Adversarius!

I'm over at David Powers King's blog today, getting knighted. Hop over to check it out!

Now for the post: Today I have the honor of introducing M. L. Chesley's book Adversarius!

Here's the blurb -

Two kingdoms, two goals.

The king of Relavia is determined to wipe out his warring neighbors in Paridzule, a worthy adversary
for over five hundred years. News of an arranged marriage between his son and the daughter of his
lifelong enemy has fueled the temper of Relavia's tyrannical king. What he doesn't realize is the true
measure of his son's honor and how far he is willing to go to gain peace.

Excerpt 1: Captain Sorcha Lilanthroe pushed her spyglass back in upon itself and leaned on the railing
of the quarterdeck. She chewed the inside of her cheek, trying to make a decision.

“Fromas,” she finally beckoned her bosun and brother-in-law to her. She passed him the spyglass and
lifted her chin in the direction she had been studying. “What does that look like to you? Two points off
the port bow,” she directed.
Fromas lifted the contraption to his eye and surveyed the horizon. The suns shone onto his bald head.
After a moment, he lowered the spyglass. He tilted his head slightly as he looked at his captain.
“Looks tae be the remains of a ship,” he confirmed her suspicions. “Hard tae tell, but by the color of
the sails, might be a warship. Possibly from Paridzule.” Smoke billowed up over the wreckage and as
they sailed closer, flotsam appeared in the water. The wake of her ship, the Blue Drake, pushed it easily
aside. Sorcha lifted her chin again, indicating another point off the opposite railing for him to inspect.

“And what do you make of that? Four points starboard.” He lifted the glass to his eye once more and
whistled softly.

M. L. Chesley is an Alaska based author, online blogger and MMORPG junkie. She has been
writing fantasy for several years. Between writing, work and family she barely has time for much
gaming, but some days, raids take precedence over all. If you would like to learn more about her
world, created in this book, go to www.mlchesley.webs.com. You can also follow her blog at
www.caledonialass.blogspot.com.


Buy it today!

Amazon

Smashwords

Shh... Don't tell.

So, I have a guilty pleasure. I'm a little embarrassed about it, but at the same time I feel the need to share. (I'm considering it my repentance for indulging in something so silly.)

This guilty pleasure has been eating into my reading time, but I don't mind. Why? If you're anything like me, you love the romance in YA novels for it's pure innocence. That anticipation of the first kiss. The sweetness of trying to figure out what love is, and the struggle through those awkward teenage years.

Imagine if there were television shows that could rival such novels? Okay, so there have been a few YA novels made into television shows, but I feel like all of those shows lose the innocence of those teen years and replace it with sex and drugs.

I'm not saying there isn't a part of teenagedom where that stuff exists. I'm just saying I don't particularity enjoy watching or reading about it.

Which brings me back to my guilty pleasure.

Koren television. I saw this show on netflix, I watched one episode, and thought it was the cheesiest dumbest thing ever.

But I couldn't get it out of my head.

The next thing I know, I've watched the entire season only to discover that in Korea they don't do shows for more than one season. To say I'm hooked is an understatement. I've been watching any Korean show I can find on Netflix.

The story lines are so rich without going into the darker side of YA. Plus the main characters are faced with important choices like -

Jin Gook or Song Samdong

JB or Jin Yoo Jin

and Cha Chi Soo or Choi Kang Hyuk

You know what I mean ladies? Anyway, it feels good to get that off my chest. I'll leave you with my favorite song from the series Dream High 2. (It's only 1:29)

English Lyric Translation

Austenland Movie, a Review.

I've never once done a movie review on this blog, I don't even see movies that much, but this one had to be reviewed.

First of all, it was a great honor to be able to go the Sundance Film Festival. I heard a few people talking about how this was the first film sold out, and the wait line was crazy long. The response has been so good that the night I went, the film was sold to Sony Pictures for a cool $4 Million. It won't be too much longer until it's released Nation Wide!

I was expecting this movie to be hilarious, but seriously, you're laughing from the opening scene. No one has to say anything, all you see is the beginning screen shot and the tone is set for the rest of the film.

This says it all

Guys: Take your Jane Austen loving wives to this film. Not only will your wives love you for thinking of it, but you'll enjoy the pure hilarity that is contained therein.

Jennifer Coolidge stole the show with her witty one liners, many of which were of the unscripted brand of hilarity. My favorite "Release the hounds, Cheerio, the British are coming, the British are coming!"

Even though I had read the novel and fully anticipated the twist at the ending (I won't give it away here) I was still on the edge of my seat watching the romance progress. The balance between funny and romantic couldn't have been better.
 
After it was over, we got to do a little question and answer session, then a reception. The only disappointing moment of the night was that I couldn't walk back into the theater and watch it again. Because I would have, in a heartbeat. 

You can bet that I will be buying tickets for the general release and owning the movie the first chance I get.

How important is it to set goals?

This year, I've seen an abundance of people saying they aren't going to set New Years resolutions becasue they never keep them anyway.

Every single time I heard that, my heart twisted a little. To me resolutions and goals - whether or not I keep them - are important becasue at least I'm planning a path for my life.

I'm not saying that others aren't planning their paths, but there's something about writing down your goals. I couldn't pin point it until I saw this infographic. Take a look and decide for yourself.

Source

Are goals/resolutions important to you?

Nut and Bolts, and Writing.

Last week was my husband's birthday. I really wanted to do a few nice things for him, but we don't need more 'stuff'', you know? After all, Christmas was just a couple of weeks ago.

So, instead, I decided to update some pictures around our house with the portraits we took last September. I gave it my husband and her loved it. But I still wanted to do more. We only get birthday's once a year and he deserved something nice.

We've had this small bookcase that we've been meaning to put together for a while to better organize the stuff in our coat closet. My husband is a huge fan of organized (he's cleaner than me, seriously) So I thought it would be awesome if I did it myself and surprised him when he got home.

There's instructions so it's no big deal, right? All I needed was a screwdriver and a hammer and I felt pretty confident in my skills with those. Even though I had never done it before, I had the tools a believed I would succeed.

To make a long story short, I ended up building the thing, then re-building it becasue everything was on backwards and upside-down. I thought I followed the instructions well, but no. I had to learn through trial and error too.

Since I think about writing 58% of the time, I immediately wondered what I kind of metaphor I could compare this experience to.

Then it hit me. Sometimes I'm a little too confident with the craft of writing. Sometimes I just hit the page running and when I go to edit it turns out I've put on everything wrong. Which is totally true in my case, becasue it seems like every time I write I book, I have to re-write it.

If only we had instructions we could refer to for this writing thing! But all we have are basic tip guides to help us through, and we have to experience the trial in order to make our writing stronger. Just like I know I'll get better at putting furniture together the more I try, the better writer I'll become if I just keep writing and keep editing until I find out what works for me.

It might take me a few books, and my hands might get sore, but in the end I'll be a stronger writer becasue of it.

300 Followers Giveaway!

Last week I passed the 300 follower mark! It's so awesome, that I decided to through a party. What's a party without any favors? So I'm going to give away three huge book prizes that anyone would love.

First up is a signed, yes signed, copy of Shadow and Bone. One of the best books I read last year.

Second is a paperback of Divergent and a hardback of Insurgent. Two for one deal here.

 

Last, but not least by any means, is an ARC of Fraction of Stone. This book isn't even out until March, that's how awesome I am!

You also win a signature from my four year old on the front blank page. Awesome, right?

All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter below and comment with which prize you would like. You can ask for any one of the three if you wish as well. Love you guys!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Ends Friday. U. S. Residents only, sorry! 

December Mini-reviews

Last year I made a goal to read a book a week - 52 books in total. It was a long, but enjoyable, road and I'm proud to say that I accomplished that goal, +1. Although  didn't read much in December with Holiday craziness I got a couple of excellent books in.

Goodreads

Seaweed by Elle Strauss. I really love Elle's clockwise serious so I thought I'd love this book too. Let me first say the writing was fun and cute, but I just cannot do mermaid stories. I have a hard suspending my disbelief enough to think that two legs can become a tail. But if you have no problem with that, and you like mermaids, you'll love this book.

Goodreads

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper. This was another salvage read from the SLC library (for the story see this post) and another one that I am so glad I saved. Guys, I totally think Ghost Whisper's are fakes, but this book had me believing! Amazing writing, strong characters, and a little (just a simdge) of romance to boot. Cute, fun, read.

Kelley's blog

Fraction of Stone by Kelley Lynn. If you don't know Kelley hop over to her blog and follow right now, becasue she is all kinds of awesome! I actually had the chance to read her first chapter once, and it was amazing to see how to she changed it. I was seriously blown away from page 1. Rydan is my new favorite book crush. Seriously, I rooted for him through the whole book (even when he was an idiot) and totally fell in love. The ending about killed me! I can't wait for the next book. (Do you need another CP Kelley?) I was lucky enough to win the ARC to this, so you can't partake in the awesomeness yet. But it will be out on March 21st and I recommend purchasing it for your immediate inhalation.






That does it for last month. Stay tuned next week for my 300 followers giveaway that might just include an ARC mentioned above :)

Not here, but there.

Today you can find me over at N. E. David's blog. We had a little chat about my NaNoWriMo novel. You can even read the first chapter! I'd love to see you all there :)

IWSG, New Year

Not only is it the first Wednesday of the month, but it's the first Wednesday of the new year! That, of course, means it's time for another post from the Insecure Writer's support group.

This month I want to talk goals. (I bet you weren't expecting that!) Last year I made a few goals and I set myself some deadlines. I didn't reach a single one of those milestones, but I'm still glad I set those goals. Even if I fell short, I still had those objectives in mind, and they pushed me to do more with my writing than I ever have in years past.

I'm always insecure about what I can really accomplish, so I'm going to lay out my goals for IWSG in hopes that I can gain strength from this support group to actually attain my dreams of publication.

1. Finish writing my current unnamed YA romance novel.

2. Polish Stealing the Stars, My NaNo novel.

3. Give my first oral pitch at a writers conference.

4. Polish said YA romance novel.

5. Self-Publish a Christmas Anthology that will feature some of my awesome blogging buddies :)

That alone should fill up 2013 writing wise (and I want to squeeze another book in there too if I can). Hopefully, I'll be able to accomplish all of it. But if not, I'll be happy if I accomplish at least two of these goals. Here's to an awesome 2013!