The Awakened Sequel News, A Special Ash POV and More!

I have so so so much news everyone!

As all of you know (or I hope you know lol), there my debut novel, The Awakened, came out through OfTomes Publishing this past December. Its been doing quite well and I’m loving all the incredible responses you’ve all thrown my way. Its been a sort of surreal last few months…The Awakened has officially been out for 3 months today! How crazy.

And to celebrate that, I’m sharing four things. Three of these were shared just this past Saturday, in celebration of my birthday, but I didn’t post them here so I wanted to make sure everyone saw it!

One and Two:

This past weekend, OfTomes and I announced the title of the hopefully highly anticipated sequel to The Awakened and the release date.

The Sanctuary follows the continuing story of Zoey, Ash, and Liam and introduces even more characters. I’m so excited to say that it’ll be releasing December 1st of this year!

Three:

However, if that wait is quite long for you, I’m working on something new to tide you over in the meantime. When I first began writing The Awakened, I didn’t realize that Liam would resonate so much with the readers. In fact, I didn’t realize he would have been such a big deal to me, or my story. He sort of snuck up on me. When Zoey sees Liam again at Sekhmet, I was just as surprised as she was! I adore him to pieces and I know that you do too!

So I’ve been thinking about Liam, the person that he is, where he came from, where he’s going and how he ended up in Sekhmet. And I talked about to Ben about it and he agreed and was as excited for me to tell a little bit of Liam’s story as well.

So! Coming sometime this spring/summer, we will have a brand new novella release for you, untitled at the moment, but hopefully that’ll change soon. It’ll be fairly short, not quite prequel, not quite book 1.5. I like to think of as a companion to The Awakened, and I can say that it’ll have small sneak peeks of what is to come in The Sanctuary.

More information is to come, so keep your eye out on that!

Four:

On Christmas Day, I did something special for a select group of people who had preordered The Awakened. I had written a short piece of The Awakened in Ash’s POV. Since then, only about 30 people, if even, have seen and read this. Because you guys have been SO insanely awesome, I’ve decided to share it for the first time with all of you!

Click the link here to read it! 

******

The Time I Shared the Official Synopsis for Benched and a WHOLE sneak peek Scene!

Today, sales I might do something really exciting.

Heavy influence on the “might”.

I’ve been writing a lot this month. I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands and I’ve been frustrated and discouraged. And instead of letting that get me down, cheap I’ve been more determined and passionate and ambitious. I’ve been working really hard to develop this story, make these characters feel real and finish it. Benched has been my floating device this month.

And I’m really pleased to say…that today I could possibly finish it.

I don’t want to get you guys overexcited or anything but I really believe that its possible that it could get done tonight or in the next couple of days. I’m extremely excited and I can’t wait to get this finished, and on the path to sharing it with the rest of the world.

P.S. I’ll be needing beta readers for this in about a month or so, so please keep an eye out for that!

So today I decided to share TWO things. One is the official synopsis for Benched, and the other is a sneak peek. I hope that both of them catch your interest, because I’m really excited about this book and I’m really excited about its potential.

Please keep in mind that this is NOT young adult literature. It is new adult romance so there are mature themes.

Screen Shot 2015-06-30 at 3.16.40 AM

Benched Synopsis 

Benched tells the story of nineteen-year-old Evie Cordova. Evie has grown up in the central California coastal town of Santa Isabella, where the obsession is the college baseball team, the Quakes. Her father has been the head coach for as long as she can remember and her happiest memories are at that field. That is, until her heart is broken by one of the players and she can’t even look at a baseball without remembering the pain.
Now she’s in college, the very same college that houses the baseball boys that she wants nothing more than to avoid. Working for her dad brings her face to face with Austin Young, a transfer student who throws Evie off guard, with his dedication to baseball and his Southern charm. Suddenly, Evie can’t remember why she avoids baseball players. There’s an undeniable pull between the two of them and the more she runs, the closer they become. Evie has to decide whether to stick to her rules, or if Austin will be worth the risk of getting her heart broken once again.
But Evie has her own secrets that are holding her back and they just might ruin everything.

Benched Sneak Peak 

I blush. “I mean, it was fun.” I lower my voice even more. “Really fun. But it can’t happen again. I wasn’t lying when I said no baseball players.”

A corner of his mouth quirks up a little at this. “A very unusual rule.”

I ignore this. “You’re on my dad’s team. I don’t date baseball players. I really…” I swallow hard and meet his eyes. They’re such a dark brown, deep, and they reveal nothing. “I just think it would be better if we were friends. Just friends.”

“Just friends?”

Is he really repeating every single thing I say right now… God I wish I could tell what he was thinking. I bite my lip. “Yeah.” Was I being stupid? I didn’t want to date him; that was the truth. He was a goddamn baseball player and, even worse, a Quake. But was “just friends” even a possibility? He’s hot, incredibly so, and even with a desk between us, my body was tingling with want.

He still hasn’t responded and I start to turn back around, feeling embarrassed.

His hand reaches out for me, grabbing my arm. He’s keeping me from turning around and my eyes watch the way his fingers flex around his biceps before I raise them and meet his. I swallow hard, blinking rapidly.

Austin smirks and it shocks me for a moment, because this is not what I expected. “If you want to be just friends, princess, well then that’s okay.”

I am taken aback by his response and it takes me a moment to think of something to say back. My eyebrows raise. “Really?”

He winks at me. “OF course. My mama taught me to respect a lady’s words and I stick to that.”

I can’t help it. I laugh a little at that. “Your mama?”

Austin leans back and his smirk becomes a full-fledged grin. “Yes, my mama. Maybe I’ll tell you about her sometime. Seeing as we’re friends and all.”

The professor walks in and starts handing papers out. I pull my gaze away from his and turn to the front. “Right. Friends.”

Austin

It’s hard to concentrate on whatever the professor is saying with Evie sitting in front of me. Her long, dark blonde hair is hanging loose down her back and some of it falls on my desk and it smells amazing, like coconut. Like lying on the beach.

She wants to be just friends and damn, I know I should be okay with that but she has no idea the effect she has on me. She’s gorgeous. I wasn’t lying when I said she and her sister looked alike but there’s something about her that’s much sexier than her sister. It’s not her eyes. Its something in the way she carries herself.

I can’t get the memory of her coming apart in my arms out of my head. The noises she made, the way her body literally shook while she was pressed against me…I get hard just thinking about it.

I shake my head. She’s a distraction, the ultimate one, and I can’t let myself get distracted. Not now. Not only is she the coach’s daughter but she could derail everything I’ve worked so hard for.

My path is simple. Play ball. Get scouted. Get drafted. There’s nothing else. A girl like Evie could pull me away from all of that. Nothing is worth losing that.

Evie turns in her seat to hand me a paper and her eyes, one brown and one blue, meet mine. She licks her lips nervously before turning back around.  

Fuck.

I’m in so much trouble.

*******

Don’t forget to follow me here, on my instagram and my author instagram to keep updated all the things to do with me and my writing!

 

The Awakened Has Officially Been Submitted to Swoon Reads!

The Awakened Cover

 

And I could SUPER use your help.

As most of you know, what is ed I wrote a novel called The Awakened. It is a science fiction romance in the YA category (of course) and it is my baby. Read the synopsis here:

Eighteen year old Zoey Valentine is concerned with two things: surviving the multitude of self-defense classes her dad makes her take to keep her safe in their New York City neighborhood and avoiding her school bully, Ash Matthews, whose latest transgression includes dumping glitter on her during fourth period. College is just around the corner and she’s ready for it. 

That’s when the virus hits, wiping out a third of the population in a matter of weeks. If that weren’t frightening enough, the bodies of the victims disappear and suddenly reappear, awakened from their dead state. They’re like zombies, but worse: faster, smarter, working together to get the one thing they crave, human flesh. 

The United States is in a panic and then the government decides the unthinkable: to bomb every major city overrun with these awakened victims. Now Zoey is on the run, with her dad and Ash, desperate to find a place of safety amongst the ruined remains of the country.

I worked hard on it for over nine months and I’ve been working hard for nearly a year to get it published. 

It is NOT an easy road. It’s not. But I’m not giving up. It’s just too important to me to do that. So I’m going another route, in the hopes that I can find a way to get this from my computer and into YOUR hands.

Swoon Reads is an incredible publishing company, and they are a part of Macmillan, which is a DREAM company for me. Legitimately a dream company. And they do this absolutely incredible thing: they allow you to upload your manuscript (as long as it’s romance!) and let the audiences (YOU) choose what books to be published.

I’ve read a TON of their books. I’ve actually just recently gotten a few more in the mail as ARCs. You guys pick amazing books and they publish him and I think its just completely fantastic. Its a wonderful thing and I thought, you know what, why not try that for The Awakened?!

So that’s what I’m doing.

And that’s where YOU come in.

What I need you guys to do…what I would absolutely LOVE and APPRECIATE if you did, is to head to the link below (you can also click the cover of The Awakened above) and go and read it and rate it and help me get this thing published :)

Now if you don’t like it, that’s okay! Its not for everyone, I know that. I hope you don’t give me a bad rating but don’t EVER feel obligated to give me a GOOD rating. I just know that there are a TON of you that have expressed interest in reading the book and now you can in. And if you like it, you can help me out. And that means a LOT to me.

SO if you can, if you’d like to, if you want to, head over to this link:

http://www.swoonreads.com/m/the-awakened

and read and rate The Awakened. I would so appreciate it!

Thank you guys :)

Happy Reading!