Cover Reveal - Elana Johnson's new book Elevated!

Many of you know Elana Johnson from her amazing work with WriteOnCon, her extremely helpful book From the Query to the Call, available free here. She's also written a YA Dystopian series, Possessed.

I have the great honor of sharing her cover reveal of her latest book Elevated, which I'll be reviewing soon (but trust me, it's awesome!)

Ta da! And umm, those shoes!

Don't forget to read through for the Rafflecopter giveaway!
 

About ELEVATED: The last person seventeen-year-old Eleanor Livingston wants to see on the elevator—let alone get stuck with—is her ex-boyfriend Travis, the guy she's been avoiding for five months.

Plagued with the belief that when she speaks the truth, bad things happen, Elly hasn’t told Trav anything. Not why she broke up with him and cut off all contact. Not what happened the day her father returned from his deployment to Afghanistan. And certainly not that she misses him and still thinks about him everyday.

But with nowhere to hide and Travis so close it hurts, Elly’s worried she won’t be able to contain her secrets for long. She’s terrified of finally revealing the truth, because she can’t bear to watch a tragedy befall the boy she still loves.

Buy Links: Kobo | iTunes | Amazon | B&N (links will be made active when the book is available at these sites

Goodreads

 

Praise for ELEVATED:

"ELEVATED will take you on an emotionally gripping journey through the highs and lows of first love."

~Carolee Dean, author of Take Me There and Forget Me Not

 

"Poignant, raw, and intense, ELEVATED is a novel that will grip your heart and linger in your mind long after you turn the last page."

~Stasia Ward Kehoe, author of Audition and The Sound of Letting Go

 

 About Elana Johnson: Elana Johnson’s work, including Possession, Surrender, Abandon, and Regret, published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster), is available now everywhere books are sold. Her popular ebook, From the Query to the Call, is also available for download, as well as a Possession short story, Resist. School teacher by day, Query Ninja by night, you can find her online at her personal blog or Twitter. She also co-founded the Query Tracker blog, and contributes to the League of Extraordinary Writers.

 

Social Media Links:

Website/blog: http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElanaJ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/possessionthebook

Tumblr: http://elanajohnson.tumblr.com/

Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/user/elanajohnson

League of Extraordinary Writers: http://leaguewriters.blogspot.com/

WriteOnCon: http://writeoncon.com/

Elana on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4044383.Elana_Johnson

 

Here's the Rafflecopter giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Winner and offer for all published (or soon to be) authors

Thanks to all who participated the giveaway for Eliza Tilton's author interview - especially those who followed us and purchased her book. The lucky winner of the Amazon gift card was Sarit.

One of my goals is to help new authors - we all know marketing is a tough job, maybe tougher than writing. So for anyone who is published, or has a launch coming up soon, I would be happy to post author interviews and/or be a part of your launch success.

Visit my Contest and Launch Listings page for a list of interview questions and get in touch with me to provide other details and I'll schedule a post for you. If you have any giveaways planned, or would like to provide something, I'll be happy to set up a Rafflecopter giveaway as well.

For everyone else, keep checking in for these interviews as well as updates on all the contests coming up for those working on snagging that perfect agent.

Author Interview! Eliza Tilton, author of Broken Forest

Today I'm doing the first author interview of the year. Read through and enter the rafflecopter giveaway at the bottom.

 

Eliza Tilton, Author of YA Fantasy, BROKEN FOREST, published by Curiosity Quills Press.

Amazon / Barnes&Noble / KOBO / Goodreads

I "met" Eliza when we were both members of Backspace. We became critique partners, and I was thrilled to see all her hard work turn into her publishing story. Her YA Fantasy, Broken Forest, is a wonderful read. The sequel is in progress.

Please welcome Eliza's with her answers to my list of questions I've always wanted to ask published authors. Her responses are in red.

 

1. Where/how did you come up with the idea for your story? Did it suddenly pop into your head or were you brainstorming?

Broken Forest started off as a birthday present for my husband. I was in college, broke, and thought it would be a cool idea to write a fantasy with him as the main character. The only aspect that stayed the same was the mc’s name: Avikar.

2. Did you start with the main character, the world or the overarching concept?

Almost all of my stories start with a character or a scene. I’ll have an image in my head and from there the world and concept evolve until I have a story.

3. Panster or Plotter? Or in between?

Definitely a panster with high hopes of becoming a plotter. Usually, I have a general outline and a query written. I also don’t write in order. Each scene comes together on its own (I have an overall story arc I work with), then I connect all the pieces together. 

4. Are you a fan of writing contests?

Writing contests are a great way to get exposure and receive feedback. The downside to some contests, for eg first 250 words, is that you re-write your beginning just to win and could potentially hurt your story.

5. How did you find your agent? How many query letters did you send?

I don’t have an agent. When I was querying through YAlit chat’s agent’s inbox, the acquisitions editor from Curiosity Quills requested pages. I didn’t plan on publishing with a small press, but the more I looked into it, the more it seemed like a viable option. CQ published my novel in May 2013 and they’ve been great to work with.

6. What's the best marketing tool you've found so far?

Natural interaction. I’ve done blog tours, giveaways, interviews, but the only boost I’ve seen has been when I interacted with people through either social media or in the real world. Bookbub is a great marketing tool for when your novel goes on sale. One of my pub sister’s had a Bookbub listing and her numbers jumped. It can be a little pricey, but well worth it.

7. What do you like best about your mc?

I love that there’s a darkness to Avikar, but at the same time he can be sweet and funny.

8. What do you like best about your main antagonist?

 

I love Lucino's sarcasm. I'm not a sarcastic person. Writing that into a character has been a lot of fun.

9. Anything else you like to share about your journey or your upcoming launch, including links to giveaways or ways people can help spread the word?

My journey isn’t what I had imagined, and sometimes that’s a good thing. I’ve learned a lot about publishing and have made great contacts. 

This March I’ll be heading down to Florida for a literacy festival. Details below!

Riverdale High School will host a week- long celebration of reading March 3-7, 2014.  During this week students will enjoy dress-up days, author book talks, and will participate in creative, multimodal projects in various classes.  At the Riverdale Literacy Festival on Friday, March 7^th, students will participate in a book signing with eight young adult authors.  Other festivities will include games, music, and food.  Please help us reinvigorate our students’ enthusiasm for reading by providing them with high- interest books.  Learn more about how you can participate in the Riverdale Literacy Festival and help us put books in the hands of our students! 

Riverdale High School Literacy Festival

Book goodreads blurb: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17797991-broken-forest
Hopeless he'll never be more than the boy who didn't save his brother, 17-year-old Avikar accepts his life as the family stable boy, trying to forget the past. But when his sister, Jeslyn, is kidnapped, the thought of losing another sibling catapults him on a desperate quest. With his best friend by his side, and using the tracking skills he learned from his father, he discovers Jeslyn has been taken, kidnapped by one Lucino, the young lord of Daath, a mystical place thought only to exist in fables. 

                                                        And Lucino has plans for Jeslyn.

BROKEN FOREST, published by Curiosity Quills Press.Amazon / Barnes&Noble / KOBO / Goodreads

Author BIO:

Eliza graduated from Dowling College with a BS in Visual Communications. When she’s not arguing with excel at her day job, or playing Dragon Age 2, again, she’s writing. Her stories hold a bit of the fantastical and there’s always a romance. She resides on Long Island with her husband, two kids and one very snuggly pit bull.

Author links:Twitter https://twitter.com/ElizaTilton
Tumblr http://elizatilton.tumblr.com/
Website http://www.elizatilton.com
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/elizatilton/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eliza-Tilton-YA-Author/245765852217133

 

Rafflecopter Giveaway Here!! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Putting Daleks and Cybermen to good use!

My family now has all the evidence they need to prove I’m certifiably nuts! Or watch too much TV.

While I’m not a huge believer in the mystical world, I do think there's something to mind over matter, maybe self-hypnosis,  something. I am pretty sure that if I can catch it in time, I can totally stop a cold. It just takes a little visualization. I image little spiky virus balls trying to invade my body. But I’m prepared.

With an army of Daleks screaming “Exterminate!”, backed up by a legion of Cybermen pronouncing “Delete, delete.” Those little virus balls explode into a billion particles or flee for their lives - with no TARDIS to save them.

It works. I swear it! ;-) My husband has been miserably sick for 6 days and I haven’t had a sniffle or a cough. I just love that “Exterminate” screech. I must get one of the models for my desk. Exterminate writer’s block. Exterminate self-doubt. Exterminate fear. Yeah, like that.

 

Ok, back to work - but stay tuned. Tomorrow I'll have an author interview and a giveaway!

Time for the next PitchMadness

Visit Brenda Drake's blog for all you need to know about PitchMadness. All you need is a Twitter account and to polish your 140 character pitches - and don't forget to include #PitMad.

January 8th, 8am EST to 8pm EST is the day. Come join in the fun, you're agent might be watching, waiting just for you!

Burn Out by Kristi Helvig release announced & giveaway!

I have been waiting for this Sci-fi book since Kristi posted about it forever ago. I can hardly wait to read this one. Definitely want to get an author interview for this one - keep an eye out. But for now, here's a link to her blog and a link to the announcement on Badass Bookie with the ARC giveaway. Goodreads Burn Out will be released April 8th 2014.

A futuristic blend of Beth Revis's Across the Universe and Lenore Appelhans's Level 2, Burn Out will satisfy the growing desire for science fiction with a thrilling story of survival, intrigue, and adventure.

Most people want to save the world; seventeen-year-old Tora Reynolds just wants to get the hell off of it. One of the last survivors in Earth's final years, Tora yearns to escape the wasteland her planet has become after the sun turns "red giant," but discovers her fellow survivors are even deadlier than the hostile environment.

Holed up in an underground shelter, Tora is alone--her brilliant scientist father murdered, her mother and sister burned to death. She dreams of living on a planet with oceans, plants, and animals. Unfortunately, the oceans dried out ages ago, the only plants are giant cacti with deadly spines, and her pet, Trigger, is a gun--one of the bio-energetic weapons her father created for the government before his conscience kicked in.

When family friend, Markus, arrives with mercenaries to take the weapons by force, Tora's fury turns to fear when government ships descend in an attempt to kill them all. She forges an unlikely alliance with Markus and his rag-tag group of raiders, including a smart but quiet soldier named James. Tora must quickly figure out who she can trust, as she must choose between saving herself by giving up the guns or honoring her father's request to save humanity from the most lethal weapons in existence.