Category: Giveaway

Triple Threat or Double Trouble? Interview with Jo Noelle

9/1/2014

Today I'm happy to host author Jo Noelle... or should I say authors Jo Noelle? Jo Noelle is the pen name of a mother and daughter writing team made up of Canda Mortensen and Deanna Henderson (Hey, Deanna! Cool last name!). While some ladies write and publish one book at a time, today I'm floored to announce three, count 'em, THREE brand new releases by this duo.

First, let's learn a little bit about Canda and Deanna (collectively Jo Noelle, remember). Then we'll move onto each of the three books, and give readers a chance to enter a super-fantastic giveaway for $100 Amazon Gift Card (swooooooon!). Grab your favorite drink and let's get down to some serious girl talk.

Interview

1. What music do you like?

Deanna: I don’t know how to answer that. Do you mean today? I listen to everything, rock, classical, rap, alternative, opera. And I know the words and sing along—with the opera songs sometimes I sing gibberish until I know the words again.

Canda: Rock. I like rock. Not soft rock—it’s not really rock. I like alternative too. My favorite bands are (in order of their appearance in my life) KISS, Aerosmith, (I really liked the BeeGees but I’ll deny it in public), Nirvana, Good Charlotte, and Linkin Park.

2. What kind of books do you like?

Deanna: I like “issue” book. I like self-helpy books. I like YA romance and Chick-lit. Oh and travel books especially the ones with itineraries that tell you what to eat where and give you maps.

Canda: I like snarky characters, romance is the story not the subplot, and paranormal is a big plus. I hate contemporary literary fiction. Gahhh! Too many issues to deal with in my spare time.

3. What is your favorite snack?

Deanna: chocolate covered macadamia nut with caramel cluster things you buy at Costco.

Canda: Peanut M&Ms

4. Teaser for your book in one sentence?

Falling in love is easy in fiction--in high school, not so much.

5. What is your writing process?

We make an outline, chuck it out the window before chapter 2, we argue, negotiate, plead, pout, sometimes threaten to quit. Then we compromise and keep writing. And we laugh a lot.

6. What was your road to publication like?

We wrote the books, rewrote them a few times, got lots of feedback, rewrote them again, sent them to an editor, rewrote, another editor, rewrote.

7. Favorite dessert?

Deanna: Muddy Buddies

Canda: chocolate mousse

About the Books

Lexi’s Pathetic Fictional Love Life

Lexi Middleton has been socially invisible to her classmates, but starting her junior year, that’s going to change. First, she’s determined to hook a boyfriend, ensuring dates with flowers and possible kisses on the doorstep. Second, she wants to be a writer for the school paper, even though it freaks her out to think of everyone judging her by her punctuation and metaphors. High school is difficult enough—keeping up her grades, dealing with increasing sibling rivalry, and trying to stay out of the way of her personal nemesis, Amberlee—but when Lexi catches the eye of her long-time crush, she also becomes the focus of mean-girl tactics. Caught between who she was and who she wants to be, Lexi must decide how to confront a bully, and choose who to let into her heart.

Damnation

Cassie is going to heaven—if she can get amnesty from hell in the next twenty days. Her assignment is to change the eternal destination of a girl in Albuquerque to earn admittance into heaven.

            No sweat.

But when Cassie returns to earth during her three-week, mostly-mortal assignment, her old habits get in the way, (apparently habits don’t die when you do), the partners assigned to help her are anything but helpful, and it turns out the girl she is supposed to help is the only enemy she made on her first day of school.

            Oh, I’m so going to hell.

Things aren’t all bad—it helps to have a hot angel on your side. Mmm-Marc. Even though he’s all about heavenly business, Cassie would like to make it personal.

            Assignment with benefits.

Newbie

The housing market is crashing, and Sophie’s life is crashing with it. At twenty-four, her successful real estate career evaporates. She’s broke, can’t find a job, or pay her bills, leaving Sophie wondering how her successful lifestyle became so fragile.

At the urging of her roommate, Sophie accepts a job in her fallback career—teaching six-year-olds. She hopes it’s temporary. After all, how long can a tanking economy last anyway? The best part of the new job is Liam, another employee at Rio Grande Elementary. The worst part of the new job is, well, teaching.

Sophie has a surprise real estate closing from a contract she wrote months ago, leading her to a niche in the real estate market and to a new partner, Kevin. Sophie must choose between Liam or Kevin and between a lucrative career or recess duty.

Meet Jo Noelle

Jo Noelle grew up in Colorado and Utah but also spent time in Idaho and California. She has two adult children and three small kids.

She teaches teachers and students about reading and writing, grows freakishly large tomatoes, enjoys cooking especially for desserts, builds furniture, sews beautiful dresses, and likes to go hiking in the nearby mountains.

Oh, and by the way, she’s two people—Canda Mortensen and Deanna Henderson, a mother/daughter writing team.

Enter Jo Noelle's Rafflecopter Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Connect with Jo Noelle and Get Your Own Copies

Amazon Author Page
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter
Website

BUY ON AMAZON

Newbie
Damnation
Lexi’s Pathetic Fictional Love Life

Visit the Other Blog Hop Participants!

1. Procrastination Station
2. Lala's Books
3. Weaving a Tale or Two
4. Adrienne Monson
5. S. J. Henderson, Author (MOI!)
6. Lindzee Armstrong/Lydia Winters
7. Renae's Writespot
8. Author, Julie L. Casey
9. Christy Dorrity
10. Writing Robin
11. Jordan McCollum
12. Lisa Swinton, Queen of Random
13. Word Paintings Unlimited, Author Sherry Gammon
14. Cortney Pearson
15. Canda's InkBlast

0 Comments

Make the Right Choice - Pick Up LILA'S CHOICE!

8/12/2014

2 Comments

For one week, my friend Laura Brown's eBook, LILA'S CHOICE, will be on sale for 99¢! Romance fans won't want to miss this one!

If a red-hot sale price wasn't enough, Laura's also hosting a giveaway, too. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post to enter. No purchase necessary... although, c'mon, purchases do make us writer folks pretty darn excited..

Never let your friends get involved in your personal life.

Lila and Nate learn this the hard way. They are the star-crossed lovers of Glendale High. For three years the students have waited for the two to get together. They begged Nate to put his past relationship behind him, and cringed when Lila started dating Bryce. Just your typical teenage romance, except they’re the teachers.

Lila, a guidance counselor with a sweet demeanor, has an answer for every problem, every problem but her own. A visit from childhood friend Bryce thrusts her calm world into turmoil, as emotions buried deep inside are dragged to the surface. He soon realizes what only a friend can notice and a lover regret, that Lila, unbeknownst to herself, is in love with Nate.

Nate has seen better days. He is a history teacher stuck living in the past. Depression has kept his love for Lila unspoken, his ego frail after being cheated on.

Now Lila and Nate’s coworkers must unleash a scheme and uncover Lila’s true feelings. In a school this nosey what better way to get fast results than to involve the student population? The students are all too eager to get involved.

If everything goes as planned Lila will have to choose between two men. If her friends fail they might destroy these three and ruin their friendship. No wonder the scheme is called Project Torture.

Sounds good, right? Keep reading on for more word love--an excerpt from Lila's Choice!

Lila Erickson watched with sluggish eyes while her margarita glass was refilled. Again. By her math this was her fifth cup. Maybe her sixth with the way the tan carpet rolled in shallow waves at her feet. She put a hand on the wooden coffee table. It kept floating, bringing her arm along for the ride. She placed her other hand on her head. The rolling stopped. Drats, it was her, not the apartment.

Her good friend and roommate, Ette, hummed as she filled two glasses. She ignored Lila’s hand plastered to her head and pushed the drink closer. “So…” she took a sip of her own margarita. “Bryce is coming for a visit?”

Lila groaned and pushed the cup away. This wasn’t a Saturday night drinking binge. This wasn’t helping Ette get over her latest fling. This was “get the counselor drunk so she’d spill her guts.” Lila wasn’t biting. Yet.

Desperate for a distraction, she became lost in the scene outside their apartment window. The yellow light of the parking lot illuminated a lone tree. The autumn leaves swayed in the light breeze—waves of green, yellow, and red, the latter reminiscent of Bryce’s hair. Her heart skipped a beat. She darted her eyes to the floor, choking on newfound desire. Like all things uncomfortable, she wanted to keep the meaning hidden deep inside. Thanks to Ette, the alcohol had already called her bluff. A shiver raced down her spine as she eyed her friend. Ette grinned over her glass.

Lila grabbed a pillow and thrust her head in. Bryce was her childhood friend, nothing more. They had been friends since kindergarten and stayed in touch after he moved away when they were ten.

“The cute redhead in the flesh, this should be good,” Ette drooled, already planning on her next conquest.

Lila dug her nails into the pillow.

Ette sensed Lila’s capitulation. “Why is this bad? I thought he was one of your best friends?”

“Oh, he is. But he was always just that—a friend. Now the door that leads to ‘other’ has opened and I can’t find the key.” Clutching onto the pillow, Lila’s nails dug into the fabric, threatening to poke holes.

“Sounds like someone has a crush on their childhood friend.”

“Yes.” Lila clasped a hand over her mouth, disbelieving her voice. “And that’s wrong.”

“Oh for God sakes. What’s so wrong about it? So you’ll flirt a little as you talk about days long past. Maybe he’ll flirt too?” Ette leaned forward in anticipation of the chase.

“I thought we were supposed to be helping you?”

Ette rolled over and ran a hand through her long blond hair. “It’s the same-old, same-old. Dating a week and the temperature ran cold. I’m out the door. I’ll drink,” she eyed her empty glass, “which it looks like I’m already up to. From here I’ll sulk in my room for a few days and then get all dolled up and go flirt shamelessly with some unsuspecting stranger.” She licked her lips in anticipation of yet another anonymous sexual encounter.

“Sounds like you’re going to be fine.”

Ette placed an arm around Lila. “Look, you love Bryce, he’s one in a million, and a friend of twenty years is hard to come by. You also know each other quite well. If the feelings are mutual, you can discover where this new path will take you. If not, you’ll still enjoy his weekly e-mails.”

Lila’s eyes drifted away from Ette. She couldn’t put twenty years on the line. She couldn’t risk ruining a friendship, no matter how good looking the pudgy boy had become.

Ette swirled the liquid around, watching her friend. “Do me a favor. Don’t turn into Nate on me.”

Lila stopped cold. She turned sharply to her friend. “What does that mean?”

“Seek out the opportunity in Bryce, don’t hide behind some shadow like Nate.”

“Nate isn’t hiding behind a shadow.” Lila blinked as Nate’s blue eyes came to mind. She shook her head. Great, now she was hallucinating eye colors. “He’s been hurt by a loved one.”

Ette stood up. “Here we go, defending Nate when I was proving a point.”

Lila sat dumbfounded, unable to wrap her head around what had happened.

Connect With Laura

Amazon
Nook
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Lila’s Choice on Goodreads

CLICK HERE To Enter the LILA'S CHOICE Rafflecopter Giveaway

2 Comments

Good Book Day

6/1/2014

1 Comment

A local fourth-grade teacher read Daniel the Draw-er to her class recently, and invited me in to talk with her kids. I had no idea what I was doing going into this thing, but my friend Courtney helped me make bookmarks and I ordered extra copies of my book. Just. In. Case.

Last night I went to Kohl's to pick out a new shirt to wear. It took me an hour. How come the size I need in the shirt I like is always gone? Like, always. So annoying. And then I wake up and my friend texts me to ask if I want to wear my pajamas into the elementary school for my talk because it's pajama day at the school.

Well, okay. I'll wear the cat pants... If you insist.

So I squeeze myself into my cat pants. The picture isn't so great, but they are basically the best pants ever. What's not to love about space cats? On your legs!! The lady in the office pauses a few seconds before deciding we probably aren't as shady as we appear in my cat pants and Courtney's owl jammies. Muahahahaha! My plan, she works!

While the teacher brings the kids back to the classroom, we admire the projects on the classroom walls. "Who is your favorite character in DANIEL THE DRAW-ER? And why?" and " What would you draw if you had a magic pencil?" Courtney's especially happy with these projects because one kid gave Octobear purple tentacles (which is totally crazy, because everyone knows they're green!). I just think it's awesome because the kids had projects. About MY book.

I begin by telling the kids that I had, once upon a time, been a student in their elementary school; and when I wrote the playground scene from the book, I'd pictured their playground. None of the play structures from my era remain on their current playground. That's a little sad, but the kids think it's cool that their playground is famous. And, of course, I tell them about the earthquake that cracked the sidewalk behind the school. I forget to tell them about the petrified green been that's been clinging to the cafeteria ceiling for the past forty years, though. Next time...

The teacher asks me about my writing process. I'll have to work on my answer for next time, because I don't think mine is currently all that great. She uses my answer to emphasize the importance of revising and having friends look over your work. Then she lets the kids ask questions.

How did you come up with Whiskers?
Was Annie based on someone?
How do you make your characters sound different?
How do you think up these characters?
When did you publish your book?

And, most importantly, will there be another book?

Yes, there will be another book. <cheers>. And when I hint about what Daniel's up to next, their hands shoot up with all of their ideas. So many ideas, and several of them fall very close to what I have in mind. That's pretty impressive.

Then the kids--nearly 2/3 of the class--buy their books and I sign them. Heck, Courtney even signs a few because the kids know she must be awesome, too (Duh! Owl jammies!). Each of the kids receive a cool autographed bookmark because I wanted them to have something, even if they couldn't get a book.

You know you want one.

After that, the kids start bringing me random things to sign. I sign crumpled scraps of paper, a notebook cover, a pencil case, and I'm pretty sure a contract of some kind, but I'm not 100% on that last one. A few kids ask me to write notes to their siblings. One wants me to draw Octobear; another, Whiskers. That's a newbie mistake because then ALLLLLLL of the kids want me to draw something, and there just isn't enough time. I would've done it if there had been time.

Before the kids run off to lunch, one boy drops a note in front of me. On his note, he thanks me for coming, then there's a sketch of the pencil from my book cover. I flip the paper over (as instructed), and he's given me his phone number so I can call him when book #2 is finished.

"Look! I scored some digits!" I shout to Courtney and the teacher. That's so awesome.

One of the girls tells me she's going to frame my autograph. "You're her favorite author," the teacher says. Another boy agrees. I'm someone's favorite author? Someone who doesn't know me? Really? Is that possible?

I ask the teacher if I can donate a copy of "Daniel the Draw-er" to the school library, and she says sure, and she'll introduce me to the school librarian. On the way to the library (and then the office, because the librarian isn't in the library), we pass a neatly-dressed woman exiting the school through the main doors. I mean, this chick's in a dress, pearls, and heels--the whole nine. She obviously didn't get the pajama memo.

The teacher whispers, "that's the head of the township children's library. Want me to introduce you?"

Uh, yeah. I wanna meet ALLLLLL the book people.

The poor prim and proper librarian looks confused by the lady in the totally awesome cat pants (me) handing her an unknown but equally awesome book. It makes me smile just remembering it. Oh, cat pants. Making friends and influencing people, as always.

So, I'm going to go ahead and call that a huge success.

In other news, today I decided to celebrate my first author event by offering the Kindle version of "Daniel the Draw-er" for free for one day only. So far, 544 people have downloaded it.

Resulting in this.

While I wish that meant royalties for me (on 544 copies! Sweet), what it really means is more exposure for this fun story... maybe a few reviews. But, really, the sharing is all I'm hoping for. The more people who read Daniel's story, the more chances I have to make someone smile or prove that someone else can do what I've done.

My sixth-grade self wouldn't have believed that one day I'd walk into my old elementary school wearing cat pants with my published book tucked under my arm.

1 Comment

Want "Daniel" For Free?

5/19/2014

0 Comments

Daniel the Draw-er is my first published book, and my first self-published book. It goes without saying that I'm working out my marketing plan as I go, seeing what helps and what doesn't. I hope you don't mind being a part of my wily schemes and wacky experiments. You don't? Good! We'll get along just fine, then.

For the next 21 days, you can download a PDF or .mobi (for Kindles or Kindle apps) for free, in exchange for your reviews. The Story Cartel is a great site for helping authors with exposure, and I hope you'll be a part of this adventure!

Please share with your family or friends! That's the only way to get my story into the hands of kids all over the world. Thanks, friends!

Download "Daniel the Draw-er" at Story Cartel Now!

0 Comments

Children's Book Week Giveaway Winners Announced!

5/19/2014

2 Comments

So, you know how I promised an autographed paperback of Daniel the Draw-er to one lucky winner? I lied. Yup. I'm a liar. Normally, that's not something to be happy about, but today I'm thrilled about it. Want to know why?

Because I decided to give away THREE autographed copies. There are three winners instead of one!

Drumroll, please... Your winners are:

Karen Puleski
Esperanza Garcia Gailliard
Angela Burkhead

No need to thank the Academy, your mama, or even me. I just hope you enjoy Daniel's story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please tell your friends all about the most amazing book you read, and all about little ol' me. And if you feel so inclined, I'm always excited for a good review up on Amazon, GoodReads, your blog, a highway billboard, whatever. I'm not picky!

Thanks, everyone, for participating! We'll do it again soon!

2 Comments

Children's Book Week Blog Hop 2014 + Giveaway!

5/11/2014

10 Comments

I didn't know there was a Children's Book Week, but, whaddya know, there is. I also didn't know I was going to write and publish a children's book just in time for Children's Book Week. My life is full of lots of surprises lately, I guess. And here I thought nothing exciting ever happened to me! ;-)

To celebrate Children's Book Week, March 12-18, I'm giving away an autographed paperback copy of my children's book, "Daniel the Draw-er". Check out how you can enter to win by scrolling down to my Rafflecopter giveaway below all of this wordy goodness. Please note that my giveaway is open to U. S. residents only.

I'm only one of a bunch of other authors and KidLit enthusiasts participating in something called "The Children's Book Week Giveaway Hop 2014. Be sure to visit the blog hop hosts, Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews and scroll to the bottom of this blog post for links to other awesome giveaways. Tell 'em S. J. sent ya!