Four For Friday--Courtney Rene

Four For Friday is a weekly feature where guest authors choose one of their own characters to complete four sentences. 

This week's prize is a SIGNED copy of the printed book!  

Don't forget: you need to click on the Rafflecopter tabs or else your entries won't count! 

Courtney Rene kicked off this fun feature back in January, and I'm happy that she came back to do this week's post from her novel, SHADOW'S END.

Sunshine (aka Sunny) is a seventeen almost eighteen-year-old girl that currently is shuffling back and forth between Earth, known as the water realm, and Acadia, known as the sun realm.  Neither place is all that wonderful right now.  At home on earth with her parents, Sunny is still treated like a child, with rules, and curfews, and school.  Then in Acadia she is expected to be an adult who makes decisions for an entire realm.  A king is after her, along with a rebel force.  How is she supposed to bring peace to Acadia as well as haul them out from the dark ages, when she has important things like blue ice fairies, red people, and prom to worry about?  Sunny has many talents, some of which include aura reading, invisibility, and one of these days she will get the hang of how to control her gift of energy without blasting everything and everyone with a shot of energy strong enough to kill.  Sunny likes to read, take walks in the warmth of the sun, and meet new people from all the different realms, even if they come with sharp blood thirsty little teeth.  Please feel free to contact her at:  ctnyrene@blogspot.com  

1. My favorite flower is...

a daisy, because they are such happy little spots of color.  Don’t you think?  Their little faces reach up toward the sun and dance and wave in the wind.  How can you not love a daisy?

2. This Mother’s Day I plan on… 

trying not to strangle my mother.  She just doesn’t get me anymore!  She is so frustrating!  How am I supposed to be in two places at once?  She doesn’t want me to be a shadow walker, but I can’t help that.  It’s who I am!  Why is she….sorry I digressed a bit there.  For Mother’s Day I plan on having a lovely brunch with my mother.  She likes to spend time with me and that is the gift she asked me for.   

3. The senior prom…

was fantastic!  Lucas was so hot in his tux.  We danced and we talked and we kissed.  It was a wonderful time.  I get all warm and tingly just thinking about it.  Do you want to see some photos?  I have a ton, thanks to my mom.

4. Only one more month until Summer. I…

simply can’t wait.  My life is so busy between school and training and home and Leif trying to aggravate me, and even Lucas some days.  I so need something to give, just a little bit at least.  Finals are coming up.  I can’t believe I am happy about that. Who is ever happy about finals?  Growing up is so hard.  

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Want to learn more about this character and author? 

Visit Courtney's Amazon Author Page


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Four For Friday--Courtney Rene

Four For Friday is a weekly feature where guest authors choose one of their own characters to complete four sentences. Please be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway. You could be the lucky winner of a signed copy of 'A Howl in the Night!'

This week's guest post is by author Courtney Rene.

Abigail Staton is a sixteen-year-old girl that currently is not sure of where she lives. Lately she has lived with her mother and recently re-found father, but after issues arose at home, she temporarily relocated to a friend’s house. However, that also failed to work out for several reasons, the least of which included the prison like environment, well meant or not. Abby has many talents, which include academic excellence, shape shifting into the form of a wolf, and a lovely pheromone filled scent of which she is unable to smell. She likes to read, take long walks in the woods, and curl up in the shade of a tree for long naps. Please feel free to contact her at: ctnyrene@blogspot.com

1. My surefire way to beat the winter blues is.... The sun is definitely my preferred element, so when I feel a bit down during the winter, I like to take a lovely run through the woods, in wolf form of course. The snow crunching under my feet, the sting of the cold in my nose, the peace in the quiet air, can perk me up pretty quickly. This is a wonderful activity to try to get out of those grey winter blues.

2. My New Year's resolution is...to try to get a handle on my new craving for meat. I’m a vegetarian for Peter’s sake. But seriously, a rabbit wanders into my line of sight and I want to catch it, tear it apart and devour it, which is actually really gross. Plus raw meat is really giving me fits. What is it about that stuff that has my wolf self drooling like a waterfall? This year I will get control of that though. I will.

3. One of my favorite things in life is...a nice sun warmed spot outside in the cool green grass. It doesn’t matter what form I am in, human or wolf, I love laying in the sun. Now that my eyes have adjusted to their new and improved sight the sun doesn’t hurt them, so I am spending as much time out in the warm rays as I can.

4. My best karaoke song is... I found this awesome retro band from the 80’s called Duran Duran. They have the funnest song ever called Hungry Like a Wolf. If you haven’t heard it before, go and You-tube it or something. Right now. Its fab.

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Want to learn more about this character and author? 

Visit Courtney's Amazon Author Page


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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Two Small Town Writers And One Large City

I'm sure some of you have one of those online friends--someone you only know through the cyber-world. I met Courtney Rene, or 'Cornty' as the people in Starbucks like to call her, back in 2008. She posted a story, which I loved, in a forum on the Institute for Children's Literature, and we became writing friends, swapping manuscripts for critique, offering advice, and sharing markets. Now, Courtney Rene is the author of FOUR YA novels!

When she e-mailed me, saying her family was coming to New York, I jumped at the opportunity to join her for a day in the city. This get together has been two years in the making. We had also planned to meet up Cindy, a fellow writer who lives in New York, but Cindy couldn't meet us until later in the day and unfortunately, Courtney and her family had evening plans. We missed you, Cindy!

In my younger days, I worked in various jobs all over downtown and midtown NYC. Since moving to Blairstown, I've only been back to the metropolis a few times, but I kinda sorta knew where I was going, so I mapped out some of the tourist spots in midtown.

I met up with Courtney and her beautiful family at their hotel. After swapping a signed copy of 31 More Halloween Nights for a signed copy of her long-awaited Shadow's End, (SQUEE!) we boarded a bus to Manhattan and started our day from the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

We walked up 42nd Street through Times Square, and then through a beautiful, but disappointing-because-of-renovations Bryant Park, and then on to the NY Public Library.

Oh my! What a building! 

Of course, we checked out the two large rooms in the children's area, but there were no books in sight by Courtney Rene. :(

But the library had lots of marble and stairs.

They had old wooden phone booths and lots of stairs. There were individual rooms of books and inside those rooms were stairs. Did I say there were an awful lot of stairs?

Me & Courtney standing on the stairs in front of the library.

We walked up to Fifth Avenue and made our way to the American Girl store. We saw lots of overpriced dolls, matching girl/doll clothes, and bug-eyed little girls mentally writing their Christmas lists. Who wouldn't want Santa to bring them a $150 dollar baby grand piano for their doll?

 Aren't these dolls kind of creepy? Makes me think of Stepford Children...

St. Patrick's Cathedral was also going through some restorations. This church is almost as beautiful as St Paul's Cathedral in London, but not nearly as massive. For $2.00 we could have lit a candle (a stub of wax) at one of the many devotionals for different Saints, but we decided to move on.

 We made a quick detour into Rockefeller Center. No tree yet, but the skaters were already on the rink.

After a yummy lunch at Five Guys, we popped into Nintendo World, a pokemon-lover's paradise! I thought of you, Amanda!

 This picture of Link is made up of thousands of fan photos.

 Gotta catch 'em all...

We did some souvenir shopping, a couple of stops for coffee, and got sucked into a chocolate store. Our noses were pressed up against the glass, trying to choose the perfect piece of candy, but I never thought to take a photo of the little works of art.

We were running out of time, so we headed straight for the Empire State Building. We waited and talked and waited some more. We made it to the observation deck without giving in to the urgent advice someone yelled at us every 15 minutes: "...There is nobody on the deck to tell you what you are looking at. You NEED one of these maps. We have maps in 10 different languages..."

We were fine without a map.

It was a beautiful clear day, and not as cold as I feared it would be 80 stories above New York City.

Courtney and her gorgeous daughters.

Me and Courtney 

When I was getting ready that morning to meet Courtney, I was excited, but also a little nervous--like a fan-girl meeting her favorite author. But our easy conversations and lots of silliness (including duck-lipped, hiding-chins Empire State souvenir photos) seemed like we'd known each other forever.

Thankfully, I only got everyone lost/side-tracked/turned-in-the-wrong-direction once and we made it back to the hotel safely.

Next year, we're doing lower Manhattan--

The 9/11 Memorial 

and South Street Seaport.

Why not meet us there?

Celebrating With A Giveaway!

(Source)

The Bible tells us it is better to give than to receive. Personally, I think receiving is fun also. So to celebrate my 50th birthday this month with all of you, I am offering a giveaway! That's right, the birthday girl is turning things around. Aren't presents fun?

So, you know I collect fairies, right?

And you know I collect crayons, right?

Well, I decided to put together a few of my favorite things to share with you:

(Sorry about the photo quality)

That's right, a gift for you! Yay!

There are fairy stickers and note cards, bath crayons, colored pencils, flower seeds, and of course, an autographed copy of Courtney Rene's Shadow Warrior!

Doesn't that sound like fun? Share with us, and I'll share with you! This contest will run from today until midnight on June 18th. A winner will be announced on Tuesday, June 19th. 

So, if you would like a chance to win this fun prize, here's how to get entries:

~Leave a comment, telling everyone what YOU collect. 

~Follow my blog.

~Like my Facebook Author Page.

~Follow me on Twitter.

~Add me to your circle on Google+

~Share this giveaway on your blog.
~Share this giveaway on your Facebook page.

~Tweet about this giveaway.

That's a total of EIGHT possible entries! 

Be sure to tell me the number of entries you are eligible for in your comment. 

Good Luck!

Author Spotlight--Courtney Rene

Courtney Rene is well-known among the Institute of Children's Literature crowd. She has contributed to several anthologies and is the author of magazine articles, short fiction, and her first novel, Shadow Dancer.

Shadow Dancer, published in 2010 by Rogue Phoenix Press, is a YA paranormal novel about a young girl named Sunny. Sunny has an amazing gift but doesn't know how to control it. She meets Leif, a boy from the Kingdom of Acadia, on the other side of the shadows, who teaches Sunny how to use her powers.

When the Shadow Guard arrives to bring Sunny back to Acadia, Sunny must learn to defend herself not only from the Shadow Guard and come to terms with the lies and deceit from the people she loves.

Courtney's second novel in the series, Shadow Warrior, also published through Rogue Phoenix Press, will be released on January 15, 2012, and I'm ecstatic that she has agreed to grant me my first-ever author interview!

Good morning, Courtney, and thanks for being here. Congratulations on your new novel! Could you tell us a little about Shadow Warrior?

Thanks so much for having me! As for a little about Shadow Warrior, I don’t know where to begin. The book picks up just a few short months after the end of Shadow Dancer. It’s spring break and Sunny and Leif are going to visit Acadia for the first time. It’s suppose to be fun and exciting, but from the moment they arrive things don’t go as planned. Sunny is ill-prepared and a bit ticked off about it. It doesn’t get better for her from there either. It’s a fun romp through many emotions. I can’t wait to see what my readers think of it.

After I read Shadow Dancer, I was very curious about what Sunny's visit to the Kingdom of Acadia would be like. Was it difficult to create such a place?


It was at first. I think I was trying too hard. Once I let go and allowed my imagination to take over, Acadia came to life.


Sunny is a fun, sassy character but she has so many facets to her personality. Is her character modeled after anyone particular in your life?

Sunny is who I wish I could be sometimes. She is snarky and funny and stronger than she realizes. She also has a bit of my daughter in her. That sarcasm Sunny tosses around, oh yeah, that’s my Sidney.


The cover of Shadow Warrior is great! It hints at an action-packed story, but can you give us a hint about Sunny's relationship with Leif?

I love the cover too! The artist did a great job and I couldn’t be happier. As for Leif, he is going through a rough patch in Shadow Warrior. He is struggling with who he is, was, and who he wants to be, as well as his desperate need to “win”.

What is your favorite part of Shadow Warrior? What was the hardest part to write?

My favorite part is when Sunny gets wounded and separated from Leif. We get to meet new people and struggle along with Sunny as she is left to fend for herself with them.

The hardest part to write was the end. I was sad with it and hurt right along with Sunny. I had to re-write it several times, as it got a bit too dark again and again. I actually had to put it aside for a while to try to figure out why it was going the direction it was. It’s still a bit sad, but the darkness is not so oppressive. I am already second guessing myself though and wondering if I should have left it dark.

Could you tease us a little with an excerpt?

Of Course!

"This is going to feel a bit strange," he said, still looking at me.

"Strange, how?" I asked. Strange weird would be okay, but strange pain, would not.

Leif shrugged his shoulders and said, "Just strange."

Then before I could get a better answer out of him, he said, "Here we go. One, two, pull."

I did as Leif instructed. I pulled the shadows up and over me again and suddenly, without warning, I was jerked painfully backward. The world was suddenly dark and grey. Everything was spinning out of control. It was spinning around and around and over and over, and my head clouded and fogged. I felt like I was tumbling and falling, and then we stopped, just as instantaneous as we had begun.

The ground was now solid again beneath my feet. I wobbled once, twice then I dropped to my knees and threw up the entire contents of my stomach. I felt Leif pull back my hair for me and thought absently, that's nice.

My head still spun, even after my stomach finally stopped heaving. I sat back on my feet, my head hung down. A bottle of water was thrust under my nose. I took it and washed out my mouth as I tried to regain my senses. The first real thought that came to my head was, "That felt more than a little strange."

For anyone who hasn't read the first novel, Shadow Dancer, I strongly suggest you get yourself a copy while you wait for January 15th and the release of Shadow Warrior. Courtney, could you tell us how and where it is available?

You can find it:

Through my publisher, Phoenix Press


Amazon

and


Barnes and Noble



What are some of the other projects you're currently working on?

Several actually.

I have a new paranormal book coming out late 2012 titled “A Howl in the Night”.

I am finishing up book 3 in the Shadow Dancer series right now, currently titled, “Shadow’s End”. Revisions are the pits. They take FOREVER.

And, I am considering doing a telling of Leif’s story. How he became the man he is and what happens after Shadow’s End. That, I will have to get back to you on though. It’s still just a “hmmm maybe” idea that I am running by my publisher.


Besides, the 'Shadow' novels, where else can we find your work?

The best place to find out that information is my blog (www.ctnyrene.blogspot.com). There is a tab just for published work that I have recently updated.

Courtney, thank you so much for spending time with us and allowing me to interview you. Congratulations, again, and I wish you much success with your writing.


I had fun, there were great interview questions. Thanks again for having me and thanks so much for all your support!


Please feel free to contact Courtney at ctnyrene@aol.com or www.ctnyrene.blogspot.com.

~*~

Leave a comment and you may be the lucky person to win a copy of Courtney Rene's, Shadow Dancer!

Winner will be announced on Monday, January 16th.