MY LEA COVER REVEAL

Finally!
After waiting for like three months—I know because I’ve been counting—the cover is finally revealed! Finally, my book has a 'face'.

I’m so glad that my old friend, a very talented illustrator, Evelyn agreed to help me out with the cover art. The cover represents everything that is in the story: the lemonade metaphor, the color (lemon yellow and sugar white), the guy’s face and the title are made out of the lemonade’s spill.


For those of you who have already added MY LEA to your goodreads TBR, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU GUYS TO THE MOON AND BACK!

See you all in mid November... 

BOOK & AUTHOR INFO:

My Lea by E. Mellyberry
(A Broken Love Story, #1)
Publication date: November 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

A simple girl.

A broken guy.

One horrible incident.

When Lea Amelia landed her feet in San Francisco for her overseas study, her idea of freedom was simple, like eating junk food ten times a day, sitting in front of the TV in her PJs, or going out late with her friends without the need to check in with her mother constantly.

Then she met Andrew Jaya, her brothers’ best friend. A twenty-two-year-old guy whose physical appearance looked like he was crafted straight from God’s heavenly hands, but possessed a past as bleak as if it was drawn by Evil himself. A conflicted guy who wore sadness like nobody’s business beneath his mask, a perfect-looking mask she slowly peeled away.

He was also the guy who hurt her.

Suddenly, everything about her was no longer simple.

Andrew Jaya had convinced himself that not feeling was good for him. He’d been doing it splendidly for almost his entire life. But that was before his best friend’s sister stepped into his life and ruined it. After weeks of knowing Lea, all of those warm and wonderful feelings he’d long ago denied to himself started to reappear. Problem was, the brighter the light, the bigger the shadows that came with it.

His traumatic past refused to let him go.

When the unthinkable happened, the easiest thing to do was to run. But life often proves that the easiest way is usually the hardest.

Bullying: A never-ending story

A bully (by my definition) is a cowardice person who thinks that the only way to make him/her feel superior is by dragging others down to their level.

Solution: Don’t get dragged down to their level, then. Be more.

The problem with my solution? Well, duh! It’s not easy.

Bullying happens everywhere, every time, to almost every one. Sadly, bullying happens the most at school. Kids and teenagers could be the meanest being alive.

Everyone who is literate knows the negative—sometimes lethal—effect of bullying on its victims. We’re aware that bullying is bad, no matter what the scale is. We know what we’re expected to do when we see or experience one. But—as usual with real life—knowing and experiencing are two different things.

When our kids fall victim to bullying, every wisdom and every common sense flew out of the window. Instead of being rational and calm, most the time our initial reaction would be to throw Thor’s hammer in the direction of that bully who’s hurt our children. If you say you don’t feel this way, then maybe you’re one of those robotic parents.

When our children were younger, the solutions were simpler. We could talk to the teachers, or the other parents, and most of the times the problem stopped. When kids get older, the act of bullying gets more complicated, and the involvement of an adult often seen as a weakness in the eyes of the kid. Beware of verbal bullying, because the bruises and the scars can’t be seen with our eyes and the effect usually takes a while to show its ugly face. Furthermore, we can’t possibly shelter our children 24/7 forever. On top of those, words like “ignore them” or “laugh it off” would no longer be sufficient to fight off a bully.
Even when you’re lucky to miss one bully now, there’ll be more of them out there, waiting in the shadows to meet you.

It’s complicated I say, and it is.

The only thing that we can—and always—tell our kids is that they need to find a way to stand up for themselves. How, when, what are not set in stone. Every kid will deal with this in their own way, in their own time.
The most important thing we, parents, need to constantly remind them are:
1. The definition of a bully, so they can spot one if they meet one.
2. Don’t let anyone dictate how you feel.
3. Stand up, stand up, stand up for yourself.

It’s not unusual that the kids misinterpret standing up as fighting. Standing up doesn’t mean talking with your fists, or sinking lower to their level by bullying other people or by being bitter. Standing up can be done with a simple “Stop It” or to yell a warning shout or to do a warning shove… anything.

Remember, a bully is a coward. Once he/she senses that their victim could bite, they instantly become their true-self—a coward.

So stand up.
Be firm.
Hold fierce eye-contact.
Make it matter. Make your voice matter.
Don’t ever cower.

Stand!

MY LEA news

Hello, everyone.

Most of you have probably heard that my novel, MY LEA, will be released in November 2014. This whole thing is so exciting for me. Not only this would be my first full-length novel, this is also my first English book.

MY LEA is a Contemporary New Adult. It's the first book in the A Broken Love Story series. Word count is around 93K.
If you wish to know more about the book, please click the link below. It will take you to the goodreads page in no time.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18759732-my-lea



Cover reveal is scheduled to take place on October 16th. Xpresso is the drive behind it. Feel free to sign up to join the fun :) Signing up is easy and free. You don't need to do anything beside signing up and posting. For those awesome people who's already signed up, YOU ARE INCREDIBLE, GUYS. AND I LOVE YOU!

The cover is designed by my friend, Evelyn Gozalli, a talented Indonesian illustrator. I love the cover like crazy, and I'm saying this not because it's my cover, but because it's really beautiful. Every element on that cover has meaning that's related to the story. You need to read the book to know... or you could just ask me :)

Here's the link for the cover reveal sign up.
http://xpressobooktours.com/2014/09/29/cover-reveal-sign-up-my-lea-by-e-mellyberry/



I'll come back with more news about MY LEA and other writing/self publishing stories after the cover reveal. Make sure you don't miss any of these :)

Thank you, guys. Stay tune !
E. Mellyberry