Toot's Book Reviews: Giveaway & Guest Post : Valiant by Angel Lawson (UF)

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Book Blurb

Ari Grant spends her days helping the troubled youth of Glory City, and her nights trying to feel something other than the cold numbness that has settled in her bones. For years, she satisfies this urge with trips to the tattoo parlor or late night clubbing, but everything changes when she becomes a victim of an armed robbery.

She manages to escape notice from the gunman, a former client, but only because she’s saved by Glory City’s own Vigilante. A hooded man who has impeccable timing when it comes to those in need.

It seems Ari isn’t the only one trying to save lost souls or looking for a life outside their job. She’s caught the attention of Nick Sanders, a handsome attorney at juvenile court. Solid and steady, he seems the perfect fit, but Ari has developed an obsession with Davis, the mysterious and sexy director of a local fight club that rehabilitates delinquent boys.

Each of these men fight for the less fortunate, but not everyone has altruistic motives. When Ari’s female clients begin to disappear, she can’t figure out who to trust. Soon enough it becomes obvious that while Ari watches over the kids of Glory City, someone else has taken to watching over her.

Available at: Amazon

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Guest Post

How to write a novel (or a blog) when the whole world conspires against you. AKA: Writing during the summer.

I’d wanted to write something magical and interesting today for my guest blogging post. I had plans to spend the afternoon crafting an amazing article that would blow away all the readers of the various hopping blogs to scramble for the buttons that would lead readers to my other pages. My own website. My Facebook page. Maybe even to Amazon!

Those quiet afternoon dreams were dashed and instead I was suckered into taking my children to the pool. Wait! I have a laptop. There is free wifi and shady corners. I can tuck away into one of these and become one of those super-moms, right? So I pile the kids in the car with my laptop and iced coffee determined to get creative.

This lasted approximately thirty seconds or the time it took to walk from the car to the inside of the pool area. There I saw my friend and had to stop to talk about very important things. Like why had Jailbait, our former inappropriate lifeguard crush, gained the sophomore 35 and did you see his photo on Facebook? Of course this moved to other gossip and boring tales of husbands and children. Three hours later I had moved to another pool chair but still accomplished nothing. Then it was time to go home and cook dinner.

Now it’s 9 PM and here we are.

There are certain times of the year writing and being creative seems almost impossible. Summer is one of those for me. It’s nearly impossible to keep a writing schedule. Not only are my kids home from school but so is my teacher husband. On top of that it’s my busy time of year at work.

It’s like the odds are stacked against me.

I have some ideas to keep me focused.

1. Word Count: I have a particular amount I try to reach either daily or weekly.

2. Schedule: I can’t write every day in the summer, but I can set aside certain times and days and I inform my family to leave me alone. This works about 70% of the time. I’ll take what I can get.

3. Deadlines: I try to (vaguely) pinpoint a due date for the rough draft, edits, designs and publishing.

4. New Projects (or Carrots): I make myself finish a project before I start on something new (within reason). If I really want to work on something then I’ll force myself to get focused. This summer I plan on doing something for fun, an Arrow Fanfiction contest (I LOVE ARROW). It will motivate me to get the real work out of the way and leave time for something fun.

I’m hoping this summer is my most productive yet. I have high hopes. I’m in the sweet spot of my current WIP and I can sort of see where I want to go (being a pantser doesn’t really help this whole lack of focus thing.) I’m determined to do the best I can and not get sidetracked by small failures.

I can smell the victory can’t you?

Oh wait, I think that’s just chlorine and sunscreen.

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Author Info

Angel Lawson lives with her family in Atlanta and has a lifelong obsession with creating fiction from reality, either with paint or words. On a typical day you can find her writing, reading, plotting her escape from the zombie apocalypse and trying to get the glitter out from under her nails.

Connect with Angel:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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*Giveaway*