Guest Post & Giveaway: Emerald Bound by Teresa Richards

About Teresa Richards

Teresa Richards writes YA, but loves anything that can be given a unique twist. Her zombie stories 'Are You My Mombie?' and 'The Zombie Code' can be found in Z Tales: Stories from the Zombieverse by The Fairfield Scribes. When Teresa’s not writing, she can be found either chasing after one of her five kids, or hiding someplace in the house with a treat her children overlooked. Emerald Bound is her debut novel. 

You can connect with her on twitter @BYUtm33 or at www.authorteresarichards.com.

Guest Post

Finding Your Creative Outlet

I believe every human being was hard-wired with an innate desire to create. The act of creation makes us happy, whether that creation takes the form of writing a story, coaxing a flower out of the ground, or color-coding the shoes in our closet (ie, creating order). We are just creative beings and when we don’t create, something inside us starts to die. 

My favorite creative outlet is writing. But writing is not the only creative thing I’ve ever done and it’s not the only outlet I have. There are phases in life when your capacity to create is huge and other times when that capacity dwindles. When life steps in and cuts down the time or energy you have to devote to creation, the trick is to find something, however small, that can fill that innate creative need. 

For example, “creating” essays and science projects while in college didn’t quite fill my need. But I was so busy with school that I just couldn’t add anything more. So during that time, I’d often take my piano books to a practice room on campus and create music for a half hour or so whenever I felt myself shriveling up inside. 

Harder still were the years I spent “creating” little human beings. Spending my days trying to create order out of chaos didn’t quite fill my creative cup. But during that time I took up scrapbooking with a vengeance, hashing out my creative urges with scalloped scissors and patterned paper while the baby napped and the toddler watched cartoons. (And, okay, sometimes while the toddler clawed at my legs, trying to get me to give into whatever happened to be the two-year-old whim of the day.) 

It wasn’t until my kids got a little older that I finally had time to devote myself to creating stories. And, oh, it filled my cup to overflowing. I couldn’t get enough of it. I still can’t. I just love writing. I love the process of seeing the tiniest spark of an idea grow and develop into a mammoth of a story. In my mind, there is just nothing better. 

How about you? What is your creative outlet of choice for the phase of life you’re in?

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Emerald Bound

A princess, a pea, and a tower of mattresses. This is the sliver that survives of a story more nightmare than fairytale... 

Maggie Rhodes, high school junior and semi-reformed stalker, learns the tale’s true roots after a spying attempt goes awry and her best friend Kate ends up as the victim of an ancient curse. At the center of the curse lies an enchanted emerald that has been residing quietly in a museum for the past fifty years. Admirers of the gem have no idea that it feeds on life. Or that it’s found its next victim in Kate. 

Enter Lindy, a school acquaintance who knows more than she’s letting on, and Garon, a handsome stranger claiming he knows how to help, and Maggie is left wondering who to trust and how to save her best friend before it’s too late. 

If only Maggie knew her connection to the fairy tale was rooted far deeper than an endangered best friend.

Giveaway

One very lucky winner will receive a signed copy of Emerald Bound. Good luck!

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