My My, It Sure Has Been A While

Thank you for stopping by Words Escape Me. As you can see posts are far and few between these days. Unfortunately, I am not here to say that I will be blogging on a more regular bases, but more to let you know that after a year long hiatus I am getting back in the writer’s seat. This last year has been very hectic, both personally and professionally, and yet the characters in my head have grown impatient have decided they are not going to rest until I tell their stories.

As far as the life of this blog…I do not plan on updating it beyond this. My plans are to graduate to more of an “official” website, and leaving this blog as some what of a diary of the beginning of my writing career. I love looking back to my early posts reading everything through the eyes of a brand new writer/blogger.

So for now, if you want to keep in touch Facebook is the best place. Thank you for stopping by and happy writing!

Reading Update...The Iron Warrior and The Six of Crows

Tis the season to be completely swamped. But I've still managed to keep up with my reading and I thought I'd write a quick post and share a couple of thoughts.

First up~ The Iron Warrior by Julie Kagawa.

I LOVE the Iron Fey series. Megan, Puck, and Ash are some of my all time favorite characters. (Team Ash) So of course I had to follow along into the next series, but I have to admit I did't love it. The first two books I'd give a "strong like", and the last book, well...I barely finished. In fact I wanted to DNF it. By the time I hit 75% I mostly scanned through and read the last chapter. I just felt the story dragged and took to long to get to the point.

Next up~ The Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The follow up to the Shadow and Bone series. Once again, I did not love it as much as the first trilogy, but I liked it enough to continue with the series. The characters were unique, flawed but likable, and the writing itself is absolutely to die for. Tension and conflict in every scene.

Now I'm reading The Fifth Wave, and have Winter on my Christmas list.

Got to go, thanks for stopping by and happy reading!

And Introducing...Author Ruth Silver

This week I am happy to feature, and interview author Ruth Silver. Ruth has a variety of books in multiple genres, more than I even kew about! So please, take a look around, I think you will find something you'll like!

Hello Ruth! Thank you for stopping by Words Escape Me and chatting with us today. I’m looking forward to sharing you’re works with the readers here. Lets jump right in!

While scrolling through the list of your published books I learned something new about you. That not only do you write YA Dystopian and Fantasy books, but that you also write Adult Romance under the names Allison West, and Ravyn Rayne. You have such a vast list of books to offer.

~Do you have one genre that you enjoy writing over the others?

I love all sorts of genres but my favorite is probably dystopian. I’ve written dystopian in both the YA and adult romance genres.

~What books have influenced your life?

I absolutely loved John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. It’s not just the emotion and story but the way he writes, very poetic.

~What is your favorite part about living in Chicago?

I live in the suburbs of Chicago, but I love the Midwest. The people are far friendlier than some of the other cities I’ve lived in.

~Can you tell us what you are currently working on?

Sure! I’m working on a steamy adult romance that is set in the Victorian era. It’s about a governess with a bit of a sticky hand that finds herself constantly in trouble.

~What are you currently reading?

I’m reading a few books at the moment. Judging His Little Girl by Breanna Hayse and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

~Do you have any advice for the aspiring writers out there?

Write a lot. Then write some more. The only way to improve is to keep writing. 

Allison West & Ravyn Rayne Links

Romance Blog – http://spankingauthor.com

Facebook – http://facebook.com/allisonwestauthor

Facebook – http://facebook.com/ravynraynereads

Twitter – http://twitter.com/blushingravyn

Twitter – http://twitter.com/blushingallison

Ruth Silver Links

YA Blog – http://writeawaybliss.com

Facebook – http://facebook.com/writeawaybliss

Twitter – http://twitter.com/writeawaybliss

Local Book Signing!

On Saturday, November 21st, at 2:00 pm, I will be reading and signing at Vintage Books. If you live in the Vancouver/Portland area I'd love to see you. I will be reading from Awakened and Ensnared. Victoria will be reading from her middle grade novel The Tale of Willaby Creek and a children's Christmas story The Scandinavian Santa. For more on Victoria's book you can visit
http://www.victorialindstrom.com .

How To Turn On Text To Speech On Kindle Fire

Hello folks. This one is for the writers.

I wanted to share a link to Tattered Page Ink (my book design site) that seems the getting a lot of hits. It's an article about finding typos in your writing, and a short video on how to turn on the text to speech feature on the Kindle Fire. Incase you were ever wondering how to that...click here. I hope you find it useful.

Happy writing!

What the Heck is Faerieworlds?

One thing I do every year, without question, is attend the absolutely coolest festival on the entire planet...Faerieworlds. When I talk about my expeirences at Faerieworlds everyone always asks what it is about.

Well first of all, it's a real life faerie realm here on earth. It's about community, making new friends, and listening to great music. I could go on and on, but you know as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, a video.



Here is a link to a post I wrote about my first Faerieworlds where I got to meet Melissa Marr!  It was quite entertaining to say the least.

OMG! I Can Hardly Stand the Wait....A Drop of Night by Stefan Backmann

This post was inspired by an article I read on Itching for Books. Thank you, Shane. I'm so excited I want to share it too! Yes I know the cover was released in June, but it's new to me, so there.

I am huge fan of Stefan Bachmann. I love his writing style, snarky tweets, The Peculiars, and his contributions to The Cabinet of Curiosities. A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of meeting him at Wordstock in Portland Oregon. While there he was promoting the upcoming The Cabinet of Curiosities, and his most recent release, The Whatnot. During his Q & A session he briefly talked about a YA novel that he was writing. Being that YA is my favorite genre, my interest was piqued. Without further ado, I share with you, A Drop of Night. Available March of 2016.

Add to Goodreads

Five gifted teenagers are selected out of hundreds of other candidates to fly to France and help with the excavation of a vast, underground palace buried a hundred feet below the suburbs of Paris. Built in the 1780's to hide an aristocratic family and a mad duke during the French Revolution, the palace was sealed after the aristocrats fled there. No one has set foot in it for over two centuries.

Now, in the present day, the teenagers enter with cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art security, scientists and chaperones. And then a brutal accident occurs. No way out. Caught in the dark.

They will have to fight to survive. But are they really alone in the depths?





Doesn't it sound wonderful. I would pre-order it, but I can't decide if I want it on my Kindle, or hardback. Decisions, decisions. Here is a link to Stefan's blog where he revealed the cover for the first time, and he talks about how he hated the title! (Only at first, though. It is quite common for the publisher to choose book titles, despite what the author wants. Who knew? Now all of you do.)

From left, my friend, author Victoria Lindstrom, Claire Legrand, Stefan Bachmann, and Emma Trevayne (and a random lady who had no idea she photo bombed this awesome pic)

My personalized copy of The Whatnot

Introducing...Tattered Page Ink Interior Book Design and Formatting

For the last year I've been working on two things, publishing Ensnared, and working as a book designer. I've been keeping the book design thing on the down low until I was established and had a permanent online presence.

Tattered Page Ink has its own blog where I will talk about the publishing world, as well as offer helpful information for self published writers to help bring their future best sellers to life. Here are a couple examples of my most recent work. I'm also offering a giveaway for a free design.

by yours truly

The Tale of Willaby Creek by Victoria Lindstrom