Sparrow Man Goodreads Giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Sparrow Man

by M.R. Pritchard

Giveaway ends September 22, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Spring 2015 Release!

Follow Meredith's board Let Her Go on Pinterest.

July Newsletter includes 26pg sneak preview of SPARROW MAN

Here's the link: http://eepurl.com/WlKgD

  

 This book was a round-two contestant in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards 2014 and I received some excellent feedback from the VINE reviewers. So excited!

Blurb:

Meg Clark has turned out to be everything her father and the people of her little North Country town of Gouvernour, NY, have been saying her whole life: nothin’ but a piece of white trash. And that’s how she lives; she’s even got the tattoos to prove it. Well that’s how she was living, until she got knocked up and engaged. In an effort to hide her past and turn herself around, she spent her inheritance from her dead mother on the perfect little house with a white picket fence. Then something terrible happened and Meg got sent to county lockup so her fiancé, Jim, wouldn’t have to. And then everyone started waking up…dead. 

Good thing escaping from County wasn’t hard. Jim told her exactly how to get free. Now Meg is running and the walking dead are following. In a last ditch effort to find weapons to protect herself, Meg finds Sparrow instead. A tall, strange man with a quirk, Sparrow has an obsession with feathers and the only goal that’s on his mind is finding an old barn on Route 37 with a snowy owl in its rafters. 

Meg’s headed to Kingston, where she and Jim agreed to meet if they ever got separated. But sometimes, crossing the border brings more than just freedom and protection and safety. Sometimes it brings questions that someone like Meg would prefer not to answer. And everyone keeps asking questions, including Sparrow. He thinks she’s hiding something and he’s not impressed by her stories of the sins she’s been committing all her life. While Sparrow’s the one who’s a bit cracked in the head, it never occurs to Meg that she could be the one who’s not remembering something. Like what really happened that day she killed those seven men.

Movie Review: Wolf of Wall Street

Since I'm cheap, I rarely ever go to the theater anymore. Instead, I stand awkwardly at the RedBox Kiosk outside of Price Chopper and rent movies. The process is easy, my husband even gave me specific instructions on what to do: I hit the "return" button, insert the movies and then I hit the "pick up" button and swipe my credit card. It's easy enough, I just find the waiting 5 minutes while the machine searches for the movie uncomfortable, because you know people are watching you and if there's a line behind you, it's even worse. So I get my movies, then I pop my own popcorn, drink a beer, and watch them in the comfort of my own home.

So we just rented,

The Wolf of Wall Street

This movie was really great. I was not prepared for the inappropriateness, the copious amounts of drugs, alcohol, and fornication that would be displayed across the screen. But there was a story behind it, and it was entertaining. 

I wish this were actually someone's creative thinking, but instead it's based on the true life of Jordan Belfort. If you drop whatever morals you have and can separate yourself from the fact that Mr. Belfort actually lived this life, deceived these people, wasted this money, and snorted coke out of some strippers butt-crack, then you might find this enjoyable.

I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill (kinda almost stole the show), and Matthew McConaughey did a great job with their characters. And when did Matthew McConaughey become such a creeper? He used to be a hot dude, now... I barely have words.

When this movie was over, I was entertained. And then I felt weird. I think it was because of all the infidelity. Movies like this just seem to stress the fact that shallow rich men are whores and my soul aches for their wives.

Note to parents. Get all children out of the room before this movie starts or they will forever be damaged.

Rating (with basic human morals ignored)  9/10

 

Book Review! "Monster in His Eyes"

Monster in His Eyes

by J.M. Darhower

 

So, I started this book, and while I was reading I did a lot of thinking, thinking about how I'm over reading stories about sassy poor little co-eds who find some hot rich dude to solve all of their problems, money wise, food wise, clothing wise, and sexing wise. I've never read 50 Shades but while I was reading this I kept thinking, "Is this 50 Shades?" I guess I just wanted more character development in the beginning. There's more to a relationship than money and fornication.
That being said, the second half of the book started to get pretty twisted and I couldn't stop reading. And then... holy hell, twisted isn't even the word for the last quarter of the book.
Also, the philosophy musings tie in quite well. However, this book was missing a teeny tiny bit of magical somethingness. Hopefully I can explain later after I've let the book stew in my head for a bit.

Fellow writer having a book sale! #FREE

Book Review! The 5th WAVE

I've been book stalking The 5th WAVE for over a year now. And then it went on sale. And then I read it and was totally blown away. Not what I expected. I loved it. Except for that last page. If I had this in paper form, I think I'd rip that last page right out of the book and burn it. I literally found myself, multiple times, so engrossed that my mouth was hanging open and the world could have exploded around me and I would have never known.
What I didn't realize was that this is part of a series. And now I have to wait until September to read the second book. I might go crazy waiting to find out what happens with everyone, and Evan, what the hell happened to Evan! Not cool, Rick. Not cool at all.
(Since I finished this at 3:40 in the morning, I need a nap, and then I might alter this review a tad.)

Saratoga has a new cover!

eBook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2P7W0W

Paperback with new cover coming soon!

Let's giveaway some free eBooks!

For a limited time, to celebrate the release of REVELATION, Book 3 in THE PHOENIX PROJECT SERIES, Books 1 AND 2 are free! 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BN1EFCE
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D50BCW2
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IZPH9NI

On fangirling

Confession time...

So, confession time. I’ve been keeping a little secret from my fans (and family and friends); my late summer 2014 release, SPARROW MAN, was entered into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in March, and while it didn’t make it to the Quarter Finals, the book did beat out 8,000 other books and made it into a second round of judging! And I just got my feedback from the reviewers, which was very uplifting. Here’s my favorite quote: “The strongest aspect, by far, is this writer's story-telling ability. I was hooked from the get-go with the naturalness of the prose and dialogue. This writer is a born story-teller.” 

#amazeballs

Read a little about Sparrow Man here!

 

There are things in my personal library that offend me

Red Rising

There is violence in this book. Violence and heart, love and pain. People die terrible deaths. Painful deaths. The info dumping in the first quarter of the book was a bit overwhelming at first, but necessary. I mean, how else are you going to learn the rules of society on Mars? If you can get through that, it is well worth it. I wasn't expecting to find Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Ender's Game, and a gorydamn pound of Greek Mythology woven into one. (I know, that's what all the reviews say, and they're right.) The prose is unique. Entertaining. And now I have to wait until 2015 to read the rest. Bums. I'll start re-reading now.

April is here already!

Time has flown. I can't believe it's April already!

What will be at the book signing?
Paperbacks of all 3 books in The Phoenix Project Series, a few copies of the special Compendium Edition of The Phoenix Project Series, copies of Saratoga (this has been an Amazon Bestseller in it's genre since it's release!) and me and my sharpie!

Breakroom wisdom

This almost happened last week

;)

Comparing Books and Music

I've been waiting for someone to post on this! 

Comparing Books and Music - Books & Such Literary Management : Books & Such Literary Management

And while Rachelle has some good points of how Books and Music differ. I find it hard to ignore the similarities between Indie Authors and Indie Musicians and Indie Filmmakers, and that is reaching out, grassroots, connecting with your fans, making appearances where people can actually shake your hand and not gaze at you from afar, and building a fan base from the bottom up instead of advertising convincing you that thisperson is the next best thing.

I don't want to talk about the monetary differences. Because at the end of the day, money doesn't mean much. You can't take it with you when you die and it's not going to make you happy. Some of the best times of my life were when I was so poor I could only afford a head of iceberg lettuce and a package of ham each week for groceries. If you're writing for money, if your playing for money, your in the business for the wrong reasons.  We do this because we love it. We hire editors and book cover artists to create a unique reading experience because we love writing and the process of putting a book together. (And I don't mean one ridden with errors, read the preview on amazon, you can usually tell if you're interested in the book and its quality before purchasing.)

We don't see Adam Levine slapping the Indie singer/songwriters on their ass with vicious words. He started a TV show for them. The only people I see who mimic this, are the Indie authors who made it big and haven't forgotten where they started.

Image via http://strugglingmuso.wordpress.com/category/comic-strip/page/2/

How to get your books into bookstores...

Just have your fans ask for it. Like this lady did: