Saturday, December 28, 2013

My poem "Small Things"

It's easy to forget the small things
When life happens and ash is left after the burning
But I remember it
The small things
The way your fingertips left goosebumps in their wake
The look in your eye when my heart was yours to take
The fear left behind when I lost it
The ache left in its place as I tried to replace it
I need them
The small things
Racing heart, butterflies dancing
Stolen kisses and love blazing
I forgot them
The small things
How you knew just what I needed when I didn't
How you put me back together when I couldn't
I loved them
The small things
Lost, forgotten and missed
Gained, remembered and embraced
Those small things
Become everything

Copyright 2013 by Andrea Michelle

New edition


Heeeeyyyyy!  Just 11 more days

Tuesday, January 7th will be the re-release day for the second edition of, Escape the Doubt.

And what's that?  You've heard it has a hot bonus chapter in it. Well, you have heard correctly.  Yes, 6,000 words in Dean's POV. If you haven't met him yet—you should.  He makes your boyfriend look effing amazing.

Readers, I heard you, and I agree. You hate Dean. Your words- He's an asshole, a dickpickle, a douche nozzle, a prick, or as I call him - the jerk I love to hate. You will read his 6,000 words and probably still hate him, but wouldn't you love to climb inside his head, and find out why he is so f*cked up? Well, NOW YOU CAN.

Rumor is - this could be leading somewhere for a future for Dean without Riley. I cannot confirm or deny this rumor.

Teaser
(In case you missed it)

copyright remains with the photographer
Don’t talk, don’t kiss me, and don’t tell anyone we did this—those were the rules for them. The rules for me weren’t as simple. Pretend the chick below me is someone else entirely. Forget the guilt because it’s just sex—sex with the wrong girl. Don’t feel too much, because it isn’t real, and she (whoever she may be) isn’t Riley. 
Dont worry- if you already purchased Escape the Doubt all you need to do is update the edition on your kindle.
.99 FOR JUST 11 MORE DAYS

Friday, December 20, 2013

Bonus Chapter Update

I'm trying to figure out the best way to get this chapter in the hands of readers. I thought about adding it to the back of the novel for new readers but that leaves me with how to share it with prior readers. I'd love to share this with everyone that wants to read it. 6,000 words from scenes in Escape the Doubt all told in Dean's voice. He has his own side of the story. You might be shocked to hear it. I wonder how others share these things. Hmmm... Leave comments if you have a suggestion. 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Ramblings out of the BLUE

I need a street team, I need some kick ass beta's. I need to trust more, but it's really hard when I've already been burned. I need a loyal group of minions that want to pimp me out and be my forever besties. And I need some awesome bloggers to give me a chance and get to know me, every 'no' I receive breaks my spirit just a little more. I need to spend time writing, and less time stressing about all the things I'm not seeing happen, and all the things I wish were. I see new authors doing great things, all over blogs sites (spotlights, take overs etc.) and being recommended like no one's business. IDK if it's just me, if it's personal, if it's my book, if it's my genre, if people just assume my book is going to suck... I just don't know. I wish I did. I wish I could telepathically convince people to take a chance with someone new, read my book, fall in love with it, want more of it and then pimp the hell out of it. Some might hate it... I'm not in denial. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong, or if any of what I'm doing is even right. What I do know... is that my heart is sad. Because I finally find the thing that is missing in my life, and felt complete for the first time ever. Now the critic in me berates my failure and makes me feel like something is missing again. I want to make friends with people with like minds, no one better understands this path then others like me... but even that... is hard. I've never felt so alone doing something I love, and it makes me not love it as much. My characters scream and holler at me daily, they tell me to never give up and just be patient. I'm trying really hard to listen to them... in more ways than one, but this journey is full of hurdles and brick walls.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Dean's POV... you don't say?

I'm going to be revamping Escape the Doubt in Jan. - a second edition will be in the works. 

Hmmm.... I have a surprise up my sleeve. 

Just wondering... 

Would a Bonus Chapter in Dean's POV be something that interest you?

It just maybe, might possibly, almost definitely could be a teaser for something in the future.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop 2013

Thank you for joining the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop 2013. I am excited to be one your many stops.

I hope you enjoy your hop to my blog. I will be giving away an ebook copy of my debut, Escape the Doubt, for you to enjoy. This is my first hop ever and I wasn't all that sure what I should put inside this post. I have listed my dreamcast, my playlist and a small excerpt of Escape the Doubt in seperate posts. So scroll down... :) 

ABOUT ME:  I am a new author.... WOW! It still shocks me to be able to say that. Okay, so I am a new self-published author. My debut and it's series are YA/NA, Coming-of-Age Romance. I have many WIP's in progress and they won't always fit inside that same genre box. I hope to have a variety  genres as each story chooses it's voice for me. I am 34 years old, mother to 3 beautiful daughters, and I have been married to my best friend since I was nineteen. I used to live in Texas but now I am back home in Louisiana. I am beyond nervous to be venturing into the book world as an independent author. I have never before shared my writing, even though I have hid many secrets in my own dark poetry (like my character, Riley). It's not that I didn't want to share, but more that I didn't believe enough in myself to do so. Sometimes though, you have to let go of insecurities and the fear of failure to find happiness. I have several post on my blog about why I write (check those out). Below is a poem I wrote about what writing feels like to me. So flying on a wing and a prayer, I took the leap off the ledge and now... HERE I AM. 

THIS IS WHAT WRITING FEELS LIKE TO ME:   (Enjoy my poem)  


I just wish for a second I had all the answers.  Even if in that second I only captured one or two answers to memory.  Just for a second to not feel confused about which step should come first, that 'one' or the one I'm about to take.  Just one simple, small second that feels like a minute or an hour.  In that second I might be able to breathe, might be able to see a small glimpse or a sliver of insight, and not be so afraid of the unknown.  The second passes, I don't receive the answers, only more questions, and I still can't breathe.  I'm also still afraid of the unknown.  The dark places in time, where thoughts and fear entwine is where I lie.  Until the next second passes, and the next after that, until a minute becomes an hour, and hours become days without change.  The whispers get louder, their are so many, pulling me back and forth and hard to focus on just the one.  No need for time as they don't exist for them.  For me, time is all I see.  Too little time, running out of time... never enough time.  And yet, in all that time... I never get my second with all the answers.  Time, the peculiar thing that it is... never stops, never goes back... just continues to tick and to tock.  Within time I will have even one answer, maybe two, just possibly three or very well none at all.  Within time the whispers will become a voice I can rely on.  The voice will become it's own maker of time, another cycle of unknown.  Another second I fear and embrace because it's my own.  With or without answers, this voice belongs to me, and it should not be feared but cherished.  So I will try... try to embrace the time I'm surrounded with all of the whispers.  I will to try to not fear the unknown or focus on the unanswered questions.  I will try to not let my demons scare me off, even if time after time I do let them.  This time will be different.  This time, I will not count the seconds I'm lost, or the hours I feel like I can't breathe.  This time I will just let the whispers find their voice, and the voice will find me. 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feel free to scroll through my blog and find teasers as well as other information about me.

  Escape the Doubt is a beautiful love story about two high school seniors, which are struggling to escape a past that fills one of them with doubt and guilt, while the other is filled with longing and desire.  Josh and Riley have been best friends since they were four and five years old. Told in dual POV's, Escape the Doubt, will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotions as secrets unfold. When friendship shifts into love and innocence shifts into curiosity... the journey should be fun right? Wrong. Nothing involving these two happens easy or without a curve ball being thrown at them.

*Pages full of: wrong decisions, mistakes, misunderstandings, betrayal, lies, and secrets... so many secrets!

*This is book 1 in the Shifting Series but can be read as a standalone (no cliffhanger).


  Visit the link to enter the giveaway for the Grand Prize... http://pjschnyder.com/blog/contests/

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Kings of Leon - Closer ~ THIS.

THIS SONG IS PLAYING DURING AN INTENSE SCENE IN ESCAPE THE DOUBT.  RILEY FINALLY SEE'S POSSIBILITIES, SEE'S SOMETHING DIFFERENT -UNTIL ....  IT COMES CRASHING DOWN TO REALITY.  SHE DOES THE VERY THING THAT IS WIRED IN HER DNA (SHE DRINKS).  SHOT AFTER SHOT SHE NUMBS WHAT HURTS, ACTIONS BECOMING REACTIONS UNTIL SHE ISN'T THINKING AT ALL.  BUT WHAT'S LEFT AFTER ... MORE CONFUSION, REGRET, FEELING THE PAIN OF REJECTION AND THE REMAINS OF TEQUILA. WITH HER CHEEK PRESSED AGAINST THE COLD HER TILE FLOOR SHE REMEMBERS LOSING HERSELF.  LOSING EVERYTHING.

Escape The Doubt Book Trailer

Monday, December 9, 2013

New Cover and Blurb


I believe


Warm Wishes


Teaser from Book 2


***TEASER*** 
This is from Embrace the Moment (book 2 in the Shifting Series). 

*UNEDITED AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE* 

His knuckles brush my cheek and I reach up to take his hand and bring it to my mouth where I kiss his palm and then we hug. We freaking hug... it’s the simplest of gestures but it makes me feel warm and like his arms are my home. He is home to me and I’m so completely happy to be back home where I belong.
“Well isn’t that cute.” I hear a familiar voice say from behind me. I feel Josh tense instantly and when I turn around I find my ex. That warm and fuzzy feeling dies a quick death being buried underneath years of wrong decisions. Dean takes off his helmet, places it on the handlebars and walks towards us never breaking eye contact with me. 
I’m not sure what my face is portraying right now. A little of shock and a little of irritation I would presume. “Hey Dean,” I reluctantly say to the guy that is more like a stranger to me than an ex-boyfriend of two years and a good friend since childhood. 
His chocolate eyes are speaking to me without words. For a second they soften but with just a breath they become cold and foreign. “Riley, I see you found your smile again.” He smiles but it’s strained and seems to taunt me not congratulate me. “Good for you. Strange though, how it seems to slip right into place when only Josh is near you huh?” He says full of sarcasm and bitterness. It slaps me right in the face with the truth. 


© Copyright by Andrea Michelle 2013

This is why I write


I'm about to post something a little about myself. This is not a rant but more of me sharing a piece of my story. 

It's not an easy decision to share your writing with the world. It's not an easy act of trusting people you don't know (even if you hope to one day grow to know them). A moment hasn't gone by since I have begun this journey where I haven't asked myself "Do you know what you're doing?" The answer remains the same... No. 

I love to write. I mostly love poetry. Last year I was at a very low point in my life and stuck in a very dark recess in my mind. Last time I ever felt that desolate was in high school and my dark poetry journey became my escape. Needing that same escape last year I devoured many many many novels from other authors that my one click finger has grown attached to. Retracting into a fiction story helped me cope with the out control stuff in my real life story. That worked for quiet a while until I needed more... more of something I didn't even realize I was missing. 

I've always had an imagination. I picture things in unusual ways and I daydream constantly. My mind slips into a realm that isn't reality sometimes (not the crazy kind but the story reel kind). Growing up with these strange visions in my mind of events that have never happened or don't really involve me was bizarre to me. I often felt... odd (lack of a better word) in that voices thundered in my head. Not voices like telling me to do stuff. But voices that wanted to tell me stuff. Does that even make sense? 

So one day (last year) I sat down with my lap top and I listened. I really listened and I began writing. I let the fiction world in my mind become a real world on my lap top. Once I started tapping away it just poured out (it became an obsession). This story went one way while another began and no two connected just right. They were two completely different stories with two completely different feelings. Then a third hit me in the face where I lie with insomnia and a brain that never shuts up. It was THAT one which helped me escape. That story became my true focus and the title for Escape the Doubt became my debut. Because that is truly what I felt I needed to do at that point in my life. 

I released it into the wild unknown in October. It's been slow moving and truth be told it's because of many reasons that I definitely understand (timing, genre, lack of pimping skills, lack of know how, awesome freaking authors already out there). No two things were perfect and most things were just not perfect. 

 I poured my heart into those pages and I shared it (that in itself was a goal met). I have never ever shared my writing. Not at all because I don't think it's worthy, a little because I'm afraid to do so and a lot because it's personal and belonged to me. To share it meant letting it belong to someone else too and I wasn't sure I could do that. Obviously I changed my mind since I did share. 

I became Riley Shaw and a piece of me became Joshua Parker. Little pieces of me were each of the characters in my book. Riley is a teen who writes dark poetry to escape all of the emotions she feels. It's her way of coping just as it was mine. I let her have her own voice and in return she let me escape with her. I researched a lot before I released. Scared to death of failure and insecure that I just wasn't good enough to do this. Everything I read told me that incorporating poetry into a novel was sure to fail. That took my tiny piece of fear and turned into a giant weight on my chest. However I ignored the weight and I ignored the fear and I put the poetry in my novel. Why? Because it was a piece of my character (it was a piece of me). Every poem in my book was written by me when I was in high school as a troubled teen with emotions I didn't understand. 

Moments in that novel were real moments inspired from either my own experiences or that imaginative reality where my mind slips to live at times. 

Self publishing has been a multitude of a lot of things. Most days I feel absolutely grateful and excited to be taking the leap. Some days I feel just plain clueless when I see that I'm NOT doing a lot of the things I see other authors doing. I don't have a blog tour. I didn't hire a marketing team. I haven't made guest appearances or looked into conferences or signings. It's just been one step and then another step and eventually maybe those steps might take off sprinting.

 However for now I'm just learning and figuring this all out. Every step I've made I've done it on my own. From creating my blog, buying photographs and creating teasers, designing my facebook cover to formatting my own book. I started out with a premade book cover and knew from day one (even though beautiful) it didn't speak to me. Not able to afford the amazing covers I saw out there really bummed me out. It was my husband who actually told me to make my own and just keep trying. Gimp is a bitch btw. BUT... I learned how to do all the graphics (tutorials are awesome) and I figured out how to format my book (with a lot of hair loss from pulling it) on my own into multiple formats needed to deliver ARC's and proofread on my kindle... so I could do this last thing too. Shutterstock has become my best friend. Searching for days until I found the two pictures that I knew in an instant screamed at me that they were the ones. Two? Yes, the debut and the sequel. I set off to making my own cover and then uploading it to the already released book. This new cover definitely connects to me as I picture my character and what I wanted it to portray on first glance. 

I made a mental note that I have done EVERYTHING backwards. I didn't build a platform first and I didn't contact bloggers months in advance. I didn't believe in my graphic ability until after the fact. I didn't make a social media appearance beforehand. What I did do... I wrote a book and I hit publish. So much--so so so much more goes into this job. I'd love to make this a career as I never even knew the piece I was missing in my soul was the piece I never let out. Unlocking a passion I kept to myself has been freeing and now I can't picture it any other way. 

Some days I think it's just not gonna happen. I might have let this piece be shared but it might never really turn into something more than a book I shared sitting on a TBR shelf of lots of people. However I've learned that patience is virtue. And sometimes to fly means leaping off the edge with a wing and a prayer and two left feet. Would it really be considered failure if I don't make a best seller list? Not to me. Would it really be considered failure if an agent or publishers never contact me one day? Again, not to me. Are both of those things something that would be amazing? Abso.freakin.lutely. But my point is that I tried. I took a chance. I risked it all to share this story. 

I wouldn't recommend anyone flying the way I have. I would definitely do all the steps in reverse if I could go back and do it differently. All in all though... it's done. I stepped out there the way I have and I can only grow and learn from here. 

I'm excited to get to know a bunch of amazing new people, creating friendships that might not ever have been made otherwise, and just having the opportunity at all. So thanks. Thanks for welcoming me into this crazy world. I've learned it's pretty crazy. ;) Thanks for embracing my debut and for letting me share it with you. Thanks for letting me escape and be the person that I'm finally letting free. And thanks for the future... where ever it may lead me. 

That's all. Long story but true story. *puts mic down and blows kiss*

Escape The Doubt by Andrea Michelle (Book Trailer from Booker Hooker)

Troubles with the school slut

*Preslee is that character that I wrote... ya know the one I love to hate? She creates trouble and drama. Here is a thought from Riley. 

"Why is she his new flavor anyway besides the obvious fact that she is 5’6 very blonde-legs for days-pouty lips-bigger boobs-very easy piece of work that I hate. She is opposite of my 5’2 petite figure, my average olive skin, my average dark hair with unruly wavy curls and my strange indecisive eye color of blue and green. Oh and the fact that she opens her legs when she smells a man and I well… nope I’m not that girl. I can’t even go there with a boy I’ve dated for two years."