Today's the day, the Moonless release blogfest!

I'm chuffed today to be a part of Crystal Collier's blogfest to celebrate the print release of her novel, Moonless ...

In the English society of 1768 where women are bred to marry, unattractive Alexia, just sixteen, believes she will end up alone. But on the county doorstep of a neighbor’s estate, she meets a man straight out of her nightmares, one whose blue eyes threaten to consume her whole world—especially when she discovers him standing over her murdered host in the middle of the night.

Her nightmares become reality: a dead baron, red-eyed wraiths, and forbidden love with a man hunted by these creatures. After an attack close to home, Alexia realizes she cannot keep one foot in her old life and one in this new world. To protect her family she must either be sold into a loveless marriage, or escape with her beloved and risk becoming one of the Soulless.

BUY IT HERE

This one really sounds exciting and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in with it.

To celebrate the occasion (and why not?), Crystal has one question she'd love to know the answer to ...

If you lived in a society where arranged marriages were a la mode, whom would you beg your parents to set you up with? Why? (Literary characters and celebrities welcomed.) 

I love this question and it's really taken some thought, but in the end I've gone for ...

www.bbc.co.uk

The Tenth Doctor!

He'd just be the best guy to be married to, we'd be able to go off on adventures through time and space and all that. Plus, you know, it's David Tennant ... Need I say more?

 

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And, as an extra celebration of this release, some of Crystal's author friends have rallied together to offer their novels for a huge Valentine's Giveaway! I love this writing community!

 

Here are the details for your chance to enter and win one of these great prizes! 

the Rafflecopter giveaway here!

 

And if that wasn't enough, you can treat yourself here to a $2.00 coupon courtesy of Crystal's publisher as a thank you for being so awesome! Check out the details here:

Book link: https://www.createspace.com/4550104

Coupon code: LQJM3F84

 

So, are you excited for the printed release of Moonless?

Who would you want to be set up with?

Have you entered the giveaway?

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Celebrating 1 Year of the Blog Blitz!

Next month will be the first anniversary of the Blog Blitz. The idea behind this wonderful blog hop came from DL Hammons, who wanted somewhere that bloggers can have their blogs showcased on a particular date, and everyone else involved can visit and leave encouraging comments and feedback.

Since its birth it has been used to highlight many bloggers that may have lost their way a little, and the rest of us have dropped by to offer support and, hopefully, help them back on the right path.

There is a signup list, which at the moment stands at 364 participants, and at some point everyone should be the focus of a Blog Blitz! You can recommend bloggers for a Blitz if you feel they need a boost, otherwise the choice is random. But how good would it be to have over 200+ commentors visit your blog one day?

One thing I know DL would love is to reach that magic 500 mark for participants, so what are you waiting for? Head on over to sign up, and wait for the blog blitz notifications to come rolling in. You never know, the next one might be you!

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I'm celebrating this anniversary as part of VikLit's Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, another great opportunity to share your good fortune for the week. Make sure you visit her too to sign up and see what's being celebrated!

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A motivational message - an IWSG post

Just a quick one from me for this months IWSG, a motivational message that I've been in desperate need of myself.

I'm sure many of you will appreciate the sentiment:

writerswrite1.wordpress.com

This can sometimes be the hardest thing to do, but we all need to make that effort to get our stories started. 


For more information on the amazing entity that is the Insecure Writers Support Group, click on the link and head over. Here you will find everyone else participating and it's well worth a browse to see what's everyone's insecurities are. Trust me, you're not alone, there are plenty of us on the same wavelength.

 Happy IWSG Day!

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February Goals - Express Yourself!

 
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The Express Yourself meme is a weekly jaunt brought to you by Dani at Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. At the beginning of the month the girls will post a gadget with a list of topics, something different for each week. Make sure to head on over to either of these blogs to check out the details more fully and see who else is taking part.      

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 This weeks topic of conversation: What goals do you have set for yourself this month?

• This month I would like to exceed my total word count that I set in January.
• I want to finish reading The Hunger Games trilogy.
• I want to get caught up on my creative writing studies. This will probably be the hardest one as I'm more than a little bit behind ...

How about you, what goals do you have for the month?

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! - Express Yourself

   

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The Express Yourself meme is a weekly jaunt brought to you by Dani at Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. At the beginning of the month the girls will post a gadget with a list of topics, something different for each week. Make sure to head on over to either of these blogs to check out the details more fully and see who else is taking part.      

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 This weeks topic of conversation: Is there anything you'd like to change, or work on, about yourself this year?

I would really like to work on my confidence this year, particularly when it comes to my writing. I've had a good start this year with my blogging and freewriting each day, and I've been getting some positive support from friends that have now started reading some of my stuff.

I spend too much of my time feeling unhappy and a little depressed, and I'm pretty sure I know the cause; I'm just not doing what I truly want to do with my life. Now I know what I want to be doing I can make more efforts towards it, so by the end of the year I would like to have made some significant progress towards it.

I've just got to maintain my positive thinking!

How about you? Is there anything you want to work on about yourself this year?

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It's Friday, which means it's time to celebrate the small things with VikLit! This is a great opportunity to celebrate even the smallest of victories you may have achieved in the last week, so head on over to sign up and see what everyone else is celebrating ...

 

This week I'm celebrating finally getting to the end of my current read. I've been reading 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King since 3rd December, which means it's taken just over 7 weeks to get through it. That's pretty rubbish!

It was a great book to read, and the last few days I've been ploughing through it, it just seems to have taken this long to find the time to sit down and read.

The lesson learnt from this, must make more of an effort with my reading!

What are you celebrating this week?

Have a great weekend!

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Chores, chores, chores - Express Yourself

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The Express Yourself meme is a weekly jaunt brought to you by Dani at Entertaining Interests and Jackie at Bouquet of Books. At the beginning of the month the girls will post a gadget with a list of topics, something different for each week. Make sure to head on over to either of these blogs to check out the details more fully and see who else is taking part.      

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 This weeks topic of conversation: Name a chore you dislike and one you love to do.

One job I dread having to do each week is the food shopping. The pain of it begins before I've even driven to the supermarket, when I sit down to write the shopping list. I always make a list of meals for the following week and only buy what I need, but trying to plan different and interesting meals that all the family like is quite difficult. My husband and daughter are far too fussy for my liking, and they are very difficult to please. 

Once that's out of the way, there is the drama of the supermarket car park, not to mention the inevitable trolley rage that ensues up and down the aisles, and then the massive chore of unloading the shopping only to load it up again! Trust me, online food shopping is the only way to go!

Give me a pile of ironing though and I'm a happy bunny! It may seem tedious, but not when you can watch your favourite TV or put some music on and have a bit of a boogie too. And it's always satisfying to finish the task with a nice pile of clean and tidy clothes.

Are there any chores that you particularly love or loathe? How are you with controlling trolley rage?

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