This Week's Books

For the celebration this week, I am highlighting my books Wucaii and Coming from Nowhere.  One of them is fantasy and the other is sci fi, but they both have female characters who are struggling to find their place in a new world.  More info can be found below!

It has been 500 years since Aelana has been home, and a lot has changed in that time--including her. As a half-dragon, half-human hybrid, she has been traveling the universe destroying worlds. Both anxious and excited to return, she wonders what she will find. Her memories of home are filled with pain and loss, especially for her first and only love. She knows he won't be there, but will his memory? Will her anguish remain?

JD does not have a past—at least not one that she can remember—and that makes living life on Mars challenging.

With nowhere to go, she is sent to the local military academy where she is trained to become a member of the elite secret police. While there, she becomes a pawn in Roger’s struggle for military dominance and Chris’s rebellion to overthrow the military regime.

She supposedly holds a secret that will change the face of the soldier, but, unfortunately, she doesn’t know what that secret is. Her only desire is to find the truth of her existence, and finds herself thrust into a realm where the truth of her past and present is more horrific than she ever imagined.

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Giveaway

I’ve teamed up with 25+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Young Adult Sci Fi & Fantasy novels to 2 lucky winners, PLUS a brand new eReaderto the Grand Prize winner!

Oh, and did I mention you'll receive a collection of FREE reads just for entering?

You can win my novel, The Appeal of Evil, plus books from authors like Brenda Hiatt, Matthew Mather, and Cidney Swanson.

Enter the giveaway by clicking here.

Good luck and enjoy!

Katie wants to invest her heart and soul in love, but she may lose both to Hell.

Katie, a senior in high school, is torn between loving the "good" guy, her childhood friend Wes who makes promises he doesn't keep and abandons her when she needs him the most, and the "bad" guy, the new kid at school Josh who is also a real demon from Hell. Katie wants someone who pays attention to her and puts her first, but what is she willing to give up to find him?


Find out in book one of this thrilling young adult paranormal romance by Pembroke Sinclair.

Behind the Story: The Ifs Audiobook

It has been another crazy week. I’ve had family come to visit, so my time has been divided between them and work; hence the late post this week. I should probably plan my time better, but I get to it when I get to it.

Today, I wanted to tell you the story behind The Ifs audiobook. It is now available for purchase on Audible. There’s a sample on the side of my blog for you to check out and listen to. I promise, it’s worth your time. The narrator did an amazing job!

I’m kind of addicted to creating audiobooks. It started out a bit rocky, but then things really took off and fell into place. It’s so much fun to hear other people reading my words and bringing my characters to life. One day, I hope to have all of my books in audio form.

The first book I converted was Life After the Undead, my young adult zombie book, and I didn’t exactly have narrators beating down my door to read the book. Not a big deal. The one who ended up doing it did a wonderful job, and I’m happy with how it turned out. I assumed the process would be the same for The Ifs. 

For my middle grade book (which The Ifs is), my narrator parameters weren’t as stringent. I didn’t care if a male or female read it, and it was totally fine if they had an accent. I put the script up and waited for the auditions to come in—although I didn’t hold my breath. Past experience told me not to expect much.

I got my first audition in, and I really liked how the guy read, so I figured he would be the narrator. Then, I got another one in. And he did an awesome job too. After that came another and another.

When all was said and done, I had EIGHT auditions, and my mind was blown. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t expected that at all. And then I had a tough decision to make.

There were a few auditions that I knew wouldn’t work for the book, so they weren’t in the running. I asked my spouse and my kids for their opinion of who they liked best, then we decided from there. It was agonizing—seriously—because I appreciated everyone taking the time to audition, and it was so fun to hear how they interpreted my work.

In the end, though, Peter J. Taylor did a phenomenal job with the narration. His accent is fantastic, and he does voices. He even adds in a few sound effects—which is really what sold all of us on having him narrate the book.

I can’t wait for you to be able to hear the entire story. I think you’ll enjoy it just as much as I do.

The Story Behind The Ifs

Ugh! I’m behind on my posts this week because I had to take my computer into the shop to get fixed. It’s been trying to update since last August without success. After trying to fix it myself and not having any luck, I sent it to a professional. Apparently, they’ve been struggling too. Hopefully the issue gets resolved soon.

In the meantime, I thought I would share with you the story behind The Ifs, my middle grade fantasy novel. Currently, there are three in the series (The Ifs, The Ifs Return, and Undead Ifs), and the first book will soon be available as an audiobook. 

I started writing this series about 6 years ago. I wanted my boys to have a story they could call their own where they got to be the heroes. I knew they were going to be middle grade books, and I wanted them to be filled with action and adventure, along with a little danger.

At the time, my boys were much younger than their counterparts in the book, and I had a lot of fun imagining how they would behave when they were finally that age. I guessed some of their traits correctly, but I was off the mark on others. But it’s not a big deal. These are fiction stories, so I used my imagination.

I think the best part about writing these stories was how the boys reacted when I read them to them. I think they were able to imagine exactly what was happening and put themselves in the characters’ shoes. There was a relationship there that they might not feel with other stories—which totally makes sense if the story is about them!

My oldest enjoys these stories so much he shared them with his classmates. He asked one night if he could take The Ifs to school, and I told him sure. The next day, he told me that the kids had the choice of three books for the teacher to read out loud, and they picked The Ifs.

At parent-teacher conferences, the teacher told me that my oldest would often interject side notes into the story—behind the scenes stuff—while she read. She said he really enjoyed having insider knowledge, and it kept the other students interested.

It makes me swell with pride to know that my boys are proud of these books. I put a lot of work and love into them, and I’m glad they enjoy reading them and having others read them. That’s the true goal of an author: to impact the reader.

Influential Movies

The other night, while my husband and I were surfing the channels looking for something to watch, we came across the Sony Movie Channel, and it happened to be playing Krull.  I really like this movie, despite it's faults, and I used to watch it when I was a kid.



After that particular film was Yor, The Hunter from the Future, and that made me laugh out loud.   I recently bought the DVD from Amazon, and my boys and I watched it on one of our vacation days.  It was not good.  It's pretty freaking terrible, but it's another movie I watched as a child.  (I picked this particular clip so you could experience the bitchin' title track.)


I've been nostalgic lately.  Over the weekend, my sister and her kids came over so we could watch Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.  Man oh man, talk about a terrible film.  If you want, you can watch the entire movie on YouTube.  The whole time, all my sister and I could wonder was what was up with Wicket's eyes?  They didn't blink, and although they were supposed to give him a teddy bear look, they were kind of creepy.  But, again, this is a movie I watched as a kid.

I don't know why I have such a drive at the moment to revisit childhood movies.  Perhaps it's because I actually have some time on my hands to do so.  Whatever it is, it's been a lot of fun.  I'd forgotten about a lot of these films, and a lot of them should have remained forgotten.  But at the same time, they have reminded me why I fell in love with sci fi, fantasy, and horror in the first place.  And it's rekindled my creative desire.

As far back as I can remember, I've always watched these kind of films.  My dad would record them off TV and put them onto VHS for our viewing pleasure.  We also watched B horror movies on TNT and Monstervision.  I absolutely loved it!  To this day, I still enjoy a good creature feature and cheesy science fiction.  They made me what I am.

Silver Hollow by Jennifer Silverwood

Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it's the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador or a road trip to the next town.

 After attending three different universities without managing to square a degree, she decided to the next logical thing; become a writer. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas.

She is the author of the Heaven's Edge series and Silver Hollow. To stay tuned, please have a gander at her website: http://jennifersilverwood.com

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Amie Wentworth writes paranormal romances, not because she is looking for a degree in ectoplasm, but because she’s got bills to pay. Ever since her parents’ car crash, she has been led a reclusive life and trusted books more than people. Not even a letter from her long-lost uncle, begging her to visit, gives Amie incentive for anything other than ire – until she is stabbed in an alley and brought back to life by a mysterious stranger. 

After crossing the Atlantic to her father’s homeland, Amie is dragged into the very sort of tale she is used to selling. Silver Hollow is a place of ancient traditions and supernatural dangers, where everything is the opposite of what it seems and few escape sane. 

To make matters worse, the man who saved her life keeps turning up and her would-be-murderer is still at large.But when she comes face to face with the ugly truth, will she too be sucked into her father’s madness? Or will she discover that madness is just another name for honesty?

Publisher: SilverWoodSketches

Q) What inspired you to write this story?
My best friends, who the twins in Silver Hollow are based on, and I had written several stories together through high school. By the time we were in our college years, we were split by cities and life, but when we came together we still made time for “the story” as they called it. One of these weekends, I decided to surprise them with a fun imagining for our future selves. After reading it aloud to them, they requested more of the story. Silver Hollow was born from that.

Q) How long did it take you to write?
The original story was written maybe two years before I published it. During these last two years I would work on it piece by piece and read parts to the twins and their boyfriends (“James” and “Ben”). But I started seriously working on it 2012. I finished the first draft last summer and began work on draft two with my beta, Allison. So altogether, it took me two years and a few months.

Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
It’s like this compulsion to create, sometimes. I’m going through my day often times, when inspiration hits. And I can’t relax until I get it written down. That’s probably my favorite part of the whole process, the push to tell a story and the feeling I get after. It’s a completion.

Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
Drafting, lol. I used to be the type who would write a story and constantly go back to the beginning and revamp scenes I wasn’t satisfied. This left me with a dozen books I had begun and world built like crazy but never finished. So the hardest thing for me is writing a book straight through without looking back. Then going back to the beginning and revising it is so tedious.

Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
I’m sure I’m not the first person to say this, but J.K Rowling. I mean, seriously, can you imagine being her???

Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Ehm…probably the condiments that for some reason I keep in the fridge and always forget to use later. Kind of defeats the purpose.

Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
Many more adventures to be had! Coming soon is the sequel to my novella, Qeya. After this is my high fantasy, Beauty and the Beast retelling. And yes, for those of you who are wondering, there is a sequel to Silver Hollow planned. But it will have to wait for next year. I’ve got so many projects rolling around my head and as I mentioned above, left unfinished. Hopefully y’all will still be hanging with me by the time we get to Faye’s mission to find out what happened to Jo.

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