Deadly Kisses Cover Reveal

Today I have the honour of posting this to my blog today. Kerri Ceuvas, a good friend of mine, has her first book coming out on March 5th. Kerri is a talented writer and I would love to help reveal her cover for her debut novel, Deadly Kisses.

Aiden Grant is seventeen, has a killer kiss and a boss who used to be President, back in the old days. You see, Aiden is a grim reaper and his kiss welcomes the newly dead. But Aiden’s pleasant grim reaper lifestyle is in jeopardy. And it’s not only because Honest Abe keeps throwing out history lessons with reaping assignments, just to confuse him. It’s because Aiden’s next assignment is to reap the soul of Bee, the only girl he has ever loved. 

When Aiden’s kiss of death fails, intertwining their souls, Bee is still very much alive and they are both in trouble. The ancients want Bee, who has special powers of her own, and they’ll do anything to get her. 

Some rules are meant to be broken, even if that means Aiden must bargain with his own soul to save Bee. Who knew the afterlife could get so complicated?

To take a closer look at it, have a look at it on Goodreads.

A much needed Holiday...

Over the next two weeks my blog posts here will be very erratic, but I will still try to post an update every once in a while, as I am going on holiday over to Japan. For this trip I'm planning on doing research for my novel Shinigami Eyes (yes, that's my justification for taking the trip), so there will be lots of pictures.

Even when overseas I don't think I'll be able to disconnect myself completely, so I'll probably post a status update every now and again, and when I get back I will set my resolution of being a consistent blogger and interactive blogger into motion.

I'll see everyone when I get back :D

2013 Reading Challenges

Last year I managed to succeed in my reading goal mainly due to the reading challenges I challenged myself in, and I found plenty of good challenges out there. This year, I've decided to take up the challenge again. Here are the challenges I'm going to be tackling throughout the year:

The challenge is to read 12 debut authors in the year, and at the moment my list is as follows:

1. Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum
2. Broken by A.E. Rought
3. Insomnia by J.R. Johansson
4. The Cadet of Tildor by Alex Lidell
5. Pantomime by Laura Lam
6. My Sister's Reaper by Dorothy Dreyer
7. Altered by Jennifer Rush
8. The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett
9. Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans
10. Echo by Alicia Wright Brewster
11. The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by  Karen Finneyfrock
12. Lawless by Jeffrey Salane

This challenge is to read 10 sophomores (second in the series or second novel published in 2013). Some of the books I plan to read include:

1. Pretty Sly by Elisa Ludwig
2. Fragments by Dan Wells
3. The Elite by Kiera Cass
4. Vortex by Julie Cross
5. Everbound by Brodi Ashton

The challenge is to read books from my TBR list (and I have a LOT of books waiting to be read). This year I'm aiming for the level Sweet Kiss (21-30 books). Some of those books I plan to read include:

1. Torment by Lauren Kate
2. Specials by Scott Westerfield
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
6. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
7. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
8. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
9. I'd Tell you I'd Love you but then I'd have to Kill you by Ally Carter
10. Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

This challenge is all about reading audio books (which I absolutely love and devour), so I'm going all out and selecting the goal of Married (25+ audio books). Some of those books I've already got on my list to listen to include:

1. Altered by Jennifer Rush
2. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
3. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink
4. Endlessly by Kiersten White
5. Revived by Cat Patrick

Last year I definitely outdid myself, reading 10 more books than the previous year, reading a total of 70. This year my goal is 75, so I'm aiming for the goal Getting my Heart Rate up (1-5 books more).

Yay!!! So, that's my reading goals for this year. What reading challenges, if any, are you going to be participating in?

2013: Making Goals!!!

I never used to make resolutions for the new year. I think the main reason behind this was that I knew I would never keep them, so I thought "why bother?"

But... they do help. Resolutions are just like any goals. They actually do help motivate you throughout the year. Yeah, you might make the whole "I promise to exercise more" or "I'll lose that weight" promise and some day I'll probably keep those resolutions. The resolutions I find that I keep the most do revolve around reading and writing (hey, I read 70 books, finished editing 1 ms and wrote 1 draft last year).

So, what am I going to do this year? This year include polishing up Shinigami Eyes and finishing at least 2 of the WiP's that I have lying around at home (seriously, I have way too many half-started novels just lying around here). I have another goal that I'm working towards, but I'm keeping that one a secret ("Ssshhhh, I'm not going to tell") until it is near completion :D

As for reading, I seem to read more books when I'm trying to complete reading challenges. So, this year I'm challenging myself on Goodreads to read 75 books (hey, I read 70 books last year so it's not impossible, right) and stay tuned for a later post where I decide which challenges I will tackle this year.

So, do you have any goals for this year? Anything to do with reading or writing? Or do you plan to exercise more or eat healthy (yeah, that should be my goal)? 

2012 Round-up

Wow, I can't believe another year has passed and we have survived (we have even survived the Apocalypse that was supposed to have happened 8 days ago) and a lot of things have happened this year.

This year I made a major relocation to a small country town from a big coastal suburb and began a new career (and survived the first year as a teacher), and the year has definitely been filled with a lot of ups and downs that made it very difficult to battle this year (including a very sad tragedy that occurred to the school community), but as they say it's how you handle the obstacles and find a way to overcome them that makes you grow stronger... so I guess I have definitely grown stronger this year.

So, on to the round-up:

This year I participated in 4 reading challenges and, to my surprise, I succeeded in all 4:

1. 2012 Debut Author Reading Challenge: 13 out of 11
2. 2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: I said I would read between 11-20 and I read 23
3. 2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 66 out of 50+
4. 2012 Outdo Yourself Challenge: My aim was to read between 52-57 books this year and I read 70

Okay, that's the first time I have succeeded in all of my reading challenges, and to make it an even better year, I set myself two goals for the year:

1. Finish the final draft of Shadow Embraced
2. Finish first draft of a new manuscript

and I actually achieved both of those goals (even though the new manuscript was not the one I had thought it would be). My finished manuscript was my NanoWriMo manuscript, which I was excited to finish writing because it was as if the story actually wrote itself. Now I can't wait to get over to Japan and finish off the research to add to some more of the descriptions for the next draft.

If there was one thing I wish I would have done throughout the year, that was to have been more organised with my time, especially with blogging and writing, but I guess that's something I can work on next year.

How was everyone else's year? Did you achieve all of your resolutions? Was there anything that you wish you had achieved throughout the year?