The Between Worlds Series Book One Redesigned, Book Two Revealed

Eden Crane Design's has done it again! Broken Promise will be released soon, so we decided to get a facelift for the series. What do you think of the new covers?

Cover Redesign

Rylie has it all - great friends, dream boy, loving family. But on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, her perfect little world shatters. A stranger claiming to be her real mother appears with a secret: Rylie is a faery whose powers will be unleashed on her birthday. Captured and forced into a new life, Rylie struggles to keep everything she loves and discovers a terrifying truth: some promises cannot be broken.

Amazon
Nook
iBooks

Coming Soon! June 2013

Over a year has passed since Rylie returned to her 'human' life. She now knows the truth about her past – and the destiny she can’t yet accept. Rylie struggles to choose between two different worlds, each with a boy she loves. News that her father is alive complicates her life even more. Among the broken hearts and promises, a chance for a new beginning will emerge.

Secret Bloodline

My fifth book, Secret Bloodline, is now live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. I'm still looking for five more people to review it. If you'd like to be in on that, please let me know!

Cover & Blurb Release

Secret Bloodline should be out this week. Here's the cover - designed by Streetlight Graphics! They did an awesome job, as usual.

What sixteen-year-old Kairi doesn’t know is that vampires do exist and she’s one of them. She was left in foster care when she was very little and grew up away from her world. Then she began to change. Feeling out of place and confused, she ran away from her foster home.  A coven takes her under their wings and trains her. When she is told her parents didn’t just abandon her, but died protecting her, she sets off on a mission to find their killer.

And then she meets Aiden…a vampire hunter.

I will be gifting free copies on Amazon to the first 10 people who respond and agree to leave a review. Please respond in the comments section with your Amazon email OR email me at taliajager (at) att (dot) net OR message me through my author Facebook page. Once it is live on Amazon, I will gift the 10 copies. Thank you!

If I Die Young Cover

As I've been saying, Streetlight Graphics did the cover for my fourth book, The Ultimate Sacrifice. When I saw the amazing job they did, I asked them to also do the cover for my third book, If I Die Young. Since If I Die Young is coming out soon... hopefully within the next 1-2 weeks, I wanted to release the cover.

If I Die Young is about a 16-year-old who needs a heart transplant. Official blurb to come :)

Without further ado...

Book #4

Tonight, I feel on top of the world! I finished the first draft of my fourth book. I began writing it March 11, 2011. So, it took less than a month to complete. I'm very excited about this book - and a little worried. It's my first paranormal story making it new territory for me.

I'm not ready to go into details yet, other than to say it's not about vampires or werewolves. It's about teens with 'gifts'.

Right now, I'm setting it aside. I'm going to go back to my third book which needs some editing. I had a few people read it and tell me what they thought. Now, I'll be taking their opinions and going back through it. After the edit, I'll send it back out to these people to see how they like the new version. Then another edit and I hope to get it out for summer.

Once that it is done, I'll go back to this book and do my first edit on it. I'm very hopeful that I will have this one released by the end of the year.

And... I already have book five in my head - and a little on paper. I had to write down some things, the character kept yelling in my head : )

A Trip to the Library

I'm majorly behind on books, I guess that's what having five kids will do to you. Yesterday, I decided to go to the library and see if I could find some of the books on my 'to read' list. Unfortunately, I didn't find a lot. None of the semi-new ones were there, so I had to get even older on my list. This, of course, reminded me why I don't usually bother with the library. They never have what I want. I'd much rather go to the bookstore. But, I'm trying to do my part in the family and save some money.

What did I end up getting? Crank, Maximum Ride School's Out Forever, The Dead and the Gone, and Vampire Academy. See... old.

What did I do yesterday? Read all of Crank. I wasn't sure I'd like the book. I knew I would like the storyline, but I wasn't too sure about the poetry part. When I started reading, the words grabbed me and I was hooked. I found myself frustrated at times trying to figure out which way the page was to be read, but I got through it. I have mixed feelings about the book, but I think that's normal now because I see it from two perspectives - the teen and the mom. I'm not real good at reviews, so I'll just say that I'm glad I read it even though I really don't like how it was written.

I started The Dead and the Gone. I recently read Life As We Knew It, so I know a lot about this book already. We'll see if I like it as much.

After these four books are read, I think it'll be back to the bookstore. I don't think I want to deal much with the library.

Word Count

Word Counts ~ Novel vs Novella ~ YA vs Fiction ~ Word Counts

There are so many sites out there with information on how many words a novel should be or a novella or a young adult book, but what about a young adult novella?

Here's the dilemma - I have a young adult book that is currently 35,000 words. Once I'm finished, it should be closer to 40,000. The story is fine the way it is. I think it flows well. If I have to get it to 40,000-50,000 to be considered a good young adult length, I'll have to add fluff. And well, too much fluff, is just that - FLUFF! I don't want to put a whole bunch of nothing in my book just to get it to the right word count.

What do do? What to do? Does it matter? Does it really matter if a book is a little shorter than normal? Would some of you rather read a book with more fluff just so that it's the proper length? Mmmm... decisions.

Book Promoting and How to Help

In my quest for self e-publishing success, I have had the hardest time with promoting my books. Some of that is because I'm not sure how many teens have access to eReaders or credit cards to buy eBooks. Other reasons include how to promote books online.

Here's what I've done so far.

Joined many communities or forums to talk about writing, reading, and publishing. These include:

Kindleboards

Nookbooks

Mobileread

Bookandreader

Absolutewrite

I joined other sites like:

Goodreads

LibraryThing

Shelfari

I joined tagging groups so people would tag my books with the appropriate words. I made an author's page on Amazon and Authorsden.

I have a Twitter page and a Facebook fan page. And of course, I have my new blog.

Help I need from friends, family, or fans. If you've read the book, leave a review. If you know what the books are about, tag them with the appropriate words. If you have a blog, blog about the book - if you do giveaways on your blog and have a YA audience, I'd love to offer a free copy of my eBook.

Any of you who have an account/shelf at goodreads, librarything, or shelfari, add my books to your shelf, leave a review.

Follow my blog and add it to your blog. Leave comments.

Tell other people - neighbors, friends, teens. Or on your Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you!!!

Teagan's Story

My second book, Teagan's Story, is live on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Teagan's Story is available as an eBook for $2.99.

Teagan Kavanagh's life is shattered when her parents are killed in a car accident. She must move in with her brother and is forced to attend public school for the first time in her life. As if starting a new school her junior year wasn't hard enough, she continues to battle epilepsy and the constant unknown of when and where her next seizure will occur. As this new chapter in her life opens, she gets more than she bargained for. Torn between playing it safe and risking her life to be normal, Teagan must make a life changing decision.

Charli

Although I began Teagan's Story many years ago, when my friend found on me on Facebook recently, I found out her daughter had epilepsy. I immediately thought of my book and decided that I wanted to dedicate it to her.

So, Teagan's Story is dedicated to Charli. Please join her cause on Facebook and help us find a cure for epilepsy.

Charli's Cause