Posted on by susannevalenti · 17 Comments

One lovely blog award 🏆

  
I was nominated for The Lovely Blog Award by betwixt-these-pages. Thank you soooo much for my nomination! ☺️

The rules for this award are:

1. You must thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog. 

2. You must list the rules and display your award. 

3. You must add seven facts about yourself.

4. You must nominate fifteen other bloggers and let them know they’ve been nominated. 

5. You must display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you.
So the facts about me are…

1. I married my high school sweetheart and the only man I’ve ever loved. (We’ve been together nearly 11 years and married for nearly 3) 👰🏻

2. I’m a vegetarian and have been my whole life. I’m really into animal welfare and won’t even squish a bug.🐛

3. I’m into The Walking Dead in a way that might not be healthy. I have a shirt that says ‘I have a Daryll Adixon’ on it which is sooo true and I fangirl so hard over it lol. 🔫

4. I have two cats and two dogs (all rescues) they are my fur-babies, insult them and I’ll cut you! 🐱🐶

5.  I live in a three storey townhouse on the edge of the countryside in Kent, England. It doesn’t rain all the time but it’s probably pushing 90% *sigh* 🌲🌳🌷☔️

6. I’m a little bit obsessed with Miley Cyrus, I don’t know why but I love her. I love her movies and music and the fact that she has a pet pig! 🐷

7. I’ve been writing stories since I was very young and I’m like something possessed at the moment. The only thing that can draw me out of my writing is reading. 📖📝

And for my nominations…

1. Carolinepeckham

2. Tanazmasaba

3. Fiddlerblue

4. Christine buras

5. Elan mudrow

6. Bartleyjennings

7. Aubreyleaman

8. Marianne

9. Kurt Brindley

10. Henzi

11. Masonlou

12. Bex

13. Married2arod

14. James Derry

15. Wordsweheart

If you’ve done it before or don’t have time don’t worry 😊 xoxo

Posted on by susannevalenti · 14 Comments

Randy – the guy who always dies 😲

I have a special place in my heart for Randy (Randy Random is his full name). He or she turns up in every story, be it book or film and every time they die I cry ‘Randy nooo!’ (Ideally while kneeling in the rain with a camera zooming away from above my head but that’s not always possible).

  
Sometimes the main character will have to fight their way through a group of Randys, killing mercilessly until they find the big baddie. Once they reach the bad guy with a name they’ll pause, have a conversation or even a crash of conscience meaning they can’t bring themselves to pull the trigger. But no one ever cares about killing Randy!

  
At other times Randy will be helping the main character, only to be shot down next to them. They will probably earn themselves a line to mention their passing but will never be thought of again. 
Often Randy has no official name, no actual speech and no real description beyond perhaps male or female, dark or blonde. So I name them Randy and I salute them! 

  

Posted on by susannevalenti · 8 Comments

The Blogger Recognition award 🏆

  
Thank you Suereadingcorner for nominating me! 

1. Select 15 other blogs you want to give this award to. Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who nominated you.

2. Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers. List who nominated you in your post. Make sure to attach the award yourself!

3. Comment on each blog to let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to your award post.

4. Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night. This way, anyone can find the original post if needed and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

Why I started blogging:

I started writing my blog because I am an author and will be releasing my books this year. I wanted to connect with like minded people and hopefully build some interest in my writing too.

Advice:

The best advice I can think of is to just stay natural with you’re blogging. Write about things that matter to you in a way that will draw people in, stay light hearted and fun 😊

For the Blogger Recognition Award, I nominate:

1. CarolinePeckham

2. Matt

3. Siyan-Reads

4. Sjhigbee 

5. Emma  

6. The ya reader

7. Tanazmasaba 

8. Nerdybirdy

9. Ringaroundtheprose

10. Bambers1988

11. Cathy

12. R. Ann Greene

13. Onenightbookstandblog

14. MB

15. Mud and stars

😊 xoxo

Posted on by susannevalenti · 16 Comments

And so we lived happily ever after… 💏

I love my husband very much but every now and then, between the pages of a book, I fall for someone else. 

This is a list of my favourite paperback crushes 💘 I’d love to know if you agree and if you think I’ve missed anyone….

5. Gale from The Hunger Games. I was always team Gale, he was strong and steady and stood by Katniss through everything. Plus I felt like her feelings for him were more natural whereas those for Peeta were almost forced upon her… But maybe that’s just me 😋 “He tilts his forehead down to rest against mine and pulls me closer. His skin, his whole being radiates heat from being so near the fire, and I close my eyes, soaking in his warmth. I breathe in the snow-dampened leather and smoke and apples, the smell of those wintry days we shared before the Games. I don’t try to move away. Why should I anyway? His voice drops to a whisper. “I love you.””💑

4. Jack from Blood Red Road. I just loved his rough no-nonsense appeal. He was a strong enough man to accept Saba despite her flaws and love her all the more for them “Yer in my blood, Saba, he says. Yer in my head. Yer in my breath, yer in my bones…gawd help me, yer everywhere. You have been since the first moment I set eyes on you.” 😍
3. Stalker from Enclave. This one might be a bit controversial but for me Stalker was always the obvious choice. His love for Deuce made him into a better man and there was just something about him that I always found irresistible “His pale eyes blazed with the power of what he felt for me. The reflected heat warmed me where I hadn’t even known I was cold.” 😘

2. Choal Westfall from Throne of Glass. I love how quietly and solidly he loves Celaena, I feel like he is something solid she can cling to through everything. Sure, he’s not perfect and he needs to learn when to be a little less strict with his principles but I think they are so much better together! “There had never been any line between them, only his own stupid pride. Because from the moment he’d pulled her out of that mine in Endovier and she had set those eyes upon him, he’d been walking towards this, walking towards her. So Choal brushed away her tears, lifted her chin, and kissed her.” 💏

1. Edward Cullen from Twilight. Who wouldn’t want to be loved in the way Edward loves Bella? And even better he can be with her for the rest of time. Sure, Bella offers to change/give up/do anything for him but he never wants that! He loves her for her and he’d do anything to make her happy for the rest of eternity. I’m sold, where do I sign up? “You’re not asleep, and you’re not dead. I’m here and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away. When I told you that I didn’t want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy.” 😍😘💘

Do you agree? Did I miss someone obvious? I’d love to know what you think xoxo

Posted on by susannevalenti · 12 Comments

1 week 53 followers and a cat who isn’t helping…

Wow what a week! I’ve been nervous about starting up a blog and had been putting it off for ages but now I really have no idea why. Thank you so much to everyone who has followed me😍😍😍. I’m really enjoying being a part of this crazy community and hope that the fun just keeps coming from here on out ☺️

I thought that maybe some of you would like to have a read of the opening paragraphs of my upcoming novel Chained and would love to hear any thoughts you have ☺️ I’m super nervous and excited about doing this but I’m just going to do jump in 😁 so here goes…
Chapter One

I slammed my palms against the cold glass that separated us but they didn’t react. 
 “Mom!” I shouted. “Dad!”

 They didn’t look up. No matter what I did, they didn’t look up from their work. The white lab was cold and unwelcoming but they seemed at home in it. They didn’t know what was coming, it was just like any other day. I slammed my palms on the glass again. They couldn’t hear me. 

 A blue light started flashing above their heads and they both turned abruptly to stare at it. My mom dropped the vial she was holding and it smashed into a thousand tiny pieces by her feet. 

 “Mom!” I screamed. Tears were running down my cheeks. “Dad!” My throat felt raw as sandpaper but I kept screaming and hammering on the glass. 

 Mom grabbed my dad’s hand. Their eyes met and in that second, they knew what was coming. 

 “No!” I yelled. “Please, run… please,” I sobbed. 

 Dad pulled my mom into his arms and kissed her hair. Their fingers dug into each other’s clothes and they held on so tightly it must have been painful. 

 I screamed again.

 The flames dove from the ceiling in a wave. They washed over my parents, kissing their skin and wrapping them in fingers of orange flame. Then I lost sight of them. There was only fire and my screams and burning. 
… I hope you like it because my cat Roly doesn’t care 😸

  

Posted on by susannevalenti · 22 Comments

Re-writing re-writing re-writing 😲🔫

So this is a little piece that expresses my thoughts on that magical time in an author’s work; the re-write. 

So you think the draft is finished? You think it’s pretty much done? You think you’ll give it a read again… And hope it’s just the one….
  
Everything is going well, it’s something from a dream but something awful catches your eye – you can’t believe what you’ve just seen…

  
Okay so now you go again, the punctuation’s fine. It must be perfect by now right? It must be there this time…

  
So finally you’re sure that there are no more misused words. You give the thing a read again but something else occurs…

  
A plot hole? How can that be, you thought you had it sussed! So you work again to fix it all and finally you trust…

  .
You sit and stare and think a while, can this truely be? It’s done for real; the final draft you thought you’d never see!

  

Posted on by susannevalenti · 38 Comments

Welcome

Hi,

I am currently working on an upcoming dystopian saga called Cage of Lies and am hoping to get some of you lovely people interested in reading it! 😊

The entire series will comprise of five books; Chained, Linked, Broken, Bound and Free.

I have currently written drafts of all five books and will be releasing the series later in the year on kindle. (I’m just doing the millionth go over for all those pesky missing apostrophes 😲) So soon enough I will be taking a deep breath, closing my eyes and hitting ‘publish’ and I would love to have you along for the ride!

So if you love stepping into the unknown, following your heart, falling in love, and fighting for what you believe in then please follow me and check out my pages for more information on what I’m up to…

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