For Ever is now available on Wattpad!

I just made For Ever, Book 1 of The Ever Series, available on Wattpad.com. Check it out here!

To purchase Never, Book 2 in The Ever Series, on Amazon, click here.

To purchase Sever, Book 3 in The Ever Series, on Amazon, click here.

To pre-order Ever, the alternate point-of-view companion to For Ever, on Amazon, click here.

Stay tuned for teasers!

Sever just got the sweetest review

It just made my day! Thank you to Ever's No. 1 fan.

XX

Buy Sever now on Amazon!

When Sever ends, will it be For Ever? 

I close my eyes, remembering his last words.

Wren Sullivan, I shall never forget you.

Alex saved me and cursed me. And now, even a year later, he haunts me. Maybe for the rest of my life. Feelings I’ve kept buried for the past year suddenly overwhelm me. Guilt … confusion … and the fear that I will never have control of anything—including myself—again in this lifetime.

***

When Wren Sullivan’s enemy sacrificed himself to save her, it should have been happily ever after with her true love, Ever Casey. The problem is: she can’t forget Alex Rousseau. Now, as a new enemy presents himself—and Wren begins to discover long-held secrets from a world across the dimensional divide—she must make choice after impossible choice as her mortal world is torn apart by a battle between immortal beings who have existed eons longer than she has been alive.

On top of that, her eighteenth birthday is coming up. And prom. And graduation. The question is: will she make it that far?

Buy now on Amazon.com!

Buy now on Amazon.co.uk!

So close!

So, here it is: if I can stop freaking out by tomorrow and work up the nerve to press "Publish," then Sever will most likely be available (fingers crossed) sometime on Monday (4 August)!

Right now, it's well past midnight here in Portland, Ore., and I need to remind myself to breathe deeply.

Can't wait for you guys to read Sever!

CJ

A bit of humor (yes, another teaser)

In Sever, Wren gets a job ... and a co-worker Ever isn't fond of. (Read spoilers at your own risk.)

A nail-biting Sever teaser

A little of Alex now ... Plus, I may have some big announcements coming up. Stay tuned!

What I was listening to while writing the end of Sever

On repeat. The number of plays is absolutely ridiculous. I guess the sound of it just fit my mood.

And since I have no patience ... A teaser from Sever

Here you go! Read teasers at your own risk! I am not responsible for fainting, swooning, or Ever-worshipping. ;-)

This is why I had to take a break from Sever ...

While writing the end of the book, I literally couldn't stop crying big ugly tears.

And moments ago, I wrote the last line of Sever! Teasers to come soon. Keep a sharp eye ...

To all of you who have waited patiently, thank you!

PS -- I haven't been checking e-mail or Facebook frequently, but I'll have a bit more time on my hands now that Sever will be going through the editing process!

CJ

Update coming soon!

I know! I'm long overdue for a post about Sever! I promise it's coming -- the post ... and the book. Sever, I must admit, has been a long, complicated journey for me, but the good news is that I may have something to tide you over in the meantime. (No promises yet.)

Right now, cross your fingers for Ever or Alex (or whomever you're voting for) -- because Wren's on a wild ride in the third book.

CJ

Getting closer to the end

Yes, Sever is getting close to the end. I can always tell when the story is getting close to the finish line -- because I end up crying all the time! And music! You know how a song can be completely normal, and then you listen to it while you're doing something really emotional -- and then you totally lose it?

Yep. That's what I've been doing. The song that's guilty of causing my little meltdown today as I was writing one of the sadder scenes in The Ever Series? Promise by Ben Howard. It's definitely outside my usual musical tastes, but it just seemed to fit what I was writing at that very moment.

I found the song like I do every other song -- from TV or a movie. On that note, I've been addicted to Reign on The CW, and I can't help feeling a little Francis-Ever/Bash-Alex connection going on in my head. Maybe it's just me. ;-)

I need your help!!!

Okay … so Sever is chugging along, and things are getting really interesting now! ***Fanning face.*** That said, I have a long-winded question for anyone out there waiting for the third book. …

First, a little background: Up until now, I've kept The Ever Series at around a PG-13 rating. Well, Sever is quickly veering into a make-your-blood-boil R rating. (And, apologies to Ever fans out there, but Alex is still winning, by the way.) As a result, I'm contemplating two "editions" for the third book, one being a more mild edition (for a broader audience), as well as an "unabridged" edition for anyone interested in what happens after things fade to black, if you get my meaning. If I only publish one edition, it will be the PG-13 version -- and I'll keep the unabridged edition under lock and key.

My question: Is anyone interested in seeing Sever in its unabridged form?

If you are, let me know so that I can plan to publish two versions. Pretty much the only difference will be certain scenes getting (way) toned down in the PG-13 edition.

You can vote to the left! And please feel free to e-mail me at cj.valles.4ever (at) gmail (dot) com or author (at) cjvalles (dot) com. Or post a comment!

Thank you!

Alex is winning ...

I would literally be biting my nails -- if my fingers weren't glued to the keyboard. Sever just took another major turn, and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what's going to happen … I'm just following the characters!

I will say this: Seventy-five pages ago, Ever was firmly in the lead. Right now, Alex is pulling ahead. Ever is going to have to play a mean game to catch up. On the other hand, it is Ever, and he is capable of the impossible. ;-)

More soon!

Sever is ...

Hmm, what's the right word? Oh, yeah. Complicated! Things have gone totally off the rails, and I am loving it!

And now, because I just can't resist, here's a teaser from Sever … Stay tuned for more news and teasers for the third book in The Ever Series!

Fairy tales

I'm back -- finally! After a long, strange summer that was less than productive due to an unbelievably successful "side project" (as well as some very obnoxious health issues), I am back in Everland. And, as usual, I'm pulling a lot of inspiration from fairy tales.

I grew up on the one below, and it's currently providing a wealth of inspiration for Sever. The question is: who will turn out to be the prince? ;-) As far as I can tell, fans of The Ever Series in the United States seem to be rooting for Ever; fans in the UK seem partial to Alex. Interesting, no?

As for me, the prince of my heart tends to be whichever character's scene I'm writing at the moment. Right now ... Alex is my man.

Stay tuned. Teasers to come!

C.J.

P.S. -- When I have a firm publish date, I'll post it here!

Is it getting hot in here?

Oh, wait. That's just Ever. ;-)

The writing is picking up steam ... and Sever is getting, ahem, steamy.

Yay!

Run

Okay, so I hadn't played this song by Snow Patrol in a long time, but listening to it while working on Sever (YES! I am back to work!) I realized that it's totally going into my mental movie of The Ever Series. Somewhere, not sure where.

The big question I have: Who's song is it -- Wren and Ever's or Wren and Alex's???

What do you think?

PS -- I usually let the lyrics of songs match whatever is going on in my head at the moment, so if the "true" meaning is something totally different, then I prefer to remain oblivious!

I survived ... so here's a Book 3 teaser!

Surgery was pretty painless. (However, I won't post the pic of my IV site, because people might throw up!) And my super-secret project is out of my hands for final edits. So now, for the first time in too long, I am spending some quality time with Wren and Ever. I've been so wrapped up in my other project that it's going to take some time to get reacquainted with my favorite characters -- but it really does feel like going home.

Now, without further ado, here's a little teaser of a scene I just wrote. (New character!) More to come as I start ramping up again. ;-)

Slight detour

Ah, the downside to starting a random, unrelated project in the middle of a book series. ... I just got edits back on my little side project, which went from novella to full-blown novel. That said, I'm going to be working on the edits this week. Then it's back to Ever-land and the assortment of villains that Wren and Ever are up against.

Wait, what happened to Alex? you ask.

*** Insert evil laughter here ***

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Third book in The Ever Series has its bad guy

Okay. So I'll admit it. When I first started writing For Ever, its characters were kind of a mystery to me -- except for Wren, since I was in her head. No irony there, right?

As for Ever (and Iago, *wink* *wink*), I really didn't have much of a preconceived notion about them. However, overall I knew that I didn't want them to be "good" or "bad." Hmm, that's not completely true. At first, I sort of thought that Iago was going to be a straight-up bad guy. Then -- whoops. It didn't happen. He evolved and turned into someone I wasn't expecting.

 That's the way I like my stories. You may start off thinking you know what to expect, but then the characters surprise you. I never try to predict their choices, because -- in my head -- their decisions feel very spontaneous. Which is why I totally sobbed while I was writing the end of both For Ever and Never.

 For those of you loyal souls who have been following this little blog, which I've been neglecting of late, you'll know that I took a break from the third book recently to work on a side project. (Sorry, it's going under a pen name!) Well, when I "finished" writing it, something felt off. I couldn't tell what it was, but the story just didn't feel complete as it was. Feeling very restless and dissatisfied, I went back and wrote an insanely depressing epilogue, which made me bawl my eyes out. I probably won't publish it with the book, but I felt better knowing it was there. Sick, no?

 Back to my original point. The third book in The Ever Series has its (second) villain so far, and I hate, hate, hate him. In a good way.

 Now a word from Sever's villain ...