Broken Wings-- Shannon Dittemore Blog tour

Please welcome back Shannon Dittemore, author of the Angel Eyes trilogy. She's here to talk to us a little about the second in the series, Broken Wings, and to share with us ten fun facts about her. 

Broken Wings and Shannon Dittemore: Ten Facts

1.   The Angel Eyes trilogy is set in Stratus—a fictitious town in Central Oregon. The author, Shannon Dittemore, loosely modeled Stratus after several different small towns in the Pacific Northwest.

2.  The pianist at the little church in town is named after Shannon’s youngest sister, Stephanie, who is a musician in her own right.

3.   In the early chapters of Broken Wings we meet the Prince of Darkness. Shannon has played Satan in more than one church production. The first costume included a pair of fuzzy red mittens and red makeup that stained her face for days.

4.   Jake has hazel eyes—green with a russet flame bleeding from the center—just like Shannon’s husband, Matt.

5.   Early versions of Broken Wings had scenes that took place in South America. While those have all been cut, Kaylee’s obsession with Peru is a nod to those early drafts.

6.  The old men who’ve taken up court outside the Donut Factory were inspired by a collection of eclectic gentlemen who hung out at a local doughnut shop in Shannon’s hometown.

7.  Like Brielle, Shannon’s favorite musical is Les Miserables.

8. The first draft of Broken Wings was written during National Novel Writing Month. Not a single word of that draft was kept.

9.  There are a handful of Peter Pan references throughout the series. Shannon nurses a mild obsession with the tale.

10.  And finally, Jake visits the Evil Deeds tattoo parlor. Shannon has one tattoo. She’s a wuss and will not be getting any more. 

Broken Wings (Angel Eyes Trilogy #2)

By Shannon Dittemore 

Release Date: February 19, 2013

Paperback/e-book

320 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Giant angels with metal wings and visible song. A blind demon restored from the pit of darkness. And a girl who has never felt more broken.

Brielle sees the world as it really is: a place where the Celestial exists side by side with human reality. But in the aftermath of a supernatural showdown, her life begins to crumble. Her boyfriend, Jake, is keeping something from her—something important. Her overprotective father has started drinking again. He’s dating a much younger woman who makes Brielle’s skin crawl, and he’s downright hostile toward Jake. Haunting nightmares keep Brielle from sleeping, and flashes of Celestial vision keep her off kilter.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s been targeted. The Prince of Darkness himself has heard of the boy with healing in his hands and of the girl who sees through the Terrestrial Veil. When he plucks the blind demon, Damien, from the fiery chasm and sends him back to Earth with new eyes, the stage is set for a cataclysmic battle of good versus evil.

Then Brielle unearths the truth about her mother’s death and she must question everything she ever thought was true.

Brielle has no choice. She knows evil forces are converging and will soon rain their terror down upon the town of Stratus. She must master the weapons she’s been given. She must fight.

But can she fly with broken wings?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Be sure to check out Dittemore's first book: 

Angel Eyes (Angel Eyes Trilogy #1)

by Shannon Dittemore 

Release Date: May 29, 2012

Paperback/e-book

336 pages

Summary from Goodreads:

Once you’ve seen, you can’t unsee. Everything changes when you’ve looked at the world through . . .

ANGEL EYES

Brielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake.

Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.

Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.

A realm that only angels and demons—and Brielle—can perceive.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

For more information on the Angel Eyes trilogy, be sure to visit Shannon’s website: www.shannondittemore.com

About the Author

Shannon Dittemore has an overactive imagination and a passion for truth. Her lifelong journey to combine the two is responsible for a stint at Portland Bible College, performances with local theater companies, and a focus on youth and young adult ministry. The daughter of one preacher and the wife of another, she spends her days imagining things unseen and chasing her two children around their home in Northern California. Angel Eyes is her first novel.

Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Facebook / Pinterest

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more on the Broken Wings YA Bound tour, check out this link, or click on the Broken Wings Banner to the right. http://yabound.blogspot.com/2012/11/blog-tour-schedule-broken-wings-angel.html

Cover Reveal--Forty Days. Stephanie Parent

Please welcome back author, Stephanie Parent with a cover reveal to her new book, Forty Days. 

Cover Reveal:

Forty Days (Neima’s Ark, Book One) by Stephanie Parent!

Forty Days

(Neima’s Ark, Book One)

By Stephanie

Parent

Release Date:

02/12/13

Genre: YA

Cover Artist: Najla Qamber

Summary from

Goodreads:

The entire

village knows Neima’s grandfather is a madman. 

For years the old man has prophesied that a great flood is coming, a

flood disastrous enough to blot out the entire earth.  He’s even built an enormous ark that he

claims will allow his family to survive the deluge.  But no one believes the ravings of a lunatic…

…until the rain

starts.  And doesn’t stop. 

Soon

sixteen-year-old Neima finds her entire world transformed, her life and those

of the people she loves in peril. 

Trapped on the ark with her grandfather Noah, the rest of her family,

and a noisy, filthy, and hungry assortment of wild animals, will Neima find a

way to survive?

With lions,

tigers, and bears oh my, elephants and flamingos too, along with rivalries and

betrayals, a mysterious stowaway, and perhaps even an unexpected romance, Forty Days is not your grandfather’s

Noah’s Ark story.

Forty Days is approximately 45000 words, the length of

a shorter novel, and is the first installment in a two-part epic story.  It does contain a cliffhanger ending.

Readers looking for a traditional, religiously

oriented version of the Noah’s Ark story should be warned that Forty Days may

not appeal to them.  The novel will,

however, appeal to lovers of apocalyptic fiction, historical fiction, and

romance, as well as anyone who’s ever dreamed of having a baby elephant as a

pet.

About the Author:

Stephanie Parent

is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at USC and attended

the Baltimore School for the Arts as a piano major. She moved to Los Angeles

because of Francesca Lia Block's WEETZIE BAT books, which might give you some

idea of how much books mean to her. She also loves dogs, books about dogs, and

sugary coffee drinks both hot and cold.

Author Links:

Blog / Goodreads

/ Twitter

Top Ten Excuses-- Helen Dening

I'm excited to have my friend, Helen here today. Helen attends our weekly writer's group at the Sinclairville Free Library. Helen is a yet to be published children's book author, I say 'yet to be published' because it will be! Her stories are amazing! I can't wait to say, "I knew her when..." This is her top 10 list of excuses that made me laugh out loud. I hope you love it as much as I did. 

10 Reasons Why I Couldn’t (Can’t, Don’t, Didn’t) Write

1. I was traumatized by watching our new neighbors dance- our two neighbors, each weighing at least 350 lb, were dancing naked in the rain.

2. My brother asked me to watch his pet while he went on vacation. I didn’t hear the “s” on pets. As a pet rescuer, he currently has 2 beavers, 3 raccoons, 1 tiger, 7 flamingos, a potbelly pig, and grandma who showed up unexpectantly. 

3. I had no tea in the house. You need a good cup of sipping tea to calm and focus the savage thoughts.

4. I was participating in a clinical study conducted by the Harvard University psych dept. on the physiological and psychological ramifications of watching rain dancers.

5. I ran out of acetone… I needed to move the bookcase out of my son’s room and into the attic. While moving it, my cup of pencils and pens crashed to the floor, cracking the cup. I glued the crack with superglue and some dribbled on my fingers. I didn’t have acetone. I can’t write with stuck-up fingers.

6. I had to buy a blue horse, but books were blocking my way…

Two-yr. old granddaughter Meghan wants a blue horse for Christmas and the best place to look is either Clayton’s toy store or Puddle Duck, but I didn’t have gas in my car and I had no idea how to get to either toy store, so I had to wait for Niles to take me, except he was burning a bag of old papers and receipts saved since 1983 that was taking up too much space in the attic  and we no longer needed to keep. The attic needed to be turned back into bedroom space for family descending upon us for Thanksgiving. But Niles could only burn a few handfuls of paper at a time without smothering the fire so while I waited for him, I decided to finish moving the bookshelf to the attic, but the shelves was filled with books. When I emptied the shelves, books blocked the doorway and I needed to buy a blue horse. I just couldn’t write.

     

7. I couldn’t find the bag of potting soil. Before Niles could repair the leak in the shed’s roof, he had to move things so he’d have space to reach the rafters and I wasn’t sure where the potting soil was moved to and I needed to repot our indoor-outdoor plants that recently migrated back to the basement, but they couldn’t stay in the basement because 5 grandkids need the space for their Thanksgiving sleepover and everyone knows large plants, small children, and a sleepover are not a good combination. Although, Ali does call the plants her jungle and loves hiding amongst them. Still, the plants needed to be repotted and relocated out of the basement, but not to the dining room- no room there- so perhaps the attic- near the bookshelf, but first I needed to find the potting soil. I couldn’t write.

8. I was overcome with a deep sense of loss and sadness. Amanda came to claim and carry off my collection of classroom wall decorations. She was exuberantly ecstatic over Winnie-the Pooh characters, Mother Goose, Mercer Mayer’s Little Critters, Dalmatians, and more, while I was fought back symptoms of empty-nestitis. My 3 ft. paper creation of a smiling Pooh opened a floodgate of emotions and I recalled 4-yr olds hiding behind trees, pretending they were searching 100-acre wood for Pooh Bear’s honey pots.  I wondered if the trees I made were still in the attic. I hadn’t seen them when I hauled everything to the living room. Sadly, it all had to go. I needed space. A bed, bookshelf, and plants were destined to the attic. Family’s coming. For years, Winnie-the-Pooh had found a home on my walls and family in our world of pretend and imagination. Realities change. Yet, I didn’t want to loose this one. I couldn’t write.

9. Squirrels and superglue. Squirrels moved into the attic, chewed through the wires- no power for my computer. I couldn’t write longhand as all my pencils and pens were stuck in the super glued cup.

10. I couldn’t write, it was raining, time for dancing.