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Sixteen Blog Tour Kick-Off + Giveaway!

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Sixteen days. Sixteen stops. One giveaway. Let the fun begin! Nicole "Nikki" Johnson has never gotten along with her mother, so when she meets a great new guy, it's no surprise that Matt's age is all her mom sees. Just because he's twenty-four and she's sixteen doesn't mean he's a creeper! Thankfully, Nikki's dad allows Nikki and Matt to be together and see how things work out. Their relationship is fantastic and Nikki is on cloud nine... Until the Fourth of July picnic, when things go too far. Now a very changed Nikki has to make choices that will affect her every relationship - with Matt, her parents, her best friend, and most importantly, God. Buy the book on Kindle!  http://www.amazon.com/Sixteen-Emily-Rachelle-ebook/dp/B00HVOD5SW/ Or, if you have a different ereader device... buy the book on Smashwords!  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/398239 But wait! Before we get to the tour schedule, I have an anno...

Keep Moving Forward

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Today, it's just me, lovely readers. I'd like to discuss several upcoming changes in 2014. I couldn't for the life of me come up with a unique title, so I figured movie quotes are always a safe bet! (To those of you wondering, it's the tag line from Meet the Robinsons .) My shiny new Facebook cover banner! First order of business:  Sixteen's big day is rapidly approaching! Woohoo! I can't wait to get this book out into the world. I know most books undergo severe change before release to the world, but honestly, it feels like this final version of Sixteen isn't even the same book I still have saved from first-draft-days. Even beta readers will be surprised to find no less than three whole new scenes. I love this book-baby of mine, and I can't wait to introduce you all! Second matter to discuss: To celebrate my debut, sixteen wonderful blogger-friends will be hosting me on a tour! I've hosted plenty of tours, interviews, and gues...

Author Interview: Marie Herman

Who or what has had the most influence on you as a writer? Well, that's a hard one. I guess I'd have to say my values and the love that I have for a good story greatly influenced the way that the first trilogy of mine, The Bandit Trilogy , came/is coming out. Though, for my entire writing career, poetry included, my family has been the major factor of how I am as a writer. Do you base events or people in your books off of your life, or your friends' and family's lives? Well, there is the huge antagonist that ends up murdering -- I mean, haha, no. In all reality, I use quirks of people, or tiny fragments of events to incorporate in my novel, but not enough to see, and especially not enough to point the finger at for "tarnishing someone's reputation." That had always been a huge fear of mine, so, I rather not. What was the biggest obstacle to getting published for the first time, and how did you overcome it? Now that question right there brings back p...

Author Interview: Heather Manning

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Tell us a little about yourself first. I am a young lady who loves to read -- and write. I have won multiple competitions for my writing with "Nextgen Writers" and placed first in some writing contests with the "Go Teen Writers" blog and am a proud member of ACFW. I live in Missouri where I attend high school, act in community theatre, eat donuts, and read every Inspirational Historical Romance I can get my hands on. I am proud to say that my first novel was professionally published while I was only sixteen years old. What do you do when you're not writing? When I’m not writing, you can usually catch me reading, cross stitching, or working on memorizing the lines for the next play I’m in.

Guest Post: Happy Blogiversary! + Giveaway!

Happy Blogiversary! from Cidney Swanson Upon the anniversary of a blog, it seems appropriate to consider mile-markers, so today I thought I’d take give you a tour of some Marsian mile markers for people in my Saving Mars Series. For those of us in late twentieth and early twenty-first century Earth growing up in America, a few early milestones might include losing your first tooth, learning to read, and, if your family celebrates Christmas, figuring out Santa Claus isn’t the one filling your stockings. Kids on Mars have these same experiences, although on Mars, Santa is understood to travel by planet hopper as the atmo would pretty much kill any flying reindeer. A kid growing up in the USA would add middle school graduation and getting a learner’s permit to operate a car to their tween/early teen experiences. Kids on Mars have it a little different. They don’t observe eighth grade graduation as the school system only includes six annums of school. Now, before everyone on ...

Book Review: Striking Mars

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Striking Mars  by Cidney Swanson Book Five in the Savings Mars series Amazon Page GoodReads Page Author Website My Review of  Saving Mars  (book one) My Review of Mars Burning  (book four) Amazon Summary: Fleeing for their lives, Jess and Pavel make it to the Moon, narrowly avoiding the attack on Space Station 92-AE. They should be safe and happy, but they discover they are not alone on Tranquility Base. The stranger they encounter seems uniquely qualified to leak their presence to Chancellor Lucca Brezhnaya, especially when the Marsians contemplate airing Lucca's political dirty laundry. But Lucca has already shown she would destroy worlds rather than see her secrets exposed. My Thoughts: Many of my blog and review readers are well aware by now that Cidney Swanson is my favorite author. Once again, she does not disappoint.

Guest Post: How to Care for Your Writer, by Natalie

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How to Care for Your Writer for Dummies by Natalie Noel Truitt Have a writer in your life? No idea how to understand them? Looking for ways to bond with your writer? Well, here are seven ways to make your writer's -- and consequently your -- life easier. Seven easy steps to caring for one of the most confusing organisms on earth: writers. Step one: Give your writer time to write. This point is crucial. If your writer doesn’t ever get to write, your writer will shut down (see step number five on how to deal with your writer if they shut down). For most writers, working with their characters is equally -- if not more -- important than social interaction. Step two: Realize that if your writer talks about their character (or to their character) as if they are real, they are not crazy  -- well, not very crazy. Your writer is fully away that this is a figment of their imagination. But at the same time, the writer may develop strong feelings for this character and may talk about it...