Emily Rachelle Writes

Hello, my lovely readers! Today marks the end of my World of Shadows launch tour. Did you get a chance to visit all my friends over the tour? If not, you can follow the links here to catch up: To start our tour, author Zara Hoffman hosted me to talk about the dream that inspired World of Shadows in my guest post "What's in a Dream." Laura shared a fan trailer she made for the book at her blog, Hope Through the Pages. Then she interviewed me ! A music-loving Mennonite friend published the first review of my book at Singing Menno. Another friend shared an excerpt from the first chapter of World of Shadows at Marvelous Happy Things. Alexa at Verbosity Reviews invited me over to discuss the elements of my own life I wrote into this book in my guest post "Finding Me in a World of Shadows." At Pens and Scrolls, I dream-cast the stars I'd choose if World of Shadows ever made it to the big screen. Mariella posted another excerpt at...

Good afternoon, my lovely readers! Today is the day! The moment is here. Are you ready? In this urban fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, modern-day teenager Beila Durand is plagued by nightmares that lead her to discover - and wind up trapped in - a cursed underground world. The invisible people that live in this medieval village depend on Beila learning the truth behind their curse - and why she is the only one who can set them free. In her quest for answers, however, all she seems to find are more questions. Where do the echoing screeching at night originate? Who is the isolated man that speaks with Beila from the shadows of his cloak? What does this New York girl have to do with any of it? And will she ever find a way back home? It's time to blog party! Here's our lineup: Dec. 11 - Kick-Off - You're here! Dec. 12 - What's in a Dream - Zara Hoffman Dec. 13 - Fan Trailer - Hope Through the Pages Dec. 14 - Interview - Hope Through the Page...

Hello, my lovely readers! I come to you today with more updates on my new young adult novel World of Shadows ! The book launches on December 11, a date that's approaching quickly. Are you ready? I am! First of all: World of Shadows is available for Kindle preorder now on Amazon! This is so exciting! I can't wait until I hold the paperback in my hands, but I've already seen the Kindle copy on my ancient first generation Kindle. I love it! I made a promo banner for my Facebook! Next order of business: the blog tour! Starting right here on Sunday, December 11, aka launch day, I and some of my book blogging friends will be hosting a blog tour. It's been a while since I've run a tour of my own, but I do so love how like a party it is - a party where you can stay at home and wear pajamas! Some of the bloggers you might recognize as old friends here at Emily Rachelle Writes . We have some new names participating this year, too. I'm hyped. Are you hyped...

Guess what, my lovely readers! It's that time of year again! No, I'm not talking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, or snow - although all of those are marvelous. I'm talking about my annual December 12 - January 15 blog party. This will be year three! We all know good things come in threes, not to mention the third time's a charm. ;) Of course, there shall be giveaways. Guest posts. Interviews. The whole shebang! I still have quite a few slots open, especially considering there's going to be a post for EVERY SINGLE DAY for a month. Therefore, if you have a blog/are a published author (self- or traditionally-published) and would like to join the party, or have a favorite blogger/author you want to see hosted, please do let me know at emilyrachellewrites@gmail.com. Oh, and the giveaways! I need sponsors. If you have an online store or know of one that may be interested in sponsoring a giveaway (and a review, if they'd like), you can email me, too. ...

From Chapter Twenty-Seven: Rhea wanted to take off her gown, heavy with filigree and fur, and go to bed. A headache was threatening at her temples, and her eyes were sore and hot after her tears. After another pause, Ohnferead sighed, relaxed his arms from over his chest, and gave himself a little shake. Then he turned to Rhea. For a moment, the two stood gazing at each other. Then he stepped up to her and took her hands in his once more. He started to say something, stopped, then tried again. “I hope the people shall pardon you. Empyrean be with you, Rheúlea.” He bent quickly and kissed her forehead, then turned and marched out of the room. Don't forget to check out yesterday's post for an interview with Stacia, author and illustrator of Becoming the Chateran , plus a look at the cover!

I'm sure that none of you, my lovely readers, could forget my friend Stacia. At least, not after last weekend. Yes, I am referring to  Stacia Joy Aisling , the girl who conjured up a  tattooed boy on a motorcycle  and  ruined my life . Well, for whatever harebrained reason, I invited her back. But not the adorable jerk! No, he was not invited. Not today. Anyway, I'll let her take over now... *cries softly in the corner* Stacia Joy has always loved to tell stories and invent fictional lands and characters. But she never considered becoming a writer herself until age thirteen, when, inspired by a pretend play she invented with a friend, she wrote the first draft of  Becoming the Chateran . The story has since expanded into what will become  The Chateran Series . Stacia Joy also writes in several other genres, including steampunk and paranormal/science fiction, and occasionally writes poems about buffalo. Wanting to show others what her imagined univers...

What's Left of Me and Once We Were by Kat Zhang {Books One and Two of the Hybrid Chronicles} Amazon Page: What's Left of Me Amazon Page: Once We Were GoodReads Page: What's Left of Me GoodReads Page: Once We Were LibraryThing Page: What's Left of Me LibraryThing: Once We Were Author Website Amazon Summary - What's Left of Me: What's Left of Me , the first book of the Hybrid Chronicles, is set in an alternate reality where everyone is born with two souls. But one soul is naturally dominant, and in early childhood, the other soul fades away. That didn't happen for Addie and Eva. Now fifteen, Eva clings to life inside the body she shares with Addie, although she can no longer speak or even move. Addie does everything she can to hide the presence of her sister soul. Eva's very existence is illegal. If their secret is revealed, it could mean death for both of them.

About the author: Anne Elisabeth Stengl makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Rohan, a kindle of kitties, and one long-suffering dog. When she’s not writing, she enjoys Shakespeare, opera, and tea, and practices piano, painting, and pastry baking. She studied illustration at Grace College and English literature at Campbell University. She is the author of the Tales of Goldstone Wood, including Heartless , Veiled Rose , Moonblood , Starflower , and Dragonwitch . Heartless and Veiled Rose have each been honored with a Christy Award, and Starflower was voted winner of the 2013 Clive Staples Award. About this scene: Here is an excerpt from the middle of the story. In this scene, Munny has been ordered to Captain Sunan’s cabin to clear away his breakfast . . . an unexpected task, for a lowly cabin boy would not ordinarily dare enter his captain’s private quarters! Munny hopes to slip in and out quietly without attracting the captain’s notice...

Goddess Tithe by Anne Elizabeth Stengl A Novella of Goldstone Wood The Vengeful Goddess Demands Her Tithe When a stowaway is discovered aboard the merchant ship Kulap Kanya , Munny, a cabin boy on his first voyage, knows what must be done. All stowaways are sacrificed to Risafeth, the evil goddess of the sea. Such is her right, and the Kulap Kanya 's only hope to return safely home. Yet, to the horror of his crew, Captain Sunan vows to protect the stowaway, a foreigner in clown's garb. A curse falls upon the ship and all who sail with her, for Risafeth will stop at nothing to claim her tithe. Will Munny find the courage to trust his captain and to protect the strange clown who has become his friend? From the author: I had the fun of designing this cover—finding reference photos, inventing the composition, applying the text, etc.—but the actual artistic work was done by talented cover artist Phatpuppy (www.phatpuppyart.com), whose work I have admired for many years...

What: An event for free and 99-cent clean ebooks - stories with no language, sex, or horror.  Think PG or, in the case of crime stories, PG-13 for violence only. Who: The list of authors and genres is in the works, but Jenni James is the one who got the ball rolling! When: Friday, September 13 Where:  http://cleanauthors.com/   You can also find the group on Facebook and Twitter .

Stop by the OneWord365 blog to read my official guest post: how to keep your word alive! {via} Dreams take patience.  I can't expect to achieve all my dreams and goals in one year.  I have to decide what's most important to me, and then I have to organize my time to accomplish that.  Sometimes I have to set aside a dream or desire of mine in order to help with another's dream, too.

This writers' blog hop simply asks ten questions about your current story, and then you tag five other writer-blogger friends to participate next week. :)  Arlette over at Living Life Bright tagged me.  I wasn't sure whether I should talk about Sixteen , since it's releasing this year; Beila and the Griffin , which I recently finished the first draft of; or Kaimalie and the Mermaid , the story I'm doing outlines and notes for right now.  I decided that I should probably be talking about Sixteen , what with it being my up-and-coming novella. :)  I can always talk about Beila or Kaimalie when it's closer to their big days! 1: What is the working title of your book? When I first started writing Sixteen, it didn't have a title.  Later, when I was editing and trying to write a query letter for it, I chose Sweet Seventeenth , as the ending of the story surrounds the main character's seventeenth birthday.  But then I realized that the whole story is about Nikk...

Last year at this time, a favorite blogger of mine - Melanie from Only a Breath - shared something she'd discovered: OneWord365 .  The idea is that, instead of making lists of things you want to change or creating resolutions that never go anywhere, you choose one word which you then live out through the year. For 2012, Melanie chose "give."  I've watched as she and the online community she influences were blessed by everything that one word led to. I did some research and discovered just what a huge movement this one-word idea has grown into.  Actually, there are communities/individuals who do this with no affiliation with/knowledge of the OneWord365 site.  I've decided to try it myself.  Maybe I'll make it a lifetime tradition. My word for 2013 is...

Today for the TRW blog tour, I've decided to look through the my bookshelf and share some of my favorites.  All cover images are linked to their Amazon store pages.  Also, thought I'd share this link with y'all - the Teen's Top Ten winners ! Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Some of you may have noticed the button that's been adorning my sidebar for a few weeks now.   You can see what Teen Read Week is or visit my profile at the links.  In a nutshell, it's a week of celebrating and promoting teen reading and young adult fiction.  It's always been a library-based thing, with programs and activities going on at libraries and being shared by word-of-mouth and flyers.

Once again, my lovely readers, I'm joining the Teens Can Write, Too! blog chain.  The link: http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/tcwt-august-2012-blog-chain/ This month's prompt: Write a retelling of your favorite fairytale, myth, or legend. I could never pick one favorite from those categories.  Anytime I try to do a retelling of a story, it ends up too long.  So I'm bending the prompt while sticking to the word-limit rule by using this post to start a fanfiction miniseries, a first for this blog, with hopes that John doesn't banish me from this blog chain forever. Can you guess what this is a fanfiction of?  It should be instantly recognizable to anyone at all familiar with it.  Since I haven't had a giveaway in far too long, let's make this into one, shall we?  First person to correctly guess both what this is a fanfiction of (easy part) and how this fanfiction ends (i.e, what sets this apart from simply a novelization of the mo...

Today is not a normal posting day, but today is the first Wear The Shnorts Day  (aka WTS Day), a new official holiday created by Neville .  For details or explanations, you'll have to follow the links.  All I'm going to say is that it has to do with Frindle by Andrew Clements and is therefore a wonderful idea.  (My entire family adores Andrew Clements books.  I own all the ones we have, but I very rarely have them all in my possession, due to those strange boys raiding my shelves.)

Some of my lovely readers may remember the character interview I posted a while back.  I actually wrote that as part of a blog chain.  Of course, I forgot to link to it!  Well, today I join the July prompt for the same blog chain, and I figure I'd better start with the link: http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/july-2012-blog-chain/ This month's prompt: How has writing affected your perception of the world?

Once upon a time, Jess Constable got sick of the picture-perfect lives that people online look like we lead.  Often we don't set out to paint ourselves as ideal or perfect; we just don't share the messy or uncomfortable, so an imbalanced picture is created in peoples' minds.  This just leads to everybody feeling like they're failures - at home, in their relationships, in their writing or art, at work.  So she decided to open her heart and share the things she was afraid to tell her readers . Naturally, other bloggers related to the frustration with the picture-perfect life found online.  So Ez decided to start a movement ... and now, bloggers everywhere have shared/are sharing the things we're afraid to tell the world.

Hello, my lovely readers!  Guess who was just awarded with her first-ever blog award?  Yes, that's right: yours truly! :) Sarah over at Inklined awarded me with The {Booker} Award !