Fangirl Friday: My favorite fictional surfer! (Miles Garrett)

Fangirl Friday is simply that. It's your chance to completely fangirl (or fanboy) over anything you want! It can be a book, a movie, a band, a song, music in general, a tv show, your favorite type of coffee, your favorite earrings, or silver glitter! Have fun. Be creative. Share the things that make you happy!

There are few things hotter than a Friday in June in Mississippi. Miles Garrett, from my sister Nikki Godwin’s book Chasing Forever Down (which is 99 cents for the month of June. So hurry up and get it!), is amongst those few things.

Miles is gritty and rough and real. He hangs around with the real deal surfers of Horn Island and is one of the West Coast Hooligans <3. He’s got more heart than all the surfers hanging around Crescent Cove and the majority of the guys in Horn Island. (Topher Brooks is a close rival, though!) Miles is an underdog who’s had to fight for everything in his life, and deep down, he really needs a hug (which I would gladly give him! All day, every day!).

If you’re on Miles’s good side, he’d do anything for you. Get on his bad side or try to surf in his territory and he’ll beat the hell out of you without a second thought. And trust me…he’d win.

He is my absolute most favorite character out of any book ever written! You NEED to go buy Chasing Forever Down, so you can see how amazing he is for yourself! (And if that isn't enough awesome surfer-ness for you, check out Nikki's blog today for an awesome video of her favorite *real life* surfer!)

Happy reading!

Writing What's In Your Heart

There are always people who aren't going to like what you write. They could just not like a certain character, the plot, or some dramatic twist you put in. Should that change how you write? No.

You can write the most perfect character ever created, and there’s going to be that random person who has something bad to say about him/her. There are some people who like reading contemporary better than fantasy or paranormal, and somehow, they’ll stumble across your fantasy or paranormal novel every time and have something bad to say about it because they didn't take the time to read the blurb. If I gave my sister, Nikki, a fantasy novel, she’d more than likely hate it. She has to rationalize everything (which is okay! She helps me find all kinds of messed up stuff in my books because of it), but fantasy novels aren't her thing, and paranormal isn't really so much either.

The most recent book I wrote has a very big twist in it. Some people will think it’s genius. Others will be highly upset by it. I am thankful for every person who buys and reads my books, but at the end of the day, I write for me. I write because there are characters who talk to me and tell me things that I think the world should know. I write because it makes me happy.

I don’t write to please every single person who may read my book. I don’t write to get traditionally published. I write for me and that one person who is going to love the twist in my book and love my characters.

The very best stories you will ever write are the ones that are in your heart. Those stories will torment you until you have them on your computer in a finished manuscript. Write for you and for those characters because someone somewhere will find them and love them.

Fangirl Friday: Nightmare, from MUTILATE MY HEART

Fangirl Friday is simply that. It's your chance to completely fangirl (or fanboy) over anything you want! It can be a book, a movie, a band, a song, music in general, a tv show, your favorite type of coffee, your favorite earrings, or silver glitter! Have fun. Be creative. Share the things that make you happy! 

Every writer has been a fangirl/fanboy for one of their own characters. I am no exception. I was going to write all about this character of mine named Elijah. He’s this amazing fifteen-year-old violinist who happens to be a ghost, but I’ve been #TeamNightmare all day. It’s only fitting to right about him since my second book, Mutilate My Heart (that Nightmare’s in), comes out on July 9th!

Nightmare is the lead singer of punk-rock band Mutilated Arteries. He’s the oldest and most mature of the five guys. He often pisses people off because he has rules, and he expects his rules to be followed. He only makes exceptions for his brother Banshee. Nightmare truly thinks he’s doing what’s best for everyone when he tries to enforce the rules in his ‘Mutilated Arteries Handbook.’ He hides his own dark secrets and wants to make sure that no one else ends up hurt like he did. He really is a good guy. It’s his brother you need to watch out for. ;-) I can't wait for you guys to get to know him better in the sequel AND prequel!

I’ll save Elijah for another week! Who knows, you may get a short cameo from him in Mutilate My Heart! <3

Cover Reveal: AMERICAN GIRL ON SATURN by my sister Nikki (AND a snippet!)

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you already know my sister, Nikki. And there's also a chance that you've heard mention of a book called American Girl On Saturn, known on Twitter as #SAS (for Spaceships Around Saturn, if you're curious). This book will be is set for release on Thursday, August 29th, 2013, so MARK YOUR CALENDARS! You want this book. Trust me. You need to meet Spaceships Around Saturn, and you need to fall in love with Milo Grayson because this boy is hotttt! (If you scroll to the bottom, you get a special surprise...)

And, the purpose of this post... cover reveal!

American Girl On Saturn by Nikki Godwin

Release date: August 29th, 2013

The summer after graduation is supposed to be that first real taste of freedom - but not for eighteen-year-old Chloe Branson. Just as that breeze of freedom is making its way into her galaxy, her secret-service-agent dad drops a meteor-sized bomb of bad news on her and her sisters. An attempt has been made on the lives of Canadian boyband, Spaceships Around Saturn, during their USA tour, and the guys have to go into hiding ASAP. The only problem? In the midst of the crisis and media frenzy, their dad volunteered to hide the guys...in their house.

Six-year-old Emery is as ecstatic as any self-proclaimed Saturnite would be, but Chloe and her seventeen-year-old sister Aralie watch their summer plans crash and burn like a falling star. The SAS guys aren't happy with the situation, either. Bad boy Jules picks fights with Aralie about everything from his Twitter followers to his laundry, and heart-throb Benji can't escape Emery's fangirlisms for more than three minutes.

But after the super-cute Milo kisses Chloe during a game of hide-and-seek, she finally understands what Emery means when she talks about SAS being "out of this world." If this is what Saturn feels like, Chloe doesn't want to come back to earth.

And because Nikki is my sister, my cover reveal has something that no one else's will... a small snippet from American Girl On Saturn!

He reaches toward the tray and grabs the lone Oreo. “Okay, this is my last one for the night,” he says. “Half it with me?”

Seriously? If I wasn’t the envy of every Saturnite in the world just by sitting across the table from him, I’m definitely the envy of them now because the Milo Grayson wants to half his precious Oreo with me. And the thing that sucks the most is that no one knows about it to be jealous of me!

He holds the cookie up and waits for a response.

“Yeah, we can half it,” I say.

I reach across the table for it, but he jerks his arm back. The sleeve of his T-shirt hugs his bicep tightly, and oh how I wish to be that fabric.

“Not so fast,” he says. “Let’s make it interesting.”

Could this be any more interesting? Hello – you’re gorgeous and famous and sharing cookies with me! Any more ‘interest’ and I might burst like a firework.

“If you get the side with the cream, I’ll give you my honest male opinion about your checkout line drama today,” he says. “But if I get the cream side, you have to tell me, honestly, who you think the best looking guy is in Spaceships Around Saturn.”

Oh God. He’s for real. Does he know? He totally knows. He knows I’m lusting for him from behind this glass of milk and tattoo magazine. He knows that his eyes make me melt and that I clearly watch him on Twitter because I know all about amazzzzzing. Now he wants to make me ‘fess up.

“Deal.” I say it before I can chicken out.

You read it here first! Go hit up Nikki's blog, Twitter, and Facebook page for more updates and teasers from now until release date. And add this book as "to read" on Goodreads!