To give something back, I'm offering Raven for free until January 1st on Smashwords!
Click here to download in several different formats
Thank you all for being so awesome!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The Magic Word...FREE!
To give something back, I'm offering Raven for free until January 1st on Smashwords!
Click here to download in several different formats
Thank you all for being so awesome!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Winners Announced!
The Holiday Hop is now over but I hope you're all still enjoying your holidays!
Now for the winners of my own contest:
*pseudo drum roll*
First prize: Two paperback books, My Enchanted Life and Tempest Child, one eBook (coupon from Smashwords) of your choice from anything I've written, and a $25 gift card from Amazon.
The winner is: Pamela Hampton
Second prize: Two eBooks of your choice from my works (coupons from Smashwords)
The winner is: Barbara Battaglia
Third prize: One eBook of your choice from my works (coupon from Smashwords)
The winner is: Elizabeth Hyatt
Congratulations to the three of you and remember that your names will be entered into the Holiday Hop grand prize drawing on Jan 1st for a chance at winning a Kindle Fire!
To everyone who reads this blog, signs up for my newsletter, or cracks open one of my books – I love every one of you. Readers are the passion behind my writing.
Besides, even if you talk behind my back – I still love you. It's publicity, right? J
Thursday, December 15, 2011
We're off and running!
As for me, I will be awarding the following:
First prize: Two paperback books, My Enchanted Life and Tempest Child, one eBook (coupon from Smashwords) of your choice from anything I've written, and a $25 gift card from Amazon.
Second prize: Two eBooks of your choice from my works (coupons from Smashwords)
Third prize: One eBook of your choice from my works (coupon from Smashwords)
The contest will run through Dec 25th and the winners, picked at random by my dogs or Jezebel, will be announced on Dec 26th. In addition, the three winners from this blog will be entered into the Indie Writers Unite grand prize drawing for a Kindle Fire! How's that for a grand prize? The winners from all participating blogs will go into the drawing, so it's in your best interest to visit everyone listed in the blog hop.
Now for the particulars: I'm only requiring one thing to enter my contest. Please join my brand new newsletter. The link is at the top on the right. Don't worry, I won't spam you. You might hear from me three or four times a year with special coupons when a book is released. Of course, you may unsubscribe at any time as well.
So sign up and get hopping! Here is the link to find the other participants: HOLIDAY HOP
Happy holidays to you all!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
HOLIDAY BLOG HOP
Over 60 participants giving away gifts, prizes and goodies, including a grand prize of a Kindle Fire!
Loads of fun to be had for 10 days in a row!
Holiday Blog Hop
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Just when you thought it was safe...
My YA Fantasy, My Enchanted Life, is out!
Description:
Where to purchase:
AmazonUS
AmazonUK
Nook
Smashwords
Trade Paperback
Excerpt:
Stay strong. It's a good thing to do this. My hand shook a little as I punched in Jenna's number. Must be excitement, not nerves. What was there to be nervous about? I was going to England!
An American teen finds herself thrust into a world she never knew existed in England's magical community of Wode Gate. While dealing with gnomes, a cranky dragon, murder and mayhem, Emma tries to cope with her unwanted duties as Sentinel and fights to get back home again.
She finds that things aren't always what they seem, people aren't who they pretend to be, and someone wants her dead. The king of the underworld wants her too, but he may be the least of her problems as Emma struggles to control her powers—while losing her heart to a demon.
Where to purchase:
AmazonUS
AmazonUK
Nook
Smashwords
Trade Paperback
Excerpt:
Chapter One
One day before my eighteenth birthday. My third day of summer vacation—that lazy rite of passage between high school and college. The only one I'd ever have. Ruined. All because of that private investigator showing up at my door. I never should have let him in—although, technically, my aunt invited him inside.
"Are you Emma Winslow, daughter of Franklin and Anne Winslow?"
"Yes." I didn't like the way his dark eyes tried to bore a hole in my head, like I'd done something wrong. Nothing came to mind, anyway. Maybe this was a prank, courtesy of my friend Jenna.
"And you were born in London, England?" He pressed on, despite my aunt hovering now like a chicken with ruffled feathers.
"Yes, she was," Aunt Martha answered when I didn't reply quickly enough. "What's this all about?"
He flashed a smile full of teeth and reached inside his jacket pocket. I admit I flinched, expecting to be kidnapped or shot or something else straight out of a horror movie. Instead, he pulled out a thick envelope and handed it to me.
"Just confirming your identity for my client. Happy birthday." He turned and let himself out, leaving me to stare at the envelope with some fancy solicitor name printed on the front.
"Aren't you going to open it?" my aunt asked, wringing her hands. Not a good sign.
A little voice in my head told me to burn it and bury the ashes in the backyard. Like a fool, I teased the flap open with fingers that trembled and pulled out the sheets filled with incomprehensible legalese. After reading the first page three different times, while my aunt did a funny little dance next to me, I handed the sheet over to her.
"I think it says I've inherited a house in England." Flipping my long brown hair back over my shoulder, I waited for her to confirm what I'd read.
"What? That can't be right. Your father didn't own any property when he died." Aunt Martha read further. "Oh, it says your father's brother, Albert, died three months ago and left it to you. I didn't know Franklin had a brother."
My father. I didn't know anything about him, except that he was British and died when I was only a few months old. That's when my mother and I left London and came back to Chadsville, Georgia to live close to her family. When she died the following year, my aunt and uncle were left to raise me. An unexpected wave of gratitude passed over me. If they hadn't taken me in, who knows where I might have ended up? I blinked back the tears that threatened to spill and gave my aunt a hug.
"Mercy! What was that for?"
"Nothing. I don't tell you that I love you often enough." And it was true. They were the only parents I'd ever known.
She dabbed at her eyes and patted my shoulder. "Don't start packing for England just yet. We'll talk to your uncle about it when he gets home." She hurried off to the kitchen—no doubt to bake cookies. My aunt's cure for anything that ails you. I hoped they'd be peanut butter chocolate chip.
My uncle had the opposite reaction from my aunt when she thrust the papers in his face that evening. "Well, congratulations. That's quite a birthday present."
"You don't find it the least bit peculiar?" Aunt Martha's eyebrows wiggled up and down as if not sure what position they should stay in.
"Not really. We never knew that much about Franklin or his family. If I were eighteen again, I'd see it as a grand adventure." He gave me a wink and started rooting through the fridge. "Are we having dinner soon? Maybe there's a college nearby you could attend."
Aunt Martha huffed and flounced from the room. Uncle Dan straightened up and looked at her disappearing back. "Did I say something wrong?"
I hid a smile and shrugged. "Dinner's ready. I'll go get her."
The silent dinner that followed left me with time to think. Now that I'd gotten over the initial shock, it did sound like fun. I'd always wanted to do some traveling and using England as a base would be perfect for exploring Europe. My college fund could handle a month over there. Maybe I even had more family in the area that I didn't know about.
Suddenly I couldn't wait for dinner to be over. Jenna had to hear about this. She often had crazy ideas too; she wouldn't think I was nuts for wanting to go. With my uncle backing me up, my aunt would come around. She'd lived in Chadsville all her life. The two-hour drive to Atlanta was the farthest she'd ever traveled.
Not so with my mom—her only sibling. Mom was only my age when she went to London and met my dad. And look what coming back to good old Chadsville did for her—dying while crossing the street. Nope, not for me. I was going to follow my dream before my number was up.
The clang of silverware startled me out of my reverie. I glanced up, shoving my hair out of my face. Aunt Martha uttered a sigh and looked at me.
"You've made up your mind—you're going, aren't you? Just like your mother did."
I smiled, not bothering to conceal my excitement over it all. "Yes, but just for a few weeks. I'll be back before school starts, don't worry."
She nodded and tried her best to give me a smile. It was all the invitation I needed to run around the table and give her a kiss. "Thanks for understanding. I have to go call Jenna and give her the news."
Thoughts crowded my head as I flew up the stairs to my room. What should I pack—oh, and I needed a passport. How long did that take? And there were plane tickets to buy…
My stomach curled into a ball and dinner threatened to come back up. Was I ready to do this? Or was I crazy for even contemplating it? Now that the idea had been planted in my head, the lure of going to England seemed almost irresistible. I had to go.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Release Day for Raven!
Description:
A woman without love
A man without answers
An Oracle that could kill them both
Raven thought her lonely life as a hardened transport pilot was good enough until she met Mikael, an archaeologist who'd never been off-planet before. After discovering an ancient Oracle left by a mysterious race, their lives become forfeit.
Now they are on the run, falling in love, and trying to unlock the secrets of the gods themselves. As they bounce from planet to planet, searching for answers, death is only one step behind and getting closer.
Where to buy:
KindleUS
KindleUK
Nook
Smashwords
Excerpt:
Chapter One
Of all the worlds to be marooned on, Algora had to be the worst, as far as Raven could tell. Sure, it had spaceport facilities but she couldn't leave the port. This was a closed planet, its inhabitants subjected to archaic rules and regulations.
And her passenger… Raven ground her teeth. The annoying scientist had left a message for her at the front desk saying he'd be a day late. At least he pre-paid a room for her and he was paying good money to get off this rock. She'd wait for him, even though it irked her to do so.
She scratched her head, fingers grazing the tiny implant behind her ear, and pulled a few long strands of hair forward to cover it. The port's medical facility had offered to remove the link-up to her navigational system but Raven politely declined. Artificial implants were one of the many taboos on this natural world.
Screw them. Her eyes glumly scanned the meager offerings on the menu of this backwater planet. For a pastoral colony, she'd expected the foodstuff to have more variety. At least they had transient spacer accommodations—if you could call a fold-down bunk and sonic-scrubber shower an accommodation.
Staring at the vid-screen on the ceiling while lying on her bunk—the only way to view the shivarking thing—Raven flipped through the channels. Nature shows and religious offerings bombarded her, all designed to promote their way of life. The only thing of interest was the history of the Oracle but Raven didn't care to worship their deity so she shut the vid off and closed her eyes.
Why did her passenger want to get to Trivorn? Of the six planets Terrans colonized in this system over three hundred years ago, that one never became a real colony. Life was so difficult there the people soon abandoned it.
Raven imagined the next three weeks filled with scientific chatter from him and groaned. Maybe she could tell him he had to stay in his room.
Her implant beeped. Ben, her co-pilot, started speaking before she had a chance to acknowledge the call.
"Are you all settled in?" His quirky voice ran through a couple of octaves, making her smile despite their predicament.
"If you can call living in a shoebox settled in. I wish I could have stayed onboard the Vattra with you, blast their rules."
"I'll admit some of us have all the luck."
"Yeah, well, just make sure they don't find you. I don't want to have to pay a shivarking fine on top of everything else."
"I'm a BN-4. Discretion is my middle name." Ben managed to plunge his vocalization into the lowest register of human hearing.
Raven snorted. "Just be careful. Hide or something until we're ready to leave."
"You worry too much. It stresses your delicate human digestive system. I can hear your bowels gurgling over the comlink."
"Quit doing things to give me stress and leave my bowels out of the conversation. You're disgusting." Raven laughed as she disconnected. Leave it to Ben to put a smile on her face.
She left her sorry excuse of a room and headed down to the cafeteria, ordering a casserole that tasted like nothing more than protein paste. From her corner table, Raven watched the other patrons while she forced the bland food into her mouth.
One group sat with military precision, their uniforms clean and crisp. She didn't recognize the insignia patch on the upper right sleeve but they must work for a large freighter. They ate quickly, without any conversation amongst themselves.
The other group sat at the small bar, voices carrying as they laughed and traded insults. One woman and two men, dressed similar to Raven in the unofficial spacer uniform—pants with multiple pockets, black boots, long-sleeve shirt and a vest with more pockets. She wondered if they were haulers or smugglers—or a little of both. Legitimate jobs could be hard to come by out here.
One of the men cast an interested glance her way but Raven ignored him. Casual romps weren't her style and the last relationship she had didn't end well. Flying solo suited her. Nobody to worry about but herself. Getting up from the table, she slid her food tray into the slot by the door and went back up to her cubicle to get some sleep.
***
The next morning Raven was down in the lobby by sunrise, looking for caffeine to clear the muddle from her mind. A nice-looking man walked by her, carrying two cups of coffee in his hands. He smiled as he passed, his dark blue eyes twinkling in the dim light. Raven surprised herself by smiling back. Too bad he wasn't her scientist. The trip might not totally suck with him aboard. He walked up to the desk while she continued to scan the travelers.
"I'm looking for Raven Daniels. Could you call her room?"
Raven turned at the sound of her name. It was him, Mikael Something-or-other. "I'm Raven," she said and walked over.
"Then this must belong to you." He grinned and handed her a cup. "I'm Mikael Turner. I apologize for not being here yesterday. I stopped in to see my parents and say goodbye."
Raven released the breath she'd been holding, chastising herself for reacting with her hormones. She didn't know anything about this man. He could be married, for all she knew.
"That's okay. I, uh, was expecting someone older." Nice one, Jen. Complete your disgrace by getting tongue-tied. Would you like to kiss him next? "Thanks for the coffee. Are you ready to go?"
He held out his arm. "Lead the way."
They walked in silence toward the pad that would take them to her ship. When they got closer, she called Ben on her comlink. "Start the check, Ben. We're almost there."
"Ben is your pilot?"
"No, I am but with Ben along I don't need any crew." She watched his eyebrows raise.
"I'm impressed. I have a confession of my own to make—I thought you'd be older too."
Raven laughed and relaxed. This guy didn't seem like a stuffy scientist type. Maybe she wouldn't have to banish him to his room after all.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
"Did I Notice Your Book" Blog Hop!
The wonderful Ciara Knight hosts an event every Thursday called "Did I Notice Your Book?" and has turned it into a blog hop for today!
From Ciara's site:
It’s that time of week again. Anyone for a writing experiment?
With all the new tools out there to monitor book sales and blurbs mentioned about their books, I’m going to highlight a new book each week. I’ll post it in the morning. If by the end of the day that author finds her book on this post I want her or him to tell us how they discovered it; word of mouth through the close network of writers, a Yahoo group mention, or through some new fangled Google tool.
Now, how will I choose this book each week? It will be a book that caught my attention. As a reader, I will keep an eye out for something that either provoked me to read the blurb, look at the author’s blog, or purchase said book.
Before I reveal my choice I want to clarify that this author has no idea that I’ve chosen his/her book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With that in mind, the book I noticed was: Annetta Ribken's Athena's Promise (Aegian Trilogy) Book One. It's Urban Fantasy.
"No matter what it takes."
As the front desk manager of a hotel on the edge of Zombietown, Pallas is used to dealing with angry centaurs, surly trolls, and zombie housekeepers. The trouble really starts when one of her guests ends up dead. But that's not her only problem.
A cop with an attitude – can he be trusted to be more than just a pain in her ass or does he have a more sinister agenda?
A new Guest Services Manager, out for her job and ready to sacrifice anyone in his way – what does he really want?
The attractive maintenance guy, endangering the promise she made out of necessity to the Goddess Athena – does he know more than he's telling?
A mermaid diva, whose show at the Sparkling Butterfly must go on – or else.
Pallas needs to find the killer, and fast, or she'll lose her job, her home, and the ragtag family she's adopted out of her crew of "critters".
In the course of the investigation Pallas uncovers connections to a nasty Oddities dealer deep in the heart of Zombietown, forcing her to expose a trauma from her past which could threaten her future. With everyone and everything she loves in danger, the promise made to the Goddess Athena may well damn her if she breaks it, but she is bound and determined to save her friends, her home, and everything she's built.
No matter what it takes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two years ago or so, I read a flash fiction piece of Netta's about a mermaid diva in a hotel lobby. It was a great story and the setting so surreal that it stuck with me. I swooned when she told me it was a character in a novel she was writing. Really. Swooned.
I devoured this book! Athena's Promise takes place 20 years after an accident in Atlantis leaves a portal open for all manner of creatures to cross over into our world. The heroine is fun, sassy and kick-butt with an attitude that doesn't quit. The author has a unique voice, full of wit and snap. Her characters and setting are distinctive. Even her cussing is humorous! And don't you want to find out how Medusa fares as the hotel manager?
I'm so happy this is the first in a trilogy and can't wait for the next one to come out. I gave it 5 stars but would have given it more if I could.
Netta, I hope you find your book here today because I'm singing it from the rooftops! It's that good!
Where to buy:
Amazon
Smashwords
List:
Action Adventure http://www.warriorsforlight.com/
Erotica Romance http://danicaavet.wordpress.com/
Historical Fiction - http://emerylee.wordpress.com/
Inspirational http://www.christylasheasmith.com/
New Adult http://lynnrush.com/
Non-Fiction http://raelynbarclay.wordpress.com/
Paranormal http://www.hildiemcqueen.com/
Suspense Thriller http://breakthroughblogs.blogspot.com/
Urban fantasy http://lauraeno.blogspot.com/
Young Adult http://www.brindaberry.com/blog.html
Grand Central Station: www.ciaraknight.com
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