Suzanne McLeod

Giveaways: Ghost Story - Jim Butcher + Hounded - Kevin Hearne

ETA: I'm donating to Genre for Japan - a critique and a Tuckerization in my next book.

Please help spread the word about Genre for Japan, (also see my post here) and also this giveaway. For every commentator in this post's giveaway I'll donate a £1, up to a max of 100 commentators. (Currently: 30 commentators approx, so there's plenty room for more comments :-D). So read on, and enter, if you haven't already, and your comment will mean another £1 for Japan, and don't forget to help spread the word. Thank you!

So, we've got to week # 10 of my 16 weeks of giveaways to celebrate the UK release of book 3 The Bitter Seed of Magic (Out Now! And BIG THANKS to everyone who's bought it! You all Rock!) and the upcoming US release of book 2 The Cold Kiss of Death (out 26th April). Thanks to everyone who's following along with the celebrations, and Hello and Welcome to any new blog visitors.

So this week, going by the schedule, the giveaway is Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13)by Jim Butcher! Only the publication has been put back to July 26th, so as an extra special giveaway, there will be two prizes* this week: Ghost Story, and Hounded (US)(UK) the first fabulous book in The Iron Druid Chronicles by debut author Kevin Hearne.

And the good news doesn't stop there!

*Cue Drumroll*

So, especially for all my wonderful blog readers, I managed to ~~back Kevin into a corner and crack the whip~~ persuade Kevin to come over and guest blog *g*. So, a big WELCOME to Kevin, and here he is to tell us all about . . .

The Alpha Reader!

I often hear writers talk about their beta readers quite a bit, but rarely do I hear them discuss their alpha readers. I think perhaps they’re keeping them a secret. Or perhaps they don’t have one. More likely, they do have one but they call them beta readers anyway.

For me, alpha and beta readers serve completely different functions. Alpha readers read my stuff chapter by chapter, providing feedback as the novel is in progress. Beta readers read the whole honkin’ thing as a completed draft and then give me some feedback before I pack it away to my agent.

It’s tremendously difficult to find alpha readers and hold on to ’em. Most people aren’t that great at reading a story in spastic intervals and then providing a thoughtful critique for the anxious author in a short amount of time. I have had the same alpha reader for years now, and he’s worth fifty times his weight in black gold (that’s Guinness, not oil). His name is Alan, and I thank him in the acknowledgments of all three books. Though he doesn’t know it—and you can’t tell him!—he’s going to get a book dedicated to him soon.

What makes a good alpha reader? Someone who’s really well-read in the genre you’re writing, who’s an honest fan of that genre, and who’s also capable of telling you what’s fresh and what might have the odor of shoes in dire need of fungicide. They also need to be willing to work really bizarre hours for nothing more than the occasional beer. Such people are RARE. And priceless.

I had to write three books before the general public read a word of any of them, and I’m here to tell you that’s it’s bloody nervewracking. If people don’t like the first one, it’s not like I can go back and tweak books two and three now. Alan stood in for all of you, assuring me that I was doing all right and making me start over when I wasn’t doing all right. He’s a true Quality Control man, and plenty of authors know they wouldn’t have written nearly so well without someone like him watching over their shoulders. If you have a pint, raise it to Alan, won’t you? And then if you’re in a bookstore around May 3, pick up a copy of Hounded #1 (US)(UK) and see how Alan did! If you turn into a fan of Alan’s alpha reading there, wait until you see what advice he gave on Hexed #2 (US)(UK), due June 7, and then on Hammered #3 (US)(UK), out June 28!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll come visit my website and blog (http://www.kevinhearne.com) and maybe say howdy on Twitter (@kevinhearne) or Facebook (search Pages for Kevin Hearne). Thanks very much to Suzanne for letting me drop by! Cheers!

Great post, Kevin! Thanks so much for visiting, and thanks to Alan too! Can't wait to read Hounded!

Here's the blurb for Hounded!

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

Doesn't it sound fab? I can't wait to read it! And if you want a chance to win both Hounded and Ghost Story, then leave a comment telling me whether you've tried 'The Black Stuff' or not, and if you liked it :-D Me? Well, yes, I've tried it, and liked it, but it's one of those tipples I need to be in the mood for :-)

How to enter:

Leave a comment saying whether you've tried Guinness, and if you liked it 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) 24th March 2011
(ETA: original end date was wrong initially - so much for being organized *sigh*)

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

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.

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

*Both books will be pre-ordered for the winner from The Book Depository, and will be sent when the books release. Sorry, these are not early copies, much as I'd love them to be.

Winner: Vampires: The Recent Undead - Charlaine Harris et al

Thanks to everyone who came by and left comments about their favourite vampire myths, lots of interesting ones there. And now for the lucky winner of Vampires: The Recent Undead!

Ms. Random.org has spoken ...

And the winner is ...

kara_karina

Who said:

"being burned by sun rays is my fave part of vampire myth. I find it totally irrational. It's just WHY?!!"

Congratulations, kara_karina, an email is on its way to you!

Thanks again everyone, and sorry if you didn't win, but don't forget to come back later when this week's giveaway goes live, almost immediately after this post! Yay! For being organised *g*

Sunday Snippet

Well, the Sunday Snippet is no more, as I've taken it down to play with it :-) Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

***

And don't forget to leave a comment here for a chance to win a copy of Vampires: The Recent Undead - an anthology packed full of tales about those of the fanged persuasion, with stories by lots of my favourite authors like Charlaine Harris, Kelly Armstrong, Holly Black, Rachel Caine, Carrie Vaughn.

Giveaway: Vampires: The Recent Undead - Charlaine Harris et al

This week is # 9 of my 16 weeks of giveaways to celebrate the releases of The Bitter Seed of Magic (out now UK!) and The Cold Kiss of Death(US edition out 26th April), and I'm giving away Vampires: The Recent Undead. So, I thought it only appropriate that we talk about them :-D Giveaway now closed!

Whether we like our vampires sexy, scary, sparkly, or all three together, there're so many of them about now that if we're a fan of the fang, then we can always find a vamp to suit us. Not that there's anything new about vampires, since entities that survive by consuming the lifeblood of humans are in almost every mythological culture in the world.

And with so many myths and legends to choose from, it makes it both easy and difficult when you're an author wanting to invent your own fictional history of how vamps have come about.

So when it came to building my own vampire origins story for my Spellcrackers books, I decided to add a good dash of Greek myth into my bloodsuckers :-).

Here, in Genny's own words, is how it all came about, and why the ritual for changing a mortal human to immortal bloodsucker in Genny's world is called 'Accepting the Gift':

'According to myth, the original Gift was the Gorgon’s blood, given by Athena to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, to help him in his work. Then Asclepius started raising people from the dead, and Zeus took exception, as überGods do, and killed him with a thunderbolt. The sun god Apollo, Asclepius’s dad, wasn’t too happy either, and he set about rectifying his son’s mistakes by burning the undead to a crisp whenever he could find them. Even so, most feel that drinking blood, staying out of storms and doing without the suntan are easy enough sacrifices to make if it means they might hit the immortality jackpot in the game of vampire roulette.' Extract : chapter 3 - The Sweet Scent of Blood - Spellcrackers #1

Of course, one of the fun things for me as a reader, is seeing what everyone else comes up with when they're writing about vamps. Which leads me on to this week's giveaway -Vampires: The Recent Undead - an anthology packed full of tales about those of the fanged persuasion, with stories by lots of my favourite authors like Charlaine Harris, Kelly Armstrong, Holly Black, Rachel Caine, Carrie Vaughn and many more! I can't wait to sink my teeth into this one *g*

And if you want a chance to win it, then leave a comment telling me your favourite vampire myth (real or fictional), or whether your choice is for sexy, scary, sparkly, or some other kind of vamp! As for me, I'm happy so long as they don't eat food, and stick to an iron-rich liquid diet! *g*

How to enter:

Leave a comment with your fav vampire myth, or your fav type of vampire.

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) 17th March 2011

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

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).

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

Winner: Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire

Thanks to everyone who left comments about their wonderful pets, and/or their favourite Alan Rickman characters (a lot of love out there for Snape, the Sherrif of Nottingham, and Metatron in Dogma among others *g*). And now for the lucky winner of Late Eclipses (#4 October Daye) by Seanan McGuire.

So, Ms. Random.org has spoken ...

And the winner is ...

Sparrow

Who said:

Three cats and two dogs... but one of the dogs thinks he's a cat.... so CATS, most definitely.

As much as I adore Snape, I have to admit my FAVORITE Alan Rickman character is the Sheriff of Nottingham, in Prince of Thieves.

Congratulations, Sparrow, an email is on its way to you!

Thanks again everyone, and sorry if you didn't win, but don't forget to come back later when this week's giveaway goes live, which is

Vampires: The Recent Undead
out 22nd March, with short stories by Charlaine Harris, Kelly Armstrong, Holly Black,
Rachel Caine, Carrie Vaughn and more

And again a big, BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has bought The Bitter Seed of Magic # 3, (out now UK, and available* with free worldwide delivery from The Book Depository), you all ROCK! And I ♥ U BIGTIME!

And those of you in the US and Canada, don't forget you can enter to win book # 2 The Cold Kiss of Death (out now UK, and releasing in the US on 26th April) in the Goodreads giveaway (3 signed copies) below!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Cold Kiss of Death

by Suzanne McLeod

Giveaway ends April 16, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

*Hehe. Yet more shameless self-promo to tell you my new book is out there!! *g*

Cry Wolf: Alpha and Omega: Book 1
Hunting Ground (Alpha and Omega)

Happy Book Birthday! J A Campbell - Westwood, Yo!

Happy Book Birthday

to my writerly pal

J.A. Campbell

Into the West #1: Westward, Yo! is J. A. Campbell's young adult short story, and her first ever publication, and it's available in ebook form for the staggeringly wonderful price of $0.99. Read an excerpt here!

You can buy it here: OmniLit in multiple formats including Kindle (mobi) and PDF. And it's also available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.

Plus if you buy, J.A. Campbell has a contest running on her site to win a cute and furry Book Monster Kindle or Nook cover. Details here.

Description

Tina Harker is a typical teenager. She loves hanging with her friends at the malls, shoes, and manicures. More than that, she loves horses. Life is everything she wants it to be, until her father packs their family up and drags them across the world to Arizona. Does he really think she'll be happy living in a ghost town in the middle of the desert? It's a million miles to the nearest shopping center, not even a real mall. Her only hope for survival is finding a new horse.

Trying to make the best of her horrible situation, Tina agrees to go on her first cattle drive. When one of the calves wanders off, Tina, in true cowgirl fashion and looking for excitement, rides off to rescue the poor little thing and gets a lot more adventure than she ever expected. A cowboy she’s never met accuses her of stealing cows, bandits kidnap her, and that’s not even the exciting part.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? I'm so looking forward to reading this.

Congratulations, J. A Campbell (aka Julie :-D).

Oh, and don't forget to enter this week's giveaway to celebrate the releases of my own books. The giveaway is Late Eclipses (#4 October Daye) by Seanan McGuire, and it's still live until midnight (GMT) 10th March. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is tell me your favourite pet, or your favourite Alan Rickman character in the comments!

Plus check out my blog's sidebar for details of how you could win copies of The Cold Kiss of Death #2 from Goodreads!

Giveaway: Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire.

So this week (# 8) as part of my 16 weeks of giveaways to celebrate the releases of The Bitter Seed of Magic (out now UK!) and The Cold Kiss of Death(US edition out 26th April) I'm giving away Late Eclipses (#4 October Daye sereies) by Seanan McGuire! And one of the things, or I should say characters, I love most in the October Daye books is Tybalt - King of the Cats!
Giveaway now closed

Now, I'm not as familiar with Shakespeare as I could be (so I know I probably miss some of the wonderful references that are woven through the October books when I read), but I do know that Tybalt is a character in Romeo and Juliet, and in one of those six degree* (or less) things, I give you a gratuitous picture of Alan Rickman (not playing Tybalt) hugging a statue's head *g*.

Continuing on with the six degrees connections and gratuitous pictures, here's a gorgeous one of a Maine Coon Cat!

*What, you think I should've come up with something wittier? Yeah, me too, but sadly my brain is fried, I have a bad back, the Hound is moaning, Mr Mc is vacuuming (for which I love him, but ... noisy much!), and my deadline is near enough to block out the sun, so with all the 'O' woe is me' going on, this is what you're getting. ;p

So now we've established that October Daye, Alan Rickman, Shakespeare and Maine Coon Cats are all connected* ...

It's on with the giveaway! Yay!

Which is Late Eclipses the 4th October Daye book by Seanan McGuire (out now US and UK!)

"October "Toby" Daye is half-human, half-fae-the only changeling who's earned knighthood. But when someone begins targeting her nearest and dearest, it becomes clear that Toby is being set up to take the fall for everything that's happening."

"These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us . . ." King Lear - Shakespeare

Yay! Can't wait to read this! Methinks that the title taken from that quote will no doubt be extremely apt for Toby :-D

So, for a chance to win your own copy of Late Eclipses* all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what type of pet you have, or which is your favourite Alan Rickman character from TV or film. Personally I can't decided whether it's Severus Snape or the Sheriff of Nottingham *g*.

How to enter:

Leave a comment with your type of pet, or your fav Alan Rickman character.

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) 10th March 2011

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

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. I will still 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.

* Or, winner can choose any of the previous books in the October Daye series, either for themselves, or to be sent to a friend :-).
x/posted to LJ. Comment here or there. One entry per person.

Winner: River Marked - Patricia Briggs

Thanks to everyone who left their favourite cake/cookie. The comments made for some truly difficult reading, since I had to keep mopping up the drool from my screen *g*. But enough of cakes and cookies, and on to the lucky winner of River Marked by Patricia Briggs!

So, Ms. Random.org has spoken ...

And the winner is ...

Danes

Who said:

My favourite cake is White vanilla!!!

Congratulations, Danes, an email is on its way to you!

Thanks again everyone, and sorry if you didn't win this week, but don't forget to come back later when this week's giveaway goes live, which is

Late Eclipses (October Daye #4) – Seanan McGuire

A big, BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has bought The Bitter Seed of Magic # 3, (out now UK, and available* with free worldwide delivery from The Book Depository), you all ROCK! And I ♥ U BIGTIME! But if you haven't, there's still chances to win your own copy; just check out the sidebar on the blog! And if you've only read book # 1 The Sweet Scent of Blood so far, then why not enter to win book # 2 The Cold Kiss of Death in the Goodreads giveaway (3 signed copies. US and Can) below!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Cold Kiss of Death

by Suzanne McLeod

Giveaway ends April 16, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

*Hehe. Yet more shameless self-promo and tell you my new book is out there!! *g*

Reading Matters!

I love seeing what other folk are reading (yep, I'm nosy like that *g*) so I thought I'd do a quick post to share my February reads with you. Oh, and maybe I had an ulterior motive, in that I decided to be really evil and make you all Green-Eyedwith an attack of the jealously Demons,when you see what fab books* a certain author gave me to read after I ~~begged, pleaded and promised them my first born~~ asked them nicely :-D

I LOVED all of the books I read this month with a passion (it doesn't always happen that way, but I choose not to talk about those), and if you're already a fan of these authors, then these books are a must have! If the authors are new to you, then why not give them a try, hopefully you'll love them too. :-)

Mercy Blade- Faith Hunter ( I ♥ Jane & Beast)
Bite Me- Christopher Moore (ROFLMAO!)
*Enclave- Ann Aguirre (Wonderful, heartwrenching characters in a fascinating, dangerous future world)
*Aftermath- Ann Aguirre (made me cry ... now, need Endgame so bad)
Blast from the Past- Toni L. P. Kelner (A truly clever, engaging mystery)
Blue Diablo- Ann Aguirre (Makes me want to visit Mexico! + I ♥ Butch *g*)
Kitty Goes to War- Carrie Vaughn (Ooh! Cormac! Wow!)
The Fallen Blade- Jon Courtenay Grimwood (Brilliant historical fantasy with a different take on vamps)
Green-Eyed Demon- Jaye Wells - (special category; crit partner book, has my all time fav scene EVAH! Congrats, Jaye on GED's release! Yay!)

Home Improvement: Undead Edition- Editors: Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner (I've always felt extremely privileged, and awed, for my little pixie story to be with all the fabulous stories in this book, even more so now I've read the rest *pinches herself*)

So that's 9 wonderfully, engrossing books (though, gross might be a more appropriate adjective for parts of Enclave *shudders*. Ann Aguirre is a truly EVIL, BRILLIANT AUTHOR! You will be desperate to finish this book to find out WHAT HAPPENS!) for this month, and 13* fantastic short stories, which is less than my January total, but still good going.

So how about all of you. What great books have you read and loved in February?

Oh, and of course, the book I'm really looking forward to reading next is the one in my current celebratory giveaway - River Marked by Patricia Briggs. Can't wait! *g* The giveaway is still live until midnight (GMT) 3rd March. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is tell me your favourite cake/cookie. But, please, don't read the comments already made, there's only so much drool my blog can take *g*

Plus check out my blog's sidebar for details of how you could win copies of The Bitter Seed of Magic #3, and The Cold Kiss of Death #2on my blog's sidebar. Go give a leprechaun a kiss for luck and enter. *g*

*There are 14 stories in Home Improvement:Undead Edition, but I've already read mine a trillion times, so I gave it a miss this read through *g*

Interview + Giveaway (The Cold Kiss of Death) at My Bookish Ways

I've been ~~interrogated~~, umm, interviewed over at My Bookish Ways by the fabulous Kristin (who has this beautiful blog header).

Why not hop on over and find out why I love living by the seaside, and whether Kristin ~~forced me with hot pincers~~ ... err, persuaded me to reveal what's in store for Genny in future books.

Oh, and there's a teaser excerpt too :-) Plus there's a GIVEAWAY (Int. Ends 7th March) for The Cold Kiss of Death #2!So, go on over, you know you want to *g*. Oh, and there's a teaser excerpt too :-)

But don't forget before you go to leave a comment here telling what your favourite cake/cookie is for a chance to win a brand new UK copy of River Marked by Patricia Briggs (Int. Ends 3rd March).

And there's even more chances to win copies of The Bitter Seed of Magic #3, and The Cold Kiss of Death #2on my blog's sidebar. Go give a leprechaun a kiss for luck and enter. *g*

Giveaway: River Marked - Patricia Briggs

So this week (# 7) as part of my 16 weeks of giveaways to celebrate the releases of The Bitter Seed of Magic (out now UK!) and The Cold Kiss of Death(US edition out 26th April) I'm giving away River Marked by Patricia Briggs! But first I want to talk about BAKING! (It's relevant, so stay with me . . .:-D).

click to embiggen for the detailed zombie beauty!

Yep, this week it's all about the COOKIES, and CAKES, and all things . . .
Whoa! Look!

A ZOMBIE CAKE*!

Don't you just love Cake Boss!

Next time I go to New York, I'm gonna go visit Buddy at his bakery and get me some of his cakes to try. nomnomnomnom.

But what I'd really love to do is ask him to make a cake to celebrate my books . . . maybe something with red roses, skulls, ravens, vampires, witches, liquorice torpedoes, goblins, bling, faeires, trolls, castles, the Tower of London . . . and everything and anything else that appears in my book.*g* Bet that would be some fantastic cake he'd come up with!!

Okay, here endeth my Cake Boss Fantasy, so it's back to the giveaway! Giveaway now closed.

River Marked is the 6th Mercy Thompson book! Patricia Briggs is one of my all time favourite authors, and I love the Mercy books. One of the things I love about Mercy is how she bakes at the drop of a hat (see, now the Cake Boss thing *is* relevant ;p), and here's a fab snippet*, in Adam's viewpoint, from Silver Borne, which shows Mercy's baking . . . and which going by the tiny hints I've heard about River Marked, is also very relevant to what happens in book 6 . . . bells, anyone? *Happy sighs, hopefully*

She smelled of burnt car oil, jasmine . . . and chocolate. Or maybe that last was the cookies on the plate she handed him. . . . He took the cookies back to the office with him. After a few minutes, he ate one. Chocolate, thick and dark, spread across his tongue, its bitterness alleviated by a sinful amount of brown sugar and vanilla. . . . She would never love him for what he could do for her.

Ooh, I can't wait! And as River Marked comes out on 1st March US (River Marked is out on the 3rd March in the UK) I don't have to much longer! Yay!

So, for a chance to win your own copy of River Marked* all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what your favourite cake or cookie is. See simple :-)

How to enter:

Leave a comment with your favourite cake or cookie.

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) 3rd March 2011

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

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. I will still 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.

*click on Zombie Cake link to watch more videos of Cake Boss cakes!
*"or" Winner can choose any of the previous books in the Mercy Thompson series, either for themselves, or to be sent to a friend :-). Lets share the Mercy and Adam love! *g* ETA: So sorry, my bad: this is supposed to mean that the winner can choose an alternative book from the Mercy Thompson series if they are not up to date with the series, or if they've already got River Marked, then they can choose to send their prize to a friend. (This is what happens when I blog during a weird hazy day when my brain isn't plugged in properly: I forget to add that all important little word "or". *sigh*) Again, so sorry for any confusion. Much as I'd love to give two books away, sadly the budget won't quite stretch to that with all the other giveaways I'm doing.
*snippet truncated :-)
x/posted to LJ. Comment here or there. One entry per person.

Winner: Iron Crowned - Richelle Mead

Thanks to everyone who left their congratulations for Richelle and her husband on their wonderful news, and to all those who told me who their favourite faerie is.Lots of interesting ones, but of course, the comment I loved best was from Jo, who choose ♥♥ Finn ♥♥ from my Spellcrackers.com books. (Sadly, Jo (and Finn) didn't win).

But Ms. Random.org has spoken ...

And the winner is ...

elaing8

Who said:

Congrats Richelle!

My favorite faerie would be Jenks in the Hollows series by Kim Harrison.

Congratulations, Elaing8, an email is on its way to you!

Thanks again everyone!

Don't forget to come back later when this week's giveaway goes live, which is

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

And if you live in the US, you can still win a ebook of Iron Crowned here.

Plus check out the sidebar on the blog here for lots of chances to win The Bitter Seed of Magic, (out now UK, and available* with free worldwide delivery from The Book Depository)and here's a link (below) to the Goodreads giveaway for The Cold Kiss of Death