Monthly Archives: October 2011

Get Your Creep On YA Book Listing – 2011

Just in time for Halloween, here are some YA books that should fit right in with the creepy holiday this weekend.  Want to read scenes that’ll leave you tense, anxious, looking over your shoulder? Check out the list of YA books below where you’re bound to find some books that will fill your creepy/spooky/spine-tingling reading needs!

*bwhahahahaha*

Happy Spooky reading!

P.T. Michelle | BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS | http://amzn.com/B0058J4KSQ | dark-paranormal, romance | $0.99

J.A. Templeton | THE DEEPEST CUT | http://amzn.com/B0058HTU0G | dark-paranormal, romance | $0.99

P.R. Mason | ENTANGLEMENTS | http://www.amazon.com/Entanglements-Multiverse-ebook/dp/B005R0RPPG/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 | urban fantasy, romance | $0.99

CC James | Demon Trackers: The Anointed | http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Trackers-Anointed-ebook/dp/B0057PHJQ6 | horror, action/adventure | $0.99

Jo Ramsey | The Dark Lines 1: The Black Bridge | http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Lines-Book-One-Bridge/dp/0983419906/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318262818&sr=8-2 |paranormal, urban fantasy| $13.95 (print)

Tawny Stokes / DEMON WHISPERER / http://tinyurl.com/3kx2duj / horror, urban fantasy / $2.99

Nicole Zoltack | SEEING FOR THE FIRST TIME | http://tinyurl.com/3bh824a | paranormal, horror | $0.99

Helen Scott Taylor | A CLOCKWORK FAIRYTALE | http://amzn.com/B005JERQDG | fantasy, romance | $2.99

Stacy Juba | Dark Before Dawn | http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Before-Dawn-ebook/dp/B005PG7SXG/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318277666&sr=1-2 | psychic, paranormal |
99 cent sale through Halloween

Wilson Doherty | ASHLYN’S RADIO | http://amzn.to/qRrEEV | YA-paranormal, romance | $3.99

Maree Anderson | FREAKS OF GREENFIELD HIGH | http://amzn.com/B005M9TC3K | YA, paranormal | $2.99

Edie Claire | WRAITH | http://www.amazon.com/Wraith-ebook/dp/B005FR7NL2 | paranormal, romance | $0.99 sale through October 31st.

Andrew Culver | CAMP CANNIBAL | http://amzn.to/qpLFmd | YA horror | $0.99 | Note: This is New YA (where the main character is college-age)

Lori Devoti | DEMON HIGH | http://www.amazon.com/Demon-High-ebook/dp/B004IE9WLM | dark urban fantasy | $0.99
(right now $2.99 but price in process of changing…)

Kelly McClymer | BLOOD ANGEL | http://amzn.com/B005UJR5EU | dark-paranormal, fantasy | $0.99

Lena Coakley | WITCHLANDERS | http://www.amazon.com/Witchlanders-Lena-Coakley/dp/1442420049/ | dark-fantasy, action| $10.98 (print)

Nicole Chase | MORTAL OBLIGATION | http://amzn.com/B005F9YGN8 | vampire, dark-fantasy| $0.99

Angeline Kace | DESCENDED BY BLOOD | http://amzn.com/B005IQL6EA | vampire, dark-fantasy| $0.99

Addison Moore | Ethereal | http://amzn.com/B004U34BZS | angels, dark-fantasy| $0.99

Blog hops, blog appearances, giveaways & a new review!

Trying to catch up after being mostly off-line the last couple days.  I wanted to let you all know about chances to win a copy of BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS now and coming up!

The wonderful Rhianna is featuring BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS as one of her giveaways on her RhiReading blog for the SPOOKTACULAR BLOG HOP that’s going on right now through Oct 31st! She enjoyed BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS so much (click here to read her review), she’s giving away, not one, but THREE copies of BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS. I hope you’ll hop on over to RhiReading and enter. Thanks so much Rhi!

Also, coming up, I’ll be visiting the Booklovers, Inc blog on Halloween day, where I’ll ALSO be giving away a copy of BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS! Bwahahaha…

And here’s a recent wonderful review I received from Temara…

5 Stars ~ An amazing must read! “…I absolutely loved this book. It had me guessing and wondering until the end. Just when you think that you have something figured out though BAM P.T. Michelle throws you a curve ball. This book is amazingly well written and will keep you on your toes till the very end.

This book is action-packed, exciting, and intensley mysterious. BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS is an absolutely fantastic book if you love paranormal romance.”  Click here to read the entire review on Temara’s Anything and Everything blog.

Writing Tips – Mini Story Arcs Within Your Story’s Arc

The other day an author had a post on his blog where he talked about writing a weekly serial and how he had to write such that he always left off at a part where readers were dying to find out what happens next. That way they’d come back the following week and read the next installment. I commented that I naturally wrote in chunks of 2,500 – 5000 words at a time, which turned out to be very helpful. My writing process has evolved over the years such that with those 2,500 to 5,000 words I subconsciously include a small story arc within each chapter.

I thought the subject would make a great blog topic. Typically when people talk about ‘story arcs’, they’re referring to the plot line of the book. The story arc usually follows a bell curve style like this:

Story Arc: Where the beginning of the story starts out ramping up, then it peaks in the middle and then by the end, there’s the story’s resolution, leaving the reader fulfilled by time they finish the book.

Within every book, each chapter also includes its own tiny story arc. Each chapter will follow a similar pattern as the main story arc with the exception of an up-turn on the tail-end of the bell curve like this:

Chapter Arc: The goal here is that each chapter has a ramped up beginning, heightened middle and then a ramp down until you get near the end where the plot jumps back up yet again. This is a “hook” to keep the reader engaged and turning the pages.

So back to my comment on the author’s blog where I said, “I naturally write to 2,500 to 5,000 words per sitting.” What I meant was, each time I sit down to write, I’m leaving off at a highpoint (either at 2,500 words (ie, the middle of the chapter (the peak of the chapter bell curve) or at the end of the chapter (the up-turn right after the bell curve’s decline). In both cases, that’s a highpoint in the small chapter arc.

If you put all the chapter’s side by side within the story’s overall arc, they’d look something like this:

As you can see, each chapter arc moves upward, building upon the overall story arc, then peaking before coming back down to the final conclusion in the book.

This is how I “visually” see writing a story in my mind’s eye. It helps me in terms of pacing and avoiding the dreaded “sagging middle”.  Hopefully you’ll find it helpful to think in these “visual” terms. 🙂