Zara Hoffman's Blog: Zara Hoffman's Goodreads Author Blog, page 12

Hello 2018

It's been a while since I've blogged, what with finals, holidays, finishing the first draft of  Unmoored  (finally) and readjusting to life back home now that I'm taking next semester off.

​Anyway, I'll keep it short and simple. One of my goals this year are to blog weekly (partly to actually use this blog for what blogs are meant for, and partially to keep my accountable with my writing, revising, editing, and publishing). That last part is particularly important because I also have a goal to publish at least the rest of  The Belgrave Legacy 's sequels: Unmoored and Taming the Alpha . You can already read it and the short stories.

So, that's me. My question for you all is what are some of your new year's resolutions? Comment them down below. And if you have any tips on sticking to those goals, don't hesitate to add that, too.

Early Winter 2017 Update

click for more entriesIt's been a while since I've done a OneWord365 post because life has been extremely busy for me. But within the last week, I decided to take a leave of absence next semester to take care of myself. I won't go too deep into it, but long story short: if I went into next semester as I am (even with the 1-month winter break) things would not go well. So, I'm taking a step back to get myself and my life in order. That said, my winter plans are completely up in the air. I'm hoping to spend enough time to finish drafting and hopefully revising (and maybe even editing)  Unmoored  so I can publish it soon.

In the meantime, I'm busy writing 2 final papers and studying for 3 final exams. I've gotten a jump start on one of the papers (the draft is already done), but I still have quite a lot of work ahead of me. So while I may not be able to start thinking of fun things for myself yet, that doesn't mean I don't have something for you, my audience. Below, I have 3 giveaways featuring signed paperbacks of  The Belgrave Legacy . The first one ends on 12/20/2017 at 12:00am EST, the second one ends only 2 days later: on 12/22/2017, and the final one goes all the way into the new year: until 2/28/2018.

So enter all three below now, and good luck!a Rafflecopter giveaway P.S. The day the above giveaway ends (12/20/2017), ​The Belgrave Legacy will be going on sale for only 99¢ for the holiday season and you can always buy a signed paperback directly from my site.ends Dec 22Enter Now ends Feb 28Enter Now

Release Day Launch: Undone by Wendy Higgins

​From New York Times and USA Today bestseller Wendy Higgins comes a frighteningly realistic apocalyptic America brought to life and entwined with searing romantic tension that will leave you eager for more. Undone, the stunning conclusion in the Unknown Trilogy is now available! Don’t miss the fantastic excerpt below and grab your copies today!Title: Undone
Series: Unknown, 3
Author: Wendy Higgins
Genre: NA SciFi Romance
Publication Date: December 5, 2017

Amber Tate never dreamed their heart-wrenching escape from the enemy’s attack would lead them to the most beautiful place she’s ever seen. Like everywhere else in the world, Elmendorf military base in Alaska has been taken over, but it’s time to take it back—all of it—one base, one city at a time. After losing so much, Amber clings to the one precious person she has left, and vows to sacrifice everything to help save the Earth.

Remy Haines is a lover, not a fighter, so when she finds herself in enemy territory, expected to feign allegiance while gathering intel for the rebel cause, she’s never been more out of her element. Tensions only increase when her feelings for Jacob “Tater” Tate won’t go away, and the enemy’s leader takes an interest in her. She’s torn between what her heart wants, and what she knows she should do. As for what her body needs…well, it’s always had a mind of its own.
Excerpt​Did he ever think of our night together in the tent?
 
I did.
 
Without a doubt, I’d been tipsy, but I remembered everything. For so many years there was tension between us. It started as annoyance, my best friend’s older brother who always acted like a douche. Then, after he joined the Army and came back to visit, it was like he’d matured just enough to lose that obnoxious edge and I realized for the first time how sexy he was. I wanted him. Back then, pursuing guys had been my vice, but I knew Amber might be weirded out by it.
 
When I thought back to that night at the nature reserve…it was really our last night of true freedom and happiness. It’s strange to think we were happy, especially since our parents had been taken prisoners at that point, and we’d watched his grandfather be killed, but we still had hope. We thought we’d get our parents back. We didn’t have any idea just how horrible things were. Or that aliens were real.
 
I rubbed the prickly hairs on my arms down and took another bite. I didn’t want to think about that night in the tent. The sound of Tater’s laughter. His wide smile. The way the neck of my loose shirt had slid down while I was arranging my sleeping bag and laughing drunkenly. His warm mouth as he kissed me on my exposed shoulder…when I turned to him, Tater had never looked more serious. It had been a look of question, like, “Is this all right?” And I’d responded by sliding my hand behind his neck and pulling him down on top of me.
​Now he never smiled or laughed.
 
“How are things in the fields?” I asked him.
 
Tater gave a single shrug, not looking up or saying a word.
 
“If you’re wondering,” Linette said with spite, “Things are amazing with the livestock. I can fill a bucket with milk in record time, and helped a mama swine birth seven piglets yesterday. I’m a regular fucking Farmer Jane.”
 
Before I could respond, Tater whispered, “I need you to get us a radio.”
 
Our end of the table went silent and still. I glanced at the guards, who were surveying the room with bland expressions, then I forced another bite into my mouth. When I looked up again, Linette had that crazed look in her eyes, staring straight ahead. Her strategizing look.
 
“Are there cameras in the room where you teach?” she asked.
 
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
 
“How can you not know?” she asked, annoyed. “Look today.”
 
“Okay, but there’s no way I can take anything. I’m never alone.”
 
“The guards cannot be staring at you the entire time.” Linette nodded to the bag at my side. “Slip it in there.”
 
“Remy,” Tater said to his bowl. “If you can get your hands on anything electronic, we can try to use it at night to send or receive signals, and you can return it in the morning.”
 
My stomach was roiling at the idea. There’s a reason I didn’t join the military. Stealth and danger were not my things. But I was the only one with access to the palace.
 
“I’ll look,” I promised.
 
“Have you been alone with him yet?” Linette asked.
 
My innards seized at this, churning my breakfast. I felt both of their eyes on me as I stared at the pasty contents in my bowl and minutely shook my head.
 
“Make it happen,” she demanded.
 
From the corner of my eye it looked like Tater was holding his spoon so hard he might bend it in his fist. I reached out with my leg as far as I could under the table until my foot touched his. The contact, even through our shoes, sent blood whooshing to every nerve in my body. I watched as his hand relaxed on the spoon, and he pressed his foot to mine. Our eyes never met.
 
We were quiet as we finished.
 
“Did Remy tell you her fantastically stupid idea to try and teach the girls in our room after hours?”
 
Tater’s eyes flew up to me, scorching me, and I looked at the guard again. When I found one of them staring straight at me, my demeanor changed to demure and I gave the guard a soft smile before looking back down. From the corner of my eye I saw Tater’s hands clench into fists again, and he brought them under the table to his lap.
 
“Rem…” Tater’s voice was filled with warning.
 
“It’s fine,” I whispered, grabbing my tray and standing. “Don’t worry.”
 
I wished Linette hadn’t told him that. As if he didn’t have enough crap on his mind. I sent her a glare, which she returned, and I caught one last look of Tater’s stiff form, hands in his lap, knee bouncing and jaw locked. I wished so badly I could hug him and try to calm him. But all I could do was walk away. The Other Books About the Author ​Wendy Higgins is a soccer mom and backstage drama mama. Most people in her tiny bayside town don’t know she’s a USA Today and NYT bestselling author of paranormal, fantasy, and science-fiction romances. Wendy is a former high school English teacher who now writes full time in her pajamas, and lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with her veterinarian husband, daughter, son, and little doggie Rue.
 
Wendy earned a bachelor’s in Creative Writing from George Mason University and a master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford University.

Giveawaya Rafflecopter giveaway

Post-NaNo and 2 Giveaways

NaNoWriMo is over and I did not win. I only made it just past 45,000 words. Which is 3 days short of the goal. Although it's less than the 50,000 word count goal, I still did much better than I thought I would given I didn't write at all for 4 days (red), and under 1,667 on 11 days (yellow) and under 600 on 5 other days (orange).
With that said, I only have 5 more chapters to write, which will put me over the 50,000 word mark for NaNo (albeit late), but it will still be short of my novel's goal of 60,000. I intend to expand at least 18 chapters during the revision process, so I don't think that will be a problem.

​Now, enough about me and my writing. Let's get to the fun stuff!

Starting today, my book is in 2 paperback giveaways. The first ends on December 22, and the second ends February 28. So, click on the images below and enter for the chance to win The Belgrave Legacy and many other books. click to enter click to enter

Why I'm Thankful for ER's and Cell Phones

I have a little writing update. But first, here's a little recap of my Thanksgiving Break:

My Thanksgiving has been a bit rocky to say the least. On Wednesday, very close family friend went into the ER and my mom stayed with her while I hauled all our Thanksgiving food and plates into an Uber and rode up to my uncle in New Jersey by myself. Let's say it was an unfortunate reminder of my mom's trip to the ER this summer when I had to play point person and actually realized for the first time that at some point in the future, I'll be the one taking care of my mom, not the other way around. It wasn't something I ever expected to deal with so early, but I was oddly calm about it all (publicly, anyway).

But things picked up on Thursday because my mom came up to New Jersey, and we assumed everything was fine with our friend. It wasn't, but she wasn't alone, and we were getting updates throughout the day. And on Friday, we were set to come home, get our dog back, and host said friend in our guest room.

That didn't happen because I started feeling chest pain (had been off-and-on for the past few months, but it wouldn't go away all day on Friday), and took my own trip to the ER (same one my mom had been in this summer) and spent 4 hours waiting and taking tests, and then waiting for results. Luckily, it's nothing dangerous. But these three incidents (although I was saying this before my own trip) have made me so consciously grateful for the existence of ERs (even if they do take forever) and cell phones, which allowed me in all cases to stay in touch with the people I needed to.

So, what does this have to do with writing? Well, it explains my lack of (substantial) writing 11/22-11/24. Today, I'm hoping to get some writing in, but I think I may have to admit that NaNoWriMo will be unwinnable this year. Which is a kind of tough pill to swallow since I started out so ahead, then didn't have my computer for 5 days while it was fixed, and all this Thanksgiving medical drama. But, even when I don't win, NaNoWriMo has been so helpful in getting me to write  Unmoored  that I'm also thankful for the kick in the butt it's given me this month.

NaNoWriMo 2017 Update: 15k words

You may remember me announcing that I was doing NaNoWriMo this year, and was part of The Mighty Pens fundraising campaign for the Malala Fund. If you haven't read that post yet, I would go read it here. If you're wondering about how I've been doing, I just passed 15,000 words in my draft today. And because I'm part of The Mighty Pens, I received this badge and was featured on the blog with the below questions (with a few others). What is your favorite book and/or author, and what draws you to them?
Favorite book is The Giver by Lois Lowry, favorite author is Cora Carmack. Love the book because of the imagery, story, complicated worldview, and the fact that it was one of the first novels I ever read and partly made me fall in love with reading. Love Cora Carmack because her stories always propel me through them dying to know what happens and loving the love stories she writes.

Is this your first book? If not, what was the first book you ever finished writing? Tell us a little about it.
No, it’s the second official book I’ll be publishing. Technically, it’s the 7th book I’ve written (but that includes 3 separate books—one of which I published—that wound up becoming 1 single book, which is the first book I officially published). The first book I ever wrote was the summer before fourth grade and I wrote a blatant Nancy Drew rip-off. It will never see the light of day, but it was fun at the time.

What’s the working title of your NaNoWriMo17 project?
  Unmoored . It’s the sequel to  The Belgrave Legacy .

Give us an elevator pitch of your project.
She’s the best friend. He’s the twin brother. She’s a siren. He’s the only male witch in the world. And while they love each other, they drive each other nuts and can’t seem to agree on the nature of soulmates when it comes to her best friend and his sister’s crazy relationship with a duplicitous angel. So there’s no way in hell she’s going to tell him that they’re each other’s soulmate.

Share your favorite line/short paragraph from your book so far.
“How many of Ivy’s exes are here?”
Fawn surveyed the other guests for a few moments. “About thirty, give or take.”
“That’s all the guys here.” Read Original Post

Back in Business

Title: The Belgrave Legacy
Series: The Belgrave Legacy, 1
Author: Zara Hoffman
Genre: Upper YA Paranormal Romance
Publisher: ZH Press
Publication Date: October 31, 2016

A Reluctant Heroine. A Snarky Angel. A Big Mess.

Fawn doesn't believe in magic. But it is very real, and has made her a vulnerable target.

Caleb is sick of Hell. When the Devil offers him a way out, he immediately says yes.

Can this young witch trust the dark angel assigned to romance and seduce her? Or will his betrayal tear them apart forever?

The Belgrave Legacy is an upper-young adult paranormal romance. Filled with magic, witches, angels, and demons, this story will keep you turning the pages until the very end. Buy the book now, and discover a world hiding in our own.
Title: Short Story Collection
Series: The Belgrave Legacy, 0.5
Author: Zara Hoffman
Genre: Upper YA Paranormal Romance
Publisher: ZH Press

Add on Goodreads Buy on Kindle3 witches. 3 stories.

Meet the original Belgrave matriarch and see her do all she can to protect her family in Evelyn's Enchantment.

Meet Fawn and Alec's grandmother as she makes a difficult decision to give up the love her life to save her unborn daughter in Cassandra's Choice.

Meet Stella Belgrave, Fawn and Alec's mom, and learn about her own love story in Stella's Soulmate.

The Short Story Collection has three young adult paranormal short stories featuring magic and three powerful Belgrave witches before Fawn was called on to fulfill her destiny. These stories can be read as prequels, but are not necessary to understand the plot of The Belgrave Legacy .

The Other Shoe Dropped

You know when people say, "enjoy it while it lasts"? Well, my first 5 days of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) were amazing. You can see below my 3rd day was sub-par, but I made it up on the 4th day and kept it up on the 5th. But then I had a 3 day streak of yellow. And you may be wondering why.
​Short answer: my computer malfunctioned and I didn't have it to write for those days. I was typing on my phone, giving myself hand cramps as I did. It was slow, and literally painful. But, I just got my laptop back today and am prepared to catch up on the 3,281 words I need by the end of the day to be back on track. Today is red because as of writing this, I haven't written any more of Unmoored ​yet.

Now, I was fully prepared to spend a week (11/6-11/13) without my laptop even though, as a college student and author in the middle of NaNo, the thought filled me with terror. But things got even worse on Monday, because I (and many other authors) received an unexpected email from our book distributor Pronoun, telling us the company was closing in January. Which, again, is something I can easily deal with (others aren't so lucky). But without my laptop, the news made me internally panic.

Today, I started the process of pulling ​The Belgrave Legacy and the related Short Story Collection from publication. I'll be publishing it again as soon as possible on Amazon, but since I rarely ever get sales from iBooks, I've decided to make my books exclusively available on Amazon.

Blog Post Spotlight: "Letter to my Mini-Me" from Letters from the Heart

A month ago, a blog organized by some of my author friends of anonymous letters posted one that really affected me: "Letter to my Mini-Me." Although, I, myself, have never faced any of the atrocities the author of this letter wrote, the story of enduring and eventually overcoming a dark history made me want to hug the author, and gave me the perspective I sometimes need to be reminded of when I feel like I'm losing a battle against my own personal demons. It acknowledges the need of your past self for your present self to exist, and that's a message that really resonates with me. "Letter to my Mini-Me" also ends on a "it got better" note which leaves me hopeful—something we could all use more of, especially in the crazy times we live in.

If you'd like to write your own anonymous letter, get involved here

Beautiful Books 2017: How's the Writing Going?

click for original postIf you haven't read Part 1 where I introduced  Unmoored  as my NaNo17 WIP, you can read that first and then come back here.

Okay, all set? Let's jump into Part 2 (as always, questions are from my writer friend, Paper Fury).
Overall, how is your mental state, and how is your novel going? Mental state: surprisingly okay, although kind of exhausted. Novel status: going steadily, the first 3 days I was sleeping like nuts as I fought off a 72-hour virus (or nasty cold, still don't know which) so it's a miracle that I'm not only on track, but slightly ahead of schedule.What’s your first sentence (or paragraph)? Ivy was sleeping when her door burst open. Her mother ran in, grabbed her by the arm, and pushed her into the closet. “Don’t make a sound,” her mother commanded before closing the door and booted footsteps started getting closer.Who’s your current favourite character in your novel? Ivy, the FMC.What do you love about your novel so far? I love that I'm getting to dive further into the world of ​The Belgrave  Legacy  and tell Ivy and Alec's story. Have you made any hilarious typos or other mistakes? Not yet, but I'm sure I will.What is your favourite to write: beginning, middle, or end — and why? The end because it means I'm done with a draft and will be able to revise and edit (rather than starting from a blank page)What are your writing habits? Is there a specific snack you eat? Do you listen to music? What time of day do you write best? Feel free to show us a picture of your writing space! I don't really have any, though I really should since it'd probably make me more productive. I write whenever I can. I do believe I write better in the morning, but as someone who loves to sleep that is usually hard to manage. I usually don't listen to music, but may have a song running in my head on its own without needing iTunes to play it for me. My "writing space" is just my laptop, so you can see that prettyness on Apple's website (the rose gold one).How private are you about your novel while you’re writing? Do you need a cheer squad or do you work alone (like, ahem, Batman)? Mm, I mean, I like to have encouragement, but as to actually sharing snippets of it, I'm pretty much like Batman. You'll see it when it's ready, not before. Although, that sucks for my Instagram feed... so maybe I'll rethink that drafting embargo strategy.What keeps you writing even when it’s hard? Knowing that it'll get done.What are your top 3 pieces of writing advice? Take good physical care of yourself. Have a plan (even if it's a loose structure and a few unrelated ideas). And reward yourself for small victories so you'll stay motivated (remember it's a marathon, not a sprint).Title: Unmoored
Series: The Belgrave Legacy, 2
Author: Zara Hoffman
Genre: Upper YA Paranormal Romance
Publisher: ZH Press

Add on GoodreadsA witch. A siren. Soulmates?

Alec Belgrave is overwhelmed. He's busy protecting his sister Fawn from the forces of Hell while also attending college in a different state. The last thing he expected was to learn their shared best friend was his soulmate.

As a siren, Ivy Moore knows a lot about attraction. But having Supernatural beauty is useless if her own soulmate doesn't see her as anything more than a sisterly best friend. Is it so unreasonable to want her soulmate to want her without fate pulling the strings?

They may be soulmates, but that doesn't mean love will come easily.

Unmoored is a young adult paranormal romance featuring magic and sirens. As a spin-off of The Belgrave Legacy, it can be read as a sequel or a stand-alone book.