Cover Reveal: Bingo Summer

Today I'm excited to join in on the cover reveal of Bingo Summer by Dawn Malone, a middle grade novel that you won't want to miss. Not only is she a great author and friend, she is a client and it was my distinct pleasure to design this cover for her.

Here is a bit about Bingo Summer:

On her thirteenth birthday, Summer Haas scratches the lottery ticket her mom tucked into her birthday card and the down-on-their-luck family become instant millionaires. Then the attention gets crazy in their small Illinois town, and the family moves north to ‘disappear’ in the Chicago suburbs. Summer’s new home might as well be on the Moon, it’s so different from where she used to live.

Suddenly, Summer is a candidate for student council, trades her t-shirt and jeans for mall-brand clothes, and throws a party for her entire grade even though she didn't invite a single guest. Everyone wants Summer to be someone other than herself, including the super-popular Suri who Summer hopes will be her new best friend. There’s Mara who wants Summer to forget about competing with her for third base when softball season comes. And Summer just wants to avoid Dink and Anna even though she has more in common with them than she wants to admit.
But when Mara discovers how Summer’s family made their millions, and threatens to tell the whole school, Summer needs a friend more than ever. Can Summer fit in AND stay true to herself?

My Big Announcement: A New Book!

At last, the next book in the Dragon Empire world~The First Dragonwatcher~has a release date, this September! It is a stand alone fantasy novel set in the same world as The Dragon Empire, but told from the point of view of a different character than those in Dragon Empire, a human character. Those of you who read The Dragon Empire may remember him, Torin. This one is adult fantasy and will be the first in a series. 

To here more about it, and to help me with the cover reveal that is coming soon, I hope you'll drop by my website. 

eBook Pricing Lawsuit: Win or Loss?

Like myself, many of you may have received an email about a credit given to your for eBooks you purchased that were deemed over-priced. A recent lawsuit against Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, known as Macmillan (“Macmillan”), Penguin Group (USA) Inc. (“Penguin”), Hachette Book Group, Inc. (“Hachette”), HarperCollins Publishers LLC (“HarperCollins”) and Simon & Schuster, Inc. and Simon & Schuster Digital Sales, Inc. (“Simon & Schuster”) claimed the publishers conspired to fix and raise retail prices of E-books.

I read this and thought, "Well of course they did. Publishers have always fixed prices of books, why should eBooks be any different?" But the problem wasn't so much the fixing of the price as it was the price itself. You may have noticed eBook prices as high as $13.99 for bestselling authors. For sanity's sake, the paperback of that book cost the same. So of course, I balked at the price, and chose not to buy. As an author I'm a huge supporter of paying a fair price for a book because I know how much work authors put into them. But, when there is no overhead, no printing cost, and low distribution costs on eBooks, lower prices are warranted. I've made it a practice to never buy an eBook for the same price that I could get a paperback of the same novel.

On one hand I don't agree with the lawsuit. It seems as though there could have been a better way to get publishers to agree on a reasonable ceiling for eBook prices based off their length, distribution, and such. On the other, some of the prices were getting out of hand and pushing eBooks out of reach of many. After all, we don't want eBooks to go the way of movies and become so ridiculously over priced that people stop spending the money on them. Where do you weigh in on the pricing of eBooks?

Book Review: Full-Blood Half-Breed

I picked this book out because I love martial arts and the description led me to believe this was going to be an outstanding adult book featuring martial arts. Unfortunately I let those beliefs overlook the strong religious undertones in the remainder of the description of the book. This was far more about corrupt religion than it was about martial arts. That said, it is neither the publisher nor the author's fault that I overlooked this part of the synopsis. So, I will do my review based on the book, not the content. For the writing, world building, and character development, it earns a solid four stars.

The world building was thorough and believable with an excellent balance of dialogue, action, and character building. The characters were very well developed, though I didn't like how Paladin came across as the spoiled, naive teenager. That said, I still liked Paladin, I just wasn't expecting such a young adult feel to the novel as it was presented as a violent, adult fantasy novel in the description. The dual points of view between Paladin and Fox, the antagonist, were brilliantly done. At times I sympathized with Fox and understood him~almost, which is excellent considering how dark of a character he is.

If you don't mind strong religious overtones about corrupt factions in your fantasy, then I would recommend this for it is very well written.

Book Review: Lockstep

This book was my attempt to delve back into the world of sci-fi. It's been a long time since I read sci-fi and I really wanted to get back into it. I'm glad I chose this book for that.

Lockstep is one of those rare, imaginative books that takes a bold look at the future and proposes what could be. It does so in a unique way that is all its own with fresh ideas that make you sit up and think, and you know how much I love a book that makes me think! There is much more to this novel than just hard sci-fi though, so don't give up on it if that kind of thing deters you. Many faceted characters, fascinating creatures, and almost steampunk-like innovations give this novel great depth.

I would recommend it for fans of forward-thinking books and great science fiction, and for fans of Alex Cavanaugh and Frank Herbert.

Find it on:

B&N / Amazon 

St. Patty's Day YA & NA Author Party

Being of Irish ancestry, St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays! That's part of why I was so excited about this party/giveaways by these fantastic authors. In celebration of all things lucky, you should check it out!

Join your favorite YA and NA authors as we celebrate being Irish for a day and play on Pinterest. There will be over 45 e-book giveaways! 

You can join the Facebook party HERE!

You won't want to miss it!

Participating Authors:

Lila Felix   A. W. Exley  Melissa Pearl   

Jessica Gibson  Cindy M. Hogan  Sarah Ashley Jones  

Marie Landry  Rachel Morgan  Jennifer Snyder 

Stacey Marie Brown  Jessica Therrien  D.L. Raver 

Stacey Wallace Benefiel  Marilyn Almodóvar  Angee Taylor 

A.O. Peart  Devyn Dawson  Rick Chiantaretto 

Raine Thomas  L.P. Dover  Tamara Hart Heiner  

Leigh T Moore  Meradeth Houston  Amber Argyle 

Tawdra Kandle  Carlyle Labuschagne  Lisa Collicutt

Christy Dorrity  Stephanie Fowers  Kristina Renee

Faith McKay  Charlotte Abel  Jamie Ayres

A.M. Hargrove  Charli Webb  Amy Harmon  

Alyssa Rose Ivy  Kristie Cook  Lani Woodland

T.M. Franklin  Laura Howard  Sharron Riddle

Eliza Tilton  S. M. Boyce  Bethany Lopez 

Dawn Leigh  L.A. Casey  Emma Adams  

Amber Garr  Liz Long

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