Free "Love Story" featuring Adele Hale Stackhouse, Sookie's Gran!

Oooooh! Look a fab free story on audio by the brilliant Jeanne C. Stein!

It wasn't until the death of her Gran, Adele Hale Stackhouse, that Sookie learned the secret of her own ancestry: her true grandfather was a part-human fairy. Now, for the first time, Adele's long-hidden journal reveals how she and Fintan met - and how they loved. "Love Story" by Jeanne C. Stein is one of 15* brand-new tales contained in Dead but Not Forgotten: Stories from the World of Sookie Stackhouse, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner.  

Listen to a sample of "Love Story" here

And, I've just discovered to my joy, Audible stories can be listened to on Kindle! (Even my old first gen one :-))

Yay! That's going to make my upcoming four hour coach journey much more bearable (can't read without getting nauseous in cars or coaches :-()

*I may have mentioned this (or y'know, shouted about it in delight from the rooftops *g*) ... I've also got a story - The Bat-Signal, about Luna Garza - in this fab anthology! *Bounces* ;-D

ETA: You can listen to a (4 minute) sample of Luna's tale here on Audible's sound cloud! Yay! 

And there's samples of all the other stories too - Click on the links below to listen :-)

"Another Dead Fairy" by Miranda James (featuring Claude & Claudia Crane)

"Borderline Dead" by Nicole Peeler (featuring Desiree Dumas)

"Don't Be Cruel" by Bill Crider (featuring Bubba)

"Extreme Makeover Vamp Edition" by Leigh Evans (featuring Bev & Todd)

"Knit a Sweater Out of Sky" by Seanan McGuire (featuring Amelia) 

"Nobody's Business" by Rachel Caine (featuring Kevin Pryor & Kenya Jones)

"Taproot" by Jeffrey J. Mariotte (featuring Andy Bellefleur)

"The Million-Dollar Hunt" by Jonathan Maberry (featuring Mustapha Khan)

"The Real Santa Claus" by Leigh Perry (featuring Diantha) 

"The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars" by Dana Cameron (featuring Pam Ravenscroft) 

"Tyger, Tyger" by Christopher Golden (featuring Quinn)

"What a Dream I Had" by Nancy Holder (featuring Alcide Herveaux)

"Widower's Walk" by MaryJanice Davidson (featuring Eric Northman) 

TALES OF EVE anthology!

"Tales of Eve", edited by the lovely Anne-Mhairi Simpson, and published by Fox Spirit Books, features lots of fab and different stories by these awesome authors: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ren Warom, Paul Weimer, Andrew Reid, Fran Terminiello, Juliet E McKenna, Alasdair Stuart, Colum Paget, Rob Haines, and ME*!! *g*

Weird Science, Stepford Wives, that episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer… 

Genre fiction abounds with tales of men creating (or attempting to create) the perfect woman.

Now it’s the woman’s turn. But being female, she’s flexible. She doesn’t just want to create the perfect man. She wants the perfect companion, be it man, beast or washing machine.

My story is - Mother Knows Best - and Mhairi says of it in her introduction: Mother Knows Best had me laughing out loud. Suzanne McLeod's magical story of one woman trying to live her life while dealing with motherly machinations is brilliantly entertaining and I'm sure most readers, of either gender, will be able to relate. (Thanks, Mhairi!)

I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope any readers have as much enjoyment with it as I did!


(p.s. It's not a Spellcrackers story, but a stand alone set in a different world :-)) Available to buy in various e-formats here and at Amazon UK and Amazon US in print and Kindle) 

Kindle US is available but I can't link to it because I'm in the UK :-)

Two very cool things make a post!

HOME IMPROVEMENT: UNDEAD EDITION debuts at #28 on the NYT! OMG! Huge thanks to all who bought *Does the Major Happy Dance*

My little story - Full-Scale Demolition - is in some awesome company, and I couldn't be more thrilled to be included, thanks so much to Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner.

*hands round celebratory Bubbly and Cake for all* 

And in a semi-related sort of way (hey, it's about books *g*) here's a very cool trailer for Harry Connolly's fabulous Twenty Palaces books. It's got fantastic special effects. Plus over on his blog Harry's got some great 'Behind the Scenes' posts about how the trailer was made.

Full Twenty Palaces Trailer from Harry Connolly on Vimeo.

Writing Cave news: Still buried, but digging my way through to The End of The Shifting Price of Prey. Not sure if I'm the octopus or not ... Wish me luck!

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!

'Danke' to the Germans and a fangy short story

I'm delighted to announce that Goldmann, my German publishers, have bought and are going to be publishing The Bitter Seed of Magic - Spellcrackers.com #3! I don't know the date yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post an update on my website. A big, big thank you to Goldmann, and to John Jarrold, my agent and the wonderful rights team at Orion/Gollancz for making this happen. *does the German happy dance*.

And now for the short story ...

... and no, it's not one of mine, but a very cool tale from writer Julie Campbell.

Julie's story is called The Vampire Kissed and the Eye and you can read it here in a flash fiction contest on Devin O'Branagan's website. And when you've read it, (and I can tell you, you're gonna want to!!) show Julie and her very cool story some fangy love and VOTE for it too!!

Here's a clue ...

Voting is open through tomorrow, and Julie's just one vote behind right now. So. Go. Read. And. Vote!!

Or, as Julie says on her LJ, 'you could head over to vampirekissed.com and read the stories posted in the forum and vote for which ever one you think is best. That's fair too :)'