Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Feeling generous... and thankful!

Evening, my Angels. :) Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and because I'll be spending my day with family and not in front of my computer, I wanted to go ahead and share this post. Among the many things I'm thankful for, I'm also thankful for my readers. You guys keep me going, keep me pushing forward in my writing to make it the best it can be. I write for you.

And as a "thank you", I'm also sharing a new blurb from my new novel, Captivate Me. This is when Kat calls home to talk to her family. I chose this scene because when I think of Thanksgiving, I think of my love for my family.

I wish you all a warm and happy day tomorrow.

With Love,

~SJ


EXCERPT: CHAPTER FOUR - Footsteps and Flowers

I’d finished painting my admirer and part of the twinkling night sky before I decided to call it a morning. Lunch would be here soon, and I needed to get ready. As I washed and dressed, I realized I needed to call my parents. I had told them I would call again this weekend. I also wanted to ask my dad about his dreams; mine seemed too real lately to be coincidental.
The phone rang only once, and my dad answered in his familiar Irish accent.
“You knew I would call today?” I beamed.
He laughed a heartfelt laugh. “Actually, I didn’t. I just had the phone here beside me while I painted.”
I glanced at my painting with fondness. “I just finished painting, too.”
“That’s my girl. So how has your weekend been?”
“Good… went and got a dress yesterday and played a ping pong match last night.” I also went into the woods and met an invisible stranger who I think has been stalking me.
“Still a force to be reckoned with?”
“Always!”
We lapsed into silence.
“What’s up, princess? I can hear it in your tone today. Somethin’s up.”
“I’m okay,” I replied but halfway wondered if he had seen something in his dreams; my tone was fine. I think.
He paused, waiting to get it out of me.
Or maybe it was our connection that had told on me; we’d always had one – finishing each other’s sentences, knowing when something was ‘off’ with the other. The day I used my gift to close my locker at my old school and the rumors started swirling, he called me on my cell as I bawled in the bathroom. He hadn’t dreamt it; he just knew something wasn’t quite right. I guess you could call it our sixth sense.
I caved. “There was one thing I wanted to ask,” I said, cutting my eyes back at the boy in my painting.
He chuckled.  “Go ahead.”
“How can you tell the difference between a normal dream and a prophetic dream?”
“Well…” He coughed as he contemplated his answer. I’d caught him off guard. “I guess sometimes I can’t tell until it comes to fruition. But there is an element of realness, if that makes sense. I’ll wake up and it will take a minute for reality to seep back in. It’s hard to tell which is which sometimes.” He paused for a beat. “Why?”
Sounds familiar. “Just wondering.”
I couldn’t tell if it was fear or excitement that laced his words. “You been havin’ weird dreams lately?”
This part I wasn’t sure of. The last thing I wanted to tell him was that my dreams were of a gorgeous boy. Awkward! “You could say that.”
“Does it have anyone in particular in it?” he probed.
Gah! I now second guessed my decision in asking him this at all.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” he chuckled. “You know…” he mused, his voice trailing, “I dreamt of your mother before we ever met.”
My heart stopped, and I’m pretty sure the floor was spinning beneath me. I plopped onto the edge of the bed. What?!
“But don’t you be worryin’ about boys,” he added.
I nodded numbly.
“Kat?”
I’d found my voice. “Okay, dad,” I lied. That’s all I would think about now. Had I been dreaming of this boy for a reason? Did I inherit my dad’s gift of prophecy?
My mom’s voice trilled in the background along with the rustling of plastic bags. Sundays were her grocery shopping days. “Is that Kat?”
Mom!
“Bye, princess,” he said, knowing resistance was futile in handing the phone over to my mom. She’d wrestle it from him if she had to.
“Bye! Love you bunches.”
“Love you bunches.”
“She doing good?” she asked before he’d even handed her the phone.
“Yes, my angel,” he replied, and I gagged internally as I heard them smooching their “hellos”. They probably hadn’t seen each other for a whole entire hour. My parents – still hopelessly in love after all these years.
“Hello, dear,” she said as she finally brought the phone to her ear.
“Hi, mom!”
“You find a dress yesterday?”
“I did… its beautiful!”
“The color?”
“Black.”
“Black?”
“It’s a pretty black, though, with silver iridescent in it. And it’s strapless.”
“Shoes?”
“Some strappy black heels. I bought a necklace, too.”
“I’ve taught you well,” she said with a chuckle. “You’ll take lots of pictures?”
“Of course.”
A familiar groaning voice echoed in the background – a newly wakened Sam. He was probably shuffling toward the kitchen table with a box of cereal in one hand and the biggest bowl he could find in the other. Thinking of my brother, my eyes welled – a new trend lately when calling home and it had only been two weeks.
“Kat’s on the phone,” my mom informed him.
“Kat?” The sound of his voice flooded me with warmth. My sweet, sweet Sam.
“Bye, love,” she said. Resistance was just as futile with my brother. We had always been inseparable… well, until we had to separate when I came here.
“Bye, mom!”
He started as soon as the phone met his ear. “Kat, you’ll never believe what Tinkles did last night!”
Tinkles – my fourteen-year-old cat that actually looked a four-hundred-year-old cat with its mangy coat and foggy blind left eye. But I loved him, and Sam had promised to take good care of him while I was away. I prayed the night before I left that God would keep him alive for me until I returned; he’d been having trouble walking lately. And as to why I’d named him Tinkles, I honestly don’t remember. The imagination of a three-year-old is an enigma. Or maybe I’d seen him tinkle one day and thought it was funny.
“I’m surprised he did anything,” I teased.
“I know! But he jumped all the way up onto your bed and slept on your pillow the entire night. He wouldn’t let any of us move him.”
More tears filled my eyes and one slid down my cheek.
“I guess he misses you!”
“I guess so,” I managed. I then contemplated asking to go home – the home-sick ache in my heart had grown to an unbearable size – but the thought left as quickly as it came. I liked it here with my new friends and Levi and the other ‘recent developments’. I’d miss it here, too.
I glanced at the clock. Twelve minutes until lunch.
“Well give him a kiss for me,” I said, swiping the trail of the tear away, “I need to get going.”
“Okay, sis.”
“Love you to the moon and back.”
His voice cracked. “You too. To the moon and back.”
“And tell mom and dad I love them again for me. I’ll call soon.”
“Okay.”
“Bye!”
“Bye.”

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Book Review - "Snowbound" by Blake Crouch



Released: Dec 22nd 2012
Genre: Mystery/ Thriller
My Rating: 5 Stars
 
 
I typically don't review other authors' work unless I like it enough to give it five stars; it's just a thing of mine. And there are few books I actually give five stars. This one deserves it!

"Snowbound" is the second book I've read by Blake Crouch, and I'm officially a fan. A big fan! As far as mystery/ thrillers go, in my opinion, he's one of the best. There are books I like well enough to hold my attention and might finish in a few weeks, and there are books I can't put down and will finish in a matter of two days. His books are those books for me - I devour them. I put my own novels on hold for them. His writing is straight forward, richly textured and gritty. He keeps me hooked from the first page, and by the time I've read the last sentence, I've bitten my nails into tiny ragged stubs. "Snowbound" was no different. And did I mention he's a master of plot twists?? Well done, Mr. Crouch! Off to buy "Wayward", his newest novel... and to go get a manicure. ;)

PS- His stories are not for the squeamish, so consider yourself warned!!!
 
 
Here's the summary via Amazon:
 
For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Every day for the past five years, they wonder where she is, if she is—Will’s wife, Devlin’s mother—because Rachael Innis vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway, and suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled.

Now, Will and Devlin live under different names in another town, having carved out a new life for themselves as they struggle to maintain some semblance of a family.

When one night, a beautiful, hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep, they fear the worst, but she hasn’t come to arrest Will. “I know you’re innocent,” she tells him, “because Rachael wasn’t the first…or the last.”
Desperate for answers, Will and Devlin embark on a terrifying journey that spans four thousand miles from the desert southwest to the wilds of Alaska, heading unaware into the heart of a nightmare, because the truth is infinitely worse than they ever imagined.
 


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Summary Release - Captivate Me


Morning, Angels!


I've been talking about Captivate Me, Book One of The Captivated series for some time now. I've given you blurbs, characters' names, and now I'm about to throw something even better at you - the full summary! Enjoy!! :)



“My mom had always told me – when you meet “the one”, you’ll know; they’ll captivate your heart the moment you lay eyes on them. I had always wondered, though, if my mom’s words of wisdom were finite – if they applied to everyone. Maybe those who had found their one great love were the lucky few, and maybe the rest of us would have to settle for less than earth-shattering.”

Seventeen-year-old Kat Walsh is a Gifted – a human with paranormal abilities. With her mom a former Angel and her dad a dream prophet, it's always been in her genetic make-up to be extraordinary. But, unfortunately for her, the world can’t handle the strange or unusual. So when she slips up and uses her powers at her high school in Ireland, the entire student body treats her like a freak – even the ones she thought were her closest friends.

Broken, but hopeful for a fresh start, she allows her parents to enroll her into a boarding school buried deep within the forests of a small Colorado town. At Midland Pines, School for the Gifted, she feels as though she can finally be herself; she makes new friends and even has the attention of the most popular guy in school – Levi. Everything feels normal again… or does it?

Not long after her arrival, weird dreams of an alluring boy whom she’s never met surface during the night, and the eerie, shadowy trees encircling their school seem to call to her. As these disturbing, yet enticing developments intensify, other bizarre occurrences happen – students and staff turn up missing, and mystery visitors leave gifts while she sleeps. With all of these other things fighting for her attention, a desperate Levi has to fight even harder to keep her interest. But with the dreams of the attractive boy slowly captivating her heart, Kat has to make a choice – will she settle for 'great' Levi, or will she search for her elusive dream visitor, possibly stumbling across 'amazing'?

From the author of the Alyx Rayer Chronicles, comes a refreshingly different Young Adult series with plenty of love, suspense, and a new take on the Paranormal.


Recommended for readers 16 and up due to mature content.


Much Love,

~SJ

Saturday, November 2, 2013

My Website has a New Look!!!

A big THANKS to my cover artist, Brittany, for my banner graphics! :)

Happy Saturday, Everyone xoxo

~SJ