Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick (+$20 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Peace, Love, and A Dead Hippie Chick

Author: N.R. Leigh

Series: N/A

Pages: 382

Date Published: 2015

Publisher: Booktrope Editions

Format: Kindle

Genre: New Adult

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours
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Synopsis:

Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick follows the intertwining journeys of three young women in the mid-1990s who go on the road and off the grid, and leave their worlds behind. Each woman falls into a dangerous subculture of sex, drugs, and rock and roll in an attempt to attain her own sense of peace, love, and freedom. 

Kara, a middle-class Midwestern girl, flees her painful past after a tragic accident claims a loved one, only to learn-after a violent attack-that there's no safety among friends or strangers. Survival rests in her hands alone as she escapes into the wilderness of New Mexico. 

NATASHA, born into privilege, rebels against her family's expectations as she follows the Grateful Dead concert tour circuit, selling contraband and exploring her sexual freedom. 

AMY, an impoverished Southern belle, becomes love-struck when an exotic drifter passes through town, deciding to leave home and follow him. This intricately interwoven coming-of-age tale delves into the connection between strangers and the premise that the grand orchestration of life goes well beyond chance.

~Advice for New Authors~

1. You need a reader base before your book is available to the masses! Writing is a solitary endeavor and many authors are introverted creative folks. That all must change once your book is published. Whether you plan to publish independently or through a publisher, your friends and family need to be onboard to support your sales at release time, and you need to have your name out there before the release. This means networking with other writers and book clubs in your area and online. I assume every writer hears this while writing and believes they can shift gears once the book is available to the public, but it’s harder done than said. Hone the book’s synopsis and blurb and share it. Go to canva.com and creative some artwork with quotes from the book to garner interest. Do this while you write, not after. 

2. Write, revise, write, and hire two editors. Write the first draft. Write: what the characters said, what they did, and a brief description on how they did it. Done. Then, let it sit for at least six weeks. Then, go back and add narrative and descriptions using the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Let it rest. Then, go back and further develop the characters by adding nuances to their dialogue and actions. Let that revision sit. Then, go through and clean up sentence structure. Eliminate superfluous words, empty calorie words such as: like, very, really etc.: Really big, very strong. Develop your verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Keep track of your revisions, and never do half a revision on a manuscript. Work through it before you take a break. When you feel it’s ready for an editor, read it and revise it again! Trim your prose ONE MORE TIME! Hire a substantive editor first. This editor should evaluate the characters, setting, plot, story arc, and most importantly: identify questions you’ve left unanswered and awkward undeveloped moments. They can do some copy editing too, but keep that separate from the notes in the margins. After this edit, hire a second editor to really work your prose. You may just then be ready for publication or to submit for publication. 

3. Follow your instincts. Writing is art and music with words. There are an enormous number of artists, musicians, and writers in the world. What separates all of them is style and talent. Talent can be learned, but style is unique. Let your personality shape your writing by finding the style that feels good to you. This is your voice. Writing should make you feel tingly all over—well, depending on the type of writing you do! Make music and art with words that are an extension of you!

~Try an Excerpt!~

Grae

Friday, April 13, 2012

Eighteen Years Later

I’ve heard it said that Volkswagen buses choose their owners and not the other way around. Some believe they’re engineered and built with a secret mojo that allows this to be true. Ask anyone who’s ever owned one, and they’ll tell you it’s so. I wonder whom this one chose. During my entire life, it’s been sitting like a convict on death row, imprisoned in the rear corner of our jungle property next to our dog Parker’s grave—over eighteen years now, grass growing over its wheel wells and tropical foliage climbing onto the windshield, awaiting execution by vegetation. I hadn’t paid much attention to it until this morning. My parents had never spoken of it.

***

Daylight broke through the fronds of the areca palms as I stepped onto the sod—the lawn was wet with morning dew—and began to dribble my soccer ball along the length of it. I drilled the ball, sending it sailing across the yard and directly onto the van’s back door, popping it open. Cursing my crooked instep kick, I pushed through the tangled waist--‐‑deep flora in an attempt to close the hatch but climbed inside out of curiosity. The license plate reads New Mexico, Land of Enchantment. Although born in Arizona, I’ve never technically set foot in the United States. We moved here when I was an infant

~Meet N.R. Leigh!~ 

N.R. Leigh began her writing career in 2007 as a featured columnist for the guerrilla newspaper The Uncommon Sense. She since has written books as an expert on personal health and wellness under the pseudonym Nicci Leigh. 

She was inspired to write her debut novel, Peace, Love, and a Dead Hippie Chick, by a conversation with a friend, who described a newspaper article regarding the events that surrounded a group of hippies’s visit to her small town and the havoc they caused. This crazy, fascinating account, coupled with N.R.’s experiences traveling the United States in her early 20s, gave birth to her story. 

N.R. has a background in education and teaches aesthetics, yoga, Reiki, and related holistic modalities. Born and raised in Flint, Michigan, she currently lives in a rural coastal community in southwest Florida with her family and their Australian Kelpie, Sydney, who believes she’s a Tasmainian Devil. 

N.R is inspired by funny people and those who create positive change and peace. Her friends and family describe her as driven, strong, silly, and independent. Something most people don’t know about her is that, at age eighteen, she aided police in the capture of a team of bank robbers.

 N.R. Leigh will be awarding a $20Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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