Secondary Character Bloghop

Welcome to SECONDARY CHARACTERS BLOGHOP!!! Brought to you by, Rachel Schieffelbein, in celebration of her book coming out May 28th. YAY!! I can't wait to read it.

I have a little secrete to confess, one my CP's may already know. I tend to default "those comments" in my books to the secondary characters. You know the ones like, "OMG, who farted?" It's all the little comments that in real life I might say in my head, but don't say out loud. Guess what? Neither does my hero. They tend to be the more serious character while their best friend word vomits. I did fall in love with one of those characters so much I'm giving him his own book. So sometimes, the guy who is almost the hero but never quite makes it can be the hero in his own story.


Enough about my characters. We're here to talk about the ones I've fallen in love with. I think mine are all pretty well known. I think I'll do picture montage and give a tiny bit about why I liked them.

First up, one of my all time favorite bad guys who really is a good guy-Professor Severus Snape.

I beg you to figure out how Hogwarts would have been half as interesting if Snape wasn't hired at that school. I could go on and on about the secondary characters Rowling created. It's actually one of her strongest talents as a writer. She creates the richest characters that you almost can't imagine the story without any of them.

Next up, we have another one of my favorite books. And characters. Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia.

I love his strength and wisdom. And in the movies they did a fantastic job of bringing him to life. I wish I could cuddle up next to the fearsome lion and have him tell me a story.

Now for a non-book secondary character. And you guys may think I'm weird but Joss Whedon is also a master at creating AMAZING secondary characters. What would Buffy be without the Scooby gang? Dead probably. ;0) So I give you Spike aka William the Bloody.

Whether Spike's trying to be the biggest baddy Buffy ever faced, (and failing, lol) or desperately trying to be a good guy, he always tried SO hard. And ended up getting laughed at more than he would have liked. But the thing is, he always made me laugh. And I know technically he's more of an antagonist in the first part of the series. But he totally becomes an intricate part of the Scooby gang later on. 

My last one is also not from a book. If you haven't seen Grimm, you're missing out. It's filmed in my little old town of Portland. And they've done such a great job of putting a new twist on old things like werewolves, witches, ghost and even zombies. The main guy, Nick, is a cutie. I'll give him that. But one of the reasons I fell in love with the show is Monroe. 

He is hands down a total Portlander. And such a contradiction  He's their version of a werewolf. But he's wears sweaters, works on clocks, and he even plays the cello. And he's so funny. I think I'd be more upset if Monroe died than Nick. Well, maybe equally. 

OMG, I did this post yesterday and I'm recovering from a few days of headaches. So I really did leave off some of my favorite people. So instead of making this post even longer with words I'm just going to throw some pictures up. 

The whole supporting cast of CHUCK. LOVE.

The Ponds from Doctor Who. *tear slips down my face*

Alrighty, I'm off to see who all of you picked. I can't wait!! Here's the linky list if you need it. ;)


I know I promised a review of Peggy's class today but I didn't realize the Secondary Character Blog Hop fell on the same day. I hope you'll join me next week when I do a recap of her class.

My trip to Utah

I am going to do this post as a journal while I'm in Salt Lake City/Provo then post it next week. I'm sitting in my hotel room waiting for Cassie Mae and Hope Roberson to pick me up for a day of fun. Yesterday was so amazing! Even though I didn't go to any of the conference stuff, I hung out with WRITERS!! All day. It was so much fun. Laughing and talking about the things we're passionate about. Sharing in one author's go ahead on announcing her book deal. Hugs. SO MANY HUGS. And everyone looks better, is sweeter, and more lovely than they are online.

The other thing. I don't know a quarter of the writers that attend this conference. Storymaker draws so many talented writers. I can't wait to meet evem more lovely people.

Oh and I almost sorta met James Dashner. I stood next to Jessie H, who was standing next to Peggy E., who was talking to Mr. Dashner. :)

The whole journal thing didn't end up working out. LOL. I only opened up my laptop during classes, the rest of the time I talked and laughed!

To recap my time. I didn't really meet a lot of people I didn't already "know" from the online community. Maybe next time I'll sit at tables full of people I've never met. But it was hard to separate from the people I was with because we may talk online all the time but we never get to have conversations the way you do in person. So for my first conference it was okay that I was glued to my friends. ;)

But I walked away from the conference rejuvenated. Inspired. Closer to the people I've only known through my little computer screen. And ready to face the world again. It was exactly what I needed at this time in my journey. And I surprisingly never felt bad about where I'm at or jealous of where others are. Each person at that conference walks their own path. Fighting their own demons. And I felt like I won somehow. Like I defeated something I've been battling against for a while. Depression? Discouragement? Self doubt? Who knows what it was exactly. But the women and men that I rubbed elbows with over the last few days made me believe again. In myself. And in why I do this thing called writing.

Here are a few pictures of all these lovely people.

This first one is us being silly. Hope brought pictures of Theresa and Jade who couldn't be there.

Next one is us being silly again.

This one is us at the Temple in Salt Lake on Sunday. It was SO beautiful. 

 And  look at these lovely ladies. :)

And the last one, Peggy during my favorite class!

I will be posting about the classes I went to and sharing what I learned. I think I'm going to start with Peggy's next Wednesday. ;)

Self Image-The ugly truth about how we see ourselves

I'm not trying to trick you but I'm over at Falling for Fiction today, the group blog I'm a part of. I'm talking about self image. So if you'd like to check it out. Here's the link.

Falling for Fiction

And because you came here I don't want to disappoint you. Here is what I'm currently doing waiting for tomorrow!

Have a lovely week!

Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae Cover Reveal

The only thing more exciting than revealing my own cover someday is being a part of one of best friend's reveals. Because I'm friends with some pretty talented ladies it's been happening a lot lately.

Today I'm privileged to help in the unveiling of Cassie Mae's cover for her New Adult debut, FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI, published by Random House Flirt. It comes out on July 29th, but you can buy it now! And it'll just zap onto your ereader the day it's released.

I LOVED this book. And I'm excited for the eBook because I haven't read it since it's been switched from YA to NA so there will be lots of fun new things for me to experience this second time around. Here's the blurb:

Rising star Cassie Mae introduces New Adult readers to a practical soon-to-be college freshman who seems to have everything—until a special guy shows her what she’s been missing.

In the wealthy town of Sundale, Kelli Pinkins has hatched the perfect plan to capitalize on her sweet reputation. For a generous fee, she will be every trust-fund baby’s dream: a Friday-night alibi, the “girlfriend” or “BFF” that parents dream about. With college approaching in the fall, Kelli’s services are in demand more than ever, which means that her social life is nonexistent. But Kelli is A-okay with that. She’s raking in cash for school. Besides, relationships are tricky, and sometimes very messy. She’d rather be at home on Xbox LIVE, anyway. Then the unexpected happens: She meets college stud Chase Maroney.

Chase isn’t like the preppy, privileged guys Kelli usually meets in Sundale. For starters, he’s twentysomething, always wears black, and he shoots back one-liners as fast as she can dish them out. But Kelli’s attempts to drive Chase away falter when she realizes that he treats her like he really knows her, like he cares about knowing her. When Kelli finally gives in to the delicious kiss she’s been fighting for so long, she faces a tough decision: make Chase a real-life boyfriend and risk her heart . . . or keep her clients and lose her first true love.

Advance praise for Friday Night Alibi

“Totally entertaining with as many swoon-worthy moments as hilarious ones, Friday Night Alibi is a must-read.”—Jolene Perry, co-author of Out of Play

“A fun, funny, and fantastic story, this is one you will read in a day, and pick up to re-read again the next.”—Kelley Lynn, author of Fraction of Stone

And now the cover!

Pre-order Friday Night Alibi: 

Amazon  |  Barnes &Noble   |  Google Play  |  Random House   Yay!


Oh, and stuff about Cassie too.

Cassie Mae is a nerd to the core from Utah, who likes to write about other nerds who find love. Her angel children and perfect husband fan her and feed her grapes while she clacks away on the keyboard. Then she wakes up from that dream world and manages to get a few words on the computer while the house explodes around her. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with the youth in her community as a volleyball and basketball coach, or searching the house desperately for chocolate.

The Evolution of My World

Evolution (make sure you say it in Professor X's voice) is part of life. And my time away from my blog has shown me that my world is constantly changing. And so will this blog. And I think not only my blog's changing, but the blogging world in general. And the publishing world. It's an exciting time for writers. And an uncertain time too.

When I started this blog over a year ago, I was very excited. And everything was so new. It's lead me to the best people in the world. Many of you I'm beyond excited to meet at Storymakers in only 9 days. *Does boogie dance*. And even though I interact with most of you on Facebook or Twitter, I still need this blog to feel connected to you. And hopefully someday my readers.

I think most of the stagnant feel came from where I am in general. The other side of getting an agent can be pretty quiet until something happens. But that's why I know my blog must evolve with each part of this journey. And there are so many things that are still the same. I still watch lots of geek TV and movies, which I'm thinking about doing a Netflix update once a month to open a conversation about stories in that medium. I get lots of inspiration and understanding from them. Then there is always, ALWAYS, music. I want to know what's inspiring you to write. And life. My life, your life. Yeah, I want to know what's up in your world. And writing. There is always that. No matter what's going on. That's where this blog comes back to. Stories. People and they're journey through life. So it may be a fictional journey we'll talk about. Or my real journey.

With that, I've decided to post on Wednesdays. I will probably stick to 4 topics, covering one each week. I of course will still have cover reveals. Interviews and other things that land on different days. But for my regular schedule, it will be Wednesdays. So I hope you will continue to join me on this ever evolving journey of mine.

And speaking of other things. I'm co-hosting a blog hop in May. Here are the details, I hope you'll join in. It should be loads of fun. And if you're going to be at Storymakers please try to find me! I want to meet you.

I'd like to announce the Secondary Characters Bloghop! Rachel Schieffelbein is hosting this bloghop in honor of her book, SECONDARY CHARACTERS, which comes out May 28th. Theresa Paolo, Kelley Lynn, Jessica Salyer,  Suzi Retzlaff, and I are her co-hosts for the bloghop and you can find info at any of our blogs.

Sometimes secondary characters steal the show, (or the book) and become our favorites. On May 22nd we want you to tell us about your favorite secondary characters from books or movies, or both!

Whether it's the funny best friend or that goofy kid next door,

we want to know what secondary characters

you just couldn't get enough of and why.

Theresa Paolo, Kelley Lynn, Jessica Salyer,,  Suzi Retzlaff, and I

are offering critiques as prizes!

Rachel Schieffelbein is also planning on giving away a three chapter critique along with an ebook

 of Secondary Characters,

which releases on May 28th.

Cassie Mae and Kelley Lynn will also pick a winner to get either an ebook of

Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend, or a signed copy of Fraction of Stone.