a visit from skeleton lake author angela kulig!

I did not even know this chick three months ago. And now she's a daily part of my life. Freaky, right? Especially when you consider we 1) are co-founding a ninja writers conference in February, 2) are self-publishing in a joint release with three other writers, 3) she hosts the ninjas vs. pirates chat on Saturday nights and 3) have a super sekret project coming up 1.2.12. Oh yeah, and she has a thing for dates. Just saying.

So, Angela's freaky, dark and disturbing book SKELETON LAKE is officially released today! Huzzah and Hurrah! I am *this* close to being finished and it's driving me crazy! I have to admit to reading the end just so I could review it for you today. And dang this girl is an awesome storyteller. I give her debut 5 stars for originality and awesomeness. I'll put up an official review when I'm for realz finished, but for now I wanted to say congrats Angela!

For your Kindle

For your Nook

For everything else

Paperback:

(Coming SOON)

I asked Angela to give us a post today, and I cannot remember what it was supposed to be on. :) That's because she's given me whiplash with all the awesome ideas that are forever overflowing her brain and spewing onto me. But she did ask me to write her an awesome intro. Her exact words were:

can you write me an intro like this is Angela I like her because she is annoying and refuses to leave me alone. She has done this very awesome sounding things Angela @ 10:37 blah blah blah I honestly don't know what awesome things she's done. What I do know is: This girl works freakin' hard. She shared her holy-lotta-work schedule with me and she seriously writes a novel a month, while revising another novel, while promoting another novel, while raising her four little ones (two of whom are two-year-old twins), and often running her household sans a husband as he is in the air force. So yeah. She isn't really amazing at all. So now I give you Angela Kulig, and ask you . . . how awesome do you think she is? Let’s face it, real Ninjas have skeletons in the closet. Of course, if you’re a good Ninja no one will ever find the bodies. Today I kick off my Skeleton Lake blogish book tour, and I am super excited to be starting my journey at the Dojo, and with Ali. Since we are all Ninjas here, and either friends or rivals I want to be completely honest with you. Right now I am terrified. Completely freaked out.  Ali thinks I am some kind of inhuman beast of a writer—she thinks I eat nails for breakfast and tacks for snacks—I mean what Ninja doesn’t? She thinks I stare down boogie monsters and book bloggers without breaking a sweat. And I do, because Ninjas are never supposed to look like they are afraid of anything. It doesn’t mean we aren’t. I am afraid. I wrote my first novel the summer before 6th grade. Please believe me when I tell you it was awful.  Fifteen years later, and it is my only piece of literary fiction for a reason. After that I launched myself into my first middle grade book series and never looked back. It was called, “Why Me?!” Punctuated just like that and everything—and it was so very me. The main character Angie still is me, and even now, years later, when I read it out loud it sounds just like me in my own head. Now I told you that to tell you this: I have never let a soul read that book series. I know my sister stole the third book in the series entitled, Nose Bleed at some point and I remember it causing me to lose my mind. Because that book series was me, I felt like no one could read the books without judging me personally and I vowed never to let that happen again. Years of theatre arts, and I believe I have a pretty strong handle on characters. Yet somehow, bits of me still find their way into my books, and it’s like a disease. I know the words, the page number, I know exactly where I wish the pieces weren’t. And it could be anything--the main character likes the same color I do, or likes a food that I like. Simple things. If I could cut me out of a book altogether, I would, and Skeleton Lake is as close as I may ever get.  But it’s still me. I love that and hate it, and the irony is that I learned you can never get rid of all of the skeletons in your closet—and that you shouldn’t even try. You have to learn to be true to yourself, without making it personal. So I ask you ninjas, how much of you is in your writing? You can stalk Angela at the following places: Goodreads, her Official Website, and Twitter. Oh, and Angela's second book, PIGMENTS OF MY IMAGINATION will be released the same day as my book, BECOME, on 11/11/11. You can learn more about our joint release by checking out our Dark C.A.R.M.A. tour blog (just click on the picture and it'll take you right there!