Notice: Thank you for noticing this notice. Your noticing has been noted, and will be reported to the proper authorities

Really, I'm running out of blog titles.
Back, before the demise of GreatestJournal, I blogged constantly and I rarely had titles. This property does not follow through with my books, as I figure out a title FIRST, then do all the "dirty work" of writing it. It pretty much goes Title, Main Character, Supplemental Characters, Setting, Plot, Bad Guys, Genre, Content, Book Cover. Editing occurs all throughout the process, and it does get one final look over in a printed out version so I can find any weird anomalies.
Take right now for instance. I just got the idea for a story titled "Her Deepest Desire." The main character would be a girl of 16, an orphan, her name would be Naoma Liddel, and she would live with a foster family. Et cetera.
I come up with that information first, and the rest of it just flows. By the time I get to Supplemental Characters, I've already started writing the book. Sure, the first few paragraphs will change and evolve through the entire process, but most of the time the first sentence I write is what ends up being the first sentence of the book.

But I digress, as that was not the intended purpose of this blog entry.

First off, I want to show off this lovely link here: http://www.amazon.com/Emmas-Blog/dp/B007H0GCUI/  you can subscribe to this blog on your kindle. It's 99 cents per month with a 14 day trial period. Each entry would automatically be delivered to your kindle.

Also, almost all of my published works will be available for free for the FINAL TIME until after May tomorrow. Only Random and Disturbing Thoughts and Paper Lanterns will be left out, as I don't have any more free days for them.

Murder

My latest work of fiction, "Murder," is available for free from the Amazon Kindle store until 12:00AM Pacific time, so you should definitely go check it out!
http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Cigarette-Papers-ebook/dp/B007GZAHDM/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1331159971&sr=8-10

Also, I have a big favor to ask you guys, if you find a review of one of my books, can you link it to me in the comments of my posts please? :)

Murder (A high school Speech team reject)

True to form, I may have been talking about "Murder" the past few days, but I never gave a real release date. Well, now I will. It'll be out within the next 12 hours, whenever Amazon sees fit.
Major props and huge shout out to my friend/former college instructor, Cara Bennett, who is actually on the cover of "Murder."

Swanky cover, innit?  :)

Murder is priced at $1.00, but will eventually go down to $0.99 when Amazon stops being a tool and lets me set the price at $0.99. It fought me tooth and nail to even let me publish it last night.

Also, huge-ish type news. You will soon be able to subscribe to this blog right from your kindle and get all my awesome updates delivered right to your kindle! KINDLEKINDLEKINDLEKINDLEKINDLE! Kindle! Kindle. Kindle?

Sorry, got stuck in a loop there.

I'm still considering changing a few things about the cover for "Murder," mostly the color scheme. But for now, I'm happy with how it looks, and it's my 7th (self)published work! Super happy about that.

Haven't posted in a long time

But that's a good thing, because it means that I've been busy.
I've written close to 40,000 words in the past three weeks, and am working on editing four different things and trying to make a bunch of cover artwork.
Random and Disturbing Thoughts, my memoir that I really only published as a joke to see how many I would sell, has two five star reviews. To put that in perspective, Martyr has 1 two-star review and Paper Dolls has 1 four-star review. Random and Disturbing Thoughts has gained two 5-star reviews in less than a month.
I'm hoping it is a sign that my work is going to start being more popular and that I'm going to earn more money so I can afford to keep on writing. I'm gonna be quick releasing a few things, some short stories, a short nonfiction piece, a novel, and a couple of DP items in the next two months because I want to make at least $1,000 for my vacation in June/July.
I can make this happen, but not without your help.
I want to say thank you to everyone who's downloaded, purchased, reviewed, or recommended any of my books, and ask that you please continue to spread the word about my books.
Also, I just noticed, my blog is up to 7 followers, which is totally awesome! I will have to start another giveaway soon, I suppose. Maybe when I reach 15 followers? I think that's a good goal to shoot for.
Speaking of giveaways, I've been having some problems getting my computer to cooperate with Createspace, so I've been unable to order the paperback copies for the winners yet. I will be sure to get those to you before the end of March.

Goals For The New Year and "Bump" News

First off I want to sincerely apologize to all of Jessie's blog followers (I'm a Wife and Mama Now?) for the delay in posting part two of "The Bump." I finished it last night, and then my laptop decided to be an epic failure  and shut off before I could save, so now I have to go through and re-re-edit/rewrite. It will be up before the end of the first week of January, however, and you can hold me to that.

And now for my goals for the new year. Some are "personal" and some are "business."

1.  Lose 100 pounds.

2. Quit at BP.

3. Sell 500,000 copies of my books (ebook and paperback).

4. Get two new computers (both laptops, one mac, one windows)

5. Donate $5,000 to charity.

6. Get at least one copy of one of my books into the local library system.

7. Do two book signings.

8. Publish 10 books and short stories.

9. Hold four giveaways.

10. Buy all new bedroom furniture since mine is all ruined from water leaks.

PSA: If you're looking for a new apartment, stay the crap away from Georgetown On The River in Fridley, MN. They never actually fix problems, they never answer when you call, but they always know when rent is due. They suck. Do not rent from them.

Happy Boxing Day! and New Spiffy Features

Hope your Christmas was wonderful, assuming you celebrate Christmas. 

Today I guest-blogged for Jessie over at I'm a Wife and Mama Now? so y'all should scoot over, give her some love, and read the first half of "The Bump!" The second half of "The Bump" will be posted here on Wednesday along with a cover art reveal. 

It's Monday, time for a book review, this one is taken from Lulu.com, by Christopher N: 

 4 out of 5 stars: The story is a good read, suitable for a wide variety in ages of readers. Geared primarily towards the teenage crowd, this story touches on one of the more prominent issues facing teens with a feel good fantasy twist. It is well worth the price for the casual reader and leaves off at the right point to peak curiosity towards any sequels.

Thanks for the great review, Chris!
And now for some new features being added to my blog:


The Links tab above is being continuously updated


There's a nifty new label sphere in the side column, use it to quickly find posts you'd be interested in reading


Up above, there's a new tab specifically for release information and upcoming releases






So how was your Christmas? Did you get everything you wanted and did you see all your family?

My dreams

A while ago, I read that book, "The Secret" (The long and short of it: If you want something, think positive thoughts about it, write it down, visualize it, and the universe will give it to you). So some of it has already happened or is about to happen, but most of it is still just a visualization.

I'm going to list them right now:

~Own a big house in Grand Marais, MN
~Have 3 (or more) bestselling books to my name
~Meet Amanda Hocking, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz
~Have a macbook pro and an imac
~Be a millionaire
~Be a household name
~Be comprable to Twilight (in a good way)
~Be interviewed by the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press
~Quit at the gas station
~Run a cat sanctuary
~Live in Canada
~Travel the USA in a big ol' RV with Jimmy (cat)
~Learn to ride a motorcycle
~Sell 1,000 copies of Paper Dolls
~Own all the Sims games
~Be rich and famous
~Write 30 novels by the time I turn 30
~Meet Weird Al and Josh Groban
~Have 1,000 twitter followers
~Own 5,000 books (actual books, not ebooks)
~Write 200 good books and short stories
~Be very well "liked" on facebook

So there it is, the list of things I want. Really bad. I give it up to Allah and the universe, please deliver.

Long Blog is LOOOOOOOOOONG and full of excerpts!

Okay, so it isn't really all that long as far as me talking about stuff, but it is long and filled with excerpts from things that are coming out relatively soon that AREN'T in the Sketchbooks series.

My Sister's Keeper

My story starts with a birth, and will end with a death.  It's not my birth, and it won't be my death.  Though I sometimes wonder if it really wasn't.

On a cold November night, in my family's house- a large, ancient farmhouse that was falling apart- my mother gave birth to a little girl with curly, black hair.  She fell in love with her immediately, and named her Harmony. 

Unfortunately, that was also my name.  My mother seemed to have forgotten about her other daughter.  Me.  The moment I saw that baby for the first time, I knew that it was either her, or me.  There would not be enough love or affection for both of us.  At just shy of five years old, I had discovered that which many children fear at some point in their life:  my parents didn't love me.

For the next three years of my life, our lives, the two girls called Harmony, I would be referred to by my middle name, Anne, while my little sister, my mother's perfect child, would be referred to by our shared first name. 

“But Mama, I'm Harmony, I don't want to be called Anne,” I whined at breakfast one morning.  It was the middle of summer, I had just turned seven years old, and I had my hair in pigtails.  My father intervened on my behalf.

“Yes, Rachel, there must be some other name we can call Harmony Jane,” he called from the breakfast table.  In her high chair, my little sister cooed and made a mess of her baby food.  I scowled at her from across the table.  My mother came out of the kitchen with a displeased look on her face.

“Her name is Harmony Jane,” she replied, serving my father with a heaping plate of bacon and eggs, “and that is what she will be called.”  She disappeared back into the kitchen. 

“You know how I feel about that, Rachel,” my father said, “We already had Harmony Anne, how do you think she feels about having to share her name?”

“Anne should be glad that I didn't send her to live with your sister when Harmony Jane was born, James,” my mother said, giving my father a stern look as she emerged from the kitchen yet again and placed a plate of food in front of me.  She sat down across from me, next to my little sister, and scolded, “eat your food, Anne.” 

“Annannannanna,” said my sister through a full mouth of food, and my mother smiled adoringly down at her. 

“See?  Even your sister knows you're called Anne,” she said in a most patronizing tone.  I shoved my chair back, denting the wall where the chair hit, and ran out of the dining room.  My mother was furious, and spanked my bare bottom so hard I feared I would never be able to sit again. 

Two days after this incident, my aunt, Jeanne, came to claim me. 

My father hugged me and kissed my forehead and gave me his old fedora hat- it smelled exactly like the farm, with hints of his favorite cologne- and a small bouquet of flowers that I had helped to grow. 

My mother gave me a stiff, one-armed hug, sniffing, haughty, keeping Harmony Jane glued to her hip.  My two-and-a-half-year-old sister saw me wearing my father's hat and immediately began fussing, reaching out to grab this one thing that was mine and mine alone.

“I'll take good care of Harmony for you, James,” Jeanne told my father, helping me to load my belongings into the trunk of her car:  Two dolls, one small suitcase full of plain dresses, an extra pair of shoes, a down pillow, a half-finished crocheted scarf.  Before I got in the car, I latched myself to my father's leg, begging not to be sent away.

“Please Daddy, I don't want to go away.  I'll be a good girl, I'll be good.”  My father didn't say anything, but picked me up, all 58 pounds of me, and gently carried me to the passenger door of Auntie Jeanne's car.  He was a big man, tall, and made of all lean muscle.  He had rough, leathery hands from working on this farm for the majority of his life.  But when he held me or my sister, he was amazingly gentle. 

I cried as I rode away from home in that car, and didn't stop crying for nearly a week.

~~~~~~~~

Mortality

The soul makes a terrible sound when ripped from its human body. A scream, a whisper, the last gasp of a good cry, followed by silence: this is the closest approximation I can give you to its exact sound. After life has ended, it is all you ever hear. For all the worry one could give about what happens just after death, it is really quite simple, even if I was an anomaly.

I came upon that which could only be described as “God” shortly after death, as most people are wont to do. I was floating, or maybe simply existing, in a black void for what seemed to be an eternity before I happened to spot a shapeless figure that seemed to be made from light. It came closer, or I floated to it, and I could suddenly understand what had happened to me. However, it seemed confused by my complete lack of memories of a life as it probed deep into my being.

The being consumed me, and I could feel it trying to figure out what to do with me. As I waited for a second, or a millennium, my every sense was overloaded with pain, pleasure, suffering, anger, and just about every other human emotion. Thoughts took on words as hundreds of millions of voices filled me with what I could only describe as prayers. Please bless Mommy and Daddy and Kitty-poo and… No, please, please no, don’t take her, oh God why… Thank You, Lord, for the little girl You’ve blessed us with… God, grant me the serenity…

I didn’t want anything more than for the voices to stop, but would have gladly kept them had I known that I would be reduced to only hearing souls escape their hosts.

I wouldn’t learn my fate until long after I had begun to think that I would go mad for hearing so many people die. The God creature spit me out, and I woke up to see blue skies and countless faces staring back at me. I realized, quite abruptly, that I was no longer floating in a void. Faces veered dangerously close and then veered away from me. The numbness of floating was slowly replaced with pain. The pain became more and more unbearable as I realized that I was human again.

“Hold on, paramedics are on their way,” I heard someone shout. Other voices overlapped it, and for a moment, I remembered the anxiety that had engulfed me when I had been able to hear all that praying. That was when it occurred to me that I could remember the afterlife. It also occurred to me that I didn’t know anything about my life up until this point.

A young woman’s face came into view, very close to mine. “Robert, Rob, can you hear me?” she asked. I realized she was speaking to me. I blinked, unable to control my mouth enough to reply. Her face was familiar and warm, and I knew that her name was Cassandra. “Oh, Robert, please be all right!” I felt a warm hand against my face, and it was stunningly obvious to me that she was my girlfriend. The knowledge that hit me was sudden. My name was Robert Marcus Sanders; I owned a chain of convenience stores that my father had gifted me. I was 27 years old and had been dating Cassandra Vera Carter for more than two years.

~~~~~~~~~~~

 Elizabeth Hayes

Chapter 1 – 1864

She lived on a large tobacco plantation in the Deep South with her parents, older brother, and three sisters. She was, in his opinion, absolutely perfect. He had watched her grow from a small girl with unruly blond curls, into a beautiful, pale young woman. He waited, biding his time, hiding in the shadows, occasionally offering to help as an overseer on her family’s plantation just to get closer to her, using assumed names and taking great care to change his appearance as best he could each time. Her name was Elizabeth, and she had just turned seventeen.

The Civil War raged on, far north from the plantation and the girl. Elizabeth’s father was a firm supporter of the Confederacy, and the stranger knew it was the perfect opportunity. In the beginning of summer, just four short weeks after Elizabeth’s seventeenth birthday, he came wandering up to the main house of the plantation, dressed in standard military fashion.

A house slave greeted him at the door and quickly shuffled off to find the man of the house, Thomas Hayes. “What can I do for you,” Thomas asked as he approached the young man, his voice trailing off, fishing for a name. The young man offered his hand.

“Franklin’s my name, Jonathan Franklin,” he said quickly, shaking Thomas’ hand firmly, “I’m on my way up to join the fight, but I’m weary, and I’ve a long walk ahead of me. Would you be so kind as to allow me to rest here a night?” The younger man, the wolf in soldier’s clothing, was ruggedly handsome, with a nose that had obviously been broken a few times, stubble that could use a good shave, and piercing blue eyes. He was almost as pale as the girl he sought at this plantation, but there was a hint of a tan to his skin.

Thomas looked him over carefully, a plan coming together in his mind. “Jonathan Franklin, hmm?”

“Yes, Sir,” Jonathan replied eagerly.

“How old are you, son?” Thomas asked.

“Eighteen, Sir.”

“Eighteen,” Thomas echoed. He motioned for Jonathan to come into the parlor, and called up the stairs, “Elizabeth, would you come down here, please?”

“Coming, Papa!” Elizabeth replied as she closed her diary. Since turning seventeen, she had kept a very careful record of everything she did, as she felt that to be a very ladylike thing to do. She placed the diary beneath her pillow, and raced out of her bedroom to the main landing above the front entryway of the house. Looking down, she saw her father walking into the parlor, followed by a man she had never seen before. As she watched, he suddenly looked up and made fierce eye contact. She flushed bright red and quickly averted her gaze as she started down the stairs.

Before she followed the men into the parlor, she quickly smoothed her dress and ran her hands over her hair to quickly fix a few tangles. “You called for me, Papa?” she asked from the doorway. She curtsied when both men turned to greet her, and Jonathan Franklin bowed his head.

“Yes, Elizabeth, I would like you to give Mr. Franklin a tour of our home. He will be spending the evening here before continuing north to help defend our rights,” Thomas said, and Elizabeth felt her skin flush again. She took a step forward.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Franklin,” she said shyly. Jonathan gently took her hand and kissed the back of it.

“The pleasure is all mine, Elizabeth,” he said, looking into her eyes. “You have a lovely daughter, Sir.” He turned his attention back to Thomas.

“Please, call me Thomas.”

There was a short, awkward silence before Elizabeth spoke, “Shall we start our tour?” Thomas nodded encouragingly, and Jonathan smiled warmly.

“Certainly. Lead the way, Miss Elizabeth,” Jonathan said, his voice low and seductive. Thomas watched as Jonathan took Elizabeth’s arm and escorted her out of the room.

“Well, this is the foyer, as you may have guessed,” Elizabeth giggled, “through that door back there,” she pointed behind the staircase, “is the kitchen. Up here,” they began walking up the stairs to the second floor of the three-story house, “is where my sisters and I have our bedrooms.” She led Jonathan along through the hallway to the room at the end, and she opened the door very slightly. “This is my room,” she said, squeezing his arm. His smile turned to a devious smirk. His plan was working; the girl was already showing interest in him, as was her father. It would not take much to get his way.

He peered into the room, wrapping his hand around Elizabeth’s, causing her to blush once more. Her bedroom was painted a pale pink, with linens dyed to match. She had a small writing desk and a simple wooden chair in one corner, and a huge armoire to the side of the door. “Beautiful,” he murmured. They wandered along back to the staircase and ascended to the third floor.

“My parents’ bedroom is up here, as is our attic,” Elizabeth continued to give her little narrative of the tour.

“Has this house been in your family long?” Jonathan asked, feigning interest in the tour. He couldn’t have cared less about the house; it was the girl that he was unable to take his eyes off of.

“My Grandfather built it when my Papa was a little boy,” Elizabeth replied, smiling a shy little smile. She was having a difficult time keeping her focus off the gentleman she was with. “Are you really going off to fight in the war? Aren’t you afraid of getting killed?”

The innocence in her question took Jonathan by surprise. He let go of her arm, gently pulling away from her grip, and turned to face her. Lost for a moment in her big doe eyes, he carefully thought out the next words he would say. He carefully reached forward and brushed a thick tangle of curls out of her face, allowing his hand to linger against her cheek. Elizabeth should have pulled away, this was not very well-mannered behavior for a young man who was alone with a lady, but she couldn’t seem to find the strength to move.

“So innocent,” Jonathan whispered, his voice barely audible. Elizabeth couldn’t look away from his eyes, astounded at how blue they were. They were almost hypnotic. He stepped closer, their faces were only inches apart. “The only thing I fear, right now, is this moment ending, Elizabeth,” he murmured. The girl wanted nothing more than for their lips to meet, and it shocked her to realize this. She found her feet again and inched closer, slowly closing her eyes.

Thomas Hayes came to the third story landing just as the two teenagers kissed, and ripped Elizabeth from the man’s grasp.

“I see you’ve gotten more than just a tour of my home. I suggest you leave, Mr. Franklin.”

~~~~~~

As you can plainly see, I have been a very busy woman. Lots and lots of writing done, lots and lots more to go.