Friday, March 15, 2013

The 3rd Annual Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop!


Why hello there lads and lasses! I have the good fortune to welcome you t' the 3rd Annual Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop! This one is hosted by I Am A Reader Not A WriterBooks Complete Me and Author Cindy Thomas.

As I've done in a previous hop, I'm givin' away a fine book about creatures that have nothin' t' do with the wee folk. I'll be givin' away a free copy of NIGHT CHILDREN: DARK THREATS


Now b'fore ye be gettin' all up in me face and sayin' "Now that's got nuthin t'do with the magical wee folk of t' emerald isle!" I need t' be tellin' ye that in fact the vampire Annabelle and her good friend, Thomas (what a fine Irish name!) did in fact visit the wee people in the mid 1700s. Of course you won't be seeing that tale until her third book, Night Children: Dark Quest, gets published. But I will tell you that she's been very kind to the wee people.


So don't  get yer dander up and be causing any problems or you'll be answering t'me!

Ahem.

Now, all ye have t'do is follow this hear fine blog an' reply to this post that you'd like a copy. I'll be postin' the winner at the end of the hop time.

Now I must be off. I've got gold to hide an' fools to taunt.

An' don't ye be forgettin' t' visit the other fine lads and lasses in this hop or I'll hide your shoes!

Btw, the winner of last week's hop be CBarton! Congrads to ye and my lady lack always be at your side.







Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Lunar Love Giveaway Winner is...


CBarton!  Congratulations! And a big THANK YOU to everyone who followed ands commented!

Tonight right after midnight the next hop begins. I'm taking part in the 3rd Annual Lucky Leprechaun Giveaway Hop! The official  post will be at 12:01 and unless you're a night owl or bat like Annabelle and Roland, you'll probably catch it tomorrow morning.

I'll be giving away another copy of Dark Threats so if you missed your chance to get it, here's another opportunity.  Just like the one CBarton won, this will be a new paperback, straight off the presses.

I have added a few things to the paperback version and the proof copy will be arriving shortly. Once I review it, I'll give it the thumbs up and order a whole bunch. I'm also adding some extra things to Dark Birth as well.

Added to both books will be...

A new chapter list for Threats
A blurb on Birth (in Threats) and a blurb on Threats (in Birth).
Updated author picture and bio
A list of where to find both books
An altered scene (Birth only)

Keep in mind, these small changes are in the paperback copies for now, but later this month the eBook versions will get those changes, too, plus more stuff!

Bite of Story Thursday

I'm currently working on a short story called Night Children: Dark Loss. It's far from ready for even a sneek peek, so instead I thought I'd share a bit from Book Two in the Dark Beginings Saga. As always, this is from the rough draft so it does not reflect the final product. Enjoy!

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Night Children: Dark Changes
Chapter Five, A Peace Forever Shattered




Eliza saw it first.  The out of place shape caused her to stop her bat form short.  Lying in the middle of the main road, where anyone could stumble across it, was the body of a dead man.

“Who’s that?” She asked.

“I don’t... wait.  He looks familiar.”  Annabelle glided down to the ground.  Eliza followed.  They were in their human shapes when Eliza knelt down to examine the cadaver.

It was a young man in his early twenties.  His skin pale as a sheet, two small holes scared his neck.  “It’s Jonathan Jorgan.” Annabelle said.  “He’s one of Henry’s friends.  His grandfather settled the town.” 

The sound of many horses thundered through her ears.  Fear caused Annabelle’s legs to freeze in place.  Several angry men arrived in wagons and on horseback.  Henry Dunston, enraged like never before, leaped out of the first wagon and ran to his friend.  The men yelled and jeered as they surrounded the vampires.

Annabelle grabbed Eliza’s arm for safety.  She was scared out of her wits.  She chanced a look towards the forest behind the men.  Annabelle could not believe the hate and fear in their eyes. 

“Henry?  Why are you--”

He cut her off.  “They did this!”  Henry jumped to his feet and pointed at Annabelle and Eliza.  Spit flew from his red face as he shouted, “That’s Eliza Pratchet.  She’s a vampire.” 

The men gasped.  Every nerve in Annabelle’s body demanded escape, but the shock of Henry’s betrayal rooted her to the spot.  

Eliza’s strong look spoke volumes.  She wanted Annabelle to flee to safety.  Annabelle returned her look and squeezed her hand.  She’d never leave her adoptive mother. 

Henry continued, “Remember those Foresight children that were killed by wolves years ago?  She turned them into vampires.  That’s one of them.”  Angry shouts echoed through the night, running a shiver up Annabelle’s spine.  “She killed my brother Thomas and tricked me into keeping quiet.”  He pointed at Annabelle.

“No, Servo killed Tom.  I saved him by turning...” It was the worse thing she could say.  The ever growing crowd jeered her.  “Henry, please.  You promised.” 

“You tricked me.  You corrupted Thomas.”  Henry turned back towards the angry mob.  “She spent her first night as a vampire planning ways to change by brother and sister.  They snuck into our room and put a spell on Polly and Thomas.”

“That’s a lie.” Annabelle shouted it out as tears clouded her vision. 

“She mesmerized my brother, made him want to be... that.”  He gestured at them like they were diseased creatures.  “I don’t know how Polly and I escaped her notice, but she killed him.”

Furious jeers erupted from the crowd.  Eliza pulled at Annabelle’s arm but she held her ground.  There must be some way to convince them he was wrong.  She had to know why Henry was doing this.

“Now he’s a monster, just like them.”

“It’s not true,” she blinked away the tears.  “Tom wanted to be like us.”

“She admits it,” Henry roared and the mob shouted.  The deafening sound hurt her ears.  “Now look what they have done.”

“No, we didn’t do this.  We don’t know who--”

“Don’t listen to her lies.  Now they’ve killed Johnny.  This has to stop,” Henry roared from the top of his lungs as he grabbed tightly to her left arm.  “Get them.  Don’t let them escape.” 

By this time, the crowd had filled the street.  They moved as one, crushing into Eliza and Annabelle.  They pulled at the girls’ hair, bruised their bodies, kicked and hit them.

Savage pain raked her body from all sides at once.  Instinctively, she scratched and hit back and some men fell to the ground.  Others screamed as her sharp nails dug into their flesh.  It barely made a difference because more attackers replaced the fallen.


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Importance Of Keywords For MetaData And The Discoverability Of Your Book by Joanna Penn

Here's a great article on using keywords to get your book noticed. It's from Joanna Penn over at the Creative Penn.

I've applied this to Night Children : Dark Birth and hope to do it with Dark Threats as well.

More on this as things develop.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Special Repost: Who's Who in the Annabelle Universe? Annabelle Foresight

ANNABELLE FORESIGHT




By Adam Diller



Other names:
Ann, Night Child, bossy sister


Name Origin:

ANNABEL: "Beautiful grace." A compound name consisting of English Ann, "grace," and French Belle, "beautiful." Variants include Anabel, Anabella, Anabelle, Annabal, Annabelinda, Annabell, Annabella and Annabelle.


Physical characteristics:
Short in height. Red bushy hair. Red eyes. Small white fangs. Wears a variety of clothing but likes to wear combinations of red and black.


Age Chart:

She was turned at age 11. Every hundred years she ages one year. She actually experiences her years longer than normal humans. Vampire children remain that age emotionally and mentally, perhaps for self preservation so they do not go insane living as an adult trapped in a child body.

Annabelle, however, is more mature for her age. How she handles immortality remains to be seen.

Advancement Chart:

b. October 13th 1681 d. 1692
born a vampire 1692-
Age 11 1692-1792
Age 12 = 1792-1892
Age 13 = 1892-1992
Age 14 = 1992-Present Day
No other ages available at the moment.

Abilities:
She gets dreams that show the near future (but presently in the books she is unaware of this. When she learned of this ability remains unknown). She has the standard vampire abilities. This means she’s faster and stronger than humans, her senses are extremely acute as are her reflexes. She can fly and turn into a bat. In later years she has shown the ability to transform into a wolf, rat and mist but how she learn these things has yet to be told. She can control humans through mesmerization and communicate with lesser beasts.

Known History:

In 1692 Annabelle Foresight moved with her family to the wilds of Massachusetts. The Vampire Lord Dominic Pratchet killed her parents and left her and her brother Roland for dead. Dominic's wife Eliza turned them into vampires, taught them the things they needed to know and became a surrogate mother to them.

As the centuries have passed, Annabelle has become a hero to many, constantly fighting Dominic's forces as a member of the Order of Righteous Vampires. She prefers to drink the blood of animals instead of humans. Annabelle is deeply concerned about the safety of mortal children.

She is determined, loyal to family, feels love for others and angry if someone hurts her family. Annabelle is outward friendly,book smart, a quick learner and sometimes acts too serious to make up for her reckless older brother. She tends to pretend to be brave and mock the bad guys.

She takes life too seriously and can be bossy. She takes over when she should sit back. She can often make decisions before consulting others. She's afraid deep inside if she doesn’t just make things happen, they will fall apart right away.

Before vampirism she loved animals and winced when they got hurt. After becoming a vampire she now sees them as something to eat. In some ways she has lost touch with who she was. She has a deep fear of two men, Hawke the vampire hunter and Dominic, the vampire who killed her parents.











Monday, March 11, 2013

Update!

Hello gentle followers. It’s been crazy lately. Work has been insanely busy and so has my home life. Also I had a touch of the flu last week. Because of all this I haven’t been able to do this week’s Who’s Who so we’ll be skipping a week. Don’t fret though; we’ll be back next week. There are a few posts that will pop up so the blog won’t be completely boring.




I’ve watched three movies for the first time (Wreck It Ralph, Beautiful Creatures and Oz the Great and Powerful) and re-watched Breaking Dawn II. I should do some kind of review post for them so later this week or next weekend I’ll bang something out for you.



I’m trying to make the time to work on another Annabelle short story called Dark Loss. I figure if I get a short one finished, checked and edited I can get it online this year for those few Annabelle fans. Then it’ll be back to Myths. Still waiting to hear back from the bata readers on Book 2 AKA Dark Changes.



Also I’m in the process of doing a few tweaks on Dark Threats and Dark Birth before I order more paperbacks from Create Space.



I will announce the winner of the Lunar Hop real soon!



So lots of stuff going on. Watch this space

Author Sarra Cannon: MILESTONE: 100,000 Sales. The numbers.

I found this great post from Author Sarra Cannon. She's an independent young adult author and has reached 100,000 sales. On her site she does a breakdown on her sales and explains how she's been able to do so well.

Check it out here.

For me the biggest lesson is the amount of material she has brought out. Her sales are strong because she has a lot of books that the readers can enjoy. Sure, marketing is important, but sales come from plenty of product. And that translates to lots of adventures for the readers to enjoy.

I've got some history on producing lots of little stories. I can do this. So watch this space. I've got some plans.