What I'm reading now... Hush, hush

So, finished Shadowland by Alyson Noel yesterday. I liked it, and I'm excited about the fourth book. It's funny, because I realized the whole series tends to revolve around two things... yeah... sex and numerology.

Lol.

Still though, very good for a teen read. You really get the feeling of what it's like to be in high school again. Love is fleeting, friends do stupid things, classic drill. Love it!

So on to what's next...

I've been waiting for this book for all my life, it seems. And to think, I haven't even cracked the cover yet!!!! It's obvious why I know I WILL love it. Um... Hel-lo! Angels anyone? It's practically my middle name... Besides, look at the cover... two words...

teen... dream...

I'm such a dork, stuck in my youth... I hate the fact I get older every year. Blah. Oh well. I can still live vicariously through the characters of my books. Thank goodness!

So excited. I can hardly contain myself!!!

Help Me Vote!!!!

I can't decide!! I want your help. I am open for suggestions, critiques, whatever! I want to know what you think...

I went simple, medium simple, and super complicated. I have a hard time figuring what's catchiest.

Option One

Option Two

Option 3

Knight Angels Book Description...

Been working on this a bit today. It's really the hard part if you ask me, whew! How to put a whole 85,000 word book into a paragraph. No easy feat. Here's a stab...

Description

When seventeen-year-old Jane Taylor witnessed her father's death at age seven, something happened to her. Ever since, her thoughts have been consumed by death, going so far as to foresee the ever-changing deaths of those around her.

Sixteen-year-old Emily Taylor always resented her sister’s closeness with their father, who died when she was only six. Ever since she can remember, she’s had the strange ability to read minds, something her father held the key to. Left helpless, she drowns herself in a world of prescription drugs, sending her responsible older sister Jane – who acted as the mother her real mother refused to be – over the edge.

Seventeen-year-old Wes Green was adopted as a baby, left carelessly by parents that clearly did not love him. He moved in next door to Jane, sharing an alleyway window and finding in her a childhood friend that soon turned into his high-school crush. All summer, though, the pain that’s been wracking his body seemed to come with no explanation. He was done growing, was plenty healthy, and worked out regularly as a member of the wrestling team. When senior year starts, though, and the pain gets worse, the changes ahead of him are anything but what he expected, and far to animal for his taste.

When Max Gordon, doomed to be a teenager for the next thousand years, found himself standing above her dying body, he saw in her bright eyes something he hadn’t seen in the nearly one-hundred-years he’d spent roaming Earth. Her father was already dead, but there was a chance he could still save her from the wreck. Jane was her name, and she was only seven, but already she was all he ever wanted. It was his job to bring her back, but it was an act that could have been the biggest mistake of his life.

When four teens enter Glenwood High on an unseasonably cool day in September, no one but Max could understand the future that was ahead of them. Drawn together by blood and friendship, they each hide a dark secret that will soon help to bind them even closer.

When the one face Max hoped to never see again shows up on school grounds – his evil twin brother, Greg – he knows that coming back for Jane was the wrong thing to do. Finding that Greg already knows about Max’s attraction for Jane, Max finds he can no longer hope to leave again, afraid of what Greg will do.

Max has to protect Jane, Jane wants to be normal, Wes wants Jane to love him, and Emily just wants the voices to stop…

And Greg… he just wants everyone dead.

The Knight Angels Second Rough Draft...

I finished the second rough draft yesterday and I'm already an eighth of the way through the third round. I have a deadline of Monday to get it done for the editor, so cross your fingers. So far, I can't get enough of this book! I must say, I think it's the best yet. I'm really comfortable with the characters, and I find myself relating to them more and more every day. They are glimpses into my own life and relationships throughout high school. Because of this close proximity to my own life, I believe each character has a strong background and personality.

The whole book was inspired by the song "Diary of Jane"

When I was in high school and college, I really loved this song, it spoke to me, begging to tell a larger story. The music video itself lends a good amount of inspiration. See for yourself...




Main Character Names:

Jane
Emily
Wes
Max
Greg

Favorite Song of the Moment... "I'm Alive"

There is nothing better than to have Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews together, especially when singing about something so essential to life in general. It's a feel good song, one that makes you happy to be alive, hence the title.

Happy Birthday to my Favorite Poet... Edgar A. Poe

Happy Birthday to Edgar A. Poe, my favorite poet, and fictional character in the Feather Book Series! I've loved Edgar A. Poe for a long time, and when I started the Feather Book Series, I knew I had to put him in my book somehow...

For those of you that have read all three books of the Feather Book Series, you know my rendition of Edgar A. Poe well. I know he was dark, and I know that he was one of the front-runners of the Science Fiction genre (Trust me, I'm right on this) but to me, I always saw a somewhat comedic side.

My character is quirky, funny, strangely addictive and a bit obsessive-compulsive... all the great things that make his role in the Feather Book Series a tall cool glass of water :)

To Edgar A. Poe... he will live forever...

Interesting tidbit: Edgar A. Poe and I share the same numerology, 29/11. This numerology number is special for two reasons.

First: It's a Master Number, meaning we're extra special ha ha. Well, in a way that's true.

Second: The eleven means double creativity, and I bet you can imagine why that part is true for the both of us!

Other 29/11's worth noting would be Leonardo DaVinci, and Giada DeLaurentis from the food network, ha ha. At least those are my favs...

(He's a good lookin old dude, isn't he?)

Dream Within a Dream
by Edgar A. Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

A Day of Getting Creative...

So, I got carried away. I sat down to make a new cover for my editor's new Vampire book, and I got so carried away, that I believe I made the final cover for Knight Angels. I am very excited about this cover. There is a lot going on, but the whole point is that there IS a lot going on in the book. The whole story embodies five lives, all thrown together in a circle of friends, love, and drama. It has the punk feel I'm trying to achieve, and I like it!

Let me know! And tell me what you think!

Spring Cleaning... Including Evicting the Mice...

I know it's not spring, or anywhere close, but it's been unseasonably warm where I live, and the sun is shining, so why not?

First, I reorganized my office, got all the dust bunnies, or rather cat hair 'tumbleweeds' that seem to mozy through the house and lodge themselves in corners. Especially under the computer tower...

Then, I reorganized the front hall, which meant stashing my husbands collection of shoes that make Mariah Carey's collection look pathetic.

Then, THEN!

My husband and his friend stashed mouse traps. It was time to tell the mice to move on out, since my cats are anything but interested in them. More than likely my cats play board games with them at night... Scrabble... I love Scrabble. I mean, I get it! I really do! It's cold, mice come in, burrow along the ceiling beams in the basement, poop on my house. I get it! Ugh... but really.

Typically, I'm not a big, 'kill animals' person, but seriously. Mice have diseases, enough that I can't even remember them all. Being that I hate germs, and I hate the idea of the hunta-virus, I have to go against my typical animal loving beliefs and just get your average run-of-the-mill mouse traps, equipped with peanut butter...

My husband's friend grew up on a farm, and trust me, playing 'field mouse baseball', is a lot worse than mouse traps... I'd explain, but I don't think you'd want me to. I let him empty the traps and I stay out of it, and WAY out of the room.

I guess my next goal is to tackle the bookshelf...

What I'm Reading This Week...

As I roll on into a new week, it has come time for me to also choose a new book to read! Just this morning (while doing my painfully boring workout, blah) I finished the second book in Alyson Noel's The Immortals series and am now moving on to the third...


NOTE TO AUTHOR: Ideally, Alyson, you should have book four done by next Monday so I can start reading it, hurry up now!

ha ha, I wish...

I'm very drawn to the idea of where the third book is going, it's interesting what she's playing on as far as teen emotion and lethal PDA go (or lack of at this point). If you've read as far as I have, you know what I mean. We've all been there - or are there - in our teens, when we think it's impossible not to be touching some part of our boyfriends body at any given time, and if we are apart from them, it seems like torture...

Yeah, Ive been there... Once upon a time...

So I'm excited for this weeks read, hopefully it's a juicy one!

Ah, nuts... Look, already I've ripped the cover!!! BLAST!

It's all about Beginnings and Endings...

What I came to understand the other night is that it really IS all about beginnings and endings. We look forward to these things/times in the 'in-between' because the 'in-between' can be somewhat dull...

It's like books, I've decided. In order to hold interest there has to be a hope for an exciting ending, and plenty of small beginnings and endings in between!

It's like celebrating graduation, birthdays especially. We celebrate the end of that age forever, and the beginning of a NEW age. Beginnings and Endings are all that matter, and they are the make or break of any good story, or life!

I was thinking about this while reading Blue Moon by Alyson Noel. In theory, you want the two main characters to stay together and live happily ever after right away, but then there would BE no second, third, fourth... you get my point. It's necessary to create an 'ending' so that we can look forward to a new 'beginning' ... and the cycle continues!

Just think about it, it's true! Anything exciting is either the end of something, or the beginning...

Even eating, cause it's the end of hunger num num...

How does that whole 'Highlander' thing work?

Who doesn't love a good Highlander movie, or show! Personally, it's a good ole' favorite of mine!

Last night My husband and I were lying in bed watching TV and we flipped past an eighties edition of the TV show and stopped to watch for a few seconds. I was half asleep at the time, but I turned to my husband and asked, "How does this whole 'Highlander' thing work?

"Are they born immortal?"

"Who decides how old they get?"

"Do they just turn 32 and stop? And why 32?" (or whatever age the actor is)

My husband shrugged and said, "They stop aging when they are adult."

I laughed and said, "They're adult at 32?"

There's something fishy with this whole Highlander "there can only be one" business... I don't know. There are a slew of books out there with endless numbers of immortal teens, and I get it. eighteen, constantly solidified as a hormone driven romance crazed teen. I GET IT! What about that concept is so appealing?? I use it in my book. We all do!

Then I asked my husband, "Why not wait until twenty-five to become immortal, at least then you can rent a car..."

te he....

What I'm Reading Now...

I've got to not only write like a fiend, but read like a fiend to keep my edge. In the last week (While on my vacation in Arizona) I managed to read The Everafter, and the first book of The Immortals: Evermore. I am now about halfway through Blue Moon.

I have this nasty knack for looking ahead in books. It may be this habit that I need a Kindle, but I just can't part with the tangible and touchable "3D" book.

NEVER.

Back to Blue Moon. At first, when I looked ahead, I didn't like the fact of what I read. But now that I've read all the in between, I get it, and I see where it's going. I like it! This series is the first I've found that fits with my own style of writing. When I began reading it I kept thinking "Oh, so I can use that word, and I can go that far..."

Te he.

Sometimes it's hard to know where you want your morals to lie when writing a book that will be read by malleable teenage minds, but I guess what I need to remember is what my own personal teen experiences were like, and let's just say I was no nun, 'wink, wink.'

Stick with what I know. Duh.

A New Blog for a New Series!

If you don't already know me, then you will. If you haven't yet read my books, then you should! My name is Abra Ebner, and I am the author of the Feather Book Series. Having finished that series, I am now focusing on my new series called Knight Angels.

Traditionally I write Teen Paranormal Romance, a genre that seems to be gaining steam lately. You can visit my Feather Book Series blog HERE to catch up on all the fun times you've missed along the way!

After finishing with the third and final book in that debut series, I am now narrowing my focus, and diving head first into Knight Angels, a teen tale of magic, romance, forbidden love, and of course drama. The punk undertones of the tale add to the mystery and twists as you the reader follow five teens that find themselves thrown into a world of danger, love, and a good dose of the immortal dead...