Guest Post: Animals in Novels by Linda Hawley & GIVEAWAY! (Giveaway now closed.)

Animals in Novels

I thought I would guest blog about something unexpected: Animals in Novels. It’s easy to write about them, right? You simply describe them and their personality, and leave it at that. Wrong. How do I know? I wrote a dog into my novel, Dreams Unleashed.

When writing in an animal, the author has to decide whether the animal is adding dimension to an existing character’s life, or whether the animal will be a character in the story himself. (I’m not referring to an animated story, where animals act like humans.) For example, in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, she writes in a dog, Bouton, who actually diagnoses patients at the Paris l'Hôpital des Anges, in the year 1744. In this story, Bouton is a multidimensional character himself. Contrasting this, are the dogs in Dean Koontz’ book The Darkest Evening of the Year, where the dogs improve the dimension of the main character, Amy. Even though dogs are part of the subplot of Koontz’ novel, none of them are a multidimensional character themselves.

In the first book of The Prophecies trilogy, Dreams Unleashed, I’ve introduced a dog, Lulu. In the novel, she adds dimensions of kindness, compassion, and loyalty to the protagonist, Ann Torgeson. But as the trilogy continues in the next two books, Lulu will become her own character, as Ann’s unexpected challenges increase. I remember watching the Lassie series on television when I was a kid. I loved watching the heroism, and the close bond between Timmy and Lassie. I never missed a show. In my trilogy, I wanted to give the world another dog hero, if only for a while. < All three novels of The Prophecy are being published this year, so if you start reading Dreams Unleashed now, you won't have to wait years for the rest in the series. Book two will be published this summer (2011), and book three will be published December of this year (2011).

A free sample of Dreams Unleashed is available at: Amazon

The eBook version of Dreams Unleashed can be purchased at:
Smashwords: Smashwords
Amazon: Amazon
The print version of Dreams Unleashed will be published the week of June 10th.

Follow the author and get insiders' tips on The Prophecies trilogy:
http://lindahawley.com/

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GIVEAWAY TIME!

Linda has generously offered up a copy of her book, Dreams Unleashed for a giveaway! :D

The details:

*You must be 13 or older to enter.

*INTERNATIONAL!

*If you're in the USA or Canada you can win either a print book or an eBook, and for International you'll receive an eBook. (You'll have the option of choosing this in the form.)

*No requirements for this giveaway, but extra entries will be given for sharing this giveaway.

*Extra entry for commenting on this guest post too. :)

*Giveaway ends June 30th at 11:59 PM (M.S.T.)

****To enter just fill out this FORM. (This giveaway is now CLOSED.)****

And don't forget to leave Linda a comment! :D

Happy Reading!!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Teaser Tuesday (30)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

"I heard Shannon letting Josh in, and a smile spread across my face. Part relief, part pride, part total joy at sharing my secret, letting it off my chest, and probably scaring the hell out of my best friend for a second, only to have him (probably) be non-plussed afterward."

- Scene Immortal by Chris Patton, p. 98

So....that's a tease of what I'm reading, do you have one to share?

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? (31)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, is a bookish meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It’s a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over to Journey and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading. All book title links go to Goodreads. :)

Books I Read Last Week:

• Tyger Tyger by Kersten Hamilton

 I loved this book the first time I read it, and I loved it even more the second time. Tyger Tyger is a fantastic story, with fabulous characters, and I could honestly gush about it for forever! I want to review this one, hopefully I'll find some time and feel motivated this week to sit down crack out a bunch of reviews. ;P

• In the Forests of the Night by Kersten Hamilton

I absolutely loved In the Forests of the Night! It was such a fantastic sequel to Tyger Tyger, and now you can bet your booty that I'm super psyched for the third and final book in the Goblin Wars Trilogy! I can't wait for more Finn, more Teagan, more Aiden, and more goblins! I seriously encourage people to start this series if they haven't already, it's fan-freaking-fabulous! My review for this one will be posted in a while, about a month before the release, but seriously, everyone should check out Tyger Tyger, and then soon enough In the Forests of the Night will be out for you all to devour too! :D

• Wildefire by Karsten Knight

I loved this one too! I have a very good book week, I didn't read too many books, but the ones that I did read were amazing. Wildefire was so unique, and I just loved the whole idea behind it. This is another one I'll be reviewing and I plan on having that review up as soon as possible. :)

Reading Now:

• Called Home: Two Hearts Answer by Gloria Schumann

I made a nice dent in this one during the week, but I'm still only about halfway through it. This book has had some major intense moments, it's gotten crazy at times, and it's definitely got more of a mystery vibe than I expected, but I don't mind that. :)

• Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead (edited by Nancy Kilpatrick

I kind of forgot about this anthology for a while, but I picked it up before bed last night, and dug into a few stories before calling it a night. I'm hoping to finally finish this one this week, it's about time I did, and I hate when I forget about books...just shows that sometimes when you read too many at once you lose track. :P

• Scene Immortal by Chris Patton

So, yay! I remembered to bring this one back with me from the city when I was there earlier this week. :D I'm glad because this means I can actually dig into this story and get past the first few pages. :P

Books I Want to Read This Week:

• Supernaturally by Kiersten White

Just like last week with In the Forests of the Night, I totally eeked and got all super fangirl when this one showed up in my mailbox...I simply CANNOT wait to start it! :D

And what are you reading???

Check out One Person's Journey Through a World of Books to see what other people are reading. :)

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Cinder and Ella Blog Tour: Guest Post by Melissa Lemon

In preparing for this blog tour, I’ve written posts and answered several questions about fairy tales—why we love them, why people keep telling them—and while I was jogging one night, a field of orange poppies gave me the answer.  I love flowers, and any colorful garden is delightful and calming to me, but a field of orange poppies takes me back to the north side of my grandmother’s house where my cousins, siblings and I would run past to pick and eat fresh raspberries.  Now you ask, what does that have to do with fairy tales?  Well, let me tell you.

Reading a book that takes you to a place and time where you haven’t been before is exciting.  How many of us have been lost in a story and wanted to go to that place for real?  This happened to me with the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  Just stick me in the middle of Hogwarts and let me have the adventures right alongside the others, even if it means I’m going to have to face Voldemort some day.  But, could I stay there forever or would I eventually want to come back?

Fairy tales are different.  Maybe they take us to a place and time we haven’t been to, but they also take us somewhere else.  These stories have been told to us by parents and teachers and authors from the time we were taking our first steps and learning to read our first words.  They have the ability to take us not only forward, but back to a place and time that our memories sometimes aren’t even conscious of.  We discover, through them, the same thing that Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Scuffy the Tugboat learned: there’s no place like home.

I wrote Cinder and Ella for the same reason I planted a poppy garden on the side of my house.  It’s like going to Grandma’s.  That is why we love these stories so much, and why they will continue to be told, probably forever.

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Some Links for you:
Melissa's Author Blog
Melissa's Twitter
Melissa's Facebook Page
Melissa's Goodreads Author Page
Cinder and Ella's Goodreads Page

Thanks for stopping by Melissa! That was a fantastic post!  Her book, Cinder and Ella, is set for release on November 8th. Be sure to check it out on Goodreads! Don't forget to leave Melissa a comment! :)

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur

Review Survey! I wanna know what you guys want to see. :)

Hey Everyone! :D 

So, as you can tell from the title of this post I've made a survey to see what you all want to see when you read my reviews. I'm going to keep the way I write them the same, but I'm wondering about the additional information, like blurbs and summaries, page numbers, and things like links to buy the book. I want to know what you guys like included in the reviews that you read so that I can give you what you want.

 I've made the survey nice and easy, and you only actually have to fill out the first two questions, the other two boxes are just additional information if you want to share it. I'd love to hear what you guys think, so please fill it out, that way I can include the stuff that you want to see. :)

THANK YOU! :D 

I really appreciate you taking the time to fill out my survey, it means a lot.

And feel free to leave a comment if you have anything else that you'd like to say. :)

Happy Reading!!!

♪♫ Ambur