I Never Thought This Day Would Come.

You know how it is when you have kids? You never want them to grow up, right? You never want them to get bigger? You want them to always need your cuddles?

But when the end of an era comes to pass, you have no choice but to quit kidding yourself that you can keep them as the innocent beings you brought into this world and you suddenly realise they are growing up, whether you want them to or not.

I already passed this stage once, with The Boy. For some reason, it didn’t seem so bad the first time around. And The Boy has definitely shot forward. I mean, he’s now 15 and bringing home girlfriends (AAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!! *deep breaths*). But maybe the reason I didn’t panic was because I still had the Mini-Me to cling my hopes to.

Not any longer.

You see, the Mini-Me has officially left Junior school* on Wednesday 25^th July 2012 (see below pics of her last day to prove it)…

Check out the defaced shirts O_o

Oh, yeah, and in case you’re wondering, Mini-Me is the one whose face I haven’t blobbed on O_o

Yep, a few of the parents pitched together and booked out kidlets a limo ride to celebrate this momentous occasion. Of course, I headed off to a school-mum-friend’s house whilst the limo drove around for an hour, where said friend fed me French beer (I needed it. What? It was VERY hot last Wednesday O_O)

Oh, and note the Mini-Me has already switched up her school footwear for plimsolls? *grin* That’s my girl.

And ending on a pic of their ride. The dude driving it smiled the entire time (obviously has more patience than I do ):

… This means she’ll officially be starting Senior school in September (AAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!).

It also means she is absolutely most definitely growing up.

And I’m not sure I’m ready for her to.

She is.

I’m not.

I want her to stay young, and innocent (okay, maybe she ain’t so innocent cos she can be cheeky) and naïve forever. And I’m now coming to understand … I mean, fully understand … that I just ain’t gonna get my way.

Any other parent’s out there go through this kinda crisis? How (the hell) am I supposed to deal with this (s**t)?

*In the UK, we have Infant & Junior—often combined in one school attended ’til age 11—and Senior (as of this year, up to age 16, if no college/job/apprentice to leave for, and up to age 18, if none of those mentioned have been obtained).

Need a Wolfie Summer Read? Then Come Enter to Win at the Lazy Days of Summer Giveaway Hop!

Hey all, and welcome to my stop on the Lazy Days of Summer Hop. First up, I’d like to give a huge thanks to I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Colorimetry for hosting this hop. Please remember to take a moment to click on the image to hop across to the linky list of participants, where you’ll find tonnes of great giveaways happening.

And onwards with my post!

Well, as summer is pretty much right on top of us, and most kids are done with school for the holidays, which means many of you lovely folk will be heading off to beaches and forests and relaxing evenings by the pool, I figured what better to accompany such a trip than a great wolfie romance read.

Yep, one lucky winner shall receive an E-Copy (either mobi. or epub) of my paranormal romance (with a supernatural twist): Darkness & Light.

Here’s what it’s all about:

Jem Stonehouse, a housewife with a neurotic husband bent on keeping her in line, dreams about werewolves in, what she believes to be, a bid to escape boredom.

Sean Holloway is a werewolf, living a charade within the human race, whose mind drifts to a bond he shares with a woman he hasn’t met—at least, not in this lifetime.

Apart, the two are safe, but live unfulfilled lives.

Together, they’ll become prey to rival packs, just as they have been for hundreds of years.

When their worlds collide, instinct takes over. Dreams become reality. Their renewed bond deepens. To keep history from repeating itself, Sean must teach Jem about his heritage, convince her of her role, and win her love.

Can Jem accept her destiny before it’s too late, or is her inner wolf buried too deep to save her future with Sean?

Sound like your cup of tea? Coolio. Then head on over to the Rafflecopter Form to enter.

Good luck!

Lovely Perdiness, All For You! #MakeBelieve

Now, y’all may remember last week I did a giveaway for a (digi) signed Blue Moon cover or poster in exchange for a comment?

Well, this week, I get to do that aaaaaalll over again. But this time, a teensy comment could get you a signed Make Believe cover.

Which means ANYBODY (that means everyone) who comments will receive a signed digital copy of the Make Believe book cover! But wait! Because you get a choice. Yup, you can either receive a non-personalise book cover signed by ALL of the contributing authors OR you can receive a personalised cover signed just by me. Sup to you.

Once you’ve left a comment I’ll simply pop it along to you in an email for you to do with as you wish. Print out, set as desktop for moments of random gazing, post to your FB wall … once it’s yours, it’s yours.

So, let’s take a look at the goods:

OR:

Perdy, no?

And here’s all’s you gotta do:

Leave a comment answering this question: If you were the woman in the red cloak, what would be in your basket?

Giveaway ends midnight Sunday July 29th.

Off you go!

Oh, and don’t forget to add Make Believe to your Goodreads TBR pile.

Something Cool & Pretty, All For You! #BlueMoon

So the time has arrived to share some more Blue Moon goodness with you guys.

Yay!

Obviously, I hummed & harred about what to do. Ideally, I’d have done a bookmark giveaway, but my stupid, crazy, personal life is placing restrictions on some stuff for me right now.

However, I still wanted to do something.

So here’s what I came up with:

ANYBODY (that means everyone) who comments will get to choose from either a signed and personalised digital copy of the Blue Moon book cover … OR a signed and personalised digital copy of the Blue Moon poster. Yep, just make sure you pop in your comment who you’d like it signed to, and I’ll scallascallaboosha it into being, and then pop it along to you in an email for you to do with as you wish. Print out, set as desktop for moments of random gazing, post to your FB wall … once it’s yours, it’s yours.

Here are the two images you get to choose from:

And here’s all’s you gotta do:

Leave a comment answering this question: If you could use the power of the blue moon to conjure anything into being, what would you use it for?

Don’t forget to include which image you’d like and who it’s to be personalised for. Giveaway ends midnight Sunday July 22nd.

Off you go.

BOOK BLOGGERS = PURE AWESOMESAUCE!

I’ve been watching the book blogging world for a little while now. As an author, I’d have been pretty foolish not to, right? I mean, if you watch closely enough, you see the trends, you notice which books are being reviewed EVERYWHERE and which ones have a well-organised tour set up, and which ones are rocking these bloggers worlds or not quite living up to the expectation … you get the picture.

We all know authors rely on book bloggers. It’s a fact.

Yes, the Internet gives authors and publishers alike a global reach that had to be worked much harder for in the past. But even the Internet alone can only do so much. It still takes the word of mouth or the shout-out for a book to pass from one Internet identity to another, for it to be heard about from London to Lisbon to America to India … because without these Internet folk spreading the word, nobody ain’t gonna hear about your book.

And a whole HEAP of this spreading about comes from book bloggers who feel so strongly about favourite books/authors/characters that they will go to the ends of the earth to make sure as many people as possible know about them.

Why?

Because who wants to keep their emotions all bottled up inside when you can discover someone like-minded to squee with? Not me, that’s for sure.

So to an author, book bloggers are what the slang-speaking folk of the UK would term: The Dog’s B*****ks.

But how about looking at them from a non-author perspective?

Because up until recently, I had NO idea just how freakin’ awesome the book blogging community is/can be.

In March this year, I started a book blog. I didn’t do so for research or to creep about spying on these good folk. I did it because just seemed like a natural thing to do, seeing as I read a LOT and always review whatever I’ve read on Goodreads, anyhoo.

So, Bookaroo-Ju was born.

No, I didn’t get a sudden influx of folk show up on the blog and yell ‘Welcome, Noob!’ However, I did get visitors, and I did get support, and the ‘Likes’ on my book blogging FB page have grown far faster than they ever did on my author page without me even having to do anything.

But let’s go back to the support: The support book bloggers offer one another in their quests to read books they are yearning for.

Because in the few shorts months I’ve been book blogging for, I’ve found myself AWED by the ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ from other bloggers/readers.

Seriously.

I constantly get books posted out to me on loan, from Kayleigh of K-Books.

I seriously wanted to read Pure (Lux 2) but was on a book buying ban due to finances being tight, and Taneesha of A Diary of a Book Addict just went and bought me a copy. Just like that. Seriously.

After spotting a pic posted by Natalie Cleary (not a blogger, but still a reader) of some books she’d received and stating she had one I seriously wanted to get, she offered to send me the book because she had a duplicate copy.

These are just a few.

The book blogging community is so much more than a bunch of random folk sharing their thoughts on what they read.

It’s way more powerful than that.

The book blogging community is a support network that, if it were a company, it would be making billions. It is that strong. It is that unified. It is that awesome.

Treat it with respect.

I know I will.

Blog Tour: Win a copy of Crux by Julie Reece!

Wahoo! I’m so, so excited to be a part of Julie Reece’s blog tour. Not only is she an awesome bird, but her debut YA novel, Crux, totally rocks!

And I just so happen to have ONE Ebook of said rocking YA novel Crux up for grabs today. Double Wahoo!

Here’s what it’s all about:

She should have run. Now, she’ll have to fight.

Eighteen year old Birdie may be homeless, but she’s surviving, that is until a mysterious guy throws money in the air like a crazy game show host, and she grabs some with the idea she’ll be able to buy dinner that night. 

In that singular moment, unassuming Birdie becomes the girl in everyone’s viewfinder. Thugs want to kill her. Money-guy wants to recruit her. The very hot, very rich, and very out of her league Grey Mathews wants to save her.

Birdie, though, wants nothing to do with any of them, until she realizes fate didn’t bring them all together. 

Her heritage did.

Now, with only twenty-one days left, she’s got to decide whether to follow in the footsteps of those before her or risk her life for people she’s only just met.

LURVE the cover for this one. LURVE it!

And if you want to know what I thought about the story on the inside, check out my review:

Take one likeable, relatable girl with a crappy background, one swoon-worthy dude who has just the right amount of strength and just the right amount of give-a-damn, one quirky-if-eccentric mentor, and one shedload of heritage revelations that leads the cool girl and cute guy to an unavoidable pinnacle moment in a certain history—with girl battling every one of her demons and fears along the way—and you pretty much have Crux.

I think that’s everything. There are so many aspects to this tale and they’re all so effortlessly linked to make the bigger picture that at first glance one might miss just how complex this tale is. Because there’s a little of everything in here. As kinda mentioned above.

Now, I hate spoilers in reviews and will avoid sticking any in if at all possible, so here goes:

Birdie: Love her headstrong yet vulnerable character, and the development we witness as she goes from being used to taking care of herself to being protective of others she’s allowed herself to care about.

Grey: *Sigh* He is an absolute darling. He can come fight my battles any day of the week.

Jeff: He may not appear at first glance to be a cool guy but dig deeper and you’ll notice that very little ruffles his feathers. Oh, and there is definitely more to Jeff than meets the eye.

On top of these three major players, we have a pretty diverse supporting cast—the cool friends, the total b***h that gives Birdie grief, the love of a family that Grey takes for granted and Birdie craves …

The plot: It’s historical, it’s Nordic, it’s romantic, it’s fantastical, it’s … epic? That’s about as much as I’m willing to say on that. Except for: the author’s writing has an almost lyrical tone to it, a flow to her prose that can lure you along without you even realising you’ve been captured. A definite win!

So … have I sold it to you yet? 

That’s what I thought.

If you want to win an E-copy of Crux, all’s you gotta do is leave a comment telling us why you want to read it.

That’s all.

You have until midnight 17th July, after which I will choose a winner using Random.org. Winner will be contacted shortly after, and will have 48 hours to respond and accept their prize, and they must be willing for me to forward their email to the publisher for delivery of their prize.

Born in Ohio, I lived next to my grandfather’s horse farm until the fourth grade. Summers were about riding, fishing and make-believe, while winter brought sledding and ice-skating on frozen ponds. Most of life was magical, but not all.

I struggled with multiple learning disabilities, did not excel in school. I spent much of my time looking out windows and daydreaming. In the fourth grade (with the help of one very nice teacher) I fought dyslexia for my right to read, like a prince fights a dragon in order to free the princess locked in a tower, and I won.

Afterwards, I read like a fiend. I invented stories where I could be the princess … or a gifted heroine from another world who kicked bad guy butt to win the heart of a charismatic hero. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that? Later, I moved to Florida where I continued to fantasize about superpowers and monsters, fabricating stories (my mother called it lying) and sharing them with my friends.

Then I thought I’d write one down …

Hooked, I’ve been writing ever since. I write historical, contemporary, urban fantasy, adventure, and young adult romances. I love strong heroines, sweeping tales of mystery and epic adventure … which must include a really hot guy. My writing is proof you can work hard to overcome any obstacle. Don’t give up. I say, if you write, write on!

Please support this awesome author by adding Crux to your Goodreads list: clicking on the cover image above will take you to its page. And don’t forget to go stalk Julie Reece and say hi–you’ll find her here:

Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Website

And if you simply can’t wait for the contest to end before devouring this awesome book, no worries: purchase links can be found HERE!

Good luck, guys!

7 Things You Never Knew … #SunshineBlogAward

So, like, almost a month ago *cringe* I got awarded the sunshine blog award by Em @ Shout with Emaginette.

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for taking so long to respond: I’ve had a seriously lot of stuff going on in my personal life, so my head has been focused elsewhere.

Secondly, I’d like to say a huge thanks to Em for the nomination.

So, let’s take a look at how this works.

The Rules:

The rules are to nominate 7-10 blogs and to share 7 things that others won’t know about you.  If you would like you can follow this example and you can share excerpts/artwork/photos/etc. that you’ve not shown before.

Now, whilst I don’t intend nominating folk coz I’ve had quite a few awards this year, and I don’t like to keep poking peeps with these deals, I will say: If you wanna play? Have at it!

Now … onto my 7 ‘not-shared-on-the-Internet’ facts about me.

• I have broken the little toe on my right foot around 4 times. And I have broken the little toe on my left foot twice. Breaking your little toe hurts. BIG TIME! And now both my little toes are slightly deformed and somewhat fugly and I haven’t had shoes in a long time (other than flip-flops) that I’ve found comfortable spending more than a couple hours in.
• For many years, Mr B has had a nickname for me. The nickname has been going on so long, we can’t even remember how it came about, or when it started, or why it was chosen. The only thing is has in common with my own name is that it starts with a J. Mr B has his nickname for me tattooed along his inner right arm, and peeps look shocked when they find out his wife’s name is Julie and not this bizarre scribbling he has on his skin. AND the nickname he uses for me was the main inspiration for naming Jem for the Holloway Pack series.
• Despite the fact that Mr B is a muchly tattooed bloke, I have never been inked myself. I also have no current piercings. Though I did used to have my ears pierced, and I once had a navel piercing that had to be taken out because it still hadn’t healed after six months thanks to Mini-Me being a baby and constantly kicking me in the stomach. I should have known it would be trouble when it poured of blood for 5 1/2 hours after having it done–even the piercer had never seen anything like it.
• With both of my pregnancies, I did the needle & thread test like something possessed to try and determine the gender of the baby–but I didn’t believe them anyway because I thought it was just old wives tales. And when my sister last got pregnant, we did the test on her with a necklace & crystal, and when it couldn’t make up it’s mind and kept stating one then the other, I told her she was either having twins or a hermaphrodite. I was wrong on both accounts. She just had a boy.
• Up until December of 2011, I was worried sick that I’d never be able to write anything other than werewolves, and I’d spend the rest of my life trying to conjure new tales for those. Because ALL of my ideas were werewolf ones. And when they weren’t, they somehow ended up AS werewolf ones. Then I wrote Escort to Insanity. When that releases December this year in the Make Believe anthology, I’ll leave it to you guys to tell me if I’ve pulled it off or not. And when I write my YA (which, yes, I’m determined to do), there won’t be a werewolf in sight.
• All I want for my 40th birthday this year is a built in bookcase. There is a huge 3 foot gap deep in the wall between my living room & kitchen, because Mr B used to have a fish tank in there we could see from both sides. I want my new bookcase to go in there. Right now, all my books are pretty much in tidy piles, awaiting organisation. If Kayleigh of K-Books visited my house she would hyperventilate and suffer palpitations. Maybe I should hire her to come alphabetise my books once I have my case. Oh, and I should probably mention I want Mr B to build my bookcase. From scratch. I shall sulk if I don’t get it.
• And an easy and short one to wrap up: I rarely drink anything fizzy (coke/lemonade/etc) because, whenever I do, I spend the next 30 minutes burping. Loudly. And it ain’t pretty.

There! 7 things you possibly never knew about me.

Now it’s your turn. Join in and play. You know you want to.

And whilst I have you here, let me just recap what this week holds in store. For the Eternal Blog Tour, I’ll be stopping at Urban Reader Girl & Love Romance Passion TODAY; Claire Gillian‘s blog tomorrow; Reviewing Shelf for a guest post + giveaway on Wednesday; and Keri Lake‘s blog on Friday. And HERE, please call back on Wednesday for a giveaway of CRUX by the awesome Julie Reece.

Have a great week.

Freeview Friday: Taking a Short Break

As you’re all probably aware, my Freeview Friday posts over the past couple of months have all been from Eternal: Holloway Pack 0.5. Well, due to the fact Eternal has now released (yeee-hah!), I ceased to share those a fortnight ago.

And I’m afraid there won’t be any Freeview Friday posts for a little while—for these reasons:

- I don’t like to continue sharing snippets once a book has launched—I’m kinda hoping by that point I’ve enticed you enough to want to read it.

- The entire month of July I’m going to be pretty busy with the Eternal blog tour—which means a lot of my posts throughout the month will be directing peeps to my stops for that.

- My next book releases will be in December: Blue Moon (Holloway Pack 2) and Make Believe (anthology containing Escort to Insanity). And as I’m not scheduled to release excerpts for either of those until sometime mid-August, I’m going to hold off until then with sharing anything else for those titles.

However, come mid-August, Freeview Friday will kick back in again, when I shall happily reveal tiny teasers for Blue Moon and Escort to Insanity (either or both, maybe one then the other, or alternated weeks—I haven’t decided yet). Although, if I happen to be working on something I think will be fun to share, there’s always a chance I’ll let you in on my dodgy first drafts instead.

How about you? What have you guys got going on?

RAK’s and Their Affects {featuring Katherine Skye}

RAK’s, to those who aren’t aware, are: Random Acts of Kindness.

I’ve seen a lot of them mentioned across the ‘Net. Mostly by book bloggers (I’ll come to the awesomeness of them in my post scheduled for the 16^th). But this week, I was the recipient of a RAK that blew me away from the moment I knew it was coming.

You see, there is this lovely lady I’ve ‘met’ through the ‘Net (Heh—it rhymes), who said to me one day (coz she knows I read a LOT), if there’s any books you want to read, just let me know, I might have them. So, to make it easier, I shared my ‘wishlist’ with her, and she messaged me to say she had quite a few of those.

She wasn’t kidding.

And then she offered to send them to me.

But that wasn’t all.

You see, this lovely lady’s kindness has stretched far before this RAK. Anyone who pays attention to my tweets knows the Mini-Me has been sick quite a bit lately (mostly with ear problems). Guaranteed, if I tweeted about the girl being sick, Katherine would reply. Even when I don’t tweet, she often asks me how she is. So, I suppose I shouldn’t really have been surprised when she asked if there was any American candy the Mini-Me would like to try—because she wanted to grab some and send it with the books.

So when I mentioned that the main thing we can’t seem to get over here (unless we go to a specialised store and pay through the nose for a single item) is Wonka stuff, she said she’d send some.

O_O

Dude!

She sent a tonne!

Wanna see what I got?

Sure you do.

Well, first when the box arrived, I got a little excited. The delivery dude even got a special smile. With teeth.

Then I opened the box, and smiled some more, even though I could only see pretty tissue paper.

Then I peeled back the paper and smiled even wider, and the Mini-Me (peering over my shoulder) kinda went ‘Oooowhoah’.

Then we emptied out the candy. Mini-Me’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when I started pulling the candy out of the box. O_O <<like this!

The blue ones of these are scrummy.

And the strawberry ones of these are scrummy.

Laffy Taffy! I think I may have (already) developed a slight addiction. O_o

Mr B is rather taken with these.

And I don’t force the Mini-Me to share these with me because fizziness in sweets makes my eyes do a dodgy dance.

Then I dragged out the books.

These covers ARE as awesome as they look. I’m very excited to read these.

I’ve been wanting to delve in and discover what the fuss is about for the Mortal Instruments, but when I tried to nab a copy here, I could only get one with a fugly cover (and I only buy books with pretty covers–shallow, I know). And Enthralled has a great line up, so I’m looking forward to that.

Article 5 seriously sounds like my kinda book & I’ve been wanting to check out Slide since I first read the blurb.

Read Shadow Bound and have been wanting this one since.

Annnnd I even got this muchero unexpected bundle of swag. Check out the Lover Reborn bookmark in there!

Finally, after ogling and pawing everything, I gave Mini-Me the candy, before reverentially replacing all the books in the box for when I’m ready to read them.

After the last couple of weeks I’ve had, and with being ill this week with a viral infection the Mini-Me kindly shared, this pick-me-up could not have come at a better time.

So I have just one thing to say to you, Ms Katherine Skye.

You totally rock!

Wahooo! Eternal Launch Day is HERE!

I’m so very excited to announce the official release day for Eternal is finally HERE!

Wahooo!

Eternal is NOW available. Check out the Eternal page for links to the most used vendors. And it would be great if you could also add it to your Goodreads list.

An unmarried woman living in a house of men breeds hearsay and lore. If only the villagers knew the truth.

It’s not Jem Stonehouse’s marital status that brings unwanted strangers to town. Rather, it’s that she is the only female werewolf in existence — a prize to any pack.

Sean Holloway, the love of Jem’s life, has gone to great lengths to protect her. As a new attack becomes imminent, Sean realizes he must take greater measures with Jem’s safety or risk losing her forever.

His first task must be to marry her, but a force greater than the largest werewolf stands in his way.

Her mother.

It’s VERY exciting for me to finally be able to share Sean & Jem’s full history of how it all began for them, first with Instinct and now with Eternal. Hopefully, these two Holloway Pack Prequel novellas combined will answer all of the readers questions, as well as creating a few sighs and bringing a few smiles to readers faces.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand to help promote Eternal, Instinct will be available through July at the discounted price of $.99 (or 70-ish pence). Yay! You can find the best purchase places on the Instinct Page so off you go to grab your promotional copy.

BUT, before you go, I hope you’ll be able to join me for the Eternal Blog Tour, which kick starts today with a character interview AND an E-Book giveaway of Eternal over at Known to Read.

Thank you all for your continued support.