Into the West by J. A . Campbell (Guest post + Giveaway)

Today, I’d like to welcome J. A. Campbell (a.k.a. Julie). Julie is a wonderful young adult author, whose debut novel Senior Year Bites will be out later this year. Senior Year Bites is about Megan Taylor, a senior in high school, and her misadventures after being turned into a vampire.You can read more about it here. But today, Julie's going to tell us about her fantastic new short story series (the second of which releases today! Yay! Congrats, Julie!), and to celebrate, Julie's offering one lucky commentator an e-copy of both her short stories! Take it away, Julie!

Suzanne, thank you so much for having me here today and letting me talk a little bit about my new short story series, Into the West. It’s part of an exciting new project by Quake, the young adult division of Echelon Press. The project, called the Electric Shorts are ebooks geared towards ages seven to seventeen (though mine are in the slightly older age range of 10 to 17 or so). Several authors with Echelon Press agreed to be guinea pigs and give it a try. The idea was to write some very entertaining stories at a very easy reading level, that way even teens who might be reluctant to read would find these engaging and enjoyable. There will be six shorts total (all about 15,000 words give or take) in this series. They are all interconnected like TV episodes in a season of a show.

So far the project has been a ton of fun. It has also been extremely challenging. None of us had stories written ahead of time, so we’re all writing on a month-to-month deadline. Combining that with the day job, life, and the edits for other projects that I have coming out this year have kept me very busy. That’s ok though, that’s what being a writer is all about. Writing, even when you don’t really have the time.

The Into the West series is full of Wild West adventures, including horses, cute cowboys, real gunslingers, silver mines and a paranormal twist (because I wrote it and I can’t write anything without a hint of fantasy in it.)

Westward, Yo! came out on March 8th and Range Feud will be out today, the 12th. They are available in the US and the UK from Amazon and other ebook retailers. You can find the descriptions of both below.

And because I’m super excited that Suzanne had me here, I’d like to give away a copy of both Westward, Yo! and Range Feud to one lucky commenter. Please leave us some way to contact you. We’ll draw a winner on the 19th. Contest open internationally.

Into the West
Tina Harker is a typical teenager. She loves hanging with her friends at the malls, shoes, and manicures. More than that, she loves horses. Life is everything she wants it to be, until her father packs their family up and drags them across the world to Arizona. Does he really think she’ll be happy living in a ghost town in the middle of the desert? It’s a million miles to the nearest shopping center, not even a real mall. Her only hope for survival is finding a new horse.

Tina is no quitter. She prepares herself for western saddles, rattlesnakes, the horrible desert heat, and limited shopping. However, nothing can prepare her for Wild West bandits, cattle thieves, and a really cute cowboy. Maybe things won’t be so bad—or will they?

#1Westward, Yo! (Into the West)
Trying to make the best of her horrible situation, Tina agrees to go on her first cattle drive. When one of the calves wanders off, Tina, in true cowgirl fashion and looking for excitement, rides off to rescue the poor little thing and gets a lot more adventure than she ever expected. A cowboy she’s never met accuses her of stealing cows, bandits kidnap her, and that’s not even the exciting part.

#2 Range Feud
Tina Harker is a typical teenager. She loves hanging with her friends at the malls, shoes, and manicures. More than that, she loves horses. Life is everything she wants it to be, until her father packs their family up and drags them across the world to Arizona. Does he really think she’ll be happy living in a ghost town in the middle of the desert? It’s a million miles to the nearest shopping center, not even a real mall. Her only hope for survival is finding a new horse.

Anxious for more adventure, Tina agrees to inspect the fence line for the Taggarts like a real cowgirl. She gets what she wished for. This time she has to rescue the cute cowboy, and she finds out people will kill over water. Especially in the desert. Tina is determined to help her cowboy, but she has no idea how a Jersey girl can stand up to real gunslingers.

Bio
Julie writes fantasy novels. When she’s not out riding her horse, she can usually be found sitting in front of her computer with a cat on her lap and her dog at her side. You can find out at her website www.writerjacampbell.com

How to enter:

Leave a comment for Julie!

Please leave a way to contact you (email in comment: Please remember to replace @ with [at] to forestall spam - or your twitter name - no way to contact you - no entry).

Giveaway is international, chosen by Random.org, and closes end of day (GMT time) 19th April 2011.

And while you're here, don't forget to go enter this week's celebratory giveaway on the blog for Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris.

Please note: My usual blog policy is that I try to reply to all comments on the blog, but for ease of admin I won't be replying to any comments made on any of the giveaway posts during the 16 weeks. Sorry, but it makes it much harder to sort out the winner. However I do read and enjoy all the comments, and will, of course, continue to reply to comments on any other post, so if you have a question for me, leave it on one of those, thank you :-)

x/posted to LJ. Comment here or there. One entry per person.