Guest Author JF Jenkins

The Soundtrack
By J.F Jenkins

Here are some songs that made my “Book Soundtrack”. Some have to do with a specific character, while others a certain moment or theme. The score would be a darker, new age, kind of feel too it, possibly done by Delerium of Juno Reactor. The other half of it represents the high school, young adult, aspects of the story and is more pop/dance in genre, which matches the story since the characters like to go out and do that often. Enjoy!

The Heroine (Cheyene's Song):

“Flowers Become Screens” - Delerium - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OibJ4F7xZJY

The Antagonist (Denver's Song):

“Pretty When you Cry” - VAST (explicit lyrics) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNkm-U3oRJY

The Ambiance (Score, Setting, Mood):

“Terra Firma” - Delerium - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKUxE8UE7S0
“Silence” - Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5S8yU9e8Mg
“Conga Fury” - Juno Reactor - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q4GGxDjTUQ
“Furious Angels” - Rob Dougan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wdf3_YtwL8

The Romance (All pairings, not going to spoil it sorry!):

“Chemicals React” - Aly and AJ - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgU3aLaJa-s
“Uninvited” - Alanis Morissette - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvgi7P97lu0
“Say OK” - Vanessa Hudgens - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOEFMDC2P4
“Kings and Queens” - Luna Halo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no9wMzzqWR4
“Love Me, Love Me” - Big Time Rush - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjgc2wl_-a0

The Song That Plays When Everything Bad Happens:

“Lie to Me” - RED - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegliDIdWtg


Blurb:

Cheyenne Loveless was just a boring sixteen-year-old girl. Then Denver Collins bit her and everything changed. Her plants start talking to her, she finds out she’s a Nymph, and a witch and the angel of death show up at her doorstep to take her away to the prestigious Vala School and Seminary. Oh, and she has no choice in the matter.

All she wants to do is blend in and return to being invisible, but the more time that passes, the harder that becomes. Plus she’s a daughter of the Divine, an exclusive secret society which rules the world of myth, and discovers she is a key ingredient to an ancient covenant created before she was born. A covenant that will reshape the order of the world.

Adjusting to a new school is difficult enough, but adding on everyone else’s hidden agendas is the icing on the cake. Cheyenne must learn to see through the lies in order to find her place — and possibly even love — in this new world.

Links:
Amazon Barnes and Noble Astraea Press

Excerpt:

“Can I help you?” she asked, shielding herself protectively with her arms.

“Sorry, you smell good,” he murmured, practically purring in her ear as he pulled away. He still maintained his close proximity.

“I smell...” She frowned and was about to sniff at her arm, but she stopped herself. “…good?”

“You smell good. Kind of like lilies of the valley, actually. Let me guess—you use that for your scented body wash?”

“I just use Dial.” Her entire body tensed more as he moved in again, his face dangerously close to her neck. “I don’t mean to be rude, and while I’m flattered you’re so fascinated with my body, you’re also making me uncomfortable. If you’re just trying to butter me up so I’ll go home with you, you should stop now, because
that’s not going to happen. Back off before I make you.”

He moved away once more with a smug smirk. “I thought I smelled fire, too.” He extended his hand to her for a polite and friendly handshake. “My name is Denver. Yes, like the city in Colorado. Last name is Collins, and I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I don’t usually meet someone with that kind of scent. It’s strong. I knew there was a reason I noticed you.”

Is this guy high or something? “Apology accepted. I'm Cheyenne. I've seen you around school these past few weeks, but I don't think we've ever been formally introduced until now. You're new, right?” Cheyenne shook his hand nervously. He had a strong and confident shake. He seemed to be a genuinely nice person,
outside of his odd behaviors. If anything, it made her look good in front of her classmates to be talking to the new cool kid, and a young, attractive male. She felt a little less like a freak.

“I'ʹm temporary. I haven'ʹt been formally introduced to anyone. You'ʹre the first, and it'ʹs only because you smell so nice I can'ʹt stay away.”

“Do you use that line on everyone? It’s unique. A little creepy, but unique.”

“No.” He sat back and proceeded to grab a napkin off the bar and fold it in front of him multiple times. He didn'ʹt have much of an attention span, apparently. “I actually don’t pick up women often. I just made an exception for the blue--‐ eyed beauty in front of me.”

Cheyenne’s face flushed again. “I wasn’t aware you knew the color of my eyes, seeing as how you’ve been staring at my breasts the entire time.” It came out a lot harsher than she intended. In fact, she wasn’t meaning to say it at all. “Sorry, I—”

“You’re right. I was, but I remember you from earlier. I noticed your eyes when you were looking across the school yard at me.”

“You do remember that.” She shrank in her chair a little, officially wanting to hide under a rock.

“It’s a little hard not to when you’re so cute.” He moved closer to her, not quite as close as before, but enough to cause butterflies in her stomach. “You don’t like it here. I don’t like it here. And since we both don’t like it here, maybe we should head out and find something else to do. Maybe we can go someplace we
both like.”

AUTHOR BIO:

J.F. Jenkins lives in Minneapolis Minnesota with her husband, son, and two cats. She graduated from Bethel University in 2006 with a degree in Media Communication with minors in both writing and film. When she is not busy writing, she spends her free time playing games, reading, and spending time with her family.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jfjenkinsauthor
Twitter: @jfjenkinstweets

Speculative Romance Challenge 2012

Okay, so here's my list for Book Chick City's Speculative Romance Challenge 2012. I'll be updating it each month as I complete new novels. I'm going to try to go the distance with reading and do better this year than I did in 2011. Let me know if you're participating as well!

To Be Read:

1. Night Embrace by Sherrilyn
2. TBA
3. TBA
4. TBA
5. TBA
6. TBA
7. TBA
8. TBA
9. TBA
10. TBA
11. TBA

Completed (in order of read):

1. Dark Lies by Vivi Anna

Six Sentence Sunday 15

Hi everyone! Welcome back for another week of Six Sentence Sunday! Click here to view my previous entries.

Here's a snippet from my upcoming release Captive Moonlight. The main characters are named Joe and Charlotte. This is my first western paranormal romance. They're getting a little intimate in this six. *grin* Enjoy!

He met her gaze. His eyes, normally dark brown, were now wolf amber. “What did I do to get such a sweet lady like you?” he said, his voice gravelly and low.

She laughed, but the sound caught in her throat as his lips caressed her breast. “I wonder that too. Maybe it was destiny.”

**Note: This isn't from the official final copy. So treat it as an "unedited" version. Thanks!**

Captive Moonlight coming February 3rd to Changeling Press.

Visit the other Six Sentence participants. http://sixsunday.com

Smoking Saturday... Paranormal Bad Boy Fest!

It's SMOKING SATURDAY where Bad Boys of paranormal romance come out to play! You don't want to miss the sizzle and howl. And if you're lucky, you just might find an alpha male scratching at your door. Because romance authors are sharing their blurbs here today. And you never know what might catch your eye. *wink*

Any paranormal romance (erotica) author is welcome to join in the fun. How to participate...

1. Just grab the graphic above & post the event details and graphic on your blog inviting paranormal authors to post blurbs/buy links on your blog post through midnight, January 21, 2011.
2. Don't forget to include the blurb and buy links to your romantic paranormal bad boy tale in the post.
3. Finally, leave your blurb and buy link to your story here (NO EXCERPTS please) & the url to the event at your blog so all the participating authors can post their blurbs and buy links there as well!

SMOKING SATURDAY ends at midnight, January 21, 2011!

My Paranormal Bad Boy... Kyle Reynolds, leader of the werepumas

Amazon Chronicles 2: Jungle Fire, available at Changeling Press and All Romance eBooks (coming soon to BN and Amazon)

The leader of a Pride of werepumas must win his lady’s love, or she could be taken from him forever.

In the Amazon Rainforest, traditions are important. They’ve long lead to survival for the Amazon warrior women.

Kyle Reynolds, ruler of the werepumas, is ready to fly in the face of those treasured customs for the love of Rubia Costa who will soon be out of his grasp if he can't win her affection before allies of the Amazons steal her away from him forever.

Read an excerpt


Praise for Jungle Fire

"...a fast-paced story that is filled with a sexual tension between Kyle and Rubia that you can almost feel and a lot of action."
-- Janie Esparza, The Romance Studio

"I liked both Rubia and Kyle... their romantic connection was hot. Readers looking for a pleasant half hour read will enjoy JUNGLE FIRE."
-- J9, The Romance Reviews

I'm Shameless...

Hey everyone! Starting today, I'm participating in the Shameless Hop (hosted by Jen at Red Hot Books, Brie at Romance Around the Corner & Michelle at Michelle's Book Blog). What's the prize? A digital copy of my latest release Stolen.

The Dark Huntress meets a man whose electrifying power is a fine match to her own...

Regina Blake is a normal secretary until there's trouble -- then she becomes the Dark Huntress. Things are about to change when she meets a man whose electrifying power is a fine match to her own, and he's set on winning her heart. To top it off, there's a string of bank robberies which escalate into the high profile kidnapping of a famous actor.

Michael Flynn hadn't realized the extent of superhero and supervillain society. When he rushes to a bank to find it destroyed, he meets a black-latex-clad woman who makes his pulse race. As he's drawn deeper into her world, he finds himself intrigued and eager to have her.

Read an excerpt



a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks for entering! Check out the other participants here.

Writer Wednesday: Reading Challenges

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a fantastic New Year so far! Welcome back to Writer Wednesday. Reading is important to writers because it helps them hone their craft. Hence why I'm discussing it today.

With a fresh new year here, I know I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish in it. One of those things is read more. Last year, I failed with my reading goal, so this year I'm setting a new one. Probably one that's more ambitious, but I'm hoping to stick to it. Yes, it's... 36 books (novels, more specifically). No, no, please don't start laughing...

Anyways, I'm a slow-ish reader. If I don't do anything but eat, drink, use the restroom, and read, I can finish a book in one day if it sucks me in. Otherwise, a little over a week is my pace. Yes, writing, and then computer games, take up the other portion of my time. *grins*

So, I've been looking at quite a few blogs recently, and I've seen a lot of people doing a wide array of reading challenges this year. The three that I'm doing are:

Goodreads' 2012 Reading Challenge: Pretty simple, all you need to do is join Goodreads, set a goal for yourself, and read those books. It keeps track by you specifying "read" and when you read the book. Their widget shows if you're ahead or behind of your goal.

Book Chick City's Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2012: This is a genre based challenge. To sign up, you just go to the website, fill out the linky, etc. and read the books!

Book Chick City's Speculative Romance Challenge 2012: The same as above here, except this one is for all kinds of romance like sci-fi romance, paranormal romance, fantasy romance.

Book Chick City also has other Reading Challenges. There's more here, and I'm sure if you typed in reading challenge (romance, sci-fi, etc.) that you'd find more.

So... who else has taken the dive to read more this year and joined a reading challenge? If you have, which ones?

Guest Author Kinley Baker

Revising by Post Its

I’m in the middle of revising a brand new book and I’m very excited about this story. But I realized I need to concentrate heavily on revisions and make sure this story is the best it can be before I submit it to my dream publisher. So I’ve decided to revise by Post Its.

I’m hoping you will contribute today with your suggestions for revising by Post Its! This will help us all become more thorough revisers. To start, I’ll share a few of my Post Its. These are some of the main issues I struggle with.

Use all FIVE senses! SIGHT. HEARING. TOUCH. TASTE. SMELL.

I think with my latest manuscript especially I need to concentrate on incorporating all of my senses. What is my Point-of-View character seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling? I think this automatically helps with using active language and showing instead of telling.

Active language!

I tend to do a lot of: “Andy was sitting on the lawn.” Instead of the more active: “Andy sat on the lawn.” When I’m writing the first draft I try not to think about using active vs. passive language because it slows down the story. But going through revisions, I try to make sure that each sentence has been evaluated. I’ll always need to use some “to be” verbs, but limiting them will help the reader engage in the story. Of course, I still think focusing on using the five senses is the most important thing.

Beware of POV Shifts.

Point-of-View (POV) shifts easily sneak up on me. Even simple phrases can lose the reader with POV. I always have to remember to include what the POV character is thinking, feeling, seeing and doing. Every sentence counts. One ambiguous sentence can pull the reader from the story.

Set the scene with ACTIVE setting!

I tend to forget to ground my scenes. At the beginning of each scene the reader needs to know where the characters are. This doesn’t need to be written in long exhaustive paragraphs. I think the description-heavy style of writing is trending out. I usually try to summarize the location and time setting in one to two sentences with something that relates back to my POV character.

Make sure each scene has a conflict!

I go through each scene and make sure that each character has an overarching goal and one for the scene. With my new story, this is a lot easier because for the first time in a full length novel, I only have two POVs, the hero and heroine. I built the world so they would have continuous conflict between them, so this really helps when trying to clarify the conflict for each scene.

Scene and Sequel!

I think of scene as the action and the sequel as the reflection on the action. I try to keep my sequels short to keep the story moving forward.

***

I hope you’ll get involved in the comments! If you use Post Its, tell us what they say. If you have key phrases that help you in revisions, tell us that, too! We’d really love to hear your reasoning because I’m sure we can all learn from your suggestions!

Blurb for Ruined


Jessa is one healing away from death. Under the thrall of her gift, the Court's Senior Healer risks giving her life in exchange for her patient's.

Vale is a rebel ruler. When his brother is killed, he's given the throne and the decree from the Court to produce an heir or lose his family's hold on the land--and his deceiving advisors aren't afraid to use murder as a weapon if their directive to stay away from the Senior Healer goes unheeded.

But Vale burns to possess Jessa. The heat between them leaves a wake of smoke, and even the powerful forces above want to bind them in a union that lasts forever. Vale taking another would be a betrayal neither could survive.

Their enemies fear a child born of such a powerful Healer and Warrior, but the true threat lies in the bond forged in shadows and fused in fire.

Buy Links

Paperback
Ebook


BIO

Kinley Baker read her first romance novel at the age of thirteen and immediately fell in love with the hero and the genre. She lives with her husband and her dog, Joker, in the Pacific Northwest. She is the author of the fantasy romance series, Shadowed Love. Book one, RUINED, released in July 2011 from Crescent Moon Press. You can find Kinley at www.kinleybaker.com, at her blog http://authorkinleybaker.blogspot.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kinleybaker.