NA Alley & SSP Pitch Contest

Can you believe it's been nine weeks since the last time I told you I was over at NA Alley? Nine weeks! That's crazy...

Anyway, I'm over there with a very special contest announcement today. Here's a hint:

*Grins* Subtle, right?

This way to the Alley!

Have a great week, guys! ♥

Elizabeth Seckman's Healing Summer Tour!

I have a treat for you guys! The lovely and talented Elizabeth Seckman is stopping by as part of her Healing Summer blog tour, and she's going to talk to us about strength... 

*Grins*

Elizabeth's Guest Post

Hi Carrie! Wonder why you picked the prompt, strength? Does it have something to do with that hot guy on your side bar? Hmm, let’s all take a moment and just stare at Wallace. Sigh. So pretty. 

Oh, get to the post you say…all right, all right. Let me shake off the day dreams and get to STRENGTH. As soon as I read your prompt, this man popped into my mind:
 

 

This is Viktor Frankl. His book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, is powerful. It propelled me to switch from psychology to counseling in college…and it changed how I view life.   He is the father of logotherapy, or meaning therapy.  It breaks away from the “if-then” model of modern psychology.

Mr. Frankl was a Nazis concentration camp survivor. The rest of his family, with the exception of his sister, was killed. He lost his wife, his mother, and his brother to the Holocaust. During his incarceration, he wrote much of the outline for “Man’s Search for Meaning” by hiding bits of paper in the seams of his clothes.

When freed, he faced all he lost with purpose. He had his scraps of notes and a theory. Man is more than a sum of his experiences. We are on this Earth for a reason, created by a higher power to do something. In Frankl’s theory, we’re not dropped here by chance meant to scrape together an existence and then die to nothingness. Each and every one of us has a function and to find mental balance and contentment in life, we have to find a purpose. And everyone, from the street sweep to the president, has one (or many!). 

In the book, Frankl points out that man can be stripped of all things, in his case literally everything, and still maintain an optimistic outlook if we accept a simple truth. Only we control how life affects us. We are ultimately responsible for our every decision and action. 

There is so much powerful insight in this one book, I could go on forever…but instead, you should just read it for yourself.  It’s #2 on my list of reads I’d want if stranded on a deserted island. This book is amazing. This man is amazing. It’s hard to believe he was made of flesh and blood.  

A few quotes from Frankl:

• “What is to give light must endure burning.”
• “Life can be pulled by goals as surely as it can be pushed by drives.”
• “When we are no longer able to change a situation- we are challenged to change ourselves.”

About Healing Summer

Maybe Love, Not Time, Heals All Wounds

Ditched at the altar…biopsied for cancer…Mollie Hinkle is having a bona fide bitch of a summer. When life sucks so hard it takes your breath away, what's a girl to do? Pack a bag, grab a few friends, and leave the past and the worry in the rear view mirror. What wounds can’t be healed by a drive across the Heartland, where quarter flips at cross roads determine the route and the future? All roads lead to Craig, the second son and bad boy of the haughty Coulter line. Has fate brought her to the miniscule Montana town to find happily ever after or will it just break her heart?

“Healing Summer” is the second book in the Coulter Men Series.

You can buy Healing Summer at AMAZON. ;)

About the Author

Elizabeth is a former social worker, constant day dreamer, and mother of four fabulous boys. She has two books completed in the Coulter Men series, PAST DUE & HEALING SUMMER. The third, FATE INTENDED, is a work in progress.

She also have a house in desperate need of cleaning. No set date on completion. 

BLOG  |  FACEBOOK  |  GOODREADS

Giveaway

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P.S. Elizabeth will be posting a link to every stop on her blog tour page, so be sure to check it out and vote for your favorite by commenting on the page. The blogger who thought up the prompt for the winning post will win a $25 gift card. :)

P.P.S. If you have any questions about promotion and/or new adult fiction, stop by EJ's #NALitChat blog this week. I'm hosting #NALitChat Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. EST, and we'll address as many of your questions as humanly possible. :D

Have a great week, guys! ♥

State of Emergency by Summer Lane

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today, we have a special guest post from Summer Lane. Her debut novel, State of Emergency, releases today, and I'm so thrilled for her. Take it away, NA sister! :)

Guest Post by Summer

State of Emergency is the story of one girl surviving during the first few months of the collapse of modern society. Sounds cheery, I know. I’ve always loved dystopian, post-apocalyptic stories – particularly those with a lot of survival elements in them. I thought I’d combine my love of adventure stories and romance novels to come up with a book that had both elements. And I ended up with State of Emergency.

One of the inspirations for this novel was my own experience with prepping for emergencies. When I was in High School I kept an emergency Go-Bag under my bed in case the levees holding the river back near my house broke and we had to make a quick exit. I was always thinking about those types of situations, and what I would do if something bad happened. It wasn’t unusual for me to walk into a movie theater and scope out the whole perimeter, find out where the exits were, and make sure I could reach them quickly if there was a fire or medical emergency. I was always looking for an escape. Paranoid? No way. I just wanted to be the person who was prepared.

State of Emergency is the story of the end of the modern world, and the beginning of a more primitive one. But primitive doesn’t necessarily mean bad. It just means different. It means no iPhones or Skype or watching a movie on your tablet. It means finding your own food instead of shopping for it, building your own house instead of purchasing one, and walking instead of driving. This is how people used to live, and I wanted to find out how people in this world would react to getting thrown into a past one.

So how would the country be thrown so suddenly into a state of emergency? Earthquake? Invasion? No. I’d always heard about EMPs, or electromagnetic pulses, which are basically “e-bombs” that destroy every piece of unprotected computer-based technology in sight. So I opted for that. An EMP.

Cassidy also needed somebody that would help her survive in the crazy new world. A slightly naïve girl a couple of years out of high school might be smart enough to be prepared for an emergency, but she will need a little help. So I decided to give her a companion: Chris Young, a former Navy Seal who not only provides the knowledge that she needs to stay alive, but a great love interest. Because yes, romance it just one of those things you have to have in a story.

You can check out the Prologue to State of Emergency at http://writingbelle.blogspot.com

About the Book

Cassidy Hart is your typical High School graduate: A little shy, a little sarcastic, and a little naive. But when an electromagnetic pulse takes down the United States, she's forced to kick into full survival mode when she gets separated from her father.

Yeah. Things suck.

But with the help of a handsome soldier named Chris, she just might find her dad without getting into serious trouble. Emphasis on might. Oh. And there's the matter of avoiding getting killed in a world that's quickly turned into an active war zone.

It's going to change Cassidy's life.

It's going to be a major pain in the butt.

About the Author

Summer Lane is the author of the YA/NA Dystopian Romance, State of Emergency. She is a freelance writer, editor and lover of all things feline. Summer is also the author of Snappy Social Networking: How to Dominate the Blogosphere & Everything in Between. In her spare time, Summer is the creator of the online magazine/blog, Writing Belle, in addition to being a frequent contributor at NA Alley, a website dedicated to all things New Adult.

Summer began writing when she was 13 years old, due to the fact that the long afternoons after school were somewhat boring, and writing stories seemed to make the time pass a little quicker. Since then she has written many books about jungle cats, secret agents, princesses and spaceships. She is also a non-fiction writer, but her debut novel, State of Emergency, is her favorite book yet. You can find Summer hopping around on the Internet by following her on Twitter @SummerEllenLane, or on Facebook: Writing Belle.

Where to Buy

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Giveaway

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5 Ways to Act Like a Pro

Happy Monday, everyone! Today, we're going to go over some tips for maintaining a professional air online. Are you ready? :)

5. Keep your professional and personal lives separate. Unless it pertains to your area of expertise, try to avoid posting about politics, religion, and controversial subject matter.

4. Limit the scope of your reactions.
Rants might make you (temporarily) feel better, but you never know who could be reading them.

3. If you must use profanity, do so sparingly.
Unless you're Chuck Wendig. ;)

2. Ease up on the lingo.
It's okay to abbreviate—especially on Twitter—but lolz ur not a 13 y/o grl.

1. Watch the grammar.
Everything reflects your work. EVERYTHING. So, we're going to have a little refresher via this handy-dandy infographic. :) Thanks, Copyblogger!

Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.
Whew! I feel better. Don't you? :) Just remember, professional =/= formal. It's okay to still have fun!

Question of the Week:

Do you have any tips for acting like a pro online?

Have a great week, guys! ♥

 P.S. I'm a hypocrite, and you'll never take my emoticons from me. Bwahahaha!

2013 Goals & A.L. Jackson's Cover Reveal!

Guess who's back?

I'll give you a hint. It's me! Did you enjoy your holidays? I know I certainly did. So many memories to be cherished and grateful for. :)

But that's behind us. (Womp, womp.) It's time to get back to work! I've seen tons of people listing their 2013 goals, but that can get overwhelming. I want to focus on one quarter at a time...

General examples from my obsessive, color-coded notebook:

January 

• Write business plan - I haven't done one of these since college, but it's a necessary evil.
• Finish client's book cover
• Finish first draft of Strength's sequel
• Finish (amazing) book I've been reading to quote/endorse

February

• Give "new adult" writers a nudge - It's still a struggle to find great NA publishing opportunities—i.e. pitch contests—so we're going to do something about that. Get ready! ;)
• Send revised draft of Strength's sequel to CPs
• Process feedback as it comes
• Do more cardio/dance between writing sprints
• Send guest posts/interviews out to tour participants

March

• Send release info to party/blitz participants
• Release Strength! *confetti cannon*
• Blog tour(s)
• Avoid turning into a zombie...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whew! I feel better. Those goals seem pretty manageable. I think I can cover those. :) Speaking of covers—segue, segue, segue—who wants to see A.L. Jackson's latest? 

A.L. Jackson's Cover Reveal...

 

Side Note: A.L. is super talented, and if you haven't already, you'll definitely want to check out her other books: Pulled, Take This Regret, and When We Collide.

About LOST TO YOU...

People come into our lives. Some stay, and many go. Some build us up, while most tear us down. They become our friends, our enemies, our lovers, our tormentors.

Christian Davison came into mine, and I knew I’d never be the same.

To Elizabeth Ayers, New York City had always been a dream. She’s worked her entire young life to make it here.

Groomed to one day take over his father’s law firm, attending Columbia University was Christian Davison’s only option.

Neither wanted anything more until they sat across from each other at a café table after being paired as study partners.

Christian wants her, but Elizabeth knows better than to give into their intense attraction. Yet there is little she can do to stay away.

Lost to You, the prequel to the bestselling romance, Take This Regret. A New Adult novella, recommended for readers 17+. It’s unnecessary to have read Take This Regret to enjoy Lost to You.  

About A.L. Jackson...

A.L. Jackson first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three beautiful children. Her favorite pastime is spending time with the ones she loves.

Question of the Week...

What is your #1 goal for this quarter? :)

Have a great week, guys! ♥ 

P.S. I'm a bit late, but thank you to Nancy S. Thompson for the Blog of the Year award! :D