Hey lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Jae
El Foster and his new book, “Beauty Within”!
For other stops on his Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click
on the banner above or any of the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Jae El
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Beauty Within
by Jae El Foster
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GENRE: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Fairy Tales
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BLURB:
An
enchanted mask. A harrowing castle. A reclusive dark lord. With the helping
hand of the village witch, these three ingredients form a spell that will warm
your heart as much as it chills it. Madame Howell makes her second appearance
in Jae El Foster’s literary universe in this fairy tale that puts a new twist
on an old classic. When a village maiden finds herself in a forbidden castle,
she discovers that its sole occupant might be less of a monster than he has
been made out to be. However, dark secrets and black magic are afoot, and a
‘happily ever after’ could turn disastrous. Will true love conquer all, or will
a dark power make their world come crumbling down?
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EXCERPT TWO:
Hanging
his head low, he sighed with a deep sadness, and in a bout of self-anger, he
jerked his head up to the ceiling and cried out with an agony and a rage that
he had never expressed with such intenseness. His scream ran long, and it
echoed loudly throughout every hall and chamber of the castle and even into the
blackened air outside. When this scream fell silent, he cried out once again,
this time falling down to his knees in bitter self-loathing. His hands fell
across his face, touching upon the scars that had sealed his doom. Running his
fingers from his face to his hair, he grabbed two fistfuls of the golden locks
and pulled hard, adding pain to his already crippling misery.
“Lest
he who hath created his hell perish in his hell…” he whispered as the tears
began to dry from his eyes. Then, with a leap, he rose to his feet and crossed
the foyer to the staircase. With slow, steady movements, he began up the
stairs, formulating in his thoughts what his next actions would be. His mind
was hazy and in a fog, and thinking made his head only hurt more.
The
stairs seemed to continue up for an eternity, but he was used to the climb and
he made it to the belfry of his castle with practiced ease. There, he rushed
past the old brass bell that had not rang in many, many years, and he forced his
hands to brace him as he stopped abruptly at the stone encasing that prevented
him from falling to his death below.
With
tear-stained cheeks, he stared down at the foggy ground, barely able to see the
dirt of the hill. He looked over just slightly and gazed at the village of
Foliage, which was completely lost in the night and the thick of the fog
surrounding it. The wind still blew with massive force, rocking against his
chilled body but never once ringing the bell behind him. Had the bell decided
to ring, it would have rocked up against him with enough strength that he would
have been pushed from the belfry and down to the ground below, shattering every
bone in his body.
This
thought chilled him more than the powerful wind, and he held himself in his arms
as he tried to find the cottage of the mistress with the mask. Even though he
could see none of the buildings contained within Foliage, he knew now the exact
location of the fair maiden’s home, and he stared in that direction for the
longest of time.
“What
I would give,” he whispered, releasing fog with his breath, “just to touch you…
to hold you… to share but one dance with you.”
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GUEST POST:
Dealing with Creative Convulsions
Every
writer struggles from time to time. Sometimes, they face something called writer’s block – more accurately known
as my muse has abandoned me. Other
times, authors find themselves saddened over a negative comment or review, and
it builds intimidation within the author, preventing them from moving on with
their next project.
Once
upon a time, when I had more energy and hair, I taught a little writer’s course
that I called Creative Convulsions.
The purpose of CC was to help authors and people wanting to become authors get
beyond the writing stumps that slow us down. There are some things that writers
can only learn with experience, whether that experience is gained through their
personal touch or through someone else’s.
A
book, within its creation process, evolves just as the author does through
every word that he or she writes. Think of all of the components included in a
freshman release. There is a plot, sure… in fact, there might be many plots –
setting the reader off course and into a world of confusion. There is a
protagonist. Do we follow the protagonist’s thoughts, or do we head jump?
Likely in that first book, we’re head jumping from one character’s thoughts to
another character’s thoughts in the same chapter, and while we – the authors –
know what is going on, the reader doesn’t. The reader wants to know what is
happening with the supporting characters but in the form of each chapter’s
leading character’s view point. Otherwise, we slow the reader, and when we slow
the reader, we confuse the story.
Your
first book will be what it will be. You’ll have that plot (or those plots), you’ll have your
protagonist, and your antagonist. That will feel fine, and whether your book is
fifty pages or a thousand, you’re going to be proud of it. And no matter what,
you should be proud of it.
Yet,
there are reviews and critiques to worry about. What have the readers found or
thought about your book that you might have missed? Are you using your
punctuation incorrectly in quotes and compound sentences? Are your compound
sentences leading to run-on sentences? Are your paragraphs jumbled with
scattered thoughts that could have been better sorted out into individual
paragraphs for each? Did you drop a plot in the story to focus on other ones
and leave a reader hanging somewhere? Are there inconsistencies in the
behaviors of your characters?
Perhaps
none of those issues arrives with the readers, and that is the best case
scenario. Congrats on that! Yet, you may have questions of your own. This is
called second guessing yourself. Are
you thinking about your characters and wondering if you’d developed them
enough? Do you wish you had broken down something differently but settled for a
different result instead? Are you happy with your cover and your font? Does it
look professional enough to compete with the millions of other authors out
there? If you are faced with these questions or others, utilize the ones you
wish to tackle in your next book and grow from the experience.
This
is all a part of the evolution of writing, of becoming a greater author, and of
utilizing anything and everything said – positive words or negative words – to
benefit you and your next work. Do not let a bad review or an internet troll –
or even helpful creative criticism – keep you down. It is up to you to be hurt
by what you read, or to be inspired by it. I know it is hard to find that
inspiration sometimes, but it is in there. You have to grab it and carry on
because your second book is going to be better than your first. Your third will
be better than your second, and if you keep finding motivation and inspiration
in everything around you, you and your writing will continue to improve every
time your fingers strike the keys.
A
wonderful teacher once told me to remember that nothing is ever finished. Every
painting could have another stroke of paint. Every story could have another
paragraph or chapter… You can spend your time working on one thing forever if
you allow yourself to. You must, at some point, be able to say this is done and move on to the
project’s next stages. You must realize that everything will be okay. It is up to the reader now, and not even the greatest
authors in history have managed to please everybody all at once. Do your best,
please yourself, and have the respect for your next project to allow your
current one to fly out and discover the world.
My
thanks to Fabulous and Brunette. I always love spending time here! Thanks also
to Goddess Fish Promotions and DCL Publications for this terrific opportunity.
To those stopping by, I hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve shared. If you have any
questions or comments, I’m all ears.
If
you would like a broad taste of my writing style, please consider checking out
my free flash fiction at www.jaeelbooks.com/free-flash-fiction. New
installments are added weekly, and genres have thus far included horror, sci-fi
and thriller. Don’t forget to ‘like’ me on Facebook and ‘follow’ me on Twitter
for current events, updates, freebies, and releases. Thanks for stopping by,
everyone!
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AUTHOR BIO:
Jae El Foster is an
author with whom you question going to bed with at night, but you dare to
venture beneath the sheets with him anyway. As the venture concludes, you are
perhaps romanced by it, or perhaps you are frightened by it. Don’t worry,
because you are always satisfied by it. Despite the title or genre of the book,
Jae El sets out to please you with climatic and unexpected conclusions that
will make you tremble with emotion. Hop aboard the Jae El train and give it a
good ride.
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CONNECT WITH JAE
EL:
Jae El’s super adorable
kitty, Damien
Website:
Blog #1:
Blog #2:
Newsletter:
Email:
jaeelbooks@gmail.com
Facebook:
Twitter:
Instagram:
Google+:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble:
The Book Depository:
BAM! Books-A-Million:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Jae El will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC
to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
