Asylum by K.A. Tucker - Guest Post & Giveaway

Asylum by K.A. Tucker 

Published: December 2011
Published by: Papoti Books

Tucked away in Sofie's wintery asylum with no hope of release for years, Evangeline must come to terms with her situation: the curse still plagues her, she's now hunted by a two thousand-year-old vampire, and the guy she's in love with tried to kill her. Plus, she's locked up with a cranky Max and the Forero kids—two people everyone seems to prefer dead over alive. Things aren't looking good.

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, Sofie struggles to keep forty trapped and bloodthirsty Ratheus vampires at bay and a desperate Viggo from killing Evangeline's friends, all while hints stir outside the walls of the NYC vampire asylum of a war brewing between the Sentinel and the witches.

Is there any hope for Evangeline and Caden? Can Sofie control the rival powers? Is the fate of Earth predestined? Find out in Book 2 of the Causal Enchantment series, a sequel to ANATHEMA.

Guest post by K.A. Tucker:
Thanks to the Krazy Book Lady for having me here today as part of my Asylum Tour!

For today’s post, I thought I’d write about something that makes no sense to me. I’ve seen it in people’s Twitter handle intros, on their blog descriptions, and on their Facebook page info sections. It’s something that stumps me every single time. It’s called “The Aspiring Writer”. What is this? Does this mean you stare at your computer or pen and paper, imagining what words would look like? Does it mean you’ve thought about forming words and sentences but have never tried? I looked up the definition of ‘to aspire’ in the dictionary, in case I misunderstood what it meant. Here’s the definition:

:to long, aim, or seek ambitiously; be eagerly desirous, especially for something great or of high value (usually followed by to, after, or an infinitive): to aspire after literary immortality; to aspire to be a doctor.

Nope! I didn’t misunderstand. What this tells me is that “to aspire” in the literary world is to set a goal, like “I want to learn how to write a book”, or “I want to publish a book” or “I want to be the next J.K. Rowling”. In order to reach this goal, you need to write! Now! Don’t think about writing, don’t ‘aspire’ to write, to be a writer. Grab your computer or your pen and paper and start putting your thoughts down on paper. Practice, learn, sharpen your skills. Just BE a writer. Maybe you’re just beginning but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a passion for writing.

The day I picked up my laptop to begin writing ANATHEMA, I had no idea how to write a book; I had no idea how far it would go or if the story would be any good. But that day, I became a writer of YA fantasy. Not a published author… that was what I “aspired to be”. After seventeen months of writing, of revisions, of gruelling courses, and of taking a big risk, I reached my goal. That wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t clear on my goal and what I needed to be to reach it.

If you want to be a writer, then be a writer. Period. End of discussion. Have the courage to label yourself WRITER. If you’re worried that you’re not a very good one… well, that’s a whole other story. But don’t aspire to be the thing you NEED to be in order to reach your true aspirations. Get clear. Set your goal. Write.

Thanks to Krazy Book Lady for hosting me here today! If you haven’t started this series yet, you can grab a copy of Anathema for free right now on Kindle, Nook, Apple, Sony, and Smashwords! The second in the series, ASYLUM, just released for $2.99!

About the author:
Born in small-town Ontario, Kathleen Tucker published her first book at the age of six with the help of her elementary school librarian and a box of crayons. She is a voracious reader and the farthest thing from a genre-snob, loving everything from High Fantasy to Chick Lit. Kathleen currently resides in a quaint small town outside of Toronto with her husband, two beautiful girls, and an exhausting brood of four-legged creatures. 

She has published two books in the Causal Enchantment series: Anathema, and Asylum. The third book in the series is expected to be published early 2013.

You can find out more on Kathleen's site, Twitter, and Facebook.

GIVEAWAY:

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