THE DIAMOND OF FREEDOM is here!

**UPDATE**
Barnes and Noble now offers  
The Diamond of Freedom, book 3 in 
The Unaltered Series.
Finally!!!! 
Go grab it from: 

Amazon 
Smashwords
Gumroad-kindle 
Gumroad-epub
Kobo 
iTunes iBookstore
Barnes & Noble

Book 3 of The Unaltered Series is Released!

**UPDATED**

It's a great time to jump head first into a 

unique Fantasy/Paranormal world!

The 1st book is FREE, the 2nd and 3rd books are $3.99 each, book 4 coming soon. 

For a limited time, save 50% on purchases through Smashwords.com

A Diamond in my Pocket Amazon description:
Calli Courtnae, age 16, unexpectedly breaks the 100-meter world record at a high school track meet and is whisked off to Montana to train for Olympic tryouts. Upon arriving, however, she finds something totally unexpected. Her fellow athletes are secretive, mysterious, paranoid, uncommonly beautiful — and endowed with the same gift of superhuman speed that she now exhibits. The truth, Calli learns, is that she has been brought to Montana to join an elite clan of Runners who train to undertake highly secret missions for the benefit of superhuman kids everywhere.

When three Runners from her compound are kidnapped by a clan of evil terrorists who can kill with their thoughts, Calli is assigned to the team that must deliver a rare magic diamond to the terrorists in exchange for the hostages. Calli is just beginning to accept her new world when it is turned upside-down by a mysterious woman who secretly gives Calli the real diamond, while the team leader is given a decoy. Almost immediately the magic diamond in Calli’s pocket unleashes within her a startling range of supernatural powers and mind-reading abilities. Using her new-found powers, Calli exposes traitors among her team, discovers that the hottest-looking guy on the team believes she is his soul-mate, has visions of her companions’ tragic futures, and learns that she alone holds the power to change their futures. While Calli knows that her powers derive from the secret diamond in her pocket, her companions do not, and Calli dreads the fast-approaching day when they will discover the truth.

A Diamond in my Pocket (numbers updated 7/11/2013)

• Barnes&Noble NOOK Teen Bestseller 4.5 stars / 485 ratings. 
• Named a Breakout Book by iTunes iBookstore Feb 2013  4.5 stars / 150 ratings. 
• Amazon Kindle  4.5 stars / 46 reviews 
• Goodreads readers give it 3.92 stars / 303 ratings 41 reviews
• Many readers liken the series to The Hunger Games for its pace and overall feel.

In Feb 2013, Thomas Hall, Ph.D., a retired Professor of English joined my team as editor. The books now have good flow and proper grammar. (English wasn't my favorite subject in school. Thanks for your help, Dr. Hall!) The major plot points were unaltered, no pun intended.

Take a break from your regular life and jump head first into an exciting, unique world of powers and abilities that will leave you wondering what is really right or wrong, good or bad, or black or white.

Books available at:

Amazon

Smashwords 
Barnes & Noble

iTunes iBookstore 
Kobo

Gumroad

Pre- Order THE DIAMOND OF FREEDOM

I've partnered up with Gumroad.com to sell pre-orders of The Diamond of Freedom, book 3 in The Unaltered Series. Release date: April 11, 2013

The first chapter of the e-book is included with the pre-order purchase. Simply click the appropriate format below and all you'll need is an email address and credit card number to access the download of the sample chapter. Then, on April 11, 2013, at 12:01 AM the full download will be available using the same link. You'll receive a reminder email on the 11th as well.


PRE-ORDER The Diamond of Freedom (kindle) release date April 11, 2013

PRE-ORDER The Diamond of Freedom (epub) release date April 11, 2013

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THE DIAMOND OF FREEDOM release date

 

April 11, 2013 is the official release date for 

THE DIAMOND OF FREEDOM, 

book 3 in The Unaltered Series.

Calli Courtnae and Chris Harding race against the clock to identify the mysterious power-neutralizing stone that will help them hide from their enemy, but that will also prevent Calli from healing her life-threatening injuries. Their challenge is not simply to identify the stone; they must also learn how to counter its effects so they can fight against the rogue Diamond Bearer named Freedom. US $3.99



Please click the LIKE button to help me promote the release.

Read the first chapter HERE.

Apple's iBookstore recognizes A DIAMOND IN MY POCKET as a Breakout Book!

Celebration Time!

Feb. 5th, 2013. Apple's iBookstore launched a major feature in the US called Breakout Books.  The first book in my Young Adult series The Unaltered, A Diamond in my Pocket, was selected for this opening collection. It is truly an honor being recognized by the iBookstore team amidst thousands of titles, and to be placed on a list that showcases books they feel readers should check out first.

Learn more about the Breakout Books feature at the Smashwords Blog.

The Silver Lining

You know how sometimes things don't go as you planned? Or is that just me? Months ago I set myself a deadline to complete book three of The Unaltered Series. It was a self-imposed deadline that in hindsight was impossible to reach due to the many different directions I was being pulled in. Yes, I am still writing on book three, The Diamond of Freedom. I haven't given up, for those of you who are wondering. I've just been extremely busy living life and dealing with all the many different complications that arise when doing so.

My life isn't any different than yours. It is full of excitement, adventure, drama, sadness and joy. Everyone has these aspects in their lives, maybe not at the same time, but all the same they are there if you look for them. (I don't necessarily look for the sadness, it just finds its way in. However, it makes the happiness and joy even better when you have something to compare it to.)

I've been busy moving my family 700 miles from Idaho to the Portland, Oregon area of the Pacific Northwest. It's been a dramatic change both visually and emotionally and my husband and children are settling in well. There have been ups and downs, and a few "inside outs" (for lack of a better description,) but we are all doing well now.

Earlier in the year, back in Idaho, we opened our home to a friend from Holland for a couple months. He brought a different perspective of how to view the world and the people in it, and while he was there I learned about meditation, quantum physics and how to enjoy brown rice. I also experienced the harsh judgment from the ultra-conservative community for having a male house guest in my home; this coming from a community that touts, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." Funny ole world, isn't it? Good thing my husband and I have grown thick skin ... how we grew that skin is a whole different story. Ah, maybe I'll write my own memoir. My tens of fans would love it!

Through it all, I've grown as a writer and am busily working on my manuscript. A Diamond in my Pocket remains on Barnes&Noble's Teen Bestseller list ranking #130 as of 11/12/2012. It has been as low as #100. The fact that it's free has brought it a lot of attention, and NOOK fans have been absolutely awesome with their reviews and comments! The book ranks #7 on the Teen low to high pricing list. The last number of total downloads from the different Internet outlets for all four of my titles was just under 70,000. Not bad for being on the Internet for a year and a half.

I apologize for the delay in completing The Diamond of Freedom, I am working on it on a daily basis.  Rest assured I'm not going to release it until I feel the storyline is gripping enough to please my dedicated fans.

The phrase, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade," is similar to, "finding the silver lining in the clouds." There is always something good that comes from a storm, the trick is to open your eyes and see it. My experiences of 2012 will definitely find their way into my future books in some way or another making my silver lining the richness and depth I've developed personally and lived firsthand.

~Lorena

Be careful what you wish for

A recent comment left by an unsatisfied reader left me contemplating my Young Adult series, The Unaltered. I’m no stranger to bad reviews and I’m of the mindset that a critical critique can be made into a positive resource if adequate information is given. Frankly, if an Indie author can’t handle being cut apart, then they’re in the wrong business. The reviewer in question, most likely an adult female, didn’t like my writing style saying it was predictable, lacked description, and she was upset with one of my character’s behaviors in the second book feeling that other readers should be aware of the immoral, age-inappropriate conduct before going into the series.

My first reaction to any harsh critique is to take a deep breath and remove myself from the computer. Perhaps I’ll pour a glass of Pinot Noir and watch a movie, or I might surf the Internet and look at famous authors’ bad reviews while I let the new negative comment sink in. It would be a lie to say these kinds of comments don’t affect me, so I won’t say that. This particular review was posted on Barnes & Noble and unfortunately may deter some readers from entering my fantasy world--and that’s too bad.

I’m going to veer off in a different direction for a moment. With every year of life come experiences that make us who we are individually. I think it’s safe to say we’ve all experienced being loved on the basic level of parent/child, we’ve probably been in situations where we weren’t accepted by our peers, and we’ve all probably had a moment in life when we were extremely scared. However, the level of severity of these experiences varies from one person to the next. The difference between someone giving you sympathy or empathy is based on that person’s own experiences in life; if they’ve experienced the exact same thing, they can empathize with you… otherwise they can only give you sympathy. Every experience in life, whether good or bad, is cataloged in our brain and is often referred to when reading a book or watching a movie. Consider the phrase, “It leaves nothing to the imagination.” If a scene in a book or movie is painted in a way that “leaves nothing to the imagination” then the reader/viewer doesn’t need to access their own archive of stored experiences to fill in the blanks. However, if a scene is painted vaguely using euphemisms, harmless words that substitute suggestive or offensive words, to encourage the reader/viewer to fill in the blanks, the intensity of the scene will vary from one person to the next based on personal experiences.

For example, the disappointed reader didn’t like the character who I painted as a “player” who uses his “special ability” to “get what he wants.” To a twelve year old, whose own life experiences are slim to none in this area, the term “scoring” may mean kissing; to a college aged individual it means something entirely different. The point is the intensity of my writing is only as powerful as the reader’s own experiences. First and foremost, my books are in the Young Adult category, not Middle Grade; second, my own experiences as a teen and the stereotypes I dealt with are mirrored in my books in a vague way and anyone who has experienced similar things will pick up on what I’m implying. Lastly, I think it’s safe to say that my negative reviewer connected with my books on a much deeper level than she cares to admit. For her own life experiences to fill the blanks I left open in such a way that she felt others shouldn’t read the book, it says to me that she wants to protect youth from having to experience what she went through. That’s a powerful response. She would have an interesting story to tell, I think.

Fiction is all about imagination… for both the author and the reader. I’ve had a huge amount of feedback from teens that identified with the different characters in the book. In fact, some of my fans have attacked the negative reviewer defending the character and saying that the “player” behavior is what made the book more believable. I can’t even begin to describe how it feels to have fans defending my made-up characters and my writing style.

As for the other topics of predictability, lack of description, and a “writing style that left much to be desired,” I can only say this reader is not in my target audience and she won’t be the last person who doesn’t like my style. I won’t be reading any other negative comments from her because she said she “won’t be reading anymore books by this author anytime soon”; that’s good at least. She did say that my “idea was fairly inventive” and that garnered me a two star rating. And that’s good as well.

To all the aspiring authors out there who dream of thousands upon thousands of readers, be careful what you wish for. Understand that the more popular your book becomes, the more likely readers outside your target audience will read it, not like it, and then feel they have to tell the world about it. But take heart, once you reach this level you’ll know you’ve made it over the hump of obscurity. Don't ignore the negative reviews because sometimes you can implement changes based on the review. I will certainly work on my descriptive words and character building thanks to her critical critique, but I won't be doing it to please her, I'll do it to improve my own writing.

A Diamond in my Pocket --FREE

NOOK, Kindle, Multi-Format

A Diamond in my Heart --$2.99 (Limited time- $.99)
NOOK, Kindle, Multi-Format