ETERNAL TOUR: Starts Monday!

Hey, guys, just though I’d post about the Eternal Blog Tour, which launches on Monday alongside release date. Check out the schedule below:

July 2^nd

Known to Read: Character Interview + Giveaway

July 5^th

Rebecca Hart Writes: Guest Post

July 6^th

Doctor’s Notes: Author Interview

July 9^th

LoveRomancePassion: Author Interview

Urban Girl Reader: Sean Holloway Interview

July 10th

Claire Gillian: Book Spotlight + Excerpt

July 11^th

Reviewing Shelf: Guest Post + Giveaway

July 13^th

Keri Lake: Character Interview

July 16^th

Scribblers Sojourn: Author Interview

July 17th

Julie Reece: Book Spotlight

July 18^th

Burning Impossibly Bright: Guest Post + Giveaway

July 20^th

The Dreamweaver’s Cottage: Guest Post

July 23rd

Aimee Laine: Character Interview with Jem’s mother

July 25^th

Kastil’s Cheeky Reviews: Pimp my Book

July 27^th

My World: Author Interview

July 31st

Emi Gayle: Guest post: Dating 101 – Werewolf stylee

 It would be awesome to see some of you there.

And whilst I have you here, why not stop on by Jocelyn Adam’s blog today, where you can check me out in an author interview.

Have a great weekend, folks!

And the Winner of the Midsummer’s Eve Blog Hop is …

Congratulations to Alison!

Hopefully you will have received your prizes by now.

And a HUGE thanks to everyone who hopped along and participated.

Don’t forget to look out for more giveaways in the future.

Get Ready For the Twitter Giveaway Coming This Friday!

Yep, with the end of June rapidly approaching, I figured I might as well wrap up the month with a giveaway in a final shout-out for Darkness & Light’s muchero cheapness price that’s been going on all month long.
Which means, this Friday, anyone who tweets with links to anywhere selling Darkness & Light at its promotional price will get entered into a giveaway!
Yay!
So, what’s the prize, you ask?
Well, winner gets to choose a copy of any one of my published titles (including Eternal, which releases next week)!

The contest officially begins Friday, from 9am until 9pm UK time. Each tweet will count as 1 entry, so the more tweets, the more entries. I shall pick & announce a winner as soon as the giveaway is over.

And to make this whole milarky even easier, I’ve even pre-written some tweets.

• Darkness & Light only £1.02 at AmazonUK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darkness-Light-Holloway-Story-ebook/dp/B0054SCTUM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1340730120&sr=1-1 #HollowayPack #Giveaway RT for a chance to win an ebook
• 2 days left to grab Darkness & Light for $.99 at B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/darkness-light-ja-belfield/1103241650?ean=2940012967343 #HollowayPack #Giveaway RT for a chance to win an ebook
• Darkness & Light #HollowayPack $1.62 at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Light-Holloway-Story-ebook/dp/B0054SCTUM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1340730120&sr=1-1 RT for a chance to win an ebook #Giveaway

Simples!
See you guys Friday.

Make Believe: Free Digi-goodie Downloads Now Available!

Yep, as promised last week, I’ve returned to share with you the beautiful digi-goodies J Taylor have created for MAKE BELIEVE.

Up for grabs, we have stuff like:

Make Believe Printable Bookmarks – Front & Back Images shown.

Make Believe Desktop/Wallpaper

Make Believe Poster (muchero seasonal and pretty)

All of these, as well as a few other items, can be nabbed via the Extras Page of my Website or you can simply click HERE!

Hope you like them.

FREEVIEW FRIDAY {ETERNAL}! #FVF

Hey all, and happy Friday. Thank you for stopping by. Today will be the last time I share a mini-excerpt from my PNR novella Eternal,   because it is Due out in 10 days! and I hope to have something new to share for the next FVF.

BUT … because this is the last Eternal FVF, I’ve decided to share not one, but two snippets.

Here you go. Still in the market place (Jem speaks first, to Jessica after she has dragged her off around a corner) …

“What on earth is wrong?”

“Elizabeth Wells.”

I rolled my eyes but with no ounce of humour. Elizabeth had never quite forgiven me for ‘snaring’ Sean, a male she had deemed worthy of herself though I suspected she never wanted him for more than a short-term venture into the unknown. “What rumour has she begun now?”

“Oh, she is sharing her usual vindictive lies, but she has evidently exhausted her supply of locals to tittle-tattle to. She has now taken to spreading her spiteful opinion to a complete stranger.”

Do we sense trouble is coming from the gossiping of ‘Elizabeth Wells’?

Let’s take a look …

“The stranger was a male?” I asked. “Are you certain?”

“I am capable of telling the difference between genders. Especially upon one … so …” Panic glistened in her eyes as she trailed off, igniting my own.

“So …?”

“Big.” She pointed over my shoulder, and as she did so, his scent swamped me.

Werewolf!

Uh-oh!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my Eternal snippets. Tune in next time to see what new stuff I have up my sleeve.

As I have said before, any and all are welcome to join me in this weekly shenanigan. HOWEVER, if you do so, I URGE you to keep the shared snippets short and sweet. Mine will be a maximum of TEN (10) sentences. To help identification of these posts, I shall be hastagging them (for Twitter purposes) as #FVF. Feel free to knick said hashtag for your own Freeview Friday posts.

Midsummer’s Eve Giveaway Hop!

Hey, all, and welcome to my stop on the Midsummer’s Eve Giveaway Hop. As always I would first like to thank I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Uniquely Moi Books for hosting this hop. When you’re done here, please take a moment to click on the hop image and head over to the linky-list of participants, on whose blogs you will (guarenteed) find some awesome prizes up for grabs.

And onwards with the show.

Up for grabs today, I have ONE E-Copy of each of the Holloway Pack Prequels. 

Which means ONE lucky winner will win:

Werewolf Sean Holloway treats the village marketplace like a sexual buffet, though his charm does little to win over his latest entr e of choice. Whether because of Jem Stonehouse’s unique scent, her headstrong nonchalance, or the fact he is forbidden to see her by his pack’s rules, Sean wants her.

When Jem is nothing but flippant toward his advances, he pursues her with vigour, stealing moments alone with her without a libido-driven agenda.

The new and heady experience for him drives their relationship beyond romantic interest, and straight toward love.

That is, until Jem learns the truth about Sean’s heritage. Knowledge of the existence of werewolves leads to only one outcome: death.

In this prequel to Darkness & Light, we are taken back in time, to the very beginning of Jem and Sean’s love-across-the-centuries relationship.Did it end there? Or did Sean defy his own pack to save the woman he loves?

AS WELL AS:

An unmarried woman living in a house of men breeds hearsay and lore. If only the villagers knew the truth.

It’s not Jem Stonehouse’s marital status that brings unwanted strangers to town. Rather, it’s that she is the only female werewolf in existence — a prize to any pack.

Sean Holloway, the love of Jem’s life, has gone to great lengths to protect her. As a new attack becomes imminent, Sean realizes he must take greater measures with Jem’s safety or risk losing her forever.

His first task must be to marry her, but a force greater than the largest werewolf stands in his way.

Her mother.

Please note: You do not need to have read the other Holloway Pack stories to read, enjoy, or understand the prequels. Depending on how long the winner takes to respond, there is a chance they will receive Eternal PRE-RELEASE as it doesn’t actually launch until July 2nd–so this is your chance to be one of the first to read it!

Thank you so much for stopping by. You can find out how to enter by hopping on over to the RAFFLECOPTER FORM on the Giveaways Page of my website (sorry, but my WP blog and RC don’t get along).

Good luck!

Blue Moon: Free Digi-goodie Downloads Now Available!

Yep, the time has arrived to announce about and share with you the lurvely digi-goodies J Taylor have created for BLUE MOON.

Up for grabs, we have stuff like:

Blue Moon Printable Bookmarks – Front & Back Images shown.

Blue Moon Desktop/Wallpaper

Blue Moon Poster (which I happen to think is pretty awesome)

All of these, as well as a few other items, can soon be nabbed via the Extras Page of my Website or you can simply click HERE!

Hope you like them.

Be sure to check back next week, when I’ll be sharing some Make Believe free downloads.

FREEVIEW FRIDAY {ETERNAL}! #FVF

Hey all, and happy Friday. Thank you for stopping by. Today, I’ll be sharing another mini-excerpt from my PNR novella Eternal,  due out in 17 DAYS!

Following on from last week, Jem is still at the market place, though temporary separated from her sister … here’s your taste of Eternal:

As I lingered beside the bakery stand, deep inhalations drew in my favourite fragrance of the market: cottage loaves piled high next to plaits and scones. Beside me, Old Mrs Crowley pawed at the brick loaves, squeezing one after the other whilst the proprietor watched with fidgety fingers, probably hoping for her to stop.

As the sweet and warm yeasty fragrance merged with heavenly musk, I tilted my head to the side, peering around the rotund baker until my gaze locked with the dark one two rows over.

“Hey.” Sean’s greeting scarcely caused his lips to move, and would reach none other, but carried to me as surely as if he had been at my side.

Lower lip caught between my teeth, I smiled.

“Really, young lady, you should be ashamed of yourself. Can you not show a modicum of decorum?”

I turned to the ancient woman beside me, and ordering myself not to point out that leaving the house with a food stain upon ones cheek could hardly be considered dignified, dipped my chin, adopting an expression of remorse. “Apologies, Mrs Crowley. I really do try my best …” I just never seem to succeed.

I doubt I’d succeed where Sean’s concerned either.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks snippet. See you next week for another round of FVF

As I have said before, any and all are welcome to join me in this weekly shenanigan. HOWEVER, if you do so, I URGE you to keep the shared snippets short and sweet. Mine will be a maximum of TEN (10) sentences. To help identification of these posts, I shall be hastagging them (for Twitter purposes) as #FVF. Feel free to knick said hashtag for your own Freeview Friday posts.

Book News: Updates & Reminders!

Happy Tuesday to you all. I thought I’d pop in a quick blog post today to remind everyone about the Darkness & Light Ebook promotion happening right now through the month of June, and to tell you about an Eternal giveaway happening over at my publisher’s blog.

First up: Darkness & Light

For all of you who haven’t yet managed to grab a copy, June is an AWESOME time to do so. Not only will you get the updated cover unique to the Ebooks, as well as the added Sean POV scenes in the back, but Darkness & Light is also on MEGA sale.

I haven’t hunted the Internet to find out exactly who has it on sale, but I know it’s currently only £1.02 over at Amazon UK (for Kindle–usually £3-something), $1.58 over at Amazon US (for Kindle–usually a cent below $5), and $0.99 over at Barnes & Noble (Nook–usually $4.99).

Secondly: the Eternal Promotion

This week, J.Taylor Publishing are giving away FIVE early copies of Eternal: Holloway Pack 0.5 (due for release July 2nd).

All you have to do to enter is comment on their BLOG POST with the agreement to read, review, and post your review of Eternal before its release date.

Simples!

So if you’re waiting on this one, or Eternal simply sounds like your cup of tea, then here’s your chance to get an early peek. But hurry, because the closing date for this one is June 15th–that’s only 3 days!

Hope you all have an awesome day!

Monday Musings: Britishisms—and how they can affect your global reach.

As a British author, who writes novels/stories set in England, with English characters, it comes naturally to me to use British words or terms. But what affect can that have on how a book is received when the reach of its readership is on a global scale?

I would like to be able to argue that it has no affect but I’d be lying if I did so—especially when the use of certain words (ones quite valid in the Oxford English Dictionary) are pointed out in reviews or in direct conversation by folk who have read my stuff.

Yep, I’m talking about those dreaded ‘st’ sounds on the ends of words.

Primarily, it’s adding to while to create whilst (though I could argue everyone else dropped it rather than us adding it), or amongst over among/amidst over amid.

It seems (some of) my International readers have a real issue with these words stumbling their flow.

Whilst (ha!) the reviewers who bring this up are in the minority, I can’t ignore a tweet I spotted from an author whose work I’ve had the chance to view and loved, citing her dislike (translate: hate) of the word ‘whilst’ (and if she calls in here, she’ll know I’m talking about her, and will likely throw shoes at me across the pond—eeek!).

Anyhoo, although her tweet was (seemingly) random and was not in reference to my work, it still got me to thinking about my own personal use of it. It also led to a debate with my publisher.

In case you’re wondering, it’s a debate I lost.

You see, whilst (hehehe) all Holloway Pack stories written from Jem’s POV use this word, as do the shorter works written from Sean’s POV (and my short for the Make Believe antho: Escort to Insanity), I argued that not ALL Brits add on the ‘st’ sound and speak this way.

I’ll admit, I initially wrote all of Jem’s dialogue/narration with this/these words included because that is how I speak, so it came naturally to me for my character to speak this way, also. And I’m hardly alone—many other Brits speak this way, despite one reviewer asking if ‘whilst’ was even a word. O_O

But my argument to my editor went along the lines of

‘How about if we switch it up for the male members of the pack, seeing as they sound a little less refined than Jem anyway?’

to which the final response was

‘No!’

And the bits in the between consisted of

‘You need to stay true to who you are as a writer, true to who your characters are, and true to the setting of your stories.’

So, it would seem the word ‘whilst’ will be staying.

But how about you guys? Do certain words trip you up when reading? Which do you think is more important: creating authentication … or generalising to appeal to a broader audience?