Young Adult Giveaway Hop

(This giveaway just ended. Thank you for the many entries. The winner has been chosen and will be contacted very soon.)

Welcome to another great giveaway hop hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, and BookLove101. Please click on either one of those links for MANY more chances to win free stuff.

The Prize choices:

One winner will receive the Kindle, Nook, or Kobo eBook copy of Fair Maiden. (Fair Maiden has not been available for Nook or Kobo for three months, so if you're eager to read this one, this is your chance.)

~Or~

If you don't have an eReader yet... then you may choose a handmade beaded bookmark made by me. It will be something like one of the bookmarks in the picture below, and shipped to you for free.

P.S. (You must have an account with Amazon, Kobo, or Nook to accept the eBook prize. USA only for eBook. HOWEVER, I will open the bookmark up to my international readers.)

To Enter:
Simply follow my blog via GFC or email subscription and fill out the form at the bottom of this post so I know who to contact if you win.

(Click on the pic to see the bookmarks in greater detail.)


Synopsis:

It's the Victorian era in England, but Tessa is from the medieval past. She awakens within a castle she has never seen before. Knowledge of her name also evades her. However, even worse than not knowing who or where she is, she cannot recall how she died or why she is dressed as a bride.

Along with Christian, the earl of the castle she haunts, Tessa tries to discover who she is and break the spell holding her in a prison of death. They never imagined the curse keeping them apart is the only thing protecting her, until it's too late.

Review by Keni:
"This book is so great. I always enjoy a little bit of mystery in my novels, especially since Sherlock Holmes is my superhero. And there is plenty of mystery in Fair Maiden. There's also romance, fantasy, and a chivalrous Earl named Christian. This book is perfect for the little girl in all of us, and also perfect for the more mature side of us. I can promise that i will be one of the first to recommend this book to everyone and anyone i know who can appreciate a well written and gorgeous love story. In fact, this is so book is so extraordinary, i'm dropping what i'm reading now and picking this up. So, if you need me, i'll be curled up with a blanket, a cup of hot cocoa, and an absolutely amazing novel called Fair Maiden by the wonderful Cheri Schmidt."

Thanks for visiting my blog and good luck!

YA Indie Carnival ~ Blast From The Past and Forever Excerpt

I have the children off to school...so now I can do my post. :)

Our theme this week is about sharing our high school writings with you. Sorry, folks, I don't have any of that because I was more into art and photography back then. My past writings just don't exist any longer. But, art is still very important to me, and it's a huge reflection of who I was in high school. So today, I would like to share some of that with you.

In Fateful, a drawing like this is described:

      "Creating another sad painting, she decided it made her feel a little better. But only a little. This time a distraught fairy emerged from her pencil. The little sprite sat curled up under a brown mushroom, her arms wrapped around her bent legs, her cheek resting on her knees, and desperate tears trickled down her tiny cheeks. Even her little wings drooped sadly. Danielle understood how she felt as she filled the fairy in with the wash of soft watercolors."

As you can see, the description was based on a real piece I'd created. This was a very sad time for me. Obviously, I didn't have the same reason Danielle did for creating it, but I had been betrayed by a very close friend. I'm pretty sure I was crying as I drew and then painted it. I do feel very close to this sad little fairy because of that, and she will be framed and hung in my new home.

Here is another just for your viewing pleasure. This one hasn't been painted yet:

If you hadn't noticed, I love fairies and they have made their way into all of my finished writings so far. I don't expect that they will be in everything I write.... If you don't like fairies, then don't read the Fateful Trilogy.

In the very near future, just in time for Christmas, I plan on opening an Etsy store where you can purchase handmade items that relate to my books. These things will include: replica art, like the one above, replica jewelry, like Danielle wears in the story, bookmarks, and even an apron like Sophia's.

Of course my top priority is finishing Forever...so to treat my readers who are waiting patiently, here is another excerpt:

Chapter Two

The Things of Nightmares

“What do they eat?” Danielle asked tucking her feet beneath her and setting her untouched plate of cake on the nightstand next to the bed. She couldn’t stomach even chocolate right now. Werewolves were creepy enough and now Lucas was one of them? If they were like wolves it might not be so bad, but these things were nightmarishly frightening with distorted human faces semi-cloaked beneath a wicked-looking mask of a beast. A shudder rolled up her spine and she looked at Ethan to see if he’d noticed.

Apparently he hadn’t. He seemed really distracted, like he had the weight of dark and wicked things on his shoulders. A little sigh blew past her lips, because he probably did. Staring straight ahead like he was, she could see his profile perfectly. His golden eyebrows were drawn low over his straight nose. Wire-rimmed glasses were perched there and Danielle’s mouth wanted to smile at how handsomely adorable he was with them on. She preferred him this way, slightly blind, and completely normal.... But her smile never made it to her lips because his mouth was pursed with deep thoughts—thoughts that were likely tormenting his peace of mind. His usually calm, blue-eyed gaze reflected the distress within. Again she wondered if he regretted the return to weak-mortal-ness, even though he’d been the one to first partake of the candy before prompting her to follow. He dragged a hand through his blond hair which needed a trim and hung into his eyes until he pushed it back. After a long pause, Ethan finally answered her question. “During a full moon? Flesh ... probably.”

“You don’t know for sure?” she asked, trying not to let what he just said totally freak her out.

His eyes shifted to hers. “No. Their kind is even more reclusive than fairies are.”

Danielle turned away from the upsetting things she could see within his expression, and nudged the plate of cake out of the way as she reached for her tea. Maybe that would help settle her stomach, because it was churning at the idea of Lucas with a whole mouthful of pointy teeth instead of just a pair of fangs. He’d been scary enough as a vampire, and now he was something she knew very little about. A sip of creamy peach liquid filled her mouth and then slid down her throat as she swallowed. “Then how can we fight them?” she asked. Danielle decided the tea was helping a little and took another sip, watching the little rosebud painted inside it disappear as she rocked the cup level again.

“It doesn’t seem like they can do anything to vampires. We’ve fought them before, as you know, and none of us were affected adversely. I suppose it could be due to the fact that the curses were placed by different sorceresses.”

“Hmm,” she murmured as she drank, again watching for the pink rosebud with green leaves inside her cup.

“I love watching you do that.”

Startled by the sudden change in topic she looked at Ethan, who was smiling. “Do what?”

“Watch for the flower.” When she wrinkled her brow at him, confused, he added, “The one inside your teacup.”

While rounding, her eyes swung back as the flower in question disappeared halfway below the liquid line. “You noticed I do that?” Had she even noticed she did that?

He popped a few pieces of popcorn in his mouth and said around it, “I noticed that, and the fact that you’re not really paying any attention to the picture.”

With eyes returning to the television, she figured it had been playing for a while and she had no idea what was going on. Is that what he’d been so focused on earlier? Somehow she doubted it. On a sigh she said, “I need to know more about them, more about what to expect from Lucas now.”

Until next time, my friends! But before you leave, check out my other amazing YA Carnival friends:

1. Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series
2. Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3. Heather Self
4. T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5. Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
6. Darby Karchut, author of GRIFFIN RISING
7. Lexus Luke
8. PJ Hoover, Author of SOLSTICE, Blogging at ROOTS IN MYTH
9. Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
10. Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog
11. K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
12. Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series
13. Courtney Cole, author of The Bloodstone Saga
14. Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
15. Dani Snell's Refracted Light Reviews
16. Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey
17. M. Leighton, Blood Like Poison Series, Madly, The Reaping
18. Abbi Glines, author of Breathe and The Vincent Boys
19. Kimberly Kinrade, Bits of You & Pieces of Me, Forbidden Mind
20. Madeline Smoot, Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls
21. Cidney Swanson, author of Rippler
22. Nicole Williams, author of Eternal Eden, Falling Eden
23. Gwenn Wright, author of Filter

Bloggers I like and a heartfelt thank you to my readers.

First the bloggers: Joe Konrath and John Locke

My husband found both of these blogs and, in truth, I rarely read them myself. But my husband does and he tells me what he’s read since I’ve been too busy writing to have time for that. This is one post he shared with me that I’d like to share with you:

John’s logical and comforting look at bad reviews...

Next, good reviews I received and LOVE...Thanks again for posting them. Good reviews really help me out and I’m deeply grateful to the many kind and loyal readers for taking the time to post them. ~Hugs~ (If you've read and loved any of my books but haven't reviewed them yet, please do! You'll make my day a happy one. ;)

All I can say is I love this book! It pulled me in quickly, and I instantly fell in love with Ethan. He is one of the most likeable characters to be introduced in a long time. Dare I compare his likeability to Edward Cullen? I loved Cheri Schmidt's writing style. I finished this book in a day because I couldn't put it down, and I can't wait to start the next one. ~Christine

I can relate to Danielle in the book because I am a huge Mr. Darcy fan and let’s say you get 14 days with lend me and I read it and stayed up all night.... One of my absolute favorite reads... ~Courtney W

Yes, it sounds similar to Twilight, but it’s actually got an original take on vampires. The only similarity is that Ethan is a vampire and Danielle is not. I liked Schmidt’s take on vampires, I thought it was more believable and I liked that there was some hope that they could maybe change. It made it more believable that there would be good vampires, etc. I also really liked that both Ethan and Danielle not only had high standards, but they also believed marriage was a positive thing. ~Kathy

This book really surprised me! I went in with fairly low expectations, thinking this would be a Twilight knock-off, but in many ways Fateful was actually better than Twilight! Now, when I first read Twilight it was the very first vampire romance book I'd ever read and that was why it blew me away and I loved it. Since then I've read MANY YA books and paranormal romance books and have come to the conclusion that Twilight pretty much sucked. Now on to Fateful. I really liked the twist the author put on vampirism...that it's a curse that could possibly be broken.
I liked Ethan very much, he was realistic and I enjoyed his and Danielle's relationship. Danielle was interesting too. With a black belt in karate, she was no push-over weakling! Overall, I was very impressed and cannot wait to pick up the sequel right now. ~Jaimie

I really enjoyed this book. I wanted to be Danielle. She made me feel like I was living the fairytale that we all dream about as little girls. ~Anna

Okay, a lot of reviews keep going on about how the book is so similar to Twilight. Before I buy a book I mostly read a few reviews so when I started reading, this was constantly on my mind. But really, after a few chapters it became obvious that this is an amazing story, and that it isn’t the same as twilight.... But now enough about twilight and more about Fateful. The story is really well written, the characters are really nice and likeable. I’m not going to tell you anything about the story and especially not about the end of the book, just be prepared to be surprised, in a good way of course. The story is really sweet, there’s a lot of romance going on, but I like the fact that there’s some action too. The story just keeps you going until you’ve finished the whole book. I would really recommend this book, Cheri Schmidt is an amazing author. ~Carolien

I loved this book. I went and bought the sequel before I was even halfway through this book because I knew I would have to start reading it the second I was done with this one and I didn't want to be caught somewhere without internet (for my kindle). I loved how well the characters were developed, I wanted Danielle as a best friend. I found myself rooting the whole book the mail characters could be together. I loved all the twists and turns in the plot as well. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a good fantasy romance to read. ~Sheena

I stumbled upon fateful by accident and I am so glad I did!! What a great series and very well written! Do you have a estimated date for the release of forever? I hope sooner than later as I can't wait to read what happens. I have been reading books here and there but none that got me hooked right away in a while. I know sequels usually are not as great as the first but fractured is just as amazing as fateful! Keep up the great job! :) ~Sharon D

And then two great reviews from Confessions of a Book Junkie. I love the look of her blog as well as her well-rounded and honest take on books.

Fictional people, real places - Van Kampen Gardens

Guest post by Cheri's husband....

So Cheri is very busy trying to get the 2nd book of the Fateful series, Fractured, released as well as finish the cover for both Fractured and Fair Maiden. As such, I'm going to take this opportunity to give you a bit of background on some of the factual places in Cheri's fictional book Fateful.


Like most books the people in Cheri's books are fictional but they are placed in real places, or at least environments based on real places, though probably tweaked by her imagination. In Chapter 4 of Fateful we are introduced to a place called Van Kampen Gardens.

To tell this story we'll go back to April of 2009. It was our 20th Anniversary and Cheri dreamed of going to England. With a large collection of frequent flyer miles and hotel credits from my business travels we cashed them in and spent two wonderful weeks travelling all over England.


Cheri was finished with Fateful, which was written some time in 07-08, and was looking for an agent or publisher. She had studied this garden remotely over the internet and we purposely picked this as a stop on our trip. This is a beautiful Garden. Unfortunately for us spring had not yet sprung so while the garden was beautiful, it had not fully bloomed.


Just as there is in the book there is a huge wisteria arch that runs through the gardens. Yet as you can see below there were no blooms or green on it yet.




And of course there was a maze. This is the archway and door that lead to the start of the maze.





And of course there is a tower in the middle of the maze.






The area of the gardens is very flat. And from the tower you can see the entire garden and of course the entire maze.





The tower has a secret exit that runs under the maze and deposits you into a garden that is hidden and secluded.



We sort of wished that we could have seen the garden at it's peak. I'm sure we'll try to get back here some day.




We visited the gardens twice in as many days. We took over 400 pictures. For a final bit of trivia it is very probable that many of Cheri's ancestors knew of this place. And even a bit strange, Cheri didn't know she had so many ancestors who lived near here when she chose the location for her book. She only discovered the connection afterward.

Cheri's Great Grandfather was born near here in 1824. For over 180 years prior to that her ancestors called the surrounding area just west of this garden home. In fact, her 2nd Great Grandfather is buried only about 4 miles from this garden. As we visited the area we had to wonder what those ancestors knew of this place and wondered if they had any interaction with it.

If you haven't already picked up a copy of Fateful go get it while it's on sale for .99 cents. It will not be at the price forever....


In closing I just want to say thank you to all of you who have purchased Cheri's book. Keep an eye out for some new books within the next week or sooner. - Drew

Published!

PUBLISHED!!!

Fateful, the first in a 3 part series is published and available on Amazon.com as a Kindle download. I'd like to thank all those friends and associates who helped with editing, design, cover choices and most of all encouragement. I'm grateful to finally see this work complete.

If you don't have a Kindle don't worry. There are tons of free Kindle Apps. For example: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, iPad and Android. Follow this link to download a Kindle App.

In the future I will be posting versions for the Nook, iPad and eventually printed copies as well. Of course iPad users can currently use the Kindle App for iPad.

So - - if you are ready to buy it - - here is the link!

Website Updates

FAIR MAIDEN GHOST is complete and a sequel is in the works. Beginning with a magical masquerade and a kidnapping, THE TRAPPING CLUB is the tale of second sons as they struggle for survival in a society that leaves such forgotten. Those who’ve read the first book will be surprise to find that the hero of this next enchanting tale is the brother of the villain in FAIR MAIDEN GHOST, and the heroine will be a grown-up Emma....

I’ve also finished the sequel to FATEFUL, which is entitled FRACTURED. I can’t tell you much about it yet as I don’t wish to spoil the first if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading it. All I can say is that Ethan and Danielle’s struggle for survival intensifies while they sink deeper into the midst of this civil war amongst vampires. The fateful fairytale romance they once had will soon fracture under the pressure of the curse....