Waiting On Wednesday: Level 2

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Publication Date: January 15, 2013

Summary on Goodreads: Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow prisoners, Felicia passes the endless hours downloading memories and mourning what she’s lost—family, friends, and the boy she loved, Neil.

Then a girl in a neighboring chamber disappears, and nobody but Felicia seems to recall she existed in the first place. Something is obviously very wrong. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, she learns the truth: a rebellion is brewing to overthrow the Morati, the guardians of Level 2.

Felicia is reluctant to trust Julian, but then he promises what she wants the most—to be with Neil again—if only she’ll join the rebels. Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself in the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it’s not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

This book has an amazing cover and the concept is mind blowing. I can't wait for 2013 to be able to purchase this gem.

Pages From My Thoughts: Win a Signed Copy of Struck Giveaway

Today I'm featuring a giveaway from fellow blogger Soumi March.

Her blog Pages for My Thoughts is offering a signed copy of Struck by Jennifer Bosworth. The giveaway page also has an interview with Jennifer and reads can find out more about the book and the author herself. To enter giveaway click here. This giveaway is international and ends July 20, 2012. Good luck.

Author: Jennifer Bosworth

Sacrifice Her: A Promo

For all those in the know Sacrifice Her is my debut novella set for release this August. For those less informed Sacrifice Her has antagonist Deidra Moore escaping human sacrifice to go on the run into the dessert surrounding her home, Faux City. She doesn't believe in the Gods her people worship for divine protection but they do. Lord Brinn their leader is persnally tasked with the job of bringing her back and completing the sacrifice. Failure means destruction of Faux City. Unless Deidra's right and there's really no God at all.

Please Note: I have posted new stock photo images on this post as of January 13, 2013. Feel free to use these as badges. Thank you.

Interviews

Deidra and Lord Brinn

Lord Brinn

Character Interview: Lord Brinn from Sacrifice Her

I sit with a sheet of paper. Today I will be trying to interview Lord Brinn once again. If you're unfamiliar with the failed attempt click here. Lord Brinn is the main antagonist in Sacrifice Her

Lord Brinn walks in wearing golden robes and carrying a bouquet of flowers.

Me: Um, Good Morning Lord Brinn.

Lord Brinn: For you.

I take the flowers as he sits down. I have nowhere to place them but the small tabler between us.

Me: Thank you, white roses. Nice.

Lord Brinn: I'm sorry about getting off on the wrong foot scri... I mean Sheena-kay.

I force myself to keep up a smile. At least he called me by name.

Me: So let's get to the interview. I have five questions like I did with Deidra.

Lord Brinn: Yes she really showed me up the other day.

I look on in silence. I never recalled it going like that at all.

Me: First question. Why do you have to do human sacrifices for The God of Gore.

Lord Brinn: Long ago before my generation's time. We were cared for by another god. I will not call her name but we disrespected her and l;ost her blessings. She was merciful enough not to destroy us but she left my ancestors to the mercies of other gods and sypernatural elements which harm anything or anyone left unprotected. For a time my people were slaves to the The River Women. Able to transform into sea creatures, they were terrible masters to my people who once lived on an island. You see being surrounded by water left us at their mercy and those who tried to escape had their boats smashed to bits and were eaten by the River Women and their children which were creatures of the sea. Then one day God of Gore offered our people salvation. For yearly sacrfices he'd take us away from the island and to an oasis in the desert where the River Woman couldn't venture. We accepted and today we still do human sacrifices in servitude, worship and gratitude to God of Gore's gift of our freeeom to us.

Me: Excuse me but isn't that just exchanging one prison for another?

Lord Brinn: If our lives are as prisoners. I'd rather it be on our terms than the random lashings and brutality of moody river womem.

Me: Hmmm...next question. Why did God of Gore task you with returning her? Aren't there guards and specific individuals tasked with doing that?

Lord of Brinn: (sigh) Alas there was incident years ago I'd rather not talk about. All I'll say is that it had to with the human sacrfices and was before my time. It left God of Gore very angry and among other punishments he increased the number of human sacrifices, terrible affair.

Me: What kind of family life do you have?

Lord Brinn: I have a wonderful family. As Top Class I wanted for nothing and my family line is full of leaders, advisors and men of worth. I was married in my early teens and have two sons and one daughter. I have a statue up in my honour you know. Want to see?

Me (carefully) Sure.

Lord Brinn proudly shows a drawing of his statue. A large several feet long scroll version.

Me (slowly) : Great. Huge.

Lord Brinn: Of course you're too awed to say many things. On with the interview.

I stare intently at my interview sheet before looking up.

Me: What would happen if you fail to recapture Deidra?

Lord Brinn: One of three things. None of them good. All end with our lives in the crapper. The best being God of Gore increases the number of human sacrifices expenentially and worst he destroys the city and everything it. I'd rather not discuss it anymore.

Me: Oh. Final question. What would you if Deidra's right?

Lord Brinn: Blasphemy! I refuse to answer that question. (whispers) Are you trying to bring down God of Gore's wrath.

Me: No because I believe in a God who'd kick his blood loving ass.

Lord Brinn: So you serve a god too?

Me: Christianity has a different set of rules but yes.

Lord Brinn: You have some good morals. Maybe even for a second wife.

Me: Um, I think this interview is over. Farewell Lord Brinn.

Lord Brinn: Wait, I was going to invite you on a night tour of Faux City.

I dash off grasping my belongins to my chest.

Lord Brinn leans back in his seat.

Lord Brinn: She wants me.

Book Review Thursday: Let's Get Invisible

Let's Get Invisible by R.L. Stine
Genre: Horror
Published: Steptember 01, 2003 (first published January 1, 1993)
Source: Borrowed at Library
First heard of: Through reading Goosebumps books.
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Summary from Barnes and Noble: In this spooky, middle-grade thriller, Max and his friends discover that being able to be invisible isn't so terrific if you can't make yourself reappear.

When a magic mirror holds twelve-year-old Max invisible for too long, he fears that he may be changed forever by a reflection of his real self.

Review: Today I'll be taking many readers back to their childhood by reviewing a book from the goosebumps series. To me R.L. Stine.  Max and his friends find a mirror in the attic that can make you invisible. This seems great at first until things start taking a darker turn. His annoying younger brother Lefty doesn't help and as things go south Matt needs to save both himself and those around him. Goosebumps series are the perfect books for small children. The plot is simple yet interesting and the end always leaves some surprise or new horror for the main character. For children it's an excellent. I loved them as a kid and still love some now. But adult hood does expand your reading palette and when I reread this book at the library earlier this year I noticed the simplicity of the plot and the faults of writing a book for a younger crowd who won't notice plot holes or quick fixes 'word wise' to get a desired effect.

I still love Goosebumps and R.L. Stine's works mind you. But I can see why this one won't be in the top 100 best written books for children.

Rating: I will give this two ratings.

Me now: 3 Stars (meaning a solid read but nothing necessarily special)

My Childhood Self: 4.5 Stars

P.S. : Lord Brinn's interview will be tomorrow. Don't know who he his? Click here to familiarize yourselves.

Character Interview: Deidra Moore and Lord Brinn

Today I will be interviewing Deidra Moore and Lord Brinn from my August debut novella Sacrifice Her. This will be Book one in The Sacrifice Series and if you'd like you can see interviews for book two (The Choice) characters Jessica Hatfield  and Joseph Rowe.

Me: Hello Deidra, Lord Brinn.

Both sit in chairs bristling at each other. The female brinette adjusts her dress and blonde Lord Brinn sits statuesque in his white robes.

Me: Ok, I have five questions for each of you. Deidra goes first. Tell me about yourself and your home.

Deidra: I'm a teenager from Faux City. We have a class system to keep order and most believe in Gods watching over us. Faux does sacrifices to please God of Gore in exchange for keeping us safe from harm.

Me: In Sacrifice Her you decide to run instead of dying. Why?

Deidra: Why? Because I want to live and I think this God stuff is crap!

Lord Brinn: Blashemy!!

Me: Lord Brinn please. Your turn is coming.

Lord Brinn sits back red faced.

Me: In my novella you meet someone while on the run. Can you tell a little about him?

Deidra: His name is Kale. He's a wanderer who thinks it's time for the world to end. That it's become too rotten. He's also strong and kind.... he's nice but I can't stand him sometimes.

Me: Would you ever go home?

Deidra: I miss my family but no.

Me: What if Lord Brinn and your city is right about the Gods and their wrath if you don't get sacrficed.

Deidra pales and refuses to answer.

Lord Brinn smiles superiorly.

Me: Well I guess it's your turn Lord Brinn.

Lord Brinn: The best is always saved for last. Hello commoner.

Me: Um let's stick with Sheena-kay.

Lord Brinn: You're a commoner.

I do my best not to lose my patience.

Me: Call me writer or something.

Lord Brinn: Ok scribe, talk away.

Me: ??

Deidra: No you see what we deal with.

Lord Brinn: Silence!

Me: Don't talk to her like that!!

Lord Brinn: I will not stand for this.

Me: Then go home I'll interview you some other time then.

Lord Brinn: If you're lucky.

Me (mutters): Bet that's what all the unlucky ladies hear.

Deidra: Why am I not surprised.

So readers Lord Brinn will be interviewed later in the week. Keep your eyes peeled.

Waiting on Wednesday: Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1) by Sarah Rees Brenham

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Publication: September 11, 2012

Summary on Goodreads: Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.

But all that changes when the Lynburns return.

The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?

Teaser Tuesday: Undead

Teaser Tuesday is HOSTED AT SHOULD BE READING

• Grab your current read & open to a random page  
• Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page  
• Watch out for spoilers though! You don't want to give too much away incase others haven't read it.  
• Make sure to include the title and author as well - that way people can add it to their to-read list if they want!

Today I'm showing you a quote from  Undead by Kirsty McKay. Enjoy

“‎'Let me in, she says!' pete laughs, hysterically. 'let me in so i can chew on your arm! would you like fries with that? i dont think so.' he cackles to himself, wicked crazy"

Award Season: For Me of Course

First off Happy Fathers Day to all the daddies! We love you and know you never get enough credit.

I have four blog awards now. Today I'm dealing with my latest two. To read about about the first two click here.

From Tara Tyle I received this award. To read the funny story she wove to and for all awardees click here.

To show my happiness for this award I'll take a page out of Tara's book and not do the fact list. Instead I'm going to take a one page summary for a new novel idea I wrote on the fly while watching Twilight: New Moon on Showtime (which I'll get to writing...year 2037...come on readers I'm packed) on June 14, 2012 and write at least 150 words for the start at random. I can't take more than ten minutes. Wish me luck.

Also I pass this award along to: Panda Ninja, Rachel Morgan and Christy. All you have to do is something fun to show off your blogging versatility.




Shade Me: Book One

Cassie lay on her bed staring at the blue starred ceiling. She had given up a lot to live as a human. No more drifting through the chilly nights with her fellow shades. Feeding time was what she'd miss most. Gliding in small groups in their cloaks and stretching out their graying bone hands to stun their prey and take what was needed. Communicating with sweet groans and feeling what your nearest shade felt... This would creep any human out but she missed it. But not enough to stay in the darkness.

Now she was Cassie Blake. Sixteen year old high school student with a popular best friend, Elizabeth Bailey a.k.a Lizzie. Who always wanted to get her a makeover and do fun loud things. She turned the girl down sometimes but secretly loved Lizzie's light. However like all she had a bane to her existence. Bardford Teft. A vampire.

----

Yes!! I finished it in seven minutes and used the last three for edit. I'm awesome. More so, I didn't even have a title when I started. Even better, I thought up a theme song just before starting. Crazy!!

P.S. : Cassie in Shade me having the same name as loving blogger Cassie Mae is a complete coincidence. But hey, it's still cool to have a character indirectly named after you, right? And not on purpose!

Theme Song: Ellie Gold's 'Lights'

Next Award

This beaut came from Elizabeth Seckman over at  Use Your Words. Thank you Lizzie!

Now on to the requirements. Which I'll follow to the T this time.

1. Name and thank the blogger. Check.

2. List 7 facts about yourself.

3. Share award with five fellow bloggers.

Seven Facts About Me

1. My ears have never been pierced. Everytime I decide to do it something distracts me. Oh look, a dust mote! Or you can check these hilarious images.

2. No tattos. NEVER!!

3. I write about mostly white people in my ya novels. I guess it's because of the type of stories I  loved reading while growing up and Jamaica has only recently embraced story writing for novels that don't sound like literary books from school. Sorry but it's true. And no, I have no black girl sad about not being white complex. Not everyone who has interest in another race hates their own. Yesh! I love Jamaica and being black. Once you go black you never go back. Yeah!!

4. I plan to purchase a cake with my shelved Red Series book Rachel Becoming Red book cover. Hey, big time writers get parties with the cake designed like their book all the time! All I have to do is save some money. And I plan to post pics for y'all to see.

5. I love chocolate but hate chocolate based proucts (brownies, chocolate buscuits and cookies, etc).

6. As a teenager one day alone at home I took my top off and danced around the living room. I was lost in the music people! No regrets. Because no one saw me.

7. I'm thinking These are a lot of facts.

Now to award five other bloggers. Drumroll:

Cassie, Emily R. King, Kelley, Tara Tyler and Lyla Lee

Day of Fun

Today I'm posting images of both humour and life truths. Ha, ha, just for laughs really but they're a few pearls of wisdom in there. Enjoy.

Me: Hells to the yeah!!!!

Me: I laughed. Then laughed again despite losing my genius hat.

Me: Gangsta baby, Gangsta.

Me: Thankfully that won't be my child for a long time. Oh yeah, oh yeah (does a little dance).... To others, my condolences.

Me: Oh dear Lord people!! Spare the cat, seriously. They have feelings....and sight.

Now for the mother of them all

Me: I'm SOOOOO like that. If you see me running you better get your ass in gear. *Whispers* It's the zombie apocolypse.

So there you have it readers. A day of fun in pictures/images. Now I'll leave you with one last image. Say Awww.

Didn't say awww? Well I didn't invite you here did I Voldemort?

Voldermort



Book Review Thursday: Sumo by Thien Pham

Sumo by Thiem Pham
Genre: Graphic Novel
Published: December 11, 2012
Source: Got free e-copy from Netgalley
First heard of: Godreads and Netgalley
Purchase: Barnes and Noble, Amazon

Summary from Goodreads: Scott  is a washed-up football player who never made it, and whose girlfriend abandoned him along with his dreams of playing pro football. But things have a way of working out, in this sweet, poetic tale--and a new chapter in Scott's life begins as the old one ends. Offered a position in a Japanese sumo training "stable," Scott abandons his old life, his old name, and even his old hair color, and becomes an aspiring sumo wrestler. And in so doing, he begins to find some kind of center in himself...a center that had seemed lost for good.

Thien Pham, the acclaimed illustrator of Gene Luen Yang's Level Up, returns as the writer and artist of a unique new graphic novel.Highly poetic and structured to echo the slow build and sudden clash of a sumo match, Pham's Sumo is an unusual and beautiful book. It's nearly a contradiction in terms: a delicate, deft, tender tale about...sumo wrestling.

Review: This tale is told in with beautiful art and easy to read conversational prose. Part of this graphic novel is just pictures but it doesn't detract from the great work Thiem Pham has done. This is his first stand alone novel and his experience as an illustrator shows. The graphics is the true star and from orange backgrounds during his sumo training to blue for when he remembers back home in America, everything connects. Scott's decision to leave for Japan is met with both dismay and resent by his closest friend. Dismay that he's leaving and resentment towards the ex-girlfriend who dropped Scott after his pro-football career fell through. It is ironic though that Scott leaves one country's tradition for another. Sumo is very revered in Japan as (American) Football is in America. But of course the novel doesn't hide the fading importance of Sumo to it's own people and that adds to Scott's struggle to 'make it' as well as learning to adopt in a new country where both it's traditions and language is foreign to him. But with the help of his couch and a certain girl who helps him with dishes and decides to go 'fishing' with him. Maybe he will make it. The end of Sumo will leave you both absorbed and touched as learning when to hold on and when to let go takes on a new level of importance and beauty. In a sport of brute strength, tradition and yes love, Sumo will catch both your eyes and your heart.

Rating 4.5 Stars

The reason why Sumo lost half a star is because of the small print in the e-copy version. It slowed down my reading and made me stop more than once out of frustration. The novel's excellent and is worth purchasing but I hope the final e-book verion deals with the tiny print.

Untitled Novella

Please Note: If you're here to see my Waiting on Wednesday post click here.

Late Saturday night/ early Sunday morning last weekend I was surfing the net. Aside from working on my writing, checking up on mysocial status updates and etc. I started looking at old blog posts from fellowbloggers. Then I came across some blogs posts about Curiosity Quills. That publisher had recently completed a competition looking for manuscripts to request submissions for. Some of thosewho got the prestigiouschanceto send in actual chaptersfor review included some of my followers andfave bloggers. All of whom I'm happy for. Then I decided to read the publishers submission guidelines myself and see what they were about. After going over their website I realized I had a story idea perfect for whatthey're looking for in novels submitted to them.  Initially I had put the story ideadown for a later book in my Sacrifice Series. But I always knew it wasn't truly right for what thatseries is about. Now I havedecided to use it instead as a submission to Curiosity Quills and hope to have the novella written, edited and completedforsubmission before the end of this year. Below is the basic ideafor the novella which will be 4-6 books around 17,000 words each.

Dan wants a kiss. An act striictly forbidden on a new earth where most contact including romantic, sexual or overly friendly is forbidden. A perfect world where diseases are almost completely non-existent and babies are born in special centres through science and technology. But Dan's determined to get a kiss no matter the cost and has made a decision. He'll find the Shiva, a teenage ghost who wanders through the forbidden zones. She kisses teen boys on their sixteenth birthday at five minutes to midnight. Good news you get a kiss rumoured worth dying for. Bad news, you actually die. Dan has decided to pay the ultimate price to escape a clastrophobic regime. But four of his closest friends are determined to stop him.



How is that? I plan to flesh it more later on but I think I have a basic idea. Let me know what you think and tomorrowI'll post two book reviews to makefor the one I missed last week.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Loners (Quarantine #1) by Lex Thomas

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Publication: July 10, 2012.

Summary on Goodreads: It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive

I am happy to say I sent a request for an e-copy at netgalley. Fingers crossed!! The brother factor and disease elements really attracted me to this book. Let me know what you think and thanks for stopping by.

Debut Author G1veaway Hop!

Debut Author G1veaway Hop! (Click here)

I hope you enjoy taking part in this hop for free books.

Book Teaser: Hanging by a Thread by Sophie Littlefield

Today I'm introducing Hanging by a Thread. Enjoy.

Publication Date: September 11, 2012


Summary on Goodreads: Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year's Fourth of July festival won't see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing's wrong.

And they're not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people's pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year's Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

Character Interview: Joseph from The Choice (Book 2 in The Sacrifice Series)

Please Note. If you're looking for my Insecure Writers Support Group post click here.
To read Waiting on Wednesday post click here.

Joseph Rowe walks up and sits down beside me on the park bench. His dress is much simplier than Jessica's, wearing a bottoned white shirt and blue jeans with black shoes. His dark brown hair neatly combed and his brown eyes welcoming. I decided to wear a T-shirt and jean shorts with sneakers. A last minute change since I concluded dressing up like I did with Jessica would look silly in a park.

I would've interviewed him in the same office as I did Jessica Hatfield but he wanted to be outside. He's the other protagonist in The Choice, book 2 in The Sacrifice Series. This novella has an October/November release. Tomorrow I'll be doing an interview with the protagonist and antagonist from Sacrifice Her (book 1 in Sacrifice Series) which has an August release date.
Me: Hello Joseph.

Joseph: Hi. I guess you have some questions for me. (He brushes back his hair nervously)

Me: Yes but I'd like you to introduce yourself first. What would you like me to know about you.

Joseph: Heh, I'm a teenager living in the most prosperous part of Chance City. Music is my favourite thing to do and I'm to be sacrificed for the good of Chance. Me and a girl.

Me: Okay. I'm just a twenty-seven year old woman performing an interview. Much less dramatic.

Joseph: That's lucky.

Me: (Pauses) Um, first question. Why does Chance City have these sacrifices?

Joseph: That's quite a history lesson. Chance City is a beacon of hope on a earth ravaged by man's greed. Few places are highly habitable and a lot of the world is divided into good and badland. The badlands are the wastelands and the death spots. Wasteland is barren space with areas of pollution. It's hard to survive. Death Spots are just that. If you hit that area you're dead. Poisonous chemicals and other elements have made those areas uninhabitable by any source of life. Chance City in it's former days was less glamourous and things became so bad among the few haves and the many have nots that talks of burning everything down became dangerous talk. One day a teenager named Gamon stepped out the safety of the compound and went to the starving people below. He asked what could be done for them to live in peace. The poor said that first they wanted to have equal shares and second they wanted to punish those who left them to suffer. He returned home with an idea. Use the poor to slowly build up their area and meet their demands for compensation. Over the next three years a system was developed and the poor were asked what they wanted from those who had better fortunes. The order was shocking. Sacrifice. At first those of better standing refused but the outcry from the poor forced them to go through with it. In the beginning it was older men and women and their deaths were grizzly at the hands of a hateful mob. But as things became more structured the sacrifice model changed. By the time I was born it was teens who were sacrificed to keep the peace. Two, a boy and girl after living fifteen years in luxury.

Me: It must be hard going to your death so young.

Joseph: It's that or the wasteland. I heard you interviewed the girl I'm supposed to go with?

Me: Yes she's very nice and pretty.

Joseph: That's good I guess.

Me: Do you have any dreams for yourself?

Joseph: Honestly I'd like to learn how to paint. Right now I do mostly abstract but I'd like to learn more. Also travel around playing my music. I know in the old world they were musiciand who travelled everywhere. It would be a dream come tru...who am i kidding?

Me: It's not bad to dream. Next question, What is your daily routine?

Joseph: I get up, get the assigned stuff out the way then I go exploring for as long as I can. It's interesting what you find when you're looking keenly.

Me: Jess... I mean the girl who'll be with you when the sacrifice is carried out said fifteen years seems longer thanks to the sacrifice. What do you think?

Joseph: Fifteen years is not nearly enough. She's nuts.

Me: (notices a guard frowning a few trees away) Could you defy being sacrificed?

Guard: Hey!

Me: The Chancellor allowed me that question. Long as I don't encourage Joseph into mischief.

Joseph: I'm not... (his eyes fell on the guards spread out in civilianclothes) next question. Please.

Me: Sure. Are you hungry (Joseph sakes his head)? So, are you allowed to have relationships?

Joseph: No, it was decided being with someone when your life's to be extinguised would be too painful for both sides.

Me: Do you love Chance City?

Joseph: (sighs) I don't hate the citizens. The common man.

Guards walk towards us.

Me: (urgently) How were you chosen?

Joseph: My mother was chosen to give birth to the next sacrifice. Some volunteer but she didn't.

Me: How do you feel about the ones who refuse to be sacrificed.

Joseph: Honestly, they're braver than me. The guards are pissed. This interview is done for.

Me: I guessed that. (Guards hover over us in a circle)

Head Guard: Wrap it up Sheena, he's going home.

Joseph: But I want to go see....

Head Guard: Not after some of that talk I overheard. You're on lockdown as soon as you leave this bench.

Joseph looks at me with fearful eyes. I want to help him but know I can't. He's only visiting, anything I do against these guards will be taken out on Joseph the second he's out of sight. 

Me: Please sir, give him one chance. I know he's different but he's a nice boy.

Head Guard: Did I ask you anything?

Me: No.

Guard: Joseph come on. Don't make this harder than it has to be.

Joseph resists as they force him to his feet. I have to get up to keep myself from getting a hard kick.

Head Guard: Have some pride and behave. Boy if you don't shape up...you'll be out in the wastelands before I blink. The barren land alone could have you starving to death and oh, the animals mutated by our mistakes.... even worse.

Me: Stop scaring him. He's already going to die. Stop it!!

Everyone goes silent. I nudge the Head Guard aside and take a teary eyed Joseph's hand.

Joseph: I don't want to die. I can't be like the other one you interviewed.

Me: That's okay. You're having the natural reaction most would towards this. Don't be ashamed.

Another Guard: He was raised to be stronger than this. The day is nearly upon us. He better be ready.

Joseph: (sniffles) I'm fine. I'm better guards, we can go. Thank you for talking to me Sheena.

Me: You're Welcome. (Sigh as he's led away)

Waiting on Wednesday: The Stone Girl by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

Please Note: If you're looking for my Insecure Writers Support group post click here.

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Publication: August 28, 2012.

I am quite taken in by this story line. If I can't get a copy fron netgalley to read in advance I'm going to scream. Plus I want a copy when it comes out in August. This book takes us into a sereal but very real world of eating disorders. Something we should be wary of.

Summary on Goodreads: She feels like a creature out of a fairy tale; a girl who discovers that her bones are really made out of stone, that her skin is really as thin as glass, that her hair is brittle as straw, that her tears have dried up so that she cries only salt. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t hurt when she presses hard enough to begin bleeding: it doesn’t hurt, because she’s not real anymore.

Sethie Weiss is hungry, a mean, angry kind of hunger that feels like a piece of glass in her belly. She’s managed to get down to 111 pounds and knows that with a little more hard work—a few more meals skipped, a few more snacks vomited away—she can force the number on the scale even lower. She will work on her body the same way she worked to get her perfect grades, to finish her college applications early, to get her first kiss from Shaw, the boy she loves, the boy who isn’t quite her boyfriend.

Sethie will not allow herself one slip, not one bad day, not one break in concentration. Her body is there for her to work on when everything and everyone else—her best friend, her schoolwork, and Shaw—are gone.

Hello? Anyone There?

So this is my first step into the ISWG blogging part of the world. Hi. My current writing insecurity is about Briar's Dilema for Bunowrimo (June version of Nanowrimo). I have written nothing. I mean NOTHING. How insane is that? I have pretty much 24 days left and  I better put pedal to the metal to meet the 50,000 word mark by month end.

I also have book one of Sacrifice Her to send to my CPs this month. Excited about working for an August release. Nervous about the reception from my cps, me getting it done and of course reception upon publication. I know you must focus on the matter at hand but I can't help it!

This post is short, I know. But my first step into IWSG is an honest one and I plan to do more posts with this blog meme in the future.