Darn, where did November go ... must be past time for a giveaway!

Ack, it's the 30th and it seems like yesterday I had some Halloween Happiness I was going to tell you all about ... but the last month has whooshed by without even stopping to eat a cupcake!

And now it's snowing! O_o.

But never fear, I will show you  my Halloween Happiness anyway! *g*
(and don't forget to read on to find out how to share in my scarily good luck - there's a giveaway!)

Halloween Happiness no: 1 ...

Look what one of the coolest authors on the planet and one of my all time writerly heros sent me!

And signed too!

A BIG, BIG THANK YOU TO MIKE!!

Check out Mike's website for more info about The Unwritten!

Halloween Happiness no: 2 ...

Aww, look what my BFF Fiona gave me! This cute little guy is Bubba Boo!

And look! Bubba Boo's got a bat hanging from his warlock's hat! Yay!

Check out Fiona's website for some fab free reads, including a tale about 'Santa and the Legend of the Christmas Oath' story.

Halloween Happiness no; 3 ...

Then another very cool person, Jon Weir, the fabulous publicist at Gollancz, sent me this wonderful book! And let me tell you not only are the stories fantastic, but that cover is full of shiny goodness - just the perfect thing to give a readaholic for Christmas if you were looking for an idea :-) So keep reading to find out how Wolfsbane and Mistletoe could be winging its way to your Christmas stocking!

Okay, so here's what you have to do: leave me a comment telling me what book/or books you're looking forward to finding in your Christmas stocking this year! Simple!

Giveaway open internationally.
Closes midnight GMT time 9th December**.
Winner will be drawn by Random.org.
1 comment = 1 entry.

So what are you waiting for?? Go comment!! :-)

* though snowing here = a dusting of icing sugar, so hope wherever you are you're warm and take extra care when you venture out into the icy world outside if you've got more snow than we have down here on the South Coast.

** I will post asap after getting the winner's details, but so sorry I can't guarantee book will arrive before xmas if its destination is outside of the UK, we'll have to rely on the postman :-).

Happy Thanksgiving ...

to all my American friends! Enjoy the holidays!

Thanksgiving CupCake Bouquet picture taken from here

I tell all to Book Lovers Inc ...

... so why not head over and read all about me. Me. ME!!

Go on, you know you want to! *g* And if you need any more incentive* there's a signed copy of The Sweet Scent of Blood, or The Cold Kiss of Death up for grabs for two lucky commentators!

* Okay, so I'm not that interesting, I know this, but hey, there's *Free Books!*, that's got to be worth something, hasn't it? And you can find out about how my muse copes with my creative pants and what my crit partner, Jaye Wells has to do with it all! Plus there's the Book Lovers: they've got lots more interviews and giveaways lined up, with more exciting folk that me, so you'd be missing out if you don't go ... just sayin' :-)

For the Fallen

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Extract from 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon

*Beverage Alert*

1. Go to google maps
2. Get directions (by car)
3. Type Japan as start
4. Type China as end
5. Go to direction #42

(Txs to tweeter @SteveNiles)

Hallowe'en Giveaway Winner!

And the Winner of The Cold Kiss of Death is

Anassa

Who said:

'The last scene that scared me was one in The Devil's Alphabet. Two characters, one of whom was my favourite, get stopped at a roadblock and I was terrified that Bad Things were going to happen.'

Congratulations, Anassa! Please send your snail mail address to contest[at]spellcrackers[dot]com and the book will be on its way to you :-)

***

Thanks everyone for entering the giveaway and letting me know what book last scared you - there are some great ones there!

Pixies are Go!!

So way back in February I teased mentioned I was writing a Spellcrackers short story, and that it had pixies in it ... well, I'm super stoked to say that the story has been accepted, and is going to be published in the next urban fantasy anthology edited by the wonderful Charlaine Harris and the fabulous Toni L. P. Kelner! Yay!

*Does the super excited happy dance*

As I'm sure you all know, Charlaine and Toni have already edited two fantastic anthologies together - 'Wolfsbane and Mistletoe', and 'Death's Excellent Vacation' - and this new one due out August 2011 is called 'Home Improvement: Undead Edition', which you won't be surprised to find out is all about how those of the supernatural persuasion go about improving - or otherwise - their homes *g*.

I can't wait to find out what Sookie Stackhouse has been up to! And look at those names on the cover; there's going to be some great stories to read by some of my favourite authors :-).

I had a lot of fun writing my pixie story, and I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it as much as I did creating it. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, there's no spoilers for the Spellcrackers books, as the story is about when Genny takes a job to evict some problematic pixies, and is set 6 months before the beginning of The Sweet Scent of Blood, so it's sort of a mini prequel.

And don't forget if you haven't read The Cold Kiss of Death yet, then you can tell me about a scary book you've read to be in with a chance at winning a copy here :-)

Halloween Trick or Treats: Giveaway

No tricks here *g*, but I have got a treat of a giveaway for you ...

The Cold Kiss of Death is set around Halloween and features ghosts and all sorts of creatures of the night, and readers have told me it's SCARY and DISTURBING in places, so in celebration of this auspicious night, I'm going to give away a signed copy to one lucky commentator.


So, for a chance to win a signed copy of The Cold Kiss of Death #2 (or an ARC* of The Bitter Seed of Magic #3, if you've already got TCKOD) all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me the last book, or scene in a book, that scared you.

Okay, so I'm going to start this off by telling you the last scene that gave me a SUPER SCARY MOMENT I wasn't expecting. It's in Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong - and it's where Elena and Clay are looking for something in a remote cabin, in the woods, and [redacted for spoiler] happens. Now, in hindsight I know this scene isn't going to scare everyone, but it really pushed my fright button and gave me one of those heart pounding Jurassic Park moments!

How to enter ...

Contest closes end of Sunday, 7th November, UK time, and is open internationally. ETA: winner chosen by Random.org.

1 comment = 1 entry
1 entry = Tweet or Facebook about the contest (1 entry for however many tweets/RTs/facebook comments - leave a comment with a link to your first tweet/facebook, please)
5 entries = Blog about the giveaway (leave a comment with the link to the post, please; so I can find it easily)
10 entries = Post the Spellcrackers Clan Badge in your blog sidebar with a link** to the Clan page (either right click on the image below and save, or copy the html code from here). Leave a comment with the link to your blog, please.

Oh, and help yourself to a cookie ... and no sniggering at my first attempts at decorating otherwise I'll send Genny round to hex you *g*

Just baked!

All decorated!

Happy Skulls!

Bats galore and a couple of Vlad's coffins!

Cookie recipe taken from here

***

On Saturday I was lucky enough to be interviewed at the Bridport Literary Festival about my books and my writing process, by Melissa (on the left below) who works at the Bridport Waterstone's and was super cool enough to tell me she loves my books! Yay! Hollie (on the right below, and who is also super cool as she loves my books too!) did a wonderful introduction at the start, and Melissa asked me some great questions, as did the audience afterwards, so the interview was fantastic fun.

The interview was held in the Bridport Arts Centre which is a beautiful classic style building. I really enjoyed myself and I hope everyone there did too. So thank you to all who came along, the folk at Bridport festival and all at Waterstone's for inviting me. There are more photos here.

Melissa (my excellent interviewer), yours truly, and Hollie (MC extraordinaire)at Bridport Literary Festival

* ARCs of The Bitter Seed of Magic will be sent out as soon as I receive them. I can't tell you what date yet, but hopefully soon!

Facebook Contest to win my books & yummy sweets (UK only)

Click on poster to enter!

Hallowe'en Shenanigans

I ♥ Gollancz!

Yay! It's Spellcrackers.com week over at the Gollancz Dark Fantasy page on Facebook.

There is a good chance of contests and giveaways, so why not head over there and 'like' it :-)

And while you're over there check out the pictures from the Gollancz Hallowe'en party for more snaps like these ... much fun was had by all!

Here I am witching it up at the Gollancz Hallowe'en party

Bubble, bubble, toil  and trouble with my fabulous editor Jo (centre), and another lovely witchy lady from Gollancz - notice the tray of Bloody Marys* I was studiously ignoring *g*

It's a Steampunk Stickup with Bella Pagan, editor at Orbit

***

I will also be at the Bridport Literary Festival in Bridport, West Dorset, this Saturday at 11.00. I am being interviewed about vampires, witches, faeries, and other scary things that go bump in the night - particularly around this time of year *g*

If you're around that way, I'd love you to come and see me!

So

After the interview I'll be signing books, or anything else (within reason :-)).

*or should that be Bloody Maries? Except that doesn't look right ...

Skull Scones and a Sweet Giveaway!

Because she loves Hallowe'en, and her birthday is shortly after it, my writerly pal Julie Cambell, who writes the fab Doc, the Vampire Hunting Dog stories, has a cool contest over at her website and is giving away a copy of The Sweet Scent of Blood to one lucky commenter, (US only, I think). So why not head on over there and enter, and if you've already got a copy, then why not recommend the giveaway to a friend? :-) Or just make yourself a cup of coffee and spend a few minutes reading about the wonderful Doc!

At the weekend I thought I'd get into the Hallowe'en mood too with some baking ... a.k.a. skull scones! They looked none too shabby before they hit the oven. I used sultanas for the eyes and nose, and a slash for the mouth ...

... but once they'd been floured and baked they started to look a bit battered

 ... and taste wise? ... well, it's been a long time since I did much baking, so though they were all scoffed pretty quickly, my scone making abilities definitely need a lot more practise! LOL!

Mistress of The Stone - Maria Zannini - A book you'll want to vote for!!

My writerly pal Maria Zannini (who writes fabulous romances!) is one of the last 10 contestants in the Kensington Brava/RT Writing With the Stars contest (Woot!!). The prize is to have her book - Mistress of The Stone - published, and she needs votes for Best First Paragraph and Last Line over at RT Reviews.

 Image courtesy of Photobucket.
This is not the actual cover.

Now, even though I'm biased, I think Maria's first para has such an intriguing heroine that I'd have voted for her even if she wasn't my pal, but in all fairness why not go and read all the entries, and then vote for your favorite.

Go here and VOTE for your favorite excerpt.

Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches has weighed in and commented on all the excerpts which makes for some interesting reading :-).

Below is Maria's excerpt, which is the first paragraph and last line of the novel.  

FIRST PARAGRAPH: 

Luísa Tavares had a list of sins the length of the Antilles, but there was no time to repent for them now. She spat out the tang in her throat then shimmied down the mainmast of the Coral, her tight leather britches and sharp cutlass a mockery to all that was decent in a woman. Time was running out for the captain of the Coral. And with it, his luck.

LAST LINE:  
Mayhap, his chance had come.

***

Luísa is obviously one of those wonderful heroines who grabs the reader's, and the hero's, attention and isn't going to let it go until the very last line!! Go here to read more about Mistress of the Stone.

So!! Go read!! Go vote!! You know you want to!! :-)