YA Indie Carnival–Serial Novels: In or Out?

I am a big fan of serial novels, at least of reading them. I have never written any until now. I find that I am now writing a sequel to Pazuzu’s Girl. I left the door open at the end of that, in case I decided to do another one. But it wasn’t originally planned as a series with a big arc. But on television, I have always loved shows that have a long story arc, not just a bunch of episodes stuck together running for eternity. Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, these were all shows that were sort of at the cusp of a new kind of storytelling for television, though the novel world had been doing it for a long time.

For novels, I like both serial novels, and stand-alones. It all depends on the story, what it was meant to be. Some stories are elaborate enough that they need to be told over the course of a few modules, rather than one: Lord of the Rings, The Uplift Series, by David Brin, the Percy Jackson series, Harry Potter, the Hyperion series. Others are great stand-alones: David Brin’s Kiln People is a great example of a standalone. Most of Neil Gaiman’s and Clive Barker’s novels are great stand alones.

I think that whether something is a series or a standalone depends on the complexity of the story arc. I know that a lot of people like serial novels because if they are really engaged in the world, they want to keep seeing those characters, and return to that world over and over. And this is fine. As a writer, I am finding that I am comfortable in Morpho and Pazuzu’s world and want to go back there. It was fun to write. But I think the key ‘to serial or not to serial’ is: Is the plot supported better as a serial or as a standalone. If I have more story to tell, if these characters have more to say, then serial is appropriate. If not, I think of the image of J. Michael Strazcynski at the end of Babylon 5, the last episode, as he, playing a maintenance person, turned out the lights on the station, and the camera pans out, and the decommissioned station is blown up, definitively telling everyone watching that the station played its part, and the arc has ended.

See what other authors and readers think on my fellow YA Carnie’s sites!

1.	Laura A. H. Elliott	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series	4.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
5.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	6.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
7.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter	8.	Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.
9.	Ella James	10.	Maureen Murrish
11.	YA Sci Fi Author’s Ramblings	12.	A Little Bit of R&R
13.	Melissa Pearl

 

And see What’s New on this link: Updates, new releases, cover reveals, contests!

 

YA Indie Carnival: The Importance of the Wolfpack, Beta Readers, Cover Designers, Editors, etc.

Wow, as important as the writing itself is, making sure that what gets out there to readers is good is equally important. I had a blast writing Pazuzu’s Girl. That was the fun part. The real work part came when I needed to turn it into a real book. Fortunately, we have lots of skilled people to help us do that, or at least we should.

The first thing should be to get someone else’s eyes on it other than yours. As writers, our words are like our kids. We fall in love with them no matter how cranky, pimply, or dorky they can be. But words aren’t kids. And when they suck, we need to cut them from the story or change them. We can’t see that, because we’re busy reveling in them, like parents poring through every inane picture we’ve ever taken of them. So we need someone else to make suggestions about how to make the story better. That’s where editors and beta readers come in. If you are a writer, get in a critique group. Free beta reading and sometimes free editing help too. This is critical, getting critiques. I go to the Denver Fiction Writers Critique Group, but it doesn’t matter where you are, there are usually groups in your area, and if there aren’t, yay internet! There are online groups too that are awesome. The one thing that is the most important about a critique group is that it is honest and constructive. You don’t want people who are just going to tell you you’re wonderful and pat your ego because that won’t help your story, and you don’t want a group that will just tell you that you suck either because that is discouraging and doesn’t make writing very much fun. You want people who will tactfully point out what’s wrong with this or that part of the story and maybe even give suggestions on what might make it better. On the other hand, it’s still your story. If you feel strongly about a feature of the story even after being really honest with yourself, it’s okay to stick to your guns. Writing by committee doesn’t work because it erases your voice and changes your story into something that isn’t yours, or what you were trying to say. But the bottom line is, make editors and beta readers your best friends when you are trying to clean up your story and make it good.

Cover designers are equally important when you are ready to get people interested in picking up your book. They must say in one picture,  for a two-second glance what you took a 100,000 words to write. Or at least, they have to convey enough information to make someone, preferably lots of people, pick up the book and go, “Ooh, this looks cool, I wonder what it’s about?” Artists tell a story too, so what story they tell on your cover is the representation of you and your work. They are highly visual, and so they can identify whether simple is better, or more complicated. Sometimes the simplest images are the most elegant and communicative. Other times, more elaboration is needed, but your artist will usually be the one who has the most expertise on what would represent your book visually the best. That doesn’t mean that you should just go with whatever they think. It is your representation, so you approve and make suggestions based on your knowledge of the book, to make sure that the picture conveys what you want it to.

Formatters are, for me, the wizards of the word processing world. The best book can be wrecked if the format is confusing to read. And maybe it’s just my generation, at the beginning of the personal computing wave, or maybe I’m just kind of neo-Luddite, but formatting myself has always been a challenge. I have 15 years of experience with Word, and still, every time they come out with a new version, I might as well be reading the Handbook for the Recently Deceased from Beetlejuice for all it takes me to figure out how to do things like format, all over again. So I am eternally grateful to people who can work formatting magic and make it look like it wasn’t written by a computer-illiterate 2nd grader, though my 2nd grader is probably more literate than me, given that she’s never even seen a television that you had to change channels by hand, or an old-fashioned rotary phone.

Ultimately, getting a book out is a group effort! Yay wolfpack!

So, see what other tips and stories our carnies have and their experiences with working with the wolfpack?

1.	Laura A. H. Elliott	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series	4.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga
5.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	6.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
7.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter	8.	Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga
9.	Liz Long | Just another writer on the loose.	10.	Ella James
11.	Maureen Murrish	12.	Valerie Sloan
13.	YA Sci Fi Author’s Ramblings	14.	A Little Bit of R&R
15.	Melissa Pearl

And see what’s new and being released soon at the YA Author Club!

Adding Fantasy to Reality

Some would call this schizophrenia or just plain being bonkers. But I think as long as you’re not having full blown conversations with people who aren’t there as you sit in Office Space-worthy bang-your-head-against-the-steering-wheel traffic, that injecting a little fantasy into your reality can be useful sometimes. At least for me.

I hate change, at least change that involves risk. I am the stereotypical government worker personality in that way. I planned to go to the same job until I was old, each day every day. Not necessarily do the same thing, but go the same job, the same organization generally. I recently switched jobs. It is a very cool worthwhile job and organization, and I like it a lot. I switched because the stolid part of me warred with the desire to do something different. Kind of like living in the same house for your whole life and suddenly needing every few years to rearrange all the furniture. I once lugged an eight foot tall bookcase up a Victorian staircase. I think my husband’s just happy I didn’t nail any of the furniture upside down on the ceiling just to rearrange.

So, as one might imagine, I’ve been in need of a little meditation. Well, I’m not much good at sitting in a blazing hot room with people in various physiologically impossible yoga poses. So meditation isn’t really my strong point. Instead, since we recently started reading our daughter the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series,  reading this type of thing and writing our own fantasy has made it frighteningly easy to slip into pretty satisfying daydreams about how cool life might be if I could shoot lightening bolts, visit an undersea palace, or, especially in traffic, slip through the Underworld as a shortcut to getting home after work and avoiding I-25.

Recently, I rediscovered how much I loved to swim. It really felt like meditation in motion to move through the water and watch the sparkle of sunlight across my fingers. After reading the Percy Jackson series it was easier to imagine the world of the sea, or the local rec center pool, as being animated with creatures and being one of them. I felt like I could have swum forever. I swam until the tensions of the day just kind of floated away. That’s happened while training for half-marathons before too. I listen on my iPod to the soundtrack for Kung Fu Panda and I run faster and farther chasing that almond cookie.

I think that the daydreams I let into my life really can enrich it in a useful way. Especially if it gets me off the sofa. Since the Avengers was one of the highest grossing movies of the summer, and ComicCon hit one of the largest cons of the summer in Denver, and most people were in costume, I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

YA Indie Carnival: Blockbusters! How Do You Get Out of Writer’s Block?

Today on the YA Indie Carnival is about the dreaded specter feared more by writers everywhere, than the monsters they write about: Writers Block! What are some of the things you do to get out of writers block?

In my limited experience, since writers block is basically where everything grinds to a halt, the only thing to do is get it moving again, to write. That sounds like a ‘Duh, well that’s the whole problem!’ right? Except that I think that mostly what causes writers block is a paralysis caused by the obsessive need for everything to come out the way we want in the story. That’d be great if everything plopped out nice and neat and organized, but if you’re anything like me, people who keep the spaces around them organized are a complete mystery to me. And my house or workspace is a reflection of my brain: a total mess. So most of the time, my stories don’t come out the way I want the first, second, or even several times. I still want them to, but I think writer’s block is at least part of that frustration. So when I run up against that wall, I start spitting stuff out about the story on paper, or make up something completely wacky, anything to get the story moving. If it comes out crap, well  can change it later.

Another thing I do is talk things out with my husband or another writer friend. I tell them what I have as far as the plot, and then they can ask me questions that make me work out details that maybe I was getting stuck on, causing the block.

Other times, I ask myself ‘Am I having fun with this story?’ If the answer is no, and I’ve done everything I could to make it fun and it still isn’t, then it might be time to work on a different story for a little while. Nothing paralyzes a story more than feeling like every time you sit down, it’s work. Terry Pratchett said that writing is the most fun you can have by yourself. And I think that’s a great idea.

Get some other blockbusting tips today at our other author sites:

1.	Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	Heather Self	4.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga	6.	Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
7.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	8.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
9.	Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series	10.	Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
11.	Dani Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews	12.	Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey
13.	M. Leighton, Blood Like Poison Series, Madly, The Reaping	14.	Kimberly Kinrade, Bits of You & Pieces of Me, Forbidden Mind
15.	Madeline Smoot, Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls	16.	Cidney Swanson, author of Rippler
17.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter	18.	TG Ayer
19.	Melissa Pearl, Author of The Time Spirit Trilogy	20.	Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga
21.	Roots in Myth, PJ Hoover	22.	Courtney Cole Writes

What’s new this week: Giveaways/New Releases/Cover Reveals/Events

NEW RELEASES!

DEAD RADIANCE – Book 1 in the Valkyrie Novels

For as long as she can recall Bryn Halbrook has seen a golden aura around certain people, and it is only when her new best friend Joshua dies that she understands the glow means death. Bryn struggles to adapt to a new town and a new foster home while trying to deal with the guilt of being unable to save her friend. Until mysterious biker-boy, Aidan Lee arrives.

When Aidan unexpectedly takes off he leaves behind a shattered heart, a tonne of unanswered questions and a mysterious book that suggests Bryn is a Valkyrie. Bryn is faced with questions about Aidan’s real identity, the real reason he came to Craven, and that Odin, Freya and Valhalla just might be real.

As if accepting her new wings, new life and new home in Asgard isn’t difficult enough, Bryn is forced to find and return the precious necklace of the Goddess Freya. The only problem is – if she fails, Aidan will die.
The mystery of a Mythology is easy to enjoy. The reality is much harder to accept.

A child born of sun and moon will impart a human gift to bring forth the fall of the house of Gammen. – Hayes Prophecies

So you read the prophecy. It’s all mystical, but pretty vague. Am I right? Those three, short lines are absolutely frustrating. Lucky me, I’m the one who’s supposed to figure it out. I’m the child born of sun and moon.

Join Keira Ryan as she chases her destiny in this exciting third installment in the Midnight Guardian Series. While Keira searches, her enemies draw closer. A history of trust is tested. A promise of passion turns deadly. A surviving evil creates doubt and there’s only one way to stop it…Find the Gift.Just what do you get the spoiled gremlin queen that has everything?

Ready for a new kind of teen paranormal romance?
Also look for:
Of Sun & Moon, Book 1
Whispering Evil, Book 2
Book 4, Shadows Rising, coming Fall 2012

Love is irresistible.  Gravity is undeniable.

Morpho Wilson thought her life was difficult enough. Her father is Pazuzu, the Mesopotamian demon of plague and the Southwest wind. As a teenager Morpho struggles against her father, while trying to adjust to high school in a new neighborhood. The family is constantly moving in an attempt to elude Pazuzu’s murderous ex-wife, a demoness known for killing children.Then something unique happens. A socially-impaired classmate becomes so intrigued by Morpho that he pursues her, despite the mystery surrounding her family and the danger that accompanies it.But before their romance can grow the demoness tracks Morpho down, and now only needs an ancient artifact called the Tablet of Destiny to complete the destruction of the world. The tablet confers on its owner the ability to control the fate of everything and everyone on earth.

Once the tablet is discovered in the Middle East, the oldest and most powerful gods begin a battle for its possession, with the human population caught in the middle. Morpho, her family, and her new friend must decide, do they escape from the horrifying demoness or fight for their own destiny. How far will Pazuzu go to save his daughter from a hellish fate? Will his banishment from Heaven so many millennia ago end up being a curse…or a blessing?

Banished to Victorian London

“Auburdeen Perneila Hayle,” Sassafras hissed, the amber glow from his cat eyes growing until the front of the wicker cage shone with it, “you will do whatever you can to behave yourself, to not embarrass me or your mother and to absolutely under every circumstance maintain a firm hand on your horrid temper.”

My anger simmered. Yes, I had a temper. And yes, it had taken me into situations in the past that perhaps I shouldn’t have been part of, situations that usually devolved into fistfights and incoherent yelling at the offender. He should be grateful I always kept control of myself enough my magic never came into play. Except that one time. But it wasn’t my fault. Not really. And the offender recovered. Eventually.

Auburdeen Hayle is the sixteen-year-old daughter of the next leader of her coven. When the transition of power becomes tense, Burdie is sent from her home in America to stay with old friends in London to keep her safe. But a handsome young man chooses to hide from the police in her hansom, drawing Burdie into an underground world of magic that challenges even her sense of adventure and puts her at odds with the very people who are meant to protect her.

If you love Smoke and Magic, don’t forget to check out the Hayle Coven series–and the adventures of Auburdeen’s great great great granddaughter, Sydlynn, in Book One: Family Magic http://tinyurl.com/7wkoswt

Seeking Jack Bishop“Are we sure we have the right place?” I didn’t want to doubt Josephine, but all we had was the coin and her sorcery. Even she admitted in the beginning there was a chance it wouldn’t work.She simply pointed at the large sign hanging on the fence. “Brindle Holdings.” But which Brindle? Samuel, or his sister, Georgina? The woman who my mother trusted me with, her own very best friend? Could the woman be playing us all false?

Not that it mattered, really. I was a fugitive. Whether Georgina was in league with her brother or not, the coven was convinced of my guilt. And that was all she needed to burn me at the stake, innocent of Samuel’s actions or not.

Auburdeen Hayle is supposed to be in London for her own protection. But since she chose to help and befriend Jack Bishop, everything she knows and understands has fallen to pieces around her. Worse, her friend is lost and in the hands of those who want to use him as a weapon, being slowly devoured by the living metal that infects him. Hunted by the coven meant to protect her and the constabulary being controlled by the very man who holds Jack captive, Burdie is forced to ally herself with those to whom truth and honesty are a convenience.

17 year old Jadyn and her dad are vampire hunters. That is until her dad decides it’s time for Jadyn to have a “normal” life. When he moved them to Miami, Florida the last thing Jadyn expected to find was vampires.

Jadyn doesn’t want to have a normal life, but then she starts to make new friends. She starts to think that maybe a normal life might not be so bad after all. But soon she realizes that maybe her friends aren’t “human” as she once thought they were. On top of everything else a very powerful vampire, Tabatha, seeks revenge on Jadyn. People from her school start disappearing, and people start dying. She wants to stop the deaths, but Tabatha has other plans for her. Can Jadyn stop the one vampire that is impossible to kill before its too late?

Forever, Book 3 in the Fateful Trilogy

Danielle and Ethan may have solved their problem with vampires, but other magical beings have taken interest in the ones who discovered the cure.On the run trying to escape a gaggle of evil pixies, a clan of creepy werewolves, a coven or two of wicked witches, and a school of lovely but malicious mermaids, they fight to have a normal life. But that isn’t so easy when the only aid they have is from slightly dishonest fairies and flirtatious vampire bodyguards.This is Danielle and Ethan’s happily forever after….

Question: When your mother is a powerful witch and your father is a soul-sucking vampire, what does that make you? Answer: Cursed. With all the beauty and charm of a Siren, but cursed as a blood-sucking succubus, Empusa longs for love and a normal life. Neither of these can ever be hers, because the only thing she brings to anyone she loves is death. Em lingers in the mortal world, hiding from her father and existing in a lonely life. Until she meets Brennan. With golden hair and a radiant smile, he captures her heart and awakens it from slumber. But Brennan is more than he seems. And in a relationship where life itself hangs in the balance, is love ever really enough?

Against all expectations, Samantha Ruiz has survived attacks by two of Helmann’s deadliest assassins. She’s alive, but she’s far from safe. Helmann is planning a second Holocaust and wants Sam to play a starring role. Will, meanwhile, separated from Sam by an ocean, seeks a way to prevent Helmann’s apocalypse. Along with Sir Walter and Mickie, Will plays a deadly game sneaking into Geneses’ facilities, discovering unsettling clues as to Helmann’s plans. The clock ticks down as Will and Sam discover just how much they must be willing to sacrifice to stop Helmann. UNFURL, the powerful conclusion to The Ripple Series, will leave fans breathless.

COVER REVEAL!

Two Worlds––Two Teens––One Wish

Rhoe and Ashley would never be friends.
Even if they lived on the same planet.
But, they’ll become so much more.
They’ll transfer.

BLOG TOURS!

A GREAT CAUSE!

Science Fiction Writers Association member Rocky Wood was diagnosed with ALS. As many of you know, this is the same disease Stephen Hawking has, and it is incurable and progressive. He will eventually lose all ability to move on his own. All of the proceeds of this anthology will go to purchasing medical equipment for Rocky Wood. 90 Minutes to Live can be purchased on Amazon or at Journalstone 

YA Indie Carnival: Name That Tune

For the Name That Tune post, today on the YA Indie Carnival, I’ve been listening to the Depeche Mode station on Pandora a lot, and inevitably Duran Duran seems to be popping up a lot, one song in particular, Ordinary World:

Came in from a rainy thursday on the avenue

Thought I heard you talking softly…
I turned on the lights, the tv and the radio
Still I can’t escape the ghost of you
What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some’d say,
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away…

But I won’t cry for yesterday, there’s an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world…
I will learn to survive.

Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say
Pride will tear us both apart
Well now pride’s gone out the window cross the rooftops, run away,
Left me in the vacuum of my heart.
What is happening to me?
Crazy, some’d say,
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away…

(chorus)

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed
Here today, forgot tomorrow
Ooh, here besides the news of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk

(just blown away…)

And I don’t… (chorus)

Every world, is my world… (I will learn to survive)
Any world, is my world … (I will learn to survive)

Any world, is my world…
Every world is my world…

I like this song. I can’t say it’s my favorite, though I also can’t deny my stint as a Durannie when I was in junior high school. A couple of pictures complete with skinny leather tie and fedora and poofy hair survived the ‘unfortunate’ fire, as blackmail proof, so I’m told. And after enough time listening to it play while making Lego cars on the floor with my husband and daughter, it kind of sticks in my head.

I don’t know if I would say that I think of Ordinary World when I’m writing any more than when I’m doing anything else with bars of a song floating in my brain, but when I go through the day I do notice things in the day that link up with the song in some direct or circuitous way.

If I were to say that there was a common thread in my writing, I would say that all of the stories feature ordinary people in extraordinary situations. I’m not usually a fan of stories where the protagonist is super at everything and has trivial flaws that really point more to their being even more ridiculously awesome. Aside from making me feel inadequate, stories like those lose me in terms of empathy. I’m an ordinary person living an ordinary life in an ordinary world, and I will be faced at some point in my life, as everyone is, with untenable circumstances in which something more than ordinary will be required if I am to survive physically or even emotionally intact. It doesn’t have to be something supernatural. It could be something like facing cancer or the death of a parent or friend. In those times, everyone wants guidance, wants to know that they are not alone. That other people share their weaknesses, and more importantly, that despite those very real weaknesses, they can find the strength to face whatever adversity comes to them. They can transform when they are tested. All of my stories are about such transformations. Why? Because perfection doesn’t exist. That’s what daydreams are for, and they are intensely personal and private. I can be a shark-jumping superhero in my daydreams. But what I take succor from, what gives me something to hang onto when I read a story is to be able to connect with another person’s story who is like me in their mediocrity and to believe, if only for the duration of those pages, that if they are capable of such transformations when the time comes, then so am I.

I am an anthropologist, oddly, since I am also somewhat socially impaired. But in every culture I have gone into, I see the same thing. I see ordinary people, like me with similar weaknesses and potential for change. As part of my day job today, I went to the masjid (mosque) I am working with on preparedness, for the Friday noon prayer. I heard the sermon of the imam. And despite my painfully short attention span, I learned a couple new words today: ‘umma’, and ‘fitna’. I’m probably butchering those horribly, if so I apologize. The one that most got my attention was ‘umma’. I learned that it means community. It was one of the most frequent words the imam used today. “This is your umma” he kept saying. ‘This is your community.’ ‘You have to think about your neighbor and care about your neighbor.’ If nothing else I’d ever heard confirmed it, this point he made for an hour drove home the fact that everywhere, we are not that different. I’ve heard the same thing in churches and synagogues. It was the ultimate proof against the idiots I want to punch in the face who spring up claiming that Muslims as some imaginary monolithic entity are all terrorists and that Islam is a religion of violence. It isn’t. It’s a religion of ordinary people in an ordinary world. And I grudgingly understand that the whole point of the sermon was that you shouldn’t punch anybody in the face, even if they’re idiots…Which brings me to ‘fitna’, which loosely translated is ‘backbiting’. In Hebrew, the same concept is ‘lashon hara’, or speaking bad. Well, the fact that there are fairly equivalent terms in three separate cultures, brings us back around once again to ordinary people and our less than perfect tendencies.

In Pazuzu’s Girl, my first novel, I think I was influenced by this idea of everyone being equal or ordinary in terms of the things they have to face. Even the gods and demons, no matter how terrifying or powerful, still failed because of their own significant flaws and had to figure out who they were and what they really wanted besides power, or none of the amazing things they could do meant anything.

You get the idea, at this point, that I really like that song. No, I haven’t found my Simon le Bon fedora or skinny leather ties. They mysteriously got flushed down the toilet when I went to college.

See what other tunes our YA authors have been influenced by today!

1.	Laura A. H. Elliott author of Winnemucca & 13 on Halloween, Book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series	2.	Bryna Butler, author Midnight Guardian series
3.	Heather Self	4.	T. R. Graves, Author of The Warrior Series
5.	Suzy Turner, author of The Raven Saga	6.	Cheri Schmidt, author of the Fateful Trilogy
7.	Rachel Coles, author of Into The Ruins, geek mom blog	8.	K. C. Blake, author of Vampires Rule and Crushed
9.	Patti Larsen, The Hunted series and The Hayle Coven series	10.	Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy
11.	Dani Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews	12.	Fisher Amelie, author of The Understorey
13.	M. Leighton, Blood Like Poison Series, Madly, The Reaping	14.	Kimberly Kinrade, Bits of You & Pieces of Me, Forbidden Mind
15.	Madeline Smoot, Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls	16.	Cidney Swanson, author of Rippler
17.	Gwenn Wright, author of Filter	18.	TG Ayer
19.	Melissa Pearl, Author of The Time Spirit Trilogy	20.	Heather M. White, author of The Destiny Saga
21.	Roots in Myth, PJ Hoover	22.	Courtney Cole Writes

NEW RELEASES!

A child born of sun and moon will impart a human gift to bring forth the fall of the house of Gammen. – Hayes Prophecies

So you read the prophecy. It’s all mystical, but pretty vague. Am I right? Those three, short lines are absolutely frustrating. Lucky me, I’m the one who’s supposed to figure it out. I’m the child born of sun and moon.

Join Keira Ryan as she chases her destiny in this exciting third installment in the Midnight Guardian Series. While Keira searches, her enemies draw closer. A history of trust is tested. A promise of passion turns deadly. A surviving evil creates doubt and there’s only one way to stop it…Find the Gift.Just what do you get the spoiled gremlin queen that has everything?

Ready for a new kind of teen paranormal romance?
Also look for:
Of Sun & Moon, Book 1
Whispering Evil, Book 2
Book 4, Shadows Rising, coming Fall 2012

Love is irresistible.  Gravity is undeniable.

Morpho Wilson thought her life was difficult enough. Her father is Pazuzu, the Mesopotamian demon of plague and the Southwest wind. As a teenager Morpho struggles against her father, while trying to adjust to high school in a new neighborhood. The family is constantly moving in an attempt to elude Pazuzu’s murderous ex-wife, a demoness known for killing children.Then something unique happens. A socially-impaired classmate becomes so intrigued by Morpho that he pursues her, despite the mystery surrounding her family and the danger that accompanies it.

But before their romance can grow the demoness tracks Morpho down, and now only needs an ancient artifact called the Tablet of Destiny to complete the destruction of the world. The tablet confers on its owner the ability to control the fate of everything and everyone on earth.

Once the tablet is discovered in the Middle East, the oldest and most powerful gods begin a battle for its possession, with the human population caught in the middle. Morpho, her family, and her new friend must decide, do they escape from the horrifying demoness or fight for their own destiny. How far will Pazuzu go to save his daughter from a hellish fate? Will his banishment from Heaven so many millennia ago end up being a curse…or a blessing?

Banished to Victorian London

“Auburdeen Perneila Hayle,” Sassafras hissed, the amber glow from his cat eyes growing until the front of the wicker cage shone with it, “you will do whatever you can to behave yourself, to not embarrass me or your mother and to absolutely under every circumstance maintain a firm hand on your horrid temper.”

My anger simmered. Yes, I had a temper. And yes, it had taken me into situations in the past that perhaps I shouldn’t have been part of, situations that usually devolved into fistfights and incoherent yelling at the offender. He should be grateful I always kept control of myself enough my magic never came into play. Except that one time. But it wasn’t my fault. Not really. And the offender recovered. Eventually.

Auburdeen Hayle is the sixteen-year-old daughter of the next leader of her coven. When the transition of power becomes tense, Burdie is sent from her home in America to stay with old friends in London to keep her safe. But a handsome young man chooses to hide from the police in her hansom, drawing Burdie into an underground world of magic that challenges even her sense of adventure and puts her at odds with the very people who are meant to protect her.

If you love Smoke and Magic, don’t forget to check out the Hayle Coven series–and the adventures of Auburdeen’s great great great granddaughter, Sydlynn, in Book One: Family Magic http://tinyurl.com/7wkoswt

Seeking Jack Bishop“Are we sure we have the right place?” I didn’t want to doubt Josephine, but all we had was the coin and her sorcery. Even she admitted in the beginning there was a chance it wouldn’t work.

She simply pointed at the large sign hanging on the fence. “Brindle Holdings.” But which Brindle? Samuel, or his sister, Georgina? The woman who my mother trusted me with, her own very best friend? Could the woman be playing us all false?

Not that it mattered, really. I was a fugitive. Whether Georgina was in league with her brother or not, the coven was convinced of my guilt. And that was all she needed to burn me at the stake, innocent of Samuel’s actions or not.

Auburdeen Hayle is supposed to be in London for her own protection. But since she chose to help and befriend Jack Bishop, everything she knows and understands has fallen to pieces around her. Worse, her friend is lost and in the hands of those who want to use him as a weapon, being slowly devoured by the living metal that infects him. Hunted by the coven meant to protect her and the constabulary being controlled by the very man who holds Jack captive, Burdie is forced to ally herself with those to whom truth and honesty are a convenience.

17 year old Jadyn and her dad are vampire hunters. That is until her dad decides it’s time for Jadyn to have a “normal” life. When he moved them to Miami, Florida the last thing Jadyn expected to find was vampires.

Jadyn doesn’t want to have a normal life, but then she starts to make new friends. She starts to think that maybe a normal life might not be so bad after all. But soon she realizes that maybe her friends aren’t “human” as she once thought they were. On top of everything else a very powerful vampire, Tabatha, seeks revenge on Jadyn. People from her school start disappearing, and people start dying. She wants to stop the deaths, but Tabatha has other plans for her. Can Jadyn stop the one vampire that is impossible to kill before its too late?

Forever, Book 3 in the Fateful Trilogy

Danielle and Ethan may have solved their problem with vampires, but other magical beings have taken interest in the ones who discovered the cure.On the run trying to escape a gaggle of evil pixies, a clan of creepy werewolves, a coven or two of wicked witches, and a school of lovely but malicious mermaids, they fight to have a normal life. But that isn’t so easy when the only aid they have is from slightly dishonest fairies and flirtatious vampire bodyguards.

This is Danielle and Ethan’s happily forever after….

Question: When your mother is a powerful witch and your father is a soul-sucking vampire, what does that make you? Answer: Cursed. With all the beauty and charm of a Siren, but cursed as a blood-sucking succubus, Empusa longs for love and a normal life. Neither of these can ever be hers, because the only thing she brings to anyone she loves is death. Em lingers in the mortal world, hiding from her father and existing in a lonely life. Until she meets Brennan. With golden hair and a radiant smile, he captures her heart and awakens it from slumber. But Brennan is more than he seems. And in a relationship where life itself hangs in the balance, is love ever really enough?

Against all expectations, Samantha Ruiz has survived attacks by two of Helmann’s deadliest assassins. She’s alive, but she’s far from safe. Helmann is planning a second Holocaust and wants Sam to play a starring role. Will, meanwhile, separated from Sam by an ocean, seeks a way to prevent Helmann’s apocalypse. Along with Sir Walter and Mickie, Will plays a deadly game sneaking into Geneses’ facilities, discovering unsettling clues as to Helmann’s plans. The clock ticks down as Will and Sam discover just how much they must be willing to sacrifice to stop Helmann. UNFURL, the powerful conclusion to The Ripple Series, will leave fans breathless.

COVER REVEAL!

Two Worlds––Two Teens––One Wish

Rhoe and Ashley would never be friends.
Even if they lived on the same planet.
But, they’ll become so much more.
They’ll transfer.

BLOG TOURS!

A GREAT CAUSE!

Science Fiction Writers Association member Rocky Wood was diagnosed with ALS. As many of you know, this is the same disease Stephen Hawking has, and it is incurable and progressive. He will eventually lose all ability to move on his own. All of the proceeds of this anthology will go to purchasing medical equipment for Rocky Wood. 90 Minutes to Live can be purchased on Amazon or at Journalstone 

YA Indie Carnival: Interview With a Villain

Today’s post for the YA Indie Carnival, a couple days late, will be an interview with a villain, who wanted you all to get a peek inside his mind. He’s been seeing himself in a number of films and books lately, the latest being The Rite. And while he appreciated being cast as Anthony Hopkins, one of his favorite actors, he still felt a bit maligned. So, to set the record straight, and without further ado, I’m here to introduce Baal, Canaanite god, and not actually a minion of the devil.

Me: Hello Baal, how are you today?

Baal: I’ve been better, I’m a little frustrated. That’s why I’m here today. Thank you for having me on your blog, Ms. Coles.”

Me: No worries, I’m always curious to hear the other side of the story. It seems like there always is one. So what I understand from your complaint, and from what I’ve seen is that you’ve shown up in a bunch of movies and books as a demon, subject to the evil Lucifer, in various portrayals. You can take off your helmet and put your weapons down, right in the corner over there, if you would. I have a no-weapons policy in my interviews.

Baal: Of course. (removes horned helmet, and puts club and lightning bolt on the desk) I forget that your society is a bit nervous.

Me: Okay, well moving on.

Baal: Well, first, I’d like to say that while portrayals of me as a cloud of flies, a desert island society of angry young sociopaths, or an outright gruesome looking demon are entertaining and creative, that’s not me. I’m sure you can understand how it would feel if someone posted a picture of you on Facebook as a hunchbacked grotesque monster who buggered animals. Not exactly flattering to go from a god being worshipped, to something like that, but that’s the equivalent of the PR campaign against me after the advent of Christianity.

Me: So why don’t we start with who you were before? Tell me a little about your life?

Baal: Well, for starters, did you know that I fought a dragon? Everyone hears how I possess priests and make them ‘speak in tongues’, but no one hears of my victories in battle, protecting farmers and villagers. I fought a dragon named Lotan, in…(tries to calculate on his fingers) well, a really long time ago. Thousands of your years. It flooded the area you call Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, and would drag them into the watery depths and eat them. Really nasty business. People were so grateful that they built a silver and gold temple to me, with cedars from Lebanon. It was really quite something to see, an architectural marvel.

Me: Wow, so what happened to it?

Baal: It’s been thousands of years. It went through several changes in management and eventually fell down. You come talk to me when one of your drywall and fake stone-face buildings lasts a thousand years. I was called Hadad, then, and after I won the battle against Lotan, I was called Rider on the Clouds. (beaming with pride)

Me: That’s very impressive. So what happened after that?

Baal: Well, I had a huge party to celebrate in my new palace. Lots of food and drink. All the female goddesses came to the party. My father El came, even though we’d gotten in an argument a few decades earlier.

Me: Why were you in an argument?

Baal: He compared me to my brother Yamm and decided that Yamm was smarter than me at running the business, ruling people and bringing storms for their crops. He might be more clever, but he’s kind of…what’s your term, a Mama’s Boy. I could beat him in a fight any day. He never practiced weapons or fighting like I did. He always had his head glued to a tablet, reading.

Me: Okay, so back to the big party.

Baal: So, I had this big party and everyone came. Even Mot, Lord of Death. I never should have invited him. His appetites are troublesome. He likes eating people, and drinking up all the beer, wine and water. That’s why he a god of drought. But I didn’t want to leave anyone out, and I thought if we kept enough liquid entertainment around, he wouldn’t get out of hand. Well, silly me, trying to be friendly. He wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to eat people. I told him, ‘We don’t do that here. This is a people-free zone.’ As you might say today with your strange vegetarian restaurants. He grew so angry that he jumped me after I kicked him out of the palace. He and his minions stuffed me into a bag and took me to the Underworld.

Me: He kidnapped you? You’re a great warrior god, right? So how did he jump you?

Baal: (turning red) He sucker-punched me, brandishing a dead person in his claw. And then he inhaled. He absorbs all water. I get some of my power from rain, you see? (indicates the lightning bolt). Oh bugger, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that. Well, I’m apparently a demon now so, it doesn’t really matter anymore I suppose. (sticks his lip out for a second) Anyway, he started ravaging the earth, killing my subjects’ crops. I couldn’t have that. And you say that ‘A prisoner’s obligation is to escape.’ So I worked out a plan. The shades, you know, spirits of the dead, don’t like him much either, so it wasn’t hard to start a mutiny. And while they made a distraction, I left. In all fairness, my sister Anat helped a lot. She’s one hell of a fighter too. So we gathered our forces and battled Mot seven years later. I made him bow to me and declare me king of the gods. And I obtained a new constitution that he’d treat the shades better too, let them out sometimes to see their families. He still eats people sometimes, but I haven’t been able to catch him in the act yet.

Me: Well that’s quite a different story than how everyone knows you now.

Baal: See what I mean?

Me: So what happened to screw up your PR campaign?

Baal: The Catholic Church happened. At least I think that’s where it really got going, since they took the ideas of the Hebrews and spread them throughout the world, even past what we knew in the ancient world. You’re a Hebrew, aren’t you? (peers at me)

Me: Uh, yeah. Sorry for the abandonment, man.

Baal (huffs): Well, it’s okay, I understand. But I guess it started with Abraham, you’ve heard of him then, one of your ancestors. He was a refugee from Ur in Mesopotamia, that’s Iraq now. Ur was being invaded and Mot was perpetrating a lot of drought. We were doing everything we could to get him under control, because he kept pushing for more territory, despite the treaty. So my dad stepped in, El. And just like in the past, he blamed me for everything. It was also a chance to get back some of his old power. He had some control issues, and so he wanted the city of Ur to pay him more attention. So he made a covenant declaring himself the only god, and that in return, he’d protect them from everything and make sure they prospered. So Abraham smashed all of Terah’s idols of me.

Me: That must have made you mad.

Baal (shrugging): I didn’t really think about it at first. I can’t really get mad at them for leaving me for my dad. At least it’s still in the family. There wasn’t much I could do about it at the time. And the world was a challenging place to live, back then, so I can’t really blame them for wanting a promise of total protection. But I guess I didn’t realize how much it would have an effect on…well everything after that. Before I knew it, my name was being used for all kinds of nonsense, mainly to secure power and make sure that the officials of the church would get in good with my dad. It also gave them the opportunity to get rid of their enemies. It’s easier to get allies when you declare an enemy. The same thing is happening today. It’s all politics. I got out-politicked. (sighs)

Me: So what will you do now? Will you rebuild your reputation?

Baal: (shakes his head): I don’t think so. The world is much different now. I don’t much like politics, so I think I’ll take a break, see the galaxy. And I guess when I think about it, I did have a good time being cast as a villain. Villains get the best movie lines. I might stick around for a little bit and have some fun. After all, the Devil does get to commit all the really juicy sins, right? (grins)

Me: (suddenly nervous): Uh, yeah. Can you stick to gluttony and lust until you leave the interview though? It’s not really good manners to murder your interviewer.

Baal (grins even wider and leans forward): My pleasure.

Me (shoves a bag of candy and a six pack of beer toward him and runs): Okay, gluttony it is then. I’ll get you a freezer case of Ben and Jerrys!

This concludes our portion of Interview With a Semitic Deity. The next installment will broadcast from the Underworld.

Get some other wonderful evil perspectives on our other author sites:

http://www.refractedlightreviews.com Danny Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews

http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com Patti Larsen, Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, the Hunted series, and the Hayle Coven novels.

http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com Courtney Cole, Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com Wren Emerson, Author of I Wish and a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.

http://laurasmagicday.wordpress.com Laura Elliott, Author of Winnemucca.

http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com Nichole A. Williams, Author of Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/ Fisher Amelie, Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://amyjonesyaff.blogspot.com Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com T. R. Graves, Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://ctefft.blogspot.com Cyndi Tefft, Author of Between
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com P.J. Hoover, Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis.
http://www.aliciamccalla.com Alicia McCalla, Author of the upcoming science-fiction novel Breaking Free.

http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read Heather Cashman, Author of Perception.

http://www.abbiglines.com Abbi Glines, Author of Breathe, and the upcoming Existence and Vincent Boys.

http://cidneyswanson.blogspot.com/ Cidney Swanson, Author of Rippler.

http://cherischmidt.blogspot.com, Cheri Schmidt, Author of Fateful, Fractured, and Fair Maiden, Fire Dancer

http://www.lexusluke.com/, Lexus Luke, Author of Manitou, The Sky People Saga, Fire Breather

http://www.suzyturner.com/, Suzy Turner, Author of December Moon and Raven, Dragonslayer

http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com/, K. C. Blake, Author of Vampire Rules, Elephant Trainer

http://hereventuality.blogspot.com/, Gwenn Wright, Author of Filter, Ring-Leader

http://kimberlykinrade.com/, Kimberly Kinrade, Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind, Prestidigitator

http://jlbryanbooks.blogspot.com/, J.L. Bryan, Author of Paranormals series- Jenny Pox. Tommy Nightmare & Alexander Death

http://darbykarchut.com/ Darby Karchut, Author of Griffin Rising, and soon Griffin Fire

http://puttingpentopage.com/ Heather Self

http://brynabutler.wordpress.com/ Bryna Butler, author of the Midnight Guardian series

What’s new this week?

NEW RELEASES!

Forever, Book 3 in the Fateful Trilogy

Danielle and Ethan may have solved their problem with vampires, but other magical beings have taken interest in the ones who discovered the cure.On the run trying to escape a gaggle of evil pixies, a clan of creepy werewolves, a coven or two of wicked witches, and a school of lovely but malicious mermaids, they fight to have a normal life. But that isn’t so easy when the only aid they have is from slightly dishonest fairies and flirtatious vampire bodyguards.This is Danielle and Ethan’s happily forever after….

Question: When your mother is a powerful witch and your father is a soul-sucking vampire, what does that make you? Answer: Cursed. With all the beauty and charm of a Siren, but cursed as a blood-sucking succubus, Empusa longs for love and a normal life. Neither of these can ever be hers, because the only thing she brings to anyone she loves is death. Em lingers in the mortal world, hiding from her father and existing in a lonely life. Until she meets Brennan. With golden hair and a radiant smile, he captures her heart and awakens it from slumber. But Brennan is more than he seems. And in a relationship where life itself hangs in the balance, is love ever really enough?

Against all expectations, Samantha Ruiz has survived attacks by two of Helmann’s deadliest assassins. She’s alive, but she’s far from safe. Helmann is planning a second Holocaust and wants Sam to play a starring role. Will, meanwhile, separated from Sam by an ocean, seeks a way to prevent Helmann’s apocalypse. Along with Sir Walter and Mickie, Will plays a deadly game sneaking into Geneses’ facilities, discovering unsettling clues as to Helmann’s plans. The clock ticks down as Will and Sam discover just how much they must be willing to sacrifice to stop Helmann. UNFURL, the powerful conclusion to The Ripple Series, will leave fans breathless.

Gemma’s parents have put enough rules around her relationship with Harrison that she feels like she’s living on parole. But she wins one battle—a summer job working for Harrison’s step-father. It is the perfect chance to spend the steamy, hot Florida days with her boyfriend. It’s also a great distraction from the cellphone hiding in her underwear drawer—her only contact with Gabe, the mystery man who’s stalking her.When she confronts Gabe, he tells her that her parents are not who she thinks they are, and Harrison has the gall to believe him. Surrounded by conflict, Gemma doesn’t know what to believe, and it takes a trip back in time for her to glimpse the sickening truth.Thanks to her parents, she returns to the present to find the love of her life no longer exists. His family line was broken and now, so is she.

This betrayal forces her to seek out Gabe. Setting aside her fear of the truth, she must trust this man and learn what he can teach her… otherwise, she’ll never get her boyfriend back.

Syd has what she’s always wanted. Thanks to her demon’s sacrifice, she is finally normal. Why then does she want her magic back so badly? It really sucks to find out Brad was only into her because of her power. And even Quaid is keeping his distance. Her loss couldn’t have come at a worse time. A storm is brewing, one that could devour the entire world. Syd refuses to accept she will never be a witch again, doing everything she can to track down the Chosen of the Light and rescue her demon. If only the ordinary life she’s been building didn’t interfere.

16 year old Karlie has had a pretty normal life… But when her Mom dies she is force to move over 1,000 miles away to live with her Dad. That’s when things start getting weird. She can’t explain the earthquakes that nobody else feels, or why she no longer sleeps. But most of all she doesn’t know why she trusts Shane so much, even though his Dad wants her dead. Suddenly, Karlie’s normal life is turned upside down and she enters a world she never dreamed could really exist.

BLOG TOURS!

FREEBIES!

FREE ON AMAZON!

FREE on AMAZON!

FREE on AMAZON!

Giveaways!

The Family Magic Tour stops at Refracted Light, check out the awesome giveaway!!!

Morpho Wilson thought her life was difficult enough. Her father is Pazuzu, the Mesopotamian demon of plague and the Southwest wind. As a teenager Morpho struggles against her father, while trying to adjust to high school in a new neighborhood. The family is constantly moving in an attempt to elude Pazuzu’s murderous ex-wife, a demoness known for killing children.Then something unique happens. A socially-impaired classmate becomes so intrigued by Morpho that he pursues her, despite the mystery surrounding her family and the danger that accompanies it.But before their romance can grow the demoness tracks Morpho down, and now only needs an ancient artifact called the Tablet of Destiny to complete the destruction of the world. The tablet confers on its owner the ability to control the fate of everything and everyone on earth.

Once the tablet is discovered in the Middle East, the oldest and most powerful gods begin a battle for its possession, with the human population caught in the middle. Morpho, her family, and her new friend must decide, do they escape from the horrifying demoness or fight for their own destiny. How far will Pazuzu go to save his daughter from a hellish fate? Will his banishment from Heaven so many millennia ago end up being a curse…or a blessing?

Journalstone is doing a giveaway of Pazuzu’s Girl on their site through Goodreads, ending February 22, 2012. They’re giving away 10 copies! Pazuzu’s Girl by Rachel Coles will be released February 10!

Pazuzu’s Girl Giveaway and Blog Tour

Pazuzu’s Girl went to print last night! It will be released February 10! There’s a giveaway for it on Goodreads that will close on February 2,so join and be one of the first to read it! I’m doing an official blog tour from February 13-March 15, courtesy of my very cool fellow authors and reviewers in the YA Indie Carnival. It’s been a long haul and I’ve learned a lot about being published, thanks to the awesome folks at Journalstone. Their sites, all worth visiting on a regular basis to see what they’re doing are listed in this blog, and at our Members site. More news as we get closer to February 10!

YA Indie Carnival: What Reading Teaches Me As a Writer

A writer seriously can’t talk enough about the importance of reading. Just like an artist learns by studying the styles of the classical masters, a writer learns style and device from the timeless works of others. They do not have to be the classics many of us with more outlandish tastes chunked through in high school amidst much whining and groaning. Many of those were great, but a writer can gain knowledge from reading science fiction or fantasy classics too. Really any book you enjoy reading: ‘classic’, popular, or unheard of gems that you think are awesome.

We all enjoy reading just purely as an imagination ride, for escape, or amusement, or catharsis. But in addition, reading other people’s works provides me, as a writer, with three things: 1. Ideas in device and style that I can mimic, absorb, and then transform into my own unique voice. I love Ray Bradbury, his prose poetry, and it affected the way I used words. 2. An idea of what doesn’t work. We all learn what not to do from things we didn’t like, as much as from what we do, when we analyze why we didn’t like it. 3. An opening of paradigms and ideas to explore new worlds of thought and perspective. Reading books like the Dune series, Lord of the Rings, or the Hyperion series changed the way that I looked at things forever. They affected me as a human being, and therefore affected what I wrote about and how I thought of the stories I wanted to tell.

The most stark example of the effect of reading and reviewing is the Torah. Whenever it was written, or by whom, it has been argued over by countless rabbis, over countless bottles of wine, grape juice, and vodka for thousands of years. And many Jewish people, in the course of our studies, do not just read the Torah. We read the enormous body of commentary that has risen up around it, ‘reviews’ if you will, interpretations in different ages by thousands of scholars, both Jewish and otherwise. Reading this one document inspired and formed an entire culture, and from that culture stories re-told by numerous authors from their own experience. Although this is not to say that this is enough. It drives me insane when people say things like, “All I need’s ‘the Good Book’.” That particular perspective, Jewish or otherwise, inspires me to write about multiple gods, demons, and as much sex as I can pack into a story, preferably nasty, kinky demon sex.

In any case, my experience is that the importance of reading is for a writer what the experience of listening to music is for a musician. Without it, I would lose sight of structure and form. I would be limited to my own personal experience, which in the busy days of trying to earn a living and raise a family, would not make an action packed read. That’s a good thing. Books extend our experiences vicariously. I’m totally okay with not actually battling dragons or orcs at this point in my life. I’m too busy battling the economy.

See how other writers and reviewers use reading to enrich their experiences and writing.

http://www.refractedlightreviews.com Danny Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews

http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com Patti Larsen, Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, the Hunted series, and the Hayle Coven novels.

http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com Courtney Cole, Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com Wren Emerson, Author of I Wish and a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.

http://laurasmagicday.wordpress.com Laura Elliott, Author of Winnemucca.

http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com Nichole A. Williams, Author of Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/ Fisher Amelie, Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://amyjonesyaff.blogspot.com Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com T. R. Graves, Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://ctefft.blogspot.com Cyndi Tefft, Author of Between
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com P.J. Hoover, Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis.
http://www.aliciamccalla.com Alicia McCalla, Author of the upcoming science-fiction novel Breaking Free.

http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read Heather Cashman, Author of Perception.

http://www.abbiglines.com Abbi Glines, Author of Breathe, and the upcoming Existence and Vincent Boys.

http://cidneyswanson.blogspot.com/ Cidney Swanson, Author of Rippler.

http://cherischmidt.blogspot.com, Cheri Schmidt, Author of Fateful, Fractured, and Fair Maiden, Fire Dancer

http://www.lexusluke.com/, Lexus Luke, Author of Manitou, The Sky People Saga, Fire Breather

http://www.suzyturner.com/, Suzy Turner, Author of December Moon and Raven, Dragonslayer

http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com/, K. C. Blake, Author of Vampire Rules, Elephant Trainer

http://hereventuality.blogspot.com/, Gwenn Wright, Author of Filter, Ring-Leader

http://kimberlykinrade.com/, Kimberly Kinrade, Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind, Prestidigitator

http://jlbryanbooks.blogspot.com/, J.L. Bryan, Author of Paranormals series- Jenny Pox. Tommy Nightmare & Alexander Death

http://darbykarchut.com/ Darby Karchut, Author of Griffin Rising, and soon Griffin Fire

http://puttingpentopage.com/ Heather Self

http://brynabutler.wordpress.com/ Bryna Butler, author of the Midnight Guardian series

What’s new this week?

GIVEAWAY!

Morpho Wilson thought her life was difficult enough. Her father is Pazuzu, the Mesopotamian demon of plague and the Southwest wind. As a teenager Morpho struggles against her father, while trying to adjust to high school in a new neighborhood. The family is constantly moving in an attempt to elude Pazuzu’s murderous ex-wife, a demoness known for killing children.Then something unique happens. A socially-impaired classmate becomes so intrigued by Morpho that he pursues her, despite the mystery surrounding her family and the danger that accompanies it.

But before their romance can grow the demoness tracks Morpho down, and now only needs an ancient artifact called the Tablet of Destiny to complete the destruction of the world. The tablet confers on its owner the ability to control the fate of everything and everyone on earth.

Once the tablet is discovered in the Middle East, the oldest and most powerful gods begin a battle for its possession, with the human population caught in the middle. Morpho, her family, and her new friend must decide, do they escape from the horrifying demoness or fight for their own destiny. How far will Pazuzu go to save his daughter from a hellish fate? Will his banishment from Heaven so many millennia ago end up being a curse…or a blessing?

Journalstone is doing a giveaway of Pazuzu’s Girl on their site through Goodreads, ending February 22, 2012. They’re giving away 10 copies! Pazuzu’s Girl by Rachel Coles will be released February 10!

NEW RELEASES!

Question: When your mother is a powerful witch and your father is a soul-sucking vampire, what does that make you? Answer: Cursed. With all the beauty and charm of a Siren, but cursed as a blood-sucking succubus, Empusa longs for love and a normal life. Neither of these can ever be hers, because the only thing she brings to anyone she loves is death. Em lingers in the mortal world, hiding from her father and existing in a lonely life. Until she meets Brennan. With golden hair and a radiant smile, he captures her heart and awakens it from slumber. But Brennan is more than he seems. And in a relationship where life itself hangs in the balance, is love ever really enough?

Against all expectations, Samantha Ruiz has survived attacks by two of Helmann’s deadliest assassins. She’s alive, but she’s far from safe. Helmann is planning a second Holocaust and wants Sam to play a starring role. Will, meanwhile, separated from Sam by an ocean, seeks a way to prevent Helmann’s apocalypse. Along with Sir Walter and Mickie, Will plays a deadly game sneaking into Geneses’ facilities, discovering unsettling clues as to Helmann’s plans. The clock ticks down as Will and Sam discover just how much they must be willing to sacrifice to stop Helmann. UNFURL, the powerful conclusion to The Ripple Series, will leave fans breathless.

Gemma’s parents have put enough rules around her relationship with Harrison that she feels like she’s living on parole. But she wins one battle—a summer job working for Harrison’s step-father. It is the perfect chance to spend the steamy, hot Florida days with her boyfriend. It’s also a great distraction from the cellphone hiding in her underwear drawer—her only contact with Gabe, the mystery man who’s stalking her.When she confronts Gabe, he tells her that her parents are not who she thinks they are, and Harrison has the gall to believe him. Surrounded by conflict, Gemma doesn’t know what to believe, and it takes a trip back in time for her to glimpse the sickening truth.

Thanks to her parents, she returns to the present to find the love of her life no longer exists. His family line was broken and now, so is she.

This betrayal forces her to seek out Gabe. Setting aside her fear of the truth, she must trust this man and learn what he can teach her… otherwise, she’ll never get her boyfriend back.

Syd has what she’s always wanted. Thanks to her demon’s sacrifice, she is finally normal. Why then does she want her magic back so badly? It really sucks to find out Brad was only into her because of her power. And even Quaid is keeping his distance. Her loss couldn’t have come at a worse time. A storm is brewing, one that could devour the entire world. Syd refuses to accept she will never be a witch again, doing everything she can to track down the Chosen of the Light and rescue her demon. If only the ordinary life she’s been building didn’t interfere.

16 year old Karlie has had a pretty normal life… But when her Mom dies she is force to move over 1,000 miles away to live with her Dad. That’s when things start getting weird. She can’t explain the earthquakes that nobody else feels, or why she no longer sleeps. But most of all she doesn’t know why she trusts Shane so much, even though his Dad wants her dead. Suddenly, Karlie’s normal life is turned upside down and she enters a world she never dreamed could really exist.

BLOG TOURS!

FREEBIES!

Nothing says Happy New Year like Halloween! For the first 12 days of 2012, free chapters of 13 on Halloween’s AUDIOBOOK available! Click here to gather around a fire and hear how Roxie’s birthday wish comes true when she receives a birthday gift that’s literally out of this world! http://www.authorlaura.com/#!books

YA Indie Carnival: Books I Am Grateful For And Why

I have lots and lots of books I’m grateful for. First, I have to start by saying that I am grateful for the existence of books. They were fodder for my imagination throughout childhood, an escape from adolescence, and a remedy for tedium in adulthood, without which I would have surely stabbed myself in the head waiting in line at the DMV.

When I was a little kid, I was consumed with science fantasy. I read Madeline L’ Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time and the other two sequels over and over. It was one of the key books that I remember. It was one of the books that opened up the world for me, the world of could-be. I haven’t picked it up in years, so I don’t know if it would be as good now as it seemed then, but I know what it did for me, as I read under the covers with a flashlight, thinking that my mother didn’t know I was reading. And likewise, I’ve continued the tradition of pretending not to notice when my own daughter does it.

When I was a teenager, there was a book that I got from the library repeatedly, called The Hound of Ulster, by Rosemary Sutcliff. It was about Cuchulain of Ulster, what is now a county in Northern Ireland. He was, to the Irish, a well-known hero of the Red Branch warriors, seated at Emain Macha or what is now Navan Fort, in pre-Christian times. I don’t know what it was about that book or about that figure in Celtic myth that captured my attention. Maybe it was that he was described as being small and dark, very different from his comrades, and yet the fiercest of them. That’s very reassuring to a 5-foot dark-haired teenage nerd with zero coordination, however fanciful. But it opened the world of myth to me, as I expanded from that book to other Celtic myth, to myth from across the world, and then to physical evidence of some basis in reality through anthropology. And one of the most intriguing authors whose prose I read again and again, was Ray Bradbury. My copies of The Halloween Tree, and Something Wicked This Way Comes are so dog-eared that if you pick them up, all the pages slither to the ground. But they sparked a delicious sense of darkness and threat, while at the same time, not dismissing them as simple good or evil.

Now, I’d have to say that there have been a few paradigm changing books, at least the paradigms in my own head. The most recent book that stuck with me and made me go “Whoa” long after I put it down was/were the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. Its scope was so grand and so complex, but at the same time, simple and profound, that I felt like it actually physically changed my brain. It was a look, like Dune, at humanity and our ability to evolve, or not, and the evolution of ideas. Other books that really kind of fed my imagination and emotion were Clive Barker’s Weaveworld, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, David Brin’s Uplift series. Clive Barker, in Weaveworld more than any other book I think, wrote poetic prose, while telling an amazing complicated story about a world within a carpet. Neil Gaiman also has captured myth while encasing it within the modern world.

These are the books that changed me, that directed me toward something, and as a writer, that I try to emulate or at least learn from. And I keep finding books to add to that list. It will be interesting to travel through the carnival today to see what books have affected my fellow authors in the same way.

http://www.refractedlightreviews.com Danny Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews

http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com Patti Larsen, Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, the Hunted series, and the Hayle Coven novels.

http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com Courtney Cole, Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com Wren Emerson, Author of I Wish and a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.

http://laurasmagicday.wordpress.com Laura Elliott, Author of Winnemucca.

http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com Nichole A. Williams, Author of Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/ Fisher Amelie, Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://amyjonesyaff.blogspot.com Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com T. R. Graves, Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://ctefft.blogspot.com Cyndi Tefft, Author of Between
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com P.J. Hoover, Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis.
http://www.aliciamccalla.com Alicia McCalla, Author of the upcoming science-fiction novel Breaking Free.

http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read Heather Cashman, Author of Perception.

http://www.abbiglines.com Abbi Glines, Author of Breathe, and the upcoming Existence and Vincent Boys.

http://cidneyswanson.blogspot.com/ Cidney Swanson, Author of Rippler.

http://cherischmidt.blogspot.com, Cheri Schmidt, Author of Fateful, Fractured, and Fair Maiden, Fire Dancer

http://www.lexusluke.com/, Lexus Luke, Author of Manitou, The Sky People Saga, Fire Breather

http://www.suzyturner.com/, Suzy Turner, Author of December Moon and Raven, Dragonslayer

http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com/, K. C. Blake, Author of Vampire Rules, Elephant Trainer

http://hereventuality.blogspot.com/, Gwenn Wright, Author of Filter, Ring-Leader

http://kimberlykinrade.com/, Kimberly Kinrade, Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind, Prestidigitator

http://jlbryanbooks.blogspot.com/, J.L. Bryan, Author of Paranormals series- Jenny Pox. Tommy Nightmare & Alexander Death

http://darbykarchut.com/ Darby Karchut, Author of Griffin Rising, and soon Griffin Fire

http://puttingpentopage.com/ Heather Self

http://brynabutler.wordpress.com/ Bryna Butler, author of the Midnight Guardian series

What’s new this week?

BOOK GIVEAWAY at www.journalstone.com or Goodreads for 10 copies of Pazuzu’s Girl!

 

The giveaway ends February 22, 2012.

 

 

 

 

NEW RELEASES!

Question: When your mother is a powerful witch and your father is a soul-sucking vampire, what does that make you? Answer: Cursed. With all the beauty and charm of a Siren, but cursed as a blood-sucking succubus, Empusa longs for love and a normal life. Neither of these can ever be hers, because the only thing she brings to anyone she loves is death. Em lingers in the mortal world, hiding from her father and existing in a lonely life. Until she meets Brennan. With golden hair and a radiant smile, he captures her heart and awakens it from slumber. But Brennan is more than he seems. And in a relationship where life itself hangs in the balance, is love ever really enough?

Against all expectations, Samantha Ruiz has survived attacks by two of Helmann’s deadliest assassins. She’s alive, but she’s far from safe. Helmann is planning a second Holocaust and wants Sam to play a starring role. Will, meanwhile, separated from Sam by an ocean, seeks a way to prevent Helmann’s apocalypse. Along with Sir Walter and Mickie, Will plays a deadly game sneaking into Geneses’ facilities, discovering unsettling clues as to Helmann’s plans. The clock ticks down as Will and Sam discover just how much they must be willing to sacrifice to stop Helmann. UNFURL, the powerful conclusion to The Ripple Series, will leave fans breathless.

Gemma’s parents have put enough rules around her relationship with Harrison that she feels like she’s living on parole. But she wins one battle—a summer job working for Harrison’s step-father. It is the perfect chance to spend the steamy, hot Florida days with her boyfriend. It’s also a great distraction from the cellphone hiding in her underwear drawer—her only contact with Gabe, the mystery man who’s stalking her.

When she confronts Gabe, he tells her that her parents are not who she thinks they are, and Harrison has the gall to believe him. Surrounded by conflict, Gemma doesn’t know what to believe, and it takes a trip back in time for her to glimpse the sickening truth.

Thanks to her parents, she returns to the present to find the love of her life no longer exists. His family line was broken and now, so is she.

This betrayal forces her to seek out Gabe. Setting aside her fear of the truth, she must trust this man and learn what he can teach her… otherwise, she’ll never get her boyfriend back.

Syd has what she’s always wanted. Thanks to her demon’s sacrifice, she is finally normal. Why then does she want her magic back so badly? It really sucks to find out Brad was only into her because of her power. And even Quaid is keeping his distance. Her loss couldn’t have come at a worse time. A storm is brewing, one that could devour the entire world. Syd refuses to accept she will never be a witch again, doing everything she can to track down the Chosen of the Light and rescue her demon. If only the ordinary life she’s been building didn’t interfere.

16 year old Karlie has had a pretty normal life… But when her Mom dies she is force to move over 1,000 miles away to live with her Dad. That’s when things start getting weird. She can’t explain the earthquakes that nobody else feels, or why she no longer sleeps. But most of all she doesn’t know why she trusts Shane so much, even though his Dad wants her dead. Suddenly, Karlie’s normal life is turned upside down and she enters a world she never dreamed could really exist.

 

BLOG TOURS!

 

FREEBIES!

Nothing says Happy New Year like Halloween! For the first 12 days of 2012, free chapters of 13 on Halloween’s AUDIOBOOK available! Click here to gather around a fire and hear how Roxie’s birthday wish comes true when she receives a birthday gift that’s literally out of this world! http://www.authorlaura.com/#!books

JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

Pazuzu’s Girl by Rachel Coles will be released February 10!

YA Indie Carnival: Ice Cream Excerpts

This weeks post, inspired by one of our author’s holiday sweets is a good way to bring in a sweet New Year, for those of us who are superstitious, and I am. However since I have no excerpts in my stories involving ice cream, I’ll have to pick another sweet favorite food. It is an ingredient often found in ice cream, at least the good flavors. This is an excerpt from my upcoming novel Pazuzu’s Girl. We’ll call these peanut butter excerpts:

Morpho shook out her brilliant blue hair in front of the mirror behind the door of her pink room. She threw on her torn leather jacket over a ruffled pink sock that passed for a mini-dress. She flounced down the stairs, grabbed her Tinkerbell backpack and the peanut butter toast her father’s servant had left, and plopped her skateboard on the tiles of the front porch. One of them dislodged as she jumped the board down the steps.

A loud chatter emerged from the thousands of grasshoppers that hid throughout the partially eaten lawn and manicured bushes. She heard them as though they spoke in English.

I know you’re mad at me, but was that really necessary? Lugal just fixed those. Are you angry with him as well? A couple of grasshoppers fluttered after her and hitched a bumpy ride on the strap of her pack before crawling up to her shoulder.

She rolled her eyes and did a rattling jump just for their benefit. “No, Dad. I’m not mad at him. And not everything I do is just to piss you off.” Her lips set in a grim line and she rode in silence.

The grasshoppers twittered and hung on as she took the curbs as hard as possible. Then to what do we owe your sunny mood?

She glowered. “I’m a freak. We are freaks.” She whirled her finger in a circle to include everyone around her in freak-dom.

You dyed your hair blue. That’s generally not what people do when they are trying to avoid attention, her dad gently reminded her.

“I’m laying my cards on the table. We have to replace the lawn and shrubs every couple days because you eat everything in the yard. And everyone thinks Lugal is your love slave. Our differences aren’t exactly ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ By the way, we got another fine from the stupid housing association. They’re threatening to send pest control.”

The grasshoppers chirped. I’ll deal with them. And I thought you liked Lugal.”

“I do like him. But you might want to let him know everyone thinks he’s your boyfriend, partner…whatever.” She flipped her board up and stormed into the school hall, late for class, as the grasshoppers flitted away.

Thousands of grasshoppers emerged from nooks and crannies throughout the denuded sod in front of 248 Rowan Street, Ken Caryl, Colorado. As they flooded into the hallway of the house from the moist April breeze outside, the swarm of glittering wings and golden-brown bodies condensed into the figure of a tall thin man with golden eyes, black hair and slightly canine features around the mouth. Pazuzu, Demon of the Air and the Southwest Wind, stalked into his suburban home to deal with the four-hundredth letter from his homeowner’s association and ruminate on how to handle an angsty teenage daughter.

2nd Excerpt:

Just after ten at night, Morpho ran into the house, her skateboard slung over her shoulder as JD’s Z-28 revved away. The ‘study session at the library,’ complete with a dime bag of weed twenty miles from the library, had obviously been less eventful than whatever storm had hit the house. She knew exactly what storm that was: her dad’s temper. As soon as she saw Lugal sweeping up glass, her breath caught in her throat. She began cycling through alibis in her head.

He didn’t even look up. “Your father is not here. He went away to calm down, so as not to attract attention.”

She swallowed hard. “Uh…”

Lugal looked up then, pinned her with eyes as black as the night sky, and smiled. “It had nothing to do with whatever you were not supposed to be doing tonight.”

She let out an audible sigh. “No attention, huh? That’ll work until daylight. Any idea when the Master of Subtlety will get back?” She picked her way to the empty cupboard and spied some debris on the floor. An empty peanut butter jar with the plastic half-eaten poked from underneath the door. She moaned, rescuing the jar, and dredged the last of the peanut butter from the bottom with her finger. “He couldn’t leave me the peanut butter? He doesn’t even like peanut butter! So what happened to piss him off this time? Oh, the HOA meeting?” She asked with her finger in her mouth.

Lugal shook his head. “No, though he was in a foul mood when he returned. It is complicated.” He continued cleaning up.

“‘Complicated’ meaning about my mother. Or about his psycho ex-wife. Grown-up stuff, god-stuff he’s all secret about.” She started sweeping up the glass, found a big chunk and picked it up. Lugal took it from her and put it in the plastic waste basket.

“Yes. Complicated.”

“He’s getting worse, isn’t he? This is the third time he’s lost his cool like this in two years. The last time, we had to move.”

Lugal didn’t say anything.

Pazuzu walked into the kitchen, his face tense but composed. Lugal nodded and continued sweeping.

“So did you hear from the harpy?” Morpho asked her father.

He glowered.

“You know I’m not a kid anymore. Why won’t you even talk about her? I can handle it,” Morpho said, hand on her hip.

“No. Go to bed. I will deal with this.” Pazuzu flicked his wrist and some of the debris in the room whumphed into flames. Morpho grabbed the extinguisher next to the stove and buried the beginning fires under powder. She turned to her father, waving at the smoking dust. “What the F! Lighting things on fire is not dealing with them.”

“I was disposing of some of the debris.”

“Don’t help.” She put the canister down, picked up a powder-covered, charred chair and sat down. “So if she’s psycho, why don’t you just get a restraining order? This girl Michelle at school, her dad got a restraining order against her last boyfriend. He kept showing up at their house, playing a ukulele outside her window and blasting the radio with their favorite song.”

Pazuzu covered his eyes with his fingers. “Don’t tell me things like that. And don’t sit down as if this is a discussion. You have school in the morning. Go to bed.” He pointed to her room.

“Do I still have a bed? Why do you get to throw temper tantrums but if I—” Her commentary withered when her father glared at her. She glanced nervously at Lugal.

He returned her gaze evenly, without a blink.

She swallowed. “I’m going.” She wandered past the message machine on her way to the stairs. If there had been a call from school, it had been taken and cleared.

Lugal nodded toward her room. “You have to tell her soon.”

“What can she do against a demoness? Knowing what stalks us will only terrify her.”

Lugal answered in a dry voice. “Have you ever known her to be terrified by anything? Not even by you.”

“But she can do nothing and she shouldn’t have to. I am her father. I protected the children of countless tribesmen for the price of a goat or oil or a prayer, and then I failed her mother. I already failed my son. I will protect my daughter!” The last statement was a growl that shook the remaining wood cabinetry.

His dark servant gave him a calculating look. “Master, the witch is much stronger now. You do not have…the hold over her you once did. Trying to even find her is like following smoke, gone when we look closely. The Tablet that used to bind her is missing and her power grows. She may even have the blessing of Enlil.”

Thunder built behind Pazuzu’s yellow eyes and then he slumped into a chair, surveying the half-demolished ground floor, his own altar to his weakened position on Earth.

End excerpts

I hope you enjoyed the excerpts. Pazuzu’s Girl will be released on February 10th from Journalstone Books. And I hope you have a sweet ice creamy and peanut buttery New Year. Though, I have to say that this topic is bad for my New years resolution, which was to lose 20 pounds. And ice cream, particularly with peanut butter in, is one of my favorite foods. A hot fudge brownie sundae is absolutely my Kryptonite.

Check out more delicious excerpts at our other carnies sites:

http://www.refractedlightreviews.com Danny Snell’s Refracted Light Reviews

http://pattilarsen.blogspot.com Patti Larsen, Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, the Hunted series, and the Hayle Coven novels.

http://courtneycolewrites.wordpress.com Courtney Cole, Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://wrenemerson.wordpress.com Wren Emerson, Author of I Wish and a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.

http://laurasmagicday.wordpress.com Laura Elliott, Author of Winnemucca.

http://nicoleawilliams.blogspot.com Nichole A. Williams, Author of Eternal Eden, and the upcoming Fallen Eden. She is also participating in the Glassheart Chronicles.
http://fisheramelie.com/blog/ Fisher Amelie, Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://amyjonesyaff.blogspot.com Amy Maurer Jones, Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles.
http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com T. R. Graves, Author of Warriors of the Cross.
http://ctefft.blogspot.com Cyndi Tefft, Author of Between
http://pjhoover.blogspot.com P.J. Hoover, Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis.
http://www.aliciamccalla.com Alicia McCalla, Author of the upcoming science-fiction novel Breaking Free.

http://heathercashman.com/better_off_read Heather Cashman, Author of Perception.

http://www.abbiglines.com Abbi Glines, Author of Breathe, and the upcoming Existence and Vincent Boys.

http://cidneyswanson.blogspot.com/ Cidney Swanson, Author of Rippler.

http://cherischmidt.blogspot.com, Cheri Schmidt, Author of Fateful, Fractured, and Fair Maiden, Fire Dancer

http://www.lexusluke.com/, Lexus Luke, Author of Manitou, The Sky People Saga, Fire Breather

http://www.suzyturner.com/, Suzy Turner, Author of December Moon and Raven, Dragonslayer

http://kasi-kcblake.blogspot.com/, K. C. Blake, Author of Vampire Rules, Elephant Trainer

http://hereventuality.blogspot.com/, Gwenn Wright, Author of Filter, Ring-Leader

http://kimberlykinrade.com/, Kimberly Kinrade, Author of Bits of You, Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind, Prestidigitator

http://jlbryanbooks.blogspot.com/, J.L. Bryan, Author of Paranormals series- Jenny Pox. Tommy Nightmare & Alexander Death

http://darbykarchut.com/ Darby Karchut, Author of Griffin Rising, and soon Griffin Fire

http://puttingpentopage.com/ Heather Self

http://brynabutler.wordpress.com/ Bryna Butler, author of the Midnight Guardian series

What’s new this week?

NEW RELEASES!

Question: When your mother is a powerful witch and your father is a soul-sucking vampire, what does that make you? Answer: Cursed. With all the beauty and charm of a Siren, but cursed as a blood-sucking succubus, Empusa longs for love and a normal life. Neither of these can ever be hers, because the only thing she brings to anyone she loves is death. Em lingers in the mortal world, hiding from her father and existing in a lonely life. Until she meets Brennan. With golden hair and a radiant smile, he captures her heart and awakens it from slumber. But Brennan is more than he seems. And in a relationship where life itself hangs in the balance, is love ever really enough?

Against all expectations, Samantha Ruiz has survived attacks by two of Helmann’s deadliest assassins. She’s alive, but she’s far from safe. Helmann is planning a second Holocaust and wants Sam to play a starring role. Will, meanwhile, separated from Sam by an ocean, seeks a way to prevent Helmann’s apocalypse. Along with Sir Walter and Mickie, Will plays a deadly game sneaking into Geneses’ facilities, discovering unsettling clues as to Helmann’s plans. The clock ticks down as Will and Sam discover just how much they must be willing to sacrifice to stop Helmann. UNFURL, the powerful conclusion to The Ripple Series, will leave fans breathless.

Gemma’s parents have put enough rules around her relationship with Harrison that she feels like she’s living on parole. But she wins one battle—a summer job working for Harrison’s step-father. It is the perfect chance to spend the steamy, hot Florida days with her boyfriend. It’s also a great distraction from the cellphone hiding in her underwear drawer—her only contact with Gabe, the mystery man who’s stalking her.When she confronts Gabe, he tells her that her parents are not who she thinks they are, and Harrison has the gall to believe him. Surrounded by conflict, Gemma doesn’t know what to believe, and it takes a trip back in time for her to glimpse the sickening truth.

Thanks to her parents, she returns to the present to find the love of her life no longer exists. His family line was broken and now, so is she.

This betrayal forces her to seek out Gabe. Setting aside her fear of the truth, she must trust this man and learn what he can teach her… otherwise, she’ll never get her boyfriend back.

Syd has what she’s always wanted. Thanks to her demon’s sacrifice, she is finally normal. Why then does she want her magic back so badly? It really sucks to find out Brad was only into her because of her power. And even Quaid is keeping his distance. Her loss couldn’t have come at a worse time. A storm is brewing, one that could devour the entire world. Syd refuses to accept she will never be a witch again, doing everything she can to track down the Chosen of the Light and rescue her demon. If only the ordinary life she’s been building didn’t interfere.

16 year old Karlie has had a pretty normal life… But when her Mom dies she is force to move over 1,000 miles away to live with her Dad. That’s when things start getting weird. She can’t explain the earthquakes that nobody else feels, or why she no longer sleeps. But most of all she doesn’t know why she trusts Shane so much, even though his Dad wants her dead. Suddenly, Karlie’s normal life is turned upside down and she enters a world she never dreamed could really exist.

BLOG TOURS!

FREEBIES!

Nothing says Happy New Year like Halloween! For the first 12 days of 2012, free chapters of 13 on Halloween’s AUDIOBOOK available! Click here to gather around a fire and hear how Roxie’s birthday wish comes true when she receives a birthday gift that’s literally out of this world! http://www.authorlaura.com/#!books

JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

Pazuzu’s Girl by Rachel Coles will be released February 10!