Showing posts with label Angela Korra'ti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angela Korra'ti. Show all posts

Monday, January 14, 2019

HERE BE NEWS for January 14, 2019

Posted by: Dani Harper, Author
All the latest 
from the authors at 
Here Be Magic
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In Case You Missed It:

Monday, January 7 - 

"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the authors at Here Be Magic.

Thursday, January 10 -
"WHY J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S SEMI-COLONS BECAME THE BANE OF MY WRITING EXISTENCE" - Every writer has quirks that show up in their work – until an editor intervenes! Author Angela Korra'ti reveals some of her own idiosyncrasies.

Friday, January 11 -
"ONE MAN'S VILLAIN IS ANOTHER MAN'S HERO" - All about pirates, privateers, and other swashbucklers by author Ruth A. Casie.

Saturday, January 12 - 
This week's Bring It Back(list) feature is "LIONMEADE" - Tales will be told, truths will come to light, but above all, love will reign. Author Linda Mooney's paranormal romance is also on sale for 99 cents this month! See below for details.


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Bring It Back(list) Feature:



LIONMEADE
A Paranormal Fantasy Romance
by Linda Mooney
Word Count: 43.6K

$0.99 e/ $9.99 p


A kingdom is rife with rumors of the evil that lays in wait on the fringes of the woods. Fairy tales of curses, animalistic beasts, and an inhuman prince—Lady Bethel has heard the stories all her life, but what she once thought were just stories told to keep a child in line could prove to be so much more.

The daughter of Lord Voril of Banderling, Lady Bethel spends her time following in her late mother’s footsteps, caring for the sick in the villages surrounding Banderling Mayne. While traveling home after dark, against her father’s warnings, Bethel and her guards are attacked by what she thought were wild animals, but she couldn’t be more wrong. When she awakens, she can’t remember much, but she remembers voices. Particularly one—her savior.

Adain has taken it upon himself to hunt down the beasts that threaten the kingdom. The number of attacks grows, but he will stop at nothing to end the monsters he knows all too well. Having been in exile all his life, he must remain the faceless benefactor to Lady Bethel, despite his growing feelings, for she can never know the reality of his world.

Tales will be told, truths will come to light, but above all, love will reign.

Warning! Contains a deep forest retreat, death, blueberries, possible solutions, attempted kidnapping, and a birth defect with unimaginable consequences.

Excerpt and Buy Links

EBOOK SALE! 

Until January 31st, you can get the ebook of LIONMEADE for just 99 cents!

(Available at this price only on Amazon and Linda's website. 
Note: Click BUY EBOOK to get the Nook or PDF version.)
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Thursday, January 10, 2019

Why J.R.R. Tolkien's semi-colons became the bane of my writing existence

Posted by: Angela Korra'ti
For a while now, my wife has been going to a small casual reading group involving another household of friends of ours. I recently joined in, once they decided to read N.K. Jemisin's excellent Broken Earth trilogy. And since, hey, I like reading books, I've decided to stick around!

And to my great pleasure, the next thing we're tackling is The Silmarillion.

It's deeply amusing to me to go back and reread Tolkien, whose work I've loved all my life, now that I've published a few novels of my own. After having worked with a few editors now, and in particular one editor on all three of the Rebels of Adalonia books, I've started being more aware of editing-level details in other people's work.

Even Tolkien's. And this time through The Silmarillion in particular, I noticed one huge thing that leapt out at me: SO. MANY. SEMI-COLONS. Like, every other sentence or so.

If you've read this particular Tolkien work, you know that it's written in deliberately formal, mythic language. I've known this for ages, of course. But this time around, the semi-colons particularly stood out for me because my editor on the Rebels books very specifically made me yank a great number of semi-colons out!

I now have a much, much better understanding of where my propensity for throwing semi-colons all over my prose came from. :D

So with this in mind, I thought I'd share with you all today a list of other quirks in my own writing I know I have to keep on top of, lest they get out of my control.

In no particular order:

1) Why should I say something in twenty words when I can use a hundred instead? Verbosity. It's my superpower.

Let me underscore this for y'all: the draft of the book I submitted to Carina Press that became Valor of the Healer clocked in around 118,000 words. Its original draft was more like 167,000. I took out over fifty thousand words editing that thing down. That's a short novel's worth of words right there, folks.

When I write posts for my own site, the SEO plugin I've got complains at me about this, too. It gets cranky if I have too many sentences that are too long.

2) If I get fixated on a particular word or phrase I really love, I run the risk of overusing it all throughout a draft. Sometimes across multiple books.

I've learned about Scrivener's functionality for checking word frequency in a draft. I WILL be making more use of this!

3) I also overuse ellipses, particularly if I'm writing a shy character. This came up a lot as I was creating Faanshi in the Rebels books.

4) I find it all too easy to get into a rut with sentence structures, too. The first time through a draft I don't always catch this, but it's a thing I look out for in edit passes. It helps my prose flow better if I vary up the sentence structures and lengths.

5) Likewise with catching myself starting consecutive sentences with the same word. In fact, while writing this post, I rearranged the previous item in this list just so all the sentences wouldn't start with "I"!

This is another thing the SEO plugin on angelahighland.com will complain to me about.

There's more I could go into, to be sure. But in the name of curbing my natural verbosity, I'll cut it off here and turn it over to you all. Particularly fellow writers, whether you write professionally or for pleasure: what are your own quirks you catch yourself doing in your work?

-----
Angela writes the Free Court of Seattle books as Angela Korra'ti, and the Rebels of Adalonia books as Angela Highland. Either way, you can find all her books at angelahighland.com! Or, you can find her on Facebook or Twitter. (She makes no apologies, however, for her comma choices.)

Monday, December 10, 2018

HERE BE NEWS for December 10, 2018

Posted by: Dani Harper, Author
All the latest 
from the authors at 
Here Be Magic



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In Case You Missed It:

Monday, December 3 - 

"HERE BE NEWS" - New releases, ebook sales, contests and giveaways, from the authors at Here Be Magic. 

Tuesday, December 4 -

"NEW EDIT PASS on FAERIE BLOOD and BONE WALKER" - Angela Korra'ti talks about edits and additions to new versions of her books, "Faerie Blood" and "Bone Walker".

Wednesday, December 5 -

"LESSONS LEARNED FROM NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH" - In November, author Maureen Bonatch drafted 50,000 words to a brand new story. How did she do it? Plus contests to enter.

Thursday, December 6 -

"7 REASONS TO BE THANKFUL AT THE HOLIDAYS" - Author Marie Harte's secret identity is owner/operator of Romance Junkies. This week she puts on her RJ hat to give readers a terrific contest to enter.

Friday, December 7 -
"PLAYING FAVORITES" - For writers, the rarest of the rare is the story that comes together as if the stars are aligned perfectly. For author PG Forte, that story was FINDERS KEEPERS, re-released this week.

Saturday, December 8 - 
This week's Bring It Back(list) feature is "CHRISTMAS-THEMED BOOKS BY LINDA MOONEY" - Sweet, sensuous, paranormal, horror or fantasy, there's something for everyone - and they're all on sale! 

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New Release on December 13th: 


RELEASES DECEMBER 13th
HUNTED
Coven of the Raven, Book 2
by Shona Husk

SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE is 99¢
(Release Day Price will be $3.99)


People coming to the Uncommon Raven Agency for protection, are at the end of the line. 

Noah Kelly takes the cases no other bodyguard will, the ones where demons are hunting the victim. Trouble is, he’s never managed to stop a demon from killing. Not even to save the girlfriend whose murder he was acquitted of four years ago. Since then he’s been determinedly single as he tries to find a way to stop demons and ease his guilt. 

Rachel Jarrett knew she was in trouble when the divorce lawyer she’d been dealing with is found dead—his limbs torn off. She runs, desperate to flee her husband, and finds herself at the Uncommon Raven Agency in the hands of a man with his own secrets. When she tells Noah what she’s seen he doesn’t laugh. He talks about possession. 

For Noah, falling into bed with a client was always going to be bad news, but when her ex is a demon it could be fatal.

BUY LINKS: https://www.books2read.com/u/38rKJ7 

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Bring It Back(list) Feature:



Christmas-Themed Books by Linda Mooney



Click titles for excerpts and buy links:

(Sale excludes Linda's new release "The 13th Gift of Christmas")

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Sales, Contests and Events:



Our authors often take part in hosted giveaways and events, or sponsor their own.
Here are some of the latest! 
.....

7 REASONS TO BE THANKFUL THIS HOLIDAY SEASON! 

Romance Junkies is offering readers a chance to win these 7 amazing books:

  1. The Art of Running in Heels by Rachel Gibson
  2. Set the Night on Fire by Laura Trentham
  3. Leopard's Run by Christine Feehan
  4. First Earl I See Tonight by Anna Bennett
  5. Seal's Honor by Megan Crane
  6. Dragonfire by Donna Grant
  7. The Only Thing by Marie Harte
You can enter the Rafflecopter on HERE BE MAGIC at


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Ends December 13th!
WINTER WONDERLAND ROMANCE READER SCAVENGER HUNT

Hosted by Night Owl Reviews, this annual event just keeps getting bigger and better.
Lots of authors = lots of prizes to be won, such as Amazon gift cards, SpaFinder.com gift cards, Sephora.com gift cards and eBooks, eBooks, eBooks.

Grand prize is a KINDLE FIRE HD 8 with ALEXA

Check it out here:
https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Blog/Articles/Winter-Wonderland-2018-by-Night-Owl-Romance

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MAKE YOUR MONTH MORE MERRY!

Enter to win your choice of a Kindle Fire or Echo Dot in this author-sponsored contest at https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e226730a29/?

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DECEMBER eBOOK SALE on the GRIM SERIES


EBOOKS ON SALE UNTIL DEC. 31st.

Fantasy Romance, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

by DANI HARPER

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel.

The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.



Book 1 STORM WARRIOR is now $1.99 
plus just 99¢ each for 

Sale runs until December 31st, 2018
https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00XM2L6XS
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You could win Amazon gift cards, payments to your PayPal, ebooks, print books, swag bags, and more!
Link

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

New edit pass on Faerie Blood and Bone Walker

Posted by: Angela Korra'ti
I haven't released anything new in a while, for assorted reasons. One of the more pertinent ones is one that'll hopefully resonate with fellow indie authors: i.e., I've got to do new print editions of the first two books of the Free Court of Seattle series, Faerie Blood and Bone Walker.

The reason for this is that up until now, I've been producing my print copies via an espresso book machine, which has been available at the indie bookstore down the hill from my house. This has been great for convenience, because it's meant that I've been able to go down the hill, order a small print run of either book when I need one, and then go pick them up when they're ready!

It's not been so great though for discoverability of my books. So I'd been thinking anyway of transitioning to CreateSpace--or rather, KDP Print, CreateSpace's replacement. But the bookstore near my house forced the matter by deciding they were going to no longer have the espresso book machine available.

So now, given that I'm flat out of personal copies of Faerie Blood and have only two left of Bone Walker, I'm having to do new edit passes.

As of this writing, I'm about halfway through the new edit pass on Faerie Blood. So for purposes of this post, here are some items of interest!

1. When I did the second edition of this book, I hadn't gotten Scrivener yet. So as part of this whole effort, I've ported the last shipping master version of the book into Scrivener, and am doing my edit pass there now.

2. Scrivener's ability to do labels and statuses is proving super useful. I've been able to label the chapters from the second edition as "Second Edition", and roll them over to "Third Edition" when I'm ready to work on them. I have also been using "To Do", "In Progress" and "Done" statuses on them. Which winds up looking like this:

What My Scrivener Project Looks Like

3. I've been keeping a thorough change log of all the changes I'm making. This is for my wife, who does the layout for the print editions of the Free Court books. And it'll be easier for her to apply all the changes to her existing master PDF than to try to whip up a brand new one. This change log, accordingly, is pretty long. Fortunately, a lot of those changes are very similar. See item 4!

4. Faerie Blood's first edition was released in 2009, and the second edition in 2012. Since releasing that book, I've also done Bone Walker as well as the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy. And after working with my editor on the Rebels books, I've had my writing style tighten up considerably. In particular, I'm looking back at Faerie Blood and going GOOD LORD WOMAN, SEMICOLONS MUCH? Not to mention throwing exclamation marks into dialogue all over the damn place. A lot of what I'm doing in this editing pass is backing off on using those two punctuation marks.

5. Faerie Blood's second edition had its timeline bumped a bit to set its "present day" as of when it was released, i.e., more or less 2012. For the third edition, I will not be changing that. It is nonetheless kind of funny to see how I wrote it with the assumptions of someone who'd started her career in tech in the 90's, whereas Kendis? Not so much. Like, I'd envisioned Kendis' job as still having offices. Anybody who works in Seattle in tech now, and who therefore knows that you only get an office if you're a manager and everybody else sits on an open floor plan, will know why this makes me snicker now. I'm not changing it, though; I'm declaring Kendis' workplace as canonically retro enough that they still did give their testers actual offices.

6. I have been asked by one of my local readers if I'd consider putting in a punctuation guide in the new editions of the Free Court books. As this is an excellent idea, I will in fact be doing so.

And that's that for now. If I get ambitious I should be able to finish this edit pass by the end of this year. I'd like to have the third edition of Faerie Blood ready to ship by this coming spring, ideally by the time Norwescon 2019 rolls around so I'll have copies to sell there. Then I'll swing around and do this again for Bone Walker.

And hey, if anybody wants my one of my last two espresso book machine copies of Bone Walker, you can have 'em for ten bucks plus shipping!

--
Angela is frustrated with her ongoing writing block, but hey, new print editions means she can release SOMETHING. Come cheer her on on Facebook or Twitter, or on her site at angelahighland.com!

Monday, November 5, 2018

HERE BE NEWS for November 5, 2018

Posted by: Dani Harper, Author
All the latest 
from the authors at 
Here Be Magic
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In Case You Missed It:

Monday, October 29 - 

"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the authors at Here Be Magic.

Tuesday, October 30 - 

"THE 12 DAYS OF SAMHAIN" - Looking for a Halloween carol to sing? Author Linda Mooney has written one for you! 

Wednesday, October 31 - 
"FEAR AND HOPE ON ALL HALLOW'S EVE" - Author Jenny Schwartz talks about how Halloween may bring BOTH emotions to the surface.

Thursday, November 1 - 
"MY FAVORITE CREEPY STORIES" - Author Angela Korra'ti lists five of her favorite books, and five of her favorite movies!

Friday, November 2 - 
"MY FAVORITE MONSTER" - WE HAVE WINNERS in our Halloween Giveaway at Here Be Magic! We received a lot of great comments about YOUR favorite monsters too!

Saturday, November 3 - 
This week's Bring It Back(list) feature is "IN THE DARK" by PG Forte. See all the details below.

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Bring It Back(list) Feature:


When you live forever, you're bound to make a few mistakes.

IN THE DARK


San Francisco, 1969. Vampire Conrad Quintano has been around for centuries—long enough to know that falling for a human is a terrible idea. Much less falling for adventure-seeking hippie Desert Rose. An even more terrible idea? Agreeing to raise her babies and protect them with his life.

Present day. Marc and Julie Fischer have always known they’re vampires. Raised in virtual isolation, they’ve never known their parentage or their unique status in the world. But once their uncle comes to take them home, the family reunion is nothing like they anticipated and they’re thrust into a world they’re completely unprepared for.

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Sales, Contests and Events:





MY FAVORITE MONSTER + MULTI-AUTHOR GIVEAWAY 
We have WINNERS!

We had a lot of fun and hope that you did too! Not only did we receive a lot of entries, but we were delighted to read all the great comments about YOUR favorite monsters! 

THANK YOU to everyone who entered!

  1. Brenda Rezk wins an EBOOK of "Old Sins, Long Shadows" by PG FORTE
  2. Amber Terry wins an EBOOK of "A Hunt by Moonlight" by SHAWNA REPPERT
  3. Debbie Plesha wins her choice of an EBOOK by DANI HARPER
  4. Tammie King wins a "Boxed Set" (ebooks) of the Ravensblood Series by SHAWNA REPPERT
  5. Mandy Baker wins her choice of an EBOOK by CINDY SPENCER PAPE
  6. Melannie Savell wins an EBOOK: "Between a Rock and a Hard Dragon" by CINDY SPENCER PAPE plus a Halloween short story
  7. Gayle Oreluk wins a signed PRINT copy of "Queen Takes Knights" by JOELY SUE BURKHART
  8. Beverly Laude wins her choice of an EBOOK by LINDA MOONEY
and our GRAND PRIZE WINNER is: 
9. Reyna Herrera wins a $60 Amazon Gift eCard from all the authors at Here Be Magic


All winners are contacted directly by email. Be sure to check your spam filter!

Check out the post at https://herebemagic.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-favorite-monster-multi-author.html

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Thursday, November 1, 2018

My favorite creepy stories, in book and movie form

Posted by: Angela Korra'ti
Technically it's the day after Halloween, but I don't care. Here's a Halloween-themed post anyway! Specifically, about my favorite examples of creepy storytelling. I like horror--but my horror preferences are weighted towards suspense-type horror and creepiness, rather than gore. Which has, over the years, informed what books and movies have become my favorites in the genre.

In no particular order, here are five of my favorite creepy books, and five of my favorite creepy movies!

Books:

1) Rolling in the Deep, by Mira Grant. Mira Grant, a.k.a. Seanan McGuire, is definitely one of my favorite authors. But I tend to prefer her Grant titles, in no small part because she's really good at creepiness. And it comes in a nicely condensed novella-length form in Rolling in the Deep. Complete with scary mermaids.

2) The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell, also by Mira Grant. I adore Grant's Newsflesh trilogy, but in some ways I find the novellas set in the same universe almost more satisfying. In particular, The Day the Dead Came to Show and Tell is deeply nerve-wracking, in no small part because of it being a zombie story set in a school.

3) The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan. "Lyrical" is not a word I would normally think to apply to a zombie novel, but I sure did to this one. Like Grant's Newsflesh books, this story is less about the zombie apocalypse per se and more about the society that has evolved since, a trope I like a lot.

4) Four and Twenty Blackbirds, by Cherie Priest (and books 2 and 3 as well). Priest is another author who's great at creepy atmosphere. Her Eden Moore books, the ones by which I initially discovered her, had this in spades.

5) The Mist, by Stephen King. It is probably inevitable to have King on this list--though I've read only a small fraction of his titles! This one, though, stood out for me in being a tight little story with very spare, clean prose. (And I liked it way better than the movie version. If you want to engage with this story, I definitely recommend the book rather than the film.)

Movies:

1) The Ring (American version). When this movie came out, my household found it deliciously creepy--in no small part because it was set in Seattle. Moreover, they got the rainy, cloudy atmosphere of a Seattle winter right, as well as the sorts of busses we use in our mass transit system. The best part? Coming out of the theater into the exact same rainy, cloudy atmosphere, which had us all going AAAAH WE'RE STILL IN THE MOVIE.

2) Paranormal Activity. This thing had me creeped out for weeks after, particularly the part about the possessed heroine lurking next to her sleeping husband and just STARING at him in the dark. (Which my wife TOTALLY pulled on me one night, since I go to bed earlier than she does. I wasn't quite asleep yet when I rolled over and found her lurking there and went AAAAAAAH!)

3) The Pit and the Pendulum. Let's go classic old school horror here, with one of the Edgar Allan Poe flicks starring Vincent Price. This was delicious. It's an excellent example of why, if you ever find yourself in a horror movie with Vincent Price, it is a sound survival strategy to avoid pissing him off.

4) The Shining. Again, probably inevitable to have Stephen King here. But the man's considered a master of horror for a reason, and this film is an excellent example of why.

5) Alien. Sci-fi horror is still horror! I've heard this movie described as a haunted house movie in space, which it is. And while I really rather like Aliens better, still, the original is a splendid example of that suspenseful creepiness I love. Plus it has Ripley, and Ripley is utterly badass.

So there you go! I hope all of you had a suitably creepy and/or candy-filled Halloween! What are your favorite scary reads or watches? Tell me about them in the comments!

--
Angela likes creepy stories and good chocolate, and a holiday that celebrates both of these things is splendid in her book. The one ghost story she's written so far, "The Blood of the Land", has no chocolate in it, alas. She promises to rectify this problem if she writes another creepy story! Still, c'mon over to angelahighland.com, Facebook, or Twitter if you'd like to tell her more about your own favorite creepy tales. Or your favorite chocolate.

Monday, September 10, 2018

Here Be News for September 10, 2018

Posted by: Dani Harper, Author
All the latest 
from the authors at 
Here Be Magic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Case You Missed It:

Monday, September 3 - 
"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the authors at Here Be Magic.

Tuesday, September 4 - "Characters I'd love to have visit my work" - Angela Korra'ti imagines how her favorite characters from other fantasy authors would fit into her own magical universe.

Wednesday, September 5 - "4 Stories that Stuck with Me" - author ...Maureen Bonatch talks about books that have lived on long after their last page.

Thursday, September 6 - Author Marie Harte has a secret identity as the force behind the Romance Junkies review site. This week she shared a giveaway from RJ on the blog. (Closed now, but you can see who won!)

Saturday, September 8 - This week's Bring It Back(list) feature is "The Hairy-Legged Girls Club" by author Linda Mooney writing as Carolyn Gregg. ON SALE this month for 99 cents! See all the details below!

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Bring It Back(list) Feature:

THE HAIRY-LEGGED GIRLS CLUB


By Linda Mooney writing as Carolyn Gregg
Contemporary Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 33.9K
$0.99 ebook 
$9.99 paperback

From September 1st - 30th, you can get the ebook for just 99 cents! (Available at this price only on Amazon and my website. Note: Click BUY EBOOK to get the Nook or PDF version.)


Fresh out of the military, the last thing Brint Cirrus needs is trouble. Besides, he has a secret to protect. But when he parks his motorcycle at a Texas roadside bar and meets sexy Heleema, the lead singer of the country band, The Hairy-Legged Girls Club, it's clear trouble looks mighty good. The feeling is definitely mutual.

Intent on consummating their mutual attraction, Brint and Heleema leave the bar, and a group of drunken men who had been harassing Heleema earlier follow them. The men ram their pick-up into the motorcycle, sending the bike and both riders into a bar ditch along the side of the road. When Brint comes to, he finds Heleema on the verge of being raped. Secret or no secret, he has to rescue her. But as he shape shifts into his dog persona, he sees Heleema shift into a coyote. Together they dispatch the attackers, killing one of them, then escape. But their enemies aren’t so easily deterred and they want revenge.


From the very beginning Brint and Heleema are drawn together in lust. Now they are drawn together in danger as shape shifters and as humans.  In Heleema, Brint has found a woman he can trust and love. In Brint, Heleema has found a man to satisfy her passion and her heart.

EXCERPT & BUY LINKS

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Sales, Contests, and Events
that HBM authors are participating in!


There's still time to enter this one at BookWrapt!








GENRE PARTY!


Romance readers, discover new authors and stories in YOUR favorite genres all this month on Facebook. 

Miss a day? No problem! 
You can search by hashtag for the genre you want!

Check it out at 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/487252568382193


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Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Characters I'd love to have visit my work

Posted by: Angela Korra'ti
When I put out a call about what to post about today on the blog, I was asked:

"Are there any character from other authors that you would transport into your worlds that you write about and are there any author you'd like to co write with (dead or alive, same with characters)? This might possibly be two separate posts."

Since both of these questions follow the general theme of crossovers, I think they would indeed make a nice pair of posts. For this one, I'll focus on the question of characters.

Here are some characters I think would fit nicely into the Warder Universe:

From C.E. Murphy's The Walker Papers, Joanne Walker. Not only because the Walker Papers are urban fantasy, but also because they're set in Seattle. With two Warders and a high-powered half-Seelie mage running around the city, if that same Seattle contained Joanne Walker in its police force, she couldn't help but notice them.

From Kat Richardson's Greywalker series, Harper Blaine. Because again, urban fantasy set in Seattle. The Greywalker books tend to go a bit darker than the Warder universe has to date. But if Richardson's Seattle intersected in any way with mine, I daresay private investigator Harper would be in an even better position to notice Team Kendis than Joanne.

From Seanan McGuire's October Daye books, October Daye. More urban fantasy, this time not actually set in Seattle--but given that October's a high-powered half-fey, I'm pretty damn sure Kendis could learn a lot from her.

At this point, astute readers are probably noticing I'm pulling in a bunch of my favorite authors here, and those readers would not be surprised in the slightest to see that my next choice is Tanya Huff. And I'd have to go with two potential characters from her books. One would be Henry from the Vicki Nelson series, in no small part because to date the Warder universe does not yet contain vampires and it might be amusing to see what happens if Kendis discovers them. The other would be Charlie Gale from The Future Fire. Not only is Charlie high-powered magically, she's _also_ a musician. I'd have great fun seeing her and Elessir trying to out-jam each other.

No wait I lied, there's another Tanya Huff character I must include! I have to give a shoutout to Dean McIssac in her Keeper series. If he ever got a chance to meet Christopher, I think those two Newfoundlander b'ys would get on very, very well together. <3 (In fact, Dean is a strong inspiration for Christopher. I loves me some boy-scout-ish Newfoundlanders, what can I say?)

Last but not least I'll pull in Doranna Durgin's Brenna Fallon, from her book A Feral Darkness. This is still one of my all time favorite Durgin titles. I'd call it urban fantasy except its setting is not actually urban; it's more rural. I'm partial to the story not only for its use of magic and its excellent lead characters, but also because it's got an adorable dog. And if Brenna herself is not a Warder, I could see her very much being an ally power to the Warder nearest to her.

And one other Durgin character who I think would blow Kendis's mind: Jess, from the Changespell books. Just because a horse who gets changed into a human, has her entire brain restructured as a result, and who then has to figure out how to navigate both ways of existing and whether she even wants to exist both ways, would be someone very educational for Kendis to know. Just on general "whoa, how is this even POSSIBLE?" terms. And then on "letting her meet other people who don't necessarily think like humans" terms, too.

The Rebels of Adalonia books would be harder. Modern urban fantasy by its very definition--i.e., the "real" world, but with magic, supernatural creatures and situations, etc.--means it's more possible for different urban fantasy settings to intersect. Get two urban fantasy series set in the same city, and a crossover could practically write itself.

Epic/high fantasy, on the other hand, offers no such convenient intersection points. Some series in that genre are still ostensibly our world, but either in the distant past (like my beloved Tolkien), or a far distant, post-apocalyptic future (e.g., Terry Brooks). But many other fantasy series are set in their own secondary worlds, which may or may not have enough cultural or technological things in common to create crossover possibilities.

That said? After what I put all three of them through in the Rebels trilogy, I daresay Faanshi, Kestar, and Julian would all do very well with a vacation in Lothlórien--Faanshi in particular. My shy young healer girl could stand to learn a lot from Galadriel.

How about the rest of you out there? If you're a writer, whose characters would you love to drop into your work, and which of your characters would you love to drop into someone else's? And what are your all's favorite examples of crossovers in any media? Talk to me in the comments!

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Angela wouldn't necessarily give her right arm (she needs that to type with, as well as play her fiddle) to write with Tanya Huff, but she'd certainly be willing to sacrifice some time and maybe some very, very good Scotch. In the meantime, if you'd like to know more about the stuff she's written on her own, go have a look at angelahighland.com! Or come find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Monday, August 6, 2018

Here Be News for August 6, 2018

Posted by: Dani Harper, Author
All the latest 
from the authors at 
Here Be Magic
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In Case You Missed It:

Monday, July 30 - 

"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the authors at Here Be Magic.

Tuesday, July 31 - 
"FALLING INTO ROMANCE - how one writer found the genre" by Dani Harper

Wednesday, August 1 - 
Magic can take many forms. Check out "WEATHER AND ELEMENTAL MAGIC IN SF/F" by author Angela Korra'ti

Thursday, August 3 - 
"PREPARE TO PROMOTE BEFORE YOU FINISH THE BOOK" - Advice for authors by Maureen Bonatch.

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Upcoming:

Image: Bigstock.com
As readers, we often wonder how a story gets written. But do you ever wonder where it was written? 

The Here Be Magic authors are getting together to share their favorite places to hang out with their laptop in "WHERE DO WRITERS WRITE?"  

Watch for it here on August 17th! 

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Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Weather and elemental magic in SF/F

Posted by: Angela Korra'ti

In the last couple years it’s been very difficult to miss events of extreme weather in the news: destructive wildfires, massive hurricanes, flooding, and more. And if you’re a fan of SF/F, it may have crossed your mind at least once to wonder how someone might deploy weather-based magic to ease the ravages of these events. If you’re an SF/F author, you may have even been asked if you’d ever write weather-based magic; I have!

So here’s a post about that.

First, I’d like to note that I certainly do like me some elemental-based magic in my fantasy. It’s a very common trope to have a world where users of magic are aligned with Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra is a recent big example, but it’s hardly the only one. If you google for “books with elemental magic”, you’ll find multiple Goodreads lists with titles spanning the epic fantasy, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance genres, and with publication dates over the last several decades. Jim Butcher, Mercedes Lackey, Rachel Caine, Tanya Huff, Sharon Shinn, and many other authors have all dipped their pens into that particular inkwell.

I’ve also seen that legendary weather events have in fact made their way into urban fantasy as part of authors’ worldbuilding choices. Hurricane Katrina in particular has shown up repeatedly in novels set in and around New Orleans, and with good reason. It was a massive, transformative event all on its own, entirely aside of any connection to settings that include magic. In a setting with magic, weather events of that caliber gain the power to wreak even more havoc. As backstory for a character or a city, it can be a critical developmental event. As an actual on-camera event, it can raise the stakes even higher in the climax of a story—or could even be the climax of the story.

As for me?

Given that I’m already writing an urban fantasy series with magic in it, it’s not out of the question that weather-based or elemental-based magic might eventually show up in the Warder universe. I grew up in Kentucky, an area of the United States prone to tornados and thunderstorms, as anyone from the Midwest knows. To this day, I have visceral memories of a tornado that hit Louisville in 1974 when I was five. And as an adult in the Pacific Northwest, I have a very healthy appreciation for the power of windstorms that hit the Puget Sound region every fall. (Just ask folks who follow me on social media how many times I’ve warned about power outages taking down my website!)

If you’ve read Bone Walker, you know that the climax of that novel does indeed deal with a weather event that strikes Seattle, fueled by the wrath of a spirit-possessed dragon. Seattle’s Warders, along with my heroine Kendis Thompson, must raise their powers in response to that event. Kendis, Christopher, and Millicent do not, themselves, have elemental or weather-based magic. But the Warders and the Sidhe are only two populations in that universe that use magic. A story has not yet presented itself to me for that world where weather or elemental magic would be in play… but one may yet do so.

In the meantime, I’ll continue my affection for the trope in other people’s stories! I do have a strong affection for the two Avatar animated series, as well as Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden books and Tanya Huff’s Quarters series.

What about the rest of you? What are your favorite weather-based or elemental-magic-based stories? Talk to me in the comments!

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Angela writes urban fantasy as Angela Korra'ti, and epic fantasy as Angela Highland. But no matter what name she's using, you can come geek out with her on angelahighland.com, Facebook, or Twitter. Come say hi!

Monday, July 2, 2018

Here Be News for July 2, 2018

Posted by: Dani Harper, Author

All the latest from the authors at Here Be Magic



In Case You Missed It:

Tuesday, June 26 - "How I Find New Things to Read" by Angela Korra'ti
"...I thought I’d do a roundup of where I find my newest reads, in the hope that this might prove helpful to fellow readers out there! So in no particular order, I give you my list of recommendation sources!..."

Friday, June 29 - "What Point of View is for You?" by Maureen A. Bonatch

"We all have different reasons for choosing the types of book that we like to read. Perhaps the reason is just that you love a good story, no matter what the genre or what point of view (POV) it’s written in..."

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Sales, Contests & Events:


"Christmas in July" SALE on Kindle Version of 
THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT by Dani Harper




Purchase Link:

.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

Don't forget to enter the
Summer Fun Scavenger Hunt

Some of our Here Be Magic authors are sponsors of this fun annual event for romance readers!

Over 100 winners in all. Prizes include Amazon gift cards or ebooks.
Grand Prize is a Kindle Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa.
Plus, this event is open to international entries!

But hurry - it comes to an end on July 5th.



Check it out here:
https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Blog/Articles/Summer-Fun-2018

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