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Tuesday 23 April 2013
Thursday 30 June 2011
Dreams Come True!
Oh, yes they do!
Today my first urban fantasy Kissed by Darkness is LIVE on Amazon and Smashwords.
You can buy it here:
Melissa over at Were Vamps Romance is interviewing me today. She has given Kissed by Darkness a 5/5 review. SQUEE! Stop by her blog because she’s running a contest today. You can win your very own copy of KbD FREE!!! Even more SQUEE!!!
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Everything's Better With Zombies
Just in case you haven't heard, tomorrow is the release date for my urban fantasy novel, Kissed by Darkness. Woohoo! But to keep us intertained (and myself from going insane) this Writer Wednesday, I've got something special up my sleeve. Today we're Getting Jack'd!
That's right, I've got the amazingly talented Jack Wallen here to share a little about his upcoming novels Shero and My Zombie My. Jack's quite possibly one of the coolest guys I know. He also looks better in my stillettos than I do. ;-)
Welcome Jack!
SM: As you know, I loved I Zombie I, so thanks for agreeing to be my second
interview victim. I mean participant. You already know that I love to
Just for kicks and giggles (Also because I’m a dork and I know you are, too.), if you were a Star Trek® [or Star Wars® ] character, which one would it be?
Find out Jack's answer on my Wordpress blog.
Tuesday 28 June 2011
Sunday 26 June 2011
Sample Sunday: Kissed by Darkness
Kissed by Darkness is out this coming Thursday, 30 June 2011!!!Danger is always on the menu for Morgan Bailey, a sexy and street-smart bounty hunter, who prowls the dark underworld of Portland, Oregon hunting creatures of the night. Morgan’s never met a vampire she couldn’t dust or a demon she couldn't kill until she's hired to destroy a new kind of mystical threat: the Sunwalker.
A powerful immortal once believed myth, the Sunwalker carries with him an ancient secret which, if left unchecked, will destroy Morgan’s world. Pursued by a passionate Templar Knight and the target of the local vampire clans, an ancient power is awakened within her, unlike anything she’s ever known. Morgan must uncover the truth behind her mission and about herself, before the Darkness lurking inside swallows her whole.
To celebrate the here is the very first scene from the very first chapter for your reading pleasure:
“You’re dripping blood on my carpet. Again.” The voice was as expressionless as the face. Only a slight glint behind deep brown eyes betrayed the fact that Kabita Jones, my boss and best friend, was extremely peeved.
I could sort of see her point. Last time she’d had to replace the carpet. This time the blood only went up to my elbows and it was mostly dry already. There were just a couple of drips. It wasn’t like she couldn’t get the place steam cleaned.
“That’s what you get for calling me in right after a hunt.” I dropped into one of the two chairs in front of her massive mahogany desk. She scowled at me. She didn’t like me getting blood all over her fake leather chairs, either. Bad for business, having a client sit down in a pool of vampire blood.
“Here.” She tossed me a box of wet wipes, only semi-effective for cleaning blood off things, but certainly better than nothing. I grabbed a wipe and scrubbed at my arm. That’s when I noticed a few drops of blood in my cleavage. Gross.
Kabita leaned back in her chair. “How do you like weird?”
As though killing vampires and demon spawn and other creepy crawlies for a living was normal. I tried to raise an eyebrow at her, but I was no Mr. Spock; both went up. “Define weird.”
“Weird. As in: ‘up your alley’ weird.”
Ah, she meant blood suckers. Nightwalkers. Minions of Darkness. Otherwise known as vampires. Right.
Except for Kabita and me, vampires weren’t weird. They were normal, everyday stuff. Or maybe I should say every-night stuff. It was like saying that baking bread was a weird job for a baker.
Kabita ran a private investigation firm which specialized in hunting down things the government liked to pretend didn’t exist. Creatures that would give most normal people nightmares. The government paid us decent money to track and kill the monsters while maintaining a cover as private investigators that did nothing more exciting than investigate cheating spouses. We got excitement and fortune, if not fame. The government got plausible deniability. We all went home happy.
“And how is this weirder than any other ‘up my alley’ case?” I asked as I cleaned off the last of the blood.
She pushed a file gingerly across the desk. Despite being one of the best demon spawn hunters in the business, Kabita found vampires extremely distasteful, not to mention creepy. Go figure. “It’s not an ordinary vamp,” she said. “It’s a Sunwalker.”
I checked to make sure my jaw wasn’t lying on her desk. Nope, still attached to my face. “A Sunwalker? You’re kidding, right?”
“Our new client wants us to hunt this Sunwalker and kill him, but more importantly, he wants us to retrieve something the Sunwalker stole from his family. He’ll fill you in on the details. You’re to meet him at this address.” She shoved a piece of paper across at me while carefully tucking a strand of long, ink black hair behind her ear.
Despite edging on forty, she didn’t have a single strand of gray. I hadn’t quite hit thirty yet, twenty-nine to be exact, but I hoped I looked half as good as she did at forty. I had my doubts. My job wasn’t exactly the kind that kept one young.
I shook my head. “This is insane. A Sunwalker? As in vampires who can walk in sunlight? You do know they’re not real, right? Sunwalkers are just a myth.”
She gave me a look. She was good at “the look.” “Excuse me, oh Great Slayer of Vampires, but you don’t have a choice. Not if you want to keep your job.”
Which I did, and she knew it. There was something so immensely satisfying about going to work and hacking someone or something’s head off. They didn’t usually let you do that at, say, the pharmaceutical company or the post office, even if that someone really deserved it. They kind of frowned on it, actually. I also got to wear jeans and really cool kick-ass boots every day.
Truth was, though, Kabita knew I loved a good challenge. She wasn't just my boss, she was also my friend and would never give me anything I couldn’t handle, no matter how much I bitched and moaned about an assignment. I was damn good at killing vamps. A Sunwalker would just be a little more … tricky. Not only were they not supposed to exist, but how were you supposed to find a vampire that could walk around in daylight? Heck, he probably even had a nice tan.
“Jesus, Kabita. What have you gotten me into this time?” It was rhetorical and accompanied by an eye roll. I snatched the paper off the desk. “Fine. I’ll meet him after I take a shower.”
“Good idea.”
I just glared at her. Sarcastic witch.
Her return smile was annoyingly beatific.
Saturday 25 June 2011
Spotlight Saturday: Temples, Superpowers and Ancient Cities
Today I'm spotlighting indie author Heather Marie Adkins. You can check out the full post over on my Wordpress blog:
Friday 24 June 2011
Friday Farrago: Vampire Assassins and the Samba Queen
There will be a rain dance Friday night, weather permitting ~ George Carlin
One of the things I've had to get used to living in the UK is the complete lack of summer. Well, maybe not a complete lack, but there sure isn't much of it. We had a couple weeks of gorgeous weather last month and now the rain gods are paying us back big time.
Never mind. At least it's an excuse to curl up with a good book and some hot cocoa. I also find rainy days very conducive to writing.
Yeah, baby! That's what I'm talkin' about! But I digress...
The point is that the awesome Samantha made an effort to connect with me. As a person and as a fellow lover of books. And that made me want to read her books. So I headed over to Amazon and downloaded one then and there.
This is how to market, people. Not with slick, shiny, in-your-face ads, but with connections. Conversation. If you want to know more about effective Twittering and Sacred Cow Tipping, I highly recommend checking out Kristen Lamb's blog. You'll thank me later.
Now how about YOU? What have you been reading this week?
Never mind. At least it's an excuse to curl up with a good book and some hot cocoa. I also find rainy days very conducive to writing.
We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb
Great picture of me, huh?
Bwahahaha!!! Yeah, I know. Totally not me. Put me in a Brazilian samba club and I stick out like a sore thumb. But not because I can't dance. I can dance, baby! Boy, can I dance. ;-)
Last night I went dancing with my work peeps. Sort of a good-bye to one of the girls who is headed back to Brazil. I haven't been dancing in ages and it was so invigorating. When you spend so much time hunched over a keyboard, locked inside the ravings of your own lunatic mind, it's good to get out and get your groove thang on.
Or maybe that's just me. But I highly recommend a good old booty shake from time to time. Just to shake up the creative juices.
Bwahahaha!!! Yeah, I know. Totally not me. Put me in a Brazilian samba club and I stick out like a sore thumb. But not because I can't dance. I can dance, baby! Boy, can I dance. ;-)
Last night I went dancing with my work peeps. Sort of a good-bye to one of the girls who is headed back to Brazil. I haven't been dancing in ages and it was so invigorating. When you spend so much time hunched over a keyboard, locked inside the ravings of your own lunatic mind, it's good to get out and get your groove thang on.
Or maybe that's just me. But I highly recommend a good old booty shake from time to time. Just to shake up the creative juices.
Books are a uniquely portable magic. ~ Stephen King
This week I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing. I think it should be a must read for any writer or aspiring writer. Heck, even if you have no interest in writing, it's still a great read. Part autobiography and part how-to, it read just like one of his novels. I'm a little over a third of the way through.
I also finished Janet Evanovich's latest installment in her Stephanie Plum series: Smokin' Seventeen. Hilarious as ever.
I was reading indie author Theresa Ragan's novel A Knight in Central Park before I got sidetracked by Evanovich. Before I get back to it, I thought I'd enjoy a quick read, so I downloaded a novella by Samantha Warren. It's the first in her Vampire Assassin series. I read more than half of it during my lunch break and will probably finish the rest on my ride home. It's a great read for a great price.
And speaking of Samantha, let me tell you a little story about WHY I bought her novella. Just in case you were wondering?
Us indie authors (and I imagine authors in general) often wonder how to promote our books. As a reader, I don't think I had any real awareness of just how hard it is to do. But as both reader and writer I do know that slapping your book (literally or figuratively) in someone's face and screaming "Read my book!" isn't the way to do it.
Samantha didn't do that. Instead she responded to a Tweet I made. I responded back. We had a "brief" conversation that had nothing to do with either of our novels and everything to do with reading, movies, and Firefly.
I also finished Janet Evanovich's latest installment in her Stephanie Plum series: Smokin' Seventeen. Hilarious as ever.
I was reading indie author Theresa Ragan's novel A Knight in Central Park before I got sidetracked by Evanovich. Before I get back to it, I thought I'd enjoy a quick read, so I downloaded a novella by Samantha Warren. It's the first in her Vampire Assassin series. I read more than half of it during my lunch break and will probably finish the rest on my ride home. It's a great read for a great price.
And speaking of Samantha, let me tell you a little story about WHY I bought her novella. Just in case you were wondering?
Us indie authors (and I imagine authors in general) often wonder how to promote our books. As a reader, I don't think I had any real awareness of just how hard it is to do. But as both reader and writer I do know that slapping your book (literally or figuratively) in someone's face and screaming "Read my book!" isn't the way to do it.
Samantha didn't do that. Instead she responded to a Tweet I made. I responded back. We had a "brief" conversation that had nothing to do with either of our novels and everything to do with reading, movies, and Firefly.
Yeah, baby! That's what I'm talkin' about! But I digress...
The point is that the awesome Samantha made an effort to connect with me. As a person and as a fellow lover of books. And that made me want to read her books. So I headed over to Amazon and downloaded one then and there.
This is how to market, people. Not with slick, shiny, in-your-face ads, but with connections. Conversation. If you want to know more about effective Twittering and Sacred Cow Tipping, I highly recommend checking out Kristen Lamb's blog. You'll thank me later.
Now how about YOU? What have you been reading this week?
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