, so maybe kissing her wasn’t the best idea when my willpower is already at its lowest level in a long time.            She pulls me down and I let her. My brain sort of flatlines and I’m running on instinct, not thought. And then she goes and puts her hands up my sweater and then…then…            “Tell me what you are thinking, what you are feeling right now.”             Thoughts slam back in my head. Just as I’m about to think to myself, girls and their constant need to know irrelevant shit, I realize she’s given me the perfect opportunity to try out the whole essence merging bit. So I smile, watch her melt a bit, and say, “Look for yourself.” The mere idea of her surging in my mind is exciting enough, because in all the years we’ve known each other, we’ve never been able to do this. Dreams never allowed this Magical aspect to occur. But now she can, and I’m more than happy to lay out for her exactly how I feel, what I’m thinking so she can be reassured about what she means to me. I know I’ve got the advantage over her of being an Emotional. I’m well aware right now of what I mean to her, how she feels about me. She only has my words and actions to go by – now she can have the proof.Once she’s in my mind, the feelings emitting from her go into hyperdrive. They already were amplified, now they’re on a whole other level of strength. And this tsunami of emotions only weakens my willpower ever further so that it’s hovering very close to zero. I actually have to physically pinch myself to keep myself from doing something that we aren’t ready for.Just as she’s about to pull out of my mind, I pull her a little closer and tell her to stay where she is. And then, mentally crossing my fingers, I surge into her mind.Um…There really aren’t words for what happens.Let’s just say the kid was right and wrong at the same time. Sex has nothing on this – although, I have a sneaky feeling that sex with Chloe, while doing this, would probably make me shatter into a thousand very satisfied little pieces.Okay. Focus, Jonah. Focus.Which is pretty damn impossible as I stare down into her eyes.“What was that?” she asks me breathlessly.            Oh, gods, how can I even explain that to her? I fumble for anything that will even come close to the truth. “Us. Us together.”            She starts tracing my face with a finger, scrambling my brain even further. “I remember my father telling me a long time ago, that it was impossible for Magicals to surge at the same time. He said that minds and souls can’t handle such an event.”What? Oh. Oh. She’s talking about her dad? I try not to shudder. Dads with shotguns. Dads on the Council who might have shotguns and the ability to kick my ass in far too many ways. “Well, I kind of doubt your father would encourage such a thing. I mean, what kind of dad encourages their daughter with something along the lines of, Here’s something you can do that’ll literally blow your mind?”“Is that what I did?” she says. “Did I blow your mind?”Did she blow my mind. I have to laugh because she honestly has no idea.“Have you ever done this with anyone before?” Okay, now I’ll say it: girls and their constant need to know irrelevant shit! Jesus! “And if I said yes?” She suddenly looks like she’s about to die in a really horrible, choking way.            “Chloe. Please. No. Besides, from what I’ve been told, it’s only possible to do with one person, only the absolute right person for you. The one you’re connected to.”            “Is that how you see me?”            I try not to slam my head against the headboard.

A Matter of Fate Blog Tour!

so, HAPPY NEW YEAR, peeps! 2013! it seems like it was new year's day, 2012 just yesterday. honestly, the older i get, the faster a year goes. i don't know if i'm down with that. anyway! i'm excited to announce that A MATTER OF FATE is going on a blog tour this month! plus, i will be posting an official description for AMOF 2 within the next week. eek! exciting times in the heather universe. i am thrilled to be featured on so many fantastic book blogs.

also! did you notice? there will be SIX CHANCES to win yourself an ecopy of A MATTER OF FATE. yay!

here's the current tour schedule--dates and stops will be updated accordingly. be sure to check them all out!

A MATTER OF FATE January Blog Tour (hosted by SupaGurl Book Tours)



Jan. 1Jan. 2Jan. 3Jan. 4     the college crawl  - Character Interview and GiveawayJan. 5     Book Crazy  - ReviewJan. 6     Book Crook Reviews  - Review plus Author Guest PostJan. 7     My Reading Addiction  - ReviewJan. 8Jan. 9      I Am A Reader Not A Writer  - Author Interview plus GiveawayJan. 10   TSK, TSK, What to Read?  - Review plus Character BioJan. 11Jan. 12   Doodle's Book Blog  - Review plus Chloe Character Bio and GiveawayJan. 13   Night Owl Reads  - Author Interview plus my Top 5 Books of 2012Jan. 14   The Book Asylum  - Author Interview and Top 5 With Heather LyonsJan. 15Jan. 16   The Book Hookup  - ReviewJan. 17   Where Fantasy Meets Reality - Review plus Author InterviewJan. 18Jan. 19   Paranormal Reads  - Review plus Top 5 things I have to have with me at all timesJan. 20Jan. 21Jan. 22   Michelle's Paranormal Vault of Books - Review plus Character InterviewJan. 23   Paperbook Princess - Review plus GiveawayJan. 24   Mercy Amare - Review plus Author Guest PostJan. 25   Nomi's Paranormal Palace  - Review plus Author Guest Post and GiveawayJan. 26   Natasha Is A Book Junkie - Review Jan. 27   The Book Lover's Report  - ReviewJan. 28   GingerReadReview - Review plus Dream Cast
                  Reading with Anacrasia  - Review plus GiveawayJan. 29Jan. 30   YA Book Addict  - ReviewJan. 31   Andrea Heltsley Books  - Review plus Author Interview

a christmas gift to readers

so, i lovelovelove christmastime. i love the music (yes, shut up, you know you do, too), the decorations, the trees, gift-giving, the excitement children feel, and the general sense of togetherness that binds us all together.

so it's interesting that i never write about christmas in any of my stories. i guess i've just never felt the need to, even though i know, surely, some of my characters must celebrate it? and then this year, as i'm working through AMOF 2, i realized i actually DID have a christmas story to share. but it wasn't for AMOF 2, it was a flashback that happened years before AMOF. and it wasn't for chloe, or jonah, or kellan, but for karl. who, as some of you may know, happens to be one of my very favorite characters.

i always knew, going into his story, that karl was one of those guys who loved winter time. and i knew why--it was just, i never had room to tell any of this stuff. until now.

so, this is my christmas present to you. i hope you like discovering how karl finally found the girl of his dreams.

* * * * *
It was snowing again, light, small flakes that stuck rather than melted. Annar was pretty when it white—not that Karl would ever admit that out loud to anyone. He preferred winter to summer, always had, ever since he was little and fell in love with the literal girl of his dreams while building a lopsided snowman named Fred.            Fred made an annual reappearance for ten years straight every Christmas Eve, down to the exact row of crooked seashells used for buttons and weathered beach glass used for eyes. He’d been painstakingly reconstructed, not from a photo, but shared memory. It became a game of sorts, rebuilding Fred, especially as it was done amongst much laughter and teasing and eventual kissing, slow kissing that melted the snow under bodies—but in all honesty, it was probably Karl’s favorite holiday tradition.            Until, of course, he turned sixteen and there were no more snowmen to be made in his dreams or in reality.            For an entire year, he’d refused to go skiing with his parents or snowboarding with any of his friends. He was the lone holdout for a New Year’s trip to Aspen to stay in some fabulous cabin that was more like a chalet, which, for months, his friends ragged on him for. And whenever anybody challenged him to a snowball fight, which he used to live for, because damn, was he a good shot, he practically bit their heads off with his insistences that only babies play in the snow.            But then, shortly after his seventeenth birthday and a series of stern talking-tos from his father, grandfather, and friends, he drug his snow boots out of his closet and allowed himself to be drug to Switzerland for a ski weekend. He told himself that he was going to reclaim winter as his—that he wasn’t going to allow some fantasy girl that’d never been real in the first place take away something that meant so much to him.            And now, now he was set to head to Aspen after all, with a group of friends and his girlfriend of the last five months who, frankly, hated the snow but loved him enough to give snowboarding a try. “I’m Australian,” she teased him when he brought the trip up. “We surf, not ski.”            A deal was struck. He’d go surfing with her in Australia if she went skiing with him in Colorado.            But before they could go, he had to have the obligatory Christmas Eve dinner with his parents. It was the first time he’d be bringing a girlfriend, and his mother was beyond ecstatic. She had begged Karl to invite his girlfriend. As far as Karl could tell, his mom was already knitting baby hats. It made him nervous, and he’d been wishy-washy for weeks before deciding once and for all to actually invite Kiah to come.            He hadn’t even bought her a present yet, which definitely made him a crappy boyfriend. And it was going to make him late to dinner for sure, but he wasn’t going to show up at her door empty handed.            Annar’s streets were crowded—they always were—but he knew where he wanted to go. There was a Dwarven jewelry cart a block over, and he’d noticed the perfect necklace for Kiah just yesterday when he was rushing to class. It was a silver moon surrounded by dark blue stones, which made him think of nighttime and dreams, which was apt as she was a Dreamer.            Which was truly ironic, as he felt like it had been his dreams that had messed him up good for years and probably still explained why he was the kind of crappy boyfriend who forgot to get his girlfriend a present until Christmas Eve. Because, really—who falls in love with girls they meet in their dreams?            Lunatics, that’s who, he thought sourly.            Finally, the cart came into view; Karl checked his watch—he still had twenty whole minutes before Kiah expected him to knock on her door, thirty minutes before they were to meet his folks at the restaurant two blocks from her building. Maybe, just maybe, he thought to himself as he trudged toward the cart, he’d come out of this alive. Make it through Christmas Eve like a normal person rather than feeling like he’d lost a central piece of his soul.            A group of girls were hogging space at the cart, giggling over rings and bracelets. Normally, Karl would wait until they moved on—his dad would kick his ass if he ever presented himself to be anything other than a gentleman—but time was a’wasting. He gently shoved his big frame into a small space in between two of the six girls while murmuring apologies. They stepped aside, oohing and awing about how sweet it was that a guy was buying jewelry.            The necklace found, Karl stepped back, ready to head over to the cashier, but froze in his tracks. One of the girls who’d been at the end of the cart was now standing right in front of him, not a foot away. She was short and had corkscrew dark hair that always frizzed in the snow and a constellation of freckles across her nose. She was wearing a ratty yellow peacoat that was a hand-me-down from her grandmother with buttons that she’d found in thrift stores across America.            He knew these things about her. He knew her.            It was like someone had punched him in the gut. Impossible. Absolutely impossible. He felt his mouth fall open, like some thirteen-year-old asshole who was staring at the first hot girl he’d ever really noticed. Only, this wasn’t the first time he’d ever seen this particular girl—not so much hot, but more like incandescently beautiful, which made him sound like more of a pathetic asshole for even thinking such a corny thing.            Her dark eyes went wide, like she’d been punched, too. “Karl?”            This girl, who’d he’d dreamed about for most of his life, had fallen in love with while building a snowman on a snowy beach year after year, was somehow standing right in front of him while he was right about to buy his girlfriend a Christmas present.            He didn’t know what to say. What to do.            “You know that guy, Moira?” one of the other girls asked her. But Moira didn’t answer. She just kept on staring at Karl, like she expected him to say something.            You left me, he wanted to say. You made me love you and then you left me. Even more importantly, he wanted to kiss her until she couldn't breathe, couldn't think. He wanted to lose himself in her. And then he wanted to kick himself, because hello. The whole fact that he wanted to do any of this with a slip of girl was just as crazy as he must be.              “You’re not real,” he finally told her.            The girl standing next to Moira laughed, like what he said was the funniest thing she’d ever heard.            It was enough to snap him out of his reverie. He took a step back and then side-skirted Moira, like she was contagious. An illness, or worse yet—a weakness, which she was, he couldn’t help but think. She’d broken him when all his life, he’d been invincible.            If she was even real. If he was even awake. If he wasn’t hallucinating.            He threw a wad of cash at the Dwarf—more than the necklace cost, that was for sure. And then he practically fled from the cart, wishing it was summer.

more chances to win AMOF!

so, friends! there are currently two contests going right now where you can win a copy of a matter of fate !

first up is a giveaway of a paperback over at goodreads .


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Goodreads Book Giveaway


A Matter of Fate
by Heather Lyons

Giveaway ends December 12, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Enter to win




AMOF is also up for grabs as an ebook over at the book asylum, as part of a mega book giveaway. i will be so jealous of the winner who nabs 22 books. YES, 22!! one of the them is the divine sea of tranquility by katja millay, a book i just read and totally adored. go HERE to enter before the contest is over on thursday, november 15. winners will be announced on friday!