Inquisitor is out!

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That’s right, today is release day for Inquisitor, the latest offering from RJ Blain.  Read on to find out more about this exciting new fantasy novel!

About Inquisitor:

Inquisitor - RJ BlainWhen Allison is asked to play Cinderella-turned-Fiancee at a Halloween ball, the last thing she expected was to be accused of murder on the same night. She has to find the killer and quick, or she’ll be put to death for the crimes she didn’t commit. To make matters worse, the victims are all werewolves.

On the short list of potential victims, Allison has to act fast, or the killer will have one more body to add to his little black book of corpses.

There’s only one problem: One of the deaths has struck too close to home, and Allison’s desire for self-preservation may very well transform into a quest for vengeance…

Urban fantasy v. epic fantasy

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Today I’m happy to have fantasy author RJ Blain here with a guest post on why she strayed from epic fantasy into the realm of urban fantasy for her newest novel, Inquisitor, and the differences between the two genres.  Inquisitor goes on sale Friday – be sure to stop back for an excerpt from the book, details about the author, and more.

Urban Fantasy vs Epic Fantasy

Profile Sketch - RJ BlainMy first two novels, Storm Without End and The Eye of God, fall under epic and traditional subgenres of fantasy, making them rather different than Inquisitor, my debut urban fantasy. This is something I get comments about fairly frequently, because most fantasy writers pick one or the other, rather than both.

I’ve even had people suggest the only reason I wrote urban fantasy was because it’s a popular genre. Sure, it’s popular—but so is Game of Thrones. That’s epic fantasy, with boobs and blood, but definitely epic fantasy.

For the record, I’m not much of a fan of Game of Thrones. So yes, I am an oddity.

So why write both? The answer is pretty simple: I like both. It’s natural for me to pursue my interests. That’s why I write; I find it engaging, interesting, fun—and best of all, other people seem to like my books.

I write epic fantasy because I have a story to tell. I write traditional fantasy because I have a story to tell. I write urban fantasy because I have a story to tell.

While my reason for writing these three subgenres is the same, how I write them is totally different.

Photo Friday returns!

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Today, I am exhausted.  With a capital E.  We’ve finished moving and have begun the Great Unpacking, and I’m not sure which I like less.  So while we find our belongings (and maybe even our minds), here are some pictures of what the last couple of weeks have been like.  Moving with family is always interesting, and probably a lot less stressful than moving with strangers because you can be yourself, whether it’s good, bad, or ugly.

If you can’t be yourself around family, who can you be yourself around?

So: Family.  Moving.  Pictures.

Home is where your story begins.
Our game room looks so lonely…
And I wish I could bring our pantry door – designed by Seymour! – with us.
Oh, Bubbles. 🙂
Thumper wants to pet the kitty, too!
Moving is hard work.

Did I mention that I have a partner for my Photo Friday posts?  Because I seem to remember mentioning something about it. 🙂  Anyway, thanks to the Blogging 201 course I took last month, I met the lovely Charnele Henry and we decided to collaborate on Photo Fridays.  We chose the theme of family, which fit in nicely with my move.  You can find her post here, and be sure to check out some of her other posts, too!  There’s a lot to see.

Happy Friday, everybody, and if you’re traveling for Mother’s Day this weekend, safe journey!  I’ll see you all back here on Monday. 🙂

(c) 2014.  All rights reserved.

No campfire? The horror!

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mark-in-gear-editedToday, I’m happy to have Mark R. Hunter here to talk a little about his newest book, The No-Campfire Girls.  A fellow member of the Ink Slingers League, he’s a pretty funny guy with a pretty insightful take on that most dreaded of questions posed to writers: “Where do you get your inspiration?”

 Take it away, Mark!

Sometimes I’ll finish a manuscript, look back over the story, and think: “Where the heck did this come from?”

On the other hand, sometimes it’s pretty clear where I got my story idea.

Storm Chaser? “Hey, I think I’ll write a story about a storm chaser.” Of course, after the initial idea things went wildly out of control, starting with the fact that my storm chaser became, technically, a disaster photographer. But Disaster Photographer didn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Coming Attractions? My unpublished novel about effort to save a drive-in movie theater was birthed while I was sitting in a drive-in movie theater. Usually in those places it’s not birth that’s going on, but conception.

Okay, maybe I do know where most of my ideas come from. The newest book, The No-Campfire Girls, can be traced easily to its source, which was an attempt by the Girl Scouts to shut down my wife’s beloved childhood camp.

I don’t use the word beloved lightly.

And she’s not the only one: A grass roots campaign sprung up, probably from the roots, of people across the area who wanted to save their camp. My wife and I came back from a visit determined to find a way to help them.

The problem:

And in the end…

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Okay, so this isn’t really the end.  How could it be?  I’ve only just begun, after all. 🙂

But, this is the end of the posts for a while.  We’re starting the hard-core moving tomorrow, we’ll be at it all weekend, and I don’t see any computer time in the schedule anywhere till Monday.  And I’ll probably be around rather less than I have been lately because the only internet service available where we’re moving is either through our satellite company (prohibitively expensive) or through our cell phone provider (also prohibitively expensive, but somewhat cheaper).

So in the meantime, I’ll be cutting back to posting three times a week.  The internet thing is supposed to change come fall, and I hope everything will go according to plan.  I want to revive my Photo Friday feature, and I’m going to have some help this time around, so be sure to stop back next week and check it out.  And I’ve been sharing some fun stuff over on Facebook this week, so there’s that.  But in the meantime, here’s a pretty picture of the view from my new office:

Have a great weekend, everybody!  See you all back here on Monday! 🙂

(c) 2014.  All rights reserved.

Blogging U. rocks my face off

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Over the last twelve days, I’ve been participating in WordPress’s Blogging 201 course (no, I did not grab the badge – I don’t know why).  It’s been an absolute blast, and it’s also what prompted the recent design changes you may (or, if you’re like me and real observant, you may not) have noticed.  Today is Day Twelve, and today’s assignment is to create a poll or survey to gather more in-depth feedback about what readers like and dislike about my blog.

I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a poll recently, anyway, so the timing of this seems like a great big hint to go ahead and do it.   If you’re a regular reader here…

A wobbly review

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I’m a bit late with this review.  But, you see, I was waiting for my kids to finish reading the book so they could help with my review, and they’re slow.  Or busy.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell at our house, as 90% of the time, we’re all running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

Meanwhile, I read this in three days.

According to the author’s website, Snort and Wobbles started as a joke.  I remember fondly its debut on authonomy and am quite pleased to see it finally in print.  But what’s it about?  Here, take a peek at the blurb:

Dragons are not real.  Everyone tells you that.  So what do you do when you are eight years old and meet a dragon living at the bottom of your garden?  You have the adventure of your life!

When Wobbles and her family move into their new home…

Children of Shadows

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blog tour banner

Today I’m proud to host my friend and fellow author, Joleene Naylor, as she tours the blogosphere promoting her latest Amaranthine novel, Children of Shadows.  She was kind enough to tell me why she writes about vampires, and some of the challenges she faces in doing so.  And stay tuned afterward – there’s a giveaway going on with some pretty awesome prizes.

Holy crap – I didn’t realize I just copied her words almost exactly till I glanced down just now. *sigh*  Oh, well – to the guest post! 🙂

joleene naylorHello! My name is Joleene Naylor, and I’m the author of the Amaranthine vampire series. I’d like thank Kay for hosting me today as I tour the blogosphere promoting my latest release, Children of Shadows.

A question most people ask me is why I write vampires. The truth is, it’s not the only thing I like to write. I’d actually like to do a fantasy series one day. But, right now I don’t have anything interesting to say in that genre. I don’t see any wrongs that need righted, or gaps that need filled, like I did with vampires.

When I started the Amaranthine series in 2005…

Remains

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All that survives after our death are publications and people.

So look carefully after the words you write, the thoughts and publications you create, and how you love others.  For these are the only things that will remain.  -Susan Niebur

I was reading WordPress’s Blogging Through Breast Cancer post Wednesday morning and remembered Susan Niebur’s blog, Toddler Planet, which I always enjoyed reading.  She passed away from metastatic breast cancer in 2012, but her blog lives on.  Since it’s chock full of resources, I shared the link in the comments section of the WP round-up post.

The day before, my ex-husband became a father for the fourth time.  He and his wife welcomed another son to their family, but while she recovered from an emergency cesarean, he headed to a children’s hospital an hour and a half away to be with their son.  A crushed umbilical cord led to his arrival three weeks early and a host of problems.

These two things might, at first glance, seem unconnected, and maybe they are, but…

Thoughts for the day

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No, it's not blood. Someone had fun with the ketchup while Mommy's back was turned.

No, it’s not blood. Someone had fun with the ketchup while Mommy’s back was turned.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, mostly in a research vein as opposed to reading for fun (although I do enjoy my research).  Here are a few things I stumbled across today that really spoke to me:

Real, life-long security comes not from the barrel of a gun or from being able to spy on your fellow citizens like a Stasi informant; it comes with less harsh extremes of wealth and poverty and increased access to health care and education.  -David Byrne

Take a bunch of wolverines. Throw them into a roaring F5 tornado. That’s a toddler. It’ll tear through your home, shrieking and whirling about, scooping things up and depositing them elsewhere. It’ll lose things. It’ll destroy other things. It’ll change direction in the hair’s breadth of a moment — “I’m doing this no now I’m doing this other thing wait what’s that over there.”  -Chuck Wendig

Then last year, after my illness, turning 40 and most recently the death of a good friend, I realised that life is just too damn short NOT to be doing what I love. The planets kind of aligned, one of those epiphany moments.  -Sophie Tallis (emphasis mine)

All three articles are worth checking out in full (I truly related to Chuck Wendig’s post – I have two toddlers of my own, after all, and have felt the pain of a Duplo block embedded in my foot that he so hilariously references).  Happy Tuesday, y’all!

(c) 2014.  All rights reserved.