#FanArtFriday Continues!!!

Published November 6, 2015 by Ashley Townsend

I told you I couldn’t leave it at only four brief weeks of gorgeous fan art. Pshaw! I recently found a new saliva-inducing pic that I’ll be sharing with you all today, but first, a little bit of news and updates.

My NaNoWriMo is going swimmingly well (4,000 words ahead of schedule–Yeah!), and you can find some of my updates on my Facebook page.

I just discovered that Defying Shadows made it onto Goodreads’ list of Most Anticipated Christian Fiction 2016. Holy strombonie! #1 on the list (and rightfully so) is Melanie Dickerson, one of my favorite Christian authors, along with Francine Rivers, so it was an absolute honor. It also reminded me that I never made a page for the final installment in the Rising Shadows trilogy. *gasps* EGAD! So I quickly remedied that by creating a new tab at the top of my feed for the last book, which you might have already noticed. (check out the page!). It isn’t much right now, but I’ll slowly be adding to it over time, so keep checking for more updates!

Shantelle, the winner of the Chasing Shadows Celebration, absolutely loves the Rising Shadows trilogy! I sent her Rising Shadows so she would have a bit of background before she dived into the paperback copy of Chasing Shadows she won in the giveaway, and I was so pleased to find that she enjoyed both books and is looking forward to the release of Defying Shadows (me too, Shantelle!).

You can find her review of Rising Shadows here and her 5 star review (^_^) of Chasing Shadows here!

LASTLY, because so much fan art has been made over the past month and a half, I decided to create a Fan Art page with links to the books and images. It’s basically like a Pinterest board right here on my site! Okay, and because I know this is why you showed up today, I’ll make you wait no longer.

Anyone recognize this romantic scene from Chasing Shadows?

#FanArtFriday Round 4!

Published October 30, 2015 by Ashley Townsend

What’s this? Fan Art Friday on a Friday?!!!! Imagine that. ^_~ So this is the last Friday of Chasing Shadows‘ birth month, where we celebrated a year of reading by giving away copies of Chasing Shadows, swag, gift cards, plenty of fan art, and also new pieces of art created for Defying Shadows that I released every week. This next piece of art was designed specifically to torture you guys, but I have a couple things to cover before I get into the gorgeousness that has been created for the final “official” Fan Art Friday. But fret not, dear Hooders! There will be more agony and tempting teasers to come, especially since four Fridays of fan art is certainly not enough for my liking. 😉

The winners of the Chasing Shadows 1-Year Celebration all received their packages–yay!–and posted pics of their prizes on Twitter. I hope you enjoy the series, ladies! #TeamHood

Also, my good friend and award-winning author (and dancer!) Nadine Brandes recently released her second book in her Out of Time series, a Christian dystopian trilogy that is absolutely incredible. A Time to Speak is amazing, moving, and all around a fantastic ride. You can order your copy on Amazon here, and if you haven’t yet read A Time to Die, you can find it here. Keep an eye out for my name in the acknowledgements page on Book I; yes, I did get to read these books before anyone else, and let me tell you, they were just as powerful and entertaining the second and third time around. You won’t want to miss them!

And some of you know that I got to work directly with Roan Carter on the cover of Chasing Shadows, which was amazing to be able to have total creative control of a project that meant so much to me. But yesterday, I had the pleasure of literally getting hands-on training in the creative process of cover designing by Lisa M., also known as the Elegant Stylus on Facebook and Etsy. I always imagined that artists spent all their time immersed in creative projects in little elvish caves far below ground, with candles for mood lighting and dramatic music echoing through their little hovel of creativity. Not so. We spent the afternoon with our feet propped up on the ottoman, munching on snacks while we researched fonts and played around with images and lighting and fangirled over our little project. It was the best crash-course in designing ever! Lisa is currently in the process of making me drool and giggle and squeal every five minutes with her designs for the cover of Defying Shadows. You’re going to be blown away!

And, finally, today’s Fan Art Friday reveal:

Care for another little teaser? How about a quote between booooop and booooop that shortly follows this scene (I can’t tell you who’s involved in the conversation–that would be cheating!).

“No, not goodbye. It will never be goodbye between us.”

“What then?” she asked, voice catching. “How are we supposed to do this?”

He smiled softly, though his eyes filled with tears. She felt the band tighten painfully around her heart at the thought that this would be the last time she ever looked into those eyes or felt his hand on her cheek. Inhaling a shuddering breath, he whispered, “I shall see you in my dreams.”

#FanArtFriday … Well, Sort Of

Published October 24, 2015 by Ashley Townsend

So because I live in a fantasy world Monday-Sunday during all of my waking and sleeping hours, I may or may not have forgotten that yesterday was Friday—hence, Fan Art Friday on a Saturday. Umm, yeah. I spent all day writing/rewriting/perpetually adding extra lines to an intense, time travel-heavy scene and got a teensy bit caught up in the awesomeness of it all.

So, now that the distraction has passed—that is, until I start writing again as soon as we’re finished here—brace yourselves for some slightly spoily fan art that is, let’s face it, drool worthy.

I know, right?!!! 0.0 And I’m working with this artist on the cover design concept for Defying Shadows next week, so I am ridiculously excited to get started on that. *excited clapping*

And in case you’re wondering, the winners of the Chasing Shadows Celebration were all notified via social media last weekend, and their packages mailed out to them. I felt like Santa Claus wrapping up swag and signing copies of Chasing Shadows with special messages inside. For those of you who didn’t win this time, fret not, dear Hooders! There will be plenty more opportunities to win Chasing Shadows and goodies again soon.

#FanArtFriday & The End of the Giveaway

Published October 16, 2015 by Ashley Townsend

Don’t forget that today is the last day to enter the Rafflecopter (enter here!) for the Chasing Shadows grand prize drawing. Over 200 entries have been received, and it will only stay live for a few more hours, so now is your chance to enter to win book swag, a paperback copy of Chasing Shadows, a gift card of your choice, and more! Seriously, click here if you want to enter a contest of awesome. ^_~ And we have some major entries for the two social media prizes. I’m pretty sure I know who gets the Most Social Hooder prize, but keep tweeting and sharing with #TeamHood and tagging @TownsendTales through today to gain more entries into the secondary prize.

Now, onto the real business of the day. Who’s ready for some more Defying Shadows fan art? Without further ado: TADA!!!

#FanArtFriday Has Begun!

Published October 9, 2015 by Ashley Townsend

It’s happening! #FanArtFriday has officially commenced! Stop by here every Friday during the month of October, where I’ll be celebrating Chasing Shadows’ birth month with new fan art released every week, especially images created for the to-be-released Defying Shadows *gasps* EGAD! ^_^ You guys have been amazing in creating such gorgeous artwork for the Rising Shadows trilogy, and you can find all of it on Pinterest.

(And don’t forget that the Rafflecopter giveaway ends on October 16th, so you only have another week to enter here to win a copy of the book, gift cards, swag, and more!)

So without further ado, another glimpse at a never before excerpt of Defying Shadows!

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Maybe I’m the only one who grins like an idiot when I look at it, but it’s just so perfect. *squeals* I immediately contacted the artist to ask her if she would be willing to design the cover for Defying Shadows after this piece of fan art, because I am so obsessed with it, and she agreed. I cannot WAIT to get started on that project! Don’t forget to stop by again next Friday for more fan art, and in the meantime, keep entering the Giveaway, Tweeting and sharing with #TeamHood and @TownsendTales to enter the social media prizes.

Also, I just discovered another recent review for Chasing Shadows. Check out Sarah’s blog–it’s fabulous!

http://sarah-plainandaverage.blogspot.com/2015/10/book-review-chasing-shadows.html