Crazy’s My Middle Name

Hello once again, Readers!!! I’m just going to jump right into things because this past week has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. It started off normal, and then all of sudden the rug was pulled out from under me. My husband’s brother was in a very bad car accident. And he lives over 1100 miles away from us.

o_O

It was one of the scariest phone calls I have ever received and it resulted in rushing to book two flights out for the next day for my husband and me, while trying to set everything up for my children to be taken care of by my bestie and mom.  Around midnight. Thankfully I have such a great support system. They helped me tremendously.

Long story short, my BIL is alive and healing up. I can’t tell you how good it is to day that because for a minute there, we weren’t sure. I won’t get into all the gory details, but I will say that he is extremely lucky to be alive. He must have an angel on his shoulder and I am so glad we were able to be there for him and to see his face alive and smiling.

Any who, now onto Born in Flames news. First off, the tour has kicked off with an awesome start. Great reviews, fun interviews, and music galore! I am very pleased and excited with how things are coming along. If you want to see for yourself, check out this post I did previously with all the dates and stops.

Also, when I finally made it home (after four crazy days of being in another state), I came back to two special packages. One being from an insanely sweet fan who created and mailed necklaces to me all the way from England!! And another was from Next Day Flyers who I ordered my second round of bookmarks from. Here are the necklaces:

Aren’t they just gaw-geous!!!?? So exciting!!! I can’t wait to find ways to give them away! It is the first thing a fan has ever made for me. Kind of tears me up a bit. I am extremely grateful to have the wonderful fans in my life who love and understand my story. I can’t wait to share book two with them!

Here are the bookmarks I ordered:

That’s 500 right there. I will be ordering the Embracing the Flames bookmarks next all in preparation for the Bookfest in August. And that’s about it for now. I’m still in the process of editing From the Embers. It’s crazy how my writing has changed and grown since Born in Flames. I’ve learned so much from the editors and just from writing and reading.

But I digress…

Now to leave you with a question: What would you do for a Klondike bar?

Echelon out ♥

Giveaway Time…Again!!

photo credit: gabi_menashe via photopin cc

Hello once again, Readers!! What?! Cute, cuddly, tickle-me-please baby feet are the featured photo on my blog today?!? Could that mean….

No.

I am happy with my two crazy, loud, full-of-energy children. I’m afraid if I had another, I would for sure need to be admitted into a loony bin.

Just sayin’.

A very close friend that my husband and I have known since we were kids just had his first child on Wednesday (well his wife had him). I am so freaking excited about this, you have no idea. The baby was a healthy, 8lb 5oz boy delivered in the afternoon. Perfection.

This is such a revelation for me because none of our friends have had kids yet. Well, except for Sonya, but her kids were older when we met and became besties. This is my first experience with someone other than myself having a baby. And it was just as magical. I just wanted to congratulate my friends. They did a wonderful job and I am very proud of them.

But I digress. On to the reason you are here.

The initial Facebook giveaway of 500 likes was a success. We reached it, found a winner, and I have gained a bunch of new friends and followers that I converse with daily because of it. Not to mention the advertising and sales that have stemmed. It was so successful, that I’ve decided to bump it up a notch to reach 1000 likes. And rather than sending you to my Facebook page to join in the fun, I am posting the giveaway on this blog so you can enter and reblog! If you so please, that is.

Follow this link to enter for your chance and to reveal the AWESOME prizes:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nice right? I thought so myself.

In other news, I should have a cover reveal coming sometime this week after my publisher sends me the completed files. I am SO excited to share it with you all. It sticks to the same theme as the Born in Flames cover, but with a new twist! Eek!

That being said, Echelon out!

Born in Flames- 2012 Turning the Pages Books “Book of the Year” Winner!

Hello once again, Readers!!! Guess who won Book of the Year over at Turning the Pages Books!!!??? Excuse me while I do some cart-wheels and run in circles…

Okay, I’m back. And out of breath.

It was a close race, and I never expected to win, but the Readers have chosen! I am So. Freaking. Excited! Does this mean that I can call my novel “award-winning”?? I couldn’t wait to tell my son. He has been asking me about it for like the past five days. Every day he says, “Mother, did you win?” (Yes my six-year-old calls me mother…lol). So you can imagine when I found out last night, after his bedtime, how hard it was for me to wait until this morning. His grin this morning before school was the best part of this whole thing. I made him proud!

Okay now I’m tearing up. I digress.

And to make it even more exciting, I am going to be on a Blog Talk Internet Radio Show with Fran Lewis on March 14th to talk about Born in Flames! Woot! (I am extremely nervous about this just because I’ve never done it before…so I’m crossing my fingers it goes well). Thank you for believing in me and for supporting my debut novel! I hope that it’s only up from here!

But I digress once more.

In other, exciting news, I am still holding a BIG giveaway on my Facebook page for when I reach 500 Likes. So far, the first prize I have revealed is a $25 Amazon gift card. Cha-ching! My current tally is sitting at 388 Likes so there is plenty of time to Like and try to win! For every 50 Likes up until I reach 500, I am giving away an ecopy of my novel. Exciting stuff.

Hopefully the cover will soon be complete for Embracing the Flames and then a new round of excitement, giveaways, and promotion will begin.

Now to leave you with a question: Who put the cookies in the cookie jar?

Echelon out ♥

A Facebook Giveaway!

Hello once again, Readers!!! Just a quick post today because I am busy writing, From the Embers. I will be holding a BIG giveaway on my Facebook author Page. Just click the icon on the top right and it will take you to it! I want to hit 500 Likes! And when I do, the contest will begin! The prize package will include a gift card along with Aurora-inspired items and some other fun things. It will definitely be worth the two seconds it takes to like my page and then share it with your friends!!!!

So please, go on and like it!!!!

Until next time,

Echelon out ♥

A Street Team Giveaway!!

photo credit: richcianci via photopin cc

Hello once again, Readers!!! Happy turkey week!! I hope you ate enough to feed an army…I sure did. I’m telling you, this sure has been a crazy month. NaNo has been a constant pull at my attention and I am continuously falling behind and catching back up. It’s a crappy cycle to be stuck in.

It’s all of life’s fault.

But if I combine my NaNo project and the word count in From the Embers, I have surpassed the 50k mark. That wasn’t my goal though. I still have time to finish on time…I hope. My current word count is 33k for Starfall. I have high hopes that I will finish in time. I’m not a quitter.

But you didn’t come here just to hear me whine so I digress…

In the spirit of the holiday season (and black Friday craziness), I wanted to do a Street Team giveaway. I currently only have five followers on my FB page for the Street Team. I’m hoping for more because it is a special page just for inside info on the novels and special giveaways.

So if you’re interested in joining and winning a one-of-a-kind necklace, follow the following link and click like: Street Team Little Flames.

Here is the necklace that is up for grabs:

1. Follow the link and click ‘like’ to become a “Little Flame”.

Easy right? I know… it’s the season to give. The contest will run until I post again and I will notify the winner either through FB or through the blog. I’m hoping to have another post out by next weekend, but you know how that goes. Life happens and the blog suffers for it.

But anyway, I hope to see you there! As soon as my edits are in for Embracing the Flames, I want to share an excerpt on the page. Hope the crowd is bigger than five lol. I have big plans and little time.

Happy Holidays!!!

Echelon out ♥

 P.S. This is what I would look like if I were a dinosaur. Courtesy of Universal lol. Hmmm…