Tuesday, January 15, 2013

January Happenings

Happy New Year, everyone. It's hard to believe it's January again. I hope you all had a happy holiday and are ready to jump into another year. I know I'm excited about all that's coming up. Here's a run down of this month.

In honor of National Skating Month and the US Figure Skating Championships, I'll be offering ON THIN ICE FREE on Amazon from January 26-28th. If you haven't read it already, I hope you'll download it or let friends know it's up for FREE for three days. This will be the last FREE promotion for this book, so don't miss out.

Available for FREE at Amazon from Saturday, January 26 through Monday, January 28th.



I'm also working hard to finish Book Two of The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, WESTERN DESERT, due out this summer. I'm shooting for June, but I'll keep you posted. I'm happy to report that RT Book Reviews had this to say about Book One, WANING MOON.

>"An action-packed read with a strong female lead."i>


Available for $2.99 on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords

For grins and giggles, and to celebrate National Skating month, I'll share some of my skating pics from a few years back.




I hope you'll stop back by next week and pick up a copy of ON THIN ICE. Here's a short excerpt:

Chapter 1

Journal Entry,
May 15th

I’m a liar. I know it, I hate it, and I can’t seem to help myself. I feel the lies piling up as if I’m being buried, each one a stone that keeps me pinned in a shallow grave.

God knows I have my reasons for hiding from the truth. Truth is hard and ugly. The lies are easier. As Mom gets sicker, my world grows smaller and the lies grow bigger. The uneven ground beneath my feet leaves me unsteady, and I’m waiting for the earthquake that will disrupt my life and change it forever.

At school, I’m expected to get all A’s. On the ice, I’m expected to pass tests, compete, and win. At home…well, I’m expected to be strong, help out, take charge, and be an inspiration—like one of Mom’s Celine Dion slit-my-wrists songs. If I am “Perfect Penny,” maybe everything will be okay, but I know that I’m lying, even to myself.

Because no matter how hard I try, I will never be good enough to change the truth.



I hit the ice at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning. Summer camp was one more step on the path to Olympic Gold. At least that’s what Mom has been telling me since I was eight. It didn’t take long for me to figure out that we would never have the money it would take to get me to the Olympics no matter how talented I was. I started keeping track of our costs in little journals when I was about ten. After calculating the thousands of dollars my parents had spent over those first few years, it was clear to me that unless we found a wealthy sponsor who saw my potential, the best I could hope for was the ice show circuit or teaching.

That idea didn’t bother me the way it did Mom. I hated competing, but telling her that would have broken her heart. She had such high hopes for me, and with her cancer, I couldn’t let her down. So I worked hard and stuck to the plan.

But plans have a way of changing. I could spin with the best of them, but after my second concussion when I was fourteen, I developed a phobia of axels. I had no trouble with all of the other double jumps, but every time I tried to kick through to come off of that forward outside edge, my body balked. Without a double axel in my program, pursuing a competitive freestyle career was futile. Despite trying every trick in the book, including the use of a jump harness and off-ice training, I was unable to overcome my fear. “Instinctual avoidance” my coach called it.

So, Mom got me started ice dancing, hoping I’d have a better chance at landing a partner—a possibility as slim as me escaping the horrors of daily life in the trenches at number four Barrett Street, also known as home sweet home. At least that’s what the sign above the kitchen door said.

To read all of chapter one, check out WATTPAD. You can also read the first chapter of HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES, WANING MOON, and the short story prequel to WANING MOON called SOUL REDEMPTION. You can follow along for weekly installments of SAVAGE CINDERELLA. Here's the new cover!



Well, I guess that's it. As always, I appreciate your comments and support with spreading the word about my books. I hope wherever you are, you're enjoying life, falling in love, and reading some great books!

Blessings!

PJ