Hi! I'm Colleen aka author C.M. McCoy. Here you'll find bookish giveaways, book news, & North of Normal book reviews. I write humorous and upliftingly dark young adult and adult novels as well as nonfiction. If you like edge-of-your-seat suspense with heart-rending romance in a plot you're never seen before, EERIE is for you. Thanks so much for swinging by!
Be sure to check out EERIE (book trailer here), which was featured in PEOPLE magazine & on INSIDE EDITION. "Un-put-downable. You won't know who to trust, who to love, or who to hate till the very end, and OH WHAT AN END!" EERIE on Amazon
Drug Synthroid Online (Levothyroxine) is used for treating low thyroid hormone levels and certain types of goiters. Abilify (Aripiprazole) is used for treating agitation caused by schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, depression. Click to see full text here:
I a little late to this whole “Instagram for book nerds” party, but I am loving these artsy book photos on these hashtags (click on them to check them out):
If you’re new to Instagram and need some guidance in setting up an account, I put together a short guide with step-by-step instructions. Click here to download the .pdf file.
And now for some tips I picked up from the Insta-Booksta-guru author Stephanie Scott (whose debut ALTERATIONS will be featured in a First Pages spotlight on this blog next week!):
1. Use natural light for your bookish photos. There’s really no substitute, and it’s as simple as moving your set next to a window on an overcast day.
2. Use all 30 hashtags to show off your work 🙂 Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in a post–use them!
3. See a bookish photo setup you like? Try it with your favorite title! Imitation is the best form of flattery, and Instagram’s bookish hashtags are a great place to find inspiration and crafty set-ups.
And now it’s time for some giveaway fun! I WANT TO SEE YOUR ARTSY BOOKISH PHOTOS! To enter the giveaway, follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter below 🙂
Here’s a few #bookstagrams I did (I like beads <3):
The Prize: One mystery book (CM McCoy’s choice) from my TBR (to be read) stack
Note: CM McCoy’s Contest Policy applies. Rafflecopter terms and conditions also apply. No Purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited.
First Pages is a before-and-after series featuring an early draft of a book’s first page and a short commentary from the author describing how that draft evolved into its published form. I’ve read thousands of first pages, and I started this series to study how authors get it right. It takes a lot of courage for authors to share their first or early draft, so these are a real treat!
In this installment of the series, we look at LESSONS IN GRAVITY, a contemporary romance by debut author Megan Westfield (Oct 2016, Entangled: Embrace).
Summary
“Everything I want in a book… I can’t wait to recommend this to everyone I know!” – New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cora Carmack
All eyes are on Josh Knox…
Fearless. Guarded. Cut-to-perfection. Daredevil rock climber. The best in the world.
This time he’s poised to scale Yosemite’s notoriously treacherous Sorcerer Spire, with Walkabout Media & Productions filming every move.
April Stephens’s dream to be a documentary filmmaker rests on her acing her internship with Walkabout, and that means getting the abrasive Josh to give her more than one-word answers in his interviews.
The problem is, with every step forward professionally, she and Josh are also taking a step forward personally, and after watching her stunt pilot father die in a fiery crash, a guy who risks his life for a living is the last person she should be falling for. Especially because in one month her internship will have them dangling three thousand feet in the air from the side of the Sorcerer. She’ll be filming. He’ll be climbing without a rope.
First Draft of First Page
April popped the lock with a nail file and ducked through the half-height door. For the last time, she stepped onto the flat roof of her apartment building. Slowly, she turned in a circle.
Beyond the Santa Monica shoreline, the ocean sparkled in the bright spring sunlight. Downtown, the cluster of tall, gray buildings rose from the hazy remnants of the morning’s marine layer. The high-rise condo that blocked the view to the west reflected a cloudless sky, and to the north, the arms of the green and tan Hollywood Hills cradled the city April had called home for nearly five years.
A quick glance at her watch told her that she had exactly thirty-five minutes left in the city. Thirty-five minutes left before the Walkabout Films van was due to arrive and her internship would begin.
April walked across the roof and sat on the plastic milk crate she always used as a chair. She kicked her feet up on the knee-high cement wall that circled the roof. The building was only four stories tall, but the backside was on a hill and seemed more like eight. Below, palm trees arced over the streets of Westwood like feisty fireworks atop wobbly straws.
Sometimes, when she was up on the roof, she felt as if her father was there with her. The roof, with its height and wind, was almost like being back in the cockpit with him. It was easy to imagine that if she said something aloud, he would hear her. Not that she ever did.
Commentary from the author
I struggled so incredibly with the opener for LESSONS IN GRAVITY. All told, I’ve probably written ten completely different versions of it. I even added a prologue to the book in the late phases of editing prior to publication, which, by the end, I’d decided not to use.
The root of the problem is that all the openers that I experimented with were too slow, which in turn was caused by me starting the story in the wrong place. In the first draft, I started with April getting ready to leave her status quo in Los Angeles for the internship, and by the end, I’d cut about 10,000 words from beginning so that April was already in Yosemite at story start, ready to meet Josh before the end of Chapter One.
I’m a writer who could edit into oblivion and always find more to fix, so reading my final opener even now, my fingers itch to make more changes, but in the end, I’m happy that I’ve managed to give a sense of setting and hint at April’s background and the challenges ahead for her in about 275 words instead of a whopping 10,000 words!
Final Version of First Page
April had curled herself into a snail-tight ball deep within her sleeping bag, but still she shivered. Her air mattress had gone flat in the middle of the night, and the chill that wafted up from the ground was distinctly similar to the flow from a refrigerator door left ajar.
But the cold wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t sleep. At first, it had been the nighttime forest noises: the creaking branches, wild animal calls, and wind scraping across the top of the tent—it was like living inside a 1950s horror film. Then her mind switched over to the horror that had been real. Her father. The air show. His falling plane. The screams. The flames. And once the adrenaline from the memories kicked in, there was no way she could relax enough to fall asleep.
Making things worse, the same tight ball that helped with the cold and the mental images was also causing unbearable pain. When she drank a beer with her crewmates, Madigan and Theo, last night after the drive from the airport, she hadn’t realized how far away the bathroom was and just how much she would not want to leave her tent once she was zipped safely inside. If bladders could burst, hers was about to.
It took great effort to uncurl and inch to the top of the sleeping bag. The much colder air outside stung the tip of her nose and the whites of her eyes. She stared at the ceiling of the tent for a moment, planning her next move. Wait, she could see the ceiling. That meant dawn had arrived. The hellish night was finally over.
Review by Colleen (CM McCoy)
Shivers and urgency!
Opening this romance with a full-bladdered, tent-camping chill was brilliant. There’s this subtle humor juxtaposed with a heartbreaking burden of grief AND a good old-fashioned, morning-cold-of-tent-camping slap in the face. I love this main character already. With her, I’m shivering. I’m already on the edge of my seat. And most importantly, I’m hooked. Bring on the romance!
Megan Westfield has obviously been camping with a flat ground pad and describes the discomfort and bone-chill perfectly. More perfect is the her set-up of this MC for an epic romance, which is hidden in the white space: her heart is still hurting from her father’s death, she doesn’t really want to be here–in a tent, freezing her butt off–BUT right about now, she’d love some body heat, if you know what I mean 😉
Even though I like the voice and the background info in her early-version first page, I can tell it was her “engine-cranking” (you know–all the writing an author has to do before they get down to telling the story.) All of that backstory will be woven into the narrative, and this novel starts the way a novel should–with shivers and a sense of urgency. 🙂
This first page does a lot:
Readership: Adult. Clearly the main character is over 21, she threw back a beer with her crew last night.
Genre: This isn’t so clear in the first page. But the MC is set up to be a bit standoffish, given her grief and her uncomfy night in a tent. Also the cover and blurb scream “ROMANCE”
Mood: Shivers and urgency. Shivers. And. Urgency. 🙂
Setting: SO WELL DONE. I can all but smell the nylon tent. It’s such a subtle, light touch in this setting description, which is woven in beautifully.
“Tell me more” factor: Pretty darn high on this one. I would’ve loved to see some dreading in an inner thought of what’s to come now that the sun’s up or some hint at meeting (or having already met and now having to work with) the man who will be the love interest, but since I know it’s a romance from the cover and blurb, (and since I can so well relate to the shivers and urgency) I’m anxious to see more!
This first page earns 4.5 out of 5 North of Normal stars!
Megan Westfield has dabbled in many hobbies and pastimes over the years, ranging from playing the cello to cake decorating (i.e., icing-eating) to a dozen different outdoor adventure sports. Eventually, she discovered the only way to do it all was though writing—her first and strongest passion. She grew up in Washington state, attended college in Oregon, and lived in Virginia, California, and Rhode Island during her five years as a navy officer. Megan is now a permanent resident of San Diego where she and her husband count family beach time with their two young kids as an adventure sport.
Giveaway
Sterling Silver Wishbone Necklace
Note: CM McCoy’s Contest Policy applies. Rafflecopter terms and conditions also apply. No Purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited.
Four years ago I lost my virginity on live, streaming television. Too bad I wasn’t awake for it.
The video went viral. Of course it would. A Senator’s daughter on camera? Wouldn’t you click “share”? Besides, that’s what three of the four guys in the video did. Share.
They shared me.
But that fourth guy? The nondescript one in the background in the upper left corner of the screen, just sitting on the couch? The only one who did nothing? Not one single thing. That was my boyfriend, Drew. And that was the last time I saw him.
Until today, when my father—now on a path to the White House—hired him as head of security for my new team as I return home after four years of “recovering” in an undisclosed location that involved white lab coats, needles, pills and damage control.
You see, the other three guys never went to jail. Never had charges pressed. Never faced consequences. Until today.
Game on.
USA Today bestselling author Meli Raine writes romantic suspense with hot bikers, intense undercover DEA agents, bad boys turned good, and Special Ops heroes — and the women who love them.
Meli rode her first motorcycle when she was five years old, but she played in the ocean long before that. She lives in New England with her family.
Meli Raine writes romantic comedy as Julia Kent and is half of the paranormal romance duo Diana Seere.
The first third of a good book, mis-advertised as a novel.
A HARMLESS LITTLE GAME by Meli Raine is a New Adult romantic suspense and the first third of what I’d consider a novel. This book does not stand alone, and readers should know they must purchase the next two installments for the whole story.
An ad for this book came to me via a free-book email newsletter, and I was instantly drawn to the dark premise and the promise of a high-adrenaline revenge plot. After I checked out the writing sample on Amazon, I knew I’d fall in love with this book and one-clicked it without hesitation. I shoved all other TBR books out of the way so I could dive into this immediately, wide-eyed with excitement, because I suspected this book would become one of my favorites of all time.
Lindsay Bosworth is an early-twenties daughter of a California Senator. She’s also spent the past 4 years on a remote island, inside a mental institution, recovering from a brutal college gang rape that was broadcast online. Since the video showed her then-boyfriend sitting by, casually watching the assault as it happened, and since Lindsay’s three college “friends” told police Lindsay asked for a gang rape, no charges were pressed, and the whole of America believes she is just the dirtiest little vixen who got what she asked for: a drugged drink, broken ocular bones, torn ACL, and a romp so brutal it tore her insides, leaving her near death. With her father now plotting a run for the white house, his focus is of course PR (not his only child’s welfare) and how his team of media experts can spin Lindsay’s past exuberant behavior (because, everyone blames her–she asked for it). All Lindsay wants is to reclaim some sort of new normalcy and for at least her own father and mother to acknowledge she didn’t ask to be raped. But nobody cares–what’s done is done. Except now her attackers are back, taunting her with invitations to “play” with them again and setting her up for another front-page scandal. This time, though, their harmless little games involve severed brake lines. Lindsay can’t decide who to trust, and when her do-nothing-but-watch-the-rape boyfriend reappears in her life offering “protection” her whole world gets flipped, because deep down, even though he stood by and watched three men brutalize her, she still loves him.
Despite the implausibility of the premise, there is so much to love about this book: the dark story line, Raine’s writing, the adrenaline-soaked pages, the raw emotion and utter honesty from the main character–all those things are the stuff of magic and sucked me in so that I couldn’t put this book down. And then it ended.
But there was no revenge.
There was no second attack.
There was….nothing but an empty promise of a story that’s left unfinished and an invitation to pay to read the next “part” of the story, which would only cost me $2.99. And then another $2.99 to read the “final” part of the story. That’s messed up. I don’t want to have to keep paying to read “the rest of the book,” and authors who write these endless serials really need to be up front about it. As it stands, it feels like a scheme, a lie, false advertising. In the end, instead of loving this book, I just felt ripped off. Duped. And I don’t like that.
That said, there was so much I loved about this first third of a book, that I bought the first third of this book in paperback. The rest of the book wasn’t written nearly as well, and lacked the character depth of this first third. So what can I say about this experience? How about: The first third is 5-stars, but all you get is exposition and rising action. The second and third parts of this book aren’t nearly as great as the first.
I can’t recommend a partial book, but there’s enough stellar writing that this might appeal to over 18 readers of dark romance who love adrenaline, don’t mind an implausible premise, have deep pockets, and don’t mind paying for each new part of the story.
My name is Aeris Thorne. Right now, I should be dead. By all the logic in this world, I should be shattered to pieces. How fast was I going on that ATV when I smashed into Hunter’s iron gates? Ninety? A hundred? And the men who were chasing me, where did they go? Somehow, I’m whole. Maybe better than whole.
Thank god Dad is safe. I don’t dare tell him what’s happening to me. There’s no one I can talk to, not even my best friend Gage. Gage hates Hunter. He wants Hunter’s laboratory to be shut down. He thinks Hunter’s a monster. And yet, if that’s true, if Hunter’s a monster…then what am I?
Sue Wyshynski lived a science fiction life for over a decade. She owned and operated two pioneering virtual reality companies and has 7 virtual reality patents to her name. Her work in motion sensing gesture-recognition forms the basis of the Xbox Kinect. Sue is currently writing the sequel to Girl On Fire.
GIRL ON FIRE (The Butterfly Code #1) by Sue Wyshynski, the first novel in a series that begs for the follow-up book to answer questions. Too many questions. I picked up this book because it was compared to THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins and DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth. I consider both of those novels in an extraordinary category of dystopian/science fiction that few others have attained. Although the effort was commendable, this book is a far cry from that level of entertainment.
Aeris Thorne is still wrestling with the death of her mother when she was five. She wants answers surrounding her mysterious passing. While visiting Maine and staying with her father for the summer, she meets Dr. Hunter Cayman, a researcher at a facility called Phoenix Lab. She is drawn to Hunter and doesn’t know why. However, she does not have time in her summer plans for men. She needs to practice for September when she begins her career as a violinist for the New York Philharmonic. She suspects the lab may hold answers to her burning questions. But everything changes when her father is threatened, and a sudden accident changes her life forever.
I was enamored with a considerable amount of this book. I enjoyed the story and the relationship developing between Hunter and Aeris. I liked the new characters introduced from the lab and unique world that Wyshynski created. Unfortunately, the story did not keep up with the pace it set. Near the end, the writing left me confused during high action scenes. I found myself continually re-reading these passages to make sense of what was taking place. A number of questions hung in the air regarding Aeris and her future. I wasn’t sure which outcome the author hoped I would be rooting for. In the end, I had more questions than answers and no real motivation to pick up the sequel. I was extremely disappointed because I was so completely swept up in the majority of this book.
This story had some violence and only alluded to sex. There were no gory descriptions or use of explicit language. This would be suitable for readers aged 13+ who like a fast-paced story and aren’t bothered by a few mental puzzles or loose ends in the end.
This book earns 2 North of Normal stars, although it would have earned 5 if it had continued to suck me in. For me, reading a book with such incredible potential is more disheartening than reading a book with none.