Paparazzi my book! + Tangled Threads - Jennifer Estep (giveaway)

So this week's giveaway post is going to be a shortie! I'm off to Eastercon (scroll down for my schedule) and have a ton of things to do, not least of which is the dreaded ironing, and getting my fringe(aka bangs in the US) trimmed*, since it seems to have grown an inch overnight!


I've heard that The Cold Kiss of Death (out April 26 US - only 4 days to go!!! Yay!!) might actually be out in some book stores now! Now there's nothing like seeing a book you've written in an actual book store! Much Happy Dancing and book rearranging ensues (and then the store assistants start to look askance, and ultimately ask you to leave - not that it's ever happened to me *looks innocent*). But as I live in the UK I can't check out any US stores :-(

So here's a bonus giveaway for peeps in the US. I'll send Spellcrackers Bling Pencils (one of each colour available - 6 - click to embiggen - and yes they are sparkly Swarovski Crystals on the ends!) to the first six folk to send me pictures of The Cold Kiss of Death on an actual shelf, in an actual book store in the US. Email your pics to contest at spellcrackers dot com (remembering to replace 'at' and 'dot' with @ and . :-)), with Spellcrackers Pencil Contest in the subject line. And don't forget to tell me which city the store is in, please. *curious*

So, onto this week's celebratory giveaway which is for Tangled Threads (Elemental Assassin, Book 4) by Jennifer Estep which releases April 26 in the US and the UK.

Here's the blurb from Amazon:

I’d rather face a dozen lethal assassins any night than deal with something as tricky, convoluted, and fragile as my feelings.

But here I am. Gin Blanco, the semi-retired assassin known as the Spider. Hovering outside sexy businessman Owen Grayson’s front door like a nervous teenage girl. One thing I like about Owen: he doesn’t shy away from my past—or my present. And right now I have a bull’s-eye on my forehead. Cold-blooded Fire elemental Mab Monroe has hired one of the smartest assassins in the business to trap me. Elektra LaFleur is skilled and efficient, with deadly electrical elemental magic as potent as my own Ice and Stone powers. Which means there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of us won’t survive this battle. I intend to kill LaFleur—or die trying—because Mab wants the assassin to take out my baby sister, Detective Bria Coolidge, too. The only problem is, Bria has no idea I’m her long-lost sibling . . . or that I’m the murderer she’s been chasing through Ashland for weeks. And what Bria doesn’t know just might get us both dead. . . .

Ooh! Sounds exciting! Can't wait to read it, though I do have a bit of a EEK! Oh noes! reaction when it comes to the Gin books . . . Yep, as a life-long sufferer of arachnophobia, that whole spider thing gets to me. Just the mention of the word makes my pulse splutter and shudders run down my spine. *takes a moment to calm herself* And as I can't force myself to have a pic of ELF (eight-legged freak) on the blog, here's one of the Escaped Easter Bunny from the London Experience (one of the places in The Cold Kiss of Death  - see this blog post for dets) who is terrorising London this Easter Weekend!

So what do you have to do to be in with a chance of winning Tangled Threads (or your choice of an earlier book in the series)? Just leave me a comment telling me if you have a phobia (and what it is), or not! Simple, heh!


How to enter:

Leave a comment saying if you have a phobia (and what it is), or not.


Please leave a way to contact you (email in comment: Please remember to replace @ with [at] to forestall spam - or your twitter name - no way to contact you - no entry).

Giveaway is international and closes end of day (GMT time) 28th April 2011.

Full General Terms and Rules at the bottom of this post here.

You can get an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway. Leave the link to the tweet as an extra comment.

And don't forget to check out the Giveaway Schedule here. And so you don't miss out on a chance of winning any of the wonderful books in the coming weeks, why not follow me? (following is not a condition of entry).

Please note: My usual blog policy is that I try to reply to all comments on the blog, but for ease of admin I won't be replying to any comments made on any of the giveaway posts during the 16 weeks. Sorry, but it makes it much harder to sort out the winner. However I do read and enjoy all the comments, and will, of course, continue to reply to comments on any other post, so if you have a question for me, leave it on one of those, thank you :-)

All book links lead to Amazon (UK/US) or the Book Depository, and contain affiliate links. I've decided to go affiliate as I love giving books away (and not just as a way of shameless self-promo), but boy, does it get expensive.

Eastercon Schedule

I'll be there from lunchtime Saturday until mid-morning Sunday. I'm doing a reading* with Dan Abnett at 15.00 on Saturday. I'm not sure who's going first, but I'll be in the room from 15.00. At other times I'll be in the Dealers' room at the Gollancz table, in the bar, or wondering. Please do say hello and chat, and please forgive me if I don't immediately match you in RL with your online persona, if I know you. I'm not very good at that sort of thing. But feel free to give me clues, and add to my embarrassment as I try and guess who you are :-D

I was all on my lonesome at my first, and until now, only reading (Fantasycon 2008), so please come and see me. I'll be bringing Cadbury's mini eggs, liquorice torpedoes, and Spellcrackers Bling pencils. *offers bribes and looks hopeful*


*I'm lucky, my SiL is a hairdresser, and is wonderful for these sorts of panicked emergencies :-)

Okay so the post isn't that short - what can I say, I'm a writer *g*