When To Now blog tour

 

This week I'm celebrating the release of my time travel story, Turns of Fate, in an anthology called When To Now. This anthology is published by The Fairfield Scribes, the writing group responsible for turning me from a newbie writer with stars in my eyes into what I am today.

I suppose I still have stars in my eyes--really, I don't know how anyone can pursue publication without the benefit of a little stardust--but I've grown so much since becoming a part of the Scribes. When To Now is the Scribes' second anthology, and it's all about time travel.

My first venture into time travel writing was in my first published book, Emerald Bound. The sequel, Topaz Reign, dove in even more. But time travel was never meant to be the central element of either of those books, and when the Scribes proposed the idea of doing an entire anthology on time travel alone, I was in!

In Turns of Fate, I decided to turn time travel on it's head. Rather than exploring the past and all the ramifications of time travel by having my characters go back in time, I decided to set my story far into the future. In this future, the ability to time travel is given by a specific gene, and through genetic engineering, nearly everyone in this society now has the ability to travel back in time. It's as simple as flexing  a muscle. But what they didn't count on when they started genetically gifting people with the ability to time travel, was the idea that the space-time-continuum was a natural resource that, just like the ozone layer, could be depleted. So now there are government regulations on how often a person can time travel, and, worse, they've found that the depleting space-time-continuum means they can't travel back as far as they used to. In fact, levels are so critical that the farthest anyone can go back now is thirty seconds. But because time travel produces a rush that so many people are addicted to, they still do it, giving us a society on the brink of collapse.

Within this setting, Turns of Fate is a YA story about a girl navigating her social and family life much like teens do today. She hasn't time turned in over a decade because, really, what good is a thirty second rewind anyway? Especially when the government incentivizes citizens not to travel by offering monetary compensation. But when something happens at work that humiliates her beyond repair, she decides she might need that thirty-second rewind after all. She just forgets to consider the cost.

And--enter the age-old question--will she really be able to change anything anyway?

I hope you enjoy Turns of Fate and all the other amazing stories in the When to Now anthology--The Scribes are a talented group of writers. You can find the book here.

The blog tour is almost over, but check in here tomorrow for the final stop. Happy time jumping!

The Windfall App Blog Tour

Free money is not a gift. It’s a curse. 

At least, that’s what Marina’s dad says when she wins the grand prize of five thousand dollars a day—for life—after playing Windfall. Despite his warning, she’s determined to live it up, and she has no problem burning bridges along the way. But not all wins are good, and what you see is not always what you get. 

To celebrate the release of The Windfall App (find it here), I'm giving away a YA book bundle, including a copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond, and of course The Windfall App by Teresa Richards.

 

Follow the book tour for early reviews of The Windfall App, interviews, and spotlights. And, of course, enter to win the giveaway. Here are the tour stops: 

July 27--Brookie Cowles 

July 27--Emmy Mom 

July 27--Evernight Teen

July 30--Blooming With Books 

July 31--Katie's Clean Book Collection

August 1--My Book a Day  

August 1--Singing Librarian Books

August 1--Because I Said So

August 2--Getting Your Read On

August 3--By Robin King

August 4--Good Tales Reviews

August 6--Bewildering Stories

August 6--Alison McBain

The Rafflecopter giveaway will be live at each of these sites, and you can enter multiple times throughout the blog tour, so the more blogs you visit, the higher your chances are for winning. Please note that the giveaway for the books pictured is only available to US addresses. Internationally, ebooks will be sent. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The City by the Bay

My new YA novel, The Windfall App, releases in just over a week! The Windfall App is different from my previous publications--there is no magic, no time travel, and and no twisted fairytales. This book is a contemporary suspense about a girl who wins the lottery only to learn that the game has been tampered with and her prize comes with strings attached. Here's a short little blurb:

Free money is not a gift. It’s a curse. 

At least, that’s what Marina’s dad says when she wins the grand prize of five thousand dollars a day—for life—after playing Windfall. Despite his warning, she’s determined to live it up, and she has no problem burning bridges along the way. But not all wins are good ones, and what you see is not always what you get.

There's a full blurb on my website, if you're interested in learning more. I'm so excited for you all to meet Marina--piano prodigy and closet alternative rock junkie--and to fall in love with the city of my heart, The City by the Bay. 

The Windfall App is set in San Francisco. I grew up in a town nearby and went to the city often, so I'm kind-of in love with the place. My grandfather worked for the railroad in San Francisco in the 1950's and came to know the city so well that whenever we'd have visitors, he'd take them on a private tour. His tours became something that family members and friends would look forward to when they came to visit. (Fun fact: my grandparents got engaged at Stow Lake, which is a little spot in Golden Gate Park where visitors can rent paddle boats and take a break from city life. In my book, Marina mentions Stow Lake when she's making up a fake newspaper headline in an attempt to joke around with her dad.)

All joking aside, many of the places in The Windfall App were places I visited with my grandpa, and many of the things Marina loves to do were inspired by my childhood trips to the city. On one such trip, we went to a park and slid down giant concrete slides on old pieces of cardboard. In my story, Marina and her friends frequent a similar spot called the Seward Street Slides. These aren't the same ones I went to as a kid, but they're the same idea.

Recently, I took two of my close friends--one my critique partner and one my sensitivity reader--and we set out to find the Seward Street Slides. They are tucked away in a little neighborhood, sandwiched between houses and hills, as everything in the city is. We took some videos of us playing on the slides. Click here to watch them. And here are some pics:

 

Stay tuned for some giveaways and contests in the next few weeks as we celebrate the release of The Windfall App! And check back here on July 27th for the blog tour schedule--I'll be giving away a YA book bundle, and there will be lots of chances to enter over the course of the tour. 

Character Pics

Happy New Year!

2017 sure was busy. My second book came out (yay!) and the year was full of book festivals, writing conferences, school visits, individual signings, and one craft fair. I met a ton of awesome readers this year, and taught writing workshops to both middle and high schoolers (which I'm learning is one of my favorite aspects of being an author). I also shared signing tables with some fantastic authors this year, and feel honored and humbled to be able to count these talented people as my friends. 

During my blog tour for Topaz Reign, one of the bloggers asked me if I had pictures of my characters that I used as inspiration while I was writing the book. I don't normally do a collection of pictures before writing, like some authors do, because it becomes a rabbit hole and I end up wasting a lot of time searching for pictures and never finding the exact right ones.

But when I went looking for pics to help answer this blogger's question, I ended up finding four perfect images of the main characters in Topaz Reign right away. And I'm so excited to finally have pictures of the characters that have been living in my head for so long, that I had to share them here.

So to start the new year, here are Maggie, Garon, Lindy and Trevin. They will soon be joined by others, as the cast of characters I've created continues to grow. I'll spend 2018 like I've spent the past five years--working to bring stories that matter, stories that uplift, and stories that entertain to my readers. 



Maggie:






 Garon:

 


 Lindy (except picture her in a castle, not a car):

 


 Trevin:

 


Many thanks to blogger Brookie Cowles for inspiring me to find these pictures.