Angela Brown's Latest Cover Reveal: ATONE

Today we're excited to be participating in the cover reveal for Angela Brown's new novella in her NEO Chronicles, ATONE. The cover was designed by one of Indie Elite's own, Heather McCorkle of CP Design. Angela is a stunning writer and her characters will pull you right into the story. Here is the cover and a bit about the fabulous book:

What harm can come from a kiss?

Caine Fordham knows the danger all too well.

As the Kill Circuit’s top lady-killer, business is good. Yet Caine knows the life of an assassin isn’t meant to last forever, just as love is impossible for him. Who could love a man with poison lacing his veins and a kiss that kills?

When Caine decides to take one last job, deal out one last kiss, he discovers there’s more to life than death, and more to love than pain.

Available at:

Amazon / B&N

No Readpocalypse

Library doors bolted shut, larger locations with weighted chains blocking all entries - double-padlocked.

Closed. No service. All books banned.

Internet trolls reign free to police any online presence attempting to download anything that slightly resembles a limerick or a haiku.

Graphic tees, shirts with funny or thought-provoking quotes, anything like reading made into an outlawed activity.

The world a place of plain solid colors, smiles discouraged for fear of encouraging positivity. Positivity could lead to the sharing of ideas, possible debate and lively discussions.

Hands empty of glossy hardcover books and prevented from owning a paperback to bend or turn pages into dog-eared bookmarks.

This is the read-pocalypse. No readers to swoon behind book boyfriends, to read the character tales itching for freedom beyond the fringes of our busy minds.

That day is not this day.

YAY!!

Today, readers can hop into any local library to read about Harry Potter and his wizarding adventures, or walk through a wardrobe into a snowy new world of magic, Turkish delight and an awesome lion. They can venture into a magicked nook of small town Texas and discover witches, vampires and shifters living in a tenuous harmony.

Readers are out there, hungry for our stories. So writers must write, query agents and editors or self-publish. After all, there are some deep reader appetites to fulfill.

Writers: Write like there’s no read-pocalypse.

Readers: Read like there’s no tomorrow J

~ Angela Brown, author of YA works such as Frailties of the Bond, where readers can take a brief trip to that magicked nook of small town Texas and see how witches, vampires and shifters can live in any kind of harmony.

Nerves of STEEL – erm – Jello

When I released Neverlove, I was so overly excited that I didn’t get to be nervous. Plus, I had my Partner in ParanormYA by my side, virtually that is, to address each day’s issues that came up. So when it came to Frailties of the Bond, I figured this would be “old hat business”. Been there. Done it. Thought about getting the t-shirt designed but couldn’t quite afford commissioning a custom art piece for the tee lol!

With March 20^th’s release date staring me eyeball to eyeball, I have nerves of STEEL – erm – Jello. They’re flimsy, flopping about like lightning struck live wires. I’m at the corner of not-quite-a-nervous-wreck and what-the-Frankenstein-makes-me-think-ANYONE-will-care-about-this-story-or-me?

Not a very confident place to be lol!!

But am I going to go ostrich and stick my head in the ground? Well, maybe for about two minutes – lol! – but not much longer than that. Nothing gets accomplished by doing nothing.

I’ve done something, taken a chance on me and believing that someone out there just might enjoy a short, quick read about two teens discovering things about themselves and about love-lust-love :-)

Yes, there will be vampires.

Sorry, they don’t sparkle.

About Angela Brown

Single mom, working author, lover of chocolate and Wild Cherry Pepsi addict. Story telling includes Neverlove, an upper YA novel with paranormal, action and romance elements woven throughout. Then there’s Frailties of the Bond, a YA urban fantasy where one bite can change a life.

Writing in the Sensitive

Get your copy at Amazon

My novel, Neverlove, tackles a few heavy-hitting topics:

Familial sexual abuse

Suicide

Unrealistic expectations

When topics like these aren’t handled well (determining this is, of course, subjective to each reader), they can result in a DNF – did not finish – like the review I saw for a novel.  A rape scene caused the DNF, not so much because it was in the novel, but because it had no purpose, it played no part in driving the story forward so the reviewers couldn’t appreciate the way it was handled.

For Neverlove, I tread delicately when addressing the familial sexual abuse in particular. There is a deeply painful violation in the real life act. Bringing this matter into the story, I didn’t want to add insult to injury for readers who may have experienced it before by treating it as some instant I’m-over-it kind of thing.

It was suggested to me, once, to leave it out altogether. I gave that suggestion a great deal of thought. But my main character, Abby, came back with a response of her own, “I came to you broken and in need of mending, in need of sharing the pain of my past so others can know they are not alone as I’ve always thought I was alone.”

Nuff said.

What about you? Have you ever written about (or considered writing about) a very sensitive topic? Perhaps you’ve read a book that deals with a very touchy or even taboo subject. What was your response to the way it was handled?

~ Angela Brown, a lover of Wild Cherry Pepsi and chocolate/chocolate covered delicious-ness, also author of the dark YA Neverlove with elements of paranormal, romance and action woven throughout.

Visit her at:

Amazon author page | Twitter @neostateofmind |Partners in ParanormYA blog | Newsletter |Publishness blog

IE Reviews Shifting Pride

Amazon, Goodreads

Curiosity brings out the Kitty...

Sixteen-year-old Nickie Leone has proof her father is still alive. His watch arrives in the mail, with a note telling her to “keep it hidden,” and her curiosity is piqued. She obeys the request, even keeping it hidden from her mother. But when an email from her father disappears before her very eyes, she begins to question her own sanity.

And things get even more complicated when she meets Xavian Katz, the blue-eyed, blonde hottie whose contagious smile and ridiculous sense of humor make her want to tell him all her secrets. But there’s a current beneath his charm that she can’t quite read. He’s hiding something.

When Nickie grows pointed ears and whiskers…and then a tail!...Xavian (who always seems to knows the right time to be around) seems unsurprised. He’s a shapeshifter too, a coincidence that Nickie can’t deny or ignore. She needs his help to master her new abilities, because her father’s rival, Derek, wants her to join his tribe. The last thing she wants is to be under his rule, but Derek’s got something to do with her dad’s disappearance—she knows it. And maybe letting herself be captured is the best way to find out…

I enjoyed reading this novel. I had my few moments where I thought of taking Nick aside and having a personal one-on-one conversation with her. But that also came with realizing I'd built a special place in my heart for her :-)

To say Laura did a good job is an understatement. She did a great job in sustaining my disbelief, presenting a plot filled with tension and some kissing scenes to swoon behind.

If you enjoy YA Paranormal Romance, these shapeshifting kitties will give you a run for your reading money :-)

Review by Angela Brown

Wild Cherry Pepsi addict, chocolate lover and would definitely faint if Johnny Depp ever crosses her path

Author of Neverlove

Novella soon to come spring 2013, FRAILTIES OF THE BOND

Team Procrastination

That’s right! You’ve procrastinated and have come to the realization you have less than a week to prepare for the end of the world.

Never fear. Even the procrastinator can put together last minute preparations on how to deal with this behemoth of an event.

Become part of Team Morbid and select your preferred way to die. This will depend upon the ELE (extinction level event – watch Deep Impact to get better reference of this term) that occurs. It could be the big rock finally DOESN’T miss Earth and takes a swan dive into the ocean. A jaunt to the beach would give you front row seats to the end as tsunamis ensue. 

Maybe you’d prefer to bite the big one by camping in the direct line of fire as Woody Harrelson did in 2012. He went down in disintegrating glory from the volcanic pyroclastic flow as Yellowstone put on the display of the millennia.

A pair of hormone crazed scientists might sneak into an off limits room and, in the midst of their hot and heavy petting, panting and horizontal limbo dancing, hit the wrong series of buttons that release a virulent strain in the air turning anemic and iron-deficient folks into blood-thirsty cannibals. What’s that you say? You haven’t taken your iron pills in a while because they interfered with your social drinking schedule. Welcome to Team Zombie! You don’t have to prepare for this. Just don’t take the whole “live people running away from you in screaming terror” personally.

But if those two teams aren’t you cup of tea, Team Survive requires some prep work. If you haven’t joined up with a militia commune in Montana, Minnesota or Texas, then gathering a cache of weapons is a must. Don’t forget to stock ammunition by dates so you don’t use old ammo that could backfire on you. Memorization of Zombieland is a MUST! 

(There’s Woody Harrelson again. Is that a coincidence or a pattern. Hmmm…)

Anyhow, remember that the end of the world may bring the end of all niceties. Most folks will shoot first, question later…if you’re still alive. Get that cardio in order so you stay faster than the slowest person in a group.  And for heaven’s sake, practice the art of NOT turning around to see if the zombies are still behind you. Run like the wind! Period. If the moans and groans of “Braaaaaaaiiiiiiinsssss” change to sounds of wet, lip smacking satisfaction, you may be in the clear. But I digress. The end has yet to come.

So Team Procrastination, which team shall you wait until the last minute to join? The end is near…not yet here. There’s still time to delay J

~Angela Brown, author of Neverlove, which is available on Amazon and you can find it on Goodreads. 

The IE Welcomes New Member

We're excited to welcome author Angela Brown to the Indie Elite. Angela was born and raised in Little Rock, AR, and now calls Central Texas home. Reading and writing have been lifelong passions of hers.

As a YA fantasy/sci-fi reader and author, she favors the magical, mysterious, the darker side of life...even harbors a secret fright for things that go bump in the night.

Neverlove, her debut novel, is a special project spawned from a blog-challenge-turned-blog-opera, the Abby and Basil affair. It is the first in the Shadow Jumpers series. Here's a bit more about Neverlove:

For seventeen-year-old Abigail, one rash decision leads to an unexpected chance for redemption. At V'Salicus Academy, a unique institute where she trains to become an agent of heaven, she struggles with the pain of her past, the changes of the present and accepts a loveless future until her path – and heart – crosses with Basil’s.

Basil's off-chance slip of the tongue binds him to a life of servitude to the Devourer, the master of hell. His existence has no upside until a chance meeting with Abigail brings new perspective.

Keeping the truth of their present lives from each other brings disaster when secrets are brought to light and the life of Abigail’s mentor is put on the line.

Can Abigail and Basil save her mentor and salvage their love amid the chaos? Or will they lose it all, destined forever to NEVERLOVE?

You can find Neverlove at the following links:
 Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon paperback