Look what just came in the mail!

My contributors' copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength, introduced by Fran Drescher:

My story "It Takes A Village" appears in the chapter called Learning to Reach Out:

Here's my "this is really happening" face:

The book doesn't officially release until October 28th 2014, but it's available for pre-order now: http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Soup-Soul-Empowering-Resilience/dp/1611599393

And I'm in it!

Rainbow Crush and so much more...

I almost feel bad for trying to cram so much news into one post. I'll try to keep it brief.

Big News #1:

My first single-author short story collection is OUT! Rainbow Crush: Light-Hearted LGBT Fiction for Teens is available as an ebook and in print!

Five fun fictions from the author of Tiffany and Tiger’s Eye & Truth and Other Lies! In Rainbow Crush, revisit five favourite short stories featuring gay and lesbian characters:

In “I Hate Love,” Mila melts Laura-the-Ice-Queen’s heart as Jaden learns that dating an older man could have repercussions he hadn’t anticipated. Mila and Laura are back with impossibly high expectations in the side-splittingly funny housesitting comedy “Happy Birthday, Klutzface.” In “I Know What Gay Is,” Jay the teenaged manny and his young charge Sarah, who insists on being called Frank, find an unexpected ally on the soccer field.

School is back in session and tempers flare when Mila, Laura and Jaden stumble into a protest where classmates insist a gender-nonconforming new student “Dress Like A Dude.” In our final story, aspiring teen chef Noah comes out of the closet in a most surprising way during his first television appearance in “The Secret to a Perfect Latke.”

The ebook's available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NPOJA7C
and Amazon UK: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NPOJA7C
Get the paperback from CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/5002133
or Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Crush-Light-Hearted-Fiction-Teens/dp/1502393891

Big News #2:

Hope you kept reading, because I don't want you buying Rainbow Crush just yet! Well, you can if you want to, but Amazon's allowing me to give it away FREE for 5 days. That'll happen from September 21-25th, just in time for Word on the Street and ending on the day I'll be...

Big News #3:

...taking over Twitter!  Okay, not all of twitter.  I'll be taking over Torquere Press's @torquere twitter feed from 2-4 p.m. EST on Thursday September 25th. If you don't know Torquere, they are the "parent" publisher of the Prizm Books imprint that brought you my debut novel Tiffany and Tiger's Eye! Be there or be square.

Big News #4:

Thanks to Brad @JazzFM91 for the shout-out on the radio today! Sometimes it's nice to be shouted at... or out...

Big News #5:

I realized that visitors arriving at my blog for the first time might have trouble figuring out that I'm a professional writer and that I've got books on the market and all that. To that end, I created a store you can visit just by clicking on "Foxglove's Fiction" at the top of the page. Here's the direct link: http://foxglovelee.blogspot.com/p/foxgloves-fiction.html Okay, full disclosure: I saw other authors doing this and I thought it was a good idea. I'm a big copycat!

I think that's all the news you can use for now. Remember to grab a copy of Rainbow Crush on Sunday September 21st. The ebook will be free from then until Thursday of next week!

If you're playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and you're trying to get from Fran Drescher to Foxglove Lee...

...then you're obviously living in a make-believe world where I have more than 300 twitter followers and my books fly off the shelves of every bookstore in town, but let's pretend for a moment that this is really happening.  You're playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and you need to find some random connection between myself and the resilient Fran Drescher.

I know, I know, but bear with me. This is going somewhere, I promise.

In October, Fran Drescher and Foxglove Lee (haaa... talking about myself in the third person. George likes spicy food) will share the pages of a new edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul:

I saw Fran Drescher on a talk show a couple years ago (which is weird because I never watch talk shows) and I was astounded by some of the horrific stuff she's lived through. That woman has gone to hell and back, and I can't wait to read the foreword she's written for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength.

As for me, when I first sat down to write something for this collection I really thought I had nothing to share. I couldn't think of an instance where I felt I'd been particularly strong, inside or out. But an event from my life came to mind and I typed it out, not thinking much of it.  It wasn't until I read the anecdote that I came to fully appreciate the harrowing nature of my life story. 

Sometimes you don't see how serious your situation is/was until you take a step back and examine it as though it were somebody else's experience.

I'll have more to say closer to the book's release date, but I wanted to tell you all how excited I am to have my story included in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Inner Strength.

Who'd have thought I'd end up between the covers with the likes of Fran Drescher?

"I Know What Gay Is" is back and it's FREE until Friday!

I kind of said it all in the subject line, so... hmm... what's left to tell you?  

Not much! 

Here's the blurb for my queer YA short "I Know What Gay Is":

Isn't babysitting a job for twelve-year-old girls?

When the couple next door asks Jay to babysit, he can't help wondering… why him? Did they hire Jay as some kind of queer role model because they suspect little Sarah is gay?

At the park, when Sarah and Jay run across the guy he's been pseudo-stalking, Sarah insists she’s a boy. Darien’s sheer sexiness makes Jay pretty brain-dead, and he can't think what to talk about except how Sarah wants everyone to call her Frank. The funny kid reminds Darien of his transgender cousin. Could Sarah be trans, too? Should Jay talk to her parents? What if they say it's none of his business? What if they fire him?

Well, then he'll just have to spend his summer watching Darien work in the park, sweaty and shirtless...

Second Edition. First published by Prizm Books. 4,500 words.

It's free at Amazon now through Friday (that would be the 15th of August, I do believe) so pick up a copy today!

In America: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MN13PYW
In the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MN13PYW?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
In Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00MN13PYW?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
In Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00MN13PYW

If you're somewhere else I'm pretty sure you can just replace the "com" with your country's Amazon suffix and you'll get to the book page? Maybe? I could be totally wrong about that. Try it and see if your computer explodes.

July 14-21st Your Evernight Teen Purchase Funds Girls' Education

My new publisher Evernight Teen is currently donating the purchase price from all books bought at their site to World Vision's Education for Girls Fund. That means if you buy Truth and Other Lies there right now, you're getting a great book and giving the gift of education to girls around the globe.

From the Evernight Teen blog:

Evernight Teen Teams Up with World Vision to 

Support the Education for Girls Fund.

During the week of July 14 – 21, the full amount of every book purchased on the Evernight and Evernight Teen websites will be donated to World Vision’s Education for Girls Fund.

57 million primary-school-age children are not enrolled in school; 53 percent of these are girls. These children are at greater risk for exploitation, early marriage, and lower income-earning potential. World Vision addresses barriers to education and works with communities and local governments to improve the quality of education children receive.

Help support World Vision’s Education for Girls Fund by purchasing a book or two (or more!) from Evernight Publishing and Evernight Teen’s websites. The full price of each book purchased from July 14th to July 21st will be donated to this important cause.

Look for authors' blog posts about what education means to them during the special fundraising week. Don’t miss their inspiring stories.

I Promised You A Blog Hop! Enter to Win a $10 Gift Certificate!

I give you a blog hop!

July 7-July 11 my new baby, Truth and Other Lies, is on tour.  Follow along to find out all kinds of behind-the-scenes book nerdy stuff.  Best part?  You've got a chance to win a $10 gift certificate for Evernight Teen!

July 7  -  Blushing Divas Book Reviews  -  Promo

stop 2  -  Reviews by Crystal  -  Guest Post

July 8  -   You Gotta Read YA  -  Author Interview

stop 2  -   Room with Books  -  Top 10 post/spotlight   

stop 3  -  Em & M Books  -  Guest Post   

July 9 -   Sizzling Hot YA Books  -  Promo

stop 2  -  Jeanz Book Read & Review  -  Author Interview/Promo

July 10  -  Harlie's Books  -  Author Interview

stop 2  -    Toot's Book Reviews  -  Author Q&A

July 11  -  A Passion for Romance  -  Character Interview

stop 2  -  Lusty Penguin  -  Guest Post

stop 3  -  Dalene's Book Reviews  -  Spotlight/Review at a later date 

For more info check out the tour schedule at: http://www.bridgingthegappromotions.blogspot.ca/2014/07/tour-for-truth-or-other-lies-by.html

Truth and Other Lies

I'm warning you right now: there WILL be a blog hop. And it will be amazing. Because my new book, Truth and Other Lies, is just that cool.

I always swore to myself I'd never write a book about a writer, but when the idea for Truth and Other Lies popped into my brain I couldn't turn it off and I couldn't alter it.  Sometimes you just gotta write the thing. 

So I did, and here it is: a book about a guy whose best friend leaves a brilliant manuscript in his hands; a book about what he chooses to do with her words; a book about falling in love with a beautiful girl... and falling in love with her handsome boyfriend; a book about a love triangle that's anything but conventional; a book about secrets... and lies.

Have you ever wanted to get noticed? Have you ever felt like no matter how hard you worked or how hard you tried, nobody in the entire world cared what you did? Well, what if someone famous—and we’re talking Oprah-famous, here—noticed you for the one thing you wish you could hide? For your one big secret…

That’s exactly what happens to 18-year-old Kenneth McIntyre when television guru Prahna Mehta hails his self-published novel as the next bestseller. Little do his new fans know Truth and Other Lies wasn’t written by Kenny at all… and it isn’t fiction. Kenny’s been keeping secrets for years. Sometimes he feels like he’s lying to everybody he loves.

When Kenny gets swept into stardom, how will he hide the secrets he’s kept for years? And, if his lies are exposed, will anyone stay by his side?

Read an Excerpt at Evernight Teen:

http://www.evernightteen.com/truth-and-other-lies-by-foxglove-lee/

And while I'm on the topic, I want to thank everyone at my new publishing house.  I've been working with amazing editors and promotions people and I'm so touched by the personal interest they take in my book.  Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Thanks also to Sour Cherry Designs for the wonderful book cover!

Truth and Other Lies by Foxglove Lee is also available from:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LICLQBG

All Romance Ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-truthandotherlies-1562486-145.html

BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/truth-and-other-lies-mmf