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Christina Delay

Sharp-Edged Suspense

Dream Goals Challenge

One of my favorite things to talk with people about is how they discovered or how they are in the process of discovering their life’s purpose.

See my post over at Jami Gold’s site to read what I went through to discover mine.

Long story short, by the time I hit my 30th birthday, I could already see my life’s path and it was going down a direction I never intended.

Since then, I’ve become passionate about helping other discover and hold true to their life’s purpose. One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain who said:

“THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT DAYS OF YOUR LIFE ARE THE DAY YOU ARE BORN AND THE DAY YOU FIND OUT WHY.”

WHAT’S YOUR WHY?

Maybe it’s writing. Maybe it’s going back to school to get the degree you should have gotten. Maybe it’s something that terrifies and excites you all at the same time. (By the way, that’s how you know you’re on the right track.)

But once you figure it out, you can’t let it remain a dream you fantasize about.

BE YOUR OWN FAIRY GODMOTHER.

The only way to turn dreams into reality (and there’s no magic wand here) is to set achievable goals and work towards them.

THE FRIDAY DREAM GOALS CHALLENGE.

Will you join me?

Post in the comments below the ONE THING you are doing this weekend to work toward turning your dream into reality. Just ONE THING every weekend will soon have you running down the path to achieving your life’s purpose.

C’mon – it’s just one thing! It could take five minutes, it could take an hour. The important part is that you do your one thing!

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CHALLENGE:

  1. Enter your Dream Goal by Midnight Friday in the comments below.
  2. Sign up for my newsletter.
  3. Share this post with friends and family and ask them to support your dream by liking your comment!

WIN A CONSCIOUS INK TEMPORARY TATTOO PACK

You-Have-Wings...-Rumi_580x@2xyou-have-wings-learn-to-use-them-and-fly-rumi_580x@2xOn March 31, the person with the most goals posted will win a pack of temporary tattoos from Conscious Ink. *In case of a tie, tied entries will be entered into a random winner generator.

Dream Goals Challenge

One of my favorite things to talk with people about is how they discovered or how they are in the process of discovering their life’s purpose.

See my post over at Jami Gold’s site to read what I went through to discover mine.

Long story short, by the time I hit my 30th birthday, I could already see my life’s path and it was going down a direction I never intended.

Since then, I’ve become passionate about helping other discover and hold true to their life’s purpose. One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain who said:

“THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT DAYS OF YOUR LIFE ARE THE DAY YOU ARE BORN AND THE DAY YOU FIND OUT WHY.”

WHAT’S YOUR WHY?

Maybe it’s writing. Maybe it’s going back to school to get the degree you should have gotten. Maybe it’s something that terrifies and excites you all at the same time. (By the way, that’s how you know you’re on the right track.)

But once you figure it out, you can’t let it remain a dream you fantasize about.

BE YOUR OWN FAIRY GODMOTHER.

The only way to turn dreams into reality (and there’s no magic wand here) is to set achievable goals and work towards them.

THE FRIDAY DREAM GOALS CHALLENGE.

Will you join me?

Post in the comments below the ONE THING you are doing this weekend to work toward turning your dream into reality. Just ONE THING every weekend will soon have you running down the path to achieving your life’s purpose.

C’mon – it’s just one thing! It could take five minutes, it could take an hour. The important part is that you do your one thing!

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CHALLENGE:

  1. Enter your Dream Goal by Midnight Friday in the comments below.
  2. Sign up for my newsletter.
  3. Share this post with friends and family and ask them to support your dream by liking your comment!

WIN A CONSCIOUS INK TEMPORARY TATTOO Pack

You-Have-Wings...-Rumi_580x@2xyou-have-wings-learn-to-use-them-and-fly-rumi_580x@2xOn March 31, the person with the most goals posted will win a pack of temporary tattoos from Conscious Ink. *In case of a tie, tied entries will be entered into a random winner generator.

Dream Goals Challenge

One of my favorite things to talk with people about is how they discovered or how they are in the process of discovering their life’s purpose.

See my post over at Jami Gold’s site to read what I went through to discover mine.

Long story short, by the time I hit my 30th birthday, I could already see my life’s path and it was going down a direction I never intended.

Since then, I’ve become passionate about helping other discover and hold true to their life’s purpose. One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain who said:

“The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

What’s your why?

Maybe it’s writing. Maybe it’s going back to school to get the degree you should have gotten but didn’t due to X, Y, or Z. Maybe it’s something that terrifies and excites you all at the same time. (By the way, that’s how you know you’re on the right track.)

But once you figure it out, you can’t let it remain a dream you fantasize about.

Be Your Own Fairy Godmother.

The only way to turn dreams into reality (and there’s no magic wand here) is to set achievable goals and work towards them.

The Friday Dream Goals Challenge.

Will you join me?

Post in the comments below the ONE THING you are doing this weekend to work toward turning your dream into reality. Just ONE THING every weekend will soon have you running down the path to achieving your life’s purpose.

C’mon – it’s just one thing! It could take five minutes, it could take an hour. The important part is that you do your one thing!

To Participate in the Challenge:

  1. Enter your Dream Goal by Midnight Friday in the comments below.
  2. Return on Monday, reply to your Dream Goal comment, and let us know how you did!
  3. Sign up for my newsletter.
  4. Share this post with friends and family and ask them to support your dream by liking your comment!

Win a Conscious Ink Temporary Tattoo

You-Have-Wings...-Rumi_580x@2xyou-have-wings-learn-to-use-them-and-fly-rumi_580x@2xOn January 2, the person with the most goals posted and met will win this temporary tattoo from Conscious Ink. *In case of a tie, tied entries will be entered into a random winner generator.

 

 

Psychological Suspense Inspiration while Parasailing

While in Mexico, I found inspiration for my Psychological Suspense Novel

While in Mexico, I had a serendipitous run-in with a jet ski.

Really, it was more of a battle between the ocean and my ribs. The ocean used the jet ski as a battering ram and it totally won.

The serendipitous part…I’ll get to that in a second.

Here’s what happened:

My husband decided to take me parasailing for the first time while in Mexico for our anniversary. It was really sweet, but (there’s always a but) as we stood on the beach with the waves crashing at our feet, waiting for the jet ski taxi to take us to the parasailing boat, I began to have doubts.

See, I’m the most accident prone individual you will ever meet.

If someone in a group is going to be hurt, it’s going to be me. For example, my dad and brother used to hunt when we were growing up. They’d bring back quail, and I’d bite into the one bullet left in all of the meat. Every time. Not just once, but every single time. If there’s something to stub your toe on in a mile radius, I’ll find it for you. Bang your hip? I’ll test it out. Bird poop on you? They got to me, first.

So when I saw this little jet ski fighting the big ocean waves, and it was supposed to carry a large Mexican driver, myself, and my husband, I began to get anxious.

The jet ski rolls in on a wave. There are two people holding it in place, and my husband is steadying the back. “Go on, Christina,” they said. “You get on first.”

They all missed my eye roll. But, I got on. Blindly trusting these three strong men to hold this one jet ski in place. What’s the worst that could happen? Three against one. The odds were in my favor.

Except…it’s me.

The ocean decided to throw an extra large wave at us as soon as I reached for the jet ski. The jet ski rammed into my side, flipped me over, feet in the air, and hit me three more times. Somehow, I grappled onto the thing.

It was already hard to catch my breath. I knew, like my aching knees know when the weather is changing, I knew, this was going to hurt for days. But, I had a few hours left before the pain really sat in.

We went parasailing. It was fine. Peaceful high in the sky above the Caribbean blue water, whatever. My ribs hurt.

They hurt bad.

We got down, boarded the jet ski taxi of death, and rode back to the beach without another incident. Probably the universe had decided almost cracking my ribs was enough for one day.

By dinner, my entire side was swollen. The phrase baseball-sized hail kept coming into my mind. It hadn’t started bruising…yet. I couldn’t breathe deep, couldn’t laugh, couldn’t even sleep. My whole side radiated with pain.

And I was so, so grateful.

See, I have this character in my psychological suspense novel, Traveler. Her name, sometimes his name, is Jesse David. She / He is a fluid-gender adult on vacation with her / his abusive mother. At one point in the book, the mother crushes her cane into Jesse’s side, cracking her ribs.

But, the scene has been bothering me. I couldn’t have Jesse’s ribs actually crack. Jesse needs to do things which require physical effort to complete the story. Cracked ribs turn into broken ribs turn into punctured lungs…that didn’t work.

My jet ski incident helped me understand that bruised ribs are horrible. Horrible enough to cause a lot of pain and discomfort, but not so horrible that a person is temporarily disabled.

For a writer, every experience is writing fodder. Even almost being killed by a runaway jet ski.

I’ve used emergency room visits, being hooked up to an IV, being covered in vomit…all these horrible musts of life, I’ve used in a book.

And honestly, it makes the going through of the pain much easier to deal with, because by focusing on each little owie of pain from a writing perspective, it gives the pain purpose. Meaning.

Instead of just being an accident-prone being living on earth, I’m an accident-prone writer who can use these so called accidents to torture my characters with.

Misery really does love company.

What about you? Are you accident-prone? What are some ways you cope with being known as the person who will trip over their own feet? (Seriously, I’m looking for coping mechanisms!)

Race the Darkness: Cover Reveal and Excerpt

I’m so excited to be part of Abbie Roads‘ cover reveal for Race the Darkness! It’s a dark, gritty, emotional and sexy romantic suspense by an uber-talented debut author! Read to the end for an excerpt!

Race the Darkness, a Gritty Romantic Suspense

From Sourcebooks

First in a gripping paranormal romantic suspense duo by a Golden Heart finalist debut author whose clinical work gives her chilling insights…

Cursed with a terrible gift

Criminal investigator Xander Stone doesn’t have to question you—he can hear your thoughts. Scarred by lightning, burdened with a power that gives him no peace, Xander struggles to maintain his sanity against the voice that haunts him day and night—the voice of a woman begging him to save her.

That threatens to engulf them…

Isleen Walker has long since given up hope of escape from the nightmare of captivity and torture that is draining her life, her mind, and her soul. Except…there is the man in her feverish dreams, the strangely beautiful man who beckons her to freedom and wholeness. And when he comes, if he comes, it will take all their combined fury and faith to overcome a madman bent on fulfilling a deadly prophecy.

About Abbie Roads, Romantic Suspense Author

Abbie Roads, Romantic Suspense Author

Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor known for her blunt, honest style of therapy. By night she writes dark, emotional novels, always giving her characters the happy ending she wishes for all her clients. Her novels have finaled in RWA contests including the Golden Heart. Race the Darkness is the first book in the Fatal Dreams series of dark, gritty romantic suspense with a psychological twist.

Race the Darkness will be available on October 4th. Pre-order now!

Amazon: http://amzn.to/22nGnVk
B&N: http://bit.ly/1pwghOK
BAM: http://bit.ly/1RmOgoN

 

A special note from Abbie Roads:

Dear Readers,

I wrote Race the Darkness from start to finish three different times, with three different story lines, and with three different titles! The only thing that ever remained the same between the versions was Xander and Isleen. I believed in them and the story they wanted to tell. I hope you love reading about their tragedies and triumphs as much as I enjoyed writing them… All three times! And isn’t the cover amazing, beautiful, gorgeous? I cried the first time I saw it! It made all the hard work to get this book to you worth it!

Abbie Roads

An excerpt from Race the Darkness:

No fucking way was he going to die running. He stopped, turned and faced the truck barreling toward them. The tires ate up the ground at an indecent rate. He clutched Isleen tighter to his chest. For her sake, he wanted it to be a quick death. No more lingering. No more pain.

That thought infuriated him. None of this was right. They shouldn’t be on the verge of death. Again.

The truck kept coming—twenty-five feet.

Everything slowed, happened as if through the quicksand of time. A white dandelion floaty meandered on the breeze directly between them and the truck. His heart no longer ran a staccato rhythm. Duh…duhm. Pause. Duh…duhm. Pause.

His life didn’t flash before his eyes. The future did. Isleen’s future. In an ethereal dream beyond time, her skin was gilded by firelight, her eyes void of sadness and fear, her body whole and healthy. She smiled, an expression so full of warmth and tenderness and undiluted joy that it plunked itself down inside his heart and wouldn’t leave.

He ached to create that kind of smile on her face, but their lives were over and it all could’ve gone so differently if he’d only listened to her, believed in her, found her years before now.

 

**Sign up for Abbie Roads NEWSLETTER for exclusive content and giveaways!**

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