Gearing up for a great week!

June 21, 2015June 21, 20153 Comments

So, how am I celebrating my return from the land of the pine forests? By gearing up for a week full of fantastic fun with my friend A.F.E. Smith! Her debut novel, Darkhaven, hits virtual bookshelves on July 2 (the paperback is due out January 14, 2016) and I’m ecstatic to be taking part in her blog tour to celebrate the event.

80115-afe_smith_author_photo A.F.E. Smith is an editor of academic texts by day and a fantasy writer by night. So far, she hasn’t mixed up the two. She lives with her husband and their two young children in a house that someone built to be as creaky as possible – getting to bed without waking the baby is like crossing a nightingale floor. Though she doesn’t have much spare time, she makes space for reading, mainly by not getting enough sleep (she’s powered by chocolate). Her physical bookshelves were stacked two deep long ago, so now she’s busy filling up her e-reader.

What A.F.E. stands for is a closely guarded secret, but you might get it out of her if you…

Authors and Bloggers Against Piracy Tour, day five!

May 28, 2015May 22, 20153 Comments

Wow. That’s a lot of money. But it’s not just publishers who are hurt by piracy, it’s authors. When a book is pirated, authors don’t see any royalties from it. The big names we all know, the J.K. Rowlings and the Stephen Kings and the Tom Clancys (or their estates, in Tom Clancy‘s case), are few and far between in reality. Many authors struggle to pay the bills with their writing, and most of us have day jobs we’d love to ditch but can’t afford to. For us, piracy can be devastating.

To learn more about ebook piracy, check out our website. And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card!

And when you’re done, check out today’s free book…

Authors and Bloggers Against Piracy Tour, day four!

May 27, 2015May 22, 2015Leave a comment

I’d believe it. At the rate I sell books, I’ll be lucky to see $1,000.00 in my lifetime, never mind a year. Everyone wants something for nothing, but it takes a lot of time and money to put together a good-quality book.

Like O.J. always told us (my high school econ teacher, not the disgraced former football player), there’s no such thing as a free lunch – someone always pays.

Except for you today. Today’s free book is…

Photo 365 #279

May 13, 201516 Comments

I do so love to spend my lunch breaks this way:

2015-05-13 11.41.03

How do you spend yours?

Convulsion

May 12, 2015May 12, 20157 Comments

Loaded leaden clouds stack the sky, watching gloomily as the western wind whips waves of grass into a silky frenzy in the moments before the deluge, before the land and sea and sky open up in a soul-rending cry as the world quakes and convulses, heaves and buckles, trembles and dies.

Long sentence, short story

May 7, 20152 Comments

For today’s story, I was inspired by one of my many (incomplete) trunk novels. Someday I want to go back to it and not only finish it, but polish the crap out of it, because it’s a story I love.

He laughs in her memory, the sound warm as fire and sweet as honey; for one brief, shining moment, she remembers what it was to be young and in love, a feeling she hasn’t known since the day he left her, cold and alone, with only a note to soothe her broken heart, and she longs to have his arms wrapped around her one last time to keep the cold and loneliness at bay forever.

I’m a guest!

May 5, 2015Leave a comment

Today I’m being interviewed by the wonderful Susan Finlay. We talk all things writing, so if you’d like to find out more about my books and some of the other kinds of writing I’ve done, be sure to check it out!

And don’t forget to check out Susan’s books. She’s got three mystery series going, one of which involves time travel, and I can’t wait to check it out. 🙂

A single sentence

May 4, 20154 Comments

The scales of those who came before litter the ground beneath the trees, decaying into dust, the last lonely reminders of the way things were before and the way they could be again.

A story in a sentence

May 3, 2015May 4, 20154 Comments

A voice echoes in the distance, a song upon the wind, calling her back to her own time, her own place, and though she desires to heed its call, she finds her feet unable to turn back the way they came, the road to the land of Maybe forever barred.

Review time!

May 2, 2015May 1, 20151 Comment

atr Today I’m reviewing After the Ruin by Harriet Goodchild. If you missed the interview she was kind enough to submit to back in March, you can check it out here. If you haven’t heard of After the Ruin before now, here’s the blurb:

What is the price of a man’s life? An apple? A sword? A kingdom? There are many ways to leave a life in ruins. But ruined lives go on, and so, after the ruin, there is love, sweet as roses on a summer’s evening. But love is such a little thing, no stronger than a candleflame at noontime. For, after the ruin, Averla, fire made flesh, is hiding in the light. She will use lover against lover, sister against brother, father against son, to build again her kingdom of everlasting fire. Love is not enough to set against her fierce desire. As well seek to turn back the tide with a wall of sand.

This book…This book! I’m still thinking about it. It’s a dense read, but a fantastic one, and I couldn’t get enough of it. The writing reminded me of some of the classics that I’ve loved; no one specific novel, just classic works in general. It has a timeless feel to it, and the prose is like reading music. It was poetry, plain and simple and magical. The worldbuilding was rock solid and the character development was amazing.

And the end…I still can’t believe the end.

This is a book you definitely don’t want to miss, and one I highly recommend. You can pick up your copy at Amazon, Amazon UK, or Barnes & Noble. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!