Kat Colmer's Blog

I'm Kat Colmer, your host for this leg of the YA Scavenger Hunt! You are currently hunting on TEAM PURPLE. You'll find my exclusive content on another team purple blog where I've hidden a character casting board and the first chapter for my YA contemporary romance Can't Beat the Chemistry  due out on 20 April! Keep reading to the end of this post for another awesome bonus prize opportunity! Originally organized by author Colleen Houck, this bi-annual scavenger hunt is a way for readers to access exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes!
Add up the clues on each blog hop, and you can enter for our prize. One lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team-TEAM PURPLE! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours! SCAVENGER HUNT RULES

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the PURPLE TEAM, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday, April 7th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered. There are FIVE contests running simultaneously. You can enter one or all! I am a part of TEAM PURPLE, but there is also a GOLD, a GREEN, a RED, and a BLUE team. Check them all out for a chance to win five different set of books!
For more information about the hunt, including links to all the participating authors, and the full list of prizes, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.
But that's enough of the formal stuff. Let's introduce the author I'm hosting for the hunt. Debbie Manber Kupfer! Debbie grew up in London but somehow ended up in St. Louis, where she works as a writer, editor, and freelance puzzle constructor of word puzzles and logic problems. She lives with her husband, two children and two very opinionated felines. She believes that with enough tea and dark chocolate you can achieve anything!

Debbie is showcasing the first in her P.A.W.S Saga ... ​About P.A.W.S When Miri receives a silver cat charm from her omama, Celia, on the night before Celia dies she has no idea that the charm holds a secret, a powerful magic that saved her omama’s life and is about to make Miri’s a whole lot more interesting.

Join Miri on a mysterious and supernatural journey with her new friends, members of an underground St. Louis society known as the Partnership for Animagi, Werewolves, and Shapeshifters, better known as P.A.W.S. P.A.W.S Bonus Material!
For her exclusive YASH content, Debbie is giving us a sneak preview from COTULA, Book 5 of the P.A.W.S Saga, out summer 2019: Mackenzie walked out into the cool autumn air. She wore the new tartan poncho her mum had given her for her birthday. The tartan was the pattern of her family’s clan and it was fastened with a pin shaped like a selkie, another birthday present, this one from her best friend, Roger.
Roger was fascinated with the selkies that sometimes teased them from the rocks in the bay. Mackenzie was actually scared of the selkies, but she didn’t want to show fear in front of her friend in case he laughed at her. After all they didn’t get out of the water, and she was determined never to swim. So what could possibly be the problem?
​The problem was that her family didn’t understand. They were blessed with magic, you see. All of the family had chosen animagus forms and all had chosen a form that swam.
Sea lions, seals, even a walrus, and sea otters aplenty. Mackenzie on the other hand wanted to be a bird. She wanted to fly. She studied the books that she’d found in their meagre magical library in the P.A.W.S. Institute of Scotland, but there were very few about the process of becoming a bird.
Mackenzie asked if she couldn’t maybe spend a term in London P.A.W.S. “What for?” said her father. “We have everything we need here. Why do you need to go gallivanting off to those Southerners?”
“I want to fly, Pa!”
“You can fly through the water like the rest of us or be a gull like Thomas.”
“I don’t want to be a gull. I want to fly high.”
Mackenzie drew the poncho around her and walked towards the rock for her planned meeting. Her parents were unaware that she’d been meeting with the witch, Grisela. They wouldn’t approve. “Wrong kind of magic,” they would say. But Grisela had promised she would teach Mackenzie to fly.
As she neared the rock she could see the selkies diving in and out of the tumbling waves, their raucous laughter assaulting her ears. She looked away. If you didn’t focus on them, they left you alone.
Grisela was waiting for her.
“Are you ready for your lesson, wee one?”
“I think so,” said Mackenzie nervously glancing over towards the selkies.
“They cannot harm you unless you give them permission.”
“Why would I do that?” asked Mackenzie.
“They are tricksy. They know how to play with their words, so before you know it, you are at their behest.”
“I’m never going to go in the water. They cannot get to me if I stay away. And once I’m old enough I’m going to move far from here, to a place a long way from the coast.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The sea pulls your family to it, whether you want it or not.”
“Not if I become a bird. As a hawk I could fly high into the sky. I could laugh at the selkies then.”
“Aye, you could, but you need to start with a smaller form. It is easier. I suggest we begin with a sparrow.”
Mackenzie looked a little sad. “But sparrows are so small and they are prey even to tom cats.”
“Nevertheless that is how we’ll begin,” said the witch.
Mackenzie had grimaced then. She wished her mother had agreed to send her to London to P.A.W.S., but she had been adamant that she could get all the magical training she needed in Scotland. She turned to Grisela. “Okay then, teach me.”
Grisela touched Mackenzie on the forehead and chanted a single word. Instantly the ground disappeared and Mackenzie found herself bobbing in between the clouds unable to control her flight. She looked down at her body, expecting to see sparrow wings, but she saw nothing.
“You are not yet a bird, Mackenzie,” said Grisela. “For that you will have to study each kind carefully in the library and watch them in the meadows. But I wanted to give you the gift of flight one time before you begin, so that you can see if this is truly what you want. Your family is bonded with the sea. Are you sure you do not want to be sea lion or an otter?”
“No,” said Mackenzie, trying to keep her balance. “This is what I want.”
In truth she was scared by the wind and the bouncing hither and thither. But she felt she’d learn to control it, and in any case she would not always be a sparrow, that was merely a stepping stone to larger more powerful birds.
She looked down. She could see the selkies sitting on the rock, but all this way up could no longer hear their taunting. Yes, flight was definitely the answer to her problems. Grisela let her circle amongst the clouds for a few minutes before she gently lowered her to the ground.
“Why did we stop?” asked Mackenzie pouting at the witch.
“That was just a taste,” said Grisela. “Tonight you are to go home and discover all you can about the humble sparrow then meet me back here tomorrow.”
Mackenzie was surprised to see the sun was setting. It hadn’t seemed like she had been with the witch for long and yet it had taken a whole afternoon. She hurried back to her home glancing back briefly at the rock where the selkies had been, but they had slid back into the water and the rock now hosted a single gull instead.
The gull flew up from the rock and landed by Mackenzie’s side squawking at her. “Oh, change back, please Thomas. I haven’t got time for this.”
The gull made one loud squawk of protest and then transformed into her older brother. Seagull was the only bird form that the Lindsay family had traditionally favored. When Mackenzie had said she wanted to fly the family had assumed she would be a gull, but seagull was the only bird form she was not interested in, especially as Thomas, her annoying older brother, had chosen this form. Gulls were limited. They didn’t fly high or go far from the water even when they were animagi. Mackenzie did not want to be restricted in this way.
Thomas shook his long black locks at her and sprayed her with specks of sea water. Mackenzie flinched and Thomas laughed, throwing back his head as if this was the best joke he’d heard in months, and not something he did almost every day to tease his sister.
“I saw you sitting with that witch again,” he said pouting at Mackenzie.
“So?” said Mackenzie. “She’s interesting and she’s going to teach me.”
“Ma could teach you or Da if you wanted to be a proper Lindsay.”
Mackenzie scowled at him. “Or they’d send me to P.A.W.S. like I wanted,” she mumbled under her breath.
“You know there’s no money for that,” said Thomas. “And there’s no point really. Lindsays have always stayed in Scotland. It works.”
“For you maybe,” said Mackenzie. “You like this dump. I want to fly away.”
“I can fly,” said Thomas pouting.
“Not very far,” said Mackenzie.
“You know there are seagulls on cruise ships, right? We may not be able to fly all the way in the air but we can sneak on board and have adventures.”
“And you plan to do that, do you?” said Mackenzie gazing at her brother, a challenge in her eyes.
“Maybe,” he said.
Mackenzie shook her head and laughed. She was pretty sure that her brother would never willingly leave Scotland. None of them would, except her. And at that moment she was more determined than ever to leave.
Here's where you can start reading the P.A.W.S saga today!
Check out Debbie's website for more deets, or follow her on Twitter and Facebook
​And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books including a print copy of mine,  Can't Beat the Chemistry ! To enter, you need to find my favorite number somewhere above in this post (HINT: it's big and purple!). Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on TEAM PURPLE and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize! Want More Prizes? Then head over to my giveaway post on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter for a chance to WIN an ANNOTATED ARC of Can't Beat the Chemistry! Entering is super easy and costs nothing but 10 seconds of your time ;-) Continue the Hunt! To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next Team Orange host author, the lovely and talented ​​​JM SULLIVAN!

Psst! Looking to fall in love this Valentine's Day? Then you're in luck because I've got an awesome GIVEAWAY for you!

Meet your next book boyfriend / girlfriend in this #SwoonyYA Valentine's Day Giveaway! The Grand Prize winner will receive a KINDLE and their choice of one of the 9 ebooks you see in the above graphic, and 8 runners up will receive an ebook from the remaining titles by draw. International contestants are eligible from any country where US Amazon gift cards are redeemable.

Simply enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win! 
​a Rafflecopter giveaway For extra entries:Repost the giveaway on Twitter /Facebook / Instagram using the hashtag #SwoonyYAShare a ‘shelfie’ of yourself with one of the giveaway books and tag the author and use the hashtag #SwoonyYARetweet the book specific tweets for each book. Here’s a handy link to my tweet for The Third Kiss!Leave a comment on one or ALL of the sponsoring author’s blog posts and tell them why you'd like to win their book!
And while you’re there, don’t forget to check out the other 8 sponsoring authors’ websites! 

Sara Jade Alan              Sam Bohrman               Kat Colmer      
Jessika Fleck                 Larissa Hardesty           Meg Kassel     
A.M. Rose                      J.C. Welker                   Melissa EastlakeRULES:
Ends 02/14/2018 at 11:59pm EST. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. You must be at least 18 years old to enter or have your parents’ permission. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and notified by email within 48 hours after the end of the giveaway. You will have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will be chosen. All decisions are final. Odds of winning will vary based on the number of eligible entries received. If a mailed prize is returned for whatever reason, another winner will be chosen. None of the sponsoring authors are responsible for any lost, stolen, or misdirected prizes. Each sponsoring author is solely responsible for providing their book to you directly. This giveaway is not affiliated with any social media accounts associated with any of the sponsoring authors.

I'm Kat Colmer, your host for this leg of the YA Scavenger Hunt! You are currently hunting on TEAM ORANGE. You'll find my exclusive content on another team orange blog where I've hidden a never-before-published scene of the all important kiss from my YA paranormal romance The Third Kiss, from the hero Jonas's point of view! Keep reading for other awesome bonuses!Originally organized by author Colleen Houck, this bi-annual scavenger hunt is a way for readers to access exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes!
Add up the clues on each blog hop, and you can enter for our prize. One lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team- TEAM ORANGE! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 120 hours! Scavenger Hunt RulesDirections: Below, you'll notice that I've hidden my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on TEAM ORANGE, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). HINT: the secret number is highlighted in ORANGE!

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
​
Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by Sunday 8th October, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

There are seven contests running simultaneously. You can enter one or all! I am a part of TEAM ORANGE, but there is also a GOLD, a GREEN, a PINK, a RED, a BLUE, and a PURPLE team. Check them all out for a chance to win a seven different set of books!
For more information about the hunt, including links to all the participating authors, and the full list of prizes, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.But that's enough of the formal stuff. Let's introduce the author I'm hosting for the hunt.Mindy McGinnis! Mindy McGinnis is an Edgar Award-winning author who writes across multiple genres including mystery, fantasy, contemporary and historical. 

Mindy is showcasing her about to be released YA thriller... I like the way the title is divided into distinct lines. It's really eye catching. Makes me want to know more!About THIS DARKNESS MINESasha Stone knows her place—first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her oxford-wearing boyfriend. She’s worked her entire life to ensure that her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved.

But suddenly there’s a fork in the road, in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, her skin misses his touch even though she’s never known it, and she relishes the smell of him—smoke, beer, and trouble—all the things she’s avoided to get where she is. Even worse, every time he’s near Sasha, her heart stops, literally. Why does he know her so well—too well—and she doesn’t know him at all?

Sasha discovers that her by-the-book life began by ending another’s: the twin sister she absorbed in the womb. But that doesn’t explain the gaps of missing time in her practice schedule or the memories she has of things she certainly never did with Isaac. As Sasha loses her much-cherished control, her life—and heart—become more entangled with Isaac. Armed with the knowledge that her heart might not be hers alone, Sasha must decide what she’s willing to do—and who she’s willing to hurt—to take it back.Yowsers! That sounds intense! Quick, take me to the EXCLUSIVE MATERIAL!​Hi Scavengers!

I'm Mindy McGinnis, author of THIS DARKNESS MINE, a dark psychological thriller coming 10/10/17!

For my exclusive YASH content, I'm sharing covers that didn't make the cut... they're called "killed covers." I like this one, as my character does a lot of thinking about lights, and the different type of light that different lightbulb types give off. This is a florescent bulb breaking, which is appropriate because as a girl in need of a heart transplant, she spends a lot of time in hospitals. This is a great cover too, as it shows the different emotional states that my character, Sasha Stone, goes through as she tries to determine if her darker impulses are actually the effects of having her "evil twin" Shanna's heart. In the end this was the final cover for THIS DARKNESS MINE, and I love it as it conveys so much that is pivotal to the story... which I can't really talk about with the dreaded spoilers!Check out the trailer below, and enjoy the hunt!Add THIS DARKNESS MINE to your TBR list on Goodreads!

And here's where you canpreorder your copy!
Check out Mindy's Website for more deets, or follow her on
​Twitter and Facebook​And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books including a print copy of mine, The Third Kiss ! To enter, you need to find my favorite number somewhere above in this post (HINT: it's big and orange!). Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on TEAM ORANGE and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!
​Want More Prizes?Sign up to my newsletter here for a chance to win an ebook copy of The Third Kiss (US Amazon only / Australia iBooks only) as well as a snazzy pair of sickle sword earrings! For an extra entry, leave a comment on this blog post. 

​Already signed up to my newsletter and / or read The Third Kiss? No problem. Leave a link to your Amazon and Goodreads reviews of The Third Kiss and if you win, I'll gift you an ebook of your choice to the same value as The Third Kiss along with the pair of earrings! (Winner will be contacted by 10/11/17. If the winner doesn't respond within 48 hours of notification, a new winner will be chosen.) Continue the Hunt!To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next Team Orange host author, the lovely and talented ​​​Melissa Chambers!

I've been a fan of Aussie Owned and Read, an Australian Young and New Adult blog, for quite some time, so when they made a call for new bloggers I sent them a 'please pick me' email straight away. And they did! I can't tell you how excited I am about blogging with these talented peeps. My first post goes live in April. For all my AO&R blog posts, check out the Aussie Writers tab on this website! 

Exciting news! My young adult paranormal romance has been acquired by Entangled Publishing's Teen Digital imprint for publication late 2017.

​I'm excited to have joined the Entangled family and can't wait to share Jonas and Cora's story with everyone. More to come later!

'Copyright license choice' by opensource.com Flickr CC (BY-SA 2.0) ​Recently I uploaded the short story Sweet Bombe Alaska, one of this year’s RWA Little Gems, to my website as well as Wattpad. For those of you who use Wattpad, you’ll know that readers in this online community judge a book by its cover much the same as any other reader does. So, off I went to the interwebs to find myself a suitable cover.
 
I found this striking image by VaMedia. It had just the right amount of intrigue I was after for my YA story. I then fired off a few tweets to let the cyber world know my little tale of high school woe was out there.
 
Which resulted in this exchange with the creator of the photograph:  ​Why am I telling you this, you ask?  Because had I not been a careful copyright license ninja and specifically sought out a Creative Commons image made available for commercial use, I may well have ended up with a copyright breach lawsuit. That’s right, just because an image is available on the internet does not mean it’s ‘free’ for people to use. Be very careful with your ‘right click & save’ manoeuvre; it could result in more than just a case of RSI.
 
Don’t believe me? Ask romance author, Roni Loren, or the bloggers over at the Content Factory, who ended up in deep copyright waters a few years ago, because they used copyrighted images on their blogs. If you can’t find a license for a work, assume it is fully copyrighted and DO NOT use it unless you seek permission directly from the creator. ​So what is my recourse, you ask?  You can pay a stock photo subscription service such www.shutterstock.com or use Creative Commons and public domain images.
 
Luckily, it’s very easy to find Creative Commons and public domain images for your website or blog. Simply go to https://search.creativecommons.org/ and search sites such as Flickr, Pixabay and Google for images under CC licenses. Flickr has a vast repository of Creative Commons images and is my first port of call for blog post pictures.
 
Once you’ve found an image you like, CHECK and DOUBLE CHECK ITS LICENSE! There are 6 different Creative Commons licenses, as well as an ‘all rights granted’ public domain license. Use images ONLY according to their license: About the licenses - Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) As writers we should be doubly careful to respect the licensing of other people’s creative works. After all, we want others to respect the copyright of our creative works.
So I urge you - become a copyright license ninja!

Have any of you inadvertently breached image copyright at some point in your blogging career? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Returning To Writing After A Break Ill-advised by Pascal via Flickr CC (CC0 1.0) http://www.gratisography.com/ Once upon a time, in a land far far in the past, where the word 'Offspring' had me thinking of pretty fly white guys, not nappies and late night feeds, back then I was a devout gym junkie. And Body Pump was my drug of choice.

I loved the grunt and sweat of it, the faint ache the next morning that indicated I'd torn muscles and made them stronger. Yeah, feel that burn! Then came full time work and the demands of school age children (read: before and after school care, homework, music lessons, soccer practice, netball training ...), and for better or worse, I was cured of my barbell addiction.

Fast forward to 2015. The lack of exercise is taking its toll, so a few weeks ago I decide to sign up to the local gym and ... yay! They have Pump classes. Now, I'm the sensible sort, so at the start of the first class I heed the instructor's advice and load ... relatively lightly. Hey, I'm not a complete newbie; I've done this before, ya know. Sixty minutes later I walk out of the class a little wobbly but chuffed with my effort nonetheless. But in the light of morning ...

            HOLY. MOTHER. OF. LACTIC. ACID!

I swing my legs out of bed and stop short of kissing the floorboards. Walking sends knives plunging into my thighs. Walking up stairs is a chore on a good day, but now someone is holding a taser to my butt with every single step I take. And walking down stairs? I'll take childbirth, thank you very much. Then there are my shoulders - oh wait, I can't feel my shoulders! You know how your arms swing gently by your side when you walk? Yeah, I can't do that - because there's nothing GENTLE about the usually innocuous action that fateful morning.

The pain! THE PAIN!

For me, the return to writing after a break is a little like that. The longer I break from pounding the keyboard, the harder the recovery time. My movement through the prose feels stilted, forced. The more days away from a story, the less I produce of my regular daily word target. I need more time to run with a scene than I normally would, because I have to reacquaint myself with the rhythm of my characters' voices, remind myself of their unique personality ticks. At times I almost see them shaking their heads at me, filling the empty page with their huffs of frustration as I fumble though their dialogue or leave them sitting on a highway for three weeks, petrol long gone, when the trip itself is all off half an hour long once the scene is finally written.

                     The pain. THE PAIN.

It's writer lactic acid. It's a reminder that the old adage 'write every day' might have some merit and wasn't just invented by smug successful authors with the sole intent of making us unpublished chumps feel bad about our lack of writing discipline.

So, do you suffer from writer lactic acid? Or are you one of those freak geniuses who can produce breathtaking prose no matter how many cobwebs are hanging off your fountain pen? If you are, I challenge you to a Pump class!

One of the best parts of my teacher-librarian role is buying new books. Lots of shiny, crisp, fresh-off-the-press, virgin-spine books. Ah, resource acquisition - such a wonderful phrase. Tingles zap along my spine, and my Pavlovian drool reflex kicks in just writing it. But, as is often the case with pleasurable endevours, there’s a price to pay. And I’m not talking dollars here. I’m talking about the dirty, sad business of culling the collection.

Culling, weeding, deselecting—the language says it all. It’s the process of removing resources no longer needed or suitable for the collection. As a librarian, I’m a ruthless ninja culler. If it hasn’t been borrowed in the past three years, it goes. If it looks like it’s been through a blender, it goes and is only replaced with a new copy if it hasn’t been superseded by something recently purchased. Hundreds of books each year, pulled, stripped, wiped from the system. It's cutthroat but necessary because shelf space is premium and everyone wants new and shiny. Readers are fickle like that.

But from a writer’s point of view this task is heartbreaking. As a writer, I know how many months, if not years, go into writing that first draft. How many more months, if not years, go into editing, polishing, and moulding that manuscript to make the story within shine so brightly people can’t help but pluck it off the shelf.

However, reality often leaves even shiny new books in the shadows. Among every 100 culled books there are a good 10 to 15 that have never been borrowed. Never! Gahhh! Shot straight to the writer’s heart. It’s these books, and their creators, that I feel for the most. And before I press the delete button on their records, I channel Sherlock Holmes and Harry Dresden as I frantically thumb their never-turned pages and scrutinize their covers (crappy covers are often the culprits, but that's another blog post) for clues, anything to help me understand why not one single person felt compelled enough to pick up these books and allow them to whisper their story.

As a librarian I do this to inform my future book-buying decisions. As a writer I do this to avoid making the same mistakes; to escape being left sitting on the shelf after all the blood, sweat and RSI I’ve gone through to get that story into readers’ hands.

In so many ways writing is a lottery. No one truly knows what will capture readers’ imaginations and hold their attention. In the meantime the cycle continues: in with the new and shiny and out with the old and never-borrowed. 

It's a book eat book kind of world.

Picture this...

It's Sunday afternoon and, bum on seat, I'm staring at the blinking cursor on the computer screen, ready to drag my misbehaving muse out from her hiding place by the hair. The tactic won't coax her into cooperating - far from it - but I'm past the point of caring; I'm happy to tie her to the fan above my writing desk and watch as she attempts to stop the 'bite me' look from sliding off her face while she spins at high speed above my head. That's right, two can play the 'bite me' game.

I peel off my chair to go in search of her when the tell-tale 'ding' of a newly arrived email diverts my attention. I really should turn all notifications off, like all good writers do, but I'm weak and take a peek. It's a message from the Romance Writers of Australia Short Story contest coordinator. And she informs me ...

I'VE WON!

I may have squealed. Just a little.

I read on and not only did my story, For the Love of Gnomes , win first place, the second story I entered, Sweet Bombe Alaska , made it into the top 15, with both entries to be published in the 2015 RWA's annual romantic short story anthology titled Peridot .

I may have squealed some more. Just a little.

How exciting to be published alongside talented writers such as Rowena Candlish , who won last year's Little Gems contest and was hot on my heels in 2nd place this year, as well as Lisa Barry and Anne Prince, who equalled third. Not to mention the other of the top 15 entries, all of which I can't wait to read!

Here's the lovely Peridot cover by the talented Sheridan Kent , who is making a habit of winning the Little Gems cover contest:
You may squeal. Just a little.

So now, a week after the announcement, a week during which my miffed little muse has been throwing me subtle-as-a-brick 'couldn't have done it without me' looks, I feel I owe her an apology.

Here it goes:

Mildred (yes, I know, a name about as exciting as a lecture on Australian tax law. Just shows you can't judge a muse by her birth certificate), I hereby apologise for calling you a prissy, self-serving little vulture. I acknowledge (albeit with great reluctance) that I couldn't have won 1st place without you. Please accept this assortment of Haigh's chocolates  (damn, this hurts!) as a peace offering. I look forward to many more successes with you as my partner.

And if you give me any more grief I promise I'll make you squeal. 
Just. A. Little ...

'Amelia with Attitude' by Donnie Ray Jones via Flickr CC (BY 2.0)If your muse is anything like mine then she is a fickle and obstinate creature. Terms such as 'deadline' or 'word goal' or 'I have a rare spare hour to make magic with my words' have no effect on her. At best she ignores them. At worst she digs in her heels - or firmly plants her Doc Martens - and glares at me with a 'you need me way more than I need you' look. It's enough to have me sucking on my kids' Ventolin.

Because she's right, dammit.

I need the prissy, self-serving and, at times, soul-destroying little vulture. Because, when she sheds her 'bite me' attitude and comes out to play, it's oh so very, very good. So it's a fortunate thing I've discovered her kryptonite: music!

I'm not the first writer to make the music / muse connection. Many a blog post has been written about this. WriterUnboxed contributor, Ann Aguirre, wrote a piece last year and back in 2009, KillZone contributor, Joe Moore, penned a great blog post here. 

Classical music and cinematic scores are a favourite among writers. The tunes that get the ink in my pen flowing - and the ones my temperamental muse responds to the best - are by an American music production duo called Two Steps From Hell. Most of their work can't be bought commercially but they have made several of their albums available to the public. Their credits include the Harry Potter films, Batman, Breaking Bad, Narnia, The Book Thief, X-Men. The list goes on and the music is truly amazing. If you haven't discovered Two Steps From Hell then you are missing out on heaven!

Here are two of my favourites: 
Shivers. That's what I get down my spine at the 1 min 55 second mark of Starvation. Scenes start playing in my head. Characters begin moving, talking and -- oh, wait, my muse just stuck her head around the corner and ... she looks ready to play. 

Here's a link to the Two Steps From Hell official YouTube channel.


... Gotta go!