Friday, May 23, 2014

#CoverReveal ADAM'S LIST by Jennifer Ann #NewAdult #romance



Adam’s List by Jennifer Ann 
Publication date: June 2014
Genres: New Adult, Romance


She’s ready to give up on life, hiding her depression with sarcasm and booze.
He’s quit college and is directionless with few friends to lean on.
When they discover each other, the sexual attraction is undeniable. So why does it seem impossible for them to be together?


Everyone wanted to be Jewels Peterson in high school. Naturally beautiful, exceptionally smart, talented cheerleader, life of the party, and with an All-American boyfriend to boot. One regrettable choice and fatal accident later, and Jewels found herself unceremoniously knocked off her pedestal. Now she’s in college, going through the motions, but not really living.

Adam Murphy is easy-going, charming, considerate, and crazy good looking; he’s exactly the kind of guy Jewels pictures herself being happy with. But Jewels is already involved with someone, and Adam makes it known that he’s guarding a dark secret, one that makes him the wrong guy for her. Trumped by the promise of an innocent friendship, Jewels is forced to ignore her overwhelming hunger for Adam.

After Jewels unknowingly helps Adam create a bucket list, they embark on the adventure of a lifetime that pushes their platonic relationship to its limits. But does she want to be with Adam without knowing the truth behind the skeletons in his closet, or is being with him just another pointless thing in her life?


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21920169-adam-s-list?ac=1


AUTHOR BIO:
When Jennifer Ann isn't writing heart wrenching romance novels with hot scenes, she either has her nose stuck in someone else's book, is curled up watching a movie, can be found taking pictures of other people (not in a creepy way), or is rocking out at a concert.

Jennifer writes New Adult books that pull at your heart strings one minute, then want a cold shower the next. She's currently getting ready to release her upcoming novel ADAM'S LIST, coming summer 2014.

Author links: 

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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

#BookBlast METAMORPHING by Kunal Pancholi #thriller




About the Book

28TH APRIL, 2000: Flight No. 9x4876 bound to Srinagar has crash landed into the Everest Base camp. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the flight mysteriously went off the radar for few minutes and missed its landing. All passengers are feared dead… except for three bodies that are yet to be recovered.

8TH DECEMBER, 2050:This, without doubt is the most gruesome murder in recent times. Early this morning, an unidentified woman was found mutilated at the western gates of the abandoned Victoria Terminus Station in Mumbai. Authorities report her head was … well … semi-decapitated and she was drained of all her blood. The shocking part - the crime scene was devoid of any signs of blood spatter…

ROHAN: He was shorter than the shortest girl in school; he had to be ahead in the game!

RUDRA: A man without a past, coaxed into a murder investigation; will he ever grasp the true nature of the crime?

A thrilling tale about two men bound by an untraceable yet undeniable fate - One running away from his past, another unaware of his own.




The Book Trailer



Lesser Known Facts About the Book:
- There is a very strong / intense story of love that is present throughout the book.
- 'Metamorphing' as such is not a real word, rather not a word that is used in the sense that it is supposed to mean (Metamorphosing). I had to spell it out to all publishers while making my submission for the book that I am aware of this fact and I was only playing with words. Was worried that I could get rejected at the mention / sight of the name of the book itself!
- A sneak peek into the college life of a student of Criminology - Learning the ropes of detection, deduction and crime scene investigation.
- There is a Vampire in the book!
- As of now its a trilogy with two parts.
- At one point in time, one part of the book was supposed to be based in the 1900s.

 

Author’s Profile


Kunal Pancholi graduated from SRCC Delhi in 2001. He completed his MBA from NMIMS Mumbai in 2006. Previously, in his professional career he has worked with banks, co-founded READO - an audio book publishing company and done a marketing stint with a film production company in Mumbai. Currently he heads Sales & Marketing at a technology start-up. He lives in Chennai with his wife, parents, sister and grand-mom.




Interact with him
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Friday, May 16, 2014

#NewRelease WHOLE LATTE LOVE by Rachelle Ayala #newadult #romance

Meet Dylan and Carina, lovers from Rachelle Ayala's newest romance, Whole Latte Love.

Available from:
Amazon US | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | IN | JP | AU | BR | MX | CA
Add to your Goodreads
Investment banking intern Carina Chen doesn’t need any distractions—especially the sexy, guitar-playing barista she rooms with for the summer.

Free spirit Dylan Jewell appreciates the delightful universe of women who vie for his attention. His goal in life is to do good, make happy coffee, and help the homeless.

When Carina moves in, she insists on rules of conduct to quell her instant attraction to Dylan. But when her boss asks her to turn Dylan into a businessman, she can’t think of a reason not to take advantage of his hospitality.

Their chemistry is white hot, but Dylan refuses to play Carina’s game, unable to understand how he can fall in love with a woman who puts profits in front of people. When Carina realizes Dylan isn’t budging, she risks all to gain a single night with him. Will her gambit backfire or will Dylan discover Carina’s true heart before she runs away with his?

Set in Berkeley, California, Whole Latte Love is an opposites-attract romance mixing bluesy rock music, hot, steamy love scenes, and financial shenanigans.


Whole Latte Love (Excerpt) by Rachelle Ayala

Carina Chen had no time for nonsense.
“Show off.” She couldn’t help glaring at the shaggy-haired barista as he demonstrated the art of milk frothing to a gaggle of college girls.
Hair flipping and eyelashes fluttering, they oohed and ahhed nonstop while he spun milk underneath the steam nozzle. When he layered the milk over a cup of espresso, they squealed as if they were in the middle of a group orgasm.
Carina elbowed her way through the crowded coffee shop and ordered her cup from the female barista, whose line was much shorter. Serving lattes didn’t require sleek muscles and gem-blue eyes.
“Yummy.” Her friend Sheila checked her watch. “I come just to watch the show. Wonder which one he’ll take home tonight.”
“Only one?” Carina set her cup on the table. “Enough about him. I still haven’t found a room for the summer. Didn’t you say you had a friend needing a renter?”
Sheila stole her gaze from the demonstration of coffee-making prowess and licked her lips. “Yeah, let’s wait for his break, and I’ll introduce you.”
Carina looked toward the espresso machine. “Him? Never mind. I’m not sure I could stomach the guy. He’s got to be full of himself.”
Sheila’s eyes wandered back to the front counter and lingered. “You have to admit, he’s hotter than the Sahara.”
“That’s exactly my point.” Carina watched him hand a steaming mug to a perky cheerleader. His mischievous smile did funny things to her insides and it wasn’t even directed at her. “I need a quiet place to crash after my eighteen-hour days, not some bachelor pad with nightly orgies. I can imagine the revolving door on his bedroom. No thanks.”
Despite her hasty denial, warm flutters bubbled in her belly when the barista stepped out from behind the counter. He was broad-shouldered, but not bulky, and he moved with the easy grace of a mountain lion as he collected the empties. Heck, the man probably boosted Abercrombie & Fitch’s stock price two full points each time he bent over to wipe a table.
“You could at least meet the guy before you pass judgment.” Sheila folded her arms. “Look, the important thing is, he has a great apartment close to the Berkeley BART station.”
Easy access to rapid transit was a point in his favor, but … “You sure he’s safe?”
“I promise. Dylan’s a boy scout. Besides,” Sheila said with a sly smile, “an orgy or two might do you some good.”
While Carina struggled to close her gaping mouth, Sheila raised a hand to wave him over.
Dylan wiped his palms on his apron and pulled a stool from the next table.
“Hey, what’s up?” He greeted Sheila with a nod and trained his eyes on Carina.
Up close, he was even more swoonworthy. Wavy brown hair hung almost to his neck, and his jaw was stubbly, as if he’d forgotten to shave a day or two. His presence filled all available breathing space between them, and his piercing gaze felt like a tractor beam drawing Carina toward him.
“Dyl, this is Carina Chen. She needs a room to rent,” Sheila said. “She’s working at Mogul this summer.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dylan said. “Investment banking?”
“Intern analyst.” Carina tamped down the pride swelling in her chest as well as a more worrying heat in her lower regions. “I got the offer two days ago, last minute.”
“Cool!” He gave her a thumbs up, and the thick silver cuff on his wrist glinted in the late afternoon sunlight coming through the window. “My roommate moved out two days ago. Must be fate.”
It had to be the sun’s heat that was making her sweat under her suit jacket. Nope, it was definitely not Dylan’s sideways grin nor the way his veins moved over his large hands when he flexed his fingers.
“How much?” Carina’s voice barely squeaked past her tight vocal cords.
“Your share of the rent’s twelve-hundred a month. We split the utilities. You get your own bedroom but we’ll share a bathroom.”
Sharing a bathroom with a guy might get tricky. Where would she hide her feminine products?
“You’ll love it,” Sheila cut in. “It’s close to shopping, restaurants, and the campus.”
“That’s so much more than I paid in Philadelphia,” Carina said. “I don’t know Berkeley very well. Is that what rentals go for around here?”
“It’s much less than San Francisco, especially the Financial District.” Sheila hopped off her barstool. “I gotta hit the loo. Text me when you’re ready to leave.”
“Wait, I’m not sure.” Carina faltered. Why was she acting like this was a blind date? It wasn’t like she hadn’t lived in a coed dorm before. Besides, a guy satisfied to work in a coffee shop was not her type, so there should be no worries whatsoever about wanting him for a boyfriend.
Dylan placed his smartphone on the table. “I have to get back to the job. Call yourself from my cell so I’ll have your number.”
Zing. His killer grin hit the mark, right between her thighs. The guy knew what he was doing. Oh no, she wasn’t giving her number to that kind of man. She’d ask Sheila if she knew of any women needing roommates. She still had one more day to hit the streets and go over listings, and she most definitely was not going to be another phone number on his to-call list.
“I still have a few other places to check out.” Carina picked up her coffee cup. “Do you think I could get a takeout cup for this?”
Dylan grasped the handle, his fingers lingering a beat too long against hers. “Even better. I’ll make you a new one. This one’s cold.”
Carina’s cheeks warmed as a tingly shiver worked its way up her arm. Geez, she wasn’t usually this hormonal.
“Wait, your phone …” Carina picked up Dylan’s phone and walked toward the counter where he prepared the coffee. A poster plastered on the wall showed him strutting with his guitar onstage with a band called The Licked Blues. They had a gig at a club later this evening. Typical. Another guy wasting his life away with no prospect of financial success.
“Almost done.” Dylan layered the espresso on the bottom of the cup and dipped the milk pitcher up, then lowered it and cut across.
Carina gasped as a creamy heart floated to the top.
He handed her the takeout cup and rested one elbow on the counter. “Carina, if you room with me, I’ll have one of these for you every morning.”
His voice caressed her name like the languid beckon of a lover calling her back to bed.
Carina swallowed hard, but before she could respond, Dylan swung toward an elderly woman positioning her walker to get out of a booth. The college girls waved and vied for his attention, but he took his time helping the woman to the door before going back for their orders.
I’m a goner now.
Carina typed her number into Dylan’s phone.

Author Bio:
Rachelle Ayala is the author of dramatic fiction crossing genres and boundaries featuring strong but flawed characters. She writes emotionally challenging stories and is not afraid of controversial topics. However, she is an optimist and laces her stories with romance and hope.

Rachelle is an active member of online critique group, Critique Circle, an active member of the California Writer’s Club, Fremont Chapter, and a volunteer for the World Literary Cafe. She is a very happy woman and lives in California with her husband. She has three children and has taught violin and made mountain dulcimers.


Blog: http://www.rachelleayala.com or follow @AyalaRachelle on Twitter. Subscribe to mailing list for upcoming books and giveaways. http://eepurl.com/lR5kv

Buy Her Books
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Sunday, May 11, 2014

#WeNeedDiverseBooks WRITING MULTIRACIAL CHARACTERS by Rachelle Ayala #literature #writertip

The Multiracial Reality
The settings for my contemporary novels take place in California. If you’ve been to the San Francisco Bay area or Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, then you know that the local neighborhoods and schools are a true melting pot or salad bowl of people from many cultures and ethnic groups.


This is my reality growing up and living in the present. So when it comes to novel writing, I write multiracial characters because I live in a multicultural environment. I’m Asian American married to a Latino, but that should not limit me to writing only Asian American and Latino characters. As a writer, I am able to put myself in different situations and immerse myself to the cultural backgrounds of those around me. But most importantly, people are basically the same, and made to be one family, so writing characters across the spectrum of ethnicities is natural to me. Indeed, it would feel forced to homogenize my characters into a single type of background.

Are there any pitfalls to writing multiracial characters?
The number one area is in description. People in the United States are so sensitive to perceived racism that many authors are afraid to describe a person based on their ethnicity. You get coy references to almond shaped eyes, light tan skin tone, or maybe the wool-like hair. Wouldn’t it be neat if the characters could come out and be proud of their multiple identities and claim them? I was reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer, and I could picture the annoying Seeker being of Asian descent. Here is Ms. Meyer’s description:
“She was very small. If she had remained still, it would have taken me longer to notice her there beside the Healer. She didn’t draw the eye, a darkness in the bright room. She wore black from chin to wrists—a conservative suit with a silk turtleneck underneath. Her hair was black, too. It grew to her chin and was pushed back behind her ears. Her skin was darker than the Healer’s. Olive toned.” Meyer, Stephenie (2010-04-21). The Host: A Novel (Kindle Locations 455-458). Hachette Book Group. Kindle Edition.
In many stories, we are often left with a guessing game. If the author leaves out racial and ethnic tags, the assumption is the character is white. But if the author puts it in, some may object and say it shouldn’t make a difference. Well, that’s the point. It shouldn’t make a difference, but in order not to be invisible on the printed page, I believe the author should make it part of the description so that the reader gets the entire picture of the world the author is describing.
The second pitfall is stereotyping. There are certain stereotypes everyone holds, for better or for worse. There are also certain cultural traits, maybe an emphasis on family or food, that are real. The key is to create your character as a multi-faceted individual without regard to whether they fit the culture or buck the trend. Portray your character realistically and don’t worry about what others may say. Your character is unique with flaws and good points. If you try too hard to clean up a character because you’re afraid of stereotyping, you run the risk of cardboard perfection. Interesting characters, like people, come from all different backgrounds and have their own annoying peeves. The more multi-dimensional they are, the less likely they will come across as stereotypical.
That’s it for the pitfalls. The rest is all enrichment. Make your novel full of fun and interesting people with serious problems, high stakes, conflict and tension first. Then add the spice of multiracial characters to enhance the richness of your story and truly reflect the world around us.

My contemporary novels all include multiracial main characters. Jennifer Cruz Jones is Puerto-Rican and Cajun. Maryanne Torres is Ohlone, Mexican, Irish, French, and Chinese, and Lucas Knight is African-American and Caucasian. Vera Custodio, Romeo Garcia, and Evie Sanchez are Filipino, and Carina Chen is Chinese. There's nothing in the storylines that require the characters to be what they are. The books are not about the common "ethnic" issues like immigration, racism, or obsessed with identity. They're simply stories of love, danger, suspense, growing up, and family. Regular people living extraordinary story lives. And at the end, that is what we all are. People who are different in the same way who cut across imagined boundaries and portray the many facets of contemporary life.

What are some of your favorite multicultural novels? Are the characters more or less memorable because of their multifaceted background? Do you think a novel with all-one-kind-of characters is realistic in today's North America, Europe, and Australia?

You can encourage authors to write more diverse books by reading them and tweeting them at hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks to keep this movement going.

Next on my reading list is Americanah by Nigerian born author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. What are you reading next?


 

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

#WeNeedDiverseBooks Because People are People Everywhere #amreading

I have never liked labeling people. In fact I dislike labels, whether it's brand names, neighborhoods, or countries. So I write what I write and my characters reflect my reality.



I'm glad that there's a movement (#WeNeedDiverseBooks) to recognize diversity in literature. I think it's a good thing. Of course, race, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation can make some people uncomfortable. And some writers are hesitant to include characters outside of their perceived mainstream. However I want to encourage everyone to read and write characters that are different from themselves.

Why do I write stories with Asian-American, Latino, Black, White, disabled and mixed raced characters? Because they are real to me. It's not just because I'm Asian-American married to a Latino, and dated Black and White men in the past, and lived in the International Living Center during college. And I'm not trying to claim "creds" saying I can write about them because I associate with and make friends with everyone no matter what their backgrounds are. I write what comes naturally to me, and the truth is? I give hardly a thought pattern when creating my characters what their ethnicity would be, or their name for that matter.

For example, the main character in Whole Latte Love was originally an Indian-American marketing intern named Pavani who is forced to work with a customer-service engineer whose last name is Jewell. The story shifted and changed. Pavani's voice did not work and she became Carina. Carina turned into a Chinese-American when the last name Chen popped into my head. The customer-service engineer became a barista and the setting went from Silicon Valley to Berkeley.

Vera Custodio, my favorite character who appears in Broken Build, Hidden Under Her Heart, and stars in Knowing Vera was a minor character. She was originally Latina, but when she invited Jen to her house, Filipino dishes started flying into my mind. Maybe I had just salivated for pancit malabon, so I was busily researching recipes, or it could be that my seventh grade locker-buddy's last name is Custodio, but in any case, Vera felt right as a Filipina.

In Hidden Under Her Heart, Maryanne's love interest, Lucas Knight, is a biracial man. I suppose I could have made him anything. But he just felt right as Lucas, a guy whose father was an Australian Olympic swimmer and mother was an American track star. Zach, his buddy, suffers an amputation while rescuing Maryanne, so when he became the hero in Knowing Vera, he was already disabled.

The thing is. I'm writing stories with multi-cultural characters, but my characters are not doing stereotyped things centered around their ethnicity. They are doing what regular people do: investigating murders, falling in love, getting kidnapped, working a job, making friends, enemies, and solving problems. They don't wrap themselves around a shroud of ethnicity, nor do they go around imparting Ancient Chinese wisdom, paint tea eggs all day and throw mahjong tiles at each other. They simply live, love, work, and play. Yes, they might do things a little differently because of culture, and the food could be different, maybe not. They might listen to rock, rap, country or techno, or maybe not. And like all of us, they adopt practices from the people around them. So, Dylan Jewell, a white American, makes Mexican hot-chocolate but adds a pinch of turmeric to it, and Evie Sanchez, a Filipina, likes hard rock and not hip-hop. That's okay, because everyone is an individual, and people are people everywhere.

So writers! Write diverse. Don't be afraid to write characters outside of your "background." If you can write vampires, space aliens, talking animals, Hobbits, and Elves, you can certainly write people without stereotyping. Readers enjoy it and it makes your stories more colorful and real.

Recently, I got this review on Taming Romeo from a reader who wonders why she had never read a Filipino romance. I quote her here:
Taming Romeo is different... in a good way.  I've read white romance, black romance, interracial romance, and, dare I say, even interspecies romance.  What I've never read is a Filipino romance, until now.  Do others exist?  Where have they been hiding?  I've never specifically looked for them, but I have looked for romance novels with a Japanese or even an Asian flair to them.  They are not easy to find. At. All. - See more at: Lost In a Book
The more books (diverse, if you want to call it that) we have, the more we'll discover that people are different in the same way, or same but different. And that's all right by me.

You're not too late. The hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks is still active and kicking. Add your voice to the mix. See TED Talks: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

By the way, here is my list of Filipino romances on Scribd, and Amazon Listmania.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

#blogtour TWO PERFORMANCE ARTISTS by Scotch Wichmann #comedy #humor



ABOUT THE BOOK

Hank and Larry are performance artists in San Francisco's underground performance art scene. But when the mind-numbing grind of their corporate jobs drives them over the edge, they plot the ultimate revenge: to kidnap their company’s billionaire CEO and brainwash him into becoming a manic performance artist.

Fueled by the author's performance art background, Two Performance Artists is a screwball dark comedy about best friends determined to tackle the American Dream with fish guts, duct tape, and a sticky AK-47.

Two Performance Artists is the first performance art novel by a working performance artist, tackling themes like fame, narcissism, and criticism, which are all timely in our "watch me!" age of reality TV, Instagram, and YouTube.

A first-round finalist in the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, the book straddles several genres—it's a madcap adventure, a pulpy action novel, a caper comedy, and a "bromance" for sure. One early reviewer called it "Office Space meets Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Jackass."


PURCHASE



ABOUT SCOTCH WICHMANN

            Performance artist SCOTCH WICHMANN was launched into the American art scene 23 years
ago with his debut piece, SNORTING MOUSE FUR, and he's been going strong ever since. Nominated with his performance troupe for Best Comedy and Best Stunt at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival, his work has become known for its surrealism, physical endurance, and Dadaist comedy at galleries and fringe festivals around the world.

            For more about Scotch, visit:
            Website and blog: www.scotchcomedy.com
            Twitter: @scotchwichmann
            Instagram: instagram.com/scotchwichmann
            Facebook: fb.com/scotchcomedy