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Out of the Darkness

Jennifer Lane

Authors Justine Dell and Sarah Fine have hosted a week of giveaways and fundraisers in celebration of Suicide Prevention!

Click HERE

Today from 11-6 is the Out of the Darkness Auction HERE where you can bid on some amazing critiques and prize packs.

As a psychologist, I often check in with my clients about suicidal thoughts and urges. Obviously it’s frightening when a loved one contemplates suicide. Individuals suffering from clinical depression, addictions, or other mental disorders may get into a dark place and feel hopeless about ever escaping the pain. When they get so down, they fail to realize emotions are temporary and they WILL feel better.

If you have a loved one who is deeply depressed, it’s okay to ask if he or she is thinking about suicide. You can’t turn somebody suicidal by asking about it. Danger increases if your loved one has a suicidal plan and clear intent to carry out the plan. Better safe than sorry–CALL 911 if you fear for your loved one’s life.

In my young adult swimming romance Streamline, 17 year-old Leo Scott enters a hopeless place when considering his future, dominated by his abusive father.

Leo popped the cap off the bottle with his thumb and slowly
poured its contents into his palm, mesmerized by the cascading
shower of little white pills.

Oxycontin had been both his friend and his enemy. It soothed
him when he was troubled. It didn’t yell at him or hit him when he
screwed up. But it had also distanced him from others, forcing him
to keep secrets and leaving him out of control. And it made him feel
sick when he couldn’t get it.

Yes, both his friend and his enemy. And now it would end his life.

Trapped somewhere between numbness and despair, Leo barely
registered his own sobs. As he stared at the mountain of pills in his
sweaty palm, a tear fell from his eye and splashed onto one of his
fingers. Why does my father hate me so much?

Yikes. Leo needs some help! Perhaps the warm embrace of his girlfriend Audrey?

Head over to Justine and Sarah’s blog to bid on some great prizes!

Note: To all Insecure Writers Support Group participants, I apologize for completely blanking this month. I was in Hilton Head visiting family and my doggie nephew Auggie, so I’m all confused and out of sorts this week! I’ll be back for November.

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Excerpt from With Good Behavior

Jennifer Lane

Thank you to Barb at Romance Promo Central for hosting my romantic suspense novel With Good Behavior today. Check out an excerpt of one of Sophie and Grant’s first interactions HERE!

On October 6th I’ll be joining authors Justine Dell and Sarah Fine to promote suicide prevention. There are abundant awesome giveaways at her blog so please visit out the Out of Darkness Giveaway and raise awareness for suicide prevention.

Join us for the Author Author Blog Bounce, hosted by Omnific Publishing!

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BLOGFEST 2012

Jennifer Lane
Thank you to Cinnamon from A Journey of Books for BLOGFEST 2012!

Check out ALL participating blogs
I’m giving away an ebook of your choice:
With Good Behavior (The Conduct Series #1)
Bad Behavior (The Conduct Series #2)
Streamline (YA swimming romance)
All three ebooks are on sale for $2.99
Please visit these five awesome blogs and check out their giveaways!
Enter my giveaway with the Rafflecopter form.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

And check out the GLBT Madness giveaway below.

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GLBT Madness Hop

Jennifer Lane

Thank you to Carole and The Romance Reviews for hosting the GLBT Madness Hop!

I’m now in my early 40’s and I’ve seen some wonderful improvements in acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender folks in the course of my lifetime. Still, homophobia remains, especially in certain pockets of culture.

Athletics is a culture that’s dear to me but sadly still struggling with tolerance of GLBT issues. I witnessed a close friend grapple with the coming out process on my college swim team, and his battle really influenced me to become a heterosexual ally.

I wrote about this experience in my fictional short story Swim Recruit, which I’m offering for free. Heterosexuals can make a huge impact by fighting against homophobia. I’m also offering an iTunes gift card to download great music by gay artists like the Indigo Girls!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Click this button to visit the next blog on the hop! The Romance Reviews GLBT Madness Hop

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Streamline Swims Around the Blogosphere

Jennifer Lane

My YA swimming romance Streamline has been stroking through the blogosphere, visiting some lovely locations. Please stop by!

***Danya from A Tapestry of Words hosts PSYCHTEMBER, a celebration of YA novels featuring mental health issues. I love this idea and was thrilled to participate with a guest post about prescription drug abuse in teens HERE. Enter a giveaway for a Streamline ebook until 9/30/12!

Streamline‘s hero Leo learns the hard way about prescription drug abuse, and he also learns how to live a better life without oxycontin.

***YA author Cherie Colyer (check out her magical novel Embrace!) hosted me for a naughty excerpt from Streamline HERE.

***Congratulations to Adriana for winning an ebook of Streamline from Laurie’s BLOG, which featured an excerpt.

~~*~~

Now onto my current WIP On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3). For the blog challenge “The Next Best Thing”, here’s my question for the week:

What genre does your book fall under?

That’s an easy one: ROMANTIC SUSPENSE.

I did write a love scene this weekend *blushes* and I’m up to 75,000 words, about 3/4 done!

Authors, how are you progressing on your WIP?

Readers, how are you progressing on reading and reviewing?

~~*~~

Finally, I’m happy to announce my publisher’s FALL SALE!

Bad Behavior (The Conduct Series #2) joins With Good Behavior (The Conduct Series #1) on sale for $2.99.

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Genre Favorites Blogfest

Jennifer Lane
That kooky author Alex Cavanaugh is at it again, hosting a fun blogfest HERE.

Genre Favorites Blogfest, September 17, 2012
One blogfest, four favorites!
List your favorite genre of:
Movie
Music
Books
And a guilty pleasure genre from any of the three categories! 
Okay, here goes:
1) My favorite MOVIE genre is…

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Titanic is my favorite movie (quit laughing!) and here’s a deleted kissing scene from the epic ship flick:
I also love The Shawshank Redemption, Speed, Godfather II, Terminator II, American Beauty, Gladiator, Die Hard, Moonstruck, Working Girl, A Fish Called Wanda, Grand Canyon, Prince of Tides, Ordinary People, and so many more.

2) Favorite MUSIC genre:

MAINSTREAM ALTERNATIVE

Now that’s an oxymoron! What I mean is that I love music that’s “alternative” but not too far out there.

My favorite song is With or Without You by U2.

Gah. What a beautiful, sorrowful song. Other artists I love are The Fray, Jack Johnson, Colbie Callait, Indigo Girls, John Mayer, Adele, Snow Patrol, and The Script.

3) Now, BOOKS! My favorite genre is…

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

…which isn’t a surprise if you know what books I like to write. I adore author Pamela Clare, and I also enjoy fiction and YA contemporary.

4) Finally onto my GUILTY PLEASURE…

NEIL DIAMOND!

I love singing along to his songs, and there are SCADS of good ones like “Forever in Blue Jeans”:

Thank you Alex for this fun hop!

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The Next Best Thing and Author Blog Bounce

Jennifer Lane

To continue on with The Next Best Thing Challenge, today I’m answering the following question about my work-in-progress On Best Behavior:

Where did the idea come from for the book?

On Best Behavior is the third and final novel of my romantic suspense The Conduct Series, so most of the book follows the natural progression of my hero and heroine Grant and Sophie.

But I often find inspiration in movies, and Donnie Brasco (with Johnny Depp, yummy) sparked the idea for the plot. Grant goes undercover to immerse himself in Mafia life, risking not only his life, but that of Sophie and his nephew Ben as well. Eek! I love messing with my characters.

I’ve set a goal to finish this novel by December but my progress last weekend wasn’t great. My kind father came up for a visit to drive me for a steroid injection in my back, and we spent time watching football (yay for Denver beating the Steelers–love to see Payton Manning back in there) instead of writing. Now my back feels great but I’m a bit behind, and I have to work this Saturday too, waah!

Onto the Author Blog Bounce by Omnific Publishing–see instructions, here and enter a giveaway for my novel Streamline. Authors and readers, join us!

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Celebrating Bloggers Blog Hop

Jennifer Lane

Thank you to author Terri Guiliano for hosting the Celebrating Bloggers Blog Hop!

Why do I love bloggers? Let me count the ways!

First, why I love book bloggers, then author bloggers.

Book Bloggers. I’d never even heard of book bloggers before my first novel launched. Now I’ve had the pleasure to interact online and even meet bloggers in real life.

I love book bloggers for the FRIENDSHIP with these lovely ladies:

* Smash at Smash Attack Reads Ash/Smash is a licensed social worker so we’ve had fun exploring psychology and therapy in books. Our reading tastes are different–she likes to escape into paranormal and fantasy, whereas I love reading books about dysfunctional families and trauma in gritty reality. (And that brings me to another reason I love bloggers–exposure to books unfamiliar to me). Still, Smash took the time to read and review my psychological thrillers With Good Behavior and Bad Behavior.

* Autumn at The Autumn Review and Andrea at The Bookish Babe Autumn is a swimmer (yay!) and Andrea likes heart-wrenching stories, so we bonded on my book tour for Streamline. These two gals are great friends too. I love how tight the book blogging community is.

* Jenny at Supernatural Snark and Dani at Refracted Light Reviews Jenny and Dani both live in the same Ohio town where I reside. I’ve had the opportunity to meet them both, and it’s great to chat with fellow book lovers. Jenny made some beautiful business cards for me (she has a wedding business) and Dani wrote a fantastic review of Streamline.

Author Bloggers. I’ve met some really cool people who happen to write books.

I love author bloggers for their SUPPORT through this writing adventure.

* Nicki Elson at Nicki Elson’s Not-So-Deep Thoughts (that blog title says it all, heh) Nicki is a fellow Omnific Publishing author who’s a ton of fun, and her sexy 80’s romp Three Daves carries on the fun theme.

* Jessica Subject at Mark of the Stars Jessica has supported my writing and I loved her alien short story Celestial Seduction.

* Alex Cavanaugh at Alex J Cavanaugh Do you see that Insecure Writers Support Group button on the sidebar of my blog? Alex created that group, and he amazes me with the amount of support he provides to fellow authors. He writes sci-fi.

* Kyra Lennon at Write Here, Write Now I met Kyra through Blogging A to Z and delighted in her posts about her sports romance Game On. I love sports romance and I can’t wait to read her book.

So there you have it — friendship and support are the two biggies for why I love bloggers. Check out the Celebrating Blogging Hop HERE.

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Insecure Writers Support Group

Jennifer Lane

ISWG Update: A couple of months ago I posted about setting the best price for ebooks. I’m happy to report that when my publisher lowered the price from $6.99 to $2.99 for two of my novels, sales improved for all three of my novels! Now, it’s not to the level where I can consider quitting my day job as psychologist (not even CLOSE), but it makes me happy to know that more readers are finding my books.

Today’s post is in response to author Darcia Helle tagging me for the blog challenge THE NEXT BIG THING. It all started from author Gail Baugniet HERE. The rules are:

Answer 10 questions about my current WIP (Work-In-Progress)
Tag five other writers and link their blogs so we can all hop over and read their answers.

What is the working title of your book?
Where did the idea come from for the book?
What genre does your book fall under?
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or What inspired you to write this book?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I liked Gail’s idea to answer one question a week, with the hope her WIP would be finished at the end of ten weeks. I’m 70,000 words into my WIP, so that’s a challenging yet realistic goal for me with my full-time job.

So, today’s question is: What is the working title of your book?

On Best Behavior (The Conduct Series #3)

Ta-da!

Now I’m tagging five writers for The Next Best Thing Blog Challenge. Tell us about your WIP…

Nicki Elson (blog)
Carol Oates (blog)
Jessica Subject (blog)
Cherie Colyer (blog)
Roland Yeomans (blog)

Two announcements to end this post:

1. I’m giving away an ebook of YA sports romance Streamline at Laurie’s blog until 9/22. Stop by to hear why I use a pen name and other strange information.

2. Thanks to fellow author Carol Oates, my free YA short story Swim Recruit has a new cover and wider availability on Smashwords.

This is my first story up on Smashwords and I’m finding it to be an awesome site. If you enjoy an Irish faerie short story, check out Carol Oates The Summer Prince HERE.

Writers, here’s to being bold and confident this month. *cheers*

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Booze and Good Times!

Jennifer Lane

It’s back to school time! And for many high school and college students, it’s a time to experiment with alcohol. For adults harangued by work stress, parenting, or political mumbo-jumbo, it might be time to chug a glass of wine. For authors waiting to hear back from agents or publishers, it’s time to drink. A lot.

My question for you is: If you choose to drink alcohol, how do you get the good stuff without the bad stuff? (Aren’t you lucky I’m writing this blog post between psychotherapy clients?)

I’ve learned a lot about extracting buzz, relaxation, and fun from alcohol (while avoiding hangovers and beer goggles) from the amazing University of Washington researcher Dr. Alan Marlatt. He and colleagues published an interactive journal titled “CHOICES” related to the information in this book.

…and I want to pass along some golden nuggets to YOU.

First of all let’s talk about the choice to drink alcohol. Did you know about 20% of college students don’t drink at all? (The percentage of non-drinkers older than college age is undoubtedly higher).

And for the students who do drink, most drink responsibly (fewer than 6 drinks a week)? If you believe everyone drinks in your crowd, then you probably have a skewed group of friends.

If you do choose to drink alcohol, what are some pros and cons about drinking? I like to drink to feel giddy and/or relaxed, particularly in social situations. But I don’t like headaches or fatigue.

What you might notice about your pro/con list is that the stuff you like comes from LOWER doses of alcohol, whereas the stuff you dislike comes from HIGHER doses. So the secret to getting the good stuff from alcohol is sticking to a limit–about 1-2 standard drinks for women and 2-3 standard drinks for men.

So what’s a “standard” drink? One hint…it’s smaller than a keg!
*12 oz. beer
*10 oz. microbrew
*4 oz. wine
*1.25 oz. 80 proof liquor (a shotglass)

For the average sized man, each standard drink raises his Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) by .02. So he could have three drinks in an hour and be under the .08 legal limit for driving.

But for the average woman, each standard drink raises her BAC by .04!!! That’s because women have less water, more estrogen, and are typically smaller. Women can easily hit the legal limit for driving with just two drinks in an hour.

For every hour, our body removes about .015%. Therefore, if I drank 5 glasses of wine right before going to bed at midnight, my BAC would be .20. If I subtract .015 each hour, then it won’t be until 2:00 the next afternoon until the alcohol completely leaves my body. If I wake up at 8:00 a.m. and think I’m hungover, I’d still technically be drunk (BAC = .08)!

If you want the nice buzz and social facilitation from alcohol, drink up to a BAC of .055 and then stop. That’s the best alcohol has to give you and you won’t feel any better if you keep drinking. For women that’s 1-2 drinks; for men that’s 2-3 drinks.

.055 is known as the “point of diminishing returns”.

So have that drink or two, feel the buzz, then move on to enjoy your evening! *cheers*

Time for the Omnific Publishing Author Blog Hop! Check out instructions HERE.