Audiobook- Daughter of Smoke and Bone

So recently my amazing coworker took me into the audio room and helped me to figure out the setup for constructing my audio book. The room is just awesome- and scary. I'm afraid that I am going to touch something and cause a blackout throughout city.

Anyway, I'm starting recording for The Exemeus soon and I'll be providing recording for the Azemeon as soon as all of the editing is done. In order to prepare for this daunting task I am listening to audio books that have received glowing praise. First on my list is this book I've always wanted to read, The Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I know I'm late on that one, but better late than never. The summary sounds amazing and the character has blue hair-- just like my character. What could be better? This is my first audio book purchase ever, which makes me sound both old and lame, but I'm  a bit stoked all the same.

Now where am I going to listen to it? That just might be a problem.

Stay tuned, our Saturday morning post announces our first giveaway and says what you'll need to do to cash in on the action. Feel free to leave us comments, share with your friends, or join our blog.

Loving Ya

Folami

The Past Remembers

For most of my life, my dreams have been fairly useless. Occasionally, I have had a prophetic dream or two, but that is a rarity. My dreams normally come with people randomly shape shifting, or in such a hodgepodge of activity that I am too confused to remember them.

Today, however, I feel like I was given an episode of a TV series. The whole thing with a cast of characters and the pilot episode just dropped in my lap. It could be nothing or it could be everything.

The dream is too lengthy to share, but its about a group of people, two of whom have powers, attending their friends' wedding. One person, however, is beginning to realize that the day has been repeating for sometime now.  Little things he changes doesn't alter the day, but when his friend senses the shift comedy ensues and the entire day goes topsy turvy.

I'm definitely going to flush this out. It just happened, so all of the content is running together in my head. But what I remember was the silly character's last reminder "The Past Remembers".


So how do you get inspiration? Does it appear like Hagrid in the Sorcerer's Stone, a full burst of light from nowhere? Or does it slowly trickle in? However you get it feel free to post it in the comment's section this week. I would love to know what you're working on.

The hottest males in YA

Everyone is always asking me why I love YA. I answer the question all the time, but today I thought I would zoom in on the males in YA.

 I love the fact that female heroines are popular, because we get to see the men through their eyes. We get to see the things that they love about their guy and hate about their guy. But most importantly, it keeps us guessing. Does he like her? Does he hate her? Why is he acting like that? It all adds to the suspense. And then theirs the moment we realize that she really does like him, it made (hopefully) all of those pages of angst worthwhile.

But not every YA man is created equal. What I like in a YA hero is different than what you would like. I love my men strong, loyal, and highly sarcastic. I love a sensuality that eases off the pages. So my male crushes would have to be:


1) Ayden from Demons at Deadnight. He is protective. He's hot-- both literally and figuratively.  He's got a sense of humor and he's got a cute way of dealing with Aurora. I love their interactions and how he treats her family. And he's got a body to die for. What more could a ya reader want.

2) Dmitri. Hopefully everyone knows who I'm talking about, from Vampire Academy. Once I got over the slightly pedophilish nature of their relationship, I really loved him. He struggled to do the right thing, like a dieting kid at a pizza party. But even as he waited for her to turn 18, he was protective, he was loyal, and he had his own little sense of humor. Did I mention his Godlike physique?  His body was to die for, I had to keep myself from drooling on the pages. Even when he didn't feel the same about Rose anymore-- at least, so he said-- he was willing to take on an army for her. Swoon.

3) Aiden. I must have a thing for Aidens, because I love the Aiden of Jennifer L Armentrout's half-blood series. I love his loyalty to her and to his beliefs. He is such acharacter of substance, because morals and values are important to him. What I love the most about him is that he is willing to break with the morals and values that he has adhered to all of his life just to keep Alex safe. I love how he looks at her and loves her even when she is "acting up". He is a well written character that I wish I could bring into real life.

Those are my main three for now. I'll be posting my new loves of YA again at the end of March to kick off the promotion of The Azemeon. Whoever posts their favorite ya heros or heroines will be entered to win a prize. Stay tuned.



Loving YA

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Giveaways

Very excited! We are deep into the process of editing and marketing our upcoming book, The Azemeon. We're trying to figure out the best way to reach out to you guys and to make your time on our site as enjoyable as possible. We appreciate how you all have waited patiently for the long awaited sequel. So to reward our faithful followers and fellow Exemeus lovers, we'll be holding giveaways up until the day of our release, with extra prizes for those who pre-order the book.

The giveaways will begin at the beginning of November and continue until the end of the 1st week of  book sales, April 17. We'll be giving away giftcards, cash, an ipad and more. There will be a lot going on here over the next few months, so stay tuned, refer your friends and be ready for an awesome sequel.


Loving YA

Audiobook Fears

As a self-published author, creating and publicizing your ya book is not easy.  There are many hats that an author has to wear as a publicist as well as a publisher. It's hard to keep everything straight and make sure that you are focusing on what is most important and not what is the most present.

However, as I focus on the launch of my new book a new avenue has just opened up for me- audiobooks. Apparently there are a religious following of audiobook zealots. These people only "read" audiobooks, but most publishers overlook this market, because, frankly, its quite costly. 

I, however, have been offered this amazing opportunity to use a professional sound studio and self create my audio book for free. Its very exciting- and scary. I have done everything I can to create a professional quality book. I always want my name to be synonymous with the perfection that you expect from a top notch publishing company. I have spent years educating myself on how to create a first quality book, but how does one create an audio book? Do I need to create voices?  Can I even keep the voices straight if I did? I am pretty sure that I am paralyzed with fear, but hopefully through research and perseverance I will be able to create a quality product. 

So hopefully you guys can tell me what you want in an audio book. What makes an audio book great? What is the ultimate turnoff in audio books? Let me know.

loving Ya

Feel free to post a comment, join this blog, or pass the word on to others. As the year looms on we'll be having a ton of giveaways that you don't want to miss out on.  See you soon.

Why is The Exemeus different-Sequel updates

We wrote The Exemeus before the dystopian craze: before every book on the shelf talked about what plague, revolution, or natural disaster had wiped out man kind. We wanted our book to be different. So we gave it two eyes- two perspectives: one of the world the way it was and one of the world the  way it is. In books, and in life, we rarely ever see what in society led up to the moment. What led up to the revolution? What is so important that the character you love, must fear, must fight, must die for the truths of a world that we may or may not believe is possible.

The Exemeus is different. It is the story of how the revolution failed. It is a story of struggle and hope, with a mixture of magic. 

The Azemeon is far better than The Exemeus was, luckily. And it deserves far more publicity than the Exemeus received. So we're delaying our release date. In the meantime we'll be conducting giveaways to build up to the big day. 

Thanks for being awesome

Feel free to join our blog or shoot us a comment. 

Love YA

Folami

The beginning of The Azemeon

In light of my impending birthday, I thought we would release a little of the Azemeon. We hope you like it. Feel free to join our blog, post a comment, suscribe to us on facebook and twitter or buy our book at  . Whatever you can to support the Exemeus. Hope you guys love it.

            
Chapter 1

Dephon wove his way through the crowded streets, his fear propelling him forward. Out of place in this new time, Dephon wasn’t sure of much, but he was sure of one thing:he was being followed.

In the sewers of Trepton, the first thing you learned was how to tell when you weren't alone.  There were no second chances in Trepton, but at least there, he knew who his enemies were. Here he had no idea. And that was much worst. He stopped and hid behind a building at the corner of Kezar Drive, peering cautiously down the street in the hopes of catching his stalker unaware. The streets were brimming with so many people that he couldn’t see anything. Or rather he saw too much. A dark-haired man to the left of him looked suspicious, and a masculine-looking woman was staring at him a little too intently for comfort.  Was she evil, or was she just staring because Dephon just looked crazy, peeking at people around the side of buildings?

Dephon tried to clear his head, but everyone was starting to look suspicious. He could have sworn that he saw the girl in the flowery white and pink dress with long, swinging black hair three streets ago.  And there was a man in a blue suit pushing a stroller who looked familiar, too. Dephon wasn’t sure who was following him, but he was smart enough to never doubt his instincts.

Dating chronicles

Sometimes I am the coolest person on the planet and then there are moment when I'm so socially akward you would think that I had just turned 13.  In these moment of verbal clumsiness the only ways to redeem myself is with one of my many dating stories. People have told me that I should write a book about my dating chronicles, because some of the things that have happened to me have been just so weird they seem like fiction.  Oh, how I wish they were.

A lot of them are a little inappropriate for this audience, but I'm sure I can find a few that can appeal to all audiences, so I thought every now and again I'll share. 

I had recently been avoiding dating like the plague. Not just because no one interested me-- although they didn't-- but because the horrors of the last 3 men (frogs) still left a foul taste in my mouth. More on them later. So the only thing that could make me date again was shear necessity. 

My last date, if you can even call it that, happened because I had to take my car in for an oil change. And in a rare stroke of anti-luck, everyone I knew who could drive, including my father, was out of town. So I decided to go out with a guy who I had met at the food max in hopes of hitching a ride to my car. To avoid being a total user I indicated that we could go to the movies and I would meet him there. 

 I texted to say that I was running late, literally, since I was on foot . He said no problem and that he was already there. I arrived and proceeded to look for him. I couldn't find him anywhere. I stood out front. I walked the parking lot. Finally, I took out my dying phone and called him. No answer. I texted and finally he responded with " where are you?"

A little annoyed I texted that I was in front of Deer valley. I assumed he had gone to the wrong movie theater. Deer Valley is the name of  the movie theater by my house. What I should have remembered was it was also the name of the high school.

Ten minutes later, I get a call. "Where are you?" he asks.  

More than a bit irritated, I remind him "I am still at the movie theater."

He apologizes saying "I thought you meant the high school."

Does that make any sense? Why would I, a 30 year old woman, be at the high shool on a Sunday?

Ten minutes later he shows up with his shirt un-buttoned, showing his protruding beer belly and no undershirt. 

I am leery of getting in the car. 

I ponder my options: getting in or walking the 7 miles to Firestone to get my car. 

Although the second option was wiser, I thought of Layla, my Infiniti, waiting patiently for me at the Firestone.

With a sigh I get in. 

The man, who we will call Gabe, began to talk excitedly. He seemed-- and smelled differently-- it took me a second to place the smell. 

"Have you been drinking?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, but not too much. Just a beer and a little weed. I take care of my body and I know my limits."

Before I could comment he leaned out the window and yelled at a man leaving Chase bank, "Hey man, you gonna split that with me?"

The man laughed and shook his head.

"Do you know him?" I asked.

"No, I just like messing with people."

Uh huh.

"Where's your car?" He asked me.

"Over at the Firestone on Somersville."

"That far," he asked.

"Yeah?" I was truly confused because Antioch was a small city. If you blink you will miss it. And Firestone was just one exit over. It was close enough that walking had been an option.

I glanced over at him. He was looking at his gas tank. The gas tank light was on. We were lucky the car was even moving. 

I realized something more was wrong then just the inconvenience of stopping for gas. 

"Do you need money?" I supplied.

"I don't need for anything, but the car does."

I was confused did that mean he needed money or he didn't?

We entered a gas station and he started yelling out the window to some guy.

Another stranger he was messing with? 

"How's it going?" Gabe yelled

"Good, I got a job. But I got to take a drug test."

" What are you on?" 

"Weed and a little methoxy."

Gabe went on to chastise the man for using meth and how weed was fine, but not meth.

I found the hypocrisy to be irritating. 

We pulled up to the pump and Gabe fiddled around for a while. I realized he definitely needed gas money. I pulled out a twenty. 

"I don't need that much. I'll bring you back a ten. I'm not that type of guy. You'll see who you're dealing with."  He said taking the twenty from me.

I really wasn't sure the type of man he was trying to distinguish himself from, but I don't think he was successful. 

When he came out of the gas station. He ran into yet another friend. this man followed him back to the car, discussing the virtues of Gabe's intellect. Apparently, no one had ever broken things down to him in the way Gabe had. He droned on about how he would always go with them on Sundays. He spoke to Gabe like he was  a God, I looked over Gabe's shoulder to see if the man was possibly talking about someone behind Gabe. 

He wasn't.

Gabe got back into the car. "He's homeless," he explained to me. "Every time I see him, I pick him up and will take him to In Shape for a shower or something. Today I took him to the marina. On Sundays preachers preach outside so we can hear the word, smoke a little weed and just get uplifted.

Hmmm. I wasn't sure how to take that. 

Time for a bit of honesty

I think I'm tired of posting about The Exemeus. The monotony of writing the sequel, blogging about the sequel, and twittering about the sequel is giving me a headache. So I'm going to talk about something else. Starting today.


So the other day, the Clark Kent version of myself was sitting down for lunch and one of my fellow teachers came up to me. He knew I had majored in Physics so he started tossing out the names of Physics Superstars-- if there is such a thing-- that he had on his shelf. That's when I realized, I hadn't read a physics book in my entire life.  I was more likely to know the roster of the 1973 world cup winning team than I was to know a leading physicist.

All I read is YA. As a kid I would sneak and read my mother's romance books, but as an adult I only read young adult books. And I had to ask myself why? I asked myself this question again when a slate review post ( you can read it here). Although, I disagree entirely, I had to wonder why is YA the only thing that I read?


The answer is simple: Hope.

Even in the worst YA books the character still has a glimmer of hope that I think has been kicked out of us as adults. Hope that there is a happy ending. Hope that the guy will transform into the prince charming. Hope that the 16 year old can make a difference in a world so bleak.

My 31st birthday is coming up this month and I'm starting to lose faith in people, in dreams, and in the happily ever after.

YA, if only for a moment, gives me that faith, that belief, that hope back. The hope that love can conquer all-- the faith that love even still exists.


Loving YA


Folami


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