Author: DelSheree

DelSheree Gladden was one of those shy, quiet kids who spent more time reading than talking. Literally. She didn't speak a single word for the first three months of preschool. Her fascination with reading led to many hours spent in the library and bookstores, and eventually to writing. She wrote her first novel when she was sixteen years old, but spent ten years rewriting it before having it published. Native to New Mexico, DelSheree and her family spent several years in Colorado for college and work before moving back home to be near family. When not writing novels, you can find DelSheree reading, painting, sewing, and working with other authors. DelSheree has several bestselling young adult series and has hit the USA Today Bestseller list twice as part of box sets. DelSheree also has contemporary romance, cozy mystery, and paranormal new adult series. Her writing is as varied as her reading interests.

Cover Reveal: Wicked Hunger

COVER REVEAL & ARC GIVEAWAY

by DelSheree Gladden

Release Date: April 1, 2014
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of Wicked Hunger, the first book in the  Someone Wicked This Way Comes series. Get ready for this mouth watering adventure that will hit shelves on April 1, 2014. Check out below for more information on Wicked Hunger and don’t forget to enter the exclusive giveaway for a digital ARC of Wicked Hunger. 

“Love, love, love Wicked Hunger. It is deliciously consuming from beginning to end. My mouth is already watering for the next installment.” 
– Elizabeth Hathenbruck (Author of When The Apple Falls.)
Vanessa and Zander Roth are good at lying. Their whole life is a giant web of deceit made in an effort to conceal the deadly secrets that plague their family.

Zander will do anything to forget his mistakes, including pushing everyone away. He was barely surviving in his self-forced solitude before Ivy Guerra entered his life. The new girl in school, with her pink-striped hair and unyielding curiosity, incites something wicked inside Zander that can only be blamed on his family genes. Now Zander is forced to fight an internal war and make a choice between loving Ivy Guerra and killing her.

Vanessa wants nothing more than to shed the strange powers she wields and be normal. Because if Van were normal, she’d be able to have normal things… Like a relationship with the boy she’s been secretly in love with for years. Unfortunately, her life is anything but ordinary. That boy who owns her heart just happens to be her brother’s kryptonite and a

potential liability for her entire family. When choices between love and family loyalty have to be made, Van finds herself faced with an impossible decision.


As if the Roth family needs anything more to worry about, a vicious plot to expose Van and Zander for what they are is uncovered. When it becomes apparent that someone close to them is at the center of this devious plan, the fight to maintain control and keep their cover ensues. It’s a seemingly impossible battle because something is causing their powers to stir stronger than ever before… and it won’t stop until Van and Zander give in to their wicked hunger.

Wicked Hunger is the first book in the all-new paranormal series, Someone Wicked This Way Comes.

GIVEAWAY:


Enter to win an Advance Release Copy of Wicked Hunger by DelSheree Gladden and a Clean Teen Publishing- Authors Are My Rockstars bracelet. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

DelSheree Gladden lives in New Mexico with her husband and two children. The Southwest is a big influence in her writing because of its culture, beauty, and mythology. Local folk lore is strongly rooted in her writing, particularly ideas of prophecy, destiny, and talents born from natural abilities. When she is not writing, DelSheree is usually reading, painting, sewing, or working as a Dental Hygienist. Her works include Escaping Fate, Twin Souls Saga, The Destroyer Trilogy, and Invisible. The first book in the Someone Wicked This Way Comes series, Wicked Hunger, is scheduled to be released through Clean Teen Publishing on April 1, 2014.

Want to READ MORE from Clean Teen Publishing? 

Check out our huge selection of amazing reads! There’s sure to be something for every reader! 

Escaping Fate is FREE on Amazon!

Escaping Fate is FREE on Amazon November 24th – 25th!!!

If you’re looking for a good book to curl up with during the holidays, stop by and check out Escaping Fate. You can get a sneak peek of book 2 in the series, Soul Stone, too!

“Turning sixteen should mean driving, dating, and breaking curfew. It should never mean certain death. Arrabella’s excitement for her upcoming birthday is swallowed up by not only her dismay at being moved to a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, but by the terror of the dreams that assault her every night. Stalking her dreams, the raven haired beauty warns her, taunts her, as she is paraded toward her death. 
Desperate for answers, Arrabella turns to her grandfather, the only one willing to delve into her family’s dark past. Warning her that once she takes the first step, there is no going back, Arrabella’s grandfather begins to unwind their awful heritage. The only joy she finds in the week leading up to her death is meeting Tanner Wheeler, a young man she barely knows but is immediately drawn to. 
A story of selfish betrayal reaching back to an age of merciless gods and blood sacrifice, Arrabella’s world is sent into a deadly spiral.”

Get your FREE copy of Escaping Fate now on Amazon!

Escaping Fate…the evolution of the cover art

Designing cover art for a book can often be a challenge, even more so when you’re painting the images yourself! 

I did the original painting for Escaping Fate several years ago when Escaping Fate was first published. I ended up not liking the full image as the cover and instead went with a very abstract portion of the painting. 
This is the old cover on the right —>
At this time, Escaping Fate was a standalone novel and I planned to keep it that way. That recently changed (yeah!) and I am now working on a sequel titled “Soul Stone.” 
Soul Stone is currently out being beta read and will soon go into rewrites, but at the same time I had to rethink the cover art so I could find something that could be incorporated into a series. 
So…back to the original painting. 
This is the original painting. I based the painting off a pottery design for the Aztec god Tlaloc. But still…I didn’t like the full image for the cover. So, I tried using a portion of the image, but not so abstract as the original cover design. 
This seemed to fit much better, leaving some to the imagination and creating intrigue. But the coloring wasn’t quite right. It was clearly time to break out Photoshop! It took some layering, some effects, and some color alterations, this is what I came up with! 
And here’s the full cover!

Escaping Fate is now available exclusively on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle Ebook. 

You can also get a sneak peek of book two, Soul Stone, at the end of the book. 
And keep an eye out for FREE days on Kindle for Escaping Fate coming up on 

November 24th-25th

That’s what those are for …

How many times have you been doing something on a regular basis, thinking you’ve got it down, only to realize later that you’ve been doing it all wrong? 

I’ve recently had one of those moments when it comes to choosing keywords for my books when I list them on ebook stores. 

Earlier this week, my new publisher, Clean Teen Publishing, sent all of us authors a link that gave a breakdown of Amazon’s Most Popular Tags. Now, this list isn’t just for books, it’s for everything searched for on Amazon, but it’s easy enough to pick out book related tags. And there are a lot of them. 

What did this link cause me to realize? 

I had been using keywords or tags wrong this whole time! Previously, my keywords were specific to each book. For my first book, Escaping Fate, I had chosen tags like “Aztec,” “Arrabella,” “Myth,” and so on. Seems logical, right? 
After looking at the tag cloud from Amazon, I had an epiphany — probably one I should have had years ago. What use are book specific tags if no one knows about my book? Why would anyone search for “Arrabella,” the MC of Escaping Fate, is they didn’t know anything about my book? I saw that I had done the same thing for my other books, choosing tags like Libby and Milo, and similar words that only applied to The Destroyer Series. 
What I realized after studying the cloud was that people are not going onto Amazon and searching for a particular book most of the time. They are searching for whatever genre they like to read and then perusing the search results for something that catches their eye. 

So what did I do after having this epiphany? 

I went and changed the keywords on all my books on the various sites I have my books listed. What did I change them to? Instead of sticking with book specific tags, I chose tags that will help readers find my books within the genres they like to read. 
I write YA fiction ranging from paranormal to science fiction and urban fantasy. So my new tags include words like “Young Adult,” “Science Fiction,” Paranormal,” and “Fantasy.” And because I love to add in a good romance to compliment each storyline, I also included tags like “Romance, “Love,” and “Paranormal Romance.” 

What now? 

Well, now I see how this realization pans out. Will better keywords that are directed at readers who have no clue about me or my books help get my books in their search results better than book specific tags? I’ll just have to wait and see. I’m excited to see the impact it will have. I love learning new things about publishing and marketing, and this one is so simple yet important. 
I’ve been learning more about using Pintrest as and author as well, so check back next week for a new post and some new ideas. 

Win a Year of FREE Books from Clean Teen Publishing

How would you like to win a year of free books? 

Clean Teen Publishing (the NEW publisher of Wicked Hunger!) is gearing up for their annual end of the year giveaway. Check it out!

WIN A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS! 

Now this is WINNING! We have been kicking around ideas to offer an epic giveaway to our amazing readers who have made our opening year in 2013 amazing for Clean Teen Publishing and Crimson Tree Publishing. We have given away gift cards, swag, free books, a Kindle Fire and more this year. We want our Holiday giveaway to be something big, something from our hearts. We want to offer our readers a gift that keeps on giving! That’s when we came up with A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS! Check out the description below to find out what you can win! 
1st Place: A YEAR OF FREE BOOKS From CTP! (Includes the 29 books currently published with CTP and any future books published throughout 2014! *Digital Copies) and a CTP SWAG PACK (Includes bookmarks, Authors Are Our Rockstars Bracelets and MORE Swagalicious goodies!) Prize pack is a $150+ Value including cost of retail books currently published and future books released! 
2nd Place: Readers choice of 5 CTP Books (Current or Future Releases) of their choice (Digital Copies) and a CTP SWAG PACK (Includes bookmarks, Authors Are Our Rockstars Bracelets and MORE Swagalicious goodies!)  Prize pack is a $15+ value not including the value of the swag! 
3rd Place: Readers choice of any CTP Book (Digital Copy) and an Authors Are Our Rockstars Bracelet. Prize pack is up to a $4.99+ value not including the value of the swag! 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 

Question From A Concerned Fan: “I’m the biggest CTP Fan out there and I have all of the books you’ve published already! What’s in this for me?” ~From CTP’s biggest fan- Mr. Squirrel

Answer From CTP: “That’s totally awesome that you are one of our biggest fans Mr. Squirrel! You know we love our readers, especially the fluffy tailed ones! If you already have all of our CTP books, you can give your free copies to a friend. (Save some money on birthday gifts.) Don’t forget you also get future releases as well. In fact, if you email us in advance of upcoming releases, we might even be able to get you ARC’s! (Advanced Reader Copies.) Isn’t that awesome? Plus you get all of that amazing swag! You’d be nutty not to enter this contest!” ~CTP Gals

Reply From Mr. Squirrel: “You’re so right! This sounds like an amazing prize pack. I’m going to go enter right now and I’m going to tell all of my friends about it! PS: You do realize you are having a fictional conversation with a squirrel right now, right?” ~From CTP’s biggest fan- Mr. Squirrel

Reply From CTP: “…” ~CTP Gals
We know we’re a little bit nutty. ;0) 

SHOW ME THE PRIZES! 

Check out all of our amazing books on our website at: http://www.cleanteenpublishing.com. Did you know that if you don’t have an e-reader, you can download our books on most smart phones, tablets and computers? 
  

ENTER NOW for your chance to WIN BIG! 
(Contest Ends on New Years Eve!)

FREE on Amazon Kindle…INVISIBLE!!!

Would you like to get a copy of my newest book, INVISIBLE, free on your Kindle? 

Stop by Amazon on November 8th-9th, that’s TODAY and TOMORROW, to get your copy of Invisible FREE on your Kindle!
And if you enjoy Invisible, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Authors love to hear from their readers!!

So, hurry over to Amazon right now and get your FREE copy of Invisible !!! 

Invisible FREE on Amazon!!!

Would you like to get a copy of my newest book, INVISIBLE, free on your Kindle? 

Stop by Amazon on November 8th-9th to get your copy of Invisible FREE on your Kindle!
And if you enjoy Invisible, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Authors love to hear from their readers!!

So, mark your calendars now to get your FREE copy of Invisible November 8 & 9 on 

And the winners are…

I hope all the authors and readers have enjoyed participating in this year’s blogfest. I want to thank all the amazing authors that introduced us to their characters as well as thank all the awesome readers stopped by and entered the giveaways!

And now that today is the final day of Meet the Characters, it’s my pleasure to announce the winner’s of all of our contests!

First up…What character won the Hottest guy award? 

DRAGON!

And the winner of a copy of Dragon’s book “Releasing the Dragon” by Stacie Simpson is…
Katy E.




Now, who won the title of Feistiest girl? 

Lynlee!

And the winner of a copy of Lynlee’s book, “Trolling for Trouble: MAUC Series” by Olivia Hardin is…
Lisa G.




Up next is the Cutest Couple. And the winner’s are…

Mason and Olivia!

And the winner of a copy of Mason and Olivia’s novel, “Invisible” by DelSheree Gladden is…
Dominique S.




And now, the winners of the Steamiest Couple Contest are…

It’s a tie! Prince Cole and Princess Sam tied with Santangelo and Nicola!

The winner of copies of both 
“Sugar Man’s Daughter” by Lucy Crowe… 

and “Fate War: Alliance” by EM Havens is…

Sherry H.







Now before the main giveaway, we have a couple of runner up prizes to giveaway as well

Winner of an ebook copy of Susan Stec’s “The Other F Word” is … Sheri B.
Winner of a signed paperback copy of Susan Stec’s “They’re so Vein” is …Lisa B.
Winner of a signed paperback copy of Susan Stec’s “They’re so Vein” is …Shadow K.
Winner of an ebook of Raquel Lyon’s “Kiss the Tiger” is …Shelley S.
Winner of an ebook of Raquel Lyon’s “Kiss the Tiger” is …Tom R.

And Finally…

The Winner of the main Meet the Characters 40+ Book Giveaway is

LARA T!!!!


Thank you again to all the fabulous authors who helped make this event such a big success!!

Thank you as well to all the amazing readers to stopped by to comment and vote and support their favorite authors and characters!

We’ll be back next year with more characters and more books to giveaway!

Character Interview: Owain (In the Winds of Danger by Linda Ulleseit)

Today let’s get to know the determined Owain from Linda Ulleseit’s YA fantasy novel, “In the Winds of Danger.” 

INTERVIEW WITH OWAIN
In the Winds of Danger
First of all, Owain, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a groom in High Meadow, working with the marvelous winged horse Adain. His rider is Emma, who’s very good to me. I’m sixteen years old, and I have red hair. People say that means I have a temper, but Emma tells them to hush. I was born in Merioneth, near the sea, and came to the mountain town of Tremeirchson when I was eight. I moved to High Meadow when it was founded by Emma and Davyd four years ago.
Tell us about High Meadow.
It’s not a very old place, and most of the inhabitants are young. The majority of the older folks stayed in Tremeirchson when we fled due to bad water. It was critical to move to save the flying horses. High Meadow is deeper into the Welsh mountains than Tremeirchson, in the area called Gwynned. It is remote and hard to find. In the morning, the gray mist comes down from the mountain tops to blanket the town, but it usually burns off by afternoon. High Meadow is supported by patrons from Merioneth, who fund barns to compete in the annual Aerial Games. The Games provide a livelihood for the entire town.
Who’s in charge of High Meadow and how do you feel about them?
Davyd’s in charge of the town. He’s married to Emma. They’re terrific. First Barn is run by Tristan, and Second Barn by Evan. Evan is pretty intense. He has some crazy ideas. I’m glad he’s not my barn leader. Tristan, though, can be weak when it comes to making decisions. So far he hasn’t had any crisis to deal with. Maybe that’s what he needs to be stronger. It’s important for the two barns to work well independent of each other. That fosters a better spirit of healthy competition. If Evan influences Tristan too much, First Barn will lose its autonomy. That would be bad.
Can you tell us about one of Evan’s crazy ideas?
Sure. His latest notion is for a new event for the Aerial Games. Usually the horse perform intricate dances, and they race. Evan thinks an aerial joust will work. It won’t. It’s too dangerous and too hard to see from the ground. Tristan seems to be going along with the idea, though. I don’t know what they are thinking.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
When I became groom to Adain, I was the youngest person ever to hold the position. I’m quite proud of being able to do my duty well to Adain and Emma. You might say Adain and I grew up together under Emma’s watchful eye.
Besides Adain, who is the greatest love of your life?
Is this going to be kept private? You see, I haven’t said anything to her yet. She’s my best friend, but I can’t imagine spending any part of my life away from her. Ana is a groom, too. She’s groom to Clyth, Evan’s horse. We used to work together in First Barn, but when Evan became the leader of Second Barn. Ana left with him. She’s just up the lane now, and we have breakfast in town together every morning, but it’s still hard to be away from her.
What is your greatest fear?
I promised to answer whatever you asked, but this is pretty private. I have nightmares about it, actually, and I haven’t told anyone but Ana about it. Just before I left Merioneth, there was an incident. I don’t remember exactly what happened. My sister was there, then overwhelming grief. My mind blocks out the memories. I am afraid that someday I’ll remember that I was responsible for my sister’s death.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Davyd would say ‘sir’ is my most overused word. I respect him, you see. I call him ‘sir’ because of that. I know he wants me to call him Davyd, but it seems too familiar. He is well respected in town, and Emma, his wife, is well respected in the barns. I suppose I should call her ‘sir’ too. Or ‘ma’am,’ it would be ‘ma’am.’
Which young person do you admire most?
Davyd and Emma are both older than me. Nia is, too, but closer to my age. I’ll pick Nia. She’s a First Barn rider. Nia has a lot of skill and confidence. Some people say she has too much confidence, that it’s arrogant. I don’t think so. Nia is destined for great things. In fact, I’ve heard rumors that she is being considered as leader for Third Barn when it gets ready to open. That would be an amazing opportunity for her, to be the first female barn leader. I know she can do it, but I don’t know how our current barn leaders, Evan and Tristan, will react.
What is your motto?

If you are loyal to others, they will be loyal to you.
Follow me on TWITTER: Linda Ullesesit
Follow me on FACEBOOK: Flying Horse Books
Read my author blog: flyinghorsebooks@wordpress.com
Read my blog about teaching reading and writing: Ulleseit@wordpress.com
ON A WING AND A DARE
Purchase
IN THE WINDS OF DANGER
Purchase
WINGS OVER TREMEIRCHSON

And don’t forget to enter the Meet the Characters Giveaway!

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