Be a Vampire in my Latest Novel

Winner to be announced Saturday December 3rd!

Only One Week Left To Be My Vampire

Last month I asked if anyone would like to be a character in Thicker than Blood my upcoming sequel to Hidden. So far, nearly 70 of you have entered. I've no idea how I'm going to choose, but I'd better get thinking because there's only one week left until I have to make the decision.

Part of the novel will be set in 6th century Byzantium and here's a taster of where my lucky vampire might live - Cappadocia in winter...

Of course, as a vampire you'll never get to experience it in daylight. Your view will be something like this...

So if you haven't entered yet, click here to see what it's all about.

OUT NOW! Fairy Thief by Johanna Frappier

So, you all probably know that Fairy Circle is one of my favourite books and so I'm thrilled and delighted that author friend, Johanna Frappier, has agreed to tell us a little about the recently released sequel, Fairy Thief.

Hi Shalini! Thank you so much for letting me stop by. I wanted everyone to know that the next installment in The Fairy Circle Series, FAIRY THIEF, is now available as an eBook on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and all the other lovely E retailers. The paperback is available on Amazon.

Here's what FAIRY THIEF is about:

It has been a year since Saffron Keller traveled to the Fairyrealm. She had no intention of ever mixing with fairy-kind again. When the fairy, Ny, steals the soul of her human love, Markis, she finds herself entangled once more in all that is beautiful and magical and torturous. To find Markis, she must travel through different realms - alternate planes of existence and spaces of time – all before her life in the Earthrealm passes too far into the future.

Not wanting the help of the possessive fairy, Li, whom Saffron has shared turbulent past lives with – she is instead paired up with two immature boy fairies, Tai and Wo, who try her patience to the very limits of tolerance. As the three pass through realms they meet others who hinder and help them on their way: Orji - the handsome man with the bad bed-side manner, Deva - the cow who has the twins besotted, a monster of a prince, and the most vile dragon lady in one hundred realms.


Woohoo! Now I'm so excited to read it! Sounds like it's going to be another great story with an exotic cast of weird and wonderful characters. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I know that vile dragon lady personally. Thanks so much for stopping by, Johanna, and good luck with Fairy Thief!

Spooky Reads for Halloween

I'm not on about gore-fests or full-on horror - no. I'm talking proper old-fashioned, spooky stories with haunted houses, ghoulish ghosts and other things to make you shiver...

The Winter Ghosts

Devastated by the death of his older brother during WW1, Freddie Watson goes abroad in search of solace. Driving through the foothills of the Pyrenees, his car spins off the road in a snowstorm. Freddie takes refuge in an isolated village and there meets a captivating woman. But by daybreak, Fabrissa has disappeared and Freddie realises he holds the key to an ancient mystery that has been concealed for 700 years...

The Beaumont Bequest   When Patrick Peto destroys the last will and testament of his uncle Rex Beaumont, he has no qualms about ignoring his request to leave "all my books to Barbara". But when he illegally obtains possession of the Heartsease estate and consigns the author's stories to the flames, he awakens vengeful forces that are determined to set matters right and make sure that Barbara Dane receives what is rightfully hers.

As Patrick imposes his own vision on Rex’s old house, the author's imaginary worlds invade Patrick's reality until he can no longer distinguish fact from fiction. He becomes a prisoner at Heartsease where Rex's fictional creations put him on trial for murder. He is sentenced to death, but after a plea for mercy from one of the characters, his sentence is reduced to 90 days and 90 nights, during which time he must recreate every story he has destroyed.

The Little Stranger     One post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive, is now in decline. Its owners - mother, son, and daughter - are struggling to keep pace with a changing society, as well as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately entwined with his. 

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The Woman In White  "There in the middle of the broad, bright high-road-there, as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven-stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments."

And this is how young Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white. Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has continued to enthrall readers ever since.

So those are my spooky picks for Halloween.

If you have any of your own you'd like to share, feel free

to leave a comment below!

And the Winner is...

Sam Bella! 

Congratulations, Sam. You've won an ebook copy of 

STOLEN by Catherine Stovall.

 

Sam, Catherine's publisher, Untreed Reads, will be contacting you shortly.

Thanks to all those who entered. Do keep checking back

 as I plan to host more giveaways in the future xx

Requiem of Humanity Tour Stop & Giveaway

Today, as the leaves fall from the trees and the cold autumn rain makes me shiver, all I want to do is curl up with a cup of tea and a great vamp novel. If this sounds like your idea of heaven, you could be in luck, because today Catherine Stovall has offered to give away an ebook copy of her debut novel, Stolen (Requiem of Humanity). To be in with a chance to win, all you need to do is leave a comment below.

~Jenda and Soborgne are best friends and everything they do, they do together. Unfortunately, this time the girls may die together. The girls are kidnapped and held captive by Belle and Matteo, two vampires with a plan. Belle, a sociopath in life and death, is searching for an heir to her reign as the only vampire to hold the secret to surviving the sun. Matteo is a lost soul who would give anything to be loved and to see the light of day.

~As the four characters’ worlds collide, blood is spilled, lives are lost, and rules are broken. Disappointment in love and life bring out the worst in humans but with vampires, it leads to a chilling tale that will make you look under your bed before you close your eyes and then dream of falling in love with a medieval fiend.

Catherine's also been kind enough to share some of her experiences on getting published. Here's her guest post on what it means to her to be an indie author:

Stuck in the Middle with Me by Catherine Stovall

I am not one of those authors who have been writing novels for the past ten or twenty years. Stolen is the first novel I have ever written. One day, I decided to write a book and six months later Stolen was born. There I was with my completed manuscript staring back at me and a question in the space between me and it. Stolen was completed, proof read, and edited, now what?

The next logical step was to publish my brain child. This fragile and newborn thing must be sent out to the wolves on its own with just my hopes to carry it. Who would I choose to judge my heart and soul? There were only really three options. I could publish Stolen myself, I could send it off to the big print publishers and agents, or I could send it to the eBook Publishers.

I knew right away that the self-publishing industry just wasn’t for me. I admire those brave souls who put on their entrepreneur hats and storm into the world of publishing. These miraculous authors take on all the challenges and hard work of seeing their novels through the fog and into the eyes of the reader. I needed more guidance, more direction, and the help of someone who positively knew how to do what I didn’t.

Checking the submission guidelines for many of the well-known print publishers I learned quickly that this would be a daunting task. Most print publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts from writers, only those with agents. Agents do not generally accept authors who have not previously been professionally published. I found myself in a conundrum.

I began looking into ePublishing. Though someday I want to see Stolen in print, the more I learned about eBooks, I knew this was the path for me as a new author. ePublishers offered me everything I was looking for. Here were companies who welcomed unsolicited manuscripts without an agent, provided professional editing, and offered very competitive royalty rates. I loved the idea of being able to tell my future grandchildren that I was a part of the eBook revolution. When I learned that I could have a bigger say in the entire process with the ePublishers than with print publishers, I started cheerfully preparing the perfect query letter.

Sixteen letters went out. In a matter of weeks, I received several polite no thank you letters, one letter that not so politely told me not to give up my day job, and two letters saying yes. Now, from what I have heard, this is rare if not a miracle. I consider myself blessed to now be a part of the Untreed Reads team.

 

I have many of the same privileges, as a self-published author. In addition to these privileges, I have an extra helping hand from the publisher. Still, having Stolen published in eBook only by a small publisher is tough. Sometimes I feel I am stuck in the middle. Not being independent enough to be Indie and not big enough to be something else, I find myself in a hard place as an emerging author. It is a struggle to find outlets to promote and then I do most of than promotion myself. Yet, I am very happy where I am right now with my writing career.

As far the question of rather or not I am an Indie author goes, I really don’t know. It depends on the person’s point of view. To some, the term Indy means an author who has no affiliation with any company. To these people I am not an Indie writer. To others, Indy means an author who is Independent in their thinking. One who Never gives up. One who Drives forward and continues to learn as they grow as author and person. One who is Inventive in the way they promote their work and in their publishing endeavors. Most of all, an Indie author is a person who Experiences the process of writing, editing, and publishing with their heart, minds, and soul. I can only hope that these people define me as Indie, it would be my honor. 

You can discover more about Catherine on her website and on Facebook. Don't forget to leave a comment below if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Stolen.