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Friday Five for May 13, 2016

1. One short story rejection. One new flash piece written. I sent it in to my local critique group for this month's meeting.

2. Writing is still going slow. I should skip over the first chapter that's giving me trouble, but I keep digging in my heels. I only need one little idea to make it work. It hasn't come to me yet.

3. Two weeks left of school. I'm not ready yet! Next week, I'm a chaperone for my son's school zoo trip. His school does not allow chaperones to ride on the buses, so I'll have to drive to the zoo and meet them there. You would think the teachers would like to have the extra help on the bus during the hour ride there and back!

4. I was asked by one of the authors in my local group to participate in a panel for a class at the university. I agreed... and now I'm super anxious! I love to talk about writing, but I've never been good in front of an audience. As long as I don't faint and/or lose my voice, I think I'll be okay.

5. On the agenda for my weekend: a kid's birthday party and gardening. I need to get those seedlings in the ground before it rains again! Maybe we'll take our little guy to his first drive-in movie too. Everyone needs to experience the drive-in at least once. Have you ever been to a drive-in?

Have a terrific weekend!

Cloaked in Blood Book Blitz

Cloaked in Blood
T.F. Walsh
(The Wulfkin Legacy #3)
Published by: Crimson Romance
Publication date: May 9th 2016
Genres: Adult, Paranormal

The daughter of a sultan alpha, Selena Kurt agrees to an arranged wulfkin mating to protect her sister from a dangerous alpha from the enemy clan. To her surprise, her match is Marcin Ulf, the next in line for the Hungarian throne . . . and the wulfkin who broke her heart years ago.

Marcin is just as shocked to learn he’ll be matched to the enemy’s daughter and the woman he’s never forgotten. Before they can be paired, however, they’re drawn into a tournament where Marcin will compete to free his estranged imprisoned brother, while Selena battles for the life of another wulfkin alpha. Both intend to seize this chance to save those they’re fighting for – even if it means facing off with one another just as their romance rekindles.

Will tribe loyalty triumph, or will they realize they’re better off as a team before it’s too late?

Cloaked in Blood is the book 3 in the Wulfkin Legacy series, but can be read a stand-alone-book.

Wulfkin Legacy Series:
Cloaked (prequel to #1) – Out now
Cloaked in Fur (Book #1) – Out now
Cloaked in Secrecy (Book #2) – Out now
Cloaked in Blood (Book #3) – Out now
Cloaked in Christmas – End of 2016

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Goodreads / Amazon / Kobo / Barnes & Noble / GooglePlay / iTunes

EXCERPT:

SELENA
Then another wulfkin entered the room behind him. Solid, tall, and all shoulders.
And suddenly my heart hammered so hard the walls seemed to be thumping too.
Marcin.
Windblown hair draped over his shoulders, tawny brown strands reaching halfway down his chest. His shirt was torn across his shoulder. Blood stained the fabric, worn as a badge of honor for whatever heroic deeds he’d accomplished.
Our gazes locked, and he stopped midstride. It was like a sucker punch to the gut. All the air left my lungs, leaving me light-headed.
Sea-spray blue eyes, darker than I remembered them, searched my face. Shock crammed behind his gaze as his cheeks blanched. He’d had no idea I was coming here—it was written all over his frozen expression, the way his mouth fell open, his breath hitched.
My wolf prodded me, stirring inside, well aware of who stood before us. Marcin had grown into even more of a wulfkin god: muscular, strong cheekbones, and a chest broad enough for me to sleep across. All I could think about was touching him to make sure he was real and not in my imagination.
Move closer. Take him.
I shouldn’t, yet every molecule in my body fought against the logic that said stay away.
Sure, I’d planned for this very moment and even practiced my nonchalant response in front of the mirror. Except now, my voice was wedged somewhere between my toes and head. My body shook with the desperate urge to be pressed up against him, feel his hungry kisses, and listen to his wicked whispers. I struggled with the charge in my veins screaming that I should run to him, throw my arms around his neck, and forget the past nine years. Forget that he tore out my soul. Forget that I mistook him as my mate because he’d lied to me. Abandoned me.

Author Bio:
T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she's always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.

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Blending Fantasy With Reality - guest post by Misha Gerrick

Blending Fantasy With Reality

Thanks for having me over, Christine!

I’m a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to genre. Endless, my current book, is Urban Fantasy. My previous one was Epic Fantasy. I think the next one will probably be Historical Romance.

I basically write and work on whatever I feel like, and often don’t assign a genre to the book until after I finished a rough draft. Some people might think it strange, but I think it comes in handy.

Why? Because my mind automatically goes into world-building mode regardless of genre. And because I come from Epic Fantasy, I know how to make it happen. You’d think that my Urban Fantasy world would be simpler to create than my Epic Fantasy one.

Urban Fantasy takes place in our world. So it just simplifies things, right? Eh… no. I’ve found that fitting a fantasy element into the reality everyone knows can be a tricky thing.

Because now there are a lot of things that people can correct me on. I had to create the cultures of my fantasy, but blend it with real aspects to life. Such as medical procedures as well as police procedures. Even then, I bent the rules every now and then and shifted the focus so that the procedures faded into the background. I wasn’t writing Gray’s Anatomy or Bones, even though one character’s a doctor and the other’s an FBI agent.

But I still needed to understand those procedures in order to understand how the characters would function in their jobs. Which choices they would make in a given situation and why. I needed to know the rules so that I could know when and why a character was breaking them.

In short, it’s all about balance. Yes, I had to create a world in which my fantasy elements could exist, but I had to overlay it with reality in order to make my story take place in a place that’s recognizable as our present Earth. Creating a fantasy without throwing away the rules, and knowing the rules without making them obscure the fantasy.

Anyone else have to combine reality with fantasy elements? How do you go about it?

About the Book

“First, do no harm.” Blake Ryan swore that oath to become a doctor. Ironic, given that he spent most of his thousand year life sucking souls out of other immortals.

Things are different now. Using regular shots of morphine to keep his inner monster at bay, Ryan has led a quiet life since the Second World War. His thrills now come from saving lives, not taking them.

Until a plane crash brings Aleria into his hospital. Her life is vibrant. Crack to predators like him. She’s the exact sort of person they would hunt, and thanks to a severe case of amnesia, she’s all but defenseless.

Leaving Aleria vulnerable isn’t an option, but protecting her means unleashing his own inner monster. Which is a problem, because his inner monster wants her dead most of all.

Amazon US | Amazon Universal | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

About the Author

Misha Gerrick lives near Cape Town, South Africa, and can usually be found staring at her surroundings while figuring out her next book.

If you’d like to see what Misha’s up to at the moment, you can find her on these social networks:

Tumblr | Twitter | Google Plus | Writing Blog

Friday Five for May 6, 2016

1. Wait. It's May already? Time is flying by! There's three weeks left of school and then my little guy is on summer break. That means I'll be blogging light for June and July. I have some fantastic guests lined up for the next few months, though. If you're interested in doing a guest post, let me know, and I'll be happy to host you.

2. After finishing Totem #4, writing has been slow for me. I started on Totem #5, but I think the opening has fallen lame. It needs a better one, but while I know the rest of the story, I don't have the first chapter yet.

3. I spent April shopping for images from BigStock. I don't even know how many hours I spent clicking through picture after picture, looking for the perfect ones. I have everything I need to create the nine Totem covers, and tons of other spectacular pics for future books. I'd like to do some cleanup on my blog and make new banners, promos for my published books, and teasers for future ones. It will be slow coming, but be prepared for a new design coming before the fall.

4. A big happy Mother's Day to all the moms and like-moms out there! My weekend will be spent visiting the in-laws which means Rocket Science Ice Cream. Love this place because they make ice cream from scratch right in front of you and freeze it instantly with liquid nitrogen. Science has never tasted so good!

5. My final note: I received my contributor's copy of Eldritch Embraces! It looks gorgeous. My short story, "What Lay Below" is a Lovecraftian steampunk romance. Weird mix, but it worked so well. Our household Cthulhu approves!

#IWSG for May 2016

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

A big thank you to the awesome co-hosts for this month's IWSG: Stephen Tremp, Fundy Blue, Viola Fury, MJ Fifield, Loni Townsend, Bish Denham, Susan Gourley, and Stephanie Faris.

What are my insecurities this month? All of them!

Lack of time, marketing, dying confidence, frustration, and a zillion other things. The life of a writer is not an easy one. I know this. Next week, I might be standing there with the light shining off my steel will and flexing my creative muscles as I shout, "I will prevail!" 

But not today. This week, I want to bang my head on the desk and wonder why I keep pushing forward for little to no gain.

What keeps you motivated when you're having a bad week?

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:
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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