Goodreads Giveaway #2 Winners

Congratulations to the winners of my second Goodreads Book Giveaway. 

You girls are awesome!  A signed copy of Stay will be shipped out to you shortly.

And the winner is....

Sarah Silva from San Jacinto, California

Veronica Amundson from Anchorage, Alaska

Roseanne Wilkins from Tooele, Utah

Mindy Anderson from Killeen, Texas

Wendy Chenoweth from Bansalem, Pennsylvania 

New Cover for Stay...

Here is the finished cover for Stay....

It was done by the amazingly talented Meghann Pardee. She is a fantastic artist to work with. She included me on the design every step of the way. I highly recommend her for cover art or anything else that you may need. 

If you want to take a look at her other projects you can view her portfolio here... Kurios Illustrations

You can also follow her on Twitter... @whatakuriosgirl

Link with her on LinkedIn... Meghann Pardee

Or check out her blog for more of her awesome designs... What A Kurios Blog

Matched by Ally Condie- Review

Synopsis

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Review

I truly thought this book was amazing and I am in awe of the author's brilliance. Ally Condie depicted this dystopian society down to the tiniest detail. It's a world that is completely controlled by the government, even down to what is eaten and who we marry.

Cassia is a seventeen year old girl who has just learned who has been chosen to be her mate. She is happy to learn that it is a long time childhood friend until she sees a flash of another face she knows on the screen. 

As hard as she tries to abide by the ways of the society, Cassia can't help but wonder which guy she was really supposed to be with. She soon founds herself drawn to someone else and despite everything she begins to fall in love. 

As her society begins to fall apart and life as she knows it gets turned on it's side, Cassia has to learn to fight for what she wants.

I fell in love with this book and it's characters and found it difficult to do anything else but read until it was finished. 

I can't wait to read Crossed to find out what happens to Cassia and her family.

I gave it 5 stars.

* * * * * 

Let's Go Fishing In A Crawfish Hole...

Don't you just love this picture. It's my son playing in a crawfish hole when he was about four years old. It started out as dipping a little butterfly net into the puddle in an attempt to catch a crawfish. This is how it ended up. I can't help but laugh every time I come across this photo. Just thought I'd share it with you.

I have three sons actually. My oldest is nineteen, my second and the one in the picture is twelve, and my youngest is about to be eleven. Sometimes I just can't believe how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday that I watched my middle son edge closer and closer to that mud.

I guess that's part of the reason that I write Young-Adult books. Maybe I'm trying to hang on to that carefree part of youth. Although, I think that I would have gotten the switch if I had ended up in the mud like that. :) 

The World of Lor Mandela

Lor Mandela

Destruction from Twins

by

L. Carroll

Synopsis

When a selfish enchantress steals mystical powers from her twin sister, she sentences 
the far away world of Lor Mandela to an untimely death. Only one can save it--
a Child of Balance named Audril Borloc. All hope seems lost, however, when shortly after 
her fourth birthday, Audril disappears without a trace.

Desperate to save their world, a group of spies travel to Earth in search of the little girl 
with black hair and bright blue eyes, traits that on Lor Mandela are exclusive to the ruling 
Borloc family. Instead, they find sixteen-year-old Maggie Baker. While the age difference 
between the girls is obvious, Maggie has the Borloc traits--evidence enough for the 
desperate spies.

Following an earthquake that no one seems to have felt but her, Maggie's mundane 
existence is launched into a roller coaster ride of twists and turns as she finds herself 
bouncing back and forth between her hometown of Glenhill, Iowa and the mysterious 
lands of Lor Mandela. On this strange world, she must learn who to trust and who to 
fear. More importantly, she must find a way to convince the Lor Mandelans that she is 
not their missing "Child of Balance", and her family and friends in Iowa--and herself for 
that matter--that she's not going insane. 

Amid battling a ferocious two-headed beast, being captured by a lawless band of 
Shadow Dwellers, and falling head-over-heels for the enchanting son of an evil 
warlord, Maggie discovers that her blasé reality could be the real fantasy, and 
that the fate of an entire world may actually depend on her.

Review

I have to be honest, Lor Mandela- Destruction from Twins is not my normal type of read. I usually stick to romance or young adult. Honestly, I have never even read any of the Harry Potter series. 

I picked this book because L. Carroll is one of my Twitter favs and I have been wanting to read it for a while and with the second book in the series about to be released I figured it was about time. 

From the minute that I opened the cover, I found myself transported to another world. Lor Mandela is a magical place that is full of wonderful creatures and beautiful landscapes. L. Carroll has an awesome imagination and I am awe struck at her creativity.

The story starts out with a world that has been corrupted by deceit and power. A single vicious act has caused the total destruction of the planet itself. Only through a magical riddle and the chosen one, The Child of Balance, can Lor Mandela be saved. 

This is a story that will have you on the edge of your seat and keep you turning pages. It is full of action, and twists. I found my heart racing as I cheered on the heroine. It is definitely a must read. I am counting down the days until the release of the second book in the series... Four Hundred Days.

Lor Mandela

Four Hundred Days 

by 

L. Carroll

Scheduled for Release

on

July 15, 2011!

Synopsis

When Audril, the heiress to the Lor Mandelan throne, sneaks away to Earth to save one of her dearest friends, she finds that a power hungry tyrant from her own world has begun systematically obliterating towns and cities to get her to turn herself over to him. 

On Earth, she meets a wildly eccentric old lady named Teedee Venilworth whose imaginary butler/fiancé supposedly holds the key to her success. But how can someone help if he doesn't exist? Could it be that creatures who dwell in shadow are not exclusive to Lor Mandela? 

Book number two in the Lor Mandela Series, Lor Mandela – Four Hundred Days, is an action-packed whirlwind of intrigue and fantasy. Join the extraordinary characters from the first book, (both the good and the evil), as they traverse the haunted corridors of Alcatraz Penitentiary, travel via portal to an ancient castle on the cliff shores of Ireland, and meet a foreboding race of mystic warriors known as the Solom. 

Soar on the back of a large horse-like creature to the Northern High Forests and discover that on the picturesque world of Lor Mandela, your friends can become foes, your enemies your allies, and just because someone dies, it doesn’t always mean that they’re dead.

Stay

   

   My first blog!

   I am C.C. Jackson, I am an Indie Writer and the author of Stay, a paranormal romance novel for young adults.

   In case you were wondering, I have been married to an awesome guy for almost 13 years. I have three not so little boys. They range in age from 10 to 18. They have been my biggest inspiration in my writing. From watching the three of them and their friends grow up, I have been able to dream up all sorts of wonderful things.

   I love reading. I would spend my entire life with my nose in a book if I could. I am partial to romance and suspense, but I will read almost anything. 

   I hate to clean, especially the dishes. My husband is a way better cook than me. I am a recovering Coca Cola addict. I crave it ALL the time, but I am trying to avoid it. 

   I love yoga and I love to do anything outdoors. We do a lot of fishing, hiking, and camping. Of course every time that we go camping I say never gain. We haven't had much luck with camping but we keep trying.

   I like all types of music, but I am usually the last one to discover new stuff. Maybe you guys can help me out with that. I love Boys Like Girls, Fall Out Boy, Greenday, anything like that really.

   I rarely watch TV, but I make an exception for True Blood and sometimes for American Idol. It's not that I don't approve of watching TV, it's because I can never get on one. There is usually a game being played or a football game being watched on them. Maybe that's why I read so much.

  

   I am so excited to be able to say that Stay will be out in e-book format soon. I have been working so hard lately to have it ready. My house and my husband have truly suffered, but he is such a trooper.

 

   I am so thankful for everyone's support in this, especially my sister Shannon for being my biggest critic and  standby editor. She doesn't miss a thing.

  Stay is my first book to be published online, or anywhere else for that matter. I am so proud of it. I hope that you all like it too.

   Callie is the main character and the book is about all that she goes through to discover her true identity and then to live up to the person that she was always meant to become. I don't want to give to much away, but it is magical, and full of action and romance.

   I better get back to my writing, but feel free to comment or send me an email. I would love to hear from you!