I’m all about the summer blockbusters. I saw The Avengers last week and it blew me away! SOOOOO GOOOD! Loki was the perfect villain in my opinion. So cocky. He even had that bad guy swagger that I love so much. But I’m saving my Avengers villain love for another post.

One of my favorite things about going to the movies is the trailers. It’s like getting a present. Will the previews be good? Will they show me something amazing that I haven’t seen yet? I loved every single trailer they showed at The Avengers which included: Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, Spiderman, and Brave. Because the other show times were so late, we had to buy tickets for the 3-D show and Brave was one of the 3-D trailers. It was an extended trailer that I hadn’t seen before and coupled with the 3-D effects, it made me want to see the movie even more! Is this movie on your summer blockbuster list? It’s definitely in my top 5.

*I wanted to include the trailer in my post, but I can’t seem to get the video to embed. So here’s the link! Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtrDBQ_qmlg

I’m launching my first ever GIVEAWAY! WOOT!

You can win your very own copy of my first ever ARC of FULL BLOODED. I’ve never done this before, but am SO excited to send this out to a lucky winner. You can either leave a comment here on the Mayhem Blog, or you can head over to my website: www.amandacarlson.com/blog and leave a comment there.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

1. Contest is open globally and runs now thru Tuesday, May 15th at 12:01 am

2. To enter, leave a comment on the bottom of this blog or on my website. That’s it! (So easy.)

3. A winner will be chosen at random from random.org.

4. The winner will be announced on >>MY WEBSITE<< (www.amandacarlson.com) on Wednesday morning. Check back and see if it was YOU! If the selected winner does not get back to me with an email address in 24 hours, a new winner will be drawn.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!

Yeah, as crazy as it sounds I’m going to give up coffee. It’s because I’ve been having even more trouble sleeping at night, even though I’m totally sleep-deprived. (It’s hard to get much when you have a 10 month-old boy.) And once I’m sleep-deprived and can’t sleep (a vicious cycle), I’m even more dependent on coffee, but usually it makes me just cranky and unpleasant to be around.

Thursday was my first day. It wasn’t super hard, but I crashed at 10:00 p.m. (Note — I’m 13 hours ahead of ET.)

Angela James told me it’s going to take 3 weeks before you get over the “I feel like ******!” phase. Once you’re over it, you feel fine.

Have you ever given up on something you feel isn’t very good for you, even though you enjoy it? If so, what was it?

Last week, I posted quotes from The Shadow Reader’s writing log. This week, I’m posting quotes from The Shattered Dark’s writing log. Now, before I do that, let me preface it by saying that I was EXTREMELY pregnant and miserable for the first half of 2011. I was also incredibly depressed, something that I didn’t realize until well after the babies were born. And I discovered during the course of writing The Shattered Dark that it’s hard as hell for me to write when I’m sick and exhausted. So, just keep that in mind when you’re reading the writing log below. I don’t hate The Shattered Dark, now. Now that it’s finished, I’m kind of loving it. And I’m extremely excited about where McKenzie’s story is going.

Anyway, here’s an abbreviated version of The Shattered Dark’s writing log. You’ll have to click on the image below to make it readable.

As a new writer, you get to experience everything once for the VERY FIRST TIME. It’s emotional and awesome. That first offer of representation, that first phone call that your book sold– it’s totally unreal.

There are also many things that happen for the first time in this business, that well, I had no idea were coming.

I had no idea, for example, that a deadline could come on the heels of another deadline. That was eye-opening. When you go through the book process, there are many different stages of edits, and each of them are required to be delivered in a TIMELY FASHION–no matter what else you have going on. I also had no idea things could be changed around on a dime, causing you to jump from one project to another.

Now, you seasoned pros can laugh all you want, hardy-har-har, but to a brand new author — how in the Holy Hannah are we supposed to know??? There was nothing like that outlined in my contract. Things come up all the time and I feel like the dumbest kid in class. My emails to my editor start: “I’m really sorry, but…(insert dumbass question here). Thanks for not firing me.”

I’m rallying for some kind of crib sheets for the newbies, ’cause honestly, couldn’t we all use them?

BUT, there are also super delicious FIRST TIME things you had no idea were coming and for me that happened yesterday. On my doorstep, with no warning whatsoever, were my Advance Reader Copies (ARCs). Before becoming an author, I had no idea ARCs even existed. I wasn’t a reviewer or in the business, so there was no way to know. But I can tell you, I opened them and cried like a baby.

I’m so excited to share them with all of you here. Pictured below is the very FIRST BOOK  in the history of the world to have my name (well, my name meaning ME and not another Amanda Carlson) on the cover.

This is not the official book cover, these covers are only for the ARCs. But I love them!

This is the kind of FIRST TIME thing that can’t be repeated. My first ARC!!! SQUEE! It was hard not to stuff it under my pillow. Let me know what you think! I’m in the process of sending them out to reviewers, but I’m saving ONE to give away. Details will be here and on my website next Friday!! Stay tuned & thanks for stopping by.

The hubs sits on a couple of national committees regarding the fire service. So when he scheduled his annual Washington D.C. trip, he suggested that I come along. My initial reaction was a big fat NO because, well, I’m an anxious flier. Think John Lithgow from the Twilight Zone movie or better yet Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaides. hyperventilating, sweaty palms, the whole nine yards. “There’s a colonial woman on the wing of the plane!” Yep. That’s me in the air.

But, I’d never been to D.C. so I hiked up my big girl panties and bought a plane ticket. It was a fast trip with only 3 full days to see the sights, but I got it done. Here are a few of the highlights.

This is me at the Congressional Fire Services Institute dinner. I’m totally not lying when I tell you that the keynote speaker looked JUST like Samuel L. Jackson in The Avengers. Eye patch and all. Bad ass. There were 5,000 firefighters in attendance all decked out in their dressy Class-A suits. Not too shabby. I think it’s safe to say I was the only person there rocking the pink hair, though. And apparently, I was also rocking the cleavage. 0_O Yikes.

One of my favorite attractions in D.C. was the National Gallery of Art. The French impressionist exhibit was amazing and looking at the   Reniors and Monets in particular brings tears to your eyes. Well, mine, anyway. Art in all of its forms just takes my breath away. I could have spent a week in there!

The fossils in the Natural History Museum were also amazing! My two favs: This prehistoric “chicken” and the giant sloth. The giant sloth blew my mind. It looked totally unreal. I wanted to bring it home and put it out in my front yard. LOL!

We of course had to stop by the hubs’s favorite attraction, the Lincoln Monument. Dude. Lincoln is HUGE! The hubs said, you should write a book where Darian has to meet someone here and whoever it is appears in Lincoln’s lap. Which got all sorts of plot bunnies stirring in my writer’s brain. Gotta love inspiration!

But the Jefferson Building was by far my favorite. There were only a few places where pictures were allowed, but the entire building is decorated with gold leaf, murals, and the names of famous poets. The Jefferson library is on display there as well as ancient bibles, maps, letters, and miscellaneous books. The best part of the Jefferson building, though, is the reading and research room. It is a strictly no pictures zone and you have to apply for entrance and use of the room. Needless to say, the plot bunnies ran wild and I found a way to tie the room into an unresolved plot line from CRAVE THE DARKNESS. You can bet I’ll be putting in a request for next year. I want inside that room!!!

A miracle happened over the weekend. I finished my copy edits! I finished them in five days! Considering that I’ve been so very far behind on The Shattered Dark for, oh, well over a year, it’s a huge deal that I finished this early. I’m still going to do a couple of read-throughs before I turn them in, but I’m extremely happy with how the book turned out.

That last part is surprising considering how neurotic I’ve been over this book. My husband tells me it’s normal for me to not like a story until I’ve finished writing it. I thought he was full of it, but since I did finally start to love The Shattered Dark, I started to wonder if maybe he’s right.

I decided to take a look at my writing log for The Shadow Reader. I keep track of my word counts when I’m writing. I have the date, the daily word count, the total work count, and a space for notes on the spreadsheet. Unfortunately, I only have the writing log for half of The Shadow Reader (no idea what happened to the second half). I’ve written some of the more…interesting notes I made below.

(Easiest way to do this was with an image, so click below to make the jpg readable.)

So, what do you guys think? Was my husband right???

Tune in next week for Part 2, Quotes from The Shattered Dark’s writing log!

Howdy, everyone!

It’s my day to chat and with my website redesign almost finished (WOOT!), I thought we could talk Query Letters today. I have a page on my site dedicated to querying. Why? Because when I was on my journey, I went all over town trying to gather up useful information. When I was done, I decided to put it all in one place, because, like me, I knew there were a helluva lot of people out there who were looking for the same answers.

I’m going to be brave and publish my query letter here. Even now, I look at it and it could be better. Isn’t that always the truth?

Feel free to ask me any questions about querying and I’ll try to answer them in the comments below. In the next few days, when my website is live, you’ll be able to access all the info at www.amandacarlson.com/query-help

MY QUERY IN ALL ITS GLORY (OR GORY?):

TO: (Oneagentname@only.com)

Subject: Query : FULL BLOODED

Dear Ms./Mr. Spelltheirnameright,

Born the only female in an all male race, Jessica McClain isn’t just different—she’s feared.

After living under the radar for the last twenty-six years, Jessica is thrust unexpectedly into her first change, a full ten years late. She wakes up and finds she’s in the middle of a shit storm. Now that she’s become the only female full-blooded werewolf in town, the supernatural world is already clamoring to take a bite out of her and her new Pack must rise up and protect her.

But not everyone is on board. The werewolf Rights of Laws is missing text and the superstitious werewolves think that Jessica means an end to their race. It doesn’t help when Jessica begins to realize she’s more. She can change partway and hold her form, and speak directly to her wolf. But the biggest complication by far is that her alpha father can’t control her like he can the rest of his wolves.

When a mercenary who’s been hired by the vampires shows up to extract information about the newly turned werewolf only days after her change, they find themselves smack in the middle of a war and there’s no choice but to run together. When it’s up to Jessica to negotiate her release against her father’s direct orders, she chooses to take an offer for help instead. In exchange, Jessica must now swear an oath she may end up repaying with her life.

FULL BLOODED, at 110,000 words, is an urban fantasy with strong romantic elements. It’s the first in the proposed Jessica McClain series.

I have included (whatever this agent is looking for). I am happy to send out a partial or full at your request. Thanks so much for your time and consideration.

Your Full Name
Phone number
Address
e-mail address

Hope this helped you out! Hit me with any questions you may have. Other M&M authors, feel free to weigh in!

Something that Karen Knows Best said recently — plus the comments -– got me thinking about the body image issues in romance: Are heroines not allowed to consider themselves pretty, even if they really are gorgeous?

I think it’s rare to see heroines who like the way they look — their faces, hair, bodies, etc. — in anything that’s heavily marketed toward romance, although I think that’s changing slowly.

For example, Kresley Cole’s Kiss of a Demon King had a heroine who thought she was beautiful, etc. Interestingly, many reviewers commented that they found the heroine’s attitude distasteful. I don’t think her refusal to be a selfless martyr who was willing to sacrifice everything to help strangers she’d never met helped either. (Personally, I found Sabine rather delightful and fun…and realistic. Would you give up everything to help somebody you’d never met or somebody who treated you badly? And is it that wrong for us to want to dress attractively or like the way we look?)

What I found intriguing as I thought more about it was that “humble” and “selfless” heroines are featured prominently in books written for women by women.

Do you think paranormal romance and/or urban fantasy tend to feature heroines who are a little bit more selfish and vain compared to contemporary and historical romances? If so, why? Can you recommend me a book or a series written by women for women that features a heroine who doesn’t aspire to martyrdom and feels comfortable in her own skin?

Note: My short paranormal romance novella A Happily Ever After of Her Own is on sale for only $0.99 on BN and Amazon US, UK, etc. for a limited time. Grab a copy before the deal ends!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Coveted is officially out in the world, but the Coveted giveaways shall continue! I thought I’d pick one winner today, but I decided to pick three!

Congrats to my winners!

Natalia J

Ren

CYP @ A Bookalicious Story

Shoot me an email with your mailing address so I can send you a book!

Now that Coveted has been released, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who stopped by for the interview! Your support is so appreciated.