Tour: The Mayfair Moon by J.A. Redmerski (Review+Guest Post)

I'd like to thank Roxanne @ Bewitching Book Tours for giving me this opportunity to participate in the THE MAYFAIR MOON Blog Tour. And I'd like to welcome J.A. Redmerski to ABTB!

Title: The Mayfair Moon
Series: Darkwoods Trilogy #1
Author: J.A. Redmerski
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Supernatural Fiction
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Source: Tour Host {Bewitching Book Tours}
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Tagline(s): ~NONE~

Summary: After a nightmarish encounter with a werewolf, seventeen-year-old Adria Dawson loses her sister, but gains the love of a mysterious young man and his legendary family.

Strange and tragic things begin to happen in the small town of Hallowell, Maine: residents come down with an unexplainable ‘illness’ and some disappear. In the midst of everything, Isaac Mayfair is adamant about keeping Adria safe, even from her sister whom he has warned her to stay away from.

As unspeakable secrets unfold all around Adria, impossible choices become hers to bear. Ultimately, no matter what path she takes, her life and the lives of those she loves will be in peril. As she learns about the werewolf world she also learns why her place in it will change the destinies of many.

Review: 

REVIEW WILL BE POSTED LATE. SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

About this Author: 

J.A. Redmerski is a  Contemporary Fantasy and YA writer - author of THE MAYFAIR MOON and DIRTY EDEN. She’s  a mother, werewolf & zombie fanatic, book addict and a happy hermit obsessed with the Universe. Oh, and AMC's "The Walking Dead".

Jessica started her first novel at the age of thirteen and has been writing something ever since. Generally, she loves characters in life and on paper. She pays attention to people, especially those whose personalities make them different from the rest of us: the drug addict roaming the Laundromat that talks to himself, the young, inattentive mother in the park with the meanest kid on the playground - (the entire cast of 'Swamp People') - characters fascinate Jessica and she hopes that it shows in her  literary work.

Some authors that inspire Jessica are Neil Gaiman, Cormac McCarthy, Max Brooks, Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, Richard Matheson, William R. Forstchen, Carrie Ryan, Stephenie Meyer and Lisa Smedman.

Guest Post by J.A. Redmerski: 

Thanks to Indies

The best thing, to me, about the fierce rise in self-publishing has been more about finding such awesome authors and books out there that I probably never would have known otherwise. I don’t know why, but this has had more of an impact on me than self-publishing my own books has been. I’ve always been a writer, since about the age of thirteen. It’s always been my passion and it never mattered—or even occurred to me—that my writing sucked back then. I did it because I loved it and for no other reason. What I didn’t understand once upon a time was the fact that, well, let me quote Stephen King: “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Of course, this means you don’t have time to write properly.

The point is that I was never much of a reader. I mean, yes, I did read and I had favorite books and authors, but I never read obsessively, even though I wanted to. I would see people reading 2-3 books a week and I envied that. Why couldn’t I do that?! Because my reading material was limited to what the Literary Powers That Be felt we should be reading. And I got bored with it.

When self-publishing took off, that’s where my obsessive reading really began. I got on Goodreads and met all of these wonderful readers and writers and suddenly my world of books went beyond what the traditional publishing houses put out there for us. I realized that there is this world of books that never would have seen the light of an audience’s eyes were it not for self-publishing.

And I was a little disgusted. All I could think about were all of these fantastic authors who had been rejected over and over again by agents and the Big Six because their books just didn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold. And the more self-published books that I find, the more I feel I had been neglected, wronged, most of my life by traditional publishing by keeping all of these books and authors pressed under their heels so that I couldn’t see them. Now, honestly, I read more self-published books than I do traditionally published books. Not out of spite or some silly protest, but I truly find more interest in an Indie. I go searching for a good book to read and 9 times out 10 I usually end up reading an Indie.

It’s a shame that it took so long, but I’m glad that finally, after years and years of literary oppression and communism, that things have changed and that they continue to change. I’m glad that I’m the one making the decisions on the things that I am interested in reading , that I’m the one picking and choosing, and that those choices are now seemingly unlimited. And because of that, I’ve read more books in a month’s time than I’ve read in a year, two years even, in the past.

And you know what? I think I’m becoming a much better writer because of this.

Don’t get me wrong; this isn’t to say that I would never go the traditional publishing route later on if that became an option. I think that traditional publishing is being forced to change with the times and I think that’s a good thing.

So, I’d like to use this guest post not to promote myself, but to promote some Indie authors out there that I think deserve some recognition (even though a few that I’ll list really need no help from little ol’ me!).

Falling In Between by Devon Ashley

The Weight of Night by C.L. Stegall

Captive in the Dark by CJ Roberts

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves

The Vincent Boys by Abbi Glines

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Darkness Comes This Way by Pixie Lynn Whitfield

Screwing Up Time by C.M. Keller