YA Indie Carnival!

Welcome to The Shootin' Gallery and the seventheenth 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.

This week’s post theme is Blast from the Past!

OK, so the days of computer technology and flash drives were not a part of my teen life, nor am I the pack - ratting, overly sentimental type that hordes every momento I've ever aquired. What I mean to say is that I didn't actually preserve anything from that time period of my life to share.

But... I do have my memories and I can recall the types of things I wrote and how I felt during that time period so I can probably re - create something that is fairly Amy - 80's - esque.

In my high school days I was the ONE nice girl on the cheer leading squad. Come on, you know there was at least one, admit it. Anyway, I never really gave into the whole click thingy. My friends were my friends no matter what brand of clothing they wore (Guess or Levi's), shade of lipstick they shimmered (cherry red or black) or hairstyle they rocked (big hair or punk spikes). It did not matter to me. If you were nice to me I would be your friend. Common sense told me you could never have too many friendships and to this day I believe that to be true.

Looking back on my teen years I now realize that I was not very happy. I thought I was. I had lots of friends, was involved heavily in extra curricular activities, I made decent grades... So, what did I have to be unhappy about? Well, for starters, boys! Oh yes, boys were the root of many ills. Broken hearts, jeolousy, disappointment, ruined friendships... you can see where I am going with this. Second, feeling different from everyone else (which I now realize is completely normal for teens). I think my real problem was my intuitiveness. I have a tendency to over think things a lot and let me tell this can be a very bad habit for a teenager. Also, I'm pretty darn perceptive, also not the best thing for a teenager. No, I believe I would have faired much better in high school if I could have avoided boys and remained blissfully ignorant to the shenanigans going on around me but that didn't happen. So, I wrote depressing poetry and LIVED in my bedroom with the door closed. I listened to loud recordings of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard blaring for weeks at a time and attempted to repress reality. Healthy, right? NOT!!! Still, I survived.

My poems always had a theme. Anger, sadness and love were a few of my favorites. Like I said, I do not have an actual poem from this time period but I will attempt to retreat into my teen angst driven, sixteen year old brain and re - create something symbolic of my youthful efforts. Here it goes...

Love

Complicated, consuming, careful...
Never easy,
Never boring,

Energizing, mesmerizing, spectacular...
always pleasing,
kissing, teasing,

I surrender to love...

Whoa!!! That was weird but kind of fun! At any rate, that's all I've got for you but I'm looking forward to blog hopping onto my fellow YA Carni's pages to peruse over their teen - minded master pieces.

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

Soulless; The Story of Shayan is out and available for FREE (ebook) at Smashwords and Goodreads! For now it is available for $0.99 at Amazon.com but I hope to list it FREE soon.

The Guardians of Souls, Book Two in The Soul Quest Trilogy (now only $0.99!!!). It is available on Amazon NOW!

Gwenn Wright's The Von Strassenberg Saga. Our very own Dani Snell just released and designed the official cover for BlueStocking Girl! Here's a link to Gwenn's awesome video:

Laura A. H. Elliott's 13 on Halloween new release! Check out her awesome book trailer and an excerpt.

Courtney Cole's novel, My Tattered Bonds, the finale of the Bloodstone Saga, has been released early. You can find it on Amazon here. Congrats to Courtney's debut on Amazon’s mythology bestseller’s list!

At the end of the month, a group of our own carnies (including yours truly) will be in Savannah, GA for a book signing. You can find the details here.

Lexus Luke is donating 30% of the proceeds from Manitou The Sky People Saga to the ASPCA. You can enjoy a great read AND support a wonderful organization!

The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines will release on October 21. You can see its trailer here.

For a limited time, Kimberly Konrade is selling signed copies of her thriller, Forbidden Mind along with some other really cool stuff! Details here.

And don't miss the giveaway on Gwen Wright’s blog. When she reaches 100 followers, she will give away a signed copy of Filter and cool coffee mugs.

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 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/

The Petting Zoo!
Cheri Schmidt: Author of Fateful and Fractured
http://cherischmidt.blogspot.com

Fire Breather!
Suzy Turner Author of December Moon and Raven
http://www.suzyturner.com/

Clown Sherif!
K. C. Blake Author of Vampire Rules
http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com/

Elephant Trainer!
Gwenn Wright Author of Filter
http://hereventuality.blogspot.com/

Ring-Leader!
Kimberly Kinrade Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind
http://kimberlykinrade.com/

The Giant!
J.L. Bryan Author of Paranormals series- Jenny Pox. Tommy Nightmare & Alexander Death
http://jlbryanbooks.blogspot.com/

Lizard Woman!
Darby Karchut Author of Griffin Rising and the upcoming Griffin's Fire
http://darbykarchut.blogspot.com

Octo - lady!
Madeline Smoot Author of Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls
http://www.madelinesmoot.com/category/ya/

The Fire Breathing Lady!
M. Leighton Author of Blood Like Poison Series, Wiccan, Caterpillar, Madly and Wolfhardt and The Reaping
http://mleightonbooks.blogspot.com/

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