Tag Archives: NewAdult

Cover reveal – Déjà You

27 Monday Mar 2017

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TITLE: Déjà You
PUBLISHER: Emerald Lily Publishing
RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2017

In Déjà You, five authors share stories of second chances, as varied in telling as the writers themselves.

Kelly Cain’s We’ll Always Have Oahu takes us on a whirlwind New Adult romance set in the 80s between a young woman on a high school graduation trip and a handsome Navy sailor.

Bianca M. Schwarz transports us to 1760 in The Pearl with the story of Marcus Landover, who attends a card party and ends up with more than he bargained for in the beautiful Sophia Chelmsford.

Amanda Linsmeier’s Joy and Sorrow reunites lovers separated by death in a Women’s Fiction tinged with the unusual.

The Eyes of the Heart by Jamie McLachlan gives us Rosalina, who is forced to confront her attraction and the truth about her blindness when a new gardener is hired at the Greystone house.

Finally, C.H. Armstrong brings us Mr. Midnight, where tragedy reunites two star-crossed lovers, but misunderstandings soon rip them apart. Now, six years later, the stars are realigning with the help of the smooth voice of a late night radio DJ.

Some of the stories are sweet, some sad, some steamy, but all carry the same theme. Déjà You is a collection of stories for those who believe in love, but most of all, second chances.

The Birth of Déjà You

About two years ago, a group of five novice writers signed with the same small publisher, each inexperienced in the publishing world yet committed to understanding the process and finding success. Through their mutual dive into unchartered territory, Amanda Linsmeier, Bianca M. Schwarz, C.H. Armstrong, Kelly Cain, and Jamie McLachlan reached out to one another and became instant friends, sharing laughs, tears, and the struggles of life and writing. We soon dubbed ourselves “Book Besties.”

During the fall of 2016, we decided to write a book of short stories together. As friends, we wanted to combine our talents to create a collection that would inspire hope and happiness. After much deliberation, we chose the theme “Second Chances” and decided to title this anthology, “Déjà You.” Though each story contains the same theme, they all are as unique as the author who wrote it. Including New Adult, Women’s Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, and Contemporary Romance, each short offers a different take on the theme and involves varying heat levels, from sweet to steamy.

About the Authors

kellycain200x200Kelly Cain has published a multicultural adult and new adult romance, but she writes across genres and age groups, currently penning book one of a young adult urban fantasy series. Most of her stories are set in Texas with frequent travels to her home state of California, and all of her stories have an excess of food weaved throughout.

If she’s not writing, she’s probably reading. Or maybe cooking. Check out her website for recipes for dishes featured in her books, and some other fun stuff. She has two adult daughters and lives in a suburb of Houston, Texas.

Kelly is the author of Altered, a new adult multicultural romance available wherever books are sold and Connections: A Steamy Short Story exclusively available on Amazon. Visit her on her Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or Tumbler.

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Bianca M Schwarz was born in Germany, spent her formative years in London, and has a US passport, but she considers herself a world citizen. She lives in Los Angeles because that’s where they make movies and she used to work on them. She writes novels because that’s kind of like making a movie in people’s heads and because she just loves books. Bianca has one son, because that’s all she can handle and she tolerates her husband because, well, she loves him and there is no help for that. Visit her on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

10254015_492271840927359_9159417025130441003_nAmanda Linsmeier is the author of Ditch Flowers and Beach Glass & Other Broken Things. Her writing has been featured in Portage Magazine, Literary Mama, and Brain, Child Magazine. Besides writing Women’s Fiction, she loves reading and writing fables, fairytales, and fantasy, and sometimes she pretends her Hogwarts letter is still coming. She can be found blogging about writing and books at amandalinsmeier.com. When she’s not writing, she works part-time at her local library and brings home more books than she has time to read. Amanda lives in the countryside, surrounded by trees, with her family, two dogs, and two half-wild cats. You can Amanda’s blog for book reviews and random musings, or check her out on Twitter or Facebook for more information.

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Jamie McLachlan is the Canadian author of Mind of the Phoenix, an Amazon Bestseller in Dark Fantasy and the first novel in the Memory Collector Series. The third, Rise of the Phoenix, is set for release in summer of 2017. When not writing, Jamie reads, dabbles in various crafts, and spends time with her family. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and her website.

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C.H. Armstrong is an Oklahoma-native transplanted in the Midwest. A life-long lover of books, she made her author debut with the 2016 release of her historical fiction novel, The Edge of Nowhere, which was inspired by her own family’s struggles during the one-two punch that was The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl. Armstrong is currently working on two young adult novels and is a regular contributor to the Minnesota-based women’s magazine, Rochester Women. Visit her on Twitter, Facebook, and her website.

For more information on Déjà You or the Book Besties, visit their website, or find them on Twitter or Facebook.

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Leap Day Flash Giveaway

29 Monday Feb 2016

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February 29th only comes around every 4 years, so today I’m giving away a Kindle copy of my New Adult romance, Altered, to celebrate.

Easy to enter. Facebook like this post and share on Twitter (both buttons are at the end of this post below), then enter your name and email address in the form below.

This flash giveaway is open until midnight tonight. I’ll announce the winner Tuesday morning at 7:00 am CT.

More about Altered

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A New Adult romance drawing on the author’s own experience studying law, the novel follows Liv, a young woman in her a first semester of law school. When her fiancé abruptly breaks things off, Liv is heart-broken.

Enter Nicholas, a classmate who is so withdrawn that he is an enigma to everyone around him. Nicholas is unusually young and unusually quiet, and keeps his past a tightly guarded secret.

While Liv is still reeling from her break up, Nicholas begins appearing in her life and coming to her rescue. Intrigued and grateful to this quiet young man, Liv becomes determined to unravel the mystery of who Nicholas is.

At first, I saw him as everyone else did.
But then, I saw him for who he really was.
Recognized the beauty beneath the pain.
Loved the quirks disguising the insecurity.
Embraced the man who hid behind the boy.
But there was so much more…
More I didn’t know.

And once I did, I couldn’t let
go…
Of the boy.
The man.
The lover…

…even if his past is threatening
our future.
Nothing will alter what we’ve built.

Official trailer for Altered

 Purchase links

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Enter to win

Why I Write Multicultural Romance

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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I write what I see. And what I see is a diverse population going about their business, living their diverse lives.

I suppose my life experience is very much similar to many while at the same time being very different from others. I live in a culturally diverse neighborhood. My daughters attended culturally diverse schools. I work in a culturally diverse environment. The relationships I see every day are both culturally homogeneous and multicultural.

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When I set out to write ALTERED, I patterned Liv after my daughter who is Creole, and Nicholas after Robert Sheehan, the actor, just because he was my celebrity crush at the time. It didn’t occur to me that I was doing anything special or outside the norm, but when it was time to market ALTERED, it was deemed a multicultural romance.

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When writing Scale Steps, my heroine, Faith, is biracial (African-American and Irish) and she meets an actor, Andrew, from her favorite television show in Scotland, who is indeed… Scottish. Again, I didn’t set out to write a multicultural relationship, but rather a natural relationship born out of my usual surroundings.

So now I have branded myself a multicultural romance author because apparently that’s what I write. To me, I’m just writing about everyday life.

Launch Day for ALTERED by Kelly Cain

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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Welcome to the launch day for ALTERED by Kelly Cain. Please check out the info below about the New Adult multicultural novel and its author.

About ALTERED

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A New Adult romance drawing on the author’s own experience studying law, the novel follows Liv, a young woman in her a first semester of law school. When her fiancé abruptly breaks things off, Liv is heart-broken.

Enter Nicholas, a classmate who is so withdrawn that he is an enigma to everyone around him. Nicholas is unusually young and unusually quiet, and keeps his past a tightly guarded secret.

While Liv is still reeling from her break up, Nicholas begins appearing in her life and coming to her rescue. Intrigued and grateful to this quiet young man, Liv becomes determined to unravel the mystery of who Nicholas is.

At first, I saw him as everyone else did.
But then, I saw him for who he really was.
Recognized the beauty beneath the pain.
Loved the quirks disguising the insecurity.
Embraced the man who hid behind the boy.
But there was so much more…
More I didn’t know.

And once I did, I couldn’t let
go…
Of the boy.
The man.
The lover…

…even if his past is threatening
our future.
Nothing will alter what we’ve built.

See the book trailer for ALTERED

Amazon-Buy-Now-Buttonbnn_buttonkobo_buttonibooks_button1

About the author

 KellyCain200X200

Kelly Cain is a multicultural new adult and contemporary romance novelist. After many years of being entrenched in business and data analysis, she began writing a couple of years ago and discovered it to be her passion.  She loves reading most genres, but historical fiction and new adult are her favorites. She has two adult daughters, and is from Stockton, California, but now lives in a suburb of Houston, Texas.

Visit her: website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram or Tumbler

 

The Sheehan and Love/Hate

01 Monday Feb 2016

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A few days ago, I wrote about my fascination with all thing Irish (see here). About three years ago, a friend suggested I watch Love/Hate on Netflix where I promptly started fangirling over the show, and especially Robert Sheehan, herein referred to as “The Sheehan.”

During the height of my The Sheehan crush, I started writing Altered. My hero, Nicholas Sheenan, is Irish-American, tall, fair-skinned with dark curly hair, and beautiful green eyes. Sound familiar? If not, have a look at The Sheehan. I’ll wait.

Okay, now that you’re back. Oh wait, just one…

The Sheehan

So anyway… Nicholas was obviously created to satisfy my The Sheehan obsession, at least his physicality. The actual person I based Nicholas on was an 18-year-old student I met in law school who was of average height and blond hair. Again, just one aspect was based on this person – his circumstance of being so young and accomplished (he was also a really sweet guy like Nicholas too). All actions of Nicholas in Altered are completely and totally fiction.

The main character in Altered, Liv, watches a lot of British and Irish television and Love/Hate is referenced more than once. Nicholas rarely watched tv, but he does walk in on Liv watching a particular scene that has her tearing up.

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Writing Love/Hate into Altered was really cool for me because I think it’s such a great show. At least the first three season. I’m not sure how good it is after because once The Sheehan departed, I did too. I hear they’re making an American version which I’ll probably check out because of morbid curiosity. I can only hope it’ll be half as great as the original.

Launch Party for Altered (Photos)

01 Monday Feb 2016

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I am beyond words to express my gratitude for the tremendous support I received for the launch party for my New Adult debut novel, Altered.

Guests traveled from near and far to pick up signed copies of Altered, participate in games for giveaways, and consume tasty hors d’oeuvres – most of all the gorgeous cake.

I have to give my cousin, Joanna (Neice) Cain, a special shout-out for not only coming from Los Angeles for the event, but for coordinating the food & drinks and acting as Mistress of Ceremonies. She also did a reading from Chapter 15-No Boundaries which may or may not be based on a fictionalized version of her. She brought her friend, Foxxy, who helped to pull it all off.

Three people from the Acknowledgements section of Altered were able to come which helped make my night: Dr. Patricia Williams, Anna Taylor (came in from Mississippi), and Jessika Mayes (came in from Virginia).

There were guests I’ve known for years, some I hadn’t seen in many years, as well as guests I’d only met for the first time that night. My daughters were there doing what they always do – supporting me unconditionally. To all I say I can’t thank you enough for sharing this special night with me.

The cake and cupcakes were spectacular, and made by my sorority sister (line sister), Renita Thornton, from Mary Butler’s Grandaughter cakes, cupcakes, and treats. Here’s the cakes and her card:

Cake of Altered
Cupcakes with mini Altered books
Mary Butler’s Grandaughter (front of card)
Mary Butler’s Grandaughter (back of card)

Here are the photos I promised:

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Daughters
Kamryn & Diamond
Daughters, Alex & Anna
Kamryn & Alex

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She did the cake!
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Working hard for those giveaways

A reading from Altered
Winner winner
Cupcakes with mini Altered books
Side view

 

 

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Living the dream

In Defense of Liv

30 Saturday Jan 2016

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When I set out to write Altered, I wanted everyone to read it, and fall madly in love with the story as well as the characters. Of course I understood not everyone would like it, and I’ve come to understand that a lot of it has to do with chemistry. After all, I don’t love everything I read and when I leave a review for those books I may have liked, but not loved, there are always plenty of people reviewing how much they actually did love it.

As it turns out, there seems to be some very consistent comments about my two main characters, Liv and Nicholas. I haven’t read one single review where a disparaging remark has been made about Nicholas, even for those who didn’t love the story. Quite the contrary – Nicholas is universally loved and understood. Even though he certainly has flaws and he isn’t always forthcoming, somehow those shortcomings are forgiven and overlooked.

Liv doesn’t get off so easily though. Most relate she is selfish, annoying, and/or immature. There are even those who love the story, but don’t particularly care for Liv, or just tolerate her. A few “get” her and give her the benefit of the doubt, but not many.

I intentionally made Liv blissfully unaware of self – it was completely intentional. However I didn’t realize this would be such a problem for people. She is flawed (aren’t we all?) and she has been wronged considerably. Some acknowledge she had a terrible breakup and it probably affected her, but most thought she brought it upon herself. Perhaps. How many of us in our early 20s made decisions that we know we should have never made now that those years are firmly behind us? ::raises hand::

This isn’t a spoiler because it’s how the book is marketed, but Liv is engaged in the beginning of the story and her fiance breaks up with her a few months before the wedding. As it is, the timing of getting married probably wasn’t the greatest and the man she’d chosen to marry probably wasn’t the best choice, but again, she made some questionable decisions that she had to live with. She ends up paying for those decisions and because of this failed relationship, she develops some deep trust issues. I’m not sure why this isn’t an acceptable reaction.

She goes on to not trust her feelings where Nicholas is concerned and that seems to really piss some people off, both inside and outside the story. Her long suffering roommate, Julia, berates her on not being self-aware. Even her own mom gets in on the action.  Readers don’t like this either. Perhaps they want an instalove situation which I’ve never been a big fan of. Or maybe they just don’t want her to cause Nicholas any pain.

The more I mull this over, the more I think I’ve found the crux of the problem – no one wants to see Nicholas unhappy. I can understand that – I love Nicholas just as much as the next person, and I want him to be blissfully happy as well. However I don’t dislike Liv because she doesn’t instantly want that too. And really, she does want his happiness, but she’s unsure if she can be the person who helps him in that area. Luckily for everyone, Nicholas assists Liv with this problem and guides her back to a place of trust. After all, he hasn’t always been in the best trust place either.

In the end, both Liv and Nicholas are flawed characters who face challenges and repercussions for the decisions they make. The fact that readers have a visceral reaction to Liv actually makes me happy because clearly they’ve become invested in the story. What more can I ask for?

My fascination with the Irish

29 Friday Jan 2016

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If you read my debut New Adult novel, Altered, you will notice that the hero, Nicholas Sheenan, is of Irish descent. You will also notice an homage to Love/Hate which is an Irish RTE drama set in Dublin, starring one Robert Sheehan. I’ll write more about that in another post, but would like to explain further my fascination with the Irish people and culture.

Growing up, my mom would always tell me that I was Irish. Clearly I’m African-American so that was somewhat confusing to me. As I grew older, I came to realize that I had an ancestor who immigrated from Ireland, but the details were always vague. When my mom spoke of one of her aunts in particular, she would always say, “that’s the Irish in her.”

It wasn’t until recently, while combing through my family tree doing research for another project I’m working on, that I discovered for sure who this ancestor was. She was my maternal grandmother’s mother, and her name was Laura Harris. There’s not a whole lot of information available about her other than the fact that she was, indeed, from Ireland. I’d be extremely interested to discover how she ended up having African-American offspring during a time when this seems nearly impossible to have happened.

My mother was the baby of her family and she’s been gone two years, so I’ll probably never truly know how my great-grandmother came to be my ancestor. Instead I’ll continue to make up stories to fill in my own blanks. For instance, the manuscript I’m currently revising, has a heroine who is biracial – her Da’s parents immigrated from Ireland, and she spent most summers growing up there. It was great fun researching that part of the world and building the linage from which she came. Possibly from where my own great-grandmother came.

I’m writing a new story. I’m about a fifth of the way in, but it doesn’t have an Irish character… yet.

Places in Altered

28 Thursday Jan 2016

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I’ve written about the restaurants referenced in my debut New Adult novel, Altered, because food is predominant throughout. I thought I might touch on a few of the non-eating establishments featured.

While attending Texas Southern University (TSU) in Houston, and even the year I spent in law school, I lived in a townhouse on Rosedale in 3rd Ward, bordering the museum district. This is where the story opens and the description of Liv driving into the garage, and looking up at the balcony is true to form. I’ve taken some liberties with other parts of the townhouse including the garden tub and the game room (there was actually a smaller third bedroom used as an office), but the closet is very much the same. I loved that closet.

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Liv is a law school student. Once upon a time, I was a law school student. Liv attends a law school in downtown Houston. I attended South Texas College of Law in downtown Houston. Do you see where I’m going with this? I only spent a year there, but I really loved the STCL atmosphere. Like Nicholas, most days I would ride my bike to class because it was only a couple of miles from the townhouse. And like Liv and Nicholas, I met some really great people there.

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Liv and Nicholas go to Ragin Cajun a couple of times (see my post here) and then go over to “Edwards.” They’re referring to Edwards Theater on Weslayan near Kirby. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this movie theater other than it’s rather large in the middle of town.

edwards

Our couple ventures out to the left coast and at some point makes it to Stanford. Originally, I mention them going to Stanford in passing, but my editor thought that since they went all that way, I should probably show them doing something. Because my cousin had started at Stanford when I was a senior in high school, I opted to tell a little about that. Because the events don’t veer too far from the truth, I’ll let you read about it instead of me telling you here. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed his frosh year.

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My daughters and I are members of The Woodlands Church. After Liv and Nicholas go through their escapades in Austin, and Liv finally decides (wait…that’s probs a spoiler). So anywho, at some point Liv takes Nicholas to her church. I don’t write about their time at the church, only the car ride over. I don’t mention the church by name, but I do tell a little about the pastor and the awesomeness that is Fellowship of The Woodlands. If you’re ever in Houston, that’s the place to go on Sunday morning (or Saturday evening). They have a live online campus too!

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