Books and Movies Addict: 2017

Zoey Valentine is finally safe, tucked way miles underground in the

fortified community of the Sanctuary. She can finally breathe easily.

But Sanctuary is far from what she imagined and she can’t help but

feel trapped. Razi Cylon may be dead but Sekhmet, her evil

corporation that created the Awakened, is still out there and it’s not

long before citizens of Sanctuary are disappearing and reappearing,

dead and mutilated, each one tagged with a note, a warning, signed by

Razi herself.

Problem is, Razi should be dead and when she starts to threaten

everything Zoey has fought so hard for, she’s ready to fight. Sekhmet

has existed for far too long and Zoey has had enough.

It's time to end it all.

Title: The Sanctuary (The Awakened #2)
Release Date: 10 January 2017
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi
Author: Sara Elizabeth Santana
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EXCERPT

I was folding shirts in the corner of the room when Ash walked over to me, grabbed
a shirt from the pile and started folding with me. He stayed like that, in silence, as
he folded three or four shirts before he finally whispered, “Follow me.”

I dropped the shirt in my hands and followed him through the room. We snuck out
the door and down the hallway. Ash’s fingers circled my wrist as he opened a
nondescript door and pulled me through.

We were in a supply closet. It looked like mostly medical supplies. It was dark until
Ash flipped the switch and a low glow filled the small space.

“Well, this is cozy,” I remarked, looking around.

“Hey, it’s the best I could do under short notice,” Ash shot back. “I scoped this
place out all week.” We stared at each other for a long moment before we both
burst out laughing and I practically launched myself at him. It felt damn good to be
in his arms and I couldn’t help how happy I felt.

It wasn’t the first time we had snuck off and had these moments with each other
but it was getting harder and harder to make it happen. There weren’t a lot of
places in Sanctuary for privacy and it was hard to get away from the endless duties
we were committed to by living here. We took every single moment that we could
to spend with each other. I never knew when I would get another one.

“God, I miss you,” Ash said, his cheek pressed tightly against the top of my head.

“How is it possible that I see you every single day but you feel miles away?” I
asked, folding myself tighter into him. “Sneaking off every once in awhile just isn’t
enough.”

“I know we’re safe and all that, but god I hate that I can never see you or spend
time with you or even just hug you.”

“Agreed.”

“How are you doing? Really?” Ash asked, pulling away from me a little bit so he
could look me in the eye.

“I’m fine,” I assured him quickly. Ash was there when the doctors talked to me
about PTSD so I wasn’t surprised that he looked doubtful, his eyebrows jumping
high on his forehead. I laughed. “Really, I am.”

“No more nightmares?”

I squirmed uncomfortably. “Not...often.”

“Zoey...”

“Don’t ‘Zoey’ me. You’re the only person here that doesn’t look at me like I’m
suddenly going to go on a bender or something. I’m fine. I’m not going to break.”

“I know you’re not,” he inserted. “Sometimes I just...I forget that. But that doesn’t
mean I’m not worried about you, Zoey. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to care
that you’re still alone in that bed, scared.”

My lips pressed tightly together and my fingers clenched tightly at his waist. “I’ll be
okay. I promise.”

“I know you will. If there’s anything I’m sure of, it’s you.” He winked at me and I
smirked. The fact that the Ash Matthews charm was still in full force, even after the
awful year that we had just had, meant that there was some normalcy in the world.
“Now come here.”

His lips came down on mine and I answered with enthusiasm, my hands wrapping
tightly around the back of his neck. A low rumble went through his chest, as his
hands reached for the hem of my shirt. His hands were cool on my warm skin and I
pressed myself tighter to him as my tongue traced a quick sweep of his lower lip.

He groaned loudly, and lifted me up easily, placing me on a cart tucked against the
wall. Supplies went everywhere, but neither of us really noticed.

My heart was beating fast in my chest as he placed a few light bites across my
collarbone. A low moan escaped my lips and a smile stretched across his face as
his hand pressed tight against my ribcage. My skin burned at the contact, even
with the clothes between us. I grabbed the hem of his shirt and started yanking it
over his head, tossing it somewhere behind him. My hands skimmed over his hard
chest, loving the way the goosebumps raised under my fingertips. Ash deepened
the kiss, his fingers tight on the back of my neck.

“Ash?” I managed to say in between the ridiculously amazing kisses he was laying
on me.

“What is it, beautiful?” he whispered, his lips tracing an impossibly sweet trail along
my jawline.

“I love you,” I said, my fingernails digging into his skin as my hands gripped his
arms.

The smile he gave me was like a thousand fireworks in the dimly lit closet. His
hands ran down my spine, causing little gasps to escape my lips, before they
landed on my waist. He tugged me closer to him. “I love you. Always.”

GUEST POST

Tips for a new writer and how to get over writer's block

Some of the best writing advice that I ever received came from one of favorite authors
and dear friend, Jessica Brody. I have been writing since I was nine years old, but I didn’t
finish my first novel until I was 19. Finishing a book is hard work and getting past what
people call “writer’s block” is hard. I used to think writer’s block was a thing. For some
people, it is. For me, I don’t really believe in writer’s block. Instead, I think its less of a
block and more of a...trying too hard thing.

I usually know what I want to have in my stories, even if its just a vague outline. Figuring
out what happens next has never been a problem. I don’t think that’s a problem for a lot of
authors. The story is in our heads. It’s getting it down on paper that is just so hard!

I think what happens is that we try so hard to write everything perfectly! We want all the
words on the page to just come out and be perfect as soon as we write them and it
doesn’t quite work like that, you know? So we sit there in front of our computers and we
overthink and we struggle.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I received was from Jessica and she said it during a
panel at WonderCon back in 2013, and it honestly helped me to complete the three
novels and one novella that I’ve written since then. She told the audience, “don’t be afraid
to write crap. Crap makes great fertilizer.”

And it's so true! We are so afraid of writing pure utter crap that we don’t write anything at
all and I think that’s the issue of “writer’s block”. You can’t be afraid to write badly
because everyone writes badly! I don’t care who you are; all authors write horribly. But
that’s okay. Because you get it down on paper and you can go back. You can fix it and
rearrange it and you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. You can’t fix a blank
page. You have to give yourself permission to just write really badly. Something is better
than nothing.

To kind of go hand in hand with that, I would also say, don’t put so much pressure on
yourself. Don’t compare yourself to other authors. Don’t ever put these impossibly high
standards on yourself. Don’t think, well I’m not that good, or I’m not as good as so-and-so,
because you’re already dooming yourself to fail before you’ve even written a word. Just
write your book. Write your story. It’s going to be brilliant because it's YOUR story. There
aren’t any new stories anymore. There aren’t. We’re all telling the same stories but they’re
also different. All of them. Because each story is told by a different person and that’s what
makes them great. What you’re writing doesn’t have to be groundbreaking or new. It
already is because YOU’RE telling it. Just tell your story and write it badly and then write
it badly again and then edit it and do it again. The right story is going to come out.

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