This Amazing Year: Books, Bookstores, and Traveling

Remembering One Year

It's been ONE year since My Boyfriend Merlin came out... and in one year it seems I've come a long way. This is the very first year that I've been able to write full time. (Yes, I have a stack of rejections you wouldn't believe.) So it's really been a dream come true.

I'm equally thrilled to have completed my first series! The Ever My Merlin paperback edition just came out. To celebrate, I went on a little excursion to my favorite place... the bookstore. So I have a few pics as to what I've been up to over the past month. (Besides writing, of course. Um, getting right on that... right after some more snowman sugar cookies, that is)

• Divergent (I know! I still haven't read this.) 
• Valkyrie Rising (Norse mythology. Looks cool!) 
• A blank journal. I am a writer, people!

 

On this trip to B&N, I also totally embarrassed myself as I checked out My Merlin on various Nook devices. (Don't they look awesome?!) The Nook HD looks so pretty!

Concord, MA. On the road to Sleepy Hollow & the Old North Bridge.

Over thanksgiving, I did some traveling. I admired this sleepy little town its beautiful fall leaves and got a gorgeous book of illustrated fairy tales at an indie store in Concord & visited the House of Seven Gables. (Yeah, you read that right. I went to Ryan's home town. More on this later...) 

Big Tex inside B&N

I also got a chance to go to Fort Worth, Texas. Check out this B&N in downtown. What an awesome turret! The christmas lights were great too. I had a drink at the Flying Saucer right behind this B&N and a cupcake too.

It seems appropriate to do this post around the holidays since I'm so thankful to have heard from so many readers. For those of you who've taken the time to write me, I've loved hearing about which parts of the series you've enjoyed and which parts drove you crazy. I've also loved hearing about your own Merlin adventures. Drop me a note anytime!

Wishing you a happy & safe holiday.

Priya

Giveaway - My Merlin Series - YA Mythology Hop

*Breaking News - 10/26* I'm pleased to announce my Oct release Ever My Merlin has broken into the Barnes & Noble Top 30 Teen New Release. My Boyfriend Merlin has broken into Barnes & Noble Top 50 Teen Bestsellers. Yay!! And thank you for your support!


YA Mythology Hop - Oct 26 to Nov 4

Mythology? It's just my thing! Hope you enjoy a chance to win some fab prizes in the hop!

For those of you unfamiliar with the My Merlin Series here is a short blurb of the books.
My Boyfriend Merlin, Book 1: A young Merlin goes to high school to recruit candidates to pull the sword from the stone but ends up falling in love instead. My Merlin Awakening, Book 2: Two wizard brothers. One sword. One girl. Catch some mermaids on the trail of the Fisher King. Ever My Merlin, Book 3: In the conclusion of My Merlin, to survive the day of reckoning, Merlin searches for the Healing Cup.

Short mythology based excerpt from My Merlin Awakening:

The older soldier turned to Vane and hissed. “Wait!”

The barbarian halted the sword mid-swing.

I exhaled.

“Do you see this?” The older man leaned down and picked up the trident. “This one is a son of Poseidon.”

“Fine,” the barbarian said unhappily. He slammed the side of the sword into Matt’s head. Matt fell to the floor. “That should keep him in check.”

“Leonidas,” another soldier called from somewhere behind me. “I count thirteen here. Six are gargoyles.”

The barbarian, Leonidas, grinned, showing yellow-stained teeth. He lowered his sword. “Really? This could be fun.”

A foot shoved me and I fell over on my back. Another soldier, an angular, yet muscled teenager with even yellower teeth, peered down at me. He sniffed the air and then leaned down to sniff me. I noticed gill slits on both sides of his neck. The pale green of his skin deepened to hunter green around the gills. A mermaid. Even his eyes were slightly green.

Special thanks to Tiffany @ For Those About to Read & Kathy @ I am a Reader not a Writer for hosting the hop!

Enter the Rafflecopter below to win and continue on the hop!
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Book Release of Ever My Merlin and the Soundtrack!

Announcing the release of Ever My Merlin and the Soundtrack

First (yay!), I’m happy to announce the release of Ever My Merlin on Barnes & Noble, and through other retailers. For those of you who’ve asked about the paperback (double yay!), it should be out in the next month.

Okay, now for something fun.  Confession time: I AM a soundtrack junkie. I obsess over movie soundtracks.  I love it when authors list it with their books. I might make faces  (or slight gagging sounds) at some of the soundtrack choices but for me it’s still interesting to see suggestions of the mood of the story.

I have a soundtrack for all three of the My Merlin books. Don’t worry I won’t list each and every song. It’s on my iTunes playlist (As soon as I can get Ping to work, I will post it!).  Below I’m listing some major sequences and the theme songs. I hope you enjoy it!

My Boyfriend Merlin

Theme song: Secrets by One Republic.

Why? This one was brought to me via a reader and I thought it was absolutely perfect for Matt and the whole book.

My Merlin Awakening

Theme song: Down by Jason Walker

Why? The struggle in this song mirrors the emotions in the book.

Ever My Merlin

 Theme song: I had a tough time with this one because we have all three of the main characters with their individual growth experiences as we finish out the journey. But I settled on Ryan’s song because she’s at the heart of the story.

Blower’s Daughter by Scala & Kolacny Brothers. This one is Ryan’s theme song. Why? A beautiful song about looking back, looking ahead, and seeing the hidden truths

Songs by Scene:

Opening sequence – Endings & the Bargain  Set Fire to the Rain by Adele

In the Cafeteria – The Hot Guy – Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen

Campfire – Been A Long Day by Rosi Golan

On the Train - Too Much to Ask by Avril Lavigne

Last of the Romans – Viva La Vida by Coldplay

Garden of Eden – King of Anything by Sara Bareilles

Adam’s Peak – Wolf & I by Oh Land

Gods of Water – Till the World Ends by Britney Spears

The Good Witch – Keep Myself Awake by Black Lab

Acton-Concord High School – Tik Tok by Ke$ha

Prom – Take it Off by Ke$ha

The Lion and the Tiger – Praying for Time by George Micheal

The Abbey - A Thousand Years by Christina Perri (One brother); The Scientist by Coldplay. (The other brother)

Kronos’s Circle – Tik Tok by Ke$ha

The Fury – Into Dust by Mazzy Star

Ending sequence & Epilogue –With Arms Wide Open by Creed; Echo by Jason Walker

So those are my choices... like I said feel free to agree, make faces, or slight gagging noises. Do you have song suggestions for me? If so, leave a comment!

Unreleased Prologue and Give Me Your Opinion Contest

Unreleased Prologue, My Boyfriend Merlin, and a Contest!

Hello, everyone. So MBM has an unreleased prologue. I'm going to post it up on the blog because I'm not sure if it fits in the official version of the book.

**Update on the contest**
~The contest will be closed by tonight. I've put a rafflecopter with the entries below and will let it pick the winner. Thank you everyone who took the time to comment. I loved hearing your thoughts!~

Alright, so here is the contest: Leave me a comment saying if you like/don't like the prologue and your opinion if it adds/doesn't add to Book 1. I'll pick a random commenter (from this Blog, facebook, etc) to win a digital edition copy of 1 book in the My Merlin series (your choice of which book). I'll leave this contest open until Ever My Merlin, Book 3, is released (a week or so). Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

***

My Boyfriend Merlin, Book 1

Prologue

(Unknown POV)

I got there too late.

I don’t know why I came at all.

You came for her. My insidious mind laughed at me.

Blood soaked the walls. The harsh light of the sun shone down on the townhouse’s white walls. The once pristine kitchen ran with streaks of red. The red didn’t bother me. It hadn’t bothered me since I made my first kill at the age of eleven.

I walked past the boy in the school letterman jacket—the headless boy. His head tumbled off after I hacked it from his shoulders, and his youthful face, its invisible beast underneath, lay lifeless under a cheap wooden table with sunny yellow placemats.

I ran the sword against my leg. I don’t know why I bothered to clean it. Any sword I touched got dirty. This one wasn’t mine. It belonged to the dead mother and the girl on the floor. I didn’t look at the mother, another casualty in a silent war. If I’d gotten here a few minutes sooner… I clamped down the thought. It never paid to look back.

My eyes sought the girl. She looked broken; her soft golden hair splayed around her still face like a torn halo. She wasn’t, though. She was strong, surprisingly so.

The way she laughed, freely yet with a hint of yearning. The way the light caressed her profile when she stared off into space, almost as if she could sense me in the shadows.

For weeks, I watched her. I shouldn’t have after I found out she wasn’t the one I sought. She wasn’t anything special. Then why did I linger? Why did just looking at her make me want to forget every purpose and every vow? Why did I feel as if I waited over a thousand years for a chance to know her?

I gnashed my teeth. I couldn’t get distracted. My brother needed me, although he’d never admit it. I’d failed him too many times. I was a wizard and I had a destiny to bend.

I laid the sword beside her. In a small burst of magic, I melded the fabric of her torn shirt. I touched her pink lips, just one touch. A bit of blood smeared where my finger pressed, marking her. She would never even know I was here. She wasn’t mine. For a moment, though, I wanted her to be.

But then, I was selfish that way.

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Book 3 Teaser & Blog Tour & Giveaway

This week I've kicked off the My Merlin Series blog tour in anticipation of Book 3's release! To celebrate, I'm posting up a teaser for Book 3. This excerpt is not posted anywhere else :)

Ever My Merlin, Book 3, Chapter 6 - Garden of Eden

Boys, I cursed.

The train took us closer to the mountains in the middle of the island and up into the hills and higher elevation. Outside, the dense foliage resembled a jungle. We passed through a short tunnel, hewn out of rock, and the countryside opened to the sky. Tidy rows of tea bushes layered hillside terraces of a large tea estate. At its center, I spotted a stately white plantation.

Matt shut the guidebook and stared out the window in silence.

“No,” I burst out. “I refuse to believe that’s your whole reaction. There’s more to it. I know it. So do you. So what are you not wanting to say? What are you holding back this time, Merlin?”

He said softly, “I already trusted you once, Ryan.”

And you betrayed me. The unspoken words reverberated in my head, cutting deep into my heart. I took a breath, and let it out. “I can’t change what I did.”

“No, you can’t.”

He was making me crazy. I sighed. “Can you for one minute stop feeling sorry for yourself?”

“I might if you’d bother to help me fix what you’ve broken, instead of wasting time admiring the countryside.”

I glared at him. “Why do you think I’m here?”

“Why are you? I might deal in half-truths, but at least, I haven’t been lying to myself.”

“What does that mean?”

Matt dropped the guidebook in my lap. “It means you can’t have it both ways, Ryan. You can’t believe in Vane and me at the same time. Only one of us is right.”

I didn’t think he was talking about belief. 

Here is the tour schedule. Read for more reviews, excerpts, and guest posts on these sites!

Date Blog Link Type of Post

1-Oct Book Briefs                 http://bookbriefs.blogspot.com/ Review - Book 3

1-Oct My Life is a Notebook http://adkwriter15.wordpress.com/ Review
1-Oct ABibliophile's Thoughts on Books http://bibliophilesthoughtsonbooks.blogspot.com/

1-Oct Unabridged Bookshelf http://unabridgedbookshelf.blogspot.com/ Review

1-Oct My Seryniti                 http://myseryniti.wordpress.com/ Review - Series

1-Oct ATMOR   http://www.ataleofmanyreviews.com/  Guest Post - Writer's Cave

2-Oct Bookworm Lisa http://lisaisabookworm.blogspot.com Guest Post - Top 10

2-Oct whoopeeyoo http://whoopeeyoo.com/ Author Interview

2-Oct Clean Teen Fiction http://cleanteenfiction.blogspot.com/ Review

2-Oct Waiting on Sunday to Drown http://engelsigh.blogspot.com/ Review - Series

2-Oct YA Book Addict http://youngadultbookaddict.blogspot.com/ Review

3-Oct Sweet Southern Home http://sweetsouthernhome.wordpress.com Review 

3-Oct Bookshelf Confessions http://bookshelfconfessions.blogspot.com/ Excerpt

3-Oct A Diary Of A Book Addict http://adiaryofabookaddict.blogspot.com/ Excerpt

4-Oct Librarian Mouse         http://www.librarianmouse.com Review

4-Oct Comfort Books         http://paigebradish1996.blogspot.com/ Excerpt

4-Oct Always YA at Heart http://www.alwaysyaatheart.blogspot.com Review

4-Oct Mother/Gamer/Writer http://www.mothergamerwriter.com Review

4-Oct My Little Pocketbooks http://littlepocketbooks.blogspot.com Excerpt

4-Oct Kimmie's Bookshelf http://kksbookshelf.blogspot.com/ Review

5-Oct A Dream Within A Dream http://adreamwithindream.blogspot.com Excerpt

5-Oct The Bookish Babe http://thebookishbabes.blogspot.com Review

5-Oct PNR UF Reviews&Goodies http://pnrurbanfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/

5-Oct Reader Girls http://www.readergirlsblog.com Excerpt

6-Oct FireStarBooks         http://firestarbooks.blogspot.ca/ Review & Excerpt

6-Oct JennReneeRead http://jennreneeread.blogspot.com/ Review & Excerpt

6-Oct A Soul Unsung http://soulunsung.blogspot.com Post-Dream Cast

Giveaway

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