Thursday, September 26, 2019

Cover Reveal | Begin Again by Amanda Leigh (that's me!!)



•*¨)☆❥¸.•*´¨)☆❥¸.•*´¨)
❥☆(¸.•´ ❥COVER REVEAL•´ ❥


Begin Again: A Novella
By Author Amanda Leigh
Release Date: October 14
Genre: Women’s Fiction

🌼 Synopsis 🌼
When Tori's house burns down with her abusive husband inside, she flees with her six-year-old daughter to start anew. They leave town and stay in a motel.
It doesn’t take long for Tori’s small savings to run dry, and they find themselves struggling once more. One day, they meet a kind stranger who pays for their meal. The purse this stranger leaves behind could change everything...but not how Tori imagines.



🌼 Links 🌼
Now available for pre-order:
US: https://amzn.to/2mKmDxw
UK: https://amzn.to/2mM1oeG
CA: https://amzn.to/2lOm3i7
AU: https://amzn.to/2lbSVRx

🌼 Add to TBR 🌼
http://bit.ly/2mPqXvi

🌼 Author Bio 🌼
Amanda Leigh is the multi-genre author of numerous titles, including the Mature YA Paranormal Romance, the Beauty of the Dark series. She’s made up stories all her life, and written them down since she was eight. In college she got her degree in English and Communications, and worked as the Assistant Managing Editor on the literary magazine. Amanda advocates for mental health, cystinosis/rare disease awareness, and literacy. Strength: Lives Touched by Cystinosis is an anthology to raise awareness and money for cystinosis. She has a cat she adores and loves cooking, music, art, Psychology, Marvel, Harry Potter, and Elvis Presley. Not necessarily in that order. Find her online at www.authoramandaleigh.com and feel free to get in touch with her. 

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Excerpt Reveal | Lips of an Angel by Adam Alexander


Lips of an Angel by Adam Alexander is releasing October 10th!

Pre-Order now available! https://amzn.to/2N1Ktkq

Add it to your TBR today! http://bit.ly/LipsOfAnAngelTBR

 

Are the whispers of your guardian angel a blessing or a curse?

Riley’s just come out of a relationship torn apart by lies. While nursing her bruised heart she’s avoiding men at all cost.

Ethan’s convinced the cops aren’t even trying to find his brother’s killer. He doesn’t have time for love, not when his brother’s killer is still free.

When Riley meets a medium with a direct line to the angels, she’s intrigued. The more she listens to the voices of angels the more she learns of a dimension few know about.

But there is one angel that has a message only Riley can hear…

A message that will change her world forever…

Riley wants to know even more…

When Riley and Ethan meet, the attraction is instant, the romance undeniable. Regardless of being burned by love before they can’t ignore the connection. As their newfound love is explored Riley discovers her angel has one more message for her.

A message that will change everything.

If your guardian told you your future, would you listen?



EXCERPT REVEAL:
“I deal with death every day, and I give people second chances every day. Somebody dies, somebody else gets a chance to live. Sometimes more than one person. It’s the real side of life.” Ethan studied her as she looked into the distance. “People put so much energy into the material things in life. Bigger houses. Expensive cars. Working their lives away to make more money.” For a moment Ethan felt exposed, as if she were talking about him. He was one of those who wanted a big house, a nice car, and a healthy bank balance. “But death doesn’t choose its victims,” Riley continued. “There’s no preference and there’s no escape. Rich, poor, good, bad. Nobody knows when their time is up.”



Meet The Author:
Adam Alexander is a fascinating character in his own right. He always sees the good in everyone he meets, always looks for the upside of everything he sees, yet his mind is always looking far beyond what’s in front of him.  Behind each of his highly entertaining novels there’s a story, a theme, an experience or a snippet of a conversation that sent his highly creative mind on a mission of exploration to bring out another riveting novel.  In real life, he is a modest and humble individual, a self-professed introvert who is not afraid of the stage, large audiences or pubic speaking, with a wicked and dry sense of humour and a big heart for others. He’s a dedicated husband and father, and has recently confessed to being a dog lover. 

Visit him at: https://www.adam-alexander-author.com/

Cover Reveal | Rocked Senseless by Alyson Hale


Title: Rocked Senseless
Author: Alyson Hale
Genre: Friends-to-Lovers/Rock Star/Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 15, 2019
 
 

When people talk about "falling" in love, they usually don't mean it literally…


After a stage dive gone wrong, I woke up with a gorgeous, tattooed stud sleeping at my bedside. When he opened his deep, dark eyes, I felt something I’ve never felt for any man before.

Too bad I didn’t realize the beautiful, brooding man was Logan Young, my drummer and best friend.
Not only could my feelings destroy a fifteen-year friendship, but his girlfriend’s father holds our fate as musicians in his hands. One false move, and our careers are over.
Is that a risk we’re both willing to take? Or will the duet of our love song remain a solo?


 

Alyson Hale is a passionate contemporary/erotic romance author from the American South. Her weaknesses are rock stars, billionaires, and alpha males. She is married to a strong, stubborn family man who shows up in almost every book boyfriend she writes. Alyson is also a mother to one human child, one canine child, and one feline child. 


Sign up for Alyson's newsletter and receive a free short story! http://eepurl.com/ghBBR9



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Saturday, September 21, 2019

Being Super Honest About My Day Today

Today is Friday, September 20th. And I am exhausted. It's easy to think from everything online that everyone gets up at 5:00 a.m. and has an amazing morning routine and is on top of everything all day. But that's crap. I don't think anyone is ever "perfect" all the time.

I don't actually like saying what time I get up because our society often judges people by what time they get up for the day. Without even knowing the story behind why. I have cystinosis, which leads to many secondary conditions and symptoms, although it effects us all differently. I have chronic fatigue, insomnia, chronic nausea, chronic dehydration, persistent vomiting, headaches. I get up to use the bathroom probably 5-6 times per night. I have to get up to take medication three times through the night. I'm also hooked up to a Kangaroo feeding pump during the night. (I have a G-Tube in my stomach and get hooked up through that.) Which is very uncomfortable and is not conducive to a good night's sleep, on top of everything else. Plus, I have anxiety and OCD and often, if you have these, you wake up more tired than you went to sleep. Not to be a downer, but my sleep has been screwed six ways from Sunday for my entire life.

Kangaroo Pump - image from Google


So, what's the point of this? To explain why I get up between 10:00 and 10:30 in the morning, usually. Part of it yes, is that I feel like I need to explain it. But it's also because I feel like people should know because people tend to make snap judgments without knowing someone's story and situation.

I also have very weird sleep patterns, which you may have already picked up on. Usually by about 8:30-9:00 in the morning I can finally unhook from feeding pump. It's my "I'm free!!" moment. And my only good sleep is during that hour and a half to two hours that I'm hooked up to my feeding pump. I freaking live for those two hours of that sleep. Anyway, today I was up from 8:20-11:30 in the morning and then I fell back to sleep until almost 1:00. Then I was dragging for quite a while. It took me a while to get dressed and ready and make my bed (it always makes me feel more put together.) Then it was 3:00 and I had to eat. I was eating by 3:30, done by a little before 4:00 and came into my office to write this blog post. After this, I'm going to go live on Instagram for a little bit to talk about Begin Again. After that, I''m most likely going to sit on my couch. I might do some work, I might not. We'll see what happens. Because I am STILL so tired. I'm almost done with Begin Again and will work on it this weekend but today has just been a day my body needed me to take it easy.

I suppose this is a little insight into my day working from home with a chronic illness. You can still do the things you want, you just may have to modify the "usual" path and may not get there as quickly. Doesn't mean that you can't do it. What's that saying? "You can do it all, but you can't do it all at once."? Did any of this resonate with you? Do you have a chronic illness that effects your day to day life?

Saturday, September 14, 2019

When You Break Your Streak


You've been writing for 23 days in a row. Day 24 comes...and you don't write. Day 25 and you don't write. Day 26 comes. You write two sentences but don't write the rest of the day because you totally skipped the last two. Day 27 you feel just so fed up with the last three days. You're frustrated with yourself, disappointed, and you think "Why bother?"And instead of writing, you watch Netflix. Then you don't write for five weeks. Day after day, it just seems like too much since you broke your streak.

One of the biggest pieces of writing advice is "Write every day." Some writers have to do this to keep things up, to keep up the momentum, and that works for them. That's terrific but it's different for many of us. I call bulls*&t. I don't write every day. I want to try to get some drafting work in every day. I do often do some sort of "story work" most weekdays. Probably four days a week. So I do writing/story work approximately four days a week. Fridays is for creative recharging, or personal development, or just entirely me time. This is what works for me. If you give up when you break your streak, you'll get nowhere because you'll constantly be giving up. You know why? Because there are very few people who can actually keep up with writing every single day. You honestly expect to write every single day no matter what for the rest of your life? Talk about pressure.

I think it's terrific to try to keep up a streak of writing or even story work. It keeps you in your story's world, you learn each time you write a new scene, sentence, etc. If you break that streak though, you get up and you go for it again the next day. Yes, you'll have a day in there where you didn't write, but it's better to have one than one hundred straight with nothing because you got frustrated you weren't perfect and gave up. (This applies to so many other things: yoga, working out, meditation, journaling...)

Another tip more specific to writing: don't set the goal for the day insanely high. When I'm drafting, for example, I know that I can realistically get 1,000 words per day. That is doable for me now. It wasn't four years ago, three years ago. I would probably shoot for 500 then. If you can realistically get 500 words in a day, shoot for that. If 300 is more your thing, shoot for that. 2,000? That's amazing! Go for it! If it pushed you TOO much, lower it a little bit. Same with editing, plotting, etc.

Please don't give up just because you miss a day...or three or seven. Get back up and start again. I know you can do it. Begin again. ;)

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Release Announcement || Begin Again: a novella by ME!!


RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT!! ~~ PRE-ORDER LIVE!! 
Begin Again: a novella 
by Amanda Leigh

Release Day: 10.14.19
Cover Reveal: 9.26.19
Genres: Women’s Fiction, Standalone
Blogger Signups: http://bit.ly/2lJ0AXs 

Blurb: 
When Tori's house burns down with her abusive husband inside, she flees with her six year old daughter to start anew. They leave town and stay in a motel. 

It doesn’t take long for Tori’s small savings to run dry, and they find themselves struggling once more. One day, they meet a kind stranger who pays for their meal. The purse this stranger leaves behind could change everything...but not how Tori imagines.



Saturday, September 7, 2019

When Things Fall to the Wayside

Hello again!!

I wanted to do a quick blog post about this topic. When things fall to the wayside. It happens to all of us. I know that I should post on social media and my blog, but it's something that definitely falls to the wayside. Why? It's not that it isn't important to me. The reason that it is important to me is that it allows me to connect with readers. Honestly, I am not a huge social media person. And the main priority for me is the books. That's my passion, my purpose, and what I want to use to connect to/with my readers.



Right now, I am trying to get my Women's Fiction novella, Begin Again, ready for publication in October. So it's my main focus. Other things are falling off. As much as I still struggle to talk about this, with the many medical conditions I have...well, to be blunt, I get f*&%ing tired and lethargic. I have to keep my priorities in mind. (Ron Weasley: "She needs to sort out her priorities." 😆)  And honestly, the social media is on the lower end of those. I try to stick to some semblance of a schedule, and I'm happy that I've gotten back to blogging, but sometimes something just has to give. Especially when I am deep in the writing, editing, or publishing trenches. When I'm there, I put a good amount of my energy there because well, that's one of my top priorities!! I also just have to take time to recharge. Creatively, as well. That's a different blog post. 😉

SO, when you don't see me about a lot, this is probably why. I'm deep in the trenches working on bringing you another book. I know we all want to strive for balance, but let's be honest, sometimes things just have to fall to the wayside. Sometimes (often...) we're not as "balanced" as we want to be or think we are. When you're focusing hard on a project (or even if you're not: if you need a recharge, or just in general) what is the first thing to fall to the wayside for you? Do you believe we can ever be perfectly balanced? Let me know in the comments! I want to hear your thoughts! ↡