Here’s a couple of pictures from the book signing in Jesup, Georgia. Although it wasn’t a busy signing, I highly enjoyed getting to meet two of my biggest fans. They both told me what was going through their minds as they read Unexpected Entrapment, and as an author, I loved hearing the excitement in their voices. They are eager for more, and it’s fans like these that help with the self-doubt that sometimes creeps into my head.

I also got to spend time with my mother, which is a rare pleasure in itself.

Although I did bring a camera with me to South Georgia, I regret that I did not use it, and I did the best I could to fix the picture below. This is Tabitha Peacock and Debbie Lorenz, two of my biggest supporters. Don’t be surprised if you find their names in one of the future Alissia Roswell novels.

I spent the last week in South Georgia with my mother and enjoyed another book signing at Coastal Manor in Ludowici. Just as before, everyone welcomed me with smiles and kind words, and it made my mother very happy to be able to introduce me to her friends and coworkers. She is very blessed to have such a pleasant work environment.

I enjoyed meeting new readers and those that have already read Unexpected Metamorphosis. 

So glad to have met Hazel Gilmore. I hear she loves the Alissia Roswell Series and was excited about the release of Unexpected Entrapment.

She loves the butterflies and font.

My mother took Unexpected Entrapment with her everywhere we went.

 Sixteen year-old Alexis Hartman wants nothing more than to smoke pot and play guitar. Getting high and escaping into her music seems the perfect solution when her world is shattered by her sister’s death. But when she’s arrested for possession a second time, life couldn’t get any more complicated. Her mother’s breakdown is the final straw that forces Lexi to spend the summer on the West Coast with her grandmother, Maddie. When Lexi steps over the line one too many times, she’s certain her life is over and that she’s destined for juvenile detention—until Maddie decides that desperate measures are called for. A three week Mediterranean cruise—for seniors.

Eighteen year-old Ethan Kaswell, the poster child for good sons, is stranded on the cruise when his father, a famous heart surgeon, is called away. With his own life perfectly mapped out, Ethan finds Lexi’s unpredictability irresistible. Although he’s smart enough to see that there is no future in falling for a “vacation crush,” Lexi’s edgy dark side draws him like an anchor to the bottom of the sea. As the two embark on the journey of a lifetime, will Lexi finally learn to love someone—even when she has to let them go?

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Smart and athletic seventeen year-old Jordie Dunn has a bright future planned, but when tragedy turns her life upside down, she begins to question not only her future, but the facts surrounding her brother’s death in Iraq. The military’s account that his best friend and fellow Marine, Alex Cooper, is at fault, is a notion she refuses to believe. Alex was the careful one–the shy, protective, computer geek she’s had a crush on since the ninth grade, and she knows better than anyone that her troubled brother had a dark and reckless side—a secret she’s kept for far too long.

With no memory of the incident that killed his best friend, nineteen year-old Alex Cooper returns home, shattered and facing a difficult recovery. Determined to go it alone, he pushes Jordie away. No longer the freckle-faced tom-boy who followed him and Levi around as a kid, she has become a beautiful and stubborn young woman who believes in him far more than he deserves.

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Seventeen year old figure skater Penny Trudeau has secrets. She’s not perfect, as hard as she tries to be. With a mother who is dying and a father who treats her like she’s invisible, Penny has every reason to lie. To escape the life that is spinning out of control, she falls into the arms of an older boy. But when she lies about her age and he finds out the truth, Penny loses the one good thing that has happened in a long time.

Carter McCray is the hockey hunk she falls for, but Carter has his own family drama, and he’s not looking for trouble. Penny proves to be the exception, until the truth comes out and he can’t get past the betrayal—or her father’s threats. Can Penny find her way back into Carter’s heart, or will she have to face the harsh realities of life on her own? Penny’s choices lead her down a dangerous road and the secrets she’s keeping will change her world forever.

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Hi Tianna! Happy to be here to hang out with you and your readers. If you’re like me, you love to read books in a series. Mainly, I love getting to know characters and then seeing them again in another book. If the author has done their job, they’ve given me just enough of those secondary characters to make me want to get to know them better. It’s so gratifying to know that once you get to the end of one happily ever after, you get to dive right into the next with characters you already know and love.

Although I didn’t set out to do this intentionally, my first and second YA releases, HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES and ON THIN ICE took place in the same fictitious Connecticut lake town called Somerville, with my main characters living on Thompson Lake. With only a mere mention of Jordie and Penny being friends from Somerville High School, the stories are stand-alone novels, but set in an idyllic locale that was already familiar to me. So when I began writing PIECES of LOVE, and I needed a hometown for Lexi to miss while she was being exiled to her grandmother’s house in California, it made perfect sense to have her hail from Thompson Lake as well. That way, readers could put names and faces to the friends she’s forced to leave behind. It also leaves room for other stories to grow out of this one. Readers have mentioned that Sammi, who is mentioned in all three books, needs her own story. I’m certain she’ll have her day. If you have suggestions I’d love to hear them. Sammi is pretty edgy. She plays drums, parties, and has had her share of boyfriends. What might make her a heroine to root for?

Though the Girls from Thompson Lake isn’t technically a series, since the characters don’t interact and the stories don’t necessarily follow a chronological order, I’ve enjoyed creating this little town where teens from all walks of life can come back to again and again and connect to recognizable people. Sarah Dessen does this in some of her books and it’s fun to be reading and to come across a familiar name.

As a writer, I find this to be a fun approach. It leaves the door wide open for more books and doesn’t hem me into specific details about the characters beyond the basics—unlike writing a trilogy or series, where there are TONS of details that need to be considered. I’m currently working on book three in my YA Dystopian trilogy, The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, and let me tell you, it’s a huge challenge to weave all the threads together and keep all the details straight! I wish I’d learned about keeping a series bible a bit sooner, LOL. That’s where writers have a document specifically to keep track of character descriptions, important events, backstory, and such. We don’t want the character’s eyes changing from blue to green by the end of the story…unless they are morphing into some kind of creature whose eye color changes. I had no idea of the challenges I would face in writing a trilogy. It gives me even more respect for the likes of Suzanne Collins (Hunger Games) and Veronica Roth (Divergent). These are amazing books by talented authors. I only hope my third book, HEALING WATERS (due out later this year) is half as good as theirs are.

So tell me, readers, do you like reading series books? Can you think of any other authors who do the “mention” of familiar characters or use the same back drop but don’t have the books connected in any other way?

Author Bio:

Award winning author of young adult books, Massage Therapist, Personal Trainer, and Yogi, PJ Sharon has been called “a powerhouse of positivity and productivity.” Her mantra is “find balance in all things, and live every day to the fullest.” A black belt in the art of Shaolin Kempo Karate, avid kayaker, and singer of Italian art songs, PJ has two grown sons and lives with her brilliant engineer husband in the Berkshire Hills of Western MA where she writes YA…because every teen deserves a hopefully ever after.

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Although I usually read fantasy, I decided to buy this novel one evening and am glad I did. Color of Danger is a Christian, romantic suspense with a strong female main character, and I was surprised by how much she has in common with the lead in my Alissia Roswell Series. Both women come from child abuse and have a love interest named Luke.

With a bad past, the main character has trust issues, and the author explores this deeply within the story. I’m not one for love at first sight and was pleased to find this was not one of those romances.

Unlike the fantasy reads I’m used to, this story follows the mystery surrounding a serial killer on the loose. The story is tight and put together well, with the romance being sweet and not overpowering to the mystery-themed plot.

The characters are adults, but with this being a clean, Christian novel, I believe teenagers who love mysteries would also enjoy this read.

The author also listed discussion questions at the back of the book, and I highly recommend this to Christian book clubs. The questions are already there, and the discussion would be about trust.

I’ve had Christians tell me they don’t like to read Christian novels as much because they find them predictable or the main characters keep getting saved from bad circumstances, not putting enough danger in the story. (I’ve seen this myself with some of my past reads.) However, that’s not the case with Color of Danger. It’s true to life–bad things happen, and the characters have to learn to deal. That’s where forgiveness, faith, and trust come in, no matter how hard to do at times.