Racks on Racks on Racks

For the rap-music-slang challenged out there, that translates to: stacks of money piled on top of one another, where in there are racks upon racks upon racks of paper money.  I'm going to take it one step backwards and say it could pertain to anything - not just money (not to mention the cost of the security system to keep it all safe).  So it's not too far fetched to say it could be...

But in the nerdgirl/fangirl world I live in that translates to....books on books on books!!!!!

Which brings me to the whole point of this post!  The Daughters of the Sea series will soon (VERY soon) be available in PAPERBACK!!!  Whaaaaaat!?!??!  That's right!  I'll be able to hold them and love them and nurture them and keep them as my very own!!

March 5th (that's next Tuesday) will be the day!!!!  They'll be available on Amazon.com or Createspace!!!  If you don't want to wait, I'm going to offer pre-ordering until March 5th for a lower price!!  If you pre-order - you'll get the books for $9.99/each, instead of 14.99/each!  If you'd like to pre-order please send me an email at Kris10day@yahoo.com!  I'm so excited I can't stand it!!

Forsaken Goodreads Giveaway!

*clears throat and hits fork against glass*

So I've been feeling extra giving lately and I've been racking my brain to find a way to spread the love of reading and....sensual, yumtastic book boyfriends.  So here's the deal.  In celebration of the beginning of the Chosen Blog Tour, I'm going to giveaway 10 Forsaken ebooks THIS friday (as in 4 days from, or if you're counting today as a day then it would be 5 days from now. I prefer the former, but I digress)!!  Who's excited!!??  But there's a catch....

Oh dear.  I don't know how that picture got in here.  Anyway, the catch has nothing to do with your soul or your first born, although try telling the blonde she-devil child that.  To be eligible for the giveaway you must have Forsaken on your Goodreads To-Read list!   I'll pick ten readers (at random) from that list to recieve the free ebook copy!!  So you have until FRIDAY to add it and become eligible!!  I'll contact the winners via personal message on Goodreads Friday afternoon!

If you aren't on Goodreads or have no idea what I'm talking about, now might be a good time to go check it out.  Just sayin.  Happy Reading!!

Why did I change my covers?? Find out!

Behind a Million and One Pages: Coverday Friday 26!:   Author Bio: Kristen Day is a southern belle at heart with a crazy streak that desperately tries to escape at ...

Bullying book bloggers - WTF?

I just read a post about author bullying as it pertains to book bloggers' reviews and I had every intention of looking that Mike Kearby up, hijacking his blog, and schooling him on how to be a decent human being. Fortunately, I decided to vent on my own blog instead of going to jail.

As an author, we put our 'babies' out there for the world to read and enjoy - not everyone is going to be candid about their opinions.  Some bloggers are more direct than others - they shave off the candy coating and say exactly what they think.  Those are the bloggers that usually have the most followers.  Just sayin. But the premise behind it all is just that...it's what they think.  An author who bullies and takes revenge on a bad review needs to take a look at themselves and try to decide why they are writing in the first place.

In a writing class in college I handed in a poem that I wrote a couple years earlier.  Out of all the poems I'd ever written it was my favorite.  I was so excited to hand it in for an assignment and share this awesome talent and innerworkings of my mind with the world!!  It got a D+.  Take down the congratulations banner and box up the celebratory cookie cake, people.  My professor ripped my poor little poem to pieces.  It was literally bleeding from the seams. There was more red ink on that piece of paper than a christmas card. 

I had a moment of wanting to slit my wrists, but it passed and I realized although it rolled off the tongue nicely and had some kick ass metaphors throughout - my grammar SUCKED, I had mispelled several words, and I'm pretty sure there was one word in there I had made up completely.  So all in all it was a epic failure in its representation of the english language.  Hence the D+ grade it received.

So I guess my point to all of this is that you can paint a magnificent picture, but if its wrinkled, ripped along the edges, and has a broken frame no one is going to want to hang it on their wall.  I can build a beautiful story and even describe a paperclip in a way that you'll think it's the most magical thing you've ever heard of, but without my editor it would never make it past my own laptop.  I believe the authors that have a tendency to bully are the ones who are surrounded by people in their lives that are afraid to be honest with them. 

It's easy to say that you wouldn't take it personally if you got a bad review, but that is almost impossible.  Of course it's personal!  It's your book!!  However, you have to step back, take a sip of wine, and remember you are not perfect.  And in presenting your 'baby' to the world; you take the monumental risk that the world might actually be honest with you.

Like Mother like Daughter

In an effort to refute any possible stirrings that I might be less than satisfied with my family or my life, I wanted to write a quick post to re-word my earlier ramblings.  Don't worry - I am still anything but your normal girl.  And thanks to my amazing and anything but normal mom, I am VERY happy being as abnormal as possible.  For the simple reason that she is just as abnormal as I am.  For she is not your typical mother.  So instead of my 15 reasons I suck at life...  I am posting 15 reasons my mom is abnormal in the best way:

1. She taught me the difference between paper scissors and sewing scissors (if you don't know, you shouldn't be using sewing scissors in the first place).
2. She taught me what it means to be trully independent.

2. She can sew an entire wardrobe with her eyes closed.
4. She sacrificed everything for us.

5. She took me to the library every weekend and instilled the love of reading within me.
6. She made my favorite stuffed animal and my favorite quilt with her own two hands.

7. She began working again after retirement to pay for my wedding.

8. She taught me how to chase my dreams...and catch them.
9. She always created our wreaths out of the bottom branches of our christmas trees and she made our stockings.
10. She's never grown up.  And I hope I never do either.

11. She made the Pinterest-inspired birthday parties of today look like childsplay.
12. She taught me how to make jewelry.
13. She inspires others to follow in her footsteps although she tries to cover those same footsteps up along the way.

14. She secretly videotaped the cheers and dances for cheer tryouts in seventh grade and helped me get every motion perfect.
15. When I told her I just wanted to be 'normal' when I was 8, she told me normal wasn't always a good thing and that I was perfect the way I was.

I love you, Mom!

Book Cover Reveal - Chosen!

I can't believe how much I've learned about creating covers over the last couple of months and I'm definitely not the best at it, but it's SO much fun!!  For my next series, I've already got a million and one ideas as to what I want the covers to look like, but that will have to wait until this series is finished (wink, wink)! 

After looking at every cover ever published, I noticed the most popular covers have a random girl in a prom dress on a beach, a rock, or lost in a forest.  As cliche as they have become, they catch my eye every dang time!!  It's incredibly maddening.  I also see alot of covers that have the Twilight complex; black and white with a color splash of red.  Just like the prom dress damsels in distress, they suck me right in too!  Damn you, you product marketing geniuses! 

So anyway, the Daughters of the Sea covers are obvious in their similarities - the color blue, see-through cryptic symbols, and the ocean.  Each cover is also pulled from a specific scene in that particular book.  So with that said below is the cover for Chosen! I'll let you marinate on what significance the lightning and crescent moon symbol could possibly have in the story line:)  Can't wait until Jan 29th!!!!!

15 Reasons Why I Suck at Life!

After slopping through the litany of Christmas photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram featuring happy, smiling families in matching red outfits, a proud Mom standing in front of her beautifully decorated house, puppies with santa hats, and giggling babies, I got the urge to throw my computer across the room.  Not because I hate babies and puppies, but because each perfect moment of other people's lives reminded me of my not so perfect life. 

Every family has their own level of dysfunction and problems, but we don't see that on Instagram and Facebook.  We don't see the raging headaches or the maxed out credit card behind that proud Mom's Good Housekeeping-esque decorated house.  We don't see the resentment behind Dad's eyes at Mom's insisting on him wearing a christmas tree sweater.  We don't see the shoes the cute puppies devoured 3 seconds before the picture was shot.  We only see chosen snapshots showcasing the happy, happy, happy parts of people's lives.

So in an effort to remind people that no one is perfect, I'm going to do 15 days of Why I Suck at Life.  15 pictures on Instagram showing the 15 things I suck at, hate about myself, or cringe at in my life.  Not because I want sympathy or therapy, but because I think my friends out there in the twitterverse and blogosphere should see some of the not so great things about me.  Train wrecks - that's what people like to see.  Why else would anyone watch Honey Boo Boo or Cops?  It makes us feel better to know there are people out there more screwed up than we are.

I'll be adding #whyisuckatlife to my tweets, so if you'd like to join in and let us all know about your smelly feet, that toothless Uncle Barney you refuse to claim as part of the family, or your burnt brocolli casserole please do!!

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