Forever Julia Blog Tour: Interview with Jodi Carmichael

Today we're joining the FOREVER JULIA blog tour by chatting with author Jodi Carmichael. Come get to know all about Jodi and her book.

Hi Jodi! Welcome to We Do Write. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I live in Winnipeg where I can often be found dancing in the living room with my two wildly imaginative daughters, my patient and supportive husband, and a scruffy Border Terrier named Zoe. My previous book for young readers, Spaghetti Is NOT A Finger Food, won numerous awards and has been a multi-week Bestseller.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Tell our readers a bit about Forever Julia.

16-year-old Julia falls for a wealthy and controlling boy who leads her to betray her best friend and sacrifice her integrity. Because love and infatuation can turn dark. Fast. Ultimately, she alone must decide what lines cannot be crossed. Forever Julia is full of romance, heart-break, and dangerous secrets. 

How did the idea of the story come to you?

I actually didn’t set out to write a story that dealt with abuse. My original intention was to write a Rom/Com or some sort of YA Chicklit. The working title for this novel, for a long time was; Who Needs Romeo: A Tale of a Modern Day Juliet. In my first version, the abusive relationship with Jeremy was something in Julia’s past and my focus was on her new relationship with a mysterious boy who was struggling with very different demons than the sort that drive Jeremy’s actions.

Although it was an entertaining read, that version had zero dramatic action and it fell flat in terms of character growth. As I struggled with rewriting Forever Julia, I had the great fortune of getting accepted into The Manitoba Writers’ Guild, Sheldon Oberman Mentorship Program as an apprentice.  I was privileged to have Carolyn Grey, award-winning playright, puppeteer, and author as my mentor. She helped me discover the heart of Julia’s story, which I squirreled away in the back story – the pre-story.  She encouraged me to explore Julia’s abusive relationship with Jeremy, because it was the more important story to tell.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

By nature I am a 100% pantser, but I like to think of myself now as a pantser-in-remission. Plotting is something I now do to avoid massive amounts of rewriting. That being said, I don’t do an incredibly thorough plot outline. I do a very brief chapter by chapter description, just ensure there is enough dramatic action to drive the story.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

Finding time to write and not getting distracted by the ever so shiny and always exciting internet.

What do you absolutely have to have nearby when writing?

Hmmm, I think it’s more what shouldn’t be nearby when I am writing! If my kids are in the room or they need my attention I am done for and I need to be disconnected from the internet. It is just too tempting for me.

What are you reading right now?

Oh! I just finished All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr which was fantastic and I’ve now just started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, by Alan Bradley which I adore.

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

Flying. Is that a superpower? I think it would be amazing to soar through the air and fly to far off countries, without needing an airplane ticket.

What's the weirdest thing you've googled?

For research I’ve googled all sorts of things, but the one entry that worried me most is when I googled World War 2 grenades for my current work in progress. I needed to know what smell would linger after a grenade exploded. I was a bit concerned it would “flag” me for CISIS, but maybe I was just getting paranoid since that book is all about top secret spy activities...

Finish this sentence: If I'm not writing, I'm probably ...

day dreaming about my characters or reading.

Here’s the part where you thank the people who are supporting you. Let's hear your shout outs.

It’s got to be my family. My husband is incredible and I think he may have more faith in me than I do. My daughters inspire me to keep writing stories they would like to read, about characters who are strong and thoughtful, and often times feisty!

Chapters Indigo | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

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M9B Friday Reveal: Cover Reveal for Last Siege Of Haven (The Undertakers #4) by Ty Drago with Giveaway #M9BFridayReveals

Welcome to this week’s M9B Friday Reveal!

This week, we are revealing the cover for

Last Siege Of Haven (The Undertakers #4) by Ty Drago

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

While away on an undercover mission, Undertaker Will Ritter has made an unthinkable alliance…with a Corpse! But though Robert Dillin (aka ‘The Zombie Prince’) is indeed one of those alien invaders who animate and possess the bodies of the dead — unlike the rest of his kind, Dillin isn’t evil. In fact, he wants to help. And Will needs that help, because the Queen of the Dead has learned the location of Haven, the Undertakers’ secret HQ, and is planning a massive and deadly assault.

With the last day of the Corpse War finally upon them, Will and his friends find themselves in a desperate race to close the Rift between worlds and forever kill the Corpses. But can they do before Haven is overrun?

For that matter, can they do it at all?

Last Siege of Haven (The Undertakers #4)
by Ty Drago
Publication Date: May 11, 2015
Publisher: Month9Books

Available for Pre-order:

Ty Drago does his writing just across the river from Philadelphia, where the Undertakers novels take place. In addition to The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses,The Undertakers: Queen of the Dead, and The Undertakers: Secret of the Corpse Eater, he is the author of The Franklin Affair and Phobos, as well as short stories and articles that have appeared in numerous publications, including Writer’s Digest. He currently lives in southern New Jersey with his wife and best friend, the real Helene Drago née Boettcher.

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!
Title will be sent upon its release.

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M9B Two for Thursday Book Blitz: Life, A.D. and M.I.A. by Michelle E. Reed with Giveaway #T4T

Hello and welcome to this week’s Two for Thursday Book Blitz #T4T
presented by Month9books/Tantrum Books!

Today, we will be showcasing two titles that may tickle your fancy,
and we’ll share what readers have to say about these titles!

You just might find your next read!

This week, #T4T presents to you the Atman City series by Michelle E. Reed:

Life, A.D.: Life After Dez
and
M.I.A.: Missing in Atman!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

In Life, A.D. you have two choices: join the program or face the consequences.

Seventeen-year-old Dez Donnelly crashes headlong into fate on the side of a rural highway, her life ending in a violent collision of steel and screaming brakes. The train that delivers her newly departed soul to the crossroads of the afterlife won’t be carrying her to the sweet hereafter until she accepts her abrupt end and learns to let go of the life she’ll never finish.

Her new reality is conduct manuals, propaganda, and unrelenting staff, all part of a system to ease her transition from life to death, while helping her earn her way out of limbo. Atman City, beautiful and enticing, is an ever-present temptation that is strictly off limits to underage souls. The promise of adventure proves too strong, and beneath the city’s sheen of ethereal majesty, Dez discovers a world teeming with danger.

Welcome to Life, A.D. where being dead doesn’t mean you’re safe, and the only thing harder than getting out of limbo is getting through it.

Available for Purchase:

WHAT READER’S ARE SAYING:
“I loved this book. it takes on the aspect of death and afterlife, transforming it into a character driven story.” – Troy, Goodreads Reviewer

” There was a theme threaded throughout the tale: Most people are busy living life preparing for the future instead of living in the moment. Gosh, I love that.” – S.A. Larsen, Author

“I think Life A.D. holds high potential for a fantastic series. It was GREAT and I really do think that people would really get into it if it became a series.” – Olivia, Book Comet

Dez is finally hitting her afterlife stride. She hasn’t missed a meeting or session in 42 days, and she’s put the adventures and danger of her first days at Atman behind her. Life after death is becoming tolerable, yet nothing is quite what she’d hoped. Confusion over her feelings for Charlie, residual resentment over losing Hannah, and a continuous stream of unwanted assignments leave Dez restless and argumentative. In a missed encounter with Crosby, her prying gaze lands upon a single entry in the datebook on his unoccupied desk. These few, hastily scribbled words reveal an enormous secret he’s keeping from her. Possessed by a painful sense of betrayal, she once again sneaks off to Atman City, determined to find answers to an unresolved piece of her life. It begins as all their adventures do, but as light falls into darkness, a stop in an unfamiliar neighborhood sets forth a chaotic series of events. Dez will have to fight for her very existence, and will face painful, irreparable loss in an afterlife teeming with demons wielding ancient powers.

Available for Purchase:

WHAT READER’S ARE SAYING:

“This was a wonderful continuation to the Atman City series!” – Bri, Books and Ashes

“I couldn't put it down!!
Now I desperately await the next installment. I'm nowhere near the writer Michelle Reed is, so I won't bother trying. I'll simply say this book is a must read, following the first installment, "Life A.D."” – Amy, Goodreads Reviewer

“M.I.A. had an interesting ending and I imagine there will be a third book in the series based on it. I look forward to reading it.” – Dawn, Bound 4 Escape

Michelle E. Reed was born in a small Midwestern town, to which she has returned to raise her own family. Her imagination and love of literature were fueled by a childhood of late nights, hidden under the covers and reading by flashlight. She is a passionate adoption advocate who lives in Wisconsin with her husband, son, and their yellow lab, Sully.

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Cover Reveal: Darkness Brutal by Rachel A. Marks

Have I ever mentioned how much I love cover reveals? I really do! It's probably the artist in me. Anyway, today we are excited to reveal the cover for DARKNESS BRUTAL, a YA urban fantasy by Rachel A. Marks! And it's so pretty!

Darkness Brutal by Rachel A. Marks
(The Dark Cycle #1)
Published by: Skyscape
Publication date: July 1st 2015
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult

Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.

In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a rag-tag group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. With them, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But then he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, and she awakens powers inside of him he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.

With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness held back and accept his terrifying destiny, or will he and his sister fall to the same fate as their mother?

     

PREVIEW

I let the pulse of the music coat me and mute my surroundings. A mass of people crowd the dance floor of the club, and I sit on an abandoned couch in the corner. The lights beat at the air in blues and greens, and bodies twist and merge to the thunder. I lean back, close my eyes, and try to get lost in it, the smells and sounds of people and their collective high.

Something moves next to me. I look over to find a girl sprawled on the seat beside me, trying to catch her breath. She’s not dressed in the usual club gear, more like a girl who got lost on her way to a beach party: Hurley T-shirt, jean skirt, and red Converse. Her cheeks are flushed pink; her throat and forehead glitter with sweat. She glances at me like she didn’t know I was there. She licks her upper lip, her eyes not leaving mine. Then she says something I can’t hear.

I point to my ear and shake my head.

She smiles and laughs, lighting up the space around her. She rests her hand on my arm, like we’re friends and I just told her the most hilarious joke, and then she gets up and disappears into the mass of bodies again.

My arm tingles, my body reacting to the moment of contact in a sudden and disconcerting way. I think I’ve had my fill of watching people indulge their baser instincts. I need to get out of here.

The beat of the music speeds up, vibrating faster as I move through the crowd. I try not to touch anyone, which is nearly impossible. All the emotions and appetites are overwhelming, as if the rising rhythm of the music makes their yearnings rise, too. Lust buzzes in the air. A hunger stirs in me, a gaping hole, needing to be filled. With touch.

The touch of female fingers. A hand on my arm, taking my wrist, pulling me into the fray, into the pressing bodies. And I don’t try to escape. I let her take me.

Because I’m tired.

Because I’m a dumbass.

A girl moves in front of me—not the Hurley girl, not the one I was hoping for. She presses closer, so close I can almost taste the salty perspiration on her skin. She has thin, birdlike shoulders, a swan neck, a heart-shaped face, and black hair, long and tangled, turning blue and green with the light. Her hands slide up my chest. She wraps her arms around my neck and tilts her head to look up at me.

Her lips are full and painted dark purple. There’s a dimple in her left cheek that gets deeper with her growing smile. And her eyes . . .

Fog fills my head for a second, interrupting my thoughts.

“Hi,” she mouths, calling attention to her lips again.

And then she’s rising up on her toes, pulling me down to her, twisting her fingers in my hair, her lips smashing against mine.

My body buzzes from her touch, and my hands react, drawing her into me. I drink her in. She tastes like the air around me, hunger and urgency, and—

Green apple Jolly Ranchers?

I grip her sides, her ribs so delicate beneath my fingers. The sweet tang of her teases me, the hunger becoming a monster deep inside. I have to press her closer, tighter, try to feed it, as I feel the fire of her need link with mine.

She pulls back a little and looks at me with wide eyes, like she’s shocked. That’s when I see the mark, a glowing, blue-inked line of what looks like Chinese symbols, trailing down the nape of her neck to her shoulder blade. Symbols that I’m suddenly sure mean: touch this girl at your own risk.

It’s the only thing I see for a second: Beware. Beware.

Until her energy reaches for me, wispy tendrils of blue light wrapping their way around my wrists and snaking up my chest.

I jerk away, into the guy behind me, stepping on his girlfriend’s toes. I get shoved— thankfully farther from the hypnotic girl—through a space in the crowd, saying a hundred excuse-me’s even though I know no one can hear them. I find my way out of the press of bodies to the edge of the room again where it’s safe.

It’s time to leave. I should’ve left an hour ago.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel A. Marks is a cancer survivor, a writer and artist, a surfer and dirt-bike rider, chocolate lover

and keeper of faerie secrets. Her four kids and amazing hubby put up with her nerdiness with tremendous grace, even when she makes them watch Buffy or Smallville re-runs for days on end. She was voted: Most Likely To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse, but hopes she'll never have to test the theory. Darkness Brutal is her first novel.

               

Book Tour! A Necklace of Souls by R.L. Stedman

‘A true dream is when the events I see in my sleep have, or will happen. It’s a talent that runs in my

family. I was thirteen when I had my first true dream.’

Will’s Aunt says the Kingdom of the Rose is the most fortunate of lands. But Will hates the place – his uncle and aunt are horrible, and he misses his parents. Oh, how he misses them.

Dana wishes she wasn’t a princess. She’s always being told how to behave, what to wear. There’s a strangeness in the castle – why will no one talk about the Guardian, or the necklace that protects the land? And why does her father look at her with such sorrow? The collier’s cart seems the perfect escape. Only she didn’t realize she’d become so dirty, or so lost. Fortunately this boy, Will, has a sense of direction. And next to the forbidding stranger, N’tombe, he seems reassuringly normal.

Welcome to A Necklace of Souls: a story of love and loss, of shattered lives and desperate hopes. In the Kingdom of the Rose, bravery is not always measured by strength and magic is real, if only one has the courage to dream.

Shortlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel Award, A Necklace of Souls was awarded the Tessa Duder Award for Young Adult Fiction, Best First Book at the New Zealand Post Children and Young Adult Book Awards and is a Storylines Notable Book.

           

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Rachel Stedman. I’m a physiotherapist (physical therapist) by background, but now I work as a freelance contractor. I live in the wild and windy place of Dunedin, New Zealand, with my husband and two kids. I write mostly for children and young adults. In 2012 I won the Tessa Duder Award for an unpublished YA work and my first novel, A Necklace of Souls, was published by HarperCollins in 2013 (available in the United Kingdom and on Book Depository from June 2015). This year, A Necklace of Souls was awarded Best First Book at the 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards and won a Notable Book Award from Storylines. Inner Fire is my second novel.

                 

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