Book Tour: Hidden by M. Lathan; Guest post + Giveaway

Hidden
Author: M. Lathan
Publish Date: 12 November 2012

Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.

That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.

Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.
Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.

Let’s hope she can stay hidden.

  Amazon

Excerpt

A far second to oranges, the song I sang in the shower every night had a way of soothing me. More than anything, it made me tired enough to fall asleep. With Whitney gone, I didn’t have to whisper it.

The stars are out,
It’s time for bed.
Now close your eyes,
And rest your head.
May angels shield you with their wings,
As you dream your little angel dreams.
I didn’t recall composing that song, but apparently, I used to think I was good and perfect like the angels. I knew better now.

I stepped out of the shower and tugged a brush through my unruly brown tangles. I stared into the mirror over the sink as I started the song again. My skin screamed winter. I should be a warmer tan; I looked less creepy in the summer. Maybe that was why the girls had been digging into me so hard. I looked rather witchy. The unease that made them mock me was probably their souls warning them, urging them to notice I was different and dangerous.

At my worst, it feels like the fire that could easily shoot from my palm is raging inside of me. My heart picks up, more than when I’m scared. It pounds, I can’t hear. My blood dances, taunting me, begging me to hurt whoever’s hurt me. And I know that I can. I feel that I can. But I don’t. I breathe and pray and let the magic cool.

Guest Post- How to Handle Negative Criticism

If you’ve started your journey as a writer, no doubt you’ve read about handling negative criticism. It’s a part of writing or anything artistic. Stories and all of the elements that compose them are subjective. That means there is no way possible to write a book that will satisfy everyone who picks it up or downloads it. You’d have to have some sort of high-level mind control device to pull that off. Assuming you don’t, you’re going to have to deal with negative criticism and rejection.

I don’t really believe there is a way to thicken your skin other than by getting used to the sting. However, I do believe you can prepare yourself for the effects of negative criticism. To me, it’s not just the sting that makes the rejection and criticism so intimidating. It’s the aftershocks, the things getting harsh feedback or a bad review can cause. Preparing yourself to deal with them may soften the blow.

1. Negative criticism can cause you to question your story. In this case, you have to be comfortable with your work. You have to be proud of what you put out and know that you told the story you wanted to tell, the way you wanted to tell it. Everyone will not like it, but it is what it is. It’s your story and hopefully it finds its way into the hands of someone who will enjoy it.

2. Negative criticism may make you question why you write. Why do you write? You have to have this answer on deck when negative criticism comes. Of course you want to entertain people, but if the only reason you put your work out is because you need people to like it, when the negative criticism comes, it will rock your boat. Personally, I write because I love to create things and feel like the god of my little world. So when I see that someone doesn’t like my little world, I have two choices, sulk  … or go back to being “god” and write some more. What’s your reason and how can you turn that into an action that you can do instead of sulking?

3. Negative criticism may make you blind to the positive. If you are getting positive feedback and along comes the inevitable negative one, don’t cancel out the positive. Every book is not for every person. Or every premise does not fit every reader. You may hate when characters fall in love too quickly. Someone else could hate when the love story drags on. Smile when your book reaches a person it fits with, shrug when it reaches a person it doesn’t, and learn from constructive comments and employ them in your next book.

Writing is art, it’s passion, it’s personal, and when someone doesn’t like it, it may feel like they don’t like you. It’s a blow to the chest. I wish I could say it won’t hurt, but being prepared for what negative criticism causes could help you rebound faster and get back to writing.

Good luck!

About the Author

M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw.
Author Links: Website | Twitter  |  Pinterest

Giveaway 

One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Anazon/B&N gift card! You can follow the tour dates here. Good luck!

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