Hi everyone,
I have been a busy bee, working away at Wanderlust. Here's a short glimpse at what you can expect to find in the sequel to Breathless.
Enjoy!
HH
I had only been asleep a short time when I was jolted awake. A cold sweat washed over my body. Instantly, I knew I had again fallen victim to the tumultuous dreams that had haunted my sleep for weeks before Chaseyn first arrived in Evergreen more than six months ago.
An epiphany enlightened my still hazy mind. Chaseyn had not left Evergreen. Though he had stayed away and pretended to be gone, he must have been nearby all the while. Had he truly been gone, the dreams would have returned earlier. This was the first time I was away from his presence. Suddenly, my heart grew heavy and salt water flooded my eyes. My shoulders heaved lightly, and I sobbed silently, or so I thought.
“Lia, is everything all right,” Addie asked with genuine concern, shaking off the sleep that had embraced her moments earlier.
“He’s gone, Addie,” I cried through shallow breaths.
“I know, sweetie. He left a week ago. I thought you said it was fine.”
“No, Addie. You don’t understand. I mean, he’s really gone.”
Eli twitched, his head falling on my shoulder, which I abruptly shrugged off. My swift action jolted him awake.
“Lia, what’s wrong?”
“She’s blubbering something about Chaseyn being gone,” Addie explained. “But he’s been gone a while, so I’m not sure why the sudden tears. She was fine before.”
“It’s okay, Lia,” Eli whispered, smoothing my hair and wiping the tears from my cheeks. “I understand.”
And, I knew he did. He understood in a way Addie never would. Never could. For this, I felt both grateful and guilty.
Heartbreaking. That was the only word to describe the look on Addie’s face when she realized Eli and I shared a special connection. Still, I couldn’t help but snuggle in to Eli’s warm embrace as he worked to sooth my mind.
“Shhh, Lia. It’s okay. Let it out,” he whispered, his breath warm on my ear.
His lips gently grazed my cheek, but I was too weak to worry about the implication. Instead, I let him comfort me, while Addie watched in stunned silence. Despite my emotional state, I made a mental note to find a balance—a balance between the best friend who had stood at my side through all of my teenage triumphs and tribulations and the boy-next-door who knew my dirty little secret.
I can already tell that this is going to be a GREAT read! I'm wanting more already. Can't wait for you to be ready to release this sequel. I'll be the first in line :)
ReplyDeleteAhh, it sounds great! Can't wait to read Wanderlust! The wait is going to drive me crazy though.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! I'll post another sneak peak soon!
ReplyDeleteuse spellcheck this time...
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more from you grammarnazi90. I have a unique writing style in which I take a lot of liberties with grammar. This is a challenge for editors, and a lot of this was left untouched at my request. Love it or hate, it's my writing style.
ReplyDeleteThat said, typos are a different issue...one that I would like to address. I did use spell check, but it won't catch misuses of words that are spelled correctly. If there are actual typos, such as mispelled or misused words, I would love your help to address these, as clearly, my editor did not.
If you're available to provide more detail, I would love to hear from you or have you read the second one before it's published to get your insight. I am a reporter, children's book writer, and editor by trade, and I can appreciate the challenges of reading a book that has typos. Unfortunately, I can't do much about them if no one is willing to point them out.
First let me say I in no way meant to be rude, I really did enjoy your book, I read it in two days. The only things I had issues with were the typos and some inconsistencies. In one place you used the word "waste" when you clearly meant "waist" at another point you misused the word "frequent" when referring to dining at a food stand at the theme park. One other thing that really stood out was when Lia states that she has no idea what Chaseyn's name is yet when she is in her room after the party she refers to the jacket as "Chaseyn's jacket" things like this were what caught my eye.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand bending the rules of grammar for your specific writing style, I do it myself. One thing i did not understand was your aversion to question marks, there were so very many missing. Reading dialogue is made quite difficult when you read it as a statement and then find out a moment later that it was posed as a question, causing you to have to go back and reread the dialogue.
Having said this, again I quite enjoyed your book and look forward to the second installment.
Hello Grammarnazi!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you wrote back! I never once took your review as rude...quite the opposite, in fact, and I am really happy to hear from you. (I'd insert a smiley face here if I wasn't generally opposed to them!)
I make it a habit not to invest too much stock in reviews. Some people will like my stuff, and others won't. It's typically nothing personal. But, I cringe when I read about actual errors, which is why your review was the only one I commented on.
I genuinely appreciated every word, and I really did want to hear from you, not because I was offended but because I liked what you had to say. I felt like you were someone who understood my style and appreciated the story, but could also see the inherent flaws. That's really useful to me.
There are some really great reviews, which is, of course, always wonderful. And, there are people who really hate it, which is cool with me...not everyone has to love my book. But you expressed an opinion that was really candid and extremely valuable to me from the writer's perspective.
So, that said...I get the question mark thing. It was a choice I had originally made because I just don't like them, but because there are two people who have commented on it, I have gone through the entire book for all instances and added them in. I also did another spell check, and it only found four words, which is why I really wanted to hear from you with more detail. Unfortunately, "waste" for "waist" or other similarly misused words just won't be caught by it--sadly. These are the kinds of errors that result not because I don't know which is the correct spelling (that would be sad at this stage in my writing career) but because sometimes my fingers are moving faster than my mind to get the words on the page. It happens too often, I fear. I had hoped my editor had caught these things, but let's face it, at 99 cents a copy, I'm using junior people! I'll search for the two you mentioned, and make sure they are adjusted. I also fixed the "Chaseyn" name thing some time ago, but it takes Amazon a while to repost the draft.
There is only one remaining comment that worries me... the "there," "their," and "they're" issue. I have searched every instance three times, and I just can't find one that is incorrect. Could be a case of the writer reading the book wrong, which happens when you're too close to the words.
So, all that said...thank you! I mean it wholeheartedly! I am really glad that you took the time to write me and that you provided such useful feedback to me. I really would welcome you to read the next book prior to publication so that I can get some honest reader feedback before it goes live. It'll be a few more weeks, but if you're interested, let me know!
Oh I'm so glad to hear you weren't offended by my comment, i reread it and realized it could have been misconstrued and that would have been terrible. I also saw a comment about the "their, there, and they're" misuses however I as well was unable to find any.
ReplyDeleteI'm also happy to hear that you don't take the negative comments too seriously, some people simply think it's their duty to tell others exactly what they think. Life will continue to be difficult for them. No on enjoys a downer.
I would love to look it over for you, anything to help the art. I'm also fairly excited to see how this whole story plays out. Happy writing!
Thanks for the encouraging words. I'll be in touch when I have a draft completed for Wanderlust.
ReplyDeleteHello, first I just want to say I loved your book! It was amazing! I can't wait till the sequel comes out. I think your choice of names is very interesting and thoughtful. The storyline about Alexei was powerful and was written extremely well. I can't wait till Wanderlust comes out!
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteI would love to help you out with the editing. I am working with another indie author and she is pretty happy with my results. I love to read and I really enjoy doing it. So please give feel free to use me now or in the future. I'll be starting to work with my second author this summer. So it would be my pleasure to help you out.
when is wanderlust coming out?? I just finished breathless and I cant wait to read wanderlust.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I have to start by saying that i absolutely adore Lia and Chaseyn. I am in love with that name by the way. Wonderful choice. And Eli is adorable too. I finished the book in a matter of hours and i simply can not wait to get my hands on Wanderlust. The only problem is, I can't find it anywhere. What's going on with that?
ReplyDeleteI love your books and I would love to see if Lia could change Chaseyn into a full human but it just wouldn't be the same having a bad boy half vamp as a boyfriend, I actually would like to see Lia become a vamp with Chaseyn.. They make the perfect couple and I would love to see them in an happy ending. Maybe let them go to their next step and actually let her to become pregnant and in the end she has to become a vamp... I also would love to see Eli and Addi together.
ReplyDelete