Let's Get This Party STARTED!

 

Hello there everyone! This is Leslie Soule, author of the fantasy YA (Young Adult) novel, Fallenwood. I’m honored to be kicking off Decadent Publishing’s Worldwide YA Blog Stomp.

  At each blog on the tour, a lucky commenter will be entered to win a free ebook copy of one of Decadent’s fantastic YA titles.

  Each comment throughout the month counts as an entry for the Grand Prizes, so make sure to stop by as many of the blogs as possible and comment, in order to get the maximum number of entries for the Grand Prizes.

  Decadent is offering up some excellent prizes for the YA Blog Stomp. 1^st prize is a Kindle, pre-loaded with Decadent’s YA titles. 2^nd prize is a whole year’s worth of Decadent ebooks, one per month for 12 months, and you get to choose which books you get. This could save you a lot of money if you’re a voracious reader, like I am.

  For example, if you got 12 copies of Fallenwood (wishful thinking on my part, tee hee hee) at $4.99 per ebook, that would ordinarily cost $59.88!

  3^rd prize is a half-year’s supply of ebooks, one per month for six months – and you get to choose the titles!

  In other news, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is coming out in theaters on July 15^th – July 14^th if you’re going to the midnight showing like my friends and I are. Is anyone else going? If so, are you dressing up like anyone from the series?

Leave a comment! You’ll be entered to win a copy of my novel Fallenwood and you’ll be entered into the contest for the Grand Prizes!

  And remember, the next stop on the blog tour is on July 5^th – it’s the blog of Julie Particka, author of Pretty Souls. Her blog can be found at http://www.julieparticka.com/blog

  Happy YA Blog Stomping!!!

Wild Wednesday Turns "Wizardy"

 by Shayne Leighton

Harry Potter has graduated Hogwarts and Bella and Edward have their white picket fence, their shiny car, their baby, their walk off into the *glittering* sunset, and their happily ever after.

What now?

Can we try…a young girl raised by an ancient vampire in a country that YA literature rarely talks about, the Czech Republic? A country which is magical in its own right for its sprawling forests, mysterious, violent history, its legendary castles and architecture, and its deeply-rooted culture. They say Prague is the most haunted city in the entire world, and in my opinion, the perfect place for (what I'm hoping is) the next, big YA fantasy series.

Granted, this is some serious wishful thinking for a twenty-year-old debut author. But hey, a girl can dream. :-)

Of Light and Darkness has been a story that I've been working on for the last five years. I began writing when I was in my second year of high school at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts and was inspired by my wild, weird imagination. I wanted to answer questions like, "What if magic existed in this world?", and "What would it be like if people were creatures and magical powers were a day-to-day thing?"

Suddenly, I was assigning different creature-aliases to real people in my life. The security guard on the train was an ogre. My math teacher was a witch, and so on. It was enough to make me want to pick up a pen and write!

It has been a long road, but I am so excited to release my debut, Of Light and Darkness to readers! I realize Vampire stories are absolutely saturating the bookshelves right now, but I believe my story absolutely stands apart from the others. It's got things like giant half-spiders, fire-throwing elves, and a love story that will have you feeling just a little guilty for rooting for it. (I hope!)

Here's a short excerpt from Of Light and Darkness:

She heard these last words despite the rushing, like a flash flood through a hollow tunnel that was submerging her. “I love you” rang out so saliently as the rest of her dark world seemed to evanesce into hell. The hissing, the screaming, the pain. And “I love you.” She kept hearing it over and over again until she realized she was speaking the words herself. Too weak to yell it, so it came out in a whisper. “I love you.” She hoped he could hear the thing she wanted to scream to the world. “I love you.” She said for the last time before she melted into oblivion.

Like any other debut author, I'm very nervous about how readers will take to my story that I feel so passionately about, but I'm definitely hoping for the best!

Of Light and Darkness is participating in Decadent's YA blog tour beginning June 1st! I hope those of you reading this will follow, because it's sure to be a good time and includes all of the other fantastic YA Decadent titles!

I can't wait for the feedback (good and bad) and I'd love to thank the amazing Decadent editors that taught me so much and made this story shine! Love to Barbara Sheridan, Terry Bruce, Ansley Blackstock, and of course Lisa and Heather!

More than excited!