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    Gin and ghosts, oh my …

    16 Comments

    I’ve signed the contract and turned in the story is so I guess I can finally announce this. I’ve been invited to write a story for The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance anthology — and it’s going to be a Gin story. 😉

    Right now, I’m calling it Haints and Hobwebs: An Elemental Assassin short story, although that title might change a bit. And since someone will probably ask this, some folks in the South use the word haint for ghost, and I thought it would be a cool variation to use in the story.

    The story takes place in between the events of Tangled Threads and Spider’s Revenge. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so I’ll just say that the story is told from Gin’s point of view and has her doing what she does best — which is taking care of business as the Spider.

    The book will be out in October 2011. I don’t have a list of the other authors writing stories, but according to this post I found on Carolyn Crane’s website, she’ll be one of them.

    I’m really, really thrilled about this. It’s such a cool honor to be invited to participate in an anthology, especially one of the Mammoth anthologies, which I’ve heard so many great things about. As a reader, I love anthologies — I think they’re a great way to try several authors for one price. As an author, I’ve been wanting to be part of an anthology for a while now and hopefully pick up some new readers who may not have tried my work before.

    Anyway, I’ll post more details — including the exact release date — when I have them. But for right now, here’s a preliminary version of the cover art. Enjoy!

  • Prices, prices, prices …

    12 Comments

    One thing that I wanted to mention in regards to Touch of Frost, the first book in my new Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series, is the price — $9.95, according to Amazon.

    I’m wondering if some readers will complain about this — especially since the book is shorter than the ones in my Elemental Assassin series, which are priced at $7.99. For the record, Touch of Frost comes in at about 87,000 words. There are also some extras/bonus features in the back of the book, so let’s say the final word count is about 88,000 total. Tangled Threads, the fourth book in the Elemental Assassin series, comes it at about 95,000 words.

    So why will Touch of Frost cost more? Well, for one thing, it’s coming out in trade paperback — a slightly larger, bigger paperback than the mass market format that the Elemental Assassin books are printed in.

    But mostly, I think the price has to do with the market –$9-$10 seems to be the general price point for most YA books out there that are published as trade paperbacks. For hardcover YA books, it seems like the price point is around $15-$16.

    I don’t know why this is. Maybe teens don’t care to spend more for books than adults do. Or maybe their parents are just so happy that teens are reading in the first place that they don’t blink at the price of the book.

    Personally, I don’t mind paying a little extra for the YA trade paperbacks. I like the size, the covers are almost always gorgeous, and I think the fonts in them are usually a little bigger and easier to read. And the trade paperback YA books are still less than the $14-$15 that adult trade paperbacks are priced at. However, I’ll admit that when I buy books (YA or adult), I usually shop around for the best price — or have a coupon handy. LOL.

    Now, my YA publisher, Kensington, is really good (and really smart) about giving discounts on their e-books. Most of the Kindle editions of their mass market romance books are around $2 — or more — below the paper book prices. I’m not sure if they’ll do the same kind of pricing with the new YA line, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t. So if you have an e-reader, you can probably get a good deal on Touch of Frost when it comes out on July 26.

    Anyway, I guess the point of this post is that I don’t set the prices — I just write the books. No matter what price you buy my book at, I hope you’ll think that it’s time and money well spent.

    What about you guys? Do you like the YA trade paperback format? Do you mind paying more for YA books? Share in the comments.

  • Touch of Frost back cover copy …

    19 Comments

    I know I haven’t shared much about my new Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series yet, but that’s going to change — at least for today. LOL. Here’s the back cover copy for the first book, Touch of Frost, which will be out on July 26:

    My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy — a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody’s head with a sword and Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest.

    But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. You know, death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Freaky stuff like this goes on all the time at Mythos, but I’m determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why – especially since I should have been the one who died …

    Basically, I’m pitching the book as Veronica Mars meets the movie 300. I’m also using this tagline — Magic. Myth. Monsters. Mean girls. I don’t have any cover art yet, but I’m told that should be coming soon.

    Touch of Frost is up for pre-order at Amazon, if you are so inclined. Kiss of Frost, the second book in the series, will be out on Nov. 29. Book #3 should be out in 2012. I hope to write at least five books in the series.

    I think folks who like my Elemental Assassin series will like the Mythos Academy series too. I know the Mythos Academy series is YA, but both series have a lot in common — a smart, sassy heroine, cool magic/world building, and fight scenes. The YA series just doesn’t have as much sex and violence as the Elemental Assassin series does. Then again, not many folks can keep up with Gin Blanco when it comes to violence. LOL.

    Anyway, I’ve started work on the Mythos Academy page with character info and more, and I’ll be posting the first chapter on the Excerpts page soon. So stay tuned for more.

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    I dream of cover blurbs …

    14 Comments

    A while back, author Judi Fennell asked me to read her paranormal romance, I Dream of Genies, for a possible cover blurb. I thought the book was a lot of fun (you can read my review here), and I gave her blurb — Cute, quirky, and charming … a romantic, action-packed tale!

    A few weeks ago, I got a copy of the book in the mail thanks to Judi — and they used my blurb on the back cover!  This is the first time a blurb of mine has been on a book cover. Is it wrong that I find this to be super cool? 😉

    Okay, okay, enough about me. The book comes out Jan. 4 (tomorrow) so be on the lookout for it. It really is a cute read and reminded me of the old Romancing the Stone movie … but with genies, magic, and a snarky talking cat. (In fact, I told Judi she should use that as one of her future book titles — Romancing the Genie).

    Anyway, if you’re a little tired of vampires and werewolves (like I am) but are still looking for a fun paranormal romance read, you should give this one a try. Congrats to Judi!