FREE Teleconference Tomorrow!

My free teleconference for writers, "Get them Talking: From Dialogue to Scene," broadcasts October 3rd--tomorrow! Kim at Writing for Children Live tells me that if you phone in or tune in online for the live broadcast, you'll get to ask questions. 

If you've ever had an agent tell you to "show not tell," you need this teleconference.

I teach an easy-to-understand, no pressure technique that will help you craft dynamic scenes that will create a movie in your readers' heads. 

This teleconference includes a detailed handout you can download plus my guide to punctuating dialogue as a bonus.

We're offering a follow-up, free 2-hour webinar, "Plot Challenged," on October 17th.

The broadcasts are available via telephone and online, so writers can join us from anywhere in the world. If you can't make the live broadcast, no worries. Registrants have free access to the call for 24 hours following it. Following that you can purchase the teleconference for a small fee.

Follow this link to register http://www.writingforchildrenlive.com/Angela_Morrison.html  Please join us!

Reading at Changing Hands

I and several other Phoenix area authors will be reading and signing books at Changing Hands, Thursday, Sept. 27, 6:30-8:30 at Writers Unite to Fight Cancer's awards ceremony for their first writing contest. I was honored to judge. You are all invited! Its so much more fun to have friendly faces in the audience. See you there.

Free Teleconference and Webinar starring ME!

I'm excited to announce I'm presenting my workshop, "Get them Talking: From Dialogue to Scene," on a free teleconference call, Oct. 3rd, 7 PM EST sponsored by Writing for Children Live. Registrants have free access to the call for 24 hours following it. 

I'm doing a follow-up free webinar, "Plot Challenged," on October 17th. 

I love this concept. As an author, I get to share my expertise with fellow writers without leaving my cozy office. And writers get a lecture from the comfort of their own homes. 

Follow this link to register http://www.writingforchildrenlive.com/Angela_Morrison.html 

Back at the Blog with new Cayman Pictures!

Hello, hello, I'm back at the blog! I didn't mean to take such a long break after the big celebration and contest in July. I spent a few long days packaging up books and swag and then gave in to summer time! But I have a treat for you that I hope will make up for it.

While my hubby and I were in the Cayman Islands, I took lots of pictures to share with you. I hope you CAYMAN SUMMER fans can imagine Michael and Leesie wandering down the dock, looking out the window, lying on the beach, or hopping on the dive boat.

This is me with our dive master. She was great! 

My feet on the dock!

Prizes! Prizes! Everywhere Prizes!!

I just drew all the prize winners for our big Tenth Anniversary Giveaway. I had so many prizes in this contest that everybody won! YAY!!! I love that. Check out the list to see what you got. I should be emailing you for your address tomorrow.

I awarded one prize per person, and then put everyone's entries back in the draw for the totebag. I didn't give anyone the key chains because they turned out bleck.

I'll send bookmarks with the swag prizes. If you won a book, I'll mail you bookmarks in a separate envelope.

Okay, drum roll . . . . . the winners are:

US GIVEAWAY

signed 3-book Taken by Storm set - PENNY
signed Taken by Storm first edition hardcover - SUSAN
signed Taken by Storm new paperback edition - MARGARET, RACHELLE, DIANE, COURTNEY, MARIA, AUTUMN, JENNIFER, TRISHA, MARLA, TRICHIE
signed Unbroken Connection - JOLI, TRESSA
signed Cayman Summer - MIRANDA, BRITNEY
Taken by Storm T-shirt - MARSHA, JIMPAT, HEIDI, TORE, CHALEESE, GALE, LAURIE, ELLIE
Taken by Storm Poster - MICHELLE, RUTH, KATIE, VIVEN, TUROBTERP
Taken by Storm Notebook - SARAH, DEB, JESSICA ROSE, ATREAU
Taken by Storm Totebag - MICHELLE


INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY

Taken by Storm paperback - BRUNA, JESSICA ASATO
Taken by Storm ebook coupon - ROWYBIB, MARISKA, LARISSA, ANA MARIA, LENA, WOMBATZ, DISINCENTIVE

Congratulations everyone! Thanks for coming to my party. It's been wonderful to meet new friends and greet old ones. Love and hugs to you all.

Again, I will email you for your address tomorrow. If you didn't leave your email with your entry, please email your address to me at angelamorrison [at] mac [dot] com so I can give your your prize.

10 Years from Today Michael Swam out of my Brain

Day 5!!! Exactly 10 years from this date Michael escaped the churning confusing that is my brain and found a voice on my page during the first free write I ever wrote. Read the whole story here. If you don't know the story of how he got trapped swimming in my subconscious, you can read that here. So hooray!! Dance and sing, "Happy Birthday to Michael!"

You have until August 31st to  enter the big giveaway and  download the new Kindle Taken by Storm ebook for only $0.99. Until midnight tonight get Unbroken Connection and Cayman Summer free on Kindle. They will be on sale for $0.99 through August 31st.

This week well over 3,000 readers have downloaded Unbroken Connection and 2,000 downloaded Cayman Summer. Unbroken Connection broke into the top 100 free on Amazon and stayed at #1 on Kindle's Bestsellers in Children's Social Issues list. Taken by Storm made it onto the coveted Bestselling Books for Teens on Love and Romance list--and hit #12 at one point. Now that's something to celebrate. Lots of new readers to welcome to our family.

It's been so much fun to reminisce with old friends and meet new ones. Thanks to all of you who helped make this week happen. Today, I reveal why I love to write break-your-heart-coming-of-age teen romances at Imaginary Reads. Thanks, Kris for hosting me.

Plus, my favorite protege (I like to call her that because she is so brilliant), Jennifer Shaw Wolf, is hosting me on her blog. Stop by and read the interview and check out her fantastic debut release that everyone is talking about, Breaking Beautiful. I am so proud of her. She is a fantastic writer. Jen reaches out and nurtures everyone in her path. She is made of kindness. That comes through in her writing and makes you love her characters with unusual intensity. I am thrilled for her.

Leading up to this week of celebrating, I've republished "Storm's Story" that I wrote to chronicle Taken by Storm's journey on my original website. I saved this post to share with you today. I wrote it from Singapore.

Happy Birthday, Michael and Leesie. And thank you all for keeping them in your hearts. Sharing their story with you continues to be an amazing journey. Each new person who reads Taken by Storm feels like a sister. I treasure each one of you.

My husband took this picture of TAKEN BY STORM at the Times Square Barnes and Noble in NYC!

"Taken by Storm on Sale this Week"
from "Storm's Story," March 9, 2009


I thought this week would never arrive and all of the sudden it’s here. Lexa sent me this launch day present--the preliminary cover for my next Razorbill novel, SING ME TO SLEEP. What do you think? I’m loving it. Best present ever.

Actually, that's not what it looked like--but that's another story!

They are considering changing the cover for TAKEN BY STORM’s paperback to be consistent with this more understated tone. That could be good, too.

I celebrated this week putting together the final details for my launch tour. No time to party--yet!
The real celebrating starts in a couple of weeks when I hop on a plane and come flying home. The tour has been a ton of work to put together, but it will be a blast. I’m speaking at 31 schools across five states--Washington, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Arizona--and doing five bookstore events. I’ll be blogging about the tour on ChatSpot.

I’m in SINGAPORE, so I haven’t got to see TAKEN BY STORM actually on a bookstore shelf yet, but I heard from one of my dearest writer babe buds who moonlights at an upstate NY Barnes and Noble. She says they got FIVE copies in. That’s a lot for a debut author. YIPPEE!!!

And there is an e-version available. Amazon is hawking it for their new Kindle.

I have to confess to a naughty secret . . . I’ve become totally addicted to tracking my Amazon sales rank numbers. The realities of expat author-dom. The first time I looked at it back in February it was 1,070,448. The lower the number the better you book is selling--so over a million isn’t too hot. But then it jumped to 190K the very next day! After that it crept up slowly to 600K. Launch day, March 5, it was down to 140K. Yesterday it zoomed back up to 300K, but TODAY it’s 45,309 for all books and #47 for children’s fiction on death and dying--kind of a gloomy list, but I’ll take it. And, drum roll, this is big . . .  #91 on teen fiction that deals with dating and intimacy. I have no idea what all this means in terms of sales, but--as addictions go--it’s relatively harmless.

Who knew I could be this crass and commercial about my art? Writing is a business, too, though. If I want my art to continue--especially Michael and Leesie’s story--TAKEN BY STORM must sell well. In the realities of today’s market, AMAZON can make or break that. I kind of have to pay attention.

My Michael and Leesie bulletin board. It's pieces are now in BYU's Special Manuscript Collection.  I tore that magazine cover off a Scottsdale tourist magazine. Doesn't that couple look like Michael and Leesie grown up?

Oh, how young and naive I was as an author. What I didn't know then was how much I'd have to overcome to continue Michael and Leesie's story and how many amazing readers and bloggers would be there to help me do it.

Leesie Q&A LIVE

Day 4 in our celebration! We welcome Leesie for questions.  Don't forget to enter the big giveaway!  Download the new Kindle Taken by Storm ebook for only $0.99. And through Friday, July 20th at midnight get Unbroken Connection and Cayman Summer free. They will be on sale for $0.99 after the promo.

Today I'm featured on Rachellewrite's as her Thursday Thought guest blogger. Thanks, Rachelle for hosting me! Stop by and read my thought, "Take Joy in the Miracle of Creation."

Margaret, the founder of Writer's Unite to Fight Cancer also helped publicize this week's party on her blog. WUFC is sponsoring a writing contest this summer. I'm judging the YA entries along with some other fantastic authors. This is your chance to receive critiques from professional authors and win some recognition, too. If you write, please enter. Deadline is August 15th.

Now, here's. Leesie. Welcome!

Leesie: Thanks, its good to be here. Sorry Michael was so grumpy. He's so into privacy these days.
Angela: What did you think that first day when you walked into physics and there he was sitting in the back row? Were you attracted to him? Love at first sight?
Leesie: Every girl within a fifty-mile radius was attracted to him. Physics wasn't the first time I saw him. Tekoa High School has less than a hundred students. He was in all my classes. So beautiful. So wounded. You know that Kelly Clarkson song, "Beautiful Disaster?" That was Michael. I tried not to stare, but my eyes betrayed me. They searched for him and stuck every time they found him. DeeDee was the first person to talk to him. Poor guy. When he told her to, "get the hell away" from him and caught me staring again, my face flushed hot. At least I had my big, fat physics book to hide behind. My heart raced. I could barely breathe. Yes, I was attracted to him. And when I had to put my book down when class started, he was staring at me.
Angela: A reader wants to know what you favorite line in Taken by Storm is.
Leesie: "I'm much better online than in person." It's so true!
Angela: Michael says you like the new cover.
Leesie: Yeah, it's great. I can imagine myself more in that picture. No faces. Michael complains about the pink sky, but I love it. Have you told them about the posters? They look great.
Angela: Are you writing any new poetry?
Leesie: I wrote a ton on my mission. We had an hour every day to journal, so I wrote every day. I've been too busy lately. I'm taking creative writing, though. That will force me to write.
Angela: Another reader asked how your faith has been tested over the years. Has you faith made things easier or more difficult?
Leesie: Good question. My faith is an integral part of who I am. It caused problems between Michael and me at first, but it made me the girl he fell in love with. If I hadn't been shaped all my life by going to church, praying, and listening for the answers, would I have had anything to offer him in his darkest days just after the hurricane? He didn't know it, but it was my faith that offered him the peace he felt when he was with me. I had the hardest challenges when I felt I was no longer worthy of my faith. When I felt I wasn't good enough to pray anymore. To evil to be forgiven. That was a lie. Michael, who didn't believe, saw that before I did. No matter what happens you can always turn to the Father of us all. His love is constant.
Angela: Okay, this one is a SPOILER ALERT. Readers, if you haven't read all three books, skip this question and ask your own in the comments. Ready, Leesie? Michael filled us in on your immediate future plans. A reader asked how many kids you guys want to have. Michael said you want 20! True?
Leesie: If they all look like Michael, I'd have twenty kids in a heartbeat. My Mom had a hard time getting pregnant after me and Phil. I don't know if I'll have the same problem later. So far--that hasn't been an issue for us.
Angela: Are you making an announcement?
Leesie: No. It's too soon to go public--but feel free to read between the lines. I'll just say I recently dropped my 8:00 a.m. class. Mornings are yucky.
Angela: So this is way to early for you. We'll leave it at that then. Go back to bed and get some rest. Eat soda crackers.
Leesie: Okay, thanks. I'll stop by later if anyone has more questions.
Angela: Thanks so much for being here, Leesie. Everyone here loves you and wants to wish you and Michael a long and happy forever together.
Leesie: Now you're going to make me cry. I'm so emotional these days. Bye!