Author Interview & E-book Giveaway!!!

Thank you to, Richard for agreeing to do an author interview and giveaway on my blog. It's greatly appreciated!!

Bio: Richard Denney lives and breathes in El Paso, Texas. His favorite things to do are thrift shopping, reading, writing, devouring sour gummy worms and watching his favorite television series "The Vampire Diaries". (source)


He has written novels such as, Unbreakable, Violet Fury, and The Immortalists . Go to his Goodreads page, here to see the rest of his novels. 


================================


Can you tell us a little about your upcoming book, "Hollow"? 
I can't really say much since it's a book you have to read on your own, because of the mystery. But I will say that it's dystopian without a rebellion and there's some very creepy  things happening to the main character Leah.
The reason I say without the rebellion, is because most YA dystopian novels have this giant thing going on where the government is doing this very ugly thing to everyone or there's a future where men are separated from women and on and on... I didn't want
to go that route. I wanted to go my own way and do something different. So even though it's a dystopian novel, it plays on it's own field.


Would you share some of your earlier work with us..
"Hollow" right now is receiving a lot of hype and I'm so happy readers are excited for it. Then there is my debut "A girl's guide to falling in love with a zombie"
which did really well for my first book and since I'm a self-published author. "A girl's guide to falling in love with a zombie" is a very fun take on zombies and romance
and has been said to be "outrageously hilarious and action packed.".

If you could see any one of your books made into a movie, which one? and who would you cast? 
"The Immortalists" I would flip out if it were made into a movie. It's my middle grade debut and I love it so much.
it's also my third novel which comes out October 25th 2011. it will be available on amazon.com and goodreads.
I love the world in that book and the characters are my favorite. It would be an epic movie.

How do you react to a bad review?
I brush it off and say "Oh well." because if you dwell on bad reviews
you are going to ruin yourself. You have to have a strong heart to be an author.
Not everyone will love your work. My grandfather once said "a thousand people will hate your book. But there will be that million will love it."
he meant that you can't please everyone and there will always be the people that LOVE the hell out of your books and stick with
you until the end.

Can you see yourself in any of your characters? 
No. But I'd love to be like Owen from my second novel "Hillserpent Academy"
he stands up for himself all the time and he never lets anyone tell him what to do.
I love him.

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would the title be? 
I honestly have no idea. if that were to happen I'd be in awe and wouldn't even be
able to come up with a title even then.

What is your favorite Quote? 
"Authors don't choose a story to write. The story chooses us." - RICHARD DENNEY
it's a quote I made up because a lot of people seem to think that authors choose to write what they write, but in truth
the story comes to us. There are some authors that choose, but most of us let the story come to us.

One food you would never eat? 
Onions. I absolutely hate onions.

Pet Peeves? 
Eating with your mouth open. The sound of it grosses me out a lot.

If you could travel in a Time Machine would you go back to the past or into the future? 
PAST!! I'd love to visit the 1950's. It's my favorite era, minus the bad things that were going on.

If you could meet one person who has died who would you choose? 
Marilyn Monroe. I look up to her and would have loved to meet her.

If you could have any superpower what would you choose?
Levitation. I need that for when I'm too lazy to grab my coffee mug from the kitchen counter.

Bookmark or dog ear? 
Bookmark! 100% I could not damage pages.

E-book or old school? 
OLD SCHOOL! I don't mind eBooks but I can't read them. For some reason it's just not the same as a physical book.

Where can we find you online??? 
I'm on Goodreads, Twitter, Blogger, & YouTube.
links below.

FIND ME & MY BOOKS HERE:
BLOG: http://thebookwhore.blogspot.com/ 
GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/richarddenney 
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/RichardDenney88 
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrRichardDen...

thanks for the interview!!
and I hope everyone enjoys the e-giveaway!!!!
- RICHARD DENNEY


============================


Richard has kindly agreed to allow me to do a giveaway as well.


Contest ends November 4th!





Fill out the form above to be entered to win; Hillserpent Academy! 

Owen Davinforth has been expelled from Hillserpent Academy for the last eight months & now he is permitted to return. But things have changed at the academy & not for the good. Owen's falling for a new guy, a dark force is working it's way around the school & it's aiming for Owen. Can he stop who or what it is before it's too late? What lies behind these gates? You will soon know.

In My Mailbox & GIVEAWAY!!

In My Mailbox is hosted by The Story Siren






I have another giveaway going on, it end's October 25th!! So please go HERE to sign up for the giveaway..

Stay until the end of THIS post to enter my other giveaway. =)

For Review: (Click on titles to be taken to goodreads page)

The Popularity Papers 
You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis
Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

AND....

The author of, Dearly, Departed sent me a poster.. I was SO excited to get this!! I haven't gotten any poster's or anything like that from an author. So I was super excited when I got the mail and seen this package. Since this was the first poster sent me I am going to keep that for me.. BUT, I am going to offer 4 random people a bookmark, a sticker and a postcard that the author sent me, ALL signed!!! How awesome is that??

To enter..

Must live in the US
Leave a comment with your name and e-mail...
If you are a follower (old or new) comment below and let me know, will enter you for 2 extra entries into the contest. =)

Contest ends October 21st!!!

HUGE Giveaway!!

I haven't had a giveaway on my blog in a really long time. There were books sitting on my shelf that I know I will not read anytime soon, so I decided to do a HUGE giveaway!
I am over 400 followers, how awesome is that? I figured that if I get to 500 follower's before this contest is over with I will add swag to 1 person's win. This will be bookmarks and thing's like that, that have been sent to me by author's.

On to the giveaway.

The books are: (Click on the title to be taken to that book's goodreads page)

Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle
I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci
Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
The Goblin Gate by Hilari Bell (ARC)
Running Around (and such) by Linda Byler
When Strawberries Bloom by Linda Byler
Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern
The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Trapped by Michael Northrop (ARC)
Everything Sucks by Hannah Friedman
Mr. and Mrs. Anonymous by Fern Michaels
Law of Attraction by Allison Leotta

I forgot to add an e-mail address.. PLEASE be sure to leave your E-MAIL so I have a way to contact you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!!

Review: Between

                                                                  Tweet

Title: Between
Author: Jessica Warman
Published: August 2, 2011

Elizabeth Valchar--pretty, popular, and rich--wakes up the morning after her eighteenth birthday on the yacht where she'd been celebrating with her closest friends. A persistent thumping noise has roused her. When she goes to investigate, she finds her own drowned body is hitting the side of the boat. Liz is dead. She has no memory of what happened to her, and can only observe in horror the fallout of her death. She's also soon joined by Alex Berg, a quiet boy from her high school who was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The two keep each other company, floating in and out of memories and trying to piece together the details of what happened to each of them. 

5 Stars

Review: First of all, I absolutely love the cover of this book. Sort of spooky in a way but very mysterious and it fit's this book perfectly.
The book start's off with a girl named, Liz. Liz is the popular girl in the school, normally a girl in a book like this get's on my nerves, only because stuck up girl's in real life get on my nerves that act like that, but Liz didn't. As the book kept going she started seeing her bad way's and how she was, and after she learn's something horrible that she did to someone who has become her friend she changes, for the better.
Right at the beginning of the book, Liz is dead. Everyone is saying that it's an accident, she was celebrating on her parent's boat with a few of her friend's for her birthday and they were drinking. The really fun part of this book is that right after she dies someone else who is dead come's to her, his name is, Alex and he was killed a year earlier and no one has discovered who it was that killed him. As the book goes on it turns into a mystery. Around chapter Nineteen, I sort of figured out who the person might have been, I wasn't a hundred percent sure but I had a good guess and as the book went on and it got to the end, I was right! I love when I read a book and it turn's out that i'm right. Saying that though, the book was not predictable, I have read some mysteries where the ending was so predictable that it took away from the story, that was not the case with this book.
Really enjoyed this book and will for sure be reading another book by Warman.

First Line: It's a little after 2 a.m. Outside the Elizabeth, things are relatively quiet.

Author's Website/ Amazon/ GoodReads

Waiting On Wednesday:

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.


Title: Shift
Author: Nicole Maggi
Publication Date: 2013
Since the book isn't going to be released until 2013, I couldn't find a cover for it yet, but if you click on the title above it will take you to the GoodReads page. =)

Alessia Jacobs is a normal sixteen-year-old, dying to get out of her small Maine town. Things start to perk up when a new family comes to town, complete with a super-hot and mysterious son, Jonah. But just as she begins to crush on him, Alessia’s world is turned upside down. She has visions of transforming into an otherworldly falcon, and soon learns that she is a part of the Benandanti, an ancient cult of warriors who have the unique power to separate their souls from their bodies. In this transformed state, their souls take on the form of magnificent animals. Little did Alessia know that her small boring town is actually the site of an epic struggle between the Benandanti and their enemy, the Malandanti. Both sides are fighting to gain control of a powerful magic in the forest that surrounds the town. As Alessia is drawn deeper and deeper into the Benandanti’s mission, and her relationship with Jonah intensifies, her life spins out of control. Unable to maintain the balance between her two identities, everything begins to fall apart and her two worlds collide with devastating consequences.

Review: Text Order Bride

Title: Text Order Bride
Author: Kristen Osbourne
Amazon E-book: $0.00 .. (I downloaded this to my Kindle and as of right now it's still available for Free.)

In this short story, Amanda, a home making teacher from Texas, believes that love has passed her by. She agrees to start communicating with someone her friend knows in Wisconsin, because she wants children, not because she believes that there is love out there waiting for her.
When, after two months of communicating, Jason proposes, she agrees, thinking it is her last chance for a husband and children. Love doesn't enter into it. After she meets Jason, she isn't so sure about that part of things.

5 Stars

Review: I gave this book 5 stars, only because it was SO cute. I sat down and read it in one sitting. It's a very short story but it gets all of the points across without leaving you guessing. I have personally never read a book that had to do with meeting and marrying anyone from online. I have heard about it in real life but have never read a book like this and I think that is what made me enjoy it even more. Towards the end, even with the story being so short, you could tell that they both loved each other.. I just loved that there was no guessing at the end and it was just a really sweet book...

Teaser Tuesday: "Between"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 My Teasers:

"Maybe I needed the catharsis. The memory that I slip into, alone, feels as good as a long soak in a warm tub. It's prom night, junior year- the same night, I realize, when Richie and I ran into Joe Wright while our car was parked at the beach."

-pg 267.. "Between" by Jessica Warman

Author Interview: Mary Lindsey

Mary Lindsey's debut young adult novel, SHATTERED SOULS, is scheduled for release December 8, 2011 from Philomel/Penguin.

Having received a B.A. in English literature with a minor in drama from the University of Houston, she currently teaches acting to children and teens at a private studio in Houston, Texas.

Mary lives with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon, and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette from the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

===========================

Congrats on the upcoming release for your debut novel, Shattered Souls.. Can you tell us a little about the book?

Thank you! Shattered Souls is a Young Adult paranormal romance. It is a ghost story set in modern times, but because it contains reincarnation, it has some historical elements, primarily centering around The Great Storm of 1900. A synopsis of the book can be read on my website here: http://www.marylindsey.com/shattered_souls/index.php

Are you working on anything right now that you could share with us?

Yes! Penguin has bought my dark Young Adult Gothic novel based on Edgar Allan Poe's last poem, "Annabel Lee." It doesn't have a final title yet, so we're just calling it Annabel. It is scheduled for release Summer of 2013. 

Where is your ideal place to write?

I like to write at my river house. There is no internet, TV, and very sporadic cell coverage. I'm heading down there this week, in fact. 

I have to have a lot of light wherever I am, so my office has a huge window: 

I also like writing in my breakfast nook because of the light:

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

No! Like most kids, I composed stories, but I never wanted to be a writer. I was (and am) first and foremost a reader.

I majored in English with a focus on the classics and great works. A majority of my writing in college was literary analysis; in law school, it was technical writing and briefs. I avoided creative writing like the plague. I thought I was terrible at it. It was too hard to come up with stuff that wasn’t lame (It still is).

What is the greatest challenge to you as a writer? 

Juggling home life with writing. I'm the mother of three teens and that's a full-time job in itself. 

If you weren't a writer, what would you be?

I was a teacher prior to being a writer. I love it and would do it again in a heartbeat. 

What are you reading at the moment?

An Edgar Allan Poe anthology. 

What is your all time favorite book? If you can't pick just one, top 3.

I love the Harry Potter series. 

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?

It depends on the work. I prefer tidy endings in some ways because I don't usually have the time to sit down and read an entire series. I hate waiting to find out what happens. 

Bookmark or dog ear?

If it's my book, I dog ear...and take notes...and whatever. Books are to be consumed.  If it is borrowed, I treat it like gold. I like reading books I own best. 

An item you can't live without?

My iPhone. It makes my life so much easier.

Next vacation destination?

New Orleans. We go every Christmas. 

Good luck charm?

My plush sheep, Beeyaaa. He's a mascot of sorts (you can see him in my office picture above). 

E-reader or old school?

E-reader all the way. I love my Kindle. 

Where can we find you online?

All my networking sites are down the left bar of my website home page: http:///www.marylindsey.com 

Thank you so much, Trisha for having me on your blog today!


====================
Thank you, Mary for doing an author interview for my blog. I love the picture's of your house, it's beautiful!!!! I can't wait to read, Shattered Souls..

Book Blogger Tuesday is Back!!!!!!!!!

A while back I had started a new feature on my blog called "Book Blogger Tuesday" I haven't been blogging a lot for the past year. My husband and I recently bought our first home and it has been hectic. But we are finally settled down and I am back to blogging. I always loved this feature on my blog because I love reading more about other book blog's..

If you are interested in participating in this feature on my blog, please fill out the form below and I will e-mail you a set of question's for you to answer.



Hopefully this will catch back on and I can get other's to participate.. If you would spread the word that would be great as well... =)

---Happy Reading!!!

Review: Going Underground

Title: Going Underground
Author: Susan Vaught
Pages: 336
Published: Sept. 12, 2011

Del is a good kid who's been caught in horrible circumstances. At seventeen, he's trying to put his life together after an incident in his past that made him a social outcast-and a felon. As a result, he can't get into college; the only job he can find is digging graves; and when he finally meets a girl he might fall in love with, there's a sea of complications that threatens to bring the world crashing down around him again. But what has Del done? In flashbacks to Del's fourteenth year, we slowly learn the truth: his girlfriend texted him a revealing photo of herself, a teacher confiscated his phone, and soon the police were involved.

Basing her story on real-life cases of teens in trouble with the law for texting explicit photos, Susan Vaught has created a moving portrait of an immensely likable character caught in a highly controversial legal scenario.

Review: For what ever reason this book started off slow for me. And I am amazed now to think that it did because I really liked this book. It was only slow through the first chapter and a little of the second but then I started to really get into it and read it in one sitting. I actually stayed up until 11:30 last night just so that I could finish it and see how it ended.

One thing that I absolutely loved about this book was all the music. I am a huge music lover. I always have music playing if i'm cleaning, on the computer or like now, writing a review. (If anyone is wondering I am listening to "Mr. Know It All" by Kelly Clarkson.) I also play music depending on my mood, it always puts me in a better mood to hear songs that are relating to how I am feeling. 

I really liked how the book ended. This book kept you flipping the pages. I wanted to know what ended up happening between Del and Livia. What happens to Del and his sex offender status. Saying that, through the whole book I just could not wrap my head around him getting in trouble for what he did. I think that's what kept me so interested was that I couldn't believe that happened to him and I had to know how it turned out for him. 

This was just an all around great book and I really enjoyed it. And I love the cover of this book, it was actually the first thing that drew me into the story. And it first perfectly with my favorite month, October.. =)

First line: Dead zones are places without life, without feeling, without air.

--Happy Reading!!

** Disclaimer. A copy of this book was sent to me for my honest review.