The Art of Letting Go by Anna Bloom: A Guest Post by Anna and Anna on Making the Book's Cover #2 of 3

The Art of Letting GoThe Uni Files: Year One

Anna Bloom

The Art of Letting Go (The Uni Files: Year One)

Anna Bloom

Publication date: September 25th 2013

Genres: New Adult, Romance

Perception

(A Guest Post by Anna Bloom)

It’s funny, when I wrote The Art of Letting Go, the first novel in The Uni Files it never crossed my mind that it would make readers feel so many different things. That’s a crazy thing for someone like me to think but I did nonetheless. By someone like me, I mean a person of an imaginative persuasion who has been obsessed with books since they were eight years old.

I mean of course I always knew that when I read a book the way it made me feel, happy, scared or sad would not be the same as another person but it never ever occurred to me when I typed The End on the last page of my manuscript that people would find something different to me on the pages I was binding together with my tale.  I mean, I’m the author right? If I say it should read one way then surely it should??

Not so much, and a big fat raspberry to me for forgetting the power that the written word has. And a second big raspberry to me for forgetting that perception is the key to everything.

Some readers have found it laugh out loud funny and have related to the fun aspects of the book. For others it has brought back happy but blurry memories of a misspent youth. Others have found it tragically sad and cried buckets at the end.

I’m going to share a little personal experience with you before I tell you how it made me feel, and that is what my most feared reader felt when she read it. My mum.

Now this is quite a sensitive subject because I was quite scared about my mum reading The Art of Letting Go, and I think she was just as worried herself. I mean, what if my mum hated it? Or what if she thought her daughter’s debut literary release was a complete pile of rubbish? That would be a bit awkward around the family dinner table next time I saw her.

Anyway, Mum refused to read it in draft form, not even the final version, she was determined to wait for it to come out so she could buy it. And she did. Then I heard nothing. Nooooothiiiing for days.

Well that’s great!

Finally my dad rang (my parents live abroad) and I answered Skype with fearful trepidation. “Your Mum has been face down crying on the bed for twenty minutes,” he told me. PANIC it was that bad I made her cry! Eventually mum shuffled into view on the computer, still sniffling. “That was so sad, but beautiful,” she said and then started to cry all over again. That was possibly one of the shortest conversations I have ever had with my mum.

My mum was definitely in the ‘Sad’ camp, and I’ll tell you a little secret, it actually made me really proud that I had managed to reduce my own mother to tears with the tale that I had to tell – and yes I know that’s a bit wrong.

So what did I feel when I wrote it? Well I felt it all. I laughed, I reminisced and I cried. I had my heart in my chest when I wrote that scene at the end, but more than all of that I felt this incredibly uplifting feeling in my soul that you can learn The Art of Letting Go and survive it.

It fills me with delight that every person who picks up my book has the ability to read it a different way. I wonder what you will feel when you read it?

A.B.

Anna Bloom on The Making of The Art of Letting Go Cover

It’s a bit different isn’t it? Well for a start no one is naked on it, which makes it definitely eye catching but maybe not for the right reason. 

You know they say never judge a book by its cover? Let’s be honest, we all do don’t we! It’s the first thing we see and it impacts the way we read the book. With Amazon Kindle and One-Click downloading you can download five books in two minutes and then weeks later when you are looking for a new book to read not remember a single thing they are about. So what do you do? You go for the most attractive or eye-catching cover that jumps out at you shouting “Read me now!”  

And well this is where my cover problems began. For my publisher I had to fill in a Cover Art Request Form, which I dutifully completed. Twice. Or was it three times? I can’t remember. Because the thing was I knew what I wanted, but I also knew what sells books and the two were not mutually compatible.

The Art of Letting Go is written as a diary, not a necessarily sober diary and my initial idea, and the concept I had in my mind for the longest time was to have the front actually look like a diary. I wanted splashes of red wine (my main character drinks way too much of the stuff) and have doodles all over it. You know what I mean, a proper teenage diary that a twenty-five year old probably shouldn’t be writing. “Lilah loves Ben,” love hearts, that sort of thing. Think Adrian Mole but with boobs and an alcohol tolerance problem.

I was all go. THAT IS WHAT I WANT.

But then I started to look at all the New Adult books being released in their hundreds, and guess what, they all had naked sexy people on the front shagging. Not, the idle doodles of a pisshead.

Form No #2. Please may I have mega sexy people kissing. . . pretty please.

Sadly I couldn’t live with myself, and I had to write yet another grovelling email asking them to scrap another request form. I felt that despite the pressure to be sexy I had to stick to my principles.

Enter my saviour of cover art in the form of a personal friend and awesome graphic designer Ms. Burket A.K.A Life and sanity saver. She listened to me ramble on and on one morning over a coffee and then later sent me a file with my perfect cover in it. Part diary, part kissy kissy romance. For me complete perfection.

So my cover doesn’t have naked people on it. There are no abs and no underwear in sight. It’s unique and different just like the character inhabiting the pages inside.

Someone told me not so long ago that I needed to sex up my cover if I wanted to crack the NA market, do you know what I say, over my dead body. There is no other cover for that book that ever would have worked. And I thank my lucky stars that my publisher let me use it.

So let’s have a big cheer for polaroid’s, another for doodles and another for embracing being different!

A.B

Purchase Links

Amazon


About the Author

Anna Bloom is a contemporary romance writer who writes about life as it happens. Combining a busy schedule of looking after two small children whilst working in a local school and completing The Uni Files series. Anna’s main aim in life is to create the perfect book which makes a reader laugh and cry at the same time, hopefully causing a convulsive (impossible to ignore) donkey noise. It’s a work in progress!  Anna also spends a lot of time imagining kissing hot guys – all in the name of her art.

Author Links

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7200943.Anna_Bloom

https://twitter.com/annabloombooks

http://annabloomwrites.com/

Guest Post by Natalie J. Damschroder, author of A Kiss of Revenge with Giveaway

a kiss of Revenge

by Natalie j. Damschroder

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense

Length: 211 pages

Release Date: November 2013

Imprint: Ignite

Marriage is completely over-rated, especially after Reese Templeton’s quadratic failure. She’d rather settle down to a solitary life of owning a bakery—after she tracks down the man responsible for her husband’s death and making her a human Taser full of enough electricity to short out a city block or send a man into cardiac arrest with just one kiss.

But alluring P.I. Griffin Chase is stirring up those feelings of need again. Only this time, her desire to be in his arms has nothing to do with her fear of loneliness and everything to do with the current charging through her body every time he looks at her…touches her.

Griffin hasn’t remained at Reese’s side just because of the spark that has nothing to do with her super-human talents. He’s willing to compromise his rock-solid principles so she can find closure. But before they can move on, he must help her catch her late husband’s killer, staying on track before she has a chance to exact her revenge. Because leading Reese to jail in handcuffs may just break his heart for the final time.

Excerpt:

Griff smiled, and Reese’s stomach did a whole flippin’ somersault.

“I had meetings at the office in Boston and was headed back to DC. I thought I’d stop in and see how you’re doing.”

She grabbed a towel to wipe off her ice-cream-sticky hands. “Crestview is not on the way to DC from Boston.”

He shrugged and pointed at the butter croissants in the bakery display case. “Close enough.”

With a pair of tongs, she selected the biggest croissant and put it on a plate. “Coffee?”

“Of course.” He leaned against the counter and folded his arms. “You have anything for me to check out?”

She shook her head. “Not at the moment.”

“What about him?” He jerked his head toward the sidewalk outside, where Andrew Laine stood talking to the couple who owned the hardware store. “He giving you any trouble?”

“Not anymore. I told him I was married.”

She cursed herself as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Griff’s gray-blue eyes darkened, his rock-solid chin tightening. He’d obviously meant “trouble” because of Reese breaking the law, not because the chief of police had asked her out.

“You’re not thinking—”

“No!” She grabbed the towel again and swept it over the few crumbs and coffee drips on the counter, scrubbing vigorously at one dried spot. “I didn’t want to shove him too far away, that’s all. As long as he had an interest, I could keep track of what he knew.” Even if it kept her on edge and fried her equipment. “Anyway, he knows now. It’s fine. You don’t have to worry.”

“You pay me to worry.”

That wasn’t strictly true. Griff was co-owner of a multi-city private detective firm. He ran Chase Investigations in Washington, DC, where Reese had lived before the plane crash. Reese had hired him to help her track down clues about whoever had tried to kill her. But they’d become friends. He’d helped her through physical therapy, been a sounding board while she dealt with her new reality, and was the only person on earth who knew what that lightning strike had done to her body.

“I’m paying you to do research,” she reminded him. “You choose to worry.”

He grinned and shook back his shaggy dark-blond hair. “You make it hard not to.”

Another group came in, and he retreated to a table with his breakfast. Reese saw Kimmie eyeing him, and the young woman flushed at his greeting. Reese couldn’t blame her. He had the classic “hunk” build, with a broad chest, narrow waist, and shoulders shown off by a tight gray T-shirt. His gray-blue eyes were nothing special at first glance, but they sparkled at everyone and made his charming smile even brighter. No doubt that smile was what pinned Kimmie in place now, wearing a slightly stunned expression.

Reese wasn’t immune, but her friendship with Griff had become one of the most important things in her life. It was something she’d never had before, and she was going to treasure it as long as it lasted.

About the Author:

Natalie J. Damschroder is an award-winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance—Love with a Shot of Adrenaline. She sold her first book in 1999, and 2014 will see the publication of her 15th novel. She grew up in Massachusetts and loves the New England Patriots more than anything. (Except her family. And writing and reading. And popcorn.) When she’s not writing, revising, proofreading, or promoting her work, she does freelance editing and works part time as a chiropractic assistant. She and her husband have two daughters she’s dubbed “the anti-teenagers,” one of whom is also a novelist. (The other one prefers math. Smart kid. Practical.) You can learn more about her and her books at www.nataliedamschroder.com.

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads /Google+ /Everybody Needs a Little Romance

And, almost last, but not least!  The Most Happy Reader is happy to welcome Natalie Damschroder and opens the blog for her guest post...  Take it away Natalie!

The 5 Biggest Advantages to Being a Human Taser

Thank you so much, Shannon, for having me here at The Most Happy Reader and helping me kick off the book tour for my latest release, A Kiss of Revenge!

AKoR’s heroine, Reese Templeton, is in a unique situation. She was almost killed in a plane crash after the sabotaged small plane she was in was struck by lightning. The after-effects of the electricity that paralyzed her while they were in the air have been…tricky. It’s taken a lot of work to learn how to control her body’s affinity for electricity. It seeks it, attracts it, gathers it. (It sometimes discharges it in messy, frustrating—and even frightening!—ways, but that’s another blog post. :) )

So here are the 5 biggest advantages to being a human taser:

1. Reese can always find an outlet, even in places that don’t make sense, like behind furniture or in old houses haphazardly retrofitted.

2. You know how in the winter, when you scuff your feet across the rug and then touch someone, they get zapped? Yeah, Reese can do that all the time. Muggers and handsy customers beware!

3. She never has to worry about her cell phone battery going dead.

4. When she has a house to break into and search for information that will lead her to the douchebag who tried to kill her, she can short out the alarms with one quick zap, buying her plenty of time before anyone figures out there’s a problem.

5. Kisses? Are REALLY electric. :)

Your turn! If you had the ability to suck electricity from any source, what would you do with it?

Oh, and about #3? For those of you who aren’t like Reese, make sure you enter the giveaway! The portable battery will ensure you’re never out of juice! :)

  

GIVEAWAY:

iFrogz GoLite – 2600 mAh Battery and Flashlight

Reese Templeton can draw power wherever she is…and now you can, too! 

Win this portable battery and charge any USB mobile device on the go.

Winner may choose the color; subject to availability; 

comparable substitution to be made if necessary. 

Shipping in U.S. only. International entries acceptable; 

non-U.S. winner will receive alternate prize, to be discussed).

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For the rest of the VBT schedule, clink on the banner below:

 Twitter Handles: @NJDamschroder; @EntangledSus; @EntangledPub; @BuytheBookTours

Hashtags: #NatalieDamschroder; #EntangledPub; #Ignite; #AKissofRevenge; #BuytheBookTours

Laura Strickland, author of Daughter of Sherwood, takes over The Most Happy Reader and offers a giveaway!

GATHERING HAPPINESS

by Laura Strickland

We don’t talk about being happy much, anymore.  Nor do we work very hard at achieving that state.  We do talk about being miserable and all the details that contribute to it: the traffic on the way to work and the driver who was glued to our back bumper; the amount of work in our inbox; the fact that the kids never put their dirty laundry in the hamper; the undisputed fact that no one else ever takes the dog out or puts the laundry away .The media and the internet both are flooded with stories of heartbreak and mayhem; they assault us every time we turn on the TV or go online.

It’s almost as if unhappiness has become our default, go-to emotion.  We make conversation with our friends and colleagues by complaining, sometimes ruefully, sometimes even humorously.  We share our misery.  It’s become increasingly easy to be critical, almost as if a kind opinion denotes weakness.  But what benefit comes of seeing faults in others or sharing discontent?  And how far do we need to reach in order to gather up some happiness?

I gave some serious thought to that question when asked to write a guest post for this site. It occurred to me that avid readers have a real leg-up in the happiness game.  Most of us know we only need to find a really good book to gather some contentment.  Which of us hasn’t delighted in a rainy afternoon curled up with the latest offering from a favorite author?  Which of us hasn’t looked forward all day to that moment when we can cuddle up in bed and read for a precious half hour before going to sleep?  Which of us hasn’t, then, stayed up way too late to finish a chapter because we just had to know what happened?  Which of us hasn’t discovered a new author with a flash of excitement and then devoured all his/her back catalogue?  Who hasn’t sighed a little when a cherished story ends?

Long before I became a writer, I was an avid reader and I still am.  In fact, the love of reading is what made me take up a pen in the first place.  As a child, my older sister would take me to our local library every Saturday where, precisely like a kid in a candy store, I had the delectable pleasure of choosing. I can still remember the smell of the library and the sheer excitement of checking out with half a dozen books entrusted to me by the librarian, knowing I had the inestimable pleasure of reading them ahead.  Every so often I’d find a real treasure, a book like Sally Watson’s Witch of the Glens or Louisa May Alcott’s Rose in Bloom that drew me into its world so completely I never wanted to reemerge.

Eventually it occurred to me that if I made up the story, it wouldn’t have to end too soon and I could make anything I wished happen.  In third grade, I penned my first mystery novel, The Haunted House, hand-printed and with a construction paper cover.  But what I truly wanted to do was create literary worlds that might capture my readers as I had been captivated in turn.

When I conceived of the idea for writing a Historical Romance based on the legend of Robin Hood, I told myself I must be crazy.  For one thing, it’s been done on both the large and small screen.  Ever since the days of that master writer, Howard Pyle, stories about Robin have been legion.  But oh, I said to myself, what an opportunity to create a world!  My Sherwood, I decided, would be a place of magic where the Saxon fight against Norman tyranny was rooted.  And my characters would be descendants of the legendary Robin and Marian – I wouldn’t take on the original story so much as extend it.  Soon I was lost in the writing, and in that world.  And so far many of my readers tell me they’ve become pleasurably lost there as well.

But what about achieving happiness?   Well, I happen to believe we’re faced with a choice every morning when we open our eyes: we can be happy or we can be miserable.  Let’s face it, we have to be something and if it’s up to me, I’ll choose happiness every time.  So, my fellow readers gather up your books and gather in some happiness.  Enjoy the stories you love and share them.  We who treasure the written word and revel in sending our imaginations on far flights of fancy have a great advantage in the fight for happiness.  We’ve discovered a secret, magical door and have only to crack it open with the covers of a book – or the buttons on our Kindle – to gather in a whole, heaping helping of happiness.  Read on!

Laura is the author of the newly released, Daughters of Sherwood, enter below for a chance to win a copy:

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Jamie Blair Guest Post and Leap of Faith Giveaway #2!

leap of faith

by Jamie Blair

Today The Most Happy Reader welcomes Jamie Blair and offers her our little piece of Cyberspace up for a guest post...

The Teen Pregnancy Book That’s Not

Guest Post: Jamie Blair

A handful of times over the past couple weeks, I’ve spotted Leap Of Faith being called a teen pregnancy book. The funny part of this to me is that the teen, Faith, in my book is never really pregnant. But, she does pretend that the baby, who is actually her newborn sister, is her own baby and the situation she gets herself into does make her a teen mom.

Faith, having grown up with an addict for a mom, more often than not with no food in the house, knows that her baby sister is in for an even worst childhood than she had. What starts in Faith’s mind as getting back at her mom turns into an enormous sacrifice as she takes the baby and goes on the run.

Taking care of a newborn isn’t glorified in Leap of Faith and that’s not because as the author I wanted to make the book a preachy, issue book. I wrote it for entertainment, not as a warning to readers. Having a newborn is portrayed as touch because it really is. Having a newborn is insanely hard. Anyone taking on the task of raising a baby needs a support system, and this is where Leap Of Faith gets tricky.

Faith not only finds her support system, but she finds the family she’s never had and always wanted. But, in the back of her mind, she knows her time there is limited. She’s told so many lies, it has to come to an end somehow.

When it all does come crashing down, Faith has a second sacrifice to make. She’s grown to love the family—and the boy—who have taken her and her baby in. But, in order to keep them from being implemented in any legal action Faith might face for kidnapping the baby, she knows she has to leave the perfect life she’s found behind.

Leap Of Faith isn’t a teen pregnancy book. It’s a book about sacrifice, love, family and hope.

More about Jamie...

AUTHOR BIO:

Jamie Blair spent most of her teen years choreographing moves for her dance team routines, kissing boys on the couch after her mom went to bed, and pondering the mood enhancement qualities of Lemon Heads when consumed with Diet Coke. Writing under Kelli Maine, she’s the USA Today bestselling author of Taken. Leap of Faith is her debut New Adult novel.

Author links:

Website: http://jamieblairauthor.blogspot.ca/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamieMBlair

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5418337.Jamie_Blair

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jamie-M-Blair/280042602029930

So after a two fun day run here at The Most Happy Reader Jamie is leaving us with a extra treat:  another giveaway!  Best thing is that this giveaway is only for the followers and readers of The Most Happy Reader.  The prize up for grabs is a  swag pack (signed postcard and Leap of Faith guitar pick).  

I'm sorry but this giveaway is for US Residents only!

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Also, pop over to yesterday's post and enter for some more cool prizes!  
Here's the link to that giveaway: http://themosthappyreader.blogspot.com/2013/10/leap-of-faith-by-jamie-blair-book-blitz.html