New Release Week!

Hey guys,

I have 2 new releases this week!

Look for The Phoenix Project Book 6: RESURRECTION

and

FORGOTTEN PRINCESS (Jan 21st)

Make sure you attend the Royals of Monterra launch party for chances to win free eBooks! 

(I’ll be holding giveaways 8:15-8:30pm EST)

Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/942114245865772/

Author Chat! Come one, come all!

Direct link to the shenanigans

TBR and fav reads

A little bit of my TBR and fav reads. Also, I need a bookcase for a nightstand.

Also, I'm way, way, way behind on my reviews...

Happy Holidays

A year in review: high-highs and low-lows

This past year was a bit of a whirlwind, filled with high-highs and low-lows. 

There were lots of changes to my personal and professional life. 

In April I won a Kindle Scout campaign for LET HER GO.

I was welcomed into the KindleScout winners circle, which is filled with some amazing, talented and supportive authors. This is one of the best groups of authors I've worked with. Love them all :)

In June I wrote the sequel to Sparrow Man (Titled Nightingale Girl) in about 4 weeks. That was the fastest I've ever written a full-length novel, however there were many editing sessions afterwards. I hope to have Nightingale Girl out this Spring/Summer 2016

I finished the 6th and final book in The Phoenix Project Series. Writing an end to this series was bittersweet but lots of fun. (I had to change the publication date to late January 2016 due to the projects listed below)

Throughout the first half of the year my husband was suffering from Crohn's disease (an already 4yr struggle) which resulted in 9 surgeries over 1yr time span (2014-2015). We spent a year with him lying in bed, uncomfortable and visiting a doctor 2 hours away from our home. (Finding this surgeon was a 2 year search and the fourth surgeon we consulted with). I had been working as an RN an hour away from our home in the opposite direction and was spending a lot of time on the road. During this time I felt like our lives were falling apart. I was afraid of losing my husband and I was experiencing a lot of anxiety. In august, after many days spent rushing to the OR, ED, and emailing his surgeon, we finally agreed to a final surgery that would help my husband be more comfortable but was a major risk and would result in a drastic change to our lives.

Famous authors started saying "Yes" when I asked to interview them!! Authors like Andy Weir and Peter Heller and more. Find links here

My friends, family, and editor stuck by my side even though I became quite withdrawn and miserable. I was not handling the stress of life very well. I left a job a loved and a group of nurses I loved to work closer to home. As an introvert who doesn't like change, this was hard.

I finally got the chance to write in a KindleWorld and borrow the romantic world of a fellow KindleScout winner Sariah Wilson. Look for FORGOTTEN PRINCESS, a novella about a princess masquerading as a gypsy, in January 2016.

In November I received a message from the super awesome author Samuel Peralta with an invitation to write a short-story for one of his Future Chronicles endeavors titled THE ILLUSTRATED ROBOT. He read a portion of my book SPARROW MAN and was impressed! This was a dream come true. I'm super excited to be part of this project and can't wait to see all of the stories come together. Look for ILLUSTRATED ROBOT in the spring/summer of 2016.

Now that it's December, I'm happy to say that the husband is on the mend and adjusting to life after his most recent surgery. It was difficult watching everything that we worked so hard for trickle away, but we have each other. Seeing him up and moving around and living life again negates everything that we went through and everything that we lost.

I think the next steps of our life together might just be the best, we get to rebuild everything all over again. I may even get him to trim that majestic thing on his face.

And that is my year in review. 

Happy New year and Happy Reading. 

See you in 2016!

The Future Chronicles - A review

I'm not one for short stories. I like to lose myself for hours - or days - on end, get really deep in the drama for 200 pages or more. Last week that changed. 

Last week I read The Future Chronicles.

This group of authors serve up a variety of futuristic stories that will  get the gears of your brain turning. The forward by Hugh Howey brought me back to the tiny goat farm I grew up on and Peter Cawdron's #DontTell stole the crown. Samuel Peralta's Humanity was a close runner-up. Overall, a must read for fellow sci-fi lovers.

 

Get your copy of The Future Chronicles

Blurb:

The Future Chronicles - Special Edition includes fifteen stories, selected and new, from some of today's best writers in speculative fiction.

It includes ten selected stories from some of the Chronicles' popular titles - Robot, Telepath, Alien, and A.I. - to give new readers a taste of the series; and includes five completely new stories, first published in this Special Edition.

The Future Chronicles has grown, from a single collection of robot stories, into a series whose unique take on major science fiction and fantasy themes - A.I., aliens, time travel, dragons, telepaths, zombies, immortality, galactic battles, cyborgs, doomsday - has made it one of the most acclaimed short story anthology series of the digital era.

The Girl With all the Gifts by M R Carey

NOT EVERY GIFT IS A BLESSING.


Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."


Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.


The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.



Book Review:

There's a moral code I live by when it comes to buying books: If you want to read it, it will eventually go on sale. I got this sucker for $1.99! 

I've had TGWATG on my TBR list for most of the year, and the hum around this book made it even more enticing to read. When one of my bookish friends told me how amazing it was, I had to get my hands on The Girl With All the Gifts. I wasn't expecting a zombie apocalypse setting, with the title of this book I was expecting more of a superhero vibe. But, this was a pleasant surprise. The first half of this book was definitely intriguing. Eventually it turned into the typical run-for-your-life-the-zombies-are-coming apocalyptic novel. But the zombie origins storyline made this unique and wonderful. I really loved the underlying story of a motherless girl and her beloved teacher. Our main character, Melanie is super smart, a lover of greek mythology, and intuitive when it comes to figuring out what she really is. There were more great storylines, the mad scientist wanting to cut children's brains apart, and the stone faced soldier trying to hold shit together. Overall, this was a great read. The ending was a bit gloomy, but what do you expect with the zombie apocalypse? 

5/5 stars

What comes with every great book... a movie.

Tor.com released this announcement:

Glenn Close and Gemma Arterton to Star in The Girl with All the Gifts Movie

Stubby the Rocket

Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:30pm 12 comments  2 Favorites [+]

M.R. Carey will adapt his 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts for film, The Hollywood Reporterannounced today. Retitled as She Who Brings Gifts, the movie will star Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton, and Paddy Considine, and will be directed by Colm McCarthy (Sherlock, Doctor Who).

These stars will likely play the three central adult roles in the film: We’re assuming Arterton is idealistic young teacher Miss Justineau, who must teach special children in the wake of a worldwide fungal infection; Considine will bring the muscle as Sergeant Ed Parks, terrified and disgusted by his charges; and Close must be Doctor Caroline Caldwell, who will sacrifice as many test subjects as she needs to in order to find a cure.

But what about Melanie, the girl who will bring gifts? The casting directors will probably be looking for an unknown to play the precocious Melanie, who knows that something is wrong with her but also yearns for love and acceptance. In a press release, producer Angus Lamont talked a little bit about the film’s emotional core:

Melanie’s story is a completely unique take on a much loved genre, seamlessly blending together a lonely child’s search for love and family with a terrifying journey where she controls the fate of the last adult humans on earth.

Filming will begin in the UK in May 2015; no release date has been announced yet.