Author Heather McCorkle

Last week the snow was my inspiration. The way it blew in and blanketed the world around me, heralding the arrival of winter, seemed to reflect what is going on in my writing life (for those who are wondering, this view is out my back door. I know, I'm so lucky!). Things are a whirlwind of activity with my special edition of Spruce Knoll coming out at the end of this month, but in a good way. I'm starting to get ready for preparing my mini blog tour in December so if you'd like me to stop by your blog leave me a comment! The focus of the mini tour will be Spruce Knoll For Endangered Species. I'm reading Glow by Amy Ryan. The writing style reminds me of the way sci-fi used to be written, with a bit of detachment. While tons of people love this style, I'm not one of them so it hasn't exactly pulled me in yet. I'm hoping it will grow on me though. It has kept me reading after 50 pages so I have hope! What inspired you last week? Reading anything good, or hav...

Every Wednesday this month I'm joining my co-hosts  Christa , Kelly , E.R. ,  YAtopia and many other blogger friends in celebrating my love of dark young adult novels. So you won't see my Wednesday Writing Goal posts for a month. But the timing is great since I know many of you are busy with NaNo. Each week we have a different theme. You don't want to miss all the stops because it will be a ton of fun and we'll be doing a giveaway at the end of the month. To see what the themes are, and who is participating, click here . This week we're blogging about our favorite dark YA novel (s). There are so many great ones that I had a lot of trouble choosing so I'm featuring three. The first is Crank by Ellen Hopkins. It is the epitome of dark. In fact, it's a subject most people don't want to touch and Ellen tackled it beautifully. Any and all of Ellen's books fall under this beautifully dark category. She isn't afraid to go where others won't ...

Teaser Tuesday is postponed until next week so I can join in the launch party celebration for Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn. This book is just as fantastic as its cover. Check out my review of it on the Indie Elite blog. It's a dystopian YA novel of a different (and fantastic) new flavor. To celebrate I'm joining several bloggers in sharing a story about keeping open minds. I've always been one to keep an open mind, from birth my mom says. My eyes see the world differently I've been told. To me there is no separation of the races, sexes, lifestyles, or even beliefs. As long as it's legal and doesn't harm anyone, I've never had a problem with diversity in any form. I seem to crave it, in fact, as to me, it spices up life. And I do love my life spicy. Living this way has introduced me to amazing people and has allowed me to grow as a person. I am a black belt twice over, I was a reserve police officer, am a Sergeant in a correctional facility, have been...

Autumn itself is a huge inspiration to me. I love the rich, golden colors, the crisp feel to the air, the smell of apples, cinnamon, and pumpkin, and of course the taste of candy corn. Pumpkin is probably my favorite food, ever, and Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays. It doesn't hurt that I'm a huge scary movie fan. There was plenty of all that around to inspire me last week! There is one special movie that always comes to mind on Halloween for me, The Crow. The original one with Brandon Lee, son of the legendary Bruce Lee. I was a huge Brandon Lee fan and was devastated when he died filming this movie. During October he is always in my thoughts.  Speaking of my favorite holiday, I'm off to celebrate. No trick or treating for me, just a bowl of popcorn and the latest scary movie (which I've really been looking forward to! And certainly a time to re-watch The Crow). I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween.

I reached my editing goals for book 2 last week! I'm so close to finishing that I'm getting that surge of energy that always comes to me at this stage, love it! The editing on this one hasn't always been this smooth so I'm thrilled that it is finally flowing and coming together. Those of you who follow my author page on Facebook have read the hints that I have a big announcement coming and I'm finally ready to announce it. This holiday season I'll be releasing a special edition of The Secret of Spruce Knoll through Compass Press in both paperback and eBook. It will have a prologue that wasn't in the Abbott Press version, a lovely new cover (designed by myself at CP Design ), a new lower price, and something special. I'm not breaking from Abbott Press, in fact, it's the only place you'll still be able to get a hardback copy (of the original version) of The Secret of Spruce Knoll. The something special; a percentage of the proceeds from each sa...

This week's teaser is from Chapter 2 of The Secret of Spruce Knoll. My main character Eren is about to discover just what she's facing in Spruce Knoll A sound came from the forest, disrupting her from her self-pity. Looking up, she went very still. Had it been a twig breaking? It was probably nothing more than a small animal scurrying about the forest~a rabbit or something. But what if it was a bigger animal? Who knew what lived in the woods beyond the deck. She was being a silly city girl, and she knew it. Ignoring her rising fear, she turned her attention back to the stars. Okay it's your turn! Let me know what you think and/or leave me a teaser from your work in progress or from whatever you're reading! Be sure to come back tomorrow for a big announcement. :)

Last week my inspiration came from a fellow author, the wonderful Susan Kaye Quinn. And in the spirit of New Author Blog Hop (brought to us by the lovely Saba from Of Thoughts and Words) I wanted to spotlight Susan today. I've been reading Susan's indie debut (she previously published traditionally with Omnific publishing, a sweet novel by the title of Life, Love, And Liberty), a young adult dystopian titled Open Minds. I won't get into the novel too much because I'm doing a review of it over on The Indie Elite blog next week but I will say it was amazing! Here is just a teaser about it: When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep. Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can't read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can't be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf's mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to ...