Free Download Promo - A Howl in the Night.

It’s Coming!  It’s Coming!  You’ll never guess, never ever, so I will just have to tell you.  On July 1, 2012 and July 2, 2012, I will be offering the ebook version of, A Howl in the Night, for FREE!  Yes, you read that correctly, FREE. 

How do you get your free ebook?  It’s easy, just go to amazon, hunt up my book on July 1-2, 2012, and download it, for free.  I will even give you a link because I’m so nice:  A Howl in the Night

How can this be?  How can I be giving away my book for free?  Well there are some strings attached to this free book.  There are always strings right?  Don’t worry.  They are little ones, I promise.  I am only asking that you tell the world about your purchase.  You know, go to FB and post about it, shoot out a tweet to the tweet-iverse.  When you update your blog, mention it with links and/or photos.  That’s not too hard right? 

Now for the ones that are feeling inspired, you can head over to goodreads.com and post your review.  You don’t even have to say anything if you are in a hurry, just post your rating.  Well…unless you hated it, then you can skip the rating… 

Because I want to make this as simple as possible for everyone, here are a few FB posts and tweets you can just copy and paste right in (see I have thought of everything).

FACEBOOK:

Check out the FREE DOWNLOAD! July 1-2, 2012. A Howl in the Night, by Courtney Rene: http://www.amazon.com/A-Howl-Night-ebook/dp/B008D2ZDH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340223652&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Howl+in+the+Night+by+Courtney+Rene 

Looking for a new read!  Check out the FREE DOWNLOAD of A Howl in the Night by Courtney Rene on July 1-2, 2012:  http://www.amazon.com/A-Howl-Night-ebook/dp/B008D2ZDH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340223652&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Howl+in+the+Night+by+Courtney+Rene 

TWITTER:

FREE July 1-2, 2012:  YA Paranormal:  A Howl in the Night, by Courtney Rene:  Please RT! http://www.amazon.com/A-Howl-Night-ebook/dp/B008D2ZDH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340223652&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Howl+in+the+Night+by+Courtney+Rene

Did I Say FREE? YA Paranormal:  A Howl in the Night, by Courtney Rene: http://www.amazon.com/A-Howl-Night-ebook/dp/B008D2ZDH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340223652&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Howl+in+the+Night+by+Courtney+Rene  Please RT!

Fun YA Paranormal FREE download:  YA Paranormal:  A Howl in the Night, by Courtney Rene:  http://www.amazon.com/A-Howl-Night-ebook/dp/B008D2ZDH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340223652&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Howl+in+the+Night+by+Courtney+Rene.  Please RT!

Or feel free to go to my twitter page:  and retweet any of my posts or posts from others.  Go ahead, you can do it!

AND...

Don’t forget, I’m an author with Kindlegraph.  If you would like your ebook autographed, just click on the link to the right and request it. It’s free. 

One more thing before I go for the week:

This is your reminder that the Release Party for: A Howl in the Night will be held this Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at P.J.’s Pizza in Sunbury.  If you need directions or more information, let me know. 

There will be pizza, soda, cupcakes and more.  Plus as long as the shipping Gods play nice, I will have copies of not only A Howl in the Night for purchase, but also Shadow Dancer and Shadow Warrior.

Come out and say hello.  I would love for you to stop by!

ctny

A Howl in the Night - Release!

***Updated 6/21/2012***

Guess what everyone?  This is release week for A Howl in the Night!  Woo Hoo!  The official release date is June 20, 2012.  No worries, I will post links everywhere as soon as the book is up and available. 

I am very excited for this release.  It’s a story of friendship, young love, control, power, and best of all, werewolves. 

As I have mentioned before, this is not the usual story of “Oh no!  I’m a werewolf. Whatever shall I do?” But instead it’s a “Wow!  I’m a werewolf.  This is so cool,” story.  Is this an offshoot of me?  Of course it is!  I personally think being a werewolf that could control when they shifted, would be so awesome.  The strength, the power, the fierce instincts, oh yes, that would be extremely fun. Can you just imagine? 

There is not, tear your face off, violence in this book.  It really is a coming of age story with a paranormal twist.  Add in a love triangle, two warring families, one headstrong girl, and you have the fun, romp in the woods story, that A Howl in the Night, is. 

This book will be available in both print and ebook options at:

Amazon.com - Amazon Link 

BarnesandNoble.com - Not yet posted.  They are a bit slow though.

Roguephoenixpress.com - RPP Link to POD  and Release link:  Release Link

One more thing before I go for the week.  Look way up at the top of your screen….No, not there, at the top where the blogsite address is.  Do you see my brand new, self created, and uploaded, favicon (the little purple box with the Ctny in it)? 

How cute is that? 

Thanks to my loyal and tech-nerd friend, Carrie, who explained what it was, and how to create, I now get to join the ranks of the personalized favicon few.  Yes, it did come with a few frustrations, as sadly I am actually not all that techie (at ALL), but in the end, I pulled it off.  What do you think? 

Have a great week everyone.  Check back later this week and I will have working links posted as to where to see, purchase, gift, whatever, my new book.  Yay!

ctny

Ahhhh, Summer.

School’s out, school’s out, teacher let the monkeys out…

Ah yes that lovely refrain of old.  The best day of the year, was the last day of school.  No more teachers, no more homework, you got to sleep in as late as you wanted, and stay up as late as you could.  MTV was the place to be, and Atari 2800 was the system to be playing (Pac Man!).  Summer.  I loved summer. 

Days spent at the pool, actually swimming, not trolling for guys. Running amok around town, buying 100 pieces of $.01 candy, such as tootsie rolls and butterscotch hard candies.  Creeking for crawdads, frogs, and turtles and screaming like the child you were when you actually found one.  Stealing first kisses with David P. across the street and being shy afterward.  Hmm, I wonder where he is today…..  The neighborhood games of hide and seek.  Every kid on the block would play and you had the entire street to hide in.  Fence walking.  Roof jumping.  Willow swinging.  Kids everywhere and every one of them friends.  The streetlights would come on and you knew it was time for you and every other kid to go home for the night.  Rainy days were spent lonely inside, waiting, hoping, praying for the sun to come out as no kids were allowed in houses without an adult home and no adults were ever home during the day.  It was great. 

Now?  Summers are not the same.  Kids are stuck locked inside to keep them safe and then we activity them to death.  I am sadly finding myself one of these parents this year.  Not the locked inside part, but the activity part. 

My oldest now is working, and working about 30+ hours a week, plus she is spending time at the barn riding and stall cleaning, and don’t forget the rest of her time going to movies with friends and hanging out.  I never see the girl except at night when she is sleeping. Or if I am lucky enough to catch her awake she is a grouch.  I fear it’s going to be a long summer with my almost 17 year old. 

My little one (okay 10 is not exactly little but…) she is a would-be dancer.  This summer she is taking on Ballroom/Salsa/Latin dance.  This was supposed to be our only dance commitment this year, but that is not what happened.  She has decided that she is ready to try out for competition dance this fall.  I was hoping to wait one more year.  Alas, that is not to be.  So that means we had to also take the summer dance classes at the studio where she dances.  This consists of three days a week of ballet.  Okay fine.  I can make that work.  Then, we have softball.  Oh yes, we had to add in a sport too.  Cause, well cause I’m a glutton for punishment apparently.  Add in another two or three days a week of practice and games and taaa daaaa you have one tired Seren and Courtney. 

When we are home all we want to do is lay around and be lazy.  No bon fires, no smores, no flashlight tag, no backyard sleepovers, just tired parents and kids.  What have we done to our summer people? 

This year, I still plan on trying to get my family out and about and doing some of the free things in life that are wonderful.  Park walking, lightening bug catching, fishing, and walking, and biking, and just having real fun.  Not activity fun.  Not sports fun.  Just plain ole seat of your pants, no real plan of action, spur of the moment fun. 

Now I just need to find the energy to do this.  It’s here somewhere.  Maybe I left it in the fridge from last year…

Tag! You're it....er...I'm it.

So.  I have been tagged.  But it’s a fun tag so, I decided I would play along.  I’m quirky like that.  Okay, so, onward with the game of Q&A Tag. Thank you Carrie.  No worries I have gotten you a time or two, so I guess it was just payback time eh?

You have to make up 11 questions when you pass this on, so here are the questions of Carrie (it even has a theme!): 

Theme: Would you rather (and please explain ‘why’, if you can):

1.                  Be 20-feet tall OR 1-foot tall?

I vacillated back and forth and back and forth on this one.  I thought I would want to be big, but then I would squish all that was important to me and then most likely unintentionally hurt the others that I wanted to pet.  So, I have decided that being 1 foot tall wouldn’t’ be too bad.  Heck, I’ve been that once before in my life, and I obviously lived through it.  Plus I think the perspective from that size would be fun. 

2.                  Lose your marbles OR both feet?

I say loose my marbles.  I wouldn’t be bothered by it as I wouldn’t realize I had lost them.  Yes it would be harder on my family and friends, but you know, sometimes it is all about ME. 

3.                  Get trapped on a tiny, deserted island for infinity with Steven Seagal OR Mickey Mouse?

Lord, neither is a good options here.  I guess Mickey Mouse, as at least I could grab the little buggar and stuff him in a tree to shut him up, whereas Steven Seagal could kick my butt before I even had a plan of attack in action. 

4.                  Have a head shaped like a Chihuahua OR a giant raisin?

The mental pictures I have of this are interesting.  A giant raisin.  I could try to cover up the wrinkles and such with a good hair style. 

5.                  Have the ability to leap over tall buildings OR walk on water?

Leap over buildings!  This would be close to flying and who doesn’t want to fly.  Plus I wouldn’t’ want to get compared to another water walker that I know of.  It just doesn’t do any good to try to compete with some people, ya know?

Start your life over with what you know now OR move to a hospitable intergalactic planet with peaceful aliens?

Start over with what I now know.  Most of the things I wouldn’t change, but some mistakes and oopsies I could do without. 

6.                  Eat peanut-butter and crispy-cooked cricket sandwiches OR strawberry ice-cream sprinkled with squirming maggots?

Crispy cooked cricket sandwiches.  They are at least dead and not wiggling around.  Barf!

7.                  Turn invisible for one, solid year OR grow clown feet every day at noon, for 30 minutes, for the rest of your life?

Thirty minutes of silly fun would be worth it.  I don’t want to miss a year in my life being invisible.  I love the idea of invisibility but not for a period of time like that.

8.                  Share a tent for the night with Dracula OR a tarantula spider?

Yee!  Tarantula.  I know you are all very surprised right?  Well I figure I could move around the tent for a night and keep away from a spider, but I don’t think I am strong enough to hold off a bloodsucker for an entire night.  I’ll take my chances with the bug.

9.                  Travel back in time Dr Who style to the Jurassic (T-Rex eatin’) period OR travel forward 100 years?

Backwards baby!  I don’t want to be around for the future.  It looks rather dim.  I’ll take my chances with the dinos.  I can run and hide from that type of destruction.  Not sure I can run fast enough or hide well enough for the future of the world right now. 

10.             Have webbed hands and feet OR an extra eye on your forehead?

Webbed hands and feet.  Can you imagine how fast of a swimmer you would be.  Awesome! 

So I had to come up with my own 11 questions pass on.  I also chose the theme “Would you Rather” as it was a fun and entertaining idea.  Here you go tagg’ees.  You have to give the “why” to your answers too, otherwise it’s not as fun. 

1.                  Would you rather meet Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny?

2.                  Be bitten to death by a mosquito or a snake?

3.                  Be too fat or too skinny?

4.                  Be too smart or too dumb?

5.                  Have 10 girls or 10 boys as children.  Not all at once just total. 

6.                  Be put in the foster system or live with a drug-addicted parent (this does not mean abusive)?

7.                  Live on an island or in the mountains.  Either place having few if any inhabitants.

8.                  Die in a plane crash or by sinking of boat?

9.                  Lose all your teeth or lose your eyesight.

10.             Have a jaguar or a wolf (not a hybrid) as a pet.

11.             Live forever or live until only 25.  You think this is easy?  This is really a question of die before all your loved ones or watch all your loved ones die.  See?  Not so easy is it?

There you have it everyone.  Post the link to your responses in a comment or just in a comment itself.  Either is fine with me. 

Taggee’s are as follow:

Allyn

Denise

Kim

Becca

Have a great week!

ctny

The Tree House Craze

It started off as just a simple quip.  “Think daddy would build me a tree house?”  The roller coaster that one question started you would not believe. But…the stuff I have found is absolutely amazing. 

First we have the kids tree houses.  I was thinking, a square structure with a window, a door, a rope ladder, and a regular ladder.  Sounds good to me.  I would be wrong and apparently quite antiquated in my ideas of a tree house.  Take for instance:

http://www.barbarabutler.com/

Seriously?  These tree houses are better than my HOUSE!  Look at some of these:

Now this site then lead me to:

http://www.treehouses.org/design.php

And from there to here:

http://www.treehouses.com/treehouse/treesort/home.html

The best find however, and I suggest you take the time to visit them is:

http://freshome.com/2008/01/08/top-8-most-amazing-tree-houses/

These are my favorites. 

I am thinking about trading in my 3 bedroom, 2 bath, ranch for this one.  My daughter wont need a tree house of her own, she can just share mine!

Swiss Family Robinson here I come! 

ctny

Mother's Day - The Worst List!

So Mother’s Day is officially over.  With it came list after list of the WORST Mother’s Day Gifts across the nation and I got such kick out of reading them that I compiled my favorites out of all the lists and my reasons why they are definitely on the WORST gift list ever. 

10.  Mulch – Now I personally love getting mulch.  Birthdays or whenever I love mulch.  Not sure why this is on the worst list but maybe its because of the work involved with a delivery.  I guess I understand in that who wants to spend the one day of the year we are suppose to be pampered on our hands and knees spreading mulch by the truckload. 

9.   A Pet.  Nothing says, “Here, you don’t have enough to do with your time” than handing over a wiggly creature that not only needs love (the easy part) but also fed and watered and bathed and potty trained along with your children. 

8.   Fruit of the Month.  -  Now on the surface you are thinking:  Hey!  It’s free fruit and you love fruit.  Why is this a bad gift?  Because it’s a TON of fruit and not always the kind you like.  Plus it just keeps coming and coming and coming.  You are so overwhelmed in fruit that you start to hide every time you see the UPS guy.  You are tossing out rotten fruit every time you turn around.  Stop the madness!  No fruit!

7.   Bathroom Cleaning Supplies – The comments and posts from people that got toilet scrubbers was unreal.  Seriously guys?  When is this ever a good gift, let alone a Mother’s Day gift?  “Here, go clean the toilet” is what you are saying.  What is wrong with you people?

6.   Kitchen Appliances – I know, I know some people would LOVE to get a new refrigerator as a gift.  Not for Mother’s Day though if you ask me and apparently several other ladies.  We spend so much time in the kitchen as it is, do we need one more hint to get our butts in the kitchen and “Fix me something to eat” than having a new shinny fridge or stove staring us in the face, every time we walk by?  I don’t think so.  Or what about a new dish washer?  I don’t personally have a dishwasher.  I don’t get the draw of one as it is.  You have to wash off your dishes in order to have a machine wash them for you?  Why not just wash them yourself and be done?  Anyway, I digress.  Cleaning supplies in general, not a good idea as a gift to show how much you appreciate the mothers in your life.

5.   Automobile items – OF ANY TYPE.  Does this need an explanation?  Most women would say no, but I will give one anyway.  Mother’s day is about MOTHERS.  We don’t generally give a rats patoot about the rims of our cars, the shine of our hood, or the oiling and protecting of our dash.  I’m not saying we don’t pay attention when we do have to break down and clean our cars, but we don’t want mother’s day to be a lesson on the proper care of our upholstery.  Thanks.  You want to help us out?  Clean and detail the car for us!  We would love that.  LOVE it. 

4.   Tools.  – Again OF ANY TYPE.  I can swing a hammer with the best of them (I know, go figure right?) but I don’t want one as a gift.  Nor do I want a weed eater, or sander, or a chainsaw.  Mother’s day is not an excuse to hit the SEARS or the Home Depot and pick out the latest and greatest toy that you want!  EVER.

3.   Lingerie – Really?  This made the top 10 lists everywhere. All I can say is EW!  Unless you have a different relationship that I do with my mother, I am pretty sure this is the most inappropriate gift out there to buy for mothers.  For all you Dads that go out and buy gifts for moms from their children, I am pretty sure I never have and never ever will buy my mom panties.  Icky.  What is wrong with people? (I seem to be asking this question a lot lately).

2.   Self Help Book – Not sure what to say on this one except, this doesn’t really come across as saying:  “Mom I love you just the way you are…except you may want to work on __________.”  We love our moms. Yes they have issues and some are nuts as hell, but rubbing their nose in their imperfections or things you deem to be imperfections is not quite saying that.

And the #1 worst gift to give on Mother’s Day….

1.   A membership to a gym or a diet plan – Hey mom, I know you gave birth to 3 kids, and that you have done everything for us and loved us unconditionally all our lives, buuuuut, you have put on a bit of weight and MAN.  You gotta do something about it.  I mean your ass is the size of truck.  Don’t you see it back there?  I decided to take your health into hand and buy you a 6 months membership into Jenny Craig.  I expect results now.  This was not cheap.  I want you down to a size 2 by Thanksgiving or you know what your Christmas gift is going to be?

I personally had a lovely Mother’s Day.  I got a bouquet of Tulips, which are my favorite, along Starbucks Coffee.  For dinner, I didn’t have to cook, as my husband went and picked up KFC.  I spent the day with my girls and my husband and all in all it was a nice day.  What more can you ask for really? 

How was your weekend everyone?  Can you top any of the worst on my list? 

ctny

A Monday in the Life of Me.

A Day in the Life of Me – Courtney Rene

I am a writer.  You already knew that right?  Well I am also a wife, and mother, and employee, and daughter, and sister, and aunt, and, and, and…..  One of the big questions I get asked (all the time) is when do you write?  How do you find the time?  On any given day, that answer changes. 

Today, right now, this is how I find the time.  It’s Monday, so that means I am up at the butt crack of dawn to make sure that my oldest daughter makes it out the door to school on time, which is a still dark 6:45 a.m.  I drag my bleary eyed myself, with my still warm afghan to the couch, where I promptly flop down and pretend to watch the news, actually I am dozing.  I never once said I was a morning person.  Ever.  I hear my daughter making all sorts of noise so I continually peel open my eyes to check the clock.  At 7:00 I get up and say, “You leaving?”  The snarled reply I usually get is “I’m working on it.”  By 7:05, I am pacing around her door, being spritz’d with gallons of PINK perfume and Suave hairspray until the girl is finally ready at 7:10 (usually).  She grabs her bag, flies by me with a quick, “Bye!  Love Ya!  I’ll text you when I get there.” Then she is out the door and I think, “One down….”

My husband heads out usually right after and the house is quiet…for a moment.  At this point I hop in the shower, with my cell phone on the counter as I wait to hear the ‘ding ding ding’ of a text saying my daughter made it safe to school.  Having a new teen driver is harder than I thought it would be.  After I am dressed, hair still wrapped in a towel, I go and tickle my little one out of her own warm cushy bed.  I haul her to my room, where she quickly snuggled down into my bed and turns on the tv.  I grab her clothes and toss them on her head.  I head out of the room to the kitchen usually yelling, “Get dressed while I make you something to eat!”  The bad mommy that I am, this will consist of toast with any number of toppings, bagels, English muffins, yogurt, cereal, quick muffins, instant oatmeal, or a pop-tart.  Rare occasions you get an egg or pancakes, or French toast, or waffles.  Usually, though, nope. 

While the breakfast is “cooking” I put away the clean dishes, do a quick re-pickup, and counter wipe and run downstairs to toss a load of laundry in the wash.  While Seren is eating, I do my hair, then her hair, which is 3 feet long…maybe more at this point.  Tv is off, beds are made, dogs are fed, lunches are packed, and we are finally out the door.

Seren is dropped off at school, I then head to work.  I will not drone on about how hard my work is.  It’s work, it’s not suppose to be fun.  I check email all day….I do.  I need to stop doing that, but it’s a habit.  Then I get an hour for lunch.  I use this hour for research and administrative stuff, which surprisingly there is a TON of admin crap when you are a writer.  Who knew?  Some days I will hit the library.  There are 3 that are right by my office.  Or I just hit google.  After that I will do my emailing, blogging, updating, whatever I can squeeze in, in an hours worth of time all while oinking down my lunch.  Then, I get back to work. 

After work, it’s pick-up the little one from after-school care, run home, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, do Seren’s hair again, up in a firm bun this time, and it’s off to dance class where I have another whole hour of quiet time.  Yup, you guessed it.  Writing time…..

After dance, it’s home again, bath time, laundry time, house pick-up time, and then bed time for one child, and then an hour later, its bed time for the other.  It’s 10:00….do you know where your children are?  I do, both of mine are finally in bed and quiet.  I open up my laptop; sit down in my office (Oh all right!  My dining room table), plug in my ipod, and I am zoned for as long as I can keep my eyes open, writing, and creating. 

Some days this is for a short half an hour.  Sometimes it’s till after midnight.  That….right there is how I “find” the time.  It’s all I can do.  I won’t give up my time with the girls or my husband and I can’t give up my paying job (I so wish!), but writing is important to me so I take time, make time, from myself.  Yes, I don’t get as much sleep some days as I would like, but it’s worth it to me.  I am a writer.  It’s what I do.

(Sorry everyone, my photos would not post from this computer, so I will try to post from my laptop once I get home tonight).

ctny