YA Indie Carnival!

Welcome to The Shootin' Gallery and the seventh post in the YA Indie Carnival. The carnival is designed for authors, readers and reviewers of YA Indie books. Each Friday this team of YA Indies will post on a common theme.

For today's post theme we are to post the first paragraph we have written in a new writing project. Well, this is my latest. I hope it intrigues you!

An excerpt from Soulless; The Story of Shayan, The Soul Quest Trilogy Prequel (from the POV of Hala, the Great Spirit):

“Hello, my dear children. Please gather around and find a resting spot on this splendor of crisp and colorful fallen leaves. My name is Hala and I am the Great Spirit. Today is All Hallows Eve and I have called you here on this beautiful and festive Arcadian day to tell you a story. The story I’m about to tell is not a reflection of this lovely autumn day, it is a warning. It is a warning about the tragedy that can consume us if we fail to remember and honor the dead.”

Soulless is a novella and will be available for free download @ Amazon.com on October 31, 2011!



Before you head off to the next booth in the carnival please don't forget about...

The Guardians of Souls Blog Tour is underway right now. Scroll down to the previous post to learn more or click here.

The Guardians of Souls, Book Two in The Soul Quest Trilogy. It is available on Amazon NOW!










Carnival of fun!

The Ferris Wheel
Dani Snell: An awesome reviewer.
http://www.refractedlightreviews.com

The Rockin' Roller Coaster
Patti Larsen: Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, and The Diamond City Trilogy.
http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com/


The Kissing Booth
Courtney Cole: Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com/

Cotton Candy Corner
Wren Emerson: Author of I Wish and a contributing author in the upcoming anthology that I am participating in (The Glassheart Chronicles).
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com/

The Fun House
Nicole Williams: An indie author of paranormal fiction. Her titles include: Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles. Here is the link to my review on Goodreads.
http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/

The Dunking Booth
Fisher Amelie: Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/

The Carousel
Laura Elliott: Author of the recently released Winnemucca!
http://www.laurasmagicday.wordpress.com

The Haunted Castle
Rachel Coles: Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms.
http://rachelcoles.wordpress.com/

Hayrides!
T.R. Graves: Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com/

The Face Painting Booth
Cydni Tefft: Author of Between
http://ctefft.blogspot.com/

The Fortune Teller
P.J. Hoover: Author of Solstice
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com
Congrats to P. J. for her recent book trailer award for Solstice!

Popcorn and Caramel Apples!
Alicia McCalla: Author of Breaking
http://www.aliciamccalla.com/

Pony Rides!
Heather Cashman: Author of Perception
http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read/

Don't forget to make a comment and join my followers! I love hearing from from my old friends as much as I love making new friends!

The Guardians of Souls Blog Tour, August 25 - 31st!

Purchase The Guardians of Souls
Amazon.com
Barnes and Nobles
Smashwords

















Would you like a free electronic copy of The Guardians of Souls? Well, don't miss your chance! The Guardians of Souls will be available for free in eformat at Smashwords on August 31st, the last day of the tour. Visit Books Ahoy! (the last tour host) on August 31st to learn how to receive your free copy! It's just that easy! Let me know what you think of The Guardians of Souls and if you love it please place a glowing review of the book on any of the links mentioned above (or Goodreads).

The Guardians of Souls Tour will feature reviews of The Guardians of Souls by various book bloggers, author interviews, author guest posts, the book trailer release and the giveaway at Smashwords listed above.

Tour Schedule
August 25th - Michelle Leighton @ M. Leighton Books
August 26th - Laura @ Laura's Magic Day!
August 27th - Megan McDade @ Reading Away the Days!
August 28th - Patti Larsen @ Patti Larsen
August 29th - Kreag Sheehan @ I Devour Books
August 30th - Jamie Johnson @ Fantasy Book Chick
August 31st - Books Ahoy @ Books Ahoy!

Thank you so much to my gracious hosts for supporting and promoting The Guardians of Souls. I truly appreciate your hospitality!


I'm so happy you could participate in the blog tour and visit my blog. Have a look around and please comment or email me if it strikes your fancy. I love hearing what my fans and followers have to say! Thank you again to my wonderful blogging friends for hosting The Guardians of Souls Quest blog tour. I truly appreciate your friendship and support!

YA Indie Carnival!

Welcome to The Shootin' Gallery and the sixth post in the YA Indie Carnival. The carnival is designed for authors, readers and reviewers of YA Indie books. Each Friday this team of YA Indies will post on a common theme.





Today's post theme is, What inspires your writing?

LIFE inspires my writing! Whether directly or indirectly my writing is inspired by who I am and the journey I have traveled on the long and winding road that began on September 18, 1970 (don't hurt yourself doing the math on that one, lol!).

What do authors write about?

I find my writing deeply reflects my values and beliefs. While I may be writing about fantastic creatures and beings that only exist in the world of make believe I try very hard to make the relationships of my characters and the circumstances they live in anchored in reality. My characters possess a wide range of emotions and find themselves in circumstances that, while they may be imaginary are still quite familiar to every person. I try to integrate into my books the essence of humanity, what it is to be human.

Who do authors write to or for?

I write for young adults. I want to inspire and touch the future! I think teenagers are the most fabulous and amazing creatures on the planet! They have so much potential... and I believe in them.

And why do authors write?

For me, it's simple, it's an escape and mental exercise. It relieves my stress while at the same time allowing me to express myself creatively. As a teacher I am lucky enough to inspire and hone creative skills in my students but I don't always have the opportunity to challenge myself. I'm an artist. I must create! Through my writing I can do this.

What tools do authors use to create characters, plots, etc...

Everything! Art, music, television and movies... you name it! For me, I am most inspired by dreams and pictures (a picture is worth a thousand words). I can be flipping through a magazine and come across a picture of a little girl sitting in the corner of a dark room, alone and suddenly a story begins to spark to life in my noggin. Questions swirl in my mind; Who is the little girl? Why is she here by herself? How is she feeling and what caused her to feel that way? ...and so on. In my book Soul Quest I had a dream about a little boy surrounded by mirrors, only the mirrors were reflections of life's past tragic events (Nazi Germany, Nine Eleven).

Well, that's what inspires me to write, how about you? What draws you to your favorite genre of books?


Before you head off to the next booth in the carnival please don't forget about...

The Guardians of Souls Blog Tour August 25th - 31st.

The Guardians of Souls, Book Two in The Soul Quest Trilogy. It is available on Amazon NOW!

Carnival of fun!

The Ferris Wheel
Dani Snell: An awesome reviewer.
http://www.refractedlightreviews.com

The Rockin' Roller Coaster
Patti Larsen: Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, and The Diamond City Trilogy.
http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com/


The Kissing Booth
Courtney Cole: Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com/

Cotton Candy Corner
Wren Emerson: Author of I Wish and a contributing author in the upcoming anthology that I am participating in (The Glassheart Chronicles).
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com/

The Fun House
Nicole Williams: An indie author of paranormal fiction. Her titles include: Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles. Here is the link to my review on Goodreads.
http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/

The Dunking Booth
Fisher Amelie: Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/

The Carousel
Laura Elliott: Author of the recently released Winnemucca!
http://www.laurasmagicday.wordpress.com

The Haunted Castle
Rachel Coles: Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms.
http://rachelcoles.wordpress.com/

Hayrides!
T.R. Graves: Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com/

The Face Painting Booth
Cydni Tefft: Author of Between
http://ctefft.blogspot.com/

The Fortune Teller
P.J. Hoover: Author of Solstice
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com
Congrats to P. J. for her recent book trailer award for Solstice!

Popcorn and Caramel Apples!
Alicia McCalla: Author of Breaking
http://www.aliciamccalla.com/

Pony Rides!
Heather Cashman: Author of Perception
http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read/

Don't forget to make a comment and join my followers! I love hearing from from my old friends as much as I love making new friends!

Tower of Parlen Min Blog Tour

Today I would like to welcome Matt Xell to Amy Jones Young Adult Fantasy Fiction.
Matt is the author of Tower of Parlen Min, a young adult science fiction and fantasy novel. About a month and half ago Matt emailed me and asked me if I would read and review his book and participate in his blog tour. After reading the synopsis for his book I was immediately intrigued. I downloaded his book and after reading it I was not disappointed.

Here is my review:

The Tower of Parlen Min by Matt Xell is packed full of action and adventure. You will immediately be fascinated by Ves Asirin, a mysterious and exceptional orphaned boy. Ves's journey is one of a kind. Everyday Ves awakes to a new mystery, literally, because each night he experiences an excruciating mind robbing headache that erases all of his memories from the previous day (or at least most of them). Ves's condition has made his life quite challenging but he is not completely in the dark. Like anyone with a disability he has learned to adapt and blend in (or at least he attempts to).

In this incredible story of young adult, speculative fiction the talented author, Matt Xell, does an amazing job of developing dynamic and unique characters and submersing them into a bizarrely beautiful and terrifying world. Ves's journey is filled with emotion and mystery. I was met with surprises on every page. What I especially loved about this book was the extent of detail and unique creativity invested by the author. Mr. Xell is a brilliant writer and I look forward to reading more about Ves and his unbelievable quest.

I recommend this book to Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson & The Red Pyramid series) and Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games series) fans. If you love these authors will 'eat up' Matt Xell's writing. I know I did.

I give Tower of Parlen Min 5 stars!

Want to learn more about Matt Xell and his book? Yeah, I thought you might. Here are the links you're craving!

Links for social networks:
Matt's FB page
Tower of Parlen Min on FB
Matt on Goodreads
Matt on Twitter

Links to points of sale:
Amazon.com
Smashwords
Lulu.com

Now for the best part, Matt has graciously set up a giveaway here at Amy Jones Young Adult Fantasy Fiction.
Five lucky winners will receive a coupon code to download their own copy of Tower of Parlen Min on Smashwords. The giveaway ends October 31st! Do you want to win a free copy?

Here's what you should do:
1- Follow me!
2 - tweet this post!
3 - post a comment on this post!
...and that's it!

Thanks again to Matt Xell for sharing his awesome book with me and my followers!

Happy Reading!

YA Indie Carnival!

Welcome to The Shootin' Gallery and the fifth post in the YA Indie Carnival. The carnival is designed for authors, readers and reviewers of YA Indie books. Each Friday this team of YA Indies will post on a common theme.





Today's post theme is, What surprised me the most about going Indie?

Well, let see, to be entirely honest I think just about everything about becoming an Indie author, fan, reviewer, blogger surprised me. For months I sat in front of my computer writing query letters to agents and when I needed a break I would head over to my already enormous and ever growing pile of books stacked in the corner of my bedroom.

So, one day my hubster says, "Hey Amy, why don't you just self publish and buy yourself a Kindle?" As dim as I was at the time I flashed him the 'duh' look and continued my usual repetitive and entirely unproductive task of querying. As the months passed the routine grew more tiresome (which only totaled six months in all, I'm not very patient) and so the next time the hubs says, "Hey Amy, why don't you..."

I cut him off and said, "OK, I give in. How do I do this?" ...and so it began.

Mind you, I was still not sold on the ereader contraption idea (yes, I can be very dense sometimes), but I agreed to give Lulupress a shot and printed my first copy of Soul Quest in paperback. The book was listed on the Lulu site and before I knew it I had a dozen sales (all family and friends)... and then nothing.

I became frustrated and began to wonder what I could do to advertise. I quickly learned advertising is very expensive and couldn't rationalize spending a bunch of money on something with little chance of success when I had bills to pay, mouths to feed, bodies to cloth... you get the jist of it, right?

So again, my hubby says, "Kindle..." and I finally caved. We went out the next day and purchased a Kindle and I fell in love with the amazing thing. Before I knew it I was joining Kindle forums and blog hopping and discovery hundreds of books by authors I'd never heard of. They were selling their books for just .99 (miraculous sounding music with cherubs singing in the background)! I was like, holy smokes, I've hit the jack pot! Not only did I download and begin reading these books but I found that I enjoyed them every bit as much as the NY Times Bestsellers I had been purchasing at Books A Million for anywhere from $17 to $22 a pop! The first indie series I read was Amanda Hocking's Trylle Trilogy. Immediately I was hooked.

So, now can you guess what hubby said next? You got it, he says, "Hey Amy, why don't you publish YOUR book as an ebook on Amazon?" Obviously, I finally came to my senses and did just that. It wasn't an easy process (surprise number 2). Neither of us knew anything about file conversion, formatting, blah, blah, blah. It's still a challenge but I'm getting better at it the more experience I have with it.

From there I started my blog and website. It sounds like the end of the story here but it is really just the beginning. The third surprise was the networking groups and friendships I have found in this adventure (including the wonderful ladies whose blogs are listed below). As far as being able to share my love of books over the years I have mostly been limited to my mother. I have a few friends and co - workers who have read Twilight but beyond that my primary source of face to face book discussions has been with my teenage high school students. I can't tell you what a blessing it has been to share my love of the paranormal and young adult fantasy fiction with other adults. For the first time in my life I don't feel quite so 'abnormal' in my love of reading and preference of reading genre.

In closing I will say that I am grateful for this incredible and quickly emerging new trend in the publishing industry. It has allowed me to realize a dream I thought would never take place.


Before you head off to the next booth in the carnival please don't forget about...

The Guardians of Souls Blog Tour August 25th - 31st.

The Guardians of Souls, Book Two in The Soul Quest Trilogy. It is available on Amazon NOW!

Carnival of fun!

The Ferris Wheel
Dani Snell: An awesome reviewer.
http://www.refractedlightreviews.com

The Rockin' Roller Coaster
Patti Larsen: Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, and The Diamond City Trilogy.
http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com/


The Kissing Booth
Courtney Cole: Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com/

Cotton Candy Corner
Wren Emerson: Author of I Wish and a contributing author in the upcoming anthology that I am participating in (The Glassheart Chronicles).
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com/

The Fun House
Nicole Williams: An indie author of paranormal fiction. Her titles include: Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles. Here is the link to my review on Goodreads.
http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/

The Dunking Booth
Fisher Amelie: Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/

The Carousel
Laura Elliott: Author of the recently released Winnemucca!
http://www.laurasmagicday.wordpress.com

The Haunted Castle
Rachel Coles: Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms.
http://rachelcoles.wordpress.com/

Hayrides!
T.R. Graves: Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com/

The Face Painting Booth
Cydni Tefft: Author of Between
http://ctefft.blogspot.com/

The Fortune Teller
P.J. Hoover: Author of Solstice
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com
Congrats to P. J. for her recent book trailer award for Solstice!

Popcorn and Caramel Apples!
Alicia McCalla: Author of Breaking
http://www.aliciamccalla.com/

Pony Rides!
Heather Cashman: Author of Perception
http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read/

Don't forget to make a comment and join my followers! I love hearing from from my old friends as much as I love making new friends!

Book Blogging Rocks!

I feel so proud and lucky to be a book blogger!

As you may know my first blog tour just wound down this week and I am so thrilled with the results I could just cry! Not only did my blog stay very busy every day of the tour, I found that many of you who passed through downloaded Soul Quest over at Smashwords using the free coupon. I can't describe how exciting it feels to know that my book has reached that many more hands and I hope that if you enjoy it you will tell the world about it (pretty please!). Just having published my first book in February of 2011 I'm still fairly new to the indie scene and I want my book/s to reach as many readers as possible so they can fall in love with my characters just as I have.

As if this isn't enough to make me happy, I've noticed that my sales have experienced a little boost this week on Amazon (even with the freeby offer at Smashwords, I know, amazing right?). So, THANK YOU SO MUCH to my wonderful tour hosts, my followers, my host's followers, all book bloggers, reviewers, our almighty God, the universe... You feel what I'm sayin' right? I love you guys and I hope you can feel the love as you read this post.

Speaking of feeling the love, I've got even more to extend...



I received this awesome blog award from Stephco @ A Girl and her Diary. Thank you so much Stephsco for this fantastic honor!

The Liebster Blog Award is given to blogs with fewer than 200 followers. I’m getting pretty close to 200, yay! I love blogging and meeting new friends every day online. Whether you are an author, reviewer, book lover, vampire or an angel, I love you all and can’t wait to meet you.

Stephsco, the lovely blogger who bestowed upon me the honor of this award, was speculating the origins of the name, Leibster. She wondered if the award was named after a person and concluded that the name would make a great name for a character in a novel. I must concur. How about Flash Leibster? …whiz kid by day, super hero by night. He could be a modern day Spiderman in goth – computer hacker form.


Anyway, I'm passing the Liebster forward to these 5 bloggers:
1 – Patti Larsen @ Patti Larsen
2 – Heather Cashman @ Better off Read
3 – Gabrielle Phillips @ Gabrielle Phillips
4 – Hannah E. Carson @ Hannah E. Carson
5 – Kenya D. Williamson @ Kenya D. Williamson

I hope you all continue to pass on the love. Here are the guidelines:
1 - Thank the person who gave you this award and link back to them.
2 - Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3 - Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4 - Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5 - And best of all - have blogging fun!

The Young Adult Indie Carnival!

Scroll down to the next post for information about the Soul Quest Blog Tour.

Welcome to The Shootin' Gallery and the fourth post in the YA Indie Carnival. The carnival is designed for authors, readers and reviewers of YA Indie books. Each Friday this team of YA Indies will post on a common theme.



Today's post theme is, Three Indies we are currently reading. I really love this post theme because I get a chance to brag about my indie friend's great reads (...more than usual).

Well, for starters I just finished reading a great book by a fellow named Matt Xell. His book is titled Tower of Parlen Min. It was a great read that kept me on the edge of my seat from cover to cover. I would say Tower of Parlen Min is a cross between Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and The Hunger Games. Here is a link to my review on Goodreads.


Goodreads description:
Ves Asirin wins a trip to the Tower of Parlen Min. There, with 19 other children, he competes in the Sword Challenge; a series of puzzles and tasks, for $12 million. As fantastic and glorious as the tower seems to be, Ves finds that it keeps a dark and secret history that he has been connected to for over 150 years, a secret that will define his destiny ... if he can escape 'The shadow'.

Currently, I am reading J. L. Bryan's Jenny Pox #1. So far I am really enjoying this book. It is the first of Mr. Bryan's work that I've ventured into and he already has me caught up in Jenny's mysterious and poisonous plight.


Goodreads description:
Jenny has a secret. Her touch spreads a supernatural plague.

She devotes her life to avoiding contact with people, until her senior year of high school, when she meets the one boy she can touch, and she falls in love.

But there's a problem--he's under the spell of his devious girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

Now Jenny must learn to use the deadly "Jenny pox" she's fought her entire life to hide, or be destroyed by Ashleigh's ruthless plans.

Not recommended for readers under sixteen due to mature content.

Last, but not least, my next indie paranormal romance read will be Addison Moore's Burn, the third book in her Celestra series. I was thrilled with Ethereal and Tremble and have no doubt that Burn will be absolutely brilliant. I must confess, however, I am hopeful that Logan will win Skyla's heart (... sorry Gage). To read my reviews of Ethereal and Tremble select the highlighted links.


Goodread description:
Sixteen year-old, Skyla Messenger is having difficulties with the living and the dead.

With Chloe’s diary in her hands, Skyla embarks into the mind of one of Paragon’s most twisted former residents.

After accidentally kick-starting the faction war, Skyla finds herself in more danger than ever before. So, when Marshall offers her a taste of the gift of knowing, Skyla attempts to use it to alter the outcome of future prophesies.

And now that Skyla’s love life seems to involve one boy too many, she must choose who to be with. If she waits too long, the decision just might be made for her.

Well, those are my indie reads for now... the list keeps on growing (thank goodness!). What are yours?

Make sure you make your way around to the other fascinating carni's booths in the YA Indie Carnival. You can find their links below. Enjoy the amusements!

Before you head off to the next booth in the carnival please don't forget about...

The Guardians of Souls Blog Tour August 25th - 31st.

The Guardians of Souls, Book Two in The Soul Quest Trilogy. It is available on Amazon NOW!

Carnival of fun!

The Ferris Wheel
Dani Snell: An awesome reviewer.
http://www.refractedlightreviews.com

The Rockin' Roller Coaster
Patti Larsen: Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, and The Diamond City Trilogy.
http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com/


The Kissing Booth
Courtney Cole: Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com/

Cotton Candy Corner
Wren Emerson: Author of I Wish and a contributing author in the upcoming anthology that I am participating in (The Glassheart Chronicles).
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com/

The Fun House
Nicole Williams: An indie author of paranormal fiction. Her titles include: Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles. Here is the link to my review on Goodreads.
http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com/

The Dunking Booth
Fisher Amelie: Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/

The Carousel
Laura Elliott: Author of the recently released Winnemucca!
http://www.laurasmagicday.wordpress.com

The Haunted Castle
Rachel Coles: Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms.
http://rachelcoles.wordpress.com/

Hayrides!
T.R. Graves: Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com/

The Face Painting Booth
Cydni Tefft: Author of Between
http://ctefft.blogspot.com/

The Fortune Teller
P.J. Hoover: Author of Solstice
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com
Congrats to P. J. for her recent book trailer award for Solstice!

Popcorn and Caramel Apples!
Alicia McCalla: Author of Breaking
http://www.aliciamccalla.com/

Pony Rides!
Heather Cashman: Author of Perception
http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read/

Don't forget to make a comment and join my followers! I love hearing from from my old friends as much as I love making new friends!