Thursday, January 31, 2013

Small Town Sinners now in paperback!

Did you know Melissa Walker's novel SMALL TOWN SINNERS is now available in paperback? Get your copy today!

Lacey Anne Byer is a perennial good girl and lifelong member of the House of Enlightenment, the Evangelical church in her small town. With her driver's license in hand and the chance to try out for a lead role in Hell House, her church's annual haunted house of sin, Lacey's junior year is looking promising. But when a cute new stranger comes to town, something begins to stir inside her. Ty Davis doesn't know the sweet, shy Lacey Anne Byer everyone else does. With Ty, Lacey could reinvent herself. As her feelings for Ty make Lacey test her boundaries, events surrounding Hell House make her question her religion.

Melissa Walker has crafted the perfect balance of engrossing, thought-provoking topics and relatable, likable characters. Set against the backdrop of extreme religion, Small Town Sinners is foremost a universal story of first love and finding yourself, and it will stay with readers long after the last page.

We interviewed Melissa when her novel officially released in hardcover here. Check it out. Also, Melissa is doing a cool giveaway on her blog! Hop on over and find Melissa's book in the wilds of the book world! haha!

Good luck!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Winners!

Thanks to all who entered our  "revamped website" giveaway!

Our winners are Shari Green and Heather Holden!  Ladies, please e-mail me at admin@tinaferraro.com, and let me know which of my books--The Starter Boyfriend or Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress--you would like to receive as a Kindle, Barnes and Noble or Smashwords download!




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Revamped Website Giveaway!

My wonderful web designer, Terri Soderstrom, and I did a revamp of my author website!  I'm thrilled with the new look, and invite all our readers to check it out HERE.

While you are there, scroll through the pictures/captions in the top portion of the home page.  There are six.  Then come back and tell us, in the comments, which picture you liked best.  (Details not important, simply "the couple" or "the shocked girl" is fine.) 

Two commenters will randomly be chosen and announced next Monday, January 28th.  The winners can choose between these two books, in electronic form (Kindle,  Nook, Smashwords):



Good luck to all who enter, and hope you enjoy the new website!  

Friday, January 18, 2013

Disney Cats, Take Two!

About a year and a half ago, we ran a post here at YA Fresh about hundreds of cats who live behind the scenes at Disneyland.  This was substantiated by my cousin, Megan, a former employee, with both quotes and a picture.  We asked our readers if they knew or had heard about cats at The Happiest Place on Earth, and got lots of comments.

You can read more about it HERE.

Well, this week, one of our regular readers, Sydney, forwarded a picture to us that she took recently outside Soarin' Over California at Disney California Adventure.  She remembered our post and is allowing me to share it!


Many thanks to Sydney for this photo. And we'd love to hear from more readers.  Ever seen a cat lurking around the Anaheim Disney lot? 

Friday, January 11, 2013

What's Fresh with Lucienne Diver's Fangtabulous

Can a fanged fashionista take out a deadly Salem spirit?

Being on the lam from the Feds and the vampire council with no money is not as glamorous as it sounds, especially when I, Gina Covello, fashion queen of the undead, am forced to abandon my wardrobe. Salem, Massachusetts, seems like a great place to hide our supernatural gang. But who knew the city would be crawling with ghosts? The nasty spirit of George Corwin, infamous sheriff from the witch trial days, is on a killing spree. It’s up to us to take down the breath-stealing phantom—without blowing our cover.

Great to have you with us again, Lucienne! Please share with our readers at YA Fresh what your latest release Fangtabulous is about:

Lucienne: In a nutshell, my heroine Gina Covello and her fanged gang are on the run from the Feds, their former employers, who they discovered were experimenting on their fellow hemo-sapiens for fun and profit. Strapped without cash or credit cards—a fate worse than death for Gina—the rebels must find a place to lay low. They roll into Salem, Massachusetts, the most haunted town in America and the only place they have friends flying under the radar. But within a day, Gina and her gang are embroiled in a murder mystery of the supernatural kind.

Someone—or something—is strangling young women, and it's rumored to be the ghost of Sheriff Corwin, late of the Salem Witch trials. Is it the ghostly Sheriff or is someone on this side of the veil using the famous story as a cover up? Gina is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, and she needs to do it before a paranormal reporter on the scene exposes them for what they are...fanged federal fugitives.

What’s the weirdest thing you were doing or the weirdest place you were when you came up with part of this book?

Lucienne: For Fangtabulous I was shown around Salem by an actual vampire…or at least a friend of mine who’s part of the vampire community (which you get a glimpse of in the previous book, Fangtastic). He also runs a gothic magic show, much like Donato, a character in the new book. It was wonderful, because I really got a behind the scenes look at the town. I visited Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery, the Witch Dungeon Museum, The House of the Seven Gables (Nathanial Hawthorne’s house), The Old Burying Point Cemetery and a host of the other places mentioned in Fangtabulous.

Is there a character you thought would be in the book, but who landed on the cutting room floor? Conversely, is there a character you never expected to appear, but turned out to be intrinsic to the story?

Lucienne: I think it would break my heart to have a character end up on the cutting room floor. That’s never happened to me, but characters taking over…I’m all about that. Actually, my protagonist for the Vamped series (Gina Covello, fashionista of the fanged) was only supposed to have a short story…a vignette really. But she just wouldn’t shut up, and eventually I had to give her a whole novel, then a series! Once the series got underway, the two characters who really surprised me were Alistaire, the creepy “bad” guy from Vamped and Revamped and Ulric, the cocky goth guy who appears in Revamped and makes a triumphant return in Fangtabulous, the latest book. (Don’t know why I put Alistaire’s “bad” in parentheses. He’s definitely that, but there’s just something about him…readers and my editor wanted him back for an encore and he insisted.) Some characters simply refuse their cues to leave the stage. They’re the most fun.

What do you like to do when you aren't writing?

Lucienne: Experience overwhelming guilt because I should be writing. Oh, you mean for fun! For fun, I like the beach, amusement parks with my family, parties, scrapbooking, beading, doing puzzles and watching forensic shows. (Or, as my husband calls them, my “dead people” shows.)

Thanks again, Lucienne! What's one piece of writing advice you would give to aspiring authors?

Lucienne: Writing is work as much as it’s fun, enervating as much as energizing. Don’t let the self-doubt demons get to you. Difficult doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. Some things will come more easily to you than others, but you have to master all aspects of the craft, which means that other things you’ll wrestle like your hero or heroine does the villain of your piece. It will get easier with practice.

Lucienne Diver writes the humorous, suspenseful Vamped series of young adult vampire novels for Flux Books, including Vamped, Revamped, Fangtastic and the most recent, Fangtabulous. Her short stories have been included in the Strip-Mauled and Fangs for the Mammaries anthologies edited by Esther Friesner (Baen Books), and her essay on abuse is included in the anthology Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperTeen). She also writes the Latter-Day Olympians urban fantasy series for Samhain (Bad Blood, Crazy in the Blood and the forthcoming Rise of the Blood).

Friday, January 04, 2013

Huge YA Book Giveaway

We'd like to point our YA readers to a terrific indie book giveaway happening HERE on author Elle Casey's website!   

She is offering up dozens of books by numerous authors--multiple copies of each--so there are lots of opportunities to win!

Included in the list are two books we've chatted up here at YA Fresh:  HIGH SCHOOL HANGOVER by Stephanie Hale and THE STARTER BOYFRIEND by Tina Ferraro (uh, me).  As you will see in the giveaway instructions, you can specifically request to be entered to win those books--or any of the others. 

Skip on and check out the fun.  And good luck! 


Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Happy New Year!!!

Wow, another year for YA Fresh! It's been amazing having so many great authors who have shared with us about writing, books, and reading. We are proud to interact with readers and chat with all of you about fresh books.

Here's to another great year with all our visitors in 2013!!

Happy New Year!!