Author Giveaway: Shawn McGuire

Back Cover Blurb

Everyone deserves happiness. Is Robin the exception?
A cross-country move to a new state offers Robin Westmore the chance to get away from the relentless bullies and reinvent himself. But on the first day at his new high school Robin finds himself in front of Zane, the school’s star pitcher and chief tormentor, at the exact wrong moment and right back into the role of victim. Hopeless, he wishes for it all to stop.

When Desiree, the new leader of the genies, grants Robin’s wish he’s sure things are finally going his way. But problems in the magical realm have made Desiree equally hopeless and too distracted to give Robin the attention he needs.

As Desiree hides from her responsibilities, Robin disappears into the video game he’s created. There he finds excitement, adventure, and control. When the game presents him with a real escape from his tortured life, will he take it?


Excerpt
Mom stood by the door and watched as Dad drove off. Then she turned to me and gave me the look that said a discussion was coming.
“I assume you’ll tell me if anything is wrong, but I know how shut-mouthed teenagers can be, especially boys, so I’m checking to be sure.” She paused, steeling herself. “How have things been?”
Her eyes were bright and shining. Tears were ready to fall, but whether happy or sad depended on how I responded.
“Oh, you know.” I took a big bite of my sprouted wheat toast with huckleberry jam, samples from one of Mom’s clients, and gave her a closed-mouth smile and a thumbs-up.
She exhaled like she won the lottery. “I knew this move would be good for you.”
A little spot in my chest warmed at that sigh and then immediately fizzled. The nutty-buttery-sweet flavor that filled my mouth turned to cardboard. How could I possibly tell her that after all we’d gone through, things were only different, not better?
I’d get through this. I made it through my first nine years of school, I could make it through the last three. I needed a person. There had to be one person in this school I could consider a friend. Sitting alone in the lunch room every day, too afraid to risk further harassment, was only enhancing the loner nerd reputation I just couldn’t shake.
While Mom studied her calendar, I finished my breakfast and put my dishes in the dishwasher.
“Hope you have a good day, sweetie,” Mom said. “I’d wish you good luck on your test but I know you don’t need it.” She glanced at the microwave clock and jumped. “I’ve got a video conference in an hour.” She looked down at her pink bathrobe with the tea stain down the front. “I should probably put some clothes on.”
She gave me a quick hug and shuffled off to get ready.
“Good luck,” I called, but she was already half-way up the stairs.
I hitched my messenger bag over my head and tugged on a stocking cap. It was chilly enough this morning for a hoodie, but it would warm up in no time. The hat would be good enough.
As I started the six block walk to the bus stop, I remembered that I never checked the results of my ‘popular music software’ request. I pulled out my phone and found a lot of options. I studied them as I walked, glancing up every few feet so I didn’t do something stupid like step into the pathway of a bicyclist. I’d only needed to do that once to learn my lesson. No, today my mistake was that I didn’t look behind me.
“Morning, Tweety.”
I stopped breathing and my gut tightened. I knew who it was without looking: Zane Zimmerman.
Zane was the school’s star athlete. I didn’t pay attention to sports, but even I knew Zane killed it on the pitching mound. He was about five-seven, an inch taller than me, and a good twenty pounds heavier. All muscle.
I was about to put my phone back in my pocket when I got bull rushed. He didn’t actually tackle me, this time, but did hit me hard enough to knock what little breath was in my lungs out of them and send my phone flying. It landed six feet away and slid down the sidewalk another two or three feet before coming to a rest, teetering on the curb like a jumper about to leap from a bridge.
“Careful, Tweety.” Zane said. “You should watch where you’re going.”
My breath returned as a gasp and I rushed to retrieve my phone—bent at the waist, duck-walking with my hands stretched out, dorky as hell—before someone stepped on it or kicked it out into the street. The screen had cracked. Great. Maybe I could convince my parents to upgrade to a phone with gorilla glass instead of just replacing the screen. Again.
“Oh, snap,” Zane said, making a dramatic aw-shucks motion. “Tough luck there, dude.”
Zane wasn’t just a bully. He was the really dangerous kind, in my opinion, because he was smart. Not just book smart but street smart, too. He knew when he could get away with stuff and when he had to wait to dole out his attacks. As far as the teachers and any other adult were concerned, Zane was a dream kid.
“Yeah,” I said. “Tough luck.”

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Swag Pack and Hippie Ducks



Bio

Shawn McGuire is the author of young adult novels that blend contemporary settings and issues with a touch of fantasy and magic. She started writing after seeing the first Star Wars movie (that's episode IV) as a kid. She couldn't wait for the next movie to come out so wrote her own episodes. Sadly, those notebooks are long lost, but her desire to write is as strong now as it was then.
Her books deal with harder topics (death of a sibling, divorce, dating violence, bullying, and teen suicide) because she believes it is important to talk about these things. Those kinds of topics can be hard to handle and a bit overwhelming, so she infuses a bit of humor in her work as well because she also believes that a sense of humor can help you get through just about anything.

Shawn lives in Colorado with her family where she spends her time reading, cooking and baking, practicing yoga and meditation, and hiking and camping in the spectacular Rocky Mountains.


Author Links

Website - www.Shawn-McGuire.com
Facebook www.Facebook.com/ShawnMcGuireAuthor
Newsletter signup - http://eepurl.com/V21k1
Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/shawnmcguire1/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Shawn_McGuire
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3231214.Shawn_McGuire
Amazon Author - http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-McGuire/e/B00L0FJDFW/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1420552843&sr=1-2-ent
Buy Links

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Great-Fall-Wish-Makers-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZJ59BXS/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1435702353&sr=1-4&keywords=shawn+mcguire
CreateSpace - https://www.createspace.com/5548360


Author’s Other Works
The Wish Makers Series
Sticks and Stones
    Free ebook with the following vendors
    Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/445323
Google Play https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Shawn_McGuire_Sticks_and_Stones?id=m_m-AwAAQBAJ
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Sticks-Stones-Wish-Makers-Book-ebook/dp/B00KZ0D2TQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402700787&sr=1-2
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id888318638
Kobo  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/sticks-and-stones-28

Break My Bones
    Free ebook until July 24th with newsletter signup
   
Never Hurt Me

Shawn McGuire: Book 4 Reveal

 

Back Cover Blurb

A new home in a new state. The chance to get away from the relentless bullies and reinvent himself. Then on the first day at his new high school, Robin Westmore finds himself in the exact wrong place at the exact wrong time and right back into the role of victim. All Robin can do now is wish for the harassment to stop.

Being the leader of the genie world is not what Desiree expected. The Guides aren’t happy with her or any of the decisions she makes. The only thing they all agree on is that they want their old boss back, but Kaf has vanished, leaving the Guides in shock and Desiree with a broken heart.

While Desiree hides from her responsibilities, Robin disappears into the video game he’s created. There he finds excitement, adventure, and control. When the game presents him with an escape from his tortured life, will he take it?


Excerpt
Chapter One
Robin

Maybe I could call in sick. With something fatal. Something so contagious the entire high school would contract it just by looking at me. Was there such a thing? I took out my phone. “Okay, Google. What is visual contagion?”
“Good morning, Robin.”
For half a second I thought my phone had learned my name. And had started speaking in my mom’s voice? I entered the kitchen and found Mom in her pink bathrobe with the tea stain down the front, waiting for me. She must’ve heard me talking to my phone.
“Morning.” I set my messenger bag by the back door and took a seat at the kitchen bar.
Google had only come up with only one direct hit and was now blinking at me, waiting for something that would challenge its storage banks. The ‘contagion’ it presented wasn’t even a disease. It was some company in Vancouver that spread positive messages on organic hemp or bamboo T-shirts. Great. I ask for science, I get hippies.
“Do you think Visual Contagion would be a good name for a band?” I asked Mom as I scrolled through a few of the t-shirt pictures.
“Hmm,” Mom said, tapping her fingernail against her teacup. “A band that plays music?”
My turn to sit and blink. “What other kind is there?”
“Plenty. A wrist band. Hairband. Wedding band. Waistband.”
“Okay, okay.” She’d go on and on and then open the thesaurus app on her tablet if I didn’t stop her. “I’m a guy. I don’t think about hairbands or jewelry. Yes, I meant a band that plays music.”
“Then I’d say no. Visual Contagion, great a name as it is, would not work for a musical group.” She took a sip of her tea, Irish breakfast according to the tag hanging from the string, as she contemplated. “Auditory Contagion could work. Audio? Audial?”
Auditory Contagion would indeed be a damn cool name for a band. Almost made me want to form one. Except I couldn’t play a single instrument. Not even that plastic flute-thing they made us play in elementary school. Maybe I could compose something on my computer. I needed music for my video game anyway.
“Okay, Google. Popular music software.”
“Would you like some breakfast?” Mom asked. “Or are you just going to play with your phone until it’s time to leave?”
My mom wasn’t the most domestic person. She did like to feed people though, and when she took the time to make an actual meal, she was a great cook.
I set my phone in my lap and analyzed my hunger level. “Juice and toast with butter and jam. Two slices.”
“Two? You’re hungry today. What kind of tea?” She held up her Irish breakfast to me with a questioning look and wiggled the box as if that would lure me to the Celtic side.
“English breakfast, please. With cream and two sugar cubes.”
 “Off to the range,” my dad said as he entered the kitchen and set a black case—smaller than a briefcase, larger than a lunchbox—on the gray marble counter.
“Before work?” Mom asked.
“I don’t have any meetings until ten today. I want to try out my birthday present.”
Who knew a guy could get so excited over a handgun? Then again, this one did have a built-in laser. Guns weren’t my thing, but if presented with a laser-operated piece of technology I’d be all over it. So, I could understand his enthusiasm to a point.
“Want to come with me, Robin?” Dad asked as he plugged the first of two coffee pods into the machine to fill his travel mug.
“Thanks, but I do have a meeting before ten,” I said. “I have that test first thing.”
“Finally,” Dad said. “I don’t understand the holdup on allowing you to take a placement test. You studied?”
“Of course he studied,” Mom said as though nothing could be more unthinkable than me not studying.
“I did,” I told them. “Don’t worry, I’ll pass.”
“They should put him directly into Calculus and Differential Equations,” Dad said.
“He could handle it,” Mom agreed, “but AP Calculus will be an easy A for him.”
“Good point,” Dad said and clapped me on the back, nearly knocking me off my stool. “Build that killer GPA. Get into the college of your choice and academic scholarships as well.”
“Don’t pressure him,” Mom said, setting a plate with my buttered and jammed toast on the placemat in front of me.


Bio
Shawn McGuire is the author of young adult novels that blend contemporary settings and issues with a touch of fantasy and magic. She started writing after seeing the first Star Wars movie (that's episode IV) as a kid. She couldn't wait for the next movie to come out so wrote her own episodes. Sadly, those notebooks are long lost, but her desire to write is as strong now as it was then.
Her books deal with harder topics (death of a sibling, divorce, dating violence, bullying, and teen suicide) because she believes it is important to talk about these things. Those kinds of topics can be hard to handle and a bit overwhelming, so she infuses a bit of humor in her work as well because she also believes that a sense of humor can help you get through just about anything.

Shawn lives in Colorado with her family where she spends her time reading, cooking and baking, practicing yoga and meditation, and hiking and camping in the spectacular Rocky Mountains.


Author Links

Website
Facebook
Newsletter signup  

Pinterest
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon Author


Author’s Other Works

The Wish Makers Series
Sticks and Stones
Break My Bones
Never Hurt Me