The Fulfillment Series

The Fulfillment Series

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Birthday Continues and 2nd Wedding Updates

Today's blog is brought to you by my ADD:

Southern Wedding: So, I found my wedding dress for our Southern wedding! <happy dance> I'd hoped to use the same dress from our PNW wedding, but the sash on it picked several parts of the dress. I had the bridal place look at it, but they couldn't fix it. At first, I was really bummed. BUT then I found this other dress, and now I'm stoked. I like it as much, if not a little better, than the last one! Woot!! PS. I am BEYOND thrilled to be marrying the love of my life AGAIN! He's the most amazing man, y'all. I can't even tell you how much I love and adore him!!

It's so fun to get married, we're doing it twice!! That's not my veil, by the way. LOL! 

Birthday Par-tay Continues: Deek took me to the beach to celebrate my birthday and then pampered me with movies and my favorite food on my actual birthday. And the celebration just kept going, continuing into the next weekend. His parents threw me a big birthday bash! SO SWEET!! They served amazing food and even include biscuits for their Southern daughter-in-law. Biscuits, people. I do love a biscuit. Then, they presented me with a beautiful gift they had specially commissioned just for me. Is that super sweet and thoughtful or what? I am so blessed to have married into an amazing family! I have my own huge Southern family, and now I am fortunate enough to have a loving PNW family too! Who could ask for anything more? #LuckyGirl

Deek and I decided to take some "you're a year older" pictures, which of course devolved into silliness.

Starbucks now serves coffee with coconut milk (for those of us who can't do dairy OR soy), so here I am enjoying a caramel macchiato,


You're HOW old now??

Smooches from my favorite guy!

I am a year older...like a boss.

My mom and grandmother sent me some birthday money to pamper myself. So, I got another caramel macchiato (do we see a theme here) and had a pedicure. Sooooooo relaxing! They rubbed hot rocks over my legs, and it felt amazing!!


And then, my soul sister, Dawn, sent me an amazing birthday packet in the mail. She knows me well!!



Work: I've been line editing The Boatman by Kat Hawthorne for BookFish Books. I can't do my work without proper supervision from our little fluff ball, Trinity.

Here, she's being quite the task master. 

Trin is going over my work with a fine-toothed comb. 

Random: While Deek and I were at the pet store getting food for Trinity, we saw this adorable little cross-eyed cat. I kinda want him.

Is he adorbs or what?

And just because...Percy...yesterday was a Camp Half-Blood kinda day...

Camp Half-Blood Foreva! 

Until next time, my friends!!

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

IMPLANTED by Heather Letto

If you've ready my blog or followed me on social media, you'll know I'm a HUGE fan of Anita at Race-Point. She created my amazing book covers, and she's done outstanding work on countless other covers. Well, today, I'm going to reveal her latest work on IMPLANTED, sequel to Heather Letto's IMPERVIOUS.

You remember IMPERVIOUS' cover, right?


Here is a little information about the sequel, IMPLANTED...

Implanted by Heather Letto 
(Ascension #2) 
Publication date: June 2015
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult

Synopsis:
After a narrow escape from the city of Impervious, Fran’s heart aches for the ones she left behind. Will her brother ever connect the dots? And, what about Pete? Could he, along with the remaining Rebels, have survived the Council’s violent oppression?

As Fran ponders the fate of her friends, an even more disturbing revelation drops into her world—the knowledge that she, along with anyone who had lived underground remains implanted with the sinister presence of the Council. A fate rendering her powerless to save.

Yet one with pure blood, untouched by the Council’s defiling, lives among them. Could he be the new lifeline of hope? Is salvation of the city worth risking the life of this one-and-only?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25355679-implanted


Purchase book 1: In keeping with the spirit of celebration--for reveal day only--all IMPERVIOUS (Ascension Series Book 1) Kindle downloads will be .99! This new edition of Impervious includes a Glossary of Terms and thought-provoking Discussion Questions. 
Link: goo.gl/plHXqc

And now...the cover....


About the Author


I’m a book-writing, selfie-taking, latte-drinking, social media gal. I’m living a good life on the road as a full-fledged Bedouin (Well, except, my tent is actually a fully-equipped RV.) Me and my partner-in-crime (Benj) tend to hunker down wherever the skies are clear and the temps stay in the 70’s. We call ourselves Gypsy Nerds because we aimlessly wander the U.S. with glasses perched upon our noses and faces jammed into computer screens (for the first half the day... The second half of the day is typically devoted to playing because we’re also somewhat immature.)

Like most authors, the characters I create are my extended family.  And like most readers, when the story ends, I get a little sad. In real life, I have two handsome, hardworking, grown-up boys who know how to make their Mama proud! *Waves to Joey and Mike!*

The Ascension Series is my debut into the world of YA fiction.

I’m living what I love and loving what I live!

http://www.heatherletto.com/
https://twitter.com/hletto2



Friday, April 24, 2015

Birthday Celebrations and Giveaway!

I love April, mostly because it's my birthday month. Haha! So, Deek and I planned a trip to the beach to celebrate. As I've told you before, I'm a Dave Ramsey girl, so we set aside money each month in advance to prepare for the trip, used only that money during the trip, AND...we came in under budget! I am so proud of us. LOL! We were able to have an amazing time too! Woot! <raise da roof>

Here are some pics from our adventure!

The beach is gorgeous! We were fortunate that this particular weekend happened to be the warmest in a long time! 

Big grins! I love this man!

He's sneaking a kiss from the birthday girl!

I LOVE the movie Tombstone, so I was psyched to see Huckleberry salt water taffy! LOL! 

We decided to have dinner at the Pign 'N Pancake. I've not had pancakes in YEARS (yes, years). They were so yummy!!

Both Deek and I wanted to give this surrey ride a try! So fun, and good exercise (which we needed after the Pig 'N Pancake-LOL)

Gorgeous view along our surrey ride!

Every day, I think it's not possible to adore this man any more than I do, yet every day, I manage to fall a little more in love. How does that happen?


More time on the beach beside this handsome man. <swoon>


For my actual birthday, I had a cold. Boo! But it was the perfect excuse to lie around all day. I ended up watching two movies--Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters and The Other Woman. I chose Percy because...Percy. And I chose The Other Woman because it starred Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones. I wanted to see him in a different role.

Percy rant: I adore Percy Jackson in the books. But Percy in the movies seriously lacks the snark I grew to love in the books. He's all angsty and uncertain. BUT I'm glad this time Annabeth had blonde hair. I'll keep trying to forgive the za-za-zing blue eyes (she really has pretty eyes though) when they should be grey (how many times did Riordan mention that??). 

I feel like this when I see self-conscious, non-snarky Percy in the movie...


Jennifer Lawrence Fighting With Fist

And just because I can't resist a chance to plug my favorite show...here's Jaime Lannister. Game of Thrones foreva, baby!!


While I was sick on my birthday, my husband came home for lunch and brought me Panda Express, which I love! And then for dinner, he brought me pizza and Reese's. It was the perfect food day for me. I felt so loved! Deek is da best!

The title of this post mentions a giveaway...I didn't forget! ;) You have TWO chances to win a copy of The Prophecy--one on Amazon and one on Goodreads. Here are the links! Good luck!

Amazon: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Ends the earlier of April 29, or when all prizes are claimed. See Official Rules http://amzn.to/GArules

https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/cf9db9a122ad89e9

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/136179-the-prophecy

Have an amazing weekend!! Deek and I will be enjoying even more birthday celebrations-- I like to milk it for all it's worth. Hahaha!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Old vs. New

There is no purpose for this picture other than it's cool. Deek saw these at Michael's craft store and arranged them this way. I love that guy! 


Remember the gorgeous Victorian we rented? Well, the owners decided to come back from their two year stay across the country and reclaim their lovely home, which left Deek and I scrambling for a new place to live. We knew it was a possibility when we moved in, but we hoped they would linger on the East Coast longer. C'est la vie...they did not. So, Deek and I moved. Note: It's my third move in a year. That is kinda unbelievable but kinda awesome at the same time. Renting provides the opportunity to live in a variety of different places. In fact, we may opt to never own a home again!

The historical home 

While I loved living in a historical home, there were some drawbacks. And I must admit, I am so thankful to have some modern amenities again! I know, first world problems... ;) But here are some things that are part of our new home that I'm so incredibly thankful for!

Old Versus New

  1. To top off my list, AIR CONDITIONING! Deek teases me all the time and wonders how a Southern girl cannot stand the heat. The answer is very simple. We live in our air conditioned homes, walk to our air conditioned cars, and go into air conditioned stores. Unless you make a concerted effort to go sit in the blazing, humidity-laden heat, you don't have to experience the inferno of the South. When we compared his old house in the PNW to mine in the South, we discovered his had an AC unit half the size of mine even though his house was twice as big. So clearly, we Southerners value our AC! ;) 
  2. An en suite bathroom. I really enjoy the convenience of not having to leave my bedroom to go to the bathroom or take a shower. It's the little things.
  3. A closet! The bedroom we had in the older house had no closet. We had to store our clothes in the huge utility room downstairs. So, Deek and I had to walk up and down the stairs to find our clothes, get dressed, and go out. In our new place, I step out of the bed, walk a few steps, and have access to a nice walk-in closet. 
  4. Working internet. When you live in a small, historical town in a house not originally wired for internet--or even electricity!--things get wonky. Whenever it rained, our internet went on the fritz. It's the Pacific Northwest, people. You've seen Twilight; it rains all the time here. 
  5. Being able to hang things on the walls! The old house had some kind of plaster walls, so we could only hang pictures on already existing hooks or from string off these picture hooks that attached to a railing around the ceiling. Deek is super handy with that kind of stuff and managed to work within those confines, but boy do I love hanging a picture where we want it. ;) 
I will miss the cool personality of the old house and the delightful little small town we lived in, but I won't miss the ridiculous water prices or the spiders (ewwww...a drafty old house has TONS of spiders year round). 

We can hang stuff on the walls!! 

Art imitating life or life imitating art?

Slowly but surely, this Southern girl is getting more like a Pacific Northwesterner. I managed to do the capris and big coat thing one day. ;) BUT I still need air conditioning like plants need water. 

I have a reading nook again! Yay!!

Monday, April 13, 2015

The Extraction List by Renee Meland

Today, I am honored to host Renee Meland! Her latest novel The Extraction List just released on April 7, so you can hop on over to Amazon and order it! Good news all around! ;)


BOOK NAME: The Extraction List    
    
GENRE: Young Adult Dystopian

BLURB:When fifteen-year-old Riley Crane finds out her best friend Olivia is being abused at home, she knows just who to turn to: her mother Claire, writer and spokesperson for President Gray's Parental Morality Law. Under this law, Task Force Officers remove children from their homes if their parents do not meet certain guidelines, taking them to government-run boarding schools. Once they arrive, supervisors rehabilitate them, turning them into productive members of society. Or at least that was how it was supposed to work...
 
Now, after a government official threatens to make Riley the law's latest victim, Riley and Claire must rely on Cain Foley, a gifted killer with a tongue as sharp as the knives he carries, to get them out of America alive. Though he slices through men's necks as if they are warm butter, Riley can't seem to keep her cheeks from flushing every time he speaks. But when they stumble upon a deserted boarding school, Riley sees that escaping the country is only part of their problem. Together, Riley and Cain figure out that a killer can save a life, and a mother can damn a nation.

RELEASE DATE: April 7th, 2015 

Excerpt


Sometimes a killer can save a life. In this case that life happened to be mine. I wish I had met him before the whole mess started. Maybe he could have saved more of us.
Maybe he could have saved us all.

I met the man who saved my life exactly one month after he killed his twentieth person. Of course he didn’t call it “murder,” he called it surviving, though sometimes I thought he should try to explain the difference to the people buried in the ground. To me, one label didn’t necessarily cancel out the other.

***

One of my teachers used to say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Trust me, I knew all about it; I called that road “mother.” That teacher never mentioned what the road back was made with. I figured it was because nobody’d ever found one. Hell sort of struck me as a one-way-ticket kind of thing.
The night the Taskforce showed up on our doorstep, my mom screamed. After my brother Aidan’s death, then Dad leaving, hearing her carrying on like a crazy person wasn’t exactly new and different. I didn’t even flinch at first. I figured maybe she was missing my dad all the way to the bottom of a tequila bottle—again.
After a couple minutes though I slammed my copy of Crime and Punishment shut and left my room. I took my sweet time going downstairs to see her, hoping to hold on to the little bit of normal I’d had just seconds earlier. I stopped by the bathroom and grabbed a giant bottle of aspirin. Just in case.
Then I decided I was kidding myself. I knew better. There was no way she wouldn’t need aspirin.
“Riley! Get your stuff! We have to leave right now!” I ducked as Mom greeted me with a scene full of flying paper, jackets, and a few photo albums. They seemed to spin like a paper and plastic tornado, twirling through the air and landing unevenly in a giant duffel bag spread open at her feet. Even in the chaos I paused for a second to wonder how Mom’s hair managed to stay fastened perfectly in place. The image in front of me looked almost ordinary, a beautiful blonde woman in a fitted black skirt, white blouse, and hair pinned back in a bun, with a briefcase resting just inside the door.
Except this woman had thrown half our living room into orbit.
“Mom, what’s going on? What happened?”
Mom grabbed me by the shoulders and stared right into my eyes. “We need to leave right now, okay? I need you to not ask questions and just go pack a bag. You need to just trust me and do what I tell you, okay? And do NOT come downstairs until I say so.” Mom didn’t blink. I remembered the last time she didn’t blink during a whole conversation: When she told me that she and Dad needed to “work on their communication.” I found out later that was Mom-speak for “Dad’s about to abandon us and slam the door for the last time.”
I suddenly wished for the empty tequila bottle.
“You are my life.” Mom kissed my forehead, and I ran up the stairs. I didn’t come down again until I heard the gunshots. At fifteen, I was all too familiar with the sound. A person was never too young to know the snap of a gun anymore. But it was different coming from our house, like a firecracker going off inside my brain.
When I got to the entryway, a pool of blood belonging to a man in a gray suit tried to hold my shoes to the floor. The sticky mess grabbed the soles of my sneakers and smelled like raw steak fresh out of the plastic wrap. I winced as I stepped through it toward my mom. A pink piece of paper rested on top of the pool, slowly flooding with the dark red liquid. Bo, my mom’s best friend, had appeared too. Pistol smoke swirled gently from the tip of his weapon.
It wasn’t the blood, but the paper that made me scream. I felt the color drain from my cheeks, and I wondered if I looked as white as the dead man lying on our floor. “What the hell is going on? Is that pink paper what I think it is?”
Mom ignored my question. I hated being ignored more than anything, especially by her. But since there was a dead body involved, I figured I’d make an exception.
“Oh my GOD—you KILLED him!” Mom screamed, and in all her stick-thin glory started flailing her arms, hitting Bo with the strength of a flightless bird. Her bony fists bounced off his body as if his chest were made of rubber. If it hadn’t been a murder scene, it would have been kind of funny.
“Are you SURE? I saw him push you and I panicked. Maybe he’s just wounded.”
Thank God Bo didn’t panic more often.
Mom took a deep breath and stepped through the blood. She gently picked up the man’s hand and placed two fingers on his wrist. When she released it, her fingertips were stained red. “Yes. He’s dead.” She made a grand gesture, starting at his head and finishing toward his feet. “That’s what dead people look like. What are we going to do?”
My hands shook, partially from fright and partially because no one would tell me why there was a dead guy in the entryway.
Or why he had the pink slip of paper.
Bo grabbed Mom by the shoulders and held her still. “Claire, we’re going to grab Riley and we’re going to get out of here before more people come looking for this guy. I’ll tell you the plan on the way.”
Mom scoffed at him with wide eyes. “Plan? I don’t need your plan. I’m going to go straight to President Gray about this and he’s going to fix it. He has to.”
A twinge of hope rose inside me, working its way up from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. Maybe we wouldn’t have to leave our home after all. Maybe our little visit was just a really complicated, really messy misunderstanding. “Yeah, Mom’s right. I’m sure he’ll fix this. I can’t actually be on the Extraction List, right, Mom?”
“Of course not. There’s no way.”
Mom started toward the door, but Bo stepped in front of her.
“Claire, you saw the paperwork with your own eyes. Gray knows all about this. His signature is there.” He pointed to the guy on the floor. “This guy was going to grab your daughter. We need to go right now.” Bo took Mom by the hand and dragged her out the door.
I hesitated, frozen in the growing pool of red. Sweat broke out on my forehead, and it wasn’t because of the crippling D.C. heat. If I was on the Extraction List, I was supposed to end up like all those other people from my class, the ones who the Taskforce grabbed right from their desks. Those were the ones who disappeared. Since Mom had written the law that the Taskforce was responsible for enforcing, I never thought that I would ever be a target. Politics was all about protecting its stars, and there was no bigger star than my mother.
But that little pink piece of paper could only mean one thing. I forced myself to look down at it. I searched the document, eyes falling on the bottom right corner. It was faded, stretched by the blood into an unnatural shape, but it was there—the President of the United States’ signature.


I grabbed the bag Mom had been trying to pack and zipped it shut. I swung my own bag over my shoulder and followed Mom and Bo out of our house, hoping that I would someday be able to come back. But deep down, I knew we were about to drive away forever.

About The Author


Renee N. Meland lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two dogs. Her favorite obsessions are Rome, learning new recipes, and exploring the world around her. She is an avid reader of speculative fiction, and believes that telling stories is the best job in the world.

Twitter: @reneenmeland


Thursday, April 9, 2015

My First Love

Hello, friends! You may have heard, I turned in The Fulfillment to my publisher! Woot! As I wait for my first round of content edits, I have picked back up the very first novel I completed as an adult. It's near and dear to my heart. A lot has happened since I first started writing it who knows how long ago. My friend and historical consultant, an expert on the time period, died of cancer last year. I've moved across the country and married the love of my life, Deek Rhew. I have two novels published and a third under contract.

Yet I keep coming back to this manuscript. It's a historical fiction, and I'm a total history nerd. Just ask my husband who patiently listens as I babble about ancient events. But this novel took me years to write because of all the research I put into it. And as with all historical fiction--even researched and written with the utmost care--some details will not be exactly right. I left my heart and soul in this novel, and I really want the world to read it. My friends who've read it ask me constantly when I will try to get published, and I always shrug.

Today, I shrug no more. The time has come to dust this baby off and give her a little face lift. And then I will try to find a way to share this story with the world.

In the meantime, here is the initial chapter of my historical fiction (with a big splash of romance--hey, I love love) manuscript Restore To Me.


Jerusalem 970 BC

The evening light casts an eerie glow around my room as the cool breeze caresses my skin. This gentle wind provides a welcome relief from the heat of the day. Despite my initial reluctance to move, I succeed in struggling out of the bed to stand. The weight of grief and sadness makes it difficult to move, much less breathe. He really is gone.
I half hobble, half stagger to the window and gaze out upon the chaos. Below me, people move about their daily lives as if nothing has happened, as if life has not been shattered. In my struggle to grasp this reality, I notice her. She sits on a rooftop, performing her ritual bath. My chest tightens, and, for a moment, I think it may be my heart’s last beat.
Wild emotion threatens to overtake me. Old guilt, heartache, and mourning mingle with love, reconciliation, and the sweet cleansing power of forgiveness. The scene reminds me so much of him that I must look away from it.
As I turn, I catch a glimpse of the young woman standing in my doorway. She shifts from one foot to the other while her brown eyes track my movements. We should be enemies, yet we are not. The compassion I feel for her overshadows the seeds of envy sprinkled within me and prevents them from finding fertile ground within my heart.
            “May I come in?”
My old ears strain to decipher the words, though the melody of her voice soothes me. I see why she brought him great comfort at the end.
            “Of course.”
As she glides into the room, I’m reminded how old I’ve grown. Despite that, a faint grin tugs at my lips. I used to glide into a room; I still remember the look on his face when I did. I shake away the memory and tuck it deep inside where the anguish I now endure won’t taint it. When the open wound in my soul has had more time to close over, I’ll recall the memory. Only then can I relish in the light of his smile and the desire in his eyes. But for now, I fix my attention on her and why she’s here.
            “Do you need something?” I make my question light to ensure she knows I mean no harm. Lord knows she’s received her fair share of biting, derogatory comments, as have I. In this way, we have a bond which both puzzles and brings me comfort. We’re like soldiers, though technically on opposite sides, bound by the experience of the same war.
            “Yes, I…” 
 As I search her face for the source of her question, I recognize the streaks of sorrow etched across her tearstained cheeks. Despair, a soul-deep suffering, has splashed its unabated rain upon us both. At that moment, jealousy and tenderness pierce my heart in tandem. She loved him too. How could she not?
            She tucks her chin, and her hair falls down around her face like a veil. “I hoped you would be willing to tell me your story.”
            “My story?” My forehead squeezes together until an ache thumps behind my eyes. She’s bringing up my oldest torments in the moment of my deepest mourning.
            When she swallows, the sound echoes against the stone walls. “Yes. I know how much he loved you. He placed you on a pedestal, higher than anyone else could ever hope to be. I want to know your story…your love story…with him.” She lifts her head and manages a small smile. Her eyes glisten, and I realize she does not mean to hurt me. Since she only knew him for a short time, she never knew the depths of his secrets as I did.
I release a bark of laughter, more cough than chuckle. “It isn’t your typical love story. Our story is….” I search my muddled mind for the right word. “Bittersweet.”
            “If you are willing to share it with me, I’d really like to hear it.”
            I sit down on my bed and pat the open space beside me. No one has ever asked me to share our tale before, and I’m surprised by how much I want to send this bird of truth into flight. She sails across the room and perches herself next to me. I shake my head as a grin tugs at my lips once more. Ah, to be that youthful again.

            “Believe it or not, I was once young and beautiful like you…” 


And here is a picture of me and Deek...just because... LOL!


Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The Best Kept Secret by Wendi Nunnery

Happy April Fool's Day! And boy do I have the perfect cover reveal for you. Have you ever had someone keep secrets and make you feel like a fool?? Well, The Best Kept Secret explores the lies friends and strangers keep and the dangerous results that follow.

Be sure to add The Best Kept Secret to your TBR list for June! But here's a special cover reveal to tide you over until then... 

About The Book


In high school, everyone has secrets. Even well-brought-up Emma Fraser.

Emma’s sophomore year started out all wrong. First, her best friend Andy confessed to losing his virginity leaving Emma all alone in the V-Club. Then the rest of her friends got weird and suddenly Emma finds herself feeling like the people she knows best have become total strangers. And total strangers are becoming friends.

When Deegan Burke, a rich, gorgeous senior, asks Emma to be his date for the prom, Emma thinks her luck has begun to change. But rather than being able to bask in this newfound glory, her whole world starts to unravel. And when secrets that once seemed so innocent start to take a very dangerous turn, Emma discovers that true friends are friends no matter what…and some secrets aren’t worth keeping.

About The Author



Wendi Nunnery is the author of The Mayfield Family Story. She is also a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and The Simply Beloved, a lifestyle website for women of faith. She is a proud alumna of Georgia Southern University and, at any given time, you can find her with a cup of coffee and a book. She lives, loves, and mothers in Atlanta, Georgia. The Best Kept Secret is her first novel.

Find her online:

Twitter: @ladynunnery
Instagram: @ladynunnery
And now, the moment you've been waiting for....

The Cover!