Big Awesome Giveaway (Print Package) Win 9 books!!

BIG AWESOME YA GIVEAWAY (You could win tons of books!!)

Hi everybody!!

Remember how I promised you that I was putting together a big, super-secret, totally awesome giveaway?? A giveaway so amazing that you just HAVE to enter?

Well, it's here!!!!

See, I wanted to do something fun for Christmas/New Year's. It's been a big year for me. I published some books. I saw this blog grow exponentially. And I've met tons and tons of awesome people. So I wanted to celebrate with something... AWESOME.

Allow me to proudly introduce what I hope becomes a tradition on this blog....

Good News, Snow Flurries, and Cute Kitties!

Hey everybody! Happy almost-December!

Where I live (Georgia), most of the leaves have fallen, and the trees are all naked and shivery in the brand-new chill that's descended. There's even talk of snow flurries today. Winter (and some of my best writing time) is almost here!

Have you survived November? I barely did... but it's almost over...

*sigh*

But! I have so many good news to tell you guys :)

Exciting news!!

So, I've been working on a little project quietly for the last couple of weeks... something I've been meaning to do for awhile now. And yesterday I got a beautiful, shiny present in the mail...

The Curse Girl is in print now!!

Well. SOON. It'll be available soon. That is just a proof.

I am reviewing the proof now and correcting any little errors I see. It's CRAZY how many of those sneak in. I'm convinced they multiply like rabbits.

But!!! It should be available on Amazon in the next few weeks.

I took a few pictures with my cats (as that seems to be the thing to do!) but it was hard to get Sansa to cooperate. She doesn't like having her picture taken. Gizmo, on the other hand, was stoic and blank-faced.

Isn't it soooo pretty??

*squee*

Happy Thursday, everyone!!

PS ~ Check out this great review for The Curse Girl that someone just sent me :)

NaNo Stats and an Interview with Angie Azur

Hey, all!

I have an interview up with Angie Azur on her blog Writing Teazurs. You should check it out... She asked me some really interesting and thoughtful questions, ones I hadn't had before, and it was a ton of fun to respond.

Read the interview!

In other news, I am hard at work on this (semi) NaNoWriMo book. I'm at about 15k, but hopefully I can squeeze out a couple thousand words today. I think I'm finally hitting my groove with the story.

How are your word counts coming, NaNoers?

I'm an Indie Author Rockstar!

You may remember that I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was a contestant in the Indie Author Rockstar competition with The Curse Girl.

Well...

The Curse Girl won!

*fireworks*

Well, we tied for first actually. Which is just as exciting. DOUBLE the excitement, really.

I am November's co-reigning indie rockstar along with author Dan Holloway for his book The Company of Fellows.

Congrats to Dan, and yaaaayyy!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Indie Snippets!

Hey, all! Hope your Thursday is going well!

I was recently featured on Indie Snippets, a blog that posts short excerpts from ebooks. You can check out my entry here.

In other news, today's a good day for The Curse Girl. I'm currently hanging out in two Amazon Top 100 Bestseller lists (both related to fairy tales and mythology). We'll see how long it lasts. But for now, yay :)

*returns to writing*

Onward and upward, everyone!!

Welcome to the Internet Book Fair Blogfest 2011!!

Aloha readers, friends, and book browsers, and welcome to the Internet Book Fair Blogfest, or IBFB (I am tired of typing it out, lol)!

I hope you enjoy your browsing experience today. I know I have so far, and I'm not even CLOSE to done looking.

Without further ado, let me introduce my corner of this fine book fair...

 The Curse Girl ~ a YA paranormal/fantasy

What readers are saying:

"I stayed up till 3 in the morning to finish this book and then wanted to read it again as soon as I was done! I loved everything about this book--the heroine, the Beast, the magical elements, mystery and delightful romance." ~J. Jane, reader

"I bought this on impulse ... I'm SO glad I bought it and I loved the book." ~ Stacey Joy Netzel, reader/author

“This book has a little bit of everything in it and I absolutely loved it! There is the mystery of the riddle, intrigue, good vs. evil, love, betrayal, and no small amount of fantasy.” ~ The Caffeinated Diva review

Summary:

When Bee is imprisoned in a magical, cursed house because of her father's selfish choices, she has just one plan... escape! But she must solve a riddle and help her fellow prisoners break the curse that binds them all before she can leave, and that is proving more difficult than she originally thought thanks to the bitter young master of the house, Will.

Will wants nothing to do with Bee or her help (and he certainly isn't planning on falling in love with her), but he might have underestimated just how determined and clever--and irresistible--she can be.

A Super-short Excerpt!!!

He raked his gaze over me once. I felt like a package that had come in the mail, one in which the contents had turned out to be a slight disappointment.

“So you’re the Curse Girl,” he said finally, after a long pause. “The words of the curse spoke about a girl called Beauty, but I thought the line meant a beautiful girl.”

You can buy The Curse Girl for $2.99 at:

AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE, or SMASHWORDS!


But wait, there's more!

My newest book is a collection of linked short stories, Once Upon a Beanstalk. Think fairy tales with a dash of whimsey and a sprinkling of snark!

What readers are saying:

"If you like Shrek or any kind of fairy-tale mash-up, you'll enjoy this book. It's a quick read - I read it in one sitting. I love how the stories (there are three of them, the second one my favorite) blend together via reoccurring characters so you never feel you have to reboot, like you do with some short story collections." ~ J. Teekell

Summary:

In this humorous collection of fairy tale mashups combining modern day technology with fairy tale sensibilities, Rumpelstiltskin and Red Riding Hood are married and running a royal wedding planner venue, Rapunzel has been rescued from her tower and is about to start her happily ever after, and the Grimm Brothers are a group of notorious thieves who are forced to rescue a kidnapped princess in order to avoid execution.

A Super-short Excerpt!!

Nobody had thought Penelope would be capable of much when she’d first started with the police force (since she was technically a princess and all) but she’d proved everyone wrong. She was the best undercover agent they had now. Just last week she’d broken up a corrupt fairy godmother crime ring that was scamming hopeful girls into arrangements that were supposed to let them fall in love with princes. 

Penelope wondered—how many princes did people think were wandering around the kingdom, looking for love with every girl who lost a shoe in front of them?

You can buy Once Upon a Beanstalk for $0.99 at:

AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, or SMASHWORDS!



And lastly, here's a few of my fellow IBFBers whose selections I've browsed and found intriguing (so far):

The Weaver by Kai Strand

Chronicles of Caleath by Rosalie Skinner


Silent No More by Krista K. Hatch


Happy reading, and enjoy the rest of the Internet Book Fair Blogfest!!

Tomorrow: Internet Book Fair Blogfest

Did your elementary school ever have book fairs? Mine did, and I looooooved them--first we'd get a catalog with all the books displayed in tempting rows for us to drool over. I'd pour over the descriptions and circle my favorites, and I'd place an order far in advance.

(c) Horia Varlan

When the books finally came in, we'd get a few hours off to go and browse in the library where all the glossy new books were piled on long tables and displayed on little racks and stands. Everyone picked up their orders, but there were plenty of other books to handle and hold until you just had to buy them too. Temptation, I tell you. Anyway, I always wanted to buy everything on the tables (but usually ended up having an allotted fund for 2 or 3, sadly).

Tomorrow, a bunch of authors are taking part in an internet book fair. And while I can't bring anybody the experience of smelling fresh book pages or stroking a sleek cover through the screen, there will be books to browse! On this blog, I will be offering cover pics, a summary, an excerpt, blurbs, and some links to reviews for The Curse Girl. And of course I'll have links to the book fair main, where you can find the rest of the authors participating.

So if you're a writer, you might want to jump on board (there's still room for you to participate), and if you're a reader, come and browse tomorrow.

At least this time around, my book fund is a little bigger. :)

Indie Rockstar?

Happy October, my favorite month!! *tosses confetti*

I was going to ask you all a question about business, but first, an impromptu celebration! The Curse Girl has been selected as one of this month's contestants for Indie Rockstar! (You can find out more about what that is here.)

It's basically a fun, community-organized way of showing support for your fellow authors, and I am delighted to have been included in this month's running. Only authors can vote, but if you are an indie author and you want to be included ... *blinks* *smiles*

Annnyway...

Here's my question: Do any of you authors have business cards? Do you see any reason/point/perks of having them? Or is that weird?

I was thinking about it, and it WOULD be nice to be able to whip out something with my blog URL, book info, and author name on it when people ask about my books. On the other hand, who does that? I would feel silly unless I was at a conference or something else writing-related.

What do you think?

Behaving Like a Diva

Good morning, everybody!

Today I'm being featured as a guest poster on The Caffeinated Diva! You should definitely stop by to say hello, because you could win a copy of The Curse Girl. (Also I'd love it if you left a comment!) So if you'd like a free copy, or just want to see what I wrote about fairy tale retellings, definitely head over to check the post out.

You can also read her review of The Curse Girl here.

In other news, I am hoping to finish the secret book project I've been working on (instead of Darkdweller ... I know, bad Katie!) today. I was supposed to finish it last week, but I was out of town ... so it will be TODAY. #promises #maybe

I will have cover art and blurbs soon!

Interview on Kai Strand's blog Strands of Thought!

Hello, everyone, and happy Wednesday!

Author Kai Strand has interviewed me about The Curse Girl for her series Three Times a Charm, so head over and read/leave a comment if you'd like!

I'm also going to be announcing some news about upcoming books in the next few weeks if everything goes well. I've been hard at work, and it's been a long summer full of starts and stops, but I think I'm finally making good progress with Darkdweller (and some other projects that sort of came out of nowhere).

Anyway, have a lovely day everyone!

If You Liked ... ?

Beth Revis did this great post a few weeks back about recommending books, which basically talked about how just because someone liked a book with zombies doesn't necessarily mean they'll automatically like another zombie book, because there are multiple elements to each book that you can use to make recommendations. She did a cool little chart that broke it down and everything. Mostly I think she was focusing on how you can't also recommend one book based on one similarity, because not everyone liked the first book for that reason, but I loved the idea of breaking down the various elements and relating them to other books--or even movies--like that.

It's kind of like Netflix or Pandora for books.

Anyway, I liked it so much I thought I'd start doing it whenever I recommend something to you guys. I decided to try it out first with my book, The Curse Girl.

(Although yes, some of these things are movies).

If you liked . . .


Resourceful, sassy heroines struggling to break a curse?

A whimsical, magical modern world?

A romance where the guy and girl fight their initial attraction to one another with lots of sarcasm and witty banter?

If you liked any of these things, you might also like The Curse Girl. 

A Smile-Inducing Review

Hey guys, hope your Saturday is going well. I've been VERY busy writing in my WIP (almost to 40k!), but I wanted to share some minor, happy news.

The Curse Girl got a review today from All-Consuming Books that made me beam with delight. You should head over and check it out :-)

I've also added it to my review tab, where it's keeping author Emily White's very nice review company.

Have a great rest of the weekend, guys!

Chapter One of The Curse Girl

ONE

My father drove me through the woods in his truck, the wheels shuddering over the dirt road while the air hummed with all the unspoken words between us. The tears wriggled down his wrinkled cheeks only to get lost in his beard. The mark on his wrist burned at the edge of my peripheral vision as if it were glowing.

I sat silent and immobile, a statue, a paper doll, a frozen thing of stone.

When we reached the gate I drew one shuddering breath and let it out, and my father put his hand on my shoulder. His fingers dug into my skin.

“He promised he wouldn’t hurt you, Bee. He promised.”

I shifted. His hand fell limply on the seat between us. He didn’t try to touch me again.

Dad turned off the engine and we sat wrapped in the silence. I heard him swallow hard. I slid my fingers up and down the strap of my backpack. My mouth tasted like dust. The car smelled like old leather and fresh terror.

Nobody knew if the legends were lies, myth, or truth. But they all talked about the Beast that lived in the house. Some said he ate human children, some said he turned into a vicious creature in the night, some said he looked like a demon, with flames for eyes.

A trickle of sweat slipped down my spine.

“You don’t—” My father started to say, but he hesitated. Maybe he’d been hoping I would cut him off, but I didn’t. I just sat, holding my backpack, feeling the crush of responsibility slip over my shoulders and twine around my neck like a noose.

Through the gate I could see the house, watching us with dead eyes. Trees pressed close to the bone-white walls like huddled hags with flowing green hair, and everything was covered with a mist of grayish moss. I’d heard the stories my whole life—we all had—but I’d never been close enough to see the cracks in the windowsills, the dead vines clinging to the roof.

Magic hung in the air like the lingering traces of a memory. I could almost taste it. Voices whispered faintly in the wind, or was that just the trees? The knot in my stomach stirred in response.

My father tried again, and this time he got the whole sentence out. “You don’t have to do this.”

Of course I did. Of course I must. I wasn’t doing this for him. I was doing it because I had no choice. With the mark on his wrist, he was a dead man. Our whole family was doomed. He knew it and I knew it, and he was playing a game of lame pretend because he wanted to sooth his own guilt. Because he wanted to be able to look back at this moment every time it crossed his mind in the future and feel that he had offered me a way out. That he’d been willing to rescue me, but I’d refused.

Instead of responding, I opened the door and climbed out. The gravel crunched under my shoes as I stepped to the ground. I shouldered my backpack and took a deep breath.

The gate squeaked beneath my hand. I crossed the lawn and climbed the steps to the house, feeling the stone shudder beneath my shoes like the house lived and breathed. The door didn’t open on its own, which I had half-expected, but when I put my hand on the knob I could feel the energy humming inside it like a heartbeat.

My father waited at the car. I looked over my shoulder and saw him standing with one hand on the door, his shoulders pulled tight like a slingshot.

All I had to do was step inside. One step inside and the mark would disappear. And I could run home. I could outsmart this house. Couldn’t I? I sucked in a deep breath and rolled my shoulders.

Maybe I believed that. Maybe I didn’t. Why else had I brought a backpack full of clothes, toiletries?

“Bee,” my father called out, and his voice cracked. I paused, waiting for more. Maybe he really was sorry. 

Maybe he really didn’t want me to do this …

“Bee, I just wanted to tell you how thankful your stepmother and I—”

My throat tightened. He wasn't going to stop me, was he? I shook my head, and he rubbed a hand over his face and fell silent.

When he’d come home two weeks ago at 3 AM, the sleeve of his work uniform torn, his lip bleeding, and his eyes full of fear, my stepmother had cried. Really cried—wrenching sobs that made her double over and clutch at her sides. She almost looked as if she were laughing. I’d looked at him, and I could smell the magic on him. I’d known exactly where he’d been.

And there was a tiny part of me that knew then too that I’d be the one who would pay the price for his foolishness.

All I had to do now was step across the threshold. Then the mark on his wrist would vanish, and he would be free. Everything would be okay. That was all we’d promised, right?

I pushed open the door and stepped into the house. I held my breath.

Across the lawn, my father made a sound like a sob.

Was that it? Was the mark gone? 

“Daddy?” I choked out, not daring to move. “Is it—?”

“It’s gone, honey!”

I started to turn, but I wasn’t fast enough. The door snapped shut like the jaws of a hungry animal. I grabbed the handle and twisted, throwing my shoulder against the heavy wood. I shrieked, wrenching the handle harder.

It was locked.

I clawed at the wood with my fingernails until they bled. I pounded with my fists.

The door didn’t budge. It was strong as stone.

Through the slip of glass, I saw the headlights of my father’s car flick on, and the engine revved.

He was leaving me.

I slid to the floor. My sneakers squeaked against the shiny marble, my fingers slipped down the polished mahogany of the door. I didn’t want to look behind me into the mouth of the house, into the darkness that was going to be my home. Or my tomb. I didn’t want to think of how my father would go home and my absence would be like a ripple in the house, felt for a moment and then gone from their minds. I didn’t want to think about who would miss me at school. Violet. Livia. Drew.

Drew.

Grief stuck like cement behind my eyes. I wanted to cry, but I had no tears. I never had tears. My eyes burned and my throat squeezed shut, making it hard to breathe. I crouched on the floor and put my hand over my mouth and thought of Drew’s hair, his eyes, his smile.

I might never see any of those things ever again.

Terror—real terror—charged through me like a storm. It pulsed through my body, pushing at my skin, wanting to get out. Like my own soul was fighting to be free of me, like my own self couldn’t stand to be trapped here at this moment. It was a surge of blinding intensity, like lightning. Then I fell, panting, my hands braced on the cool floor.

“Stop it,” I said aloud. “Stop this.”

I didn’t have to stay here. The mark was gone and we were free and I could go home—if I could just find a way out. The idea, planted in my fear-frozen mind, cracked my terror like spring warmth. Escape.

After all, I wasn’t dead.

“Yet,” I muttered, and the echo of my voice, soft and velvet, whispered back to me in the stillness. I closed my eyes tight, counted to five, and opened them. And I looked at the place that was going to be my prison.

The foyer stretched up like a bell tower. A shattered chandelier lay three feet away, crystal droplets spread like frozen tears across the marble. Light slanted into the hall through arching windows, illuminating the rest of the room and striping the broken furniture and torn books with golden sunlight. In the middle of the room, papers and quills lay scattered around on the floor. It was as if a great monster had gone into a rage and shredded the room, and then fallen into a peaceful slumber after exhausting himself.

Behind me lurked a gloomy hallway, lined with doors.

I was stuck in this house. My friends couldn’t help me. Drew couldn’t help me. My father wouldn’t help me.

A sigh slipped through my lips as I stood to my feet.

I was alone.

Alone in the house of the Beast.

BUY FROM AMAZON

BUY FROM BARNES & NOBLE

Official Book Launch Day!!

Well, folks, it's time! The Curse Girl officially launches today!!

* confetti and balloons fall from the sky, zombicorns dance, trumpets blare *

The book is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords!

Also, I have goodies!

The first 10 people to email me stating they are willing to write an honest review of the book will receive a free copy from either Amazon (Kindle book) or a coupon for a free download from Smashwords (whatever format you prefer, EPUB, PDF, etc). Scout's honor about the review, since I can't make you do it or anything. You can post that review anywhere, Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, Goodreads, your blog ... I think Amazon is the biggest moneymaker in terms of sales for most ebook indies, but do whatever you like.

If you don't want to have to write a review or anything, but still want to do a good deed, feel free to pop over to Amazon and click "like" or click my book tags at the bottom of the page. This helps me somehow (increased visibility?) Here's a link to that page again. Remember, the zombicorns dance whenever someone clicks the like button.

Here's a summary of the book:

When her father tries to steal magic from the mysterious, beastly master of the "Curse House" outside her home town, seventeen-year-old Beauty is the one who becomes a prisoner. But Will isn't anything like she expected. He's the same age as she is, for one thing. He's also really handsome, contrary to local legend. 

Well, maybe the whole "beast" thing is meant to be metaphorical, because he's a total jerk.

Between the house's weird magic and Will's snobby attitude, the situation is nearly unbearable, and Beauty only wants to escape. But there are complications. The witch who cursed Will left him a riddle to solve and four years to figure it out. And now that Beauty's become a part of this messed up fairy tale, she'd better help Will figure out the riddle so they can break the curse, or she's going to remain a prisoner in the curse house too.

Because the four years are almost up . . .

Fireworks!

Also, Emily White has an interview and a giveaway featuring me on her blog today. Head over and check it out! You could win a free digital copy of The Curse Girl!

First Cover Reveal

Happy Monday, everybody!

I am about a month away from the launch date for my first indie book, The Curse Girl. And that means ... a tentative, experimental, maybe-not-final-but-maybe-final cover reveal!!

* drumroll *

 

Notes about the cover:

* Do you like it?

* I made it myself, and I have zero design experience, so hopefully it isn't too terrible *bites nails*

* It cost me about $6 for a couple stock photos and putting them together/changing the colors/tweaking everything took me a few hours.

* I know some people (many people?) are not fans of "face" covers. I usually am not either. But this was easiest, trust me.

* More on the face thing ... I feel a good cover should do three things: 1) be colorful/interesting enough to catch a reader's eye, 2) clearly display the title, and 3) evoke some sense of the story's mood. Hopefully this cover does all those things, and if it does, then I am satisfied.

* MOST PRESSING QUESTION ~ Do you hate the way the C and G cross? I personally like it, but then the style/positioning of the words themselves gave me the most problems, and this seems to work, and I have probably lost all objectivity at this point. I wanted to do something slightly stylized without overpowering the sparkles in the background (and I could not find a script-ish font that worked for me and had a good, non-weird C and G), so I opted for simple and did the cross thing. If everyone HATES it I can change it. The only feedback I've gotten so far was positive, but that was just my husband and he is easy to please. But he specifically mentioned liking it--I didn't even ask.

Thoughts?