Welcome to the Author Spotlight, Shelly Crane!

Nicknames: Shell Station , Shelly Belly (I hate these name)

Where do you live: Hot as Hades, Florida

Your favorite dessert: Cheesecake and honey buns

Your favorite TV series: Vampire Diaries

Last book you read: Love and Skate by Lila Felix (Uber good!!)

Last movie you watched: Breaking Dawn 2

Last song (or album) you bought: Cider Sky

A book/series you could read over and over again: I frequently go back and reread my favorite parts to Vampire Academy, Mortal Instruments and Callum & Harper

Coke or pepsi? PEPSI!!!!!! (Pepsi Max, best invention ever)

Day or night? Day. I hate to drive at night.

Pen or pencil? pen

Summer or winter? Winter. I’m a hot person and if I could find a place that was 70 degrees year round I swear I’d move there.

Cat or dog? Dog. I have 2: Scrappy and Biff.

Tea or coffee? Eeeeeeee….. hard. I drink both all day long J But if I had to choose only one, I’d say….coffee.

Plotter or pantser? Pantser!!!!!! I’ve never plotted a day in my life! Well…not for a book.

 When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Fall 2010 is when I got the idea for Collide when I had a dream that resembled the Matrix. But when I actually sat down and wrote out the story, it just started writing itself and wound up being absolutely nothing like the Matrix.

What are you working on now? Finishing up the Significance series with Independence, and then I’ll do wide Awake. It’s hard because both of the stories all eating away at my brain. I want to work on both, but I’m trying to get Independence done.

If you decided not to be a writer, what would your other dream job be? Why? Well, I was already doing my dream job. I was a stay at home mom. That’s what I always wanted to do. I never wanted to be a writer or ever even thought about it. It just fell in my lap one day and now, I can’t imagine not being one.

What is the scariest thing you’ve ever done in your life? Bring my first son home from the hospital. I was so scared that I was going to break him. Or something was going to happen and it was going to be my fault because I didn’t know what to do. But he’s 9 years old now. Still alive so I did something right

Who is the one person that has singlehandedly inspired you the most in your life? Sadly, I didn’t have many role models. I was told that I shouldn’t be writing. So……No comment. 

What is one talent that you’re hopeless at, but you wish you had? There’s a long list!! Public speaking, sewing, cooking (like real cooking), and math.

What is one trait or physical characteristic that you are proud of/love about yourself? My curls, I guess. I’ve had old ladies at the grocery store curse me for saying that I didn’t like my curls. So apparently, it’s something to be proud of.

Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers? 

• Edit, edit, edit. Then edit some more.
• Talk to your fans. A lot. They are the reason you can write books.
• Have fun with it. Write what you want to write about. Don’t copy or be influenced by other’s writing. Readers want to read something they’ve never read before.
• Do read other author’s books and tell your fans about it if your loved it.
• Posting your book stuff on other authors Facebook pages is a big No-No. So is messaging authors and asking them to review or endorse your book. So is tweeting your book every five minutes. No, no, no, no, no.
• No arguing or commenting when someone doesn’t like your book or gives you a bad review. Not everyone is going to like your book, and that’s OK. Go look up your favorite popular book and read all the bad reviews. A bad review doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. Never, ever, ever rebut on anything.

Author Bio: Bestselling YA author from a small town in Georgia and loves everything about the south. She is wife to a fantastical husband and stay at home mom to two boisterous and mischievous boys who keep her on her toes. They currently reside in everywhere USA as they happily travel all over with her husband’s job. She loves to spend time with her family, binge on candy corn, go out to eat at new restaurants, buy paperbacks at little bookstores, site see in the new areas they travel to, listen to music everywhere and also LOVES to read.
Her own books happen by accident and she revels in the writing and imagination process. She doesn’t go anywhere without her notepad for fear of an idea creeping up and not being able to write it down immediately, even in the middle of the night, where her best ideas are born.

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Significance – Significance #01

Maggie is a seventeen year old girl who’s had a bad year. She was smart and on track, but then her mom left, her dad is depressed, she’s graduating – barely – and her boyfriend of almost three years dumped her for a college football scholarship. Lately she thinks life is all about hanging on by a thread and is gripping tight with everything she has.

Then she saves the life of Caleb and instantly knows there’s something about him that’s intriguing. But things change when they touch, sparks ignite. Literally.

They imprint with each other and she sees their future life together flash before her eyes. She learns that not only is she his soul mate, and can feel his heartbeat in her chest, but there is a whole other world of people with gifts and abilities that she never knew existed. She herself is experiencing supernatural changes unlike anything she’s ever felt before and she needs the touch of his skin to survive.

Now, not only has her dad come out of his depression to be a father again, and a pain as well, but Caleb’s enemies know he’s imprinted and are after Maggie to stop them both from gaining their abilities and take her from him.

Can Caleb save her or will they be forced to live without each other after just finding one another?

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Nobles

Devour – Devour #01

Clara has it all. A wrestling star boyfriend, popular friends, all the right school activities…pretty much a perfect life…up until her parents died. Now she lives with the Pastor and his family and though they take good care of her, she feels alone. Then her boyfriend, Tate, starts to show signs of trouble when a new guy, Eli, comes to town. Clara is fascinated with him but hides it until something happens. Eli confesses to her that she gives him something he’s never had before…something he needs. Everything is about to change for this normal pretty popular girl in a supernatural way.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Nobles

Collide – Collide #01

Sherry has always known there was something out there. She’s eighteen, works for a tabloid newspaper in Chicago and has a brother, Danny who is a lazy mooch. They live a pretty normal dull life with hippie parents and a normal existence. Then the moon dissapears and people start to go missing only to reappear later, but different. Sherry has an abusive ex-boyfriend who shows up and claims to be one of these beings that have been showing up around the world. He’s no longer the same person in that body. He tells her he has come to protect her and her brother and takes her underground, against her will to save her, where they meet others like them. She begins to unravel the truth about Merrick, about what he’s really doing here, about the way he looks at her, about the crazy dangerous world they live in. Can he convince her that he’s here to help? Will she like what she finds when she opens up to the truth? Will he be the one to love her when everyone else has failed her? Will he be able to protect her?

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Nobles

Cheers,

Welcome to the Author Spotlight, Trisha Leigh!

Nicknames: I don’t really have any, unless you count Trish. Boring, right?

Where do you live: I grew up in the Midwest and still live here, but I lived in Texas for four years during college.

Your favorite dessert: Ice cream!

Your favorite TV series: Current: Fringe. All time: Felicity

Last book you read: Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

Last movie you watched: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Last song (or album) you bought: North by Matchbox Twenty

A book/series you could read over and over again: the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle or Harry Potter by JK Rowling.

Coke or pepsi? Ew. Coke.

Day or night? Night.

Pen or pencil? Pencil.

Summer or winter? SUMMER.

Cat or dog? Dog.

Tea or coffee? Coffee.

Plotter or pantser? A pantser at heart, but have learned to incorporate plotting as necessary.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? I think somewhere during my senior year of high school, although I didn’t figure it out until late in college.

What are you working on now? Currently finishing up copy edits on Betrayals in Spring, Book 3 of The Last Year. In a few days, though, I’ll get an edit letter for Book 4 and will be diving into that.

If you decided not to be a writer, what would your other dream job be? Why? I’ve loved working behind the scenes on television and movie sets since college – that was my major – and even though ideally it would still be in a writing capacity, I’d do anything on the production side of film/television making. Why? Collaborating with other creative people is such a high.

What is the scariest thing you’ve ever done in your life? Either went eight hours away from home for college, jumped off a bridge into the lake, or tried to break up my ex-boyfriend’s wedding. You choose.

Who is the one person that has singlehandedly inspired you the most in your life? My grandfather. He had this way about him of making every person he came in contact with feel like they were special and worthy.

What is one talent that you’re hopeless at, but you wish you had? Singing, probably. I’d also love to be able to draw.

What is one trait or physical characteristic that you are proud of/love about yourself? I’m really easygoing, and nearly impossible to offend. It sounds silly, I guess, but I love that people can say whatever in front of me and know it won’t make me angry. The problem is, sometimes it’s easy for me to forget that others can be easily offended.

Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers? Don’t quit. There are so many options for you now, to get your stories out there, and giving up on your words or yourself is the one sure way to make sure no one else ever reads your books. Work hard, learn how to take well-intentioned criticism, then work harder. But don’t give up.

Author Bio: Raised by a family of ex-farmers and/or almost rock stars from Northeastern Iowa, I’ve always loved to tell stories. After graduating from Texas Christian University with a degree in Film, I began to search for a way to release the voices in my head. IWhen I attempted my first YA novel, which would become Whispers in Autumn, I was hooked. I knew then my heart lay with telling stories about and for young adults, and for anyone who loves to read and recapture those fleeting “first” moments.

My spare time is spent reviewing television and movies, spending time with my large, loud, loving family, reading any book that falls into my hands, and being dragged into the fresh air by my dogs Yoda and Jilly.

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Whispers in Autumn – The Last Year, Book One

In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots.
Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone.
Then she meets Lucas, everything changes.
Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race.
It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what.
And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.

Goodreads | Kindle | Nook | iBooks | Kobo

Winter Omens – The Last Year, Book Two

Althea and Lucas barely escaped the Others’ clutches in the autumn, and were separated in the process. Alone and on the run from the cruel alien race determined to exterminate her, Althea struggles to adapt and survive in a world she never imagined.
When a boy named Pax appears out of nowhere, he quickly recognizes Althea for what she is – a human/Other hybrid just like him. Althea begs him to help her find Lucas, but Pax refuses, intent on following his own mysterious agenda.
The Others’ presence continues to devour the planet’s resources, and if history is an indication, they won’t leave until Earth is destroyed beyond repair. Althea and Pax sense the only way to save themselves – and maybe their home – is to understand the powers simmering inside them.
Together they push the limits of their capabilities in the quiet Wilds, but are soon confronted with a terrifying fact: no place is safe from the relentless pursuit of the Others.
Least of all their own minds.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes&Nobles

Betrayals in Spring – The Last Year, Book Three

Althea assumes now that she, Pax, and Lucas are reunited in spring that the next steps are obvious – locate Deshi and prepare to take down the Others once and for all. But she doesn’t expect the subtle changes in Lucas.
After being left alone last season with only his Element father for company, Lucas has started to question whether their rightful place isn’t with the strange alien race as opposed to humanity. When an emergency forces Lucas to aid the Others so they can remain on Earth, Althea worries that she’s lost him once and for all.
The one thing she knows is that Deshi’s the key to any hope of reclaiming the planet. So as the Others gut their already wobbly support system, Althea and Pax gather together the beginnings of a plan – and maybe an army.
Even if she can convince Lucas their side is the right one, the Prime Other holds Deshi captive and shrouds any knowledge about their fourth in clouds of secrecy. What they discover deep underground is a roadblock they didn’t expect – and one that could steal their last hope of saving humanity.

Coming Dec 11th 2012 – Add on Goodreads

Cheers,