Judging A Book By Its Cover - #EPIC #Ariana 2016 #finalists

I am so excited to announce I got notification this morning that two of my book covers (and therefore two of my cover artists) are finalists in EPIC's 2016 Ariana cover awards. Woot! Congrats to Victoria Miller (my former Breathless Press artist) for my superhero romance When Dark Falls, and to Danielle Fine (who has created so much of my beautiful artwork from covers to marketing images, banners, and posters) for time travel romance Keir. Much deserved, ladies, and thank you!

2013 Heart of Denver Aspen Gold Finalist

Okay, I announced this a while ago, but this week I received my official letter and certificate for Keir placing 3rd in the Paranormal category of the Heart of Denver Aspen Gold Contest. Woo hoo! That's another shiny to put on my wall.:) 

Gethyon is up for #Book of the Month @LASR_WC

Following on from a glorious five star review at Long and Short Reviews here, Gethyon is now up for the Book of the Month! Please, please, (I know begging is unattractive but) PLEASE consider going over to vote on the site here.Voting is only open until tomorrow, so there's a very short window to add your vote. Mwah!

And this is what their reviewer had to say about my book -

Gethyon by Pippa Jay

Publisher: Burst
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, YA
Length: Short Story (139 Pages)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

 

"Pippa Jay has written an action-packed, fast moving, and very powerful story...Gethyon is a wonderful coming-of-age fantasy novel. It contains a depth of understanding that goes beyond the action adventure. Topics such as family, loss, the use of force, and good versus evil, are all dealt with skillfully and sensitively. I can recommend this book to anyone..."

Contest Win - Terms & Conditions Apply

A Science Fiction Romance Short

Okay, so just in case you missed it, my sfr short Terms & Conditions Apply placed in the Gulf Coast RWA Chapter Silken Sands Self-Published Star Award, scoring a 2nd in the short story category. Woo hoo! To say I'm chuffed is an understatement. This is the first contest I'd entered T&CA for, so I was shocked to final. A small part of the kudos must go to friend and fellow SFR Brigader Misa Buckley for her anthology idea that sparked the story, and to my editor and cover designer Danielle Fine for her stellar work on this short. Cheers!
 

Terms & Conditions Apply - JABBIC Contest

Terms & Conditions Apply needs your help! My cover is up in the Science Fiction/Fantasy/Paranomal category of the contest here. It does take a little time to go through the entries to reach mine (30 ish) but I'd truly appreciate it. Thank you! xxx
And if you have a spare moment, please swing by the YA category and show Renegade and Witch Way to Turn some cover love too.

A Contest Win for Keir!

Yesterday I received notification that Keir had come second in the You Gotta Read Reviews Cover Contest. Woo hoo! Considering the competition, I'm thrilled! Of course, the real credit has to go to Renee Rocco, cover designer and the owner of Lyrical Press Inc who published my book. So a huge thank you to her for my prize winning cover, and a massive thanks to everyone who voted for him. Mwah!

Upcoming - The Black Friday Blog Hop!

While the rest of the US is out handling the crowds, fighting for their holiday gifts, some of us like to stay in, shop online, or just ignore Black Friday all to together. This year, join us in our second annual Black Friday Blog Hop! It's a ONE DAY hop where we're giving away prizes, talking about books we love, and most likely eating left over turkey. :-)

The hop is November 23rd and is ONE DAY only.

And while we do that, we are EACH doing a giveaway. Yep. There will be over 200 giveaways on each blog hosted by that Author or Blogger.

But that's not all....

We have THREE grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $75 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more! (Please note the swag prize is US ONLY!)

Third Anniversary and a Giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends September 17, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Keir is three years old today! Yay! Well, I say three years old. Three years ago today I sat at my computer, an old unfinished short story clutched in hand, and started to turn it into the 100K story that became my first published full length work. And to celebrate, I have actual print copies to give away! Yep, the print format released this month too, giving me double the reason for a party. So, what do you have to do?

Well, I'm running one giveaway through Goodreads. All you need to do it click on the Enter to Win button on the widget above to check out the giveaway rules and enter. I'm offering it internationally, and the giveaway runs for one month, from the 17th August to the 17th September. So please spread the word!

The second way to win a copy, and one signed with a bookmark to boot, is to leave a comment below with a way to contact you, and telling me your favourite way to celebrate a special occassion. Please tell me if you want it signed, and to whom, as you wish. This contest will close on the 29th August, and the winner chosen using random.org. The winner will be notified and announced on the 30th, as I'll be taking part in the Romancing the Hop blog Hop from the 31st. There'll be another giveaway of a $10 Amazon or B&N gift card up for grabs then, and a rare interview with Keir himself. You've no idea how difficult it is to pin him down for a chat. :D

I can't tell you how excited I am to be celebrating such a fantastic double. Coming so far in those three years, and holding a print copy of my book. You should hear the squeeing worldwide!

Locations and a contest with guest author Alana Lorens

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the kind of city that pops from the get-go. No matter from which direction you approach, whether you exit a tunnel or come around a hill,  Pittsburgh’s downtown ‘appears,’ as a glass and steel fait accompli, shining in the sun or sparkling with night lights. 

 

While most people think of the city in terms of its Steel Town heritage, or perhaps in light of its many sports teams (Steelers, Penguins, Pirates AND Panthers as well as the Vipers rugby team), or even East Carson Street, said to be the longest continuous stretch of bars in the country, the truth is it is a family-friendly city as well.

 

If you’re not in town on a weekend, the kids will enjoy the breakfast selection of pancakes—even pancake sundaes!—at Deluca’s on Penn Avenue in the Strip District. Parents, choose the mixed grill: sausage, peppers, onions and potatoes piled with eggs. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_591933.html   Weekends, though, the place is much too busy and the lines out the door. Choose your favorite fast food instead and get on with your day.

The city prides itself on its ethnic heritage, and celebrates in summer with festivals of international flavors, culture and heritage. Try the St. Nicholas Greek Food Festival (http://www.stnickspgh.org/), or the August Festa Italiana http://www.festaitaliana.us/  in Vandergrift, where you can bring your pot of Bagna Calda to compete with the locals. At the Pittsburgh Irish Festival, http://pghirishfest.org/ held in early September at the Riverplex at Sand Castle on the east side of the city, families can try out Irish instruments, and even learn to speak Gaelic. Later, as the bands take the stage, our children always join the many others right down in front, dancing merrily to the lively tunes.

 

The Fourth of July weekend brings the Three Rivers Regatta http://www.threeriversregatta.net/ , the largest inland regatta in the United States, for a weekend of free entertainment that includes a Zambelli fireworks/ music performance rated one of the top ten in the country. The Regatta features unique Chinese dragon boat competitions http://www.threeriversrowing.org/db-challenge.html , as well as hands-on activities such as kayak lessons for the uninitiated. Watch the events from designated areas on the North Shore of the Allegheny River, or brave the crowds along the Overlooks on Mount Washington for a birds-eye view.

The Overlooks are accessible year-round and provide a panorama of the city no one will forget. But don’t trouble yourself navigating the twisty, narrow roads that lead up to Mount Washington—take the Incline!   http://incline.pghfree.net/ Free parking is available at the bottom of the hill, and the several funicular railway cars will take you up the hill for a slow ride with plenty of time to enjoy the view. Stop after your ride with your cooler for a picnic at Point State Park, http://www.aviewoncities.com/pittsburgh/pointstatepark.htm  at the Golden Triangle, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River.

Pittsburgh’s museums are nationally recognized for their collections and for their diversity. Take your afternoon and choose the one that’s right for you.

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, http://www.carnegiemnh.org/  one of the six largest in the country, has traditionally-loved exhibits such as its extensive collection of massive reconstructed dinosaurs, as well as the Wertz Hall of Gems and Jewelry, which showcases beautiful crystals, rocks and minerals as art.

The Carnegie Science Center http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/ is a hands-on adventure, complete with a planetarium, a submarine to explore, a complete miniature railroad village, Roboworld, where you can come face to face with robots from your childhood—Robbie the Robot, the Lost in Space robot as well as R2D2 and C3P0—and face off at air hockey with a determined robotic opponent. If your little ones have steam to release, take them across to the Highmark Sports Works center http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org/default.aspx?pageId=426 where they can race, run and climb to their heart’s content. (SportsWorks and submarine admission included in Science Center admission, OMNIMAX extra)

For those artistically inclined, visit the Carnegie Museum of Art http://web.cmoa.org/ , the Andy Warhol Museum http://www.warhol.org/  (colorful, but mostly static and stuffy except for one room where the ‘art’ is a batch of floating silver balloons that visitors are encouraged to touch and move around as part of the display—kids love this), and the Mattress Factory http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?&CFID=7119338&CFTOKEN=26310533 where room-sized exhibits are created by artists-in-residence.

If your little ones would rather make their own art, there’s only one place in Pittsburgh to go: The Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. http://www.pittsburghkids.org/  The Studio, on the first floor of the Museum, has a full layout of stations where kids (and parents, too!) can silkscreen, paint, sculpt, draw, make paper and much more. You’ll want to do this activity last in your visit to the museum, because your little artists will have a stack of creations to carry home!

This museum caters to the younger children, with places to climb and launch parachutes, tinker in the wood shop, and ride along on the trolley in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. While the museum provides raincoats, parents might want to have an extra set of dry shoes along if their kids tackle the water play area on the third floor, where they can splash, build and float boats on the 53-foot water tray and walk through fountains. Thrill to eerie strobe shadows in the Phosphorescent room, and keep your balance in the topsy-turvy Gravity Room.  Even the website is fun, with its very own Chicken and Chicken Dance!

A few blocks away from the Children’s Museum is the National Aviary http://www.aviary.org/ , with over 600 varieties of birds on display, some even walking around in the open. Special opportunities allow families to meet and feed some of the aviary’s residents close-up; see the website for details. The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium http://pittsburghzoo.com/ is another option, where you can stroll through areas representing Africa, Asia and a tropical rain forest. The Kids Kingdom, ranked one of the top children’s zoos in the country, has native Pennsylvania animals and petting areas. 

 

After a busy day in the Steel City, everyone will be ready for a nap on the way home!

EXCERPT from  CONVICTION OF THE HEART:

Mother and daughters ate at the dinner table, an unusual event in light of their busy schedules. Riviera laid out the plates, while Hope poured each a glass of milk. Suzanne served the main course, and the three dug in.

            Settling back into her chair, Suzanne asked, “Anything I should know about happen at school?” She never believed, of course, that either teenager would confess to a transgression. Asking a general question was the best way to find out from one girl what the other had done.

            “No,” Hope said promptly. With her long dark hair delicately French-braided, and her face scrubbed clean without makeup as usual, she looked as angelic as she wanted her mother to believe.

            “Steve Jones got the flu at lunch and puked on Mr. Racine,” Riviera said, taking a huge bite of rice and vegetables. She was shorter and rounder than long-stemmed Hope, strawberry blonde hair straight to her shoulder blades, parted on the side. “It was so sick!”

            “How was the geography quiz?” Suzanne asked her.

            Riviera's fork hit the plate as she dropped it.             “Mom, Mrs. Batt is such a jerk! She tested us on all this stuff that's in our next unit and no one knew what she was talking about.”

            “Did you ask her why?”

            “After she collected the papers, she walked out of class before the bell rang. You couldn't ask her anything.”

            “Would you like me to speak to her?”

            Hope burst out laughing. “Good plan, Mom,” she said, sarcasm coating every word.

            Simultaneously, Riviera blushed and cried out, “No way!”

            Suzanne looked from one to the other. “What's wrong with your mother talking to the teacher if there's a problem?”

            Hope asked, “Like last year, when you talked to Mrs. Weber about her math?” Riviera covered her face with her hands, her response muffled and unintelligible.

            “What about it?”

            “The teachers carried on afterward for a week. They're all afraid you're going to sue them about something. Mona Rheinfeld just eats it up. She even reminds them about you all the time so she can be class suck-up.”

            “Fine,” Suzanne said, swallowing her frustration along with her rice, preparing for a good digestive mess later. “I just thought communication might be a good thing.”

            “Mom, this is Mrs. Batt we're talking about. Remember my seventh grade year? She locked herself in the teacher's lounge and wouldn't come out until after school when the police came?”

            Suzanne smiled. “Sounds reasonable to me. You couldn't pay me enough to do her job anyway.”

CONTEST:

DUAL BOOK/BLOG TOUR!!

CONVICTION OF THE HEART (release date June 8, 2012)  Buy Link

And SECOND CHANCES (release date June 19, 2012)  Buy Link  

The first and second books of the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyer Series!

Come by the following blogs or live booksignings and leave a comment to be entered in a drawing—at the end of the tour, Alana will give away one ebook copy of each book and one paperback copy of each book—Four lucky winners! Check out all the websites at http://alanalorens.com

Angels vs Demons Blog Hop - Winners

And the winners are...drum roll...

Kindle Touch Winner: #1291 from I Smell Sheep: Stephanie Huff

Amazon $60 Gift Card Winner: #4695 from Dani Harper's Blog: Drake
For the Amazon Gift Card on my blog - Kristina (comment number 44)

Congratulations and enjoy! :)

The Zurian Child - Five Things That Inspire Story Ideas by Jessica Subject

Thank you so much, Pippa for hosting me on your blog today.Oh, thank you for taking the time to talk to us! :)

My latest release, The Zurian Child, was meant to be a story for my daughter about superheroes, but when I started writing, it quickly changed into something else. Many things helped to inspire this story as well as others I have written, and I’m going to share them.

1. Night-time dreams – My story idea folder is filled with point form notes about dreams I’ve had, the ones I remember, of course. Much of the original Mark of the Stars story began as a dream, but it has changed a great deal since then.
2. Daydreams – I’m not sure if all authors do this, but I daydream all the time. Whether I’m cleaning the house, or having a shower, my mind it always working, and I’ve come up with many new ideas and developed ideas and scenes further this way.
3. Music – Not only does music help to portray the emotions I want to evoke in a story, but it can also be the basis of an entire story. Eighteen by The Lines Between helped to develop a story, and I have another story floating in my head based on a song by Bif Naked.
4. Conversations (including overheard ones) – There are several pieces of conversation that have made it into my stories because they have suited the scene I was working on. I’ve also have brainstorming sessions with other authors that have spawned story ideas as well.
5. Real-life experiences – Although the scene was later cut from The Zurian Child, there was a scene where Katrina is telling Lindsay about Bryce taking her out to the movies for her birthday. In it, Katrina mentions getting locked in the bathroom stall and Bryce had to crawl under to get her out. This actually did happen to my daughter when her uncle took her to see a movie.

So, those are just some of the places I draw story ideas from. The news is another big contributor. No matter which, my muse is always trying to turn everything into a story. Unfortunately, I can’t write as fast as my mind works.

Giveaway!

Leave a comment for your chance to WIN an ebook copy of The Zurian Child.

The Zurian Child Blurb

Lindsay Beckett longed to be reunited with her first love, Quinn Montgomery, until she learns the secret that sent him fleeing from her in the first place. He’s an alien, a Hemera, and she’s half-Hemera herself. As if that wasn’t enough to ruin her dreams of a perfect life, when their child is born, they discover she fulfills a prophesy told twenty light years away and many years ago. Lindsay wants to ignore it, until her husband is murdered and suddenly believing becomes a matter of survival.

Lindsay and her young daughter are forced to rely on another Hemera, her husband’s partner and best friend, Bryce Beuermann as more and more of the Hemera are slaughtered. Bryce will do anything to help his best friend’s widow—including suppressing his own deep feelings for her. But he must prove they can trust him, even pretending he doesn’t want her with all his heart.

Available from Silver Publishing (https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/the-zurian-child-ebook-p-786) and other ebook retailers.

More information here: http://www.markofthestars.com/wp/?page_id=7702

Book Trailer: 

Bio:

Jessica Subject started writing to encourage her daughter to read. Now she writes to keep herself grounded. Although she reads many genres, she enjoys writing Science Fiction Romance the most and believes everyone in the universe deserves a happily ever after. She lives Southwestern Ontario, Canada with her husband and two kids and loves to hear from anyone who has enjoyed her stories.

Website/Blog: http://jessicasubject.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jsubject

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-E-Subject-author/205759796126370

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4959083.Jessica_E_Subject

Google +: https://plus.google.com/100079570422204018357/posts

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/jessicasubject