Love in Bloom: And the winner is …

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED.

AND THE WINNER OF DARKNESS & LIGHT IS …

NICOLE L.

CONGRATULATIONS!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay then, onwards with the show.

To celebrate my BRAND SPANKING NEW cover for the E-version of Darkness & Light, I shall be giving away ONE E-Copy to ONE winner.

Let’s take a look:

Jem Stonehouse, a housewife with a neurotic husband bent on keeping her in line, dreams about werewolves in, what she believes, is a bid to escape boredom.

Sean Holloway is a werewolf, living a charade within the human race, whose mind drifts to a bond he shares with a woman he hasn’t met — at least, not in this lifetime.

Apart, the two are safe but live unfulfilled lives.

Together, they’ll become prey to rival packs just as they have been for hundreds of years.

When their worlds collide, and not for the first time, instinct takes over. Dreams become reality. Futures are uncertain. To keep history from repeating itself, Sean must teach Jem about his heritage, convince her of her role, and win her love.

Can Jem accept her destiny before it’s too late, or is her inner wolf buried too deep to save her future with Sean?

To enter, simply visit the Rafflecopter Form on my Giveaways Page, where you will be given the option to do one or all of the following:

a) Follow me on Twitter

b) Tweet about the giveaway

c) Subscribe to my blog (link for this is in the sidebar =>>)

d) Answer a question

e) Add Darkness & Light to your Goodreads shelf

Cheers & Good Luck!

COVER REVEAL: Make Believe Anthology

You might recall, around 10 days ago, I announced that my short story, ESCORT TO INSANITY, had been contracted for the MAKE BELIEVE anthology.

Well, the time has come to share the cover and blurb.

Here’s the cover:

It’s so pretty. LOVE the red against the white.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand here’s the blurb:

Sacrificial Oath by Terri Rochenski

An impetuous act unwittingly makes Alesuela the fulfillment of the Sovereign’s Blood Oath to their Goddess. In five days, she’ll be forced to make the greatest choice of her life: become the virginal sacrifice already promised, or force the man she loves most to die in her place. 

With an impossible choice in front of her, she searches for ways to undo the oath, and in her quest, finds not everything in her life is as she expects.

The Amulet of Ormisez by J. Keller Ford

There is only one way to save Elton Fletcher’s brother from an insanity-ridden death.

After years away from home, fighting for his people, Elton returns to discover his only sibling, Cayden, possessed by greed and malice, and responsible for malicious, unthinkable deeds. Cayden, though, isn’t the only one afflicted by the Amulet of Ormisez, and Elton finds himself in yet another battle, where the price of failure could be his own life.

Birthright by Lynda R. Young

Christa can mask the pain and hide the scars, but running from a birthright is impossible. 

She’s tried to escape her grief by fleeing to a small town in Florida. Much to her frustration, the locals think they recognize her even though she’s never been there before. To make things worse, a man named Jack spouts outrageous theories about her.

Both spur Christa to bolt, to start fresh yet again, but there’s something about Jack that intrigues her enough to stay. The only problem? Someone else wants her to leave, and they won’t stop until she’s dead.

Petrified by Kelly Said

A mysterious storm has replaced summer with winter, devastating crops and smothering Castle lands in snow.  Prince Sterling August stands alone as a leader, lost in personal grief as well as a desire to help his people but with an inability to do either. 

The answers he needs await him, but without Lochlyn, a woman who’s just as isolated as Sterling, he’ll never see what stands before him, cloaked in illusion.

Last Winter Red by Jennifer M. Eaton

Emily is a Red, a woman whose sole purpose in life is to produce offspring. When her husband dies and leaves her childless, she risks her life and forsakes the safety of Terra—a disease-free city born after the nuclear holocaust. Beyond its boundaries, she knows, survives a man with whom she can be properly paired.

The Outside, though, holds secrets the government struggles to keep, and what Emily discovers on her quest for a mate will change her life forever.

Escort to Insanity by J.A. Belfield

From a charity auction, to a stroll in the park, to the craziest night of her life. Nicole Harrington can’t help but wonder how a simple event went so drastically wrong.

Of course, the male escort she booked is wholly to blame. Not only charming but shrewdly intelligent, Benjamin Gold drags Nicole into a platoon of unimaginable problems—ones from which she’ll have to find the courage just to survive.

Yeah, mine’s the crazy sounding one.

Well, what did you expect?

So, whatcha thunk? Like?

MAKE BELIEVE will be available December 3rd.

Pssst, if ya wanted to add it to your Goodreads in the meantime, all’s ya gotta do is click on the link.

BEHOLD: MY SUNSHINE AWARD!

So … the miscreantic soon-to-be-debut novelist LS Murphy nom’d me for this award. And because I’m (occasionally) a good sport, I’m going to play along.

What’s it all about? See below:

Now, the way the award works is this: you copy the award picture into a post and link back to the person who gave you the award. You then must either answer ten random questions or give seven random facts about yourself. Then spread the award along to ten other bloggers by tagging them!

Okay, because I’ve answered HEAPS of questions lately for my upcoming Eternal tour in July, I decided to swing toward the 7 random facts about myself.

BE WARNED: If you don’t wish to view me as even odder than you already do, you should probably click away from this post whilst you still can.

You still here? Cool, then here are my 7 random facts:

1) This year, I shall turn 40. 40 is a state of mind. My body might realise it’s 40 but my head doesn’t believe it. When I was 20, I thought 40-year-olds were the elderly and living on pensions. Now I’m almost 40, I have a little more respect for 40-year-olds.

2) When I was a teenager, our entire house (bar the bathroom and stairs) was decorated in Artex and painted either white or magnolia. So I decorated my too-bland bedroom walls with posters I found in magazines of the faces of Matt Dillon, Michael J Fox, Limahl (for his cool hair), Jon Bon Jovi, Paul Young (I listened to Wherever I Lay My Hat on repeat, and played it over and over until my mum screamed at me to change the record), and *CRINGE* Shakin’ Stevens.

3) I first met Mr B when I was 15 at a Valentine disco. ‘Tis true. And he only ended up being there at all because my best friend’s boyfriend brought him so he’d have someone to talk to. That was around 24 years ago.

Who’d have thought Stevie Wonder, Chris de Burgh, a slow dance and a snog could inflict such a sentence?

4) The first fictional stories I wrote were for children. The first one was a story dedicated to my son, because I’d recently had the Mini-Me and he still wanted to sleep in our bed, but, dude, there just wasn’t room, ya know? So I decorated his bedroom for him and made it special. And when that didn’t work, I wrote him his own story. It was called Neill’s New Room. The second one was called The Rabbit With Terrible Habits (see dodgy image from a page of homemade book =>>). The third one was called Which Pet is Best?

5) My and Mr B’s marriage proposal was about the least romantic occurrence you could possibly imagine:

Sat on the sofa together, and Mr B says: I think we should get married. What do you think?

Me: *shrug* I suppose. Yeah.

Mr B: *nods* When shall we do it?

Me: Hang on, let me check my diary. *goes and grabs diary and skims through the pages* I have a week booked off from work in February. How about then?

Mr B: That’s three months time?

Me: Yeah.

Both sit staring at the diary for minutes.

Mr B: Spose we better tell me mum then.

And that’s pretty much how the conversation went.

HOWEVER, I would not change this for the world. To me, the naturalness of the conversation, as though our wedding was just another day out we were planning, symbolised just how comfortable we were with one another, and the normalness of it meant to me that it was the right thing to do. We’re still married 17 years later. Friends who did the whole shebang the same year we got married and spent thousands of pounds on their weddings were divorced six months later.

A marriage proposal and the wedding should be about how you feel on the inside, not about how it looks on the exterior.

6) Sometimes when I’m in the middle of a dream, I’ll suddenly decide I must hunt for a toilet. But every toilet I come across, there’s a reason I can’t/won’t use it. Like the door is only about a foot in height and everyone can see in. Or it’s a communal toileting room with about 50 s***y-looking Bakelite-moulded pans, and they’re pretty much all occupied, and when I finally manage to barge myself forward as one becomes available, the seat ain’t something I’d contemplate contacting with my butt anyway. When I eventually give up and wake, I’m usually in bad need of the loo. Yeah, it’s weird.

7) When my daughter was born, we were so convinced we were having a boy, that when the nurses lifted the baby to take her for weighing and cleaning and Mr B and I saw ‘she’ had some ‘bits’ missing, we both looked at each other in alarm then at the nurse and blurted out: “What is it?”

And that’s me all wrapped up in 7 random facts.

So, who to nominate for this award …

Well, as there are SO many blog awards that require people carry it along, and so my of my blogging friends have already been nominated for stuff when I know they have so little time, I’m going to make this an open nomination. If you fancy playing along for a little fun, then go for it. I certainly had a hoot writing my post. 

So I nominate:

YOU!

Hehehehe, thanks for stopping by.

LOVE IN BLOOM GIVEAWAY HOP @JABelfield

Hey, and welcome to my post for the Love in Bloom Giveaway Hop. First up, I’d like to say a huge thanks to I am a Reader, Not a Writer & Portrait of a Book for organising/hosting this hop. Kathy works so hard on all of the hops she organises, as do the people good enough to co-host with her. Please find time to click on the hop badge (->), which will take you to the page holding the linky-list of all participants. Check them out because you’ll find some awesome prizes up for grabs.

Okay then, onwards with the show.

To celebrate my BRAND SPANKING NEW cover for the E-version of Darkness & Light, I shall be giving away ONE E-Copy to ONE winner.

Let’s take a look:

Jem Stonehouse, a housewife with a neurotic husband bent on keeping her in line, dreams about werewolves in, what she believes, is a bid to escape boredom.

Sean Holloway is a werewolf, living a charade within the human race, whose mind drifts to a bond he shares with a woman he hasn’t met — at least, not in this lifetime.

Apart, the two are safe but live unfulfilled lives.

Together, they’ll become prey to rival packs just as they have been for hundreds of years.

When their worlds collide, and not for the first time, instinct takes over. Dreams become reality. Futures are uncertain. To keep history from repeating itself, Sean must teach Jem about his heritage, convince her of her role, and win her love.

Can Jem accept her destiny before it’s too late, or is her inner wolf buried too deep to save her future with Sean?

To enter, simply visit the Rafflecopter Form on my Giveaways Page, where you will be given the option to do one or all of the following:

a) Follow me on Twitter

b) Tweet about the giveaway

c) Subscribe to my blog (link for this is in the sidebar =>>)

d) Answer a question

e) Add Darkness & Light to your Goodreads shelf

Cheers & Good Luck!

NEWS: New ‘Darkness & Light’ Cover!

Yep, you did read that right.

Darkness & Light has been allocated a new cover.

Why?

Well, my editor contacted me some weeks back and told me they were considering changing the cover so that it will ‘fit in’ with the other covers of the series as an entirety.

They wanted something that was more relatable to the Blue Moon cover.

They also wanted something that was going to look like it belongs with any covers they’re planning to produce for future Holloway Pack titles.

In layman terms: They want the covers, when all standing side by side, to look as though they are part of a collection and to be recognisable as part of that collection.

On top of that, they reasoned that Darkness & Light was almost One Year Old (O_o) and they thought it would make a nice (almost) anniversary marker.

To be honest, I was wondering what on earth they might come up with. The image of the wolf duet has been in my head a long time. And I’m pretty restricted in my ‘vision’ when it comes to imagining visual art and the end results, so to see something else ‘in my head’ was nigh on impossible.

However, my editor sent me the result, and after a couple bits back and forthing and a few tweaks made here and there, I’m happy with the finished article.

And here it is:

For now, the new cover will only be available in the E-versions of the book.

But that’s not the ONLY news!

To help promote its new look, Darkness & Light will be available in E-format throughout the month of June at the bargain price of 99c (or 70-summat-pence to us Brits).

Whoo-hoo!

AND …

The new E-version of Darkness & Light will sport three Sean Holloway POV scenes at the back.

Two of those (Of All the Burger Bars in All the Towns … & Mates Reunited) I have already made public on my website and are available for viewing any time.

However, the third one, titled: ‘Welcome back, Jem‘ has never been released anywhere, and for the time being, will ONLY be available via the new E-book.

So if you know anyone who hasn’t managed to nab a copy yet and would like one, be sure to spread the word and let the peeps know.

So … what do you think?

NEWS: Escort to Insanity is Contracted!

Sometime last winter, around November time, my editor approached me with a propostion.

“Hey,” she said, “we’re thinking of making a winter anthology for December 2012. We want you to be the headliner. You interested?”

“Sure,” I said. Coz I was.
So then I had a problem. I’d agreed to provide a story. But I had no story.

Last time they asked me for an antho submission, I gave them a Holloway Pack short.

I couldn’t do that this time.

Because, due to the fact the anthology will be released the same day that Blue Moon launches, I have no Holloway Pack happenings that will fit into that slot time-wise.

About that moment, when realisation sank in, my head kinda went ‘Eeeeeeeeeeek!’

Because it meant I had to write a new story. One at fairly short notice. One with an unfamiliar plotline. One set in a ‘world’ I’d had no time to get to understand. One with new characters I knew absolutely nothing about.

But I panicked not. Okay, not much.

I simply took a singular idea that popped into my head … wrote down around 300 words to solidify that said idea would be where the story would start … and kept going back to it and playing around with the folks like they were Barbie and Ken on a bender … and voila …

ESCORT TO INSANITY was born.

It’s different to Holloway Pack. Different cast. Different tone. Different (dare I say it?) supes.

And I just recently signed a contract for it.

So it’s official.

I’m heading up a winter anthology.

MAKE BELIEVE is coming December 2012.

You can find out about the other contributing authors at: Jennifer M. Eaton | Jenny Keller Ford | Terri Rochenski | Kelly Said | Lynda Young

Exciting, no?

All’s Quiet on the Western Front …

I’ve been so seriously busy of late, there barely seems enough hours in the day or days in the week or … you get the picture.

Here’s a glimpse at what I’ve been working on either over the last x amount or weeks or as an ongoing project:

I recently finished editing a full novel-length manuscript for a writer buddy. It wasn’t a chore. It never is if you love the writing. But editing a ms of this length takes time and dedication even if the job’s pleasurable.

I’ve been editing a story of my own–one I’ll get to tell you more about on Wednesday (so look out for a post on that), as well as more sharing I’ve got planned for the 21st.

I’ve been preparing for an upcoming announcement about Darkness & Light—one that will go up on my blog next Monday (14^th).

My Eternal Tour has needed organising in time for July. And with blog stops getting scheduled comes interviews to answer and guest posts to write and emails to stay on top of …

And around all of that, as well as knocking out plots/ideas/scenes for YA’s and Holloway Pack #4 and #5 AND #6, I’ve been working on my next main project: Resonance: Holloway Pack #2.5.

This one totally needs my focus as it will tie up a LOT of loose ends for readers as well as pave the way into Caged: Holloway Pack #3.

It’s also the next manuscript I need to submit to my editor and so I’m pretty eager right now to get this one wrapped up because there are a lot of discussions going on with J.Taylor Publishing about how best to get this one into the hands of the readers. I’m going to keep the ideas discussed so far supersekrit until I know for sure what the marketing plans are, but this one is definitely taking up a lot of my brain space right now.

So, all that being said, forgive me for any moments of quiet. Just know it probably means I’m working hard at trying to sort out the upcoming Holloway Pack stories.

Anyhoo, what have you all been up to lately?

MONDAY MUSINGS: Me and YA! O_O {sneaky peek}

So … I wrote a post a little while back about pseudonyms and whatnot when crossing over from adult into YA.

At the time, I was somewhat shocked that I’d even thought up an idea for a YA novel. Any other ideas I’ve ever had have been adult pnr/uf, and the notion of writing something totally tame (though my stuff is a seriously far throw from erotic) had always seemed nigh on impossible.

But the more I thought about it, the more I believed it could be doable.

And so the basics of a plot for me to start on my first YA novel later this year were born.

I thought that was it. For now. Thought I’d just sit back, work on my current Holloway Pack stuff, give the YA idea time to marinade into something with a fuller flavour.

Yeah, right!

Early hours of Wednesday morning last week, I jerked awake from a dream. In my head, the dream only lasted around 60 seconds. Yet, the memory of the dream has stayed with me every hour since.

So I headed into my thought process of ‘what if ….’

And yeah, you’ve guessed it, before I knew what I was doing, I’d formulated the basics of a plot for ANOTHER YA!

So now I’m DOUBLY in shock.

Because I now believe, without a doubt, that at least one of these YA ideas will get written later this year.

Wanna sneaky glimpse at one of ‘em?

Okay then, I’ll share. But don’t look too closely. This is what my first draft openers look like pre-editing, pre-thinking, pre … well, anything.

Oh, and it most certainly doesn’t have a title yet. Here you go:

Too late, too late, too late.

The steering wheel vibrated like crazy beneath my palms. The screech of the tyres held the tone of a demented violin.

I barely noticed either—not with my vision tunnelled and wholly consumed by the wide eyes staring back at me through the windscreen.

The grey haired lady with her flowing skirt and white cotton blouse and too-frail arms had stepped out into the road in front of my Clio and in a handful of seconds she’d be splattered flat.

Screech.

I inched closer.

Each whump of my heart matched each freezeframed moment and each freezeframed moment took me a fraction nearer.

Her mouth widened.

Any second, her scream would be competing with the tyres, a duet of crescendoed wails of doom.

Screech.

Nearer still.

Screech.

Close enough to see the blackness of her expanded pupils.

Screech.

The busted capillaries across her cheeks stood out like a road map to her final destination.

Screech.

I winced back in my seat, braced my arms for the impact, yelled out my, “Nooooooo!”

Whoosh!

“Indie?”

My body shook side to side.

I blinked.

“Damn, Indie, that was the longest one I’ve seen you have yet.”

Another blink brought bright blue eyes into focus beneath a tousled mop of hair the colour of roasted chestnuts, all wrapped up with a nice strong jawline of a bow. “Logan?”

Luggy, I thought. My voice sounded luggy.

It always did whenever I came out of one of my episodes. Episodes my friends all took to be epileptic seizures. Because that was that I’d made them believe.

Mostly because admitting to the truth would land me in a nuthouse. How could I explain something I didn’t understand myself?

Well, whatcha thunk?

SHOWERS OF BOOKS GIVEAWAY HOP: And the winner is …

THANKS HEAPS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SHOWERS OF BOOKS GIVEAWAY HOP. 

THE DRAW HAS BEEN MADE, THE WINNER CONTACTED, SO I’M NOW HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE WINNER IS:

BRIDGET H.

MASSIVE CONGRATS TO BRIDGET.

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK BACK FOR MORE GIVEAWAYS IN THE FUTURE!

IN THE MEANTIME CHECK OUT:

CLAIRE GILLIAN THE P.U.R.E. GIVEAWAY

&

ETERNAL ARC GIVEAWAY

CHEERS!

SCHEDULING THE ETERNAL TOUR!

Well, after checking my calendar, I realised there are only 10 weeks (+3 days) left until the release of

Eternal: Holloway Pack 0.5.

TEN WEEKS?!?! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!

Anyhoo, I figured, with it being so close, and all, that I’d better get my finger out and start scheduling one of my mini-blog tours I like to do when I have a new novella to release.

So … CALLING ALL BOOK BLOGGERS!

If you fancy hosting me between the dates of July 2^nd – July 31^st—whether for an author interview, character interview, guest post (though I won’t be able to conjure very many of those), etc—then please drop me a line.

I can be contacted at the email address in the sidebar (top right) or you’re welcome to message me via my Contact Form.

Many thanks in advance to all who respond. I’ll get back to you all as soon as possible.