Monthly Archives: October 2011

Get Your Creep On – YA Book Listing

Get your CREEP on!

YA authors, share your darkest, spine-tingling books!

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought this month would be a perfect time to share some creepy books.

Do you have a Young Adult (YA) book with some awesome creepy or spine-tingling scenes…the kind that will make readers shiver and possibly fall asleep with the light on when they’re done reading? I recently posted on Twitter about how finding YA books with a good creepy factor isn’t that easy, but I know they’re out there. Here’s your chance to let others know about your book. Post your book in the comments on this blog post on or before 9pm EST, Oct 27th (post instructions are below). Then on the Friday before Halloween (Oct 28th), I’ll post a new blog with a list of all the “creepy” books compiled in one place so readers can check out your stories. The blog post will remain “stickied”/highlighted through Oct 31. 

Books will be listed in the order in which they were “commented” on in this blog post, so the sooner you post, the higher up the list your book will be. 😉 I hope you’ll join me in this fun promo opportunity for a chance to share your stories with others!

BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION:

1) Your book must be a YA story (available in either eBook or print on Amazon or B&N). This opportunity is open to traditionally published as well as self-published authors. If you list a book that isn’t classified as a YA on Amazon or B&N, I will not include it. ***UPDATE: I am personally looking up each of these buy links provided in the comments. If your book isn’t listed as a YA on Amazon/B&N (with the exception of NEW YA, ie, college age protagonists–I’ll accept those, but will note it’s NEW YA when I post it) I won’t include it in the listing. This is a YA listing.

2) Does your book contain scary, creepy or spine-tingling scenes?

3) ONE book per author

SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR COMMENT POST:

In your comment, provide:

1) Author name
2) Title
3) URL link to your book on Amazon OR B&N (only one purchase link, please)
4) Two keywords to categorize your book (examples of keywords: horror, action-adventure, romance, paranormal, mystery, sci-fi). Please don’t put more than two. Only two will be posted.
5) Price

** IMPORTANT: PLEASE POST YOUR COMMENT IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT **  To make my life easier and for consistency for potential readers scrolling down the list of books, I’ve provided an example for you below. Just copy and paste my example in the blog comment box, then replace my information with yours and hit “post comment”. It’s that easy!

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

NOTE: My blog is on moderation to combat spam. I will approve posts in batches so don’t worry that your comment didn’t go through.

I hope you’ll participate and please share this opportunity with other writing loops via Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, etc. I’d like to compile the biggest “scary/creepy/spooky YA” book listing that has ever been put together!

To show your support, you can put the GET YOUR CREEP ON banner above in your sidebar. Just paste the following code in your sidebar text “widget”:

<a href=”https://www.ptmichelle.com/2011/10/10/get-your-creep-on-ya-book-listing/”><img title=”YACreepLogo” src=”https://www.ptmichelle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/YACreepLogo.jpg” alt=”” width=”250″ height=”290″ /></a>

 

Best,

P.T. Michelle
https://www.ptmichelle.com

Scenic Sunday – The Sky’s the Limit

Good vs Evil Clouds - P.T. Michelle

The cloud photo above was so unusual because the sun was just hitting the tops of the trees and that one patch of clouds. My kids and I were laughing about the dark vs light because of the extreme colors. We called this one “Good vs Evil” clouds.  Then one of my kids said, “Hey, do you see the dog going after the ball?”  And sure enough it’s there. Do you see it? 🙂

Celestial Heavens - P.T. Michelle

This was the rarest thing I have ever seen… a pitch black night sky with pink clouds. Somewhere behind the dark sky the “already set” sun was still bouncing off the clouds and the bright moon helped reflect the colors. It was 9pm at night when I took this photo. This picture makes me think of celestial heavens. 🙂

Also, I wanted to share three more new reviews I received for BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS. I’ve posted a new page on my website where I’ve complied all the reviews HERE. The newest reviews will be marked with *NEW* beside them. Thanks so much to The Bookish Babes, The Bursting Bookshelf and Avery’s Book Nook for the awesome reviews!

Writing Tips – Worldbuilding

Brainstorming BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS's world!

On a message board I’m on, someone asked about worldbuilding, ie how do you do it.

I’ll admit, world building can be both fun (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!) and intimidating (MY WORLDS AND PLOTS GROW LIKE KUDZU, AND THERE I AM BLITHELY SPRAYING MIRACLE GROW ON THEM. Of course, after the fact, I can be found pulling my hair and wandering around the house mumbling, “How am I going to get all this into one book and the romance, too”), but I did try to find a way to answer the question that might help things click into place.

You know me…I gotta make it visual…well, at least relate it to something one can visualize. :wink: So here goes.

The Puzzle of Worldbuildlng

Try to relay tidbits of the world in the natural course of the story…via characters discussing things or visiting places or events happening where the world building can be woven in seamlessly piece by piece.

Maybe one way to think of laying out the mythology in the story is to do it the same way you would approach working on a 500 piece puzzle. For instance, the bits of your worldbuilding you DO know–the basic framework of your world–would flow easily early on in your story and should be slipped into place without much effort. Consider this first layer of worldbuilding like the puzzle’s outside pieces, where that one straight edge helps you form the main border.

Once all the outside pieces are placed, you then work your way inward, using the picture on the front of the puzzle box to help you decipher the colors and shapes stamped on the pieces, turning them until they all finally come together in a completed puzzle and overall picture. You do this secondary part of your worldbuilding via creative dialogue, action/fight scenes, flashbacks, dream sequences, a hunt for something/discovery of something, etc…anything that flows into the natural unfolding of the story. This deeper level of worldbuilding happens throughout every scene, even down to the last few pages.

P.T.