Emily Rachelle Writes

You know those Google Plus comments? The Blogger comment feature intended to be more interactive? The setting I've been using for several months now? I hate them. First of all: for the many, many readers out there whose comments I have not responded to: I am so sorry! Apparently, Google+ Comments doesn't send me emails when I get new comments on my blog posts. In fact, I don't get any notice whatsoever. Second: on several occasions, to make up for the whole no-email thing, I would drop by the blog myself to check for comments. Unfortunately, the comment box decided more times than not to just eat my comments and send them, invisible, into the black holes of cyberspace. Multiple times. Eventually I would just give up and leave my blog without commenting. Third: I realize that there are quite a few readers here who don't have Google+ and, therefore, couldn't comment. Considering the second point above, even those of us who do have the right profiles struggl...

SIXTEEN IS GOING TO PRINT GUYS. Sorry for the screaming. But my FIRST BOOK TO EVER BE PUBLISHED IS GOING TO BE IN MY HANDS IN ACTUAL PAPER. With a proper - GORGEOUS - cover. I love it. My writer's group loves it. My mom... doesn't love it. But eh, she's not the target audience. DID I MENTION I LOVE IT?! All credit goes to  http://www.najlaqamberdesigns.com/ And here's the full, with back and spine... Lookie, lookie! I have a logo for my publishing house.

Everyone who sticks around in the young adult book world has noticed this by now. Writers, readers, and bloggers everywhere have started questioning this practice, now dubbed a cliche. Yet nobody seems to know why it even happened, and few can come up with interesting and compelling ways to relieve this syndrome without damaging a good teen story. I speak of the Absent Parent(s) Syndrome -- and I think I've figured out why it's around. First of all, look at what Absent Parent Syndrome is. The parents are dead, divorced, always working, in another state, etc. They overlook or misinterpret signs that anything is different in their teen's life. They play little to no part in the story. While the teens care deeply about their parents, as far as the book's concerned, parents are often the least important character.

Excuse the extremely late hour of this post, please, because I've been in bed with a sinus infection and bronchitis for a week and a half now and completely forgot I was supposed to post this. Lies by Oliver Dahl Available March 11 About the Book Ann Putnam Jr., one of the leading accusers during the Salem Witch Trials (1692) knows that something is wrong. After a horrifying encounter with Tituba, her friends were cursed. Miraculously untouched by the effects of the witch, Ann acts bewitched as well, in an attempt to accuse and hang her friends' torturers. This tragic experience of guilt, abuse, power, and love gives a first-person view into the spine-chilling months where neighbor turned on neighbor at the word of a little girl. Learn more about the book and join the countdown to publication! Excerpt from my interview with the author: What inspired your book? How did it all start? In my American History class last year, we were reading in ...

The Frost Chronicles by Kate Avery Ellison In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong move and a person could end up dead. Book One: Frost Book Two: Thorns Book Three: Weavers Book Four: Bluewing Book Five: Aeralis (Note: there are also two novellas, Brewer and Fugitive , that take place between books four and five. I am totally buying them, but since I haven't done so yet, they're not included in this review.) Amazon Summary (Book One): In the icy, monster-plagued world of the Frost, one wrong move and a person could end up dead—and Lia Weaver knows this better than anyone. After monsters kill her parents, she must keep the family farm running despite the freezing cold and threat of monster attacks or risk losing her siblings to reassignment by the village Elders. With dangers on all sides and failure just one wrong step away, she can’t afford to let her emotions lead her astray. So when her sister finds a fugitive bleeding to death in the fo...

by Sarah Brooks At various times in our lives, and for an assortment of reasons, we seek inspiration to help us move forward. Sometimes external forces provide us with the spark we are looking for, but more often than not, inspiration comes from somewhere inside us. Whether you are stuck in a rut, looking for ways to elevate yourself, or simply striding forward through life; inspiration is at the center of your ability to succeed.  Beauty, charity, selflessness, natural sensory experiences, and a host of other external influences inspire us to feel and do things we might never touch-on otherwise.  But inspiration from within is highly personal; custom fitted to our individual wants and needs. Finding your true inspiration starts with inward reflection; tapping passion, faith, strengths and even weaknesses.

About the author: Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the author of the award-winning Tales of Goldstone Wood series, adventure fantasies told in the classic Fairy Tale style. Her books include Christy Award-winning Heartless and Veiled Rose , and Clive Staples Award-winning Starflower . She makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Rohan, a passel of cats, 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 and English literature at Grace College and Campbell University. Scene from Chapter Three: Sairu made her way from Princess Safiya’s chambers out to the walkways of the encircling gardens. The Masayi, abode of the Golden Daughters, was an intricate complex of buildings linked by blossom-shrouded walkways, calm with fountains and clear, lotus-filled pools where herons strutted and spotted fish swam. Here she had lived all the l...