Spring Fling G I V E @ A W A Y H0P

Spring Fling Giveaway Hop

May 1st - 7th

Hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & Eve's Fan Garden

Enter for a chance to win :

A signed copy of Kiss Me Crazy (book #3 of the Fitzgerlads)

and a surprise swag.

1. LIKE FITZGERALD FAN PAGE, on FB

2. Follow my blog AND leave a comment, including e-mail

3. follow me on Twitter

CONTEST IS US ONLY

Congrats!! Showers of Romance Books H0P

I used Random.Org to choose the winners, ladies.
Congrats to the following :

1.  Gale Adkins Nelson
2.  Aldelei Lumapas


I'll need your addresses, so e-mail me

Keep reading

SHOWERS of Romance BOOKS H.0.P.

Thanks to Kathy @ I Am a Reader Not a Write and Young A Day YA for hosting this hop.

I will be giving away e-copies of my books.

If you didn't know, I write both YA urban fantasy and adult romance with suspense--the Guardian Legacy series (YA) and teh Fitzgerald (contemporary romance with suspense-sassy women you can identify with and the men who put up with  their madness and fall in love with them) 

The Contest is International

2 Winner will get e-copies of my latest book:

Dangerous Love

To Enter

Fill out the raflecopter below

Congrats!!! The Fitzgeralds Hoppy Easter H.0.P

I used Random.Org to choose the winners, ladies.
Congrats to the following :

1.  Caro
2.  Crystal
3.  Lisa Fisher Walker

I'll need your addresses, so e-mail me

Keep reading

Bryan Cohen-The Happiness Blog Tour

Today I'm thrilled to once again host my author friend, Bryan Cohen. Center Stage, Bryan.

Bryan Cohen here, guest poster and author, promoting my new book The Post-College Guide to Happiness for The Happiness Blog Tour. I'm giving away free digital review copies of the book and doing a giveaway for paperback copies, audio copies and even a Kindle Fire! Read on and check out the info below the post.

"The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of Hell and a hell of Heaven."

- John Milton

Really?

Have you ever seen that segment on the late-night comedy show "Saturday Night Live," called "Really? With Seth and Amy?" In this segment, the anchors act as if they're talking directly to a figure in the news that is doing or saying something absolutely ridiculous. The bit is pretty hilarious, but have you ever thought of doing the same thing to your own complaints?

People like to say that something was "the worst" or that it was an "awful experience." Really? I do a lot of freelance work related to diseases in third-world countries and let's face it, there are plenty of people who have things a lot worse than you do. Compared to some of the people experiencing life in the slums of a poor country, you live in heaven. Sure, it may not be as good as some of the mansions and whatnot you see stars living in on television, but it's relatively amazing. You probably have a whole lot going for you and your complaining and blaming is "making a hell of Heaven," as Milton puts it.

What can you do to fix this problem? Being more grateful about the possessions you have and the wonderful past you've experienced can help. In addition, you can be more laid back about when bad things happen to you. Imagine that you're wearing a rain slicker against negativity and that these unfortunate incidents occur, they simply bead up and roll off of you to the ground. It's hard to do, but when you practice letting things slide more often, you get much better at it over time. I used to be hot tempered and would get into screaming matches with the people I loved. Practice hasn't made perfect, but I'm certainly much better in this area.

Dwelling on the negative things that happen to you is a tough habit to overcome, but it too can be shed. You are the one who gets to choose what you think about most of the time. Take that opportunity to think about things you have to look forward to and the people you care about. This is time spent very wisely and eventually it will become a habit to think in such a positive way.

If you are having a rough go of things and it's hard to think of anything positive, choose to have a positive attitude about it. This is what Milton talks about when he says you can "make a heaven of Hell." Choose to be strong and optimistic when times are tough and you will quickly see a change in your life.
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Bryan Cohen is giving away 61 paperback and audio copies of The Post-College Guide to Happiness and a Kindle Fire between now and May 7th, 2012 on The Happiness Blog Tour. All entrants receive a free digital review copy of The Post-College Guide to Happiness. Bryan hopes to give away at least 1,000 copies during the blog tour. To enter, post a comment with your e-mail address or send an e-mail to postcollegehappiness (at) gmail.com. Bryan will draw the names at the end of the tour. Entries will be counted through Sunday, May 6th.

Bryan Cohen is a writer, actor and comedian from Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with degrees in English and Dramatic Art and a minor in Creative Writing. He has written nine books including 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More, 500 Writing Prompts for Kids: First Grade through Fifth Grade, Writer on the Side: How to Write Your Book Around Your 9 to 5 Job and his new book, 1,000 Character Writing Prompts: Villains, Heroes and Hams for Scripts, Stories and More. His website Build Creative Writing Ideas helps over 25,000 visitors a month to push past writer's block and stay motivated.

Feel free to follow along with the tour at The Happiness Blog Tour Hub Page or on the book's Facebook Page.

HOPPY EASTER EXTRAVAGANZA

It is that time of the year when we celebrate spring and life. Thanks to Kathy @ I Am a Reader Not a Write and Yara @ Once Upon A Twilight for hosting this giveaway.

I'm working on books 5 and 6 of the Fitzgerald Family Series, a contemporary romance with suspense. No, my books are not erotica, no matter what you've heard. I write about contemporary men and women meeting either at workplace, or brought together through a common goal, and how they overcome obstacles, past and present, to find love.

Three of them are in the top 100 Romantic Suspense:

SLOW BURN is #23

DANGEORUS LOVE is # 80

MINE UNTIL DAWN is # 98

KISS ME CRAZY is contemporary romance without suspense...

 it is #56 in Women Fiction>Domestic Life

Stop by my fanpage on FB and meet the heroines of books 5 and 6: Fan Page of Ednah Walters

These books are stand alone. They are part of a series because some of the heroes and heroines belong to the same family.

Three winners will get:

1st-winner. A signed copy of Dangerous Love (book #4 of the Fitzgeralds)

2nd and 3rd winners. A signed copy of Kiss Me Crazy (book # 3 of the Fitzgeralds)

Each book comes with a mug of either Kiss Me Crazy or Mine Until Dawn (book #2) or Slow Burn (book #1)...I need to check my stash and see what I have.

TO ENTER (US ONLY):

Use the Rafflecopter below:

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VENTURING INTO OTHER GENRES

Writing both YA and Adult romance

“No, you don’t want to do that….stick with one genre…once people get used to your style in one genre, they’ll expect the same tone and level of sensuality in all your books.”

I heard it all but life is too short. I say, go where the muse takes you. Re-invent yourself. My muse slapped me upside down once and I’ve never stopped swinging both ways. No, I don’t mean between the sheets. I mean writing both YA and adult romance.

Is it easy? No. Making the mental transition from hot kisses that shoot adrenaline through your veins to PG-13 lip-locking can be painful. Is it fun? yes. The yo-yo-ing between YA and adult romance does wonders to your creativity.

So where did my tango with different genres begin? I could say…It started on a warm summer afternoon…*staring into space, pen between my teeth*...but I’d be lying. It started with my child. My pre-pubescent know-it-all daughter.

I had just finished the first draft of an untitled adult romance and was feeling mighty pleased with myself, sipping a glass of wine and contemplating a depraved, steamy picture for the cover, when my daughter walked into ‘my office’ with her nose buried in some YA book. No, it wasn’t Twilight. This was before Twilight. I think it was one of the Vampire Academy books. My office is actually a desk at an alcove in the bedroom of my 7 and 9 year old—they love to fall asleep to the rhythmic pounding of the keyboard and occasional chuckles when one of my characters says something witty…or dirty... depending on my mood.

Anyhew, my oldest daughter walked in laughing and stopped long enough to say, “Mom, you should write something like this. It’s amazing.”

Amazing, ashmazing…what did she know? What I heard was, “Why CAN’T you write something like this?”

“Sure, hun,” I responded casual-like but on the inside I was miffed.

Hadn’t I just spent 4 gruesome months with the hottest guy EVER and a pig-headed artist? Visited a speakeasy and walked through the underground tunnels of L.A.?(online of course) Interviewed a real portrait artist and visited a local studio to chat with another?(I really did) Hung out with Hotshot firefighters and drooled over their toned bods? Jealous? Wondering if I really did? I did. All these cool stuff in the name of writing the best adult romance ever. In fact, I was busy visualizing a shirtless hunk with tats on his arms breaking through billowing flames with the heroine in his arms when my daughter interrupted me.

So the challenge began. If I can write an adult romance, I should be able to write YA, right? Grinning like a villain master-minding the ultimate heist, I dove into the teen literary world, read everything I could find. Some plots were funny-I don’t do funny. Others were ridiculous, I don’t do that either. Then I thought, why not go for something different? Write about a love so forbidden hell and heaven will strive to keep the characters apart. Since they’re teens, they can get their Happily Ever After on book 3 or 5. It’s been done before you say? I say no, it hasn’t. Not when the Nephilim are involved. I had no idea fallen angels were going to compete with the fanged ones, but I finished that book and the Guardian Legacy was born.

I submitted the first Guardian Legacy books to agents. I got one agent interested, the über wonderful agent Leticia Gomez of Savvy Literary Agency. One phone call and we clicked. While she tried to find a home for AWAKENED, I went back to my shelved adult romance, my Hotshot firefighter with the body of a god and the artist he wanted to…use …tame…love. I reworked it to my satisfaction and finally came up with a title…SLOW BURN.

So enamored by the family I had created and still waiting for the call from my agent, I started working on my second and third adult book, MINE UNTIL DAWN and KISS ME CRAZY. Finally I got the call. My agent had sold AWAKENED…rah, rah, bring out the pom-poms. Through edits, the waiting and nail-biting, I polished the adult romances and started on my second YA book, BETRAYED, the next book in the Guardian Legacy series.

Is it crazy to switch back and forth between genres? Yep.

Is it fun? Absolutely.

So this is what I have in the YA series:

AWAKENED (prequel to the series was released late 2010)

BETRAYED (Officially book 1 is due to be released on June 5^th)

HUNTED (book 3 later this year….maybe).

The series, The Fitzgerald Family, has a strong following, so thanks to my many fans for loving this family and making the series a success. To date, I have published four:

SLOW BURN (Ashley Fitzgerald’s story)

MINE UNTIL DAWN (Jade Fitzgerald)

KISS ME CRAZY (Baron Fitzgerald)

DANGEROUS LOVE (Faith Fitzgerald)

Coming soon:

NOT YET NAMED (Eddie Fitzgerald…due late summer) 2012
NOT YET NAMED (Lex Fitzgerald's story...December 2012?)
Chase Fitzgerald and the cousins will follow in  2013.

Liek I said, doing more than one genre is not easy but fun. If you've read any of my books chime in.