Katie Hamstead's Blog, page 78

Book Signing!

Curiosity Quills has made an awesome deal for me! On August 16th, 7 p.m., I have a huge book signing event! Yes, it's huge. It's at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, which is arguably the biggest bookstore in the Phoenix Valley. It regularly has big name authors signing there, and was Stephanie Myers' first signing event location.
So please, if you are anywhere near Phoenix that day, swing by and show me your support, and send anyone else you know that way too :-) I'm incredibly excited about this!

Papina Release Day Blitz

Today is the release of my latest novel, Papina.




Blurb: Forrest and Braydon Miller moved to the small town of Papina to follow their dreams and start a family. Braydon loves her new life in the quiet town, kept alive by the prestigious boarding school overlooking the valley. She is so proud of her husband's work, helping the teens on the reservation.
Until one day, Forrest doesn't come home.
Scandal spreads when one of the teenagers is found missing, too. But Braydon refuses to believe her husband would leave her. When the teen is found, she isn't talking—literally.
While Braydon's heart is breaking, she needs to hold her crumbling life together, raise her son, and find a way to love the teenager enough to find the truth of what happened to her husband.


Goodreads / Amazon
Bio:Born and raised in Australia, Katie’s early years of day dreaming in the “bush”, and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughter and their dog.She has a diploma in travel and tourism which helps inspire her writing.Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports and be a good wife and mother. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.
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Blog Tour Guest Post: Winter in the Soul

Blog TourJuly 7th - 31st, 2014Winter in the Soul by Jennifer Novotney
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX5yYhX7lwQ

Blurb:In a world divided by power and greed, seventeen-year-old Lilika harbors an intense desire to return to Winter in the Soul, the place her family left to escape the darkness that was manifesting from a coldness of the soul.
When she meets Talon, their connection is evident right from the start, and together they travel through the Black Kingdom to recover Lilika’s stolen locket. And in search of an answer to the mystery behind Winter in the Soul.
Lilika holds the key to stopping the darkness from spreading. The fate of their world lies in her hands. Will she stop the Black Kingdom before its darkness overtakes them all, or will they succumb to the darkness that is spreading across the land?
Release Date: July 15, 2014

Author Bio:Jennifer Novotney was born in Burbank, California and lived in Los Angeles for most of her life until settling in North Eastern Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. She attended California State University, earning a bachelors degree in journalism, and Northern Arizona University, earning a masters degree in English. After college, she spent several years writing and teaching, including at Pennsylvania State University.Website: www.jennifernovotney.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/jennovotneyFacebook: www.facebook.com/jen.novotney
Links:Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20869515-winter-in-the-soulAnaiah Press: http://www.anaiahpress.com

Great Websites for Writers
1. Twitter twitter.com
Twitter is a great resource for writers to connect with readers, fellow writers, editors, and literary agents. There are also pitch contests where writers can pitch their finished manuscripts to agents and editors seeking new work. This is how my book, Winter in the Soul, found its publishing home with Anaiah Press. I’ve also found some great writer friends and even connected with agents and editors through hashtags like #mswl (manuscript wish list) and #askagent (agents answer writer questions)
2. Writer’s Digest writersdigest.com
Writer’s Digest has a wealth of resources for the novice and experienced writer. My favorite section of the website is the Guide to Literary Agents. Besides containing valuable information, there is a New Literary Agent Alert that lists new agents seeking clients. This is a great find for writers because the querying process can be challenging and a new agent is another chance at gaining representation.
3. Query Tracker querytracker.net
Query Tracker is just what it sounds like. It tracks queries, but the great thing about it is that you can see what other writers’ experience has been like with different agents and editors. There are reports on query submissions and response times as well as a top ten list of most queried, most accepting, most non-responsive, and most rejecting agents. You can also keep track of your own queries so you don’t submit twice or follow-up too early.
4. Poets & Writers pw.org
Poets & Writers is the nation’s largest non profit organization serving creative writers. Writers can create their own profiles and connect with others. There are tools for writers as well as numerous lists of publications, writing schools, and grants & awards. I personally used this site when researching graduate schools. It is easy to narrow down your search and find the best schools based on your own interests and field of study.
5. Agent Query agentquery.com

Agent Query is the go to website when seeking an agent or publisher. The guidelines for submissions are straightforward. I’ve referenced this website many times along the process of publication and found it accurate and credible. The website also houses a vast database of literary agents. You can narrow down your search by genre, email or snail mail submission, and AAR (Association of Author Representatives) membership. My favorite part of this website is that it tells you whether agents are accepting queries or not, so I don’t waste my time contacting one who is closed to submissions.




Giveaway:includes 5 autographed posters and 5 keychains
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Review: How to Seduce a Band Geek by Cassie Mae

From Goodreads:
Sierra Livingston’s got it bad for her sister’s best friend, Levi Mason—the boy who carries his drumsticks in his pocket, marches with the school’s band, and taps his feet to whatever beat runs through his head. Sierra racks her brain for ways to impress the sexy drummer, but the short skirts and bursting cleavage don’t seem to cut it.

When Sierra gets paired with Levi’s sister, Brea, for a mentorship program, they strike a deal. In exchange for Sierra keeping her mouth shut about Brea ditching the program, Brea lets Sierra dig for more info on Levi to help get the guy of her dreams.

But when Sierra discovers Levi no longer plays the drums, his family has moved into a trailer, and he’s traded in his Range Rover for a baby blue moped, Sierra’s not sure if she can go through with violating his privacy. She’ll have to find the courage to ask him straight out—if he’s willing to let her in—and explore other ways to seduce the school’s band geek.

I've finally got around to finishing this. I've been distracted by working through acquisitions, making contracts, (I signed some amazing new books this month! Eep, so excited for them to be shared with the world) QueryKombat judging, and a shiny new WiP, not to mention swimming lessons, July 4th partying, and all kinds of crazy time in my "real" world life.
So now, here is my thoughts on this adorable second book of this series.

My Review:
This book follows from How to Date a Nerd, which you can find my review here. Two years later, and Zoe's younger sister, Sierra, is in high school and the brunt of everyone's jokes. She is the protagonist of this story, and has fallen for Zoe's best friend, whom we also met in the last book, Levi.

Following in typical Cassie Mae tradition, this book is sweet, cute, awkward, and leaves you feeling good when you are done. I love that I could continue the stories of the characters I loved in HtDaN, and that Sierra has not only learned from her own mistakes, but Zoe's too.

Sierra is a doll, and Levi is the perfect gentleman where the other boys in her life (aside from Adam, whom I'm looking forward to the next book in the series to see how his life turns out) are totally jerks.

Sierra is a real, believable MC whom teen girls can really empathise and admire. I think I ended up loving this book more than the first.

Release: Broken World by Kate L Mary

Blurb:When a deadly virus sweeps the country, Vivian Thomas sets out for California in hopes of seeing the daughter she gave up for adoption. Then her car breaks down and she’s faced with a choice. Give up, or accept a ride from redneck brothers, Angus and Axl. Vivian knows the offer has more to do with her double D’s than kindness, but she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to reach her daughter.

The virus is spreading, and by the time the group makes it to California, most of the population has been wiped out. When the dead start coming back, Vivian and the others realize that no electricity or running water are the least of their concerns. Now Vivian has to figure out how to be a mother under the most frightening circumstances, cope with Angus’s aggressive mood swings, and sort out her growing attraction to his brooding younger brother, Axl.

While searching for a safe place to go, they pick up a pompous billionaire who may be the answer to all their problems. Trusting him means going into the middle of the Mojave Desert and possibly risking their lives, but with the streets overrun and nowhere else to turn, it seems he might be their only chance for survival.

Excerpt:The diner is crowded. I have to squeeze my way between waitresses and patrons, dodging trays and elbows. I bet they haven’t had a crowd like this in here since the 1950s.There’s a line for the restroom. I stand at the back and dig through my purse until I find Emily’s picture. She smiles at me, and my heart aches.I didn’t want to give her up, but I was sixteen. It wasn’t safe in my home—if you could even call it that—and there was no way I could bring a baby there. It was just me and my dad. Mom had run off with a neighbor when I was ten. Not that I can blame her for leaving, but I do blame her for leaving me. She must have known dad would need a new punching bag if she left. She obviously didn’t care. That hurts even more than the beatings did. That she didn’t care about me.I loved Emily the moment I saw her. She was so tiny and pink, and her face was all smashed in from birth, so ugly-cute like all newborns. I loved her enough to give her to the Johnson’s. They sent me updates for a while. Nine months, to be exact. Then they stopped. I can’t blame them. It wasn’t an open adoption, and they never got a single response from me. Maybe they thought I didn’t care. Truth was, it just hurt too much.The woman behind me coughs on the back of my head. Hot, moist air hits my hair and brushes it forward. I start to turn around so I can yell at her, but I freeze. She’s not the only one. Half the people in this diner are hacking their heads off. People slump over in booths, their breathing raspy and their faces bright red. A woman moans and shivers. She has on two jackets, but she still shakes so hard her teeth clang together. Her face is covered in sweat. The man next to her urges her to eat something. But he coughs too.My stomach aches. I’m going to be sick. It’s here.I forget the bathroom and head back to the table. I have to pee, but I can do it on the side of the road. We need to get out of here. Joshua is back. The three men are tense. They look up when I walk over.“It’s here,” I say, but they already know.“We’re gettin’ our shit to go,” Axl says.He’s pale. So is Angus. His face isn’t as hard as it was before. Death tends to do that to a person. Turn them into spaghetti.Even Joshua shakes, and he knows he’s immune.I sit down and wait, wringing my hands on top of the table. My hands tremble so hard that when I pick up my glass to take a drink, it spills everywhere. I set it back down.“We still need supplies.” Angus’s voice is hollow.“Why don’t you and the Doc head to the convenience store and grab us some stuff? Vivian and me’ll wait for the food,” Axl says.Angus gets to his feet, and I stand to let Joshua out. People cough on them when they go by. Angus clenches his fist when a man sneezes on him. But the anger melts away and all the color drains from his face. He walks faster.“Guess we’ll know soon,” Axl says.I nod, but I can’t make my mouth work to say anything. My insides curl into a ball. They grow tighter each time I think about it. I should be relieved. Soon the suspense will be over, and I’ll know whether or not I’m going to die. But I’m not. I don’t want to die, and the thought of it happening makes me want to hurl.Axl and I don’t speak. We just stare at each other. The diner is amazingly quiet, considering how full it is. People cough. There are a few quiet conversations. Otherwise it’s silent. Deathly silent.“Thought the end of the world would be more dramatic than this,” he finally says. It makes me jump.I look around. It is the end. It’s written on the face of every person in the diner. I’m sure it’s on mine. “There should be chaos or panic. Something.”“Probably is. In the cities.”He’s right. Here the people are too disappointed. They were so close. They passed their physicals and thought they were in the clear. That they were going to make it. Is that what’s going to happen to me? The thought sends a shiver down my spine.
About Me:Kate L. Mary is a stay-at-home mother of four and an Air Force wife. She spent most of her life in a small town just north of Dayton, Ohio where she and her husband met at the age of twelve. Since their marriage in 2002, they have lived in Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and California.Kate enjoys any post-apocalyptic story – especially if zombies are involved – as long as there is a romantic twist to give the story hope. Kate prefers nerdy, non-traditional heroes that can make you laugh to hunky pieces of man-meat, and her love of wine and chocolate is legendary among her friends and family. She currently resides in Oklahoma with her husband and children.

http://katelmary.com/https://www.facebook.com/KateLMaryauthorhttps://twitter.com/kmary0622BROKEN WORLD page: http://katelmary.com/broken-world/

Guest Post: Crystal Firsdon author of Almost Wrecked

How Writing Transformed Me(From Halfway Sane, to Completely Insane)I was born sane. Now I’m a parent, so of course that means I’m halfway in the nut house. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I enjoy all the WTF that goes along with parenthood. Our kids make us nuts in the good way, right? And we embrace the nuttiness; it becomes part of us. So there I happily lived, halfway sane.I’ve always spun stories in my head. I’d keep them for a week, a month, six months, then be done with them. But the now half-insane part of me wouldn’t let me drop the stories. No, my brain held on tight to a lot of them, blended them together, and kept adding details. I didn’t notice I was slowly inching away from sanity even more. In a frustrated moment where I couldn’t get a story out of my head, I sat down at my laptop and began writing. Whole sentences began stringing together, making a story—not the brief musings of a Facebook post or a snarky email to friends, but real thoughts. I set out with no intentions, no agenda, no real belief that my writing would go anywhere. Alas, it did.Oh my gosh, I wrote a friggin’ book!The querying process to agents or publishers—completely nerve-wracking. The immediate rejections, the requests for your full manuscript then rejection . . . I was a walking ball of nerves who developed an unhealthy obsession with checking my email every five minutes. It’s a habit I still haven’t broken. And then finally, an offer of publication which I accepted.At this point, I recognized my slow move past the halfway mark to insanity. But, come on, I just signed a contract to get published. I’d go back to the halfway marker, right?Oh. So. Wrong.If publishing, a snail, and molasses had a race, publishing would come in last every time. Molasses and the snail would cross the finish line, have a drink and a nap, maybe go to a victory party. When they’d come stumbling out the front door from their party, they’d look off in the distance and see publishing make its way toward the finish line.I had all this time between signing the contract and beginning the editing process to convince myself that my publisher forgot about me. They changed their mind and I’d get an email asking to void the contract. They regretted accepting my book, and thought daily about what a mistake they’d made. I told a couple of people about my book deal before it hit me:Oh my gosh, I put myself out there!I have confidence in myself as a writer about two hours per day. The other twenty-two hours I’m convinced that I could never have a writing career because I’m simply not good enough. What in the heck was I thinking trying to get my book published? Who knows. But all the while, I plugged away at the second book and began a few other books to get to later. My publication date got closer.Oh my gosh, what if people actually read my book?I pretended not to be a nervous wreck at the fact that I was putting something out into the world that I’d have to take credit for, even if the public hated it. At least with parenting, if your kids do something the public doesn’t like you can blame it on your spouse. AmIright? Nobody but me could claim responsibility for my book being horrendously awful. I am now three quarters insane. And hey, maybe nobody would read it and I wouldn’t have to endure any bad reviews.Oh my gosh, what if no one reads my book?As I write this, only single-digit days away from my release date, I am completely insane because I put myself out there, people might read my book, no one might read my book, I’m close to finishing the sequel and may have another book out there soon, people could like my writing and want me to write more, people will hate my writing and cringe every time they see my name. And on and on and on.I love writing. I’m not sure if I’ve fully embraced insanity yet, but I’m getting used to it. The doubt that overrides my confidence will hopefully shrink one day. If I achieve some level of success, of course I’ll be ecstatic. And if I fail miserably, well heck, maybe I’ll start a support group for writers who were driven to insanity.Oh my gosh, I know nothing about support groups!So what did insanity lead me to write? Below is a blurb. As you read, I’m taking a deep, cleansing breath. Because you might be intrigued and want to read my book. Or you might let forth a disgusted grunt, vowing never to read it. Okay, I’m going to get a grip now and hope that my two hours per day of confidence begins soon. I hope you enjoy the holiday weekend and get a lot of good reading in!
AlmostWrecked 1 creep. 2 bodyguards. 3 men who change Molly’s life forever.Guitar player Molly Davis is taunted with disturbing gifts by some creep she hopes like heck is a harmless, misguided fan. The owner of the bar where her band plays isn’t taking any chances, however, and hires Gabe Cooper and Caleb “Ram” Ramsey to stand guard over Molly and the rest of the band.Cooper is all business and doesn’t mess with Molly’s emotions. She can handle that. Ram is a different story. He’s gorgeous, has a good heart, and is sometimes infuriating. He doesn’t take Molly’s crap, giving him the potential to be the first man to shove his way through her stubbornness and into her life. But a violent attack proves the creep isn’t going away. And that almost wrecks everything.

About the Author:Crystal Firsdon is a former high school teacher, turned stay-at-home mom, turned part time substitute teacher and school volunteer. Of course she loves to read, but any book she picks up must have romance! Crystal lives in Michigan with her husband and children, who are relatively sane.You can visit Crystal at www.crystalfirsdon.com

Guest Post: Curiosity Quills Author Amy Spitzley

Hello out there in Katieland! I’m Amy, author of Scrapbook of my Revolution and Viola Doyle, or An Unconventional Gift.
How does one go from mutants to dragons, you ask? Easily, as it turns out.
I was subbing Scrapbook all over the place. I think I got maybe 118 rejections or something like that. Nobody quite understood the concept of a mutant scrapbook. It’s an illustrated story, told as a scrapbook the MC, Amber, keeps of a year in her life, and a lot happens in that year! It’s got receipts and song lyrics and notes passed in school and articles from the newspaper and a homework assignment or two. By the time Curiosity Quills picked it up, I’d unearthed Viola from the file she’d been languishing in for several years and dusted her off a bit.
Thus, mutants to dragons in one year flat. I don’t like doing the same story over and over again, though all of mine have similar characteristics. You’ll generally find a curly-haired character and someone wearing glasses. I like informality so that sneaks in a lot. If I write a formal character there is a very specific reason for it. I also always have a fantasy aspect to things, or at least something out of the normal realm. Scrapbook has Malians (my word for mutants) and Viola has a magic pin and a dragon. One I’m working on now has trees bigger than anything that’s ever been known, and a drug that’s distilled from them that has most of the society addicted to it.
Basically, I like to have fun with my writing. There are some dark spots—the one I’m working on has more than I’ve had before, and Viola has very little, but all of them have their moments. Whatever feels cool and fun to me at the moment, that’s what I’ll be writing!
Here’s hoping people like those in Katieland will be reading it!
Author Links:http://curiosityquills.com/published-authors/amy-spitzley/Amazon Scrapbook link. http://www.amazon.com/Scrapbook-Revolution-Amy-Lynn-Spitzley/dp/1620071878Viola. http://www.amazon.com/Viola-Doyle-Unconventional-Gift-ebook/dp/B00IRFND9U

Guest Post: Wolf's Castle by Madelyn Hill

Can he forget the past and embrace the future? 
He’s the beast of Lomarcan Castle. Tortured, angry, and bound and determined not to allow Vivian Stuart to invade his lair. Lord Galen Maclean refuses to be endeared to the lovely woman who has landed on his island looking to study alchemy. The island possesses secrets, secrets too horrid to share with the gentle woman. However, her beguiling nature brings light to the darkness of the castle and the few quirky inhabitants and edges into his heart. 

Can she tame the beast within him to gain his love? 
She was stranded on a remote island, her father dead and dishonored by her betrothed. Still, the lovely Vivian Stuart wears her heart on her sleeve and strives to redeem Lord Maclean. She knows his heart is good and the castle can be filled with love. Through science she learns more about the troubled lord and slowly but surely, the torture lord's icy heart begins to thaw as Vivian shares the magical healing power of love.


InspirationWriters find inspiration in numerous places. Some look for characters in magazines, news stories, and history. Some look to family members, strangers, or co-workers. No matter where you find inspiration, it can sneak up on you in the most particular places. Recently, I was on the treadmill and a story idea started playing out in my mind. I panicked because I didn't want to forget any part of the story. So, there I was, sweating away and I decided to dictate the story into my cell phone. Luckily, I have the microphone option on my smartphone and I was able to dictate to the note app the entire idea. Of course the people around me probably thought I had lost my marbles, but hey, writers can be eccentric.What sparked the inspiration? At the time (while I was walking to no where on the treadmill) I was reading a writing skills book. The chapter was about characters and the word "alpha" immediately conjured this gorgeous guy who was a self-made man, etc etc - you get the idea. By the time I was done I had dictated a few pages of the story.As writers we rely on our creativity and imagination to take inspiration and turn it into characters, plot, conflict, and a story. My current novel, Wolf’s Castle was inspired by a trip to Alexandria Bay in the 1000 Islands of the St. Lawrence River in New York. We visited Boldt Castle on Heart Island (you can see how I was inspired by a castle on a heart shaped island).  The castle was built to honor the wife of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel owner. When she passed away unexpectedly construction immediately stopped. The tools of the carpenters were left where they stood and so the building remained until it was restored seventy years later. The island, castle and love story was truly food for the writer’s mind.
As you can see, inspiration can come from many places. Think about what inspires you (even if you aren’t a writer) to create, work, and improve. How can the inspiration enhance your writing, work, or life? Just something to think about. . .
Author Info: Madelyn Hill lives in Western New York with her husband and three children. She loves reading, writing, and research! When not writing, Madelyn works as a teacher.
Website: http://www.madelynhill.comAmazon Link: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wyDZzTNUyr8/U3aiJC4f5_I/AAAAAAAAALI/sy28IBEgkd0/s1600/200x300.jpg

Guest Post: Meet Soon-to-be Released Author Ryan Jo Summers

BLURB:
          Logan Riley is a Civil War hero turned outlaw and hanged for his crimes in 1869. Except he survives, traveling through time, until he is found by modern day anthropologist, Dr. McKenzie Lynne. Hired by team of physicists, Kenzie soon learns real fate they have in mind for him. Horrified, she runs, taking their living treasure. 
    Now, pursued by obsessed physicists and the military, they race across the deserts and mountains of AZ and NM. If they get caught, it’s a lifetime of imprisonment and tests for him and certainly worse for her. But staying free means forever on the run, hunted and homeless.
        Running and hiding, hunted like criminals, they also discover attraction and love blooming like desert flowers. Logan knows how to survive on nothing, how to outwit the pursuers, when to run and when to hole up. What he doesn't know is how to keep himself safe from Kenzie's power. Kenzie's strong Christian faith works to convict him of his past crimes better then the hangman’s noose had. As their affections continue to grow and their pursuers close in, their love will face the harshest test of all—Christian morals against nineteenth century outlaw justice.

FUN FACTS:

    In 2011 I had this super idea for a story. I wanted to take an 1800 outlaw, hang him and bring him to our present day. I wanted to have an anthropologist/ archeologist find him and spend the book on the great military chase and their developing, doomed relationship and bring in her Christian beliefs to convince the bad boy of his criminal past. Thus Shimmers of Stardust was born, in 2011. In late 2012, as the book was nearly finished, I was cleaning out some old papers and chanced upon a scrap I had written a random story idea upon, stored away and lost. Reading it, I realized it the just about identical to the story line of Stardust. It was dated November 1997. Yes, fourteen years earlier! 
    The other fun fact is the main character names came from names of my dogs, siblings Riley James, Logan, McKenzie Lynne and Miles.  Riley James and McKenzie Lynne took middle names in honor of two special family members and were always called by both names. They were tweaked for the story of course.

BIO:

    Ryan Jo Summers is a North Carolina writer who pens romances with a twist, mixing contemporary love stores with threads of Christian messages, time travel, paranormal and mystery. She began writing at the age of ten and never really stopped, always having to give voice to the characters and scenes in her mind. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her menageries of pets, time out with friends, getting with nature, cooking and reading or painting just about anything.  Shimmers of Stardust is her first book out with Soul Mate Publishing, expected September of 2014, followed by a mystery romance in November. 

LINKS: She loves to hear from readers and can be contacted or followed at:

website-- www.ryanjosummers.com 
blog-- http:summersrye.wordpress.com 
www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Jo-Summer... 
Also Amazon and Goodreads pages as well.

Cover Reveal: A Murder of Magpies by Sarah Bromley – Guest Post and Giveaway #M9BFridayReveals

Welcome to the Cover Reveal forA Murder of Magpies by Sarah Bromleypresented by Month9Books!Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!A MURDER OF MAGPIES cover artBesides the dream of seeing your book in print, one thing so many authors daydream about is what the cover will look like. I come from an artistic background. My grandmother was a watercolorist, and I actually spent time in college as an art major before switching first to forensic pathology (don’t ask—it obviously didn’t last) and eventually English. As someone who’s visual, I was excited and, to be honest, nervous for what Month9Books would come up with as the design for the cover of A MURDER OF MAGPIES.Georgia McBride asked for my input, which I know is rare because so often authors don’t get much say, if any, in their cover art, but I still didn’t know what to expect. Yet when I saw it, I adored my cover. How could there be any other cover for A MURDER OF MAGPIES? The design brings in details like the cobblestone roads of the book’s setting, Black Orchard, Wisconsin. I could imagine walking down that road in the fog and knowing someone was watching. The antique-style light plays off Vayda’s family’s business in the antiques trade as well as her ability to take emotion and turn it into electricity. Then the bird . . . I love the bird’s position as it is hunched over to peck at the ground as if uncovering a secret, and this is a story where everyone has secrets.

Winter in Black Orchard, Wisconsin, is long and dark, and sixteen-year-old Vayda Silver prays the snow will keep the truth and secrecy of the last two years buried. Hiding from the past with her father and twin brother, Vayda knows the rules: never return to the town of her mother’s murder, and never work a Mind Game where someone might see.No one can know the toll emotions take on Vayda, how emotion becomes energy in her hands, or how she can’t control the destruction she causes. But it's not long before her powers can no longer be contained. The truth is dangerously close to being exposed, placing Vayda and her family at risk.Until someone quiets the chaos inside her.Unwanted. That's all Ward Ravenscroft has ever been. To cope, he numbs the pain of rejection by denying himself emotions of any kind. Yet Vayda stirs something in him. He can't explain the hold she has on him--inspiring him with both hope and fear. He claims not to scare easily, except he doesn't know what her powers can do. Yet.Just as Vadya and Ward draw closer, she finds the past isn't so easily buried. And when it follows the Silvers to Black Orchard, it has murder in mind.

Title: A Murder of Magpies
Publication date: October 28, 2014
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Sarah Bromley

Sarah Bromley lives near St. Louis with her husband, three children, and two dogs. She likes the quiet hours of morning when she can drink coffee in peace, stare into the woods behind her house, and wonder what monsters live there. When she's not writing or wrangling small children, she can be found volunteering at a stable for disabled riders.

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!(Winners will receive their book on release day)a Rafflecopter giveaway