Sunday, August 12, 2012

A Day in the Life of Jaidis Shaw ( + Giveaway)





Hello and welcome to "A Day in the Life of..."©, a featured guest post exclusive to my blog that's published on Mondays and sometimes, on Thursdays. On these two days, a spotlight guest will share a normal day in their lives, giving us insight on their thoughts, projects, interests, obsessions and more. Occasionally, and if we're lucky, they'll even throw in a giveaway.

And now on with the show...

Today I have the pleasure of featuring the lovely Jaidis Shaw. Jaidis is not only a writer, but she's also a freelance editor and promoter for other authors. She juggles a career and family in her home in South Carolina. Let's check out her day, shall we? 


ABOUT JAIDIS SHAW

Jaidis Shaw currently resides in a small town located in South Carolina with her husband and beautiful daughter. With a passion for reading, Jaidis can always be found surrounded by books and dreaming of new stories. She enjoys challenging herself by writing in different genres and currently has several projects in the works.

When not reading or writing, Jaidis maintains her blog Juniper Grove and helps promote her fellow authors. In addition to her free promotion services, she uses her experience in publicity to offer freelance author services.




Connect with Jaidis:



A Day in the Life of Jaidis Shaw

Let me start by first saying that my schedule is very erratic. Factors like if I have plans the next day or if my hubby has school will determine how my day goes. So, for the sake of sanity, I will try and show you what my days look like when the hubby is off to school since Fall semester will be starting soon.

Read My Review
7:00 AM – Alarm # 1 goes off and is met with an enthusiastic greeting. And by enthusiastic greeting I mean tugging the cord, thus pulling the clock from underneath the bed, switching the alarm off and tossing it back into the oblivion that is under the bed. Yes, I keep my alarm under the bed. That is perfectly normal. Right? No? Oh well. I do it because even on its dimmest setting, the clock gives off so much light that I can’t sleep at night and keeping it under the bed blocks the majority of the light.  

7:03 AM – Alarm # 2 goes off and I gently hit the snooze button. Why the change of heart where the evil that is known as alarm clocks is concerned? Easy! It is because the second alarm is on my phone, and I don’t want to hurt my phone. 

7:05 AM – Alarm # 2 goes off again and I have no other choice than to force myself from the warm embrace of my blankets, sit up and wonder if I can get away with going back to bed.

7:06 AM – I have determined that going bed to impossible and so I get up and begin my daily duties, the first being that I have to wake my husband up so that he can start getting ready for school.

7:10 AM –  I head to the kitchen but before I am able to get three steps in the room, the dogs demand their bowls be filled. At least they aren’t as demanding as an old cat we used to have. He could really be a fighter if he wanted to. Maybe the dogs got beat up so often that they try the ‘kill her with kindness’ method…otherwise known as the ‘dance around her legs so she can’t walk without tripping and whine constantly until she caves’ method….lol. After they are satisfied, I begin making a lunch for the hubby to take to school. While doing this task, I make a mental note to teach him how to make his own lunch.

7:11 AM – Erase previous mental note. If he hasn’t learned by now, the chances of him learning are slim to none.

Get your copy of Destiny Awaits at 
Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble


7:30 AM – Hubby is out the door and I stand in the silent house and debate whether I should try going back to bed or if I should check my emails. I make the decision to check my emails and Facebook for a few minutes and then go back to bed so I head to my office to begin the first task.


9:30 AM – I am still online. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that going back to bed was impossible because let’s face it…once Facebook sinks its claws in you, there is no escaping. I have answered the bulk of my emails, returned messages on Facebook and tweets on Twitter, hopped on Amazon and GoodReads to see if any new reviews or ratings have come in and begun the process of formatting posts for my blog.

10:00 AM – Hubby calls around this time to update me about his day. I reply with enthusiasm but can’t help but look at the clock and calculate how much time I have left before he arrives home.

10:10 AM – I make a mental note of the chores that I need to accomplish for the day and approximately how much time they will take. I decide I still have some time and begin doing promotion work for any clients that I have at the time.

11:50 AM - My daughter decides to wake from her slumber and I get her settled with breakfast (or really lunch) and her favorite Barbie Mermaid DVD. I realize that I haven’t eaten yet so I fix me something (usually a sandwich), fill my favorite pink cherry blossom cup with water flavored with Raspberry Lemonade Propel Zero, and return to my office to check if any new messages have been received.

12:45 PM – A glance at the clock and I know I have to get started on the cleaning. I start a load of laundry, straighten up the living room, and then head to the kitchen to wash up any dishes, telling myself the rest can wait until tomorrow.

1:35 PM - I am still cleaning the house. Somehow the chores that had been deemed worthy of waiting until another day vetoed my vote and made sure that they got done today. Floors swept and mopped. Book cases organized, DVDs put away on the appropriate shelf by genre. All laundry folded and put away.  Trash taken out and dogs let out to play.

3:20 PM – My daughter decides she is done with Barbie and it is time to start her school work. Of course, she isn’t even in school yet but there is nothing wrong with getting an early start. She just started learning addition and subtraction, so she sits at a table next to my desk and begins. If I have any editing work, I begin tackling that manuscript while she works; only coming to me when she has questions….which is often.

4:05 PM – Math work is complete- ie: she has gotten bored with it - and she decides what task she wants to do next. Normally it is to watch another Barbie DVD, or color, or read a book (even though she doesn’t know how to read yet) and so that ensues. Meanwhile, I go back to editing/working and checking Facebook yet again.

5:00 PM – The hubby is usually home by this time and begins cooking dinner.  Yes, he does the cooking…SCORE! We sit down to eat as a family and then usually watch a movie.

8:00 PM – Hubby begins homework, my daughter is playing quietly with her imaginary friends and I retreat back to my office.

12:00 AM – Hubby goes to bed and I get my daughter bathed and in bed. I read her a story…or five…until she passes out and I return to my office, yet again, grabbing a cold Red Bull along the way.

1:00 AM - This is the magic hour because it is finally ‘me’ time. I bring up Pandora and put my headphones on, always leaving my right ear uncovered so that I can listen to the sounds of the house - aka listen to see if my daughter gets back up. I open the Red Bull, drinking in the energizing nectar and pull up my current WIP and begin the writing process. During breaks of writing, I am checking in on Facebook or chatting with my author friends who are still up at this hour.

The above task lasts until around 3 or 4 AM when I decide I must get to bed if I am going to hear the alarm the next morning. I save my progress twice, always twice, and close down my computer before falling into the bed exhausted.



Thank you, Jaidis, for sharing your day with us and thank you, readers for taking the time to stop by. I hope that you've enjoyed today's 
"A Day in the Life of..."



DESTINY AWAITS
 G   I   V   E   A   W   A   Y


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

RATING ★★★★★

ABOUT THE BOOK
Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.


With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.


From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.



Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson is published by Harper Teen
an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers.

Get your copy at AmazonBarnes and Noble, and Books-A-Million.


REVIEW
(*ARC received from Harper Collins. Thank you!)

Stories of love, fairies, mermaids, pirates and Lost Boys are what you'll find in Neverland as Tinker Bell narrates the life of Tiger Lily, a native to the magical world that Jodi Lynn Anderson has masterfully created in her book. 

Tiger Lily is the adoptive daughter of the tribe's shaman, Tick Tock, who lets her roam as free as her untamed spirit allows. You may think that being the daughter of a shaman would have its perks, but the village people believe that Tiger Lily is cursed, leaving her with very few friends. One day, Tiger Lily finds that she's wandered into the Forbidden area of Neverland, and before she has time to react, Peter Pan takes her prisoner. Of course Tiger Lily is well versed in being as wild as Peter and his Lost Boys, perhaps even more wild than they. After Tiger Lily takes down Peter Pan (Oh yes, she's feisty!), a new friendship is formed and soon enough, these two young creatures fall in love. But with the arrival of a doll-like English girl named Wendy and a sequence of events that no one foresees, things between the two wild love birds change and heartbroken Tiger Lily simply won't have it. 

Non-aging kids running free in the jungle, being chased by pirates and loved by fairies and mermaids is the sort of story that makes you want to be a kid again and stay that way forever. When I finished reading Ms. Anderson's rendition of her story of Neverland, I wanted to be whisked away to this enchanted place and see it with my own eyes. I thought about the story for days after I had read it, unable to pick up the pieces of my shattered little heart, and you'll understand why once you've had the opportunity to experience Anderson's world through Tinker Bell's words. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Follow Jodi Lynn Anderson on
Facebook and Twitter
I write books about vaguely magical peach orchards, resorts in the afterlife, enigmatic island princesses beloved by Tinkerbell, and...civics! I was an awkward and strange child who kept lots of secrets. Now I live with a sweet Basenji dog named Peanut who loves to eat shoes, and a sweet husband who is good at all the things I'm bad at, like being organized and thinking things through. I've loved writing and reading about mythical and strange things since I 
can remember.





Happy Reading! 



Monday, August 6, 2012

A Day in the Life Madison Daniel + GIVEAWAY!





Hello and welcome to "A Day in the Life of..."©, a featured guest post exclusive to my blog that's published on Mondays and sometimes, on Thursdays. On these two days, a spotlight guest will share a normal day in their lives, giving us insight on their thoughts, projects, interests, obsessions and more. Occasionally, and if we're lucky, they'll even throw in a giveaway.

And now on with the show...



ABOUT MADISON DANIEL:
Madison Daniel on Goodreads
Music is LIFE and the written word is our SOUL. Music and writing have been my true ambition since I was a child. I have used music in every form possible; writing it, performing it, healing with it, etc. I call it my "life's soundtrack." I have always written in some form; from comic books to screenplays to short stories and now the new series "Ember." I have found a true passion for my stories and characters 
and am eager to share them with the world. See you on the next book tour...M.D.


Connect with Madison Daniel:

BLOG   TWITTER  FACEBOOK    

EMBER SERIES ON FACEBOOK 






Day Night in the Life...
My name is Madison Daniel and I am a victim of my DNA. An insomniac @ heart. A Creatura of the night. 
When approached by the amazing and fabulous Nely Cab to be a part of her special blog, I knew I had to do something different. A day in the life of this author/rockstar consists of short days and very long nights courtesy of everyones favorite nighttime pest...INSOMNIA.
So, here’s a peek @ what makes me tick, what makes me hungry and what makes me dance. Let’s do this...


6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
DANCE TIME!
(I call this my “wake up” phase...)


The evening always starts with some kind of physical lunacy. Get the blood pumping. Get my mojo on track. For those who didn’t know, I am a dancing machine. SHAMONE!!!



8:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
GRUB TIME!
(I call this my “80’s” phase...)


I crave Chinese food continually. Fried rice, noodles, spicy beef, orange chicken...mmmmm... It has become an unnatural addiction, I know. I spent my whole life avoiding Chinese food, not sure why BUT about a year ago an urge hit me. Hit me hard. I’ve embraced my chopstick yearning and become quite the regular @ my local Chinese restaurants and Panda Express. Bring on the food you big and beautiful black n white bear!!! NOM! NOM! NOM! NOM!


10:00 p.m. - Midnight
INSPIRATION TIME!
(My “rocker” phase...)

I usually realize around this time that “insomnia” is on the prowl and instead of fighting it, I should embrace it. So, I put on some music and wait for my muse. How I am going to channel the nights creative juices depends on the musical playlist of the night. Writing, drawing, painting, recording music in my personal studio...

Midnight - 4:00 a.m.
CRUNCH TIME!
(The “new hotness” phase...)


My most productive time. The night is alive. The music is loud. My dreams are in overdrive. Tonight, I wrote about a certain fire-starter (Max Valentine) and his first official “date.” It’s a short story for my upcoming Ember prequel, ASHES. This first date does not go well and will give the Ember Heads insight into why he runs from love. Hides his heart.
Second half of this “phase” included working on some new promotional art for an upcoming release (YOU’LL SEE SOON!) and some finishing touches on the back cover of Downpour: Book Two in the Ember saga.




4:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m.
A NEW DAWN!
(It’s my “wind down” phase...)

The sun is close. Sleep is needed but far away. Feeling spent and usually a little restless, this phase can be tough. The right music can help though. I know that the internet will be calling me soon. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blogs and emails galore. I can usually wrestle a few hours of sleep before I give in to them. Depending on how hectic the morning is, usually determines how the following night will unfold. If insomnia comes for me again, then we shall dance once more.
I am a soldier for my writing. I am constantly chasing my muse. I love all arts. I live by one simple thought...



“Music is life and the written word is our soul.” ~ M

Read my Review

Thank you, Madison, for sharing your day night with us and thank you, readers for taking the time to stop by. I hope that you've enjoyed today's 
"A Day in the Life of..."





Tune in next Monday when my featured guest will be 



Don't forget to enter the 

 R o C k I n'
INTERNATIONAL
 G   I   V   E   A   W   A   Y! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, August 2, 2012

A Day in the Life of Lisa Burstein + GIVEAWAY




Hello and welcome to "A Day in the Life of..."©, a featured guest post exclusive to my blog that's published on Mondays and sometimes, on Thursdays. On these two days, a spotlight guest will share a normal day in their lives, giving us insight on their thoughts, projects, interests, obsessions and more. Occasionally, and if we're lucky, they'll even throw in a giveaway.

And now on with the show...

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Lisa Burstein, author of Pretty Amy, newly released in May 2012 by Entangled Publishing Currently Lisa is smoothing out the finishing touches in her upcoming book, Dear Cassie.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lisa Burstein is a Goodreads Author
Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient husband, a neurotic dog and two cats. Pretty Amy is her first novel. She never went to her senior prom.

She wrote her first story when she was in second grade. It was a Thanksgiving tale from the point of view of the turkey from freezer to oven to plate. It was scandalous.
 

She was a lot like Amy when she was in high school.
 

She is still a lot like Amy.
 




Connect with Lisa Burstein
Twitter   Facebook   Website   Blog



A Day in the Life of Lisa Burstein


A typical weekday from totally boring, totally ordinary young adult author of Pretty Amy, Lisa Burstein (I say boring because if this was one of my character's lives they would surely be complaining about how bored they were- LOL) ~ Lisa Burstein



5:40 AM alarm goes off, I grumble and hit snooze.



5:50 AM alarm blares and is snoozed again, more grumbles.

6:00 AM alarm blares and husband yells for me to turn off alarm, while dog burrows under covers. 
More grumbles, but I finally wake up. I wish I didn't have to, but in addition to being a young adult author I also have a day job. I don't hate my day job, but I certainly do hate having to have one.

6:01 AM Coffee is made. My cat usually comes in the kitchen to say hello, splaying himself out like a bear rug. Lunch is packed: Cottage cheese, tomatoes and crackers almost every day. Because it's easy to make and I am lazy.

6:10 AM shower- I use my time in the shower to work out plot points and ideas for what I am currently writing. I usually get my best ideas in the shower. I sometimes even get ideas for tweets in the shower. I am ashamed to even admit this.

Get your copy of Pretty Amy on Amazon & Barnes and Noble

Read My Review
7:00 AM arrive at the day-job where I am chained to my desk until 3:30PM. At the day-job I work and also tweet with readers and friends. Do some face-booking, blogging, emails with editor, publicist and agent as needed oh and also WORK.


4:00 PM- I try to go to the gym. The word is "try" but now that I am under deadline for my second novel, which is DUE THIS MONTH, I am usually back home and in my office writing. I write until dinner.



6:30 PM- dinner with hubby.


7:00 PM until bed- Watching TV or reading until I fall asleep. I am always reading at least one book. The book I am reading now is Where It Began by, Ann Redisch Stampler because a reviewer compared it to my first novel Pretty Amy.

10:00 PM- Lights out, so I can be well-rested for another super-exciting day as a young adult author ;).



Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your day with us and thank you, readers for taking the time to stop by. I hope that you've enjoyed today's 
"A Day in the Life of..."

Tune in next Monday when my featured guest will be 


Don't forget to enter the 

 S W A G A L I C I O U S
 G   I   V   E   A   W   A   Y! 

(*This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, July 30, 2012

A Day in the Life of Gracen Miller ( + Giveaway)



Hello and welcome to "A Day in the Life of..."©, a featured guest post exclusive to my blog that's published on Mondays and sometimes, on Thursdays. On these two days, a spotlight guest will share a normal day in their lives, giving us insight on their thoughts, projects, interests, obsessions and more. Occasionally, and if we're lucky, they'll even throw in a giveaway.

And now, on with the show...

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Gracen Miller, author of The Devil's Den, Fairy Casanova, Elfin Blood and the Road to Hell Series. Birmingham, Alabama is where Gracen, her two boys, her superhero husband, their two dogs and two hamsters call home. 

Gracen is a hopeless daydreamer masquerading as a "normal" person in southern society. When not writing, she's a full-time basketball/football/guitar mom for her two sons and a devoted wife to her real-life hero-husband. She's addicted to writing, paranormal romance novels and movies, Alabama football and coffee…addictions are not necessarily in order of priority. She is convinced coffee is nectar from the gods and blending coffee and writing together generates the perfect creative merger. Many of her creative worlds are spawned from coffee highs.





A Day in the Life of Gracen Miller

6:15 AM:
Get woken up by the rude alarm clock. Wake children (Sons A and B) to get ready for school and prepares breakfast as they shower and get dressed.

7:10 AM:
Screams to Son B, who is still lounging on the sofa half awake without having ate breakfast: “You’ve got five minutes before we have to leave!” I scramble up the stairs to throw on semi-respectable clothing and stuff my feet into sandals.

7:15 AM:
Runs down stairs—thankful I arrive at the bottom safely because I’m a bit of a klutz on them—throwing hair into ponytail and cramming a hat on my head. Realizes Son B still hasn’t eaten breakfast and I commence preaching on how he’s going to wish he’d ate because he’ll be starving by lunch, but that we have no time for him to eat now. Son B slooooowly rolls off sofa, with bedhead thanks to a lying around with wet hair, and realizes he hasn’t put on his shoes. I say a speedy mental prayer that God gives me the strength to endure his sluggishness and disorganization!

7:16 AM:
Helps him hunt for shoes that we find stuffed beneath the sofa he was sitting on. I bite my tongue not to repeat for the millionth time that the shoebox is where they belonged and if they’d been there, we wouldn’t have been searching for them.

7:20 AM:
Encourages Son B to speed up with, “Hurry, we gotta go!”

7:25 AM:
Son B finally has his shoes on and I’m yelling as we go out the door, “Love you, have a good day” to Son A who is still upstairs primping before school. His idea of breakfast is chocolate milk, so he fends for himself and he catches the bus at the road, so he’s the easy child.

7:26 AM:
Cranks vehicle, throws it into reverse and realizes I forgot my coffee on the counter. Checks clock, calculates time until school starts and admits to self that I’ll have to forgo the nectar of gods until I return home.

7:40 AM:
Wish Son B a good day at school and drives through carpool to the too happy morning teacher waving with a smile on her face. Oh, how I hate her! I bet she’s had her coffee.

7:55 AM:
Arrives home to the excitement of my dogs as if I’ve been gone for days and days, rather than thirty minutes. Feed dogs.

7:56 AM:
Shudders at cold coffee and shoves it in the microwave for a quick nuke. Runs upstairs to throw on a load of laundry and change into work out clothes.

8:15 AM:
Checks emails and makes necessary replies. Goofs off on Facebook and posts various promotions. Hits any blogs that I follow, check out my author loops, etc. and make any essential comments.

9:30 AM:
Realizes I haven’t had my nectar of the gods and discovers it still sitting in the microwave. Cold again. Re-nukes it, this time standing in front of the microwave waiting.

9:32 AM:
Microwave bings and I indulge in my first taste of sanity. Ahh…nectar of the gods. It doesn’t get better than this.

9:35 AM:
Opens current WIP, re-read what I wrote the prior day. Stares at the blinking cursor lost in the land of—gasps, realizing I forgot the washer full of clothes. Scrambles upstairs, throws clothes in dryer and puts another load in washer.

9:45 AM -12:00 PM:
Read My Review
Goes back to WIP and settles in to write. Ignoring various telemarketer phone calls, husband calls at least once to see how my day is going and to check on the boys.

12:00 PM:
Remembers I forgot to eat breakfast, so I grab another cup of coffee and scope out the cabinets. Find nothing I want, so I sip on my nectar and return to my WIP.

2:00 PM:
Suddenly recalls I’d planned to get a workout at the gym. Too late now as Son B will be home in 45 minutes. Grumbling stomach reminds me I’ve still not eaten lunch. I grab a pack of crackers and munch on them quickly as I make another mug of coffee. Afterward, I run up the stairs to take a shower.

2:25 PM:
As I step out of shower, I’m reminding myself to remove the clothes from washer and hang clothes in dryer.
Madison's Life Lessons (The Road to Hell Series - prequel)

2:45 PM:
Greets Son B as he comes home from school. We chat about his day as he 
gets a snack.

3:15 PM:
Sits at kitchen table with Son B as he works on homework. I catch back up on emails, various author loops and goof off with any friends on Facebook, waiting to offer homework support to Son B if needed.

4:00 PM:
Off to guitar lessons with Son B.

5:00 PM:
Guitar lessons end and we drive to Son A’s school to pick him up from football/basketball practice.

5:30 PM:
Arrive home, start dinner and offer assistance to Son A with any homework he has. (Depending on the day, we may have football/basketball practice for Son B, so instead of going home to cook, Son A and I will sit together in the car or on the bleachers doing homework and chatting).

6:30 PM:
Husband arrives home and helps with any math homework or assignments that require Powerpoint.


7:00-9:00 PM:
Eat dinner, clean kitchen, check email and Facebook while watching a little TV with the family.

9:00 PM:
Tucks everyone into bed—usually including the husband.

9:05 PM:
Opens WIP, glances at what was written that day and thinks how I’m too tired to work any more. So I catch up on missed TV shows and/or chat with friends on Facebook and email.

11:00 PM:
Sets the coffee pot to automatically brew and heads off to bed.

11:30 PM:
Still listening to chatty characters and plotting out a day in the life of the Road to Hell.

Midnight:
Drifting to sleep, I bolt wide-awake, realizing I never hung the clothes in the dryer or removed the clothes from the washer. I decide it’ll wait until tomorrow.

12:30 AM:
Falls asleep to characters chatting.





Learn more about Gracen Miller and the Road to Hell Series on Facebook and on herWebsite.

Thank you for sharing your day with us, Gracen, and thank you, my dear readers, for stopping by. I hope that you've enjoyed "A Day in the Life of.."


and now for a

G  I  V  E  A  W  A  Y!




a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tune in Thursday when my featured guest will be