Imprinted Souls Series Announcement

Well, it has been tough to keep this to myself over the past few weeks, but I have a little surprise for Imprinted Souls fans!

Starting June of this year (Imprinted Souls' anniversary), I will be posting exclusive short stories from the missing 30 years between Blood Bound and Shattered Souls.  Those short stories will be based on Tyler, Nicholas, Loren, and Adrianne's POV, and will be posted right here on this blog, under the tab 'Imprinted Souls - The Missing Journals'.

I'll post Facebook and Twitter announcements whenever a new short story is up, but please follow and subscribe to the blog to make sure that you get notifications.

Looking forward to June! :)

-Daniele-

Shattered Souls BLOG TOUR

**There will be giveaways in all of the events listed below**

May 14

Velvetmorning82 Book Blog  - Author Interview

http://velvetmorning82.wordpress.com/

May 15

Forbidden Passions – Character Interview with Tyler

http://forbiddenpassionsreviews.blogspot.com

May 17

The Book Whisperer – Guest Post

http://www.book-whisperer.blogspot.com/

May 18

Shattered Souls CHAT NIGHT with SPOILERS @ 10PM EST

Chat room link will be announced at https://www.facebook.com/events/385303438178949/ on the day of.

May 21

Special announcement about the Imprinted Souls Series!

http://danielelanzarotta.blogspot.com/

May 22

Beloved Books – Author Interview

http://belovedbooks-rose.blogspot.com/

May 23

A.J. Walkley’s Blog – Character Interview (Character TBD)

http://alisonwalkley.com/

May 24

A Page Away – Author Interview

http://pageaway.blogspot.com/

May 25

Starry Night Book Blog – Character Interview with Nicholas!

http://pageaway.blogspot.com/

Blood on the Beach 2012

Hi everyone!

This past weekend (April 20-22), I had the opportunity to attend the Blood on the Beach Convention in Virginia Beach, along with authors Michelle Johnson, Rue Elliott, and John Koehler.

This convention turned out to be one of the best events I've attended so far.  The costumes were great!  It was fun chatting with new people, and of course that seeing Norman Reedus and Jeremy London was pretty awesome!

Here are the highlights of the weekend:



I was excited about this event from the moment I heard the words 'Lost Boys cast'.  It was fun seeing Edward Herrmann and other cast members.  It also made me think of Corey Haim.  I loved him in all of his movies!  It's still sad to think about what happened to him...

Then I saw Norman Reedus, (best known for his roles in 'The Boondock Saints' and 'The Walking Dead') and I couldn't help but to dream cast a bit.  He would be absolutely perfect to play Harvey, my Irish vampire who you will get to meet in Shattered Souls (The final Imprinted Souls novel).

Talking about Shattered Souls... I got this awesome 'My Vampires Do NOT Sparkle' T-shirt!  People's reactions to this shirt were great; in fact, I met a lot of people because of this shirt.  *laughs*  (... don't worry, I still like Stephenie Meyer's sparkling vamps too.)

Vamps aside, the costumes at Blood on the Beach were great!  There were zombies everywhere!

Here are a few of the awesome peeps I met:

The zombie who gives massages for a living.

  I guess zombies have to pay those bills too.  I just wonder how she can keep herself from eating her clients' brains.  (That is my daughter next to zombie girl.  She loves zombies!)

The zombie who likes chips.... because let's face it, brains are just... ew! 

This guy doesn't agree.  He thinks brains are YUM!

Snow White zombie w/ a copy of Blood Bound.  

*She wants her prince charming with fangs.*

These are just a few out of many more!  You can check out more Blood on the Beach pictures on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3724499080787.2164210.1525185603&type=3

I'm already counting down the days to next year's Blood on the Beach Con.

This is it for today!

If you missed the announcement, Shattered Souls' official release date for paperback is June 1st.  eBooks will be available on May 1st! v--v

Character Interview with Greer MacManus

You know how much I love meeting new fictional peeps!  So, today we have a special guest: Greer MacManus.  

Hi Greer.  Thanks for agreeing to do this interview.  Can you tell our readers a little about yourself?  Age... where are you from...

Hi Daniele and thanks for having me! I’m in my last year of high school, a few months away from being 18. I was born in South Carolina and was raised there until just last year. I’ve been living in Prescott, Arizona since my dad moved my mom, my sister, Emily, and me there at the beginning of my junior year.

What do you like to do on your free time?

I’m a big reader. My dad kind of instilled it in me, probably before I was even born. You know how some parents play music to their yet-to-be-born children? My dad read to me. So, it makes sense that I can’t drive by a bookstore without going in and buying something. I have a huge collection – they won’t all fit in my room. I’ve taken over the bookshelves in the family room and Emily’s room, too.

I also like writing poetry. Have you ever heard of Slam Poetry? It’s like a performance, almost like a rap, but not quite. I’ve started getting into that, too.

What is your favorite book?

Oh, man, that’s hard to say. How can I pick just one? My dad would want me to say something by Dickens or Salinger, probably. But, if there was one book I could read over and over again, it would be Through the Looking Glass. I love the idea of a whole different world being so close to us all the time, we just need to look a little deeper to find it.

I hear you are curious about what makes people tick.  What about you?  What makes you tick?

That’s hard to say, too! I think other people make me tick. I read and I write to get a better understanding of others, in a lot of ways. I love reading a variety of authors in different genres, to get a better glimpse of the world and those in it from a bunch of perspectives. I also like to write in order to get out all of my own feelings, which are usually tied to people I have relationships with – whether they be romantic relationships, sibling or parental relationships, or even just the relationship I have with myself.

I hope that doesn’t sound like a cop-out answer? It’s true!

What's one thing about yourself you want to change?

There are definitely things I’ve done in the past that I’m not proud of; but everything I’ve gone through has made me the person I am today. I don’t like having regrets, but I would change the fact that, technically, I’ve cheated on people I care about.

Cameron seems like an intriguing person and so does Rebecca.  Can you tell us what was the first thing that came to mind when you met each of them?

Well, Cam, I was definitely aware of how good-looking he was. That’s impossible to miss. To be honest, though, it was something in his eyes that I noticed when I met him that stood out beyond his sandy brown hair and strong chin. Unlike most high school guys, when he looked at me, I felt like he really saw me.

Pretty lame, right? I know it sounds that way. Maybe the things I know about him now are affecting my memory of him, who knows. I just know that Cameron is a sensitive musician in a football jersey, when it comes down to it.

Then there’s Becca. That girl just oozes confidence. I remember her giving me a wink on my first day of swim practice and my knees literally felt like Jell-O. Nobody had ever actually made my knees weak before her. 

I understand that there was a certain level of confusion as you came to grips with your sexuality.  Do you feel like things would have been easier if Cameron and Rebecca had a different status in high school?  Let's say, if he wasn't a football player and Rebecca the swim team captain?

I’ve never thought about it that way, but now that you mention it, yeah I think it would have changed a lot of things. Being involved in their groups of friends, in those circles, everyone in the entire school had their eyes on me, on all of us. If we all hadn’t been the center of all of that attention all the time, I don’t think I would have felt as much pressure to maintain the status quo, so to speak.

What is your favorite thing about Cameron and what is his worst flaw?  What about Rebecca?

For Cameron, my favorite part of him is tied to his worst flaw. It has to do with his music. But I don’t want to give away more than that…

And Becca. I loved the way she didn’t care one bit what anyone else thought of her. It was so attractive and a trait I’ve longed for to have myself since the moment I met her. It’s hard to say she has any flaws, except maybe that she could have been a little more patient with me at times. Then again, that really speaks more about my own flaws than hers.

What is your biggest fear?

Probably losing all of the people I care about the most. That and scorpions.

What is the one thing that you want the most in your life?

True love – don’t we all? That and one of those floor-to-ceiling libraries with a rolling ladder, like in Beauty and the Beast.

What advice would you give teens that are going through a similar experience as yours?

Stay strong and be true to yourself. That can be hard at first, when you’re not sure who you are yet. Listen to yourself, deep down. Never ignore a gut feeling. The people in your life who matter and love you, always will, regardless of the person you come to identify as. Because, after all, we are all born who we are. Nothing will change that and nothingshould change that. Times may be hard, but that’s what makes us all strong and even more sure of ourselves. And if you need help, never be afraid to ask. It will get better, I promise.

Thanks for stopping by! 

***

A.J. Walkley is the author of Queer Greer and Choice. She is currently writing her third novel, Vuto, inspired by her experience as a U.S. Peace Corps health volunteer in Malawi, Africa. Follow her on Twitter @AJWalkley and Facebook at facebook.com/ajwalkley.

Link to buy Queer Greer: http://bit.ly/zsnW8Y

If you'd like a chance to win an electronic copy of the book, leave a comment. Be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you.

Shattered Souls Synopsis

Here it is!  The synopsis for Shattered Souls - the final Imprinted Souls novel! 

It has been thirty years since Lexi made her choice.  With time, many things have changed, but others… never will.

As her past comes back to haunt her, one vampire is destroyed, and Lexi is the one blamed for his true death.  She is now being hunted by her own kind, and as much as Nicholas tries to protect her on his own, that is not enough.  He needs help, and he values her far too much to ask for help from just anyone.

They encounter ghosts of their pasts, face their worst fears, and above all, heartbreaks strong enough to shatter souls beyond repair.

Shattered Souls - Chapter 1 Sneak Preview

As promised, here is the Shattered Souls sneak preview (unedited).

There are SPOILERS!  I recommend reading Imprinted Souls/Bloodlust/Divine Ashes/Blood Bound, before reading this chapter.

HAPPY READING! 

 Shattered Souls

 Chapter 1

Manhattan, 2042

When you have an eternity to live, it doesn’t take long before you feel like you’ve seen it all… that you have ‘lived’ it all.  With time, it becomes more pleasant to live by re-living your memories than to make new ones.  In a way, I think that was what he had in mind when he gave me that journal.

This drastic realization didn’t come slowly… it wasn’t something that built up with time.  Everything just really hit me tonight.  I had never been great with birthdays anyway.  I knew that something was bound to happen. 

The journal wasn’t even that big of a surprise.  Yes, it wasn’t his usual type of gift.  He usually went for the extravagant vacations and designer clothes.   He had been saying for a while that I should start writing a journal.  That there are things… memories that should never be forgotten… especially when you have an eternity to live. 

Anyway, in human years, I am supposed to be forty-eight years old… looking at the mirror, I saw the same girl who was weeks away from finishing high school when she – I was turned into a vampire.  The worst was that my reflection was a constant reminder of the worst events of my life.  I looked the same as I did when my parents last saw me.  The same as when my soul mate died, coincidently around my birthday.  Truly, I still blamed myself for what happened to Matt.  No matter which way I looked at it, it was my fault. 

It was as if the world around me changed, but I stayed the same.

I sat in front of the mirror for a very long time.  I felt empty… as empty as I felt thirty or so years ago.

“Lexi, are you about ready?  We have to be there soon.”

“Yeah, just give me five minutes.”

I stood up, changed into the cute black dress and Christian Louboutin shoes that he bought me earlier this week and put on a happy face for the one who did just about anything for me.  He did everything that he could to try and make me forget my past… to forget his past.  Over the years we traveled so much and took so many classes that I thought I could probably do just about anything by now.  That was one thing I had no regrets about.  The choice that I had made nearly thirty years ago led me to have what any human would consider to be a lifetime of happiness. 

When five minutes went by and I was still not ready, he came for me.  He knocked on the door.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah.”

I was just putting on my shoes.  He froze at the door and smiled.  “Good thing I don’t need to breathe.  If I was human you would have taken my breath away.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes at him.  I knew that he was trying to cheer me up.  He could sense my mood just like he could thirty years ago.

“Are you still not telling me where we are going?”

“Nope,” he walked toward me, gently moving a lock of hair behind my ear and then leaning closer to kiss me.  Out of habit, when he stopped kissing me, I started to lean forward for more.  His kisses left me just as dazed as they did decades ago.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black silk scarf, putting it over my eyes.  I smiled.  Then I could feel his lips on mine again.

“I thought we had somewhere to go?” I said when he stopped kissing me.

“We do.”

He led me out of the room and out of the apartment.  I tried to rely on my senses to figure out where we were going.  I could hear the elevator.  We got in and seconds later it stopped.  I thought it was stopping for someone to get in, but he grabbed my hand, fingers entwined, and led me out of the elevator.  I could feel the breeze, but I no longer felt the cold weather.  I guess you could say that was one of the perks from being what I was.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“You will find out soon enough.”

We took a few more steps forward.

I could feel him standing behind me.  He leaned forward, kissing my neck as he removed the blindfold.

I was mesmerized by what I was seeing.  We were at the rooftop of our building.  One of my favorite places to as he called it, ‘run away from reality’.  All around us, there were clear Christmas lights everywhere. 

“This is amazing!” I said.

He shrugged.  “You deserve amazing things.”

I turned to face him.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For?”

“For being you… for making another birthday bearable.”

“Bearable?  Come on, Lexi…. Things are not that bad.”

“Sorry.  I didn’t mean it like that.  You know how I am with birthdays.”

“Yeah… I know… hopefully my next surprise will cheer you up again.”

“There is more?”

He nodded and looked to his left, where there were blankets on the ground, along with a dark bottle, which obviously contained blood, and two wine glasses.

“So, is this surprise for me or you?” I asked in a sarcastic tone.

He shrugged.  “For you, of course… although I can’t say that I won’t benefit from it.”

I took my shoes off and we both lied down.  He put his arm around me, pulling me closer.  I rested my head on his chest and we just watched one of the few things that year-after-year never changed… the dark sky of NYC with stars that could be seen only from rare places like the rooftop where we were.  I just watched those stars, as he pulled me even closer to him and whispered, “Happy Birthday, little minion.”

30 Days of Hunger Games- Reaping Day!

Reaping Day!

Please remember to visit WoW daily, in case I miss one of the daily posts. :)

As promised, Day 9 is Reaping Day! Unfortunately, we did not have enough males to enter nor did we have enough tributes enter. There were at least 23 of you who did enter, so thank you all for that! But not every district was assigned to a person, so unfortunately I have come to a decision and there will be only 16 of you that make it through reaping. I am so sorry for this, but I still hope you guys had a good time! Please come back for the other days and keep on commenting! (:

Without further ado..here are the 16 tributes that made it past the reaping!

District 1-

District 2-












District 3-










District 4-

District 5-

District 6-

District 7-

District 8-

District 9-

District 10-

District 11-

District 12-

Congratulations to all the tributes that are representing their district in the 74th Annual Hunger Games! WoW will be posting up more information later on how the process works and how we will come up with the one last person standing! Thank you to all those that did enter! Be sure to enter in the other giveaways we have going on for the 30 Days! I apologize for the weird placing of the pictures, blogger is being stupid :(

Oh and WoW is still looking for some blogs to help out, so feel free to sign up and WoW will contact you for more info! (:


Until next time!