Travel - January #InkRipples #Giveaway

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016. Do you have any big plans for the year?

Quick housekeeping. I'm posting a chapter a week of Worth the Effort, Ella's Story over on Wattpad. A new chapter goes up every Monday. I'd love if you follow, read, recommend, rate - all that jazz. Though the novella is free to download on all e-platforms, so hop on over to my blog if you'd rather just read it all at once.

Onto 2016. I usually have big, clear writing goals, but this year I don't. I hope I publish something this year, but I don't have anything under contract and I don't have anything close enough to being finished to feel confident I can make it happen. But I'm not too stressed about it. I know what I can accomplish, I'm just not really inspired to accomplish big things this year. And you know what? That's okay. It gives all you readers out there time to catch up on reading my books (wink!)

As I announced in my last post, we have decided to continue Ink Ripples and we've moved it to the first Monday of the month. That's today. Eep. After you've read my post and entered my giveaway, be sure to visit Katie and Mary. If you're looking for more ripples, search #InkRipples on Twitter or Facebook.

January's theme is fun. TRAVEL

I love to travel. I travel frequently. Not necessarily how I want - on a plane to exotic locales - but I find myself often preparing for long car trips, usually to visit family. I live in Central Oregon, which seems to be a three hour drive from the nearest civilization. Portland, Eugene, and Salem, where I have family - all about three hours away. Or I'm driving to Boise, Idaho (six hours), Northern California (eight hours), or occasionally to Southern California (sixteen hours). Since I try to look on the bright side, I love that it gives me a lot of time to listen to audiobooks.

This year we're celebrating my mother-in-law's ninetieth birthday with a large family gathering on the MacKenzie River. She has seventeen kids, so when I say large...yeah, I mean it. Hubs and I have decided to extend the trip by camping our way from there to Boise and then home again. Though I'm not too fond of camping, I'm really, really fond of spending time with my husband, kids and other family members, so I'm really looking forward to the trip.

What is your favorite trip? Do you have any trips planned for this year?  Answer in the comments and then claim an entry toward winning a Kindle copy of one of these great reads in which the main character goes on a quest.

Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little. A sweeping, epic saga of romance and hardship, set against the dramatic backdrop of ancient Mesopotamia—perfect for fans of Cleopatra's Moon or the adult bestseller The Red Tent.

In the unforgiving Mesopotamian desert where Jayden's tribe lives, betrothal celebrations abound, and tonight it is Jayden's turn to be honored. But while this union with Horeb, the son of her tribe's leader, will bring a life of riches and restore her family's position within the tribe, it will come at the price of Jayden's heart.

Then a shadowy boy from the Southern Lands appears. Handsome and mysterious, Kadesh fills Jayden's heart with a passion she never knew possible. But with Horeb's increasingly violent threats haunting Jayden's every move, she knows she must find a way to escape—or die trying.

With a forbidden romance blossoming in her heart and her family's survival on the line, Jayden must finish the deadly journey to save the ones she loves—and find true love for herself.

Elixir Bound by Katie Carroll. Katora Kase is next in line to take over as guardian to a secret and powerful healing Elixir. Now she must journey into the wilds of Faway Forest to find the ingredient that gives the Elixir its potency. Even though she has her sister and brother, an old family friend, and the handsome son of a mapmaker as companions, she feels alone. It is her decision alone whether or not to bind herself to the Elixir to serve and protect it until it chooses a new guardian. The forest hosts many dangers, including wicked beings that will stop at nothing to gain power, but the biggest danger Katora may face is whether or not to open up her heart to love.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black. Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

Some really good reads, and plenty ways to enter to win one. Enter before 11:59 pm on 1/17/16

a Rafflecopter giveaway #InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and me,Kai Strand. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on this page, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.