Blog Tour: Guest post (Author's take on the leading man and lead female) + Giveaway: This Much Is True by Katherine Owen

Title: This Much Is True
Author: Katherine Owen
Release: August 11th, 2013
Age Group: New Adult/Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance; Sports Romance, Holiday Romance, New Adult College Romance
Tour organized by: AToMR Tours; http://atomrbookblogtours.com
Links to the book:
Amazon: http://bit.ly/TMITamz
Kobo: http://bit.ly/TMITkobo
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/TMITBandN
Apple iBookstore/iTunes http://bit.ly/TMITiTunes


This Much Is True

Fate brings them together
Fame & lies keep them apart
One truth remains…

She’s become the Paly High girl with the most tragic story…
At 17, Tally Landon just wants to graduate and leave for New York to pursue ballet. Her best friend Marla convinces her to attend one last party—a college party—where she can be among strangers and evade the whisperings about the heartbreaking loss of her twin that follows her everywhere she goes. She meets Lincoln Presley, Stanford’s famous baseball wonder and has a little fun at his expense—when she lies about her age and who she really is—intent on being someone else for the night and escaping her tragic story.

His only focus is baseball, but he can’t forget the girl he saved on Valentine’s Day…
At 22, Lincoln Presley’s star is on the rise—about to finish at Stanford and expected to be taken early in Major League Baseball’s upcoming draft—his cousin’s party serves as a welcome distraction. But then, he sees the girl from Valentine’s Day that he saved from that horrific car accident and can’t quite hide his disappointment when she appears to look right through him and not remember him at all. He vows to learn her name at least before he leaves. What’s the harm in getting to know this girl? What’s the worst that can happen?

Fate soon tests these star-crossed lovers in all kinds of ways...
And yet, despite the lies being told to protect the other, and the trappings of fame that continually separate them, and in lieu of the deception by those they’ve come to trust the most; one truth remains.

This much is true.


Caution: This title contains some strong language, some violence, and some sexual situations and is intended for readers 18+ in age.

      Author’s take on the leading man: :

 

Lincoln Presley is my version of a golden boy, who can and does accomplish just about anything life has to offer from athleticism to careers to relationships in getting what he wants; and yet, there is this unknown side to him, almost a vulnerability, that is separate from all the outward success and unseen by the circles he moves in. The character I created in Lincoln Presley operates in a world where he seemingly has just about everything, but hidden within that persona is this amazing discernible pain about his past and the people he’s loved and lost as well as this inexplicable connection to Tally. His mission in life up to now has been to be everything for his father and succeed at baseball. Baseball is all there is for him. Then he meets Tally Landon and with that single encounter, he’s changed in some mysterious way going forward throughout much of the story line.

What I like about Lincoln Presley’s character is that he eventually recognizes the flaws within himself and rises to the challenge in changing, both for himself and for Tally.

I tend to provide the vaguest of physical descriptions of my characters. On purpose. Readers can fill in for themselves what they look like. These are my inspirations for the characters as well as one reader’s inspiration for them after she finished reading This Much Is True. Use as you will, according to copyright guidelines.

My Pinterest page of This Much Is True: http://www.pinterest.com/katherine_owen/this-much-is-true-a-novel-latest-release/

Jamie Stokes Pinterest page of This Much Is True: http://www.pinterest.com/jamieestokes/this-much-is-true/

 

 

    Author’s take on the lead female:   

Tally Landon is an enigma. She is this amazing ballerina and takes her dance very seriously and yet there is the whole other side to her that the reader is introduced to in the very first chapter. Beautiful, talented, sexy. Tally is all of these things just like her identical twin, but there’s this other side of Tally that’s hinted at in the beginning. Tally is also dark, edgy, and takes unnecessary risks—the opposite of Holly. The reader is left wondering why when the unthinkable happens, and Lincoln Presley comes on scene to save her.

My intent with Tally Landon was to create a complicated character that largely ran with parallel dichotomies in her life both personally and professionally. Beneath the beautiful exterior and the exquisite talent she exhibits through her ballet is this lost girl whose vices include random sex with strangers and this edgy, self-centered side that uses for almost self-protection emotionally. Tally the rebel enjoys shocking her family and friends and exerts a certain control over her life in all these curious, exacting ways. She avoids relationships and commitments of any kind. Why? Readers ask. But after tragedy strikes, readers get this close-up of Tally as she struggles to find her way.  On some level, she is so far gone that only one person remains who can truly save her from herself; one person is capable of extinguishing her fervent propensity to lie in order to emotionally insulate herself from further loss. I. Can’t. Lose. Anyone. Else. She tells Linc at one point. I wanted to show the vulnerabilities that befall this young woman every time she faces hardship and uncertainty. Tally makes some mistakes and poor decisions just like all of us do at certain junctures in our lives when we’re faced with these unexpected, life-changing moments. I tried to make Tally Landon real. Lost (at times). Fallible (at times). Selfish. Self-serving. Lovable (eventually). I hope I succeeded. Many readers seem to think I have.

As I stated previously, I tend to provide the vaguest of descriptions of my characters believing that readers can fill in for themselves what these characters look like. However, these are my inspirations for the characters as well as one reader’s inspiration for them after she finished reading This Much Is True. Use as you will, according to copyright guidelines.

My Pinterest page of This Much Is True:

http://www.pinterest.com/katherine_owen/this-much-is-true-a-novel-latest-release/

Jamie Stokes Pinterest page of This Much Is True: http://www.pinterest.com/jamieestokes/this-much-is-true/

About the Author
Dark. Edgy. Contemporary. Romantic. Were we describing me? Or my fiction? Sorry.
I drink too much…coffee, not enough water. I swear too much for God and my mother, and I slip these into my fiction. Sorry.
I’m impatient, a perfectionist, a wordsmith, a dreamer, which ends up being good and bad. I’m a workaholic; ask my “fam-dam-ily”.
I’ve written four novels in as many years: “When I See You, “Not To Us”, Seeing Julia” as well as my latest release “This Much Is True” (which hit #1 on Amazon best seller lists for Sports Romance, Holiday Romance within a week of its release). Competitive; much, KO? Oh yes.
If you love angsty, unpredictable love stories, I’m yours. ♥ Connect with me at facebook.com/KatherineOwenAuthor.
Website/Blog | Facebook | Twitter


Tour Giveaway:
(3) Print copies of This Much is True - US/Canada
(5) eBook copies of This Much is True - gifted from Amazon or Barnes and Noble
(1) $25 Amazon.com Gift Card


a Rafflecopter giveaway

OR link to the giveaway

Tour schedule link: http://atomrbookblogtours.com/2013/10/10/tour-this-much-is-true-by-katherine-owen/

 

Blog Tour: The Making of Break It Up + Giveaway: Break It Up by E.M. Tippetts

Title: Break It Up
Author: E.M. Tippetts
Release date: November 12, 2013
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tour organized by: AToMR Tours; http://atomrbookblogtours.com
Goodreads -

Book Description

Kyra Armijo is making a few changes in her life. One of them being, she's no longer going to give it up to every guy who looks at her twice. And she's putting her hopes and dreams for her future first. When the aspiring photojournalist gets the opportunity of a lifetime to tag along with international boy band sensation, Triple Cross, she can't pass up the chance.

The only problem is that she's in love with one band member, dodging the unwanted attention of another, and desperate to keep her turbulent past under wraps. Triple Cross have "nice guy" appeal, approved of by parents the world over, but have just let go their longtime manager, who controlled their clean image and media exposure with an iron fist. When Zach Wechsler, the object of Kyra's affection, begins to show interest, she has to be careful.

Surely one girl can't destroy a band that's been together for ten years... only what if she can? Kyra knows she's one bad decision away from ruining everything she's worked for, and taking the hottest act of her generation down with her.

                                   The Making of Break It Up
                                           By E.M. Tippetts

    Of all the books I’ve written, my bestseller by far has been Someone Else’s Fairytale. Not only has it endured for the two years since I published it, it’s broken out in the German market as well and has spent nineteen days and counting on the Amazon.de Top 100. So, obviously, I’ve wanted to follow it up, but the thing about that novel is that there are two sides to it. One of them I followed up in the sequel, Nobody’s Damsel, and that is: What comes after happily ever after. In that book and in later books in that series, I’ll continue to explore how real people in an only slightly absurd situation make their happy ending for themselves.
The other side of the story is the straight up celebrity romance. Fairytale is about a woman who attracts the eye of a Hollywood star, and there’s a whole subgenre that deals with this topic. The usual take on these stories is a modern Cinderella tale. The thing is, I like to be a little subversive with that. Someone Else’s Fairytale has the main character dealing with the fact that she’s not much of a movie-watcher and not interested in pop culture, but she’s got the equivalent of Robert Pattinson in the midst of his Twilight fame texting her and knocking on her door. I had a lot of fun with that story, but now that it’s told, I had to think of something else.
One of the most popular characters from Fairytale is Jason’s niece, Kyra, who is now eighteen years old and over her very wild middle school and high school years. Looking at her, the next story to tell was obvious. I put her on tour with a boy band with a Jonas Brothers kind of clean cut appeal. The lead singer is her lifelong crush, but if they get involved and the media dig into her life, the tabloids would have a field day. It could well destroy the band’s whole image. This seemed like a scenario worth exploring.
While it has some serious overtones, don’t get me wrong, these books have a strong humor vein in them. I hope this book makes you laugh as much as it makes you think about double standards, sexism, and racism nowadays.

About the Author

Emily Mah Tippetts writes romance as E.M. Tippetts and science fiction and fantasy as Emily Mah. She is a former attorney with degrees in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and business law from UCLA, and currently lives in her lifelong home state of New Mexico with her family. For more information or to sign up for updates on future book releases, visit her website at www.emtippetts.com

Author Social Media Links:
www.emtippetts.com
www.facebook.com/emtippetts
twitter.com/emtippetts

Tour Giveaway:


(5) Print copies of Break It Up – International
(1) Swag pack including a temporary tattoo of Kyra’s tattoo from the book - International

a Rafflecopter giveaway

OR link to the giveaway

Tour schedule link: http://atomrbookblogtours.com/2013/10/02/arc-tour-break-it-up-by-e-m-tippetts/



 

Day 15: Month-long-anniversary-celebration: Perks of the Writer's Life by Naomi Kinsman + Shades of Truth Giveaways

  Bookshelf Confessions welcomes Naomi Kinsman, author of (Faithgirlz!/From Sadie's Sketchbook #3) for a guest post and giveaway:

Perks of the Writer’s Life

by Naomi Kinsman

People often dream about what they’d choose to do if they could have another life. As a writer, I’m realizing that one of the many perks is that I get to explore those imagined lives. Characters need all sorts of life experiences, and the more unique, the better: bee-keeping, glass blowing, drag racing, scuba diving... In order to collect story ideas, then, I’m required to be an explorer in my own world, take on new challenges, try new things. 

Sometimes the experiences are once in a lifetime, not likely to be repeated events. But other times, the experiences seep over into my real life. When this happens, I end up with a new habit that once belonged to a character. Sadie, of my From Sadie’s Sketchbook series, gave me one of her habits. She taught me to keep a sketchbook. At first when I started writing the series, I picked up drawing as a hobby to tap into how Sadie would feel as she learned to see, to make shapes on the page. 

As the writing progressed, I learned from Sadie how much insight was to be found in images. As an artist sketches and then begins to refine and layer an image, the concentration and focus leads to new thoughts, new discoveries. Whether I’m drawing an idea from my mind or drawing something I’m looking at directly, the rest of my mental chatter falls away and new ideas pop up. Sometimes it’s a creative idea such as I should draw this next, or write that next. More times than not, it’s a personal discovery. Ah. I need to spend more time on x or stop doing y.

My life is richer because of what I learned from Sadie. Maybe this is one reason that I encourage all people, even those who don’t aspire to be writers professionally, to write every once in a while. Even if you’re not writing fiction, write about your own life. Capture the details. Writing is thinking made visible, so when you write, you can’t help but make new discoveries. Who knows? Your writing might might lead you to a vacation, a new hobby, or a new friend. On the flip side, be an adventurous reader, too. Explore some of those dream lives on the pages of books. Stories take us to wonderful places, and often, they change our lives.

About the author

Naomi Kinsman is the author of Spilled Ink (winner of the 2009 Moonbeam Gold Medal for Educational/Activity book) as well as the From Sadie’s Sketchbook series (Zondervan). She has written and directed over 50 plays for young audiences, and has written for Highlights, Spider and Devozine magazines.

As founder of the Society of Young Inklings, Naomi shares her passion for writing and creativity with young people across the country. Society of Young Inklings offers game-based classes, unique resources, national club membership and publishing opportunities for young writers. Naomi has a BA in Theatre Arts from Seattle Pacific University, has studied theatre with the Piven Theatre Workshop and ACT, and has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University.

She is the Assistant Regional Advisor for the San Francisco South chapter of SCBWI. Naomi lives in Northern California with her husband, and identically colored pets: a tuxedo cat and a Portuguese Water Dog

Faithgirlz!/From Sadie's Sketchbook

 Author, From Sadie’s Sketchbook Series

Founder, Society of Young Inklings 

www.naomikinsman.com

www.younginklings.com

www.facebook.com/NaomiKinsman

It's Going to Be a Bear of a Year Sadie thought she'd have a perfect fresh start when she moved to Owl Creek, Michigan, but finding her place in her new school proves harder than she expected. In this divided town, Sadie's father's job mediating between bear hunters and researchers doesn't help her social life. Sadie's art instructor encourages her to explore her beliefs and express herself through her sketchbook, and things improve after Sadie befriends a kind girl from school and a researcher's son---but she can't stop worrying about the bears. As everything swirls around her, Sadie must learn what it means to have faith when you don't have all the answers.
I've been lucky enough to read one of her books, Waves of Light as an ARC, go check out my review here 
 

GIVEAWAY 

2 copies of Shades of Truth

a Rafflecopter giveaway

or click here 

Grab my Giveaway Button!

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