Cover Reveal: Beautiful and Broken by Sara Hubbard

I’m so excited to share author pal Sara Hubbard’s upcoming romance, BEAUTIFUL AND BROKEN. What a GORgeous cover!!! Congrats, Sara! 

Blurb:

Molly’s a hot mess and her life is falling apart.

Just when she thinks she’s about to get her happily ever after, her sister steps in to have an affair with her fiancé on her wedding day. Determined to bring Molly out of her funk, her friends take her out for a night on the town, only for her to go home with a professional boxer who pops in and out of her life when she least expects it. Her mother tries to push her back into the arms of her cheating ex, but forgiving Jason is the hardest thing Molly will ever have to do. And even if she can forgive him, does her happily ever after include her ex-fiancé, or the charming boxer with a shady past?

Excerpt:  To set up the scene, this happens shortly after Molly intervenes in a fight between Sawyer and one of his friends, and she inadvertently gets caught in the crossfire.

 

I’m to meet the client at the Red Line Coffee House the following day. It’s this little cafe on the main floor of the Dover Hotel— the same hotel I did the walk of shame at after sleeping with Sawyer. Sigh. Being here makes me uncomfortable and I massage the back of my neck as I feel a flush of heat in my face.

I check my watch and it’s twelve forty five. I’m fifteen minutes early and I’m dressed to impress, wearing my best outfit: a black pencil skirt and white silk blouse with a fitted red blazer and matching pumps that Jason bought me for Christmas last year. Looking down at them as I sit at the table near the counter, I can’t help but feel nostalgic.

Why can’t I stop missing him?

“This seat taken?” says a familiar, deep voice.

I begin to smile as I look up, but my smile quickly fades. Then my temper fires. Sawyer slides into the seat opposite me. He smile is timid, like he’s not sure if I’m happy to see him or not. Newsflash: I’m not. He wears brand name track pants and a henley shirt. His hair is freshly showered and damp, falling over his eyes so he flicks his head to push it back.

“Yes, it is. I’m waiting for someone.”

“Oh, really. A date?”

“That’s none of your business.” I fold my arms across my chest and sit up straight. I need to be on my toes with this one. I barely know him and yet everything about him disturbs me. “Haven’t you done enough damage?” I say as I lean in. He leans in to meet me.

He points to my face and drops his hand onto the table. “Your face doesn’t look so bad.”

I make a face. “Thanks. Just the kind of compliment every girl wishes for.”

He clears his throat and changes the subject. “Does it hurt?”

“What do you care? The damage is done. Now if you don’t mind, I’d really rather not see you ever again.”

“Dane said you were insulted that I sent him.”

“I’m not a gold digger. And you if you wanted to make things right, you could have come to the hospital and apologized instead of sending your lawyer. I mean, it’s not like we’re complete strangers, is it?” I feel the heat pooling in my cheeks. I really don’t want to think about that night we spent together. I can barely remember it anyway, but the look on his face, the frown and the head tilt, I wonder if he remembers me at all—other than our incident at the party.

“Did we hook up?” He points to his chest and mine.

I want to slap him across the face. Okay, we were both drunk, but could he make me feel any smaller? The heat in my cheeks burns hotter, this time from anger. At least I remembered sleeping with him—sort of. The least he could do was afford me the same courtesy.

“I wasn’t at my best when I saw you at the party,” he adds.

“No. We didn’t.” I look away hoping he doesn’t see through my lie.

He shifts in his seat and taps his thumbs on the table. His eyes go blank, as if he’s somewhere else.

“I am sorry about the…” He points to my head.

I take a deep breath and study his face. Somewhere on the edges of his cheeky smile, I see a flash of sincerity. As much I’m decided on accepting his apology, now is not the time for making amends. I have more pressing things to deal with. My watch reads one-oh-five.

“What were you even fighting about? Let me guess, a girl? Maybe the girl you slept with at the party? Real classy, by the way.”

He scratches at the scruff on his cheek and takes a deep breath. “How did you know about the girl?”

“I was in the bathroom when I heard your marathon sex session.”

“Wow.”

I expect him to be embarrassed, to blush or something, but he doesn’t. He just looks a little surprised.

He massages the back of his neck as he chuckles. “This really isn’t going the way I planned.”

“Listen. We’re cool. I accept your apology, but you need to go, all right? I’m waiting for a client.”

“A client, huh? What kind of work is it that you do?”

I glance around the room. I have no idea who I’m looking for. Dina said the client would find me. “Real estate.”

“Really. Well now that’s a coincidence, because I’m in the market for a new house.”

 

Available February 16^th on Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Are.

Add to Goodreads

Find more out about Sara Hubbard and her books HERE

Cover art by: Stephanie White of Steph’s Cover Design

Buh bye 2013, Hullo 2014!

Phew, 2013 is almost over! Gotta say, it’s been a pretty tough year on multiple fronts. BUT, it’s ending on a high note–YAY!!

After several months of negotiating, I’ve started a new day job. It’s been a huge shift moving from a job where I had to juggle acute inpatient stabilization of folks, outpatient medication management, hospital psychiatric consultation, and mental health medication management in collaboration with the HIV specialists to a more focused role working with patients in the crisis intervention unit and crisis inpatient unit. It’s a different aspect of the continuum of psychiatric care and I see people in the most acute (high level of symptoms) stages of their illnesses. Since my first year of residency (8 1/2 years ago!), I knew I wanted to do Psychiatric ER work and I’m finally able to do it!

My new schedule (second shift, AKA evenings) allows me to be free of the alarm clock (except for Saturday mornings, LOL) AND I have more energy to write in the morning. After only a couple weeks, I feel much more refreshed and energized. Talk about a relief!

On the writing front, I struggled with burn out. Like SERIOUS I’m-gonna-quit-writing burn out. It was after writing and re-writing THREE novels in a FOUR month period of time. I met all my deadlines and polished up the manuscripts until they sparkled, but by the end, all my creative juices had been used up. *sad face*

Looking back, I can say the hard work paid off. But LORD, I wouldn’t want to have to do it again!

Anyway, born out of this revolving door of drafts, edits, and copyedits are:

TSAVO PRIDE (a self-pubbed, YA paranormal romance/horror short story spin-off to NEW PRIDE and SHIFTING PRIDE)

ENDURE ( YA Dystopian pubbed July 2013)

EVOKE (YA Dystopian; sequel to ENDURE; coming January 20, 2013 by Renegade YA)

THE ZODIAC COLLECTOR (YA adventure coming May 2014 by Spencer Hill Press)

 

PLUS, I have an essay in the Indie-pubbed collection titled: INDIESTRUCTIBLE: INSPIRING STORIES FROM THE PUBLISHING JUNGLE. 100% of proceeds are donated to BUILDON.org, a movement which breaks the cycle of poverty, illiteracy, and low expectations through service and education.

So, what’s in store for 2014?

• I somehow got my writing mojo back in late 2013 (like Nov/Dec late, LOL!), so I’m not quitting. 😉
• EVOKE and THE ZODIAC COLLECTOR will hit the virtual shelves as E-books and paperbacks.
• SUNSET MOON, a YA novella, will go through editing and polishing for a LORE anthology.
• BEAT, a YA thriller will be drafted (hopefully I’ll finish it by the end of February).
• I *might* try querying agents again. *bites fingernails*
• I NEED to get through my gargantuan (and still growing) TBR pile.

Ok, so it’s your turn to share. How was your 2013 and what’re working on in 2014?

Indie Life–Indiestructible!

It’s the second Wednesday of the month–HOW DID IT GET TO BE MAY???–and it’s time for another Indie Life post.

Banding together and helping one another is a big part of the Indie Life and today I’d like to share a collaborative effort among a talented bunch of authors–an anthology titled: INDIESTRUCTIBLE. It’s a collection of essays highlighting the inspiring path of Indie publishing, spearheaded by none other than Jessica Bell.

From Jessica’s post:

It’s an anthology I’m compiling and editing called,INDIESTRUCTIBLE: INSPIRING STORIES FROM THE PUBLISHING JUNGLE, which will launch September 16, 2013. It will be sold as an eBook for 99c for the first six months. During that time I will donate 100% of the profits to BuildOn. After that, it will be free forever.

This book will bring you the experiences of 28 indie authors—their passions, their insights, their successes—to help other authors make the leap into indie publishing. This is not a how-to guide. This is the best of the indie tradition of experienced authors paying forward what they’ve learned, giving you information to help you on your journey. The personal essays in this book will leave you itching to get your work into the hands of readers and experience, first-hand, all the rewards indie publishing has to offer.

(Jessica was kind enough to invite me to submit and essay too–ain’t that cool?!?!)

Jessica is asking anyone willing and able to help spread the word. There’s a sign up sheet HERE and a post by Jessica with more DEETS. Please do check it out.

If you’d like to add the book on Goodreads, click HERE.

A link to Buildon.org, an organization to fight illiteracy (and where proceeds from the sale of INDIESTRUCTIBLE will be donated).

Thanks!

 

 

 

What is Indie Life?
How: Sign up on the Linky at the bottom of this page
When: Post on the second Wednesday of the month (starting 1/9/2013)
What: Write anything indie related: something that will inspire or help a fellow indie; something that celebrates a release or a milestone; something that talks about the ups and downs, joys and heartaches of Being Indie.
Grab: The banner above to include in your posts!

Because being Indie doesn’t have to mean going it alone.

JOIN US FOR INDIE LIFE!

 

 

INDIEpendence Day Is Coming Up!

The Indelibles are hosting an INDIEpendence Day blog hop (July 2-5) celebrating Indie authors. Lots of bloggers have signed up, so be sure to see who they’re highlighting as their favorite indie author.

I’ve got THREE indie authors that I look up to…mainly because of their great writing AND their perseverence to keep going NO MATTER WHAT!

Kendall Gray

She is the author of the JUST BREATHE series. It’s FAB!!!!!! The characters are hot, the scenes are hot, the action is…well, it’s hot. Seriously though, Kendall weaves together an intricate plot flawlessly while developing unique, fallible, and breathtaking characters. (Pun INtended.)

February Grace

She is the author of GODSPEED, a steampunk romance. I love the tone of Bru’s writing. It really creates an irresistible “mood.” I could totally picture myself being THERE with the characters. Actually, I’d kind of like to hang out with them sometime.

Christine Fonseca

She is the author of the Requiem series. I “met” Christine a while back and she’s helped me improve my writing by leaps and bounds. I love the TENSION Christine creates in her writing. She just doesn’t LET IT GO! Makes me literally feel what the characters feel.

NICE JOB, LADIES!!!!!!!

Who’s your favorite indie author?

Author Interview with February Grace

I’m SO excited to host February Grace, author of GODSPEED, today. If you don’t have this book on your TBR list, do so now please and then read this post when you get back, because February answers questions about what inspires her and how she developed the characters of GODSPEED.

1) How did you get interested in writing?

 

I’ve been thinking up stories since before I could write, but it was really in fourth grade that I fell in love with writing.

 

I was an outcast then (bullied a lot) because my family didn’t celebrate holidays, and there was a lot of class time spent on holiday projects. So my wonderful teacher got me a library pass and permission to use the projectors and set me up with a project: watch short films of the beginning of fairy tales and rewrite the endings. I was in love- I was hooked, and that was it. I was a writer.

2) What inspired you to write GODSPEED?

 

I have always wanted to write a romance that wasn’t ‘dated’ so to speak, something that could stand up five, ten years after it was written without seeming stale. I grew up loving Jane Eyre and loved those dark and brooding leading men, so always wanted to write one of those, too.

 

Add to that my fascination with gears and clocks and machinery and I wanted to create a hybrid story, a romance that included all that.

 

But it was only because I was very, very ill and up late one night listening to the ticking of a three-faced clock that the idea for Godspeed actually happened. So yes, in the end I owe the novel to that clock and the desperation I felt at the time I really noticed for the first time how it sounded as all three faces ticked in unison.

3) How did you decide to go Indie?

 

It wasn’t a quick decision– I often doubted I’d publish at all, ever, in any way. I never really had the drive to publish until I went blind, then after I got some use of my sight back, I don’t know why, it suddenly became very important to me not just to write but to share that writing with other people.

Two years ago I decided to query two agents- knowing absolutely nothing about how you’re supposed to do it. Even so, one asked for a full on my first query ever (on my first manuscript, not this one) immediately. The other rejected me in seven minutes flat.

 

Eventually the first agent passed on the MS but invited me to send more work- but by the time I felt I was ready I had already learned how the industry works and was afraid, frankly, of getting chewed up in the machinery. I can’t grow a ‘thicker skin’ as it were- have never been able and I doubt it’ll happen at my age (I turn 41 this month). I also worried about giving up control over characters, plotline, cover art, all of that. Every aspect to me goes to the telling of the overall story, and so is very important to me.

 

I was convinced I was going to continue to practice what I referred to as the “Dickinson Method” in which I put everything I wrote into a trunk for my progeny to sort out after I was dead. But then a funny thing happened- through a series of events not to be believed- I subbed some of my poetry and prose and it was published! Then some more. By the time a few literary magazines had accepted my work, and I had Godspeed (my third novel MS) finished and my betas were encouraging me to go through with publishing it, I thought…what if?

 

It was a short hop from ‘what if’ to ‘OMG it’s on Amazon’. Of course I had help, with my health I couldn’t have done it alone. I hired a cover artist, an amazing copy editor, and a dear friend volunteered to do the formatting for me. And I am grateful. I know Indie is the right choice for me and I am so glad that I went through with it.

4) I loved your voice in this novel. So classic, lyrical, romantic–it evoked a feeling of nostalgia, of Victorian properness, and of gentility. How did you develop it?

 

Thank you very kindly for saying so.

 

I didn’t develop it, actually- I can’t develop voice. For me, creating characters is like meeting people. When you meet someone, you don’t assign them their traits or how they talk, they just are who they are. So are characters to me. I hear them, and I take down what they say. I just try my best to tell the world who they are, as I know them.  I hope I did the characters in this book justice, they all became very dear to me. The voice in this book, as I see it, is Abigail’s.

5) How did you develop the characters in GODSPEED?

 

The idea for Quinn came to me first, of course, and the rest just fell in line and introduced themselves, as it were, as I went along. One of the characters was very, very vaguely inspired by a person I met in real life, but I’m not going to tell you which one (sorry) LOL.

6) Is there going to be a GODSPEED II?

 

Actually…I am not planning a sequel to it. I feel like it’s a stand alone, and I think to continue the story from the ending would diminish the ending. You can never say never, of course, but I am afraid that I’d have to say the answer is, most likely, no. Will I write something else? Gosh, I hope so.

7) What’s your favorite genre to read?

 

I read a lot of non-fiction. Books about how the brain works, books about temperament theory and personality types. I love learning about what makes people tick. I’m an Idealist Counselor by temperament myself (INFJ) so that’s true to type.

 

I also love to read poetry, the old school stuff, Tennyson, Yeats, Keats. I read much more of that than I do genre fiction. WIth my limited use of my impaired eyesight a book really has to catch my attention for me to commit to what it takes for me to read it. I can’t read like I used to, like people with healthy eyes. So it takes me a very, very long time.

8) What’s your favorite book?

 

Ohhh, I can’t pick one, has to be one sci-fi and one classic. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. With The Scarlet Pimpernel thrown in for good measure there, too.

9) If you found a genie in a lamp, what three wishes would you wish for?

 

I’m going to guess you mean for myself, and not “world peace” or an end to hunger and poverty or prejudice because if that was possible I’d have wished those for sure already.

 

Two of the wishes, I really can’t say because they’re very dear to my heart and I’d cry. The dearest one, I will tell you, would involve my daughter. 

 

The last wish, though, I can tell you for sure.

 

I’d want to be healthy, even if only for one day. I’ve never been healthy in my life and my earliest childhood memories are of being in pain. Just one day I would love to wake up, be able to see, eat, walk, move, do the things normal people do every day, without feeling it. Yeah, one healthy, happy day…that would be amazing. If possible I’d like to spend that day somewhere really pretty.

10) What was the best present you’ve ever gotten?

 

I don’t know if you can call it a present per se, but I would have to answer, getting some use of my eyesight back. Being able to see colors again, the faces of the people you love, and the words you’re typing on the screen…there is no material gift I can think of that can measure up to that. I am very grateful…to all my doctors.

 

Thank you, Laura, so much for hosting me! These questions were amazing!

 

Thanks, Bru! It’s been a blast hosting you today. BEST OF LUCK with GODSPEED!!!!!!!

Flake-out Friday–Wrapping Up Kendall Grey Week With A Cover Reveal

JUST BREATHE Cover Reveal & Behind the Scenes Pics

 

JUST BREATHE, the final book in Kendall Grey’s JUST BREATHE urban fantasy trilogy is coming soon to a book seller near you! Kendall enlisted photographer Teresa Yeh to shoot a custom cover image of Gavin and Zoe’s clasped hands. Check out these pics from the photo shoot:

 

Awesome body painter Vonetta Barry goes to work on model Bradley Nethercutt’s “tattoos.”

 

 

Vonetta paints a whale.

 

 

The crew sets up.

 Models Hope Danielle Smith and Bradley Nethercutt posing as Zoe and Gavin.

 

 

Photographer Teresa Yeh goes to work!

 

 

The whole crew!

 

 

And the winner is…

Once Kendall chose her favorite picture, she turned it over to the talented Claudia McKinney from Phat Puppy Art. Claudia added an ocean backdrop and a whale fluke, then mixed in a little of her creative magic. Here’s the final product:

 

The first book in the trilogy, INHALE, is available now in paperback, Kindle, and Nook versions. Book 2, EXHALE, should be out in early July. JUST BREATHE is scheduled for release in August.

Body Painter: Vonetta Barry — http://vonettaberry.carbonmade.com

Painting Assistant & Behind-the-Scene Pictures taken by Keston Sylvester-Carrington

Male Model: Bradley Nethercutt

Female Model: Hope Danielle Smith

Photographer: Teresa Yeh — www.teresayeh.com

Photo Assists: Abdul Khan & Chelsea Baucom

 

~~~~~~~~

Blurb for JUST BREATHE:

He sacrificed his soul to the devil he hates to spare the heart of the woman he loves…

After a terrible accident rocks the foundation of their relationship, Gavin Cassidy, leader of the Sentinels who protect humans in Australia, and whale biologist Zoe Morgan call it quits on their short-lived affair. He can’t come to terms with the trust he inadvertently shattered, and being with him is killing her. Literally.

But love is a powerful motivator, and neither biology nor misguided oaths sworn to mortal enemies is strong enough to keep them apart, despite the fact their new paths are on a collision course that can only end badly. When Gavin’s illicit alliance with his most hated foe threatens to betray millions of innocents to ruthless Fyre Elementals, Zoe vows to sacrifice everything – including the whales she loves – to stop him from making the biggest mistake of his life.