Courtney Allison Moulton: February 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

FEAR THE REAPER Giveaways: Week 15

Angelfire is officially in stores <3

On Music Monday of each week for 15 weeks I will post a song and lyrics from the ANGELFIRE playlist (some songs are on my website, some are not) to give you a taste of what ANGELFIRE and its main characters, Ellie and Will, are like. I will also post a contest to win a book from this list (in no particular order). The winner will be announced on the Monday of the next week, when the next contest is posted.

Week 14 winner of ANGELFIRE is Ashelynn http://agypsywriter.blogspot.com!

Congrats! I'll email you shortly for your address to send your prize.

Here's the stack of awesome books and swag I will be giving away to YOU.

(Dragonite and little reapers not included)

Week 15 Giveaway

Song: Bring Me To Life by Evanescence

You might be thinking, oh hell, not Evanescence. They still rock and this song literally changed my musical existence. I remember the first time I heard this song, exactly where I was, and knew at that moment I wanted to write a book to this song. Eventually I did with Angelfire. There's so much I want to say about this song and what it means to me that I can't articulate words. 8 years after I heard this song for the first time, the book I dreamed about is published and Bring Me To Life sort of wakes me up again. It is Ellie and Will to the soul.

how can you see into my eyes like open doors
leading you down into my core
where I’ve become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold
until you find it there and lead it back home

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

now that I know what I’m without
you can't just leave me
breathe into me and make me real
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside)
Bring me to life

frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead

all this time I can't believe I couldn't see
kept in the dark but you were there in front of me
I’ve been sleeping a thousand years it seems
got to open my eyes to everything
without a thought without a voice without a soul
don't let me die here
there must be something more
bring me to life

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can’t wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
bid my blood to run
(I can’t wake up)
before I come undone
(Save me)
save me from the nothing I’ve become

(Bring me to life)
I’ve been living a lie, there’s nothing inside
(Bring me to life)

Giveaway: ANGELFIRE by me! Courtney Allison Moulton

(Signed Hardcover)

1 Entry Point: Leave a comment on this blog post

1 Additional Entry Point: Post a link to this giveaway on Twitter using the hashtag #FearTheReaper

1 Additional Entry Point: Post a link to this giveaway on your Blog

The entries close on February 27 at 11:59 PM EST

You can accumulate up to 3 entry points.

If blogging, please provide links in your comment.

This contest is for US residents only - I'm sorry!

Add ANGELFIRE on Goodreads

Pre-order ANGELFIRE on Barnes and Noble

Pre-order ANGELFIRE on Amazon

Watch the book trailer for ANGELFIRE!

I introduce ANGELFIRE and teach you how to kill reapers with swords:

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Angelfire Launch Party!

Wow. People are amazing. There really is no way to articulate how incredible yesterday was. So many people came out, bloggers, authors, friends, family - even old friends from high school! A few people told me they saw my interview on the Michael Patrick Shiels show and brought their kids in. The book store that hosted me, Schuler Books and Music in Lansing, ordered 95 books.

Every. Single. Book. Sold.

They sold out the entire stock. I'm so bewildered and humbled that so many people came out to support my book and me. My mom, aunt, and grandmother flew up from Texas to help out and they passed out cookies and root beer floats to guests. I was asked questions including, how I came up with the characters, tips for NaNoWriMo, and who my favorite uncle is (this was asked by my uncles.)

I read the scene from Chapter 8, where Will and Ellie are training. It's a fun but really cool, action-packed scene that's one of my favorites! I was a little nervous reading but everyone was a great sport!

I must have signed 100 books! I only messed up the personalizations and notes a few times, and I used two copper metallic markers up dry. I gave away five Angelfire totes each filled with a signed copy of Angelfire, two more books, an Angelfire shirt, tons of bookmarks, stickers, buttons, glo sticks, SillyBandz.... Wow there were tons of goodies in them! AND! Harper was awesome and sent a bag of goodies to give away too! It included all of the Dark Days of Summer books, and even DIVERGENT and STARCROSSED! I almost stole it and ran, but I was a good author and gave it away.... *pouts* ;-)

Before the launch, a bunch of authors and bloggers, including really good friends Leah Clifford and Scott Tracey, met up for lunch. We took over the restaurant and were pretty loud and obnoxious, but that's okay because we were excited! I also met some new bloggers and authors and have made some new friends! I'm so grateful they came out to meet me!

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but the awesome employees at Schuler made sure things ran smoothly and nothing went wrong - well, besides running out of books!

There's just a few more weeks until the Dark Days of Winter Tour begins and I'll be on the road with Kimberly Derting, Claudia Gray, and Ellen Shrieber! Check out my Events page for exact tour dates and locations. If you weren't able to win any Angelfire swag, we've got tons of shirts, hoodies, totes, and more in the Angelfire Shop!

Not to mention, The Book Vlogger paid a visit and made a really awesome video from my launch, including my reading from Chapter Eight! Thank you so much for making this video!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Angelfire has taken flight! Plus a Teaser Tuesday!

One question every author gets asked is, "When did you first start writing?" This is a hard question for me to answer. My earliest memories of writing are of scribbling my own stories into the inside covers of library books and getting the crap beaten out of me. But I'm sure they were great stories.

This was my dream. I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up and this was it. I worked hard at it, fought for it, and I never gave up. Funny thing about dreams is, they can come true, but not if you're sitting around on your butt waiting for them to happen.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, you can be whatever the hell crazy effing thing you can dream up in your head. But you have to make the dream happen yourself. If you want to be a veterinarian, then study your ass off and get ready to have no life. If you want to be an astronaut, then figure out how to be smart enough to fly a space shuttle because holy crap you don't want it to fall out of the sky. If you want to write books and be an author, make sure you're at least mostly mentally unstable, prefer not to live in the real world since it's boring as hell, own lots of cats, and devote at least eighty percent of your living space for books, manuscript pages, and cups of coffee. And also never have a tan because once you're on deadline, you'll be stuck inside, sitting in a chair, getting secretary to turn that project in on time.

And those were this debut author's paltry words of wisdom for you. Feel free to ignore them.

Here's the actual cool part of this post. This week is my last Teaser Tuesday for you and it's actually a scene you won't find in any ANGELFIRE book. This is a scene I wrote a long time ago from Will's POV. The first of Ellie's flashbacks in Angelfire was originally the opening scene for the book, but was moved during edits. In that scene, her incarnation of the era is killed in battle, and as a character exercise, I wrote from Will's POV when he learns of her fate. Though he might be quiet on the outside or say something snarky here and there, he is truly passionate on the inside and his narration comes easily to me. All of the characters in this scene you will meet in Angelfire and learn even more about them in the sequel, Wings of the Wicked. I hope you enjoy this scene!
The whole scene can be found over at A Good Addiction, so I will jst post a snippet. If you want to read the rest of the five pages, then head on over to that blog!

The last time I held her in my arms was the last time she died.

I feared for her, more afraid for her life than my own, because she was all that mattered. I could be replaced—would be replaced—but she was most precious in all the world. She was the only one who could save it.

My eyes were shut tight and my jaw clenched, determined not to make a cry of pain. That would only encourage them. It would take a lot of damage to kill me, but that wasn’t their goal. Reapers were patient, for they had eternity to do whatever they desired, and many loved to spill blood just to watch it run.

One of them grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me upright so that his yellow eyes could drive into mine. His mouth slid wide to show multiple rows of jagged, needle teeth.

“I thought you had passed out for a moment,” Geir said as he crouched in front of me. “That would have been disappointing.”

If the chains weren’t so tight around my arms, I’d have punched his face so hard those shark teeth would be shooting out the back of his head. I jerked against the metal to their limits, but halted brutally with Geir’s throat just out of reach. I was too weakened to break free of the chains and of the angelic spell cast into the pentagram drawn on the ground around me. My body would heal and then they would begin again, tearing me up until I was near death only to let me heal so they could start all over. I didn’t know how long I’d been in this barn. I didn’t know if it was night or day. And I didn’t know if she was still alive.

Want to read the rest of this five-page scene? Head on over to over at A Good Addiction!

Monday, February 14, 2011

FEAR THE REAPER Giveaways: Week 14

TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!!!!!

Week 13 winner of WITHER is Sarah sarahdc22 (at) gmail (dot) com!

Congrats! I'll email you shortly for your address to send your prize.

Here's the stack of awesome books and swag I will be giving away to YOU.

(Dragonite and little reapers not included)

Week 14 Giveaway

Song: Who Am I Living For? by Katy Perry

I know, I know. I'm shocked too. But when this song popped up on the Teenage Dream album, I just stopped dead. The song had me at the first line. The Angelfire series contains references to Ellie being like a phoenix, with her reincarnation cycle and power of angelfire and more reasons I can't reveal yet ;-) Like the lyrics state, Ellie has to pick herself up, swallow her fears, and accept her destiny. She can't run away, no matter how much she has to give up and how hard it is. The song is gorgeous an haunting and I've just been playing it on repeat as I write.

I can feel a phoenix inside of me
As I march alone to a different beat
Slowly swallowing down my fear, yeah, yeah
I am ready for the road less traveled
Suiting up for my crowning battle
This is test is my own cross to bear
But I will get there

It's never easy to be chosen
Never easy to be called
Standing on the front line
When the bombs start to fall
I can see heavens
But I still hear the flames
Calling out my name

I can see the writing on the wall
I can't ignore this war
At the end of it all
Who am I living for?

I can feel this light that's inside of me
Growing fast into a bolt of lightning
I know one spark will shock the world, yeah, yeah
So I pray for favor like Esther
I need your strength to handle the pressure
I know there will be sacrifice
But that's the price

It's never easy to be chosen
Never easy to be called
Standing on the front line
When the bombs start to fall
I can see heavens
But I still hear the flames
Calling out my name

I can see the writing on the wall
I can't ignore this war
At the end of it all
Who am I living for? (x2)

(At the end, at the end)
Who am I living for?
(At the end, at the end)
Who am I living for?

Heavy is head that wears the crown
Don't let the greatness get you down
Heavy is head that wears the crown
Don't let the greatness get you down

I can see the writing on the wall
I can't ignore this war
At the end of it all
Who am I living for? (x2)

(At the end, at the end)
Who am I living for?
(At the end, at the end)
Who am I living for?

Giveaway: ANGELFIRE by me! Courtney Allison Moulton

(ARC)