Showing posts with label C. Lee McKenzie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label C. Lee McKenzie. Show all posts

Monday, October 28, 2019

Not Guilty by C. Lee McKenzie - Review & Giveaway


I’m delighted today to welcome author C. Lee McKenzie to my site to talk about her latest release, NOT GUILTY, as part of her MC Book Tour Blog adventure.

After you find out more about this tantalizing new story, be sure to enter Lee’s giveaway featured below.

* Not Guilty
* by C. Lee McKenzie
* Publication Date: October 25, 2019
* Genre: Young Adult

          A blood-smeared knife. One young man’s word against another. A lifetime dream crushed.
          The evidence points to Devon Carlyle. He was there when it happened. Everyone knows he had it in for Renzo Costa. And Costa says Devon was the one. In the judge’s rap of a gavel, Devon’s found guilty of assault. The star of the Oceanside High’s basketball team loses his shot at the one thing he’s worked so hard for—the championship game where college scouts could see how good he is.
          Now he makes his great shots in Juvenile Hall with kids far different from those that have always been in his life.
          Angry? Hell, yes.
          He’s bent on finding who did the crime. He’s bent on making them pay because he’s Not Guilty.
          But can he prove it?

My review: An incredible YA contemporary story that takes the reader on a twisting roller coaster of a ride. Though this isn't the usual genre I read, it's books like this one that keep me coming back to them. It deals with several issues young people face every day and problems that seem overwhelming. Many times it seemed Devon would drown under the pressure or let his anger get the best of him, but I loved reading about his growth through these difficult times. I especially liked the friendships he formed with his roomies in the juvenile detention center. Real teens who had made mistakes, but had learned from them and were trying to better themselves. What made this tale even more compelling was that it showed not only what happened with Devon after he was found guilty and sent away, but how his family suffered too. The sentence didn't only affect him, but sent ripples out all around him. Well worth the read for readers of any age.

For those who aren’t familiar with the author, here’s a bit of background on her.

C. Lee McKenzie has a background in Linguistics and Inter-Cultural Communication, but these days her greatest passion is writing for young readers. She has published five young adult novels: Sliding on the Edge, The Princess of Las Pulgas, Double Negative, and Sudden Secrets. Not Guilty is her most recent one.

          Sometimes she likes to jump into the world of the fantastic and when she does, she writes for the middle-grade reader. Some Very Messy Medieval Magick is the third book in the time-travel adventures of Pete and Weasel, with Alligators Overhead and The Great Time Lock Disaster being the first two. Sign of the Green Dragon, a stand-alone, takes the reader into ancient Chinese dragon myths and a quest for treasure.

          When she’s not writing she’s hiking or traveling or practicing yoga or asking a lot of questions about things she still doesn’t understand.

For more information on Lee and her writing, connect with her on FacebookTwitterInstagram and at her Website

NOT GUILTY can be found Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.


The author’s other young adult books include: Sliding on the Edge, Princess of Las PulgasDouble NegativeSudden Secrets


GIVEAWAY

With Halloween celebrated this week, Lee’s giving away five digital copies of NOT GUILTY and a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate. This tour-wide giveaway will end at midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 5th.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. If the widget doesn’t show up, just click HERE and you’ll be directed to the widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by today during Lee’s visit. Do you enjoy stories where the underdog becomes the champion? Don’t forget to enter the giveaway.


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Sign of the Green Dragon Tour - guest post by C. Lee McKenzie

I'm happy to welcome the wonderful C. Lee McKenzie to my blog and celebrating her upcoming release, Sign of the Green Dragon. Here's Lee talking about the Chinese zodiac sign of the Dragon.

What’s It Like To Be A Dragon?

Darned hard work is my answer to that question.



If you’re a Dragon, you go out of your way to help others, but seldom ask for help yourself. You like the swash and the buckle way of doing things, and you take a lot of risks because you’re one passionate and enthusiastic creature. Sometimes these risks pay off big. Sometimes not. This is why I say it’s hard work; you’re often exhausted, yet many times unfulfilled.



You must find a tough partner to put up with your independent streak and sometimes bad temper. Your best choices in partners will be Monkey and Rat, and that partner is sure to appreciate how lucky you are. The Dragon is the luckiest animal in the zodiac.



You need a job that gives you a chance to be creative. Maybe an actor or a revolutionary or a political leader would suit your personality.



Here are some noted Dragon Children:





Bruce Lee was Dragon Child.



Joan of Arc—but look what happened there!



Vladimir Putin—Wowzer! You’ve got some spunky company.



Find out if you’re a Dragon. Here are some of the years:



1940

1952

1964

1976

1988

2000


Blurb: A crumbling map from 1859, found clutched in the bony grip of the long dead, sends three young boys on a dangerous adventure where an unsolved murder, a modern crime, some lost ancestors and ancient Chinese dragons reveal the true meaning of treasure.
Buy links:

Author bio: I love to write for young readers. Sign of the Green Dragon is my third Middle Grade novel. Alligators Overhead and the sequel, The Great Time Lock Disaster were my first two. I’m proud to be a hybrid author with three Indie books out along with four traditionally published young adult novels: Sliding on the Edge, The Princess of Las Pulgas, Double Negative and Sudden Secrets. It’s fun to know both sides of this writing business. 

When I’m not writing I’m thinking about it or scratching my head over how all of this started. 

Media Links:





Monday, May 2, 2016

The Sign of the Green Dragon is revealed!


When a wall of their cave hideout crumbles, three boys discover a skeleton, clutching a treasure map. They set off to trace the story of an old murder, but stumble into a modern crime, and confront ancient Chinese dragons.

Pre-order the book:
B&N * Kobo * Smashwords

Add it to read on Goodreads.

My review!

Author Bio: C. Lee McKenzie is a 4 & 5 star reviewed author. Her greatest passion is writing for young readers. Sign of the Green Dragon is her third Middle Grade novel. Alligators Overhead and the sequel, The Great Time Lock Disaster were her first two. She has traditionally published four young adult novels: Sliding on the Edge, The Princess of Las Pulgas, Double Negative and Sudden Secrets. 

Tweets:
Is Sign of the Green Dragon's cover cool? @TBRList #mglit #signofgreendragon https://www.facebook.com/signofgreendragon/ 

Sign of the Green Dragon. #signofgreendragon @TYFofficial @IndBk @A1_BookTweeters https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29415474-sign-of-the-green-dragon 

Cover 4 Sign of the Green Dragon is here. #signofgreendragon @IndBk @A1_BookTweeters #mglit https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29415474-sign-of-the-green-dragon

Friday, March 4, 2016

Last Day of the MEME Blog Hop and Great New Releases


What a super fun week of hilarious and inspiring memes! You guys are awesome. There's still one more day. Let's have some more!

I am hosting this blog hop with the marvelous C. Lee McKenzie and Tara Tyler.


Your awesome hostesses will hop around and ooo and ahh and choose one entry each to win an ebook. AND two lucky random participants will win a $20 gift card.

* * * * *

Now that I'm finished the first draft of the third novella in my Totem series, I'm eager to get some reading done. Check these fantastic new releases out!

http://www.amazon.com/Jolissa-Anti-Princess-Story-Unconventional-Princesses-ebook/dp/B01BQST2NU

Jolissa is a contrary maiden who thinks an adventure will make her life better, until she's forced to go on one...

Buy Jolissa: An Anti-Princess Story today! 

The ever clever Tara Tyler also has the first two chapters of Jolissa up on YouTube. You don't want to miss out on this amazing tale told by Tara herself!


Galactic Empires

Eight Novels of Deep Space Adventure

Eight full-length novels of adventure, war, intrigue and survival in the far reaches of space.

The Backworlds by M. Pax 
A man struggles to survive in the harsh world of humanity's outer settlements and prove his father wrong.
Ambassador 1: Seeing Red by Patty Jansen 
To look an alien superior in the eye is a deadly offense. To accuse him of a political murder…
Alien Hunters by Daniel Arenson
A scruffy alien pest controller faces an alien threat the likes of which the universe has never seen.
Hard Duty by Mark E. Cooper
Hostile aliens nearly eradicated humanity. Will the next encounter finish the job?
Bypass Gemini by Joseph Lallo
A disgraced racer pilot gets mixed up with a mega-corporation. Now he has to stop them.
Sky Hunter by Chris Reher
Sent to a human outpost to investigate sabotage, a pilot finds more trouble than she bargained for.
The Galapagos Incident by Felix Savage
A genocidal AI attacks the solar system, and a Space Corps agent has one chance of saving a bunch of asteroid squatters she was sent to evict.
First Conquest by David VanDyke
To Conquest must fight to seize a new star system.

Buy Links: Amazon / iBook / B&N / Kobo / Googleplay / AmazonUK /  

AmazonCA / AmazonAU / AmazonDE /AmazonFR /  

AmazonIT /AmazonES

Monday, February 29, 2016

Laugh, Encourage, Inspire! The MEME Blog Hop


Not only does winter keep poking us, but today is Monday! I can't wait for some funny, encouraging, and inspiring memes!

I am hosting this blog hop with the marvelous C. Lee McKenzie and Tara Tyler. You can post any day this week. Just sign up by clicking on the link below.

SIGN UP HERE!

Easy Peasy "rules":
1) Post a MEME during the week (use your own pic or an easy meme maker app) - and if you can't think of anything, pass on encouraging words from one of your reviews, or an inspiring quote! 
2) Visit others. (I apologize for not being able to get the link to work and show the participants on my blog. I have no idea why the code isn't working. You can click on the sign up link and see all the participants there.)

That's it! Then your awesome hostesses will hop around and ooo and ahh and choose one entry each to win an ebook. AND two lucky random participants will win a $20 gift card.

I want to share some adorable cat laughs. Here is my amazing cat Thunder in his MEME debut!

 

Monday, February 8, 2016

Have you signed up for the MEME Blog Hop yet?


C. Lee McKenzie, Tara Tyler, and I are hosting A MEME Blog Hop!
 
We want to help chase away the winter blues with some Encouraging, Inspiring, and Funny MEMEs! Join us the week of February 29 - March 4!

Easy Peasy "rules":
1) Post a MEME during the week (use your own pic or an easy meme maker app) - and if you can't think of anything, pass on encouraging words from one of your reviews, or an inspiring quote! 
2) Visit others.
 
That's it! Then, your awesome hostesses will hop around and ooo and ahh and choose one entry each to win an ebook. AND two lucky random participants will win a $20 gift card.
 
 
 

Friday, January 22, 2016

Friday Five for January 22, 2016


1. It's Friday already? Where did my week go? I had two days to myself this week between MLK Day and snow days. I haven't been that productive, but I do have some big news... which I'll share soon. Subscribers to my newsletter will hear it first. So if you aren't already a subscriber, all you have to do is put your email address into that little widget on the right and click!

2. I haven't managed to get more than a few hundred words of writing done, but I've been keeping up on my critiquing for one of my critique partners. I do love getting to read new awesome stories before everyone else!

3. The Paramours Tour is just over a week away, but I'm going to do less touring this year with my books. What I want to try to do is have guest posts on blogs more often. Spread out the dates throughout the year. Keep myself out there without the fuss and stress of touring. I also wish to welcome other authors to guest post on my blog. I'll host them on Mondays, and I'm open to a variety of topics. If you'd like to write a guest post for me, please email me and we can work out the details. As you might have noticed, my most popular posts on my blog are guest posts.

4. Adorable kid moment of the week: My son had his 100th Day of School yesterday, and he wanted to dress up for it. He wore a button up shirt and tie with a Superman t-shirt underneath.

5. Finally, an awesome and easy Meme Blog Hop! I'm happy to host this with the terrific Tara Tyler and C. Lee McKenzie. We're giving away ebooks and gift cards. The rules are simple: post your meme and visit others and smile. I'll be reminding you of this again very soon! Sign up here.


Monday, August 31, 2015

Mini Reviews For Stories That Wowed Me

(Any excuse to use this picture of Dean Winchester!)

I've been reading a lot great books lately, and I want to share them all with you. But how to do that without a super long post? Mini reviews. Let's hope I can do these awesome tales justice with a few sentences.

"Dragon's Destiny" by Alex J. Cavanaugh
This short story is the sequel to Alex's latest fantastic space opera novel, Dragon of the Stars. I loved seeing what happened with Aden and the Kargrandes. The drama was in the emotions of the characters rather than big action sequences, and Alex pulled it off beautifully. You can get this tale free from Alex as a gift to his fans.

A kick-ass teaser novella for Alexia's upcoming urban fantasy novel. It's fast-paced, dark, hilarious, and full of action. It features a supernatural bounty hunter, Zyan Star who is now one of my new favorite UF heroines!
 
A marvelous short paranormal tale that grabbed me right from the beginning. The tension is tight throughout and everyone is a suspect. Such fun in that Jolie hates being a ghost and the detective working her murder case is the only one who can see her.

Monday, October 28, 2013

13th Floor collection tour continues with two more stops

I'm excited to have two wonderful hosts lined up for your today. We're getting into the Halloween spirit.

First I'll be over at Julie Flanders' blog with a list of my top ten ghost films. Come on over and tell us your favorite!

Then head on over to C. Lee McKenzie's blog to go trick-or-treating on the 13th floor. Oh yes. Don't miss out on this rare opportunity! You could win a digital copy of the collection.

My Goodreads giveaway is still going on until the 31st!


Goodreads Book Giveaway

The 13th Floor Complete Collection by Christine Rains

The 13th Floor Complete Collection

by Christine Rains

Giveaway ends October 31, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter to win

Monday, August 19, 2013

W4WS event for August 2013

Welcome to the August 2013 W4WS event! I'm honored to co-host this event with three talented writers, Mary Pax, C.M. Brown, and Stephen Tremp.  The mission of this group is simple: we have a spotlighted author(s) that we strive to help bring awareness of their book(s) to tens of thousands of new people, increase the sales of their book(s), drive new traffic to their blogs and increase followers, and create verbal and viral buzz.

We've made this simple and fast. It's as easy as a tweet or a RT, and sharing a status on Facebook. Go to the writer's blog and copy a tweet or RT from the posts with the tag #W4WS. The W4WS Facebook page will have all the updates and links for you.
 
To join the W4WS event, click here for the linky list. It will only take a minute of your time, and you'll have talented writers take a step closer to their dreams. 

Carrie Butler has a great passion for NA and is co-founder of NA Alley. Check out her fabulous NA paranormal series called The Mark of Nexus. Her first book in the series, STRENGTH, will be available for 99 cents this week! You can find Carrie on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.

C. Lee McKenzie is a YA and MG writer with several wonderful books available including ALLIGATORS OVERHEAD and THE PRINCESS OF LAS PULGAS. She also has immensely helpful advice for writers on her blog. Check Lee out at her website, Twitter, and Facebook.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Happy Independence Day and book giveaways

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Sarah at Sarah's Reviews is hosting 3 fabulous giveaways. You can win a copy of one of C. Lee McKenzie's books! Go enter now!