Novella Cover Reveal!!!!

I am absolutely thrilled to share with you today the cover for A Race to the Finish: A Novella, The Alyx Rayer Chronicles! Brittany does such an awesome job! Only 9 more days until the release!

Gifts for my Angels (My Fans)

 

Yes, you read that right - my Angels! That's what I've dubbed my loyal followers and supporters. :-) I can't thank you all enough for your kind words, emails and reviews about my debut series. But I can do something else... reward you. And reward you, I shall!

See the "Join my Mailing List!" page above? Simply click on that and follow the directions. In addition to updates on promotions, new releases, and other fun stuff, this is what my Angels will receive:

• Every month on the 1st I'll do a random drawing for a $10 Amazon Giftcard, and every year I'll do a random drawing for a $50 Amazon Giftcard. (I'll announce the winner on my blog as well as email them directly)
• Every time I publish a new book, I'll send the first chapter to all recipients. I'll send the entire book, however, to ten randomly-drawn lucky Angels.
• A chance to have one of the characters in my next book named after you! This will also be randomly selected.

As my army of Angels grows, I'm sure there will be more gifts to come. Make sure and check your email and my blog the first of every month to see who won!

With Love,
~SJ

Mumford and Sons - Consider me a fan for life!

I'm a sucker for many things, music being one of them! Sometimes I can't quite articulate why certain songs touch me the way they do, but I'll try with this one. First off, I'm also a sucker for folk rock, so when I first heard of Mumford and Sons a few months ago (I know, I'm a little late to the party! They've been around since 2007) I knew it would be a love-at-first-sight kind of thing, and boy was it ever! My first introduction to their work was with "I Will Wait", and holy cow, what an awesome song. Like any great piece of art, it can be interpreted in many ways, but knowing Marcus Mumford's background and that he cowrote the song, I'll assume it has to do with faith.

My favorite lines are the the first ones:

Well I came home like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of dust, which we've known
Will blow away with this new sun

Who can't relate to being "heavy" with burden and needing a "new sun" for rest and redemption? What beautiful similes and imagery he uses. As a writer, I'm smitten. My second favorite lines?

So break my step, and relent
Well you forgave, and I won't forget

To relent is to give in, yield, surrender yourself, but why? The power of forgiveness, in any form, is transcendent; it's a selfless act to relieve another of their transgressions against you. I like how he follows "well you forgave" with "and I won't forget." Beautiful.

And last, but certainly not least, are these lines:

But I'll kneel down, wait for now
I'll kneel down, know my ground
Raise my hands, paint my spirit gold
Bow my head, keep my heart slow

Again, with the imagery! "Raise my hands, paint my spirit gold" I interpret that to mean purifying and cleansing. For me, it ties into the "new sun" from the beginning. I also like how he ends the song with the humble words of "bow my head, keep my heart slow." That is the nature of worship - self-humbling.

Quite frankly, no matter what this band chooses to sing about, they know how to write and convey the condition of their hearts exquisitely... this is the mark of a true artist. Consider me a fan for life! :-)

Progress Report Time!

One month from today, the Novella will be published for the Alyx Rayer series! Yay! :-) I've been working so hard to edit and get the manuscript where it needs to be, as well as continue on with writing the third and final book (I'm about halfway finished!), not to mention putting in crazy hours at my regular full-time job, that I sincerely think my brain will either fizzle out here soon, or go on strike... I'm pretty sure that can happen! lol I wouldn't have it any other way, though. Despite my exhaustion (I'm literally rubbing the sleepy out of my eyes as I put this post together!), I'm at my happiest when writing.

So, to celebrate the soon-to-be released Novella, I've decided to share an excerpt from about midway through. As you already know, the novella follows the other seven Angels of Protection, and I've dedicated an entire chapter to each one. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but the book is still around 30,000 words - standard novella size. I have to say, though, that the decision of which storyline to share with you today was a tough one. While I love all of their stories equally, there are some I can't WAIT for you to read and want to make you wait until the book is released... that's evil, I know! :-)

So without further ado, I've chosen an excerpt from Willow's chapter. And as you also already know, I like playing the "who would play your character in a movie" game. So as an added bonus, here's who I would cast to play her character:

Dafne Fernandez

She's pretty darn near perfect to what I had imagined, just add blue eyes.

Follow the jump below to read the excerpt.