Photo by emma goes east on Unsplash Bones of Cobalt Blue by Cathy Hinkle (Stories of the Stars Flash Fiction Contest 3rd place winner) She landed with the practiced ease of centuries, blue talons gripping the cliff’s edge. Wind whistled through the granite crags, and small stones scrabbled beneath her feet. With a low growl, she dove from the cliff. Unfurling her wings, she soared high in the currents, where stars whispered of hope. Gliding down to the last of her hunting gro

Photo by Ian Chen on Unsplash Starfinder’s Sacrifice by Sam Graber (Stories of the Stars Flash Fiction Contest 1st Place Winner) No one knows what the stars are. Only that they are far away, and they give us our power. And now they are winking out. “Danar?” Charis steps beside me and slips her hand in mine. Starlight gives a silver sheen to her ebony hair. If the stars die, I will never see her like this again. “Where is he?” Charis closes her eyes and points to the south. Th

The giveaway for this week is live on Instagram! Head on over to the post and enter to win this fantastic prize! This week I’m giving away Kristen Ciccarelli’s newest release, The Caged Queen! *cartwheel* Don’t miss out on multiple entries. Enter now! **US only (excludes HI & AK.) Contest open until midnight Thursday (EST). Winner will be announced on Friday. This contest is not affiliated with WordPress.com or with Instagram. #bookish #bookworm #amreading #yafiction #ficton

Hey guys! A brand new giveaway has been posted on my Instagram account! Click here to check it out. This week I’m giving away THREE German chocolate candy bars, plus a cute little White Pumpkin Vanilla scented candle. Score! Don’t miss out on your chance to enter to win this fantastic prize! **US only (excludes HI & AK.) Contest open until midnight Thursday (EST). Winner will be announced on Friday. This contest is not affiliated with WordPress.com or with Instagram. #chocola

Hey guys! I’m super excited to announce a new addition to my Instagram account! Every Wednesday I will be giving away a prize! To enter, simply follow the instructions listed in my Instagram post. But there’s also a surprise! Each week, stay tuned to the Stories section of my Instagram to watch when the giveaway will go live. If you enter the giveaway within the FIRST HOUR, you will DOUBLE your entries! *cartwheel* This week’s prize is a $10 Gift Card to Starbucks! Woot! Who

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash How is it April already? Did I blink or was it just Christmas? Maybe time is moving so fast because I’ve been busy writing! Want to know what I’ve been up to? Read below for my update! Submissions for March: I submitted again to Chicken Soup for the Soul. My plan is to do at least one per month. They’ve got to accept one of my stories eventually, right? Fellowship of Fantasy released their anthology, Mythical Doorways, this month. To celebrat

Hey guys! I decided to enter another flash fiction contest this month. This one is held through the Fellowship of Fantasy website and features flash fiction stories in two categories: 16 and older, or 15 and under. (Guess which one I fall in? *blink, blink*) Voting is open through April 3. Click here to read my story, then scroll down for the voting link. My story is lucky number 13! Woo hoo!! Feel free to share on your social media and tell your friends! Thanks, guys! #fello

Hello friends! I haven’t forgotten my monthly update. *wink, wink* This past month was just as exciting as January. Read on to find out what I’ve been up to! Here’s what I submitted this month: I found out the flash fiction piece I submitted to Untold Podcast in January is a finalist in the Good Snakes contest! (Eeeppp!) Please go to the website and VOTE for my story–Serpent Quest–RIGHT NOW! (Click here to find it.) Voting ends March 7. You can vote everyday. I submitted a fl

It’s open! It’s open! The voting is open on Untold podcast! *throws confetti* You might remember a post from a couple weeks ago about my excitement over one of my recent flash fiction stories. (Check out the post here, if you missed it!) To sum it up, my story, Serpent Quest, is a finalist in the Good Snakes flash fiction contest! (You can hear my story here.) And now is the time to go do the actual voting! I’d of course love it if you happened to vote for moi (merci beaucoup

You guys!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am right now. *happy dance* *squeal* Remember that contest I told you about a couple weeks ago? (This would be the one I entered at the end of last year and recently found out I had advanced to the final round! Eep!) Well, my flash fiction story goes live TODAY!! And Oh My Gooshen, the thing sounds amazing being read out loud with sound effects. It made me all giddy inside hearing it and thinking I actually wrote. that. thing! Whaaat

Hello friends, Happy February! A few weeks back I shared a post where I stated my goals for 2018. One of my goals is to submit flash fiction and short story pieces at least once a month to contests or to seek publication. Here is how my first month of the year went! *cartwheel* Okay, technically I began this little challenge a bit early, as one of the deadlines for submission was December 31. BUT I’m including it because judging would conclude in January. My flash fiction pie

Ready for another giveaway? Once again, it’s time to celebrate the release of “A Time to Rise” (Book 3 in the Out of Time series) by Nadine Brandes! Last week, as part of the “A Time to Rise” Tour,  I gave away “A Time to Die” magnetic bookmarks to go along with your brand new copy of “A Time to Rise”—releasing October 14th! Congratulations to Olivia L. for winning that awesome prize!! This week’s giveaway is even bigger! Bookmarks are fun and useful, but they don’t have a pu

Have you heard the news? “A Time to Rise” (Book 3 in the ‘Out of Time’ series) by Nadine Brandes will be released October 14! Woo-hoo!! For those of you that follow my Book Reviews, you will remember I reviewed “A Time to Die” (Book 1 in the series) in August and “A Time to Speak” (Book 2 in the series) in September. Both garnered 5 star reviews! (You can find those reviews here and here.) So it’s no surprise that I jumped at the chance to join the “A Time to Rise” Tour just

This month’s Author Interview is with seasoned author and speaker, Jamie Foley! You might remember this name from the book review I did last month on her novel, Sentinel, the first book in her published trilogy by the same name. Jamie has some really great stuff to say about her journey as a writer and the publishing industry as a whole, so I’m super excited that she gets to share it with all of you! And guess what?? She’s even going to give someone a free signed copy of Sent

So apparently when you have a blog, you’re supposed to update it. Yes, yes, I get that I’ve slacked lately, and I can’t wait to tell you why! Here’s the skinny on all that’s going on both past and present! My writing: The biggest news is, I’m so close to finishing my newest novel, Orphan Princess – a middle grade medieval fantasy adventure! I’ve been writing this since July – which is kill.ing me!, since it normally only takes a couple months for me to kick out a rough draft.

Happy Birthday to me! This coming Saturday is my birthday! Yippee! What better way to celebrate than by giving stuff away, amiright? So, for this month’s giveaway, I’ve decided to give away stuff related to all things me! That’s right! One lucky winner will win not one, not two… but five fun prizes! All things that I love or represent my life. Check out the fun items to be won and don’t forget to read how to enter multiple times to earn these great birthday treats!! Happy Jul

Happy Valentine’s Week! I figured I’d time this month’s giveaway with the big *heart* day, for double the fun! Don’t expect the giveaway next month to be green or relating to leprechauns 😉 Having said that, this month’s giveaway does have to do with love! Crazy love, to be exact. For those of you familiar with evangelist and pastor Francis Chan, then you’ve probably heard of this book. Our Small Group at church actually worked through the video series (also presented by Chan

It’s that time. Finally! I hadn’t really meant to make you all wait quite this long, but I’m hoping the prize will convince you to forgive me 😉 Again, in trying to give away prizes that come from local shops, this month I decided to go with one of my family’s all time favorites: Wilbur Chocolate! Yum! Who wants to win a Golden Ticket for some chocolate?? If you aren’t local to Lititz and have never tried Wilbur chocolate, then you must enter this contest! This factory has be

How did everyone like the ’12 Days of Giveaways’ contest? Personally, I had a fantastic time giving all sorts of fun stuff away and getting to surprise the winners with the good news that they’d won! 🙂 Although it took a bit more work than I’d originally anticipated, the thrill of having something to look forward to each day, truly made this a great way to end 2014! I want to again say a big ‘Thank you’ to all those authors, business persons and small businesses that donated

Phew! Can’t believe we’re on the last day of Caffeinated Fiction’s ’12 Days of Giveaways’! Congrats to all those that have won so far, especially the winner of yesterday’s double prize – Amy G. – for winning a set of Jamberries from consultant Brandy Lemond and my complete novella set, ‘Now I Sleep’! 😉 I’m super excited to announce the final prize of this whirlwind of a journey is… An autographed copy of ‘Branded’, by Missy Kalicicki and Abi Ketner – the first in a series of