DJ's Life in Fiction

Welcome to Mera's YA Book List! Today is the last day of The Wild Ones Event, for the upcoming novel by M. Leighton! Today, you guys have a chance to read THREE excerpts of the novel, and to enter a giveaway! Good luck and I hope you all enjoy it! Also thanks to AToMR for the awesome opportunity to host this event! EXCERPT #1: Sipping my beer, I look around at the familiar scene.   If the honky tonk music blaring from the speakers in the ceiling hadn’t been enough to scream COUNTRY BAR, the sea of cowboy hats would have been.   I smile as I adjust the black one that sits atop my own head.   I love being incognito.   Even if, by chance, someone I know stumbles into the smoke-filled dive, they’d never believe it was me looking out from beneath the brim.   Something hits the back of my barstool­—hard—just as I put the glass to my lips.   Ice cold beer pours down my chin and straight into my cleavage.   I suck in a breath. “’Scuse me,” a deep voice rumbl...

Hey everyone and welcome to Mera’s YA Book List! Today we have Samantha Combs, author of several amazing books here with us! Thanks for joining us again Samantha! Fun fact:   Samantha was actually our first author interviewee as well! Mera: The last time you were here, you said your favorite book was The Help. I know it probably changes a lot. What’s your current favorite?     Samantha: I still love The Help!   The writing style was like I was listening to a story on my grandmother’s lap.   While it does change, it hasn’t so far! Mera: For those Listers who don’t know much about your novels, can you tell us a bit about them all?   Samantha: My YA novels are all paranormals.   Spellbound is about a teen witch and her journey to love and happiness while an evil demon is hunting her.   Everspell , the sequel, takes you further into the lives of the Starrs and the Daniels as they, and their friends, strengthen their family and their powers.   ...

Hey everyone! Today we have Sharon Ledwith and her character Amanda Sault from The Last Timekeepers series here with us! Sharon is here to interview Amanda for us! Thanks for joining us Sharon! Good day, everyone! I’d like to introduce Amanda Sault. She’s one of my characters from The Last Timekeepers series. Amanda is the Scribe of the group. Say hi, Amanda … Wait, wait, I’m not ready! I’m trying to get this poem down …oh crap, never mind! Uh, hi everyone. Hmm. Did I catch you at a bad time?     Sort of. Look, can we just get this interview over with? I still have to study for a math test, and you know how much I suck at math. I totally get it. Okay, tell the readers what subject you do like. That’s easy—gym—especially if we get to go outside. Unfortunately, living in White Pines where winter feels longer than summer, doesn’t always allow for that. I also love, no wait, breathe poetry. It’s the one thing I shine at. I’ve even been published in the town paper, the White Pine...

Welcome back to the page! We are nearing the end of the Euterpe YA Event but it's not over til it's over! Today, we have a blog post from Terie Garrison, author of Changing Gears! "So how did you go from writing about dragons to writing about bicycle racing?" It's a question I've been asked several times since my new book, CHANGING GEARS, was released. Funny thing is, that's not how it happened; actually, it was the other was around.   CHANGING GEARS is the first novel I ever wrote. Or, well, the first one I ever completed. It started life as a short story with a very different arc. I sent it round to magazines and gathered the usual assortment of rejection letters that most writers accumulate. Then I attended a one-day workshop taught by two YA novelists. One of them, upon hearing the "25-word elevator pitch" informed me, with a glimmer of delight in her eyes, "Well, the reason you can't sell it is that it's a novel." ...

  Today for the Euterpe YA Event, I have the pleasure of interviewing Alyssa Liljequist, author of YA novel Deadly Delirium! Mera: Welcome to Mera’s YA Book List Alyssa! Thanks for joining us! Alyssa: Thank you so much for having me! Mera:As a young writer, do you feel you relate to your audience more deeply than average for older YA authors? Alyssa:  I think it is easier for me to relate since I'm still a teen myself. That being said, there are some amazing YA authors out there who it's hard to believe are old enough to be my parents. In excellent YA books, we will get sucked into the story and love the teenaged character(s) and if that happens, it won't matter if the author is 14 or 40. Mera: Great answer! If you had to choose three, which books would you consider your favorites?   Alyssa: The Bible, the Christian Heritage Series by Nancy N. Rue, and the Life of Faith series by Martha Finley. Mera: Besides writing, you have lots of hobbies. What is your favorite th...