Loooooooooooook

what came today!!! ZOMG! So excited*!!!!!

My little story is in an anthology with my writerly hero, the awesome Charlaine Harris, and her wonderful Sookie Stackhouse*!! *Does the Snoopy Happy Dance*
Why does she do this to me every time?

Oh, well, might as well ignore her . . . maybe she'll leave me in peace then

Three pics? C'mon, this is really too much for one Hound to deal with. Where's my biscuit?

Click to embiggen and read the start!! :-D Yay! I do so hope everyone enjoys my first Spellcrackers' story! I had lots of fun with it, and I loved this tale of Genny's where we get to see her before the events in The Sweet Scent of Blood, along with a certain kelpie *g*

And I can tell you every story in this book is FAB-U-LOUS! So many great ones, and my little tale is keeping them company! Wow! Just Wow! *faints*

Out August 2 - available from all good book stores brick & mortar or online
Amazon US
Amazon UK

*Please forgive my use of a whole month's worth of exclamation marks!!!!!  #justsoexcitedunliketheHound! *g*
*I know it's not new news, but Woot!!! *Strokes Author Copy* Huge thanks to Charlaine and Toni for including me!

Winners: Dirty Kiss and Quarter Square

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaways, and so sorry I didn't announce the random winner of Dirty Kiss last week, my bad :-( But here they are now!!

Yay! Congratulations to them both!!




The winner of David Bridger's Quarter Square is kara-karina
 
Who said:

My obstacles? Procrastination. If I really don't like something and I know I need to do it, I will leave it until the very last moment. If people are nice to me I can't say no, even if I know they are using me. It's bad but I feel so embarassed refusing to help...
Thank you both for this giveaway, and I hope we all will overcome our obstacles.




And the winner of Dirty Kiss by Rhys Ford is Marie

Who said:

Congratulations on the book birthday!

I thought this sounded like an great book when first hearing about it, but after reading the author's thoughts about it, I suspect it to be awesome! :-)Thanks for the giveaway!

Congratulations to both of you and I hope you enjoy the books! Emails will be sent to you both shortly!

Thanks to every one who entered!  And if you missed Rhys' post on Ripples in Life and David's on Obstacles, they're well worth reading, so why not check them out?

Location: The Writing Cave - typing furiously . . .

Guardians of Paradise - Jaine Fenn - Happy Book B'day!

Fab SF author and lovely friend, Jaine Fenn's

Guardians of Paradise

is released in paperback today! Yay!

To celebrate she has a giveaway of a signed copy on her blog! (Int. Ends July 19). Go check it out and enter for a chance to win this brilliant book! Go on, you know you want to! *g*

Blurb from Amazon UK
Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he's discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They've already killed his sister, so he's not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe's hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead - and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets - where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that's when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted . . . 

In other news: I am on the fast slippery slope to the Deadline of Doom. (a.k.a. panicking like I'm bungee jumping without a rope!). I will be very quiet in the near future as I attempt to hit The End and the DoD at the exact same time. Wish me luck! (Also, my apologies to those of you I owe emails and other stuff too! I'm sorry, and I haven't forgotten you, but until the DoD has passed . . . well, I hope you understand if you don't hear from me until then :-))

Comment from CP (recently tweeted/FB'd) on latest offering: "Great scene!!! OMG! Most exciting book yet!!!!" Yay! *I heart my CP* *is happy bunny writer* *wonders if she should say scene was one with Malik . . .* *teases*

David Bridger - Guest post - Obstacles! (+Giveaway)

I'm delighted to welcome David Bridger to the blog today. David's a fabulous writer who writes urban fantasy and romance. His new urban fantasy Quarter Square came out not long ago. David's here to blog about obstacles! Thanks so much for being here, David and the blog's all yours!


Obstacles

Thank you, Suzanne, for inviting me. It's no secret that I consider you to be the most talented British author writing urban fantasy today, and I'm thrilled to be here. (Aw, thank you! *beams/blushes beetroot red*)

So. Obstacles.

Mine come in three flavours: external; internal; and health related.

The health thing is easy to explain. I got hurt in the navy and, although I recovered mobility eventually, some of the damage to my internal organs is permanent. It also damaged my immune system and left me with severe fibromyalgia, which hurts like hell.

Getting back on my feet was a marathon of hard work. I was paralysed for the first two years, bedbound for another five, in a wheelchair for five more, then up on sticks. But I was an endurance athlete before the injury and the distance runner mentality never really goes away. Don't give up. Get through this wall. Keep going. That sort of thing.

I kept my mind active all that time by learning how to write novels. It was another marathon, but with better scenery.

My wife gave up her career to become my full time carer. Shortly after I finally stood unaided, she fell seriously ill and we swapped roles for a while. She recovered, thank goodness, and now I'm buggered up again so she's back on watch. What's happening now is that long term side effects of the drugs that keep me alive are causing me constant, intense pain and - irony of ironies - crippling me all over again.

Do I put this stuff in my books? You betcha. :-D

Then there's the internal stuff, which I suppose is pretty much the same as everyone else's. A big soup bowl of goal-creating target-setting determination sprinkled with self-doubt, displacement activity and Gaviscon.

And do my characters get heartburn? Course they do. :-D

External obstacles, for me, mostly take the form of other people's drama. I walk away as soon as I recognise it, if I can, but it isn't always possible to do that right away. Especially in this industry. Just saying. Sometimes I have to deal.

This too? Hell, yes. :-D

So those are my obstacles. What are yours?

Thanks so much for a great post, David! And David's very kindly offering a giveaway:

Giveaway

Leave a comment about anything, obstacles or otherwise, for a chance for one random winner to receive a free (e-book) copy of my urban fantasy novel, Quarter Square.

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) July 18th 2011.

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

x/posted to LJ. Comment here or there. One entry per person.

Bio: David Bridger settled with his family and their two monstrous hounds in England's West Country after twenty years of ocean-based fun, during which he worked as a lifeguard, a sailor, an intelligence gatherer and an investigator. He writes urban fantasy and paranormal novels, and you can find him on his blog, Twitter and Facebook.



WIP Picture Teaser!

Where Genny and [redacted for spoiler]are today . . .

The London City Wall


Fragment of the wall at Cooper's Row.

Cooper’s Row Wall

‘Blink and you’ll miss it’ pretty much sums up how to find this section of the wall. Simply head up Cooper’s Row from the Tower of London and keep an eye out on your right hand side. As soon you find The Grange City Hotel head towards the courtyard and you’ll find the wall.

Text ganked from here with thanks

J.A. Campbell - Guest Blog - The Journey

Today I'd delighted to welcome back J.A. Campbell (aka Julie) whose fab YA book

Senior Year Bites 

came out last week. Julie's guest blog is about the journey of writing a book.

Thanks for being here, Julie, and take it away!


***

The Journey – Part 2 (Part 1 is here)

Suzanne thank you so much for having me here.

It begins, sometimes with an idea, sometimes with a word or a phrase, or a flash of a beautiful smile. It sets out with a letter on a page. Just one, single, solitary letter. Then another letter, and another until there is a word. Then many words, then paragraphs that lead to pages and chapters then finally to a completed story.

But that’s just the beginning of the Journey.

As part of my blog tour to celebrate the release of my first Young Adult novel, Senior Year Bites, I’m going to do a series on my perceptions of the adventure of writing a novel. Obviously there are many different ways to get inspiration and write a novel. It has happened to me in many different ways. This is just one way. Here’s part two. If you’d like to read other blog posts in this series, links are on my blog tour page here.

As in part 1, our would-be novelist’s name is Kira. Kira’s idea has turned into about ten thousand words. She’s super excited about her idea but now she needs to do a little background work. Some people outline, let’s just say that Kira (and myself) consider the word outline to be a dirty word. Instead she builds character sheets and background notes on the world (she’s a fantasy author so she needs to set the rules down). The character sheets have the character’s physical description and any important notes. For example, Alexander’s character sheet in Senior Year Bites has notes on his parentage. It’s important to keep small details straight, and unless you have an uber memory, writing down the little things makes it easier when you get further into the series. World notes include rules on magic, politics, land layout, anything that might be important. Then Kira writes down notes on what happens in each chapter she’s written so far to use as a reference. To some this would be an outline, but since outline is a dirty word, she calls it a chapter reference. She also creates a synopsis about what she thinks will happen in the novel. Synopsis is also a dirty word to many, but she finds it to be a useful reference tool.

Then she goes back to the fun part, writing the novel. She’s still in the early stages when the idea is fresh and new and exciting.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the beginning stages of writing. What do you do that is helpful for you?

***
Thanks so much for stopping by, Julie!

Bio: Julie writes fantasy novels. When she’s not out riding her horse, she can usually be found sitting in front of her computer with a cat on her lap and her dog at her side.

Senior Year Bites

Fight supernatural crime, it’s what superheros do. Only I’m a vampire, not a superhero. That hasn’t deterred my best friend Steph though, so while I’m trying to survive my last year of high school as a blood-sucking non-hero, she’s dragging me and our other friend around looking for crime. Only there isn’t any, at least not until the murders start.

Buy from
Amazon UK
Amazon.US

Decadent:

Fright Night!

Ooh! I like the look of this!! And look who's in it!! Yay!  (Though sadly, you only catch a glimpse of him in the trailer :-( ) Out September 2nd, 2011
click to embiggen

Fright Night, starring Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Imogen Poots. Take a look at the trailer below.

Directed by Craig Gillespie and scripted by former Buffy writer Marti Noxon, this new take on the 1985 Tom Holland horror comedy finds Yelchin inheriting the role of Charley Brewster, your average smart teenager who comes to realise that his new neighbour, Jerry Dandridge (Farrell) might be something less than average himself.

Spurred on by his horror-obsessed pal “Evil” Ed Thompson (Mintz-Plasse), Charley becomes convinced that Jerry is a vampire and that he’s got designs on various local women, including Charley’s mum Jane (Toni Collette) and girlfriend Amy (Poots). So our hero enlists the help of OTT stage magician Peter Vincent (David Tennant ) in his fight to stop Jerry’s reign of fanged terror.




Pics, video and blurb ganked from Empire Online with thanks! With more pics/details at Empire Online here

ETA: From SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival
Want to attend a special preview screening of Fright Night on Wed 6 July at 6pm in London's West End? We have 4 pairs of tickets to give away (doesn't include travel). Only enter if you can definitely attend. email frightnight@comps.sci-fi-london.com by 7pm Tuesday with Tickets in the subject line.

Dirty Kiss by Rhys Ford, and Ripples in Life (+ giveaway)

I'd like to give a big welcome to the awesome Rhys Ford! Today is Happy Release Day for Rhys' mystery romance novel

Dirty Kiss

Woot! Congratulations, Rhys!

And look at that gorgeous cover by Anne Cain!

Rhys is here about ripples in life and how they affect us, and at the end of the post there's a chance to win a copy of Dirty Kiss, so thanks for being here, Rhys, and take it away!

**
First, I owe a huge thank you to Suzanne for giving me a spot here. Many hugs and much gratitude for this. Thank you. (Aw, thank you, hon. It's a pleasure!!)

I thought about what to write in a guest blog because really, I’m sitting on someone else’s couch trying to keep their friends company while they’re in the kitchen making coffee. By the end of this, you’ll want cream and sugar and I’ll probably be asking Suzanne to make mine Irish. ::grins::

While mulling over what to write, a few things happened. First, Dirty Kiss’ release date crept up on me and by the time you read this, it’ll be THAT day. Second, New York decided that gays have the right to marry. Oddly enough, I’m neither gay nor do I live in New York but that single act by so many sent ripples that touched my life.

I think that’s why I write. Those ripples. Those questions that come up in life. Not because I have answers. Hell, I’d be the first one to tell you there’s probably no answers, only more questions. Just when you think there’s the end of the line, another one starts. That’s because life is a journey and we are constantly taking steps towards something… even if we don’t exactly know what that something is.

Hopefully, those steps are towards something positive.

I wanted to write about something positive. About working towards that positive. So, the first step is Dirty Kiss.

The main character in Dirty Kiss is a former police detective named Cole McGinnis. He comes with a few issues. Some of his own making. Others… well, those were delivered to him by the Devil himself. The reader is introduced to him in mid-step. His private investigation business is doing well. He has an older brother who loves him and a support network of friends. There are demons in his psyche and probably is in denial of most of the weight on his soul. Cole believes his life is fairly full and he’s doing okay.

And he is. Then he meets Kim Jae-Min and realizes that life could be better. Definitely crappier in some ways but better in the long run.

Cole was an interesting character to create. I wanted a gay detective but one that was a “guy”. Just a guy. He drinks beer, drives a Range Rover and has a healthy appetite for hamburgers. He carries scars on his body from a shooting that also took his lover from him. Cole stays up too late, probably should eat more vegetables and gets his ass kicked when he spars with his boxing partner, another gay ex-cop named Bobby. Cole’s voice is slightly cynical and there’s a bit of humour in it but really, he’s a good guy who has stared down a lot of really bad things and wonders how he came out on the other side.

Kim Jae-Min, Cole’s love interest, is another story.

That’s because Jae can’t tell you if there’s another side to come out of.

He knows that life is dark and that there are things that have to be done in order to survive. He’s done those things. He makes no apologies for them nor does he brag. Jae wears his scars inside and isn’t one to share any of his secrets. Unlike Cole, he doesn’t have a familial support. If he came out to his family, he would literally lose his identity, everything that makes him who he is in his mind.

Jae is trapped in a war of culture versus society. He was born to a traditional Korean family where homosexuality is shameful and regardless of a man’s orientation, he is still expected to marry and produce children to carry on the family name. He doesn’t understand Cole’s openness or rather, he understands that it is not for him. On the other hand, Cole has no comprehension of Jae’s struggle to define himself either as a Korean man or a openly gay man. For Jae, the two are as far apart on the spectrum as can be.

This cultural norm is sometimes worse than being closeted. If a man admits his homosexuality, he runs the very significant risk of being dead to his family and for many Asians, that is worse than death because family defines you. Your name, your family’s name and everything attached to it defines who you are. Remove that and a great piece of what makes a person is suddenly gone. Some make the choice to walk away and survive.

Others cannot. Some do not survive these choices by taking the most self-destructive way out.

I’ve taken my own journeys. I’ve struggled with trying to be defined both as Asian and not fitting into my family norm. I’ve worked with issues I’ve denied (although probably not as deep as Cole denies them) and have come out on the other side on many of them. I wanted to write about at least pieces of that kind of journey. Hopefully I have with Dirty Kiss, even as I whisper of those struggles behind the bloody puzzle of a murder mystery.

So this book — this series told in Cole’s voice — is about a very meat-and-potatoes Japanese-Irish gay ex-cop who falls in love with a Korean photographer while trying to solve a murder that no one else thinks is a murder. Dirty Kiss is the beginning of Cole and Jae’s journey. Whether they walk the entire way together or not remains to be seen. I haven’t planned that far in advance. I know there are things I’d like to explore between them as they stumble across dead bodies or missing jewelry… as well as them exploring each other.

If you pick it up, let me know how you found it and if it said anything to you. If the cat made you laugh, tell me that too.

***
Huge thanks to Rhys for a wonderful, interesting post. I've got my copy of Dirty Kiss all ready to go, I've been looking forward to reading this for a looong time, and, of course, meeting the cat! Yay! If you'd like to visit Rhys' website, it's here: Rhys Ford

Bio: Rhys Ford was born and raised in Hawai’i then wandered off to see the world. After chewing through a pile of books, a lot of odd food, and a stray boyfriend or two, Rhys eventually landed in San Diego, which is a very nice place but seriously needs more rain.

Rhys currently has a day job herding graphics pixels at an asset management company with a fantastic view of the seashore from many floors up and admits to sharing the house with three cats, a black Pomeranian puffball, a bonsai wolfhound, and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Qosmio laptop, and a red Hamilton Beach coffee maker.

Blurb: Cole Kenjiro McGinnis, ex-cop and PI, is trying to get over the shooting death of his lover when a supposedly routine investigation lands in his lap. Investigating the apparent suicide of a prominent Korean businessman’s son proves to be anything but ordinary, especially when it introduces Cole to the dead man’s handsome cousin, Kim Jae-Min.

Jae-Min’s cousin had a dirty little secret, the kind that Cole has been familiar with all his life and that Jae-Min is still hiding from his family. The investigation leads Cole from tasteful mansions to seedy lover’s trysts to Dirty Kiss, the place where the rich and discreet go to indulge in desires their traditional-minded families would rather know nothing about.

It also leads Cole McGinnis into Jae-Min’s arms, and that could be a problem. Jae-Min’s cousin’s death is looking less and less like a suicide, and Jae-Min is looking more and more like a target. Cole has already lost one lover to violence—he’s not about to lose Jae-Min too.

Read chapter one here!
Find Dirty Kiss eBook at Dreamspinner Press
Find Rhys on Twitter

Giveaway

For a chance to win a eBook of Dirty Kiss just leave Rhys your congratulations!

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) July 7th 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.
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