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 

Author Madison Daniel.

Don't forget to enter the 

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 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

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. 

ABOUT GRACEN MILLER:

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.

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

Entangled Publishing Author 

Lisa Berstein!

REVIEW: Pretty Amy by Lisa Burstein

RATING: ✭✭✭✭✭

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Amy is fine living in the shadows of beautiful Lila and uber-cool Cassie, because at least she’s somewhat beautiful and uber-cool by association. But when their dates stand them up for prom, and the girls take matters into their own hands—earning them a night in jail outfitted in satin, stilettos, and Spanx—Amy discovers even a prom spent in handcuffs might be better than the humiliating “rehabilitation techniques” now filling up her summer. Worse, with Lila and Cassie parentally banned, Amy feels like she has nothing—like she is nothing.

Navigating unlikely alliances with her new coworker, two very different boys, and possibly even her parents, Amy struggles to decide if it’s worth being a best friend when it makes you a public enemy. Bringing readers along on an often hilarious and heartwarming journey, Amy finds that maybe getting a life only happens once you think your life is over.


REVIEW:
While most teenagers go to prom their senior year, Amy Fleishman goes to... jail?

In this witty story about a teenage girl trying to fit in and find her place in life, Amy's easy life is about to turn upside down. Her mother goes ballistic and her lawyer wants her to testify against her best friends, the only two girls that ever accepted her as she was. Hard headed Amy vows her loyalty to her friends and refuses, conscious that she may be spending the next year in jail. What's a girl to do when she's forced to find a job and forbidden to have any contact with her only friends? Become more rebellious, of course.

Lisa Burstein renders a humorous tale filled with a lot of parent nagging and teenage tantrums. And though the story is comical, it ends with a great moral. Burstein's writing style is easy to absorb and keeps true to the age of the main character's narration. After the giggles and the moral has been learned, you'll find that there's a "Pretty Amy" in you, too.

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

ABOUT THE 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

Goodreads

Website

Blog