Cover Reveal!

I mentioned a few months back that this was going to be my Summer of Massive Re-branding, with all new covers for three of my series, and re-releases for two of them. By the time September rolls around, I figure I'll be lucky if I remember my name. 

I'd hoped to spread things out a little more, but the two series that are re-releasing are both doing so this month, within a couple of weeks of each other. Today I get to do a cover reveal for the six new covers for my Children of Night series. And, because everything is happening all at once, all six books are currently available for pre-order as of yesterday. 

Just a note on that. Although all the outlets are showing a price of 3.99 per book, the actual pre-order price you'll be charged is only .99. Which means you can get the whole series (well, less the two books I'm still writing, that is) for less than 6.00. Which is kind of an awesome deal. 

The new covers are a fairly radical departure from the original series, and I'd love to hear your opinion of them. And, no, the decision isn't mine, so they won't be changed, but I'm still curious. 

Release day is scheduled for July 31. Blurbs and buy links can be found on my website: 

http://www.pgforte.com/ChildrenOfNight.htm 

And now, without further ado, ta-da!

Excerpt from PRODIGAL, Maelstrom Chronicles #3

 

Recently I released TRAITOR, Maelstrom Chronicles #2, with Entangled Publishing. I'm chugging away at #3 and I wanted to share the first page or two with the readers at Here Be Magic! We don't have a release date for it yet, but it does contain some spoilers if you haven't read the previous books (ANGELI, TRAITOR). It's a post-apocalyptic alien invasion Earth-based SFR.

Our heroine Claire appears in both ANGELI and TRAITOR, and she's pretty grumpy about getting her own book. But she's always grumpy.

And yes...I'm putting a cat in this book :)

***

Chapter One

 

Claire flipped the visor of the Humvee down when the late afternoon sun nearly blinded her, reflecting off the white of the latest snowfall. She and two other loads of able bodies out of Camp Chanute were returning from a foraging mission to the mostly deserted city of Bloomington, Illinois. The long, straight roads in this area, free of debris and stalled cars, didn’t lend themselves to ambushes. Detritus littered the highways to the north, thicker as the roads approached Chicago.

She didn’t make foraging trips to Chicago if it could be helped.

But the visor didn’t cancel out the glare. She blinked and squinted. Her eyesight had been enhanced by her Shipborn associates, but not so much that her DNA had been tainted by the tech. Still, it was enough to ascertain the flash of light wasn’t reflecting off the snow, but off some kind of metallic object in the middle of a field.

An object that hadn’t been there when they’d driven this road this morning. She knew this highway well, and that huge field had the remnants of corn stalks in it. Nothing else.

“Slow down,” she told the Humvee driver. “You see that?”

Will shook his head. “I just see snow. Snow and old dead corn. Maybe it’s a child of the corn.”

“Shut up.” Not visible to the human eye, then. Claire flicked on the radio to the supply truck. Dixie had the best binoculars and was enhanced like Claire to boot. “Dix, what do you make on the right side of the road? Far mid field.”

A little static crackled through the speaker before Dixie’s response. “I don’t see any...wait. Huh. There’s a big silver thingamabob, but sugar, I don’t know what it is. Fighter jet or something? Could be Shipborn.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Gimme our eyes.” She reached across the back seat to Eduardo Martinez, another of her officers. He complied, and she lifted the heavy black binoculars to her face. Twisting the focus, she spotted the unidentified object.

Sleek and silver, possibly some kind of vessel. No landing marks around it, but no snow built up on it. Didn’t look like Ship 1001 or its shuttles. More like a giant pill, so brightly silver it was almost white. Hard to see against the patchy snow. Was that a window? A door?

The sun emerged from behind a cloud and sparkled on the metal again, obscuring details.

“I’m going to check it out. Hold position,” she advised Dixie before directing Will off road.

The Humvee thumped through the corn stubble that rose above the snow, some of the rows lumpy enough that she pressed a hand against the ceiling to keep from bouncing into it. A gentle rise ahead took them out of sight of the object temporarily.

“Be careful,” Dixie chided. “Last time you went to check something out, that group from up Chicago way ambushed you.”

(c) 2015 Jody Wallace　

Jody Wallace

Smart. Snarky. Seductive. And that's just the books.

http://www.jodywallace.com * http://www.meankitty.com

Win-a-Book Wednesday with Jody Wallace!

JODY WALLACE

Jody Wallace grew up in the South in a very rural area. She went to school a long time and ended up with a Master's Degree in Creative Writing. Her resume includes college English instructor, technical documents editor, market analyst, web designer, and general, all around pain in the butt. She resides in Tennessee with one husband, two children, two cats, and a lot of junk. In fact, she has always lived with cats, and they have always been mean.

To discover other books by Ms. Wallace, visit her website at http://www.jodywallace.com.  You can also find her at Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodywallace  and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JodyWallaceAuthor.  To discover meankitties, visit the cat’s website at http://www.meankitty.com .

If you are an author or reader and would like to be interviewed by the damn cat, just email Jody and Meankitty!

He’s no angel…

Gregori’s last mission is to save Earth from the demons threatening to take control. He doesn’t care if he survives as long as he averts the impending apocalypse—until he meets Adelita, a human refugee, whose spirit and determination give him a renewed reason to fight. And live. He’s falling for her, despite the fact he’s told her nothing but lies and there can’t possibly be a future for them.

Adelita can hardly believe the archangel Gregori, sent to save mankind, has lost his faith and his edge. After he saves her from a demon attack, she vows to help him recover both by any means necessary. But can she keep her own faith when she learns the truth about who and what Gregori really is?

“Angeli has it all—a valiant hero, a smart heroine, delicious sexual tension, and an eerie apocalyptic world. This humorous, action-packed story is a refreshing take on alien invasion sci-fi romance!” – Heather Massey of The Galaxy Express (the internet’s primary site for SFR fiction fans)

“Reminiscent of Linnea Sinclair’s The Down Home Zombie Blues, Angeli is part apocalyptic save-the-world thriller and part science fiction adventure. Set against the majestic backdrop of the West, it’s full of Wallace’s signature wit and quirky, multi-faceted characters. If you like your blasters hot and your heroes hotter, not to mention a heroine who can save the day—and the world—don’t miss Angeli!” – NY Times/USA Today bestselling author Jenna Bennett

“A spicy, clever twist on post-apocalyptic science fiction that gives us pulse-pounding action and heroes worth dying for.” – Natalie Damschroder, author of A Kiss of Revenge

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ELYSIUM: A Not Very Short Review

My SFR that just came out, ANGELI, deals with what happens when the "Chosen One" doesn't stop the apocalypse, so the other night, the hubs and I decided we'd watch ELYSIUM, since it's all dystopian and science-fictiony. I thought for tonight's post I'd talk about our varied, and not so varied, reactions to the film.

Me: I heard this got meh reviews.
DH: ------- (he doesn't talk much)
*credits roll*
DH: Hey, it's the same guy that did District 9.
Me: Uh-oh. Not that I didn't like District 9, but, you know, it was depressing and dark and it didn't really have a good ending and...can you pause it?
DH: *pauses it while I write stuff down*
Me: So what does that make you expect about this film?
DH: It'll be gritty.

The film begins. Pans across a dirty earth, overpopulated, full of factories and skyscrapers and poor people. Then it pans to the Elysium space station which looks a bit like a giant Stargate.

Hero/heroine meet as kids. They're BFFs. I notice the hero (Matt Damon) is in an orphanage where they speak Spanish.

Scene switches to his adult life. He's not wearing a shirt! He's built and has tats! Wheee, eyecandy!

DH: *rolls eyes*

Now our hero has to go to work at some (gritty) job, and I notice pretty quickly that the characters are his tall Caucasian self and a bunch of smaller, darker, Spanish-speaking people. When we switch to Elysium, there are lots of white colors, pale clothing, Jodie Foster with blond hair, and people speaking French. Ok, so Spanish is for poor dark people and French is for rich people, though we do find out later that there are non-Caucasians on Elysium. Just not many of them.

Me: Hey, I think there's some social commentary.
DH: Do I have to pause it again?
Me: Nah, just keep going. I want to see if he takes off his shirt again.
DH: *rolls eyes*

So Dirty Bald Matt Damon, former car thief, runs into the heroine, now grown, when he has to go to the grubby, gritty poor person hospital to treat a broken arm inflicted upon him by robot cops. She's a nurse and he tries to ask her out but she says her life is too complicated.

Me: She totally has a sick kid or an abusive husband. Probably a sick kid. But she'll get threatened with rape at some point in here.
DH: -------
Me: Thanks for not rolling your eyes. Isn't that starting to hurt?
DH: *rolls eyes*

So, love interest isn't Caucasian. Basically only Dirty Matt Damon is. Eventually we switch back to Matt Damon working at the horrible factory.

DH: Hey, look, he makes the robot cops that beat him up.
Me: Robots are evil.
DH: You don't need to write that down, do you?
Me: He's still wearing a shirt. I'm good.

Still at the gritty, dirty robot factory. Some white dude in a suit from Elysium stares down at the dirty workers in the factory, and also white Dirty Matt Damon. Suit guy is being all elitist and shit. He's eventually in some plot with white, clean, French speaking Jodie Foster, but I won't spoil it for you. Suffice to say, he's not very sympathetic when the foreman (who's--hey! short and white and a bit less dirty!) forces Dirty Matt Damon to try to fix some equipment. Poor Dirty Matt Damon ends up getting a full dose of radiation that can't be cured unless he can get himself to the magical medical bed on Elysium.

That'll be hard because white, clean Jodie Foster likes to have dirty refugees who just want 2 minutes in a magical medical bed shot out of the sky...oddly, by a scary, dirty Caucasian AUSTRALIAN guy who looks like Road Warrior ran over him. Dude shoots a big gun from the surface of the planet to take out the refugee ships. And this is necessary because Elysium has a brown guy pacifist at the helm and Jodie Foster hates him because she has kids and he won't take the threat of refugees seriously. Like you do.

Shortly thereafter, Dirty Matt Damon also finds out his BFF love interest the nurse has a daughter dying of leukemia (NAILED IT) who can only be saved by a magical medical bed. He also has a male BFF who keeps saying things like, "We've always been friends" and "I'm with you to the end."

Me: That dude is so dead.
DH: --------

Thus begins Dirty Matt Damon's quest to get his irradiated self, his love interest, the child, some other dirty poor people (but not his male BFF because the guy gets killed, NAILED IT!), and a bunch of stolen seekrit evil plans saved in the organic matrix that is his brain to Elysium, where he always promised the love interest he'd take her. Also the scary Aussie and his cohorts are out to get them and want to rape the love interest (NAILED IT!)

Now, since this was by the guy who did District 9, you can guess about the cinematography, the violence, the dirt everywhere, the depressingness, and so on and so forth, as well as the ending I won't spoil in case you want to watch it. Not that you can't guess most of it because...NAILED IT!

Yeah, I guess I'm saying this movie was pretty predictable. Gritty, shaky-cam, and a heavy-handed indictment of rich-white-people-are-evil, it requires a bald, tall, dirty white guy amongst a bunch of small brown people to save the world. Mixed messages much?

Anybody else catch this one?

Jody W.
www.jodywallace.com * www.meankitty.com

PS Here's the stuff about my new release! It's less gritty and happier than Elysium, and a brown, Spanish speaking heroine saves the world :).

ANGELI (Book 1 of the Maelstrom Chronicles)
by Jody Wallace
Release Date: January 27, 2014
Genre: SF romance
Length: Shortish Novel
Rating: R (profanity, violence, sex–all the good stuff)
From: Entangled Ignite
Buy Links: Amazon, B&N, All Romance eBooks, Kobo
Add it to your Goodreads list!
Party with the Ignite Authors on January 30

The Magic of Switching Gears

No, I'm not talking about driving. Anyone's who's paid much attention to my backlist knows that I've done some bouncing around the speculative fiction world. I like to do that. It helps keep my brain fresh so I don't get bored in any one world.

But you see...I also like other people's worlds. I'm a bit of what is politely (or not so politely) termed "a geek." So when a call went out last year for novellas for a "geek collection," my heart grew ten sizes that day. (I know it isn't Christmas, but it was the reference I had handy.) I wanted to do it. Wanted to do it badly, but...all my ideas were "real world." I mean, I'd sort of made the jump to contemporary once, but did I really want to do it again?

I debated for a long time, but the answer kept coming back a resounding "YES!" So I eventually listened. Gaming for Keeps got picked up last summer and I'm beyond excited about its release into the wilds of the internet.

A funny thing happened on the way to contemporary though. I kind of found this subtle little mishmash of genres. It's mostly contemporary with a little romantic suspense and a little twist of something quirky (not quite sci-fi, but... let's just say my editor refers to it as "The Big Bang Theory meets The X-Files" with more romance.) I love this book with all my geeky little heart, and the odd part is...it did eventually lead to me writing some straight contemporary (coming soon to an e-tailer near you!)

So yeah. I'll be getting back to the world of the Badlands soon (and Blood Kissed shortly after), but right now I'm hanging out in something a little closer to reality. It's a little odd to be here, but I kind of like it. I hope you will too.

Pen Holloway’s done with men—in real life. Guys in game are so much less drama. But when her partner from　Heroes of Fallen Gods　invites her to the convention of the year, she panics. What if he’s another jerk? What if he’s not?

Cal Burrows is living his dream of being a spy. One of TRAIT’s misfit spies, but still a spy. It’s the perfect job… until an arms dealer with a taste for blood invades his not-so-secret geek haven. All Cal wanted from ConDamned was to meet his on-line girl. Now, with the threat of mass murder looming, he’s forced to choose between keeping his mission a secret and protecting the girl of his dreams

Despite their attraction, Pen can’t help but suspect Cal’s hiding something. She also can’t shake the feeling he’s not as much of a stranger as he seems.

Buy Gaming for Keeps at:

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

iTunes

Books-a-Million

All Romance eBooks

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

* * *



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.