Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Winners!

Thank you to everyone who commented, tweeted, or otherwise posted about my book deal--I'm overwhelmed by this wonderful writing community. I love you guys!

So, without further ado, my lovely assistant just chose the three winners for my celebration giveaway!


My lovely assistant. I want to cover her with kisses.


Grand Prize: A Kindle or $100 Amazon Gift Card
Jemi Fraser!


Writer's Package

Bethsflutterby!



Reader's Package

L.G. Smith!

Congratulations, ladies! Enjoy your prizes and I'll see everyone in a couple weeks--I have some traveling (not to mention research and writing) in my immediate future, but I promise to share pictures when I get back. 

Adios amigos!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Celebration Contest!!!


*breaks into another Egyptian happy dance*

Methinks a book deal four years in the making deserves a pretty epic celebration. 

So here goes...

I wouldn't have made it this far without this amazing writing community, (certainly not with most of my hair still intact) so I've tried to come up with three prizes to give back to this wonderful community of writers. 


!! The Grand Prize !!
A brand-new Kindle 
OR
$100 Amazon Gift Card!!! 
(Yes, you read that right! Think of all those shiny new books you can download! Or buy!)


Prize #2: The Writer's Package
 - A 50 page critique from me (all genres except erotica, can be given to another writer)
- Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
- A beautiful peacock feather writing notebook
- An evil eye amulet (straight from Istanbul!)


Prize #3: The Reader's Package
- The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan (Because it's Egyptian, of course)
- Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander (Because it's set in Istanbul)
- A papyrus bookmark (From Egypt!)
- An evil eye amulet (From Istanbul!)


How to Rack Up Your Entries (aka Shameless Self-Promotion)
+ 5 Follow this blog
+ 5 Follow me on Twitter
+5 Like/Friend me on Facebook (And yes, I know I don't have much there. Yet.)
+ 5 Follow me on Pinterest
+3 (for each mention) Blog/Tweet/Facebook about this contest
+ 3 Tell who your favorite person in history is in the comments
+ 10 Rhyme or haiku about your favorite historical person in the comments 

The Fine Print
1. Yes, I ship internationally. (Two of my favorite writer buddies are Aussies, after all!)
2. You MUST include your email address in the comments.
3. Total up your entries (I despise math).
4. I'll assume everyone is interested in the Grand Prize, but please tell me whether you'd like the Reader's Package or Writer's Package. Otherwise I'll just guess. (And inevitably guess wrong). 
5. Contest closes Friday, May 25th at 11:59PM EDT.

Whew! I think that's everything, but feel free to ask questions in the comments. Good luck!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Big, BIG News!



Here's the official announcement, straight from Publisher's Marketplace:



Debut 

Stephanie Thornton's THE SECRET HISTORY, in which a theater tart-turned-Constantinople's premier courtesan must decide what's more important: pleasing the emperor who claims to love her or keeping the son he can never know about, to Ellen Edwards of NAL, at auction, in a three-book deal, for publication beginning in 2013, by Marlene Stringer of the Stringer Literary Agency (World English).

Wow. Just wow.

It's taken buckets of blood, sweat, and tears to get to this point (and not just my own, I promise you!) so it's beyond surreal to post the announcement I've been working toward for four long years.

Not only that, but today would have been my mom's 51st birthday. I like to think this is a sort of reverse birthday present, and that she'd have been pretty proud of me. (And maybe that she would have liked my books too!)

The epic celebration contest is coming Monday so check back next week!


*breaks into an Egyptian happy dance*


Woohoo!


Monday, May 14, 2012

Random Acts of Kindness BLITZ!


A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community
Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.
So many people take the time to make us feel special, don't they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.





Kindness ROCKS!



To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ.  And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I'm participating too!

So today I'm blitzing both Gary Corby and Renee Yancy.

Without Gary, who writes historical mysteries set in Ancient Greece and blogs at A Dead Man Fell From the Sky, I'd be sitting on two dead novels. It's a crime (pun intended) for a library not to have his books, and while the big library in town has both The Pericles Commission and The Ionia Sanction, my local branch didn't own either. So I ordered a copy of both to donate!
And to the best crit partner in the world, Renee Yancy, I'm sending a snazzy package of writerly treats. Without Renee, my novels would be overrun with the word "just" and probably make as much sense as a book about snow written in Swahili.

Do you know someone special that you'd like to randomly acknowledge?

Don't be shy--come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. :)

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Things My Daughter Taught Me



My daughter is an amazing little monkey. While I like to think I'm teaching her a thing or two, she's really the one teaching me something new every day.

Here's the top two monkey lessons...


Lesson #1: I can do anything.

This started when I opted for natural childbirth. (Because I have some kind of Alaskan-tough-girl mentality. Or I'm a glutton for punishment. I haven't decided which yet.)


Yes, it was hard (my brain has conveniently forgotten most of the pain), but I learned I can do just about anything if I put my mind to it (and if the stars are properly aligned). Shortly thereafter, I decided to start writing books, something I'm often convinced is harder than giving birth.


Lesson #2: Laugh. Every day. 

 This is seriously what I came home to a few months ago. It's a space suit. (Obviously).

No matter how cruddy my day has been, monkey-antics are a sure-fire way to make me laugh out loud. And then things are just plain sun-shiney. 


So this post is for you, little monkey. I love you and am so proud to be your mommy.

(P.S.- Please stop growing.) 

Happy Early Mother's Day to everyone!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Winter Begone!

This winter was rough. 


(Why am I talking about winter in May, you ask? Because I still have snow in my yard and it snowed again two days ago.)

Begone winter!


The monkey in the back yard a couple weeks ago.
Anchorage did break the seasonal snow record this year with 133.6 inches of snow. (I almost wrote feet--sometimes it felt like that!) We also had a month of sub-zero temperatures and five nasty windstorms (clocked 120 miles an hour at my house--felt like I was in a war zone).


However, despite the residual snow flurries, spring is springing. A frost late week munched most of my daffodils, but look what opened today in all its sunny glory. 

You have no idea how happy this makes me.

And for the first time ever, I'm really starting a new WIP during spring. It's making me feel all excited and hopeful. 


May spring put a little extra bounce in your writing too!