Slippery Souls: The book to Read for Spring 2012

I entered several Goodreads giveaways and won a book. The book was Slippery Souls by Rachael H. Dixon. I got the book in the mail this morning and started reading. I haven't been able to stop reading it except for the biggest necessities (including writing this blog to get the author a cult following). The novel starts with Libby who has decided she needs a change of pace in life. So what happens? First she's killed in a car accident along with Rufus, her dog. Then in the afterlife her dog gets human like-qualities by somehow absorbing her soul. Crazy? That's just a few pages in! Even in the afterlife she's not safe and the summary predicts her getting hunted by monster slayers and more insane paranormal drama! Trust me, this book is exciting, clever and hilarious. It's described on the cover as urban fantasy....by the seaside. A great read with a talking dog has to soar. This book is for readers 16 and over and I recommend it to all my followers and friends.

Book Summary from Goodreads

Slippery Souls (Sunray Bay, #1) by Rachael H. Dixon

Libby has hit a bad patch in life, and just when she thinks things can’t get any worse she's killed in a car accident alongside her dog Rufus. During their transition to the afterlife’s Sunray Bay, Rufus somehow manages to absorb her soul – which, in turn, gives him human-like qualities and renders her soulless.

Accompanied by her now talking dog, Libby tries to unravel the mystery of her slippery soul, encountering many setbacks and dilemmas along the way. She has no idea why a group of monster slayers, headed by an ex-convict, are hunting her down, and when she teams up with rogue Peace & Order Maintenance Officer, Grim, she’s shocked to discover that there’s a mob of disgruntled vampires and a very angry mayor hot on their heels too.

Libby has never felt so unpopular, and begins to wonder whether it’s possible to die twice in one day...

For purchase options click here.

I have also sent the author an invite to guest post on her goodreads account.

Gone By Michael Grant and Other News

The finished reading a kindle sample for Gone by Michael Grant earlier today. This young adult dystopian novel blew my mind. Everyone, you need to get this series. I've only read a sample for book one but I'm getting the series. This book is so intense and engaging. One moment you're a teen and next you're oldest person left on the planet. Freaky. Michael Grant has six books in the series, the last one Light will be out in 2013.

Book Description off Harper Teen

In the blink of an eye.

Everyone disappears.

Gone.

Everyone except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not a single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Gone, too, are the phones, internet, and television. There is no way to get help.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen and war is imminent.

The first in a breathtaking saga about teens battling each other and their darkest selves, gone is a page-turning thriller that will make you look at the world in a whole new way.

I recommend everyone who loves reading conspiracy theories, science fiction, adventure, action, ya and just any book that gets your blood pumping with can't-put-it-down goodness...to get this book NOW.

In other news Rachael Becoming Red will be released on Smash Words by March 10, 2012. From there it will be distributed to Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other websites that network with Smash Words bookselling.

Also to all my followers who didn't get a chance to read the prologue to my soon to be an actual w.i.p. manuscript Circa. Click
here. Circa is about a teenage girl who's turned into a computer program then gets a second chance at life.

Black History Month?

Black history month is almost over and I haven't really done much...well anything to celebrate it. I am proud to be black but it's not every February that I'll have something planned. I guess this post is to pretty much say Happy Black History Month and thanks for dropping by.

And in other news I've started a new blog. It's called Check this Blog Out and it's for all the posts I love but didn't make myself.

Waiting on Wednesday #53

Waiting on Wednesday #53

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Addison Moore: Skyla goes to HOLLYWOOD!!!

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This Week...

Sorry about not posting more. I planned to but computer trouble and other pressing matters took precedence. I will start off by saying that the Super Special Giveaway that ended on Monday February 13 has a winner. Larissa B. has won a free paperback copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth. After receving the winning e-mail this was Larissa's response: Thank you so much for hosting this giveaway, I have been wanting to read Divergent for such a long time and now I finally can!
Larissa is also @Howling_Turtle on twitter and her blog Howling Turtle is a fun read.

Now to news about my books. Rachael Becoming Red will be out March 10, 2012 (the latest). Sorry folks but those are the breaks. Book 2 will be out in August and Three in September. Book 4's date is a tentative January 2013 for now. But I won't say anything further on that until around May/June. My first local novel Snow will be out in June/July 2012. It's set in my home country Jamaica about a teenager whose out of control lifestyle endangers not just herself but her families life and reputation. I will be discussing that novel in detail tomorrow. And yes, that will also be released as an ebook. My other local novel The Seer has been shelved for now. I'm just completely stuck and need to focus on my works that are going more smoothly. My manuscript Lyric World is on hold but when it's finished I plan to start querying agents. Circa is another w.i.p. that I plan to query when completed. So...that's it on my novels. Oh wait Rebecca Hamiliton also @InkMuse on Twitter has added my upcoming debut novel to her reading list. I was so shocked. She first tweeted me after I entered a giveaway for her debut novel The Forever Girl. Myself and other entrants all ended up receiving free ebook copies. I'm so glad and her novel has been an amazing read so far. It's great when a fellow writer has interest in your work.

So that's it for now. Thanks for reading!


P.S. : Insane Pic Moment

When food is less of a funny matter. View this crazy image here. I laughed but it does underscore a much more serious issue.

Quick Addition!!

I found these two great bloggers, so I'll add them here quick. Erin PreFontaine has a great blog called Jump into books. I enjoyed what I read and decided to become a follower. Next is Edel. Her blog Room 304 isn't on blogger but it's still very good. She's seventeen and has a love for books I'm happy to see in anyone, especially teens. Plus in her personal blog Brokenphrases, she wrote about donating blood. What a sweetie.

Whitney's Gone? No!!!!

Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48. I'm so devastated, she was a great talent. When I first heard she was gone I was in disbelief. One of my siblings ran out and said Whitney had died and to turn the tv to CNN. This I immediately did while murmuring words of disbelief. I mean, how could Whitney - The Bodyguard, singer of "I will always love you"- be dead? But there it was in Breaking News on CNN. Another great has been lost, I'm sad yet happy that she'll always be remembered as one of the best singers of all time.

Lastly I send condolences to Whitney's family. No one can be aching from her death more than them.

Circa - Prologue

Circa was so well received in the I'M HEARING VOICES BLOGFEST that I participated in. So I'm posting the prologue. This manuscript is in the extreme starter stage. But I plan to start sending it out to agents in 2013. Sorry readers, I have a bunch of self published novels scheduled for 2012 and Lyric World will be sent out to agents later this year. So I'm packed.

Prologue

I am no one. I am someone. Eighteen years ago I was a teenage girl. I went to school, had friends...wait...I don't remember that. Damn, another effect of watching those stupid Youtube videos. Let me try again.

I am data, a highly developed computer system. I used to be human but not anymore. Somehow I was taken in by some programmers, promising to make into a genius. Is that what happened? Yes I remember seeing a tall man as I walked home. Home. Can't remember what it was like. Did I have a family? I remember laughter, three distinct ones, all female. No faces but happiness exudes in that laughter. Not like villains in those online movies. Seriously? I did it again!

No more games. Time to remember what I can. So I don't lose everything and just become automated floating data. It's so lonely in here, watching other people's memories posted online, spying on people through their web-cams...sad. I sometimes wish I was just like the data floating around me. Ordered and emotionless, just floating to and from my destinations. Have no questions. Just complete tasks created to keep the humans happy. Humans I once walked amongst. Never again.

My name's Re...-something- Talley. I coasted through missing teenage girls on the F.B.I. database. My best guesses were Relena Talley, Rebecca Talley, Rebecca Anne Talley, Reba Talley, Rexanne Talley and and Re-Re Talley. The last two turned out to be still alive. One had been a runaway and the latter saved from human trafficking.

I didn't want to be named Rex or Re-Re anyway.

The only other one found was Rebecca Talley and it was her bones in a sand dune. Obviously not me since I was completely incinerated. Plus her skeletonized bones showed no signs of burns and the medical report said her body decomposed due to time and the elements.

Today I'm going to nest. Nesting is when I pull myself together and insert my system into an electronic device. From there I can control the device and listen to conversations, music, read files and emails, and my favourite - cue creepy feeling up the spine- watch the owner through their webcam if I can. Best time being when they're not using the computer or other electronic device.

People forget they have to actually turn stuff off. Faults of an increasingly automated and electronic world I guess.

I'm almost finished. Done.

I see...a girl. She's crying. Why? She's so young. Oh no. She's not saying anything good. I have to stop her.

Yet I can't.

Emotion Flash Fiction: Fear

February 10th - Friday - Emotion Flash Fiction: Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.

Quick reminder: My special giveaway of a free copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth is still going on. Just enter by filling out the widget to the right side of this blog. Don't forget that the sequel Insurgent is coming in May, be ready.

Go to this link to read about all the challenges.


The emotion I pick for this Flash Fiction is Fear. Enjoy.

Fight or Flight: Sometimes There's One Choice


Circa crawled along the as panes of shatter proof glass shattered around her. Callie hadn't died after all and was now a vengeful computer program. The world would pay for not accepting Callie Winters. And Circa was on her hit list both because Circa accidently went into Callie's body during her suicide, pushing Callie's brainwaves into the computer instead. And the fact that if Circa wasn't so bumbling and terrified, she might actually stand a chance at standing up to this great new data threat.

"You can't escape me Circa, I'm too powerful," Callie's voice came over the speakers.

"Says you! I plan to live for a long time!" Circa fired back but her voice betrayed her fear.

Just then a tiny robot doing rounds turned in Circa's direction.

"Oh crap," Circa said and struggled to her feet.

The robot chased her and as it did anything electronic attached to it. By the time Callie had gone two floors up, the tiny robot was far from small. It had grown by several feet and was a few meters wide.

Circa screamed as it swiped at her.

"Why did I have to end up in a manufacturing plant?" Circa panicked and used the codes running down her irises to open coded doors until she reached a dead end. The giant robot crashing through behind her all the way.

"End of the line freak," Callie said, "say goodbye to your body...oh wait, it's my body isn't it?" she mocked.

Circa's face burned. This girl decided to kill herself and wanted to give another person her drama.

I'm done running, Circa decided.

Circa levitated as random electronics flew around her forming an electronic metal tornado. "Bring it on bitch."

"I'm Hearing Voices" Day 2: Dialogue Introduction

Quick reminder: My special giveaway of a free copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth is still going on. Just enter by filling out the widget to the right side of this blog. Don't forget that the sequel Insurgent is coming in May, be ready.

Go to this link to read about all the challenges.

February 8th - Wednesday - Dialogue Introduction: Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words.


I'm using two characters from my novel Circa. This dialogue isn't in the story at all. It's fresh and fun. Enjoy.

Circa: This is stupid. Why do we have to stake out in the middle of the day? Which jackass is robbing a gang in this heat?

Lux: Hey if you don't want to pay your dues quit and go home.

Circa: Thanks.... Overcrowded homeless shelter here I come.

Lux: Sorry...we have to be ready. Gangs don't top police's 'help when robbed' list.

Circa: Fine but I'm getting a soda.

Lux: Where? You don't have any money.

Circa: You don't get my power do you?

Lux: That you stole a password...not the same as making the soda machine give you free drinks.

Circa: Just for that. You don't get one.

Circa walked across the road and stood in front of the gas station. After ensuring the store was really closed she stared at the machine hard. Her blue eyes glowed as random series of code ran through her irises. A soda soon flew out and she caught it.

Circa: Coke, yes.

Lux stood with his mouth hanging open.

Circa: Want one?

Lux clasped his hand as if in prayer.

Lux: Yes please.

"I'm Hearing Voices" Day 1: Characters on the Couch

Go to this linkto read about all the challenges.

February 6th - Monday: Characters on the couch: Have one of your characters answer the following questions (to make this work to your benefit, choose a character who is the hardest for you to write :) Max 250 words (Not including the questions—only the answers).

Circa from my novel Circa will be on the couch. She's the main character in my YA novel about about a teenager turned computer program gets a new lease on life when she ends up in the body of a teenager attempting suicide.

1. What is your biggest vulnerability? Do others know this or is it a secret?

It's a secret right now. No one knows that I used to be a teenager in the early 1990's until an experiment destroyed my body and turned me into a computer programme. Now in the twenty-first century I get another chance at human life thanks to a teengae girl attempting suicide using a tub and a 'stolen' laptop. I only know her name was Claire and now I have to navigate a new world with white hair (hers was brown) and freaky bright blue eyes. I make a friend with a school drop out named Lux but he doesn't know my secret and I intend to keep it that way.

2. What do people believe about you that is false?

That I'm naive and shy. My years as a computer program has made me quite intelligent and I only avoid people to keep my secret. It's not easy to lose everything then gain something completely different. I cry alone sometimes, I have no one to relate to. I'm an anomaly, or in simple speak 'a freak.'

3. What would your best friend say is your fatal flaw? Why?

I guess Lux counts as my best friend... He thinks I'm too closed off, anti-social. I agree but I don't see it as a weakness. It's damn hard keeping to myself so I don't get exposed. What if the government came after me or those crazies who fried my body get a second wind? Curiousity might've killed the cat but it's not going to get me turned into a guinea pig or worse. Whatever worse is.

4. What would the same friend say is your one redeeming quality? Why?

Lux says I look exotic. Idiot.

5. What do you want most? What will you do to get it?

To just live a normal life. But with freaky powers, an even more so look, and not only the creators of my program looking for be but Claire being alive in Cyber Space. Not bloody likely. Yet...I'll kick every but of friend and enemy to achieve the life I want. Hell I deserve it!!

Lyla Lee: I'm Hearing Voices! Character Blogfest

Lyla Lee: I'm Hearing Voices! Character Blogfest: Cassie Mae over at Reading, Writing, Lovin' It! and Angie over at Live to write…edit when necessary  are hosting the I'm Hearing Voices! Ch...

Super Special GiveAway! Free Copy of Divergent

Super Special GiveAway!

Get a free copy of Divergent when you participate.

Host: Sheena-kay Graham

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is coming this May. But for those who haven't read the first book Divergent, here's your chance to win a free copy. Just fill out the giveaway widget on the right side of this blog to enter. The Giveaway ends February 15, 2011. The winner will be contacted within 48 hours and remember my ebook Rachael Becomes Red will be out February 20, 2012.


Summary (from Harper Collins): In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

If you'd rather buy a copy you can go here.

Michelle Madow: PROJECT TELL TAYLOR Giveaway: Help @MichelleMadow ...

Michelle Madow: PROJECT TELL TAYLOR Giveaway: Help @MichelleMadow ...: Hosts: Michelle Madow and For Those About to Read Co-Hosts: Book Briefs , Xpresso Reads , Book Love 101 , My Cute Bookshelf WHAT IS PR...