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).

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.

Getting Furry with Kitty :: Giveaway

So in 7 weeks [doesn't time fly :-)] The Cold Kiss of Death :: Spellcrackers.com book 2 :: is released into the wilds of book shops and online booksellers, and to continue my celebratory giveaways to help get the word out, here's this weeks contest - Getting Furry with Kitty*!

I love Carrie Vaughn's Kitty the Werewolf books, Kitty is one of my most favourite characters, as are werewolves in general. But when it came to writing my own books and deciding on what paranormal creatures would inhabit my world - and whilst I have fae that can take the shape of animals, such as kelpies and phoukas - I decided against werewolves for one very good reason.

Wolves are extinct in the wild in the UK**

Mosi • Mai • Torak at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust

My spellcrackers.com books are set in the UK and wolves have been extinct here for at least a couple of hundred years, thanks to a combination of humans hunting them and their natural habitats disappearing [again due to humans]. Doing a bit of googling some extensive research, I've found some info which gives a rough idea of when these beautiful animals probably died out in various parts of the British Isles.

Wales: possibly in the 12th century
England: 1500-1550
Scotland: 1680-1769
Ireland: 1710-1770

So sadly, the only way werewolves are likely to appear in my books are if they're tourists.

An American Werewolf in London***

But onto this week's giveaway. To win your choice of one of Carrie Vaughn's werewolf books plus a signed copy of either The Sweet Scent of Blood or The Cold Kiss of Death leave me a comment telling me your favourite werewolf from fiction, TV or film.


I comment = 1 entry

Please help me spread the word about the release of The Cold Kiss of Death and the giveaways with a mention of the giveaway on your blog/live journal/myspace/facebook/twitter/etc [post the link to the mention into the comments again] and win yourself more entries into this week's giveaway :-) 1 link = 1 entry

Which means you could end up with more entries into the metaphorical hat, so what are you waiting for? Get posting and linking!! Good Luck!!

x/posted to my LJ: leave a comment here or there. Contest ends end of day [anywhere] Wednesday 3rd June 2009.


* Don't you just love a werewolf called Kitty. LOL!

** I know, I have vampires, and faeries, and goblins, and trolls, and none of them are real [no really they're not ... unless of course, you know different :-)] so why should I worry about not having werewolves, just because wolves are extinct here - well, no one ever said this writing business was logical, did they?! LOL!

*** not that this picture in any way impugns any American tourist that has ever visited, or will ever visit London.
David Naughton [The American Werewolf] in the flesh! What a hottie!