VBT: Waning Moon by P.J Sharon Guest Post: Why I write

I am thrilled to welcome P.J. Sharon to my blog today, I asked her to share the reasons that she writes with us.
This is also her book tour stop for today for her new book Waning Moon. PJ will be awarding an eBook copy of "Thin Ice" to one commenter at each stop and a $25 Amazon or BN GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Be sure to follow the tour, the more you comment the better your chances of winning. Dates and locations are HERE

BLURB:
In the year 2057, in a post-apocalyptic world where a global shift threatens the remainder of the population with extinction, sixteen-year-old genetically enhanced Lily Charmichael has more immediate problems. Her uncle is dying of cancer and her healing abilities are ineffective against the blood ties that bind them. In order to find a cure, Lily must leave the protection of her quiet town and journey into the trading city of Albany, all while avoiding the Industry, an agency that would like nothing better than to study and exploit her abilities.

Seventeen-year-old Will Callahan has been searching for his father since severe storms blasted through the Midwest, killing his mother and sister. When he learns that his father may be in the city, he catches a ride with Lily, a girl who has come to his rescue more than once. As the two embark on a dangerous journey, the attraction between them grows. But the secrets Will’s keeping could put her in far more danger than traveling to the city with him, and if he was any kind of man, he would have told her to run the minute she found him.
Buy Links for WANING MOON
Amazon e-book
B&N
Smashwords

Why I write…
I learned to read and write at a very young age. My grandfather who lived with us was like a nanny to me, teaching me all the important things in life while my parents both worked. Aside from learning to fold laundry and stand on my head, Gramps taught me reading, writing, and arithmetic long before I went off to kindergarten. When he wasn’t teaching me to cheat at cards, he would sit me on his lap and say “Tell me a story.” As I would make up these elaborate tales, with such catchy titles as, “The Old Man and the Little Girl,” he would help me write them down. I fell in love with words and would sit at the bottom of our stairs every morning with our ginormous Webster’s Dictionary looking up some new word I’d never heard before. Nerdy, I know, but being the youngest of seven children, I learned early on the power of language, both good and bad.

With the dysfunction and craziness of a household with seven kids, self-expression wasn’t really fostered in our home, the adage “children should be seen and not heard” coming to mind. So I buried myself in books and kept diaries as a way to escape the chaos around me. I loved Nancy Drew Mysteries as a child and had read all fifty-two of them by the end of third grade. I don’t remember what I read after that until I was a teenager and had developed a taste for suspense and horror stories by authors like V.C. Andrews, John Saul, and Stephen King. I also loved Judy Blume, and credit her for teaching me some of what I learned about romance and sex. Unfortunately, the family dynamics in my household wasn't conducive to taking that knowledge one step further and having anything close to frank discussions about birth control or relationships. I had to learn about those topics the hard way.

I continued to keep journals all through high school, chronicling all of my wild teen exploits, writing poetry, and crafting short stories, but after my mom died of cancer when I was sixteen and I became a mother myself less than a year later, any thought of becoming a writer was derailed by the realities of having to survive and raise a child on my own. It was almost twenty-five years later that the writing bug hit me again. After my two sons were grown, I had opened my holistic healing practice, and had moved out to the country with the love of my life, the muse finally found me again.

Thanks to a financial seminar my husband and I attended, I began to consider writing novels as a way to supplement my income and plan for retirement. I had free time on my hands for the first time in my life and I was looking for a creative outlet. Once I made the decision to try my hand at writing romantic fiction, my passion for language and storytelling blossomed, and I jumped in with both feet. I began working with a writing coach, joined RWA, found a local chapter, and attended conferences and workshops to hone my craft.
After writing several full length adult romances, I decided to try writing a young adult story. It started as an exercise in writing first person narrative to help me get into deep point of view with my characters, and ended up helping me to find that elusive and undefinable “writer’s voice” I’d heard about. I quickly realized that I had a lot of teen stories to tell and that I wanted to share a message of hope with others through my stories of triumph over tragedy.

HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES, ON THIN ICE, and SAVAGE CINDERELLA are contemporary YA literature that transcend age boundaries for readers. Adults as well as teens are finding comfort and inspiration in these heartwarming tales of teen drama and sweet romance. Although my latest endeavor, The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael trilogy diverges from the contemporary and ventures into a Dystopian world, my signature “hopefully ever after” endings will still ring true. WANING MOON, Book One in the trilogy, chronicles genetically altered sixteen-year-old Lily Carmichael’s journey to find a cure for her uncle’s cancer. As she struggles to find her identity, she falls in love with Will Callahan, a drifter on his own quest whose secrets put Lily in far more danger than she could have imagined.

I hope the book sounds as exciting to you readers as it does to me. I love the creative magic that happens when I’m writing. Once a concept and a cast of characters are born in my imagination, they won’t let me go until their story is told. Some people might think that’s a little crazy, but writers know exactly what I’m talking about. As long as I have new stories to tell, I’ll keep writing. I think my Gramps would be awfully proud.

Excerpt:

We both groaned as we lifted the heavy iron cover. I dropped down into the icy churning water, sucking in a breath while Will climbed down the ladder. He paused, grunting as he pulled the heavy cover in place behind him.

Just in time. We heard rushing footsteps overhead, voices loud and angry. Will and I exchanged a look and then turned toward the dark tunnel. I felt Will’s hand slip into mine as he took the lead. “Stay with me. Don’t let go, okay?”

I let him pull me forward. The water deepened as we dragged ourselves along. The sound of rushing water ahead had me backing up against the current. “This is not a good idea.”

Will tugged me by the hand, wincing in pain. “It’s the only way out. Trust me. It’ll be alright.”

“Trust you? That’s a joke, right?”

“Can we fight about this later?”

Before I could argue, a wave of turbulent water rushed in from a connecting pipe, and swept us off our feet. Will’s hand tightened around mine and we dropped abruptly downward. As the slope steepened, the water picked up speed. Darkness and the stench of sewage overwhelmed my senses. I prayed a quick prayer that the end of the tunnel was near. What I worried for next was how far of a fall it would be to the murky waters of the Hudson below when we reached it.

Another rapid decent shot my stomach to my throat and Will’s hand pulled free. “Noooo!”

But the thunderous roar of the cascading waterfall swallowed the sound of my scream. It launched us into the darkening horizon like a torpedo and then dumped us thirty feet into the icy roiling waters of the Hudson River.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

I knew I would be a writer someday when I was a little girl sitting on my grandpa’s knee and telling him stories that he would help me put on paper. By the time I entered kindergarten I could already read and write, and I couldn’t wait to look up new words every morning in the ginormous Webster’s Dictionary that sat in the book case at the bottom of our stairs. I would get on the bus and ask my friends, “Do you know what pulchritudinous means?” Between that and challenging the boys to push-up contests at the bus stop, I mostly sat alone on those bus rides to school. But that just meant I had more time to make up stories.

I went on to many other endeavors in life, including the world of figure skating, and later, earning a black belt in martial arts. Though I was a mom at seventeen, I did manage to finish school and somehow made it through college, earning a degree as a Physical Therapy Assistant. After nineteen years, two sons, a divorce, and some fairly lean years, I found that it’s true what they say about life beginning at forty. It was about that time when I reunited with the love of my life and worked my way to owning my own business as a Massage Therapist, Personal Trainer, and Yoga Instructor—all of my favorite things. To make my bliss complete, I moved out to the Berkshires and found my muse waiting for me there amongst the lilacs and humming birds.

I now write Extraordinary Stories of an Average Teenage Life in order to share hope with others, especially teens, that no matter how tough life gets, there is always a bright spot waiting just around the corner. My published books include the award winning YA Novels, HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES, ON THIN ICE, and SAVAGE CINDERELLA, available through Amazon and B&N Booksellers.

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