Destined Blog Tour

Choosing is a bad idea, because Desi always makes the wrong choice, and sometimes there are no do-overs. Certainly not this time, when all has been lost and Desi can’t even save herself, let alone her friends. For Desi, the hardest thing is letting someone help her, to accept their sacrifice on her\behalf. But that’s exactly what she’ll have to do in order to save the worlds from Helena’s destruction.

The goddess of Helheimer, long imprisoned by Desi’s father, Loki, is free at last, and she’s bent on reclaiming what once was hers. The nine worlds will be drawn into war, over Hell, over Earth, with innocent humans as meaningless collateral.

While Michael and the Gardians of Asgard, along with the golden-armored Valkyrie, lead the battle for freedom, it’s Desi who holds the destiny of all the worlds in her hands. 

Can she set aside her doubts, once and for all, and claim the gifts that are hers to bear? Can she accept the sacrifice that is made for her and Become all that she was created to be?

Her final choice will define not only her future, but the fate of humankind, forever more.

For My Part of the Blog Tour I've asked Ali to compose a playlist for this book. She was happy to oblige!

Okay, so I created a fancy dancy playlist for the first book, Become, but never did it for Destined. Maybe because so many of the songs I liked for it were on the Twilight soundtrack, which is just plain embarrassing. Not because I don’t like Twilight, because I do, but because it made me feel unoriginal, ya know? But Magan insisted I share a playlist, and I don’t want to let her down, so here I go!

For the beginning: Josh Groban’s To Where You Are.

For the first part of the book; the way James feels about Desi: Maroon 5’s She Will be Loved.

For that moment we’ve been waiting for since book one: Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years.

For the underlying theme of the entire series: Imagin Dragons’ Demons.

For the story’s climax: Adam Lambert’s Underneath (this one’s for you Magan!). (Note**Magan and Adam are in a very serious, fake relationship)

For the last scene: Sleeping at Last’s Turning Page.

And to REALLY celebrate, I'm giving Ecopies away of the entire series! Enter now!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ali Cross is the sensei of the Writer's Dojo where she holds a black belt in awesome. She lives in Utah with her kickin' husband, two sparring sons, one ninja cat, two sumo dogs and four zen turtles.

The Friday Five

(Photo of Chris Evans from IMDB)

Since I don't have an exciting interview or anything to share, I just thought I'd go with a Friday Five with some FAQ that have come across my Twitter Feed.

1.) Will you be releasing a new contemporary book?

YES. I have been working on another stand alone New Adult title for a little while, but with the great sales of My Paper Heart, readers have been DEMANDING a sequel, so I've also started working on that. I don't have a tentative date in mind right now, but I do have a cover and it's pretty.

2.) Why is the website not "The Punching Bag Fights Back" anymore?

I have a thing for long titles, don't I? Well, coding my own website got annoying and I'm not very good at it, so I just decided to link my blog to MaganVernon.com That way I don't need to code and I can update more frequently.

3.) When will EARCs be ready for How to Marry an Alien?

The book is currently with my editor and I expect to have it back by mid-November. If I'm lucky, I can get everything incorporated by beginning of December and have EARCs out before Christmas. Great gift, ey?

4.) What are you working on right now?

Besides all these edits, working, and keeping up with my family? Uh, well I'm hoping to be done with a futuristic science fiction YA novel soon and getting to the next round of CPs. This is one I may jump in the querying pool with again. I know, bad Magan, but maybe I'll write a post on that...someday.

5.)  Why haven't you talked about Adam Lambert lately?

I'm not saying that we've broke up, but I haven't been spending as much time listening to him or drooling over videos of him. This work thing has taken over my life. I've also been busy drooling over Chris Evans every chance that I get...so....

How to Marry an Alien cover reveal and synopsis!

 

 

Alex’s interstellar relationship has finally been sealed in the eyes of the human world, so now she can move on to her next step: college.

With Ace by her side and a new piece of jewelry on her finger, she thinks she is ready for anything. Well, almost anything.

Her new roommate holds a dangerous link to her past that Alex isn't sure if she can handle. Then there is the whole alien fiancé thing. Every time she tries to get closer to Ace, he seems to pull further away. Top that off with a full summer class load and a few more alien attacks and it’s just another day for Alex.

Except this time she isn’t sure if marrying an alien will be the happy ending she’s hoping for.

 

You can add it to your GoodReads now! And as a bonus, if I can get enough adds to GoodReads by next week, I'll post a deleted scene on the blog. (To make it more enticing, it involves kissing and alien abs!) Tell your friends!

Monday Musings: Want to help with book three?

One of the great things about reviewes (even when they are critical) is that I can see what people loved or hated in the first book and then take that into account when writing sequels.

I read a review that said they were dissapointed in Gavin's role in the first book, this leads to him having a MUCH larger role in the third book. (muahahahahaha)

Several reviews have said that they want more Jen, so now only does she appear more in book 3, but now she will have her own novella to go with the series!

There are so many other things that I look to readers and reviewers for, but now instead of hiding behind the bushes and creeping I'm asking you all directly:  What do YOU want to see happen in the third book? I do promise that all the characters (that I didn't kill atleast) from book 1 & 2 make an apperance in the third book, but what do you want to see?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

Okay...now to close this out with a little Adam.

The Punching Bag Fights Back Bullying and Homophobia

Usually I would have a Monday musings in which I would talk about what has inspired me this week with my writing and so on.  Well this kind of goes along with my musings, but more importantly this is a topic that reminds me why I started this blog in the first place.

When I first decided to blog I wanted to show how I overcame obstacles, the punching bag that was able to fight back all the things that fought against her throughout high school.  Then it kind of came to a point in which the blog then became all about my writing.  I was desperate to talk about my work in progress or running contests to get more followers and kind of lost tract of everything.

Then a tragedy happened:  The Rutgers suicide.  For those of you haven’t heard about this horrible act of bullying here is the shortened version:  a young college student at Rutgers was having an intimate moment with someone of the same sex in his dorm room.  His roommate decided to film it with him unknowing and then broadcast it on the Internet.  This caused the other roommate to became so depressed that he committed suicide.

Not only did this upset me greatly, but when I saw some people’s reaction to it I was even more shocked.  An acquaintance put a link to an article on facebook and then defended the roommate, saying “I’m sure he didn’t think that by doing that he would kill himself.”  Really?  So just because it wasn’t his intention for his roommate to die it’s okay to bully him in such a brutal way?  Did he realize how much it could affect someone, who is already so vulnerable?

Let’s face it, the first year at college is stressful enough.  You are just getting to know who you are as a person and a lot of times you don’t even know your roommate when you start school.  Having something like being outed on the Internet not only can hurt someone emotionally, but also professional.  What would have happened if he went for a job, they do a google search and that video pops up?  I don’t know why this guy thought it was okay to display his roomate’s sexual life for the world to see and then think that would be okay.  The only thing I can think of is extreme homophobia and if that’s the case then he’s the one who really has the problem.

Which leads me to my next point:  Homophobia.  For those who haven’t noticed my recent Adam Lambert obsession (why yes I do know that he is gay and doesn’t feel the same way about me, I’m SO glad you pointed that out), ANYWHOO a lot of people aren’t too happy with my new found love for Adam Lambert.  I started listening to his music more when a friend pointed me in the direction of him and said he might help out my science fiction inspiration.  (Note:  Listen to his song Time for Miracles and you may just come up with scenes for an epic intergalactic battle).  Immediately I got a lot of flack for this.  People would stop following me on Twitter or my blog.  I wondered what was going on and asked a friend about it and she said, “People aren’t comfortable with Adam Lambert, he’s just too over the top flamboyant.”

So..wait…I have to get this straight here, (ha straight).  Even though Adam Lambert has a voice that even the most hetero of men will admit is amazing, because of his sexuality people don’t’ want to hear about him?  Yeah that’s what it pretty much comes down to.  When did homophobia become okay?  If we keep telling people that it’s okay not to be okay with homosexuality then what’s to stop people from bullying people of a different sexuality?  Or even using demeaning words for people?  How about I don’t like machismo heterosexuality?  I don’t want to see the Jersey Shore guys walking around and demeaning women and flaunting their heterosexuality, but do you see as much of an uproar for that as you do for guys walking around with their rainbow flags?

What’s the point of all this?  The point is to be open, the point is to open your eyes and realize that bullying and homophobia is not something that should be ignored.  What can we do to help?  What are your thoughts on this topic?

Good or bad I’d love to hear your responses!

WIP Wednesday

The artistic dilemma that every writer sometimes faces:

You wrote one completed manuscript, then start another one.  Which one do you query?

Most people say:  Well query your best work.  Well what if you like them both and they are both COMPLETELY different genres.

Welcome to my world.

So I talked with a  friend about it and decided to wait out the fulls that I have for MY PAPER HEART (one agent may be in talks of getting out of agenting, but she has other associates that are not, so it could be a good sign.)  I’m also entering it in a contest.

If nothing comes over either of these things I think my women’s fiction piece will be shelved.  Don’t get me wrong I LOVE this manuscript, but sometimes the market may just not be right at this time, or I just am too tired from packing to move and being pregnant to look up any more agents.

So the alien novel?  Oh did you happen to look at the side bar and realize that my first draft is rocking and rolling?  Oh yeah I even have my own fangirls now.  Sometimes I just listen to Adam Lambert and imagine him as my dark eyed alien and swoon.  Okay now that you all sufficiently think that I’m weird…  I guess I’ll do some housekeeping before I talk more about my WIP.

This Friday is going to be a different sort of “Fangirl Friday.”  A lot of people have had questions about The Fangirl aka me.  Questions like, “Are you published?” (Yes and No, I will answer that one on Friday), “Why the Fangirl?” and other questions, so Friday I will be answering some of those and if you do have any more you can leave them in the comments of this post or in Friday’s post and I will try my best to answer them J

Oh and now I guess I should talk about my WIP?  Well I just keep writing.  I’ve gotten some great pieces of advice recently on writing and I put those directly in my WIP.

1.)     Don’t set word count goals set what you want to happen goals.  This has tremendously changed my writing process!  Sometimes I don’t even know how I get to these events that I want to happen!

2.)    Have a crappy first draft.  I really want to go back and edit some things, but I know if I do that I may never finish it.  So I’m just piling through the first draft and know that anything after that will be better than crap.

3.)    I need to go on a book tour with Kelsey Ketch and dress up in pirate and alien costumes.  This is my biggest inspiration for writing right now…as weird as it is.  I figure that if I write a darker YA novel, like my friend Kelsey Ketch, then we’ll HAVE to go on tour together.  While working on my last WIP I talked about my love of pralines…unfortunately aliens don’t eat prailines.  So for this novel I’ll just have to make everyone Jell-O jigglers!

Alright and now I’m tired and need to get back to my WIP before my nap!  Till then think of some questions and enjoy my picture of Adam Lambert that not only intrigues me, but also frightens me at the same time!  (Notice I’ve had two characters that look like American Idol characters in my head?  I don’t know what this says about my television habits…)