MY LEAP INTO YA by Beth Trissel

It's a treat to welcome Beth Trissel to The Roses of Prose.

Thanks so much for having me on your lovely blog. I’ve come bearing tidings about my new YA fantasy romance series entitled Secret Warrior. Book 1, The Hunter’s Moon, was released in December. Book 2, Curse of the Moon, is coming out May 4^th. Release date for Book 3, The Panther Moon, TBD. I’m planning for more titles. The Secret Warrior series is published by The Wild Rose Press. We agreed in advance that I would keep the stories novella length, so they are a satisfying read, and will release more quickly. I’ve discovered novellas are every bit as challenging to write as full novels, especially in a series, because I have a limited amount of space to complete plot circles, while stopping at a good place, and hinting at more to come in the next story.

A look behind The Hunter’s Moon:

YA fantasy romance, The Hunter's Moon (Book 1, the Secret Warrior series) took years percolating in my mind before I wrote a word. Although the setting is present day in our Virginia Mountains, I’ve drawn on my knowledge of colonial America, Native Americans, particularly the Shawnee, the mountain people, herbal lore, and my fascination with fantasy. While The Hunter's Moon is my first venture into the young adult genre, I'm an award-winning, multi-published author in historical, paranormal, and time travel romance. I was inspired to create this new series partly by my teenage nieces and younger daughter. We've watched a lot of YA movies and TV series together and had book discussions, during which they urged me to take the plunge.

Living in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia surrounded by mountains veiled in mist and mystery lends itself well to creating the characters for The Hunter’s Moon and the stories that will follow. Some characters and creatures are based on lore I've learned. Others appeared to me, as characters have a way of doing. A great deal of research and intuition went into this series.

Romance grows and mystery deepens as an unlikely but close-knit pack of friends share fantastic adventures together.

Story Blurb: Seventeen-year-old Morgan Daniel has been in the witness protection program most of her life. But The Panteras have caught up with her and her younger brother. Her car is totaled, she's hurt, and the street gang is closing in when wolves with glowing eyes appear out of nowhere and chase away the killers. 

Then a very cute guy who handles a bow like Robin Hood emerges from the woods and takes them to safety at his fortress-like home. 

And that's just the first sign that Morgan and her brother have entered a hidden world filled with secrets... 

"This is a series with a whole bunch of potential and I can't wait to read more. Definitely recommended for all fans of YA/Paranormal." ~Merissa for YA Insider

Excerpt:

Oh, no. Was the wolf hit? Morgan prayed not. She sensed him trying to protect them, and couldn’t imagine why, or why he seemed like ‘her wolf’.

Cries, like the shrieks of a panther, carried through the trees. A chill crawled down her spine. Were the woods filled with creatures she thought long gone from these mountains?

More wolfish snarls erupted and snapping, tearing. Good. He lived. She nudged Jimmy. “Can you see anything?”

He craned his head around the rocks. “Not through the smoke and fog.”

Eerie howls rose from the surrounding woodland on every side. A whole pack must be gathering. Morgan wasn’t certain whether to be frightened, fascinated, or hopeful of rescue. Still light-headed, not sure she even saw clearly, she watched the black wolf reappear; with him, a great white wolf whose green eyes shone like starlight. The most extraordinary yet. Together, the two loped after the brown and gray one. Judging by the high-pitched calls, there were more wolves out there. And panthers, or were they mountain lions?

Snarls, growls, and the shrieks of enraged felines ripped through the smoky shroud. The pack wasn’t after her and Jimmy. Not now, anyway. ~

The Hunter’s Moon is available in various eBook formats from all online booksellers:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hunters-Moon-Secret-Warrior-Series-ebook/dp/B017OCROM8

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hunters-moon-beth-trissel/1122902086

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-hunters-moon/id1060906948?mt=11

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-hunter-s-moon-5

A bit about Beth: Married to my high school sweetheart, I live on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with my human family and furbabies. An avid gardener, my love of herbs and heirloom plants figures into my work. The rich history of Virginia, the Native Americans, and the people who journeyed here from far beyond her borders are at the heart of my inspiration. I'm especially drawn to colonial America and the drama of the American Revolution. In addition to historical romance, I also write time travel, paranormal, YA fantasy romance, and nonfiction.

Social Media Links Beth and The Secret Warrior Series:

Blog: https://bethtrissel.wordpress.com/

Facebook: Author Beth Trissel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BethTrissel2YAFantasySeries/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethTrissel

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bctrissel/

Flexibility by Diane Burton

“To succeed you constantly have to reinvent yourself. Try different things.” Bob Mayer, last week on Elizabeth Meyette’s blog.

My 7-months pregnant daughter-in-law, who with her friends, remember their gymnastics coach by doing handstands on the anniversary of his passing. Is that flexibility or what?

 

One thing you learn early on in married life—especially with children—is being flexible. Life throws us curves, or as Brenda Whiteside wrote here last Thursday, “Make a Plan and Hear God Laugh.”

Another thing we learn as we get older is that our bodies become less flexible. I was never as flexible as my daughter-in-law, even in my younger days. My physical therapist tells me that for relief from chronic back pain and to gain the ability to walk longer, straighter, etc., my hips have to be more flexible. That they're too tight, too rigid. Thank God, he wasn’t talking about my mind.

When I first started writing, I wrote romances, like the Harlequins I’d devoured ages ago. That didn’t work. Rejections abounded. Then I tried romantic suspense. Suspense always came up in my romance stories anyway. I wrote this great story, but nobody wanted it. For fun, I wrote a story about a woman who was kidnapped by aliens, by mistake. I was surprised when Switched was picked up by a small niche publisher back in 2000. Alas, my publisher didn’t like the second book. She thought my heroine should be pushed out an airlock into space. I disagreed.

Time went by, life threw some curve balls, I dropped out of the writing game for a while. That’s when everything changed. Social media? What’s that? Facebook was what my brother-in-law used to show off the fish he caught. Blogs, Twitter, Triberr, LinkedIn, Pinterest. My head spun. The multitude of publishers became the Big Five. Or is it now the Big Four? If I wanted back in the writing game, I had to readjust my thinking. I had to learn new things, new ways of doing things.

A friend suggested since I had the rights back for Switched, I should self-publish it. After all, it wasn't doing anything anyway. Talk about being surprised. Wow. I wrote more science fiction romances and people bought them. Double wow! Then I took a chance with that romantic suspense and The Wild Rose Press wanted One Red Shoe. Our own Alicia Dean was my editor. I couldn’t have asked for a more enthusiastic editor for my book. While I haven’t published any more romantic suspense, I have some hiding in my computer that need to be hauled out and looked at.

I love writing sci-fi romances. But I wanted to try something else. A mystery series with a female detective. A PI who takes over her father’s business in a small resort town. The Alex O’Hara series was born.

Without being flexible, I wouldn’t have tried the different genres. If that’s reinventing myself, I’m having a blast doing it. 

Diane Burton writes sci-fi romances, romantic suspense, and cozy mysteries. She blogs here on the 30th of the month and on her own blog every Monday.