Look at the pretty Goldenfire!

December 4, 2015December 4, 2015Leave a comment

Yesterday was the official cover reveal for Goldenfire, the second book in A.F.E. Smith’s wonderful Darkhaven series. It will be released by Harper Voyager on January 14, 2016, but if you want to read it sooner, you can enter the giveaway below for your chance to win an advance ebook copy!

Goldenfire cover In Darkhaven, peace doesn’t last long.

Ayla Nightshade has ruled Darkhaven for three years. With the help of Tomas Caraway, her Captain of the Helm, she has overcome her father’s legacy to find new confidence in herself and her unusual shapeshifting abilities.

Yet three years ago, a discovery was made that could have profound consequences for the Nightshade line: a weapon exists that can harm even the powerful creatures they turn into. And now, that knowledge has fallen into the wrong hands.

An assassin is coming for Ayla, and will stop at nothing to see her dead.

Doesn’t that sound amazing? I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for January! 🙂

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The Seventh Question

November 30, 2015Leave a comment

Today was definitely a Monday. Luckily, the good outweighed the bad, and on balance, I’d have to say today was a good day, despite the rocky start this morning. I got to celebrate my niece’s birthday with pizza and brownies, and when I got home tonight, I found a package of pogs waiting for me in my mailbox, and I was featured on Simon Goodson’s blog! Pretty fantastico, don’t you think? 🙂

Simon has a new interview feature called The Seventh Question, and I’m thrilled to have been asked to take part. Head on over and check it out, and then catch up on the rest of the series to learn more about Mark R. Hunter and Joleene Naylor. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂

Secretary Daydreams

November 19, 2015November 20, 20154 Comments

Today’s challenge was to recreate a day – or, more challenging yet, an hour – in the life of, well, anyone, I suppose. I took the opportunity to write another short story. Below you’ll find an hour in the life of Abby Dunleavy, bored secretary. I hope it’s entertaining. 🙂

Skiing is great fun, if you know what you’re doing. I, of course, had no idea what I was doing, and was positive that the bunny hill I was careening wildly down was really a black diamond.

“Snowplow! Snowplow!” my best friend Janey yelled.

My head snapped left, then right, then dead ahead. “Where?!”

The bottom of the hill was rapidly approaching, as was the parking lot.

But the phone rang before I could crash into a parked car. I snatched the receiver out of the cradle before the first ring had finished and sighed. “Arnold Rowan and Scates, this is Abby. May I help you?”

I half listened as…

The Runaway Princess

November 18, 2015November 17, 2015Leave a comment

Adrina begged every deity she could think of to keep her safe as the storm raged outside. She prayed that the waves would not find her, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. The gods stood watch as the waves crashed against her door, one after another, seeking her in every nook and cranny till they found her at last. When she could fight them no longer, the waves dragged her away, sobbing, and back to the sea she went, back to her father the king, back to her home and the punishment she knew awaited.

Bound by Prophecy now available!

November 12, 2015November 12, 20151 Comment

Today I’m excited to share the book release of a fellow Iowan! Read on to get the scoop on Bound by Prophecy, available now on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and Goodreads!

About Bound by Prophecy

Amelia Bradbury is finally free from Queen Julia and Cresthaven, but she isn’t safe yet. The Keeper power runs rampant inside her and it will take an ultimate act of selflessness to contain the darkness that threatens Amelia’s sanity and the future of the Immortal race.

Aidan Montgomery refuses to give up on Amelia. Once she’s rescued from the Keeper’s hold, he intends to prove his love is more than a side effect of the prophecy, even if doing so leads him away from his pack and on a journey that will irrevocably change them both.

When the past and the present collide…

Writing is hard, yo

November 10, 2015November 9, 201510 Comments

So I saw this on Twitter, thanks to today’s Writing 101 assignment post:

“Why is writing so much harder for me than it is for everybody else?” — every novelist ever, secretly to themselves, all the time

— Lev Grossman (@leverus) April 28, 2015

And I have to say that it’s like Mr. Grossman was reading my mind when he wrote it. Sometimes it’s really nice to know that you’re not as alone as you feel, especially when your favorite pastime is a solitary one. I’m terrible about comparing myself to other writers – for the most part, I come away from books feeling that other authors are much better/faster/more talented than I am and that I’ll never reach the heights I aspire to.

Then I read something like this, or I listen to songs like “Keep On Movin’,” and I feel a little bit better. I just hope the feeling will fade as time goes by (and hopefully, as contracts come my way).

What about you – do you have a passion that this tweet could describe? Tell me what you’re passionate about in the comments!

Into the woods

November 5, 20158 Comments

For today’s Writing 101 challenge, we were asked to write something based on one of four images. This is the one that spoke to me:

womaninwoods

What follows is a sneak peek at…

Time to write like there’s no tomorrow!

November 1, 20152 Comments

Happy November!

Yes, it’s November, otherwise known as Time-To-Write-Like-There’s-No-Tomorrow-Month! And that’s exactly what I’ll be doing, too. I may not be participating in NaNoWriMo this year (though I thought about doing my own unofficial version), but I did sign up for NanoPoblano and a couple of Blogging U. courses, plus I’m revising a short story and rewriting the last little bit of The Lokana Chronicles.

TPMTLC According to Facebook, I’ve been working on The Lokana Chronicles for a decade now. That’s simultaneously scary, impressive, and depressing. When I started writing it, I had a different husband, a different name, and three less kids. So much about my life has changed since I started writing this book, including the book itself. What started off as one book has now become two books, and what started life as a sequel has now become the third book in a trilogy. I never dreamed that, after ten years of work, I’d still be polishing the first book (hence the depressing aspect), but I’m not giving up. I’m gonna finish this book and then the next and then the next, and then when I’m done, I’m gonna move on to something new (that will hopefully take a lot less time to finish).

In the meantime, I’ve been exiled to deep space. I’m hoping to survive any alien encounters and have some time to write, and if you’d like to read more about my deep space adventures, then head on over to my friend Sophie’s blog and check it out. She’s launched quite a few people into deep space over the last several months, and everyone’s had a pretty fantastic time drifting through the final frontier.

And now I think I’ll scamper off to bed. I really enjoyed that extra hour of sleep I got last night, but boy am I ever tired now!

Trees? Yes, trees!

October 28, 2015October 27, 2015Leave a comment

With me today is another new author, Sam Smith. His debut novel, Trees, releases on October 31 from Safkhet Publishing. Take it away, Sam!

My thanks to Kay Kauffman for asking me to guest on her blog.

Although I’ve done many things sub-literary in my writing life – organised poetry festivals and book fairs, run a small press, Original Plus, and for nearly 20 years now the poetry magazine The Journal (once ‘of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry’); and although I’ve had many publishers of my work, 2 of which went disastrously bust while I was working as editor for them, Safkhet Publishing is the first that has suggested that I be a guest blogger.

trees The novel by the way is Trees and Safkhet are based in Germany.

I’m based in the UK on the Cumbrian coast. Maryport describes itself as ‘By the sea near the Lakes.’ Not wholly sure
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Interview time!

October 27, 2015June 5, 20176 Comments

Today I have with me Robert Eggleton, author of Rarity from the Hollow, here to tell us about himself and his work.

KK: So, Robert, tell us about yourself.

roberteggleton RE: I would love to tell your readers rags to riches story, Kay, but the best I can do is a rags to almost middle income story. In 1951, I was born into an impoverished family in West Virginia. I started paying into the U. S. Social Security fund at age twelve and dreamed of a brighter future for my family.

In the 8th grade, I won the school’s short story contest. “God Sent” was about a semi truck driver so consumed with theological debate that he caused a terrible accident. As it often does, life got in the way of my dream of becoming a writer. Except for a poem published in the state’s student anthology and another poem published in a local alternative newspaper, my creative juices were spent writing handouts for civil rights and anti-war activities.

After earning an MSW in 1977, children’s rights and protection became my cause. I focused on children’s advocacy for the next forty years. In 2002, I started a job as a psychotherapist at the local mental health center, and five months ago, I retired from my job so that I could write and promote fiction. It wasn’t a clean escape though. I had to make a deal with my conscience. Author proceeds have been donated to a child abuse prevention program.

KK: And Rarity from the Hollow? What’s it all about?