BLOG TOUR: #DarkestDreams Author Interview | Therese Barleta

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Today is the last day of the #StrangeLit #DarkestDreams blog tour, and the last day to be able to purchase the bundle (10 stories in one!) for only P45! For my stop, I am featuring an interview with the author of When it Rains in Mystic River, Therese Barleta.

When it Rains in Mystic River

Whenever sirens sound off, Naomi is always worried that Seth is somewhere being chased by the police, if not already gunned down by rival gangs that pollute the south side of Boston. “Please help me just this one last time,” Seth would always tell her, but Naomi just wants to live a normal life as a pretend human being, not Seth’s Encantada girlfriend who always bails him out of his shady dealings. As soon as Seth finds an out from this life he’s known forever, he takes the opportunity before Naomi can even say no. How could she when this is the exit they’ve both been waiting for? Or is it a shortcut to their doom?

Buy the #DarkestDreams bundle on Buqo to read this story.
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Therese and I didn’t get to do a face-to-face interview, so Keyword Q&A wasn’t an option. This interview was done entirely via Google Docs (one of our favorite online resources), snuck in between answering e-mails and doing other work-related tasks.

Click on the Read More button below to read the rest of the interview.

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BLOG TOUR: #FatefulTurns Author Interview | Chi Yu Rodriguez

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Hello and welcome to my stop for this week’s blog tour featuring the #StrangeLit bundle, #FatefulTurns! For this round, I’ve chosen to interview Chi Yu Rodriguez, author of Sparks of Circumstance.

7fe1636bf32e2813137847254f411822c5e0daec57c659a99b5842e4aceb2cfcAt eighteen, Jana Cross begins to dream.

Sometimes, her dreams are of a cafe that sells a different kind of coffee. Here, espresso shots are focus and discipline, sugars and syrups are encouragement, tea and milk are calm, and whipped cream is joy.

Sometimes, she dreams of another realm, an enchanted forest with different creatures doing her bidding and her subjects calling her by a different name. She dreams of power, of striking fear. She dreams of things that aren’t real.

Or are they?

When danger finds Jana, she begins to follow her dreams. Will they lead her to her death? Or will they finally lead her to the truth?

This is the beginning of her story.

Get the #FatefulTurns bundle (ONLY P45 this week!) on Buqo to read this story.
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I wanted to try something different for this interview, so I prepared small note cards on which I wrote a few keywords I got from reading Sparks of Circumstance. I asked the author to pick cards (which were presented face down) and she answered questions based on the keywords on the cards she picked.

This is the very first Keyword Q&A I’ve done, and I intend to do more of it in the future, but for now, here’s Chi Yu Rodriguez talking about her favorite thing about the book, a bit about her writing process for SoC, and a brief introduction on what’s to come.

Click on the Read More button to read the interview.

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{ BOOK REVIEW + TOUR } Songs To Get Over You | Jay E. Tria

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Hello and welcome to my tour stop for Jay E. Tria’s new release: Songs To Get Over You! This blog tour is organized by the Bookish Diaries Book Tours. You may click on the image below to visit their website.

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Oh and YES! This blog tour comes with a nifty giveaway! Get a chance to win a print copy of Songs To Get Over You and a TRAINMAN shirt by joining HERE.

cover-stgoyIt’s harder to get over someone who was never really yours.

They say rock stars get all the girls. But Miki knows that’s not always true. He, for one, though the guitarist of popular indie band Trainman, just can’t seem to get the girl. It’s kind of his fault, really. No one told him to fall in love with Jill. No one told him to stand still and watch as she moved on from a terrible breakup into the arms of another guy—a Japanese celebrity with the face of an angel and the body of a god.

So when someone else comes along, someone who finds him cute, smart, and funny (sometimes in the haha sort of way), will Miki finally move on? Or will he continue to pine for Jill?

Buy it on Amazon
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What Drew Me In

Oh, this? This was an insta-buy for me. I have read the first book in this series–Songs Of Our Breakup–and loved it. It’s only natural that I one-click the shit out of this book, right?

Click on the Read More button for the rest of the review. May NOT be spoiler-free.

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The Paper Plane Tour Has Begun!

Word of warning: I am struggling with an annoying headache as I write this. Possible incoherence ahead.
Oh who am I kidding? I could be incoherent without this headache.

My very first blog tour for Paper Planes Back Home officially began last Saturday (October 24), and I’m having mixed feelings about it. For one, the reviewers have so far been very generous (thank you so much!), which makes me even more excited and anxious to read the rest. Secondly, I did this interview with author Chi Rodriguez yesterday, and one of her questions reminded me of a certain second-hand sadness I thought I’d forgotten. I know I have another Q&A coming up but I’m not sure how that’d go . . . so I’m just going to brace myself for it. And the rest of the reviews the book will be getting by the end of the week, of course.

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When I started writing Paper Planes Back Home in 2013, it never occurred to me that it’d go this far. This meaning making it available on Amazon, getting it printed in pretty paperback, and asking people to read it in exchange of an honest review. I didn’t think then that I was ready for something like this, and I can’t say that’s changed either. I can’t confidently say “I’m ready!” to receive praise or criticism for the work I’ve done, but went through with it anyway because I wanted to learn how to be.

Because aside from the technical aspect of writing, I also wanted to learn how to accept the bad with the good, and to see my work through another person’s perspective. Writing fiction is something I’ve wanted to do (and have been doing) for a long time, and now that I’m finding more opportunities, more targeted readership, it makes me want to hone my craft even more. It’s a journey to self-improvement, and for the enjoyment of readers who are now looking forward to getting their hands on my future work.

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