For Reasearch

Okay so since I now have my idea for the story I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo. Since this particular genre hasn't really been popular it's going to require I do a bit more digging. For the particular book I plan on writing it's going to require for me to remember the feel of the book.

So I bought a two new ones that were recently released, and one that is my absolute favorite.

The ones that were released

My favorite of all!

Release Day Blitz: Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 

We are thrilled to bring you the Release Day Launch for Jennifer L. Armentrout's STONE COLD TOUCH! STONE COLD TOUCH is the second full-length novel in Jennifer's The Dark Elements Series, a young adult paranormal romance being published by Harlequin Teen!!

 

Amazon ** Barnes and Noble ** Kobo ** iTunes

STONE COLD TOUCH Synopsis: Every touch has its price Layla Shaw is trying to pick up the pieces of her shattered life—no easy task for a seventeen-year-old who’s pretty sure things can’t get worse. Her impossibly gorgeous best friend, Zayne, is forever off-limits thanks to the mysterious powers of her soul-stealing kiss. The Warden clan that has always protected her is suddenly keeping dangerous secrets. And she can barely think about Roth, the wickedly hot demon prince who understood her in ways no one else could. But sometimes rock bottom is only the beginning. Because suddenly Layla’s powers begin to evolve, and she’s offered a tantalizing taste of what has always been forbidden. Then, when she least expects it, Roth returns, bringing news that could change her world forever. She’s finally getting what she always wanted, but with hell literally breaking loose and the body count adding up, the price may be higher than Layla is willing to pay...  

 EXCERPT

I’d remained in bed after that, trying to sort through the odd tingling in my chest. There was a slight smile on my lips, because Zayne…well, he’d made my day, but then I’d remember what Roth had said to me the night before and the smile would wash away as if it had never been there.

I probably needed to get used to the whiplash mood swings.

It wasn’t until after dinner that I decided to scrub a day’s worth of gunk off myself.Gingerly, I peeled the bandage off, happy to find that the cut in my arm was healing as expected. I didn’t need to cover it anymore. The arm was still tender, but the Warden blood in me was quickly undoing the damage from the iron.

After changing into fresh pj’s, like a total hermit, I padded over to my desk, where I’d left my cell phone. It had been on silent all day and when I tapped the screen, I wasn’t surprised to see a slew of texts from Stacey.

Where r u?

R u skipping, u ho?

A minute later: Your locker misses u. Guess u sick with the herp?

Oh my God. I laughed out loud, grinning as I thumbed through her texts. Our bio sub is still hot. U r missing this.

Bio is lonely.

My boobs miss u. How weird is that?

That was notably weird and yet not surprising.

If I get my cell taken from me, it’s ur fault.

Holy shit, Layla, where r u?!?

Air punched out of my lungs as I read the next text and the several following them.

U have no idea who just walked into bio!!!

Roth is here!

Holy Canola oil, why aren’t u here to witness this?

Ok. He says he had mono. Srlsy? Do people still get mono? And who in the duck was he kissing? A second later—Duck? I didn’t mean duck. That’s SO not what I meant, autocorrect.

Another text had come in about fifteen minutes after the last one. He asked where u were. I told him u joined a cult. I laughed. He didn’t.

Finally, the last text was to call her if I wasn’t dead.

“What in the Hell?” I tossed my cell onto the bed, mouth hanging open.

   

  And don't forget! The choice is yours... Beginning today you’ll have 3 weeks to visit the series website, www.thedarkelementsseries.com, to take a poll and decide which guy Layla should ultimately choose in the final book in the trilogy, Every Last Breath. At the end of 3 weeks, we will tally all the votes, and that’s when Jennifer L. Armentrout will start writing Every Last Breath. The guy who gets the most votes is the one Layla will pick. To prevent early spoilers, we're not going to reveal who won the poll in advance…you’ll have to wait until Every Last Breath goes on sale on July 28th, 2015 to find out whether Zayne or Roth wins Layla in the end. We promise the book will be epic and definitely worth the wait! Who do you want Layla to end up with? Go to www.thedarkelementsseries.com and vote for your choice!  

About Jennifer L. Armentrout: # 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV.   She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.  

Series Website | Website | Twitter | Facebook | Jennifer L. Armentrout Goodreads | STONE COLD TOUCH Goodreads

Book Blitz: Unethical by Jennifer Blackwood

Unethical by Jennifer Blackwood
Published by: Entangled Embrace
Publication date: October 20th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

Synopsis:

A new adult romance from Entangled’s Embrace imprint…
Love burns hotter the second time around…
Two years ago, the medical world was shaken by scandal, and Payton Daniels’s family was at the center of it. The second she graduated, Payton left everything behind―her high school sweetheart, her family, and the controversy surrounding her mother’s death—and hid within the anonymity of college. But Payton’s ex, Blake Hiller, hasn’t forgiven her for leaving, and when he enrolls in the same medical ethics class, she panics. She can’t run the risk of him telling everyone who she really is.

As if being at the same university isn’t enough, both Blake and Payton land the same internship. Forced together, their passion for each other reignites, but when Payton is asked to testify in her father’s high-profile trial, she must choose between risking her acceptance into medical school to help her father, and losing every connection to her past—including the only guy she’s ever loved.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23173096-unethical?ac=1

Purchase:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Unethical-Entangled-Embrace-Jennifer-Blackwood-ebook/dp/B00O0FZ8ZI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413470756&sr=8-1&keywords=Unethical+by+Jennifer+Blackwood

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unethical-jennifer-blackwood/1120419524?ean=9781633751057

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/unethical-1
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/unethical/id923965580?mt=11&uo=4

BOOK EXCEPT:

Payton

My pillow was wet and stuck to my face. I inhaled, and my nose wrinkled as the stench of beer, Kool-Aid, and—French fries?—stung my nostrils.

“Morning, sunshine.” Jules handed me a red Gatorade and ruffled my hair. She was eating curly fries and swiveled from side to side in my computer chair, the motion making me seasick. She shoved a fry in my mouth. “It’s good for your hangover. Eat up.”

I peeled my cheek off the fabric, chewed the fry, and sat up. Immediately, I laid back down and pulled the covers over my head, the material cold and damp against my skin. What the hell? With a dull ache in my hip and my head throbbing like it was having its own techno rave, it made it impossible to recount the events of the frat party. Crap. What did I do?

“This is embarrassing, but what happened last night?” I pushed my comforter off and took a swig of Gatorade to dilute the stale alcohol taste in my mouth. I didn’t remember anything after seeing Blake at the party.

Crap, Blake. What if he blew my cover?

“Let’s see. You got insanely drunk and were carried home by a total hottie.”

Oh, good. Andrew took me home. The night couldn’t have been that bad if he was there to take care of me.

“What’d you think of Andrew? So sweet, right?”

She raised her brow and stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “I’m talking about that guy with the cross tattoo on his smokin’ bicep.”

Shit. “Blake?” I squeaked and buried my head into my palms, pressing so hard my headache was momentarily overridden by the black spots swarming across my eyelids.

She grabbed another curly fry and plopped it into her mouth. “Yeah, that’s it. Nice guy. I’m not religious, but he can make me praise God any day of the week.”

I frowned at the thought of Jules with Blake. He wasn’t religious, but his mom was a devout Roman Catholic. Never missed a Mass in her life. He got that tattoo after his mom died when he was sixteen—I would know; I went with him. Somehow, he talked the guy into tattooing him, even though, technically, people had to be eighteen in California to get ink. But that was Blake; he could talk someone into doing just about anything.

Shifting to get out of bed, I cringed as the fabric of my boxers pulled on my skin. I looked down to see a reddish-brown stain on the side of my shorts. Blood.

“Why the hell am I bleeding?” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I waited for her response.

Jules’s smile turned into a Cheshire cat grin. Oh great.

“You insisted on swinging around the light pole like a stripper and fell on your ass. You even referred to yourself as ‘Wanda.’” She threw her head back and cackled.

Oh. My. God.

Could I seriously climb any higher on the embarrassment scale? Doubtful.

“Blake was really sweet and carried you up to the room and tucked you in. He got you a glass of water and everything.” I spotted the cup in the corner of my bed, which explained the wet comforter and pillow mystery.

“You kept saying how sorry you were. I don’t know what you had to be sorry about. I mean, we just met the guy, but I told him that you’d make it up to him by helping him out in medical ethics.”

He had class with me? How had I not seen him in class on Friday? There were only forty students since it was an upper-level class.

I groaned and took another sip of Gatorade. “Oh, goody.”

This was bad. So bad. Blake would want an explanation for going off the grid. I owed him one, but I couldn’t even explain if I tried. Then again, he also had some explaining to do.

How was I going to face him? Or Andrew?

AUTHOR BIO:

Jennifer Blackwood is an English teacher and New Adult author. She lives in Oregon with her husband, son, and poorly behaved black lab puppy. Her debut novel, UNETHICAL, comes out in October with Entangled Embrace.

Author links:

https://twitter.com/jen_blackwood

http://jenniferblackwood.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferBlackwood

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8532549.Jennifer_Blackwood

Craft Your Characters Ahead

Okay so now that we are getting back to the NaNoWriMo post I'm going to do a post on characters.

Writers get asked a lot how do you come up with your characters? Frankly I have no right way to answer that. Every writer comes up with their characters differently. In one of my completed stories the characters came to me in a dream. In other book I wrote the character was similar to my personality which is what made it easier to write.

An author Susan Dennard did a post on crafting characters and her idea made so much more sense when I couldn't think of how to write it down.

Her five tips for creating characters went like this

• Voice
• Desperate Need
• Backstory/History
• Behavioral/ speaking Quirks
• Looks/Physical Quirks

I followed her advice and found it really easy to make my characters for what I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo! I try to find new ways when I write something new to see what works best for me.

Now back to crafting the characters. By using the points she wrote here are the questions I ask myself when I am making each character. If you follow it you can be sure you will get the voice of the character into your mind that the story will just pop onto the pages! Here is my tip for each.

Voice
How is this character supposed to be? When we are in their mind are we going to be able to tell what they are feeling all the time? 

Desperate Need

What is it your character desperately wants? What do they need to get what they want? What is it your character desperately wants?

Backstory/History
What are the events leading up to the story? What is the characters background history? Did the family recently make a move?

Behavioral/ speaking Quirks

What is their behavior when they are around others? Do they slouch? Sit up straight? Do they have their legs crossed? How is the pitch of their voice?

Looks/Physical Quirks

How does your character dress? What is their body type? Does the way they look match their personality and voice?

Have these characters crafted and you are sure to have something that is going to pop off the pages! Good luck with making your characters for NaNoWriMo!