Harley Q. Turner (Author)

Ok anyone who knows me personally knows how important music is to me. About six years ago, I guess you could say I had a crisis of faith. My faith was music. I had lost a really close friend of mine to suicide, and since he was the drummer of my favorite local band, I had no desire to listen to music anymore. In the car, my stereo was off. If my boyfriend at the time was playing music at home, I would put on noise canceling headphones just to drown out the sound. I didn't want to hear anything that would remind me of my friend. Of course, being a drummer in a popular rock band, his friends and family put together a benefit. Several amazing local bands played that day. I couldn't not go. During the first three bands, I sat outside. I couldn't bring myself to jump back into the world of live music. The bassist of one of the bands stepped outside for a cigarette between sets. We started talking. Stu will never know how much he helped me that day. We talked about absolu...

When I first ventured into the world of fantasy with the Saving Avalon series, I admit I was skeptical at first. Although fantasy is usually my chosen genre when I am reading, I had never written something like it before. Everything was new to me. Finding Her Wings didn't sell as well as I had hoped. Yes, part of it is my fault because I am so horrible at marketing. Then as I sat down to start on book two, I decided that the antagonist in Finding Her Wings is not such a bad guy after all. Most of book two was spent redeeming the past actions of this character. Of course, a demons actions cannot be redeemed in only one book. He will constantly be trying to prove that he has changed. Now I am struggling with book three. I thought I had a title and general plot figured out, but now I am not so sure. I'm missing writing about my social issues. I miss the characters in my Self Inflicted Saga. I think I need to revisit them for awhile. I need a break from Saving Avalon.

For the past week, children in my hometown and surrounding areas have been forced to spend their school days in a soft lockdown. While the younger children don't really realize they are even in lockdown other than missing out on recess, the older children know exactly what is going on. For a week, since the gun store in Janesville, Wisconsin was robbed, these children have been robbed of their freedom. Taking recess away from these children when it is finally warm enough to go outside and play is a nightmare for them! I, like many other parents in my area, kept my children home from school a couple of those locked down days. The first day that I kept them home, I actually had a child throw a complete fit because she couldn't get a stress ball if she missed school that day. Well, is that stress ball more important than your life? I think not dear child. The suspect has finally been found. Parents can breathe a little easier knowing there is one less madman on the streets mak...

While at work the last few weeks, I have been spending time working on book stuff. No, not writing (or editing) like I should be, but I am putting together info sheets on all my work so I can find everything easily! While I was working on that, I decided that my descriptions needed some work. All the information on Summer Love you ever wanted, all in one place. Summer Love Info Sheet   Published by Harley Turner Books March 12, 2015   Price: Kindle 3.99  Paperback 9.99   Amazon: http://amzn.to/2onatqu     ASIN: B00VO0SDVE   Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25142064-summer-love     She found love when she was least suspecting it.   Marissa spends every summer of her childhood camping almost 200 miles away from home with her grandparents and aunt. One summer, while staying with her aunt, she meets Chad.   Chad is the definition of a bad boy. He is Marissa’s cousin’s best f...

I was in the emergency room on Saturday for what I thought was as simple as a sore throat. Not only was it strep (which I had actually assumed), but the doctors were amazed at my blood pressure. How can it be so high and yet have no signs of having a stroke? How can it be so high when medically there is nothing wrong with me? Stress. It's going to kill me. My ex-husband was released from prison last Tuesday and since his release, he has been messaging me DAILY about wanting to see the kids. Um. No? You were out of their lives for 3 years. Very minimal contact during those three years. You expect me to rearrange my schedule to accommodate you? Unlikely. And then of course there is the reason as to why he was in prison in the first place! I will never forget being woken up at 6 am on a Sunday morning to cops at my door wanting to make sure I was still alive! Not only had he beaten the hell of his girlfriend (he ended up being charged with felony strangulation and felony false...

A visit to Avalon is only the beginning... Of course, the visit is cut short for Sera and her friends when they discover that Zac has been kidnapped by Drew's brothers in an attempt to draw Sera to them. Sick of living as an incubus, Drew attempts to redeem his past transgressions by helping the Avalonians fight against the incubi to save Zac and later Lexi, although the battle is not without casualties. Mariana is one of the two last surviving mermaids of Avalon after her parents were brutally killed in a past battle against the incubi. Orphaned at a young age and forced into raising her sister, Mariana has the ability to see and bring out the best in people. Can Mariana bring out the best in Drew? Is he capable of redemption or is his past just too dark?

I am so sick of my in-laws! First of all, most of them have done absolutely nothing to accept my children. My family treats my step-daughter like she is just one of my kids, as I expect them to, but my in-laws? So not the case! My sister in law was married over the weekend, and all I see on social media, DAYS later, is everything wedding related. Um. Where was this during my wedding? Oh yea, no where to be found. The world seems to completely revolve around my sister in law, and I can't stand her. A few years ago, my mother in law came over for Christmas with several presents for my step daughter that she wanted her to open in front of the other children. So, you want to spoil this child while my children watch and make me explain to them why you refuse to even acknowledge them? I don't think so. If you only want to include the one child, you can do it at your own house. I'm not going to explain to my kids that my husband's family likes to act that they don't ...

“You want to take me to Avalon?” Sera Neilson shrieked. She couldn’t believe her ears. Of course, of all the unbelievable things she had heard over the last month, uprooting her life in the midst of disaster to visit the mythological place that she was apparently the princess of shouldn’t be all that unbelievable.   It’s not like she was expected to believe she was really an immortal faerie, and that she had to choose between two dragons, and the fate of their home depended on her decision.    It’s not like she was expected to believe that her father, whom she had never known, was a demon that assaulted her best friend when they thought he was just a typical teenage guy.   It’s not like she was expected to believe that Evelyn, whom she thought was her grandmother, was really a several hundred year old witch that was responsible for the protection of the Neilson family.   Oh wait. Sera had been expected to believe all that.   All that...

March 13, 2015... That was the day it all began. The day I officially published my first book. Summer Love was available for purchase on March 13, 2015. Closely followed by Autumn Goodbye on April 10, 2015. When I picked up the pen, I didn't realize how hard it would be to put it down. I didn't realize how many other stories I could come up with to share with the world. I didn't realize how much I would actually love being able to affect lives with my words. It has almost been two years. In those two years, there are eight books. Three series. One standalone. The First Love Series was probably the most difficult thing I have ever written because it hits so close to home. Writing about the love between Marissa and Chad wasn't easy, but I needed to get it out. I know my husband wasn't comfortable while I was working on that series because of the old feelings that were drug up, but he (for the most part) remained supportive. From the Corner of Her Eye is a...

Since I started publishing my writing, I have kept all of my different hobbies separate. I am still leery about sharing my writing with those that I know in real life, but I am slowly starting to get better for it. I have decided that the only way I am ever going to be comfortable with my friends and family knowing about my writing is just jumping straight in. I am a mom of five children. I am a crafter. I am an author. I am a photographer. I am sick of keeping all these things separate. From now on, all my photography as well as my crafting will also be featured on harleyturner.net I am currently in the process of adding everything to the website. It will take some time to get everything, but it will eventually happen.

A few weeks ago, my daughter told me she was done with hockey. She doesn't want to continue to play next season, because it's just not fun anymore. There is too much drama on the team, but she claims that is not influencing her decision. I won't deny that I was upset. Yes, it will be nice to have some weekends free, but we have been doing this for four years now. How can she just give it up? I told her she wasn't allowed to quit until she scores a goal. After playing defense for the past 3 years, she didn't have many scoring opportunities. She moved to forward this season and scored her first goal yesterday. She was so excited. I wonder if it's enough to make her want to continue playing? I know she is tired of the sport taking up so much of her time. I know she wants to be able to participate in other activites that she just doesn't have time for at the moment. I just want to make sure that she is choosing not to continue the sport for the right reasons....

I am finally starting to get used to this crazy schedule that the kids are throwing at me! Hockey is going decent, swim season is almost over, and they final performance of the play my older children are in is next weekend. My older sister has been posting about participating in NaNoWriMo lately, and I realized how much I really miss writing. Usually November is one of the worst months for me to write, since I spend most of the month working on getting projects ready for craft shows during the holiday season, but I decided to take a break from the crafting. I am currently hard at work on the second installment of Saving Avalon, and I must say I am loving where the story is going. Still no title yet, but hopefully that will come soon! Keep an eye out for previews!

Hockey season has officially started for my daughter. First game of the season was a 6-2 victory for the Jr Fury. I'm back to having my weekends filled with traveling throughout the states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Back to not getting home until almost 10 pm after practice 3 nights a week. While my daughter continues to enjoy her ice time, my oldest son (13) has discovered he enjoys sports as well. He played softball over the summer and is now in the middle of swim season. I never noticed during the countless summer days spent at the pool, but he really is an amazing swimmer! Of course being 6 foot 4 doesn't hurt. Thankfully the little kids are too young for sports yet, but 2 are in scouts. So my evenings are spent in a car, shuttling various children to play rehearsals, swim practices, cub scouts, girl scouts, hockey practices, swim meets and hockey games. I havent picked up a pen to write anything in months, but that's not unusually this time of year. On the occasion I...

I haven't been getting much writing done lately. With all five kids in school, I'm still getting used to the silence! I have been miserable for a long time, and I'm slowly starting to work on changing that. One of the things that has really been bothering me about myself is my weight. So I jumped into the Pokémon Go craze. Since I downloaded the game (July 27), I have lost 27 pounds! I walk over 5 miles daily. I'm eating healthier. I have a long way to go (another 50 pounds away from my goal), but it is a work in progress. As the year grows colder, I find myself spending more time on crafting than on writing. Between Halloween costumes that need to be made and getting ready for craft shows that the holiday season brings, most of my free time is spent buried underneath mounds of various yarn. Hockey season starts in a little over a week, so there goes even more of my time. I conplain about it, but honestly I think I'm starting to love the sport as much as my daugh...

Earlier today, I attempted to write a post to describe how I feel, but it ended up making basically no sense. Instead of making me feel better by getting the words out, I feel worse. It's like I don't even know who I am any more. I have spent so much time being the person everyone expects me to be that I lost myself. There are a very few people that I feel that I can actually be myself around, but none of those people are the people that I SHOULD be able to be myself around. I've been hiding in the world of dragons and faeries. Like me, several of the characters are also not sure who they are. Now obviously, I know I'm not going to spontaneously erupt wings from my back, but maybe, just maybe, I can be comfortable being myself again.

I've noticed quite a few things about myself since I decided to jump into the fantasy world of Avalon with my latest book series. Until then, I had always written about real life issues. When I felt numb, I wrote about cutting. When depressed, I wrote about suicide. Feeling fat; eating disorders. Until Saving Avalon, my books have always seemed to correspond with however I was currently feeling at the time. Maybe that's why I am struggling so much with book two. When I was writing the first book in Saving Avalon, I was struggling to find names for some of my characters, so I turned to my Facebook friends list. In an act of anger, I named a character after someone that was a fairly important part of my life, making this person a horrible character. Since reconciling with the person in real life, I decided maybe I should redeem that character in the book series. So that's what I decided to do with book two. The first seven chapters are spent attempting to redeem this ...

Yes that's exactly what they are: excuses. My computer is finally back up and running after a child managed to break my monitor. I'm on the mend from Lyme disease, although these headaches are murder. I don't wish them on anyone. The pain from a migraine isn't as bad as a Lyme disease headache, and the fact that I have had NO relief from it since it started over a week ago isn't helping my opinion on them. It seems like every time I get on here, I am coming up with some excuse as to why Saving Avalon is not out yet. The book is finished. It's edited. It's mostly formatted. Why am I not releasing it yet? I don't have an answer for that. This will be the first book published since I lost my grandma, but I don't think that's it. It's not the fact that I'm worried about what a turn to fantasy would do to my book sales either. I'm not entirely sure why I am stalling. I have so many things going on right now. I'm trying to be ...

As most of my readers should already know, I have taken a break from my usual writing to work on a fantasy series. Book One of Saving Avalon is finished and will be available within the next couple of weeks. I have a couple chapters written of book two, but there is where my dilemma lies. I keep finding myself thinking back to a certain character of one of my older books. I also said that I would eventually return to the Self Inflicted series, but I believe Rory and Liam's story is pretty much wrapped up. It's Gabe that I can't get off my mind. His story isn't finished. It has barely even started. Now since I am currently in the middle of Saving Avalon (and I have readers waiting for this story), I really can't abandon that project to return to Gabe's story, but I can't keep working on Saving Avalon when I have other stories filling my head. I'm at the point where I don't know what to do. I don't have much time to write anymore, and when I do...

I don't know how other people do it. How do other families manage to juggle schedules for seven people and not feel like pulling their hair out?!? I had a board meeting for my daughter's hockey team yesterday. All of the other mothers were talking about all the camps and other hockey related things their daughters are doing over the summer. I felt bad, because I told my daughter she would be taking the summer off of hockey this year. My son is playing softball and we need to focus on his sports for awhile. Now that I know she will be playing with an older team (13 and 14 year olds and she is only 11) next year, I regret that decision. What if she is further behind the other girls? What if she decides to give up? My son is loving softball. He never showed any interest in sports until I volunteered both of the older children as bat boys for the Beloit Snappers minor league baseball team. He loves it. My daughter hated it. With is being such a struggle with just the two chil...

Once again, I have been slacking with my blog. I'm still getting used to getting in the swing of things. Before tax season started, I had a good habit of posting twice a week. Then life got a little crazy with tax season, hockey, and my sister's wedding planning. Now I have a bit of free time and can get back to work! I entered my newest novel, Finding Her Wings, in a contest on Kindle Scout. The program gives the READERS the choice of which books get published. How awesome is that? Anyway, I would love the support. Please click the link at the bottom and read the information for Finding Her Wings. If you like what you read, a nomination would be greatly appreciated! If the book is selected for nomination, you will receive a FREE advanced copy! https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/H53118IR46O6