HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO TANGLED TIDES!

Karen Amanda Hooper’s young adult novel, TANGLED TIDES, is officially being released into the world today Well, it's actually being released tomorrow, November 25, 2011 but I'm so excited for her I wanted to go ahead and get the post up! Lots of you are up and starting your Black Friday shopping; I can assure you, the literary lover in your life will shout with joy should they receive this amazing book in their stocking!

 I’m joining the celebration by fighting in the war--the underwater web war between the sea creatures!

Karen’s story contains battling merfolk, selkies, sirens and gorgons. She says she loves all of them, but she wants everyone else to choose a side, so…

                                                            

I CHOOSE SIRENS! 

Wanna learn more or join in on the fun? Go check out the details at Karen’s blog: http://karenamandahooper.blogspot.com/

Karen is giving away a signed copy of her book and some other sea creature themed prizes. To enter, join the underwater web war on Twitter. Tweet which sea creatures you’re rooting for and why. Include the hashtag #TangledTides and you could win.

Karen will be on Twitter all day celebrating and answering questions, so stop by and say hello. @Karen_Hooper 

Summary of the story:

Yara Jones doesn’t believe in sea monsters—until she becomes one.

When a hurricane hits her island home and she wakes up with fins, Yara finds herself tangled up in an underwater world of mysterious merfolk and secretive selkies. Both sides believe Yara can save them by fulfilling a broken promise and opening the sealed gateway to their realm, but they are battling over how it should be done. The selkies want to take her life. The merfolk want something far more precious.

Treygan, the stormy-eyed merman who turned Yara mer, will stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to protect his people—until he falls for Yara. The tides turn as Yara fights to save herself, hundreds of sea creatures, and the merman who has her heart. She could lose her soul in the process—or she might open the gateway to a love that’s deeper than the oceans.

Linkage:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/1936850435

Rhemalda Bookstore: http://tiny.cc/BuyTangledTides

Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tangled-tides-karen-amanda-hooper/1035791101?ean=9781936850433&itm=1&usri=tangled%252btides

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12047201-tangled-tides

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Breaking Dawn

First of all, I’d like to apologize for taking so long to write this. Since it has almost been a week since I first saw the movie, this should have been done this weekend.


I’m sure most of you know the basic plot. Marriage-pregnancy-Jacob-Imprinting-Bella the Vampire. The movie literally ends at the end of the first chapter of Bella’s second section, and I’m so glad they made the decision to break it up. Whoever is responsible for the makeup needs to get an Oscar or Golden Globe or something that says you’re awesome because at one point the I leaned over to Maria the first time I saw it and whispered, “Oh my God, do you think they’re gonna let her die?” Kristen…and for the record I take back everything negative I’ve ever said about her…did an AH-MAZING job. There was this moment where you could see her go from ‘holy crap, I’m pregnant’ to ‘I will kill you if you harm this child.’ I could see it all over her face. That may be an element some of the younger fans miss out on, but as a mother, I really appreciated it.

(Maria and I at the Sneak Peak on Wednesday)



So overall the movie was amazing. I cried and screamed at the screen with the abruptness of the ending, and am thoroughly aggravated at Summit for making me wait a FREAKING year for part two.

(Left - My sister and I on the way in the car; Right – My sister and I waiting in line for the midnight showing)

Now here is, to me, the truly amazing part that I still can’t get over. There were a lot of good songs on the soundtrack and before I saw the movie I thought for sure A Thousand Years by Christina Perri would be the main love theme. But it’s not. Edward and Bella’s song, and I mean their song forever from the moment they met we just didn’t know it then, is this song called, Turning Page by Sleeping At Last. I’ve never heard of them, the song, even passed the song up on the soundtrack as just another pretty tune. When you listen to the words of this song, which is literally about a story of love, it couldn’t be more fitting.

 

“…your love is my turning page,

where only the sweetest words remain.

every kiss is a cursive line,

every touch is a redefining phrase…

I surrender who I've been for who you are,

for nothing makes me stronger than your fragile heart.

If I had only felt how it feels to be yours,

well, I would have known what I've been living for all along.

What I've been living for…”

 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How, HOW I ASK YOU, have I not heard this song before? WHY are there not any fan videos on YouTube with this song? (Well, there may be now) I’m sure you’re aware of my connection to music, especially if you’ve read The Maldito Series. For me, there is always music; on the radio, the sounds of the world moving to the beat of my heart, the song in my head. This is one of those songs that will become a part of you, that can move and inspire you, just the way Twilight can. “Words can change your mood but add a little music and they can move your very soul.” ~ Me

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For once, I’m happy to have failed

I’m sure most of you know that I tried to kill myself when I was a senior in high school. It was a messy affair and I was taken away from school in a police car to the hospital where I was tied down – because that is apparently what they do to folks who have decided it’s too painful to continue living, they tie them down – and left in a room. My father was the first person to get there. I can’t for the life of me remember his expression or if he seemed upset, but I do remember the first words that came out of his mouth. He looked at me and said, “Well, girl, are you sorry now?” My response? Because even then it was imperative that I conduct myself with as much drama as possible I replied, “I’m sorry it didn’t work,” and turned my head to the wall so he wouldn’t see me cry.

Whoa, that was kinda heavy, even for me typing it out. But I have a point. The date of this little event in my life, though I had forgotten the exact date until recently, was November 18, 1996.

I’ll pause to let that sink in.

NOVEMBER 18th. Do you know what’s happening exactly fifteen years to the day that I tried to remove myself from this world over some high school BULL SHIT? Breaking Dawn is being released. Hey! Don’t roll your eyes at me. You’re clearly missing the point here. The point is, I can’t even begin to fathom all of the amazingly, wonderful things I would have missed if it had worked.

Sometimes the clouds cover the sun and we forget how beautiful things can be. Things are gray; they lose their luster and their shine and all we see and feel are the bad. The thing about clouds though, is they never stay in the same spot too long. Ever. They always fall apart or move along with the wind and when they do, wow things are bright! That’s how it was for me. Life, as it turned out, wasn’t so bad. I can’t tell you how sorry I feel for those people who continuously reminisce about high school. There was a line in I Am Number 4, “He’s in the third year of the best four years of his life.” When you think that an average life spans over eighty+ years that is a sad, sad thought. Twilight came along when I was about twenty-eight or twenty-nine and once again, things got a little brighter. Finishing my first novel, Emmy’s Song was in direct response to the words ‘The End’ at the back of Breaking Dawn. Four published novels later I just marvel at the world and how it sparkles (hehe) with possibilities for the rest of my hopefully very long life.

The pain I felt at that time in my life was very, very real. The love I felt then was very, very real. But what was exaggerated was the feeling of forever, or perhaps just such little knowledge of how long forever really was. If you know a teenager who is hurting, don’t discredit what they feel. Don’t tell them they’re just young and this will pass, and blahh, blahh, blahh. Tell them…about me. Tell them that if I had let those four years take away the rest of my life I would have never had Twilight and really, whose life is complete without a little Twilight? =)

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Assimilation

This is not procrastinating. Did you hear me? I know exactly what the other 700 words I need to write today to keep up with my Nano word count will be, so there is no way this could be procrastination, right? Man, maybe it is. Well, oh well.

My husband and I just had our ten year wedding anniversary. Yes, I’m thirty-two. Yes, I got married when I was twenty-two. It seems young, I know, but I’m from Bryceville. That’s what you did. You fell in love, got married, had some babies, and lived happily ever after. Now, while I’ve got the corner on the whole happily ever after thing, all that stuff in the middle could have waited.

I wouldn’t recommend getting married so young, the person who I am now doesn’t even remotely resemble the person I was then. My husband, he’s a simple man. He has grown over the years, but he’s still quintessentially ‘him.’ Me? Not so much. I’ve seen some of my friends wait until they were older and it seems to have been a little easier for them; not as much drama. Of course, they were normal, non-writer folk, so I’m sure things would have been less dramatic for them regardless. My only advice is don’t compromise on that one thing that’s really important to you; whatever it is. We all have that one thing, that one deal-breaker. The one who won’t break the deal is out there, I promise. Just hang on.

So…work. Oh, work,  you mock me so. I think you all know I work for a professional staffing firm in the proposal department. My boss is Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde, which is hard for me on the Hyde days but Ah-mazing on the Jekyll days. But, what are you gonna do, right? That’s what happens when you work for a woman, case in point why a woman should never be president. Yeah, yeah, I know women’s lib and all that jaz. Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of on-demand writing and people tend to change the best parts because it’s just out of the normal thing they would do. I would bet money if they’d show some of those things to the branches who are actually responsible for this content we’re presenting to the client at the end of the day, they’d love it. And I know this and am willing to bet money because I already asked some of them and they loved it. So Nah. I’m a peacock! You gotta let me fly! (Mark Wahlberg – The Other Guys)

Like I said, this is not procrastination. This is assimilation in its purest form. These words and thoughts are becoming a part of my inspiration. Right? Well, oh well.

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