Teen Violence is Real

Hi everybody.

Shay Collins here, with a very serious post.

My heart hurts to know that there are young girls out there who are involved in relationships with guys who, for lack of a better term, could really care less about them.

The statistics are out. Our teen girls are being threatened, beaten, and even raped by guys who have led these young girls to believe that they love them.

Well, my latest book, a short story called Brad's Girl, paints a very vivid picture of a young girl who falls for the wrong guy, for the wrong reasons, and literally ends up paying for it with her life.

The story centers around Jennifer Duncan, a senior in high school, who falls for the most popular guy in school, Bradley Jennings, who also happens to be a real ladies man.

The son of wealthy parents, 'Brad' can pretty much do whatever he wishes to, and is allowed to get away with it. Even use a young girls face as his own personal punching bag.

It is my hope that this book will open the eyes of all of the 'Brad's Girls' out there.

There are many of them, most of whom are afraid that leaving their version of 'Brad' will either land them in the hospital or the morgue.

My goal is to raise awareness of this problem, which is fast becoming an epidemic, a crisis.

Our young men and women need to not only know what love is, but how to love one another.

They need to know that putting their hands on someone is not love.

That real love does not hurt; real love heals.

Please share this post with anyone you feel can benefit from it.

Thank you,
~Shay Collins~

An Update from Shay Collins (That's Me;)

Hi everyone!

I know it has been ages since I last wrote. The last time I posted on here, was when I got a new website. But that site is under construction and I really have missed blogging.

Quite a few things have happened since my last post.

I have been hard at work on my next two novels, despite a few bouts with writers block. (Ugggghhhh!!)

I have been working on a new t-shirt line and an online magazine.

Saw the cover design for my new book, which I will be sharing.

I'm going to try and stick with a real blogging schedule from here on out because it really helps me connect with people.

And when my website is back up and running again, I will post that here as well so that you can check that out.

So, that's pretty much all. I just wanted to let you know what was going on in my little corner of the world.

What's been going on in yours?

The Lazy Sunday

It was well into the afternoon and I must say, I was tired. It was one of those lazy Sunday afternoons. Irene Metcalf and myself had decided that we would just lay out by the pool and soak in the sweet summer sunshine... that is, until Jeffrey Adams decided to grace us with his presence.
Jeffrey had to be the hottest guy in the tenth grade, and he was at my house, standing by my pool. How cool.
But this day, Jeffrey wasn't alone. He had brought his kid brother Jason with him. Why? We would never know.
Irene was my best friend. The two of us had been through everything together. We got our periods together. Got out our ears pierced together. Heck, we even got our first kisses together.
Irene had a mad crush on Jeffrey and everybody in the school knew it.
Everybody knew this, except for Jeffrey. To him, Irene was just a cool girl that he had the honor of knowing.
That too would change soon.
"Hey Jeff, want some lemonade?" I asked, lowering my sunglasses so that he could see my bright blue eyes.
Jeff nodded. "That'd be cool," he said as he took a seat in a patio chair next to Irene.
I saw her face go red all over.
I told them I'd be back, then headed into the house to get the lemonade.
What I saw standing in the kitchen made me nearly drop the glass.

***Just felt like writing today. Hope you like it. I will add more as I get time.****
Until next time,
~Shay~~

Some Really Cool Authors I Discovered

Hello all.

I am hard at work on my second and third books. I have so much to talk about. But enough about me, this blog, I wanted to talk about some really cool authors that I discovered.
One of them is Jamie McGuire, whose is the author of 'Beautiful Disaster', and 'Providence', which at last check were climbing the charts on Amazon.com, and 'Providence' was #98 on the Amazon's Top 100 List. That is quite an accomplishment.
Another really cool author that I have discovered so far is Sara Cannon, author of the 'Peachville High Demons' series. Her books are also among the Top 100 on Amazon.
There are many others, and to make my blog a little more interesting (there's only so much about me I want to talk about) I will talk about authors that I think are cool.

Until next time,

~Shay~~

Clueless in Michigan

Hi Guys,

Shay here. This week I learned an ugly truth: books don't sell themselves. So I would like to pose a question to you readers out there, what are some things that attracts you or entices you to read books by certain authors. Is it the book description? Is it the book cover? Is it 'My friend read it, so I'm going to read it too?' Please share.

And book promotion: How do you truly promote a book?

On another note,

I am hard at work on my second book. I already have the cover designed and I will be releasing sneak peeks to the book soon. Let's just say that this book is the first in a series of books.

Okay, here's what I would like for you to do:
Send me your suggestions on what can be done to get to the readers. What are your tips and tricks of the trade?
Send your suggestions to authorshay@gmail.com.

I will feature your responses on my blog, and on my facebook page as well.

~Shay~

"Twisted Rage" Ultimate Reader Contest

 My First Contest

June is "Twisted Rage" Ultimate Reader Search Month! Throughout the month of June, author Shay Collins will be giving away some really cool prizes to 5 lucky readers. Each purchase of "Twisted Rage" will qualify you for a chance to win:

• An autographed copy of the paperback version of "Twisted Rage"
• An official "Twisted Rage" t-shirt
• And an official "Twisted Rage" Poster, signed by Shay Collins

To enter, you must:

Download a copy of "Twisted Rage" by Shay Collins to your Nook, Kindle, PC or other ebook reading devide between May 31, 2011 and June 30, 2011

Forward confirmation of your paid download to authorshay@gmail.com.

5 lucky winners will be chosen and announced on July 2, 2011

Good luck. Oh, and by the way, contest ends at midnight June 30, 2011. Don't wait. You could be one of the winners.
P.S. The 5 lucky winners will be mentioned on the Shay Collins blog.

It's Alive

It's official! My book is now available online! I am so so excited about this and looking forward to this journey.

On another note: I am starting to work on the first book in my mystery series. I'm not letting that cat out of the bag until it's getting close to time to publish. (Don't want to be sharing the title with too many folks;)

Anywhoo, got tons of work to do.

Today I learned that it is virtually impossible not to share your book title with another author in some way, shape or form. You can research until you are blue in the face and someone else can still come out with a title that either exactly matches yours or comes pretty darn close. Sigh.

I am still happy though. My hat's off to authors and those that aspire to be. It takes a lot of work to write and publish a book. I mean, I had no idea about how to format a book, and hire an editor, and a proofreader, or get a cover designed. I thought you just came up with a name, wrote a book, uploaded it, and poof--like magic you became an author. Not so.

The book has to have a certain format. The cover has to be a certain size or the photos will look blurry. Whew! I am sweating again just thinking about all that work.

And the crazy part: now that I have one book under my belt, I am so anxious to write more;)

I hear an evil laugh building up inside of me.

I guess that's all for today. I will probably be up until the wee hours of the morning pounding away at yet another story.

It feels great to be an author.

~Shay~~

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