Tuesday, January 26, 2016

COVER REVEAL FOR THE FINAL BOOK IN MY RISING SERIES!!!

The stunning conclusion to THE RISING SERIES by Holly Kelly is coming soon on April 4, 2016. Today I am pleased to share the official cover reveal and the digital pre-order links for RAGING. Clean Teen Publishing is offering the first round of pre-orders at $4.99. The purchase price of RAGING will increase to $5.99 before it's release. Readers who haven't started this series should pick up book one now while it's still free! We'd love to hear your thoughts on the cover and the series as a whole. So take a second to drop us a line or two.

4 book Banner - The Rising Series

ABOUT RAGING:

The 4th and final book in The Rising Series will release on April 4, 2016. Since each story in The Rising Series has a new romance that intertwines with the others, the blurb below is free of spoilers.

AMAZON / iBOOKS / SMASHWORDS / GOODREADS(More links coming soon.)
The long-awaited conclusion to The Rising Series.
Ebook - Raging
For two thousand years, a betrayer has occupied the throne on Olympus. Hungry for power, he has wreaked havoc among the gods, as well as the humans on earth. But a spark of hope ignites in the form of four young women—ones who are destined to free the true king and save the human world. Two have been found, and the others must be located before it's too late.
Drakōn would love nothing more than to turn his back on the whole thing. It's not that he doesn't care about humans, but he has his own world to worry about. But then, he is given an impossible task—one he finds himself unable to refuse. He is charged with protecting a woman, but not just any woman—Tana, goddess of wind and fire.
Tana is more than he bargains for. Sentenced to an eternity of imprisonment for burning hundreds to death in a fiery inferno, she has powerful enemies. Drakōn finds himself facing off with those adversaries even as he questions why he doesn't simply destroy her himself. But Tana is one of four destined to save the world. That is, if she doesn't destroy it first. And Drakōn? He may just lose his most guarded possession. His heart.

READ THE FIRST BOOK FREE:

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ABOUT AUTHOR HOLLY KELLY:

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I'm a mom who writes books in her spare time: translation--I hide in the bathroom with my laptop and lock the door while the kids destroy the house and smear peanut butter on the walls. I was born in Utah but lived in Kansas until I was 13, in Texas until I was 18, and attended college in Hawaii—studying marine biology. I'm now back in Utah--"happy valley". I'm married to a wonderful husband, James, and we are currently raising 6 rambunctious children. My interests are reading, writing (of course), martial arts, visual arts, creating Halloween props, and spending time with family.
I signed with Clean Teen Publishing in 2013. My first published book Rising, quickly hit the best-seller lists and has maintained it's status on those lists since it's release in September 2013.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Burning Nights by Julie Wetzel is Available Today!!!

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Today is the highly anticipated release day of Kindling Flames: Burning Nights! This series has been downloaded by more than 100,000 readers and has over 200 five-star reviews on Amazon! If you haven't started reading this series, this is a must read! Kindling Flames: Gathering Tinder is FREE so there are no excuses.

Kindling Flames: Burning Nights

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After a wedding filled with werewolves, fay, and vampires, Vicky is looking forward to a nice, quiet honeymoon away from the chaos of Darien's daily life. But nothing is ever simple with an Ancient Vampire around.
When the Vampire Council of Hawaii finds out Darien and his new bride are coming, they are determined to see that Darien is honored properly. But vampire etiquette isn't for the faint of heart.
The nights could burn when lines are drawn... and Darien finds himself in a turf war he never intended to start.

START THIS SERIES TODAY FOR FREE:

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After landing a job as the assistant to a handsome CEO, Victoria Westernly feels like her life is finally on the right track. But when she discovers her new boss is the city's most powerful vampire, she'll have to decide whether this new life is worth the risk...

ABOUT JULIE WETZEL:

Julie WetzelOriginally from Ohio, Julie always dreamed of a job in science. Either shooting for the stars or delving into the mysteries of volcanoes. But, life never leads where you expect. In 2007, she moved to Mississippi to be with her significant other.
Now a mother of a hyperactive red headed boy, what time she's not chasing down dirty socks and unsticking toys from the ceiling is spent crafting worlds readers can get lost it. Julie is a self-proclaimed bibliophile and lover of big words. She likes hiking, frogs, interesting earrings, and a plethora of other fun things. And with the Kindling Flames series, she is now an Internationally Best-Selling Author.

ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY!

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Nine Common Mistakes New Authors Make



1) All Characters Speaking and Acting the Same.


 

I see this a lot in new writers. All their characters act and speak the same. Characters need to behave like real honest to goodness people. I’m sure you’ve known people who have behaved, spoke, and acted very differently from the way you do. Admit it. You’re surrounded by them!
To be a good author you have to be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes—people who think differently than you do and then you need to be able to portray that in writing. If you don’t think you can do that off the cuff, study people around you. Borrow some of their personality traits to use in characters. I’m not saying make exact duplicates of people. Some people would be very angry to find out you based such and such character on them—I mean, mad enough to sue. But it’s perfectly fine to cut and paste personality traits to create a wholly unique character. Just make sure you’re consistent with that character throughout the book.

2) Character’s Emotions Don’t Match the Situation.

 

Another mistake I see a lot of new writers make, is that they forget how characters are affected by previous events. If you have a character that has had a close, loving relationship with her mother, and then she witnesses her beloved mother’s brutal murder, that girl is not going to be going out and partying carefree with her friends a few days later. That horrific even will taint her actions for a very long time, and as a writer, you’d better reflect that in your story.

3) Failing to Forshadow

 

This is a problem I see so often with new writers. When planning out your story, you’ll come to places where you do a plot twist—or in other words, something unexpected happens. This is all good, and necessary for a compelling story, but you don’t want it to be jarring for your reader. So what do you do to prepare them without giving them spoilers? You foreshadow! Give them hints of what is will occur. That way when the big plot twist comes, they don’t meet it with disbelief; instead, they can look back and say, “Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming!” And if they are smart enough to predict the event from your foreshadowing, that’s great too. Readers love to feel smart!

4) Failing to do Enough Research

 

If there’s one thing that dispels the magic of a story, it’s reading something that the reader knows is not correct. I recently read a fictional book that discussed genetic traits of sibling characters. In this book, the parents were both blonde-haired and blue-eyed. They had several daughters who also had blonde hair and blue eyes, but there was one daughter who supposedly took after her brown eyed, black haired grandmother. Genetically, that scenario cannot happen. Blonde hair, and blue eyes are recessive genes and two people with those genes can only have children with lighter colored hair and lighter colored eyes. I continued with the book because I really liked the story, but each time the genetics was brought up, I was reminded this story was not real. And if the writer who made this mistake is reading this, don’t stress too much—I was a biology major in college and even Pixar made the same mistake in The Incredibles movie. Regardless, my advice for you writers out there, please do your research! Make your books as accurate as humanly possible.

5) Over Describing

 

When doing descriptions, it’s best to use descriptive action instead of outright description. For example, in my book, Rising, I have a minor character who I saw clearly in my mind. He was a doctor who wore a white lab coat, had white hair, a large belly, wore glasses, and was not unlike Santa Clause (without the beard). But since he was a minor character, I didn’t actually use any descriptive words to portray him. Below is the part that gives you a picture of this character:

“Hello, ladies.” Dr. Bloomberg smiled as he lumbered through the door. He looked at the patient. “Well, well, you weren’t kidding when you said she was about to deliver.”

That was the extent of my description of this character. Using the word lumber instead of walk, lets the reader know he was a hefty man, calling the women ladies, implied that he was older, and having him smile made him seem like a happy, jolly man. Walla, describing through action!

6) Reluctance to Heed Beta Readers and Editors

 

This is something I experienced personally when I finished my first published novel. I sent it off to beta readers and then subsequently to an editor. Each person went through my manuscript and fixed grammatical errors, wording problems, but then they also gave me a heads up on things in the storyline that didn’t work for them. Now that I look back, it really wasn’t a big deal, but at the time, when I saw the things they wrote, my mind immediately thought, “The book is a mess, and it will take me forever to fix it!” In other words, I completely over-reacted. Truly, all each suggestion took—for the most part—was an inserted sentence here, a little tweak with the wording there, and a little foreshadowing a couple chapters before a plot twist. Take my advice. Don’t go crazy when someone says you should change this or that. It’s not an insult to your writing, and it’s usually an easy fix.  

7) Starting a Novel with Back-story

 

At one time, it was acceptable to open a book with paragraphs describing in detail the setting and the history behind the story. That time is long gone. Readers want to be immersed in the book from the get-go. They want to be able to feel as if they are an actual participant in the story. How can they do that if they have to weed through long-winded, detailed descriptions before they ever get to any action?
So, you might ask, how do you let people know the setting, characters, and back-story? Answer: You weave it in through the action and dialog as the story unfolds. But be careful with trying to insert back-story into the dialog. You don’t want to fall into the “as you know, Bob…” trap—where the characters are saying things for the sole reason of giving the reader information. Never have characters tell each other things they already know! I mean, who does that in real life?

8) Unfilled Plot holes

 

Searching out and filling plot holes takes perspective. It’s easy to miss big inconsistencies when you are worried about voice, flow, character, etc.—kind of like not seeing the forest because of the trees.
Here’s an example of a plot hole that was missed by millions of raving fans of The Karate Kid movie. The final scene has an extremely dramatic sparing scene where the main character—despite an injury—defeats his nemesis by delivering an expert kick to his face. But, if you rewind back, the referee clearly states that strikes to the face are not allowed. According to the rules, the kick that won the fight should not have counted, hence, the main character should have been defeated.
That example also proves something. Even the best books and stories may have undiscovered plot holes. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be on the lookout for them and fill every one we find.

9) Understand that all rules can and sometimes should be broken!

 

Now that I’ve given you a list of so-called “rules” I’m now going to tell you its fine to break them! Really. You’re the author, you can write whatever the heck you want! But before you go breaking all the rules, learn them, study them, understand why they’re there, and then after you know them backward and forwards, you are free to break any rule you want. Some of my favorite authors are rule breakers, and do it expertly!

Monday, January 4, 2016

A New Start to a Paranormal Series by Lila Felix is Now Released!

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Clean Teen Publishing is proud to present the new release of LIGHTNING KISSED by Lila Felix. This new adult paranormal romance is available to read today!
With a brilliant and unique plot, Lila Felix has crafted a story that is sure to be a huge hit. ~Novels and Necklaces Blog
Lila Felix has blown me away...With Lightning Kissed, she has created a unique, intriguing world that draws the reader in to the complex and dynamic storyline featuring some fascinating characters. ~Tsk Tsk What To Read Blog

Read LIGHTNING KISSED by Lila Felix TODAY!

Ebook - Lightning Kissed
Colby Evans can leap from one country to the next in a heartbeat. She can see every sunset in every time zone in the same day. She can travel across the world in a flash. She defies gravity and physics with every breath she takes. She's tested her abilities and found them limitless.
She is the lightning. She is Lucent. And nothing can stop her.
Except him.
Theodore Ramsey isn't supposed to be able to flash like Colby. The power of travel is passed on from mother to daughter in their people. Except once in every hundred generations.
Theo is the one.
He can flash like Colby. And it makes him a target to their enemies and to himself. His abilities change everything he knows about life and throws his future into an uncertain tangent. In fact, the only thing certain in his life is the love he feels for Colby.
Their love defies time and space and has been the only constant thing in their lives since childhood. But even their infallible love will be stretched to its limits.
She will risk her life to protect him. But he will risk everything to protect them all.
Lightning Kissed is the first book in The Lucent Series by Lila Felix.

ABOUT LILA FELIX:

LILALila Felix is full of antics and stories. She refused to go to Kindergarten after the teacher made her take a nap on the first day. She staged her first protest in middle school. She almost flunked out of her first semester at Pepperdine University because she was enthralled with their library and frequently was locked in. Now her husband and three children have to put up with her rebel nature in Louisiana where her days are filled with cypress trees, crawfish, and of course her books and writing. She writes about the ordinary rebels who fall extraordinarily in wild, true love. For more visit www.lilafelix.com