Writings, Workouts, and Were-Jaguars: Cover reveal of THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS by Cassandra Marshall and a GIVEAWAY!

¡Bienvenidos, dear bloggers! While the temperature is still in the 100s, summer has come to end here in the Casa de Shiela. Kids are back in school, using a blanket at night again, and we've even had the first school virus snake its way home. I had some great summer writing adventures, including new friends I met at WriteOnCon, an online (FREE!) writers conference. If you missed it, mark it for next year - it was amazing! But more on that later. For now, I'd like to introduce you to one of these new friends, Cassandra Marshall, and her new book, THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS.

Alison Arroway takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. She has to, or she won’t get paid. Alison is a stunt double for pampered teen actress Pomegranate and when the director takes the shoot to Portugal, Alison is anything but thrilled to be rooming with Pom. But getting to hang around teen hearthrob Erik? Now that’s a plus.

Erik invites both girls on a sunset boat trip and Alison manages to have a decent time. Until the storm hits and the boat is shipwrecked on a small island, leaving Erik missing and the boat captain dead.

In the morning light, Alison and Pom find themselves on the lost island of Atlantis. Only one problem: now that the girls know the secret of the island, the Atlanteans don’t want them to leave. They're stuck with corsets, full-skirted dresses, and the strange steam-driven contraptions that are just a way of life for the islanders.

When a plot by the ruthless army Captain to take over the island and declare himself General over all emerges, an underground group promises to return the girls to the mainland if they can help stop him. They'll go through a mountain, literally, to find the Book of Blue, a book that will explain how to make ‘the stars fall sideways' in order to save the day and earn their freedom.

THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS, a YA Steampunkish fantasy, coming October 1st from MolliePup Press!

I read Cassandra's query and first five pages at writeoncon, and was impressed with not just her story, but her writing as well. She drew me right in. I love stories about Hollywood types, especially the unknowns like stunt women. Combine this with a steampunky Atlantis, and I'm all in!

And it only gets better: Cassandra Marshall is giving away a signed pre-order of THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS! To enter, visit each of the blogs below to find special inside info about THE STARS FELL SIDEWAYS and Cassandra Marshall. The special inside info for this blog is: "After Alison and Pom arrive on the island, they have to spend a week in seclusion so that they don't bring sickness to the island. This actually happened to a lot of tribes in the Amazon Rainforest who were wiped out by the common cold." Be sure to visit all of the blogs to find all of the insider info and then visit thestarsfellsideways.com to enter to win a signed pre-order! You can gain additional entries by sharing links to the cover reveals!

Here's a list of all participants and links to their blogs: