Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Step 53: Guard Those Secrets (Bonus Blog Post!)

Guardian of Secrets by Brenda Drake | Release Day Launch | JenHalliganPR.com 

My awesome friend Brenda Drake's book GUARDIANS OF SECRETS (Library Jumpers #2) is out today! She is the driving force behind #PitchWars and is an all-around amazing person to work with, and I'm thrilled to be participating in her release day blog blitz! Check out the teaser excerpt, and be sure to enter the giveaway via Rafflecopter below!


Guardian of Secrets by Brenda Drake | JenHalliganPR.com

GUARDIAN OF SECRETS (Library Jumpers #2) by Brenda Drake
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Publication Date: February 7, 2017

Being a Sentinel isn’t all fairytales and secret gardens.

Sure, jumping through books into the world’s most beautiful libraries to protect humans from mystical creatures is awesome. No one knows that better than Gia Kearns, but she could do without the part where people are always trying to kill her. Oh, and the fact that Pop and her had to move away from her friends and life as she knew it.

And if that isn’t enough, her boyfriend, Arik, is acting strangely. Like, maybe she should be calling him “ex,” since he’s so into another girl. But she doesn’t have time to be mad or even jealous, because someone has to save the world from the upcoming apocalypse, and it looks like that’s going to be Gia.

Maybe. If she survives.


Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1):

Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2):

Excerpt from GUARDIAN OF SECRETS

She did a U-turn and drove off. I sprinted to the area where I spotted the lightning. A shadowed figure sat on a white bench near the water. Another flash of light kissed the sky and illuminated Nick. Since discovering he was a wizard, Nick struggled with his new magic. And he was careless. Anyone could spot him out here. How would he explain it to someone who was human and not from the Mystik realm? I couldn’t imagine how it felt to have that much power. Unlike him, I was a Sentinel. I had little magic and relied on my battle training to best wizards and other-world creatures. He only needed to shock or electrocute his adversaries.

“What exactly are you doing?” I asked, approaching.

He almost fell off the bench. “Shit, Gia. Don’t sneak up on a person like that.”

“Seriously, Nick? What are you doing? Someone might see you, and then we’d be discovered.”

“Just leave me alone.”

“I’m not going to just leave you alone.” I sat down on the bench beside him. A light breeze swept loose strands of my hair across my face. The briny smell of the ocean filled my nose. “Talk to me. You’re my best friend, Nick. I’m here for you.”

He formed an electric charge on his palm. I created my pink globe and tossed it on his hand, snuffing out the charge.

He made another electric ball and I cast another globe at it.

“Quit doing that.”

“You stop it.”

“I get it. Your globe is badass. It can counter magic and shield people, but it makes you weak. I can do this all night and wear you out.”

“You’re not nice.”

He buried his face in his hands. The knuckles on his right one were torn, with blood coagulating around the wounds. “I don’t know what’s happening to me. I can’t stop myself. I know I’m being mean to Deidre, to my parents…to everyone.”

“You haven’t been that mean to me, yet. That has to say something. I’m the most annoying one of the bunch.”

He snorted. “Did you just snort?”

“No.” He looked startled. “It was a sneeze.”

“I think you snorted.”

His face brightened. “I know what you’re trying to do. And it’s working.”

“I’m not trying to do anything. That was a full-on snort.” I wrapped my arm over his back and watched the water lap against the retaining wall in front of us. “I know you can’t see a therapist for this, ’cause what would you say? That you just found out you’re the son of the most evil wizard of the Mystik world and the curers recently released your magic?”

He gave me a half smile. “Yeah, that might not go over too well.”

“Or maybe you could. They’d think you were delusional, and you’d score some drugs.”

“Drugs make me nauseous.”

He stared at his hands, and I stared at the water, searching for the right words to say. “This has to be tough for you. I get it. I’ve been there. It’ll take time to adjust. How about I be your counselor? Anytime you feel anxious or angry, you call me and we’ll punch some bags or whatever. It always helps me to relax. Plus, my services are cheap.”

“Violence would make you relax.” He was pleased with his retort and laughed, which was followed by another snort.
Guardian of Secrets by Brenda Drake | JenHalliganPR.com

Brenda Drake

About Brenda Drake


Brenda Drake is a New York Times bestselling author of Thief of Lies (Library Jumpers #1), Guardian of Secrets (Library Jumpers #2), Touching Fate (Fated Series #1), and Cursing Fate (Fated Series #2). She grew up the youngest of three children, an Air Force brat, and the continual new kid at school. She hosts workshops and contests for writers such as Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness on her blog, and holds Twitter pitch parties on the hashtag, #PitMad. When she’s not writing or hanging out with her family, she haunts libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops, or reads someplace quiet and not at all exotic (much to her disappointment). Look for her upcoming novels, Thunderstruck, Seeking Fate (Fated Series #3), and Assassin of Truths (Library Jumpers #3) coming soon from Entangled Teen.

Giveaway


Friday, July 15, 2016

Step 42: Answer The Ultimate Question Of Life, The Universe, And Everything

If you don't get the reference to this post title, that's okay. I've never actually read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I consider myself to be one of the foremost experts on geek culture.

Shame indeed, Septa Unella.  SHAME INDEED.

The Twitter event #PitchWars is coming up, which is sort of like a pre-published author version of The Hunger Games. Or Battle Royale, if you're an 90's anime weaboo like I am.

If you weren't ~*blessed*~ to grow up with Sailor Moon, I feel sorry for you.

Some writers are pimping out their Author Bios under the cleverly-titled hashtag, #PimpMyBio. So I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring, even though for me writing a personal bio is about as much fun as jerking off using a hedgehog.

On the one hand, ow. On the other hand... I mean, you're still masturbating. /letscallitadraw

Shall we get started?  First and foremost, here's some basic stats.  I am:
  • 31 years old but forever 17 in my head
  • A cisgendered female
  • Happily married to a man but would identify myself somewhere on the queer spectrum
  • A San Diego native
  • A 2007 alumna of the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in Visual Arts
I've worked professionally as a freelance illustrator in the comic book industry since 2009, but my real passion has always been in graphic novels (Blankets changed my goddamned life--seriously, go read it right now). My short graphic story, Strawberry Wine, was a winner of TokyoPop's 2008 Rising Stars of Manga contest and was published nationally in their anthology book. The manuscript that I am currently peddling about, Defining Lines, actually started life as a graphic novel, and I would love to revisit the medium one day (time and finances permitting).

And so long as my drawing hand doesn't fail me.

At any rate, this little spiel of mine is starting to sound suspiciously like a query letter, so lets move on to the fun stuff.  In my spare time, I like to:
Pertaining to that last one, I am an especially avid fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. My all-time favorite game is Final Fantasy X, and I will fight anyone who says Final Fantasy VIII is a shit game and not worth playing.

Take your FFVII superiority complex and shove it.

I also enjoy decorating my Lakeview Manor house in Skyrim with the bones of fallen dragons I have slain:

Unless they slay me first.  It happens.

And to round this post out, I'm going to link to a few random .gifs that are relevant to my interests:

When u sneeze so hard u regenerate
Exhibit A: My first sexual awakening
Real men wear pink.
(Alternate caption: Bye Felicia~)
Data with his emotion chip is just the best I can't even

Welp, that about sums it up!  I hope you enjoyed this little stroll down .gif lane, and I'm looking forward to #PitchWars! May the odds May the Force Live Long and okay whatever good luck everyone!

EDIT:  Most mentees appear to be including some info about their manuscripts along with their bios, so here's mine in a nutshell--
DEFINING LINES is the story of an awkward girl who suddenly becomes popular and--hahaha just kidding, awkward girl stays totally awkward and unexpectedly finds her Prince Princess Charming! YA Contemporary LGBTQ+ Romance with a sprinkling of David Bowie and pop culture, complete at 92,000 words.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Step 31: Stop And Smell The (Blue Winter) Roses

I decided to work through my art slump by picking back up a piece I had started a few months ago and never got around to finishing. Before I post the image, a little context: I am a HUGE A Song of Ice and Fire fan. I read the first four books in 2008, and waited patiently with everyone else for A Dance with Dragons to come out in 2011.

Me waiting for The Winds of Winter.

I even got my copy of A Clash of Kings signed by George R. R. Martin at a book signing, and got to hang out with him at a fan-run moot right before the HBO show came out:

Back before he was an untouchable mega-star.

Which brings me to my latest piece. When I told George that my favorite character was Lyanna Stark, he looked me dead in the eye and said, "Your favorite character is a girl who died fifteen years before the events of the first book?" And I replied, "Well, yeah--she was a strong-willed young woman, and an expert equestrian like me. What's not to love about her?"

Joke's on you, George--you can't kill off my favorite character if she's already dead!

There's obviously a lot more to my interest in Lyanna Stark than what I could convey in five-seconds of face time with George. Lyanna is at the center of a very intriguing mystery that, up to this point, has not been revealed to readers of the books (or watchers of the show). Everything we know about her we've learned through the eyes of often untrustworthy narrators, so what little we're able to piece together about her life is seemingly contradictory. Did she love Robert Baratheon? Was she kidnapped and raped by Rhaegar Targaryen? What exactly happened at the Tower of Joy?

At the rate of George's writing, we may never know.

That's not to say there aren't any credible sources. Ned may have been biased towards his sister, but he didn't seem to have any ill-will towards Rhaegar Targaryen considering the hefty allegations. And Ser Barristan Selmy, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and arguably one of the most honorable men in Westeros, straight-up says "Rhaegar loved his Lady Lyanna" in ADWD. So, forgive me for stating the obvious, but I'm 99.9% sure there's a little more to the story of Rhaegar and Lyanna than just Grand Theft She-Wolf. And because I'm mildly obsessed with the mystery surrounding her, I put together this Mucha-inspired piece:

"Beautiful, and willful, and dead before her time."

The art is a direct appropriation of Alphonse Mucha's Primrose and Feather. The plan was to create a companion piece featuring Rhaegar Targaryen, but I dunno if I'll ever get around to doing it. Coloring is really not my forte, and after working on the colors alone for two days straight I eventually threw in the towel and said "fuck it", the result of which you see before you now. I will say, I enjoyed incorporating Stark symbolism and Lyanna lore into the piece, like the dire wolf and weirwood leaves of the North, and the Knight of the Laughing Tree shields behind her. We'll see if I can gather the energy to draw her beloved (???) dragon prince.