The Imaginary Friend Bloghop

Happy Friday! Today I'm excited to take part in the Imaginary Friend bloghop, organised by Annalisa Crawford as part of the one year anniversary celebrations for her debut novel Cat and the Dreamer, and co-hosted by Kyra Lennon. Here's the details courtesy of Annalisa:

If you've read Cat and The Dreamer you'll know that Julia, the main character, has a big imagination, and she has an imaginary enemy.

We want to know about your imaginary friend. What were they called? How old were you? Were they naughty or nice? If you didn't have one, were there ever times when you could really have used one? Did you ever set fire to your mum's favourite rug and have to take the blame yourself?

I think there will be some great entries for this! I can't wait to read them. I don't have any imaginary friends that I can recall, but my little girl has a very well-established one who unfortunately has a brother with a bit of a dark side. So I used them for a bit of inspiration. The story is told from my daughter's POV.

Chloe’s Brother

It was my favourite book, with clever bits that you pulled to make animals’ mouths open and stuff. Now those animals’ heads lay scattered around the floor.

I loved Chloe, my best friend. We’d play in my fairy castle for hours and pretend to be princesses and dragons. Actually, Chloe’s brother was usually the dragon, burning the castle down, but he always ended up getting too rough and hurting us.

But it was when he wrecked my stuff that I hated him most. Because Daddy always blamed me. I know he did even if he didn’t say so.

I was trying to fix the book but it was no good. The bits wouldn’t stay on. And then the door opened and Daddy came in while I was sitting with all the bits round me.

“Darling, it’s lunchtime – what have you done?” He took the book out of my hands and looked at the poor headless animals. “This was a Christmas present! It’s ruined now.”

I cowered as he stared down at me. “Chloe’s brother did it,” I said in a tiny voice.

“Really? I thought I said he couldn’t come round any more.”

“But Chloe’s mummy goes to work,” I squeaked. “She has to leave both of them here.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what,” said Daddy, crouching down. His voice was sweeter now. “I’ll tell Chloe’s mummy that if Chloe’s brother doesn’t buck his ideas up, she’ll have to find another house.”

“Nooo!” My eyes filled up with tears. “Then I won’t get to see Chloe.”

“Let’s give that brother of hers one more chance.” Daddy gave me a big hug and wiped my eyes with his thumb. “Do you think he’ll be good now?”

“Dunno.”

But Chloe’s brother was good after that. If any accidents happened then they were my fault. He was still a bit rough, but he wasn’t mean like before. I was so glad their mummy had had a word with him, because I couldn’t be without my best friend in the world.

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Don't forget to check out the linky list for all the other entries! And there are still a couple of days left to sign up for my Overcoming Adversity bloghop, to help raise funds to send my stepson to a specialist college. Have a brilliant weekend!

The Wordmaster Challenge: Why I Don't Write Chick Lit

So, it's Wednesday and it's on to my second bloghop of three this week. I know some people take part in multiple ones on the same day, but this is more than enough work for me!

The lovely Misha Gericke came up with an excellent idea to have a bit of fun and stretch our writing muscles with the Wordmaster Challenge. Every month she will post a writing challenge on a different theme. When I saw the theme for the first challenge I couldn't resist signing up. Our task was, in less than 300 words, to write the worst novel opening we could think of. How hard can it be, right?! Well, I was quite surprised!

I had loads of fun writing my entry and hope it is suitably awful. Please note this is not meant to offend any writers or fans of chick lit. I know there are some superb examples of the genre out there because I've read some of them! Think of it more as a gentle roasting of the worst aspects of the genre. I could have done the same thing with fantasy or sci-fi.

So, I present to you the opening of what I hope would be the worst chick lit novel ever, in 297 words. Strap yourself in!

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It had been another long, bewilderingly boring day at work. Claire stepped off the bus near the corner of the gloomy street where she lived in South London and began to trudge boredly up the road. She glanced at her watch: half past seven in the evening and there was a light drizzle in the air, which didn’t exactly help to lift the vague mood of depressed blahness that she had been noticing for weeks now.

Walking up the short flight of stairs to Flat 3, she fumbled distractedly to retrieve her keyring which featured the beloved pink troll which meant so much to her, before unlocking the door which was painted an unsavoury shade of dark beige – probably the worst thing about the flat, she thought to herself annoyedly – and pushed it open, before wrenching off her sensible shoes, which she had to wear working as an accountant at a law firm, although they were uncomfortable, and expensive too, and shuffled into a pair of fluffy blue slippers with little bunny’s ears and faces on them, a relic of her student days; she considered that she had probably outgrown them at 37, but some things were too hard to let go of, and they were of great sentimental value.

Claire was fed up. When was a dashing, tall, dark stranger going to charge in on a white steed and sweep her off her feet? I mean, hello. She’d been single for, like, ever. Her biological clock was ticking loudly. There must be a man out there as desperate for a baby as she was.

She sighed exasperatedly and opened the fridge. She hoped ardently that a large glass of medium-priced red wine and Dirty Dancing on Channel 5 would provide the answer to her multitudinous problems.

*

Did you enjoy that? Go to the linky list to check out more bad beginnings! Thanks for this fun challenge, Misha!

Re-Introducing Myself Blogfest

I'm taking part in this fun blogfest today hosted by Mark Koopmans, Elise Fallson, C.M. Brown and Stephen Tremp. The idea is to post an interesting factoid about yourself with a view to helping all us bloggers, both old and new, get to know each other better. (Not sure where I fall on that scale. I've been around for over a year, but I still don't feel established!)

Something about me that not many people know is that before taking fiction writing seriously, I tried my hand at being a songwriter. This is despite being basically tone deaf! I got an acoustic guitar for my 16th birthday, and over the next few years picked up probably... eight chords? Despite my lack of aptitude I decided at 20 that I wanted to write songs. What I was most interested in was the lyrics, but these came out as the worst kind of teenage angst poetry, although I should have been past that stage... I never actually sang them out loud, and playing them took twice as long as it should have because I had to work out the fingering for every chord change. I won't subject anyone to any of the lyrics, but I do consider the period as a key stage on my writing journey... as in working out what I was not meant to do!

Well I hope you enjoyed that fact! Please visit any of the host blogs to check out the linky list of all the other participants!

The Gravity Trilogy by Cherie Reich - A Review

Another of my goals for the year I forgot to mention was to do more to help promote my blogger buddies' books by airing reviews on my blog. So, to kick things off, here's my review of Cherie Reich's excellent sci-fi trilogy.

Blurb:

A Space Fantasy Collection including DEFYING GRAVITY, FIGHTING GRAVITY, and PULL OF GRAVITY.

Three alien couples in three space fantasy novelettes fall in love in this complete trilogy.

A Persean and a Medusan crash land on a post-apocalyptic Earth and must escape their prison cells in DEFYING GRAVITY. An Earthling and an Aresian flee their vicious peoples and fight for the right to live and love in FIGHTING GRAVITY. A Cupidian and an Earthling can't ignore the pull of love while they battle to save their home in PULL OF GRAVITY.

Review:

I bought this collection as three separate books but decided to review it as a trilogy. The three stories take place in the same universe and while not particularly linked in terms of story, share common themes.

First of all I was highly impressed by the amount of world-building that Reich has achieved in a short space. Each story can easily be read in a day, yet you get the sense of a completely constructed world with enough back story to give you a sense of what motivates the characters yet not being overloaded.

Each story features characters from different alien races meeting and falling in love, against the conventions of their people and in two cases, in the face of open hostility between the races. This romance element makes for something different in the sci-fi field. The only drawback was that by the last book, the outcome feels somewhat inevitable. There were also quite a few similarities between the first two stories (both feature the couples meeting in imprisonment scenarios) and given the settings these are both quite grimy in feel. The last story was quite different, Reich showing us a lush, pleasant world under the threat of war. I did enjoy the descriptions in all three stories.

I would recommend this collection to someone who hasn't tried much sci-fi and is a bit intimidated by some of the hefty tomes out there. There isn't much in the way of technical description - the stories take centre stage. It makes for a quick, enjoyable read, and a good way into the genre.

Bio:

A self-proclaimed bookworm, Cherie Reich is a writer, freelance editor, book blogger, and library assistant living in Virginia. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and her ebooks include a horror novelette titled Once Upon a December Nightmare, a short story collection with authors Aubrie Dionne and Lisa Rusczyk titled The Best of Raven and the Writing Desk, a space fantasy trilogy titled Gravity, and a fantasy series The Foxwick Chronicles. She is a member of the Virginia Writers Club and Valley Writers.

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Purchase Links for The Gravity Trilogy:

Amazon US (ebook)
Amazon UK (ebook)
Smashwords (ebook)
Nook (ebook)
Kobo (ebook)
iTunes (ebook)

Amazon US (print)
Amazon UK (print)
CreateSpace (print)

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1303 - The Dragonslayer cover reveal

Yes, it's time for the cover reveal of the next thrilling installment in Christine Rains' 13th Floor Series, 1303 - The Dragonslayer. Feast your eyes!

Title: 1303 – The Dragonslayer (The 13th Floor series, #3)

Author: Christine Rains

Genre: paranormal romance

Release date: February 13th, 2013

On the rooftop of neighboring building, dragonslayer Xanthus Ehrensvard fires at his target, Governor Whittaker. How he missed the shot, he doesn't know, but fleeing the scene, he picks up an unwanted passenger. Gorgeous reporter Lois King saw Xan's face, and she believes it's the story to make her career. Except he can't let her walk away knowing what he looks like. Xan has to show her the Governor is a bigger threat to the world than he is.

Xan knows dragons never went extinct. They evolved with human society, taking on mortal forms, and slithered their way into positions of great influence and power, just like the Governor. But it's no easy chore proving to someone that dragons still exist, and even more so, they're disguised as famous people. Xan must convince Lois or find another way to silence her. An option, as he gets to know her, he likes less and less.

After all, dragonslayers are no longer celebrated heroes but outlaws. Just as the dragons wish it. But this outlaw must make a plan to slay the dragon or risk its retribution.

Author Bio:

Christine Rains is a writer, blogger, and geek mom. She has four degrees which help nothing with motherhood, but make her a great Jeopardy player. When she's not writing or reading, she having adventures with her son or watching cheesy movies on Syfy Channel. She's a member of S.C.I.F.I. The 13th Floor series is her first self-published series. She has four novellas and eighteen short stories published.

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What an intriguing premise! Dragons in government... maybe we have a few of those around right now, it would explain a thing or two. Congrats, Christine, and have a great weekend everyone!

Physical Movement and the Re-invigoration of my WIP

So, a couple of weeks ago, I posted about my goals for this year, as many others have done. I didn't write about any plans to get in shape, although that is also one of my aims, and having made a start, it's made a marked impact on my writing.

I came back after the Christmas break with the intention of finishing up the first draft of my WIP, started in NaNo 2012. But things weren't really happening. I didn't have the energy for it I had before. Admittedly I hadn't done a lot over the holiday - I went to visit my parents, which involved a lot of... eating, and at home there was quite a lot of eating too. Especially chocolate.

This week I was determined to start in on my exercise goal. My relationship with it has been sporadic over the years - an initial burst of activity, which after a while fizzles out. For example, as a teenager, I used to get up at 6am to run round the park, before doing my paper round and going to school. Sometimes I had a paper round after school, too. But the running probably only lasted about six months. I think I burnt myself out.

This year I'm planning to make working out a regular part of my life. It's started with walking my daughter to and from nursery, instead of taking the van. A simple change, but so far, it's worked wonders! That little walk has allowed me to clear my head, letting me focus on what needs done in my work. So after I get back from dropping her off, I feel ready to go. I'm still not entirely sure how it will all end, but I'm enthused about the challenge again, instead of it being the onerous task it was before. And my productivity has definitely increased.

Along with doing the abswing in the evening, I'm planning to make this my regular exercise. And it's totally free of charge!

Have you made any fitness goals this year? How are you doing with them? Do you find that exercise helps your writing?

1302 Blog Tour

Today I'm pleased to welcome back Christine Rains, as part of the tour for the second installment in her 13th Floor Series, 1302 - The Alpha. This time last month, Christine was here talking about villains for Part 1, and she's back today for more on the same topic. But the villains in her new book are of a different hue, as Christine will explain.

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The Greedy, the Bad, and the Nasty. There are many types of villains. The ones out for the money and power. The demented genius who believes what he's doing is right. And those baddies who just love to cause pain and suffering.

Last month, you were introduced to Vetis in The Marquis. He's one of those villains you love to hate. Maybe you even secretly cheered for him because he's so entertaining. You won't find a villain like that in The Alpha. These bad guys are loathsome.

Stefanie Porter lost her place as the Alpha werewolf in the Nicolet Pack. It was a fair fight. She simply wasn't strong enough to beat Wyatt, but he is far from being a fair man. Usually the loser is exiled from the pack's territory, but since refused to be his mate, he imprisoned her in his cellar. She escaped, but she lost everything.

Wyatt is a cover model for Alpha men. He's handsome, muscled, possessive, and dominant. Something inside of him is twisted, though. He takes what he wants with no care for the pack. Vicious isn't a strong enough word to describe him. He's a supernatural psychopath with a single focus: hunt down Stefanie.

No matter Wyatt's strength, he can't hunt Stefanie alone. He killed the members of the pack that opposed him, but others rolled over for him. Colin and June are the big, dumb goons. If their Alpha barks, they jump. Even if they have no ambition to lead, their cruelty is still detestable.

There's also Wyatt's brother Matt. He came first and scouted the Nicolet Pack, making preparations for his brother. Stefanie's sister fell in love with him, and they became a mated pair. Matt's betrayal was far worse than Wyatt's for he took Stefanie's sister with him.

Without a family and a pack, Stefanie is on her own. Until she meets a lone wolf with ambitions to be a superhero. He's sort of geeky, but he can make her stronger. Powerful enough to beat Wyatt? That remains to be seen.

What's your favorite type of villain? Can you name any that twist a heroic model and make it something evil?

Title: 1302 – The Alpha

Author: Christine Rains

Genre: paranormal romance

Release date: January 13th, 2013

One run in the woods wouldn't matter, or so thinks werewolf Stefanie Porter. Being cooped up in her apartment for months must have messed up her instincts, because her former pack almost catches her until a mysterious lone wolf jumps in to help Stefanie escape.

The cruel Alpha Wyatt not only stole her pack but refuses to give Stefanie her freedom. She can't hide in her apartment any longer or it will drive her crazy. She puts her trust in the lone wolf who can teach her some of his unusual urban survival tricks. James Roberts might be a bit geeky, but he's smart and looks hot when the argyle sweater comes off. His ridiculous ambition to become a superhero might be admirable if Wyatt couldn't rip him limb from limb.

With the pack scouring the city for her, Stefanie must convince James to teach her and control her own Alpha nature, or fight not only for her life, but his as well.

Purchase Links:

Amazon

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Author Bio:

Christine Rains is a writer, blogger, and geek mom. She has four degrees which help nothing with motherhood, but make her a great Jeopardy player. When she's not writing or reading, she having adventures with her son or watching cheesy movies on Syfy Channel. She's a member of S.C.I.F.I. The 13th Floor series is her first self-published series. She has three novellas and sixteen short stories published.

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All the best for your continued success with the series, Christine!