What Gifts She Carried (The Grave Winner bk. 2): #petthecover!

Once again, Liliana Sanches, a.k.a. the Princess of Shadows, has outdone herself.

 

1333x2000

 

It makes me want to crawl inside it on eight legs and sneak up behind Leigh, just to see what would happen. 😉

 

I’m still not sure about the release date, but it will be soon! In the meantime, The Grave Winner is still on sale for a limited time for $4.99 on Amazon US and Amazon International!

The Grave Winner Birthday Bash with a Massive #giveaway!

birthdaycover

May 15, 2013 was the day my book baby released into the world. *sniff, sniff* It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by since then. I love that book, but I might love the sequel, What Gifts She Carried, even more.  It releases very soon, just so you know! 😉 And the cover! *flails*

 

But I digress, and while I’m digressing, I’ll remind you that The Grave Winner is still on sale for a limited time for only $4.99 on Amazon.

 

Now, take a look at this!

 

birthdaybashprizes

 

Grabby hands at all of it! To enter just click on the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’m going to keep singing “Happy Birthday”. Feel free to join me if you want! 🙂

The Grave Winner Has Been Reduced in Price! #ya #paranormal

In honor of its one year birthday, The Grave Winner has been reduced from $7.99 to $4.99 for a limited time!

Single tree in field during winter 2

 

Click here —-> Amazon

Grab your copy today! Also, stay tuned for details about the birthday bash I’m throwing with tons of prizes! And also, stay tuned for the cover reveal of What Gifts She Carried, book two of The Grave Winner series! It’s just as stunning as the first book’s cover!!!!

It’s Spring Break! *flings off bikini, then puts it back on again because NO*

Spring Break is heeeeere!
Spring Break is heeeeere!

My poor, poor neglected blog. I still think about you sometimes, and that’s usually as far as I get. I’ve been so wrapped up in life and my characters’ lives that I’m not 100% sure where the past few months have gone.

 

It all started with National Novel Writing Month in November. Oh my God, that month was killer. I’ve never done NaNoWriMo before, and I’m pretty sure I left my brain somewhere between weeks three and four. But I wrote over 50,000 words. Boom! Some of them are really ugly words, more like a string of nonsense that may have more to do with my waning supply of Pop Tarts than the actual story. But still! Words!

 

I did learn a few things about myself as a writer through NaNoWriMo though–I can breeze through dialog with hardly a clickety-clack pause. Give me two or three characters with tons to talk about, and I’m set. But for a pantster, someone who writes with only a vague idea of where they’re going, NaNoWriMo will tear your arms off and beat you with them. I did have an outline, but the further I got into the story, the more bare-bones it got. There are many instances where I wrote *something happens here but I don’t know what*. I think I’m going to leave that in and let the reader fill in their own blanks. Just kidding!

 

Anyway, this book is called Sail, and it’s a New Adult sexy ghost story in space. I’m thinking it will be ready for consumption by Fall 2014.

 

What else? Oh, yeah! I expect to have edits back on The Grave Winner book 2 sometime this week. I’m excited to jump back into Leigh’s head.

 

One more thing! See the sidebar on the right where it says Subscribe to Lindsey’s Insider Newsletter? It will be a happy day if you sign up because you’ll get cover reveals (the one for Sail is going to be AH-mazing!) before anyone else, never before seen excerpts, and contests just for newsletter subscribers. It’s different from my blog in that I will actually do something with it! 😉

 

Now, excuse me while I continue licking dishes clean. Hey, it’s Spring Break–I can do whatever!

The Grave Winner #BlackFriday #Sale!

Single tree in field during winter 2

 

My YA paranormal fantasy romance, The Grave Winner, is on sale for only $0.99! Have you already read it? You could gift it to someone else! Don’t have a Kindle? There’s an app for that so you can read it on other devices!

Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CRLM062/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0ATZS0GKGSM71RJ5TEY0&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1630083502&pf_rd_i=507846

 

Happy Book Birthday to HAUNTED CHEMISTRY

Two summers ago, when I should have been writing the sequel to The Grave Winner, I saw the open call from Entangled Publishing for romantic horror novellas. I was having a hard time with the sequel, and romantic horror is kind of my thing. Sequel or no, I had to write something, so around the first of July, I started what would become Haunted Chemistry. At the end of the month, I sent it in and geared up for the waiting.

 

Last October, I finally heard back. I remember reading that email again and again in a shock-induced fog. Entangled, publisher of fantastic, best-selling books, wanted…me? Uuuhhhhhh. And that’s when I started hearing colors, bright, happy colors that sounded kind of like a steady squeal.

 

So, yeah, Haunted Chemistry. Here’s the fantastic cover designed by Taria Reed, the blurb, and the buy links:

 

Haunted Chemistry 500

 

When bookish college co-ed Alexis heads to the laundry room in her new apartment, she runs into Ian Reese, the chem lab partner she crushed on all last semester. And the guy who stood her up on their first date. But she’s down for an awkward reunion, and no better place than her creepy laundry room.

 

Ian has every intention of making amends, but just when Alexis begins to trust him again, a new threat calls more than their future together into question. A ghost from the apartment’s past is hellbent on revenge, and if he wants to get his girl, he’ll have to get the ghost first.

 

Amazon

 

Barnes & Noble

 

I’ll be going on a blog tour all week with some other fab authors and their romantic horror novellas, too! One of the tour prizes will be a $50 gift card to the book retailer of your choice! I’ll post the tour schedule soon. Until then, happy haunting!

 

P.S. That sequel that was giving me trouble? It’s finished. I sent it to my publisher last week and they sent me a contract that very same day! My squeals have turned purple!!

 

Leigh Baxton Saves The World…And Goes On Vacation?

Hey. Leigh Baxton here, the main character from Lindsey’s The Grave Winner. I’m taking over her blog today because she said she’d kill off everyone in the sequel if I didn’t. Yeah, I know. She’s been in kind of a bad mood lately. She may or may not be mad at me because I gave her the run-around on book two for so long because I didn’t want to relive all those nightmares again. Can you really blame me? Someone needs electroshock treatment on her brain or a ten gallon bucket of rainbows, unicorns, and chocolate, and her name rhymes with Pindsey.

 

Anyway.

 

She wants me to say where I’d like to go on vacation. Hello? Anyone in there, Ms. Pindsey? I don’t have time for vacation! There are bad, bad things crawling through Krapper, Kansas. Didn’t you learn anything in The Grave Winner?

 

Uh-oh, guys. She’s giving me that look she gives her cat when he barfs up a fur ball on her pillow. Okay fine. CODY, WYOMING. That’s where I’d go. After I checked and rechecked and checked and rechecked again that no one was trying to kill me or my family or my friends and that the dead were resting peacefully in their graves. Then and only then would I go.

 

Why Cody, Wyoming? That’s where Tram used to live. He just told me in book two that it’s where his parents live, too. He talked about them like he really missed them, and they sound like really great people. I guess they’d have to be to have a hot and mysterious son like Tram. Also, it’s where the sorceress named Two is from. Coincidence? I’d like to find that out.

 

Oh, and also? I’m finished telling Ms. Pindsey what happened in book two. She just has to make it readable or whatever. A couple songs are helping her with the flow and tying it all together. The songs are actually kind of cool. This one’s “Oh Death” by Jen Titus:

 

 

And this one’s a creepy little number called “Come, Little Children” by Erutan.

Okay, I’m leaving now. Don’t forget to leave your flowers and other gifts for your dead loved ones at home, people. And never go to the graveyard at night.

 

Oh, one more thing! Ms. Pindsey is giving away 2 signed print copies, 2 e-copies, and 2 signed bookmarks, all international!!! Check out the Rafflecopter below.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(This is part of PJ Blog Tours Indie Summer Group Blog Tour. For the full tour schedule, click here and don’t forget to enter to win a Kindle Fire HD and gift cards!)

Ch-Ch-Changes: They’re Not Always a Bad Thing

 

 

Hurray! It’s time for MFRW’s YA blog hop, and I’m so excited to be participating! The theme for this hop is change, something that no one in the history of the planet can avoid. But change isn’t always a bad thing.

 

Take my main character, Leigh from The Grave Winner, for example (please don’t actually take her, though!) – one of the many changes she endures in this story is that her best friend’s brother suddenly takes an interest in her. She eventually realizes that this interest isn’t all that sudden, but her perception of him has changed now that she knows. She sees him for what he is – a hot jock who would do just about anything for her.

 

Of course, not all the changes that happen to Leigh are cute. She has just lost her mom, and as you can imagine, this leaves Leigh devastated. Her family now has to cope with the huge hole in their lives, and Leigh feels like she has to fill that hole with something. No, I can’t tell you what that something is. I can tell you, though, that it leads to very, very bad things…

 

Excerpts of all the YA authors’ books can be found here: YA_Hop_Excerpt_Book

 

Would you like a free e-book copy of The Grave Winner? Just leave a comment about how well you handle change or what the biggest change in your life has been so far and your email address! I’ll pick one random winner!

 

Single tree in field during winter 2

Summary:

Leigh Baxton is terrified her mom will come back from the dead — just like the prom queen did.

 

While the town goes beehive over the news, Leigh bikes to the local cemetery and buries some of her mom’s things in her grave to keep her there. When the hot and mysterious caretaker warns her not to give gifts to the dead, Leigh cranks up her punk music and keeps digging.

 

She should have listened.

 

Two dead sorceresses evicted the prom queen from her grave to bury someone who offered certain gifts. Bury them alive, that is, then resurrect them to create a trio of undead powerful enough to free the darkest sorceress ever from her prison inside the earth.

 

With help from the caretaker and the dead prom queen, Leigh must find out what’s so special about the gifts she gave, and why the sorceresses are stalking her and her little sister. If she doesn’t, she’ll either lose another loved one or have to give the ultimate gift to the dead – herself.

No Cops Were Called – Behind the Scenes of My Book Trailer

Last summer when I should have been writing book two of the The Grave Winner series, I decided instead to make a book trailer. I borrowed my boyfriend’s shiny new camera/video camera and skipped out into the backyard with it and a pitcher of water. The water wasn’t for drinking, though I probably should have since it was August. Triple digit heat sucks. Did I mention I live in Hell?

 

Anyway, I scooped some mud up onto the porch and poured the pitcher of water on it to – you guessed it – make mud! But I had to work fast because the water was already being sucked into the hot air by that silly thing called evaporation. I mushed my hands into the mud and proceeded to slather myself with it. Because, you see, I needed to turn myself into a zombie who’s just come back from the dead. Then I had to take a picture of myself walking all zombified. Because that’s what I do on hot afternoons.

Here are my sexy zombie legs. I guess I’m also part vampire. Look at all that pale!
You can kind of see my owl tattoo on my right ankle.
You can kind of see my owl tattoo on my right ankle.

I don’t have a fence in my backyard, so it’s quite possible my neighbors wondered what the deuce I was up to. Perhaps they knew I was just some crazy, procrastinating writer. Or maybe they thought I was really a zombie. Either way, no one called the cops, so yay!

 

After I cleaned myself up, I came inside and started messing around with Intelli-Studio. It’s this movie making program that came with BF’s camera. He’d used it previously to produce videos of our Washington, D.C. vacation and of our cat being silly. So, since he’d already given me a one-minute tutorial, I set to work on arranging the pictures and video in the order I wanted.

 

It turned out I probably could’ve used more than a minute long tutorial because apparently Intelli-Studio is for intelligent people, and I can only count to monkey. But I can be crazy stubborn, so I guess that helped me kind of figure it out. The program does have some cool bells and whistles and stuff, which is why I refused to switch to an easier to use program. Did I mention I’m stubborn?

 

The photos and videos I’d taken weren’t going to be enough for what I envisioned, so I scoured the internet for royalty free websites. I found everything I needed at www.canstockphoto.com. Not everything is free there, but the forest chase video, the kiss, and the scary lady were so perfect, I thought it was worth it to shell out a few bucks.

 

Now, I knew I wanted some movement with the scary lady picture because she’s pretty important. You can download Photo Story for free, and it lets you create movement with your pictures like zooming in on scary people so it feels like they’re chasing you. It’s not terribly difficult to use either.

 

By the time I got to this point, school had started and my book trailer production got pushed to the back burner. Then my computer died. All the work I’d done vanished. I blame Intelli-Studio for not letting me save my project anywhere other than the actual program. Guess how many four letter words I said on that day…

 

Luckily, I did still have all my pictures and everything I bought from canstockphoto.com saved to my flash drive. So, I started rebuilding everything. I was almost finished, but I needed my book cover, which I didn’t have yet, and some creepy music to make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you watched the video.

 

That’s when I found Incompetech.com.   I could spend hours at Incompetech! The catalog is giant, the music is high quality, and you can filter your search by genre or feel. I found two songs that were so perfect, I donated money to the website even though it’s all free. I also found the perfect ending sound to the video at freesound.org.

 

But guess what happened next? Since Intelli-Studio had it in for me from day zero, it picked up a glitch at Glitchville and threw it in my face by deleting my entire project. Oh, the words I said. The things I threw. To be honest, I probably should have called the cops on myself. BF and the kitty slinked around on top of the eggshells that spotted our floor for hours.

 

Then, because I’m a glutton for punishment, I started again at the beginning. You’d think I’d learn to switch programs! Give up! Have someone else do it! But no.

 

When I got my amazing book cover, I added it to my book trailer and was pretty much done. I declared it finally finished when I threw it up onto Youtube.

 

If you’re asking if I will ever make another book trailer again, the answer is NO! But I think it did turn out pretty great. Here it is in all its glory:  

Dear Book I Wrote…

Single tree in field during winter 2

 

Well, today is your big day! How does it feel? Are you nervous? Excited? Are you going to spew? Please don’t.

 

I’m proud of you even though you’ve prevented me from sleeping for about two months. I really wish I was exaggerating, but no. How many hours have I spent thinking about you, plotting you, getting feedback from you, worrying that you suck? Plenty, and I did most of that while I should’ve been sleeping. Sleep is for wusses though, right?

 

With my eyes half-open, I still think you look so pretty in your gorgeous cover. People tell me you look creepy all the time, and some even give me weird looks that I’m even associated with you. They’ll never understand our love. But some people won’t love you. In fact, some will hate you with a capital HATE. It’s cool, though. We’ll always have each other. Just keep being your gorgeous self.

 

I sometimes talk about the people living inside you like they’re real, which also elicit weird looks from some. That won’t stop me from doing it, though. To me, they are real, and if that makes me sound like a nut case, then maybe that store called Whaty-Whats really does sell straight jackets. Remember the smell of that store? Yum.

 

Anyway, I’m done rambling. Enjoy your book birthday. 🙂

 

Lindsey

 

The Grave Winner releases TODAY from Crescent Moon Press. As of this writing, it’s only available on Kindle, but will be available in paperback and other formats soon.

 

I have a lot of events coming up, so maybe you’ll see me around! Here’s the schedule:

 

Also, have you seen the trailer yet? I plan on doing a ‘making of’ post in the near future.