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| Author Amy Durham |
Please welcome the lovely and talented Amy Durham to the blog this Writer Wednesday. Amy writes stories for young adults and is the author of the Sky Cove series (Once Again and Once and For All). Today Amy introduces us to her newest release, Dusk, a young adult paranormal romance.
"Not all who wander are lost" - J.R.R. Tolkien
I love quotes from famous people. I love how little nuggets of wisdom are contained in just a sentence or two. This quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings and more, is so simple yet so profound.
Tolkien lost his father when he was 4 ... his mother at the age of 12. An orphan then care for by the Catholic Church, many would've considered the young boy "lost". I'd like to think it was his imagination that sheltered him, nurtured him, and gave him not only the strength to survive the difficulties and tragedies of his childhood, but also the skills to succeed as an adult. Clearly, his imagination served him well, both as a boy, and as a grown man who became one of the best-loved authors of all time.
Reading is such a gift, because it allows our minds to wander. It allows us to imagine and envision. Books are another world, just waiting to be opened!
A love of reading and creativity is the reason I became a writer. My latest young adult paranormal romance, Dusk, is now on sale. It's a story of forgiveness, grace, and second chances ... something I think everyone can relate to. The following excerpt shows the heroine, Zoe, meeting the hero, Adrian, for the first time. She's at her locker, looking for her best friend, Vivian, when Adrian steps into her vision. It's a scenario I think we can all appreciate!
"Not all who wander are lost" - J.R.R. Tolkien
I love quotes from famous people. I love how little nuggets of wisdom are contained in just a sentence or two. This quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings and more, is so simple yet so profound.
Tolkien lost his father when he was 4 ... his mother at the age of 12. An orphan then care for by the Catholic Church, many would've considered the young boy "lost". I'd like to think it was his imagination that sheltered him, nurtured him, and gave him not only the strength to survive the difficulties and tragedies of his childhood, but also the skills to succeed as an adult. Clearly, his imagination served him well, both as a boy, and as a grown man who became one of the best-loved authors of all time.
Reading is such a gift, because it allows our minds to wander. It allows us to imagine and envision. Books are another world, just waiting to be opened!
A love of reading and creativity is the reason I became a writer. My latest young adult paranormal romance, Dusk, is now on sale. It's a story of forgiveness, grace, and second chances ... something I think everyone can relate to. The following excerpt shows the heroine, Zoe, meeting the hero, Adrian, for the first time. She's at her locker, looking for her best friend, Vivian, when Adrian steps into her vision. It's a scenario I think we can all appreciate!
Looking to my left, I saw Viv making her way down the hall. And then he stepped into my vision, blocking out Viv and the rest of the chaos in the hallway.
Umm, wow. He was even better up close. The ability to speak left me.
“Hey,” he said, and considering he was standing so close, I knew he was talking to me.
I looked up. Way up. He had to be over six feet tall. And looked straight into the most gorgeous set of baby blues I’d ever seen. The deep green shirt he wore today accentuated the color of his irises.
Black hair and blue eyes were totally hot together.
“I saw you yesterday,” he continued, unaffected by my stunned silence. “I’m Adrian.”
Adrian. It suited him. His name was just as beautiful he was.
I should talk. Say something. Introduce myself. Wipe the drool from my chin.
“Zoe,” I squeaked, cringing at how stupid I sounded. “Zoe Gray.”
“Adrian Shaw.” He stuck his hand out, waiting for me to shake it.
I stared at his hand. He wanted me to put my hand in his, and even as I told myself it was just a simple greeting, the thought of feeling his skin against mine left me frozen.
Snap out of it! Act like you have a brain, not just raging hormones!
I gripped his hand. His fingers closed around mine, and everything inside me went still, calm… right. The noise around me stopped. The bustle of the kids in the hall faded away. And I found myself lost in the feeling of my hand in his, drowning in the way his eyes searched mine.
DUSK
Zoe Gray lost her father ... in more ways than one. Angry and bitter, Zoe spends the summer before her senior year of high school doing everything she can to forget, legal or not. But a close call triggers a reality check, and Zoe decides to put her life back together, a task that proves a lot harder than she thought.
Adrian Shaw shows up on the first day of school, creating quite a stir with his striking good looks and gleaming black motorcycle. But Adrian is much more than a "biker boy", and as Zoe discovers, he may just hold the key she needs to put her life back on the right path.
But as they do battle with evil forces that want nothing more than to destroy Zoe's chance at a normal life, will their feeling for one another make them stronger, or be the reason Zoe's happiness slips away forever?
And will Zoe learn to forgive before it's too late?
Learn more about Amy at the following places:
www.twitter.com/Amy_Durham
Find DUSK:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dusk-Young-Adult-Paranormal-Romance-ebook/dp/B00HQ28IWW/ref=la_B00728PDLY_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389124694&sr=1-3
Find DUSK:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dusk-Young-Adult-Paranormal-Romance-ebook/dp/B00HQ28IWW/ref=la_B00728PDLY_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389124694&sr=1-3
Amy Durham discovered her love of writing in the sixth grade. What began as a love of writing poetry soon turned into stories scribbled into school notebooks. In the eighth grade, her English teacher told her she was good at it and encouraged her to continue to put pen to paper. At that moment, the die was cast, and writing would forever be a part of her life.
As an adult, Amy focuses her efforts on writing Young Adult Fiction... adventure, romance, and life-lessons... woven together as imagination and escape for young readers. Amy holds a firm belief that books are not only entertaining, but have the ability to transform young lives. A book can educate. A book can teach compassion and kindness. A book can spark interest. A book can be a companion. Simply put, books can accompany and guide young readers as they try to navigate their way through the twisted, confusing roads of adolescence.
She lives in Kentucky, where she is a middle school teacher. She and her husband are raising three wild, intelligent, and creative boys, giving her plenty of fodder for the love and adventure she enjoys putting in her stories!
Thanks for inviting me to your blog, Natalie!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post, Amy :-)
ReplyDelete