I'm Celebrating With "The 12 Giveaway Days of Christmas"!

I will be having two new releases this month, and I'm celebrating with a twelve-day giveaway!

If you would like to get in on the contest, it's very easy. Just email me with "12 Giveaways Days of Christmas" in the subject. That's it! You'll be entered, and starting Tuesday, the 13th, I will be announcing the winners every day on my blog. Each lucky person will get to choose any one of my books (PDF only).

For more information, you can visit my website.
Thanks, and good luck!

What have you done for the first time this year?

Here's my list:

I built, stocked and kept a tropical aquarium. When I remarked over breakfast one day last year that I'd quite like a fish tank in my study, I had in mind something small and simple. Maybe a couple of goldfish or something sitting next to my monitor. I never expected my wife and daughters to club together at Christmas and buy me big tank with filters and pumps and lights and furniture and plants and books and everything. I found it quite daunting actually, because unlike dogs and cats these creatures depend on me completely and I discovered it's horribly easy for things to go wrong in such a closed environment. But I learned, and we've made it through our first year okay, and I love having this quiet glowing community in my study.

Changed from using a PC to a Mac. Now that was a leap, but I'm glad I made it and I doubt I'll ever go back. I love my shiny new machine.

Had two novels published in the same year. The Weaverfields Heir in spring and Quarter Square in the summer. Holy juggling edits, Batman!

Started a series. My Wild Times urban fantasy world with Carina.

Planned a project with a co-author. It's a cyberpunk series that Emma Shortt and I are very excited about. I'll be opening a new file as soon as I've posted this and will start writing Chapter 1 today. :)

Became a grandad! Sebastian arrived in October and he is gorgeous!

So, what have you done for the first time this year?

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.

It's All About Words

I’ve got all these words in my head that are just screaming to get out. Some are descriptive, emotional, sensual, horrifying, loving. I know you understand what I mean. For us, my dear writer, they are the heart and soul of our work.

There are the types of words we scrutinize: adjectives and adverbs. We search them out and agonize over having too many or too few. We edit, re-write and edit some more. We don’t stop there. We hunt out clichés and overused phrases ripping them from our pages. And all the while we struggle for originality and that magic that hooks the reader and draws them into our stories. We work until our manuscripts shine with a high polish.

The readers are the witness, the hero or heroine, or whomever they prefer to identify with. It’s the juxtaposition of our words that create the pacing, paints the pictures, strikes the chord, arouse emotions and, for us romance writers, brings the story to a happy ending.

Some words we are eager to hear: the call, published, multi-published, reprint, best seller, finalist, award winning. But I’m getting ahead of myself. More often the words are strung a bit differently: I think the concept of your novel has a lot of potential …, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your manuscript …, Thank you very much for your manuscript which I have read with interest …, I think you have a wonderful voice … The ellipse is followed by the same word but. Different words but all with the same meaning, rejected, although I really prefer passed. It is just so much more humane.

I have worked hard on my new manuscript. I am well past my first draft. I have self reviewed and edited, my critique partner has reviewed and commented, at chapter meetings I have brought my five to ten pages for discussion. The version number on my document is in double digits. I know I have the words just right. I just need an editor/agent to love them as much as I do.

Sure I can. I can love them anyway you want them!

Special thanks to David Coverly for permission to reprint his cartoon.

Dave Coverly admits there is no overriding theme, no tidy little philosophy that precisely describes what Speed Bump, his syndicated comic, is about. "Basically," he says, "if life were a movie, these would be the outtakes."

These "outtakes" now appear in over 400 newspapers and websites, including the Washington Post, Toronto Globe & Mail, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, New Orleans Times-Picayune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Vancouver Sun, Baltimore Sun, and Arizona Republic as well as the published “Speed Bump” books.

In addition to his syndicated work, Coverly's cartoons have been published in The New Yorker, and his cartoons are now regularly featured in Parade Magazine, the most widely read magazine in the world with a circulation of 73 million. Coverly works out of an attic studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is married to Chris, and they have two daughters, Alayna and Simone. Speedbumpcomic@comcast.net

Ruth A. Casie's debut novel, Knight of Runes is currently available. 

AMAZON HEAT by Melinda Leigh & Rayna Vause

It started out as a carpool just like any other car pool.  My critique partner and I were headed to our monthly meeting of Liberty States Fiction Writers.  On the way, we passed the time plotting a paranormal story.  Funny thing happened. The story was good. We looked at each other, each thinking the same thing: we should write this.

So we did.  AMAZON HEAT releases in January 2012 from Carina Press. The novella cover just went up on the coming soon page.

2 years ago...
Driven by grief to find a cure for cancer, Elizabeth DeMarco left Logan Spencer to accept a position on a research expedition to the Amazon rainforest. Kidnapped by guerrillas, she was saved by a secret all-female civilization, the last of the ancient Amazons. But Elizabeth discovers she's traded one form of captivity for another.
Today...
Logan never stopped searching for Elizabeth. While consulting in the remote Brazilian interior near where she was kidnapped, Logan suffers what should be a fatal fall. Near death, he's collected by the Amazons and magically healed. Elizabeth is the first person he sees as he wakes.
But there's no time for a joyful reunion. The Amazons' mystical medicine is rapidly changing Logan. They want his DNA and plan to take it—and then kill him. Logan and Elizabeth must escape before dawn or Logan—and their second chance at happiness—is doomed.

Find out more about Melinda and Rayna at their websites, melindaleighauthor.com and raynavause.com.

Is it that time of year already?

The older I get the faster the years seem to fly by, and December is the fastest (and busiest) month of all. I never have enough time in December to wrap up the year's projects while also keeping up with the family's holiday obligations. This year we only have one school recital and no church programs, but not only are we going home during the school break my girls have two college tours scheduled. I'm tired just thinking about all that driving!

So how do I cope with this crazy month? My guilty secret is Christmas books. They can be contemporary, historical, paranormal...I don't care. I love them all. So much so I've written a couple of my own. Christmas Moon is about a couple of werewolves and the woman they love. It's hot, a little kinky, and on the lighter side for me. Then there's Defending Serenity which is anything but light. Boyd is a man determined to get revenge against the woman he blames for sending him to prison. The problem? He still wants her. And she's the chief of police.

I haven't had the chance to go book shopping yet this season. I'm hoping I'll get to sometime this week. So other than the great looking titles at Carina, I haven't heard about any must haves. Any suggestions?

A complete idiot's guide to social media

One of the things I've loved most about being a published author is connecting with readers and other authors. No, I haven't done any in-person book signings yet or been to any conventions since my book released, but I have taken full advantage of social media to make new friends out of readers and authors.

Do I know what I'm doing? Bwhahahahaha! I mean, er, of course I do. Well, I'm learning anyway. I have a blog on my website. I have a Facebook page. I'm on Twitter. That's all good, right?

I have to admit that of the three, I've grown quite fond of Twitter, which is strange because once upon a time I was addicted to Facebook and declared Twitter "a ridiculous gimmick" that I would never use. I think that was mostly because I was too dumb to understand it or how to use it. OK, so I'm still too dumb to understand it or how to use it, but hey, I've finally figured out what hashtags are and stopped thinking I needed to call the police every time I opened my email inbox to find a message stating that so-and-so is now following me. These days I'm on Twitter a lot more than I'm on Facebook, that's for sure. Pretty soon I will be Mayor of Twitter, you mark my words, or...oh wait, I think I'm mixing my social media again. That's Four Square or something or other, isn't it? Uh, nevermind.

For those readers out there, the point of this silly post is to remind you that us authors might not always be as smart as some of you are when it comes to such things, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate connecting with you. In fact, our group of authors here at Here Be Magic has been secretly conspiring up ways to reward one very lucky reader of this blog, or two or maybe three, with something good. Something really good! I can't tell you what we're up to - you'll find out soon enough (he he) - but trust me, you're gonna love it!

In the meantime, if you see any of us on Twitter (check out our widget on the right bottom of this page for a listing of recent tweets by participating authors) or notice one of our fan pages on Facebook, don't be shy. We love hearing from you. Without your feedback on our books, none of us would grow as writers, after all. And I'm of the opinion that one can never have too many friends.

Oh, and remember, you can follow Here Be Magic on twitter to stay connected with the blog itself. We're @HereBeMagic .

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Angela Campbell is the author of "Cry Wolf," now available from Carina Press. You can follow her on twitter @angelacampbel or find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AngelaCampbellBooks . Visit her website at www.angelacampbellonline.com