Blog Tour: Timekeeper by Alexandra Monir (Guest Post & Giveaway!)

As part of the blog tour for Timeless by Alexandra Monir, I have a guest post by Alexandra as well as as a giveaway. So without a further ado...

“Michele gave the street signs a double take, unable to believe that this was the area known as Union Square. The Union Square Michele knew from film and TV was an unexceptional, thoroughly modern part of the city, surrounded by trendy restaurants, the W Hotel, office towers, and New York University buildings. But this Union Square was something else entirely. Surrounding the expanse of the square were blocks and blocks of resplendent department and specialty stores, bringing to mind the famed shopping boulevards of Paris. Elegant carriages lined every curb, with liveried footmen standing on the sidewalk before them.” –TIMELESS, pg 86

Union Square- 1910

Union Square has had a vastly evolving history, and in the Gilded Age era Michele time-travels to in Timeless, the area included a stretch known as Ladies Mile. Imagine the famed Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, but one hundred years in the past! Shopping on Ladies Mile at the turn of the twentieth century was quite the production. Ladies would have to be dressed to the nines, complete with their very best hats, furs, gloves and jewels. They would be chauffeured in their horse-drawn carriage, escorted by a maid, and badgered by handsome young salesmen whose job was to display their wares and make it impossible for these wealthy shoppers to leave empty-handed.

Union Square- Today

In the shops and restaurants of today’s Union Square, you’ll find New Yorkers dressed in jeans and texting on their iPhones, without a trace of horse-drawn carriages or livered footmen. But if you find yourself there on a snowy, quiet night, it’s not too difficult to imagine the days when it was known as Ladies Mile.

Oh, and fun fact: my release party for Timeless was held at the W Union Square!

~~

Thanks for stopping by, Alexandra!

More about Timeless:

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance.

Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives.

Timeless Trailer/ Author Video/ Goodreads

About Timekeeper: 

This sequel to Timeless combines breathtaking romance with a tale of complex magic in a story that will have every reader believing in the transcendent power of love.

When Philip Walker appears as a new student in Michele Windsor's high school class, she is floored. He is the love she thought she lost forever when they said goodbye during her time travels last century. Overjoyed that they can resume the relationship they had a lifetime ago, Michele eagerly approaches him and discovers the unthinkable: he doesn't remember her. In fact, he doesn't seem to remember anything about the Philip Walker of 1910.

Michele then finds her father's journals, which tell stories of his time-traveling past. As she digs deeper, she learns about his entanglement with a mysterious and powerful organization called the Time Society and his dealings with a vengeful Windsor ancestor. Michele soon finds herself at the center of a rift over 120 years in the making, one whose resolution will have life-or-death consequences.

Trailer/ Goodreads 

About Alexandra Monir:

At the age of 25, author and recording artist Alexandra Monir released her debut young adult novel, Timeless. The book caught on quickly, with Amazon.com naming it one of the "Best Books of the Month" and Barnes & Noble featuring the title in their "Top Teen Picks". The book went on to hit the Barnes & Noble Teen Bestsellers chart, and has been featured in a variety of media, from popular teen websites to The Huffington Post. Alexandra wrote a companion short story eBook, Secrets of the Time Society, to set up the sequel, Timekeeper. The sequel was published on January 8, 2013.

Alexandra also integrated original music into the novels' pages, writing two songs for Timeless, which she recorded with producer Michael Bearden (musical director of Michael Jackson's last concert, This Is It). The songs were released on iTunes as a supplement to the book. A new song for Timekeeper was released on January 8, 2013, produced by Heather Holley and Rob Hoffman.

Alexandra currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she is writing her next young adult novel for Random House. You can find her online: Website/ Facebook/ Twitter

Giveaway: 

I have one set of the trade paperback edition of Timeless and the hardcover edition of Timekeeper to giveaway. 

How to enter:

~ Fill out the Rafflecopter form

Official Giveaway Rules:

~ Must be 13 years older

~ Must have a Canada or US mailing address

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: Lethal Inheritance by Tahlia Newland

As part of the blog tour for Thalia Newland's Lethal Inheritance, Thalia has stopped by today to talk about the fantasy genre. So without a further ado...

Why do we need another fantasy genre?

When fantasy was first identified as a genre, all fantasy novels were simply called fantasy. No problems there because, at that time, most of it was Lord of the Rings style. We now call that epic fantasy or sword and sorcery. Sword and sorcery isn’t necessarily epic—huge battles and long series—but it is always set on a different, usually medieval, and magical world. When fantasy set in our real, though slightly different, world appeared, a different name was required. The term used was urban fantasy, and vampire, werewolf and witch stories became paranormal fantasy.

The lines between urban and paranormal fantasy are sometimes blurry, because urban fantasy pretty much always includes paranormals. Paranormal fantasy basically refers to books with vampires and werewolves in them, but urban fantasy has further distinctions. These are

• kick arse heroines 
• a mix of magical species such as fairies, trolls, pixies, imps, demons, vampires, werewolves, witches, norse gods, roman gods etc etc whatever you can come up with. 
• gritty stories 

Then we have historical fantasy. That’s pretty clear. It just refers to fantasy set in the past on this world. If it’s on another world then it will almost always be sword and sorcery.

Now we also have contemporary fantasy. Why do we need another subgenre? Because new kinds of fantasy have emerged, fantasy that doesn’t fit what readers have come to expect from urban and paranormal fantasy.

Contemporary fantasy is

• set in our time 
• is either set on or starts on our world 
• includes other realities within our world or connected to our world. This could be dream states or altered states of consciousness. 
• doesn’t have vampires or werewolves, or at least not as the primary focus. 
• isn’t completely set in an urban environment 
• has characters with some kind of magic or mental powers 
• may have metaphysical elements or a strong conceptual basis. 

I love books where characters use mental powers and explore other realities within or connected to our world. I also like metaphysical elements in a story and that’s why my latest release Lethal Inheritance is called contemporary fantasy.

How would you feel if you woke up from what you thought was a dream and discovered your mother missing, bruises on your neck and the creature from your dream hiding in a photo? Maybe it wasn’t a dream after all. Maybe you really do have to follow your mother into a hidden realm to rescue her from the shadow demons.

But how do you kill a demon that feeds on fear? This is the problem that the main character, Ariel has to solve. Obviously, she has to get a handle on her fear first, and that means developing her mental powers. These are powers that everyone has, the hidden realm just happens to make them stronger. It also makes the demons solid. Yeah, it’s tricky, but she’s modern girl, she’ll get a handle on it.

Do you agree with my understanding of the different fantasy sub-genres? 

~~

Thanks for stopping by, Tahlia! 

This guest post is by Tahlia Newland, author of the YA contemporary fantasy,  Lethal Inheritance and the acclaimed, You Can’t Shatter Me, a YA novel about inspiring and empowering ways to deal with bullying.

Find her on: author site/ Facebook/ Twitter/ Amazon Author page

About Lethal Inheritance:

If last night was real, Ariel should be dead. She’s not, but her mother has disappeared, there are bruises on her neck and the hideous beast in the photo looks frighteningly familiar.

You can’t send police into a tunnel that doesn’t exist after a villain they can’t see, so when shadow demons kidnap her mother, Ariel has to mount the rescue mission herself. Hot on the trail, she enters a hidden layer of reality only to find that the demons are hunting her, and they feed on fear. Ariel must defeat them before they kill her and enslave her mother. But how do you kill terrifying demons when your fear makes them stronger?

A quirky old guide teaches her how to locate and unleash her inner power, and while battling hallucinogenic mist, treacherous terrain, murderous earth spirits and self-doubt, she falls in love with Nick, a Warrior whose power is more than either of them can handle.

Ariel’s journey challenges her perception, tests her awareness and takes her deep into her heart and mind to confront, and ultimately transcend, her fear and anger.

To see past as well as future blog tour stops, click HERE. 

Guest Post by Libby Mercer, author of Unmasking Maya

Today, I'm happy to have Libby Mercer, author of the upcoming Unmasking Maya, stop by to tell us a little about her book and its similarities with Jane Eyre. So without a further ado...

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Thanks so much for having me here today, Lauren!

I had a recent epiphany. While brainstorming blog topics, I got to thinking about Derek Whitley, the love interest in Unmasking Maya. In my mind, I started listing his characteristics – extremely intelligent and strangely mysterious. Thoroughly arrogant, cold and cynical, but still somehow magnetic. It wasn’t long before it occurred to me I was listing many of the same characteristics shared by one of the most fascinating literary characters ever. Only then did I realize how closely Derek resembles Edward Fairfax Rochester!

Of course there are some major differences. Derek is hot and Mr. Rochester… well, he’s not. Also, Mr. Rochester can be a bit hot-tempered, whereas Derek almost always keeps his cool.

Once I’d consciously drawn this parallel (because who knows what my subconscious was up to as I was writing Unmasking Maya?) I began to see certain similarities between Maya Kirkwood and Jane Eyre as well. Both characters are fiercely independent and aren’t afraid to speak their minds. They both had troubled childhoods, both feel ostracized, and they both end up landing employment in unfamiliar new surroundings – for Maya, it’s Silicon Valley, and for Jane, it’s Fairfax Hall.

Naturally, there are some huge differences between Maya and Jane too. Unlike Plain Jane, Maya is a fabulous fashionista. Maya also tends to be a bit of a drama queen at times. Take, for example, her studio apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District. Maya hates living in such cramped, run-down living quarters, and she hates the noise pollution that goes along with it. If Jane were to time-travel to the 21st Century, you know she’d be grateful just to have a roof over her head.

It’s a funny thing. I most definitely had no intention of writing Unmasking Maya as a modern retelling of Jane Eyre – and to say that it is one is more than a bit of a stretch. Still, it seems clear that the classic novel influenced me. And it makes sense, really. Jane Eyre is one of my top three all-time favorite novels, surpassing even (get ready to gasp) the works of Jane Austen.

As an author, my characters and my plots and especially my voice didn’t just materialize out of nowhere. These things developed gradually as a result of my imaginings combined with influential bits and pieces from everything I’ve ever read. Or at least that’s what I believe. Who knows? If I dig deep enough, maybe I’ll find certain aspects of my stories that parallel Slaughterhouse-Five. Or Rachel’s Holiday. Or Great Expectations. Or The Bell Jar. Or Ramona and Beezus. But hopefully not all at the same time. ;-) 

~~

Thanks so much for stopping by, Libby! I can't wait to start Unmasking Maya!

About Libby: 

Born and raised in the Midwest, Libby Mercer’s adventurous spirit kicked in after graduating from high school, and she’s since lived in Boston, NYC and London. San Francisco is the city she currently calls home. For several years, Libby worked in fashion – first as a journalist and then as a shopkeeper. She also dabbled in design for a while. Even through the crazy fashion years, Libby never let go of her dream of being a published author, and has since developed her signature writing style, crafting quirky chick lit/romance hybrids. Fashioning a Romance was her first published novel, and Unmasking Maya will be her second. Libby has a third novel, The Karmic Connection, scheduled for release in 2013. 

Links: Blog/ Goodreads/Twitter/ Facebook/ Amazon Author Page/ Amazon page for Fashioning a Romance

About Unmasking Maya:

Defamed, Disgraced and Displaced...

Fresh from a career-killing scandal, New York fashion girl, Maya Kirkwood, arrives in San Francisco to reinvent herself as a fine artist. She's offered the opportunity to create an installation at the Silicon Valley headquarters of a hot new tech company. Fabulous, right?

Not so much.

She can't stand Derek Whitley - wunderkind software genius and CEO of the company. Hot as he may be on the outside, inside the man is a cold, unemotional, robotic type. Way too left-brained for her right-brained self.

As Maya and Derek get to know each other, however, their facades begin to crack. She catches her first glimpse of the man behind the superhuman tech prodigy, and he starts to see her as the woman she used to be. But is this a good thing? Once that last secret is revealed, will it bring them closer together or will it tear them apart?

Unmasking Maya will be released December 15, 2012! 

And to stay up to date on all book tour shenanigans, be sure to check out Libby's blog! 

Guest Post by Stant Litore (& Giveaway!)

Today, Stant Litore, author of the newly released Strangers in the Land (The Zombie Bible), is here to talk about zombie apocalypses to get in the Halloween kind of mood. Plus there's a giveaway at the end! :)

~~~~

So, zombie apocalypse. You’re ready?

I keep a Templar sword by the bed. Just in case. Actually scared to death of the hungry dead. On one of our first dates, my future wife and I rented Dawn of the Dead and about five minutes in, I quietly got to my feet, tiptoed out, and retrieved my wood-ax from the shed. Set it right against my armchair. Felt much better through the whole movie after that. The fact that Jessica was more amused than alarmed by this likely is one reason she and I now wear wedding rings.

Actually though, you have to understand that it’s not just one big outbreak we have to watch for. Zombies have been here all along, devouring our history from the inside. In every generation, there has been a plague somewhere. That’s what The Zombie Bible is about – how generations of our ancestors wrestled with the restless dead. How they fought for survival and for sanity in the centuries before electricity or guns or the CDC. Moviemakers like to freak me out with warnings of an imminent global collapse and a world rendered wasteland inhabited only by the dead gnawing on the last bones. But in fact tomorrow or the day after may only be the latest chapter in a long and grisly story.

I’ve been collecting these tales for a while. I have a place up in Colorado where there are few trees and you can see the dead coming from a long way off. I write each evening to scholars and archaeologists who can piece together bits of our half-eaten and half-forgotten memory. If you stop by or take a look in one of my books, I’ll tell you a few tales. How the prophet Jeremiah was left in a dry well three days with the dead tossed in after him. How Polycarp the martyr used to bring rest to dozens of the dead with a touch of his hand and his soul-searching eyes. How in the twelfth century BC Devora, an aging prophetess, led a tribal people against great herds of dead, her blade uplifted above her like a slice of moon against the night sky.

These are tales that will fascinate you and they are tales that will break the heart. Because whether today or three thousand years ago, one’s dead are never faced without terrible cost. Our ancestors understood that better than we, and we can learn from their stories.

This is a guest post by Stant Litore, author of Strangers in the Land (47North), a new entry in The Zombie Bible.

Thanks for stopping by Stant!

More about Strangers in the Land:

STRANGERS IN THE LAND retells one of our earliest biblical stories as an episode in humanity’s long struggle with hunger and with the hungry dead. These are the stories of our spiritual ancestors, who faced the dead without electricity or firearms or petroleum, often with little more than a prayer and a hatchet or a stick. It's the story of what they saw when they gazed into the unseeing eyes of the walking corpses, and what they did next.

Four will stand against the dead: Devora, who sees what God sees; the slave girl Hurriya; Zadok, a legend among warriors; and the widower Barak, fighting to keep his vineyard free of this new peril. But can they stand together? For the living fear each other—fear the strangers in the land—as much as they fear the hungry dead.

I have ONE physical copy of Strangers in the Land to giveaway! To enter, just fill out the Rafflecoper form below.

Official Giveaway Rules:

~ Must be 13 years or older

~ Must have a US or Canada mailing address

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour: The Infects by Sean Beaudoin

Today as part of the blog tour for The Infects by Sean Beaudoin, I have a guest post from Sean himself. So without a furter ado...

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Here’s what The Infects is not:

1. A beautifully written coming of age story.
2. A compelling paranormal romance (although there is plenty of romance, mostly it’s just normal.)
3. A book that has murmurings, whisperings, pantings, breathlessings, or multi-generational love stories.
4. Full of mysterious messages in bottles.
5. Teeming with pirates.

Here’s what The Infects is:

1. A beautifully written flesh-neutral appetizer menu.
2. A reasonably compelling but fairly cheap excuse to make jokes about brains.
3. A book that has chompings, gnawings, fleeings, shotgunnings, screamings, and multi-generational fear stories.
4. Full of mysterious messages that aren’t so mysterious when you realize the entire book is really just one long coded message, and that message is “RUN!”
5. Totally metal, in a very non-pirate way. And, also, teeming with just the sort of breathtaking and lovingly nuanced prose that wins awards, medals, and bartender’s phone numbers.

Sean Beaudoin

---

Thanks for stopping by, Sean! :)

About The Infects:

A feast for the brain, this gory and genuinely hilarious take on zombie culture simultaneously skewers, pays tribute to, and elevates the horror genre.

Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of other juvenile delinquents on an "Inward Trek." As if that weren’t bad enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. As in any classic monster flick worth its salted popcorn, plentiful carnage sends survivors rabbiting into the woods while the mindless horde of "infects" shambles, moans, and drools behind. Of course, these kids have seen zombie movies. They generate "Zombie Rules" almost as quickly as cheeky remarks, but attitude alone can’t keep the biters back. Serving up a cast of irreverent, slightly twisted characters, an unexpected villain, and an ending you won’t see coming, here is a savvy tale that that’s a delight to read — whether you’re a rabid zombie fan or freshly bitten — and an incisive commentary on the evil that lurks within each of us.

To find out more about Sean and his books, head on over to his website/ Facebook/
Twitter.

Book Trailer:

Complete Blog Tour Schedule:

9/24- Cynsations

9/25- Letters Inside Out

9/26- The Word Nerds

9/27- Books Make Great Lovers

9/28- The Book Monsters

10/4- 365 Days of Reading

10/5- A Room With Books

10/8- Once Upon a Bookcase

10/9- HERE 

10/10- The Book Muncher

10/12- Book Labyrinth

Guest Post by Amanda Ashby

As part of Amanda Ashby's Teen Book Scene tour for Fairy Bad Day, I have a guest post by Amanda to share with you all today. So without a further ado...

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My Question:

In Fairy Bad Day the characters are each assigned a specfic area of slaying, so what exactely are all the different areas of slaying involved? In addition, which area would you pick if you were given the chance to? Why?

Amanda's Response:

Oh, great question!!!!! According to Sir Francis and his famous handbook, A Complete and Utter Reference to the Vile and Evil Creatures that have Spewed Forth from the Gate of Linaria and How they Shall be Slain—In Three Volumes (which, by the way is a lot catchier in the original Latin) there are twelve different elemental creatures.

The fire elementals are salamanders, dragons and phoenixes

The earth elementals are goblins, demons and ogres

The sky elementals are fairies, elves and griffins

The water elementals are selkies, sirens and krackens.

Anyway, while Emma longs to follow in her mom’s footsteps and become a dragon slayer, I think if I had to choose one, I would prefer to fight an earth elemental like a goblin or an ogre. Sure you need to be strong and fit to slay them but at least they can’t burn you like the fire elementals and your skin doesn’t get all water logged, like when you’re slaying water elementals, oh and you definitely can’t get glamoured like with the sky elementals.

On the downside, fighting earth elementals does involve a lot of running since ogres are mighty fond of throwing heaving objects such as trees at people, and if you’ve ever been hit by an ogre-thrown tree, you’ll know that it’s not something you want to happen on a regular basis. In fact, now that I think about it ogres also like to eat your eyeballs if they catch you, which really doesn’t sound very nice, so I’m starting to think that I maybe I should just fail all of my slaying exams and then I could stay home where it is nice and safe!!!!! Plus, despite the fancy footwear Emma is wearing on the cover of Fairy Bad Day, everyone knows that you can't fight elementals in heels and I'm not so sure that I'm a big fan of sensible shoes!!!!

~~~

Thanks for stopping by Amanda, and I have to agree that while fighting ogres would be fun, there would be plenty of downsides as well. :)

To find out more about Fairy Bad Day and Amanda, be sure to check out her website here.

This tour is also a scavenger hunt. Be sure to visit each of the stops on the blog tour and collect the bolded letter at the bottom of the post. On June 25th, you will have the opportunity to enter the word you created from the mixed up letters on Amanda's blog (http://amandaashby.blogspot.com/) to win a fun prize pack. The pack includes a signed copy of Fairy Bad Day, some candy, and cute cell phone charms.

My letter is S. 

Guest Post: Sean McCartney

Sean McCartney is the author of the newly released The Treasure Hunters Club: Secrets of the Magical Medallions, and today's he's here to tell you a little about this novel, as well as himself.

~~~

First off I would like to thank Lauren for allowing me to talk with all of you. This is my first blog so it is quite exciting for me.

My name is Sean McCartney and I’m currently on a blog tour to promote my new young adult action adventure novel entitled THE TREASURE HUNTERS CLUB: SECRETS OF THE MAGICAL MEDALLIONS. It’s being released on July 6th, 2010 from Mountainland Publishing.

The story is about Tommy Reed and his treasure hunting friends Shannon McDougal, Jackson Miller and Chris Henderson. One day Tommy receives a rather ordinary looking medallion from his very famous treasure-hunting uncle “Diamond” Jack Reed and finds himself the object of an evil treasure collector named Manuel de la Ernesto. Now Tommy and his friends must find the secret behind the medallion before Manuel can get to them and the medallion.

When I set out to write The Treasure Hunters Club: Secrets of the Magical Medallions I wanted to pull together all the things from books and movies that I liked. The mystery of the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown, the adventure of Percy Jackson, a little magic from Harry Potter and the action and history of the movies Indiana Jones and National Treasure.

Though this is the first book in the Treasure Hunters Club series, with your help to make it a success, the next books will follow. I have planned six treasure hunting books as they follow the club through the 8th grade and into high school. Of course, as they get older their treasure hunts get more dangerous and more exciting.

I have been asked why I created a series around treasure hunting. The truth is I believe treasure hunting is something everyone can do. You don’t need super powers just a desire to do research and find where to look. Also treasure hunting touches on the sidebars of history, the stuff not in the textbooks. That is usually the most interesting and provides a solid building block for the series.

My goal has always been to be published and have a series that kids can enjoy and have a lot of fun reading. I was lucky to find a publisher who believes in the series as much as I do. What I was surprised to find out was how much the publishing world has changed since I started this journey toward “being published.” The emergence of ebooks has shaken the publishing world like never before and I believe we have only scratched the surface of what this new technology can do to help promote reading.

In the meantime, I hope you take a moment to check out my website www.treasurehuntersclubbook.com and learn more about the series and read some short stories about the characters.

Thank you again for this opportunity and allowing me to be here and I hope you enjoy the book and the series.

Thanks,
Sean

~~

Thank, Sean! It was fun reading more about your first book. :)

Contest for EXPLORER X - Alpha and Poster!

Thanks to L.M. and her awesome publisher, I have a copy of Explorer X- Alpha to giveaway to one lucky person!

Here's the summary:

For most kids, a trip to space camp is a trip of a lifetime, for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. Lucky for him, he was engineered to survive, thrive, and dominate. Without realizing he is being trained to conquer worlds, and manipulated under the guise of a camp, he unfolds the plot too late for a change of fate. Aadi’s world is shaken upon the revelation that life before camp was not what it appeared. This solidifies his plan to save them all from the company that seeks to control him, only for his rescue to end abruptly due to a freak accident on a field trip to Mars. The full experiment is set in motion when he and his co-pilot, Eirena, crash in a distant galaxy called Shrenas, where they change and realize the full extent of their power. Holding onto his humanity, in the midst of turning into a god is Aadi's biggest battle yet. This turn of events causes him to put his childish thoughts away, forcing him to accept his change, and to decide to save a world, or to do what he was trained to do, dominate it. In the midst his struggles with his changes, his power is coveted by the warring leaders of Shrenas, and he is forced to choose sides to save a life, or to save himself. A decision that may prove just how much humanity he has left.

How to Enter:

Per L.M. Preston's  request, you have become a follower of her blog which is located here. Then please fill out the form: 

Extra Enteries:

They are continued within the form. Though, I thought that some of you may want to see them before hand, so here they are:

follower prior to the contest. (+2)

follower for the contest. (+1)

linked to this contest from Twitter, Sidebar, exc. (+1 for each time)

dedicated a whole post to this contest. (+5)

left a comment on the contest post. ( +1)

commented on L.M.'s guest post which is listed below contest post (+1)

counted up entries. (+1)

Ends:

December 7th. Is open to all United States residents, sorry international readers, though I will hopefully be having a contest for you all soon. Since, I do have over 500 followors now, which I personally think calls for celebration. =)

GOOD LUCK!!

Can Teenager's Really Fall In Love?: A Guest Post by Author L.M Preston!

L.M Preston is the debut author of Explorer X- Alpha which is coming out February 7, 2010! So, without a futher ado, here's L.M.'s guest post!

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CAN A TEENAGER FALL IN LOVE?


I was hunting around on my favorite writer’s hang out on AW (Absolute Write Forums) and the topic of teen love came up. The question alluded to, ‘Does a teenager really fall in love?’ My honest opinion, why couldn’t they? In my book EXPLORER X – Alpha I tease on some of the facets of pre-teen love as I remembered it.

QUALITIES OF TEEN LOVE

I remember being in love as a teenager only about three times. Yep, three times. Each love was so fascinating, intense, exciting, all consuming, obsessive and hurt so badly when it ended. I would write the boys name in my notebook over and over again. I would think about them every free moment of the day. When I kissed that boy, it felt as though he was the sun and the moon of my very life at that time.


If I could bottle that up and sell it, it would be called LOVE POTION #9.

QUALITIES OF ADULT LOVE

For me, love as an adult, was a lot slower to burn than teenaged love. As an adult, I only allowed myself to fall in love with one person. The difference between my teen love and my adult love was drastic. As an adult, I was cautious, skeptical, held back a lot of myself until the guy proved that he was trustworthy, worth my time, interesting enough to hold my interest, and sexy enough to keep me attracted.


Did it have the intensity of teen love? No, not because I didn’t feel the things I felt for my love as a teenager. I didn't have the hormone high that I did as a teenager, or the time to obsess on the boy I was in love with. Also, as an adult I was just too jaded, mistrustful, and too smart to let anyone consume me that didn’t show that they were truly interested. Not to mention, the end of those teenaged love affairs were just too darned painful.

MY ANSWER TO THE QUESTION

Yes, teenagers can fall in love. All love starts out as an infatuation. It starts with attraction, hunger, excitement, the chase, and hopefully ends in true love. True love, which consists of trust, passion, comfort, attraction, bonding, and most of all friendship, is worth the ride whether it ends badly or last forever.


In my case, a teen love became my adult love. As teenagers we broke up, but stayed friends. As adults we found that were a good match, and laughed at our antics in our relationship as teenagers. What ever happened to the boy I fell madly in love with at fifteen, broke up with, and stayed friends with? He is now my husband of seventeen years. Yes, at times I do allow myself to feel all those things for him I did as a teenager, but my adult ways still makes me cautious to let it totally consume me.

REFLECTIONS ABOUT LOVE

My motto is and will always be, live your life and enjoy the adventure of it all. That means whenever love is lost or you stumble along the way. Get up, dust off, plaster a smile on your face and focus on the exhilaration of the experience of love, of life, of failures, of pain, of recovery, and the adventure and experience of being able to live, learn, and to have loved.
 
~~~~
 
Thanks so much, L.M.!