Blog Tour: Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book 1 (Character Post)

Today, we have Matt, the warrior of a warrior/angel partnership, joining us from Amy Lignor's new book Until Next Time: The Angel Chronicles, Book 1.

Summary: How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

Now, onto the actual post! Enjoy~

~~~

From the Desk of the Warrior

I know that these are usually always told from the female perspective, but Emily owes me one. My name is Matt. I’m the warrior side of this angelic partnership, and I’m the one who desperately wants to come back down there.

Emily told me that our ‘story’ was coming out for all to read. I suppose that’s a good thing, even though I didn’t look all that great the first time around. But after you read it, you’ll understand that I was there to do my job. I had no idea that I would end up getting wrapped up in all that human emotion stuff. I mean, I like being down there, but I had no clue that my best friend would become the girl who would steal my heart and then have the nerve to fall in love with Daniel. Boy, is HE a pain in the wing!

Emily told me that whole thing is over now. She says that she knows I’m her soulmate and the feelings she had for this other one will pass. I hope so. After all, I’m not exactly from a ‘line’ that gives up easily.

In the beginning you’ll read about a location that seems a bit harsh, but we’ve been training and fighting forever in that pit; it’s part of what we do. Besides, when we’re in there it’s not like I can even cause a bruise. Emily is an angel, after all. She’s still quick, and even though she knows that she deserves to take a ‘blow’ once in a while her pride (which she’s not even supposed to have) just won’t let her do it. Her wings always expand when she’s had enough. They’re bright pearl, which is actually nice to look at except when she’s about to win the match and disappear on me.

I’ve trained with Gabe for a long time, and Emily and I have sat beside each other in classes that taught us everything from how to deal with ‘dark’ situations to how to save, defend and protect our ‘assignments.’ I think the thing that really hit us was the love factor. I mean, I have to give you all credit down there; you certainly have huge hearts. Whether they’re used for the infliction of pain, or for the absolute love and passion you have for one another, they certainly are big. Of course…the bigger a heart the more painful the break. And, your imaginations? I give you credit for those too. I swear, humans are the only creatures I’ve ever met who have the power to have such amazingly fantastic dreams and such horrific nightmares all at the same time.

When you read our tale I hope you can see that there was a reason for everything. My name is Matt, hers is Emily, and this the first tale of our very first life. I know a whole lot more now, yet the hardest thing is still trying to keep our faith in each other in a world that’s trying to rip us apart. But no matter what happens…we will.

Until Next Time, Everybody.
Matt

~~~

Wdebo :)

Links~

Official Site

Book Facebook

Character Post: Carley Wells from How to Buy a Love of Reading

This is, I think, the last post as part of my Blogoversery Bash.

This post is perfect for today seeing as how it is the first day of school AHHH wish me luck!!!

You can click HERE for my review of How to Buy a Love of Reading.

~~~~~~

It always feels wrong, the first day of school. For one thing, the air still thinks it's summer. The breeze coming off the water is soft and tangy and nearly thick enough to rest against. It'll be weeks before fall will sharpen its saltiness into something that stings. For another, nearly everyone will be wearing new clothes too hot for the weather even though nobody is in a hurry for fall. All trying not to look like they're trying to wear something new because what's the rush--they'll still be new in a couple of weeks and there'll always be new new things. All trying not to look like they're trying.

Trying:
1. v. (present participle of try) Attempting to do something.
2. adj. Difficult, getting on one's nerves.
3. adj. Desperate--for example, needing to wear new fall clothing purchased yesterday because one returned from Fat Camp last week unable to button the shorts one wore in June.

"Which two books did you end up using for your summer reading project?" Hunter asks. At the stop sign a block before Montclair Academy he brakes too long. Though he's in linen and seersucker--Hunter never wears the wrong clothing, never feels rushed--his face is moist. He wipes it with a handkerchief and rubs his temples.

Behind us, Jake beeps, as if Hunter getting through the intersection ten seconds sooner would get us to school any faster, as if we aren't all part of a slow-moving parade in which everyone is checking out everyone else's new clothes and new tans and new cars (Amber's Rover, Jake's Jag, Hunter's Mercedes), tops down and windows open, rubberneckers all rubbernecking each other, like a giant accident waiting to happen.

"What time did you leave the Station last night, H?" He has that pale-beneath-his-tan look. Hard to tell if he's solidly into his first-day-of-school hangover or just starting to sober up.

"Did you go with Slaughterhouse-Five or Pride--"

"You drive like a senior citizen!" Jake shouts, and leans on the horn.

"Go already," I say. "Go."


* * *

Understand, this all happened earlier. Understand, I know there's something totally fake about telling a story--or typing one--as if it's happening right now when it clearly isn't happening right now because I'm in front of my computer, in my room, not in Hunter's car or at Montclair (where I'm about to be in the next part of this story). But present tense sounds right in my head. In my head, it is happening right now. Or rehappening.

And understand, I know no one is reading this. If a girl sets up a blog in the middle of cyberspace but nobody knows about it, does it make a sound? I know I'm invisible here. And I want to be. It's safer here than on paper or on a computer file, both of which my mother could find. I just need somewhere to scream where no one will hear.

* * *

"At exactly what point this summer," Mr. Nagel asks, standing over my desk, "did you manage to forget about the assignment?"

This being a rhetorical question, I shrug. Most of the time you can't go wrong with a shrug. Hard to debate a shrug.

"Miss Weiss," Nagel says to my friend Amber, "can you fathom how someone could forget the assignment?"

Caught in the middle of texting, Amber slips her cell phone under the twelve-page "Demonstrate Your Familiarity With Literary Terminology" handout Nagel has just plopped on our desks. The instructions ask us to be honest about what we know. It's supposedly just to help Nagel get a grip on what he needs to teach us, to "assess your collective gaps."

Hunter warned me on the way to school to look up everything on the Internet tonight so I can claim to be on a first-name basis with every literary term in the packet--even synesthesia. Last year, when Hunter took the class, people who answered the handout honestly got called "Gaps" by Nagel for the entire first month of school.

Amber flashes me a look that says, Sorry, but I'm going to need him for a college rec next year, and tells Nagel, "It would be hard to forget. I mean, it was a lot of writing. Not too much, but, um, just enough." She pats her twenty-page typed journal response to how The Crying of Lot 49 "resonates" with Sense and Sensibility, as if to remind herself that it's still there, on her desk, ready to be handed in. Amber gets those nightmares where you show up to a weird class you don't remember signing up for--say, Greek--and it's the day of the big test. Sometimes she needs to double-check that she's not in the middle of one.

Her last text to me, before Nagel had started surveying us about which books we'd each picked for the "Odd Couples" summer reading assignment, had been: "Europe turned Hunter extra-über-hot." He came back different, sure, but it's hard to say how. I mean, he's been gorgeous as long as he's been at Montclair, but now there's this almost unreal look to him. It's hard to describe, so I shouldn't even try. I just know that his being hungover or exhausted or sick just makes everyone think he's even better looking now. Like a poster of a beautiful, pained guy.

"I didn't exactly forget," I tell Nagel. "It was more like I thought I did it, and it turned out I didn't."

"And which books, Miss Wells, did you imagine this hallucinatory assignment for?" People snicker.

"I read the list," I say.

"All one hundred recommendations?"

"No. I mean, I read the list. Just the, um, list. A lot. I read it a lot." The snickers turn into full-out laughter. I let it crash over me, like a wave it's too late to body surf. I submerge into my head, and let it roll by.

* * *

I could recite the whole list if I wanted to. Not in alphabetical-by-last-name-of-the-author order, the way it is on the handout everyone got last June that asked us to choose two books that seem dissimilar and write an essay about how this "Odd Couple" had more in common than they at first appear to.

I could recite them, though, in the order Hunter read them (or in many cases, I suppose, re-read them) this summer. He read all one hundred of them while he was away. I couldn't tell you, exactly, what The Sound and the Fury is about, but I could tell you how he felt about it, what he wrote about it in a blog he doesn't know I know about, a blog no one has ever read but me. Probably he was afraid his cousin Ian would read his journal while they traveled together. Probably, the same way I'm doing now, he figured cyberspace was the only place big and dark enough to hide a piece of his heart.

Bored at Fat Camp, I was Googling combinations of books--hoping, honestly, that someone at some other school had posted an essay that put together two very random books like this. (I wasn't planning, exactly, to plagiarize. More like get inspired. Or, okay, borrow an idea or two.) I was trying three or four books at a time, seeing what came up, and there it was: a blog that mentioned The Grapes of Wrath, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Emma, and The Remains of the Day in the same sentence. One paragraph in, I knew it was Hunter. He wrote the way he talked. Also, he went by the name Scott Fitz.

And so, all summer, though he didn't e-mail very often and only called a couple of times, I felt like I was with him in Europe. I knew when he was sad (often), like when he wrote about a book called The Age of Innocence, saying people were trapped there the way they are in Fox Glen, everyone having to put on an act. I knew when he was trashed (also often), like when he went on for pages about how F. Scott Fitzgerald was predicting his own end in The Beautiful and Damned and how there was something he called "meta-" about an author writing his own life and making it come true.

I knew that even though he wanted to pretend he was only writing this for himself, and even though he didn't go around commenting on other people's book blogs to get them to notice him, he wished, secretly, that someone would stumble upon his blog by accident--some random, book-loving girl. She would be gorgeous but secretly geeky, like him. She would understand him from the way they both thought Mr. Darcy was actually a jerk, and not just at the beginning of the book. She would see what he thought Pride and Prejudice had in common with 1984. He'd have found his soul mate by accident. Instead, the accident was me.

* * *

"Everyone was talking about it, C," Hunter says softly as we drive away from Montclair at the end of the day. "I just don't get you sometimes. Pissing Nagel off on day one. Starting the year with a zero. It was a tricky assignment, I know. And if you were having trouble… if you found it was…"

"Stupid," I say. "Putting together things that don't belong together. I wasn't going to waste my summer shoving together things that don't fit."

~~~~~

Wow! Awesome guest post huh? Remember to check out the site HERE. And my interview with the author, Tanya Egan Gibson HERE.

Remember to join my contest HERE, for a chance to win a copy of How to Buy a Love of Reading and also a 1 of 3 postcards!

Wdebo :)

Character Post: Amber Borden from the Dead Girl series

This week, I am proud to present Amber Borden from the Dead Girl Series (Dead Girl Walking [Click for review HERE], Dead Girl Dancing [Click for review HERE] and Dead Girl In Love).

She is here for an exclusive interview with The Electrical Book Cafe, for the blogoversery bash.

Check it out...

~~~~~~~~~

Wdebo: Hi Amber, how are you doing right now?

Amber Borden: I'm hanging in my bedroom with Alyce and we're working on welcome baskets for the HHC (Halsey Hospitality Club). I'm working on a basket shaped like a bird cage for a new student who raises parrots. But my cat Snowy keeps stealing the feathers and hiding them under the bed. It's annoying--but Alyce can't stop laughing.

W: Are you excited for the new Dead Girl book, Dead Girl in Love, that has just come out?

A: Oh, sure...but kind of embarrassed, too. It was a shock to find out I didn't know what was really going on with my best friend. But ultimately I found out some stuff about Alyce and that was worth everything I went through -- even the bat's blood. But once the book is out, everyone will know how badly I messed up romance. Why am I so trusting? I really have to work on that. Hmmm...I need to get a self-help book on trust issues.

W: For those readers who do not know anything about the Dead Girl series, could you give a brief summary?

A: DEAD GIRL WALKING: Amber Borden (that's me!) is earnest, eager to help people and aspires to be an entertainment agent. Things go wrong for her at a party then things improve--but SMACK! I'm hit by a mail truck and go off to the white light. I meet my Grammy Greta and my childhood dog then I'm told to go back. Only I make a wrong turn and wake up in the body of Leah Montgomery: the most popular and gorgeous girl at school--who has just attempted suicide. While I discovers secrets about Leah, I race against time to return to my real body and ordinary-but-nice life.

#2. DEAD GIRL DANCING: Due to crazy events, I land in the body of a college girl going to get wild on spring break--which could be a fun adventure except for one thing--the college girl is the older sister of MY boyfriend. Awkward becomes deadly when a Dark Lifer stalks me--and threatens my life.

#3. DEAD GIRL IN LOVE: Another body swap--this time into my best friend Alyce, who has been keeping a dark secret about her family that involves graveyards, mental illness and a secret death. While I works hard to help Alyce, a Dark Lifer works hard to steal my heart and soul. Some sizzling out-of-body romance in this one!

W: What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

A: Chocolate chip cookie dough!

W: What do you think you're going to do after this interview?

A: Hmmm...are we still talking about ice cream? Excuse me, I'm going to to the fridge. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is calling my name.

W: If, for some reason, it was going to be the end of the world, and you had the power to save yourself and just one person, who would that be?

A: Okay, I thought hard on this one. I considered taking Alyce because she's my BFF, but she's morbid enough already without adding the whole end of the world drama. Then I considered my other best friend Dustin because he's so smart and protests against corrupt politicians. But Dustin's brilliance comes with computer hookups, and the electricity might be out if things go globally-critical. Next I thought about my adorable triplet little sisters but I could never choose between them. Same things with my parents. So I finally decided that I'd take my boyfriend Eli because he's got math-smarts and great problem solving skills. I just know he'd figure out how to save the world so then everyone would be okay. And if not we'd have lots of romantic alone time together. We could start a family and make things right for the world this time.

W: Is there anything else you would like to say?

A: Of course! I read self-help books, you know, so there's a lot of advice I could give to so people wouldn't need temporary replacements in their bodies and could solve their own problems. Mostly it's common sense stuff like be honest, respect yourself, keep a journal to help sort through your feelings, try to exercise even if you hate it like I do, go for nerdy nice guys because brains are HOT, and always have a cat or dog or some pet around for company and hugs.

Oh! And don't forget to read the DEAD GIRL series. Tell your friends to read them, too. If your bookstore doesn't carry them, say "Why not? Are you dumb or something? Order them now!" Also check out the author's website < www.LindaJoySingleton.com> to find out when the short story about me (and this psychic named Sabine) will be posted. It's called SABINE MEETS DEAD GIRL

W: Thanks for letting me interview you Amber!!!

~~~~~~~

For those who would like....HERE is my interview with Linda Jay Singleton, the author of the Dead Girl Series.

Hope you guys have a great day!!

And remember you get TWO extra entrees into the contest by commenting on this post and don't forget to join the contest HERE...where one of the prizes is a GIANT Linda Jay Singleton fan pack!!!

Wdebo :)

Character Post: Rumer Xiong

Today's guest post is from Rumer Xiong, one of the main characters of Rumer & Qix. Just saying hi from the 3014.

Check it out!!

~~~~~~~

Hi Wdebo! Hello 21st century. My name is Rumer Xiong and I’m writing to you with my animet, Qix, from Nanjing, China. It’s the 31st century here and I’ve had a lot of trouble getting back through the time barrier 1000 years to reach you in 2009. The good news is, if you’re reading this, it means we finally got our message through. Success!

It’s the year 3014 here. I’m sixteen and work as an apprentice reporter at the world’s biggest media company, the Global Quotidien. We call it the GQ for short. Qix is my unofficial assistant because animets like her are mostly toys for little kids and apprentices aren’t supposed to bring them to work. No one knows that I bring Qix in with me because she’s very small and I sneak her into the office every day in my shoulder bag.

I’m posting this message because our world is in total chaos and I think you might be able to help. There’s devastation everywhere and we are definitely in trouble. No one knows what to do. Everything’s crumbling around us and people are disappearing all over the place. According to some research I’m doing, it looks like the problem may have started about 500 years ago. That’s when the last of the plants and animals became extinct and were replaced with perfect replicas. Scientists figured out how to make fake trees, artificial animals, faux flowers, synthetic food, artificial air, water and even computer-generated weather.

For us, these synthetic versions of once real things are all we know. There have never been any problems with them and everything has been fine until a few months ago when, out of the blue, crazy things started happening here. People all over the planet began sending stories to us at the GQ about seeing things like real grass and real butterflies. No one believed them, of course. These things have been extinct for 500 years. My boss at the GQ called them lunatics and refused to include their stories in our publications. Now thousands of reports are flooding across the news grid claiming sightings of things like entire oak groves erupting through the ground destroying all the buildings on the surface in their way. I’m trying to find out more about what’s going on, but people today don’t know anything about oak trees or real grass or butterflies. No one has seen anything like this in their lifetimes. I think nature is trying to make a comeback.

I’ve heard about a woman named MoNa through postings on the indie network who says we’re suffocating the planet. They say she’s behind the destruction of all the man-made things and the disappearance of so many people. Some say MoNa is really Mother Nature, but I don’t know. Whoever she is, we don’t know where she is or how to talk to her. We don’t know anything about her creations. We have so many questions. Like what do you feed a giant tree? Is grass supposed to keep growing? Where do you get a spare part if a butterfly’s wing breaks? How do you get in touch with MoNa? If you have any ideas please post them here. The future needs you now.

Thank you so much!!

xoxo, Rumer and Qix
Apprentice Reporter
The Global Quotidian
http://www.rumerandqix.com/

P.S. Qix’s has a question about animets. That’s what we call the intelligent artificial pets we have that can talk and do lot’s of helpful things. Qix wants to know if you have any animets? What kinds of things can yours do? She is really good at flying upside down.

~~~~~~~~

Awesome! You guys ready for the challenge?

Remember to check out the site!!

And remember, when you comment on this post you recieve TWO extra entrees into the GIANT blogoversery contest HERE, where one of your prizes is a copy of Rumor & Qix. What are you waiting for? Join NOW!

Wdebo :)

Cafe Chit Chat: Jess C. Scott + Character Post: Jade & Novan

Hello! Welcome to the next Blogoversery Bash post!! Today's author is Jess C Scott the author of the book, Eyeleash...Check it out!

~~~~~~~~~~

Wdebo: Can you describe a typical day?

Jess: I always have breakfast (cereal + milk = good meal for any time of the day). I need some level of physical activity too, or I just go nuts. I spend a lot of time reading and/or writing. I will soon be continuing my tertiary education. I foresee having to brush up on my time management skills.

W: How did you come up for the idea for EyeLeash?

J: In the second chapter, there's a scene where the two lead characters exchange a certain kind of "look". That happened to me in real life, and I suppose it set things off for the rest of EyeLeash (both the real-life experience, and whatever I mixed and matched to result in the final blog novel itself).

W: Could you give a short summary of EyeLeash?

J: No problem -- I've been using this summary since 2007!

Jade Ashton is a sassy virgin. In her private blog, she vents about "fitting in" a world where superficiality reigns supreme.

Suddenly all logic flies out the window when she meets Novan: the former geek, who's morphed into a delicious songwriter-musician.

They decide to be "friends-with-benefits". But it's Novan--with his poems and riddling passages on his own blog--that backs out.

EyeLeash captures self-discovery in the 2000s, and showcases the colorful, intricate drama in two youths' relentless search for themselves--and what's really in their hearts.

W: Are any of your characters based on anyone you know?

J: The lead guy character in EyeLeash is roughly based on someone I know -- physically they share quite a few similarities, but the real guy is slightly more...psycho. As for the characters in my second book (a short story collection) -- most of them are completely fictitious. I derive equal enjoyment from both basing characters on actual figures, and letting them come to life (of their own accord) in the story.

W: What is your favorite thing to do (apart from writing)?

J: I seriously like to have a good night's rest. I like going on long, aimless walks...zoning out to music (rock, classical, dance)...drawing (can get very tiring though)...and spending time with pets/animals. I like to bake and indulge in good food too.

W: What's your favorite color?

J: I'm not Onch, so I'm not going to say that my favorite color is "rainbow" -- however, I do have a problem picking one out of the million available colors.I might go with midnight purple (for the allure and mystery), or red (for the passion, vibrancy, and energy).

W: If you were stranded on an island and could only bring five things what would they be?

J: 1. SPF 45 Sunblock & Moisturizer 2. Water bottle (SIGG bottle, preferably) 3. The maximum amount of paper and pen I'm allowed to have (for the duration of the stranded island course!) 4. Swiss Army Knife 5. A small pot/tin to boil water, and/or cook various "stuff" in...

W: Who are some authors you look up to?

J: They are mostly classic authors -- I'm a bit of an old soul in this department, which is quite ironic, because my writing tends to be contemporary. Some of the writers that I look up to include Vladimir Nabokov (utterly wicked style), Roald Dahl (also very stylish -- both his works for children and adults!), Anais Nin, D. H. Lawrence (OMG), Leo Tolstoy, Sylvia Plath, Vivian Vande Velde, and I cannot leave out my top two favorites -- Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde.

W: Do you have a new project you are working on? And if so, can you tell us a bit about it?

J: There's usually something or other that I'm working on. I'm working on a less-radical-than-my-debut-blog-novel YA series -- I will give more details later ;). But here's a very short excerpt (from my first draft):

“Are you wearing cologne?” I ask. I want to know what brand of fragrance it is. I might even buy a scent that I think would complement his well.

He doesn’t hide a smile. “Kenzo Pour Homme. Do you like it?”

“Yes. It’s not too...overpowering.”

“Ah, that gets annoying sometimes,” he says, which makes me so glad I’ve never been one of those sorts. “How about you, which brands do you like?”

Oh shoot. What do I say?

“Chanel,” I reply. Because there’s a huge billboard advertisement of Chanel No. 5 by the side of the escalator we’re traveling on.

W: I heard you lived in Singapore for your first twenty years (that means you were born there right? haha sounds stupid, sorry!), how different is it from Maine (where you currently reside)?

J: Not a silly question at all -- yes, I was born there. It is quite starkly different from Maine. Singapore's an urban city (and there aren't four seasons there -- it's mainly hot, or rainy); Maine has a lot of wild countryside (with very nice summers, and very cold winters)...the differences are quite extreme. But eh, perhaps I'm someone who finds balance amidst extremities.

W: What is your FAVORITE book in the world, the one that you think everyone should read before they die?

J: Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina -- if I had to pick just ONE book, that's the one I think everyone should read before they die. The human experience is captured in such a wonderfully captivating and realistic way -- I remember feeling my life had changed, when I finished the novel. It is not a book to be casually flipped through; I spent 3 months reading it.

PS: Shout-out for Edgar Allan Poe's and Oscar Wilde's collected works too (I cannot ever leave those two out!). And Anais Nin and D. H. Lawrence if you like something more provocative. Vivian Vande Velde's Dragon's Bait, a fantastic fantasy compact-sized novel. George Orwell's 1984 for an eye-opening "the future is here" read. I know I've ended up listing more than one book, but it's only so that each person can make their individual selection from my personal recommendations...

W: Finally, do you have anything else that you would like to say?

J: Don't be afraid to be who you are. We are constantly bombarded by the mass media on what we should do/what we should be like/how to wear our hair/how to dress -- a unique self-identity is something that the outside world cannot influence (or brainwash). Knowing what you're about will give you direction and meaning in life, along with the drive and focus to live your dreams.

Thanks Jess!

To learn more about Jess check out her Wordpress HERE!

~~~~~~

Now, we have a real treat as Jess writes an IM between two characters, Jade and Novan from her book Eyeleash, talking about what? My blogoversery! Yeah, I feel special...Check it out!!

~~~~~~

Conversation started on [21 Aug 2009, 7:37PM]

¤Jade¤: hey, first time i’m hearing of this word

¤Jade¤: “blogoversary”!

[novan]: oh yea

[novan]: there’s also monthsaries, vlogversaries, twitterversaries...

[novan]: ur blogversary?

¤Jade¤: not yet. mine’s wayyy eaerlier. 2 Jan

[novan]: oh right. how cld I forget... ROFL

¤Jade¤: this blog run by Wdebo

¤Jade¤: have u seen her blog?

¤Jade¤: http://theelectricalbookcafe.blogspot.com/

[novan]: wow funky name

[novan]: icic. k tnx for the link J

¤Jade¤: omg Super Junior! tt 13-member boy band u told me abt?

[novan]: yea

[novan]: largest boy band in the world

[novan]: u shld check this guy out too

[novan]: se7en... watch this MV - www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeyMLGMN_vA

[novan]: tt’s some slick dance moves, man

¤Jade¤: ZOMG, super hot

[novan]: haha

[novan]: very talented dancer and singer too

[novan]: wow, i don’t know how many hours ive spent on youtube

¤-Jade-¤: yep

¤-Jade-¤: u watch one video

¤-Jade-¤: before u know it, 3 hours have passed!!

[novan]: yea oh btw... im looking @ the txc museum’s website

[novan]: theres some dinosaur bones exhibit thing going on

[novan]: wanna get up close w dinosaur bones 2nite?

¤-Jade-¤: hey why not

¤-Jade-¤: tho i feel like watching a movie

¤-Jade-¤: n throwing popcorn at the screen...

¤-Jade-¤: ok that was random

[novan]: well maybe we cld do both J

[novan]: wow i rem us throwing popcorn the other time

[novan]: coz the show was SO BORING

¤Jade¤: YESSS!! boredom shld be illegal

[novan]: indeed

[novan]: hey uhm, i think we gtg soon...

[novan]: the museum closes at 10pm i think

¤Jade¤: ok

¤Jade¤: just gonna send Wdebo a gift first!

¤-Jade-¤ sends: “hyde_reading.jpg”

¤Jade¤: tt’s what i’m sending her

[novan]: ooh, cool

[novan]: love the simple lines on that

[novan]: hyde rocks man!

¤Jade¤: yeah, got tired with fashion illustration

¤Jade¤: so tried smth new with this one

¤Jade¤: anything to say to her?

[novan]: Wdebo?

[novan]: hm, i dunno her very well

[novan]: what does she like

[novan]: ?

¤Jade¤: describes herself as a “Taiwanese drama addict”

[novan]: ah ok

[novan]: erm

[novan]: off the top of my head...

¤Jade¤: she likes C-pop too

[novan]: alrighty. lets see. a haiku poem?... smth short + sweet¤Jade¤: finish it in 2 mins :P

[novan]: k

¤Jade¤: writing now>?

¤Jade¤: 1 min more...

¤Jade¤: zzzrrrreeppoooooooooo

¤Jade¤: oh ur back!

[novan]: YEA

[novan]: u can send her this

[novan]: [Taiwanese dramas:] <-- that’s the title, n also 1st line

[novan]: [Taiwanese dramas:] / Addictive as C-pop is / Ever infectious.

[novan]: not my best, but decent for 2 mins

¤Jade¤: i’m sure she wldn’t mind ;)

[novan]: k, cya l8r i guess?

[novan]: wish her a happy blogoversary too

¤Jade¤: sure thing!

[novan]: J

~ Conversation ended on [21 Aug 2009, 8:02PM] ~

----------

EyeLeash is Jess’s debut blog/IM novel.
Her website is http://www.jesscscott.com/.

~~~~~~~~~

Awesome!!! Bahaha such a great guest post...Love your haiku Novan :)

Thanks so much Jess for all you did!!

Hope everyone can check out Eyeleash.

Remember, if you comment on this post you get TWO extra entrees into the contest HERE, and don't forget to join in! Where one of the prizes is one of four Eyeleash bookmarks and an e-book copy of Eyeleash.

Wdebo :)

Character Post: Faith Crosse from Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side

Since so many readers of Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side e-mail to vent about how much they despise Faith Crosse, I thought it would be fun to give everybody a glimpse into Faith’s world. Following is how I imagine Faith’s life in the aftermath of the book.
Happy reading – and happy “blogoversary!”
~Beth

~~~~~~~~~~~

SPOILER ALERT:
If you haven’t read the book yet – first off, this “chapter” won’t make any sense – but it will also give away a plot twist or two!
Read the book first!

Lu-ci-us… Lu-ci-us… Lu-ci-us…

I hadn’t even noticed that I was again repeating his name like a mantra as I drummed my fingernails against the arm rest of my teak lounge chair, and when I realized what I was doing –thinking about him – my fingers clenched, nails scraping against the wood.

DAMMIT. Not again. NEVER again.

Licking my lips – too hot, suddenly – I shifted in the chair, feeling the sweat trickle down my spine, tracing a path from the string that held my bikini top in place all the way down to the string that essentially served as the bottom.

My tan would cover nearly my entire body. Not that I had anybody to show the tiny, tempting patches of creamy white skin that were covered by the suit.

Eyes closed behind my mirrored sunglasses, I felt a smile of approval start to play on my lips as I pictured myself stretched out by my family’s pool, my blond hair glistening in the sun.

Of course, I could have guys lined up to peek at those secret, fair places that my bathing suit concealed. Old men, young men, that perverted math teacher who used to get red and flustered every time I would lean over his desk and ask for help, just to screw with his head. And my idiotic ex-boyfriend, Ethan Strausser, would probably pay – his entire salary from his humiliating, minimum-wage summer job as a ride operator at a theme park – to see me again, even for a minute.

My lips pursed, my smile vanishing in tandem with the sun that ducked behind the shifting clouds.

But I didn’t want Ethan anymore. He had served his purpose, first to establish my dominance at school – who else would Faith Crosse date but the most popular boy? – and then in my plot to revenge myself against Lucius Vladescu.

Ethan had been jealous and almost too ready to believe that Lucius was a monster who needed to be destroyed in a lonely barn by an angry mob.

What a simpleton Ethan was, compared to Lucius. Smart, sexy, savage Lucius…
Tilting back my head, I reached up and traced the side of my throat with my slick fingertips, feeling the two small scars that had sealed Lucius’s fate on that cold, winter night.

I had inflicted the wounds myself, alone in my bathroom, barely flinching as the point of the metal nail file had gone deep into my flesh.

I’d had the idea on the spur of the moment, while soaking in the tub, and I hadn’t wanted to risk even running to the kitchen for a knife, for fear that I’d lose my nerve. I’d just climbed out of the water and bubbles, snatched the file from a drawer under the sink, and stood naked and dripping in front of the steam-clouded mirror, doing what I’d needed to do, not even thinking about what might happen if I’d gone too deep or struck my jugular.

I would even say that I’d been eager – had a need to satisfy – and the rush had been amazing as the hot blood had coursed out of the two wounds, trickling down my neck, mingling with the warm droplets of bathwater, and staining the pure white towel that I’d finally grabbed to stop the flow when I’d started to get unsteady on my feet from the loss.

In that moment, as I’d stood shaking with excitement and weakness and the promise of vengeance, I’d finally understood what I’d been yearning for on those nights when Lucius and I had been together, and his mouth had grazed the very spot that I’d just pierced.

That sensation… That’s what I had longed for, without even understanding what I’d needed.
That feeling, and Lucius, himself. A vampire…

I’d thought I was making up that monster story to punish Lucius for rejecting me – Faith Crosse! – but it had been true.

All along, it had been true.

That strange pressure I’d felt against my throat when we’d been alone up in his apartment, in the dark… That pressure that I’d come to crave so badly, in a way that was never really satisfied… That had been Lucius’s fangs, barely concealed and scarcely controlled.

My fingers clenched again and I dropped my hand back to the arm rest, raking my nails against the wood, purposely ruining my Malibu Pink manicure, which had cost my stepmother sixty dollars just the day before.

Lucius Vladescu could have given me everything. Could have fulfilled all my desires. We could have – SHOULD HAVE – been together forever.

But he’d chosen Jessica Packwood.

I didn’t even speak her name aloud, and still my mouth tasted sour. Or was that bitter?

I’d thought removing Lucius from this earth would be enough… but it didn’t change the fact that he’d wanted her. I hadn’t counted on how that would sting even after he was gone.

I reached out blindly, and when my fingers met the icy, sweating tumbler of iced tea on the table at my side, I lifted the glass and held it to my lips, drinking deeply. I needed to quench my thirst not just for cold liquid, but for something else. Something I couldn’t name, but which would extinguish this unbearable disappointment, like water could put out fire. I couldn’t endure second place one minute longer. I would go crazy...

Opening my eyes, I slammed the glass back down on the table, so hard that it cracked and nearly cut my fingers, spilling more blood.

Or would I always be in second place?

I’d heard rumors that Jessica had gone to Romania to find Lucius. That he was somehow alive and living in a castle. And I knew enough about rumors – I’d started enough rumors – to know that they often held at least a grain of truth.

I could certainly believe that Lucius was a prince, as surely as I believed he was a vampire.

Was it also possible that he had somehow survived that night in Jake’s barn?

I closed my eyes again and squeezed the arms of the chair, mind starting to race. Was there a chance that the stories about vampires were true… that Lucius knew the secret to eternal life? I had felt his strangely cool skin, and the way his heart beat so slowly, even when we were…

“Faith!”

My stepmother’s squeaky, girlish voice came from the screened veranda, and I gritted my teeth, angry to have my thoughts interrupted. “What?” I snapped, not removing my sunglasses. Not even opening my eyes. “What do you want?”

“I’m just worried, sweetie, that you’ll get melanoma laying out there in the sun all day,” the big-chested bimbo who’d married my father on the rebound had the nerve to suggest. “Or worse yet, you’ll wrinkle your pretty face before you’re thirty!”

I didn’t bother to answer her, and after awhile I heard the screen door slap shut as she went back inside to hide her own chemically peeled skin in the climate-controlled mansion that my father had bought for her.

Reaching to release the back of the chair so I could lie flat, I rolled over onto my stomach and unlaced my top, baring even more skin to the punishing sun.

Screw turning thirty. I was eighteen and my thirtieth birthday seemed like it was a million years away. And as for cancer – I’d beat that, too, if I had to. I would never lose again.

I turned my face to the side and folded my arms under my bronzed cheek, and soon my fingers found that familiar spot on my throat, like they always did when I needed to soothe myself. Remind myself who I was.

Someone who got what she wanted.

The girl who always took first place, at any cost.

The back of my index finger stroked the scars, over and over again, repeating the motion the same way I too often repeated my former boyfriend’s name.

Lu-ci-us… Lu-ci-us…

What if you really are alive?

~~~~~~

Thanks so much Beth!! So great to hear from Faith's point of view (even though I still hate her :P ).

For those who have yet to experience the darkly-amazing magic of Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side check out my review HERE!

Thanks bunches and remember to join my contest!!

Wdebo :)