Of Bells, Books, and Candles

My first post on Here Be Magic, nearly a year ago on New Year’s Eve, had almost the same title. The movie that prompted that post is one of my seasonal favorites, so it's no surprise that it would be on my mind. I've watched it once already this month, and it won't be the last time.

While talking about Bell, Book and Candle in a post for one of the other stops on my blog tour, I recalled that I’d blogged about it before. The return of my thoughts to the same track nearly 12 months later really reinforced for me the turning of the wheel of the year, and how everything comes back to where it all started.

What struck me looking back at that first HBM post was the fact that in the midst of some exciting beginnings, I was lamenting endings.

Last December I’d just sold my first novella, just signed with my agent, and was finishing up revisions on my first novel in preparation for submission to publishers. This year, my novella The Devil’s Garden was published by Carina, and just two days ago, my debut novel The Fallen Queen was released by Entangled Publishing.

That post a year ago was about honoring the cycle of death and rebirth, and remembering that every ending is also a beginning. That couldn’t have been more true for me in 2011. In October, I lost my partner of 13 years to cancer amid all these new beginnings, and the journey forward seems a bit bittersweet. Jack put up with my pre-publication angst for all those years we were together; I wish he could have seen my first book in print. But like my heroine Anazakia in The Fallen Queen, I know I’ll find the light of new beginnings in the darkness.

In the meantime, as I promised myself a year ago, I'll try to remind myself to celebrate the endings. Because ultimately, the two are inseparable. No matter how we deal with it, the wheel will always turn.

Has this year been a year of endings or beginnings for you? Leave a comment and tell me how, and you'll be entered in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. (And—hint, hint—you may just have something new to to buy things for with that certificate if you come back for our big holiday giveaway later this month.) Contest closes on December 15.

I’m also giving away a copy of The Fallen Queen today at RhiReading, and being interviewed on Rex Robot Reviews, with several additional chances to win from previous tour stops whose contests are still open. To find out where else I’ll be on my blog tour and which giveaways are still open, check out the Where’s Jane page on my website. And don't forget to come back to Here Be Magic next week for the big giveaway reveal!

Jane Kindred
www.janekindred.com

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Heaven can go to hell.

Until her cousin slaughtered the supernal family, Anazakia’s father ruled the Heavens, governing noble Host and Fallen peasants alike. Now Anazakia is the last grand duchess of the House of Arkhangel’sk, and all she wants is to stay alive.

Hunted by Seraph assassins, Anazakia flees Heaven with two Fallen thieves—fire demon Vasily and air demon Belphagor, each with their own nefarious agenda—who hide her in the world of Man. The line between vice and virtue soon blurs, and when Belphagor is imprisoned, the unexpected passion of Vasily warms her through the Russian winter.

Heaven seems a distant dream, but when Anazakia learns the truth behind the celestial coup, she will have to return to fight for the throne—even if it means saving the man who murdered everyone she loved.