Cover & Synopsis Reveal: The Hazards of Skinny Dipping!

The Hazards of Skinny Dipping

Alyssa Rose Ivy

Self-Pub

June 2013

New Adult

Synopsis

This isn't a deep book about first loves or self-discovery. If you want a book like that, I'd be happy to recommend one, but I don't have that kind of story to tell. Instead my story is about rash decisions and finding out that your dream guy is bad in bed. It's the story of when I finally went skinny dipping, and how my life was never the same again. Oh, and it's also the story of my freshman year of college and realizing Mr. Right might have been there all along.

About the Author
Alyssa Rose Ivy is a New Adult and Young Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.

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New Adult is a relatively new category of literature that has been taking off like a frikin' rocket. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it as a lot of it just seems to be more about adding sexually explicit romance than about encompassing that age group of the 20-somethings. However, I really like the sound of this one and am looking forward to its release. As a sophomore in college, I've really been wanting to read more YA-like books with college student main characters. And the cover, subtly sexy and I love the colors! Also like the dreamy haze. What do you think?

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eBook Giveaway: You Got Me by Mercy Amare!

You Got Me
Mercy Amare
Self Pubbed
February 8th, 2013
YA / New Adult

Synopsis via Goodreads
Roxy is broken
Aiden wants to fix her

No matter how hard Roxy tries to overcome her past, she can't. She writes on her arms to escape the pain, but nothing can soothe the ache that she feels.

Aiden didn't go to college to meet girls, he came to play football. Too bad that it is impossible for him to stay away from Roxy.

After meeting on the roof, they instantly feel connected, but neither of them are ready for love.

You Got Me is a story about new beginnings, and finding love when you least expect it.

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Thanks to Mercy Amare, I have a chance to giveaway three ebook copies of her new YA/New Adult contemporary novel! Also, check out this interview I did with her HERE!

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Epic Good Guys vs Bad Boys Giveaway! (Courtesy Kaitlyn Davis)

In celebration of the release of the 4th, and final, book in her Midnight Fire Series, Kaitlyn Davis is hosting an epic giveaway. I'm excited to have been given the opportunity to share this amazing giveaway with you all! Here is what is for grabs:

Ebooks of the complete Midnight Fire Series (3 Winners):
· Ignite by Me
· Simmer by Me
· Blaze by Me
· Scorch by Me

Team Good Guys Package (1 Winner):
Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
Hereafter by Tara Hudson
Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Team Bad Boys Package (1 Winner):
Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama
Wake by Lisa McMann
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

I know! So. Much. AWESOME! Right? Yes? You can check out Kaitlyn Davis's original giveaway post HERE. Also, for your convenience, the rafflecopter is also below, here. Be mindful, this is the same one from her site so you can only enter in one place.

Author web links: (web, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads, etc)
Blog – http://kaitlyndavisbooks.blogspot.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/KaitlynDavisBooks
Twitter – https://twitter.com/DavisKaitlyn
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5276341.Kaitlyn_Davis
Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/kdavisbooks/

a Rafflecopter giveaway


If you would like to go ahead and check out her Midnight Fire Series, you can buy them here:

Book #1, Ignite
Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iTunes / Sony / Smashwords

Book #2, Simmer
Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iTunes / Sony / Smashwords

Book #3, Blaze
Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iTunes / Sony / Smashwords

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Author Interview: Mercy Amare!

Today I have for you all an interview with Mercy Amare, indie author of the new YA/New Adult book, You Got Me! This was a very fun interview to conduct and I hope you all enjoy it. :D

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TBP: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

MA: My name is Mercy Amare. I am 23 years old from Arkansas. I wrote my first novel at age 14, it sucked, and since then I haven't stopped writing. Hundreds of songs included... I love to read! I love caffeine, specifically NOS Energy Drink. I also have an unhealthy addiction to the TV series: The Lying Game, Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars.

TBP: Describe You Got Me in nine words or less.

MA: Letting go of the past. Falling in love.

TBP: What inspired you to write You Got Me?

MA: I have no idea, honestly. I was just at work one day, and the idea popped into my head! I started writing. Then stopped. Then changed the characters, A LOT, then re-wrote, and there you have it. :) Ideas usually come to me when I'm walking, or driving... Always random times for no reason at all.

TBP: What is one of your favorite YA book series?

MA: My absolutely favorite, hands down, is Stalk Me by Jillian Dodd. I adore that book series.

TBP: If you could co-write a book with any author, past or present, who would it be and why?

MA: This is a tough question. I have SO MANY favorite authors. But, I think I would say Colleen Hoover. Her stories are breathtakingly amazing! I would love to just hang out with her for a couple of months, and see her in action. It would be incredible.

TBP: If you could bring back any no-longer-with-us character on the TV show The Vampire Diaries, who would it be? (If you are not caught up on the show, this can prove spoiler-ish so to read the answer, highlight the gap with your mouse with precaution.)

MA: Well, considering Jeremy just died, this is a tough question. I miss Aunt Jenna, Alaric, Jeremy, Vicky, John, Anna, Grams, Lexie (we did NOT get enough of her)... I'm sure I'm missing some... Gah... Can I say tie? This is the hardest question EVER.

Fine, Jeremy. I need Jeremy back! lol.

Haha! I think I agree with you, though prior to recent events, I'd have definitely said Alaric.

TBP: Your bio says you play guitar, bass, and drums. Which is your favorite and why?

MA: I love playing them all for different reasons, so really, it depends on my mood. The drums are just FUN, and when I play them I always get really hyper. It's a rush.... The bass is laid back. I don't have to think, at all, when I play. It's relaxing, and it's nice. (Though that may just be from the 9 years of experience). The guitar is my first love. I've been playing 11 years, and I play well (not being "big headed", it's just a fact). It's amazing to see the look on peoples faces when they see me, a GIRL, play so... good... I honestly couldn't chose between them.

TBP: You mentioned that you've had a lot of not so great jobs in the past. I feel like there has to be a funny/odd story in there somewhere from one of them. Do tell?

MA: I have had a LOT of jobs. I have worked for all the major cell phone companies: AT&T (call center & store), Sprint (store), and Verizon (call center & store). I've worked in a lot of call centers. (I was a telemarketer for a week. Most miserable week of my life). I worked at a Wells Fargo call center for a few months. We were very slow there, and I was bored a lot. I spent 20 minutes sometimes waiting on a call. While working there, I wrote a 47k word book. All on the company watch. Needless to say, I got laid off (along with hundreds of others)... Did I mention being an author is my favorite job?

TBP: You are putting together a soundtrack to your life. What are some of the songs on it?

MA: My soundtrack would be so crazy. I've done so much in my life, and I'm thankful for it. Road trips have always been a HUGE part of my life, and each road trip has it's own sound track: Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts (I had pit passes to their concert in Little Rock. I went to Tunica with my bf (Waking up in Vegas (TUNICA): Katy Perry). Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus (I blame Six Flaggs St. Louis for this). Baby by Justin Bieber (I was drunk, don't ask! lol). I Am Not a Whore by LMAO (YouTube the song). Clumsy by Fergie (described by love life from age 16-20). Keep on Loving You by REO Speedwagon (me and my husband's song)... :) This is just the beginning.

I totally get the Miley Cyrus thing. Well not totally (can't stand her, personally). Call Me, Maybe would be on mine because I heard it constantly while I was staying with a friend in NJ for two months over the summer. So I understand how that ind of thing happens. lol.

TBP: Anything else you'd like to add?

MA: Yes, thank you everybody who is still reading! And thank you, Briana, for having me today! This interview was so much fun! :)

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And thank you, Mercy! It was great fun. :D

I hope you all enjoyed that interview, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by!

Don't forget to check out Mercy Amare's books!

Don't Tell (Novella)
Kindle / Nook

You Got Me
Kindle / Nook 

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Being Henry David Blog Tour: Interview & Giveaway!

TBP: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

CA: First, in spite of my name, I’m not a guy. I hope nobody’s disappointed, because I’m pretty pumped in general about being female. I’m one of those crazy people who always wanted to be a writer, ever since I could manage to hold one of those fat red pencils in my chubby little hand. I’m the daughter of a preacher and a teacher, who were always very encouraging and didn’t laugh at me when I said I wanted to grow up to be a famous writer and artist. (Obviously, this still remains to be seen.) I’m married to a really great guy who puts up with my creative Gemini, split-personality craziness, and we have two amazing daughters. In addition to writing, I sing, paint, draw, work at an independent bookstore, and do professional voice-overs (something I started doing back when I worked full-time in radio). Oh, and I have a 3-year-old miniature Australian shepherd named Layla. She’s my first dog ever, and I’m ridiculously smitten.

TBP: Describe Being Henry David in nine words or less. (Can be individual words or a sentence.)

CA: Lost boy + nature, friends & Thoreau = discovery and hope

TBP: You have a Masters Degree in Creative Writing. As someone who is considering the pursuit of one, myself, what would you say is one of the most important and useful things you learned in your studies?

CA: I think the most important thing I learned is that it’s critical to share your work with other people and get constructive criticism. The workshopping process (when instructors and peers critique your writing) can be both encouraging and brutal, but you need honest input in order to grow. You start to really get a feel for what you’re doing right, and what you need to improve. And after a while, you learn what criticism to take to heart, and what to discard. To be honest, even though I did a lot of writing for newspapers, magazines and radio before I got the Masters, I doubt very much I would have gotten this book published without grad school. (Fiction and non-fiction are so different.) Plus, I made some fabulous lifelong friends, and we still meet regularly to laugh, drink wine, and workshop our stuff!

TBP: Your bio says that you sing semi-professionally. Could you tell us a little more about that?

CA: Sure! I’ve loved singing ever since being in the cherub choir at my daddy’s church, and music has always been a source of joy for me. I’ve sung in choirs, small groups, bands, in musicals, you name it. As for the semi-professional singing (which basically means I get paid for it, but it’s not how I make my living), I was the lead singer in a blues/rock group for about six years (and played a mean tambourine and cowbell, I must say), and I currently sing in venues all over New England with my husband in an 11-person a cappella group. (P.S. I even met my husband in college choir!)

TBP: Fate or free will? If you believe in a degree of both, which side do you lean more towards and why?

CA: That’s a very interesting question, and it’s one that I definitely mulled over when my character, Hank, finds a copy of Thoreau’s Walden at Penn Station. Does the book actually belong to him? Is it fate that it was right by his side when he awoke? Or, is it simply a book that was discarded at the train station by some random person, and Hank stumbled upon it? My book is all about what Hank chooses to do after finding the book, so I think it’s more about free will than fate. In general, I believe it’s about what you choose to do with the circumstances of your life that matters. I guess I like the thought that we have some element of choice!

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Thank you so much, Cal! (Check out her website.)

What did you all think? If Being Henry David sounds like something you'd like to read, I'm giving away (in partner with Albert Whitman) a copy to one lucky winner!

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Guest Post: Mean Girls Usually Win… (Except Sometimes)!

Author Bio:
Molly Cochran, author of the teen paranormal romances LEGACY and POISON, has written 26 published novels and four nonfiction books under her own name and various pseudonyms. Her books include New York Times bestselling novels GRANDMASTER and THE FOREVER KING, coauthored with Warren Murphy, and the nonfiction DRESSING THIN, also a NY Times bestseller. She has won awards from the Mystery Writers of America (Best Novel of the Year), the Romance Writers of America (Best Thriller), and the New York Public Library (Outstanding Books for the Teen Age).

SEDUCTION, the third installment in the LEGACY series, is scheduled for release later this year through her publisher, Simon & Schuster.

Two eBooks, THE TEMPLE DOGS and THE FOREVER KING, are currently available through online retailers. A third, GRANDMASTER, will be available soon.

Molly has lectured extensively and has taught writing at the college level as well as at a women's prison (where she was NOT an inmate). She also writes a blog on writing technique which appears on her website, MollyCochran.com. She is also on Facebook at facebook.com/molly.cochran1 and Twitter at Twitter.com/mollycochranYA.

She lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

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Guest Blog by Molly Cochran

MEAN GIRLS USUALLY WIN…
(Except Sometimes)

You know them. They walk in front of the crowd, and others follow. If they wear yellow, the next day the halls look like a convention of canaries. They’re considered beautiful, even if they’re not. And they always run the show, whatever that particular show is about.
They are the leaders. The prime movers. The Mean Girls.
From time immemorial, they’ve been thorns in the sides of the rest of us, bullying, intimidating, and tantalizing ordinary mortals with the promise of acceptance into their inner circles.
For most of us, the best we can hope for is that the chief Mean Girl ignores us—because once she targets us, we’re dead meat. Suddenly we can’t do anything right, we always sound stupid, and our clothes belong in the Goodwill bin. But if she likes us… Ah, then the very doors to Paradise swing open.
For a while.
Until Mean Girl gets what she wants.
And then…
POISON, a YA paranormal centering around a boarding school located in a town with the largest percentage of witches in the United States, is about someone who gets used by a Mean Girl. It doesn’t matter that the “someone” is a witch with nuclear-strength powers. Or that the Mean Girl has connections going back 1600 years, to the court of Camelot and the wizard Merlin himself. Or that what hangs in the balance is the destruction of an entire plane of existence.
What happens is something that goes on, in varying degrees, in schools all over the world, in every generation: The Mean Girl gets her way, and everyone else has to pay the price for her selfishness until someone—that someone, the one who went along until it was almost too late—says no, and takes on all the consequences herself.
In POISON, those consequences amount to life and death. In real life, it usually only feels that way, but they can reverberate forever.
The point is, sometimes being accepted comes with too high a price. And even the most timid among us sometimes has to stand alone in order to save whatever is important to us—the people we love, our values, and our pride in ourselves.

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Thank you Molly! And now, check out Molly Cochran's books, Legacy and Poison!

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Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels Blog Tour: Giveaway & Interview!

Real Mermaids Don't Need High Heels Blog Tour
Giveaway & Interview!

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TBP: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

HB: I write books for kids and teens from picture books like I DARE YOU NOT TO YAWN (Candlewick) to my REAL MERMAIDS series (Sourcebooks) for tweens.

I grew up in a really large family on a small island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean where we had sleepovers on lobster boats, hiked to secret beaches, and got chased by wild cows through forest paths. Many of my books are inspired by the fun times I had growing up with my seven siblings and many cousins and friends. I’m a compulsive walker and train for half marathons and also love dark chocolate, bacon, and lemon Perrier water (in that order).

TBP: What inspired the creation of your Real Mermaids series?

HB: Water has always been a huge part of my life. My dad is a lobster fisherman and he used to take us on boat trips from our little island off the coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to the mainland where we’d sail through a canal and a boat lock to get to a fresh-water lake. I was always amazed by the purple jellyfish I saw on the ocean side, compared to the white jellyfish on the lake side of the boat lock. I often wondered; did the purple jellyfish know about the white ones and vice versa? And what other mysteries existed in those watery depths? That was the inspiration for my mer-world in the Real Mermaids series.

TBP: Your "About Me" section on your website says you grew up on an island in the Atlantic. What is it like for you not living by the water now and do you ever consider moving to some where nearer the ocean?

HB: I miss the ocean so much. I love my new town and my wonderful friends but my dream is to someday have a seaside cottage to call my own so I can spend part of my time there. Thankfully, I’m able to visit my childhood village for a few weeks every summer with my family. I look forward to it all winter!

TBP:  If you could morph into any sea creature, which would it be and why?

HB: An anemone, mostly because I love the way the word sounds.

TBP:  Describe your ideal type of day in regards to weather, temp, location, etc.

HB: I’m a spring and fall person because I hate the cold or the sweltering heat. ‘Sweater Weather’ probably describes my ideal temperature best and of course, I’d have to pick an oceanside location for my ‘ideal day’. I’d start off with an hour-long hike near the water, then return to a cozy seaside cottage (notice a theme?) get myself a hot drink and snuggle on the couch with a fuzzy blanket and a good book. Can I also have a crackling fire in the fireplace, please?

TBP: What was one of your favorite books growing up?

HB: I’m from a family of ten so books were kind of community property in our house. I remember, though, that my godfather sent me my very own hardcover Trixie Belden for Christmas one year. I cherished that book because it was mine. All mine!

TBP: Anything else you'd like to add before you go?

HB: You can connect with me @: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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If you'd like to see where I did a previous interview with Helene, you can go HERE. You can also check out my review of the first book, Real Mermaids Don't Wear Toe Rings, in the trilogy HERE. And now, if you have already read the first two, here is your chance to win the final book in the trilogy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


You can also buy them:

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