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Jay E. Tria

Music Dance and Lyrics Writing Now

Reblog: Top 5 Heartbreak Songs

Note: Original post was part of the TBD Blog Tour for Songs of Our Breakup, and can be found in author Ana Tejano‘s blog here. You may find some songs already in my book soundtrack. But that only means I heart those tracks very much.

I don’t know why I felt like reblogging this. Maybe because I’m revising Songs to Get Over You and the feelings are getting to me. Or maybe because Monday bit me and is still dragging me down. In any case, I needed to listen to something, and I remembered this. A ready, foolproof, karaoke-hits playlist. Continue Reading

Writing Now

Majesty: Cover Reveal and Print Book!

Majesty-Strangelit-Darkest-Dreams-Jay-E-Tria

 

Last August I joined StrangeLit, a paranormal/urban fantasy writing workshop sponsored by Buqo and Mina V. Esguerra’s Bronze Age Media. The product of that is Majesty, a novella about a beautiful ghost and friendships that endure.

What would you do if the ghost of someone you love appeared in front of you?

Majesty is a beautiful ghost, with her hair of fire and eyes gray like smoke. That is Andy Fey’s first thought when the ghost of her best friend Majesty Hall appeared in her bedroom, only two months since her death. Majesty doesn’t know why she’s there, why only Andy can see her.

Andy isn’t sure if she should tell Gale, that boy who claims that he and Majesty were in love. Funny, sarcastic, and a self-proclaimed serial heartbreaker, Gale is proving to be a good friend in grief, though his trail of broken hearts could soon include hers.

As Andy and Gale wade through their sorrow, Andy wonders if Majesty is here to help ease her into this new, complicated friendship, or if she has a mission all her own.

Majesty is happily bundled with 9 other stories in the Darkest Dreams eBook, available at the Buqo store. But soon the story will be released as a standalone, so it needed its very own book cover. Covers for my last two books were magicked from photos by the awesome Tania Arpa. But for Majesty, I wanted an illustration. So I commissioned watercolor artist Raine Sarmiento after seeing her beautiful work on Mina’s Gifted Little Creatures. I hardly knew what instructions to give and what to expect. But when Raine sent me her final work as you can see above, I teared up just a little. It’s exactly what I didn’t know I wanted.

I brought a few printed copies to FilReadercon last Saturday and all copies were promptly gobbled up (thank YOU, friends haha). The standalone eBook version will be available on Buqo and on Amazon early next year, but if you want to have your own print copy now, please fill out the order form here 🙂

Thank you so much again Raine! You make me want to write a Caleb story just so we can do this again 😀

Book Review

Review: What You Wanted by Mina V. Esguerra

It’s the classic one-night stand: Beach wedding, bridesmaid, groom’s friend. When Andrea and Damon meet, sparks fly, and they give in to the attraction. Sounds simple, but Andrea’s still getting over someone, and Damon thought he’d be hooking up with another person that night. It could still be simple, really, if they chalk it up to a weekend tryst and move on.

But one night becomes lunch the week after, and then dinner the next weekend…and before they know it, Andrea and Damon are still together, dealing with the feelings they know they might still have for other people. How hard can it be to get exactly what you want? How do you even know what it is?

***Andrea and Damon met in prequel short story WEDDING NIGHT STAND, but this book can be read as a standalone.***

 

I received an ARC of this book from the author. This does not affect my opinion of the work.

I’m not one to pick up a book with a hookup type of premise. I’ve never quite rooted for a heroine who slept around and then somehow found true love in that hot mess of first dates and random guys. It takes a lot for me to believe that. Thus it says something about Mina V. Esguerra’s new book What You Wanted because I absolutely loved it.

I liked Andrea. She’s not my kind of girl and I’m not what she’d call one of her people. But her frankness and her ability to see things as they are, behind the veil of people’s everyday bullshit, were all utterly refreshing. Of course the very way she perceives the world and the ‘rules’ of the dating game, and even the way she looks at herself lead her to exactly the kind of trap she’d been hoping to avoid. But that’s a journey I think you should take with her when you read the book.

I liked Damon too. I’d be shit scared of someone like him at first. Smart, rich, devilishly handsome, and all colors of messed up for the wrong girl for so long. But he’s honest too, or he tries very hard to be. I’d say more about how awesome he is, and how well Damon and Andrea work together, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you. As I said, go pick up the book and find out for yourself.

Available on the following e-retailers: Amazon iTunes Smashwords Barnes & Noble Kobo buqo

 

About Mina V. Esguerra

Mina V. Esguerra writes contemporary romance, young adult, and new adult novellas. Through her blog Publishing in Pajamas (minavesguerra.com), she documents her experiments in publishing.

When not writing romance, she is president of communications firm Bronze Age Media, development communication consultant, indie publisher, professional editor, wife, and mother. She created the workshop series “Author at Once” for writers and publishers, and #romanceclass for aspiring romance writers.

Her young adult/fantasy trilogy Interim Goddess of Love is a college love story featuring gods from Philippine mythology. Her contemporary romance novellas won the Filipino Readers’ Choice awards for Chick Lit in 2012 (Fairy Tale Fail) and 2013 (That Kind of Guy).

Contact her at minavesguerra [at] gmail [dot] com / @minavesguerra on Twitter. Visit her Amazon Author Page. Find her books here.