Winner!!!!! Donna won a copy of Persephone!
I used random number generator and removed my comments from the mix. Congrats Donna!

My publisher is celebrating their anniversary! To celebrate they are giving away a kindle fire and entire bags of swag. Want to win?

For each comment on each blog, you will be entered into the drawing for a Kindle Fire! ;(Example: you comment on 10 blogs, you get 10 entries into the drawing! ;The more blogs you comment on, the more entries you get!) ;Plus, each blog has their own contest going on! ;So, click the link and start hopping!

Plus if you comment on this blog you’ll be entered to win an e-copy of Persephone!

What’s Persephone? Read my Blurb and Excerpt to find out!

The “talk” was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they’re a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn’t until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life.

Excerpt:

The branch crashed in front of me, scraping my legs. I ran for the parking lot as fast as I could. The frost closed in, surrounding me. I’d never been claustrophobic, but as the frost cut off my escape path with a solid white wall, I panicked.

Fog rolled in, like cold death, cutting off my view of the park. It curled around me, brushing against my face, arms, and legs. I turned back to the tree and ran faster, my dress tangling between my legs as the fog and icy wind blew against my skin.

The parking lot is the other way! ;my mind screamed. The other way was cut off by a mountain of ice. I felt as if I was being herded. ;By ice?

I slipped on the icy ground, falling face first into the frost. Ice crept up my toes and along my legs. I thrashed and screamed. I felt the fog becoming a solid mass above me, pinning me to the ground. The ice piled around me. ;Am I going to be buried alive?

I dug my nails into the frigid snow in front of me and tried to claw my way out of the frosted death trap. I was so panicked I didn’t feel it when my nails broke against the impenetrable wall of ice, leaving red crescents of blood welling up on sensitive skin. An hysterical sob worked its way out of my throat as I gouged red lines into the ice. The ice was above my knees, snaking its way up my thighs. I shivered.

Shivering’s good, ;I reminded myself. ;It means your body hasn’t given up…yet. ;The cold was painful, like a thousand little knives pricking my skin. A violent tremor went up my spine, sending waves of pain through me.

“Help me!” I screamed, knowing it was futile. I was going to die here.

Except I couldn’t die. Could I? Mom said I was immortal, but was that all-inclusive? Did I have a weakness? Was snow my Kryptonite? If I got hurt, would I heal or would I be trapped in an injured body in pain forever?

I suddenly didn’t know if immortality was a good thing or a bad thing. The cold hurt. I was kicking, screaming, and clawing my way out of the frost, but for every inch I gained a mountain piled around me. I thought I heard a man’s laughter on the wind, the sound somehow colder than the ice freezing me into place.

The ground before my outstretched hand trembled. The shaking increased. The earth lurched beneath me. The surface cracked and the sound was so loud that for a moment all I could hear was high-pitched ringing in my ears. The ground split into an impossibly deep crevice. My voice went hoarse from screaming as I peered into the endless abyss, trapped and unable to move away from the vertigo-inducing edge.

~~~

Below is a link to a list of the blogs involved in this hop, so have fun and start posting! ;Good luck! ;The Blog Tour begins October 1st at Midnight EST and ends October 7th at MIDNIGHT (PST). ;Winners will be announced October 9th!

http://musapublishingbloghops.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/musa-turns-1-and-we-are-celebrating.html

Some background: Cassandra is a secondary character in my young adult novel, Persephone. She’s also a pretty major prophet in Greek Mythology

I can’t really call Cassandra my character. She’s popped up in books, movies, and television shows for centuries. She has a fascinating back story and manages to appear in a huge variety of myths. She helps Hercules, she witnesses the fall of Troy, and she even made a guest appearance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But every incarnation I’ve ever seen of Cassandra focused on one thing.

Her life sucked. She was raped by Apollo and cursed with visions of the future that no one would believe so long as she lived. The visions drove her nuts. Can you imagine what it would be like to know something horrible was going to happen and not do anything to stop it? As if all that wasn’t bad enough she was part of the royal house in Troy, and they weren’t treated very well after the war.

But that was life. My Cassandra’s a bit different because she’s dead. And she’s having a great time. She still has the visions, but that whole bit about no one believing her so long as she lived no longer applies. She’s Hades’ most trusted advisor, and she practically runs the Underworld. She’s over the top cheerful, but she’s got a healthy sense of snark. She doesn’t put up with much drama and has a very practical way of looking at things.

In all the scenes she’s in, her voice is always a welcome one. I’m even toying with the idea of writing a prequel that’s narrated by her, and her sister-in-law, Helen of Troy. I’d love to write that story, but the research aspect alone is daunting. Persephone appears in three major myths, and those three myths took weeks of research to tie in as many aspects into the story as possible. Troy… that’s a lot of material, and the Trojan war is just a fraction of the myths Helen and Cassandra are a part of.

It would be a long project, but I think it would be worth it. If I’m willing to wade through all that just to write more scenes with her, she really must be my favorite character.

Contest!!!!

Leave a comment below for a chance to win a copy of my novel, Persephone.

For additional entries, friend me on facebook and twitter. (see sidebar). Please comment once for each entry. Winner will be chosen Monday morning

Wiinner! Congrats Cat!

Michael over at My Glass House has tagged me in a game of Blog Tag. Thanks Michael for thinking of me!

I’m required to post the rules which are to answer the questions sent to me by Michael, come up with new questions (or keep using the old ones), and as is always the case with these things, tag eleven more bloggers.

1. Who is my favorite author? There are so many to choose from, it just depends on what I’m in the mood for! Most of the time it’s Kelley Armstrong. Her work reminds me of grown up versions of L.J Smith’s nightworld (the old books, I don’t know what happened with the new stuff). Great plots, interesting concepts, and I love the characters.

2. If I could live in another time period, what period would that be? I don’t want to live in another time period. I’d go back in time and visit, make some bank deposits and such, but I wouldn’t want to stay. I like my life here just fine. That, and indoor plumbing.

3. I’ve been published and just landed a movie deal. Which actors would I cast in the two main roles? I’d want Skyler Samuels from The Nine Lives of Chloe King to play Persephone, and David Giuntoli from Grimm to play Hades. I’d also take the girl from Kick Ass (Chloe Grace Moretz) as Persephone.

4. What is my most treasured possession (not people or animals)? My ipad. Yeah, shallow. I don’t have any major family heirlooms, but my ipad has everything on it, my books, my music, my pictures. Honestly, I don’t know how I functioned before it.

5. If I could live anywhere in the world and money where no object, where would I live? On a beach somewhere. I want lots of space, but I also want a grocery store and fun activities to be less than a fifteen minute drive away.

6. When I was a kid, what did I want to be when I grew up? Did I achieve it? I wanted to be a writer. So, yeah. I guess I did.

7. What’s my perfect day? A day with no plans and lots of cuddles with my toddler. I’m really really happy just hanging out at home with my family. When that gets boring, a perfect day involves having enough in the bank account to drive somewhere without worrying about gas, and to eat out, go to a movie, or go do something fun. It doesn’t matter what as long as I’m with them.

8. I get a HUGE advance for my first novel–$250,000. What’s the first thing I’d do with the money? I’d pay off my house, car, and student loans for myself and my husband. I’d probably also buy an electric car. I’m getting really sick of gas prices. What’s left over would go into savings for Bella’s college fund and retirement and all that good stuff.

9. How many times a day do you check your e-mail? I’m sort of always checking my email. It all gets sent to my phone, which I look at every few minutes…

10. What was my nickname in school and how did I get it? Kat and Kitty. Kat was just what I went by, and Kitty just kind of evolved from Kat. I’m short, and I was much cuter as a teenager. It fit.

I’m tagging: Dusty Crabtree, Sharon Ledwith, Amy Severson, Cornell Deville, Arley Cole, Stephanie Campbell, Liz DeJesus, Jack Hillman, L.K Mitchell, Sage Collins, and Cordelia Dinsmore.

Thanks for tagging me, Michael!